LECTURE Remissions and deductions. The settlement made with the ryots direct. At the same time that a high rate of revenue was exacted the ryots were encouraged to cultivate the more valuable crops by a remission in the case of poolej land of one-fourth of the revenue for the first year they cultivated such crops. And when the village was cultivated to the highest degree by the skilful management of the chief or headman he was allowed as a reward half a biswah out of every beegah or some equivalent. Remissions of revenue were also permitted on account of calamities as formerly: such remissions however required the approval of the Emperor.3 Deductions from the assessment were also made when the land was found to be inferior to average land of the class in which it was assessed. And when khirajee land was not cultivated, but kept as pasture, the holder had to pay six dams yearly for every buffalo, and three dams for every ox, instead of other revenue.5 This settlement was for ten years. It did not fix anything beyond that period, except perhaps the principle of a money assessment. It was a settlement made with the ryots: whatever claims the zemindars had at that time to collect the revenue, their claim to distribute its burden amongst the cultivators had either not grown into a right or was deliberately ignored. Even the headman seems to have been put aside except as an instrument for improving 7 Ib., Vol. I, 103. Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 231. Galloway's Law and Constitution of India, 46, 47. Great Rent Case, B. L. R., Supp. Vol., 245 to 247. THE SETTLEMENT MADE WITH THE RYOTS. 75 III. the cultivation. I may here quote Sir George Campbell. LECTURE When speaking as one of the Judges of the Calcutta High Court, he says: "There can be no doubt that the settlement attributed to Toran Mull, like all the settlements of Akbar and his successors, and indeed all the detailed settlements of the British Government founded upon the same system, dealt primarily with the individual ryot, and fixed the sum payable by him for the land which he cultivated. It appears that the average produce of the beegah of land of each description was ascertained and the Government share was then calculated, one-third being the full demand, and deduction being made for fallows, occasional inundations and droughts, inferior soils, &c. The average dues of the State (in grain) being thus ascertained, the grain rates were commuted into money on an average of the price currents of the nineteen previous years, and the rates so obtained were calculated on the land of each ryot. The option of paying in kind according to the established proportion seems however to have been maintained. Thus the payments of the ryots were fixed by an act of State quite independent of the will of any other subject or of any question of competition or relation of landlord and tenant in the English sense. Whether the revenue was paid direct to the officers of Government, or by the village communities jointly through their headmen or through hereditary zemindars of a superior grade, the quota due from each ryot was fixed and recorded; that was the unit of the whole system from which all calculations started. The headmen and zemindars were remunerated for their services, or received the hereditary dues to which prescription entitled them, in the shape either of percentages on the collections from the ryots, or of 'Nankar' land held exempt LECTURE III. The headman. 76 from revenue. THE HEADMAN. That is clearly the old law of the country in general and of Bengal in particular. Even when in the decline of Governments the State control became relaxed, and the ryots became subject to much oppression on the part of those placed over them, they still had some protection in the only ever-surviving law of the East Custom.' The old established rates they have always continued to cling to as sanctioned by custom. That custom the worst oppressors could not openly defy, and hence all extortions and imposts took the shape of extra cesses levied on various pretexts. Even when thus by oppressions the sum levied may have been raised up to or even beyond a rack-rent, the remark of Mr. Mill seems irresistible, that the shape in which they were taken, and the survival beneath all imposts of the old customary rates, is the strongest evidence that the right of the ryot survives, to become again beneficial in better times."1 The headman did not get rid of his obligations; for we find that although it is expressly directed that the estimate of the amount of assessment should be made by the amilguzzar or chief revenue officer with the husbandmen separately, and was not to be entrusted to the headmen of the villages, yet a written obligation was to be taken from the headmen binding them to disclose any difference in the crop of which they might become aware. direction appears to me significant as indicating tendencies I have already pointed out; it shows that the effect of the Hindoo system under Mahomedan control had been, either on account of the intervention of zemindars or from other causes, to depress the headmen, and consequently 1 The Great Rent Case, B. L. R., Supp. Vol., 245, 246. This to lessen the importance of the village communities as fiscal units; while it also shows that the headman sufficiently retained his power with reference to the community to render him a useful security for the ryots. As I have suggested, although the headman's fiscal importance declined, the villagers long clung to their ancient organisation, perhaps more fondly when their rulers were hostile to it. LECTURE III. In the description of Akbar's settlement we find the The zemindar. husbandman constantly spoken of as the revenue payer. When the duties of the amilguzzar are described much stress is laid upon his dealing personally with the ryots. He was to consider himself the immediate friend of the husbandman; to promote cultivation; to assist the cultivator with loans of money on easy terms; to see that those who could cultivate more bunjer land than had been allotted to them in their own villages were provided with a sufficient quantity, in another village if necessary. No intermediate mercenaries were to be employed: but the husbandman was, as it is pointedly expressed, to be encouraged to pay his revenue personally. It might almost be suspected from these emphatic directions alone, even if we had not the confirmation supplied by the course of previous events, that the evils of the zemindary system under the Mahomedans had already begun to be felt; that the zemindar had already shown a tendency to exactions, such as Akbar had found it necessary expressly to prohibit; and a tendency to farm and sublet and to squeeze the ryot out of his limited proprietary rights. For these reasons probably, as well as on account of their growing power, the Mahomedans, who had now had sufficient time to render themselves independent of the 2 'Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 377 to 379. Baillie's Land Tax, xxxi. Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 381, 386. Baillie's Land Tax, xxxi. LECTURE III. Attempted return to the zemindar's support, seem to have made various attempts to get rid of the zemindars. The first attempt, that of Ala-ood-deen was, as we have seen, by openly attacking them; the method of Akbar's advisers seems to have been that of quietly ignoring them, and assuming that the natural state of things was for the ryot to be dealt with direct. Thus even the individual agreements with the husbandmen were directed to be transmitted to the Emperor.1 The zemindar is scarcely mentioned in the Ayeen Akbery, and no detail is given with respect to him; and not only is the name hardly mentioned but the thing itself is practically ignored. Zemindars are spoken of in one or two passages: in one as furnishing large bodies of troops; these may have been military chiefs who originally held their lands as a jageer and who had afterwards become zemindars. In another passage zemindars are spoken of in connexion with the collection of revenue, and they are there mentioned as under the control of the foujdar, or officer having military charge of several pergunnahs; and it is said that if the zemindar should be disobedient he is to be punished by the foujdar or amilguzzar.3 On the whole then, it can hardly be doubted that, for whatHindoosystem, ever reason, the settlement of Todar Mull was an attempt to return to the old Hindoo system, as far as getting rid of the zemindars was concerned. The headman's functions do not however seem to have been revived, except for the benefit of Government. As some of the headmen had grown into 'Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 377 to 379. 2 Ib., Vol. I, 239; Vol. II, 19, 20. 3 Ayeen Akbery, Vol. I, 372. But it seems doubtful whether the word used is really "zemindar;" Harington's Analysis, Vol. III, 240 (note). |