LECTURE IV. 144 THE ZEMINDARS OF BENGAL AND BEHAR. obedience; and an instance is on record of their having been generally displaced by the Nizam's Government in the last century. In the early period also of the French Government the greater part of them were dismissed from their employments, but permitted to enjoy their saverum lands, and the other privileges or fees which, as has been shown, constituted the authorized emoluments attached to the office of a zemindar." In the following extract Mr. Shore compares the zemindars of Bengal and Behar.' "1. First,-In Bengal the zemindaries are very extensive; and that of Burdwan alone is equal in produce to three-fourths of the rental of Behar; in which province the zemindaries are comparatively small. The power and influence of the principal zemindars in Bengal is proportionably great; and they have been able to maintain a degree of independence which the inferior zemindars of the Behar province have lost. The latter also having been placed under the authority of a provincial administration, from distance as well as comparative inferiority, have been precluded from that information which the zemindars of Bengal, from their vicinity to Calcutta, and their access to the members and officers of Government, have been able to obtain; the latter have acquired ideas of right and assume principles of conduct or reasoning which do not extend to the zemindars of Behar. Secondly. The proprietors of the soil in Behar universally claim and possess a right of malikhana; which, whenever they are dispossessed of the management of their lands, they receive from the aumil as well as from the tenants of the jaghirs and proprietors of altumghas. In Bengal, no such custom has ever been formally established, although there Fifth Report, Vol. I, 555. THE ZEMINDARS OF BENGAL AND BEHAR. 145 is some affinity between this and the allowance of moshaira. Thirdly. The lands of Behar have, from time immemorial, been let to farm; and no general settlement, as far as we can trace since the acquisition of the Dewanny, has been concluded between the Government and the real proprietors of the soil. The Collector of Sarun asserts that this has ever been the usage in the districts under his charge. The aumil or farmer has deemed himself entitled to avail himself of the agency of the zemindars and talookdars, or dispense with it at his own discretion. This power was formally delegated to the farmers in 1771, by the provincial council at Patna, with the sanction of the superior authority at Calcutta; and the rate of malikhana was then settled, for the dispossessed proprietors of the land, at ten per cent., as the ancient allowance agreeable to the constitution of the country Government. Fourthly.-The numerous grants of lands in Behar, under various denominations, have had an influence upon the proprietary rights of the zemindars and talookdars and upon their opinions of those rights. There are few instances of jaghirs in Bengal. I cannot recollect more than three or four. Fifthly.-The custom of dividing the produce of the land in certain proportions between the cultivator and the Government, or the collector who stands in its place, is general but not universal throughout Behar. In Bengal the custom is very partial and limited. Sixthly.-The settlement in Behar, whether by the aumil or manager on the part of Government, is annually formed upon an estimate of the produce. In Bengal, the mofussil farmers, with some exceptions, collect by different rules. "2. In Behar the functions of the mofussil canoongoes, however they may have been perverted, have not been t LECTURE 146 THE ZEMINDARS OF BENGAL AND BEHAR. IV. LECTURE superseded; and their accounts, admitting the uncertainty of them, furnish detailed information of the rents which is not procurable in Bengal from the same sources. "3. The preceding circumstances will sufficiently account for what is actually the case, the very degraded state of the proprietors of the soil in Behar, comparatively with those in Bengal. The former unnoticed by Government, and left at the mercy of aumils, have in fact considered themselves as proprietors only of a tythe of their real estates; and assured of this when dispossessed, they have been less anxious to retain a management which exposed them to the chance of losing a part of what they received without it. The neglect of Government, with respect to their situation, is very apparent from the mokurrery grants of entire pergunnahs upon individuals, without any stipulations in favour of the zemindars and talookdars holding property within them. own. "4. I know but three principal zemindars at present in Behar, the Rajahs of Tirhoot, Shahabad, and Sunnote Tekarry. Their jurisdiction comprehends much more than their actual property; and extends over numerous landholders possessing rights as fixed and indefeasible as their With respect to this class of proprietors, the superior zemindars are to be considered in the light of aumils only; and I think it probable that the origin of their jurisdiction arose, either from their influence with the supreme provincial authority, or from the facility of such a plan for managing and collecting the revenue. In this point of view it has its advantages; although it is attended with this obvious evil, that it is the interest of the principal zemindars to throw additional burthens upon the inferior pro THE ZEMINDARS OF BENGAL AND BEHAR. 1 147 prietors of the soil, with a view to save his own lands and augment their value. "5. There is an apparent analogy between the talookdars in Bengal situated within the jurisdiction of a principal zemindar, and that of the proprietors of the soil of Behar in a similar predicament; but in their reciprocal rights I understand there exists a material difference. The muskoory talookdars of Bengal are dependent upon the zemindar, and have no right to be separated from him, except by special agreement, or in the case of oppression, or where their talook existed previous to the zemindary; neither do they possess the right of malikhana. I wish I could account for this important variation from authoritative information or records; but wanting these, I can only conjecture the grounds of it, which may be the following: that the talookdars in Behar are the original proprietors of the soil, whereas in Bengal most of the muskoory talookdars have obtained their tenures by grant or purchase from the zemindars; if this were not the case, the talookdars in the principal zemindary jurisdictions in Bengal would, I think, be more numerous than they are. "6. With respect to the malikhana in Behar I have in vain endeavoured to trace its origin. If the provincial council of Patna are correct in their information as to the antiquity of it, which is confirmed by Busteram, the darogah of the amanut dufter in Behar, I should suppose it to have arisen from the custom established in that province of dividing the produce between the cultivator and Government, in order to afford the proprietor of the soil a proportion of the produce, which, under such an usage strictly enforced, he could never receive without some authorized allowance in his favour; instances have lately occurred, and LECTURE IV. LECTURE IV. THE ZEMINDARS OF BENGAL AND BEHAR. 148 |