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LECTURE
II.

Descent of a

talook.

64

THE ZEMINDAR AND TALOOKDAR.

and talookdars, as we have seen, generally contrived to absorb the functions, or at least the chief emoluments, of the headman, and to displace him to a great extent. Thus the Rajah of Benares is said to have attained his position by this means. And in Orissa the Hindoo fiscal divisions were broken up into a number of subdivisions, at the head of each of which arose a powerful proprietor, who claimed the permanent right of distributing the revenue amongst the villages of the district, and of collecting it from them. These grew to be the talookdars, who sometimes, when they were powerful, paid revenue for their districts direct to Government,—that is, were "independent talookdars,” as such talookdars were afterwards called in Bengal; or paid through the zemindar, who had become the superior fiscal officer of the pergunnah or division,—that is, were “dependent talookdars."2 Again, in Monghyr the rise of zemindars and talookdars can be traced. The zemindary is divided into eleven turfs, and the original zemindar was a chowdhry, whose descendants held, until a late period, nine of the turfs. One of the other turfs was waste, and another chowdhry became zemindar of it. The original zemindary was further subdivided by the grant of talooks out of it by the zemindar to his relatives.3

Thus arose zemindars and talookdars of whom I shall zemindary and have more to say hereafter. Many of the superior zemindaries descend by primogeniture, a fact which perhaps points to their having been derived from the ancient rajahs; as a raj undoubtedly descended mainly in this mode.* The inferior zemindars grew out of collectors, farmers, and

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other officers of revenue, headmen, and even robber chiefs.' The zemindars mentioned in the Ayeen Akbery, as furnishing large military contingents, were probably chiefs who had become zemindars, and had acquired the right of contracting for the revenue from having been powerful in their districts. The zemindars above described either entirely or partially displaced the headmen. Again in some parts of the country there were ryots who did not form part of any village organisation; and in dealing with these an example would be given of the mode of collection, which grew to be almost the only mode, that of collection through a zemindar alone; and the zemindar's power would in such cases be almost absolute.*

LECTURE
II.

Again, many of the conquered rajahs were allowed still Jageerdars. to receive the revenue not in the limited capacity of revenue collectors or zemindars, but for their own benefit, on condition of military service, and by grant from the conquerors. Such a grant of revenue was called a jageer; and in such cases the old system would probably continue in its integrity. But in later times many of these also became zemindars.

At the Mahomedan conquest those who claimed to collect the revenue did not claim the ownership of the land: they claimed a right to collect and sometimes a kind of property

'Baillie's Land Tax, xxxvii. Campbell's Cobden Club Essay, 168, 169. Land Tenure by a Civilian, 73. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 156. Orissa, Vol. II, 240. Compare the Poligars of Southern India. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 88, 91, 93.

2 Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 237; Vol. II, 20.

Baillie's Land Tax, xxxvi.

Orissa, Vol. I, 54, 55; Vol. II, 232, 245.

Fifth Report, Vol. I, 168. Compare the Poligars of Southern India.

Fifth Report, Vol. II, 88, 89.

LECTURE
II.

attempt to curb

66

ATTEMPTS TO CURB THE ZEMINDARS.

in the collections, but nothing more.1 But in course of time the zemindars who had grown out of these claimants, began to encroach upon the rights of both the State and the Ala-ood-deen's cultivator; and by the time of Ala-ood-deen, who died in the Zemindars. A.D. 1316, they were thought to require curbing. The superintendents of the revenue department were accordingly required "to take care that the zemindars should demand no more from the cultivators than the estimates the zemindars themselves had made;" thus bringing them back to their original position to some extent, and forbidding what were known as abwabs and cesses. But in spite of this check the power of the zemindars was not crushed, but they regained their position, and ultimately became almost independent.3

Ala-ood-deen intended to abolish the authority of the mocuddums and chowdhries, as well as of the zemindars proper, as oppressive to the ryots; and to appropriate their fees and perquisites as part of the revenue. He also, as we have seen, endeavoured to raise the assessment to half the gross produce to be levied upon measurement. His proceedings were a sort of foretaste of those of Jaffier Khan in the eighteenth century. After the time of Ala-ood-deen, we do not hear of any check to the progress of the zemindar's power, except perhaps Akbar's settlement in the sixteenth century, until Jaffier Khan's time.

1 Mr. Fortescue's Evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1832), 2283 to 2285. Orissa, Vol. II, 227.

2 Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, 88, 89. Baillie's Land Tax, xxxix.

3 Fifth Report, Vol. II, 12.

4 Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, 88, 89.

LECTURE III.

AKBAR'S SETTLEMENT.

Akbar's or Todar Mull's settlement for ten years-Four classes of land-Mode of ascertaining average produce for one season-Average of ten years then taken-New assessment lower than former rate-Proportion taken by the State-The rebba-A fixed money-rate the main object of the settlementThe position of the ryot not affected-The Assul Toomar Jumma-The old methods of rendering the revenue might still be adopted-Remissions and deductions-The settlement made with the ryots direct-The headman-The zemindar-Attempted return to the Hindoo system-The settlement only partially carried out-Commencement of the modern revenue system-Todar Mull's assessment the basis of all subsequent assessments-The fiscal divisions -Khalsa and jageer lands-Khalsa lands-Jageer lands-Havilly landsThe Soubah-The circar-The chucklah-Three stages of fiscal divisionZemindaries-A cutcherry attached to each division of the zemindary-Fiscal organization above the zemindar-The crory-The Foujdar Aumildar-Claims of fiscal officers to hereditary rights-Military force employed in revenue collection-The crory's emoluments-The canoongoe-The putwarry-The chucklah superseded the circar-Attempts at centralization-Hindoos filled the lower revenue offices, and Mahomedans the higher-The aumil-His subordinates.

Todar Mull's

ten years.

IN the year 1582 Akbar began those changes in the Akbar's or revenue system of which the ten years' settlement, known settlement for as Todar Mull's or Toory Mull's settlement, was the most important result. That was the first general settlement for any longer period than a year of which we have any record. Up to that time, as far as we can learn, the amount of the year's revenue was settled upon a measurement of the lands and an estimate of the crop, or upon actual weighment and division of the crop. The standard of measurement however does not seem to have been fixed, and it was the first of Akbar's reforms to fix it. He established as the standard measure of length the ilaha guz, a measure not unknown before, but not before accepted as

LECTURE
III.

land.

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a standard. This measure was equivalent to the Arabian zira. Having established a standard measure of length he next established as the standard measure of area the jureeb, or beegah of sixty square guz.1

Four classes of He abolished all arbitrary taxes, and prepared to assess the revenue upon the true capacity of the land. For this purpose the land was distributed into four classes: firstPoolej land, or land which was cultivated for every harvest, and which did not require to lie fallow; second-Perowty land, or land which was allowed to lie fallow for a short time to recover its strength; third-Checher land, or land which had lain fallow for three or four years from excessive rain or inundation; and fourth-Bunjer land, or land which for the same causes had lain fallow for five years or upwards. It is obvious that land of the first or second class might interchange classes or fall into one of the two other classes; and land of the first class in particular could hardly remain always in cultivation without requiring rest. Mode of ascer- Moreover as the land of each class would generally not be taining average produce of uniform quality, a just estimate of its capability was

for one season.

sought by taking an average of the produce during one season of one beegah of each quality, the best, the middling and the worst, and taking one-third of the produce of these three beegahs as the produce of an average beegah. This method was only applied to the first or the first and second classes, the other classes being scarcely worth the trouble of such an enquiry.3

1 Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 351 to 355. Baillie's Land Tax, xxix. Fifth Report, Vol. I, 239, 240.

2

Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 355 to 361. A concise account of Akbar's settlement will be found in Elphinstone's History of India, pp. 541 to 544. Fifth Report, Vol. II, 165.

3 Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 355. Baillie's Land Tax, xxix.

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