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 NOTES 
 
 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 A DISTRICT OFFICEB. 
 
 LONDON: 
 W" H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE, S.W. 
 
 1869. 
 

 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WOODFALL AND KINDER, 
 
 MILFORD LANE, STRAND 
 
 (St 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 These pages, written during some hours of 
 unwilling inactivity, are published in the hope 
 that they may interest those few who care to 
 know anything about India. 
 
 The writer has tried to set down such notes 
 on the Agriculture and Land Tenures of the 
 North- Western Provinces as will be intelligible 
 to English readers. 
 
 Members of the Civil Service, who have 
 served in the Provinces, will find little in these 
 pages worthy of their perusal ; but if men 
 now entering the Service will, without taking 
 the writer as an authority, closely test his 
 statements by their own inquiries, they will 
 find, it is hoped, some aid towards the attain- 
 ment of that knowledge of agricultural customs 
 and tenures which it should be their first object 
 to acquire. 
 
 £46940 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ROBTH-WESTERN PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 I. 
 
 ON THE AREA AND POPULATION. 
 
 The territory of the North-Western Provinces 
 is shaped like an irregular crescent, the western 
 horn reaching up through the Himalayas to the 
 watershed line which divides us from Thibet, 
 the eastern stopping abruptly at the base of 
 those mountains. Snug in the hollow of the 
 crescent lie the dominions of Oude; while, 
 from the mid point of the outer edge, a small 
 neck of British soil runs down between the 
 kingdom of Gwalior and the native states of 
 Rewa and Bundelcund. On the north-western 
 boundary lie the territories of the Punjab, and 
 of the independent state of Bhurtpoor, On 
 the south-eastern we have the Lower Provinces 
 of Bengal, and the kingdom of Rewa. 
 
 I 
 
Z NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 From horn to horn, following the sweep of 
 tha crescent, run: the Jumna and the Ganges. 
 Flowing in nearly parallel lines until they meet 
 at Allahabad, they enclose between their 
 streams a long and narrow strip of country, 
 known as the Doab. From Allahabad, which 
 is now the capital of the provinces, the united 
 stream flows on to the very end of the eastern 
 horn, where it meets the Ghogra river. 
 
 Besides this territory, which I have likened to 
 an irregular crescent, there is an outlying dis- 
 trict, that of Ajmere, also under the Govern- 
 ment of the North- Western Provinces. The 
 area of Ajmere is 2,672 square miles, while 
 that of the main territory is 80,707 square 
 miles. The total area under the North- Western 
 Government is 83,379 square miles, which 
 support a population of thirty millions one 
 hundred and ten thousand. In extent of 
 territory, then, these Provinces nearly equal 
 England, Wales, and Ireland together, while in 
 numbers they surpass Great Britain and Ire- 
 land, and approach within a few thousand of the 
 population of the United States. This vast 
 province, which would be an empire in Europe, 
 is ruled by a Lieutenant-Governor, under the 
 Govern or- General of India. He is aided by a 
 
AREA AND POPULATION. 3 
 
 Revenue Board, consisting of two Members and 
 a Secretary, to whom all matters belonging to 
 the revenue and the land are, in the first 
 instance, referred. The administration of civil 
 and criminal justice is watched over by a High 
 Court, similar in constitution to those which sit 
 in the Presidency Towns. 
 
 The Provinces are divided into eight Divi- 
 sions, under as many Commissioners, each of 
 whom, in his own Division, is the agent and 
 representative of the Governor. The Divisions 
 are again divided into five-and-thirty Districts ; 
 each District is under an officer known by the 
 name of "Magistrate and Collector."* This 
 officer is responsible to the Government for 
 almost everything connected with the welfare of 
 the district entrusted to him. He has to see 
 that the revenue is collected, and the accounts 
 properly kept. He has the administration of 
 criminal justice, and, to some extent, of civil 
 also. He is responsible for the police, and he 
 is expected to take an interest in all Govern- 
 ment institutions, schools, dispensaries, and the 
 like, and to promote their efficiency. Except 
 
 * In the " non-regulation " districts this officer is called 
 " Deputy Commissioner," and his duties include the adminis- 
 tration of civil justice to a greater extent. 
 
 1 * 
 
4 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 the main lines of communication, which have 
 been handed over to the Public Works Depart- 
 ment, the District Officer has the making and 
 mending of all roads and bridges, and the con- 
 struction of most of the buildings, such as 
 schools, police stations, and the like. In each 
 department of his work he has more or less 
 assistance, both native and European. But the 
 reins which guide the team are all drawn 
 together and put into his hands. To the 
 natives he is the personification of Government; 
 and it is not too much to say, that to them the 
 character of the British Government varies with 
 the character of their District Officer. 
 
 The Districts are again divided into three or 
 more Sub-districts, according to their size. In 
 charge of each Sub-district is a native officer, 
 who may be best described as a miniature of 
 the District Officer, to whom he is entirely and 
 completely subordinate. These native officers, 
 or Sub-collectors, as they are somewhat inade- 
 quately named, are the links between the 
 District Officer and his people. They are more 
 or less the executive of every department of the 
 Government, and their importance cannot well 
 be exaggerated. They are generally allowed to 
 remain for many years in their Sub- districts, 
 
AREA AND POPULATION. 5 
 
 and when they are good and efficient men, they 
 acquire a minute and extended knowledge of 
 the people and the country which the English 
 officer, often shifted as he is, can rarely hope to 
 obtain at first hand. 
 
 Each Sub-district contains one or more 
 " Hundreds/ ' to use an English word. These 
 hundreds are ancient divisions of the country, 
 the boundaries of which have seldom been 
 tampered with by us. After the Hundreds, 
 comes the last division of the land into Town- 
 lands, or Townships. 
 
 As each Sub-district is united to the District 
 Officer by its Sub-collector, so each Township 
 is connected with the Sub-collector by the 
 Village Accountant, who has charge of one or 
 more Townships, according to their size. 
 
 The Village Accountant, as his name implies, 
 keeps the rent-roll and accounts of every estate. 
 This is his first duty. But he has many im- 
 portant offices besides ; and as a means of com- 
 munication between the people and the Govern- 
 ment, he can be made of much value. 
 
 It will be seen, then, that the organization at 
 the disposal of the Government of these Pro- 
 vinces is such as to enable them to reach the 
 very lowest strata of which society is composed. 
 
6 NORTH -WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 Whether the machine works so as to attain this 
 end, depends very much upon the personnel of 
 the District Officers and their subordinates. 
 That the end is attained to a great measure, 
 and that our hold upon the country is firm and 
 deeply felt, I believe can hardly be denied. It 
 is in this respect that the Government of the 
 North- West differs from that of Lower Bengal. 
 In the latter Province there is nothing below the 
 District Officer. The links which connect the 
 English officer with the native population are 
 wanting. 
 
 The following facts, taken from the Census Re- 
 port of 1865, for the North-Western Provinces, 
 will give the reader some idea of the country : — 
 
 The people of the Provinces are chiefly occu- 
 pied in agriculture, the numbers being nearly 
 eighteen millions of agriculturists to twelve 
 millions of other pursuits. By far the greater 
 number are Hindoos. There are only four mil- 
 lions and a quarter of Musulmans to twenty-six 
 millions of Hindoos. Yet so little do mere 
 numbers weigh against energy and independence 
 of character, that there are few ordinary ob- 
 servers who would not assign a far larger place 
 to the followers of the Prophet. Of the Maho- 
 medans, sixty per cent, are engaged in non- 
 
AREA AND POPULATION. 7 
 
 agricultural pursuits, while only thirty-eight per 
 cent, of the Hindoos have any other occupation 
 than husbandry. 
 
 The total area of the Provinces is 53,363,152 
 acres, of which 23,747,268 are cultivated. Of 
 the remainder, 10,754,382 acres are returned as 
 barren. 
 
 The land revenue is, in round numbers, four 
 million pounds sterling, falling at the rate of 
 one shilling and eightpence per acre on the total 
 area, and of three shillings and fourpence on the 
 cultivated acre. The land revenue is held to 
 represent not less than half of the whole rental. 
 The average rental of the Provinces may, there- 
 fore, be roughly stated at six shillings and eight - 
 pence per acre. There is still room for an 
 enormous rise in the rents, and consequently in 
 the land revenue, if land in India ever ap- 
 proaches in value to land in England. I, for 
 one, have no doubt that it will. 
 
NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 II. 
 
 ON THE SOILS. 
 
 The soils in the North- West Provinces of India 
 fall readily into the common classification of 
 clay, loam, and sand. The local names and 
 varieties are legion, but they can all be reduced 
 into one of these three classes. 
 
 In the Doab the loam is found to prepon- 
 derate. Clay is seldom met with in any great 
 quantities except in the low lands which border 
 the rivers, and form the beds of the ponds and 
 marshes. Sand is very common. It is generally 
 found on high-lying ground, and runs in broad 
 ridges, with clearly defined boundaries, through 
 many miles of country. These sandy tracts 
 appear to be more or less shifting in character 
 at first. Cultivation and planting tend to settle 
 or fix them; and in time they improve greatly* 
 in quality as arable soil. 
 
 In the moist countries of Rohilcund, which 
 lie almost under the shadow of the Himalayas, 
 more clay is found than in the Doab. Hence 
 
ON THE SOILS. 9 
 
 those countries are great rice producers, and 
 the character of their cultivation differs much 
 in many respects from that of other parts. 
 
 In Bnndelcund and Central India a black clay 
 is found, which is especially adapted for cotton. 
 It is a soil peculiar to those parts, so far as I 
 know. It is very black in colour. In dry 
 weather it cracks and splits with the heat of the 
 sun, and the surface of it becomes like the 
 rotten ice known to skaters as cats' ice. It is 
 a work of danger to ride over it in this state. 
 The cracks sometimes, when the first rain falls, 
 become deep fissures, and extend for a mile or 
 more. Large buildings of sound masonry crack 
 from end to end owing to the progress of one 
 of these fissures, and the mud buildings of 
 native towns fall in numbers from the same 
 cause. 
 
 With regard to the subsoils, they vary very 
 much. In many parts of the Doab sand is the 
 subsoil ; sometimes a yellow sand ; often a grey 
 sand, which is hard and stiff when wet. The 
 lime formation, which is known as "kunkur,"- 
 and forms the admirable material for metalling 
 our roads in Northern India, is a common sub- 
 soil. It is found at various depths from the 
 surface, sometimes cropping up through the soil, 
 
 1 t 
 
10 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 at other times ten or fifteen feet below it ; some- 
 times, like the chalk in Kent, underlying a thin 
 coat of soil. * 
 
 The black clay of Bundelcund is generally, I 
 think, a deep soil ; but. as wells are not common 
 in that country, I am not sure of this. Wherever 
 I have seen it opened up to any depth, the soil 
 still appeared as black as on the surface, with 
 veins of blue, the colour of sulphate of copper, 
 running through it. In digging wells in this 
 soil, it is generally necessary to go to a great 
 depth"; and rock is often met with. 
 
 In close connection with the character of the 
 subsoil is the productiveness of the land. Where 
 drainage of every kind is still unknown, the sub- 
 strata are often the cause of actual barrenness. 
 The quantity of actual barren land in the Doab 
 is very large. By the returns of the last census, 
 which was taken in 1865, it was found that the 
 barren land covered an area of more than ten 
 million and seven hundred thousand acres, of 
 which nearly eight millions are in the plain 
 country. 
 
 One of the chief causes of barrenness is the 
 presence of alkali in large quantities in the soil. 
 The ground becomes perfectly white with it, and 
 all vegetation is destroyed. In the Doab espe- 
 
ON THE SOILS. 11 
 
 cially may be seen broad plains of this description, 
 stretching for miles, looking as if they were 
 covered with frost. The surface of the plain 
 rises, as it were, into a crust, and feels soft and 
 spongy to the tread, and, after rain, becomes 
 slippery and difficult to travel. Here and there 
 a small irregular patch will be found fit for cul- 
 tivation, and such patches are invariably made 
 the most of. Wherever the soil is affected in 
 this way, the fields will be found irregular and 
 capricious in shape, following, as they must, the 
 veins of arable land. The soil is almost always 
 a light loam in character. I have never seen 
 sand in proximity to land of this kind. 
 
 Seeing that there are vast tracts of land lying 
 useless from this cause, it would be of great con- 
 sequence, in a financial point of view, as well as 
 in others, to discover a remedy. The result of 
 my own observation is, that want of drainage is 
 the chief, if not the sole, cause. Generally, 
 beneath soil of this kind will be found a hard 
 compact bed of " kunkur" — that limestone for- 
 mation already spoken of. This bed of kunkur 
 as effectually prevents drainage as if a layer of 
 masonry were beneath the soil. Hence the salts 
 and injurious alkalies are retained, and are never 
 sufficiently diluted or diminished to render 
 
12 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 vegetation possible. If this bed of kunkur be 
 removed, the ground will recover. Thus there 
 are places along the Grand Trunk Road which 
 have been quarried for kunkur, and which are 
 now under cultivation, whereas, they were per- 
 fectly barren before the kunkur was removed. 
 
 If this surmise is correct, and if the want of 
 drainage is the cause, it will be long before there 
 is capital enough among the agricultural com- 
 munity, and longer still before there is education 
 enough, to enable them to apply the remedy. 
 
 In connection with this subject, it should be 
 noticed, that the use of canal water for irrigation 
 sometimes causes barrenness of this kind. That 
 there is nothing in the canal water itself which 
 would alter the character of the soil in this way 
 I am convinced ; for it has been in use for years 
 in many places without any appearance of the 
 soil becoming overstocked with alkali. The 
 cause of the phenomenon must be sought else- 
 where — either in want of drainage, or in latent 
 peculiarities of the soil itself, which may be 
 evoked by the canal water. 
 
 Another great cause of the land lying waste is 
 the growth of a sort of grass with long- spread- 
 ing stems, which are deep and strong enough to 
 resist the small native plough. This grass is 
 
ON THE SOILS. 13 
 
 called " kans " in the language of the country. 
 Its ravages are great, especially in Bundelcund, 
 where wide plains lie untouched by the plough 
 for years, owing to the hold taken by this weed. 
 In the Doab it is also found widely spread in 
 some places; but out of Bundelcund I have 
 not seen it take a hold in any but the very 
 poorest sandy soil. 
 
 The ravages of "kans" are not only to 
 be measured by their extent, but also by their 
 duration. Once firmly rooted in the soil, there 
 is apparently no remedy but patience until the 
 ground shall recover its former strength, and the 
 weed shall die out. It would appear that not 
 less than ten years are necessary for this process. 
 It is said, too, that a great drought which has 
 caused famine has been fatal to this grass, and 
 has left the soil free ; but no process of manuring 
 or tillage has been discovered which will answer 
 the purpose. There is, I believe, no doubt but 
 that this grass will not appear in the land so long 
 as it is kept in good condition. Hence we often 
 find that the estates which are suffering from 
 the ravages of " kans," are those that are in a 
 distressed state from over-assessment or other 
 cause. The farmer had not the means to 
 maintain his cattle in working order, or to 
 
14 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 manure his land; and when once the grass 
 has appeared, the plough bullocks have not the 
 strength to tear up the long stem, which spreads 
 underground for many feet, throwing out rami- 
 fying roots at close intervals. 
 
 A good deal of barren land is also found on 
 the high banks which overlook the valleys of the 
 larger rivers. The heavy torrents of rain which 
 fall during the wet season pour down the sloping 
 lands, and soon cut them up into ravines, and 
 wash away every particle of soil. Year after 
 year this process goes on, and the estates thus 
 situated undergo a visible and speedy deteriora- 
 tion. The land lying unproductive to Grovern- 
 ment, as well as to the nation at large, from this 
 cause is very extensive. The remedy is simple. 
 It is merely requisite to bank up the fields so 
 as to prevent the collection and rush of the 
 rainfall. The good soil would thus be retained. 
 
 But this process of embankment would have 
 to be done systematically. It would also require 
 the expenditure of some labour ; and the tenure 
 of the land in small and scattered holdings pre- 
 vents any combined action, unless it is organized 
 and put forth by the Government, who have 
 more than enough on their hands already. Some- 
 thing, however, might be done in this direction, 
 
 * 
 
ON THE SOILS. 15 
 
 if the matter were entrusted to a man of practical 
 experience and knowledge. 
 
 But if all the barren land were redeemed, the 
 increase to the productive capacity of the country 
 would be small in comparison to what it might 
 be, were the means devised of saving the farm- 
 yard manure. Nothing, I believe, tends to keep 
 the agricultural classes so poor as the want of 
 fuel, which compels them to use the dung for that 
 purpose. The cow-dung is all carefully saved 
 for this end. It is the chief occupation of the 
 Indian peasant housewife, after she has drawn the 
 water and kneaded the dough, to make the cow- 
 dung into pats, and spread it to dry in the sun. It 
 is then, if not wanted for immediate use, stacked 
 and coated with mud to preserve it from wet. 
 Tons of it are every day brought into the large 
 towns for sale, and it forms the only fuel used by 
 the great mass of the population. In the cold 
 weather, when a fire at night and in the early 
 morning is a want, every available bit of horse, 
 sheep, or goat's dung is greedily gathered and 
 burnt. The women of the village may be seen 
 scattered over the grazing plains gathering in 
 baskets every scrap of precious ordure that they 
 can find. 
 
 There are, or were, I believe, benighted tracts 
 
16 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 in this kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 
 where the same custom existed. But if the 
 whole farmyard manure of the country went to 
 supply the place of coal and turf and wood, 
 then only would the condition of India in this 
 respect be realized. Nothing, in fact, but the 
 wonderful fertility of the soil, which seems to 
 need water alone as a manure, saves the agri- 
 cultural classes from utter ruin under such a 
 system. But that it leads to the impoverish- 
 ment of them, and of the whole country with 
 them, is, I believe, as certain as it is that a 
 good dose of farmyard manure will more than 
 double the crop. 
 
 The only remedy for this great evil is to be 
 found in the growth of wood for fuel. When 
 timber grows so rapidly and easily as it does 
 in India, this ought to be no difficult matter. 
 Government is, indeed, in no way open to the 
 charge of neglect in the matter of encourage- 
 ment. But what has been done in this 
 direction has been with a view to provide the 
 country with trees for shade and timber, rather 
 than for fuel. Until some large and compre- 
 hensive scheme for the growth of forests for 
 this purpose, in every part of the country, be 
 put in force, nothing will have been done. The 
 
ON THE SOILS. 17 
 
 railway, while it depended on wood, devoured 
 more timber in a year, than Government officers 
 ever planted since attention was given to the 
 subject. 
 
 Coal has not yet been found either in quan- 
 tity or in localities which can meet the demand 
 even of the richest classes. Wood for fuel sells 
 at about three hundredweight for two shillings. 
 While the wage of the common labourer is 
 from six to eight shillings per month, the pay 
 of a policeman from ten to fourteen shillings, 
 and flour seldom sells for less than a shilling 
 per stone. How, then, can the poorer classes 
 buy wood for their fires? It is obviously 
 impossible, until it is offered to them at a very 
 small part of its present price. 
 
 There is very little forest land in the North- 
 western Provinces, except in the mountainous or 
 hilly tracts, and in the damp lands at their base. 
 Within the last few years, the attention of 
 Government has been drawn to the preservation 
 of the forests already existing. A department, 
 ably officered, has been organized for this pur- 
 pose, and there is every hope that the woods 
 will increase in extent and improve in character 
 every year. But in a vast country like India, 
 where we count our miles by hundreds, some- 
 
18 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 thing much more must be done before firewood 
 is placed within reach of the people. It would 
 be necessary to have large woods grown and 
 kept for fuel in every twenty square miles of 
 country. Nature has provided a wood especially 
 for the purpose in the tree called " Dhak," which 
 used to cover vast tracts of country, and is still 
 found in considerable quantities. It is the 
 wood usually sold for fuel in this part of India j 
 it grows freely in bad soil, can be cut every 
 three years, and its timber is no good for 
 anything else. It also yields a gum which is 
 valuable in commerce. Large tracts of country 
 might easily and quickly be covered with this 
 tree. 
 
 Objections may, of course, be urged against 
 such a scheme. It will be thought chimerical 
 to propose that Government should undertake 
 to supply a vast continent with firewood ; but 
 the Government of India being virtually land- 
 lord, has means at its command which one, 
 unacquainted with its machinery, could hardly 
 dream of. If success could be attained, there 
 is no difficulty in the way worth a thought. It 
 is not to be supposed that the whole population 
 could be supplied with firewood by this or any 
 other plan until a long course of years had 
 
ON THE SOILS. 19 
 
 matured a system and altered the customs of 
 the people. But with the example of many 
 European nations before us, we surely need not 
 despair of attaining such a result. The growth 
 of timber in India is so rapid, compared to its 
 growth in Europe, that we start with a great 
 advantage on our side; and although we might 
 be long ere we completely, or even nearly, sup- 
 planted dung as fuel, yet it would be only a 
 very short time before we could supply wood 
 in sufficient quantities to meet the wants of the 
 upper classes, and of the manufacturers of such 
 articles as bricks, and the like. The quantity 
 of manure consumed in brick and lime kilns 
 alone is a great loss to the soil. 
 
 Other objections, connected with police, might 
 be urged against the growth of such planta- 
 tions. These "Dhak Junguls," as they are 
 called in common parlance, have always been a 
 resort for robbers and bad characters, and many 
 of them were in former times cut away in con- 
 sequence. This evil result might be prevented 
 by due care in planting to leave such rides and 
 avenues in the woods as would render them 
 useless for hiding-places. At any rate, con- 
 sidering the end in view, namely, to save from 
 destruction the greater part of the farmyard 
 
20 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 manure, of so vast a country, and one so depen- 
 dent on itself for food, I think some minor 
 inconveniences might be endured. 
 
 Before dismissing this subject, it may be as 
 well to say a little about those lands commonly 
 called " waste." We are constantly hearing of 
 these " waste " lands in the public press of the 
 day. Thus the Times of the 20th November, 
 1868, says, " Why should not waste lands, of 
 which there is an enormous area, be reclaimed 
 and cultivated ?" And even in the Indian news- 
 papers, I have read a good deal of vague talk 
 about " waste " lands, from which a stranger 
 might imagine that large tracts of arable land 
 were lying unclaimed and ownerless all over 
 our dominions ; and that the Government, 
 through its civil servants, was preventing ready 
 and able English capitalists from bringing them 
 under the plough. One paper even went so 
 far as to assert, that all the uncultivated lands 
 in every estate were more or less " waste " in 
 this sense. And the civil servants were charged 
 with having culpably allowed these lands to be 
 portioned off to the neighbouring estates, under 
 the influence of that partiality to" the native, and 
 that hatred of the independent Englishman, 
 which the Anglo-Indian editor once delighted to 
 
ON THE SOILS. 21 
 
 attribute to the officers of Government. There 
 is no harm in trying to brush away the cobwebs 
 which cluster round this phrase " waste lands." 
 What then, and where are the " waste lands " 
 in the North- Western Provinces ? In the plains, 
 the land has from time immemorial been divided 
 into separate townlands, or, as we usually call 
 them, villages, known by distinct names, having 
 definite boundaries and recognized owners ; 
 even the barren lands all fall into one or other 
 of these townlands. The little good land which 
 is left untilled for grazing has its own place and 
 proprietor, just as much as the cultivated lands. 
 It is perfect nonsense to apply our English term 
 " common " to any land of this kind which 
 exists in the North-West. There is no land, and 
 never was, so far as we know, of the sort ; nor, if 
 there were, would it at all follow that Govern- 
 ment might dispose of it to the highest bidder. 
 There is, however, one tract in the plains to 
 which the term " waste," in the sense in which 
 the Times uses it, does apply. Under the Hima- 
 laya range lies a broad strip of damp malarious 
 country known as the " Teraee," or the " damp 
 country/' This tract, although it was in ancient 
 times inhabited, has long been abandoned to the 
 hand of Nature, which luxuriates in such a spot. 
 
22 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 She has covered it with forests of timber trees, 
 and crowded it with high grass and tangling 
 creepers, and made it a home for the elephant 
 and the tiger. Except for a few months in the 
 coldest and dryest seasons of the year, it is 
 almost certain death to remain in this place. 
 There are, indeed, a few natives who have be- 
 come in process of time inured to it. These 
 Taroos, as they are called, lead a kind of nomad 
 life, using the almost virgin soil so long as it 
 yields a full crop, and then seeking a fresh spot. 
 But they are far too few in number to fight 
 against the forest j and, if left alone, the Teraee 
 would run a poor chance of being reclaimed. 
 
 This country is, I believe, at the entire dis- 
 posal of the Government. But I am not aware 
 that private enterprise has ever sought for a 
 field in it. The Government of the North- 
 western Provinces has, for some years, worked 
 steadily to reclaim it. An officer, known as the 
 Superintendent of the Teraee, assisted by a civil 
 engineer, manages it on behalf of Government. 
 Cultivators are induced, by low rents and ad- 
 vances of money, to settle and break up land. 
 Men from the adjoining districts, who have 
 failed, or have quarrelled with their own land- 
 lords, are the chief recruits. Many of them die 
 
ON THE SOILS. 23 
 
 from fever before they have weathered their first 
 year in this unhealthy region ; but still the work 
 is progressing. More land is yearly broken up. 
 Roads and bridges are made, and the returns 
 from the rents amply recoup the Government 
 for their outlay. 
 
 So much for the " waste " lands in the 
 plains. In the " Hills/' as we term them, — 
 that is, in the mountains of the Himalayan and 
 Sewalick ranges, — there are, as one may sup- 
 pose, vast forests and slopes, which are waste in 
 every sense of the term. But here, too, I be- 
 lieve it to be a great mistake to suppose that 
 all the uncultivated land is unowned. Great 
 controversy has raged on this head between the 
 officials and the tea planters. Especially where 
 the land is adapted for cultivation, villages have 
 existed, and the country has been parcelled out 
 as in the plains. But, naturally, in a moun- 
 tainous and difficult region, with a sparse popu- 
 lation, boundaries have been ill-defined, and, 
 no doubt, large areas do exist to which none of 
 the present townships have any claim. But 
 when a tea planter selects a site in a place 
 which he believes — and perhaps rightly — to 
 belong to no one save Government, the neigh- 
 bouring villagers would not be Orientals if they 
 
24 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 did not claim it at once. And their claims, it 
 is said, have been too readily listened to in 
 some cases. Of this I know nothing, save 
 what I have seen in the newspapers, which are 
 often not too well-informed. I merely mention 
 the matter to show that the u waste " lands are 
 not so ready at hand, even where they do 
 undoubtedly exist, as people seem to think, in 
 this country. It is not a case of Canada or 
 Australia. You cannot go into the country 
 and measure off a few thousand acres where 
 it pleases you, and take possession. On the 
 contrary, you will go into an ancient thickly 
 populated country, among a litigious, ill-disposed 
 people ; and the area of " waste " land really at 
 the disposal of Government exists only in certain 
 places, although, relatively speaking, it may be 
 of enormous extent. 
 
 In the North- Western Provinces, then, I am 
 not aware of any " waste " lands, except the 
 Teraee tract in the plains, and the mountain 
 forest-clad regions of the Himalaya and Sew- 
 alick. 
 
III. 
 
 ON THE CROPS. 
 
 There are two distinct harvests in Northern 
 India: the first sown in June, and gathered 
 in October; the other sown in October, and 
 gathered in March or April, according to the 
 latitude of the place. Besides the crops which 
 grow at these seasons, there is a third class of 
 products which occupies the ground for the 
 whole, or nearly the whole, year. 
 
 There is hardly a month out of the twelve in 
 which the country does not show some crop, 
 especially in the sugar districts. Hence it is 
 sometimes thought, that a large portion of the 
 soil bears two harvests in the year. This, how- 
 ever, is not the case. The proportion of land 
 which is cropped twice in the year will hardly 
 exceed five per cent, in ordinary estates. Round 
 large towns — in market gardens, of course — 
 crop succeeds crop, and the land is never idle ; 
 but, in ordinary farming, there are only certain 
 crops which are out of the ground soon enough 
 to admit of being followed by another. And 
 
 2 
 
26 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 it is obvious that none but the highest con- 
 ditioned and best manured land could stand 
 work of this kind, — and that not always. 
 
 The autumn harvest depends almost entirely 
 on the rains. The chief products of this har- 
 vest are the giant millets known as "Joar" and 
 " Bajra ; " maize, or Indian corn ; pulse of 
 several kinds ; rice, and indigo. 
 
 The millets are the great resource of the 
 cultivator, both for his own consumption and 
 for fodder for his cattle. They grow, when the 
 rains are favourable, to the height of ten or 
 fifteen feet. The stalk is rich and pulpy, and, 
 when chopped up, makes good feeding for 
 cattle. The grain is small, and is much less 
 nutritious than wheat. It is used by the 
 peasant on account of its cheapness; as the 
 ordinary cultivator can hardly ever afford to eat 
 wheat en bread. These grains are sown broad- 
 cast and sparse ; and along with them is sown a 
 variety of pulses, which grow about and between 
 them, and form a thick undergrowth. They 
 give a large yield in proportion to the quantity 
 of seed. The " Joar " requires a fair loam soil ; 
 while " Bajra " will grow almost anywhere, and 
 is used to crop sandy dry lands, which would 
 hardly bear anything else. The stalk of the 
 
ON THE CROPS. 27 
 
 "Bajra" is much less useful for fodder than 
 that of " Joar." 
 
 This latter grain is sown in large quantities, 
 simply for fodder. For this purpose it is sown 
 much thicker, so as to grow to stalk, and it is 
 cut before it ears. It is then out of the ground 
 in time to admit of another crop being put in. 
 
 Maize, or Indian Corn, is well known in 
 England and Ireland as an article of food. In 
 Northern India this crop requires good land; 
 and in the Doab it is seldom seen (except in the 
 low lands on the Ganges) anywhere but near the 
 homestead. It ripens soon, and is harvested in 
 time to leave the ground free for a cold-weather 
 crop of wheat or barley. It is a very cheap grain, 
 and is only used to make bread by the poorer 
 classes ; but the ear, before it is too ripe, is toasted 
 and eaten as a delicacy by all. I have found 
 average crops of maize yielding as much as nine- 
 teen hundredweight to the acre. 
 
 These are the chief cereals of the autumn har- 
 vest. The mode of gathering the millet and the 
 maize is the same. The ears are broken off as 
 they ripen, and the stalk or straw is left stand- 
 ing until all the grain is gathered. The pulses, 
 which are sown as undergrowth, ripen later, and 
 are gathered and threshed. Their grains are 
 
 2 * 
 
28 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 valuable as food, being usually parched and split ; 
 their stalk and leaves make good fodder for the 
 cattle. Taken altogether, the millets, and their 
 accompanying pulse crop, are most valuable to 
 the cultivator and his beasts. They depend 
 almost entirely on the rains, and are sown 
 generally in lands which are not irrigable from 
 wells. The loss of these crops will, therefore, be 
 most severely felt in times of drought. 
 
 I will next notice the Rice crop. In rice 
 countries this is the most valuable of all ; but the 
 greater portion of the North- Western Provinces 
 is not a rice country. Rice has, indeed, become 
 so connected in English ideas with India, that 
 even well-informed people imagine that it 
 forms the great staple food of the whole 
 country. In the North- Western Provinces this 
 is so far from being the case, that rice is a 
 luxury. Rohilcund is the chief rice producer, 
 and those districts, such as Saharunpore, where 
 the climate is damp. Elsewhere, rice is an ex- 
 ceptional crop, which can only be grown in low- 
 lying clay, where water is plenty, such as the 
 country along the banks of the Ganges. 
 
 It is generally a very productive crop, and it 
 is the more valuable, as it is out of the ground 
 soon enough to admit of being followed by a 
 
ON THE CROPS. 29 
 
 cold-weather crop ; indeed, there is one kind 
 which is said to take only sixty days from seed- 
 time to harvest. There are numerous different 
 kinds of rice. 
 
 There is another crop belonging to the autumn 
 harvest, the product of which is well known in 
 Europe — namely, Indigo. It requires an ample 
 supply of water. Its cultivation is, on this ac- 
 count, attended with considerable labour and 
 expense. Unless it is properly watered, it will 
 be worthless. It is seldom sown by the Indian 
 peasant as a speculation, or on his own account. 
 In the North-West, it is usual for the manufac- 
 turer, or planter as he is somewhat miscalled, 
 to contract with the farmers, advancing them so 
 much for every acre sown with indigo, and bind- 
 ing them to deliver the plant at a certain price 
 per ton. 
 
 This plan seems to answer very well in our 
 provinces, where we have had none of the in- 
 digo riots which have disturbed Lower Bengal. 
 Except in one instance, where the agent was 
 a man of bad character, I never heard of any 
 oppression being exercised by the manufacturers ; 
 indeed, under the system in vogue in the North- 
 West, and among the sturdy population of those 
 provinces, such oppression as was said to have 
 
30 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 taken place in Bengal would be simply impossible. 
 If any one is oppressed, it is the manufacturer or 
 planter himself. The peasant, after receiving the 
 advance, is often tempted to follow one of three 
 courses : either he pockets the money, and sows 
 the land with something else, or he sells his 
 plant when ready in the open market, or he re- 
 fuses to cut it, and keeps it for seed. In any case, 
 the planter is subjected to considerable trouble, 
 and much loss. To protect himself against this 
 fraud, he makes the contract as stringent as 
 possible, binding the cultivator to allow him to 
 cut the plant when it is ready, should the culti- 
 vator fail to deliver it. It is also a common 
 thing, I believe, to take in pledge the cultivator's 
 bullocks or other cattle as security for the ad- 
 vance. Sometimes, if the dispute between the 
 manufacturer and the cultivator has become 
 embittered, and the former endeavours to cut 
 the plant, or to seize the bullocks which have 
 been pledged, the cultivator will resist by force, 
 or will lodge a complaint in the Courts ; but I am 
 bound to say that such disputes are, in my expe- 
 rience, rare, and I have served in several districts 
 where there were large indigo concerns. I have 
 almost invariably found the planters and their 
 employes to be respectable gentlemen, dealing 
 
ON THE CROPS. 31 
 
 uprightly with the peasantry, and getting on 
 well with them. They are, perhaps, open to the 
 charge which is applicable to most Englishmen in 
 India, especially since 1857 — namely, of looking 
 too exclusively to themselves, and of ignoring 
 their duties to the country and the people of 
 their sojourn. To make as much indigo, and to 
 convert it into money as soon as can be, and to 
 retire with their gains, is too often their whole 
 thought. Hence they do not occupy that 
 position which they might do. In some cases, 
 however, where they give themselves leisure to 
 think of other things, they become a power and 
 authority in the district, and the district officer 
 has no better counsellors and assistants. 
 
 The indigo, as I have said, requires constant 
 irrigation; and it also needs good land and 
 manure. It is therefore an expensive crop to 
 the cultivator. Its yield varies a good deal, the 
 plant sometimes growing much higher than in 
 other seasons. As an average, I think about 
 two tons of plant per acre a fair estimate. The 
 cultivators in this part of India usually contract 
 to deliver indigo plant at sixteen rupees per 
 hundred maunds of eighty pounds each. They 
 get more if they have to carry it far \ but this 
 is the usual price for the plant when it is grown 
 
32 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 near the factory. This would, in round num- 
 bers, give the cultivator a return of ten rupees, 
 or one pound sterling, per acre. The rent of 
 land that would grow indigo would ordinarily 
 not be less than six rupees, or twelve shillings 
 per acre. This would leave the cultivator only 
 eight shillings to pay for constant irrigation, and 
 the cutting and carriage for a mile or less. The 
 cultivation, therefore, taken by itself, is hardly 
 remunerative j nevertheless, the cultivator is glad 
 to undertake it. In the first place, he gets an ad- 
 vance of money at a time when he sorely needs 
 it, and when there is no other incoming. Se- 
 condly, the indigo does not weary the ground ; 
 and when the plant is cut, he ploughs it up and 
 puts in wheat. Although, therefore, the price 
 may not be remunerative, as compared with that 
 of other crops, yet looking to these circum- 
 stances, and to the fact that if he was not em- 
 ployed in irrigating the indigo, he and his bul- 
 locks would be unoccupied at that time, the 
 arrangement as a whole is decidedly good for 
 the cultivator. The refuse indigo stalks, after 
 the colouring matter is extracted, make a very- 
 strong manure. When sold in the open market, 
 the plant fetches a much higher price, namely, 
 from twenty to thirty rupees, according to the 
 
ON THE CROPS. 33 
 
 season, instead of sixteen rupees, the contract 
 price per hundred maunds ; hence the tempta- 
 tion to dishonesty. 
 
 The price of indigo seed varies very greatly, 
 and it is a great subject for speculation. But if 
 the indigo is left to seed, it cannot be out of the 
 ground soon enough to allow another crop to be 
 put in for the cold weather. Such are the chief 
 autumn or rain crops. In the cold weather, the 
 harvest consists chiefly of those cereals with 
 which Ave are in this country familiar, namely, 
 wheat and barley. The sowing takes place in 
 October and the harvest in March, generally \ 
 but it varies with the latitude from the beginning 
 of March to the end of that month, and even 
 later. 
 
 The first crop in the ground is " chunna," 
 called in Anglo-Indian parlance " gram." It is 
 a pulse resembling the common vetch or tare in 
 leaf, but much richer and more luxuriant, and 
 giving a full round grain as large as a good 
 garden pea. It takes most kindly to a thick clay 
 soil, and requires little irrigation. It grows 
 better in Bundelcund, in the black cotton soil, 
 where it gets no artificial watering, than else- 
 where. This grain is used greatly for feeding 
 horses, and it is well adapted for that purpose. 
 
 2 f 
 
34 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 It is also, when parched, largely used as food 
 by the natives. 
 
 The wheat most commonly sown is a red- 
 bearded variety j but there are several kinds in 
 general use. Wheat is sown in drills. In the 
 Doab, it is hardly ever found in land where 
 artificial irrigation is not available. Unless the 
 season is exceptionally wet, it must be watered 
 three times at least, and it often takes as many 
 as seven waterings jj in fact, as a rule, the more 
 water the better the crop. 
 
 In order to compare the fertility of land in 
 India with that of English soil, we cannot do 
 better than take wheat as a standard of com- 
 parison. 
 
 It is difficult, however, to get any accurate 
 information as to the yield of crops in India. 
 We can, indeed, ascertain easily enough, by 
 actual experiment, the yield of any particular 
 land in any one year. But no experiments have 
 been made over an area so wide, or in so many 
 consecutive years, as to give us a reliable average. 
 By inquiry, on the other hand, we can learn a 
 good deal ; but knowledge obtained in this way, 
 although in the main correct, is loose and vague. 
 The persons from whom we seek it have all the 
 inaccuracy and want of precision which belong 
 
ON THE CROPS. 35 
 
 to uneducated men. Subject, then, to this draw- 
 back as to its accuracy, I would give a ton per 
 acre as the average yield of wheat in good land, 
 well farmed, and with ample irrigation. But in 
 inferior soil, and with any want of water, the 
 average will run as low as four hundredweight 
 per acre. 
 
 Barley is also sown in drills $ it is usually 
 sown in the dry lands, where, on account of 
 want of water, wheat will not nourish. Cceteris 
 paribus, it gives a somewhat larger yield than 
 wheat. 
 
 The cultivation of oats has been introduced 
 by us. The superintendents of the Government 
 studs have induced the neighbouring farmers to 
 sow oats by giving them a small advance and 
 taking the produce off their- hands at so much 
 per hundredweight, straw and all. In the parts 
 of the country where this custom has not been 
 introduced, oats are seldom seen. 
 
 As they are paid by the weight of the gross 
 produce, the natives, with their usual ingenuity 
 in such matters, have adopted the plan of 
 sowing barley with the oats. They pick the ears 
 of barley when ripe, leaving the straw, which 
 they weigh out to the stud officials along with 
 the oats. 
 
36 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 These are the principal cold-weather crops 
 on ordinary farms. There are vegetables of 
 many kinds, and spices, and tobacco, which are 
 grown by those classes that correspond to our 
 market gardeners. It would be tedious to 
 enumerate these products, which are only 
 largely grown in the neighbourhood of towns. 
 Tobacco is a valuable crop ; the climate and soil 
 both suit it well ; and I believe experiments 
 which have been made lately, under orders of 
 the Board of Revenue, give hopes that the Ame- 
 rican varieties may be grown in India. It is a 
 product to which attention should be drawn, 
 as probably capable of improved and extended 
 culture, and one which may eventually com- 
 mand a market in Europe. 
 
 In the class of products which are cultivated 
 by the gardeners in the cold weather is the 
 poppy. The culture of the poppy for opium 
 is carried on by Government in the same way 
 as that of indigo is conducted by the indigo 
 planters. The officers of the opium depart- 
 ment enter into engagements with persons who 
 are willing to grow the poppy, and advance 
 them so much per acre, stipulating to buy the 
 opium at a certain rate. No one else is allowed 
 to cultivate the poppy, and it is illegal for the 
 
ON THE CROPS. 37 
 
 cultivators to dispose of the produce to any one 
 but the Government agent. 
 
 The poppy-heads, when ready, are slit, and 
 the juice which exudes is scraped off and col- 
 lected in rude earthen vessels by the cultivator, 
 who delivers it at the appointed time to the 
 opium agent. The drug is weighed, and the 
 account made up ; if any balance remains due 
 to him, after deducting the advances, it is paid 
 to the cultivator. On the other hand, if the 
 account is against him, he must sow again next 
 season, or repay the excess. 
 
 The North- West Government has no concern 
 with the opium department, which is managed 
 entirely by the Revenue Board of Lower 
 Bengal. 
 
 The proportion which the area of the autumn 
 harvest bears to the area of the cold-weather 
 crops, varies very much in different parts of 
 the country. As marketable produce, the grains 
 produced in the cold weather are far the most 
 valuable, but they require irrigation. Hence, 
 where there is little artificial irrigation, the 
 autumn harvest will occupy as much as from 
 seventy to eighty per cent, of the area. Where 
 water is abundant, the area occupied by the cold- 
 
38 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 weather crops will rise to fifty per cent., or a 
 little more. 
 
 It remains to notice some important products 
 which do not belong to either of these harvests, 
 but remain in the ground the greater part of 
 the year. I refer to cotton and sugar-cane. 
 
 It is due to the Manchester Chamber of 
 Commerce, that the capabilities of India to grow 
 cotton, and the great interest which England 
 has to induce her to grow it, are as well known 
 as any part of Indian affairs is likely to be 
 known at present. It is, I believe, an un- 
 doubted fact that the cotton exported from 
 India has improved in quality; and there is, 
 in many parts of the country, a marked im- 
 provement in the care and manner of cultiva- 
 tion ; but still the country cotton remains very 
 far indeed behind the standard to which it 
 ought to attain, and which it must reach if it is 
 to command the English market. 
 
 The Indian Government has been strongly 
 urged to take the matter up, and to effect, 
 by whatever means, that improvement in the 
 product which Manchester desires. Various 
 courses have been suggested to it. Thus, it 
 has been recommended by some that the land- 
 
ON THE CROPS. 39 
 
 tax, as it is called, should be remitted in favour 
 of land cropped with cotton. Others have, 
 more practically, advised the appointment of 
 Government inspectors, who should examine 
 and certify to the quality of the cotton. On 
 the other hand, objections have been raised to 
 Government interference of any kind. Eng- 
 lishmen, as a rule, are so averse to any action of 
 Government beyond what they conceive to be 
 its proper sphere, that they forget that other 
 nations are not of the same way of thinking. 
 In the case of India, Government is the land- 
 lord. The use of the term land-tax, as applied 
 to the Sovereign's share of the rent, tends to 
 obscure this fact, that the Government of India 
 is the landlord of the country; and except 
 where, in the permanently settled districts, the 
 responsibilities have been virtually laid aside, it 
 is bound to the country and the agricultural ( 
 classes by all the ties and responsibilities of a 
 landlord. It is absurd, therefore, to say that 
 the Government should not interfere in a matter 
 which vitally concerns its own interests and 
 those of its tenants. The only measure of 
 interference in such a case is the good which 
 can be done. But while, on the one hand, 
 I would never deprecate action in this matter, 
 
40 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 there is a kind of interference which I would 
 entirely oppose. Any course of conduct which 
 would leave the Government open to suspicion 
 of its motives, or which, in the case of loss 
 from a fall in the price of cotton, would render 
 it liable, with any show of justice, to the charge 
 of having encouraged speculation, is, I think, 
 bad. For instance, if by persuasion, or by the 
 remission of rent, or other means, the area 
 sown in cotton were increased so as to cause 
 the price to fall below a fair profit, the Govern- 
 ment would be placed in a false position. In 
 my view, therefore, any action which might, 
 however improbably, lead to such a result, 
 ought to be avoided. But from the distribu- 
 tion of good seed, the diffusion of knowledge 
 regarding the sound culture of the plant, the 
 appointment of inspectors competent to instruct 
 the farmers, to value the cotton, and to prevent 
 fraud, no evil results can be anticipated. Let 
 Government, therefore, do what it can in this 
 direction. In ' the North- Western Provinces, 
 for some years past, good acclimatized seed has 
 been largely distributed, and instructions for its 
 use published. Statistics of the area sown, and 
 the yield of each year, have been collected and 
 published ; and it is, I believe, proposed to intro- 
 
ON THE CROPS. 41 
 
 duce the inspection of cotton, and a law for the 
 prevention of fraud. In the Central Provinces, 
 an officer, called the Cotton Commissioner, has 
 been for some time at work, doing his best to 
 promote the cultivation ; and he has, I believe, 
 met with fair success. 
 
 The only question, to my mind, is whether 
 more could not be done by private means than 
 can be done by Government in this matter. 
 To one ignorant of the state of the agricultural 
 classes, and the nature of their holdings, it may 
 appear strange that the supply, both in quality 
 and quantity, does not answer more speedily to 
 the demand. But the fact remains that it does 
 not, and will not, answer. However Manches- 
 ter may cry out, the Indian peasant, with his 
 six acres of land, will sow only one with cotton, 
 unless he is offered a very high price. If the 
 planters, in the matter of indigo, and the 
 Government, in the case of opium, were to sit 
 quiet, and trust to the action of the laws of 
 political economy, very little plant or drug 
 would they see. Why should it be otherwise 
 in the case of cotton ? There is no reason why 
 men on the spot should not get the peasants to 
 grow cotton of a quality to suit them, and at 
 a reasonable price, if they would follow the 
 
42 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 example of the planter and the opium agent. 
 But, as I understand, Manchester would not 
 like this, because she would then have to share 
 the risk. She wishes to be supplied with 
 cotton, without having to stipulate beforehand 
 for the price. No doubt, as a matter of imme- 
 diate self-interest, Manchester is right. It is 
 far better to throw the risk of any fall in price 
 on the producer of the raw material, so far as 
 may be. Thus, in the linen trade, the manu- 
 facturer has only to make his wants known, 
 and to send agents out to buy for him. 
 If India were in the same advanced state as 
 the flax-producing countries of Europe, doubt- 
 less the same means would suffice in the one 
 case as in the other. But she is far behind 
 these countries, and is under the further disad- 
 vantage, that she is working for manufacturers 
 who are removed by an immense distance from 
 her. 
 
 It will, I suppose, be said, and, no doubt, to 
 some extent truly, that the cotton manufacturer 
 is ready to go to any length which will be justified 
 by his own interests. Fortunately for him, there 
 are other countries besides India where cotton can 
 be grown. It will, therefore, only be in the last 
 resort that the manufacturer will go out of his 
 
ON THE CROPS. 43 
 
 path to meet the Indian farmer. We may, there- 
 fore acknowledge that no active measures, and 
 no immediate outlay, can be expected or justly 
 required from Manchester; and we may take 
 it for granted that the Indian peasant, if left 
 to himself, will take some generations to arrive 
 at the point desired. But there is a third 
 party whose interests are at stake in as great a 
 degree as those of either of the others. De- 
 pending, as it does and must do, on the increase 
 in the land revenue to meet part of its growing 
 expenditure, no one is more concerned in the 
 cotton question than the Government of India. 
 If, therefore, Manchester can point out any way 
 in which the Government can legitimately work, 
 without itself joining, or appearing to join, in the 
 speculation, let her declare it. The Government 
 of India has for many years given its attention 
 to the subject, and is not likely to be supine 
 now. 
 
 I have said nothing on the state of the roads 
 and railways in the North-Western Provinces in 
 connection with this subject, because that is a 
 matter which would require separate mention. 
 
 After all, this cotton question is an agricul- 
 tural one. At present, the mass of cultivators 
 are wedded to their ancient ways. They throw 
 
44 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 in the cotton seed anyhow ; often, unless when 
 the ruling prices are high, into inferior ground. 
 When the pods burst, they let the cotton fall and 
 lie on the ground before they trouble themselves to 
 collect it, and they take no pains to keep it clean. 
 If you give them good acclimatized seed, and tell 
 them how to grow it, they will promise you fair 
 enough. When you come to inquire about the 
 crop, they will tell you, with an air of conceit at 
 their own sharpness, that they mixed the good 
 seed with their own country cotton, and sowed 
 all in the good old way, lest the new-fangled 
 seed should play them false. 
 
 In a good crop from country seed, it is gene- 
 rally held that two-thirds of the gross weight of 
 the produce will be seed, and one-third cleaned 
 cotton. A yield of four hundredweight of un- 
 cleaned cotton per acre is esteemed a good crop. 
 It is hardly necessary to add that the indi- 
 genous cotton plant of India is an annual, and 
 gives only one crop. 
 
 In rows at wide intervals among the cotton, 
 it is the common practice of the North- West to 
 sow the "TIrhur," or Dhalrush, the Cytisus 
 Cagan of the botanists. 
 
 The Urhur grows into a large bush, more or 
 less luxuriant as the season or the climate fa- 
 
ON THE CROPS. 45 
 
 vours it. It grows up with the cotton plants, but 
 does not give its harvest until some time after 
 the cotton has been gathered. It has a yellow 
 blossom, resembling that of the Gorse, both in 
 colour and shape. The seeds form in a pod. 
 They are largely used for food. For this pur- 
 pose they are well parched and split, and when 
 boiled into a mash, which is known as D/ial in 
 kitchen parlance, they are eaten as a relish with 
 rice, or unleavened bread. 
 
 The leaves and finer twigs of the plant are 
 chopped up to make fodder for cattle and sheep • 
 the thicker stalks are used to make linings for 
 wells, and have lately been burnt into charcoal, 
 and used in the manufacture of the finer kinds 
 of gunpowder. 
 
 The Urhur suffers from frost, which scorches 
 it up ; and where frosts are frequent, it is seldom 
 sown. 
 
 Second only to cotton in importance and value 
 is the Sugar-cane. 
 
 The ground is well prepared during the cold 
 season by repeated ploughing, and, if necessary, 
 by irrigation. In the moist countries of Hohil- 
 cund, and the Teraee, and in other places — for 
 instance, in the lowlands along the Ganges — 
 where water is near the surface, and the soil 
 
46 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 is naturally damp, irrigation previous to plough- 
 ing is seldom needed; but, in the Doab, it is 
 generally necessary to begin by drenching the 
 field well with water. It is then thoroughly 
 ploughed, and manured as much as possible, 
 and worked until the ground is as soft and pul- 
 verized as a garden bed. In March, the cuttings 
 of cane, about six inches long, which have been 
 preserved from the former crop in pits, are put 
 in by the hand. From that time until the cane 
 is cut, sometimes nearly a year after, incessant 
 labour is required to keep the ground clean, 
 soft, and sufficiently moist. The cane is generally 
 ready to be cut about the middle or end of 
 November ; but the time of cutting it depends 
 greatly on the amount sown, and on the labour 
 at the cultivator's command. It must be taken, 
 as soon as it is cut, to the mill, and crushed 
 before it begins to dry. In districts where much 
 cane is sown, the mills are four months, or even 
 longer, in work ; day and night in some places. 
 Some of the crop will therefore be left standing 
 until February ; and it must be carefully tended 
 and watered, if necessary, to prevent it from 
 being dried up. A busy cane country is a 
 curious sight after nightfall, with its smoke and 
 fires. 
 
ON THE CROPS. 47 
 
 Sugar-cane ought to be sown in land which 
 has been fallow during the previous year. But 
 even the best cultivators, if they can get manure 
 and water, will take a crop of maize, and some- 
 times even of cotton, off the land which is to be 
 planted with cane in March. 
 
 Sugar-cane cultivation is seen in perfection in 
 the Meerut district, under the industry and skill 
 of the Jats, a- tribe famous as agriculturists. 
 The fields there resemble groves of small palm- 
 trees, the cane is so tall. Every four or five 
 canes are tied together, to keep them from 
 bending or hanging over, and the interstices 
 are kept beautifully clean and regular. In 
 Rohilcund and other places, where the cane 
 requires less care and labour, I have never seen 
 it in such perfection. 
 
 The sixth of an acre of cane can generally be 
 bought as it stands for ten rupees, or one pound 
 sterling, and the rent of cane land will average 
 about fifteen rupees, or thirty shillings per acre. 
 The profit of the crop may therefore be put 
 down at four pounds ten shillings per acre, or 
 thereabouts. But the greater part of this return 
 is only remuneration to the cultivator for his 
 own labour and the toil of his cattle. Hence, 
 while the landlord will take half the crop of 
 
48 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 wheat or barley as his rent, he is contented 
 to receive a fourth of the value of the sugar 
 crop. 
 
 But it is only in very rare cases that the cul- 
 tivator sells his cane standing. He crushes it, 
 as a rule, in a mill which he owns either in 
 whole or in part. In some parts of the country, 
 he continues the manufacture, and sells his pro- 
 duce to dealers, in the shape of molasses or very 
 coarse sugar. In other parts, he stops after 
 crushing the cane, and sells the juice to traders, 
 who continue the manufacture. Where the 
 farmer is also the manufacturer, it is a sure sign 
 of prosperity, and a proof that he is in easy 
 circumstances. On the other hand, where we 
 find the cultivator selling the juice, we generally 
 find that he is in the hands of the money-lender. 
 He has taken advances on the security of his 
 crop, and has bound himself to deliver the 
 produce at a fixed price. He has signed a 
 bond for double the amount advanced • and if 
 he rebels against the usurer, he will be sued on 
 the bond, and sold up. 
 
 Where the cultivator is also the manufacturer, 
 it is difficult to arrive at any estimate of his 
 profits. The following is an estimate given to 
 me by a native farmer : — If the crop is a fair 
 
ON THE CROPS. 49 
 
 one, the produce of the sixth of an acre will 
 occupy the mill one day and night, and will 
 produce about 4001bs. of molasses, which will 
 sell on the spot for about fourteen rupees. This 
 would give the sum of eight pounds and ten 
 shillings as the value of an acre of manufactured 
 produce. 
 
 If, as I have said, an acre of cane as it stands 
 is worth six pounds, this estimate leaves only 
 two pounds ten shillings to pay for the manu- 
 facture. It is only, however, in very exceptional 
 cases that I have known the cane to have been 
 sold standing, and then only in small quantities — 
 enough, for instance, to give a meal to a few 
 elephants. When a man has his mill in working 
 order, and all preparations made for the manu- 
 facture, he will not be willing to sell a small 
 portion of the raw material at a price much 
 below that of the manufactured article. We 
 must remember this in considering the estimate, 
 which I give for what it is worth. 
 
 The mill in common use in the North- West 
 Provinces for crushing the cane is of the rudest 
 kind. It consists of a large trunk of a tree, 
 which is buried about six feet into the ground, 
 and rises about three feet above it. This is 
 hollowed out, so as to form a mortar ; and at 
 
 3 
 
50 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 the bottom of the mortar a hole is drilled, 
 through which the juice of the cane can run into 
 a vessel placed on one side to receive it. A long 
 upright beam is placed as a pestle in the hollow 
 trunk. To the lower end of the pestle, and at 
 such a height above the mortar as to allow it to 
 work freely, is attached a boom of wood, to 
 which the bullocks are yoked, and by which the 
 pestle is turned. The centre of this boom is 
 joined to the top of the pestle by another spar 
 of wood. The pestle and the two spars thus 
 form a triangle, one side — namely, the pestle — 
 descending kito the mortar, and the base being 
 extended, so as to form a yoke for the bullocks 
 on whose necks it is supported. When the 
 bullocks are yoked, the driver seats himself on 
 the boom between the bullocks and the mill, 
 and thus adds his weight to the pressure of the 
 pestle. He then drives ' his cattle round and 
 round, while another man feeds the mill with 
 bits of cane about five or six inches long. 
 
 This mill, though primitive, is very effective ; 
 and the cane is thoroughly crushed, and leaves 
 it as dry as tinder. A modern mill was, I 
 believe, once started in Rohilcund, and worked 
 for some time. But the cane, after passing 
 through it, was gathered by the natives, and 
 
ON THE CROPS. 51 
 
 put through one of their own mills with 
 profit. 
 
 Of course the time occupied in crushing cane 
 in this way is very long. But time is of little 
 comparative value in India ; and until the price 
 of labour rises considerably, the old mill, or 
 koloo as it is called, will probably hold its own. 
 
 The cultivation of the cane, and the manu- 
 facture of sugar, are a source of great profit to 
 the agricultural classes. In the Meerut and 
 similar districts, where on many estates ten or 
 fifteen per cent, of the area is under sugar, the 
 rent is generally paid by the proceeds of sugar 
 and cotton. 
 
 It is curious, and shows the demand for 
 sugar, that good sugar in Northern India, where 
 it is grown and made, and pays no duty, is sold 
 at nearly the same price which it fetches in 
 England. The consumption of sugar among the 
 native population is very large. Men, women, 
 and children are, one and all, very fond of 
 sweetmeats, and eat quantities of them. The 
 best refined sugar sells for about sixpence per 
 pound at the Eosa Factory, in the Shahjehanpore 
 district, which is the only sugar manufactory 
 conducted by Europeans in the North- Western 
 Provinces. How it is that more has not been 
 
 3 * 
 
52 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 done by English enterprise in this direction, I 
 do not know. But it would appear as if the 
 profits to be made were not large enough to 
 repay the cost of European skill. 
 
 Before closing this section, I would say a few 
 words on the subject of Agricultural Statistics. 
 The frequent famines, which have of late deso- 
 lated parts of India, have shown the value of 
 information regarding the amount of food 
 annually produced. Had accurate knowledge 
 of the yield of grain, and the probable amount 
 in store, existed, the evils of the Orissa famine 
 would probably have been mitigated. For this 
 end, inquiries should be directed to ascertain the 
 area laid down in each year under each kind of 
 crop. In the North-West Provinces, information 
 of this kind can be obtained with some approach 
 to accuracy, through the Village Accountants — 
 functionaries who keep the rent-rolls and maps 
 of every estate in the Province. These persons 
 have no difficulty themselves in obtaining the 
 knowledge which we require. But it is a matter 
 of considerable toil to compel them to take the 
 necessary amount of trouble. And unless they 
 have the fear of a close and strict supervision 
 over them, they will sit in their huts, and fill in 
 the statistics out of their own heads. However, 
 
ON THE CROPS. 53 
 
 if they are properly supervised, they can be 
 made to do their work well enough, and a return 
 of the area under each crop can be obtained for 
 each harvest. If, however, we go beyond this, 
 and demand to know the actual yield in every 
 case, we at once enter into the region of specu- 
 lation and conjecture. The farmers themselves 
 hardly know the actual yield. They will not 
 trouble themselves to inform the Village Ac- 
 countant, if they do know it. It generally ends 
 by this functionary putting down an imaginary 
 amount. And returns thus compiled are worse 
 than useless. 
 
 The Government of the North-West Pro- 
 vinces have, for a few years past, published a 
 series of statistics, purporting to show the profits 
 accruing to the cultivator, and the rent enjoyed 
 by the landlord and Government respectively, in 
 each year. I believe these returns to be value- 
 less, as a comparison of those of one district 
 with the returns of another will show. And 
 when we see, that in districts which have been 
 lately assessed by Grovernment, the statistics 
 demonstrate, that the profits from the land are 
 divided with mathematical exactness in the pre- 
 scribed proportions, we need hardly doubt that 
 these returns are a better reflex of the opinion 
 
54 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 of the compiling officer, than of the actual 
 facts. These attempts should, at any rate for 
 the present, be confined to ascertaining the area 
 of each crop. With this knowledge accurately 
 obtained, experts can readily form an estimate 
 of the produce, near enough to the truth for 
 all practical ends. To aim too high in such a 
 matter is to miss the mark. 
 
IV. 
 
 ON IRRIGATION. 
 
 Irrigation is the soul of agriculture in the 
 North- West Provinces; without it many crops 
 are impossible, and all are precarious. For 
 want of it, famines are certain, and periodical 
 visitations j and the country is, from time to 
 time, reduced to poverty and desolation. The 
 huts of the peasantry, emptied and unroofed by 
 one famine, are hardly repaired and tenanted 
 again, before another has come. The fields, 
 thrown out of cultivation owing to one season of 
 drought, have scarcely been brought again under 
 the plough, before another dearth lays them 
 waste. 
 
 The subject of irrigation is so closely con- 
 nected with the welfare of the people, and so 
 interwoven with questions of the rent and as- 
 sessment of land, that I may be allowed to give 
 some space to it. 
 
 Irrigation, then, is of three kinds, namely, 
 from wells, from canals, and from tanks or ponds. 
 
56 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 To begin with irrigation from wells. It is a 
 kind provision of Nature that the greater part 
 of this region, which so needs a supply of water 
 besides the rain, is bounteously gifted with 
 springs at various depths below the surface. In 
 the countries of Rohilcund and the Teraee, the 
 water is so near the top that it can be easily 
 lifted with the lever and bucket which is familiar 
 to all travellers in Egypt. In the low lands, 
 along the Ganges and other rivers, water is also 
 found close beneath the surface. In the Doab, 
 the distance to water varies very much. It is 
 seldom less than fifteen feet, except in the low 
 grounds near the rivers j and in wells used for 
 agriculture not often more than sixty feet. This, 
 at least, is the result of my experience, and I 
 have measured a large number of wells. The 
 common depth to the water, I have found to be 
 between twenty and thirty feet. The water 
 appears to be nearest to the surface in the centre 
 of the Doab, and to be farthest from it in the 
 high tracts of land on either side, which over- 
 look the Ganges and the Jumna. 
 
 In Bundelcund the wells are of great depth. 
 Water is seldom found in the Banda district 
 nearer than one hundred feet. Springs are few 
 and uncertain, and the cost of wells very great. 
 
ON IRRIGATION* 57 
 
 Owing to these circumstances, and to the large 
 expense of working a well at such a depth, irri- 
 gation from wells, except for garden cultivation, 
 is unknown. 
 
 Well irrigation is to he seen in perfection in 
 the Doab, from which part of the country I will 
 draw my account of it. 
 
 There are two methods in common use for 
 lifting the water. If the water is very near the 
 surface, and only in small quantities, a long pole 
 is used as a lever, supported on a heap of earth 
 as a fulcrum ; and the water is raised in a com- 
 mon earthen vessel attached to the end of the 
 pole by a rope. But when the well is deeper, 
 and the supply of water ample, bullocks are 
 used to lift the water with a large leathern 
 bucket. Eor this purpose, the top of the well 
 is usually raised a few feet above the level of the 
 field ; and, running down from it, on one side, 
 is cut a steep incline as a road for the bullocks. 
 A stout rope attached to the leathern bucket 
 works over a rude pulley, which is supported 
 above the well by two stout posts. The bucket- 
 is let down into the well and filled. The 
 bullocks come up to the top of the incline, the 
 end of the rope is hooked on to their yoke*, and 
 away they go down the incline, bringing the 
 
 3 t 
 
58 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 bucket up to the top. As the bucket comes up, 
 a man standing by the pulley overturns it into 
 the channel which conveys the water to the 
 fields. The bullock-driver then unhooks the 
 rope from the yoke, and while the empty bucket 
 again descends into the well, the bullocks 
 leisurely come up the incline, and are ready to 
 repeat the process again. In some parts of the 
 country the men sing a rude chant or refrain, 
 which serves the double purpose of making 
 their labour less dreary, and of guiding the 
 bullocks in their work. The lad who drives 
 usually takes a seat on the rope as the bullocks 
 go down the incline, and thus saves himself the 
 walk, and by his weight aids in raising the 
 bucket. The work is hard, and the men as 
 well as the cattle employed require to be well 
 fed. It is usually held that it costs two 
 shillings a day to work a well in this way. As 
 yet no machine adapted to the wants of the 
 country has been found as a substitute for this 
 primitive method. Something very cheap, and 
 so simple as to be capable of being repaired by 
 the rudest blacksmith, is what is needed. 
 
 The water is conveyed from the well to the 
 crops by small channels made along the margins 
 of the fields. The field which is to be irrigated 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 59 
 
 is divided with little ridges of earth into small 
 squares of a few yards each. The object of this 
 is to distribute the water equally over the sur- 
 face, as it would otherwise leave the higher parts 
 dry, and collect in pools in the low places. As 
 each little square is filled, a small opening is 
 made in the ridge to let the water flow into the 
 next division, and the supply of water is thus 
 kept under command, and waste as much as 
 possible prevented. For well-water is a pre- 
 cious commodity, and not lightly to be thrown 
 away. The cost of working the well falls en- 
 tirely upon the cultivator of the soil. The 
 original expense of digging the well is defrayed, 
 sometimes by the owner, and sometimes by the 
 cultivator. Before entering upon this question, 
 it is necessary to notice a distinction between 
 two kinds of wells — a distinction connected with 
 some important questions of tenure and rent. 
 
 Where the subsoil is firm and strong, all that 
 is needed is to dig the well, without construct- 
 ing any lining or walls of masonry. Only that 
 part of the well which is under water is sup- 
 ported or lined with a cylinder of wood, or of 
 brushwood, or of twigs interlaced and woven 
 together. If the subsoil is very firm, and the 
 spring of water ample, the wooden cylinder is 
 
60 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 used. If there is much sand in the substrata, 
 the sides of the well are apt to cave in, until, 
 gradually, the top is undermined, and the whole 
 thing collapses. For such wells, the cheaper 
 lining of twigs or brushwood is commonly 
 employed. 
 
 When the subsoil is shifty and uncertain, or 
 when a very large well is wanted, and when the 
 funds are available, the well is built of sub- 
 stantial masonry. In the Doab, the walls of 
 the well are usually built up, and sunk by ex- 
 cavating the earth from beneath them, until a 
 good foundation is obtained, and the required 
 supply of water reached. In Bundelcund, owing 
 to the great distance of water, the uncertainty 
 of finding it, and the rocky substrata often met 
 with, the reverse method is adopted. The well 
 is fully excavated, and the masonry commenced 
 from below. 
 
 Wells which are made without masonry are 
 called, in common parlance, " CutcJta" or make- 
 shift ; while those which are solidly built of 
 brick and mortar are called " JPucM," sub- 
 stantial, or permanent. 
 
 It is important, as I have said before, to note 
 this distinction. The first thing which arises 
 out of it is this, that the makeshift or .tempo- 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 61 
 
 rary well is dug by the cultivator at his own 
 expense, while the permanent well is built 
 always by the owner of the soil. 
 
 The possibility of digging temporary wells is 
 looked upon as one of the natural attributes of 
 the soil, and is considered in settling the rent. 
 Land where such wells can be freely dug is 
 charged as irrigable, and it devolves upon the 
 cultivator to dig and use such wells, as much as 
 it devolves upon him to plough the land and 
 sow the seed. 
 
 With masonry wells, however, it is far other- 
 wise. As the outlay of a large sum on per- 
 manent improvement of the soil might be held 
 to argue a greater interest in it than that of 
 a mere tenant, the building of masonry wells on 
 land has always been adduced and accepted as 
 prima facie proof of ownership of the soil. 
 The mere receipt of rent is not always in India 
 proof of ownership ; as there is, in many cases, 
 apart from the owners and the cultivators, a 
 class of persons whose interest in the soil is 
 confined to the receipt of a portion of the rent. 
 It is probable, therefore, that it is natural to the 
 people, and a consequence of the prevailing 
 tenures, that such outlay of capital should be 
 held to argue ownership of the soil, although 
 
62 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 I have met with men who consider the feeling 
 to have been rather created by the action of our 
 courts. However that may be, it is generally 
 received, at present, that such outlays of capital 
 as are required to plant groves and to build 
 wells, argue a permanent interest in the soil, 
 and can be made by the owner alone, or with 
 his consent. And actions to evict a tenant, on 
 the ground of the breach of this custom or 
 common law, are held good. 
 
 The expense, then, of building masonry wells 
 falls entirely on the landlord or owner of the 
 soil; and, where he builds such wells, he is 
 entitled to raise the rents of the lands irrigable 
 from them. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that the temporary 
 wells are dag by the cultivator, and that he 
 pays more rent for ground in which he can dig 
 them. The permanent wells, on the other hand, 
 are built by the owner of the soil; and not only 
 does the cultivator not build them, but he is 
 forbidden to do so, under penalty of eviction. 
 It is important, therefore, not to confound the 
 two kinds of wells. 
 
 The cost of digging makeshift or temporary 
 wells is very small, varying from five shillings, 
 or even less, to two or three pounds, according 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 63 
 
 to the depth of the well, and the kind of 
 cylinder used to line it. The expense of build- 
 ing masonry wells varies, of course, with the 
 depth, diameter, and other conditions of the 
 well. But for such wells as are commonly used 
 for agricultural purposes, an expenditure of 
 twenty pounds is sufficient. Fifty pounds will 
 build a very good well. 
 
 For the owner of the soil, there is no more 
 profitable investment than the construction of 
 such wells. He not only gains a direct return 
 for his money from the increased rent, but, in- 
 directly, he profits much by the greater security 
 against drought, and the greater stability of his 
 income on that account. 
 
 Questions sometimes arise as to the age of 
 wells. The temporary wells are not always as 
 short lived as their name would imply. Where 
 the subsoil is good, it is very common to find 
 wells of this kind which have lasted for thirty 
 years and more, as the maps made at the last 
 thirty years' settlement of the land revenue will 
 prove. I know of many places in which wells 
 of this kind have existed before the memory 
 of the oldest inhabitant. In other places, where 
 there is a bad subsoil, the wells fall in every 
 two or three years, or even annually. The age 
 
64 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 of a well can be judged by its appearance, and 
 by the presence or absence of the traces of old 
 wells in the immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 It would be of value to ascertain the exact 
 area which «ould be irrigated from a well, in 
 order to estimate the profits which are to be 
 derived from sinking wells, and also with a 
 view to compare the cost of this kind of irri- 
 gation with the expense of other kinds. But 
 so many conditions enter into this problem, that 
 it is impossible to arrive at any solution which 
 shall be generally true. The depth of the well, 
 its position, the nature of the soil over which 
 the water has to pass, the supply of water in 
 the spring, the efficiency of the men, cattle, 
 and gear employed — all these things have their 
 effect on the area which can be watered in a 
 given time. A good authority has laid down 
 fifteen acres as the average for each well. 
 Where there is a good supply of water this will, 
 I think, be found near the average, although 
 few individual wells may exactly conform to it ; 
 but where the springs are not good, I do not 
 think each well can supply more than ten acres 
 on an average in the season. The cultivators 
 all say that you cannot exhaust a well without 
 spoiling the spring. 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 65 
 
 Irrigation from tanks or ponds is in most 
 parts of the North-Western Provinces of small 
 extent ; wherever, indeed, water will remain, in. 
 pond, marsh, or artificial tank, it is greedily 
 seized upon when the time for using it comes. 
 But artificial reservoirs or tanks, such as exist 
 in Madras and Central India, are not common j 
 and, owing to the facility for making wells in 
 the Doab and Rohilcund, they are not needed 
 so much. 
 
 Natural streams and small rivers, whenever 
 they retain any supply of water during the dry 
 season, are made available by such engineering 
 skill as the people possess; dams are made 
 across them at certain places, and the water 
 forced or baled out into the fields. In Rohil- 
 cund, there are many streams available for this 
 kind of irrigation. At present, as the right 
 to make the dams is held as a privilege by 
 the occupants of certain estates, these resources 
 are not made the most of. The public good 
 is often sacrificed to private animosities and 
 piques, and the water supply is wasted for 
 want of proper skill or sufficient expenditure. 
 All this will, I believe, be rectified at the 
 settlement of the land revenue, which is now 
 in progress. 
 
66 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 The water is generally baled or lifted out of 
 the ponds into the fields in a basket ; a channel 
 is cut, at the low end of the tank or pond, so as 
 to let the water flow into a small pool, four or 
 five feet wide ; a couple of ropes are attached to 
 each side of the basket, and are held by two 
 men, one on either side of the pool. The basket 
 is then dipped into the water, filled, and pitched 
 forward with a regular swing, emptying its 
 contents into the field above. When the water 
 lies very low, the same process has to be 
 repeated two or three times, until the level of 
 the land to be irrigated is reached : the work 
 then becomes very laborious and costly. When 
 there are three or four couples at work baling 
 the water, each a stage above the other, they 
 keep time and swing all together, like the crew 
 of an eight-oar. 
 
 I now come to the subject of canal irrigation, 
 the importance of which is very great; indeed, 
 with the Orissa famine, the famine of 1861, 
 and the late scarcity and partial famine in 
 Upper India before us, canal irrigation may be 
 said literally to be a question of life and death. 
 It is of moment that such a question should be 
 well understood in its bearings on the welfare 
 of the people, as well as on the interests of the 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 67 
 
 owners of land, and of the Government, which 
 is the landlord in chief. 
 
 There are two grand canals in the North- 
 western Provinces — the East Jumna Canal, 
 which was originally made by one of the 
 Turkish emperors, and has been improved and 
 restored by us, and the Ganges Canal — a work 
 all our own — one of the greatest gifts ever 
 bestowed on any country by its rulers. With 
 the character of these canals as engineering 
 works it is beyond my province to deal. It 
 will suffice to say that the Jumna Canal is a 
 stream about as large as the New River, which 
 supplies East London with water. Its banks 
 are beautifully planted, and it is a great source 
 of wealth as well as an ornament to the country 
 through which it passes. While the term 
 " canal/' with its associations in this country, 
 is hardly applicable to the great Ganges Canal, 
 still, in its infancy, it is covering whole counties 
 with fertility and wealth. When it reaches its 
 full growth, I believe the brightest dreams of 
 its projectors will be surpassed. 
 
 But it is of the economic use of these works 
 that I wish to speak — how they may be best 
 made to serve the agricultural classes, and to 
 benefit the whole community. 
 
68 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 The value of irrigation in India may be best 
 understood from the fact that, in round num- 
 bers, it doubles the rent. Land which, if dry, 
 could pay only ten shillings an acre, will pay 
 a pound an acre when it is irrigated ; and 
 not only that, the cultivator has to work the 
 well at his own cost, and the increase in the 
 crop enables him to do this, and to live better, 
 as well as to pay double rent. Irrigation means 
 not only a ton of grain instead of four or five 
 hundredweight, but also wheat, sugar, indigo, 
 and the like, instead of barley, and vetches, and 
 millets — in fact, it means wealth and comfort, 
 instead of poverty and starvation. It is, then, 
 of great importance, not only to make canals, 
 but to use them rightly. Let us, then, see how 
 this can best be done. 
 
 The supply of water from a canal is distributed 
 through the country by branches radiating from 
 the -main stream, and from these branches, again, 
 smaller channels strike out in every direction, 
 from which the cultivators take the water into 
 their fields. When the level admits of it, the 
 farmer has only to open a way for the water to 
 run ; in other cases he has to raise it, as he 
 would from a tank or pond. 
 
 It is clear that it depends on the distribu- 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 69 
 
 tion of the water whether the greatest possible 
 good is derived from the canal or not. At first, 
 the matter was very imperfectly understood. 
 There appears to have been no great principle 
 laid down to guide the engineers in the distri- 
 bution of the water. Each officer in charge of 
 a section of the canal did what seemed right in 
 his own eyes j branches were taken along valleys, 
 and through districts which needed drainage 
 rather than irrigation ; in other cases, channels 
 were run right across the natural drainage of 
 the country, and did as much harm, by causing 
 floods in the rainy season, as they did good by 
 affording irrigation in the dry weather. The 
 general idea seemed to be that, so long as chan- 
 nels were made, it was not much matter how or 
 where they were made. Some were made into 
 which no water would ever run ; many were 
 made through those parts of the provinces most 
 liberally supplied by Nature with springs and 
 wells, where, except in years of great drought, 
 they served no purpose but to save the cultivator 
 from part of his toil. 
 
 At first, indeed, the mistake was made of sup- 
 posing that canals were to supplant wells. People 
 in the country have told me of orders by the 
 canal officers forbidding the use of wells, of pay- 
 
70 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 ment exacted on the ground that the water in 
 the wells was increased by the canal, and of 
 cases in which the canal officers had wilfully, 
 and of malice aforethought, run their distribut- 
 ing channels through as many wells as they 
 could. All this, although resting probably on 
 a very slender foundation of facts, points to the 
 truth, that the canal officers looked upon wells 
 as their rivals, and did all they could to oust 
 them ; they were, in fact, under pressure to 
 show a good balance sheet, and a larger area 
 under irrigation. If thev had taken the water 
 where it was most wanted, to tracts where there 
 were no wells, and where irrigation was almost 
 unknown, their wishes would have been soon 
 and surely realized ; but they went into some of 
 the best watered provinces in India, and began 
 a new system of irrigation. Naturally they had 
 up-hill work. It took some little time to coax 
 the farmers to adopt the new water j and, seek- 
 ing a market, instead of commanding it, the canal 
 officers had to offer their water at a very cheap 
 rate. The result has been, that, in some of the 
 most fertile districts, where well irrigation was 
 most abundant, the wells have been superseded 
 by the canal. Innumerable wells are lying idle, 
 and falling into decay from neglect or disuse. 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 71 
 
 Where the springs were near the surface, the 
 percolation from the canal has made them more 
 abundant ; the water in the wells has risen 
 several feet, and in some places, as in the Saha- 
 runpore district, the' increase of moisture is so 
 great as to be absolutely injurious. While, then, 
 the canal finances have suffered from this com- 
 petition with wells, it cannot be said that any 
 benefits have accrued to the people which would 
 counterbalance the loss to the canal. It may be 
 taken as an axiom that, except in times of great 
 drought, an acre irrigated from a well is at least 
 as productive as an acre watered by the canal. It 
 is clear, therefore, that there is no gain to the 
 country at large from the substitution of the one 
 system of irrigation for the other, unless canal 
 irrigation could be made universal. On the con- 
 trary, if the canal water could be given to the 
 tracts where wells are few, or do not exist at 
 all, it is plain that, to withhold it from such 
 tracts, and to give it to those which have wells, 
 is to deprive the country of so much additional 
 irrigation. The only gainers by the substitution 
 of canal for well water, have been the cultivators 
 of the soil. Upon them, as I have said before, 
 falls the expense of working the wells. Instead 
 of having to toil at this duty — themselves and 
 
72 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 their cattle — from sunrise to sunset, and some- 
 times all the night through, a lad can go now with 
 a spade and let in the water where it is needed, from 
 the canal channel. And for this boon, until very 
 lately, the charge per acre was almost nominal. 
 
 Nor is the labour the only saving brought 
 about by the canal. It requires a good stock of 
 strong, well-fed cattle to keep the wells working. 
 After he gets the canal, the cultivator no longer 
 needs the same number of bullocks ; indeed, he 
 can buy a few to do his ploughing, and sell them 
 again when it is done. There is no doubt, then, 
 that the expense of production is lessened by the 
 use of canal water ; and although, in the nature 
 of things, this saving would in time be appropri- 
 ated by the owner of the soil, hitherto this has 
 not been done. The rent of land irrigated from 
 the canal has not risen above that of land 
 watered by wells. 
 
 The cultivator, then, has alone benefited by 
 the distribution of canal water in the countries 
 which have wells. But, on the other hand, the 
 advantage enjoyed by him is not without its 
 drawbacks. Wells require a large live stock, 
 and great labour. The soil reaps two benefits 
 from this. There is more manure saved from 
 burning, and the tendency to overfarm is checked. 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 73 
 
 If the farmer has to work at his well, he cannot 
 sow more sugar or wheat than he has time to 
 irrigate. But when he is relieved from all well 
 duty, he has nothing to keep him within bounds. 
 He sows more of these crops, and, at the same 
 time, he has less manure. I believe this is the 
 true reason why crops in canal land show a ten- 
 dency to deteriorate — a result often attributed 
 by the people to the quality of the water. 
 
 Is it to be maintained, therefore, that for a 
 doubtful benefit to some cultivators, the canal 
 water is to be misapplied? I do not believe 
 that any one will uphold the system, or that it 
 would ever have been originated had attention 
 been directed to the subject at first. 
 
 It should be held, then, as a maxim in canal 
 irrigation, that we should supplement wells, not 
 rival them j that we should first irrigate those 
 tracts which have no water, and give only our 
 surplus to those tracts which have. 
 
 If by this course the greatest benefit will be 
 given to the whole country, and the largest area 
 of irrigation be obtained, no less will it bring in 
 the greatest income to the canal. This has been 
 so clearly demonstrated by others, that I believe 
 nothing but the difficulty of receding can uphold 
 the present system. I am ready to acknowledge 
 
 4 
 
74 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 that this difficulty is very great, and renders any 
 alteration in the working of the canals and chan- 
 nels now existing very hard to bring about. It 
 is true, nevertheless, that a mistake has been 
 committed, and it would be as well not to per- 
 petuate the mistake in future works, or in the 
 extension of the present. 
 
 In order to show the financial side of the case, 
 it may be stated broadly that the value of land 
 in Northern India depends upon the means of 
 irrigation available, and that irrigable land pays 
 double the rent of land which cannot be 
 watered. It may be observed, also, that this 
 proportion of the rents of the two descriptions 
 of land has been fixed by experience and calcu- 
 lations drawn from well irrigation. 
 
 When irrigation is introduced into an estate, 
 or is extended, it depends upon the custom of 
 the country regarding rents whether the increase 
 is immediately received by the landlord, or not. 
 If the rent is a share of the actual crop, or the 
 money value of a share of the estimated out- 
 turn, it is clear that the increase of rent is im- 
 mediate. If the crop has been doubled by 
 irrigation, the landlord's share, or the rent, is 
 also doubled. And the same is the case where 
 the rent is charged upon the area irrigated — so 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 75 
 
 much for each acre irrigated, and so much for 
 each acre not watered. And also where the 
 nature of the crop determines the rent — where 
 sugar pays so much per acre, wheat so much, 
 and so on — the rent rises immediately. But in 
 cases where rent is paid in the lump, the in- 
 crease, though no less certain, is deferred. This 
 much being said, it will be readily understood 
 that where land, previously irrigable from wells, 
 is now watered from the canal, the landlord 
 expects and obtains the same rates of rent 
 which he before enjoyed : and also that if the 
 area of irrigation in his estate is enlarged, he 
 will receive, in many cases immediately, the 
 higher rates of rent for the newly watered land. 
 And it is clear that, if we wish to sell our canal 
 water in estates where wells exist, or are possible, 
 we must limit our charge to such an amount as 
 will leave the cultivator able to pay the same 
 rates of rent as were paid by him when he used 
 his well. Theoretically, we might, perhaps, ex* 
 ceed this limit in those estates in which the sub^ 
 soil requires the use of masonry wells. The 
 landlords of such estates, if they had not already 
 made the outlay, might be willing to concede so 
 much to the canal, as would cover the interest of 
 the capital which they would otherwise have to 
 
 4 * 
 
76 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 lay out on wells. As the canal, too, is a better 
 safeguard against drought than wells, the land- 
 lords generally might be willing to give us some- 
 thing on that account. But this is mere theory. 
 In real life we can never, even if we would, 
 work things with such nicety. Practically, we 
 should find ourselves compelled to sell the water 
 at such a price as would leave the cultivator able 
 to pay the customary rate of rent. In tracts of 
 country where well irrigation is plentiful and 
 common, we should not be able to get more for 
 our water than it costs the cultivator to raise 
 water from his w T ell. Taking everything con- 
 nected with the canal into consideration — the 
 ready money payment, interference and exactions 
 of underlings, fancied inferiority of the water, 
 &c. — we should probably have to keep even 
 below this limit. 
 
 But if we go into a tract of country where 
 there is no irrigation — if we go, for instance, to 
 take an extreme case, to the Ban da District, 
 where water, when found at all, is one hundred 
 feet below the surface, where a well costs a 
 hundred pounds, and irrigation from this source 
 is impossible — what limit is then put to our 
 charge for water? Clearly, so long as we do not 
 diminish the present rents, the landowner has 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 77 
 
 no right or power to interfere. Whatever the 
 cultivator is willing to give we may take. Prac- 
 tically, therefore, we shall be able to get a much 
 higher price for our water here than in those 
 places where we had to rival wells. The land, 
 which formerly produced a precarious crop of 
 barley or grain, will give a certain crop of wheat, 
 sugar, or other valuable products. After leaving 
 the cultivator a fair profit, the increase, which 
 would go to the landowner as rent, if the change 
 had been produced by his capital or by natural 
 causes, will come to the canal. 
 
 It may be said that, unless he is allowed to 
 share directly, the landowner will refuse permis- 
 sion to irrigate. I believe this is entirely an 
 English idea, and has been imbibed by the 
 landowners of Lower Bengal from Englishmen. 
 It is quite inconsistent with the tenure of land 
 in India. The ruling power is landlord. If 
 the Government increase the value of land by 
 their own outlay, they are entitled to reap the 
 benefit — just as the landowner is entitled to 
 benefit from his own outlay. The landowner 
 has no more right to forbid the Government 
 from making wells or canals, than the cultivator 
 has to forbid the landowner. The idea is pre- 
 posterous, and should not be listened to. We 
 
78 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 have the undoubted right to make canals, and 
 to charge for their use so much as will remu- 
 nerate the nation for the outlay. We have no 
 right to enrich the class of landowners at the 
 public cost. 
 
 In practice, however, the Government would 
 never run up the charge to the highest pitch, 
 nor would they permit others to do so. Still, 
 there is a very great interval between the maxi- 
 mum price obtainable, and a nominal charge 
 which would allow the landowner to double his 
 rent. 
 
 The landowner would in any case be a great 
 gainer by the permanent security given to his 
 income ; and he would, probably in every case, 
 eventually receive a considerable addition to his 
 rent. 
 
 To sum up, then, it appears that in the dis- 
 tribution of water from a canal, we should not 
 seek to supersede well irrigation — Firstly, be- 
 cause by so doing we are wasting water and 
 diminishing the area which can be irrigated ; 
 Secondly, because by this course we compel 
 ourselves to sell our water in the cheapest 
 market. 
 
 But it will be urged, and truly, as I have 
 before hinted, that the canal alone is a safeguard 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 79 
 
 against drought. When the drought is pro- 
 longed, the springs will fail, and where then are 
 your wells ? This is true j and the argument 
 would be a good one if we could supply the 
 whole country with canal water. But this we 
 cannot do. We can only offer irrigation to a 
 very limited area. Are we, then, to waste our 
 water for four years, to save the wells in an 
 anticipated drought in the fifth ? Beyond ques- 
 tion, the greater the area we can irrigate in the 
 years of plenty, the richer we can make the 
 peasantry, the larger our crops of grain in the 
 good years — the less will the famine press on all 
 in the year of drought. Until, therefore, we 
 have supplied the means of irrigation to those 
 tracts which Nature has left without water, we 
 should not endeavour to throw the wells out of 
 use. Although there is no doubt that canal irri- 
 gation can and will be widely extended, still it is 
 probable that it will never reach more than a part 
 of the country. And even if we suppose the 
 certainty of canal irrigation becoming universal, 
 still this can only be accomplished at a period 
 so distant, as to leave the force of my arguments 
 unaffected. 
 
 While, then, the Government should strain 
 every nerve to push canal irrigation into the dry 
 
SO NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 tracts, I believe that efforts should likewise be 
 made to increase the wells in those countries 
 where irrigation from this source is possible. 
 
 It has always been the practice of the Go- 
 vernment of the North- West to advance money 
 free of interest to landowners for the purpose of 
 making wells. These advances are payable by 
 instalments ; and all bond fide applications of 
 this kind, backed by the officer of the district, 
 meet with immediate attention. As the revenue 
 settlement is for the most part for a term of 
 years, the Government is amply repaid for ad- 
 vances of this nature by the improvement in the 
 estates. This appears to be the best w r ay of 
 promoting well irrigation. It is very hard to 
 superintend a large number of widely scattered 
 works. If the Government were to attempt to 
 build the wells through the agency of their own 
 servants, the work would be very costly, and 
 also very unsatisfactory. It is far better to get 
 the people to do it themselves, by advancing the 
 money to them. The only thing required is, that 
 the landowners should be well informed of the 
 terms on which money is advanced, and should 
 be invited to avail themselves of it ; care being 
 taken at the same time, by the English officer 
 of the district, that the money reaches their 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 81 
 
 hands intact, and is spent on the work for which 
 it is given. With regard to canals, there has 
 been great discussion on the question whether 
 they should be made by the Government or by 
 companies. Much that has been said against 
 their being undertaken by Government is beside 
 the question. Supposing that there are companies 
 ready and willing to perform the work, the only 
 thing to be decided is whether the work will be 
 done better by the one than the other, and 
 whether more benefits will accrue to the nation 
 at large from the one course than from the 
 other. As to the opinion which formerly held 
 some ground, that Government should not in- 
 terfere with private enterprise in such matters, it 
 hardly needs refutation now. Prejudices exist 
 on this subject in England ; but thanks to the 
 mismanagement of the railways, % and the in- 
 genuity by which they have combined the greatest 
 loss to the public with the least gain to them- 
 selves, these insular ideas are gradually clearing 
 away. 
 
 The Government of India, being supreme 
 landlord, has to decide whether it will improve 
 its own estate at its own cost, and reap the 
 whole advantage, or whether it will allow 
 others to do the work, and content itself 
 
 4 f 
 
82 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 with the indirect gain. I should think no 
 landlord who had the means would hesitate 
 for a moment; and if he had not the money 
 ready, he would raise it on the security of his 
 estate. The Indian Government, unfortunately, 
 have not got the money in their treasury, but 
 they have good credit, and they can raise the 
 money at 5 per cent. Why, then, should they 
 employ a company to raise the money and to 
 do the work ? It is probable that any company 
 which comes forward will ask for a guarantee of 
 5 per cent. So far, then, as any immediate 
 saving to the treasury goes, or any escape from 
 a fresh loan, it is only in appearance. In the 
 one case, the Government will pay 5 per cent, 
 interest on the capital, and will receive all the 
 profits ; in the other case, Government will pay 
 5 per cent, interest, and will receive no profits. 
 In the one case, doubtless, the Government 
 might lose the capital, or part of it ; in the other, 
 they could only lose the 5 per cent. But in the 
 case of any well-considered and well-managed 
 scheme of irrigation, it is folly to talk of loss. 
 
 The only question, then, is whether the work 
 will be done better by a private company. I 
 think we may safely answer this in the negative. 
 A private company is no guarantee for good 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 83 
 
 work, as the doings on some of the Indian 
 railways will prove. Nor is it any guarantee 
 for cheap work. The cost of masonry on the 
 railways is not less than the cost of similar 
 work by the Public Works Department. In 
 the case of irrigation works, moreover, where 
 the land revenue is more or less affected, and 
 questions of compensation, and the like, are 
 sure to arise, there is every reason for keeping 
 the management in the hands of Government. 
 The whole thing, too, should be conducted in 
 a large imperial way, with a primary regard for 
 the interests of the people; and this is more 
 likely to be done by Government than by a 
 company. As to the agency, the Government 
 have at their command a body of men whom 
 they can, if necessary, increase — the Royal En- 
 gineers and the officers of the Public Works 
 Departments ; a body who, for all qualities neces- 
 sary to the supervision of such a work in such 
 a country, could hardly be equalled by the staff 
 of any private company. 
 
 I hope, then, that, as a matter of public 
 policy, in order that the work may be well done, 
 the nation may be most benefited, and the re- 
 venues increased, canals for irrigation will be un- 
 dertaken and managed by the Government alone. 
 
84 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 Another question connected with canal irriga- 
 tion arises, as to the best way of charging for 
 the water, and it is one of considerable diffi- 
 culty. The imperfect nature of the head works, 
 and the want of control over the water in the 
 Ganges Canal, have hitherto rendered a charge 
 by measurement of the water impossible. The 
 method at present followed, is to classify the 
 different crops roughly, according to the amount 
 of irrigation required by each, and to charge 
 a rate per acre, varying with the class of crop. 
 This appears to be the best method feasible at 
 present. But it is a very objectionable one, as 
 it involves constant measurements and scruti- 
 nies, and interference on the part of the canal 
 underlings, which is bad, and renders the man- 
 agement unpopular. When the canal is re- 
 modelled, this defect will, I believe, be remedied, 
 and the water will then be charged for by the 
 cubic foot. This should be provided for in all 
 new canals. Until it can be carried out, it 
 might be possible to strike out an average rate, 
 which would cause no loss to the canal, while, 
 except in very isolated cases, it would not affect 
 the cultivator. 
 
 But this, as well as some other reforms con- 
 nected with the charge for the canal water and 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 
 
 85 
 
 the land assessment, is impossible, so long as we 
 adhere to the principle of charging the same 
 rates for the water all over the country. This 
 principle was, I believe, laid down by Lord 
 Elgin, when he was Governor-General. It is, 
 of course, a convenience in many ways, that the 
 rates should not vary. So it would be a con- 
 venience if the land revenue were assessed at 
 one universal rate per acre. But that would 
 hardly be advocated, as the rate must needs be 
 the minimum, and the loss to the State would 
 be enormous. But I can see no reason why the 
 rate should be unvarying in the one case more 
 than in the other. It must be the minimum 
 rate in the case of the canal also, and therefore 
 must cause great loss. I do not, of course, 
 advocate an infinite multiplication of rates ; but 
 there are different large tracts of country, to 
 which, with reference to the absence or presence 
 of other sources of irrigation, different rates 
 should be applied. If this were done, it would 
 be possible to charge one average rate within 
 the tract, without reference to crops. At pre- 
 sent, the inconvenience and complication sup- 
 posed to be avoided by the adoption of uniform 
 rates, is extreme, as the rate varies with the 
 crop. 
 
86 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 It is the more important that this idea of 
 one universal canal rate should be examined, 
 because, chiefly in consequence of it, a radical 
 mistake in assessing canal-watered estates to the 
 land revenue has been committed. In all new 
 settlements of land revenue, on the expiration 
 of the present engagements, the rule of the 
 North- Western Government is, that one-half of 
 the rental is to be taken as the standard of 
 assessment. It is, of course, in many cases, 
 impossible to ascertain the real rental ; and, in 
 many cases, where the real rental is known, it is 
 of such a character as to render it an unfit basis 
 for assessment. It is often too high, the estate 
 being rack-rented ; it is sometimes too low, the 
 land being, for fraudulent or other purposes, let 
 out at almost nominal rents. Tor instance, on 
 account of the caste of the cultivators : — I have 
 known estates assessed at nominal sums, owing 
 to the proprietors having been Brahmins. In 
 some cases, some tradition has attached a curse 
 or ill-omen to the estate, preventing it from 
 letting at its real value. In these cases, the 
 basis of assessment is really a valuation of the 
 estate, from comparison with similar adjoining 
 estates, and on other good and extensive data, 
 such as might guide any landlord in renewing 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 87 
 
 his expired farm leases. In framing such esti- 
 mates, the increased value of the land from 
 canal irrigation is taken into account, under 
 /express orders from the Government. While, 
 then, the cultivator is charged directly with the 
 water-rate, the Glover nment assesses the land- 
 owner on the increase to the value of his estate 
 from the spread of irrigation. This increased 
 value may be rated at zero, when the well-irriga- 
 tion has only been supplanted by canal water i 
 it is appreciable where the estate, or part of it, 
 was not before irrigated, although it was irri- 
 gable j it reaches its maximum where irrigation 
 from other sources is impossible. As we insist 
 on competing with wells, and on charging 
 the same rates for our water in all places, it is 
 clear that the tendency of canal irrigation will 
 be to make the rentals of estates in which no 
 irrigation was possible, equal in rate to the 
 rentals of those amply supplied by nature with 
 springs of water. In round numbers, since 
 irrigation doubles the value of land, the value 
 of a given number of acres will be 2x instead 
 of x — , and the Government share will be x 
 instead of |, and the share of the landlord will 
 be also doubled. But to landlords whose es- 
 tates were before watered from wells, the value 
 
88 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 of the same number of acres will remain as it 
 was, at 2a?. Now, in neither case, be it ob- 
 served, have the landlords done anything to 
 deserve an increased rent-roll. The improve- 
 ment has been made at the public expense; 
 that is to say, at the cost as much of the 
 landlord who has derived no benefit, as of him 
 whose rental has been doubled. 
 
 But it will be said, how are we to avoid this ? 
 The land will improve in value from irrigation, 
 and the Government will obtain in the land 
 revenue a full share of the improvement. The 
 answer is, that if you charge the cultivator the 
 market price for the water, you will confer great 
 incidental advantages on the landlord, but you 
 will not artificially double his rent. Instead of 
 getting a part of the price of your water, under 
 the name of land revenue, you will get the 
 whole of it. By adhering to the present system 
 of one universal charge for the water, which 
 must be the minimum charge, you are enriching 
 the landlords of dry estates just as much as if 
 you gave the privilege of buying bread at half 
 price to their tenants, and to them only. 
 
 There is another difficulty, namely, that by 
 thus artificially increasing the rent, we are 
 making an artificial basis for our own revenue 
 
ON IRRIGATION. 89 
 
 assessment. This was urged very strongly by 
 many officers a few years ago, when the then 
 Secretary of State announced his determination 
 to give a permanent settlement to the North- 
 West Provinces. It was met by the asser- 
 tion that the rent never would be reduced by 
 any increase of the water-rate. This is no 
 doubt true, if by rent be understood the natural 
 rent previous to canal irrigation. But if we, 
 by making a nominal charge for water, raise 
 rents artificially, we can undoubtedly, pro tanto, 
 diminish them again by increasing the charge. 
 
 The Government was strongly urged, on many 
 grounds, to disregard canal irrigation in settling 
 the land revenue. There are many reasons 
 for such a course, which it would be tedious to 
 explain, and some of which would be unintel- 
 ligible to outsiders. Theoretically, I have no 
 doubt that it is the correct course. Practically, 
 however, the difficulties in the way are nu- 
 merous; and decision was given against it, prin- 
 cipally on the ground that, in the valuation of 
 estates, it would open a vast field to conjecture, 
 and leave the officers employed in the settle- 
 ment of the revenue without check. 
 
 Since this discussion, the question has lost its 
 great importance by the virtual abandonment of 
 
90 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 a permanent settlement during Sir S. North- 
 cote's incumbency. The question would, I 
 believe, be settled, and all the difficulties met, 
 if the principle of one universal canal rate were 
 abandoned, and variations in the charge for 
 water made according to the necessities of diffe- 
 rent tracts of country. If this were done, 
 there would not be so much need to discuss the 
 question of assessment, since no artificial fluc- 
 tuation in the rates of rents would be possible, 
 and we might take the Government share of the 
 present valuation of an estate, without fear that 
 the landlord's share would be either materially 
 increased or decreased by the influence of the 
 canal water-rates. 
 
 I believe, then, that to make a canal pay as 
 a financial measure, and to secure from it the 
 greatest benefit to the country and nation at 
 large, it should distribute its water so as to 
 supplement the well irrigation, and that its 
 charges should vary broadly with the capabili- 
 ties for irrigation from other sources in different 
 tracts of country. 
 
ON RENT RATES. 
 
 The standard used by the people for measuring 
 land varies very much in different parts of the 
 North- Western Provinces. Even in the same 
 district, and sometimes, I have been told, in the 
 same estate, the standard measure varies in size. 
 The measure, however, which is most generally 
 used is nearly equal to one-sixth of an acre. 
 Its standard is said to be a square of twenty 
 paces, stepped by a woman big with child, 
 carrying a vessel full of water on her head, and 
 another under her arm. 
 
 There is another measure, of larger size, 
 which has been adopted by Government in the 
 revenue survey. It is also variable in its dimen- 
 sions, and has no advantages over the popular 
 standard in any way. In some parts of the 
 country, this larger measure has come into 
 general use, and has superseded the smaller. 
 This is, however, the exception. 
 
92 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 It is upon the smaller measure, whatever 
 may be its exact dimensions by local custom, 
 that the rent is fixed. The disadvantages of 
 the variations in its size are, of course, great 
 and obvious. But the people are wedded to 
 their own customs, and perhaps nothing is so 
 difficult as to effect a change in the standards of 
 measure or weight in popular use. Eor the 
 purposes of Government, it is sufficient that 
 the variations are known, and that the areas of 
 each estate, after measurement, are reduced to 
 standard English acres. 
 
 The way in which rent is taken, and the prin- 
 ciples by which it is fixed, are many. I have 
 met with seven different methods of taking or 
 calculating rent. 
 
 Firstly, we have the most primitive custom of 
 all — that of taking rent in kind. This, in its 
 pure form, is disappearing rapidly ; although it 
 still obtains over a large part of the country, 
 particularly in Rohilcund. Where this practice 
 exists, the grain is cut and threshed, and heaped 
 in the threshing-floor by the cultivator j and it 
 is then divided, in whatever proportions may 
 have been agreed on, between him and the land- 
 lord. But it is to be noted, that rent in kind is 
 only taken of certain crops, namely, the ordinary 
 
ON RENT RATES. 93 
 
 cereals. Sugar, cotton, the millet "joar" when 
 sown for fodder, and generally maize and indigo, 
 always pay rent in cash. So also do tobacco, 
 and all vegetables and market-garden cultiva- 
 tion. The principle on which this distinction is 
 based seems to be, that the crops which require 
 a larger amount of care and toil on the part of 
 the cultivator should pay a fixed rate, so that 
 the cultivator may, reap the full value of his 
 labour ; while with regard to maize and joar, 
 when sown for fodder, they probably are paid 
 for in money and not in kind, because they are 
 required by the cultivator for his own imme- 
 diate use. 
 
 The proportion of the produce which is taken 
 as rent varies with the quality of the soil. Rent 
 being the balance which remains after paying 
 the cost of production, and that cost being for 
 all soils nearly a constant quantity, it follows 
 that the rent of a bad soil will bear a much 
 smaller proportion to the gross produce than the 
 rent of a good soil to its out-turn. We find, 
 then, that while in the best soils the landlord 
 will take one-half of the produce, in bad soils 
 he will only get a third, or even a fourth. We 
 should not, therefore, look to find the produce 
 of the land distributed in any fixed proportions 
 
94 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 between the Government, the landowner, and 
 the tiller of the soil. I mean that any theory 
 which lays down as a rule that the Government 
 should have one-fourth, the landlord one-fourth, 
 and the cultivator one-half of the gross produce, 
 or which fixes any other proportion as the rule 
 of division, is a fallacy. The proportion must 
 vary with the character of the soil, and the 
 amount of produce, and the labour required by 
 the crop. 
 
 In experience, I only know of one instance in 
 which the landlord's share avowedly exceeded 
 one-half. On a large area of all kinds of lands, 
 two-fifths will generally be the average share of 
 the landlord. 
 
 It must be noted, that where rent is paid in 
 kind, so far as my experience goes, the landlord 
 gets a share of the grain only. The straw always 
 goes to the cultivator, who, therefore, gets by 
 far the larger share of the gross produce. 
 
 Tenants in India who pay rent in kind must 
 not be confounded with the metayers of France. 
 The landlord in India never provides the live- 
 stock. The whole expense of cultivation falls 
 on the tenant, who would therefore seem to be 
 under a much heavier rent than the metayer. 
 Probably, however, there are other circumstances 
 
ON RENT RATES. 95 
 
 which restore the balance. There is much in 
 the condition and character of the metayers of 
 Perigord, as described in an article in the 
 " Revue des Deux Mondes," some time ago, 
 which resembles the peasant of Northern India. 
 A comparison of the two, by one acquainted 
 with both peoples, would be very interesting. 
 
 Payment of rent in kind is, as I have said, 
 fast going out of use j and a law has been lately 
 passed to facilitate its disuse, by giving the 
 courts authority to commute the rent at the 
 request of either party. Such commutation is 
 by no means an easy matter, and leads to great 
 disputes. However much we may wish to do 
 away with rents in kind — and they are thought 
 by some to be very mischievous — still I am sorry 
 that the change was not left to time. I have 
 never seen any good come of the interference of 
 law between the landlord and the tenant. 
 
 Where the soil is good and water abundant, 
 the tenant is usually desirous of commuting his 
 rent to a cash payment. The landlords, espe- 
 cially those who are Musulmans, are averse to 
 the change. Where rents are paid in kind, they 
 have much greater power in their estates, and 
 have a more submissive tenantry. The grain is 
 not allowed to leave the threshing-floor until the 
 
96 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 landlord has taken his share. A troublesome 
 tenant can, in this way, be coerced by the land- 
 lord delaying to take his share, and preventing 
 the removal of the grain. The system throws a 
 great deal .of power into the landlord's hands, 
 and tends to keep the tenant poor. Still I 
 would have left the remedy to time, which has 
 removed the evil from a great part of the country 
 without our interference. 
 
 One degree distant from the payment of rent 
 in kind is the custom of taking the money value 
 of an estimated share of the crop. When the 
 crop is nearly ready to be cut, the landlord or 
 his agent, accompanied by the cultivator and 
 some of the most respectable tenants, goes to 
 the field, and estimates the yield. The landlord's 
 share is then commuted to a money payment of 
 its value at the market price. This is a very 
 ancient custom, and is very often confounded 
 with the payment of rent in kind. Thus we 
 find, in a paper read before the East Indian 
 Association a few months ago, a charge brought 
 against the British Government of impoverishing 
 India, on one ground, amongst others, that we 
 have taken the revenue in money, whereas the 
 Native Governments took it in kind. Even 
 supposing the facts to be correct, the conclusion 
 
ON RENT RATES. 97 
 
 drawn is open to dispute, and seems to rest 
 on the vulgar notion that nothing is wealth 
 but money. But the truth is, that it was not 
 always rent in kind, but money-rent fixed after a 
 valuation of the produce, which was taken by 
 the large landowners and farmers of the Native 
 Governments j and, in every case, the payment 
 of rent in kind extended, as I have before ex- 
 plained, only to the common cereals, and not to 
 the valuable crops of sugar, cotton, and the 
 like. 
 
 This custom of fixing the rent by valuation is 
 fair enough in principle ; but in practice it seldom 
 satisfies the cultivator, who is often unjustly 
 treated in the valuation.* 
 
 Coming now to pure money rents, the first to 
 notice is the custom which most nearly resembles 
 the payment in kind, namely, that of varying the 
 rent with the crop. Under this system, sugar, 
 cotton, wheat, &c, have each their own rate of 
 rent. The landlord makes his survey at every 
 harvest, and frames his rent-roll accordingly. 
 The tenant is held bound to treat the landlord 
 justly, and to sow the fair and customary pro- 
 
 * E.g. The landlord tries to have the valuation made soon 
 after dawn, when the crop, fresh from the dews of night, 
 always looks fuller than after a few hours' sun. 
 
 5 
 
98 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 portion of valuable crops. Where this custom 
 prevails, and also in estates where rents are paid 
 in kind, the landlords watch the condition of 
 their estates closely, and prevent the removal of 
 manure from their lands. 
 
 The following list of rent-rates may be inte- 
 resting : — 
 
 s. 
 
 d. s. 
 
 d. 
 
 Wheat . . from 18 
 
 to 8 
 
 per acre. 
 
 Millet or pulses „ 12 
 
 „ 6 
 
 
 
 Maize . . „ 15 
 
 „ 6 
 
 
 
 Cotton . . „ 24 
 
 „ 11 
 
 
 
 Sugar . . „ 60 
 
 „ 24 
 
 
 
 The fourth custom, which prevails chiefly in 
 the northern districts of these Provinces, is that of 
 charging two rates of rent, one for dry land and 
 the other for irrigated land. The custom is a good 
 one, because it makes it the immediate interest 
 of the landlord to increase and promote irriga- 
 tion. As I have before had occasion to remark, 
 when speaking of wells, land which can be irri- 
 gated from common makeshift wells is charged 
 the higher rate, and the cultivator is bound to 
 make the wells. 
 
 Fifthly, we find an all-round rate of so much 
 per acre charged on the cultivation, without re- 
 gard to the nature of the crop or to the irriga- 
 tion. This custom prevails in those parts of the 
 
ON RENT RATES. 99 
 
 country where the soil is found in large tracts of 
 one quality. 
 
 Sixthly, we have the system of lump rents, 
 when each tenant pays a certain fixed sum, 
 which does not vary except by special agree- 
 ment. Rents become much more stationary 
 where this custom prevails, and do not rise so 
 rapidly. 
 
 Seventhly, we find in many places that the 
 rents are fixed chiefly with reference to the 
 nearness of the land to the village homestead. 
 The lands are divided into three classes — near, 
 distant, and intermediate ; and are rated accord- 
 ingly. When this custom obtains, it is a sign, 
 I think, of a backward state of agriculture. 
 The peasant pays more attention to the distance 
 of the land from the homestead, than to the 
 character of the soil. Not that the distance is 
 often so great as to make any real difference ; 
 but, because the lands near the village are 
 manured for him in the natural course of 
 things, while those at a distance must, if ma- 
 nured at all, be manured by him. The Jats of 
 Meerut, who are the best farmers I have seen, 
 and understand the value of manure thoroughly, 
 do not pay much heed to this distinction. This 
 custom is also, perhaps, a result of the unsettled 
 
 5 * 
 
100 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 state of the country, and the absence of a 
 proper police in former times. It was unsafe 
 to sow valuable crops at a distance from the 
 homestead, where they could be robbed and 
 carried away with impunity.* As the country 
 progresses in wealth and intelligence, I expect 
 to see this custom of fixing the rent chiefly 
 with reference to the distance from the village, 
 disappear. Of course, the land nearest to the 
 village will always have an advantage over that 
 more remote ; but, not so completely to the 
 overlooking of other qualities, as it now has in 
 some places. . 
 
 Besides the rent, it is a very general custom 
 for the landlord to charge the tenants with cer- 
 tain cesses, nominally to defray some of the 
 expenses of the estate. These "village ex- 
 penses," as they are called, were no doubt, in 
 former times, a bond fide charge. Most of 
 them have now become obsolete, and remain 
 on the books, partly from custom, and partly to 
 make the landlord's net profits appear as small 
 as possible to the eye of the revenue officer. 
 The cesses, however, which were originally levied 
 to meet these charges, have very generally re- 
 
 * In some places in Europe, the reverse* is the case. Far- 
 mers will not sow turnips or carrots close to a large town. 
 
ON RENT RATES. 101/, 
 
 mained, although in a more fixed and constant 
 form. 
 
 The arbitrary impositions of the landowners, 
 to which the tenants were subject, attracted the 
 attention of the Company's Government from 
 the earliest times ; and much was done, both by 
 legislation and in other ways, to stop the evil. 
 When we took the country, these impositions, 
 which resembled aids in their character, were 
 as various and uncertain as the particular occa- 
 sions of every distinct landowner, and as the 
 abilities and disposition of each particular ten- 
 ant. The death of a zemindar, the birth of 
 a son, the marriage of a daughter, or the like, 
 were pretences for them. Like the aids, they 
 do not seem to have been acknowledged as 
 obligatory, but were more of the character of 
 benevolences. A stipulation was sometimes ex- 
 acted in Lower Bengal, and given, that these 
 impositions should terminate with the year. 
 When, however, the landlord was powerful, the 
 tenants helpless, and justice not to be had, such 
 stipulations were fruitless, except insomuch as 
 they showed the nature of the imposts. 
 
 Under our Government, their oppressive and 
 uncertain character has disappeared. The form 
 into which they have settled down, is that of 
 
J 02 NOETH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 a fixed percentage on the original rent. In this 
 shape, they are, really and simply, an addition to 
 the rent of one or two annas on the rupee. 
 The cultivators, probably on the principle of 
 indirect taxation, feel the rent less heavy than 
 it really is, when it is clothed in this form. 
 When rent is taken in kind, these cesses are 
 often taken in the same way, in the form of 
 a percentage on the original share. 
 
 The heads of charge of " Village expenses " 
 vary a little according to local custom, but are 
 for the most part of a stereotyped character. 
 They consist of items such as " Expenses of 
 collection," " Charges for hospitality at the rest- 
 ing-place of the village," " Expenses incurred 
 by landlord attending the courts," " Alms to 
 mendicants," * * Gifts to dancing girls," " Expen- 
 
 * To illustrate the nature of tbese charges, I may mention 
 that, in one district, I found nearly every village account had 
 an item of " One rupee to Alum Shah, religious mendicant." 
 On inquiry, I found that no Alum Shah had for years past 
 existed. But some of the older men well remembered the 
 bed-ridden old mendicant, who came on his rounds once 
 a year. No one could tell whence he came. But, so surely 
 as the day came round, would four men from a neighbouring 
 village appear with Alum Shah on his bed. He was put 
 down under the village Peepul tree. He received a meal and 
 his one rupee ; and he was passed on to the next homestead 
 on the shoulders of four coolies, who, after leaving him there, 
 returned straightway. No one knew more of him than this. 
 
ON RENT RATES. 103 
 
 ses at various religious festivals/' and the like. 
 If any money is expended on bribery, it is 
 usually charged under one of these heads. 
 
 Before the cultivator can consider himself 
 clear, he has to satisfy a number of other 
 claims, which are generally paid in kind. Each 
 village has its blacksmith, carpenter, washerman, 
 water-carrier, priest, and the like. They do all 
 that is required during the year j and are remu- 
 nerated by the gift at each harvest of so many 
 pounds of grain for every plough. It is said 
 that in the more advanced districts of these 
 provinces this custom is dying out, and that 
 payment in money for these services is taking 
 its place. But this is not my own experience. 
 So far as I know, these craftsmen are still paid 
 with portions of grain as heretofore. 
 
 The lower castes who live in a village, and 
 who until of late years seldom farmed land, or 
 did anything but labourer's work, are held liable 
 to the landlords for certain services, such as 
 repairing his house, mending roads, and the 
 like. If any troops, or any officers of Govern- 
 meutjjencamp at the village, these men are called 
 on by the landlord to discharge any duties that 
 may be required, such as carrying fodder to the 
 camp, helping to pitch the tents, and guarding 
 
104 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 the encampments at night. T have known a 
 landlord seriously remonstrate against the giving 
 of any remuneration to these labourers, on the 
 ground that it was an infringement of his 
 prerogative, and was teaching them a bad cus- 
 tom. 
 
 Landlords, who reside in their villages, have 
 great power, and many perquisites, and free 
 services, which add greatly to the value of the 
 property, although they do not appear in the 
 rent-roll. 
 
 The rent is payable usually in four instal- 
 ments, corresponding to the instalments of the 
 land revenue, and preceding them by a month. 
 The principle has been to take the rent so soon 
 as the crop is ready for the market. There 
 seems to have been considerable fear that, if it 
 was not taken then, it would not be forthcoming 
 afterwards. The improvidence of many classes 
 of the people, and the uncertain and disturbed 
 state of the times, no doubt justified such an 
 apprehension. 
 
 But officers of experience have of late called 
 attention to the evils which follow this system, 
 and have raised doubts as to the present necessity 
 for continuing it. It has been pointed out that 
 the cultivators are now compelled to throw their 
 
ON RENT RATES. 105 
 
 grain at once into the market, and are thus 
 obliged to sell at the cheapest rate. They are, 
 also, all wanting money at the same time : and 
 by money is meant actual cash, for at present it 
 is in actual silver * that the revenue is collected j 
 and the men among the landlords who can and 
 will pay revenue from their own savings, and 
 collect from the cultivators at their leisure, are 
 very few. The result is, that the peasantry are 
 placed at the mercy of the money-lenders and 
 grain dealers. They must have a certain amount 
 of cash within a certain time ; and the demand 
 being made all over the country at once, the 
 value of grain is depreciated, and that of silver 
 raised, as much as possible. 
 
 The remedy proposed is to vary the times of 
 collecting the revenue, and consequently the 
 times of taking the rent, so as to spread the 
 collections over the year, the demand being 
 made in no two parts of the province at the 
 same time. Whether this scheme will work is 
 a matter of experiment. I believe there is no 
 legal difficulty in the way of its introduction. 
 
 The native landowners, to whom I have spoken 
 on the subject, seem to think that any delay in 
 
 * The hampered paper circulation introduced a few years 
 ago has done nothing to remedy this evil. 
 
 5 f 
 
106 NORTH -WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 recovering their rents will render them liable to 
 heavy losses from bad debts. There are no 
 doubt some races — the Thakoors and Goojurs, 
 for instance — who are so improvident as to 
 make it hopeless to expect that they will keep 
 the money, if it is left with them. And, gene- 
 rally speaking, men who have had anything to 
 do with collecting money know that it is a risk 
 to defer making the demand. If we do not take 
 it when a man has it, we are very likely not to 
 find it when we want it. To allow arrears to 
 accumulate is ruinous to all parties. Still, the 
 experiment might be made. No doubt the 
 country is not in the state it was ; and such 
 provisions might be introduced as would meet 
 the case of improvident and spendthrift races. 
 
 The great difficulty is, that, in India at present, 
 it requires such a large amount of actual silver 
 to carry on the business of the country. Thus, 
 in a small district where no troops are kept, 
 seventy or eighty thousand pounds in silver, will 
 be collected from the agricultural classes, and 
 exported bodily. Not a single pound will be 
 paid by cheque, and hardly one by note. This 
 amount must find its way back to the district 
 in the course of trade, to be again collected 
 and exported the next year. There is very little 
 
ON RENT RATES. 107 
 
 cash to be found among the peasantry. The 
 greater part of their own dealings is carried 
 on by barter, as any one may see for himself at 
 the markets. It is, therefore, hard for them to 
 find the cash on rent days without putting them- 
 selves more at the mercy of the dealers than 
 they ought to be. The difference between the 
 price of grain at harvest time and its price 
 afterwards is enormous. 
 
 It was, perhaps, with a view to meet this evil 
 that the Emperor Akber, in his settlement, 
 provided that the husbandmen might always 
 pay in money or in kind, as might be most 
 convenient. With a fixed revenue it is obviously 
 impossible to adopt a plan of this sort, even if 
 there were no other objections. When the 
 proportion only of the revenue to the produce 
 was fixed, it might have been practicable. But 
 if we determined the amount of revenue, and 
 at the same time allowed any option of this 
 sort, we should always be the losers. 
 
 This question is connected closely with that 
 of the currency. A good paper currency would 
 probably do much to relieve the evil. And the 
 delay and distribution of the demand would 
 most likely complete the cure. 
 
 The introduction of Savings Banks, under the 
 
108 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 guarantee of Government, is perhaps one of the 
 means which we shall have to adopt to relieve 
 the agricultural classes. That is a measure, 
 however, which will require great caution and 
 deliberation in its introduction, lest we excite 
 the apprehensions of a most suspicious race. 
 Anyhow, the whole matter is a question well 
 worthy of consideration and experiment. 
 
VI. 
 
 ON LAND TENURES. 
 
 Although the land tenures of India have been 
 the subject of public discussion and inquiry 
 from a very early period of our rule, yet, to 
 the majority of English readers, they are still 
 unknown. Nor is this to be wondered at. 
 Except to the few politicians and travellers who 
 have made the country an object of study, 
 India itself is completely unknown to even 
 educated Englishmen. Men who would be 
 ashamed to show ignorance of European or 
 American questions, will acknowledge readily 
 that they neither know nor care anything about 
 India. Even among the middle classes, most of 
 whom have friends in some one branch of the 
 Indian services, it is the exception to find a man 
 who knows the relative situations of the three 
 Presidencies. Such being the case, it is not 
 surprising that much knowledge does not exist 
 on the subject of the tenures of land. 
 
110 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 Besides the apathy of people in general on 
 Indian subjects, another cause of ignorance is 
 the habit which has beset Anglo-Indian writers 
 of using vernacular words. These terms are, 
 no. doubt, of great sound and length, and of sig- 
 nificance to those versed in the languages of 
 India ; but to men who are unacquainted with 
 those tongues, they only serve to obscure a sub- 
 ject already difficult. Such words as Jageerdar, 
 Talookdar, and the like, are not only enough to 
 prevent most men from obtaining information, 
 but even to deter them from seeking it. 
 
 In the following remarks it will be my aim to 
 explain as clearly as I can the general tenure on 
 which land is held in the North- West Provinces 
 of India, and the chief varieties of tenures. It 
 would be impossible to describe every property 
 and quality which, in the course of ages, have 
 become attached to particular tenures. But I can, 
 I think, show that all tenures'are reducible to one 
 broad basis, and that the complicated properties, 
 which belong to many of them, rather arise out 
 of local customs and the laws of inheritance, 
 than out of the tenure itself. 
 
 The sovereign power in India has, from the 
 earliest times, enjoyed, as its right, a share of 
 the produce of all land. This share, according 
 
ON LAND TENURES. Ill 
 
 to the Institutes of Menu, was, under the ancient 
 Hindoo rajahs, one-sixth. Practically, indeed, 
 it was discretional, and was limited more by the 
 ability of the subject than the will of the ruler. 
 The fact, however, that the sovereign's share of 
 the produce was even theoretically limited, shows 
 that the ruler cannot have been regarded as 
 sole proprietor of the soil. 
 
 Under the Mahomed an rule, we still find this 
 principle adhered to. However lax the practice 
 may have been, on account of the anarchy of 
 some reigns and the tyranny of others, we still 
 find the sovereign claiming no more than a 
 share of the produce of the land. 
 
 Indeed, if we suppose, as some writers have 
 done, that the Mahomedan emperors intended, 
 in their settlements of the land revenue, to 
 adhere closely to the principles of their own law, 
 we cannot allow that they laid any claim what- 
 ever to a property in the land. Under the 
 Mahomedan law, the lands of India would have; 
 been liable to a tax, which might have been 
 either a definite share of the produce, or a fixed 
 rate per acre. But in no case could more than 
 half the produce have been taken. And, under 
 this law, the land-tax or tribute would be levied 
 from the proprietors of the land, who were at 
 
112 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 liberty to sell or dispose of their lands as they 
 pleased. 
 
 For my own part, however, I do not think 
 that it can be shown that the land revenue of 
 India was ever settled according to the strict 
 principles of Mahomedan law. The right of 
 the ruler to share in the produce is immemorial, 
 and the coincidence of this right with the com- 
 mon practice of Mahomedan conquerors seems 
 accidental. Nor can any argument be drawn 
 from the use of Persian or Arabic law terras. 
 Naturally, those words would be used, by the 
 foreign conquerors, which seemed to suit the 
 institutions which they found in India, without 
 regard to any radical distinction which might 
 exist between the state of things in India, and 
 that to which alone the words were strictly 
 applicable. 
 
 We may then, I think, infer that, under the 
 new rule, the old principle was carried on, and 
 that if any change was made by the Mahome- 
 dans, it was a change towards strengthening the 
 rights of the people rather than those of the 
 sovereign. The greatest change made by the 
 Mahomedan conquerors, and that which tended 
 more than any other to make it difficult for us 
 to understand the nature of the land tenure, 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 113 
 
 was in the collection of the revenue. The 
 methods which were practicable in the kingdom 
 of a small raja, became too clumsy and minute 
 to be possible in a large empire. Hence, m 
 many cases where property was minutely divided, 
 the revenue was collected in a lump through 
 one person, who was designated by the Persian 
 term " zemindar," which simply means land- 
 holder. This person was usually an influential 
 proprietor himself, and owned some of the land, 
 the revenue of which he was appointed to col- 
 lect. In order to escape the tyranny and rapacity 
 of the native Government officials, it was not 
 unusual for smaller proprietors to group them- 
 selves under a powerful neighbour, and to pay 
 their revenue through him, while the members 
 of village communities would pay their quota 
 through their head men. 
 
 Under the first Mogul Emperors, great atten- 
 tion was paid to the equitable assessment and 
 collection of the revenue. The Emperor Akber 
 introduced a system which would have done 
 credit to the most enlightened Government, and 
 which is the foundation of our present revenue 
 settlement. But, afterwards, when the empire 
 was in its decline, a system of farming the re- 
 venue was resorted to, which proved the ruin 
 
114 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 of many of the smaller landowners, who were 
 as much entitled to the name of "zemindar" 
 as their more powerful brethren. The state 
 of things, in one province, under this farming 
 system, has been thus described: — "The un- 
 principled landowners, by ingratiating them- 
 selves with the rulers, for the time being, 
 distressed the inferior landowners by every pos- 
 sible mode, until they were reduced to the 
 necessity of selling their properties to their op- 
 pressors, who thenceforward became, by virtue 
 of usage, not of right, the acknowledged pro- 
 prietors of them. Other landowners, having 
 desolated their lands by mismanagement and 
 dissipation, were obliged by the ruling power 
 to dispose of them to more prudent and opulent 
 proprietors, for the liquidation of their balances. 
 The title of the purchasers of such land was 
 considered good and valid. Towards the close 
 of the reign of Mohummud Shah, during the 
 administration of Ramnarain and Jankeeram, 
 and other Governors of Behar Province, certain 
 landowners, bv attaching themselves to these 
 officers, acquired great influence, and either by 
 force, or under different pretences, unjustly pos- 
 sessed themselves of the estates of the inferior 
 landholders, till at length becoming rich and 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 115 
 
 powerful through the connivance of the Gover- 
 nors who permitted these usurpations, they 
 declared themselves the proprietors of lands 
 thus unfairly acquired. It was by the above 
 modes that many landholders augmented their 
 possessions."* 
 
 Cases, also, no doubt occurred, in which men 
 who had no landed property whatever, possessed 
 themselves of the properties of those whose 
 revenue they had been appointed to collect, and 
 usurped the places of the proprietors. 
 
 Although, therefore, the spirit of the Ma- 
 homedan policy was to acknowledge and confirm 
 the property of the subject in the land, yet, 
 owing to the anarchy and misrule which pre- 
 vailed under the later Emperors, the result was 
 to depress, and in some cases annihilate, the 
 rights of the smaller proprietors, and to throw 
 large tracts of country into the hands of men, 
 either in part, or wholly, usurpers. 
 
 Another circumstance still further led to a 
 misunderstanding of the real state of affairs. 
 Under the Mahomedan Government, the land- 
 holder was required to perform certain duties of 
 police, and to- keep the roads and bridges in 
 
 * Vide extracts from Harington's " Analysis of the Bengal 
 Regulations," p. 114. Calcutta, 1866. 
 
116 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 repair. He was also, in some respects, held 
 answerable for the good behaviour of the 
 tenants on his estates. In all these points, his 
 terms of tenure were analogous to feudal ones, 
 or to the Saxon land duties. 
 
 On succession to landed property, a fine was 
 paid to the Emperor, of the nature of a Relief; 
 and the person succeeding was, at least in the 
 case of large landholders, presented with a 
 formal document or order of investiture, enume- 
 rating the amount of revenue to be paid by 
 him, and the other duties incidental to the 
 tenure, which were required at his hands. 
 
 With these facts before them, and with the 
 knowledge that many of the larger landholders 
 had acquired great part of their estates by 
 fraud and usurpation, and that in some parts of 
 the country there still existed large communities 
 cultivating their own land, and paying their 
 rent directly to Government, many men formed 
 the opinion that there was no landlord in India, 
 except the Government, and that all these men 
 who held a middle place between the actual 
 tiller of the soil and the Sovereign, were mere 
 office-holders or collectors, subject to removal 
 or dismissal, at pleasure. 
 
 There were many circumstances, too, which 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 117 
 
 seemed to confirm this view. The assessments 
 under the farming system had increased so 
 much as to leave very little difference between 
 the revenue and the gross rent. It is easy to 
 see how, under such circumstances, the dis- 
 tinction between the holder of land and his 
 tenant might be lost sight of. In the case 
 especially of communities, the members of 
 which, for the most part, cultivate a portion of 
 their own land, if the revenue be raised so as 
 to equal the full rent, all apparent difference 
 between the owner and mere tenant of the land 
 will be destroyed ; and the only person, retaining 
 any mark of superiority, will be the head man, 
 or representative, who collects the revenue and 
 receives a small allowance for so doing. Many 
 estates, too, being over-assessed, would be 
 abandoned by their proprietors, and would be 
 treated as the property of Government, and 
 either farmed to strangers, or managed by the 
 public officials. In addition to these results of 
 over-assessment, a practice had of late obtained, 
 of granting lands free of revenue for ever to 
 favourites or officials of the Court. Strictly 
 speaking, these grants were only assignments of 
 the revenue of certain lands. In practice, how- 
 ever, the grantees took possession of the lands, 
 
118 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 ousting the proprietors, but paying them as 
 compensation an allowance, either in money, 
 grain, or land. In some cases, when the grantee 
 was a powerful man and a great favourite at 
 Court, he deprived the proprietors even of this 
 remnant of their rights. But in such instances 
 it must be remembered that might was right in 
 those days. The right of the landlord was 
 simply trampled on, and reduced, as it often had 
 been, by over-assessment to less than nothing, it 
 was not worth fighting for. We have seen the 
 same result under our own Government, when 
 litigation regarding landed property was almost 
 unknown in certain districts, in consequence of 
 its utter worthlessness. 
 
 Such being the state of things, it was not 
 wonderful that men, with English ideas of pro- 
 perty, saw no proprietary right existing, except 
 in the sovereign, who gave land away as he 
 pleased, and absorbed the greater part or the 
 whole of the rent in his own revenues. 
 
 But that this view of the case is erroneous, I 
 have no doubt from the following considerations. 
 First : — The common consent and traditions of 
 the people, who cling to property in land even 
 more than other nations, and treat it as more 
 sacred and inalienable than any other posses- 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 119 
 
 sion. Secondly : ■ — From the old language, 
 which has words to signify land cultivated by 
 the owner, as distinct from land let by him to 
 others. Thirdly : — From the feeling which 
 seems innate in the people of the north-west, 
 that while the right of the sovereign to share in 
 the produce of land is a sacred one, yet that it 
 is strictly limited to a fair and equitable amount, 
 and that even the rank and family of the land- 
 owner should be considered. Fourthly : — From 
 the law of both Hindoos and Mahomedans, 
 which limited the sovereign's right to a share of 
 the produce. But lastly, and chiefly, from the 
 actual facts of the case, even in Bengal, where 
 the rights of the smaller proprietors seemed to 
 have been almost stamped out. For it cannot 
 be denied that landed property was from of 
 old transferred and inherited, and that even 
 when, by a stretch of absolute power, grants 
 of land were given to strangers, the proprietors 
 received compensation for their rights avowedly 
 as such. 
 
 The truth seems to be, that those who take 
 the extreme view of Indian tenures, and deny 
 the existence of any proprietary rights in the 
 soil, save to the sovereign, are following out a 
 theory without regard to custom or practice. 
 
120 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 They forget that all tenures are modified more 
 or less by usage. Let us compare the feudal 
 tenures with those in Hindostan. They re- 
 semble each other in many respects. In both 
 cases land is held conditionally, and dependent 
 on the acknowledgment of a superior, to whom 
 the tenant is bound to render certain service. 
 Under the feudal system, the service was purely 
 military in its origin. In Hindostan it was 
 chiefly fiscal. As in Europe under the feudal 
 policy, military aid or service was understood to 
 be the real or fictitious terms of all property or 
 possession, so the condition of all property in 
 Hindostan was the payment of a certain share 
 of the produce to the lord. The dominion, in 
 both cases, was by a fiction vested in the 
 sovereign. On the death of a landowner, his 
 heir was allowed to succeed him, but not ab- 
 solutely, as a matter of course. As the heir to 
 the feudatary paid a fine in the nature of relief 
 to his lord, so the heir to landed property in 
 Hindostan had, under the Mahomedan rule, to 
 pay a fine of investiture to the Emperor. He 
 was also often compelled to submit to various 
 other exactions, and to gratify the rapacity of 
 the officials to the utmost of his means, just as 
 the feudatary was compelled in early times to 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 121 
 
 pay many arbitrary and unreasonable reliefs. 
 But there is nothing in all this which could be 
 brought forward to disprove the existence in 
 Hindostan of the subject's proprietary rights to 
 the soil, which would not tell with much greater 
 force against the existence of such rights in 
 England. The property and possession of the 
 subject, in both countries, were conditional, and 
 subject to certain services and limitations j but 
 although they were sometimes curtailed and 
 diminished by tyrannical abuse of power, yet 
 they were none the less real. 
 
 Although it would seem that landowners were 
 allowed to mortgage and sell their estates, and 
 that under the Mogul rule, estates were in some 
 cases sold by the Government to pay arrears of 
 revenue due on them, yet the forcible alienation 
 of landed property appears quite contrary to the 
 spirit of the ancient constitution of Hindostan. 
 The feeling of the people on this matter is in 
 accordance with the old Jewish law, which 
 regarded the permanent alienation of land as 
 impossible. Even to this day, when a proprietor 
 is driven by need to sell or mortgage his estate, 
 he generally reserves a few acres of land, or a 
 few pounds of rent to himself by way of main- 
 tenance. The compulsory sale of land for debt 
 
 6 
 
122 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 was unknown (as it was anciently in England),* 
 and no change more hateful to the people, or 
 more contrary to their very nature, has been 
 introduced by us. 
 
 Custom, however, has made the alienation of 
 land possible, however foreign it is to the con- 
 stitution of the people ; and the unthriftiness of 
 many classes, aided by our assessment and their 
 own fraudulent suits in the civil Courts, has 
 caused transfers to be common, and in some 
 districts universal. But alienation of land is only 
 allowable under certain conditions. The service 
 of the tenure must remain intact. The land has 
 been divided into townships or townlands, and 
 each townland, or group of them, has been 
 assessed with a certain amount of revenue. The 
 proprietor cannot without the consent of the 
 sovereign split his tenure and divide his liability. 
 The whole township will still be held liable for 
 the whole revenue, unless the sovereign consent 
 to its division. The reason of this is obvious, 
 when we consider that the foundation of the 
 system is a financial one. If the tenant could 
 divide his responsibility for the revenue, without 
 the consent of the Government, it is clear that 
 great opening would be given to fraud, and great 
 
 * Vide Wright's "Law of Tenures," p. 170. 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 123 
 
 inconvenience in collecting the revenue would 
 result. Of late years, however, our Government 
 has done everything to facilitate the partition 
 and transfer of landed estates, more perhaps 
 than the permanent interests of the land revenue 
 can justify. For the more estates are cut up 
 and divided, the greater will be the expense of 
 collecting the revenue ; and small needy land- 
 owners can never pay the" same proportion of 
 the assets of an estate, with the same ease and 
 punctuality, as large proprietors. The consent 
 of the sovereign to the partition of an estate 
 with the revenue of it, is still virtually required. 
 
 As landowners are restricted from dismember- 
 ing their tenures at will, so it is impossible for 
 them to relieve any portion of their estate from 
 the condition of the tenure — namely, the pay- 
 ment of a certain share of the produce or assets 
 to the Government. There is nothing, indeed, 
 to prevent a landlord from giving all or a por- 
 tion of his estate, rent free, to anybody. But he 
 must in such case discharge the revenue out of 
 his own pocket ; and in case of default, the land 
 always remains liable for the revenue, notwith- 
 standing any act of the proprietor. 
 
 The doctrine that no act of the proprietor can 
 defeat the conditions of his tenure, holds good 
 
 6 * 
 
124 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 with regard to leases and all encumbrances 
 which he may place on the estate. No lease 
 can be given fixing the rent for any term of 
 years longer than the period for which the 
 revenue has been settled by the Government ; 
 and in case of default, all leases, mortgages, and 
 other encumbrances, such as rent-free grants, 
 and the like, are swept away. 
 
 There is one circumstance which has always 
 affected the value of the tenure, though not its 
 nature. I refer to the virtual want of limit to 
 the share belonging to the sovereign. In former 
 times, prior to the Mahomedan rule, the share 
 was restricted, at least theoretically, to one-sixth 
 of the produce. Whether it was ever practically 
 confined to this portion is doubtful, as Menu, 
 who is the authority on the subject, was much 
 more of a theorist than an historian. The best 
 emperors among the Mussulman conquerors of 
 India, laid down a third of the average produce 
 of average land as the share to which Govern- 
 ment was entitled, in the case of cereals and 
 other crops which paid in kind. In the North- 
 western Provinces, the British Government at 
 first settled the revenue at two-thirds, but after- 
 wards at half of the rental, and this is the 
 standard of assessment at the present day. It 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 125 
 
 is, perhaps, not too much to say, that constitu- 
 tionally, the sovereign's share was always limited 
 and defined, and that under good and just 
 rulers, it has been actually so limited, while 
 under the British Government the line has been 
 clearly and generously laid down. 
 
 In ancient times, and under the settlement of 
 Akber, the principle seems to have been, to 
 define that portion of the produce which should 
 belong to the ruler. We have gone on a 
 different basis. We have defined our claim to 
 be a share of the rental of an estate, not of its 
 produce ; and in this I think we have been wise. 
 It was undoubtedly a share of the produce, to 
 which the sovereign was by ancient custom 
 entitled. It may appear more perfectly in 
 accordance with principle to endeavour to ascer- 
 tain what this share should be, and to base our 
 settlements upon it. 
 
 Practically, however, as I have before re- 
 marked, the share of the produce, which can 
 be paid as rent, varies with the character of the 
 soil and also with the kind of crop. The diffi- 
 culty, therefore, of laying down a limit which 
 shall universally define the share of the sove- 
 reign is insurmountable. Akber, in his settle- 
 ment, endeavoured to meet it by ascertaining 
 the average yield in average land, and taking 
 
126 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 a third of the average produce. But this was 
 clearly a virtual acknowledgment of the impos- 
 sibility of the attempt, and the assessment 
 thus made must have pressed heavily on the 
 bad soils and lightly on the good. While, 
 with regard to the more valuable crops, he 
 abandoned the principle altogether, and assessed 
 his share at a fixed money rate. 
 
 It is, therefore, more wise to take the rental 
 or assets of an estate as the basis of assessment, 
 than to seek a greater theoretical perfection 
 by making the gross produce the dividend.* 
 
 In the North- West Provinces, when the sove- 
 reign's share has been valued and ascertained, 
 it is " settled," as it is called, for a long period, 
 usually thirty years. During this period, the 
 Government debars itself from any increase 
 of revenue ; giving, however, remissions and 
 reductions, wherever they are needed. At the 
 
 * Strictly speaking, since the proportion of produce taken 
 as rent varies with the character of the soil, by taking the 
 rental as our basis, and making the sovereign's share the 
 same for all estates, we take more of the produce of the good 
 estates, and less of the produce of the bad estates. We are, 
 therefore, in the result, more correct than if we attempted to 
 divide the average produce. At the same time, we do not 
 deal with the landowner on the same principle which regulates 
 his dealings with the tenant. We always take the same pro- 
 portion of his receipts, whereas he varies his claim according 
 as the soil is good or bad. 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 127 
 
 end of the term, a fresh survey and valuation 
 of each estate are carried out. 
 
 By a permanent settlement is meant the 
 making of this valuation once and for ever. 
 The advantages to be derived from such a 
 measure are either political, or such as may 
 be anticipated from the inducements thereby 
 offered to landowners to improve their estates. 
 I believe these advantages to have been greatly 
 exaggerated, and to be more than counter- 
 balanced by the loss of future revenue, and by 
 the carelessness to landed interests, and igno- 
 rance of the wants and condition of the peasantry, 
 which a permanent settlement induces on the 
 part of the Government officials. As to fixity 
 of tenure in India, which people in England are 
 always crying out after, it has nothing to do 
 with a permanent settlement. Tenure in the 
 North- West is as fixed and certain as it can be. 
 
 If, then, we are to define the tenure of the 
 land of the North- West Provinces at the present 
 day, we may say that all land is held from the 
 sovereign, on condition of payment of half the 
 rent * received from it, and that no tenure can be 
 
 * I purposely omit the cesses which owners of land have 
 to pay for schools, roads, and police, as they have no con- 
 nection with the tenure. 
 
128 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 split or dismembered without the sovereign's 
 consent. 
 
 To this simple basis all the apparently various 
 tenures may be reduced. 
 
 The many complex forms which tenures have 
 assumed, arise from the division of property by 
 the Hindoo law of Inheritance, and other local 
 customs, and these varieties are rather accidents 
 than differences of tenure. As regards the 
 sovereign, the conditions and service of the 
 tenure are in all cases the same. 
 
 All estates, then, may be divided into the 
 following classes : — 
 
 First. — Those which belong to one single 
 owner. 
 
 Secondly. — Those which belong to several 
 owners in joint occupation. 
 
 Thirdly. — Those which belong to several 
 owners holding partly in joint occupation, partly 
 in severalty. 
 
 Fourthly. — Those which belong to several 
 owners holding in severalty, but under one 
 tenure. 
 
 The first class is the simplest form of tenure, 
 and requires little explanation. The owner 
 (subject to payment of the sovereign's share 
 of the rent, and to the general restrictions on 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 129 
 
 dismembering the tenure) has complete power 
 over his estate. 
 
 The second class arises out of the first. If 
 the sole owner of an estate dies, and leaves 
 several sons, they succeed in equal shares to 
 the estate, which, if not dismembered by re- 
 gular proceeding, is held by them in joint 
 occupation. It is usual for one of them to 
 manage the estate, and after payment of the 
 revenue, or sovereign's share, to divide the 
 profits amongst his brethren. As a matter of 
 convenience, and to facilitate the collection of 
 the revenue, this manager is usually formally 
 recognized, and registered in the Government 
 books, as the person to whom the collector has 
 to look for payment. But the tenure of the 
 estate remains exactly as before. It is to be 
 remarked that it is of no consequence, so far as 
 the tenure is concerned, whether the co -sharers 
 have each an equal interest in the estate or no. 
 The estate is one and undivided, and is as a 
 whole liable for the revenue assessed upon it. 
 The proportion in which each of the co-sharers 
 is interested only affects the division of the 
 profits. 
 
 In the third class, an advance towards abso- 
 lute division of property has been made. Here 
 
 C f 
 
130 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 we find several co-sharers who have partitioned 
 part of the estate among themselves, and hold 
 the rest in joint occupation. So far as their 
 relations to the sovereign are concerned, the 
 tenure is -one, and the whole estate and all the 
 co-sharers are jointly liable for the whole revenue. 
 Among themselves, however, each co-sharer is 
 owner and manager of his own part ; while the 
 common portion of the estate is treated exactly 
 as an estate of the second class, and is managed 
 by some one for the benefit of all. 
 
 The simplest form of this class is when each 
 co-sharer has a portion of the estate in severalty, 
 proportionate to his interest in the whole, and re- 
 ceives a proportionate share of the profits of the 
 common part. But this simplest form is seldom 
 met with, except in the case of estates which 
 were formerly held in common, as in the second 
 class, and have been partitioned, by a judicial 
 proceeding among the co-sharers, to each accord- 
 ing to his share. 
 
 When the partial division has been the growth 
 of circumstances and of time, things are seldom 
 so straightforward. Generally the richest and 
 strongest and most fortunate among the co- 
 sharers has got the most land into his own hands. 
 In the primitive state which long existed, and is 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 131 
 
 even now, in some places, hardly passed away, he 
 who had the most sons and the best bullocks got 
 the lion's share of the land into his own farming. 
 Sometimes the interest which each sharer had 
 by ancestral right in the estate has been forgot- 
 ten in the course of years, and possession has 
 become the sole measure of each man's pro- 
 perty. Oftener, however, the rights of each 
 co-sharer by inheritance are well known, and 
 pertinaciously clung to. And then we have the 
 spectacle, so puzzling to a stranger, of undis- 
 puted possession at variance with acknowledged 
 rights. This co-existence of two things appa- 
 rently incompatible gives birth to incidental 
 varieties almost as numerous as there are estates 
 of this nature. 
 
 The most common arrangement, when pro- 
 perty is held in this way, is for the head man or 
 manager to pay the Government revenue, so far 
 as is possible, out of the proceeds of the joint 
 land. The balance due is then paid by the 
 co-sharers, either in proportion to their several 
 holdings, or in accordance with their ancestral 
 shares. If there is any surplus, it is distributed 
 in like manner. 
 
 In some cases, I have known the proceeds of 
 the joint lands to suffice for the payment of the 
 
132 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 revenue in all ordinary years, and the co-sharers 
 to receive nothing from the estate but the profits 
 from their several holdings. Yet the ' true 
 interest of each in the estate was known and 
 recognized by all, although it, in no case, corre- 
 sponded with the actual possession ; and when- 
 ever any surplus had remained to be divided, 
 or any balance to be raised, the quota of each 
 sharer had been calculated according to his 
 ancestral right. 
 
 In other cases, the revenue is distributed 
 equally over the cultivated land, and collected 
 from each co -sharer according to his actual 
 occupation, while the interest of each in the 
 whole estate is determined by ancestral right. 
 
 It is very common for estates of this kind to 
 be partitioned off into two or more distinct 
 divisions, each of which is held in the way 
 I have described, while it has no more to do 
 with any of the others, than in so far as it forms 
 part of the same tenure and is under one 
 common lien for the sovereign's share of the 
 rent. 
 
 I might multiply instances of varieties in 
 this class of estates. They are, indeed, so nume- 
 rous, that a man can seldom go thoroughly into 
 the affairs of any one of them without coming 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 133 
 
 on something new or strange. But I think 
 that, with regard to all of them, the same may 
 be said which has been written with reference to 
 the peculiarity of the gavelkind tenure in Kent, 
 namely, " that it was not a particular or pro- 
 per effect of gavelkind tenure, but that it was 
 rather the ancient course of descent retained 
 and continued in that county." So I would 
 say that these peculiar customs and arrangements 
 for the interior management of these estates do 
 not spring from the tenure, but from the cus- 
 toms of the people and their laws of inheritance. 
 The tenure is the same as it was before the land 
 was thus partitioned amongst them. 
 
 Here it may be said, that I assume that the 
 land was divided amongst the co-sharers, as if 
 there had been a time when it was not so 
 divided. My belief is, that all these commu- 
 nities who hold estates in this way are the 
 growth of time, and are mere enlargements of 
 the family. However mixed they may be now, 
 there is no doubt that, originally, the members 
 of these village communities were members, if 
 not of the same family, yet of the same clan. 
 Where they have preserved any tradition at all 
 of their origin, it is generally one which traces 
 it back to one ancestor, who came and settled 
 
134 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 on that spot. Those who have seen the division 
 of property under the Hindoo laws of Inheri- 
 tance going on before their own eyes, and the 
 complicated relations which ensue from the 
 joint occupation of estates, will have no diffi- 
 culty in believing, that the most numerous and 
 intricate community may have grown, in the 
 course of years, from one simple origin. 
 
 There is nothing, in my opinion, to justify us 
 in supposing that these communities had their 
 origin in the occupation of a certain tract of 
 land by a tribe or clan. This idea seems to 
 have arisen from the mistaken notion, that the 
 lands of these villages are held by the commu- 
 nity as common property, in the same way as 
 the Irish clans held their districts under the 
 custom of tanistry. I have never met with a 
 case of this kind ; arid I doubt the existence of 
 anything of the sort in the North- West. The 
 joint occupation of a property by individuals, 
 each of whom has a separate and definite inte- 
 rest in that property, is a very different thing 
 from a common holding, under which the mem- 
 bers individually have no rights, while all belongs 
 to the community. The cases which seem to 
 favour the view of a common holding are those 
 in which the occupation of each member con- 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 135 
 
 stitutes, or seems to constitute, his interest in 
 the estate. But, in these instances, I am much 
 more inclined to suppose that the ancestral 
 rights and interests of each member have been 
 obliterated and forgotten, than that they never 
 existed. Indeed, there is nothing like commu- 
 nity of property in the spirit of the ancient 
 Hindoo law. The rights of the family to ances- 
 tral property were strictly guarded, but the 
 interests of each member were, at the same 
 time, defined ; while the anarchy of ages, and 
 the constant danger from foreign conquerors 
 and marauders, tended to keep families united, 
 and to prevent them from dividing their estates, 
 just as it drove them to cluster and congregate 
 together in villages, instead of scattering their 
 homesteads over the country side. The tenure, 
 also, and the restrictions placed on dismembering 
 it, and the common lien for the Government 
 Revenue, under which all the lands of the com- 
 munity lay, exercised a great influence in pre- 
 venting actual division, so long as no great 
 internal quarrels arose. I have, indeed, seen an 
 instance in which an estate was occupied by a 
 newly formed community, who united themselves 
 for the purpose. There was an estate in the 
 Meerut district owned by a Mussulman, who 
 
136 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 resided elsewhere. The only tenants were some 
 families of religious mendicants who lived in the 
 village on the property. A farmer, who had a 
 share in an estate in the neighbourhood, thought 
 that he could make something out of the land, 
 if the Mussulman would sell it. As he had not 
 the means to purchase it himself, he induced 
 other persons to subscribe, and form a company 
 with him for the purchase of this estate. They 
 drew up a regular deed, setting forth the inte- 
 rest of each of the partners in the undertaking, 
 appointed their head men or managers, paid the 
 Mussulman his price, and proceeded to occupy 
 the village, just as if they had been an old- 
 established community. But instances such as 
 this are very rare, and I believe only of modern 
 times. They show, indeed, a spirit of enterprise, 
 and a power to combine, which is new in India, 
 except, perhaps, among the criminal classes. 
 
 Where estates of this class became very much 
 subdivided, and if the land revenue or the 
 sovereign's share was raised so high as to absorb 
 the rent almost entirely, the proprietors were 
 reduced to a condition little better than that of 
 the common cultivating tenant. The only per- 
 sons who derived any greater profits from the 
 land were the head men, or managers, who, 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 137 
 
 under native Governments, were usually allowed 
 a percentage, or a grant for making the collec- 
 tions. The tendency, then, was for all the pro- 
 prietary rights to be gradually absorbed by the 
 head man, who became powerful as his brethren 
 became weak. The estate would thus change 
 into one of the first class. 
 
 I have seen the same change brought about 
 in another way. Under native rule, and in the 
 earlier period of British sway, the methods of 
 collecting the revenue were too rough and ready 
 to be pleasant. And it was not every one who 
 cared to have to do with the revenue officials. 
 Hence a custom arose for many members of 
 the family to withdraw from any share in the 
 management of the estate, and to content them- 
 selves with the occupation of their own plots of 
 land at a nominal rent; while the rest of the 
 estate and its management was left to the mem- 
 ber of the family best fitted, from superior intel- 
 lect or other qualities, to do battle with the 
 representatives of Government. It was this 
 person's name which was recorded in the public 
 books as the payer of the revenue of the estate. 
 In process of time, as the origin of this arrange- 
 ment became forgotten, and the relationship 
 between the different members of the family 
 
138 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 diverged, the real rights of the old proprietors 
 were lost sight of altogether, and they were 
 recorded in our settlements as mere tenants, 
 while the manager, or his representative at the 
 time, was entered as owner. If there were no 
 family dissensions, all might go on well for 
 years, and the proprietors who withdrew from 
 the management would suffer no actual injustice. 
 But so soon as any quarrel arises, then the par- 
 ties resort to the Civil Court, and the manager, 
 having time and the records and apparent pos- 
 session on his side, invariably wins the day, and 
 reduces his unfortunate brethren to the position 
 of mere tenants. 
 
 But in all these changes of internal manage- 
 ment, the tenure of the estate remains the same. 
 It is still held together as one property, subject 
 to the payment of the Government demand, 
 and cannot be dismembered without formal pro- 
 cess. 
 
 We may now come to the fourth class of 
 estates — those which belong to several owners 
 holding in severalty. It will, perhaps, seem that 
 this is a contradiction in terms, and that if each 
 owner holds in severalty, the estate cannot be 
 one. But the tenure is one, and it is the tenure 
 which holds them together. If the tenure by 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 139 
 
 which they hold from the sovereign were dis- 
 solved, the bond of union would be broken, and 
 they would become owners of separate estates. 
 But, as it is, although the lands and homesteads 
 are entirely divided off to each owner, according 
 to his share, so absolutely that he has nothing 
 to say to any of the others, yet since the tenure 
 is one, the whole estate remains liable for the 
 Government revenue ; and if any of the sharers 
 defaulted, the Government might proceed against 
 the others for the balance. The division, to use 
 the technical revenue term, is " private ; " and, 
 unless the bond uniting them — that is, the 
 tenure — be severed by consent of the sovereign, 
 it cannot become " public." 
 
 There is a class of estates which needs sepa- 
 rate mention, and which is usually considered 
 to be of a distinct tenure. I mean, revenue-free 
 estates. 
 
 Strictly speaking, there is no such tenure as a 
 revenue-free tenure ; and all estates, the revenue 
 of which is not paid to Government, will fall 
 into some one of the classes which 1 have given 
 above ; the only difference being that the revenue 
 is paid, not into the treasury, but to some private 
 person to whom it has been assigned by the 
 sovereign. 
 
140 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 It was the custom — of very old date in 
 Persia, and, probably, imported thence into 
 India by the Mahomedans — to assign the revenue 
 of certain estates to persons, either for their 
 maintenance, or as a payment for the support 
 of a body of troops which the assignee under- 
 took to keep up. Strictly speaking, the sove- 
 reign's power could reach no farther than this, 
 and the land ought to have remained in the 
 occupation of the real owners. It has even 
 been maintained by some writers, that the Em- 
 perors of Hindostan had no constitutional power 
 to make such assignments for a period beyond 
 their own lifetime, although the words of the 
 grant generally include the grantee and his 
 heirs. However this may be in practice, grants 
 for personal maintenance were always treated as 
 hereditary, and as entitling the grantee, not only 
 to receive the revenue, but actually to take 
 possession of the estate, or the part of the 
 estate, which was the subject of the grant. The 
 proprietors, however, were considered entitled 
 to compensation; and they received an allow- 
 ance of a small percentage, which was consi- 
 dered — and, under the high assessments of those 
 times, no doubt was — a fair valuation of their 
 rights. But that this dispossession of the pro- 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 141 
 
 prietors in favour of the grantee was illegal, and 
 an abuse of power, there is no doubt. And at 
 new settlements of the land revenue, whenever 
 the proprietor still remains in existence, and in 
 receipt of his allowance, he is held to have a 
 right to re-enter on the full occupation of his 
 estate, while the grantee is restricted to the 
 receipt of the sovereign's share, or the revenue, 
 at whatever amount it may be settled. 
 
 Assignments for the support of religious 
 buildings and institutions were of the same 
 nature as grants for personal maintenance, and 
 were treated as perpetual. In. such cases, the 
 proprietors generally have continued in occupa- 
 tion of the estates, paying their annual revenue 
 to the trustees or authorities of the institution. 
 Our Government does not interfere with such 
 endowments, except to see that the conditions 
 of the grant are fulfilled, and that the revenues 
 are not misapplied. 
 
 Assignments for the support of troops differed 
 essentially from other grants. They were strictly 
 in the nature of a payment, the exact sum being 
 specified, as well as the number and kind of 
 troops which were to be maintained. If the 
 revenues of the estates assigned exceeded the 
 specified sum, the assignee was held accountable 
 
142 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 for the balance. There was, then, in this, nothing 
 of the nature of a tenure at all, and such an 
 assignee could have no right of property in the 
 land. 
 
 In later times, however, and under laxer rule, 
 assignments of this kind were made uncon- 
 ditionally, without specifying the number of 
 troops to be maintained. They were also al- 
 lowed, in many instances, to become hereditary, 
 either through the carelessness or the impotence 
 of the native Government j and the assignees, as 
 in the case of grants for personal maintenance, 
 contrived to put themselves in possession and 
 actual occupation of the lands. An idea thus 
 grew up, that such assignments had conveyed 
 an heritable permanent property ; and they 
 were treated in the regulations of the Indian 
 Government, and in the decisions of the courts, 
 as estates in land. Prior to our rule, grants of 
 this kind — many of them fraudulent — had been 
 so multiplied as to absorb a large share of the 
 revenue of the State. It was by the revision 
 and resumption of some of these grants, that 
 so much odium was unjustly incurred by our 
 Government. When I say unjustly, I mean 
 that the inquiry into assignments of this na- 
 ture, w T hich were mere payments for a particular 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 143 
 
 service, and the cessation of such assignments, 
 where no sufficient reason was shown for their 
 maintenance, is a very different thing from 
 the tyrannical resumption of lands granted by 
 former Governments in fee simple. The acts 
 of the Indian Government have been popularly 
 represented as of this latter kind, whereas it 
 will, I hope, be understood from the explanation 
 I have given of this miscalled tenure, they were 
 simply an examination and scrutiny of the ex- 
 penditure of its own revenue. Whatever odium 
 justly attaches to the Government on this ac- 
 count arises from the delay in investigating and 
 deciding the claims of the parties interested, 
 and from the extraordinary device of paying the 
 officers employed to make the investigations 
 by a percentage on the amount of revenue 
 re-credited to Government. 
 
 I do not mean to say, that claims of this 
 kind should have been invariably decided by 
 reverting to the strict nature and origin of the 
 grant. If an assignee of this kind had acquired 
 actual possession of the estate, and had passed 
 it on to his heirs, free of any service, whether 
 by the inadvertence of the rulers or other- 
 wise, I should not like to say that he had not 
 acquired a title by prescription to a property in 
 
144 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 the estate. In such a case, the old maxim, 
 " Mos regionis non minus dat legem feudo 
 quam tenor," is applicable. If, by the custom 
 and common consent of the country, such per- 
 son, though originally an assignee only of the 
 revenue, was looked upon, and had for years 
 been, in the position of a proprietor, it would 
 ill become any government, and especially a 
 foreign government, to go back to the origin of 
 his tenure, and turn him out. 
 
 Even in the case of the grantee, who has for 
 years been in occupation of the estate, and has 
 paid a small annual compensation to the pro- 
 prietor, I think it is doubtful whether we should 
 not apply the same maxim, and maintain the 
 present state of things. The opinion and prac- 
 tice of our Government and Revenue Board in 
 the North- West are strongly the other way. 
 No doubt it is very pleasant for the proprietor 
 suddenly to rise from his position of recipient 
 of a small annual stipend, to be placed in full 
 management and enjoyment of his estate. But, 
 on the other hand, it is very hard on the 
 grantee, whose position is reversed, and whose 
 income is materially reduced. It will be said, 
 I know, that the latter is a mere assignee of the 
 Government revenue, and only an usurper. 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 145 
 
 Very likely ; but it is inconvenient to go back 
 to the origin of tenures in this way. Many 
 other people are only usurpers. "Where an 
 arrangement of this kind has continued for 
 many years, it seems better to maintain it, 
 especially when its origin dates prior to our 
 rule. 
 
 Sometimes, although very rarely, the assignee 
 of the revenue and the proprietor of the estate 
 are the same person. This may have happened 
 in one of three ways : — First, the proprietary 
 right in the estate may have escheated, or been 
 forfeited to the Government, which has given it, 
 along with an assignment of the revenue, to the 
 present holder. For instance, after the great 
 mutiny, many estates were confiscated for rebel- 
 lion, and were given to loyal persons, to whom 
 also, as an enhancement of the gift, the revenue 
 Was assigned. Secondly, the assignee of the 
 revenue may have been also the proprietor of 
 the estate. Such cases are, however, very rare. 
 Thirdly, the assignee may have permanently 
 ousted and dispossessed the proprietor, and 
 made good his title by prescription. Instances 
 of this kind are to be found. 
 
 Finally, with reference to this class of estates, 
 it is as well to add, that every acre held without 
 
 7 
 
146 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 payment of revenue to the Government is 
 known and accurately registered in the North- 
 Western Provinces ; and every claim of the 
 kind has been finally investigated and dis- 
 posed of. 
 
 Having described the tenure on which land is 
 held by the proprietors, I may pass on to the 
 rights of those who hold under them. There 
 seems to be an idea that peasant proprietorship 
 is universal in India. In the North- West 
 Provinces that union of ownership and occupancy 
 in the same person, which goes by this name, is 
 by no means the rule. Except in those estates 
 where the property has become so minutely sub- 
 divided as to leave no more to each co-sharer 
 than he himself can occupy, the greater portion 
 of the soil is held by tenants, and where these 
 have a right of occupancy, they often sub-let 
 portions of their holdings. 
 
 In most estates of the North-West the culti- 
 vated lands will fall into three classes. First, 
 we have the land occupied by the owner, corre- 
 sponding to the demesne lands in Ireland. The 
 limits of this land are definitely known and 
 fixed ; and no tenant can acquire a right of 
 occupancy on it. Secondly, we have the lands 
 held by tenants at will, or on terminable leases, 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 147 
 
 given at the pleasure of the owners. Thirdly, 
 we have the lands of the tenants who have a 
 right of occupancy, who cannot be ousted except 
 by legal process for non-payment of rent, and 
 whose rent cannot be raised except by suit 
 in a court of law, and on certain specified 
 grounds. 
 
 When we occupied the country, we found two 
 classes of tenants — one with a right of occupancy, 
 and one mere tenants at will. Much has been 
 written as to this right of occupancy, its nature, 
 and how it was acquired. This much appears 
 to be beyond doubt, that in most estates of the 
 Provinces there were certain tenants who had 
 hereditary rights. They held their fields subject 
 to payment of a rent which was not liable to 
 arbitrary increase. Their rights would seem to 
 have been purely personal. They were, in some 
 cases, men who had once held proprietary rights 
 in the estate ; in others, they were relatives of 
 the proprietor; in others, they were merely 
 tenants of very long standing, who had pro- 
 bably helped to bring the estate into cultivation. 
 They were seldom men of inferior caste, and 
 were protected in their rights more by public 
 opinion than by legal enactments. As a class, 
 they were strictly defined; their privileges 
 
148 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 appear to have been acquired by inheritance 
 only ; and no mere lapse of time would seem to 
 have been able to raise the tenants at will to a 
 level with them. 
 
 The want of a precise and legal definition of 
 the rights of these tenants soon began to be felt. 
 Some reference is made to it in most of the 
 reports written by the officers who were employed 
 to settle the land revenue. The difficulty under 
 which a tenant of this class who had been un- 
 justly evicted lay, in proving his rights, was 
 pointed out ; and it was suggested by some 
 officers, that if a holding of twelve years' stand- 
 ing could be shown, it might be accepted as 
 prima facie proof of hereditary tenancy. 
 
 Strange as it may appear, these and like 
 suggestions seem to have been adopted as the 
 basis of legislation. In 1859 an Act was passed 
 for Bengal and the North- West Provinces which 
 gave right of occupancy to all tenants who 
 either personally or by inheritance had held their 
 lands for twelve years or more. 
 
 It is not too much to say, and I think it is 
 now generally acknowledged, that for this hasty 
 legislation there was no warrant to be found, 
 either in the customs or the common law of the 
 Provinces. What a surprise it was to the land- 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 149 
 
 lords and to the tenants themselves, people 
 accustomed to the slow process of English legis- 
 lation can hardly realize. In England, a grievance 
 must first work out its own acknowledgment 
 and recognition. It then finds expression in 
 speeches, in pamphlets, in newspapers, in books. 
 It obtains a place and position of its own among 
 the topics of the day. When it is worn almost 
 threadbare, it takes the form of a legislative 
 measure. It is again discussed in the House, 
 and out of the House. And every one who is 
 interested in it to the smallest degree can have 
 his say, and can be heard about it. The law, 
 when it is passed, is seldom the nostrum of this 
 or that great man ; but it is the expression of 
 the opinions and wishes of the majority of prac- 
 tical men who are affected by it. 
 
 In India, unfortunately, the great mass of the 
 people — for instance, the eighteen millions of 
 agriculturists — who form the bulk of our 
 population in the North- West, have no means of 
 expressing their opinions. They have no public 
 organs, no great meetings, no pamphlets, no 
 books, no speeches. If it is a difficult thing to 
 know what public opinion is on any matter 
 in England, how much more difficult is it 
 in India? 
 
150 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 The process of legislation, too, is of necessity 
 widely different in India. There is, I may say, 
 a total absence of public discussion. Even 
 documents, such as letters and minutes, which 
 are used as evidence for or against the enact- 
 ment, are often not laid before the public. 
 Thus in the case of the Divorce Act, lately 
 before the Indian legislature, I see complaints 
 in the papers that letters referred to in the 
 Council, as evidencing the need of legislation, 
 and a minute by one of the most influential 
 members, had not been published. Where the 
 matter in hand simply affects the English in 
 India, or is a concern of the executive Govern- 
 ment, the discussion is generally wide enough. 
 But where it affects the dumb masses, as in the 
 case of a land measure, legislation in the dark 
 is very dangerous. And it is legislation in the 
 dark. The Council consists of a few able men 
 from the Services, a few of the leading mer- 
 chants and natives, with the legal member, who 
 is always one of the most distinguished mem- 
 bers of the English bar. It is not representative 
 of the people in any way. The great danger of 
 such a legislature is, that it is too far in advance 
 of the people, especially when it is led by a man 
 of the great culture and pre-eminent talent of 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 15 L 
 
 the present legal member. A highly advanced 
 Government, and laws embodying all the most 
 recent conclusions of European thought, with 
 a people wedded to an Eastern semi-civilization, 
 is a great practical inconsistency. Although I 
 believe that it is only from above that this 
 people can be enlightened, and that a refined 
 legislature is one of the best and most potent 
 influences for their education, still, I am sure 
 there is some truth in the warning which we 
 lately received from Scindiah, and which was 
 probably inspired by his illustrious subject, Sir 
 Dinkur Raoe, against over-legislation. Especially 
 in matters connected with the land, we should 
 be careful that the wishes and feelings of the 
 masses are studied, and no place be given to 
 theory or speculation. Our system does not, I 
 think, ensure sufficient care in this respect. 
 When the legal member arrives fresh from 
 England, he probably finds a score or so of 
 draft Acts prepared, and eagerly urged upon 
 him by men, each of whom thinks that his law 
 is that most needed to set things to rights. A 
 few men of reputed talent and experience have 
 been consulted about the proposed laws. The 
 opinion of some of the most influential natives 
 has been taken. This is all very well ; but the 
 
152 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 millions who will be affected by these laws have 
 not been heard or questioned. The officers of 
 Government, who have recorded minutes or notes 
 on the subject, are men whose opinions are 
 entitled to great weight. But we have no 
 security that the views recorded by them are 
 not entirely, or in great part, their own. So 
 nobody can question the wisdom and integrity- 
 of the native gentlemen who are consulted. 
 But have they the experience or knowledge of 
 the matter necessary to legislation? Do they 
 really know the wishes and wants of the people, 
 the millions who cultivate, or even the thousands 
 who own, the land ? 
 
 When under consideration, the laws are pub- 
 lished, it is true, in the Government Gazette. 
 One or two of the English papers notice them. 
 The vernacular papers, also, will have some 
 leaders on the proposed laws. But neither the 
 Gazette nor the papers penetrate to the people. 
 Do they know what the great English lords are 
 preparing for them ? I fear not. Suddenly the 
 truth bursts upon them. A great Act has been 
 passed. Their dearest rights have been dealt 
 with, curtailed, overturned. They learn all 
 about it after a time ; but the school in which 
 they learn is the law-court. 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 153 
 
 If the subject had been really ventilated, and 
 information collected, it is inconceivable that the 
 provisions of Act X. of 1859 could ever have 
 become law. It is proposed now to alter them. 
 But the mischief is done ; and I cannot see how 
 any change can now be of any use. it is 
 proposed to make twenty years of occupancy, 
 'and actual succession by inheritance, necessary 
 to give a tenant a right to hold his land. But 
 unless this provision is made retrospective, 
 which is impossible, the landlords, who are the 
 persons aggrieved, will not benefit by it. For, 
 as regards the future, they have the matter in 
 their own hands. They can and do eject their 
 tenants before the twelve years have run ; or 
 they can give them definite terminable leases. 
 On the other hand, by any new legislation, the 
 minds of the whole agricultural classes will be 
 again upset, and the ill-feeling between tenant 
 and landlord, which the twelve years' rule has 
 caused, will have no time to heal. On the 
 whole, we can, I think, do nothing better than 
 leave things alone. We have made a mistake, 
 and the only thing to be done is, to provide 
 against similar errors for the future. 
 
 There is, I believe, a measure now before the 
 Legislative Council in India, the purport of 
 
154 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 which is to establish the right of the tenant to 
 compensation for improvements effected by him. 
 These improvements have, I may say, no other 
 form in the North- Western Provinces than that 
 of wells for irrigation. As I have before ex- 
 plained, in the Note on Irrigation, these wells 
 may be either of masonry, or mere holes dug in 
 the earth. If they are of masonry, the tenant 
 must, by the ancient custom of the country, 
 obtain permission from the landlord to sink 
 them. If they are of the latter kind, the tenant 
 is as much bound to dig them as he is to plough 
 the land. And he would be as fairly entitled 
 to compensation for the cost of tillage, as for 
 the expense of making these wells. The object 
 of the proposed legislation is, I conceive, to give 
 the tenant the right to sink masonry wells, and 
 compensation, in case of eviction, for his expen- 
 diture. 
 
 This is an infringement on the long-recognized 
 rights of the proprietors; and it is a greater 
 injury to them than may at first sight appear. 
 For what class of tenants may be expected to 
 take advantage of this privilege? Clearly not 
 tenants at will, who seldom have the means, and 
 without the permission of the landlord can never 
 have the opportunity, of sinking a masonry 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 155 
 
 well — a work which cannot be done in a day. 
 No ; it is the tenants with right of occupancy, 
 in whose favour this legislation will be. They 
 can proceed to sink their wells without any 
 danger of eviction, and can then profit by the 
 irrigation without any fear of having their rent 
 raised; for the landlord is prohibited from 
 raising their rent on the ground of any im- 
 provement effected by them. The great means, 
 therefore, which a landlord had of increasing 
 his rental, by improving his estate, will be taken 
 from him. 
 
 A very strong case ought to be shown by the 
 tenants before this measure becomes law. And 
 certainly the landlord ought to be carefully 
 heard and consulted. 
 
 If it is shown that the tenants are ready to 
 expend capital in masonry wells, and that, by the 
 present state of the law, the spread of irrigation 
 is checked, a very strong case for legislation will 
 be made out. But I very much doubt whether 
 anything of the sort can be shown. As far as 
 my experience goes, the number of tenants who 
 are willing or able to sink wells is very small. 
 But if they are permanently secured against an 
 increase of rent, it will be well worth the money- 
 lenders' while to advance capital on the security 
 
156 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 of their holdings. Perhaps this is what the 
 framers of this measure have in view. But the 
 real way to ensure increased well irrigation is, 
 to advance money to the landlords freely for the 
 purpose. Their rents will then be increased, 
 and the revenue will eventually benefit by it. 
 In the other way, unless the tenant has capital 
 of his own, which I take to be a very rare case, 
 the money-lenders of the village will reap most 
 of the direct profit. 
 
 What need there is to press on this measure 
 with haste, I know not. Certainly, there was 
 no outcry on the part of the tenants. Yet the 
 matter was, I think, not a year under public 
 discussion before the Council was pressed to 
 pass it. 
 
 The power of a tenant with right of occu- 
 pancy to sub-let his holding is universally 
 acknowledged. It is a privilege very generally 
 exercised. The sub-tenants are prevented by 
 express provision of the law from acquiring 
 any right of occupancy on land thus sub-let to 
 them. 
 
 In some districts, tenants with right of occu- 
 pancy are allowed to transfer their holdings by 
 mortgage or sale. In other parts, this practice 
 seems unknown, and would probably be resisted 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 157 
 
 by some landlords. The custom is apparently- 
 creeping up the country from Lower Bengal; 
 and unless the legislature interferes,* which I 
 hope it will not do, it will probably become 
 universal. 
 
 It should be understood that a right of occu- 
 pancy does not necessarily imply or involve a 
 low rate of rent. Owing to the restrictions 
 which prevent a landlord from raising the rents 
 of tenants of this class arbitrarily, their rents do 
 not rise so fast as those of tenants at will. In 
 some parts of the country, they are found to pay 
 a higher rate than other tenants. In former 
 times, this was commonly the case. The here- 
 ditary tenant was always a resident on the 
 estate. Much land was lying idle, and cultiva- 
 tors were scarce. The landowner was glad to 
 let his waste lands to non-resident cultivators at 
 any price, and so to lessen the burden on his 
 tenure ; while from the old tenants residing on 
 his estate, and attached to their ancestral lands, 
 he had more power to exact a high rate of rent. 
 
 Under like circumstances, we may find the 
 same state of things now. On this account I 
 am averse to the proposal which has been made, 
 of arbitrarily settling the rent of tenants with 
 
 * Such interference has taken place in the Punjab. 
 
158 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 right of occupancy at a certain percentage below 
 the rents paid by tenants at will. 
 
 Indeed, as a rule, in these Provinces, no argu- 
 ment can be drawn as to a man's rights from 
 the amount of rent which he is paying or has 
 paid. The Government demand was sometimes 
 raised so high as to amount to a rack-rent on 
 the estate. In such a case it would happen that 
 the proprietors would be compelled to let land 
 even at a lower rate than that of the Government 
 assessment. They were still oftener glad to get 
 the revenue rate for the land, without any profit 
 for themselves. 
 
 The same phenomenon is found even when 
 the Government demand is not unfairly high. 
 If the proprietors have more land than they can 
 cultivate, and tenants are scarce, it is better for 
 them to let land even below the revenue rate, 
 than to let it lie idle. Arguing from cases of 
 this kind, some men were for elevating the 
 tenants to a level with the proprietors. Others 
 were for limiting the profits of the proprietors 
 to a small percentage on the revenue, because, 
 forsooth, they had been unable hitherto to get 
 more from their tenants than the rack-rent 
 which the Government absorbed. Others denied 
 the existence of proprietors at all. 
 
ON LAND TENURES. 159 
 
 As a maxim, then, it may be laid down, that 
 no conclusion can be absolutely drawn as to a 
 man's rights, either from the receipt of rent, or 
 the rate of the rent paid by him. A man may 
 enjoy part of the rent of an estate without 
 having any proprietary right in it ; and a mere 
 tenant at will may hold land at a rate more 
 favourable than that paid, not only by tenants 
 with right of occupancy, but by the proprietor 
 himself. 
 
 Besides the actual landowner and his tenants, 
 there are sometimes found in an estate persons 
 who have been designated sub - proprietors. 
 They are men who have acquired plots of 
 ground in the estate by sale or otherwise. 
 They are pro tan to proprietors, although they 
 have no voice in the general management. Their 
 land still forms part of the tenure. If they do 
 not pay their share of the revenue, that is only 
 a private arrangement between themselves and 
 the proprietors. Should the estate come by 
 default into the hands of Government, they 
 would become immediately liable. They hold, 
 therefore, really on the same tenure as any 
 other proprietor. 
 
 It is not within the scheme of these remarks 
 to detail the elaborate system of records which 
 
160 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES. 
 
 exists in the North-Western Provinces, of all 
 rights and interests in the land. It will be 
 enough for my purpose to say, that there is a 
 record kept up for every estate, in which the 
 rights and interests of every man, whether pro- 
 prietor or tenant, have a place. Great pains are 
 taken by the Government to secure the com- 
 pleteness and the accuracy of this record. It is 
 to be hoped, that when the people are sufficiently 
 educated to understand the value of such a 
 record, they will give their aid, without which 
 complete success cannot be attained. • 
 
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