THE PRESENT 
 
 LAND TAX IN INDIA 
 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE LAND TAX OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 Few subjects have undergone such a variety of 
 opinions as that which regards the private rights of 
 the people of Asia. It has been too generally 
 asserted that all the land in the East belongs to 
 the crown. This idea which had been handed 
 down from the ancients *, met with confirmation 
 from modern travellers, who do not appear to have 
 sufficiently investigated the subject. In the year 
 1777 M. Anquetil du Perron, one of the most cele- 
 brated Oriental scholars in Europe, after a long- 
 residence in India, combated these erroneous doc- 
 trines, and took great pains to prove in an essay he 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1030. A. Diod. Sicul. lib. ii. p. 15 3. 
 B
 
 2 LAND TAX 
 
 wrote on this question, that*, not only was the no- 
 tion false, but that the state of society described by 
 some travellers, who denied even the existence of 
 any private property at all in the East, neither did 
 nor could exist under the actual circumstances of 
 those nations. M. Anquetil du Perron proved 
 that property in Asia was as carefully protected 
 by laws as in Europe ; yet he did not deny 
 that those laws were frequently infringed, though 
 sometimes at the risk of the life or the crown 
 of the prince. The author of the history of My- 
 sore, who adopts the same views on this subject, 
 has also exposed the absurdity of the prevalent 
 opinion that private landed property did not exist 
 in the East. He observes, " a late author (speaking 
 of Volney) broadly announces that in Syria there 
 is no property, real or personal : an assertion which 
 he might at any time have discovered to be false, 
 by the purchase of a farthing's worth of greens in 
 the Bazaar. " t 
 
 I trust the time for maintaining such doctrines is 
 now at an end, though there still exists a general 
 notion that the sovereign in India is, and always 
 was, not only in name but in reality, the proprietor 
 of the soil. To repeat the assertions to the contrary 
 that have so frequently been made by the best in- 
 formed of those who have examined this question, 
 would be of little use, unless they were supported 
 by proofs, and it might only lead to endless discus- 
 
 * Legislation Orientale. 
 
 •f Wilks's Mysore, vol. i. chap. v. p. 11 4-.
 
 OF THE ANCIENTS. 3 
 
 sions without effecting conviction. It is my inten- 
 tion therefore to enter very fully into the enquiry, 
 and to submit to the impartial reader a series of evi- 
 dence, drawn from sources which will scarcely be 
 objected to, some of which are derived from per- 
 sons, more or less the advocates of various systems 
 opposed to each other. 
 
 One class of these persons maintains that the 
 sovereign is the absolute proprietor of the soil, and 
 that the cultivator is compelled by law to pay what- 
 ever may be demanded of him. A second class 
 admits that, notwithstanding the proprietary right 
 in the soil by the sovereign, the cultivator has cer- 
 tain privileges, such as that of always occupying 
 the same field, of transferring that right to his chil- 
 dren, and moreover in times of distress even of 
 selling the right of occupancy : these persons agree 
 also that as long as the landholder continues to 
 pay to the sovereign the assessment fixed on his 
 land he can by no means be deprived of it. Not- 
 withstanding that all these privileges are fully 
 admitted, these same persons deny the right in the 
 soil to belong to the landholder. Thus though the 
 sovereign can neither eject a tenant, nor appropri- 
 ate his land to his own use, he is described as the 
 sole proprietor of the soil. A third class asserts 
 that the land neither is, nor ever was, the property 
 of the crown; that the whole was originally divided 
 into townships, of which a few members undertook 
 to cultivate the land as proprietors ; and that, for 
 
 the sake of protection afforded by the government, 
 
 b 2
 
 4 LAND TAX 
 
 the cultivators were required to pay a portion 
 of the produce. This portion has not at all times 
 been uniform j for though at a remote period 
 legislators fixed the amount, yet it has varied in 
 different ages, and under different circumstances. 
 The last class, advocating the cause of the cultiva- 
 tors against the pretensions of the sovereign, deny 
 to the latter even the privilege of alienating the 
 waste and common lands of the villages without 
 the consent of the permanent landed proprietors : 
 a point of the utmost importance, and which 
 will be considered in the sequel of our enquiry. 
 Such are the conflicting sentiments regarding the 
 proprietary right in the soil. Before proceeding 
 farther, however, it seems quite requisite to deter- 
 mine what particular qualities constitute the right 
 in landed property. A very eminent lawyer* has 
 stated that, " by the English law no subject can 
 hold land in direct or allodial dominion ;" that is to 
 say, the owner of the land must pay homage to the 
 sovereign or his representative, either by the 
 actual or implied performance of some personal 
 service, or by the payment of a portion of the pro- 
 duce. In England this peculiarity of landed tenures 
 belongs to the feudal system, by which the whole 
 land of the kingdom was partitioned out among 
 the military chiefs who followed the Conqueror j 
 and it is in conformity with this system, that every 
 spot of ground is supposed to belong to some feu- 
 
 * Burton on Real Property, sect. i. chap.vi. col. 65. a.
 
 OF THE ANCIENTS. 5 
 
 dal estate, the proprietor holding it on condition 
 of performing service or paying a commutation for 
 that service, to the superior of the estate, denomi- 
 nated lord of the manor. It would not elucidate 
 the condition of landed tenures in India to dwell 
 on those of England, however close the analogy. 
 All that has been said is with a view of showing, 
 that so far from the integrity of landed property 
 being impaired by homage done to the crown, either 
 in personal service or by the presentation of a por- 
 tion of the produce, it is by these incidents atone 
 that the "validity of landed property in England is 
 recognised. I trust therefore it will be admitted 
 a priori, that when an individual occupies a 
 portion of land from his ancestors, of which he 
 alone has the sole and undisputed use, which he 
 can temporarily alienate by mortgage, or perma- 
 nently dispose of by sale in concert with his heirs, 
 that such individual is bond fide the proprietor. I 
 am prepared to allow that onerous exactions may 
 render the whole or part of the land of no saleable 
 value in the market ; but I deny on the other hand 
 that this circumstance destroys otherwise than by 
 violence, the inherent right of the owner. 
 
 The earliest and most authentic account we have 
 of the existence of landed property is to be found 
 in sacred history, wherein it is related that Abraham 
 purchased a spot of ground in which to inter his 
 wife Sarah. The simple but clear manner in which 
 this transaction is related in the Bible is a true and 
 
 b 3
 
 6 LAND TAX 
 
 lively picture of Oriental manners at the present 
 day. Abraham, the head of a tribe, probably the 
 most respected of all the inhabitants in his coun- 
 try, with a mind fraught with justice and sound 
 principle, goes in the fulness of his grief to request 
 of Ephron to allow him to bury his wife Sarah 
 (only just dead) in a cave or vault at the end 
 of one of his fields, which field he wishes to pur- 
 chase for the purpose. Ephron readily assents to 
 give it up to the venerable patriarch, and tenders it 
 in these words, which sufficiently mark the differ- 
 ence of rank between the individuals : — 
 
 15. " My lord, hearken unto me : the land is 
 worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that 
 between me and thee ? bury therefore thy dead? * 
 
 16. " And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron ; 
 and he weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had 
 named in the audience of the sons of Hetli, four 
 hundred shekels of silver, current money. 
 
 17. " And the field of Ephron which was in 
 Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, 
 the cave therein, and all the trees that were in the 
 field, and that were in all the borders round about, 
 were made sure 
 
 18. " Unto Abraham for a possession in the 
 presence of the children of Heth, before all that 
 went in at the gate of his city." 
 
 The above transaction contains several very im- 
 portant features. In the first place, it appears 
 
 * Gen. chap, xxiii. ver. 15.
 
 OF THE ANCIENTS. 7 
 
 that Abraham did not deem it proper to accept 
 of the field as a present, but that he chose to make 
 it sure by buying it ; the purchase and payment 
 also were witnessed by the rest of the tribe of 
 Heth, of which Ephron was a member, that they 
 might bear testimony of the validity of the sale, 
 and, moreover, it is expressly stated that the trans- 
 action took place in the presence of all the child- 
 ren of the tribe of Heth, that entered in at the 
 gate of the city : indicating, as is still usual in the 
 sale of lands in the East, that the town's people 
 were assembled at the gate of the town to witness 
 the bargain, It is clear therefore that in Canaan, 
 in the time of Abraham, land was a valuable sale- 
 able commodity, and that certain forms were 
 necessary to render its conveyance complete. An- 
 other circumstance is mentioned which marks the 
 condition of landed property at that period : the 
 field is described as being bounded by trees all 
 around, by which it seems that the limits were not 
 only very accurately defined, but that a barrier or 
 fence existed to secure the crops from damage. 
 Hedges, *or boundaries of living trees, usually 
 denote an advanced state of the agricultural art, 
 and a conviction of real security. At a subsequent 
 period we learn that, owing to the anticipation of 
 a great dearth, Pharaoh the king of Egypt, at the 
 instance of his minister Joseph*, exacted from his 
 subjects one fifth of the produce of the land, and 
 
 * Gen. chap. xli. ver. 34* 
 B 4-
 
 b> LAND TAX 
 
 laid it up in store. This provident measure seems 
 to have saved, not only the native inhabitants 
 from starvation, but also those of the neighbour- 
 ing countries, who came to purchase corn in 
 Egypt. * The cultivators sold all their cattle, their 
 agricultural implements, and every thing they pos- 
 sessed, to obtain food from the king's granaries, 
 and eventually they sold their lands to the king.t 
 The possession could be of no use to the crown 
 unless it were cultivated, and accordingly we find 
 Pharaoh giving back the land to the original pro- 
 prietors, on condition of their paying one fifth of 
 the produce to him for ever. It is by no means 
 clear what was the proportion of the crops to 
 which Pharaoh was in the first instance entitled by 
 law. He exacted one fifth of the produce, to 
 guard against a famine ; and having purchased the 
 whole land as his own during that calamity, he 
 restored it to the owners on the aforesaid terms. 
 It seems, however, very unlikely that in this 
 arrangement Pharaoh should have contented him- 
 self with establishing for ever only that which it 
 had been always usual to pay. The 'inference 
 that we may draw from this narrative is, that the 
 plea for exacting a fifth was made in the first 
 instance in anticipation of a great calamity, which 
 afterwards did actually occur ; but it by no means 
 follows that this was the usual portion payable by 
 the cultivator to the sovereign, for no more than a 
 
 * Gen. chap.xlvii. ver. 13. f Ib » d « vv « 20-26.
 
 OF THE ANCIENTS. 9 
 
 fifth was required in liquidation of the great debt 
 of gratitude the people owed to him for their safety 
 during the famine, and for the restoration of their 
 lands after it ceased. The fact of the land-tax in 
 Egypt being usually one fifth of the produce, is 
 proved by the Romans finding it so when they 
 occupied that country ; and in this respect it 
 differed from all other Roman provinces, which 
 only paid one tenth of the produce, as will be here- 
 after shown. At a subsequent period of the same 
 history, we find the Jews returning from Egypt 
 into Canaan under Joshua ; and their mode of 
 carrying on war exhibits an example of the prac- 
 tice afterwards adopted by other nations of anti- 
 quity. Such of the inhabitants (Canaanites) as 
 were not killed were enslaved, and their lands 
 divided among the conquerors. On these lands an 
 impost was levied for the benefit of the Levites, 
 who were both the priests and rulers in Judea, 
 which is expressly stated to be a tithe, a portion 
 which has decended to the Christian Church. In 
 addition to the tithe, in time of war the Levites 
 also claimed the captives for slaves, and the cattle 
 for their use.
 
 10 LAND TAX 
 
 GREECE. 
 
 From Egypt and Canaan we pass to the early 
 periods of Grecian history. In the republics of 
 Athens and Sparta, the conquerors divided the 
 lands, and compelled the vanquished inhabitants 
 to work for them as slaves. The estates, though 
 at first large, gradually became subdivided on the 
 extension of families, and the whole country was 
 partitioned into districts. In a work that has 
 lately appeared, entitled, (Economie politique des 
 Atheniens, translated from the German of M. Au- 
 guste Boekh into French, we find the following 
 details of the ancient revenue system of the Greeks. 
 The author states that he derives his information 
 from a work on the same subject which bears the 
 name of Aristotle. The sources of revenue are 
 thus described : — "La premiere et la meilleure 
 sorte est ce qui vient de la terre, l'impot foncier 
 ou dixieme. La seconde, les produits particu- 
 liers, l'or, 1* argent, le cuivre, &c. &c. La troisieme 
 vient des douanes et des droits sur les ports. La 
 quatrieme, des droits pergus sur la terre etlesmarches 
 
 (ajo rcuv xcltol yt]v re x.at.1 ayooixicov rsXcov ). 
 
 La cinquieme, des impots sur le betail, et de la 
 dime qu'il supporte (s7r* xafwia osxa.rr{) : par quoi 
 il ne faut pas entendre quelque taxe pour le pacage 
 dans les prairies communes, mais un impot sur le 
 betail meme, comme celui que Denys l'ancien le- 
 vait avec une impudence et une durete incroyable. 
 Par la sixieme espece l'auteur entend la capitation
 
 OF THE ANCIENTS. 11 
 
 (ex; xstpa'hoi), et l'impot sur l'industrie (%zipcova- 
 
 In this account we may perceive several im- 
 portant facts. First, that the cultivated land paid 
 one tenth of the produce to the state ; secondly, 
 that uncultivated lands were used in common as 
 pasturage, but one tenth of the grazing beasts 
 were made over to the government : which, in 
 other words, was exacting one tenth of the produce 
 of common pasturages also. Mines and commerce 
 likewise afforded sources of revenue, as well as the 
 capitation-tax, probably levied on the aborigines, 
 or cultivating slaves. The tenth of the agricul- 
 tural produce was, however, the most profitable 
 source of revenue ; and it is for this reason that we 
 find Solon urging the people not to allow their 
 lands to lie waste : wherever lands belonged to the 
 public, and were cultivated by slaves, force was 
 used to compel the occupants to till them.* 
 
 ROMANS. 
 
 An edict to enforce the cultivation of public 
 lands existed, at a very early period, among the 
 Romans.! The portion of the crop demanded by 
 the state was, almost every where, confined to one 
 tenth of the produce, and the grain was usually laid 
 up in public magazines, and sold or distributed, 
 
 * Beloe's Notes to Herodotus, vol. ix. p. 168* 
 f Adam's Antiq. p. 533.
 
 12 LAND TAX 
 
 according to circumstances. * The tenth was also 
 extended to wood and iron.t Colonel Wilks, who 
 has gone into great detail and has thrown much 
 light on the subject of landed tenures in India, has 
 also exhibited the condition of tenures under the 
 Romans, in which he traces the close affinity to 
 the system we find prevalent in the East. He 
 observes, t " that while the territory was small, the 
 lands appertaining to the principal chiefj whether 
 general, king, or emperor, would be cultivated by 
 public slaves : as in the case of Campania, which ter- 
 ritory was confiscated to the state, and the produce 
 exclusively reserved for the public exigencies of 
 Rome." But the practice among the Romans varied 
 under different circumstances. "In some instances, 
 a tribute only was exacted from the conquered, 
 and they were left under their own kings and laws. 
 In others, colonies of Romans were sent forth to 
 occupy foreign lands. From these colonists the 
 state exacted one tenth of the produce of the grain, 
 and one fifth of the produce of trees ; the latter 
 being the utmost that was ever demanded. The 
 conquered people were allowed to enjoy such lands 
 as were unoccupied by the colonists on the same 
 terms ; and the remainder of the land was either 
 rented for a share of the crop, or kept for pasture. 
 A very material difference existed, however, be- 
 tween the Roman colonists and the ancient land- 
 
 * Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 240. 
 
 f Gibbon, chap. xvii. 
 
 \ Wilks's Mysore, vol. i. chap. v. p. 141.
 
 OF THE ANCIENTS. 13 
 
 owners (who paid a tenth of the crop), and a third 
 class, called aratores, or annual ploughmen. The 
 latter stipulated to receive a portion of the produce 
 for their labour, being supplied with capital either 
 by the government collectors, or more usually by 
 the farmers of the revenue, who in the capacity of 
 country bankers advanced money or grain, to be 
 repaid after the harvest. These, who were termed 
 publicani or socii, divided the business of their 
 department into three branches : the customs, the 
 pastures, and the grain crops ; and the very name 
 decumcmi, a term applicable alike to the payer and 
 receiver, furnishes abundant evidence that one 
 tenth part was the most common portion of the 
 crop exacted. Spain paid one twentieth only of 
 grain, and one tenth of the produce of trees.* The 
 mode of realizing the amount by government was as 
 follows: t — The revenues of a province were rented 
 at public auction for a fixed sum, the farmers being 
 restricted from raising the taxes by conditions pre- 
 viously promulgated in the tabulce or public ad- 
 vertisements of the censor. The decumani made 
 their annual settlements with the husbandmen for 
 a certain quantity of grain or of money for each 
 acre to be cultivated ; calculating, in the former 
 case, the amount of the produce, and agreeing for 
 their estimated tenth. The coloni and ancient 
 proprietors, therefore, held their lands in perpe- 
 
 * Wilks Mysore, vol. i. chap. v. p. 145. 
 t Livy, d. I. lib. 43. c. ii. and Cicero apud Wilks, pp. 20. 29, 
 and his authorities.
 
 14 LAND TAX 
 
 tuity, on condition of paying the estimated tenth, 
 while the aratores made their bargains annually, 
 and paid according to the increase or decrease of 
 their cultivation. 
 
 ANCIENT PERSIA. 
 
 In prosecuting the investigation of that part of 
 the question which regards the portion of the crop 
 assignable to the government, we find it stated by 
 good * authority, that in Persia at a period anterior 
 to the Mahomedan conquest, the cultivator paid 
 one tenth of his produce to the state, and it will 
 be subsequently shown that the asherra (or tenth) 
 is the legitimate land-tax which exists in all Maho- 
 medan countries at the present day. Despotism 
 has no limits to her wants, nor to the excessive 
 imposts she lays on the people ; but there are cer- 
 tain established laws which despotic princes them- 
 selves are frequently obliged to respect, and such 
 has been the case in regulating the tithe in most of 
 the countries of the universe. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 In China the whole of the lands are measured, 
 and not only the extent but the average rate of 
 
 * Ayeen Akbury, vol.i. part iii. pp. 14-7-8, also, 
 
 Legislation Orientale d'Anquetil du Perron, p. 273.
 
 OF THE ANCIENTS. 15 
 
 produce of each field is inscribed in a public 
 register.* One tenth of the crop is set aside for 
 the state, and the remainder is divided between 
 the cultivator and proprietor according to agree- 
 ment. More ample information of the remaining 
 resources of the Chinese revenue might be given ; 
 the above is however sufficient to show that the 
 sovereign is not the proprietor of the soil, but has 
 only a share, and not a very considerable one, of 
 the produce. 
 
 COCHIN CHINA AND SIAM. 
 
 In a work published in the year 1812, by M. de 
 la Bissachere, on Cochin China, he describes the 
 system of taxation in that country, in his third 
 chapter ; and I am indebted to some of the French 
 missionaries who have also been in that country, 
 for a confirmation of his statement. The territorial 
 tax, he observes, is levied on all productive lands 
 (houses and gardens excepted). This contribution 
 is raised not so much according to the quantity as 
 to the quality of the soil, which is divided into 
 three classes. The amount of the land-tax is esti- 
 mated at four per cent, of the gross produce, and 
 it is paid by the cultivator, who shares equally with 
 
 * Abb6 Grosier, apud Patton, Asiatic Monarchies, pp. 225, 
 226. Memoires desMissionaires de Pekin, concernantl'Histoire, 
 &c. &c. des Chinois. Paris, 17S2, torn. vii. p. 65. note.
 
 16 
 
 LAND TAX 
 
 the land- owner or proprietor the remainder of the 
 crop. Crown lands, made over to be cultivated 
 by villages, pay one sixth, or about seventeen per 
 cent, of the gross produce, to government. 
 
 BURMAN EMPIRE. 
 
 In the Burman empire, we find, from Colonel 
 Symes, one of the most intelligent and observant 
 of modern travellers, that " the government im- 
 post on cultivated land is only a tenth part of the 
 produce : in consequence of which, " he observes, 
 " agriculture is carried on with great success, and 
 in a very excellent style." 
 
 It has been thus shown, that from the epocha 
 of the conquest of Palestine by the Jews to the 
 present time, the tithe has generally been exacted 
 as the portion of the land produce payable to the 
 government. The tithe travelled into Europe with 
 the Greeks and the Romans, and the Jewish impost 
 has spread itself throughout Christendom. If we 
 except the dominion of the Pope, in modern times, 
 the monarchical government has every where been 
 separated from the hierarchy, and has assumed the 
 supremacy; but the Church has never relinquished 
 her claim to the Levites* share which still pervades 
 all Christian nations, while the government has 
 been obliged to impose an additional tax on the 
 land, as one of the means of meeting its expenses.
 
 OF THE ANCIENTS. 17 
 
 EUROPE. 
 
 In the decline of the Roman Empire, the Goths, 
 the Visigoths, the Huns, and other barbarous hordes, 
 invaded and overran Europe; and, according to the 
 practice of all preceding nations, they claimed the 
 land as their own, and divided it among them. 
 Such of the inhabitants as escaped the sword were, 
 like those in the countries of Canaan and Greece, 
 condemned to perpetual slavery as serfs of the soil. 
 This state of society did not continue: some estates 
 became divided, while others increased in size. 
 The lords of the latter became formidable to the 
 kings (or chiefs of all the tribes) ; and, in the contest 
 for power, the kings strengthened their own autho- 
 rity by weakening that of their feudatories. They en- 
 franchised, wherever they could do so, the humbler 
 classes, and conferred much of the land that lapsed 
 to the crown on corporate bodies and cities. 
 Wherever it was practicable, the king imposed di- 
 rect taxes, called taillage, on the actual cultivators ; 
 still in most countries of Europe the knights and 
 barons lost all claims on their baronial serfs. This 
 has only lately taken place in Prussia, and in the 
 Germanic states of Bavaria, Hesse-Cassel, and 
 Hesse-Darmstadt, Wurtemberg, Mecklenburg, Han- 
 over, and Saxony, where the cultivators, as at pre- 
 sent in India, occupy small farms, and pay their 
 land-taxes direct to the crown. 
 
 Thus we see the original land-owners reduced 
 by conquest to the condition of cultivating serfs, 
 
 c
 
 18 LAND-TAX 
 
 paying to an immediate superior all that he could 
 extort of the crop. Land in this condition was 
 no longer saleable, and the feudal chief who ex- 
 acted the rent from the conquered might in truth 
 be deemed the land-owner, or at all events lord 
 paramount of the soil. In the course of time, 
 the kings or chiefs of these nations increased 
 their demands on the cultivator, who, having only 
 a certain surplus produce, was compelled to de- 
 duct from the baron that which was paid to the 
 king, and the latter eventually so engrossed the 
 whole of the profit, that no balance was left for 
 the feudatory baron, from whose dependence the 
 cultivating serf became consequently emancipated. 
 By this second revolution of property, the peasant 
 has been restored to those original rights as pro- 
 prietor, which his ancestors had lost by conquest. 
 
 After these introductory observations, we proceed 
 to examine the condition of landed property in 
 India, as affected by taxation.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 19 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 LAND-TAX OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 There are reasons for believing the present race 
 of Hindoos to be of foreign origin ; but at what 
 time they entered India, and occupied the place of 
 those aborigines which we still find in great num- 
 bers in every part of the country, will perhaps long- 
 be a matter of conjecture. The Hindoos have so 
 little of real history, that we are lost in the mazes of 
 their poetical effusions, in endeavouring to attain 
 any satisfactory conclusions on the subject. We 
 are, however, led to believe, from many circum- 
 stances, that they came from the north-west, and 
 perhaps even from Thibet in the north, since it has 
 been discovered that the Thibetans use an alphabet 
 closely allied to the Sanscrit, and all tradition is 
 against the supposition of the Hindoos having pe- 
 netrated to the north. When they first came to 
 India is uncertain ; but a period between the years 
 1170 and 1180 before Christ has been assigned by 
 some of our most able antiquaries *, as the aera of 
 the great war alluded to in the Mahabharata, an 
 heroic poem written to commemorate that event. 
 The Hindoos were certainly then masters of all 
 
 * Bentley, Tod, and Wilson have, by different calculations, 
 arrived at the same conclusion. 
 
 c V
 
 20 LAND-TAX 
 
 the northern part of India, and several great princes 
 ruled over the country from the extreme western 
 confines of Guzerat and Cutch, as far as the belt of 
 snowy mountains to the east of Bengal and Behar. 
 In the year 880 before Christ, Kulluca, a learned 
 Bramin, is said to have collated a new edition of 
 the institutes of an ancient legislator called Menu, 
 which, being first translated by Sir William Jones, 
 has lately undergone a new edition under the hands 
 of Professor Haughton, of Hertford College. From 
 this work we are led to believe that the Hindoos 
 had not penetrated south of the Vindhya mountains 
 in the time of Menu, nor even in that of Kulluca. 
 I draw this conclusion from the territorial limits 
 which the institutes assign as the abode of respect- 
 able men, alluding probably to Hindoos.* The 
 
 * Haughton's Institutes of Menu, chap. vii. v. 19. Between 
 the two divine rivers Saraswati and Drishdawati lies the tract of 
 land which the sages have named Brahmavarta, because it was 
 frequented by the gods. 
 
 V. 20. Curuckshetra, Matsya, Panchala or Canyacubja, and 
 Surasena or Mathura, form the region called Brahmarsi, distin- 
 guished from Brahmavarta. 
 
 V. 21. That country which lies between Hemavat (the snowy 
 region) and Vindhaya, to the east of Vineswara (Guzerat) and 
 to the west of Pryag (Allahabad), is celebrated by the title of 
 Medha Desa (central region). 
 
 V. 22. As far as the eastern and as far as the western oceans, 
 between the mountains just mentioned, lies the tract which 
 the wise have named Aryaverta, or inhabited by respectable 
 men. 
 
 V. 23. That land on which the black antelope naturally 
 grazes, is fit for the performance of sacrifices ; but the land 
 of Mlechas, or those who speak barbarously, differs widely 
 from it.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 21 
 
 Greeks, who became only properly acquainted with 
 this race on the invasion of Alexander, mention 
 several great kingdoms in the vicinity of his ope- 
 rations, the inhabitants of which were regarded 
 as an ancient and highly civilized people. About 
 two centuries before Christ, the Brahmins in the 
 west of India (Guzerat) are said to have created a 
 new tribe ; in other words, they gave authority to 
 a race of warriors, whom they designated by the 
 title of Aguiculas, or the fiery generation. These 
 were divided into four branches, and it is said * 
 that they produced a revolution in upper India, 
 and subdued it for themselves ; while it is be- 
 lieved that many of the former Hindoo inhabitants 
 retreated before them to the south. This tradition 
 receives confirmation from another fact, which is, 
 that although there are giants and historical records 
 in the south, which go back to about the period of 
 the Christian aera, there is no satisfactory proof 
 that the country was occupied by Hindoos much 
 before that time. Whatever was the fate of the 
 original inhabitants of the north of India, we dis- 
 cover few, except Hindoos, in the open country, 
 but we find abundant traces of the aborigines living 
 
 The above extract describes all upper India north of the Ner- 
 budda river. The M lech as, or those who speak barbarously, do 
 not inhabit the land on which the antelope delights to graze, 
 such as wide and extensive plains, but hills and forests, into 
 which the black antelope never enters. 
 
 * This subject has been largely discussed in the splendid 
 work of Colonel Tod on Rajputhana. 
 
 c S
 
 °Z°Z LAND-TAX 
 
 separately from them in their native fastnesses. In 
 the south the aborigines are still retained in slavery, 
 as when they were first subdued. 
 
 From these premises I am led to suppose that 
 the institutes of Menu, as they have been handed 
 down to us through Kulluca, were formed for Hin- 
 doos then only inhabiting northern India. I con- 
 ceive that this race, as it extended its conquests, 
 also gradually introduced its institutions ; and it is 
 to this circumstance alone, without insisting on the 
 very improbable event of the whole of India being 
 subject to one monarch, that we may ascribe that 
 genera] similarity of custom and lawwhich pervades 
 the country. It has been already explained that 
 the institutes were translated by Sir William Jones ; 
 and he considered the original work so important, 
 that he caused all the commentary of Kulluca 
 throughout to be printed in italics, to distinguish it 
 from the original text of Menu. This circumstance 
 will hereafter prove of importance. 
 
 Menu exhibits to us the duties of the prince and 
 the rights of the subject. He also affords us a 
 model of the constitution of a Hindoo government; 
 and we may conclude from that which we find in 
 modern times, that the latter does not essentially 
 differ from the former. 
 
 Chapter VIII. v. 35. " A king is created as 
 the protector of all those classes and orders of 
 men who from the first to the last discharge their 
 duties," 
 
 In another part of the same chapter, he pro-
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 23 
 
 ceeds to describe the organization of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 V. 114. " Let him place as the protection of his 
 realm a company of guards, commanded by an ap- 
 proved officer, over two or three hundred districts*, 
 according to their extent." 
 
 115. " Let him appoint a lord of one town 
 with its district, a lord often towns, a lord of twenty 
 towns, a lord of a hundred, and a lord of at hou- 
 sand. 
 
 116. "Let the lord of one town certify of his 
 own accord to the lord of ten towns any robberies, 
 tumults, or riots which arise in his district (town- 
 ship) which he cannot suppress; and the lord of 
 ten to the lord of twenty. 
 
 117. " Then let the lord of twenty towns notify to 
 the lord of a hundred, and let the lord of a hundred 
 transmit the information to the lord of a thousand 
 townships. 
 
 118. " Such food, drinks, and other articles as 
 by law should be given each day by the inhabitants 
 of the township to the king, let the lord of one 
 town receive as his perquisite.t 
 
 119. " Let the lord often towns enjoy the pro- 
 duce t of two-plough lands, or as much ground as can 
 
 * Properly township. 
 
 •J* The king is entitled to purveyance or taillage from each 
 village, but in his absence the village pays the contribution to 
 his representative, the governor for the time being. 
 
 \ By the produce is meant the revenue derivable from the 
 land to the crown. 
 
 c 4
 
 24 LAND-TAX 
 
 be tilled with two ploughs, each drawn by six bulls; 
 the lord of twenty, that of ten ploughs ; the lord of 
 a hundred, that of a village or small town ; the 
 lord of a thousand, that of a large town. 
 
 120. " The affairs of those townships, either 
 jointly or separately transacted, let another minister 
 of the king inspect ; who should be well affected, 
 and by no means remiss. 
 
 121. " In every large town or city let him ap- 
 point a superintendent of all affairs, elevated in 
 rank, formidable in power, distinguished as a planet 
 among stars. 
 
 122. " Let that governor, from time to time, 
 survey all the rest in person ; and by means of his 
 emissaries let him perfectly know their conduct in 
 their several districts. 
 
 123. " Since the servants of the king whom he 
 has appointed guardians of districts are generally 
 knaves, who seize what belongs to other men, from 
 such knaves let him defend his people. 
 
 124. " Of such evil-minded servants as wring 
 wealth from subjects attending them on business, 
 let the king confiscate all their possessions, and 
 banish them from his realm." 
 
 These extracts afford us sufficient proof of a 
 well-organized system of local superintendence 
 and administration. As a warning to kings them- 
 selves, the author pronounces the following se- 
 vere judgment : — 
 
 Chapter VII. v. 46. " A king addicted to vice 
 arising from love of pleasure will not only lose 

 
 OF THE HINDOOS. °15 
 
 his wealth and virtue, but may even lose his life 
 from public resentment." 
 
 In the following chapter on law, civil and cri- 
 minal, there are exhibited strong instances of the 
 foresight of the legislator, and of the care with 
 which he has provided for the due administration 
 of justice. 
 
 " The king is the head of the court.* 
 
 " He may however appoint a substitute as chief 
 judge, but he cannot sit without having at least 
 three other judges or assessors on the bench. 
 
 " Witnesses must be examined in court. 
 
 " Judges are required to attend to the manner 
 in which the witnesses give their testimony, as 
 well as to the nature of it. 
 
 " The king's court is the guardian of the pro- 
 perty of minors under sixteen years of age. 
 
 " Escheat cannot be applied to the king's use, 
 till public proclamation for heirs has been made 
 for three years. 
 
 " A sixth, a tenth, or a twelfth, according to 
 circumstances, is the droit of the king for the 
 preservation of property which has been retained 
 by the king in default of owners or heirs. 
 
 " Of old hoards and precious minerals dug out of 
 the earth the king is entitled to halfj by reason of 
 his general protection, and because he is the lord 
 paramount of the soil." 
 
 We shall now proceed to show what privileges 
 
 * Vide Haughton's Institutes of Menu, chap. viii.
 
 26 LAND-TAX 
 
 belong to him as lord paramount of the soil, and 
 what rights to the occupant. 
 
 Chapter IX. " Sages who know former times 
 consider this earth (Prithivi) as the wife of king 
 Prithi ; and thus they pronounce cultivated land 
 to be the property of him who cut away the wood, 
 or who cleared and tilled it, and the antelope that 
 of the first hunter who mortally wounded it. 
 
 49. " They who, having no property in the 
 field, but having grain in their possession, sow 
 it in soil owned by another, can receive no ad- 
 vantage whatever from the corn which may be 
 produced." 
 
 The care which the legislator has taken to 
 guard against the infraction of the landlord's rights 
 will be best shown by what follows. 
 
 In Chapter VIII. On Private Rights, we find it 
 thus recorded : — 
 
 237. " On all sides of a village or small town 
 let a space be left for pasture, in breadth either 
 four hundred cubits (200 yards), or three casts of 
 a large stick, and thrice that space round a city or 
 considerable town. 
 
 238. " Within that pasture ground, if any 
 cattle do any damage to grain in a field unen- 
 closed with a hedge, the king shall not punish the 
 herdsman. 
 
 239. " Let the owner of the field enclose it 
 with a hedge of thorny plants over which a ca- 
 mel could not look, and let him stop every gap
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 27 
 
 tli rough which a dog or a boar may thrust his 
 head." 
 Again : — 
 
 245. " If a contest arise between two villages 
 or landholders concerning a boundary, let the king 
 or his judge ascertain the limits in the month 
 Jaistha (July)*, when the landmarks are seen most 
 distinctly. 
 
 246. " When boundaries are Jirst established, 
 let strong trees be planted on them : Vatas, Pip- 
 palas, Palasas, Salmalas, Salas or Talas, or such 
 trees (like the) Udumbra or Vapadi, as abound in 
 milk.t 
 
 247. " Or clustering shrubs or Venus of dif- 
 ferent sorts, or Sarnie trees and creepers, or Laras 
 and clumps of Cubjaca, and mounds of earth 
 should be raised on (around?) them, so that the 
 landmarks may not perish. 
 
 248. " Lakes and wells, pools and streams, 
 ought also to be made on the common limits, and 
 (also) temples dedicated to the gods. 
 
 249. " The persons concerned, reflecting on the 
 perpetual trespasses committed by men here below 
 through ignorance of boundaries, should cause 
 other landmarks to be concealed under ground : — 
 
 250. " Large pieces of stone, bones, tails of 
 
 * The crops in the north of India are then either off the 
 ground, or so low that the landmarks may easily be pointed 
 out. 
 
 f Prickly Euphorbias, which are tenacious of life, and are 
 not easily eradicated.
 
 28 LAND-TAX 
 
 cows, bran, ashes, potsherds, dried cow-dung, 
 bricks, tiles, charcoal, pebbles, and sand. 
 
 260. " And substances of all sorts which the 
 earth corrodes not even in a long time should be 
 placed in jars, not appearing above ground on the 
 common boundary.* 
 
 261. "By such marks, or by the course of a 
 stream, and long continued possession, the judge 
 may ascertain the limits between the lands of two 
 parties in litigation. 
 
 253. " Should there be a doubt even on the 
 inspection of those marks, recourse must be had 
 for the decision of such a contest to the declaration 
 of witnesses. 
 
 254. " Those witnesses must be examined con- 
 cerning the landmarks in the presence of all the 
 townsmen or villagers of both the contending 
 parties. 
 
 255. "What the witnesses, thus assembled and 
 interrogated, shall positively declare concerning 
 the limits, must be recorded in writing, together 
 with all their names. 
 
 256. " Let them, putting earth on their heads, 
 wearing chaplets of flowers, and clad in red mantles, 
 be sworn, by the reward of all their several good 
 actions, to give correct evidence concerning the 
 metes and bounds. 
 
 257. " Veracious witnesses, who give evidence 
 
 * Such deposits, when found, would prove that they could 
 not have been buried there accidentally.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 29 
 
 as the law requires, are absolved from their sins ; 
 but such as give it unjustly shall be fined two 
 hundred panas. 
 
 258. " If there be no witnesses, let four men* 
 who dwell on all the four sides of the two villages 
 make a decision concerning the boundary ; being 
 duly prepared, like the witnesses, in the presence 
 of the king. 
 
 259. " If there be no such neighbours on all 
 sides, nor any men whose ancestors had lived 
 there since the villages were built, nor other in- 
 habitants of towns who can give evidence of the 
 limits, the judge must examine the following men 
 who inhabit the woods : — 
 
 260. " Hunters, fowlers, herdsmen, fishers, 
 diggers for roots, catchers of snakes, gleaners, and 
 other foresters. 
 
 261. " According to their declaration when 
 they are duly examined, let the king with precision 
 order landmarks to be fixed on the boundary-line 
 between the two villages. 
 
 262. " As to the bounds of arable fields, wells, 
 or pools, gardens, and houses, the testimony of 
 next neighbours on every side must be considered 
 as the best means of decision. 
 
 263. " Should the neighbours say any thing 
 untrue about a landmark, the king shall make each 
 
 * This must not be taken literally. Four men is a figure of 
 speech for several men ; as we should say, collect a dozen men 
 in all the four corners, without meaning exactly twelve men, 
 or literally the four corners.
 
 30 LAND-TAX 
 
 of those witnesses pay the middlemost of the three 
 amercements. 
 
 264. " He who by means of intimidation shall 
 possess himself of a house, a pool, a field, or a 
 garden, shall be fined two hundred panas ; but 
 only one hundred, if he trespassed through igno- 
 rance of the right. 
 
 265. " If the boundary cannot be otherwise as- 
 certained, let the king, knowing what is just, that 
 is, without partiality^ and consulting the future 
 benefit of the parties, make a boundary-line be- 
 tween their lands. This is a settled law." 
 
 On the subject of the sale of land, Menu re- 
 quires six formalities to be observed :— «• 
 
 " 1st, The assent of townsmen. 
 
 " 2d, The assent of kindred. 
 
 "3d, The assent of neighbours. 
 
 " 4th, The assent of heirs. 
 
 "5th, The delivery of gold. 
 
 " 6th, The delivery of water." 
 
 The assent of townsmen and of kindred, to give 
 the transaction publicity ; the assent of neigh- 
 bours, for the sake of preventing future disputes 
 about boundaries ; and the assent of heirs and 
 of kinsmen, to show the right of the individual to 
 sell. The sale of immovable property also re- 
 quires the donation of gold, to render the convey- 
 ance complete. There is a remarkable coincidence, 
 in the whole of this edict, to the circumstances 
 attending the sale of the field of Machpelah to 
 Abraham. The practice of giving a valuable
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 3L 
 
 consideration, in order to render the purchase of 
 land complete, seems to have travelled from the 
 East into Europe, and, it is well known, forms 
 one of the provisions of the English law of con- 
 veyancing at the present day. 
 
 Having proved sufficiently for my purpose the 
 perfect existence of private property in the land, 
 I shall proceed to show what claims the lord para- 
 mount of the soil has on this private property. 
 Menu thus describes the king's sources of reve- 
 nue, in which description is included, incidentally, 
 the tax derived from the land : — 
 
 Chapter VII. 127. " Having ascertained the 
 rates of purchase and sale, the length of the way, 
 the expenses of the food and of condiments, the 
 charges of securing the goods carried, and the 
 neat profits of trade, let the king oblige traders 
 to pay taxes on their saleable commodities : — 
 
 130. " Of cattle, of gems, of gold and silver, 
 added each year to the capital stock, a fiftieth 
 part* ; of grain an eighth part, a sixth, or a 
 
 TWELFTH, ACCORDING TO THE DIFFERENCE OF THE 
 SOIL, AND THE LABOUR NECESSARY TO CULTIVATE IT. 
 
 131. " He may also take a sixth part of the 
 clear annual increase of trees, flesh-meat, honey, 
 
 * A remarkable instance of the deference shown to ancient 
 customs and laws is exhibited in the practice regarding the 
 droits of seignorage on precious gems, even in modern times. 
 Tbe portion of the gems taken from the Golconda mine was two 
 per cent in the time of Tavernier, as related by Anquetil 
 du Perron in his notes on the travels of le Pere Paulin Bar- 
 tholemi, vol.iii. Paris edit. 1808.
 
 32 LAND-TAX 
 
 clarified butter, perfumes, medical substances, 
 liquids, flowers, roots, and fruit." 
 
 Thus we find the following were the legitimate 
 rates of taxation : — On gems and precious metals, 
 two per cent. ; on corn produce, either eight, 
 twelve, or seventeen per cent, of the crop, accord- 
 ing to the nature of the soil and the labour. 
 
 Provision, however, is made by the legislator for 
 the emergencies of war. He observes: — 
 
 Chapter X. 118. " A military king, who takes 
 even a fourth part of the crops of his realm, at a 
 time of urgent necessity, as of war or invasion, and 
 protects his people to the utmost of his power, 
 commits no sin. 
 
 119. " His peculiar duty is conquest, and he 
 must not recede from battle ; so that, while he de- 
 fends by his arms the merchant and husbandman, 
 he may levy the legal tax, as the price of pro- 
 tection. 
 
 120. " The tax on the mercantile class, which 
 in times of prosperity must only be a twelfth part of 
 their crops, and a fiftieth par^t of their personal 
 profits, may be an eighth of their crops in a time 
 of distress, or a sixth, which is the medium; or even 
 a fourth, in great public adversity : but a twentieth 
 of their gains in money and other movables is the 
 highest tax. Serving-men, artisans, and mechanics, 
 must assist by their labour*, but at no time pay 
 taxes. 
 
 * One day's labour in the month, or twelve days per annum.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 33 
 
 Having exhausted all that seemed to my pur- 
 pose from the ancient Hindoo code, I think we 
 must conclude that the laws not only define with 
 accuracy the rights of the king and the subject, 
 but restrain the former in ordinary times from 
 taking more than 17 per cent, of the produce of 
 the best land. 
 
 It is curious to observe how this state of the 
 laws struck the ancients. The historians of Alex- 
 ander, and after them Strabo and Diodorus, accord- 
 ing to Dr. Robertson, give the following picture of 
 Hindoo society*: — "Though monarchical govern- 
 ment was established throughout India the sove- 
 reign authority was far from being uncontrolled. 
 The Brahmins, or priests, were of the highest and 
 most sacred class ; their blood could not be spilt 
 without incurring the deepest guilt, and their office 
 required them to warn the sovereign when his 
 conduct was contrary to the laws of the realm. 
 Their admonition and even their censures were to 
 be received with submissive reverencet ; and in- 
 stances are recorded of those monarchs who refused 
 to be guided by their advice being deposed and 
 even put to death.":}: 
 
 While such deference was due to the sacred 
 character of the Brahmins, the public officers of the 
 government, whether military or civil, were for the 
 
 * See Robertson's Appendix, Hist, of India, p. 240. 
 f Strabo, lib.xv. p. 1029. 
 
 X Preface to Code of Gentoo Laws, pp. 102. 116. 
 D
 
 34 LAND-TAX 
 
 most part chosen out of the same caste as the sove- 
 reign himself. These offices were usually heredi- 
 tary ; and such was the local influence and power 
 of those holding them, that any violent infraction 
 of the rights of any of those chiefs endangered the 
 public peace and produced revolution. Nor were 
 certain rights confined only to the upper classes : 
 the cultivators enjoyed specific rights which could 
 not be infringed. In the time of Alexander* " the 
 cultivators contributed a fourth part of their crops 
 to the sovereign ; and as long as the husbandman 
 continued to pay the government dues, the land 
 occupied by him descended from generation to 
 generation like private property." The fourth 
 part alluded to was the war-tax, which Porus and 
 those Indian princes who opposed Alexander 
 had a right to levy according to the law.t " Even 
 war," says Dr. Robertson, " did not interrupt the 
 labours of the husbandman, or endanger his pro- 
 perty. It was not uncommon, we are informed, 
 that, while two hostile armies were fighting a battle 
 in one field, the peasants were ploughing or reaping 
 in another in perfect tranquillity." The Greeks, 
 though possessing at the time the most perfect 
 civil institutions at that time known in Europe, men- 
 tion those of the Indians in the time of Alexander 
 with great admiration, and as instances of high 
 civilisation and improvement. " It is not wonder- 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xv. p. 1030. Diod. Sicul. lib.ii. p.53> 
 f lb. p. 1030.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 35 
 
 ful, therefore," observes Dr. Robertson,* " that 
 the ancients should describe the Indians as a most 
 happy race of men ; and that the most intelligent 
 modern observers should celebrate the equity, the 
 humanity, and the mildness of Indian policy." 
 
 It is not intended by these quotations to prove 
 that the institutes of Menu, collated by Kulluca 
 2700 years ago, however venerable, are strictly ap- 
 plicable to the Hindoos of modern times, no more 
 than the laws of Alfred are suited to England at 
 the present day, but both may be deemed the basis 
 of the common law of both nations. 
 
 Although Menu has embraced all subjects of 
 legislation, and has entered into much detail re- 
 garding the rights of landed property, he has laid 
 down no rules for the internal economy of villages 
 and towns : a circumstance the more remarkable, 
 as this part of the Hindoo constitution appears once 
 to have been universal throughout the country. 
 
 Each village in India contains within itself the 
 seeds of an entire republic or government : wars, 
 deluges, pestilence, or famine, may break it up for 
 a time, but it has a tendency to re-unite which 
 nothing can prevent. It consists of an agricul- 
 tural corporation owning all the land, at the head 
 of whom is a chief elected by the corporation. It 
 has also at least one individual of all the crafts 
 necessary to agriculture and essential to the com- 
 forts of rural life. 
 
 * Robertson's India, Appendix, p. 244, 
 D 2
 
 S() LAND-TAX 
 
 The description of this little community has 
 been so often before the public, that much detail 
 is here unnecessary. It consists of a head of the 
 village, originally elected by the people, whose 
 office is confirmed by the king and is hereditary in 
 the same family. This officer in the ancient* law- 
 books is termed Gram-Adikar, while his deputy* or 
 record-keeper, usually of the class of Brahmin, is 
 styled Gram-Lekuk. The other village officers 
 are denominated Balowtay, and are twelve in num- 
 ber; viz. — 
 
 1. The Carpenter. 
 
 2. The Blacksmith. 
 
 3. The Shoemaker. 
 
 4. The Mhar. 
 
 5. The Cordwainer. 
 
 6. The Potter. 
 
 7. The Barber. 
 
 8. The Washerman. 
 
 9. The Priest of the temple. 
 
 10. The Schoolmaster and the Astrologer. 
 
 11. The Bard or village poet. 
 
 12. The distributer of the water. 
 
 Besides these there are twelve others denomi- 
 nated Alowtay.f Part, if not the whole, of these 
 
 * Vignianeswara Sastra and others. 
 
 -f- The following are the twelve Balowtay, and twelve Alowtay, 
 according to the general, but not universal opinion of the Mah- 
 
 rattas ; — First, Balowtay The head of the twelve Balowtay is 
 
 the carpenter. Second, the blacksmith. Third, the shoemaker 
 and currier. Fourth, the Mhar, or Dher. This is a person of
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. #7 
 
 officers exist in every village, from Ceylon to 
 Cashmeer. 
 
 The land belonging to every township is accu- 
 rately defined, and the village officers above men- 
 
 the ver}' lowest order of Shunkerjatee, except the Mang ; but 
 on the village establishment his duties are very important. The 
 Mhar acts as scout, as guide, frequently as watchman ; he cleans 
 travellers' horses, and is obliged, if required, to carry the tra- 
 vellers' baggage ; he is a principal guardian of the village 
 boundaries, and in Maharashtra, the Mhars are a very active, 
 useful, and intelligent race of people. Fifth, the Mang, makes 
 all leather ropes, thongs, whips, &c. used by the cultivators ; 
 he frequently acts as watchman ; he is by profession a thief 
 and executioner ; he readily hires himself as an assassin, and 
 when he commits a robbery, he also frequently murders. The 
 Mangs are not so intelligent as the Mhars : both the one and 
 the other eat the carcasses of cattle that have died of disease, 
 and are exceedingly filthy in many respects. Sixth, the pot- 
 ter. Seventh, the barber. Eighth, the washerman. Ninth, 
 the gooroto, who is a shooder employed to wash, ornament, and 
 attend the idol in the village temple ; and on occasions of feast- 
 ing, to prepare the patroivlee or leaves, which the Hindoos sub- 
 stitute for plates. They are also trumpeters by profession, 
 and in this capacity are much employed in Mahratta armies. 
 Tenth, the joshee or astrologer, is a Brahmin who calculates 
 nativities, foretells lucky and unlucky days, &c. Eleventh, 
 the bhat or bard. Twelfth, the moolana, so called by the 
 Mahrattas, is the moolla, or Mahomedan priest ; and it is very 
 strange how he is found ingrafted on the Balowtay establish- 
 ment of a Hindoo village; if on the Alowtay, which some say 
 he ought to be, it would have been less unaccountable, especially 
 if we admit, as is frequently done, that the institution of the 
 Alowtay must have been at a period long after that of the 
 Balowtay ; but this seems little more than mere conjecture. — 
 The moolana has charge of the mosques and burial places 
 of Mahomedan saints, and manages the affairs of Enam, or 
 freehold lands attached to them. He performs the ceremony 
 
 D 3
 
 38 LAND-TAX 
 
 tioned are retained on the spot by the assignment 
 of a portion of it to each. These lots are usually 
 situated on the borders of the village limits, in order 
 
 at Mahoraedan marriages, and ought to be competent to 
 all the duties of a Moolla ; but he is very often found where 
 there is no Mahomedan family except his own, and is 
 known to the Mahratta population as the person who kills their 
 sheep and goats when offered as a sacrifice at temples, or in 
 their fields, to propitiate the deities presiding over the different 
 stulls, or great divisions of the village lands. The Moolana, 
 likewise, kills the sheep for the Katik, who, although fre- 
 quently mistaken for the butcher, is, in fact, the person who 
 cleans and exposes the meat for sale. The Moolana is entitled 
 to two pice (small copper coin), and the heart of every animal 
 he kills for the Katik. Some of the Mahrattas are unmindful 
 of the ceremony, but in general they profess not to eat flesh, 
 unless the neyt has been pronounced by the Moolana, or some 
 Mussulman capable of repeating what renders the flesh of any 
 animal hullal, or lawful to be eaten. To account for this extra- 
 ordinary adoption of Mahomedan observance puzzles the 
 Hindoos. The Moolana has the same kind of allowances as 
 the other Balowtay. Second, the Alovotay, are : First, the 
 Sonar, or goldsmith ; he is assayer of coins, as well as the maker 
 of gold and silver ornaments for the richer inhabitants. Second, 
 the Jungum, or Gooroo of the Lingait sect. Third, the tailor. 
 Fourth, the Kolee, or water-carrier. Fifth, the Tural, or Yeskur, 
 is a Mhar ; but the Alowtay rights, which constitute the Tural's 
 emoluments, are distinct from the Balowtay of the Mhars. It 
 is the duty of the Tural to remain in the village, and never to 
 quit its boundary. He is at the constant call of the Patell, 
 But his particular duty is to attend strangers, and take care of 
 all travellers from the moment of their entering the village; of 
 which, if walled, the Tural is porter. He furnishes all ne- 
 cessary information, as well as supplies, to strangers, and is 
 often extremely useful to them. His duties are very nume- 
 rous. Sixth, the gardener. Seventh, the Dowree Gosawee, a
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 39 
 
 to give to the hereditary officers a perfect know- 
 ledge under all circumstances of the boundary of 
 the township. The whole land seems originally to 
 have been divided into ten, twenty, or more shares, 
 each bearing the names of the first settlers. The go- 
 vernment portion was originally paid in kind, and 
 its amount was taken from the gross produce, esti- 
 mated according to the quantity of seed sown, or 
 according to the actual crop. Each cultivator also 
 contributed something as fees to all the village 
 
 religious personage who beats the Dour, a species of small tam- 
 bourin. Eighth, the Gursee, or piper. The Gursees, as 
 already noticed, are said to be descended from the aborigines 
 of Dhund Karinya, the forest, or country between the sources 
 of the Beema and Cavery. Ninth, the Ramoosee, or Bheel. 
 These, although their office is the same when employed on 
 the village establishment, are different castes of people, but they 
 resemble each other in many of their habits ; both are pro- 
 fessed thieves. The Ramoosees belong more particularly to 
 Maharashtra. The Bheels, in the Mahratta country, are only 
 found in Candeish, and along the Syhadree range, north of 
 Joonere. In villages, they generally hold the office of watch- 
 man ; and when a country is settled, they become useful auxi- 
 liaries in the police ; but under a weak government, or when 
 anarchy prevails, they quit their habitations, and become 
 thieves and robbers. The Ramoosees use the sword and match- 
 lock : the Bheels more commonly the bow and arrow; the 
 latter are less domesticated than the former. Bheels abound 
 to the north of the Nerbuddah, and over the greater part of Gu- 
 zerat. When employed on the village establishment, they are, 
 in that province, called Burtinneas. Tenth, the Telee, or oil 
 seller. Eleventh, Tambowlee, or pawn leaf vender. Twelfth, 
 the Gonedulle, or beater of the tambhut, a double kettle-drum. — 
 Grant's History of the Mahrattas, vol. i. p. 31, 
 
 D 4
 
 40 LAND-TAX 
 
 officers, who received these fees in addition to the 
 lands they occupied free of tax to the king. The 
 Gram-Adikar, or village mayor, originally elected 
 by the people, was at the same time the represent- 
 ative of the inhabitants and of the government. 
 He decided disputes, either in person or by con- 
 vening a court of arbitration : he was the head of 
 the police; and the whole community was bound 
 to produce to the government either the property 
 or the thief in case of robberies, and the guilty 
 in more serious cases, such as of murder. Besides 
 the government tax an extra contribution was 
 made for village expenses, not unlike that of the 
 parish rates in Europe. The most minute details 
 of the transfer and sale of land, of rents and con- 
 tracts, as well as of receipts and disbursements, were 
 recorded by the village clerk, or Gram-Lekuk, un- 
 der authority of the Gram-Adikar, whose accounts 
 were always open to inspection. Thus each village 
 was in itself a small state, several villages formed a 
 district, over which also presided a chief denomi- 
 nated Des- Adikar, and under whom was also a re- 
 cord-keeper, denominated Des-Lekuk.* The former 
 superintended all the villages of his department, as 
 the Gram-Adikar presided over the concerns of his 
 
 * The appellation of the village headmen and clerks, and the 
 district chiefs and their record-keepers, differs in the various 
 tongues of the several nations wherein they are found, though 
 the duties and perquisites are everywhere of a similar nature. 
 The general term here given is derived from the Sanscrit law 
 books.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. ' 41 
 
 village; and the Des-Lekuk received from the 
 village clerks their accounts, and presented an ab- 
 stract to the government. These latter officers were 
 usually conciliated by the villages, by assignments 
 of land from each, and were paid by the govern- 
 ment by a per centage of the collections. The pro- 
 portion of each remuneration was not defined, and 
 seems to have differed in various parts ; though for 
 the most part a tenth of the revenue divided be- 
 tween these district chiefs appears to have been the 
 fee of office. 
 
 It was not unusual for the king to maintain his 
 army, and to reward the officers and nobles of his 
 courts, by assignments on the revenue ; and, al- 
 though those chieftains resided in the districts them- 
 selves, they had no authority to interfere in the an- 
 cient usages of the people, but merely to receive 
 the king's dues, permitting the village commu- 
 nities to manage their own concerns. 
 
 As each village, however small, employed at 
 least one of the principal mechanics, so, when it 
 became enlarged to the capacity of a town, a cer- 
 tain number of each craft formed a corporate body, 
 like that of the agriculturists. These bodies then 
 chose their chief or alderman in the same way as the 
 landowners elected their mayor, and through him 
 the government imposed its taxes on the ward and 
 carried on its intercourse. In large cities there 
 are aldermen of wards and corporations, the latter 
 having their own bye-laws and a court of adjudi-
 
 42 LAND-TAX 
 
 cation for their own affairs independent of all other 
 courts.* 
 
 A summary of the civil institutions of the Hin- 
 doos having been thus given, I shall proceed to an 
 examination of those authorities in which we find 
 local information contained as to the landed tenures. 
 It is known that the Hindoo nations, many centu- 
 ries, perhaps thousands of years, after their occu- 
 pation of India, were in their turn invaded by the 
 Mahomedans in the early part of the eleventh cen- 
 tury. From that time till the beginning of the eigh- 
 teenth century, the Moslems continued to press on- 
 ward from the north, and established their authority, 
 more or less, from Cashmeer to the neighbourhood 
 of Madras. A reaction then took place on the part 
 of the Hindoos, and the Mahomedan power gra- 
 dually declined during the whole of the last century, 
 till at the present day the mere shadow of its former 
 existence remains, in the courts of the Emperor at 
 Delhi, the Nizam at Hyderabad, and the King of 
 Oude. 
 
 The Mahomedan conquest and rule was sub- 
 versive of the Hindoo governments, and in a great 
 measure of its institutions. In seeking for the pic- 
 ture of the latter, therefore, we must proceed far to 
 
 * These courts under the name of Punchayut, or council of 
 five, assemble under an order from the alderman or Setty, and 
 adjust all matters concerning the caste or corporation ; imposing 
 fines, dissolving marriages and other contracts, and settling the 
 payments of debts without the intervention of the king's courts. 
 The awards in these courts, too, are usually final.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 43 
 
 the south, where the Mahomedans never penetrated. 
 By this means, I am in hopes that, by tracing the 
 Hindoo institutions from that quarter, I shall be 
 able to show what the original rights of the people 
 were under their own sovereigns. 
 
 CEYLON. 
 
 I commence this examination from the island of 
 Ceylon, where, though the inhabitants are for the 
 most part not of the Brahminical faith, yet they evi- 
 dently belong to the same class of Hindoos which 
 first conquered India from the indigenous race. To 
 the exertions of an able and talented public servant 
 of the British government* we are indebted for a 
 very excellent statistical account of the island, de- 
 rived from materials and information acquired on 
 the spot after many years' residence. We have 
 little intelligence regarding the ancient history of 
 the people, and nothing authentic, till the arrival 
 of Europeans, in the fifteenth century. The splen- 
 did remains of edifices for public worship, and for 
 supplying the lands with water, described by this 
 author, bespeak a degree of former wealth and mag- 
 nificence no longer to be found. An artificial lake, 
 of fifteen miles circumference, whose waters are 
 confined, and a dam supported by buttresses of 
 
 * M. Bertolacci, who for many years held some of the 
 highest offices under the king's government on the island, 
 f Bertolacci's Ceylon, p. 13.
 
 41< LAND-TAX 
 
 solid masonry, the blocks of which are from twelve 
 to fourteen feet long, and thick in proportion, is 
 still to be seen. In another place a dam, of 150 
 feet breadth at the base, and 30 at the summit, con- 
 necting two hills, is particularly worthy of notice. 
 The water in these reservoirs is regulated by sluices, 
 which draw up and down in front of arches, con- 
 structed in the masonry for the purpose. The au- 
 thor very justly observes, " In these splendid works 
 we find thus the incontestable signs of an immense 
 population, and an extensive agriculture. ,, 
 
 In Ceylon, as in other parts of India, we discover 
 a race of aborigines, having a distinct religion, and 
 dwelling in the forests. " The Vedas* or Bedas, 
 who by all appearances are the only indigenous na- 
 tion in the island, live in a savage state, in all that 
 large forest which extends from the south to the 
 east and north upon the borders of our frontiers, as 
 well as far into the Candian territories, and upon 
 the Warney provinces.'* 
 
 The Hindoos, of which there are two classes, 
 form the mass of the population : added to these is 
 a considerable colony of Mahomedans, descended 
 from the Arab traders and settlers who have car- 
 ried on commerce with the island from a very re- 
 mote period. The real Ceylonese pretend to de- 
 rive their origin from Siam, and profess the tenets 
 of the Bhoodist faith. They form the nations of 
 the interior of the country, and were till lately go- 
 
 * Bertolacci, p. 40. et seq.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. -1o 
 
 verned by the King of Candy; while those Hin- 
 doos professing the tenets of the Brahminical faith 
 are of the same stock as the inhabitants of the Pe- 
 ninsula, and differ little from them in their man- 
 ners. 
 
 M. Bertolacci assumes that the whole of the 
 land in Ceylon is by law the property of the crown ; 
 but, in examining more minutely the conditions of 
 the tenures, we find the existence of landed pro- 
 perty as fully and firmly established as in most 
 other countries. He observes, " that the variety 
 of tenures is so great, and the consequent distinc- 
 tions so many, that few individuals are masters of 
 the subject."* From this passage, the reader is 
 naturally put on his guard from supposing the uni- 
 versality of the regal proprietary right. 
 
 He has divided the tenures into three principal 
 classes, each of which he subsequently subdi- 
 vides : — 
 
 1st, Crown lands, the domain of the fisc. 
 
 2d, Lands permanently alienated by the croxvn, 
 which descend to heirs in perpetuity, and are sale- 
 able. 
 
 . 3d, Lands alienated to individuals or families on 
 condition of their performing certain duties. 
 
 The first class is subdivided into five distinct 
 heads : — 
 
 1st, Moittetoe : lands cultivated for the use of 
 
 the king's household with particular species of 
 
 grain. 
 
 * Bertolacci, book iii., Tenure of Land, p. 283.
 
 46 LAND-TAX 
 
 2d, Retneinde : lands cultivated by the king's 
 own servants or slaves. 
 
 3d, Ratnahara : crown lands capable of culture, 
 and rented to cultivators on terms made at the time 
 with the king's officers ; the conditions of which 
 are usually the free occupation for five years with- 
 out payment of tax, and subsequently a payment 
 of one tenth of the produce if on high soil incapable 
 of irrigation, and of one fourth * when capable of 
 being irrigated. In case this land be occupied 
 without permission of the king, he demands one 
 half of the produce. 
 
 4th, Mallapalla : land formerly alienated in re- 
 muneration of service, but which has lapsed in fail- 
 ure of male heirs. 
 
 5th, Nellipalla: land which has been resumed 
 in failure of the requisite service. 
 
 The second class (the saleable land) is termed 
 Parveny. 
 
 1st, Parveny lands are those which have been 
 granted by the crown to families or individuals 
 originally for the performance of service, but in 
 failure of the service, they have been allowed to 
 remain in the hands of the possessors and their pos- 
 
 * It is necessary to explain in this place, that land will 
 yield, when abundantly watered, a crop, which, from its value 
 and quantity, is worth twenty times that of a crop of dry grain. 
 The government goes to a vast expense in constructing tanks, 
 aqueducts, and other public works, which it is obliged to keep 
 in repair. This entitles it, therefore, to an extra share of the 
 produce.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 47 
 
 terity. When these lands have been converted into 
 gardens they are exempted from tax, while others 
 are held on the following tenure, 
 
 2d, Atta Parveny land, paying one tenth of the 
 produce. 
 
 3d, Andra Parveny land, paying one half of the 
 produce. 
 
 4th, Combra Parveny land, paying one fifth. 
 
 5th, Carwoodeny Parveny land, paying one 
 fifth. 
 
 The third and last class comprise the lands 
 alienated to the families of persons performing pub- 
 lic service, either in the village or the district. 
 Such lands, while the service is performed, are 
 liable to no tax, and they descend hereditarily to 
 the male heir, but they cannot be sold, as in case 
 of failure of heirs they revert to the government. * 
 " In this manner the civil and military officers of 
 the native Ceylonese were paid. The heads of the 
 civil offices in the different districts were formerly 
 the Coralesf, who had under them the Atta-Co- 
 rales, the ( Vidans, the Lecams, Mayorales, Naides, 
 
 * Bertolacci's Ceylon, book iii. part ii. No. I. p. 288. 
 
 •j* ** The Corale is an overseer or civil commissioner of a 
 province ; he has under him several Atta-Corales or assist- 
 ants, and several other officers for the administration of all 
 civil matters in his province. The Vidans, or heads of vil- 
 lages, were particularly charged with the police, the protection 
 of the people, the regulation of agriculture, and to see that the 
 share of government was rendered as it became due. The 
 Lecams, clerks or writers, are persons who keep the public 
 accounts ; the Mayorales are tax gatherers ; Coolies, labourers
 
 48 LAND-TAX 
 
 and Coolies. The military are the Moodeliars, 
 Mohanderams, Aratchies, Canganees, and Lascar- 
 eens, the several appellations for officers of differ- 
 ent grades." 
 
 In consequence of the numerous disputes be- 
 tween the Corales and the Moodeliars in the time 
 of the Dutch government, it placed whole districts 
 under the charge of the Moodeliars, and abolishing 
 the office of Corale, vested all the civil authority 
 in the hands of the military commandant. 
 
 This system prevailed till the British govern- 
 ment conquered the island, in 1795. At that 
 time a land-tax of one tenth of the produce was 
 imposed on these lands, in lieu of service, but 
 they were confirmed to the possessors and their 
 heirs for ever, and rendered saleable ; while the 
 individuals holding them were either retained in 
 the public service, on a fixed salary, or removed, 
 as their services were required. 
 
 '* This is the present condition of those lands, 
 which were formerly held immediately under per- 
 sonal service tenure, in the provinces inhabited by 
 the Ceylonese."* 
 
 After the conquest of a considerable part of the 
 north of Ceylon, by the people of the continent, 
 a reaction appears to have occurred on the part 
 of the ancient inhabitants, and the Malabar nation 
 
 of different occupations ; and the Naides are their headmen or 
 overseers to conduct and regulate their work." 
 
 * Bertolacci's Ceylon, book iii. part ii. No. I. p. 294.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 49 
 
 was compelled to pay tribute to the government 
 of Candy. In all the provinces extending from 
 Putlam round the northern coast as far as Batti- 
 cala, the government share of rice in the husk is 
 invariably one tenth of the gross produce. It is 
 unnecessary to go into the details of agricultural 
 settlements made between individuals, my object 
 being to show the tax imposed by the sovereign 
 on the landholder. We may reduce what has 
 been above stated to the following conclusion, 
 
 1st. That formerly, as well as at present, the 
 sovereign was the " lord paramount" of all un- 
 claimed land, and that a considerable portion of his 
 revenue was derived from its culture on his own 
 account. 
 
 2d. That he received from all persons occu- 
 pying land on their own account one tenth of the 
 produce, in consideration of which the possessor 
 might sell or alienate his land in any manner he 
 chose. 
 
 3d. That the king conferred on the public 
 functionaries of his government the entire usufruct 
 of certain lands for the performance of special 
 service. 
 
 4th. That these lands were hereditary; but in 
 failure of male heirs, or of service performed, the 
 estates reverted to the crown. 
 
 5th. That in each village in Ceylon was a Vidan 
 (Gram Adikar) and Lecam (Gram Lekuk) ; in the 
 
 E
 
 50 LAND-TAX 
 
 districts were chiefs, denominated Desavies and 
 Adigars (Des Adikars). 
 
 These, according to our author, had lands as- 
 signed to them free of tax, in remuneration for 
 services to be performed ; but under the British 
 government their services have been paid for in 
 money, and their lands taxed like the rest of 
 those on the island, in one tenth of the produce. 
 All these lands are saleable like other private pro- 
 perty.* 
 
 * The difficulty with which Europeans understand the na- 
 ture of landed tenures in India, and the fact of existence of 
 private landed property, are both exhibited in the following 
 statement of a Dutchman, who resided more than a centurv 
 ago in the neighbourhood of Candy: — 
 
 " In the time of my residence here, I chanced to hear of 
 a small piece of land that was to be sold, about which I 
 made very diligent enquiry." — " Although I had now been 
 seven or eight years in that country, and by this time came to 
 know pretty well the customs and constitutions of the nation, 
 yet I would not trust my own knowledge, but, to prevent the 
 worst, I went to the governor of that same country where the 
 land lay, to desire his advice, whether or no I might lawfully 
 buy that piece of land. He enquired whose and what land it 
 was. I informed him that it had been formerly dedicated to a 
 priest, and he at his death had left it to his grandson, who, for 
 want, was forced to sell it. 
 
 " Understanding this, the governor approved of the busi- 
 ness, and encouraged me to buy it, saying, that such kinds of 
 land only were lawful here to be bought and sold, and that 
 this was not in the least litigious. Having gotten both his
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 51 
 
 MADRAS TERRITORY. 
 
 From Ceylon we pass into the territories in 
 the south of the peninsula, placed under the 
 Madras government. These territories consist of 
 the ancient Hindoo kingdoms of Pandya, Kerala, 
 Tondeimandelum, and Vijayanagar. Madura was 
 the ancient seat of government of the Pandyan 
 kings, as noticed by the Greek writers.* Kerala 
 extended along the coast from Cape Comorin 
 northward, below the great western range of 
 mountains, and included the modern principalities 
 of Travancore, Cochin, Malabar, and Canara. 
 
 TONDEIMANDELUM. 
 
 The dynasties of Chola and Chera alternately- 
 reigned over Tondeimandelum, a tract of country 
 extending from Nellore on the north, to Tritchi- 
 nopoly on the south, including all the territory 
 
 consent and advice, I went on cheerfully with the purchase." 
 u The terms of purchase being concluded on between us, a 
 writing was made upon a leaf, after that country's manner, wit- 
 nessed by seven or eight men of the best quality in town, 
 which was delivered to me, and I paid the money, and then 
 took possession of the land : it lies some ten miles to the 
 southward of the city of Candy, in the country of Oudaneer, 
 in the town of Elledah.'' — Knoxs Ceylon, p. 291. 
 * Pliny. Indocoplcustes, Periplus, &c. &c. 
 
 E 2
 
 5% LAND-TAX 
 
 lying below the table-land of Mysoor ; while great 
 part of Mysoor, and all that tract lying south 
 of the Krishna river, between Masulipatam and 
 Goa, appertained to Hindoo sovereigns, termed 
 Bilala, who held their court in later years at 
 Vijayanagar, or Beejanagar. 
 
 It would be quite departing from my subject 
 to enter into the history of these territories ; 
 suffice it to say, that when we became acquainted 
 with them the ancient regal governments had 
 been overthrown, and their kingdoms were sub- 
 divided among numerous minor princes, or chiefs, 
 each claiming a sort of independence within his 
 own range. Some of these were masters of from 
 about thirty to several hundred villages, while 
 others, like the rajahs of Tanjore and Mysoor, of 
 modern origin, retained actual independent so- 
 vereignty. So, in like manner, did the rajahs of 
 Cochin and Tra van core. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that, in all that tract of 
 country not subdued by the Mahomedans, we 
 find the aborigines a race distinct from the Hin- 
 doos (having neither religion nor prejudices in 
 common with the latter) held in subjection by 
 them as serfs of the soil. It is curious to trace 
 the cause of this circumstance, and to discover, 
 that wherever the Mahomedans conquered, there 
 the aborigines became free. The board of revenue 
 of Madras, whose labours and investigations do
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 53 
 
 infinite honour and credit to its exertions, thus 
 describes this state of things. 
 
 * " 10. In all the districts (under the Madras 
 government) the labourer who holds the plough, 
 and performs the inferior offices of husbandry, is of 
 the lowest, poorest, most ignorant, yet most nume- 
 rous order in society ; in general an outcast, or at 
 least often of the degraded caste of Hindoos, and 
 therefore usually resident in the outskirts of the 
 village, every where without any property in the 
 land which he can transfer by gift, sale, or bequest, 
 and receiving from his employer little more than 
 food, with a scanty supply of raiment." 
 
 " 11. It is almost superfluous to remark, that with 
 tliis description of persons the government offi- 
 cers have seldom had any direct communication ; 
 for it is not perhaps sufficiently known, that 
 throughout the Tamil country, as well as in Malabar 
 and Canara, far the greater part of the labouring- 
 classes of the people have from time immemorial 
 been in a state of acknowledged bondage, in which 
 they continue at the present time." 
 
 " 12. In Malabar and Canara, where the land is 
 very generally divided and occupied as separate 
 and distinct properties, the labourer is the personal 
 slave of the proprietor of the soil, and is sold and 
 mortgaged by him independently of his lands, f 
 
 * Minute of the Madras board of revenue, 5th January 1813, 
 para. 10. 
 
 f Although the slave is seldom separated from the land, the 
 right of selling him apart is undisputed. 
 
 E 3
 
 54 LAND-TAX 
 
 In the Tamil country the slave is considered more 
 the serf of the soil than of the individual ; but in Te- 
 lingana, where the proprietary right in the land is 
 difficult to trace, this class of people is free." 
 
 As long as the government land-tax was light, 
 as under the Hindoo states, the proprietor could 
 afford to maintain slaves and servants to cultivate 
 it j but the moment the burdens became so heavy 
 as to render it necessary for the landlord to work 
 at the plough in his own person, and with the aid 
 of those children and relations which the laws of 
 nature and of society required him to support, he 
 was no longer able to feed his slaves and depend- 
 ents, and they accordingly became free : so that, 
 however remarkable it may appear, such is the fact, 
 that the oppressive exactions of the Mahomedans, 
 had the effect of abolishing predial slavery through- 
 out their dominions. 
 
 " 14. There cannot, however, be a doubt, that 
 the slavery prevalent among the lower classes of 
 Hindoos * is of a very different and opposite nature 
 from that so strongly and so justly reprobated in 
 England, in as much as foreign traffic or external 
 commerce in slaves is quite different from domestic 
 slavery. It has been stated by very competent au- 
 thority, that in the Tamil country the ' Parryers ' 
 
 * The board has overlooked the circumstance of these 
 people not being Hindoos ; of their not having Brahmin priests ; 
 of their having no distinction of caste, nor prejudice as to food ; 
 and of their worshipping objects altogether foreign to the 
 Hindoo religion.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 55 
 
 and Pullers, most of whom are slaves attached to 
 the lands of the Vellalers *, as well as the Pullis, 
 who are generally serfs on the lands of Brahmins, 
 sometimes claim hereditary private landed property 
 as the incident of their villanage, and that it is 
 generally allowed to them and their descendants, 
 on proving their former residence in the village, 
 however long they may have been absent from it." 
 The revenue claimed by the Hindoo sovereign 
 in ancient times was not regulated by the superfi- 
 cies cultivated, but by the quantity of the produce. 
 The sovereign's share rose and sank with the pros- 
 perity or adversity of the husbandman. As regarded 
 the latter, the sovereign's portion was fixed and 
 definite : it varied not with the metallic value of the 
 grain, nor was it affected by any other circumstance: 
 the proportion was ever the same. In the country 
 extending from Nellore on the north, as far south 
 as the Coleroon River, the ancient cultivators of 
 villages held a certain quantity of land rent free, 
 denominated Grama-Maniam, the township liber- 
 ties, which enabled them to give a larger proportion 
 for those lands, paying tax to the sovereign. Be- 
 sides this advantage, each of the original proprietors 
 belonging to the corporation received certain fees 
 from the tenants paying taxes to government. These 
 the board of revenue particularly define not to be 
 the fees paid to the village officers ; they must 
 be viewed as the remains of what were once land 
 * Hindoo landed proprietor. 
 E 4
 
 56 LAND-TAX 
 
 rents, but which, owing to the oppression of modern 
 governments, have sunk into a mere peppercorn 
 rental. 
 
 From this description, selected from the docu- 
 ment alluded to of the Madras Board of Revenue, 
 I conclude that the whole of the land in the tract 
 of country described, belonged originally to village 
 communities, as real property, either held in com- 
 mon or divided in severalty.* 
 
 KERALA. — TRAVANCORE. COCHIN. 
 
 In quitting Tondeimandelam, I propose taking 
 a view of that tract lying along the western coast, 
 and below the mountains called by the ancient 
 Hindoo geographers Kerala. This territory was 
 formerly subdivided between a race of Brahmins 
 or priests styled Namboories, and a military tribe 
 
 * Menu adverts to these two different modes of management : 
 seep.20. and institutes, chap. viii. v. 120. It is proper to remark, 
 that in villages the lands of which are cultivated in common, 
 as is usually the case where the crops depend on artificial sup- 
 plies of water, the offices of Gram Adikar and Gram Lekuk are 
 held by officers independent of the cultivators, having no share 
 nor interest in the land. These officers are appointed by the 
 government, and are responsible for securing to the public its 
 one share of the crops. These villages, therefore, many of 
 which exist in Tondeimandelum, especially in Tanjore, form 
 exceptions to the uniformity of the practice, which prevails in 
 almost every other part.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 57 
 
 called Nayrs, the whole of the aborigines being 
 held in slavery as serfs of the soil, as they are still 
 found to exist. The northern division of Kerala, 
 termed Tooloova, and now called Canara, fell to 
 the prowess of the arms of the king of Vijayanagar, 
 and the southern divisions of Travancore and Co- 
 chin have for many ages been governed by rajas of 
 the same class as the landholders. The latter hold 
 their estates on military tenures, paying not more 
 than ten per cent, of their income to the crown, 
 and in many parts less. These territories at 
 present are under sovereign princes, and do not 
 therefore come within the scope of this work, 
 though they exhibit a proof of the light land-tax 
 which it was the practice and policy of the Hindoo 
 governments to levy. Malabar and Canara are 
 under our immediate authority, and the result of 
 our management therein will be hereafter shown. 
 
 MALABAR. 
 
 Of Malabar* it is stated, that in the ninth cen- 
 tury of the Christian sera the reigning prince, 
 whose subjects carried on an extensive trade with 
 the Arabian coast, became a convert to the Maho- 
 
 * The information regarding Malabar is derived from the 
 report of the Commissioners, dated 11th October 1793; Ma- 
 dras Board of Revenue Minute, 5th January 1818 ; and Colonel 
 Munro's report, 4th July 1817.
 
 58 LAND-TAX 
 
 medan faith, and, having quitted his capital, pro- 
 ceeded to Mecca, where he died. Whatever were 
 the terms on which the several other chieftains 
 held their estates before, all concurring testimony 
 is in favour of the belief that the landowners, 
 termed Nayrs, paid no land-tax whatever, on con- 
 dition of their attending their king to the field with 
 their retainers ; while the Brahmins of the Nam- 
 boory race were equally exempt from impost, on 
 condition of their maintaining the expenses for the 
 support of the temples of worship. After the ab- 
 dication of the converted Zamorin, a large colony 
 of Mahomedan settlers, of Arabian descent, were 
 allowed to occupy lands in Malabar. This race is 
 designated Mopla, and was equally exempted from 
 the payment of a direct land-tax. In Malabar the 
 hereditary and proprietary tenure of real property 
 is denominated jenm, or birth-right, and has ever 
 been more complete than the landed tenures of 
 Europe. In the absence of a land-tax, as in other 
 parts of India, the Zamorin had a considerable 
 territory or fiscal domain appertaining to himself, 
 which, cultivated by slaves, yielded a sufficient 
 revenue for his household expenses. His domi- 
 nions, subdivided among his chiefs, maintained their 
 own internal police establishment, and, excepting 
 in time of war, his personal expenses w r ere com- 
 paratively small : but he was not without other 
 branches of revenue. This he derived from the 
 following sources. A property tax equal to twenty- 

 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 5Q 
 
 five per cent, on the estates of all his Mahomedan 
 subjects being landholders, after their death, in lieu 
 of the payment of tax during their lives. This sum 
 was paid in the shape of relief by the heir, previ- 
 ously to being newly invested in his patrimonial 
 estate. In addition to this were import and export 
 duties, mint duties, fines, escheats, confiscations, 
 protection-money received from persons of other 
 states who claimed an asylum, benevolences in the 
 shape of offerings made at the great annual festivals, 
 and on the accession of a new king ; also on 
 the occasion of the marriage of the princes and 
 princesses, and generally on all occasions of 
 congratulation. To these may be added the re- 
 venue derived from licenses, and the royalties or 
 seignorage on gold ore, elephants, ivory, teak 
 trees, bamboos, and vessels wrecked on his coast. 
 It seems quite certain, therefore, that, until the 
 invasion of Hyder, the Mahomedan usurper 
 of the Hindoo government of Mysoor, in the 
 year 1764, a land-tax was unknown to the land- 
 holders of Malabar. He and his son expelled or 
 deposed the rajah, and endeavoured to extirpate the 
 landholders, and established a land-tax, as in the 
 rest of his dominions. The instance of Malabar 
 may serve to prove that a state in India may be 
 powerful and wealthy without exacting a heavy 
 land-tax. 
 
 It is worth while to turn to the page of history, 
 and perceive what we find to be the condition of
 
 (A) LAND-TAX 
 
 this Asiatic state at the period of the Portuguese 
 invasion of India in 1498. Calicut was the first 
 port at which Vasco de Gatna arrived. It was 
 the Zamorin with whom the Portuguese had 
 their earliest and most intimate communication. 
 This prince observed the liberal policy of affording 
 protection to all races, wh ether Jews, Christians, or 
 Mahomedans. Of the Christians, the Portuguese 
 found a colony of thirty thousand, having a Nes- 
 torian bishop at their head. The Mahomedans 
 had become great landholders, and carried on an 
 extensive trade with the interior, and with the 
 Arabian coast; and the prince, despite of the ab- 
 sence of a land revenue*, not only resisted all the 
 efforts of the Portuguese to induce him to alter his 
 liberal policy towards all nations, and grant them 
 an exclusive monopoly of trade, but he refused 
 them admission to his ports, and even made war 
 with the King of Cochin for receiving them. On 
 this occasion, in the year 1503, five years after 
 the first arrival of Europeans in India, the King of 
 Calicut marched to the south at the head of fifty 
 thousand men, and attacked the Portuguese and 
 their ally by land, and also by sea. Thet Mala- 
 bar fleet is represented to have consisted of eighty 
 
 * Sir Thomas Munro, who admits the power and wealth of 
 the Zamorin, doubts the possibility of his deriving a sufficient 
 revenue otherwise than from the land ; and proceeds to add, 
 that if he did, it must have been more oppressive than a revenue 
 obtained in any other way. 
 
 f Faria e Souza, torn. i. part i. chap. vii. or Stceven's edition.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 6l 
 
 large ships, carrying three hundred and eighty guns, 
 besides several fire-ships. The Portuguese historian 
 represents the result as favourable to his country- 
 men ; but no fruits of victory were apparent, for 
 certain it is, the Zamorin was the only sovereign in 
 all India by whom the Portuguese were foiled. 
 Whereas of the Mahomedan kings, deriving almost 
 all their revenue from the land, not one was able 
 effectually to resist their power: for though the 
 Mahomedans fought with great valour, yet in the 
 end the Kings of Beejapoor, Ahmudnuggur, and 
 Guzerat, saw Goa, Dabul, Choul, Bombay, Sal- 
 sette, Damaun, and Diu, successively wrested out 
 of their hands. 
 
 TOOLOOVA, OR CANARA. 
 
 From Malabar we pass on to Tooloova or Canara. 
 The accurate historian of Mysoor states, that Ca- 
 nara has preserved a larger portion of its ancient 
 institutions and historical records entire than any 
 other region of India. The land-tax under its 
 former rulers was, according to Hindoo law, one 
 sixth of the produce, till the Pandyan king, 
 taking advantage of civil feuds in the country, 
 sent an expedition under his nephew, in the year 
 1232, who invaded it in ships and compelled sub- 
 mission. On this occasion the Nayrs or feudal 
 chiefs were dispossessed of their lands, which were
 
 6*2 LAND-TAX 
 
 given to an original race of cultivators called Hul- 
 lers, who still occupy them.* In making this 
 transfer of property, the conquerors imposed an ad- 
 ditional land-tax ; for whereas, before, the impost 
 was only one sixth, on that occasion the new 
 government required the grain to be deprived 
 of the husk before being delivered to the public 
 stores, whereby an addition of ten per cent, was 
 levied. This system continued till the year 1336, 
 when the Pandyan dynasty of Madura being sub- 
 verted by the King of Vijayanagar, Tooloova be- 
 came a province of the Canara empire. 
 
 This latter kingdom was now just rising to its 
 zenith, when it gave birth to the celebrated minister 
 and lawgiver Vidyaranya. On the subject of 
 landed tenures he observes, that " the king who 
 takes more than one sixth of the produce of the 
 land from the proprietor, shall be deemed infamous 
 in this world, and shall be cast into hell-flames in 
 the next." 
 
 Hurryhur Roy, one of the first sovereigns of 
 this dynasty, was desirous of commuting the pay- 
 ments in kind into many payments. He preserved, 
 as far as was practicable, the relative value of each. 
 In making the assessments, he had regard more to 
 the quality of the land than to the quantity. The 
 proportions of the division of the crop were as fol- 
 
 * I have not been able to learn whether these Hullers are 
 Hindoos or the aborigines : I can hardly suppose them to be 
 of the latter class.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 63 
 
 lows : — One half of the grain, including the straw, 
 was allowed to the cultivator; and the remaining 
 half being divided into three shares, one share was 
 paid to the sovereign, half a share to the church, 
 and one and a half share was left to the proprietor. 
 However just this portion might be in theory, the 
 king did not fail to increase his share, for he re- 
 served the portion due to the church for himself, 
 on the plea that he maintained its officers, and thus 
 brought into the royal treasury 50 per cent, more 
 than before, making his portion equal to one fourth 
 of the gross produce. The taxes were assessed in 
 money on each estate, and in some cases on fields. 
 This circumstance merits particular notice, because 
 it seems likely that he extended the same principle 
 to other parts of his dominions, especially into 
 those which are known to us by the denomination 
 of the Ceded Districts, wherein the money assess- 
 ment seems to have been long current. The 
 principle prescribed by Hurryhur Roy was, that an 
 extent of ground requiring two and a half kautees 
 of seed to sow it, should pay one ghetti pagoda. 
 
 The lands being mostly cultivated with rice, and 
 the periodical rains being regular, failures seldom 
 took place ; and the precise quantity of an average 
 produce could be therefore tolerably well ascer- 
 tained, as in China ; so that, instead of the land 
 being estimated at so many square roods, it was cur- 
 rently known by the number of measures of rice it 
 will yield.
 
 6i LAND-TAX 
 
 The government having hitherto received its re- 
 venue in kind, village registers or accountants every 
 where existed. From their accounts the produce 
 of each field was easily ascertained, and the seed 
 being calculated to yield twelve-fold, the money 
 payments were fixed on those data, without any at- 
 tempt at actual survey. 
 
 This assessment continued with but little va- 
 riation for nearly two centuries and a half. It 
 seems to have borne lightly on the country, land 
 being saleable at from ten, and twenty, to thirty 
 years' purchase. Under the Bednore government, 
 the land-tax was subsequently increased about ten 
 per cent. ; but this did not destroy the existence of 
 private property.* 
 
 V1JAYANAGAR. 
 
 Ascending the Ghauts, and proceeding into the 
 interior of the country, we enter the ceded districts 
 which formed part of the dominions of Vijayanagar. 
 This kingdom once extended to Guntoor on the 
 east, and as far as Madura on the south. The edict 
 of Vidyaranya limiting the demand of the sove- 
 reign to one sixth of the crop, and the historical 
 proofs which still remain of the institutions of Hur- 
 ryhur Roy, already adverted to, lead me to conclude 
 that in his time even, money was paid in lieu of 
 
 * Wilks's Mysoor. Major Munro's Report, 1800, Appendix, 
 5th Report. Minute Board of Revenue, 5th January 1818.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 65 
 
 grain ; but it does not appear the Hindoos ever de- 
 parted from the principle that revenue was a jixed 
 portion of produce, and not a fixed money rent ; 
 and in adverting to land-taxes in the east, it is al- 
 ways proper to bear this fact in mind. There are, 
 according to Colonel Wilks, abundant proofs among 
 the documents of the Mackenzie Collection, part 
 of which is now at the India House, to prove that 
 land was frequently sold in those times. 
 
 In the year 1646, the dissensions among the 
 Hindoo chiefs, long after the dismemberment ot 
 the kingdom of Vijayanagar, brought down two 
 distinct Mahomedan armies into the country call- 
 ed by us the Carnatic. These obtained posses- 
 sion of the forts of Chandergiry and Vellore ; and 
 in the introduction of their rule they contrived, as 
 in most other places, so effectually to destroy the 
 value of landed property, that the remains of its 
 existence can now be traced with difficulty. 
 
 NORTHERN CIRCARS. 
 
 Contiguous to that part of the ancient kingdom 
 of Vijayanagar included in the ceded districts, on 
 the north-east, lie the Northern Circars. These pro- 
 vinces, though among [the first of the English pos- 
 sessions in the Madras establishment, do not afford 
 such ample means of information regarding the de- 
 tails of landed tenures as those of the other parts of 
 the peninsula. This circumstance is owing chiefly 
 
 F
 
 6*6 LAND-TAX 
 
 to the system of management we have adopted in 
 that quarter of our dominions, which will be treat- 
 ed of at greater length in another part of this work. 
 The internal constitution of each village is found to 
 be the same as every where else. The portion of the 
 land-tax, estimated at one sixth of the produce, was 
 paid both in money and in kind. In the former 
 case, the crop was valued at the average price of 
 the day ; and it was optional with the cultivator to 
 pay in money or in grain. In rice lands, the tax 
 was always paid in kind as at present. The village 
 communities existed as in other parts, and the here- 
 ditary tenures were well known and established. 
 The holders were designated by the Mahomedans 
 Kudeem, or ancient landholders; and they retain, 
 at this day, even some lands exempt from taxation, 
 by which they are distinguished from common 
 tenants. The ancient proprietors are known to 
 the Hindoos under the title of Reddy, while the 
 village and district chiefs are indifferently styled 
 Reddy and Naidoo. These are the Gram Adi- 
 kar and Des Adikar of the Sastras. The latter are 
 better known to Europeans under the Mahomedan 
 appellation of Zemindar. * The Madras Board ob- 
 serves of the Zemindars of the Northern Circars : 
 " There cannot be any doubt that the greater 
 number of the Zemindars, and several of the Poli- 
 gars, were in fact the descendants of the ancient 
 Hindoo princes of the country ; at the same time 
 it must be admitted, that some of them could boast 
 * Vide Minute Madras Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 67 
 
 no higher extraction than being descended from 
 officers of the Hindoo states, who, in times of con- 
 fusion, had usurped the revenues of those lands, 
 with the management of which they had been en- 
 trusted. " This opinion is not novel, for Orme, in 
 speaking of the Zemindars of the Northern Circars, 
 describes them as descendants of officers of the 
 Orissa government, which is true of most of them. 
 " These conquests, made by a raja of Orissa some 
 centuries before Mahomedanism, were distributed 
 in many portions to his relations, officers, and me- 
 nial servants, from whom several of the present 
 Northern Poligars pretend to be lineally descended, 
 and to govern at this very time the very districts 
 which were then given to their ancestors." 
 
 The Board of Revenue states distinctly, that these 
 hereditary rights or pretensions were confirmed to 
 the possessors by the Mahomedan sovereigns, on 
 condition of their paying a peshcush (tribute) to 
 the superior state, in recognition of subserviency. 
 
 ORISSA. 
 
 In continuing the examination of the an- 
 cient state of the Hindoos of the Peninsula, I 
 proceed towards Orissa, lying to the north of Gan- 
 jam, and connecting the Madras and Bengal pro- 
 vinces. " * The extensive hilly tracks reaching 
 nearly from Bishenpoor to the Godavery river, to- 
 
 * Vide Mr. Stirling's valuable Essay on Orissa, printed in 
 the Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 220. et seq. 
 
 F 2
 
 G8 LAND-TAX 
 
 gether with the woodland country on the sea-shore 
 of Orissa, have been in all ages parcelled out and 
 occupied by chieftains of the military class. These 
 chiefs may be safely considered as de facto proprie- 
 tors of their possessions under the native govern- 
 ments ; that is to say, they held them hereditarily, 
 exercised uncontrolled territorial jurisdiction within 
 their limits, and appropriated the entire revenues, 
 subject to the condition of performing military 
 service, or other offices and duties, at the court of 
 their superior raja, the Gajapati, residing mostly at 
 Cuttack, which services have in latter ages been 
 generally commuted for a light tribute or money 
 payment. The most fertile and productive division 
 of the province formed the fisc or domain of the 
 prince, from which the Hindoo sovereigns of Orissa, 
 like their successors the Mahomedans, the Mahrat- 
 tas, and English, derived their principal revenues." 
 " The feudal lords of Orissa, for such certainly 
 may the military chiefs whom I have above referred 
 to, be termed, are known and described by several 
 different titles both in history, in official records, 
 and in the common language of the country; and 
 these are quite indiscriminately applied, whence 
 has resulted a corresponding confusion of ideas." * 
 
 * It is not necessary to enter into an explanation of the 
 cause of this confusion of ideas, which arises out of the difficulty 
 of tracing rights to their origin. If we could do so, we should 
 find, no doubt, that the several appellations alluded to in the 
 text had distinct significations, and comprised different privi- 
 leges. Circumstances have favoured usurpations, and at the 
 present day it is almost impossible to ascertain to whom the 
 original respective rights belonged.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. l J 
 
 " To describe a little more particularly their 
 duties and offices, I may observe, that they (the 
 military feudal chiefs) were posted all round and 
 along the frontiers of the Raj (kingdom), with the 
 view to defend it from the irruptions of neigh- 
 bouring powers, or the incursions and devastations 
 of the savage inhabitants of the wild regions in the 
 interior. In this point of view, their situations 
 and duties resembled much that of the lords of 
 the marches in Europe." 
 
 " Besides the general obligation of military 
 service, these feudatories were bound to do 
 homage, and to perform certain nominal duties 
 or offices, resulting from their tenures, when in 
 actual attendance on their liege lords, called by 
 the expressive word seva (service). Thus, it was 
 the business of one to bear the sword of state, 
 another to hold the shield, a third to carry the 
 umbrella or royal banner, a fourth presented the 
 king's slippers, a fifth waved the chouri over him. 
 We find the same duties were performed at the 
 court of Vijayanagar. In an article respecting 
 the kings of that race, published by Colonel 
 Mackenzie in the Annual Register many years 
 ago, he states, ' In this king's reign, several con- 
 siderable rajas used to attend him in the duties of 
 the following offices ; viz. The king of Camboja 
 presented him with the calinji ; the Panda raja 
 held his bag of beetle-nut; the king of Ginjee 
 carried his chouri ; the raja of Kerala, his water 
 guglet ) the raja of Anga Uesum presented him 
 
 f 3
 
 70 LAND-TAX 
 
 beetle as his servant ; the raja of Mucha's office 
 was to dress him; the raja of Goor carried his 
 umbrella. All the other offices were executed in 
 like manner by persons of rank. All those on 
 their first visit performed their respective duties to 
 Ramaraja, when he was seated on his throne."* 
 
 " In every part of India, it would seem that, 
 even under the Hindoos, the domains reserved for 
 the crown constituted, if not the largest, at least 
 the most valuable and productive share of the 
 whole territory; and it was the uniformt policy of 
 the strong government of the Mahomedans con- 
 stantly to enlarge this share, by the gradual sub- 
 jugation and absorption of the possessions of the 
 lesser chiefs and princes." 
 
 The fisc, or sovereign's estate of Orissa, to 
 which the British government succeeded by con- 
 quest in 1803, yields to the state a revenue of 
 between twelve and thirteen lacs of rupees; in its 
 
 * We may rest assured, that Ramaraja, the king of Vijaya- 
 nagar, though a powerful prince, who died fighting at the head 
 of three hundred thousand men, never received such homage 
 as is here represented, from the kings of Camboja, Mucha, 
 (Matsya Desa), Anga Desa, Goor, or any such distant regions. 
 The historical narrative only tends strongly to show, that feuda- 
 tory homage was due to the great sovereigns in India by their 
 tributary princes and chiefs ; abundant proofs of which we shall 
 find in the sequel. 
 
 -f- This policy is not confined to the Mahomedans. The 
 continental sovereigns of Europe have afforded tolerable spe- 
 cimens of their propensity to adopt the same measures ; and it is 
 much to be feared, that the English in India have not been 
 slow in availing themselves of this and other privileges of 
 strong governments.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 7 1 
 
 real character of proprietor, the Uajwara, or divi- 
 sion occupied by the feudal chiefs, pays a light 
 tribute of only 120,000 rupees, the difference be- 
 tween that and the actual net produce, which is at 
 the lowest calculation in the ratio of one to ten, 
 being enjoyed by the several Zemindars, in virtue 
 of their proprietary right.* 
 
 In the territory of Orissa, obvious traces exist of 
 a subdivision of lands into tracts, held by military 
 retainers, and those of the Malguzari tenants (cul- 
 tivators of the fiscal lands). " Tenants of the for- 
 mer description are now called Paiks, and their 
 estates, in the revenue accounts, are entered as 
 Khurdah Gerjat ; literally, petty forts." The 
 posts have long been abandoned, and the holders 
 of the land on military tenures have almost all dis- 
 appeared.! 
 
 " According to the uniform system of India," 
 says Mr. Sterling, " Orissa was divided into Grams, 
 townships or village societies. The larger revenue 
 allotments, or circles of villages, known to the Hin- 
 doos of Orissa, were denominated Khand and Bisi, 
 or Bishi; words meaning, literally, a portion or 
 division. Each of these was under the manage- 
 
 * The Zemindars, or feudatory chiefs here alluded to, paid 
 one tenth of their revenue only to the state, in the same way as 
 the Nairs of Cochin and Travancore do to their princes at the 
 present day. 
 
 f The same result every where takes place under our govern- 
 ment : local troops of this nature are now unemployed, and their 
 lands being taxed as heavily as ordinary cultivators, with whom 
 they cannot compete as husbandmen, they are at length com- 
 pelled to abandon them. 
 
 F 4
 
 72 LAND-TAX 
 
 ment and control of two descriptions of hereditary 
 revenue officers." 
 
 The officer vested with police and revenue func- 
 tions, is the Khand Adipati, Bishwya, or Bisoee 
 (words signifying chief of a division), who was the 
 principal man ; and the Bhoi Mul of the Karan, or 
 writer caste, who had the more particular charge 
 of keeping all the accounts and registers connected 
 with the land. Every respectable village had its 
 chief and accountant, called Padhan and Bhoi. 
 These discharged respectively the same offices in 
 their villages, as the superior officers did in regard 
 to their circle of villages."* All these functionaries, 
 as well as the other several village officers, held 
 their situations hereditarily, and were in the habit 
 of mortgaging, or even selling, the whole or shares 
 of them, with the sanction of the ruling power. 
 " To infer from this," says Mr. Sterling, " any right 
 of property in the soil, would seem equally rash 
 and absurd. It is a nice question whether, under 
 the old Hindoo system, the actual occupants of the 
 soil were considered to possess any subordinate 
 title of ownership in land. There are no obvious 
 traces of such a right (in Orissa) now remaining 
 in Cuttack, as we read of in Canara and Malabar." 
 The tenures of Malabar and Canara differ essen- 
 tially from those of the north. There the Hindoo 
 military chiefs and soldiers hold the lands in right 
 of conquest, and retain the aborigines as serfs of 
 
 * Here we recognise the Des Adikar and Des Lekuk, as well 
 as the Gram Adikar and Gram Lekuk of the Sastras.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 7$ 
 
 the soil. In other parts, the oppressive taxes on 
 the proprietors compelled them to emancipate the 
 serfs, and to cultivate with their own hands. 
 These proprietors have been subjected to other 
 conquerors, both Hindoo and Mahomedan, who 
 have on all occasions recognised their rights, with- 
 out respecting them : the recognition consisted in 
 the Mahomedan definition of these rights, under 
 the name of Meerasy and Kudeem ryots. The 
 word Mowroosy occurs frequently in the Orissa 
 tenures, and I have no doubt appertains to the 
 same description of tenure as Meerasy in other 
 parts. How far these rights were recognised by 
 the Hindoo rajas, appearsfrom what the author 
 himself says on the subject. 
 
 " The fixed cultivators undoubtedly possessed, 
 under the old rajas, the privilege of hereditary 
 occupancy ; their fixed assessment was light and 
 easy." Here we have all we are contending for : 
 " cultivators, with the undoubted privilege of 
 hereditary occupancy, paying a fixed, light, and 
 easy assessment." Wherever this was the case, the 
 land must have been saleable ; and a tax not ex- 
 ceeding a twelfth, a tenth, an eighth, or even a 
 sixth of the crop, under some circumstances, would 
 have rendered the property valuable. Mr. Sterling 
 asserts that there is no proof of the land ever 
 having been sold, though he observes in continua- 
 tion of the above sentence, " there was then no 
 one to dispute the matter with them (the cultiva- 
 tors) excepting the despotic uncontrolled sovereign
 
 74 LAND-TAX 
 
 of the country, tcho, whatever his claims in theory, 
 of course required nothing from the land but an 
 adequate revenue." If this picture be correct, 
 which I am much disposed to doubt, we cannot 
 wonder that land had no saleable value. The won- 
 der is, that any vestige of right remains at all : 
 whereas we still find the Hindoo institutions, with 
 the exception of the rate of the land-tax, as perfect 
 here as any where else. 
 
 The remaining part of the territory, lying south 
 of the Satpoora range of mountains, comprehends 
 the ancient kingdoms of Telingana and Maharash- 
 tra; the former now in the hands of the Nizam, 
 and the latter comprising the dominions of the Pesh- 
 wa, which became ours by conquest in 1818. A 
 line drawn from Boorhanpoor on the north, through 
 Dowlutabad, Moongy Peitun, Sholapoor, and Bag- 
 rikota, to the neighbourhood of Bellary, will nearly 
 separate this tract into the two divisions above men- 
 tioned, the eastern belonging to the Nizam, and the 
 western now under the British government. 
 
 THE NIZAM S DOMINIONS. 
 
 I know of no public report in which the Hindoo 
 institutions of the Nizam's dominions have been 
 exhibited, but my own residence several years in 
 the country enables me to assert with confidence, 
 that the landed tenures vary in no respect from 
 those found in other parts which have long been
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 15 
 
 subject to Mahomedan sway. The Hindoo local 
 officers are every where present. Their private 
 official lands, and the perquisites of their offices, are 
 saleable, but the weight of taxation on ordinary 
 lands prevents the existence of real property. 
 Beneath this system of oppression, however, all the 
 germs of the ancient Hindoo institutions appear, 
 and prove their uniformity and universal adoption. 
 
 THE MARRATTA COUNTRY. 
 
 The materials for an account of the ancient 
 Marratta territory are not less deficient, but we may 
 venture to take the picture we found under the 
 late Hindoo government as a sample of what the 
 former system was.* The Marratta language and 
 territory extends over the western portion of that, 
 division which has lately been described. The whole 
 of this territory was probably once under one king, 
 who is supposed to have resided at Peitun on the 
 Godavery, and subsequently at Devagiry, the mo- 
 dern Dowlutabad. At the time when this territory 
 was invaded by the Mahomedans, in the fourteenth 
 century, the power and connexions of the king of 
 Devagiry was weak and contracted, as the Mar- 
 iettas appear to have offered but feeble resistance 
 
 * The materials for the account of the Marratta country are 
 not merely the result of my own long personal residence and 
 public employment in that country, but they are derived prin- 
 cipally from Mr. Elphinstone's Report on the Peshwa's Terri- 
 tory, dated September, 1819.
 
 76 LAND-TAX 
 
 to the Mahomedan armies, which continued to 
 ravage the country for half a century without 
 meeting any check. In the course of time, the 
 Mahomedans occupied this territory as well as 
 Telingana, now composing the dominions of the 
 Nizam, which had at one time formed the six inde- 
 pendent Mahomedan kingdoms of Boorhanpoor, 
 Elichpoor, Bidur, Golconda, Beejapoor, and Ah- 
 mudnuggur. By the latter end of the seventeenth 
 century, they had all been incorporated in the 
 empire of the Great Mogul Aurungzeeb. His 
 death, in 1707» was the signal for a reaction among 
 the Hindoos, and caused a revolt which gave rise 
 to the modern Marratta empire. This kingdom, 
 like all others, represents the true type of a feudal 
 government. A chief, from whom all honours origi- 
 nally flowed, contented himself with the occupation 
 of certain lands in sovereignty, while a considerable 
 portion (more than half of his dominions) was 
 granted in military tenures to his chiefs. Such is 
 the superstructure which at present exists. Each 
 chief paid homage, and ought to present one year's 
 net revenue to the king, as a fee to the Crown for 
 his accession. The military tenures were for the 
 most part hereditary, and few instances existed of 
 the baron's heir not succeeding; expulsion only 
 followed downright rebellion. In his estate, the 
 power of the Baron or Jagirdar was as complete as 
 that of the king in the regal domains, but the laws 
 of the Hindoos were equally binding on both. It 
 is to be understood, however, that although the
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 77 
 
 king could thus transfer his authority and privileges, 
 his power did not extend to encroachment on the 
 private property of any individual, real or personal. 
 These rights have now to be considered. 
 
 " In whatever point of view," observes Mr. 
 Elphinstone*, " we examine the native government 
 in the Deccan, the first and most important feature 
 is the division into villages or townships. These 
 communities contain in miniature all the materials 
 of a state within themselves, and are sufficient to 
 protect their members if all other governments 
 were withdrawn. 
 
 " Each village has a portion of ground attached 
 to it, which is committed to the management of 
 the inhabitants. The boundaries are carefully 
 marked, and jealously guarded. They are divided 
 into fields, the limits of which are exactly 
 known ; each field has a name, and is kept distinct, 
 even when the cultivation of it has long been 
 abandoned." The result of the several Reports 
 received from the European Collectors under Mr. 
 Elphinstone, is his conviction, " that a large por- 
 tion of the ryots (cultivators) are the proprietors of 
 their estates, subject to the payment of a fixed 
 
 * This Report is founded on the enquiries made by himself 
 during a residence of several years in the Deccan, in personal 
 visits to every part, and from a series of Reports made expressly 
 by the local officers, Mr. Chaplin, Captain Grant, Captain Ro- 
 bertson, Captain Pottinger, Captain Macleod, and Captain 
 Briggs, full extracts from all of whose correspondence have 
 been printed in the revenue and judicial papers, selected for 
 the use of the Court of Directors.
 
 78 LAND-TAX 
 
 land-tax to government; that their property is 
 hereditary and saleable, and they are never dispos- 
 sessed while they pay their tax, and even then they 
 have for a long period (at least thirty years) the 
 right of reclaiming their estate, on paying the dues 
 of government." Again, "an opinion prevails 
 throughout the Marratta country, that under the 
 old Hindoo government all the land was held by 
 (Meerassies) hereditary landlords, and that the 
 Oopries (tenants) were introduced as the old pro- 
 prietors sunk under the tyranny of the Mahome- 
 dans." 
 
 The Collector of Poonah states, the general divi- 
 sions of husbandmen are two : " Tulkaries, men who 
 cultivate their own fields ; and Oopries, or tenants 
 who cultivate lands not their own. A third class 
 exists, called Wawandkary, a temporary tenant, 
 who, residing in one village, comes for a season to 
 take land in another." 
 
 " The Tulkary is a Mirasdar. Tul signifies a 
 field, and Tulkary the owner of land : he is con- 
 sidered, and universally acknowledged by the go- 
 vernment, to have the 'property of the lands he 
 cultivates. I am yet uninformed," says the col- 
 lector, " and perhaps it may never be clearly esta- 
 blished, at what period the Deccan landlords 
 acquired their rights to the property of the soil, by 
 purchasing it from the government or the village ; 
 or whether it has always been inherent in them, 
 and that the government has either usurped their 
 rights in some instances, or broken through a cus-
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 79 
 
 torn of allowing lands lying waste from a deficiency 
 of population^ afterwards to become the inheritance of 
 the multiplying descendants of the original number 
 of landed proprietors." 
 
 By the original landed proprietors, no doubt, is 
 meant those persons who obtained the first pos- 
 session of the land of the village ; and thus we per- 
 ceive the remains of the ancient agricultural body 
 corporate to exist in the Deccan, though for several 
 centuries the country was under the foreign yoke 
 of the Mahomedans. Again, " The Deccan land- 
 lord is proud of his situation, and is envied among 
 his brethren, who are the cultivators of lands not 
 their own ; the feelings of attachment to their 
 fields is remarkably keen, and no consideration 
 but the utmost pecuniary distress will induce them 
 to abandon their rights of proprietorship. These 
 rights are either inherited or purchased ; and it is a 
 remarkable circumstance, that in the body of the 
 deed of sale it is invariably recorded, that he who 
 sells his land has begged of him who buys to be- 
 come the proprietor. It would seem that this 
 insertion is deemed requisite as a safeguard to the 
 buyer, in consequence of the well-known reluctance 
 of all landlords to part with their lands, and to show 
 that no subterfuge was used to force or trick them 
 from the original proprietor. The Tulkary pays a 
 land-rent* to government, according to the extent 
 and quality of his lands. This land-rent is sup- 
 posed to admit of no increase." Such is the ac- 
 
 * Quary tax.
 
 80 LAND-TAX 
 
 knowledged right of the proprietor, in most parts 
 of the Marratta country. Mr. Elphinstone's opi- 
 nion is, however, that now " all the land which 
 does not belong to Mirasdars, is either the property 
 of the government, or those to whom government 
 has assigned it." In cases where the land-tax of 
 former governments has been excessive, the advan- 
 tage of possessing land has ceased ; it exists, 
 therefore, only where the tax has been moderate. 
 This has been the case around Poona, and to the 
 south of it, in the Sattara country : here Mirasy 
 land still exists, and " even Bajee Row (the so- 
 vereign), when he had occasion for Mirasy land, 
 paid the price for it," as Abraham did before him 
 for the field of Macphelah. 
 
 In the administration of the office of magistrate, 
 the Potel, or chief of the landed corporation, was 
 here, as in other parts, the head of the village, and 
 the representative of the people as well as of the 
 government. The existence of the local officers 
 in the Marratta country is thus described. " A 
 Turuf is composed* of an indefinite number of 
 villages; it is under no particular officer. Several 
 Turufs make a Perguna, which is under a Des 
 Mookt, who performs the same functions towards 
 the Perguna as the Potel towards the village. He 
 is assisted by a Des Pandia, who answers to the 
 
 * Mr. Elphinstone's Report, p. 28. 
 
 f Des Mook, literally " chief of the district;" Des Pandia, 
 writer of the district; Potel, or Putty, chief; Koolcurny, agri- 
 cultural accountant.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 81 
 
 Koolcuiiiy, or village register.* It is universally 
 believed in the Marratta country, that the Des 
 Mooks, Des Pandias, &c. were all officers ap- 
 pointed by some former government ; and it seems 
 probable that they were the revenue officers of the 
 Hindoo government. These officers still hold the 
 lands, and fees that were originally assigned them 
 as wages, and are considered as servants of the go- 
 vernment; but the only duty they perform is to 
 produce their old records when required, to settle 
 disputes about land by a reference to those records, 
 and to keep a register of all new grants and trans- 
 fers of property, either by government or by indi- 
 viduals." Mr. Elphinstone rates the Des Mook's 
 profits at 5 per cent, of the collections, together with 
 as much more in rent-free land; and half of those 
 perquisites to the Des Pandia, or district register. 
 
 RAJPOOTHANA. 
 
 Having concluded the sketch I proposed of 
 the south of India, I proceed to the north, where, 
 although the materials are not so ample, yet, from 
 the works of Colonel Tod on Rajpoothana, and of 
 Sir John Malcolm on Malwa, enough will be found 
 to bear me out in the assertion, that the Hindoo 
 institutions were similar and, at one time, uni- 
 versal throughout India. 
 
 * Ibid. p. 29. .... 
 
 G
 
 82 LAND-TAX 
 
 The territory of which I am now about to treat 
 is that described by Menu as the abode of the 
 Hindoos in his days — the country lying between 
 the Himawat (Himala mountains from Cashmere 
 to the mouths of the Ganges) and the Vindhaya 
 mountains, the range on the north of the river 
 Nerbudda, and extending from one sea to the 
 other, that is, from the Gulf of Cutch to the head of 
 the Bay of Bengal. Of this vast region, history and 
 tradition lead to the supposition that, if never under 
 one sovereign, the several princes were intimately 
 connected, and the people so closely affianced, by 
 religion and customs, that they might be deemed 
 one and the same. At what time the aborigines 
 were first subdued is unknown, but it is certain, 
 they have long ceased to be retained in servitude, 
 as in the south of India, for the heavy taxes 
 which the cultivators have occasionally paid left 
 the latter without the means of maintaining slaves. 
 Colonel Tod's splendid work embraces the ancient 
 history of a great part of the country already 
 alluded to, but more especially that of Rajasthan, 
 comprising the territory occupied by the Rajpoot 
 princes of Oodipoor, Jyepoor, Jesselmeer, Bhik- 
 aneer, Ajmeer, Chundery, Kota, Boondy, Koom- 
 bulmeer, Aboo, and great part of the north of 
 Guzerat. He is of opinion that, long before the 
 Mahomedan invasion, and subsequently to the ear- 
 liest settlements of the Hindoos, the north of India 
 was frequently invaded by hordes of Scythians 
 from the north-west, the tenets of whose re-
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 83 
 
 ligion differed in no very material degree from the 
 ancient faith of the Hindoos, though it varied 
 in minor points : that these invasions fre- 
 quently arose out of these variations of faith, and 
 that in consequence one sect of Hindoos was occa- 
 sionally conquered by another. In these contests 
 an extraordinary respect for the rights of land- 
 holders appears ever to have existed, and is par- 
 ticularly described by the ancient Greek authors.* 
 Colonel Tod has not only given us very satis- 
 factory proof of the existence of landed property 
 among the cultivators of the soil, but he has elu- 
 cidated in a very remarkable manner the feudal 
 institutions of the Rajpoot princes, which, as con- 
 ferring certain rights over agricultural produce, 
 could hardly be rejected from my enquiry. These 
 feudal incidents and rights have been already al- 
 luded to in the sketch of Orissa, but we find the 
 picture more completely filled up by the author of 
 the Annals of Rajpoothana. That this feudal 
 system should have ceased after the Hindoo prin- 
 ces and their nobility were destroyed by the reign 
 of the Mahomedans, is not surprising ; the won- 
 der rather is to find it so complete as it now 
 exists, in the few Hindoo states still entire. Colonel 
 Tod traces the existence of these feudalities at least 
 as far back as the time of Alexander, when he 
 observes, — " The custom j (according to Arrian) of 
 presenting banners, as an emblem of sovereignty 
 
 * Strubo, lib. xv. p. 1030. 
 f Tod's Rajpoothana, p. 138. 
 G 2
 
 84 LAND-TAX 
 
 over vassals, also obtained among the tribes of 
 the Indus, when invaded by Alexander. When he 
 conquered the Saca?, and other tribes east of the 
 Caspian, he divided the provinces among the 
 princes of the ancient families, for which they 
 paid homage, engaged to serve with a certain 
 quota of troops, receiving from his own hand 
 a banner : in all of which he followed the customs 
 of the country. But in these customs we only see 
 the outline of the system : we must descend to 
 more modern days to observe it more minutely. 
 A grand picture is drawn of the power of Mewar, 
 when the first grand irruption of the Mahomedans 
 occurred in the first century of their gera ; when 
 a hundred kings, its allies and dependents, had their 
 thrones in Cheetore for its defence, and for their 
 own individually, when a new religion, propagated 
 by the sword of conquest, came to enslave these 
 realms." 
 
 Again, " The local disposition of the estates was 
 admirably contrived — bounded on three sides, the 
 south, east, and west, by marauding barbarous 
 tribes of Bhils, Mers, and Minas *; the circumfer- 
 ence of this circle was subdivided into estates for 
 the chiefs, while the Kludisa or fiscal land, the best 
 and richest, was in the heart of the country, and 
 consequently well protected."! 
 
 * These are the aborigine races so often alluded to. 
 \ The great similarity of this system and that of Orissa, in a 
 remote part of India, will not escape the reader's notice.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 85 
 
 The fiscal land of Mewar does not exceed one 
 fourth of the whole. 
 
 " *The country was partitioned into districts, 
 each containing from fifty to one hundred towns 
 and villages, though sometimes exceeding that 
 proportion. The great number of chourassis, a 
 term signifying eighty-four of any thing, seems to 
 point to that being the common subdivision of 
 small districts." In like manner we find thirty- 
 three in Mysoor, and thirty-two in Malabar, 
 Canara, the Concan and the Deccan, like the old 
 hundreds of England. 
 
 A circle of posts was established on the frontier, 
 at each of which the quotas of the feudatory chiefs 
 did duty, and a commander of the border, or 
 " Lord of the Marches,'' appointed by the crown, 
 superintended its defence. For the government of 
 the 'districts, there were conjoined a civil and a mili- 
 tary leader, the latter generally a vassal of the se- 
 cond rank. Their residence was the chief place 
 of the district, commonly a strong hold, a burj 
 or burgh, many of which have so often disputed 
 our authority under the contemptible name of mud 
 forts t, which are more formidable, however, than 
 generally supposed. 
 
 The division of the chiefs into grades is thus 
 represented : — 
 
 * Tod's Rajasthan, p. 141. 
 
 ■J* The annals of our Indian history record a few instances of 
 the desperate and formidable resistance opposed by these feudal 
 castles, such as Kerowly and Hatrass. 
 
 G 3
 
 86 LAND-TAX 
 
 " * The 1st class. The sixteen chiefs whose 
 estates were from fifty thousand t to one hundred 
 thousand rupees and upwards of yearly rent. They 
 appear at court only on special occasions, and are 
 the hereditary councillors of the crown. 
 
 " 2d class. The chiefs of this class receive from 
 five t to fifty thousand rupees. Their duty is to be 
 always in attendance. From these, chiefly, officers 
 for especial military duties are selected. 
 
 " 3d class is that of Gole, holding lands chiefly 
 under five thousand rupees, t These chiefs are 
 generally the holders of separate villages and por- 
 tions of lands, and in former times they were the 
 most useful class to the prince. They always at- 
 tended on his person, and indeed formed his 
 strength against any combination or opposition of 
 the higher vassals. 
 
 4th class. The offsets of the younger branches 
 of the rana's (sovereign's) own family within a cer- 
 tain period are called " babas," literally infants, 
 and have appanages bestowed on them. 
 
 " From these to the holder of a chursa (hide) of 
 land, the peculiarity and tenure of each will form 
 a subject for discussion." 
 
 Of the king's revenues, the land-tax in the crown 
 demesne is the chief source of supply. The transit 
 duties on commerce rank next. The mines of 
 
 * Tod's Annals of Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 142. 
 f 5,000/. to 10,000/. 
 % 5001. to 5,000/.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 87 
 
 Mewar were formerly very productive to the sove- 
 reign. The offering on confirmation of estates (or 
 fine on renewal) is now, though a small, yet still 
 one source of supply, as is the annual and triennial 
 payments of the quit-rents of the Bhoomia chiefs. * 
 
 " When the Prince was oftener in the tented 
 field than in the palace, combating for his preserva- 
 tion, it was the duty of villages to store up wood 
 and forage for the supply of him and his followers. 
 These demands have been since converted into 
 money payments, and are akin to those under the 
 feudal system of Europe, in France in particular, 
 such as the droit de giste, and de chevauche." \ 
 
 Many other demands originated in the tours 
 made by the sovereign through his dominions, 
 when a visit of a few weeks exhausted all. the ready 
 means of his " honoured host," and for the pay- 
 ment of which the cultivators and merchants usu- 
 ally suffered in the end. 
 
 " During the period still called ' the good times 
 of Mewar,'" says Colonel Tod, " the prince, with 
 the aid of his civil council, the four ministers of 
 the crown and their deputies, promulgated all the 
 legislative enactments in which the general rights 
 and wants of the community were involved, but 
 
 * These Bhoomia chiefs appear to be the remains of Des 
 Adikars of former governments, permitted to hold their private 
 lands of office under the later Rajpoots, but excluded from all 
 participation in the public administration. 
 
 f Hallum apud Tod, vol. i. p. 332. 
 G 4
 
 88 LAND-TAX 
 
 from which the martial chiefs and all their depen- 
 dents were excluded." 
 
 " In the districts, besides the resident ruler, who 
 was also a judicial functionary, there was, as already 
 stated, a special officer of the government in each 
 frontier post. He united the triple occupation of 
 embodying the quotas, levying the transit duties, 
 and administering justice, in which he was aided 
 at the Chobootra or court, by assembling the Cho- 
 tias, or assessors of justice. Each town and village 
 had its Chotia, the members of which were elected 
 by their fellow-citizens, and remained as long as 
 they conducted themselves impartially in disen- 
 tangling the intricacies of complaints preferred to 
 them."* They are the aids to the Nagar Seth, or 
 chief magistrate t, an hereditary office in every large 
 city in Rajasthan. Of this Chotia (or court) the 
 PatelJ and Patwary are generally members. Be- 
 sides these Chotia courts were the Panchayet courts 
 of arbitration, whose members were elected by the 
 litigants, and their cause left in their hands. This 
 tribunal, observes Colonel Tod, is deemed among 
 the people, the court " of collective wisdom." 
 " On all occasions connected with the peace and 
 tranquillity of the kingdom, the chiefs formed the 
 
 * They are the unpaid magistracy, or rather juries, of the 
 Hindoo system, alluded to by Sir John Malcolm in his valuable 
 Report on Malwa. 
 
 f He answers to the alderman of a ward. He is obliged to 
 be of a mercantile caste, and must have been a tradesman. 
 
 X Gram Adikar and Gram Lekuk.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 89 
 
 council of the king. Intimation was given to each 
 to attend; and as the subject was generally pre- 
 viously known, and had been submitted to do- 
 mestic discussion, the wittendgemote or council 
 was prepared to afford its advice." 
 
 "To be excluded on these occasions was to be 
 in disgrace. The council of each chief resembled 
 that of the sovereign in every respect. The greater 
 subvassals, the chief councillor or minister, the 
 mayor of the household, the family priest, the 
 bard, and two or three of the most intelligent 
 citizens, composed the chief's civil court. 
 
 Military Service. — In Mewar, during the days of 
 her glory and prosperity, fifteen thousand horse, 
 bound by the ties of fidelity and service, followed 
 their prince into the field, all supported by lands 
 held by grant, from the chief who headed five 
 hundred of his own vassals, to the single horse- 
 man. A knight's fee for a single horseman in these 
 states varies. For each thousand rupees of annual 
 rent, never less than two, and generally three horse- 
 men were furnished, making about 30/. per annum*, 
 for which at home and abroad service is to be 
 performed."t For show and state, a certain number 
 of vassals reside at the court for some months, 
 when they are relieved by others. 
 
 Escuage or scutage, or amercement for non- 
 attendance, is also known, and exemplified by 
 
 * In the Deccan, the knight's fee under the Marratta empire 
 was about the same. 
 
 f See Appendix, Tod's Kajasthan, Nos. IV. V. VI.
 
 1)0 LAND-TAX 
 
 deeds, and is in fact practised every day in all 
 governments where the feudal system prevails.* 
 
 Hallam, in his History of the Middle Ages, statesf, 
 " The essential principle of a fief was a mutual 
 contract of support and fidelity : whatever obliga- 
 tion it laid upon the vassal of service to his lord, 
 corresponding duties of protection were imposed 
 by it on the lord towards his vassal. If there were 
 transgressions on either side, the one forfeited his 
 land, the other his seignory or rights over it." In 
 the Appendix^ to Colonel Tod's work, will be seen 
 how completely these sentiments are recognised 
 in India. Colonel Tod observes, on the question be- 
 ing put to a Rajpoot, to whom his service is due, — 
 To the lord of his clan, or to his sovereign, — his 
 reply would be, " Raj ka malik weh, pat ka malik 
 yeh. — The one is the master of the empire, the other 
 is the master of my head.*' In proof of this, nu- 
 merous instances occur of vassals serving under 
 their chiefs, even against their own sovereign. 
 
 Feudal incidents, viz. 
 
 1. Reliefs. 
 
 2. Fines of alienation. 
 
 3. Escheats. 
 
 4. Aids. 
 
 5. Wardship. 
 
 6. Marriage. § 
 
 * Tod's Rajasthan, Appendix, No. XVI. 
 
 f Hallam, vol. i. p. 173. 
 
 \ Tod's Rajasthan, Appendix, Nos. I. II. III. 
 
 § Such are the feudal incidents of the middle ages in Europe.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 91 
 
 Relief. — A relief is defined* to be " the sum of* 
 money paid by every one of full age taking a fief by 
 descent." In France and England the relief was, 
 as in Hindoostan, one year's revenue. By Magna 
 Charta, in England, reliefs were settled as follows : 
 The heir or heirs for an entire earldom, one 
 hundred pounds ; of a baron, one hundred marks ; 
 of a knight for a whole knight's fee, one hundred 
 shillings at most. Supposing a knight's fee worth 
 thirty pounds, then the sum would be one sixth 
 of one year's revenue. 
 
 " On the demise of a chief," says Colonel Tod, 
 " the prince immediately sends a party, consisting 
 of a civil officer and a few soldiers, to take pos- 
 session of the estate in the king's name. The heir 
 sends his prayer to court, to be installed in the 
 property, offering the proper relief. This paid, 
 the chief is invited to repair to the presence, where 
 he performs homage, and makes protestations of 
 service and fealty ; he receives a fresh grant, and 
 the inauguration terminates by the prince girding 
 him with a sword, in the old form of chivalry. It 
 is an imposing ceremony, performed in the full 
 assembly of the court, and one of the few which 
 has never been relinquished. The fine paid, and 
 the band buckled to his side, a steed, turban, 
 plume (of jewels usually), and dress of honour, 
 given to the chief, the investiture is complete." 
 
 * Burton on Ileal Property, p. 318. Co. Cop. s. xxii. 
 Tr. xviii. s. 25. TV. xxviii. L'Esprit des Loix, liv. xxxi. chap, 
 xxiii.
 
 92 LAND-TAX 
 
 The whole court sits during the ceremony, the 
 chief alone standing before the throne. When 
 ended, all the great, officers of the court rise, and 
 saluting the new knight, congratulate him on his 
 being admitted one of their members. This done, 
 the sequestrator returns to the capital, and the chief 
 to his estate.* " The ' kharg bandai,' or ' binding 
 of the sword,' is also performed when a rajpoot is 
 fit to bear arms. The rana himself i§ thus ordained 
 a knight by the first of his vassals in dignity, the 
 chief of Salumbra." 
 
 Fine of alienation. — Alienation does not be- 
 long to the system of fiefs in Me wart : the lord 
 would never consent to it but on very peculiar 
 occasions. " In Kutch, amongst the Jarija tribes, 
 subvassals may alienate their estates, but this pri- 
 vilege is dependent on the mode of acquisition. 
 The agricultural tenants!, occupants of land held 
 of the crown, however, may alienate their rights 
 upon a small fine, merely to mark the transac- 
 tion.'^ 
 
 * Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 159. 
 
 •f Alienations prevail in some of the other feudal states. 
 Under the Sattara government, the feudal chiefs sometimes 
 alienate their rights to revenue ; but none, except the king him- 
 self, can alienate land, and then only when it escheats, in failure 
 of heirs or claimants. 
 
 J Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 160. 
 
 § The tenants alluded to here, are in truth, the real pro- 
 prietors. The king, and his nobles and vassals, have only 
 claims on the produce ; they cannot, therefore, alienate the 
 land, though they may assign away their portion of the produce. 
 The land can only be alienated by the landlord, the cultivating 
 Bhoomia or proprietor.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 93 
 
 Escheats and forfeitures. — " The fiefs re- 
 verted to the crown in failure of heirs, as they 
 could not be bequeathed by will." The practice of 
 adoption, so generally admitted among the Hin- 
 doos, would, if always permitted, for ever prevent 
 the lapse of estates. 
 
 Aids. — " Aids, termed also benevolences in 
 Europe, are well known among the Rajpoots. The 
 war aid impose/l on each fief was the dussond, or 
 tenth, in Mewar as well as in Europe. Benevo- 
 lences were also required on the marriage of the 
 king's daughter, and on other occasions of neces- 
 sity." Hallam has remarked, that " these feudal 
 aids are deserving of our notice, as the commence- 
 ment of taxation, of which they long answered the 
 purpose, till the craving necessities and cove- 
 tous policy of kings established for them more 
 durable and onerous burdens." The amount has 
 been shown to be a tenth : this is the portion con- 
 tributed by the chiefs in Ceylon, in Travancore, 
 and in Orissa, at the present day; and it is this, 
 probably, which gave rise to the prevalent opinion 
 throughout India, that the demands of the king- 
 were once limited to the tenth of income or pro- 
 duce, in lieu of all other direct imposts. 
 
 Wardship. — " The sovereign himself often as- 
 sumes the guardianship of minors, when the infant 
 has no mother living. All other persons may have 
 interests of their own : a mother can be actuated 
 by his welfare alone. Custom, therefore, consti- 
 tutes her the guardian ; and, with the assistance of
 
 94 LAND-TAX 
 
 the elders of the family, she rears and educates 
 the young chief till he is fit to be girded with the 
 sword." 
 
 Marriage. — Every chief, before he marries, 
 makes it known to his sovereign ; but the latter has 
 no control over his choice. The Hindoo law points 
 out the degrees of consanguinity within which the 
 Hindoo can or cannot marry ; and the ceremony 
 is so closely connected with religion that the sove- 
 reign can by no means interfere. The necessity 
 for the king guarding the purity of the blood of 
 the feudal knights, therefore, is unnecessary ; nor 
 would the feelings of the chivalrous Rajpoot sub- 
 mit to his sovereign's control on a point so nearly 
 connected with his own personal honour. 
 
 In the feudal system of Rajasthan there exists this 
 remarkable difference from that of Europe : in the 
 former, the Hindoo landholder, though subjugated 
 by another Hindoo race of conquerors, has not been 
 deprived of his ancient right to the soil j he has 
 been subjected to a tax by the new government, 
 in order to support the military establishment of the 
 new state, but his land is respected. In Europe, the 
 conquerors not only claimed the soil itself) but also 
 the inhabitants upon it, as their serfs or slaves. 
 When the king in India, as lord paramount,or when 
 one of his feudatory barons, wished to reward any 
 one for his services, he granted him an assignment 
 on the revenue of a certain village, or of a portion of 
 land. So, also, in the case of endowing temples or 
 colleges, the seignorage was transferred, but not the
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 9«5 
 
 land ; in proof* of which we find it universally 
 acknowledged that no ancient cultivator can be 
 expelled from his land, or his land bestowed on 
 another person, without all the usual formalities 
 of sale executed voluntarily in his own person. 
 
 The large extracts from the annals of Rajasthan 
 sufficiently indicate the marked difference between 
 the rights of the military Rajpoot or feudal chieftain, 
 and the cultivator of the soil. The feudal incidents 
 observed by Colonel Tod are found to have existed 
 also under the Gajpatti princes of Orissa and Ram- 
 raja of Vijayanagar.* My own experience enables 
 me to confirm the existence of the same feudalities 
 under the M arratta princes of Sattara and Kolapoor, 
 and, generally speaking, wherever any remains of 
 the pure Hindoo government are to be found. 
 
 I now proceed to the examination of the landed 
 tenures. There are two classes of Rajpoot land- 
 holders in Mewar : one is the Grassia Tahktir, 
 or lord of the portion ; the other is the 
 Bhoomia, or landholder. The Grassia holds his 
 lands by grant, for which he is bound to serve his 
 prince at home and abroad with his dependents. 
 This grant is renewable at every lapse or death t, 
 when all the ceremonies of resumption, the fine of 
 relief, and the investiture, take place. 
 
 The Bhoomia does not renew his grant, but 
 holds on prescriptive possession; he succeeds with- 
 
 * Vide p. 68. 
 
 f This is clearly an office, and the right of resumption of the 
 land depends on the king.
 
 96 LAND-TAX 
 
 out fine, but pays a small annual quit-rent, and can 
 be called on to perform local service, for a certain 
 period of time. Although grants of Tahkurs are 
 required to be renewed at every lapse, the crown 
 could hardly dare to resume the gras, literally 
 subsistence, which had descended to the heir. 
 Instances occur of clans being removed from one 
 estate to another*, and fiefs interchanged ; but the 
 resumption of the gras, without adequate cause, 
 would cause a union of the chiefs that might shake 
 the throne to its centre. 
 
 Bhoomia. — According to the annals t of Rajas- 
 than, the ancient clans, prior to Rana Sanga (who 
 flourished in the sixteenth century), had ceased to 
 hold the higher grades of rank, and had merged 
 into the general military landed proprietors, under 
 the term Bhoomia, importing identity with the soil. 
 These are to be found chiefly in Koombulmeer, the 
 wilds of Chappan or plains of Mundelgurh, where 
 they have maintained themselves by agricultural 
 pursuits. The clannish appellations of Koonbawat, 
 Lonawat, and Ranawat, distinctly mark their ori- 
 gin ; and it is supposed that, as they ceased to be 
 of sufficient importance to visit the court, they 
 took to the plough, without, how r ever, abandoning 
 their martial character. Some of them yet possess 
 
 * This practice is well known to have prevailed in early 
 times in Europe. See Gibbon's Mis. Works, vol. iii. p. 189. 
 Sur le Systeme Feodal surtout en France; and Montesquieu 
 l'Esprit des Loix. It is also common among the Toorkman 
 tribes in Persia. 
 
 f Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 168.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 97 
 
 entire villages, subject to a small quit-rent ; they 
 also constitute the local militia, to be called in by 
 the governor of the district for its defence; but 
 on such occasions they are entitled to rations. 
 They constitute the allodial tenants of the state, 
 and in Mundelgurh they can bring four thousand 
 swords into the field. Colonel Tod observes, in 
 a note, that these Rajpoots have intermarried with 
 the degraded but aboriginal tribes, and have be- 
 come a distinct race : in describing themselves 
 they unite the tribes of their father and mother. 
 All this feudal militia enjoy their lands heredi- 
 tarily, and pay a small quit-rent. So cherished 
 is this Bhoom, that the greatest chiefs are always 
 solicitous to obtain it, even in the villages wholly 
 dependent on their authority, — a decided proof 
 of its durability above common grants.* 
 
 Independently of the chiefs who held by patent, 
 were those single knights who enjoyed what is de- 
 nominated a chursa (hide) of land. The coin- 
 cidence of the term, in India and Europe, as it has 
 no reference to the thing itself, is very remarkable. 
 Four hides constituted a knight's fee in Europe, 
 equal to about forty acres. The chursa is equal to 
 what a pair of oxen can cultivate, or from twenty- 
 five to thirty begas. 
 
 In many parts of the country, the cultivators, or 
 bhoomias, unable to protect themselves, had recourse 
 
 * See Appendix to Col. Tod's work, for grants of lands by 
 villages. 
 
 H
 
 98 LAND-TAX 
 
 to the aid of neighbouring chiefs, who, in consi- 
 deration of the permanent cession of a portion of 
 land by the village owners, performed this duty. 
 These lands are more highly estimated by their 
 chiefs than the more rich estates, of which they 
 have only the government rent, and which are re- 
 servable by the king. A stronger instance of the 
 value attached to tenures of this description cannot 
 be evinced than what happened in the case of 
 Holkar, the sovereign of Malwa, when compelled 
 to sue for peace in 1818. The prince was himself 
 a minor; but his ministers so well understood the 
 value attached to this description of family property, 
 that, during the negociations for the treaty, every 
 effort was made to preserve these rights. In the 
 Deccan, all other territory, to the amount of several 
 hundred thousand pounds of annual revenue, was 
 ceded without demur ; but trifling hereditary privi- 
 leges, unconnected with the empire, were adhered 
 to, and the sovereign of Malwa, in capacity of Potel 
 (hereditary magistrate) of some villages, and Des 
 Mook, county magistrate, of Chandore, is at this 
 day represented by a deputy, and is not ashamed 
 to do homage, by presenting an offering of one 
 rupee annually to an European collector, for the 
 privilege of holding some inconsiderable spot of 
 land which he can call his own. 
 
 The ryot (landholder), according to Colonel 
 Tod, is the proprietor of the soil in Mewar. He 
 claims it as his bapota (patrimony), and compares
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 99 
 
 himself to the d'huba grass, which, once taking root 
 in the soil, can scarcely be effectually eradicated. 
 He has ever in his mouth the common, though ex- 
 pressive adage, " Bhogra dhanny raj ho, bhoom- 
 ra dhanny maj ho. # — The tax belongs to the king, 
 the land belongs to me.** 
 
 The subdivision of the territory into townships, 
 as described in the time of Alexander, still obtains 
 everywhere. Each of these petty states maintains 
 its municipal legislation, independently of the mo- 
 narchy ; and every state presents the picture of so 
 many hundreds or thousands of these minute re- 
 publics. The right of the cultivator to alienate his 
 land for a consideration of protection has been 
 before stated j that of disposing of it by sale or by 
 mortgage is equally admitted. " Thef fertile 
 lands of Horlah, along the banks of the Khari, are 
 almost all mortgaged, and the registers of these 
 transactions form two considerable volumes, in 
 which great variety of deeds may be discovered ; 
 one extended for one hundred and one years, with- 
 out regard to interest on the one hand, or the be- 
 nefits from the land on the other, but merely by 
 repayment of the sum borrowed. To maintain the 
 interest during abeyance, it is generally stipulated 
 that a certain portion of the harvest shall be re- 
 served for the mortgagee — a fourth, a fifth, or 
 googry, a share so small as to be valued only as a 
 
 Tod's Ilajasthan, vol. i. p. 495. 
 Ibid. p. 499. 
 
 f Ibid. p. 499. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 LAND-TAX 
 
 mark of proprietary recognition. The mortgagees 
 were chiefly of the commercial classes of the large 
 frontier towns. In many cases the proprietor con- 
 tinues to cultivate, for another, the lands his an- 
 cestors mortgaged four or five generations before j 
 nor does he deem his right at all impaired." No 
 length of time* can affect the claim of the heir to 
 the bapota (patrimony) ; and so sacred is the right 
 of absentees, that land will lie often sterile and 
 unproductive, from the penalty which Menu de- 
 nounces on all who advisedly occupy their neigh- 
 bours' lands. f Even crime, and the extreme sen- 
 tence of the law, does not alter the succession to 
 property, either of the military or cultivating vas- 
 sal.t The officers of the township, are the same 
 as have been so often described in other parts of 
 this work. 
 
 The office of Potel of Mewar was originally 
 elective : he was " primus inter pares" the consti- 
 tuted attorney or representative of the commune, 
 and, as the medium between the cultivator and the 
 government, enjoyed benefits from both. Besides 
 his bapota (patrimony), and the seerano, or fortieth 
 part of all produce from the cultivator, he had a 
 remission of a third or a fourth of the rent from 
 such extra lands as he might cultivate in addition 
 to his patrimony. 
 
 * The same practice prevails in Malabar and Canara. 
 f Menu, 52. 54. on the Servile Classes. 
 \ Tod's Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 500.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 1.01 
 
 As a proof of the tenacity with which the 
 Bhoomias (hereditary landholders) of Rajasthan 
 cling to their land, a remarkable instance is related 
 in the annals, which occurred when the daughter 
 of the Raja of Mundore, the then capital of Mewar, 
 was to be espoused to the Rana. His own capital 
 and fisc being deserted, the Rana wanted culti- 
 vators for his domain, and he solicited of the bride's 
 father to allow ten thousand of his agricultural sub- 
 jects to settle on his estates. On such occasion 
 nothing can be refused ; but when the inhabitants 
 were called on to expatriate themselves, they re- 
 sisted, saying* : " What ! shall we abandon our 
 bapota, the lands of our inheritance, to accompany 
 a stranger into a foreign land, there to labour for 
 his benefit ?— No, we will rather submit to death." 
 The Mundore prince anticipating this reply, hoped 
 thus to evade the demand ; but the Rana having 
 promised to them the enjoyment of the rights 
 escheated to the crown, together with the lands 
 which the sword had left without occupants, they 
 were induced to consent ; and the descendants of 
 this colony are now the hereditary landholders on 
 the fisc of Rajwara, occupying the fertile plains 
 watered by the Beris and the Bunas. 
 
 " In those districts which afforded protection to 
 the landholder, his proprietary right will be found 
 in full force ; of this fact, the populous and exten- 
 sive district of Jeipoor affords a good specimen. 
 In the whole of that tract there are but two pieces 
 
 ■ Tod's Rajasthan, p. 498, 499. 
 H 3
 
 102 LAND-TAX 
 
 of land the property of the crown, and these even 
 were obtained by force during the occupancy of 
 
 Zalim Sing." 
 
 MALWA. 
 
 So much has been already said of Hindoo insti- 
 tutions, that on entering Malwa I find it difficult 
 to select any new facts from one of the most ample 
 and detailed statistical reports which has yet been 
 given to the public. Sir John Malcolm, the present 
 governor of Bombay, after a sojourn of forty years 
 in almost every part of India and Persia, arrives at 
 the same conclusion on the subject of Hindoo 
 society as almost all others who have carefully 
 examined it. 
 
 The landed tenures he observes, in Malwa, 
 differ in no very material degree from those in 
 other parts of India.* In theory, and by law, the 
 land belongs to him who first cultivated it j and the 
 right of the sovereign is confined to ten per cent. 
 of the produce.f The Mahomedans, even J, never 
 disputed the hereditary right of the landholder to 
 occupation ; land was not sold, however, under the 
 Moslem government. § 
 
 The Mahomedans understood the value of the 
 
 * Malcolm's Malwa, vol. ii. p. 1. 
 
 f Malcolm's Malwa, p. 2. % Ibid. p. 3. 
 
 § The assessment was so heavy that it had no value in the 
 market.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 103 
 
 village communities, with which they never inter- 
 fered. There are good grounds for believing that 
 the ancient Hindoo land-tax was received in kind, 
 and was estimated according to the relative re- 
 turns of the seed sown*, and not according to the 
 extent of the land. 
 
 In Malwa, there are three descriptions of land- 
 holders, the junna kurskani, or the landholder 
 born ; the sookwasti, or permanent tenant ; and 
 the paykasli, or temporary tenant. The title of 
 the first class to their land has descended immemo- 
 rially from their ancestors, t They either till it 
 themselves or employ labourers, or underlet their 
 lands to the other two descriptions of cultivators 
 or tenants, sookwasti or paykashti, making their 
 own bargain, and fixing their own rent. Some of 
 these, in spite of oppression, employ as many as 
 forty or fifty ploughs, implying a cultivation of from 
 one thousand to twelve hundred and fifty acres. 
 These estates, like those in the Deccan, each bear 
 the name of some ancestor § of the family ; or, 
 when subdivided into fields, they have names ap- 
 propriate to their local situation. The modern ex- 
 actions on the cultivators were limited only by their 
 means to pay ; but Sir John Malcolm concludes, 
 that, from the multiplicity of extra cesses on the 
 landholders, the fixed tax must always have been 
 
 * Malcolm's Malwa, vol. ii. p. 14. 
 f From kursh, a plough. 
 X Malcolm's Malwa, vol. ii. p. 24. 
 § Ibid. vol. ii. p. 29. 
 H 4
 
 104 LAND-TAX 
 
 light. Under the Marratta government, one fourth 
 of the crop was the maximum exacted. 
 
 The government of Malwa is represented to 
 have a close resemblance in its form to the feudal 
 system of Europe. It is divided into districts, hav- 
 ing from fifty even to three hundred villages each. 
 Each village has its regular establishment of here- 
 ditary officers, with stipendiary lands attached. The 
 village magistrate and register is everywhere found 
 to exist*, as also the county magistrate and register, 
 the former here denominated Mandloi, and the lat- 
 ter Pandia. These hereditary magistrates are usu- 
 ally extensive landholders, paying no taxes to go- 
 vernment for their estates, in addition to which 
 they receive one rupee (two shillings)! from each 
 village, and small perquisites and fees, such as shoes, 
 blankets, &c. &c. from the village tradesmen. 
 It has been customary for the government of Hol- 
 kar to farm the land-tax, which has long ceased to 
 be paid in kind. In some instances, the district 
 chiefs become security for the amount ; in others, 
 the village chiefs enter into engagements. The 
 amount of these has remained so long unaltered, 
 that it may be almost deemed permanent. Where 
 neither of the local officers have made these con- 
 tracts, the revenue of one, two, or more villages 
 has been farmed to country bankers or merchants. 
 
 * Malcolm's Malwa, vol. ii. p. 7. and 8. 
 
 f It would seem, then, that the Des Adikars in Malwa had 
 lands alone granted as equivalent to their per centage on the 
 revenue. In Deccan they have both.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 105 
 
 In such cases, the latter are permitted to hold their 
 contracts as long as they fulfil them with fidelity to 
 the government, and give no cause of complaint to 
 the landholders. They realise the taxes accord- 
 ing to &jixed portion of the produce; and as their 
 contracts are not liable to be taken from them, ex- 
 cept for malversation, they embark a great deal of 
 capital among the farmers to assist in improving the 
 lands. "Some of these contracts have continued for 
 seventy years in the same family, and most of them 
 more than forty and fifty." " The best and most 
 popular mode is that of granting leases * of the re- 
 venue for ten, twenty, or thirty years ; the worst, 
 and that most dreaded by the farmers, are the an- 
 nual leases." 
 
 The value of the local offices will be best under- 
 stood by the following observations : 
 
 •« In Malwa, many villages had been depopu- 
 lated for thirty years. The inhabitants fled several 
 hundred miles off, and dispersed in different towns. 
 They, however, maintained friendly intercourse 
 with each other, continued to intermarry, and on 
 the restoration of order (in 1818), they all flocked 
 to their own country. Under all the miseries and 
 oppressions they suffered, they never gave up the 
 hope of returning to their paternal lands. At the 
 restoration, infant potels (hereditary village chiefs) 
 even were reinstated j each site of a house, and 
 every field, was instantly recognised and re-occu- 
 
 * Malcolm's Malwa, vol. ii. p. 51.
 
 106 LAND-TAX 
 
 pied by the real owner, without dispute.* More 
 than a hundred villages were repeopled in a few 
 weeks." 
 
 Again, he observes, " I was desirous of giving 
 the ruined village of Bassee to some Bheels.t The 
 minister declared the proprietors must get posses- 
 sion if they returned. All attempts to discover 
 them failed, and the Bheel Tija was established 
 with his clan. Three years afterwards, a boy put 
 forth his claim as potel, or chief of the village, 
 and his right was voluntarily restored by the 
 Bheel. The Hindoo chiefs, in speaking of these 
 hereditary officers, declared to Sir John Malcolm J, 
 that they would become Mahomedans twenty times 
 over, rather than give up their lands." The 
 force of this declaration can hardly be felt by per- 
 sons who do not know the horror with which the 
 Hindoos view the Mahomedan religion and habits. 
 
 I could close this account of the universality of 
 the system of government which prevailed among 
 the Hindoos, and of the comparatively light land- 
 tax, by referring to the records of Bengal ; but, as 
 a great revolution in landed property, and an en- 
 tire subversion of the ancient institutions, have 
 taken place under our government, I shall reserve 
 my proofs till I come to treat of Bengal separately. 
 Of the rate of taxation so general among the Hin- 
 
 * Malcolm's Malwa, vol. ii. p. 20, 21. 
 
 f One of the wild tribes which had long turned robbers. 
 
 % Malcolm's Malwa, vol. ii. p. 16.
 
 OF THE HINDOOS. 107 
 
 doos, it is curious to find a proof in the pages of 
 a Mahomedan historian. One of the earliest acts 
 of the first Mussulman king of Cashmeer, in the 
 year A. D. 1326, was *, " to confirm for ever the 
 ancient land-tax, which amounted to seventeen per 
 cent, or about one sixth of the whole produce of 
 the land." 
 
 * Briggs' Ferishta, vol. iv. p. 453. Hist, of Cashmeer.
 
 108 LAND-TAX 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 ON THE LAND-TAX OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 
 
 The preceding portion of the work has, I trust, 
 proved that the occupant of the land alone was its 
 sole proprietor ; that the demand on him for con- 
 tributing to the support of the state, was a sort of 
 income-tax, viz. a limited portion of the produce 
 of his estate ; and that this portion was fixed in time 
 of peace, but liable to increase in time of war, and 
 that, under all circumstances, it left a certain sur- 
 plus profit to the owner, equivalent to a rent. More- 
 over, I hope I have established that the sovereign 
 never claimed to be the proprietor of the soil, but 
 of the land-tax, which land-tax he collected through 
 the local agents, and expended it in such way as 
 the government thought fit. 
 
 I shall now proceed to show what was the law 
 and practice of the Mahomedans. In speaking of 
 this people, it should be recollected that they form 
 a race, professing to perform a duty by bringing 
 under subjection, or within the pale of their religion, 
 all the nations of the earth. For the fulfilment 
 of these objects, they have the highest motives, 
 and the highest authority ; the Koran requires 
 that the male adults of unbelievers shall either be 
 converted or put to death, while the women and
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 109 
 
 children shall be carried into perpetual slavery. 
 A very short time served to convince the fol- 
 lowers of the prophet, that it was impolitic to 
 enforce this practice on all occasions. Thus we 
 find the human race, according to the Mahomedan 
 doctors, to consist of three classes only in trie eye 
 of the law, viz. Milly, Zimmy, and Hurby. The 
 first represents the faithful ; the second, subdued 
 i?ifdels, to whom belong certain rights ; thirdly, 
 the rest of mankind, emphatically pronounced to 
 be enemies, against whom war is to be waged. 
 
 One of the earliest of the Mahomedan conquests 
 after the death of Mahomed, was that of Egypt ; 
 and the terms granted to the infidels who refused 
 to embrace the faith, show at how early a period 
 the very rigid doctrines of the Koran were aban- 
 doned. The terms stipulated for by the Copts, 
 and granted by the conqueror, were, 
 
 1. " That the former should not be compelled to 
 quit their country. 
 
 2. " That they should not be deprived of their 
 females (families). 
 
 3. " That they should be allowed to live peace- 
 ably in their houses. 
 
 4. " That they should retain their lands. 
 
 5. " That the land should not be liable to any 
 additional tax."* 
 
 * Abdoolla Bin Jafur, MS. Arab. Bibl. du Roi, Paris, No. 
 736. fol., v. 78. See Mem. sur les Foncieres Proprietaircs de 
 1' Egypt, par lc Baron de Sacy.
 
 110 LAND-TAX 
 
 Abool Hussan Ahmud Bin Mahomed*, an 
 author of the fourth century of the Mahomedan 
 eera, of the Hanefy persuasion, writes, — 
 
 " On entering a strange land, the Mahomedans 
 are bound to invite the inhabitants to adopt their 
 creed. If they consent, war shall not be waged 
 with them. If they refuse, they shall be com- 
 pelled to pay khiraj (the tax on infidels), and 
 on agreeing to do so, they shall be treated as 
 Mahomedans." 
 
 It is in accordance with this doctrine that we 
 find another Mahomedan doctor saying t, 
 
 " The land of Irak is the property of its inhabi- 
 tants. They may alienate it by sale, and dispose 
 of it as they please ; for when the Imam conquers 
 a country by force of arms, if he permit the in- 
 habitants to remain on it, imposing the khiraj on 
 their lands, and the juzeea on their heads, the land 
 is the property of its inhabitants ; and, since it is 
 their property, it is lawful for them to sell it, or to 
 dispose of it as they choose." The landholder is 
 styled ". ^£J the owner of the land. 
 
 Ebn Haukal, an Arabian author, nearly contem- 
 porary with those above alluded to, observes, 
 "The gates of wealth, or those by which money is 
 supplied to the treasury, are the khiraj (the tax on 
 
 * This writer was born N. H. 362 (A. D. 972), and died at 
 Bagdad N. H. 486 (A.D. 1036), and obtained the dignity of 
 chief of the Hanufy persuasion in Irak. See as above. 
 
 f Surauj-oob Vahauj. See " Law and Constitution of India," 
 p. 32.
 
 OF THE MATIOMEDANS. Ill 
 
 infidel lands), a tenth on ships (port duties), 
 a fifth on mines, on corn, fodder, mintage on 
 articles passing on roads and canals, and for fruits, 
 iced waters, &c. &c. 
 
 "The Ihirajy or tax on land produce, is of three 
 kinds, by division, by regulation, and by statute. 
 If the ground is cultivated, it pays tax ; if not, 
 it is so much lost."* 
 
 By this passage it appears clear that the khiraj 
 was a tax on production, not on the mere pos- 
 session of land. The same author goes on to state, 
 that, in his day, the heaviest tax on raw produce 
 was levied in Persia, in the district of Shiraz, 
 which amounted to a third and a fourth of the 
 crop. This tax was authorised by Haroon-ool- 
 Rasheed, at the instigation of the governor, Jaf'ur 
 Bin-Aby-Zoheir. That of Persepolis was not so 
 heavy. The tax termed division is of three kinds, 
 and it was settled by the caliph Oomur, as follows : 
 asherry, or a tenth of the crop ; soolsy, a third of 
 the crop ; and roobay, or a fourth. The two 
 latter seem to have been those from which Haroon- 
 ool-Resheed took his standard for Shiraz. It will 
 be afterwards seen that the kings of India adopted 
 the same rule. These taxes by no means lead to 
 the conclusion that the lands belonged to the 
 crown. In the institutes of Tamerlane, drawn up 
 on the basis of Mahomedan law, he observest :— 
 "All deserted lands, if there be no owner to them, 
 
 * Translation of Ebn Haukal, by Sir W. Ousclcy. 
 f Institutes of Tamerlane, p. 369.
 
 11 '2 LAND-TAX 
 
 should be annexed to the fisc (crown lands) ; and 
 if there be owners, and those owners are reduced 
 to distress, let the necessary supplies be granted to 
 them, that they may cultivate their lands." In 
 the celebrated law-book entitled Hidaya, the 
 author concludes, that because the Koran directed 
 all infidels to be slain, the Mahomed an kings were 
 by law entitled to take half the crop : an inference 
 by no means conclusive, and at variance with 
 many other writers. The same author, however, 
 distinctly recognises the proprietary right of in- 
 fidels in their lands. " Whosoever cultivates waste 
 lands, does thereby acquire the property of them : 
 a Zimmy becomes proprietor of them in the same 
 way as a Mussulman. " This quotation comes from 
 the very highest source, being given in the Hidaya 
 as an oral authority of Mahomed himself. In con- 
 firmation of the same doctrine, we find the follow- 
 ing extract from the Mahomedan law work on 
 landed property, entitled Khezanet-ool-Rivayah, 
 translated from the Arabic by Abool Fuzl : "Kliiraj 
 land is held in full property by its owner, as well 
 as asherry land ; a sale or gift, or a charitable 
 devise of it is lawful, and it will be inherited like 
 other property." 
 
 In the Mohodyah is a passage quoted from 
 Almohit, a work of the lawyer Mahomed : "Lands 
 are held in full property by them (Zimmy sub- 
 jects). They shall inherit those lands, and shall 
 pay the Khiraj out of them. In the book Al- 
 khamesah it is written, the sovereign has a right 
 
 13*
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 113 
 
 of property in Khiraj ; and in the " Medina Sherhy 
 Baz" we find it written, " A town and the lands 
 annexed to it shall not be sold by the sovereign, if 
 it pay Khiraj to the crown j nor shall it be given, 
 nor inherited ; nor shall it belong to the royal 
 domain, for inheritance is annexed to real pro- 
 perty.* He who has the tribute or tax from the 
 land, has no property in the land itself: hence it is 
 known, that the king has no right to grant the 
 land which pays khiraj or tax, but that he may 
 grant the money arising out of it." 
 . Abool Fuzl, the celebrated minister of the Em- 
 peror Akber, has left us very full information of 
 the old Mahomedan law regarding landed pro- 
 perty, and on the taxes to which it was subject. 
 " In former timesf (observes that author) the mon- 
 archs or rajas of Hindosthan only exacted one 
 sixth of the produce from the cultivator. In 
 Toorkistan the husbandman paid the fifth. In 
 Tooran, as in India, the sixth ; and in Iran 
 (Persia) the tenth. In after-times, Nowsherwan 
 is said to have raised the land-tax to one third of 
 the produce. Since that time the khiraj has been 
 introduced. Latterly, in Iran and Tooran, the 
 government has only taken a tenth of the pro- 
 duce of the soil ; but at the same time the hus- 
 bandman is loaded with various other extra taxes, 
 which altogether exceed one half of the produce." 
 " Mahomedans (says Abool Fuzl) make three 
 
 * Wilk's Mysoor, vol. i. chap. v. p. 191. 
 f Ayeen Akberry, vol. i. part ii. p. 245. 
 I
 
 114 LAND-TAX 
 
 distinctions in the lands of conquered countries: — 
 1. Asherry; 2. Khirajy ; 3. Solhv; or tythe, land- 
 tax on infidels, and tax by stipulation. 
 
 Asherry is divided into five heads ; viz. — 
 1. Simple Asherry, such as is paid in the lands of 
 Tehama, including Mecca, Tayif, Yemen, Oman, 
 Behrein, and Rayah. 
 
 2. Land the owner of which has voluntarily 
 embraced the true faith. 
 
 3. Land conquered and divided among the vic- 
 tors. 
 
 4. Land on which a Mussulman has built a 
 house, and has formed a garden. 
 
 5. Waste land brought into cultivation by order 
 of the sovereign. 
 
 All lands under the aforesaid tenures pay one 
 tenth of the produce to the king. 
 
 Khirajy is also divided into five kinds : — 
 
 1. All the land of Persia Proper, and Kirman, is 
 subject to the payment of khiraj. 
 
 2. Land on which a Zimmy or infidel has built 
 a house or formed a garden. 
 
 3. Waste land watered by a public aqueduct, 
 though cultivated by a Mussulman, pays khiraj. 
 
 4. Land in general which has surrendered by 
 capitulation. 
 
 5. All land cultivated by means of water-courses 
 maintained by the government. 
 
 Solhy. 1. All the lands of the tribe of Bin 
 Behran. 
 
 2. The lands of the tribe of Bin Saleh.
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 115 
 
 The precise conditions on which these lands are 
 held will be found in ancient authors. 
 
 According to some authors, khiraj is of three 
 descriptions : — 1. Khiraj Mokussima ; %. Khiraj 
 Moweziffia ; and, 3. simple Khiraj. 
 
 1. Khiraj Mokussima implies the division of 
 the crop as follows : one fifth or one sixth to the 
 sovereign, and the remainder to the proprietor of 
 the land. 
 
 2. Khiraj Moweziffa is regulated according 
 to the ability of the cultivators to pay. 
 
 3. Simple Khiraj, according to some ancient 
 authors, includes the surplus of the produce, after 
 deducting all agricultural expenses. 
 
 There are, however, many various and contra- 
 dictory opinions regarding this impost. 
 
 " Adverting to this difference of tenets among 
 the Soonnee t Imaums," states the author of "The 
 Law and Constitution of India," "the learned 
 Hunufeeah Shukfee observes, that ' the learned 
 have differed in opinion with regard to land con- 
 quered by force of arms, on which the Imaum 
 has suffered the inhabitants to remain on paying 
 the Khiraj and Juzeea. But according to our 
 law (the Hunufeeah) the inhabitants are freemen 
 as Zimmees ; their lands are their indefeasible 
 property, and that which is exacted from them is 
 Khiraj.' " 
 
 Thus stands the ancient law of the Mahome- 
 dans ; we shall afterwards see how far it was 
 acted up to in India. 
 
 i 2
 
 11G LAND-TAX 
 
 The Mahomedams, after failing in their attempts 
 to invade India in the first century of the Hijra, 
 were content to occupy the regions in its vicinity 
 on the west, for three centuries, without molesting 
 their Hindoo neighbours. In the beginning of the 
 eleventh century, all Persia, Khwaruzm, and the 
 whole territory west of the Indus, was in the hands 
 of the Moslems, while India still continued entire 
 under its native princes, most of whom were inde- 
 pendent of each other. At this time, Mahmood, 
 the Mahomedan king of Ghizny, and the second 
 of his line, resolved to signalise his name, and to 
 fulfil the objects of the leader of the faithful, by 
 invading India, and propagating the Mahomedan 
 creed in a country which had hitherto successfully 
 resisted attempts of a similar nature, formerly 
 made in the direction of the whole line of the 
 Indus, from its mouth to Mooltan, in the eighth 
 century. A reign of thirty-two years was em- 
 ployed by Mahmood in this great project; he in- 
 vaded the territory of the Hindoos in twelve dif- 
 ferent campaigns, one of which occupied him three 
 years, at the head of a hundred thousand men. 
 With this vast host, he crossed the Indus below 
 its junction with the five tributary streams of the 
 Punjab, and marching by Ajmeer, advanced on 
 Guzerat. According to the historians of the day, 
 both Mahomedan and Hindoo, he failed in his 
 attempt to take Ajmeer, but he sacked Guzerat, 
 and destroyed the celebrated temple of Somnat, 
 situated on its western shores. The reception of
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 117 
 
 Mahmood at Ajmeer, and a knowledge of the 
 formidable Hindoo hosts prepared to cut off his 
 retreat by that route, induced him to lead his army 
 through the desert between Guzerat and the Indus, 
 in which it had nearly perished for want of water. 
 The Raja of Lahore, the most proximate to the 
 kingdom of Ghizny, bore the brunt of most of the 
 attacks of the Mahomedans; and it is scarcely to 
 be wondered at, that before the death of Mahmood, 
 the latter had succeeded in establishing a Maho- 
 medan governor in the Punjab. After this event, 
 nearly one hundred and fifty years elapsed ere the 
 Mahomedans were able to renew their warfare 
 against the Hindoos. The latter saw with regret 
 the principality of Lahore occupied by their ene- 
 mies; but as this province does not appear to have 
 belonged to any other kingdom, we hear of no 
 efforts made by the united Hindoos to wrest it 
 from the conquerors. 
 
 In the year 1145, the King of Ghizny, the lineal 
 descendant of Mahmood, was expelled from his 
 throne, and obliged to retire to Lahore, which now 
 became for the first time the capital of a Maho- 
 medan sovereign ; and in less than half a century 
 the line of Ghizny became extinct. 
 
 Shahab-ood-deen, usually called Mahomed 
 Ghoory, at length succeeded to the throne of 
 Ghizny, and shortly after he renewed the war 
 against the Hindoos, which had so long been sus- 
 pended. His success was more chequered than 
 that of his great prototype Mahmood, but the way 
 
 i 3
 
 118 LAND-TAX 
 
 had been in a great measure paved for his progress 
 by the previous occupation of the Punjab; so 
 that, with the death of Prithi Raja of Dehly, in 
 1191, he became master of that kingdom. Ma- 
 homed Ghoory left his lieutenant, Kootb-ood- 
 Deen Eibuk, as his viceroy at that capital, and 
 with him a considerable army, under some of his 
 most distinguished generals. These gradually ex- 
 tended their authority, so that on the death of 
 Mahmood Ghoory, in 1206, the Mahomedan power 
 was extended from the Punjab, as far south as 
 Byana and Agra. Kootb-ood-Deen, the new vice- 
 roy of Dehly, now established an independent 
 kingdom; and the Mahomedans, colonising and 
 intermarrying with the Hindoos, became in a great 
 measure identified with their subjects. 
 
 It has been already shown that each Hindoo 
 village had its distinct municipality, and that over 
 a certain number of villages, or district, was an he- 
 reditary chief and accountant, both possessing great 
 local influence and authority, and certain territo- 
 rial domains or estates. The Mahomedans early 
 saw the policy of not disturbing an institution so 
 complete, and they availed themselves of the local 
 influence of these officers to reconcile their sub- 
 jects to their rule. In the long contest of the 
 Hindoo rajas against the Mahomedans, it seems 
 likely that the former had levied the fourth of the 
 crop from all their subjects, to which by law they 
 were entitled; and it is probable that in their ne- 
 cessities they might even have exacted more.
 
 OF THE MAHOMEPANS. 119 
 
 We have no account of the mode the Mahomedans 
 adopted to raise supplies, but we may conclude 
 from what we have seen in later times, that, with- 
 out going into details, they assessed whole districts 
 at a certain sum, and required the Des Adikars, 
 whom they subsequently entitled Zemindars, to 
 levy the amount from the respective villages or 
 towns under their charge. From the existence of 
 these local Hindoo chiefs, at the end of six cen- 
 turies, in all territories conquered by the Maho- 
 medans, it is fair to conclude they were cherished 
 and maintained with great attention, as the key- 
 stone of their civil government. While the admi- 
 nistration of the police, and the collection of the 
 revenues, were left in the hands of these local 
 chiefs, every part of the new territory was retained 
 under military occupation by an officer of rank, 
 and a considerable body of Mahomedan soldiers. 
 So gradual and systematic was the extension of the 
 Moslem power, that the soldiers of Dehly only first 
 passed the Vindhayan mountains, to penetrate to 
 the south, in the year 1294; and it was not till 
 three years later that Guzerat eventually became a 
 Mahomedan province. Having once crossed the 
 Vindhayan range, their conquests spread so widely 
 that the Mahomedan authority extended, in 1347, 
 over India as far south as the Krishna river, and 
 thirteen independent Mahomedan kings, besides 
 six minor principalities, occupied the whole region. 
 In examining the details of Mahomedan history, 
 which has been minute in recording the rise and 
 
 i 4
 
 120 LAND-TAX 
 
 progress of all these kingdoms, we no where dis- 
 cover any attempt to alter the system originally 
 adopted. The ministers, the nobles, and the mili- 
 tary chiefs all bear Mahomedan names and titles, 
 while no account is given of the Hindoo institu- 
 tions being subverted, or Mahomedan officers being 
 employed in the minor details of the civil adminis- 
 tration. The only information we have of the 
 rates of taxation of the Hindoos, is related by 
 Ferishta. In the reign of Alla-ood-Deen, one of 
 the most cruel and absolute of the Mahomedan 
 kings of Dehly, who reigned from the year 1294 
 to 1315, we find him imposing a land-tax equal to 
 the value of half of the produce*; " at the same 
 time," the historian mentions, " the king became so 
 rapacious, that he seized the private property of 
 individuals, and confiscated the estates both of 
 Mahomedans and Hindoos without distinction, and 
 thus accumulated immense treasures." He de- 
 scribes " the Mokuddums, or heads of villages, who 
 formerly occupied large farms, and maintained ex- 
 pensive establishments, as now reduced to till their 
 own lands')" ; to dismiss their servants, and to cause 
 the females of their families to perform the menial 
 offices of the household." 
 
 The first Mahomedan kings of India who seemed 
 disposed to pay attention to the land revenue, were 
 those of the Afghans of Dehly. Sikundur Lody, 
 who reigned between the years 1488 and 1517, is 
 said to have caused part of the lands about Dehly 
 
 * Brigg's Ferishta, vol. i. p. 34-7. f Ibid.
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 121 
 
 to be surveyed, and he certainly took pains to esta- 
 blish one standard land measure, called after him 
 the Sikundry standard ; but no remains of the 
 survey were to be discovered half a century after- 
 wards. Sheer Shah Soor, another Afghan prince, 
 who raised himself from the situation of a great 
 military landholder to the throne of Dehly, and ex- 
 pelled Hoomayoon, caused a survey to be made of 
 part of the country, and intended to have extended 
 it throughout his dominions. Although no mention 
 is any where made of the district surveyed, it 
 seems probable that he commenced the work in 
 his own patrimonial estates, near Sahsaram. I 
 have not learnt that the records of this survey 
 have been preserved ; but the principle of Sheer 
 Shah, was to limit the demand of the sovereign 
 to one fourth of the produce in grain, or, what 
 is the same thing, the amount in money of the 
 value of one fourth of the crop, at the [existing 
 price of the market. Sheer Shah, unfortunately 
 for his country, was killed by the bursting of a 
 shell in the siege of Kalinjur, five years after his ac- 
 cession to the throne, and his successors did not 
 follow up his intentions. 
 
 The necessity for reforming the revenue system, 
 however, forced itself on the mind of Akber, who 
 ascended the throne of Dehly in the year 1556, 
 and died in the year 1G05. Under him, the Maho- 
 medan system underwent a thorough change : he 
 contracted alliances in marriage between his own 
 family and those of the Hindoos of the highest
 
 122 LAND-TAX 
 
 rank. His army, for the first time, exhibited Hin- 
 doos of birth and fortune holding great military 
 commands; and the Mahomedans beheld with won- 
 der the phenomenon of a Hindoo viceroy reign- 
 ing over the province, once the kingdom of Ghizny 
 and Cabul. Both Akber and his ministers, like 
 the economists of France, adopted the maxim, that 
 as all wealth arises originally out of the produce of 
 the soil, so the land ought to yield the principal 
 portion of public revenue. Whether or not he was 
 acquainted with the rent-roll of China, which seems 
 to be the most complete in the world, or whether the 
 device of measuring and classifying the land origi- 
 nated with himself and his minister, is immaterial ; 
 but, certain it is, he spared no pains to make as 
 complete a survey and assessment as possible. The 
 process of the survey is thus described by his friend 
 and minister, Abool Fuzl. " When his majesty had 
 settled the length of the guz (standard rod), and 
 the tunab (the chain), and the dimensions of the 
 beega (superficies), he classed the lands, and fixed 
 a different tax on each." 
 
 " Poohg is that land which never lies fallow for 
 a whole season. 
 
 " Pir^owty is that land which is allowed to lie 
 fallow to recover itself after exhaustion. 
 
 " Chechur is that land which has lain fallow for 
 two or three years. 
 
 " Bunjur is land that has been left uncultivated 
 for five or more years.
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 123 
 
 " Pooluj and Pirowty lands are of three sorts, 
 viz. best, middling, and worst. 
 
 " They add together the produce of a beega of 
 each sort, and a third of that aggregate is assumed 
 as the average produce, one third part of which 
 is the revenue settled by his majesty. 
 
 " Pirowty land, when cultivated, pays the same 
 revenue as Pooluj. " 
 
 The estimate is made in kind, and Akber par- 
 ticularly enjoins his revenue officers to receive the 
 produce itself, if the husbandman objects to the 
 commutation price. So convinced was this prince 
 that all other revenue but that derived from the 
 land was unprofitable to the state and vexatious 
 to the people, that he reduced the duties on home 
 manufactures from ten to five per cent, ad valo- 
 rem*, and abolished the following taxes: — poll 
 tax, port duties, tax on pilgrims and fairs, tax 
 on horned cattle, on fruit trees, official fees, tax 
 on labourers, fees to collectors, and to treasurer, 
 purveyance of all descriptions, the furnishing of 
 money bags, tax on assaying the revenue, market 
 duties, duties on hemp, oil, raw hides, on metage 
 and weighing, on cattle killed, on tanned leather, 
 on the sawing of timber, besides many others, t 
 
 "The manner of receiving the grain is after four 
 modes: — 
 
 " 1st. Kunkoot: estimated assessment. This 
 
 * Gladwin's Ayeen Akburry, pp. 309, 310. quarto edition, 
 London, 1800. 
 
 f Ibid. pp. 327, 328.
 
 124 LAND-TAX 
 
 operation, which takes place while the grain is still 
 standing, is performed in conjunction with the cul- 
 tivator. If he is dissatisfied with the assessment, 
 a certain portion of land is measured, and the pro- 
 duce is cut, threshed, and the amount ascertained. 
 The whole field is then assessed according to the 
 produce. 
 
 2. Bhawully, or Buttai. After the grain is 
 gathered into the barn, or threshing-floor, and is 
 ready for sale, the government receives its share 
 according to agreement. 
 
 3. o K'het Buttai. This takes place when a 
 field is measured, and a portion of it, equal to 
 the share of the crop, is left for the government 
 officer. 
 
 4. Lang Buttai. The grain, after being thresh- 
 ed, is piled up into heaps, and the government 
 officer selects one of them, equal to the portion 
 to be paid. 
 
 Whenever the cultivator is willing, the price of 
 the grain may be taken at the market rates." 
 
 The survey of Akbur was commenced in the 
 year 1571. The principle of which was to take 
 a third of the produce of each cultivator's crop, 
 not according to an average assessment in money, 
 but with reference to the actual produce year 
 after year. Both he and his ministers knew that 
 any fixed money assessment of so large a portion 
 of the produce would very soon prove unequal, but 
 they thought the division of actual produce might
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 
 
 125 
 
 be a more permanent measure.* In less than ten 
 years, however, Akber discovered that this mode 
 of assessment with individual cultivators would 
 not answer, and the conviction is thus expressed in 
 the institutes. 
 
 " When, through his majesty's prudent manage- 
 ment, the bounds of the empire were greatly en- 
 larged, it was found very difficult to procure the 
 
 * The accompanying table, extracted from the Ayeen Ak- 
 burry, shows the principle on which this assessment was made. 
 Each field was assessed according to the seed sown, in the pro- 
 portion of about a third of the average crop of good, middling, 
 and bad land. 
 
 POOLEJ LAND. 
 
 THE SPRING HARVEST, CALLED IN HINDOSTAN ASHARRY. 
 
 
 Produce of 
 a beega of 
 the best sort 
 of poolej. 
 
 Produce of 
 a beega of 
 
 Produce of 
 a beega of 
 
 „, [One third of 
 I he aggre-L, , 
 ot ? (the preeetl- 
 gate produce!. , . 
 
 Sin ". DeiDfit 
 of three bee-! . s ,. b 
 
 „ ..„ [the medium 
 gas ot dit- 1 , c 
 5 . [produce ot 
 terent sorts.} 1 . 
 
 One third of 
 the medium 
 produce of a 
 
 
 the mid- 
 dling sort 
 of poolej. 
 
 the worst 
 sort of 
 poolej. 
 
 beega, being 
 the propor- 
 tion fixed for 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ° 
 
 the revenue. 
 
 0? 
 
 13 
 
 
 GO 
 
 
 T3 
 
 
 T3 
 
 
 -3 
 
 
 T3 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 a 
 
 u 
 
 G 
 
 h 
 
 a 
 
 t* 
 
 a 
 
 In 
 
 a 
 
 i« 
 
 
 
 0) 
 
 3 
 
 01 
 
 3 
 
 01 
 
 3 
 
 0) 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 QJ 
 
 
 a 
 
 CO 
 
 fj 
 
 o> 
 CO 
 
 
 Of 
 
 RJ 
 
 at 
 GO 
 
 a 
 
 OT 
 
 
 0) 
 
 CO 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 § 
 
 
 rt 
 
 S 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 Wheat - 
 
 18 
 
 — 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 8 35 
 
 38 
 
 35 
 
 12 
 
 38± 
 
 4 
 
 12| 
 
 Vetches - 
 
 13 
 
 — 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 7 20 
 
 31 
 
 — 
 
 10 
 
 13i 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 Adess 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 I8i 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 Barley 
 
 18 
 
 — 
 
 12 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 38 
 
 35 
 
 12 
 
 38^ 
 
 4 
 
 12| 
 
 Linseed - 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 29 
 
 Madsfer - 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 6 
 
 30 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 6 
 
 36£ 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 Arzen 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 H 
 
 2 
 
 27i 
 
 Mustard - 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 Ii 
 
 2 
 
 27£ 
 
 Peas 
 
 13 
 
 — 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 8 
 
 25 
 
 32 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 
 23 
 
 Fenugreek 
 
 14 
 
 — 
 
 11 
 
 — 
 
 9 
 
 35 
 
 34 
 
 35 
 
 11 
 
 25 
 
 3 
 
 35 
 
 Shaly Kow 
 
 24 
 
 — 
 
 18 
 
 — 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 56 
 
 10 
 
 18 
 
 30 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 N.B. The beega of Akbur was equal to 3600 square yards; the seer 
 measure contained two pints ; the maund contained forty seers.
 
 126 LAND-TAX 
 
 current prices of grain from all parts of the king- 
 dom ; and the delays that this occasioned in making 
 the settlements were productive of many incon- 
 veniences. In order to remedy these evils, his 
 majesty directed that a settlement should be con- 
 cluded for ten years. For the above purpose, 
 having formed an aggregate of the rates of collec- 
 tion, from the commencement of the fifteenth year 
 of his reign to the twenty-fourth inclusive, they 
 took a tenth part of that total, as the annual rate 
 for the ensuing ten years." Thus, it appears, at a 
 very early period, the scheme of Akber to assess 
 fields was discovered, in practice, to be full of em- 
 barrassment ; and, before his measurements even 
 were completed, he was reduced to the necessity of 
 assessing whole villages, and leaving it to the peo- 
 ple themselves to distribute the portion payable by 
 individuals. 
 
 This is one of the most instructive lessons we 
 could have of the extreme difficulty of assessing 
 land in any portion which approaches to the full 
 profit of the landlord. The actual measurement, 
 and the nominal assessment of Akber, exist at the 
 present day in the village records of those countries 
 wherein they were introduced ; but they may be 
 deemed rather objects of curiosity than of utility. 
 The village assessment of Akber was adopted by 
 his son Jehangeer, and his grandson Shahjehan ; and 
 the European travellers who visited India in those 
 days speak of the extraordinary prosperity and 
 wealth of the country.
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 127 
 
 Aurungzeeb abandoned the plan of Akber, and 
 reverted to that system, which has been before ex- 
 plained, in the times of Alla-ood-deen Khiljy, where 
 the king claimed an equal division of the crop with 
 the cultivator, as is related by Khafia Khan, a co- 
 temporary historian. This practice, however, was 
 by no means universal ; the proportion varied ac- 
 cording to the nature of the land and of the crops. 
 Thus, sugar-cane, opium, ginger, and whatsoever 
 produce required the extra labour of watering from 
 wells, only paid one fourth, if paid in specie ; and 
 one third, if received in kind: more expensive crops 
 than these paid only one eighth of the produce. 
 
 Abundant evidence has already been adduced to 
 prove that neither the Hindoo nor Mahomedan so- 
 vereigns ever claimed to be proprietors of any part 
 of the soil but of the waste, or of the lands escheat- 
 ing in default of legal successors ; and they certain- 
 ly never pretended to deny the proprietary right of 
 occupants. This fact must have struck the reader 
 in every step of my enquiry. Aurungzeeb may be 
 considered the last of the race of the Moguls who 
 ruled in absolute independence, and who disre- 
 garded almost all laws which limited the power of 
 the sovereign over his subjects j yet we find him 
 still respecting the proprietary right of the land- 
 holder. This is singularly illustrated in the cir- 
 cular instructions issued by him to his several con- 
 trollers of the land revenues. The document is 
 dated in the year 1668, eight years after his ac- 
 cession to the throne ; and a translation made by
 
 128 LAND-TAX 
 
 Sir Boughton Rous, is to be found in the Ap- 
 pendix to Patton's Asiatic Monarchies, p. [339. 
 et seq. In speaking of lands lying uncultivated, 
 the orders require that the civil officers shall ob- 
 tain " information of the parcels of land which, 
 having fallen into disuse, have not been restored 
 to cultivation. Provided some part is cultivated, 
 and the rest not very hopeful, they shall not give 
 molestation for the tax of such lands. If that land 
 is proprietary, the proprietor himself being present, 
 and capable of cultivating it, let them admonish 
 him to cultivate it; but if that land is not proprie- 
 tary, or the proprietor is not known, let them give 
 it to a person capable of cultivating it," in order 
 that the government may receive a revenue from 
 it. " If the farmer is a Mussulman, and the afore- 
 said land is situated in the neighbourhood ofAsherry 
 land," — that which pays a tenth of the produce to 
 government, — " let them agree with him for Asher, 
 or a tenth part of the produce. If it lies near 
 Khirajy land, or if the farmer be a Zimmy (infidel), 
 they shall surely exact from him Khiraj. In a 
 case where such Khiraj appears improper, they 
 shall, according to circumstances, fix a rate per 
 beegah, which is termed Khiraj Mookitaat, or 
 field assessments ; or else they shall take half the 
 crop, entitled Khiraj Mokussima" It is proper to 
 observe, that, in making the Mokussima division, 
 the seed grain, and the fees to village and district 
 officers, amounting to from ten to fifteen per cent, 
 of the whole, were first deducted. Again, "If the
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 129 
 
 proprietor of a piece of uncultivated land be known, 
 let them leave it to him, and not suffer any other 
 to possess it." With regard to money rents, the 
 regulations say, "Commutations (in money), termed 
 Motimzzif Mokussima, are allowable, provided the 
 landholders themselves are satisfied, but otherwise 
 they (the government officers) must not make such 
 alterations." In another place it is said, — 
 
 " In Mowuzzif, or money payments, if the pro- 
 prietor lets his own land in farm, or mortgages it 
 to another, and the farmer or mortgagee cultivates 
 it, the tax shall be exacted from the proprietor ; if 
 either of them makes a garden on it, the tax then 
 shall be levied on the actual occupant." 
 
 " If an infidel sell his land to a Mussulman, not- 
 withstanding his being a Mussulman, they shall ex- 
 act from him Khiraj mowuzzif, the full money tax." 
 This was to prevent loss of revenue to the state. 
 
 I have endeavoured to show, that from the oral 
 authority of Mahomed, down to the time of Au- 
 rungzeeb, private property in land has been univer- 
 sally respected by all Mahomedans, both in law and 
 in practice; that this right is not confined to Ma- 
 homedans alone, but extends to all the subjects, 
 Moslem or Zimmy of every Mussulman prince. 
 No Mahomedan prince of whom I have ever read 
 claimed the possessor's ownership of the soil j his 
 right, like that of the Hindoo sovereigns, was 
 limited to a portion of the produce, not fixed in 
 money, but regulated according to the value of 
 the crop. 
 
 K
 
 ISO LAND-TAX 
 
 The reply of Gholam Hoossein Khan, one of the 
 most able and intelligent Mahomedans* in Bengal, 
 to Mr. Shore, the present Lord Teignmouth, on 
 this point is full of value. The question is, " Why 
 did the king purchase lands, since he was lord of 
 the country, and might therefore have taken by 
 virtue of that capacity ? 
 
 " Answer. The emperor is not so far lord of the 
 soil, as to be able to sell or otherwise dispose of it 
 at his mere will and pleasure. These are rights 
 belonging only to such a proprietor of land as is 
 mentioned in the first and second answers. The 
 emperor is proprietor of the revenue, but he is not 
 proprietor of the soil. Hence it is, when he grants 
 aymas, altmughas, and jageers, he only transfers 
 the revenue from himself to the grantee." t 
 
 This opinion, and the proof of its correctness, 
 are important, and ought to be kept in mind 
 when we come to examine the sentiments of our 
 countrymen, and the practice of our own govern- 
 ment. The value of real property, however, 
 does not merely depend on the recognition of a 
 proprietor ; it varies according to many circum- 
 stances, and is chiefly affected by the public de- 
 mand on the produce : where that demand is small, 
 land sells at an advanced price, owing to the re- 
 turn of surplus produce it affords to the landlord ; 
 where the demand is large, it sells at a low price ; 
 
 * He is the author of the Syer Mootakhireen, an historical 
 work of our own times, of great merit. 
 f Vide Law and Constitution, p. 55, 56.
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 131 
 
 and where the demand exceeds one third (which 
 is usually considered the portion belonging to the 
 landlord), it is no longer saleable, and the owners of 
 large properties will be compelled to limit their cul- 
 tivation to the extent which they can effect with 
 their own household. In speaking of the ancient 
 Hindoo village institutions, I have shown that the 
 whole of the land of every township was divided 
 among a certain number of original proprietors, 
 paying a moderate land-tax, and enjoying a consi- 
 derable profit beyond the expenses necessary for 
 cultivation. Much of the land of each individual 
 would be farmed out to tenants, who, after paying 
 the government tax, would pay a certain rent to 
 the landlords. We have seen, that in many parts of 
 the Madras territory, in Ceylon, in Travancore, 
 Malabar, and Canara, that such was actually the 
 case when we became acquainted with those coun- 
 tries. Under the Mahomedan government, how- 
 ever, it seems hardly possible that any of the an- 
 cient proprietors of villages should have preserved 
 the integrity of their patrimonial estates during 
 such a long series of vicissitudes. The right of the 
 proprietors to cultivate the same lands, and to trans- 
 mit them to their children from generation to gen- 
 eration, has indeed continued ; but the extent of 
 real property, a large proportion of which was 
 abandoned, as being beyond the means of the pro- 
 prietor himself to cultivate, on account of heavy 
 taxation, became contracted, and that which was 
 abandoned gradually passed out of the hands of the 
 
 k 2
 
 132 LAND-TAX 
 
 original landlord into those of government. Nor 
 were these the only lands claimed by the Indian 
 Mahomedan sovereigns ; the whole of the lands as- 
 signed by the Hindoo monarchs for the support of 
 the national religion were resumed, not so much on 
 account of the revenue they were calculated to 
 yield, as for the purpose of destroying every vestige 
 of the ancient worship. The crown lands of the 
 Mahomedan sovereigns were therefore very exten- 
 sive, but, on the whole, extremely unprofitable as 
 sources of wealth, though advantageous in other re- 
 spects. A people so deeply imbued with a sense 
 of religion as the Mahomedans did not neglect 
 their own church establishment ; lands were every 
 where assigned for the erection of mosques and 
 schools, and for their perpetual maintenance. They 
 were also granted to holy and learned men, and not 
 unfrequently on condition of keeping up the repairs 
 of public buildings. These lands (termed lakhi- 
 raj) being held free of tax to the state, might have 
 been made extremely profitable to the holders, but 
 the individuals to whom they were assigned seldom 
 or never attended to their cultivation in person, 
 but rented them to others. The abundance of 
 waste land which it was the tendency of the Ma- 
 homedan system to keep sterile, owing to the heavy 
 exactions on it, caused the freehold lands alluded 
 to to be farmed at low rents ; and in this way the 
 Hindoo cultivators, by their occupations, were en- 
 abled to pay an apparently incredible portion of 
 the crops of their own lands to the government.
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 133 
 
 There was also another method adopted for 
 bringing waste lands into cultivation, which were 
 granted to individuals who chose to embark ca- 
 pital in the undertaking. Contracts were formed 
 with the government, to pay a fixed sum for ever 
 for a certain spot of land, and a <potta.li or lease 
 was given. The holders of these leases bore the 
 name of pottahdars. In the reign of Akber, ac- 
 cording to Patton, each pottah was limited from 
 thirty to ninety beegas, that is, between twenty and 
 sixty English acres. These pottahs descended from 
 father to son, and were saleable property. In the 
 course of a short time, this property was eagerly 
 sought after, and several pottahs were purchased 
 by single proprietors. These estates were subse- 
 quently confirmed by new royal patents, which 
 included in one the whole property of each in- 
 dividual, under the denomination of Talooka, or 
 dependency, of which the proprietor was called 
 Talookdar. The owners of these estates enjoyed 
 the peculiar privilege of paying their land-tax di- 
 rect to the government, without the intervention of 
 any local officers. It was not unusual to reward 
 the services of officers of government by bestow- 
 ing on them the revenues of certain villages on 
 payment of a quit-rent. This property, though 
 essentially different from the above, received also 
 the appellation of Talookdarry. In the former 
 case, the proprietor purchased waste land outright 
 from the government, on payment of a fee an- 
 nually ; in the latter, the Talookdar was the pro- 
 
 k3
 
 134- Land-tax 
 
 prietor, not of the land, but of the sovereign's share 
 of the crop; but the same appellation attaching to 
 both tenures, afterwards created confusion in com- 
 prehending the two tenures. 
 
 The nature of this latter description is well ex- 
 emplified in the following transaction, one of the 
 earliest revenue engagements in which the East 
 India Company was concerned. In the year 1715, 
 eight years only after the death of Aurungzeeb, 
 the Company made application to the Emperor of 
 Dehly for a grant of the Talookdarry, or perpe- 
 tual contract for the revenues of thirty-eight vil- 
 lages which lay contiguous to their factory in 
 Bengal. The sum they agreed to pay was 8181 
 sicca rupees, something more than one thousand 
 pounds sterling annually. After many applica- 
 tions, the measure was acceded to in 1717? on 
 condition that the Company should, in the first 
 instance, purchase up from the Talookdars their 
 rights. The imperial order says, " Let them (the 
 Company) make the purchase from the owners, 
 and then let our diwan (minister of finance) of 
 the province release it" — the district of thirty- 
 eight villages. 
 
 Before concluding the account of the Mahome- 
 dan government, it seems proper to refer to a 
 subject which has heretofore led to much discus- 
 sion, and to a variety of opinions. In the great 
 revenue reform which Akber attempted, but which 
 does not appear to have been as successful as he 
 intended, he gave new titles and appellations to
 
 OF THE JMAHOMEDANS. 135 
 
 the several public officers, which formed part of 
 the new system : the village chiefs, Gram Adikars 
 of the Hindoos, received the Arabic title of Mo- 
 kudum, or the foremost man ; the district registers, 
 Des Lekuks, were denominated Canoongoe, or ex- 
 pounders of the institutes ; while all persons, pro- 
 prietors of land, whether of small or large estates, 
 were designated Zemindars, signifying, literally, 
 landholders : this appellation was more particularly 
 used in Bengal towards the Des Adikars, or here- 
 ditary district officers. It had been one of the 
 ancient resources of the revenue of the Hindoo 
 government, to exact from these chiefs, on suc- 
 ceeding to their office and estates, a fee or relief^ 
 equal to about one year's income ; and the Maho- 
 medan government of Akber and his successors 
 secured this payment by renewing the patent of 
 office to every heir on his accession, which was 
 only granted after the receipt of the fees. It has 
 been already explained that, of these officers, each 
 held a small patrimonial estate in his own district, 
 and on collecting and paying the revenue to 
 government, he received a per-centage, termed 
 Nankar, the bread of office, which, in latter times, 
 amounted to about one tenth of the collections. 
 The nature of the office is clearly explained in the 
 following translation of a patent granted to the 
 Zemindar of Bishenpore : from this document it 
 would appear that the Des Adikars, or Zemindars, 
 under the Mahomedan sovereigns, to the very 
 latest periods, were constituted civil governors of 
 
 k 4
 
 136 LAND-TAX 
 
 their districts ; and it seems likely that the govern- 
 ment, having fixed one fourth or one third of 
 the crop as the public demand on the cultivator, 
 assessed each district in a sum of money supposed 
 to be equivalent to that portion of the produce, and 
 left it to the Zemindars to distribute and realise the 
 assessment. That the government always limited 
 its demand to its due share, or that the Zemindar 
 did not exceed it in raising the revenue from the 
 landholders, seems very unlikely. All we have to 
 do at present is to show the nature of the office, 
 which will appear more plain from the following 
 documents : — 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Translation of the Copy of a Zemindary Patent to Chit an Sing 
 for the District of Bishenpore. 
 
 Be it known to all our Officers, present and future, to 
 the Chowderees, Canungoes, Talukdars, landholders and 
 husbandmen of the district of Bishenpore, &c. &c. &c. 
 a fiscal domain, in the province of Bungash, &c. dependent 
 on the division of Burdwan, within the territory of Bengal 
 (the paradise of regions), that whereas, agreeably to the 
 petition, which has obtained our concurrence, and the de- 
 tailed obligations in conformity thereto, to which our signa- 
 ture has also been affixed, with the particulars of each 
 specified at large, the office of Zemnidar of the aforesaid 
 district has been bestowed, agreeably to the indorsement 
 annexed, from the beginning of the year B. S. 1187, to the 
 cream of his compeers Chitan Sing, the grandson of Gopal 
 Sing, Zemindar, deceased, on his consenting to pay the 
 offerings due to royalty, of one hundred and eighty-six 
 mohers and two anas (or 372/. sterling). It is required of 
 him, that, having fulfilled with propriety the duties and
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 137 
 
 functions of his station, he be not deficient in the smallest 
 respect in diligence and assiduity, but observing a conci- 
 liatory conduct towards the Ryots and inhabitants at large, 
 and exerting himself to the utmost in punishing and expel- 
 ling the refractory; let him pay the revenue of government 
 into the public treasury at the stated periods ; let him en- 
 courage the body of the landholders in such a manner that 
 signs of an increased cultivation and improvement of the 
 country may daily appear; and let him keep the high roads 
 in such repair that travellers may pass and repass in the 
 fullest confidence and security. Let him see there be no 
 robberies or murders committed within his boundaries; 
 but if (which God forbid !) any one should, notwithstanding, 
 be robbed or plundered of his property, let him produce the 
 thieves together with the stolen property ; and, after re- 
 storing the latter to the rightful owner, let him assign the 
 former over to punishment. Should he fail in producing 
 the parties offending, he must himself make good the pro- 
 perty stolen. Let him be careful that no one be guilty of 
 misconduct in his behaviour, or commit irregularities of any 
 kind; let him transmit the accounts required of him to the 
 government, under his own signature and that of the Ca- 
 nungoe ; and after having paid up the whole revenues com- 
 pletely at the end of the year, let him receive credit for the 
 Maskurat (allowances) agreeably to usage ; and, finally, let 
 him refrain from the collection of any of the abwab, or im- 
 posts abolished or prohibited by government. 
 
 It is required of the aforesaid officers, &c. &c, that hav- 
 ing acknowledged the said Chitan Sing Zemnidar of the 
 above-mentioned district, they consider him as vested with 
 the full powers and functions appertaining to that office. 
 Regarding this as obligatory, let them not deviate there- 
 from. 
 
 Indorsement on the Back of the Patent. 
 
 Agreeably to the petition which has obtained our signa- 
 ture, and bond in conformity thereto, to which also our
 
 138 LAND-TAX 
 
 signature has been affixed, the office of Zemindary of the 
 district of Bishenpore, &c. a fiscal domain in the province 
 of Baugash, in the division of Burdwan, within the territory 
 of Bengal (the paradise of regions), has been granted from 
 the beginning of the year 1187, B. S. to the cream of his 
 compeers Chitan Sing, the grandson of Gopal Sing, Zem- 
 indar, deceased, on his consenting to pay the offering to 
 royalty of one hundred and eighty-six mohers and two 
 anas. 
 
 Two entire Districts. 
 
 The revenue of which is agreeably to the accounts sign- 
 ed by the Canungoe of the division. 
 
 The office of Zemindar of the district of Bishenpore, &c. 
 a fiscal domain in the province of Bangash, a dependency 
 of the division of Burdwan, within the territory of Bengal 
 (the paradise of regions), having been bestowed on the 
 cream of his compeers, Chitan Sing, the grandson of Go- 
 pal Sing, Zemindar, deceased, he has consented to pay the 
 offering to royalty of 186 mohers and two anas, and re- 
 quests that a patent may be granted him. 
 
 What is your pleasure ? 
 (Sign Manual.) Let a patent be granted. 
 District of Bishenpore in the province of 
 
 Bangash, one district - - - 37,529 4 
 
 District of Shapoor in the province of Mah- 
 
 daram, one district - - - 96,374 9 12 
 
 Total revenue 129,903 13 1 2 
 
 Furd-i-Hakikaty or Statement, 
 
 Agreeably to the Petition, the particulars of which 
 have been recorded, the office of Zemindar, Sec. (as in the 
 preceding) having been bestowed from the beginning of 
 the year 1187, B. S., (&c. as before) and the aforesaid 
 person having delivered into the Finance Office the usual
 
 OF THE MAHOMEDANS. 139 
 
 bonds and security, requests a patent may be granted 
 him. 
 
 What is your will and pleasure? Two districts. 
 
 The revenue agreeably to the accounts signed by the 
 Canungoes. 
 
 (Statement as before.) 
 
 Having taken the bond and security agreeably to usage, 
 
 LET THE PATENT BE PREPARED. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Bond. 
 
 I, who am Chitan Sing, the grandson of Gopal Sing 
 deceased, Zemindar of district Bishenpore, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 Whereas the office of Zemindar of the aforesaid dis- 
 trict has been bestowed on me from the beginning of 1 187, 
 B. S., on my consenting to pay the offering to royalty of 
 186 mohers and two anas. 
 
 Do, of my free will and accord, enter into the engage- 
 ments and written obligation, that, having executed with 
 propriety the duties and functions of my station, I will 
 not be deficient in the smallest respect in diligence and. 
 assiduity; but observing a mild and conciliatory conduct 
 towards the ryots and inhabitants at large, and exerting 
 myself to the utmost in punishing and expelling the refrac- 
 tory, I will pay the revenue of government into the trea- 
 sury, at the stated periods : I will encourage the body of 
 the ryots in such a manner that signs of increased cultiva- 
 tion, and the improvement of the country, may daily appear. 
 I will keep the high roads in such repair that travellers 
 may pass and repass in the fullest confidence and security : 
 there shall be no robberies nor murders committed within 
 my boundaries ; but if (which God forbid !) any one should, 
 notwithstanding, be robbed or plundered of his property, 
 I will produce the thieves, together with the stolen pro- 
 perty ; and, after restoring the latter to the rightful owner,
 
 140 LAND-TAX 
 
 I will consign the former over to punishment. Should I 
 fail in producing the parties offending, I myself will make 
 good the property stolen. I will be careful that no one be 
 guilty of misconduct in his behaviour, or commit irregu- 
 larities of any kind. I will transmit the accounts required 
 of me under my own and the Canungoe's signature; and, 
 after having paid up the whole revenues completely to 
 the end of the year, I will receive credit for the maskurat 
 allowances, agreeably to usage ; and, finally, I will refrain 
 from the collection of the aboab, which have been abo- 
 lished or prohibited by government. 
 
 I have therefore given this paper as a mochulkah (or 
 obligation), that recourse may be had thereto when occa- 
 sion shall require, &c. &c. &c. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Zaminy, or Security Bond. 
 
 I, who am Canungoe of Bengal, &c. &c. 
 
 Whereas the office of Zemindar of the district of Bishen- 
 pore, &c. &c. &c. has been bestowed on Chitan Sing, &c. 
 having become security to government for his appearance, 
 do engage and bind myself, that in case the aforesaid 
 person should abscond, I will produce him ; and in the 
 event of my not being able to do so, I myself will be 
 responsible for his engagements. 
 
 I have therefore written these few lines in the nature of 
 a bail security, that they may be produced when neces- 
 sary.
 
 141 
 
 PART II. 
 
 LAND-TAX OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BENGAL SYSTEMS. 
 
 Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. — In the former 
 part of this work, I have endeavoured to exhibit 
 the nature of the Hindoo government, its laws, and 
 civil institutions. I have also shown what was the 
 law and the practice of the Mahomed ans. It 
 remains for me now to take a view of the history 
 of modern times, and to enquire how far our own 
 government has adopted or departed from the in- 
 stitutions and usages of its predecessors. 
 
 The nature of the constitution of the British 
 government in India, renders its actions more 
 open to public scrutiny than that of any state which 
 has ever existed. It is quite necessary, for the 
 welfare of its subjects, that it should do so ; and 
 nothing but the curious mechanism of the whole 
 engine, with its numerous checks and powerful 
 wheels, could so long have maintained an empire 
 such as we have in the East, with so apparently
 
 142 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 weak means — an empire altogether without pa- 
 rallel in the annals of history. 
 
 When the first territorial possessions of India 
 fell into the hands of a few merchants, they little 
 contemplated the gigantic strides they were making 
 to form so vast a dominion in the other hemi- 
 sphere : a dominion comprising a space not only far 
 exceeding the parent state in size, but comparable 
 in extent and population to more than half of 
 Europe. 
 
 The Bengal territory, which first came into our 
 possession, had long been agitated by civil war, 
 foreign invasion, and internal anarchy and dis- 
 union. The English, who gradually became its 
 masters, were ignorant of the language, the history, 
 the institutions, and the manners of the inhabitants. 
 The few leading men in power among the native 
 population had usurped the rights of almost all 
 other classes, and so completely threw them into 
 the shade, that the new governors long remained 
 in ignorance of the resources of the country and 
 the privileges of their subjects. An abstract even 
 of the details through which I have found it neces- 
 sary to wade, on the events of these early times, 
 would fill a volume, but I must be content to take 
 only a very cursory view of them. Previously to 
 exposing the measures adopted by the English 
 government, it may be well to show what was the 
 system under our immediate predecessors. 
 
 Since the year 1707? which closed the reign of 
 Aurungzeeb, the government of Bengal had been
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL, 143 
 
 subject to much fluctuation. Each of the numer- 
 ous sovereigns, his successors, appointed a new 
 viceroy. The imbecility of the court of Dehly, 
 and the temporary nature of the viceroy alty, in- 
 duced these regal lieutenants to make their own 
 rapid aggrandisement and accumulation of wealth 
 the main objects of their deputation, and the 
 order and system which had prevailed since the 
 days of Akbur had long ceased to exist. 
 
 Instead of adhering to regulations which involved 
 great attention to business, it had long been the 
 practice of the native rulers to contract with the 
 Zemindars and others, to supply a certain sum of 
 money for the current revenue of the year, and to 
 leave the details of collection entirely to the con- 
 tractor. 
 
 It has been already stated that the basis of the 
 land revenue was founded on the actual condition 
 of the crop. Money was only the eventual pro- 
 duce, with the amount of which the cultivator had 
 for the most part no concern. The share of the 
 crop never altered, except by a specific law pro- 
 mulgated by the king. This portion was, under all 
 established and regular governments, well under- 
 stood by every one concerned. As the relative 
 value between produce and money was extremely 
 fluctuating, to fix the amount of the latter was im- 
 posing the most variable and uncertain tax, and 
 the greatest innovation on law and practice which 
 could have been contrived. The nature of such 
 a tax will be evident to every man who has traced
 
 144 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 the fluctuation of money- rent in England during 
 the last forty years. 
 
 The duties of the Zemindars have been fully ex- 
 plained in the foregoing chapters, and therefore it 
 is unnecessary to expatiate on them. 
 
 Owing to political events, into which it is not 
 necessary to enter, the English army, hitherto em- 
 ployed on the coast of Coromandel, was suddenly 
 required on the banks of the Ganges, to defend 
 the interests of its country in that quarter. The 
 battles of Plassy and Buxar placed the English in 
 possession of vast political power in Bengal, and 
 led to the territorial establishments which fol- 
 lowed. A grant of the twenty-four Pergimas 
 around Calcutta was first made by the Emperor 
 of Dehly to the English, in 1715. In 1J65 the 
 office of Diwan, or minister of finance in Bengal, 
 was conferred onLord Clive, as the British represent- 
 ative. The domestic dissensions in the court of the 
 Nawab, or Imperial Viceroy of Bengal, induced that 
 prince to transfer the management of his country 
 into the hands of the English, in consideration of 
 their supporting his title to his dignity and giving 
 up to him a certain portion of the whole revenue. 
 
 This event also took place at the same time as 
 the imperial grant was made, but it was deemed 
 politic at first to conduct the public business 
 through the agency of the Nawab's officers. 
 
 In 1769» European supervisors were appointed 
 to make tours through the country, for the purpose 
 of examining its condition, and of obtaining in-
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 145 
 
 formation regarding its history and institutions. 
 In the following year two councils were appointed, 
 one at Patna, and another at Moorshedabad, with 
 the same views. The information obtained repre- 
 sented " the internal condition of the country and 
 its inhabitants to be in a wretched state of disorder 
 and poverty."* The system which actually pre- 
 vailed, resolved itself into habitual extortion by the 
 public officers, and produced, on the part of the 
 cultivators, the natural consequences of conceal- 
 ment and evasion of the payments due to the state. 
 " With respect to the administration of justice, the 
 regular course was every where suspended, but 
 every man exercised it who had the power of com- 
 pelling others to submit to his decisions."? 
 
 The local government of India, however, felt it- 
 self incompetent to remedy these evils, without 
 sanction from the superior authorities in Europe. 
 A favourite maxim, in opposition to their own laws, 
 which had been propagated by the latter Mahome- 
 dan viceroys claiming to be the proprietors of the 
 soil, was at first admitted by the English without 
 investigation ; but the latter discovered daily such 
 a vast variety of acknowledged hereditary privileges 
 and rights among the people, that they were puzzled 
 to reconcile absolute right in the sovereign with 
 specific rights in the subject. The views of the 
 English legislators were, for the most part, limited 
 to the state of things in their native country. The 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 7. t lDid ' P- 7>
 
 146 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 revenue system of India, derived from a land-tax, 
 absorbing the whole of the landlord's profit, ap- 
 peared to them novel in theory, while the realis- 
 ation seemed complicated in practice. The more 
 they enquired, the more fully were they convinced 
 that this had been the habitual custom in India. 
 The mode of realising the revenue hitherto adopted 
 by the best governments, was found to be that of 
 appointing collectors, who, aided by the district 
 officers, called Zemindars, and a public district 
 register, termed Canungoe, settled the amount 
 derivable from each village, which was paid into 
 the public treasury. This system, embracing too 
 much detail, had been abandoned for the more 
 simple one of settling with the Zemindar for the 
 whole of his district, and leaving it to him to collect 
 the revenue in such way as he could. But as the 
 basis of the land revenue was founded on corn- 
 rents, which, though invariable in themselves, never 
 yield for any length of time the same quantity of 
 specie the money payment was necessarily variable 
 according to the season, the nature of the crops, 
 and the price in the market : a struggle, therefore, 
 always subsisted between the government and the 
 Zemindars, or revenue contractors ; the former to 
 obtain the largest possible sum of money, the latter 
 to pay the smallest amount. In order to elicit the 
 greatest revenue, the native government had been 
 in the habit of putting up whole districts to auction 
 annually, to the highest bidder, on which occasions 
 the Zemindars not unfrequently refused to give the
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 14? 
 
 same amount which was bid by indifferent per- 
 sons. In this case, the renter during the ensu- 
 ing year assumed the place of the Zemindar, in 
 his capacity of collector of the revenue, who still 
 continued to exercise his office as hereditary local 
 magistrate, in which he was responsible for the 
 police and tranquillity of the country, receiving his 
 per-centage fees, and retaining, of course, the here- 
 ditary landed estate which, in many instances, had 
 descended through a long line of ancestors. 
 
 In cases where the revenue farmers failed in ful- 
 filling their contracts, under the native govern- 
 ment, their persons and property were seized, and 
 themselves submitted to all the rigour of absolute 
 despotism. 
 
 At length, in 177^, the court of directors came 
 to the resolution of assuming the direct manage- 
 ment of the Nawab's affairs, and, according to the 
 Mogul's patent, " stood forth (as they term it) as 
 Diwan." 
 
 In pursuance of the orders received to this effect, 
 the Governor-General and four members of his 
 council went into a committee for framing regula- 
 tions adapted to the new state of affairs. A board 
 of revenue was formed at Calcutta; the local Euro- 
 pean supervisors received the titles of collectors*, 
 and were authorised to contract for the public re- 
 venue of every description for five years, with such 
 persons as might offer the most advantageous terms, 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 11. 
 L 2
 
 148 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 provided they could give adequate security; aud 
 the four junior members of the council proceeded 
 through the provinces, with powers to carry these 
 measures into effect. The five years' contract gave 
 time to the government to consider of some future 
 scheme less objectionable, and it was accordingly 
 devoted to enquiry. 
 
 At this period, Mr. Warren Hastings was Gover- 
 nor-General of India. In spite of a long residence 
 in that country, and a considerable acquaintance 
 with its modern history and institutions, he had 
 been unable to make himself master of them. The 
 great disadvantages which every European must 
 labour under in such an investigation, were never 
 more fully evinced than in the instance of this great 
 man. With a mind capable of embracing the larg- 
 est subjects, and with an ardent zeal for his profes- 
 sion, which nothing seemed to check, he confessed 
 himself too ignorant of the rights of the people to 
 hazard any scheme without further knowledge. 
 
 He proposed, therefore, previously to the termin- 
 ation of the five years' settlement, that the govern- 
 ment should be placed in a situation, as to intelli- 
 gence, which might enable it to decide on the best 
 means of collecting the revenue in future. In 
 order to obtain this information, he proposed that 
 a temporary office, at the head of which should be 
 one or two Europeans, consisting of a number 
 of the best informed native revenue officers, should 
 be established, in order to ascertain the respect- 
 ive rights of the cultivators and the Zemindars:
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 1 ¥J 
 
 a measure which should have for its object the 
 " fixing of the deeds by which the ryots hold their 
 lands and pay their rents, and limiting certain 
 bounds and defences against the authority of the 
 Zemindar."* 
 
 The Supreme Council of Bengal consisted of Mr. 
 Barwell, a civil servant of considerable experience, 
 of Sir Philip Francis, and General Clavering ; the 
 two latter, persons of undoubted talents, but with 
 notions adapted only to existing systems in Europe, 
 and apparently opposed to every measure of the 
 Governor-General. 
 
 Mr. Barwell observes f : — " I assent to the pro- 
 posal of the Governor-General. We are unani- 
 mously agreed that a fixed valuation should take 
 place in the revenues, and that some diminution 
 should be made in the present rents ; lastly, we 
 propose that this important settlement should be 
 permanent." He was of opinion, however, that 
 until the minute investigations recommended by 
 the Governor-General were completed, they could 
 act on no sure foundation. He observed, that in 
 the reign of Henry IV. of France, the great Duke 
 of Sully only brought about that reform in the con- 
 dition of the French people, and in the revenues of 
 the state, by a similar investigation. " He com- 
 menced," observes Mr. Barwell, " with a most ex- 
 tensive and arduous collection of minute details in 
 that branch ; and, from mature consideration of 
 
 * Mr. Hastings' Minute, 1st November 1776'. 
 f Mr. Barwell's Minute, 12th November 1776. 
 L 3
 
 1,50 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 those detached voluminous materials, detected 
 every species of artifice and fraud committed by 
 the farmers, and employed the result of his disco- 
 veries towards lightening the burden upon the 
 shoulders of the commonalty.*' 
 
 So imperfect was the knowledge yet acquired of 
 the condition of the landed tenures in India, that 
 Mr. Hastings and his council seemed to consider 
 the Zemindars as hereditary lords of the manor over 
 their districts, and the cultivators as their under- 
 tenants, who enjoyed specific privileges and rights 
 which it was the duty as well as the desire of the 
 government to protect. The object of the " Gover- 
 nor-General was to fix the demands on the culti- 
 vators, and to secure to them the perpetual and 
 undisturbed possession of their lands, and to guard 
 them against arbitrary exactions. "* 
 
 Mr. Barwell remarks, " I am likewise persuaded, 
 that administration cannot have a more important 
 topic of discussion, or object of action, than to de- 
 tine and secure the rights of the people ; and in this 
 country, where all territorial property centres ulti- 
 mately in government, and where the Zemindar holds 
 his own lands but by a pottah (grant), the same 
 tenure by which his under-tenants hold them again 
 from him. I think the public eye should have a 
 watch upon those as well as the former," &c. 
 
 " Personal property ought as much to be sacred 
 in the pittance of the poor as in the possessions of 
 
 * Governor-General's Minute, 1st November 1776.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 151 
 
 the rich ; and as I have said * the welfare of the 
 husbandman and manufacturer is the groundwork 
 of a well-regulated state/ it follows that I deem 
 it to be the first object of this government to 
 fence and secure the ryots against the arbitrary 
 power of the Zemindars. ,, 
 
 Mr. Francis opposed the measure as wholly un- 
 necessary.* " In considering the object of the pro- 
 posed accurate valuation of the lands, supposing it 
 attainable, it appears to me that it would be useless, 
 except for the single purpose of levying the greatest 
 possible revenue. But this object I hope and be- 
 lieve is not in contemplation. What, then, is the pre- 
 sent object of government? We know the amount 
 of our expenses, and we know in general what the 
 country can pay | ; we also know that in general it 
 has been much over-rated.'* " Our own constant 
 experience tells us, that, upon the whole, there 
 ought to be a remission." " The inequalities of an 
 assessment, in itself not excessive and intolerable, 
 will soon level of themselves, provided all parties 
 know with certainty the utmost they are to pay, and 
 are assured they will not be exposed to an arbitrary 
 increase of demands on future improvements. With- 
 out a fixed jumma (assessment), I affirm that no 
 other measures whatsoever can save the country." 
 
 * Mr. Francis's Minute, 5th Nov. 1776. 
 
 f This position seems to me one of the most extraordinary 
 that ever a statesman put forth. It implies, that the expenses 
 of the state, under all circumstances, were never to increase, 
 and that the prosperity of the nation should be stationary for 
 ever. 
 
 L 4
 
 152 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 These arguments were supported by quotations 
 from the works of Sir J. Stuart, Dr. Adam Smith, 
 and M. Montesquieu. Again he states, " It is pro- 
 posed to secure to the ryots the perpetual and un- 
 disturbed possession of their lands. yy — " Before we 
 give perpetual possession, we ought to determine 
 the property. This state does not consist of nothing 
 but the ruler and the ryot ; nor is it true that the 
 ryot is proprietor of the land. It is not even ne- 
 cessary that he should be so, either for his own 
 benefit or that of government. ,, Again, "To dictate 
 the specific terms of every lease, is an invasion of 
 the rights of property in the first instance. It is a 
 business of detail which no way belongs to govern- 
 ment, which we are in no sense equal to, and 
 which carries a vexatious scrutiny, and an arbi- 
 trary exertion of power on the face of it." It is 
 evident Mr. Francis and the Governor-General 
 differed in several essential points, but in none 
 more than with respect to the relative condition of 
 the ryot and the Zemindar. The former consi- 
 dered him a great landed proprietor, hitherto taxed 
 at the arbitrary discretion of government ; and the 
 ryot his tenant, subject to the will and convenience 
 of the landlord. Mr. Barwell was of opinion, that 
 if the Zemindar was to be considered the proprie- 
 tor, his rights were not more effectually defined 
 than those of the under-tenant of the district 
 
 Mr. Hastings, however, hesitates in deciding 
 the question of right till more information is pro- 
 cured, though it would appear he was somewhat
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 153 
 
 disposed to think the ryot was the true proprietor, 
 from the observation of Mr. Francis, who states, in 
 opposition to that opinion, " nor is it true that the 
 ryot is proprietor of the land." The other member 
 of the council, General Clavering, supported the 
 opinions of Mr. Francis throughout on the inexpedi- 
 ency of the measure of establishing a separate office 
 for investigation, which he considered likely to 
 lead to much mischief and corruption, and finally 
 pronounced the measure to be contrary to law. 
 
 Mr. Hastings, however, by the support of Mr. 
 Barwell, decided on establishing the new office, 
 whose objects are thus described : — 
 
 " An accurate valuation of the land is to be 
 made, either by an actual survey and measurement, 
 or from the accounts of the land rents. The first 
 mode is too tedious, expensive, and uncertain to be 
 adopted. I would propose to make a trial of the 
 second. The accounts of revenue in Bengal are 
 kept with a regularity and precision unknown in 
 Europe. They are drawn out, I understand, nearly 
 on one uniform plan, and are balanced and adjusted 
 at fixed periods. A separate account current 
 (or kurda) is kept for every ryot or tenant, 
 wherein the different articles which compose his 
 rent for one year are stated on one side, and the 
 payments that he makes are entered on the 
 other. The whole of these accounts are after- 
 wards annually digested into abstracts, which con- 
 tain a particular state of the rent, the receipt and 
 arrears of each village. The abstract of all the
 
 \54> LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 villages form the pergimah (district) accounts, and 
 the general state of the rent of the Zemindary or 
 capital division is composed of the aggregate of 
 the accounts of the pergimah. The history 
 which I have given of these accounts will serve, I 
 hope, to redeem their character from the imput- 
 ation of being loose, confused, and intricate, and 
 show that, if we can succeed in procuring them, 
 they will furnish us with ready formed abstracts of 
 the actual collections, which will require only to 
 be compared." 
 
 " To collect these different accounts, and to 
 digest and methodise them for our guidance, is 
 one of the principal objects of the temporary office 
 which I have proposed.'* 
 
 "Besides the intermediate business of the pro- 
 posed office, I have recommended, as a second object 
 of its researches, the better and more effectual regu- 
 lation of pottahs (agreements), for the security of 
 the ryots in the perpetual and undisturbed posses- 
 sion of their lands, and to guard them against arbi- 
 trary taxations. The words * perpetual possession,' 
 and * their land,' which may be mere inaccuracies 
 of expression, for they were not meant to convey 
 the idea of any positive or exclusive right of posses- 
 sion, have been noticed by Mr. Francis as contra- 
 dictory to the rights of the Zemindar. I shall not 
 here attempt to account for the distinctions of pro- 
 perty as they are understood in this country : it is 
 sufficient for me to observe, that while the ryot 
 pays his rent the Zemindar has no right to dispos-
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 155 
 
 sess him ; nor can the Zemindar, by any legal 
 right, exact a higher rent from him than his 
 pott ah (agreement) prescribes." 
 
 " It is to be observed there are two kinds of 
 ryots : the more valuable are those who reside in 
 one fixed spot, where they have built themselves 
 substantial houses, or derived them from their 
 fathers. These men will suffer much before they 
 abandon their habitations, and therefore they are 
 made to suffer much ; but when once forced to 
 quit them, they become vagrant ryots.'* 
 
 " The general subject of pottahs, and the abuses 
 and oppressions arising from their present uncer- 
 tainty, and the variety of articles that compose the 
 ryots' accounts, have been often matter of just com- 
 plaint ; and I believe every member of the Board 
 is satisfied that they require to be reformed. All 
 that I now propose is to collect the materials of 
 information on this subject, to be laid before the 
 Board for their future determination, on the most 
 effectual means of regulating the pottahs. At pre- 
 sent I am not prepared to propose a complete plan, 
 and decline giving a premature and partial opinion 
 while I am professedly seeking the grounds to de- 
 termine it." * 
 
 What were the materials collected by this office, 
 or whether it ever took effect, I have not the 
 means of knowing j at all events the experience 
 of Mr. Hastings rendered him averse from under- 
 taking any measure hastily, when he so plainly 
 
 * Mr. Hastings' Minute, November 1776.
 
 156 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 perceived there was so much to learn : and had 
 the investigations he proposed been then carried 
 into effect, we should not now have to lament our 
 ignorance. 
 
 The periodical revenue settlements of the pro- 
 vinces continued to be made with the Zemindars 
 for 1777, 1778, 1779, and I78O. Subsequently to 
 that period, the revenues were farmed to them 
 on condition of their paying a stipulated amount, 
 in failure of which their property was made 
 liable for the defalcation. During the ensuing 
 years, many of the Zemindars had been dispos- 
 sessed, and their family estates confiscated, to 
 make good the payments. 
 
 By this time the administration of affairs in the 
 interior had assumed a more regular shape : in lieu 
 of provincial councils, collectors were appointed, 
 each to superintend several Zemindaries ; six courts 
 of justice, at the head of which were European 
 judges, conducted on the principles of the Mahome- 
 dan government, with a Mahomedan judge on the 
 bench, were also established, to decide in criminal 
 cases. In the year I78O, the sale of the Zemindaries 
 had been so extensive as to call loudly for redress, 
 and the complaints at length reached the throne. 
 
 Consequently, in the year 1784, the act of 
 24 Geo. III. cap. 25. passed, commanding " the 
 Company to enquire into the complaints which 
 prevailed, that divers Rajas, Zemindars, and other 
 landholders within the British territory in India, 
 had been unjustly deprived 0^ or compelled to re-
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 157 
 
 linquish, their respective lands ; or that the rents, 
 tributes, or services required of them had become 
 oppressive.'' 
 
 Meanwhile, the object of Mr. Hastings' investi- 
 gation had not been attained when he left India, in 
 1784-5. 
 
 The project was renewed by his successor, Sir 
 John Macpherson, whose long residence in India 
 gave him also ample opportunities of perceiving 
 the intricacy of the question. About this time, 
 Mr. James Grant, junior, who had been employed 
 as ambassador at the court of Hydrabad, wrote a 
 very laborious statistical account of the districts 
 lying between Masulipatam and Ganjam, which 
 had long been in the possession of the British 
 government, but whose history was a great deside- 
 ratum. Mr. Grant also wrote an analysis of the 
 Mahomedan system in Bengal and Behar, wherein 
 he entered very fully into the nature of landed ten- 
 ures generally, and took great pains to show the real 
 situation of the Zemindar, who, from the nature of 
 his condition in Bengal, had been mistaken, as we 
 have before seen, to be the real proprietor of the 
 lands, the revenues of which he collected for the 
 state. 
 
 Sir John Macpherson, in a Minute dated 4th July 
 1786, expressly states: " After an attentive peru- 
 sal of Mr. Grant's Analysis, I have not, for my 
 own part, a doubt but the genuine ancient revenue 
 accounts of these provinces have been either muti- 
 lated or kept back from the knowledge of the com-
 
 158 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 pany's agents, from the time of our acquisition of 
 the Dewannee. 
 
 " It is much to discover with certainty that we 
 have yet a great deal to learn in the revenue line, 
 and we are fortunate if we can collect and take 
 up the links of ancient forms. One thing is 
 certain, nothing was more complete, more simple, 
 correct, and systematic, than the ancient revenue 
 system of this country. It was formed so as to 
 protect the people who paid it from oppression, 
 and secure to the sovereign his full and legal 
 rights." 
 
 " The accounts of every village are kept, on the 
 part of the ryots, by an accountant of their own free 
 election, called a Mocuddum or Potail, which ac- 
 countant settles the just dues of government with 
 officers on the part of government called Put- 
 warries. After adjusting their accounts respect- 
 ively, they both repair, or send deputies at stated 
 periods, to the principal town of the district, with 
 their accounts and collections, to be rendered to 
 their respective principals, viz. the Zemindar and 
 the Canungoe."* 
 
 The Governor-General thus observes, that " it is 
 a great step to know how little is known, and how 
 much we have to learn, on the subject of landed te- 
 nures ;" and he accordingly proposed that the office 
 of head Serishtadar, or minister of finance, on the 
 
 * The Mocuddum, or Gram-Adikar ; the Putwarry, or Gram- 
 Lekuk ; the Zemindar, or Des-Adikar ; the Canungoe, or Des- 
 Lekuk. Vide p. 36. Part I. Chap. II.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 159 
 
 same footing as existed under the native governments 
 should be renewed ; that the detailed revenue 
 accounts should be recorded in that office according; 
 to the native forms, in order that government 
 might at length arrive at some true conclusion on 
 a subject which had hitherto admitted of so many 
 different opinions, and which in reality was so ill 
 understood. 
 
 Mr. Grant assumed charge of his office in the 
 month of August 1786, but his departure for 
 England at an early period, and the arrival of 
 the Marquess Cornwallis as Governor-General, 
 seem to have rendered its operation invalid. I 
 regret that I am unable to refer to the analysis of 
 the Bengal revenue system written by Mr. Grant in 
 1785. With regard to his history of the Circars, the 
 essay is not only curious but extremely important. 
 Mr. Grant appears to have adopted too hastily the 
 crude opinions of the Mahomedan officers of the 
 Hydrabad government, with regard to the rights 
 of the subject. He distinctly states that in the 
 reign of Akbur there was a definite limit to the 
 land-tax imposed in Dehly, Agra, Guzerat, Malwa, 
 and Behar, which he asserts was one third of the 
 produce payable in kind, but, if converted into 
 money, was to be received at one fourth of the 
 average market price. This law was instituted, 
 as we have seen, in the latter end of the sixteenth 
 century, and we perceive it is exactly double that 
 which the Hindoo law (according to the Ayin 
 Akberry) and the institutes of Menu authorised to
 
 1GU LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 be taken. Mr. Grant, however, discovered that 
 no rule of this kind prevailed under the Nizam's 
 government, nor in Bengal, and he accounts for 
 the variation in a manner apparently extraordinary : 
 " Such a scheme of finance," says he, " was only 
 applicable and intended for places where such 
 circumstances of soil, population, commerce, and 
 general civilisation admitted of the improved state 
 of agriculture in its various branches arising from 
 the superfluities as well as the necessaries of life ; 
 accordingly it prevailed in Dehli, Agra, Guzerat, 
 &c. &c. In the other provinces * the public re- 
 venue was levied by a different rule, technically 
 understood under the Hindoo word buttai, signi- 
 fying divisionj", 'which was better adapted to the 
 scanty resources of an indigent ignorant peasantry, 
 deriving their existence chiefly from pastoral lands 
 exempted from taxation t ; or who, contenting 
 themselves with the luxuriant growth of a single 
 harvest, where two might be produced with a little 
 additional labour, required that spur to industry 
 given by a judicious increase of the demand of 
 government, and who, as yet unused to a gold and 
 silver currency, were for the most part obliged to 
 pay their rent in kind." 
 
 I have been induced to give this specimen of 
 the economical principles of some of the statesmen 
 
 * In the provinces of other Mahomedan governments, 
 j Mr. Grant means equal division. 
 
 \ If the lands were not taxed, the sheep, the produce of 
 the land, were taxed, and continue to be so at the present day.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. l6l 
 
 of that day. The cause for payments being made 
 in kind is altogether as erroneous as the doctrine 
 of spurring an indigent ignorant peasantry to in- 
 dustry by the judicious increase of the demand of 
 government. If the whole history of India be not 
 false, from the days of Menu* and Alexander to 
 the present day, no country in the world has been 
 so long accustomed to the use of metallic currency 
 as India. We learn that the Indians received 
 nothing but gold and silver from the western 
 world in return for their commodities ; that the 
 Mahomedans, from the tenth to the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, found abundance of gold and silver where- 
 ever they sacked the Hindoo towns and temples ; 
 and that the boons, or golden pagodas, of the 
 south of India were the chief coins at the period 
 when it was invaded. The cause of raising the 
 revenue in kind, therefore, did not arise out of 
 the absence of metallic currency, but from a 
 much more just principle, that of taking an equal 
 portion of the actual produce, — in other words, 
 a tax on agricultural income, — more calculated 
 to be permanent than the fictitious and variable 
 impost of specie. Mr. Grant, however, adds an 
 additional reason for recommending the continu- 
 ation of a system which took half of the crop, not 
 less remarkable than the former. "The frequency of 
 
 * Menu, or rather his commentator, who is said to have col- 
 lated the work eight hundred and eighty years before Christ, 
 constantly speaks of panas, or, as we call ihem, Janams : they 
 were both of gold and silver. 
 
 M
 
 1G2 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 revolutions in government, and variations in the 
 state of population, from the too-often-experienced 
 calamities of war, pestilence, or famine; and the 
 perpetual changes in the produce of agriculture, 
 occasioned by inundations, or drought, or any irre- 
 gularity of the season, must influence inevitably 
 a periodical valuation of the lands (crops ?) ; while 
 the poverty of a people of the fewest possible 
 wants, where nature is most profuse in yielding all 
 the necessaries of life, their factitious simplicity in 
 diet, &c. &c. renders a yearly settlement of the 
 revenue, however inconvenient it may be, unavoid- 
 ably and highly expedient, as the shortest term 
 that can be prescribed." If Mr. Grant is pro- 
 posing this scheme for adoption by the British 
 Government, as it would appear he does, he had 
 no right to call in to his aid revolutions, war, pes- 
 tilence, or famine, to support his argument for 
 yearly settlements ; nor is it clear that perpetual 
 changes in the produce of agriculture, the suc- 
 cession of crops practised equally in Europe and 
 India, should be subject of complaint. The truth 
 is, the annual settlement varied with the produce, 
 because the money assessment was made accord- 
 ing to the nature and quantity of the crop; and 
 this it was that rendered it "highly expedient. ,, 
 
 Mr. Grant has hitherto spoken of the peasantry. 
 We now come to his opinion with regard to Zemindars. 
 " It is to be regretted that some palpably erroneous 
 and dangerous doctrines, subversive of one of the
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 163 
 
 first most essential and best ascertained principles 
 of Eastern legislation, by which the proprietary 
 right of the soil is constitutional, ('constitutionally ?) 
 and solely vested in the sovereign ruler, should of 
 late have gone forth and received, — not only the 
 sanction of speculative writers, misled by the 
 misrepresentations of ignorant travellers*, or by 
 partial analogous reasoning, from an imperfect 
 understanding of fact and local circumstances,— 
 but also be adopted and strenuously urged by men 
 of influence and experimental knowledge, equally 
 eminent for ability and integrity." The erroneous 
 doctrines he explains, in another part of his report, 
 to consist in supposing the Zemindars to be the 
 proprietors of their estates. " The proposition is 
 so palpably absurd and erroneous in principle, that 
 it seems impossible to express it in any terms of 
 language which do not at the same time convey 
 a self-evident refutation, and expose the fallacy 
 both of the premises and the conclusion." In this 
 instance Mr. Grant's opinion is borne out by the 
 most conclusive evidence, and the experience of 
 fifty years. In another place he observes, " With 
 respect to the natives of Hindostan, it would be 
 a most dangerous innovation (diametrically opposite 
 to the letter and spirit of all oriental legislation, 
 
 * Anquetil du Perron is especially alluded to in a note by 
 Mr. Grant, than whom a more sound and philosophical enquirer 
 can scarcely be found, and whose benevolence and philan- 
 thropy are not less conspicuous than the acuteness of his 
 observations. 
 
 M 2
 
 KJi LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 ancient and modern, devised by conquerors,) to 
 admit, either in theory or practice, the doctrine of 
 private individual landed property by inheritance, 
 free, or feudal tenures extending beyond the period 
 of a single life ; but above all, seeing that the great 
 law of society (public expediency) requires the full 
 aid of established financial resources (justly propor- 
 tioned to the gross annual produce of the soil), and 
 equitably moderate with respect to the natural wants 
 or ability of the peasantry, and only barely sufficient, 
 on the most economical scale, to supply the abso- 
 lute exigencies of the lenient protecting sovereign 
 state, under the dominion of which such rare pecu- 
 liar advantages are enjoyed, amidst the despotism, 
 tyranny, and oppression common to almost all the 
 other countries of Asia." 
 
 It is not with the mere view of lowering the 
 opinions of Mr. Grant that these quotations have 
 been made, but for the purpose of showing that we 
 ought not hastily to adopt the notions of any set 
 of men, however high their character, without well 
 examining their tendency. It is this error which 
 has given rise to the embarrassments at present felt 
 regarding the important question now before us. 
 Sentiments have been since started and maintained 
 not less fallacious than those of the author under 
 discussion, which will be alluded to in another part 
 of this work. 
 
 Mr. Grant scarcely took charge of his office 
 when he embarked for England, leaving his opi-
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL, 1()5 
 
 11 ions to be adopted or combated by those who 
 pursued the investigations he had just commenced. 
 
 At this crisis arrived the Marquess Cornwailis as 
 Governor-General of India. No man undertook 
 the great and important office confided to him un- 
 der more favourable auspices. The high reputa- 
 tion for wisdom, integrity, and magnanimity which 
 his lordship brought with him to India, and the 
 peculiar urbanity and dignity of his manners, suited 
 admirably his high station. He had rendered him- 
 self acquainted with the complaints of the injuries 
 sustained by the Zemindars in the sale of their pro- 
 perty. An act of Parliament required these griev- 
 ances to be redressed; and before he reached India, 
 even, his lordship seems to have made up his 
 mind that the existing system of administration was 
 practically defective, and required to be modified 
 on that of Europe. 
 
 With a mind fraught with the excellency of a 
 scheme which should create a number of great 
 landed proprietors, he very early conceived the pro- 
 ject of establishing them ; and the favourite though 
 erroneous doctrine that the Zemindars were the 
 real landlords of the districts they superintended 
 obtained his ready credence. 
 
 He thought that no species of management but 
 that of great landholders was calculated to pro- 
 duce real benefit to a state; and nothing but this 
 conviction could have fortified a mind like his 
 against the direct evidence which every where 
 
 m 3
 
 166 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 assailed him of the fallacy of the ideas which he 
 persisted in upholding. 
 
 Having laid down this principle, he easily brought 
 himself to believe that the Zemindars, avowedly the 
 revenue collectors and contractors, receiving ten per 
 cent, agency for their services, either were, or at any 
 rate ought to be made, the proprietors of the districts 
 over which they were the hereditary superintend- 
 ents. The sentiments of the Governor-General 
 spread through the service, the majority of whose 
 members were as ignorant of the institutions as they 
 were of the history and the language of the coun- 
 try, and those sentiments received general assent. 
 From this number of persons, however, must be 
 excepted some who had penetrated more deeply, 
 and who had employed themselves in researches 
 which, though comparatively superficial, were suffi- 
 cient to convince them that much lay hidden 
 beneath the surface which a more minute local 
 scrutiny would bring to light. Among others who 
 were most distinguished on this occasion w r as the 
 acting collector of Bhaugulpore, whose reports had 
 shaken the opinion of the Governor-General him- 
 self as to the fact of the Zemindars being the pro- 
 prietors, instead of being the public functionaries 
 of their districts ; and with these persons it was 
 resolved to contract for the land-tax. The pro- 
 posed settlement of Marquess Cornwallis only 
 embraced, in the first place, a period often years, 
 which, if approved by the Court of Directors,
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. l(J7 
 
 was to be declared permanent, and to limit for ever 
 the public demand of government on each district. 
 The districts were henceforth to be deemed private 
 estates, conferred in perpetuity on the revenue con- 
 tractors. When called on by the Board of Revenue 
 for his opinion as to the quantum of assessment to 
 which his district ought to be subjected, the acting 
 collector of Bhaugulpore frankly confesses his in- 
 ability to mention any specific sum. " To propose 
 assessments for the pergunahs to be fixed for a term 
 of years, without that precision which the nature of 
 the subject demands, might only mislead you, and 
 subject me to your future displeasure should those 
 assessments not be realized with the regularity and 
 success which you would naturally expect ; and 
 yet the materials I am possessed of certainly do 
 not authorize me to present you with any thing 
 more satisfactory than a vague estimate." Again : 
 " But in what proportions these Zemindaries 
 should be assessed, in order equitably to make up 
 any deficiency that they may be found actually to 
 have incurred, I am really at a loss to specify; nor 
 do I know of any other means than a close and 
 laborious examination of the Mofussil* papers, by 
 which it can be ascertained. But this mode of 
 inquiry is what I apprehend you object to, in pro- 
 hibiting me from making a minute local scrutiny, 
 ignorant as I am of any other sort of scrutiny used 
 to ascertain the value or produce of a particular 
 
 * The official papers relating to the revenue collections, kept 
 by the district officers. 
 
 M 4
 
 168 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 mehal. * To give such information, even with the 
 advantage of such a privilege, which I believe was 
 always exercised by the Mogul government, and 
 hitherto under the English, would often be attended 
 with difficulties and obstructions enough to frustrate 
 the attempt ; but without it, I can promise myself 
 no better success than may be derived from guesses 
 founded on the reports of interested persons or 
 temerarious adventurers." 
 
 Such was the state of information among those 
 persons most disposed to investigate, and such the 
 obstacles to obtaining more complete knowledge. 
 All the enquiries which the government had 
 hitherto obtained were unsatisfactory. The minute 
 investigations proposed by the experience of Mr. 
 Hastings, and that of his successor, Sir John 
 Macpherson, had not been allowed to be conducted 
 to a close ; but none of those persons who were 
 best qualified to judge, denied the necessity of 
 making them previously to forming any permanent 
 settlement, and infringing on private rights which 
 were not thoroughly understood. 
 
 The Marquess Cornwallis, perhaps the least in- 
 formed of all those whose sentiments were of im- 
 portance, gave it as his decided opinion, that the 
 information already collected was quite adequate 
 to render a settlement advisable, and he proposed 
 that the average of former collections should be 
 taken as the basis for an agreement for the next ten 
 
 * District.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 1()9 
 
 years with the actual Zemindars for their districts, 
 which, if approved by the Court of Directors, should 
 be rendered perpetual ; that they should not only be 
 recognised by government as landlords of the soil 
 in cultivation, but that the whole of the waste 
 lands should belong to them, on the payment of a 
 fixed land rent, for ever. 
 
 In the discussions which arose out of this mo- 
 mentous question, we discover occasional lights 
 bursting in upon us, and showing us, at that time 
 even, who were the real proprietors of the soil. 
 
 Mr. Shore, the present Lord Teignmouth, as- 
 suming with the Marquess Cornwallis the Zemin- 
 dars to be the real proprietors, remarks, "* that the 
 proprietors of the soil (the Zemindars) in Behar 
 universally claim and possess a right of Malik anaf, 
 which, whenever they are dispossessed of the 
 management of their own lands, they receive from 
 the government collector as well as from the tenants 
 of the Jaghires (estates held on feudal tenures), 
 and proprietors of Altmughas (assignments of the 
 revenue due from public lands). The provincial 
 council of Patna, in 1771> when it delegated to 
 farmers the duty of collecting the revenue, settled 
 10 per cent, as the rate of malikana payable to the 
 dispossessed proprietors of the la?id, as the ancient 
 allowance, agreeably to the constitution of the 
 country" 
 
 * Mr. Shore's Minute, 18th Sept. 1789. 
 •f Per-centage of eolleetions.
 
 170 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 Thus it appears, when the government did not 
 choose to trust the hereditary district officer with 
 the duly of collecting the revenue ; but made it over 
 to a contractor, the former was not dispossessed 
 of his hereditary office, nor deprived of the fees, 
 but continued to enjoy them as malikana, and to 
 perform all his other duties as magistrate and 
 representative of the district. 
 
 Speaking of the cultivators, Mr. Shore observes, 
 " The custom of dividing the produce of the land 
 between the cultivator and the government, or the 
 collector who stands in his place, is general, but 
 not universal, throughout Behar." 
 
 The collector of Sarem, in a letter of the 23d 
 July 1789, gives the following true definition of a 
 Zemindary : — 
 
 " It is a portion of land consisting of sundry 
 farms paying revenue to government, belonging to 
 numberless proprietors, managing their own lands 
 either themselves or through their agents, but 
 acting in general under a nominal proprietor, called 
 Zemindar (with whom they engage for their 
 revenue), he having a real property perhaps of a 
 fiftieth part of the Zemindary."* In another place, 
 the same collector quotes the instance of a village 
 paying " six hundred rupees (sixty pounds), and 
 having fifty-two proprietors."! It is evident this 
 was one of those villages in which the proprietary 
 
 * The hereditary landed estate of his office. 
 
 f Vide Appendix to 5th Report, p. 31. Mr. Shore's Minute.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 171 
 
 right of the cultivators still existed. Again*, " The 
 state of the proprietors is thus substantially de- 
 scribed by the collector of Sarem : that they are in 
 general involved in great distress, and their lands 
 mortgaged over and over again, both on public 
 and private accounts, to almost their full value ; 
 that the proprietors in this situation have made 
 over their lands, or entrusted them to a superior 
 Zemindar, who favours the possession with his 
 indulgence and assistance, by procuring for the 
 proprietors continual and occasional loans. 
 
 In quoting from the report of the collector of 
 Ramghur, Curruckderah, and Chakye, Mr. Shore 
 remarksf, "that the districts are held by a number 
 ofTalukdars and Gnatwarst, all of whom have se- 
 parate pottahs."§ The revenue which they now pay 
 has continued so long without alteration, that each 
 man considers his land held at a mohurrery (fixed) 
 tenure." The collector gives it as his opinion, 
 " that the only way to preserve these two places 
 in their present quiet state, is to confirm the mo- 
 kurrery pottahs ; and adds, that if the Zemindars 
 are restored, the Taluk dars and Gnatwars will fly 
 the country from their oppression." 
 
 The collector here simply recommends that the 
 village chief's, with whom the former government 
 had entered into solemn engagements for a limited 
 
 * Vide Appendix to Fifth Report, p. 41. Mr. Shore's Minute, 
 t Ibid. 129, 130. J Village chiefs. 
 
 § Contracts for land revenue payments, derived from some 
 former government.
 
 172 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 demand on the land, should have those agreements 
 confirmed, and the Zemindars, the hereditary 
 district officers, might be prevented from exercis- 
 ing any authority over their villages. Whether 
 these villages were excluded from the new property 
 to which the Zemindars succeeded, does not ap- 
 pear. 
 
 If they were excluded from them, the regula- 
 tions of the government* provided "that when Ze- 
 mindars are excluded from the superintendence of 
 their estates (districts), they shall receive a consi- 
 deration in lieu of the landlord's share, an equi- 
 valent of ten per cent, on the whole revenue of the 
 estate, according to the practice of the country. "t 
 
 The relative condition of the Zemindars, the 
 cultivators, and the government is thus pointed out 
 by Mr. Shore, in his objection to the resolution for 
 rendering the proposed system permanent.! 
 
 5th. " That the contribution of the Zemindars 
 is disproportioned to their respective incomes §, we 
 know with certainty ; we also profess to take from 
 them (the landlords) nine tenths of their receipts. 
 The proportion paid by the cultivators of the soil 
 may be reckoned at a half) or it may be nearer, 
 
 * Minutes of Bengal Council, proposed Resolutions, 18th 
 Sept. 1789. 
 
 •J- It is really wonderful that the Bengal government should 
 still have persisted in describing as proprietors the Zemindars 
 who received only one tenth of the collections. 
 
 % Minute, Mr. Shore, 8th Dec. 1789. 
 
 § Supposing the whole of the public revenue to be the pri- 
 vate income of the Zemindar.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 173 
 
 perhaps, to three jifths of the gross produce. Tak- 
 ing this at a hundred parts, the claims of govern- 
 ment may be estimated at forty-jive. The Zemin- 
 dars and under renters may be supposed to have 
 fifteen, and forty remains with the cultivators of 
 the soil." 
 
 The various reports which now poured in from 
 all quarters tended to shake the opinions of those 
 who had been foremost in declaring the Zemindars 
 to be the land proprietors, and Mr. Shore entered 
 a strong minute on the council records, against 
 hastily confirming, or rather conferring, rights in 
 perpetuity which were at all events new, and 
 might be found to belong to others. The Governor- 
 General was not to be deterred from the project 
 which he had conceived, and which he conscien- 
 tiously believed to be for the good of the people at 
 large. No sooner was the scheme fully promulgated, 
 than the real proprietors of the land began to 
 make themselves known in all directions. 
 
 The Collector of Shahabad writes : — " The 
 Baboos (new contracting proprietors) have come 
 here, but the men whose taluks (small estates) 
 were included in the Baboos, district of 874 villages, 
 now claim to he proprietors, and deny that the 
 Baboos are possessed of any deeds which can justly 
 deprive them of their rights. In like manner 
 the heads of several of the villages composing such 
 taluks make the same affirmation, till at length 
 they absolutely refused to enter into any agree- 
 ments but as maliks (proprietors), declaring they
 
 174 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 would rather lose their lives than acquiesce in 
 yielding what they consider their hereditary 
 rights." The Collector, equally confounded and 
 surprised, was obliged to make a compromise on 
 the part of the government, by terming them 
 "oorf maliks," i. e. commonly called maliks. Another 
 quotation from these records will be sufficient. 
 The chief or deputy governor of the district of 
 Dacca, in reply to an order requiring him to send 
 an estimate of the waste land of which the govern- 
 ment intended to dispose to the new created pro- 
 prietors, writes as follows : — " I believe there is no 
 district in the three provinces of Bengal, Behar, 
 and Orissa that has more jungle and waste land in 
 it than Dacca, but the whole is claimed as the pro- 
 perty of individuals, who, though they receive no 
 profit from it, and are too indolent themselves to 
 make it productive of any, will not suffer others to 
 bring it into a state of cultivation without some 
 recompense ; and so very tenacious are they of it, 
 that even in the suburbs of the city, (which for 
 three or four miles is almost impenetrable jungle, 
 infested by wild ferocious animals,) a man cutting 
 down a single tree will be sued by the proprietor 
 for damages" It never occurred to the deputy 
 governor that any other reason for abandoning this 
 private land existed than mere indolence, whereas 
 the least consideration ought to have pointed out 
 other causes — either want of capital, or excess of 
 taxation, which did not admit of its being culti- 
 vated so as to repay the expense of clearing it.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 175 
 
 The deputy governor is equally indignant against 
 the proprietor for requiring a recompense for the 
 privilege of occupancy, or for cutting wood on his 
 estate ; and his sense of justice is singularly mani- 
 fested, by his recommending " that the property 
 be instantly surveyed, in order to its being disposed 
 of to those who would take it for the benefit (not 
 of the proprietor, but) of the government." Nu- 
 merous other instances of a similar nature occur in 
 the course of rav researches. The committee of 
 
 si 
 
 the House of Commons* observes that " it was the 
 opinion of some intelligent servants of the Com- 
 pany, that, rather than make any more revenue 
 settlements by contracts in the gross, it would be 
 better to revert to the system of the former govern- 
 ments." This embraced the realisation of the re- 
 venue from the value of the crops annually raised, 
 a scheme which continued under the Mahomedans, 
 though evidently belonging to a period anterior to 
 their invasion. By this rule the produce of the 
 land, whether taken in kind or estimated in money, 
 was understood to be shared in distinct proportions 
 between the cultivator and the government. In 
 Bengal, it was estimated the husbandman received 
 only two fifths, and the remainder was subdivided 
 between the latter and the Zemindar and village 
 officers : of this the Zemindar received, as col- 
 lector, one tenth, or about fo of the whole. Smaller 
 portions went to the Mocuddum (the village here- 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 6. et seq.
 
 J7'() LAND-TAX IX bengal; 
 
 ditary magistrate), the Patwarry (village account- 
 ant), kc. &c. Provision was also made in the 
 same way for the Canungoe or district register. 
 In the records of this officer were to be found, in 
 the most ample detail, an account of the quantity 
 of land cultivated, the nature of the crop, the 
 amount of the revenue paid, and all minor infor- 
 mation, which he derived from the village records. 
 " To his office, moreover, reference might be had 
 to determine contested boundaries, the use of 
 rivers and reservoirs for irrigation, and generally 
 all disputes concerning property or local usage 
 within the limits of his official range."* This office 
 was now abolished, but its utility will be subse- 
 quently referred to; and the measure of abolition 
 has ever since been a cause of regret. " A certain 
 number of villages, with a society thus organisedt, 
 formed a Pergumah ; a certain number of these, 
 comprehending a tract of country equal to a mo- 
 derate sized English county, was denominated a 
 Chucklah: of these, a certain number and extent 
 formed a Circar ; and a few of these formed the last 
 or grand division, styled a Soubah ; of which, by 
 the Dewanny grant, the British Government had 
 obtained two, viz. the Soubah of Bengal, and that 
 of Behar, with part of Orissa. 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 38. Letter from the Collector of Bhaugul- 
 pore, on the constitution of the Canungoe's office, dated 6th 
 Dec. 1787. 
 
 -j- The organisation is not mentioned, but will be seen by 
 reference to the note, part I. chap. ii. p. 36.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 177 
 
 The institutions alluded to remained sufficiently 
 entire in Behar, but in Bengal they had been 
 almost entirely superseded, by the system which 
 prevailed of making a bargain either with the 
 village chief, or the district chief, or Zemindar. 
 
 Notwithstanding multifarious enquiries, the in- 
 formation received was contradictory. The cour- 
 tesy of dependents and interested revenue farmers 
 led them to persuade the government that the 
 sovereign was the sole proprietor of the land, and 
 that he was at liberty to impose taxes ad libitum 
 on the cultivating tenants, to whom no rights 
 beyond that of mere serfs of the soil belonged ; 
 and undoubtedly the prevalent system favoured 
 such opinions. Whatever value land might once 
 have had as a saleable article, it was clear, that 
 if the government and its officers received 60 per 
 cent, of the crop, it could no longer be sold. Some 
 of the village officers, however, had small portions 
 of land which they cultivated rent free, while the 
 hereditary official estates of the Zemindars, held on 
 similar tenures, were in truth the only lands that 
 brought any price in the market. These facts it 
 was that gave rise to the opinion that the Zemin- 
 dars, who were known to have some hereditary 
 estates, were the real proprietors of all. 
 
 The Marquess Cornwallis had come from Eng- 
 land as Governor-General full of the oppressions 
 and injustice suffered by all classes of our Indian 
 subjects, but especially the Zemindars. He was 
 impatient of the delay attending further investiga-
 
 178 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 tions, and of the vexatious state of ignorance in 
 which he felt himself, and he cut the gordian 
 knot. Instead of simply confirming to the Zemin- 
 dars their hereditary property, he tendered to them 
 the sole proprietorship of the districts they managed 
 as the servants of government, for the consideration 
 of receiving from them a fixed sum for ever, equal 
 to the average of that which had been paid within 
 the last ten or twenty years. 
 
 The Zemindars, no longer the collectors of 
 revenue, were proclaimed the landlords of whole 
 counties. To the arguments used by the Com- 
 pany's servants, and especially to those of Mr. 
 Shore, the Marquess Cornwallis replied, that 
 twenty years had been employed in obtaining in- 
 formation which was yet said to be incomplete. 
 " In I769*, supervisors were appointed. In 1770, 
 provincial courts were established. In 177^, a 
 committee of circuit proceeded to make the settle- 
 ment. In 1776, Aumeens, or native superintend- 
 ents, were required to make a hustabood (an abstract 
 of past and present resources). In 1781, European 
 collectors were sent into the districts, under the 
 direction of a revenue committee at Calcutta. 
 Like our predecessors, we set out with seeking 
 information, and we have now been three years 
 in collecting it." Again : " If the want of further 
 information were to be admitted now, or at any 
 future period, as a ground for delaying the declar- 
 
 * Governor-General's Minute, 3d Feb. 1790. 

 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 179 
 
 ation of the permanency of the assessment, the 
 commencement of benefit to the people, and the 
 prosperity of the country, would be delayed for 
 ever." 
 
 " The question that has been so much agitated 
 in this country, whether the Zemindars and Taluk- 
 dars are the actual proprietors of the soil, or only 
 officers of government, has always appeared to me 
 to be very uninteresting to them; whilst their claims 
 to a certain per-centage upon the rent of their 
 lands has been admitted, and the right of govern- 
 ment to fix the amount of those rents at its own 
 discretion has never been disputed or denied" 
 
 No one can read the above passage without being 
 satisfied that the Marquess Cornwallis had not a 
 clear idea of the rights he was discussing, and this 
 may account for his being unable to express 
 himself clearly to others. 
 
 We cannot conceive how his lordship brought 
 himself to suppose, much less to assert, that the 
 question of proprietary right in districts yielding a 
 revenue of from 300,000/. to 400,000/. annually to 
 government, was a point very uninteresting to those 
 who were the subjects of its discussion. Whatever 
 might be the interest they took in the question, 
 there was another class who were more deeply 
 concerned, and whose rights were entirely over- 
 looked. These were the actual possessors and 
 occupants of the soil; that class towards whom none 
 of the enquirers had yet hardly turned their 
 thoughts, and on whose lands his lordship pro- 
 
 n 2
 
 180 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 nounces the right of government to Jix the amount 
 of the rents at its own discretion. 
 
 It is owing to such erroneous and mischievous 
 doctrines that the real proprietors of the land have 
 till lately remained hidden from view, or at all events 
 have not openly been acknowledged. Mr. Grant 
 promulgated the sentiment, that " it would be a most 
 dangerous innovation to admit, either in theory or 
 practice, the doctrine of private individual landed 
 property by inheritance, free, or feudal tenures 
 extending beyond the period of a single life;" and 
 the Marquess Cornwallis pronounced that " the 
 right of government to fix the amount of the 
 rents at its own discretion had never been dis- 
 puted nor denied." 
 
 These facts only tend to show the necessity of 
 Indian legislators being educated in their profes- 
 sion ; and that, at all events, they should have 
 some knowledge of the history and manners of the 
 people whom they govern. Had either Mr. Grant 
 or the Marquess Cornwallis been better informed, 
 they would have known that the integrity of private 
 property was recognised in every village in India, 
 and that the demand of the crown has ever had 
 its defined limits. 
 
 Far be it from me to deny the good intentions 
 of the Marquess Cornwallis, than whom a more 
 benevolent and noble spirit, perhaps, never existed. 
 In the bold project he conceived he did not an- 
 ticipate the injury he might be doing to others. 
 His mind dwelt chiefly on the oppressions the 

 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 181 
 
 Zemindars had, in some instances, suffered by the 
 sale of their private landed estates, inherited, per- 
 haps, from a long line of ancestors ; and his plan 
 now proposed to render them also masters of the 
 districts they managed. In this he perceived that 
 the cultivators would be virtually placed at their 
 mercy ; but he thought that laws might be framed 
 to protect them in their just rights, which he deemed 
 to be little else than those of cultivating serfs at- 
 tached to certain estates, with the privilege of enjoy- 
 ing just sufficient to enable them to live in health. 
 
 However he might have been mistaken in the 
 views he took of the relative rights of the indi- 
 viduals in India, it is only justice to transcribe the 
 correct views and sentiments he entertained of the 
 principle of legislation, that required an abolition 
 of the heavy land-tax he found to exist on his 
 arrival in India ; an evil, however, which he did 
 not remove, and which exists at this moment as 
 grievously as ever. 
 
 " The maxim that equality in taxation is an 
 object of the greatest importance, and that, in 
 justice, all the subjects of a state should contribute 
 as nearly as possible in proportion to the income 
 which they enjoy under its protection, does not 
 prove the expediency of varying the demand of 
 government upon the lands : on the contrary, we 
 shall find, that, in countries in which this maxim is 
 one of the leading principles in the imposition of 
 taxes, the valuation of the land on which thev are 
 levied is never varied." Now, where the tax is 
 
 n 3
 
 182 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 fixed in money, it does in reality become the 
 most unequal and most variable tax that can be 
 imposed. If the sum be extremely small, it is 
 not so much felt ; but the moment it comes to bear 
 a considerable proportion to the gross produce, as 
 in India, it becomes onerous, and frequently in- 
 tolerable. 
 
 " In raising a revenue to answer the public 
 exigencies, we ought to be careful to interfere as 
 little as possible in those sources from which the 
 wealth of the subject is derived. " 
 
 " The attention of the government ought, there- 
 fore, to be directed to render the assessment upon 
 the lands as little burdensome as possible ; this is 
 to be accomplished only by fixing it. The pro- 
 prietor will thus have some inducement to improve 
 his lands ; and, as his profits will increase in pro- 
 portion to his exertions, he will gradually become 
 better able to discharge the public revenue. By 
 reserving the collection of the internal duties on 
 commerce, government may at all times appro- 
 priate to itself a share of the accumulating wealth 
 of its subjects, without their being sensible of it. 
 The burden will also be more equally distributed : 
 at present the whole weight rests upon the land- 
 holders and the cultivators of the soil." 
 
 " In case of a foreign invasion it is a matter of 
 the last importance, considering the means by 
 which we keep possession of this country, that the 
 proprietors of the lands should be attached to us 
 from motives of self-interest. A landholder, who
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 183 
 
 is secured in the quiet enjoyment of a profitable 
 estate, can have no motive for wishing for a 
 change. On the contrary, if the rents of his lands 
 are raised in proportion to their improvement ; if 
 he is liable to be dispossessed, should he refuse to 
 pay the increase required of him ; or if threatened 
 with imprisonment, or confiscation of his property, 
 on account of balance due to government upon an 
 assessment which his lands were unequal to pay, 
 he will readily listen to any offers which are likely 
 to bring about a change that cannot place him in 
 a worse condition, but which hold out to him hopes 
 of a better." 
 
 " I am sorry to be obliged to acknowledge it, 
 but it is a truth too evident to deny, that the land 
 proprietors* throughout the whole of the Com- 
 pany's provinces are in a general state of poverty 
 and depression. 
 
 " I cannot even except the principal Zemindars 
 from this observation ; and it is not without concern 
 that I saw it verified very lately in one instance by 
 the Rajah of Burdwan, who pays a yearly rent of 
 upwards of 400,000/. to government, having allow- 
 ed some of his valuable lands to be sold, for the 
 discharge of an inconsiderable balance due to go- 
 vernment." 
 
 " I therefore propose, that the board of revenue 
 be directed immediately to form a ten years' settle- 
 ment in Bengal, agreeably to the rules and regula- 
 tions, &c. &c. ; and that it be directed to notify to 
 
 * The Zemindars. 
 
 N 4
 
 184 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 the landholders that the settlement, if approved by 
 the Court of Directors, will become permanent, 
 and no alteration take place at the end of ten 
 years." The Court of Directors in their reply, 
 dated 29th August, 1792*, to the reference made 
 to them on this subject, confirmed the measure, and 
 expressed themselves in high terms of approbation 
 of what had been done."t They seemed to consider 
 the settlement of the land revenue in perpetuity, 
 not as a claim to which the landholders had any pre- 
 tensions, founded on the principles or practice of 
 the native government, but a grace which it would 
 be good policy to bestow upon them. In regard to 
 the proprietary right to the land, the recent en- 
 quiries had not established the Zemindar on the 
 footing of the owner of a landed estate in Europe ; 
 but, on the contrary, had exhibited, from him down 
 to the actual cultivator, other inferior landholders 
 of every description, whose claim to protection the 
 government readily recognised, but whose rights 
 were not at once susceptible of reduction to the 
 rules about to be established in perpetuity. Of 
 one thing they appeared certain, " that the imme- 
 diate cultivator of the soil, duly paying his rent, 
 could not legally be dispossessed of the land he 
 
 * Mr. Tucker, in his Review of the Financial Situation of 
 the Company, in a note observes, that this letter is supposed to 
 have been written under the immediate dictation of Lord Mel- 
 ville, and with the entire concurrence of the ministers Mr. Pitt 
 and Lord Grenville. 
 
 f 5th Report, p. 49, 50.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 185 
 
 occupied; and this," they further observed, " neces- 
 sarily supposes, that there were some limits by which 
 the rent could be defined, and that it was not left 
 to the arbitrary determination of the Zemindar ; 
 for otherwise such a rule would be nugatory ; and, 
 in point of fact, the original amount seems to have 
 been anciently ascertained andjixed by an act of the 
 sovereign" The work of Mr. Grant, before quoted, 
 and the translation of the institutes of Akbur, 
 were already accessible to all who chose to read 
 them. The statement of the former, that one 
 fourth of the produce had been fixed as law by the 
 Mahomedans, and the admission in the very same 
 institutes of Akbur, acknowledging that one sixth 
 was the ancient share fixed by the Hindoo govern- 
 ment, ought to have been conclusive. If the occu- 
 pants had hereditary rights in the land, as already 
 acknowledged by the Court of Directors, what was 
 to prevent the rates being fixed according to the 
 produce ? but the very idea of corn rents would pro- 
 bably have shocked these legislators ; at all events, 
 they left the question of rates (the most import- 
 ant of all) to be determined by courts of justice. 
 It is difficult to conceive by what law the judges 
 were to be regulated.* Village and district records 
 were concealed or lost, custom and not law was 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 71 — " With regard to the cultivators or 
 ryots, their rights and customs varied so much in different parts 
 of the country, that the regulations only required the rates to 
 be such as have been customary, or as shall be particularly ad- 
 justed between the parties."
 
 186 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 to be their only guide ; and it may easily be con- 
 ceived, therefore, that suits of this nature, if they 
 ever did come into court, were never decided at 
 all, or if so, probably on wrong principles.* The 
 Court of Directors, though they approved the mea- 
 sure, were aware of its vast importance. " The de- 
 mand from the land," they observe, " the great, and 
 now almost the only source of revenue, is fixed with 
 the addition which may be made from resump- 
 tion, or what may arise from uncultivated landst, 
 (if that resource should be available), it is jioced 
 for ever." 
 
 The regulations which became necessary, in 
 order to support a system so entirely new, and un- 
 dertaken with such inadequate knowledge, were 
 frequently as contradictory of each other as they 
 became at length numerous. The change which 
 the whole constitution of society underwent could 
 not but produce embarrassments, which it became 
 requisite to counteract. 
 
 The extension of the novel rights to the whole 
 body of revenue collectors, induced them to en- 
 croach on the ancient privilege of the minor 
 landholders, who were now constituted by law 
 their tenants. These attempts at innovation led 
 
 * One remarkable instance of this is given in the 5th Report, 
 where one judge decided a cause in one way, and another de- 
 cided the same cause in another court diametrically opposite 
 (p. 70.). 
 
 f The uncultivated lands had been transferred to the Zemin- 
 dar : the land revenue, therefore, was fixed by law for ever.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 187 
 
 at first to resistance, and eventually to reaction. 
 The regulations and courts of justice invited com- 
 plaints, almost without costs ; and the judge of 
 Burdwan alone had upwards of thirty thousand 
 causes on the file two years after the permanent 
 settlement was made.* So far from the new land- 
 lord being able to oppress the whole of his ten- 
 antry, they combined to ruin him ; and, in the 
 four following years, the private entailed estates 
 of some of the wealthiest and oldest families in 
 the country were sold for arrears of revenue, and 
 themselves reduced to abject poverty. Heavy 
 balances, either arising out of over assessment or 
 bad management, brought almost all the estates of 
 the ancient nobility and gentry to the hammer. 
 
 These persons with great justice observe, ac- 
 cording to the letter of the Collector of Midnapore, 
 12th of February, 1802, " that such a harsh and 
 oppressive system was never before resorted to 
 in this country.'* It was no part of the office of 
 Zemindar to stipulate to collect a fixed revenue, his 
 duties and immunities have been before described ; 
 and it was no satisfaction for him to be raised 
 one day from a substantial country squire and 
 magistrate, with a handsome patrimony, to the 
 dignity of a prince, with his county as a princi- 
 pality, if, on account of pertinacious tenants and 
 the bad management of his servants, he fell in 
 arrears to government, and his private entailed 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 145. Appendix, No. VI. 
 f Ibid. p. 148.
 
 188 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 patrimony was to be seized arid sold, and himself 
 and family reduced to beggary. Such was the fate 
 of most of those great landed proprietors created 
 by the Marquess Cornwallis, so that his benevo- 
 lent intentions towards them entirely failed in their 
 object. Before they fell, however, the country 
 was loud against them for their exactions from 
 the cultivators, and these were increased by the 
 complaints against the numerous minor renters, to 
 which these vast estates were subjected. The 
 principal Zemindar was supposed to pay to the 
 government nearly as much as the country could 
 yield : in order to enhance the value of his bar- 
 gain, he under-let to several other contractors at 
 an advance. Each of these again under-let, and 
 so on till the smaller renters had to realise some- 
 times fifty, or even cent, per cent, of what the 
 cultivators were supposed to pay. But the rates 
 were not fixed by law, and custom had long 
 sanctioned the exaction of whatever the strong; 
 could extort from the weak. The courts in vain 
 sought for some principle by which they could 
 adjust such litigations, and the nature of a system 
 so loose prevented justice being done either to 
 one party or the other: the estates have been 
 thus sold over and over again ; the ancient landed 
 gentry have been lost, and a new race, origi- 
 nally bankers, merchants, or private servants, 
 have gradually taken their place. The estates, once 
 enormous, have now been subdivided into smaller 
 portions j the law of equal division of property
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 189 
 
 will in time subdivide them still smaller, till at 
 length the landed gentry of the present day will 
 eventually sink into the condition of cultivating 
 peasants. 
 
 The police of the native governments, conducted 
 entirely by the hereditary local officers, is not 
 exceeded in efficiency by that of any part of the 
 world. The Marquess Cornwallis, however, con- 
 ceived this would be arming the landholder with 
 too much power, and he consequently exonerated 
 him from the charge. The result of this step was 
 as unpropitious as any which belonged to the per- 
 manent settlement. Such a description of the 
 insecurity of the country, and of crime, is exhi- 
 bited in the judicial reports, up to the year 1810 
 (seventeen years after its introduction), as is 
 scarcely to be found in the annals of any civilised 
 country, in a period of profound domestic peace. 
 In spite of the aversion to the national institutions 
 which belonged to the admirers of the new scheme, 
 the government was eventually compelled to have 
 recourse to them, and to apply to the local officers 
 to undertake the police duties ; but the ancient 
 gentry who possessed local influence, and who had 
 been in the habit of exercising magisterial power, 
 had been destroyed : a new race of speculators 
 filled their places ; the village police officers and 
 magistrates, not being wanted under the new plan, 
 had been deprived of their hereditary subsistence, 
 and aggravated on the one hand against the go- 
 vernment, and on the other driven to desperation by
 
 190 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 want, far from being again fit to become guardians 
 of the people, they were all more or less deeply 
 involved in the crimes that had been committed. 
 The return to the old system of police has, how- 
 ever, gradually restored security ; and it is to be 
 hoped, when those national establishments which 
 had been so rashly condemned and destroyed are 
 replaced, that time will effect the desired improve- 
 ment. If we view the plan of the Marquess 
 Cornwallis, in the abstract, as a scheme for pro- 
 tecting the actual property that existed in his time, 
 and for amending the condition of the whole 
 people, we may with safety pronounce it to have 
 entirely failed ; but it was based upon sound prin- 
 ciples ; and notwithstanding its want of success in 
 detail, it may have had on the whole a beneficial 
 effect on the country ; because, in the end, 
 many of the cultivators of the soil have been 
 enabled to resist the oppression which such a sys- 
 tem prepared for them, when it transferred them, 
 with all their privileges undefined, to the local 
 aristocracy, though more perhaps have been ex- 
 pelled from their patrimonial lands. The origin 
 of this success on the part of the people may be re- 
 ferred to two causes: first, that as the Zemindars 
 had succeeded in obtaining independence from the 
 government, owing to a long reign of misrule and 
 ignorance, so some of the village chiefs and com- 
 munities had risen gradually from the dependence 
 of the Zemindars, to which they not only now re- 
 fused to submit, but set the example of resistance
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 19 1 
 
 to others. The second cause was the establishment 
 of the courts of justice, and the regulations. A 
 very short time sufficed to fill the ears of the 
 government with complaints against the new land- 
 lords; the rights of the small proprietors appeared 
 more numerous every day, but they were unde- 
 fined, and enquiry led to the belief that they 
 every where differed. It was discovered too late 
 that the real proprietors had been overlooked ; 
 but the " fiat" had gone forth and could not be 
 recalled ; and the scheme is truly pronounced, by 
 a powerful writer of the present day, to be " a 
 proceeding, the apology for which may be good 
 intention, but which could have been conceived 
 only by political presumption, and executed by 
 absolute power." Subsequent investigations have 
 proved, that in India, one of the most ancient of 
 the civilised nations of the globe, landed tenures 
 are not confined to one simple rule : they differ in 
 every field, but they are held to be as inviolably 
 sacred as in any part of the universe. After a 
 trial of [nearly thirty years, the following is the re- 
 corded opinion of one* of the most intelligent and 
 experienced of those officers who has witnessed the 
 effects of the Zemindary settlement from its origin : 
 he observes, " The errors of the permanent settle- 
 ment were two-fold : first, in the sacrifice of what 
 may be denominated the yeomanry, by merging all 
 village rights, whether of property or occupancy, 
 
 * Sir Edward Colebrooke's Report on the Ceded and Con- 
 quered Territories.
 
 19 c 2 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 in the all-devouring recognition of the Zemindar's 
 paramount property in the soil ; and secondly, in 
 the sacrifice of the peasantry by one sweeping 
 enactment, which left the Zemindars to make his 
 settlement with them on such terms as he might 
 choose to require." 
 
 The late Marquess Hastings also observes, in 
 one of his Minutes in Council*, that " this truly 
 benevolent purpose, fashioned with great care and 
 deliberation, has, to our painful knowledge, sub- 
 jected almost the whole of the lower classes through- 
 out these provinces (the real landed proprietors) to 
 most grievous oppression ; an oppression, too, so 
 guaranteed by our pledge that we are unable to 
 relieve the sufferers." 
 
 But to return to the history of the Marquess Corn- 
 wallis's measures. No sooner was the permanent 
 settlement introduced into Bengal, Behar, and 
 Orissa, than his lordship, " entertaining strong ob- 
 jections against the principles and practice of the 
 native Asiatic governments, set on foot a negocia- 
 tion with the Zemindar, usually styled the Raja 
 of Benares, to relinquish those superior functions 
 which he had been accustomed to exercise."f 
 
 This negociation continued from 1787 to 1794, 
 (seven years), when the desired object was obtained : 
 the raja retaining for himself his own patrimonial 
 estate, and receiving as the price of relinquishment 
 12,000/. annually from the government. This 
 
 * Governor-General's Minute, 31st December 1819. 
 •j- Benares : 5th Report, p. 108.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 193 
 
 measure presents throughout the whole feature of 
 the transaction a series of inconsistency that is 
 worthy of notice. In the year 1780, the govern- 
 ment of Mr. Hastings had made a permanent 
 settlement with the raja, the very object which the 
 Marquess Corn wall is desired to accomplish ; but 
 his lordship, ct entertaining strong objections against 
 the principles of native Asiatic governments," and 
 believing, whether truly or falsely does not appear, 
 that the Raja mismanaged his district, resolved if 
 possible to take it out of his hands. He negociated 
 seven years to obtain this object, which having ef- 
 fected at the expense of 12,000/. a year to be paid 
 for ever to the Raja, the same district was transfer- 
 red into the hands of other Zemindars, without local 
 influence or attachment. In making the new settle- 
 ment for Benares, a due respect was paid to the ex- 
 perience of the resident, Mr. Jonathan Duncan; and 
 it is a remarkable fact, that, with all his lordship's re- 
 pugnance to the principles and practice of Asiatic 
 governments, he adopted them entirely in the settle- 
 ments of Benares, as will be seen in the sequel. It 
 is pretended, that the Hindoo institutions here were 
 more perfect than in Bengal, but there is no just 
 reason for supposing so. Here the resident had 
 enquired, and made himself master of the subject; 
 in other parts the public officers were absolutely 
 "prohibited/' as we have seen, "from going into 
 local scrutiny." Here we find the village occupants 
 of the land termed Zemindars. They are thus 
 described in the 5th Report : — " The village 
 
 o
 
 19 A LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 Zemindars paying revenue to government are said 
 to belong to a joint partnership, denominated put- 
 teedars, or sharers, descended from the same com- 
 mon stock. " " Some, however, had their separate 
 shares, while others remained united with the 
 principal of the family, or the headmen of the 
 brethren, one or more, whose names were usually 
 inserted in all agreements for land revenue. Be- 
 sides these village Zemindars, there were others 
 denominated Talukdars, who have the management 
 of a greater or lesser number of villages, with the 
 heads of whom, in conjunction with the partners, 
 they make their settlements." This state of affairs 
 was not provided for by the regulations, which 
 did not acknowledge the existence of private 
 property in this shape. " *The division of the 
 crop between the government and the cultivator in 
 proportions which varied in a small degree, in 
 different parts of the country, appears to have 
 furnished the rule for estimating the assessment of 
 revenue in the settlement which was rendered 
 permanent. This settlement, after the best en- 
 deavours of the resident to accommodate it. to the 
 principles of proprietary right in the land, has left 
 many points in the code of regulations scarcely 
 reconcilable with such a tenure, and still to be 
 referred to the ancient local usages, and the records 
 of the Canungoe's office." Although this office had 
 been abolished every where else, the Marquess 
 Cornwallis's repugnance to a native administration 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 122.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 1QJ 
 
 did not extend so far as to insist on its abolition 
 here. The resident also recommended that the raja 
 should continue in charge of the police of the dis- 
 trict, and that villages should, as heretofore, be 
 held responsible for robberies, assaults, and mur- 
 ders committed within their limits. The new Ben- 
 gal police was afterwards introduced into Benares, 
 and produced the same bad effects. Whatever of 
 the national institutions remained were found to 
 be advantageous, whatever was novel proved mis- 
 chievous and inexpedient. 
 
 Ceded and conquered countries. — The Ben- 
 gal presidency received no additional acquisition 
 of territory till the commencement of the Marratta 
 war of 1802, 3, 4, 5. At that period the Nawab 
 of Lucknow entered into a subsidiary treaty, by 
 which he ceded territory adequate to yield half 
 a million sterling annually. This country, instead 
 of being immediately placed under permanent 
 Zemindars, was put in charge of a Lieutenant- 
 Governor, who was instructed to report on the 
 actual tenures, and to retain them in their present 
 condition. 
 
 It was found that, in these districts, the land- 
 holders held on the same terms as those of Benares. 
 Some of the villages were in charge of village 
 Zemindars, the chief of a copartnercy of cultivators. 
 There were also chiefs who governed several vil- 
 lages, and bore the title of rajas. The latter stood 
 more in the relation of tributaries than subjects, 
 being accustomed to exercise functions little short 
 
 o 2
 
 ]<J(i LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 of regal within their petty principalities. The 
 Mahomedans termed all Hindoos possessing 
 lands Zemindars, and it is owing to this circum- 
 stance that the word occasions so much confusion 
 when we meet with it in public records. Thus we 
 find the hereditary descendant of a line of princes, 
 the feudal Thakoor or baron, the district collector, 
 the farmer of the revenue, the elderman or Mocud- 
 dum of the village, and the member of the village 
 copartnercy, each styled Zemindar, though they 
 have their distinct and especial rights. 
 
 The Zemindars over many villages, probably the 
 feudal barons of some former government, were 
 left to enjoy their privileges as long as they paid 
 their customary tribute with regularity. They pos- 
 sessed strong holds, garrisoned by their adherents 
 or clansmen, and under the Nabob's government 
 frequently withheld their revenue till compelled to 
 the payment of it, or to a compromise by the ap- 
 proach of a military force. 
 
 The Bengal regulations were subsequently intro- 
 duced without involving the whole scheme of the 
 permanent settlement ; but the committee of par- 
 liament, which sat in 1813, was of opinion that 
 this introduction was too precipitate. Many of the 
 evils of the permanent settlement were avoided. 
 The integrity of villages was preserved, and their 
 internal economy and institutions generally re- 
 spected, excepting in some few cases, where the 
 contractors failing to pay the revenue, the whole 
 village and its lands, together with its people, were
 
 LAND-TAX IN DENGAL. 197 
 
 sold to a new revenue farmer. The several record 
 offices of Putwarry and Canungoe, which had been 
 so imprudently destroyed in Bengal, were here 
 cherished and maintained. The police was left in 
 the hands of the natural guardians of the country 
 (the local authorities), under the usual responsi- 
 bility of producing robbers and murderers. 
 
 The settlement of the revenue, instead of being 
 generally farmed to contractors, was in most cases 
 made direct, either with village Zemindars or Ta- 
 lukdars, a class of people which had for ages man- 
 aged the revenue of several villages. These settle- 
 ments were first concluded for three years, at the 
 end of which time, if the parties desired it, the lease 
 was to be renewed at a second valuation, according 
 to the actual state of the cultivation, allowing a 
 deduction of one third for any surplus that might 
 appear to have accrued from extra culture. A 
 similar arrangement was contemplated at the end 
 of the second triennial assessment, when a third 
 assessment for four years was to have been ad- 
 justed, completing altogether the term of ten years 
 from the first settlement; at which time "a per- 
 manent settlement was promised to be made with 
 the same persons (if willing to engage, and if no 
 others with a better claim should come forward), for 
 such lands as might be in a sufficiently improved 
 condition to warrant the measure on such terms as 
 the government should deem fair and equitable. ,, 
 Shortly after the acquisition of the ceded pro- 
 vinces, the termination of the Marratta war, in 1805, 
 
 o 3
 
 198 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 put the British government in possession of the 
 principal part of the country lying between the 
 Ganges and the Jumna, and the territories situated 
 on the right bank of the latter river, from its 
 leaving the mountains of Cashmeerto near its con- 
 fluence with the Ganges, besides the province of 
 Bundelcund, and that of Cuttack in Orissa, situated 
 westward of Midnapore, and connecting the Ben- 
 gal with the Madras provinces. The city of 
 Dehly, and five districts in its vicinity, were set 
 apart, under the management of the resident with 
 the king, for the private expenses of the latter 
 and his household ; while into all the rest of the 
 acquisitions were introduced the modified regu- 
 lations brought into use in the ceded districts. 
 The government also notified to the landholders 
 by proclamation its intention to adopt the same 
 plan towards them as towards those of the ceded 
 districts, making settlements of three and four 
 years in succession ; the last of which were " to 
 become permanent if agreed to by them and con- 
 Jirmed by the Court of Directors in England."* 
 
 Previously, however, to making the last settle- 
 ment, the government thought it necessary to 
 employ two of the most intelligent and distin- 
 guished of their civil servants as a commission to 
 superintend its formation, and to report on the 
 state of the country. 
 
 The commissioners having entertained doubts 
 as to the propriety of introducing the permanent 
 
 * Regulation x. 1807-
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. l|) ( j 
 
 settlements so soon, recommended that more in- 
 formation be sought for, and that the resources of 
 the country be still allowed to develope themselves. 
 They accordingly required the reports and opinions 
 of the local collectors, almost all of whom were de- 
 cidedly against the permanent settlement for the 
 present. The government, however, differed from 
 the local officers, and, though it did not actually 
 carry the project into effect, strongly recommended 
 it to the Court of Directors for sanction. To this 
 the court did not assent, and the local government 
 was placed in the awkward dilemma of rescinding its 
 proclamation, and standing culpable in the eyes of 
 its subjects. However embarrassing were the rela- 
 tive situations in which the government and the 
 landholders were placed, yet it is but justice 
 to hear what the commissioners say in support of 
 their reasons for deferring the settlements. 
 
 The chief difficulty with the commissioners ap- 
 peared to be, how to make the existing state of the 
 landed property conform to the regulations (Mar- 
 quess Cornwallis's) which insisted on the collec- 
 tors being considered proprietors, and which re- 
 quired that no individual having a quantity of land 
 yielding less rent than 500 rupees (60/. a year) 
 should be eligible to be treated with as a land- 
 holder. By the regulation XL of 1?93, the law of 
 primogeniture, which had always existed among 
 the Zemindars, was abolished, — a step which the 
 commissioners think has been attended with ill con- 
 sequences. The commissioners observe, par. 45., 
 
 o 4
 
 200 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 " The Mahomedan government, in regulating the 
 succession to Zemin claries, were in the practice of 
 conferring the inheritance (office?*) on a single 
 individual of the family ; and in establishing a 
 usage adverse to the principles of their law (and also 
 to that of the Hindoos), they were no doubt influ- 
 enced by the motives of public conveniency." The 
 collector of Etava complains, that various questions 
 have arisen regarding the proprietary right of the 
 LANDHOLDERst, which is by no means fixed. It 
 sometimes happens that there are from ten to fifty 
 sharers in a single village.! Instances might be 
 adduced, we believe, of the village Zemindars 
 (sharers or heads of villages ?) being allowed by 
 the superior landlord § to receive a small contri- 
 bution from the under tenants, even when they were 
 not in actual occupancy of the land : and to disre- 
 gard entirely their evidence of the possessing an 
 acknowledged interest in their soil would be un- 
 just. || We are apprehensive, however, that the 
 value of the interest depended upon the arbi- 
 trary will of the landlord, and that, in the sense 
 we are accustomed to apply the terms, the village 
 Zemindars can never be considered to have en- 
 joyed the rights of proprietors of the soil." In other 
 
 * Vide patent for the Zemindary of Bishenpore, Part I. 
 p. 136. 
 
 f Commissioners' Report, 13th April 1808, para. 39. 
 
 X Ibid. para. 59. 
 
 § Marquess Cornwallis's landlord. 
 
 || Here we find the Mara of the Tamul country, the Googry 
 of the Marrattas and Malvva.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 201 
 
 words, the Collector does not believe that the rights 
 belonging to proprietors of land have always been 
 respected by those in authority over them. The 
 oppressive taxation of the Mahomedans prevented 
 the tenants paying to the proprietor the landlord's 
 share ; the small contribution alluded to seems to 
 savour of something of the remains of property ; 
 but when one third, or more frequently one half j 
 is paid to government, the real landlord loses all his 
 right and interest in the soil. The collector of 
 Furruckabad observes, " that the right of property 
 in the land has not been definitively established. In 
 Barelly, the landholders are indigent ; the right of 
 property in the land remains undetermined" The 
 commissioners speak in the highest terms of the 
 management of the hereditary estate of Fyz-oolla 
 Khan, a native chief independent of the com- 
 pany, and contrasts its rich condition with that of 
 the neighbouring country.* The collector of Mo- 
 radabad, among other reasons for deferring the 
 permanent settlement, states " the uncertainty 
 which exists with respect to the proprietary right.'* 
 The collector of Seharanpoor observes : "At this 
 moment it remains a question in whom the right of 
 property in the soil vests, under our present regula- 
 tions, and what privileges or benefits that rigid is 
 intended to confer." 
 
 In conclusion, the commissioners recommend 
 that the permanent settlement be deferred, and 
 that certain modifications in the regulations be 
 
 * Commissioners' Report, 1 LJtli April 1808, para. 99, 100, 
 101.
 
 202 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 made, rendering them better adapted for the 
 country into which they have been introduced ; 
 but, above all, " that the regulations which re- 
 gard the different classes of landholders and tenants 
 be revised, and that distinct rales be prescribed 
 for determining claims to the property in the soil." 
 It was in vain the collectors called for more 
 definite distinction of proprietary rights, and the 
 commissioners for more precise rules. Government 
 had itself long since settled the question : the 
 revenue contractors had been proclaimed the 
 landlords, in spite of the real proprietors, who 
 are so hardy as not to acknowledge their rights. 
 
 The final settlement was consequently deferred. 
 The local government could not disembarrass it- 
 self: it applied to England for orders, and the 
 Court of Directors, in their reply, declare (para. 
 87.), " these and other circumstances, which the 
 perusal of the documents before us have brought 
 under our view, convince us that the settlements 
 which have been hitherto formed in the ceded 
 and conquered provinces have proceeded on im- 
 perfect data, as to the real circumstances of the 
 country, and that our knowledge of its interior 
 concerns is yet incomplete and defective. Much 
 certainly remains to be done in the ascertainment 
 of territorial rights, as either belonging to the 
 state, or those living under its protection, in ex- 
 ploring and obtaining correct information respect- 
 ing the value and capacities of the lands." 
 The object of the court was to introduce into 
 the ceded and conquered countries in Bengal,
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 203 
 
 not only a minute survey of the lands, but also 
 to establish a maximum assessment on each field, 
 to be deemed permanent ; a description of which 
 will be given when I come to treat of the 
 landed tenures of Madras. It is not my pro- 
 vince to examine the propriety or otherwise, in 
 a political point of view, of the refusal of the 
 Court of Directors to confirm that to which 
 the local government had pledged itself: it is 
 sufficient to know that the latter, in giving 
 the pledge, did so under the express condition 
 of the proposal being approved by the Court 
 of Directors. The measure did not meet the 
 approbation of that body, and it is clear that, in 
 point of law, it had a right to withhold its sanction. 
 If also it saw strong reasons to justify its refusing 
 assent, superior to the impolicy of humiliating 
 the local government, it was warranted in doing 
 so. The protracted correspondence that has, to 
 the present day, been maintained on the same 
 subject, and the attacks that have been made on 
 the court by some members of the court of pro- 
 prietors, are a mere waste of words and an ex- 
 citation of feeling. The question of right, on 
 the part of the court, to act as it did, ought not 
 to have been contested : it solves itself into a mere 
 matter of political expediency; and, in this point 
 of view, the court and the government of Cal- 
 cutta seem now to agree that there is still too 
 little information of the rights of individuals, and 
 of the local resources, to warrant the adoption of a 
 measure which involves questions of such magni-
 
 201 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 tude and of so great variety. The Bengal govern- 
 ment, while it was compelled to acknowledge that 
 the information for making a permanent assess- 
 ment was incomplete, made use of strong argu- 
 ments to prove that the present assessment on the 
 land was too heavy, and that it was advisable 
 to limit the public demand, in order to leave a 
 surplus in the hands of the revenue contractors, 
 which the government persists in calling 'proprie- 
 tors, to contribute to the increase of the revenue 
 through other channels. Mr. Colebrooke observes, 
 that although a limit was put to the land revenue 
 in 1793, other sources of taxation had increased 
 greatly ; and he conceives that this increase could 
 only be owing " to the diffusion of wealth and 
 general improvement of the condition of the 
 people;" an improvement, he observes, which 
 would not have taken place but for the limited 
 demand on the land. 
 
 Independently of the want of knowledge which 
 existed regarding the rights of individual cultiva- 
 tors, and the rates at which they were assessed, 
 the Court of Directors objected to farming the 
 revenues at all, if possible to prevent it; and they 
 strongly urged the expediency of a system which 
 should bring the government in direct contact 
 with the occupant of the land : a circumstance 
 which shows how widely the administrative power 
 in Europe in 1813 differed from that of 1793. 
 In speaking of the poverty of the people, the 
 acting judge of circuit of Moorshedabad writes 
 (24th July, 1810) : " This may be accounted for in
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. £05 
 
 several ways : — 1st. The general character of 
 the Zemindars : they are low people, low in their 
 general character, and not since raised by their 
 fortunes* ; heretofore dependents on the rajah of 
 the district, and who occasioned the dismember- 
 ment of his estate by their plunder, and which 
 enabled them at the public sales to concentrate in 
 their own persons the estates of their master. 
 2d. Another class of the Zemindars are men of 
 wealth, whose sole object is to add daily to their 
 store : they are resident in other parts, and draw 
 from hence their lacs annually, to the impoverish- 
 ment of the district. 3d. What is the natural 
 effect of the other two ? A general system of rack 
 renting, hard-heartedness, and exactions, through 
 farmers (of the revenue), under farmers, and the 
 whole host of Zernindary Amla (officers) and their 
 dependents." 
 
 " Even this rack-renting is unfairly managed. 
 We have no regular leases executed between the 
 Zemindar and his tenants. We do not find a mu- 
 tual consent and unrestrained negociation in their 
 bargains : nothing like it ; but, instead, we hear of 
 nothing but arbitrary demands, enforced by stocks, 
 duress of all sorts, and battery of their persons." 
 
 " There is also an intermediate class, the money 
 man (country banker), in every village, who first 
 
 * This is the race of country gentlemen which succeeded to 
 the ancient hereditary Zemindars, who almost all suffered ex- 
 tinction after the Marquess Cornwallis's permanent settlement 
 was made.
 
 206 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 relieves, then aggravates the evil by his own usu- 
 rious practices, and enforces them by like means. 
 The general consequence is general poverty." 
 
 This picture is not overdrawn. It is one of 
 the fruits of the over hasty permanent settlement ; 
 though it is not to be denied, as Mr. Colebrooke 
 has stated, that that project has brought with 
 it very great advantages to a few, and may per- 
 haps have improved the revenue of the state. 
 A very complete detail of the conduct adopted by 
 the Zemindars in his district is given by the ma- 
 gistrate of Rungpoor* ; and the anxious desire he 
 expresses to remedy the existing evils, arising out 
 of our ignorance of the rights of the peasantry, is 
 alike creditable to his head and to his heart. He 
 very justly rejects with indignation the cruel and 
 unjust, I had almost said stupid notion, that heavy 
 taxation on the poor is requisite to excite them to 
 labour. It might be supposed, that since the time 
 of Mr. James Grant that the doctrines advanced 
 by him had no longer any advocates ; yet it is 
 melancholy to find that such not only prevail at 
 present, and that public officers of government are 
 not ashamed to record them. These opinions, I 
 believe, are common among the native revenue 
 officers and tax gatherers, as well as among Ze- 
 mindars, whose private interest renders them blind 
 to truth ; but it is lamentable to think, that Euro- 
 peans of education should hastily adopt them from 
 such classes. Mr. Sisson's sensible observations on 
 
 * Mr. Sisson's Report, dated 27th Sept. 1815.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. QQJ 
 
 this subject deserve publicity, to show, at all events, 
 that such sentiments are not universal, nor, in the 
 higher minds of those who belong to the service, 
 have any place at all : — 
 
 " *It is argued by many, that the native of Asia 
 requires a stimulus of a peculiar nature to goad 
 him to exertion : in him the order of human nature 
 is reversed ; and however great and manifest be the 
 advantages which industry may hold out, such are 
 his indolence and apathy, that under no circum- 
 stances will he exert himself further than barely to 
 keep himself and his family from starving. This 
 sentiment has gained much ground of late, and 
 the arguments it affords its advocates are at the 
 present moment held forth as conclusive against the 
 policy of bettering the condition of the poor. It is 
 seriously maintained, that nothing short of state 
 bankruptcy would follow any measures that might 
 be adopted to restrain the (landlord) Zemindar 
 from exaction, and that the higher the industry of 
 the tenant be taxed, the more he will exert himselfj 
 and, by consequence, the better mil be his condi- 
 tio?!." The rates of assessment vary in almost 
 every village, and they are and have been, for 
 the last century, liable to change. Notwithstand- 
 ing that this truth is admitted, it is seriously 
 recommended as a remedy for the evil of over- 
 taxation, that the established rates should be 
 discovered and fixed. The condition of the land- 
 holder in Rungpore is stated " to be far, very far 
 
 * Mr. Sisson's Report, 27th September 1825.
 
 208 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 more wretched in 1815 (twenty-three years after 
 Marquess Cornwallis's settlement) than any one, 
 perusing in his closet the salutary rules of 1793 
 and 1791', and the many legislative enactments 
 which preceded them, could conceive it possible 
 for it to have become, under a systematic adminis- 
 tration of those laws." These regulations admitted, 
 " that from the earliest times within the reach of 
 public record, the cultivator of the soil has pos- 
 sessed certain ?^ights which were publicly recognised 
 by the British government in the infancy of its 
 establishment, and which were clearly ascertained 
 and defined by specific legislative enactment, full 
 nineteen years before the decennial settlement of 
 1790. But so great was the aversion of the local 
 government of that day to any of the institutions 
 of the country, that it enacted a law (Regulation 
 XLIV. of 1793), limiting the lease of the tenant 
 (as he is termed) to ten years ; and in the follow- 
 ing year, owing to complaints on the subject, this 
 law was rendered more complicated by another 
 (Regulation IV. 1794) ; 'and," observes the same 
 officer, " had not the Regulation alluded to added 
 to the confusion, by confirming the intricate and 
 inexplicable system of a decennial renewal of rights 
 which admitted not of alteration, the promulgation 
 of Section III. Regulation V. 1812, would not 
 have been followed by the injurious consequences 
 it has produced. ,, 
 
 During the government of the late Marquess of 
 Hastings, his lordship recorded a most able and
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 209 
 
 important minute* on the subject of the rela- 
 tive rights between the Zemindar (proprietor of 
 Marquess Cornwallis) and the hereditary land- 
 holder : — 
 
 " 142. It is well known, and even if it were ques- 
 tionable, the practice of the provinces which have 
 more lately fallen under our dominion would set the 
 doubt at rest, that the cultivating Zemindars t were, 
 by a custom more ancient than all law, entitled to 
 a certain share of the produce of their lands ; and 
 that the rest, whether collected by district officers 
 or contractors, or by the officers of the government, 
 was collected as the dues of the government. " 
 
 " 143. This indefeasible right of the cultivating 
 proprietors to a fixed share of the produce was anni- 
 hilated by our directing that written engagements 
 should be executed for a money payment, in which 
 all the claims of the Zemindars should be consoli- 
 dated. The under 'proprietor was thus left to the 
 mercy of the Zemindar, to whose demands there 
 were no prescribed limits. The Zemindar offered 
 an agreement on his own terms. { If the under 
 proprietor refused it he was ejected, and the 
 courts supported the ejectment. If the under 
 proprietor conceived that he could contest at law 
 the procedure, a regular suit, under all the disad- 
 vantages to which he is known to be exposed, was 
 
 * Lord Moira's Revenue Minute, 21st Sept. 1815. 
 
 -j- The Camniatchikars of Tondeimandelum ; the Meerasdars 
 of Mahrashtra ; the Bhoomias of Rajpoothana ; the Jenmakars 
 of the Malabar coast. 
 
 \ Vide Report of the Judge of Burdwan. 
 
 P
 
 210 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 li is only resource; but when, after years of 
 anxiety and of expense, the case was at last 
 brought to a hearing, he lost his action, because it 
 was proved that the agreement was offered and 
 refused, and there was no criterion to which he 
 could refer as a means of proving that the rates 
 were exorbitant." 
 
 " 144. The framers of the perpetual settlement 
 declared their incompetency to fix any criterion 
 for the adjustment of these disputes. The decla- 
 ration stands recorded in our legislative code*, 
 and to the present day this omission has not been 
 supplied. The consequence of the omission in 
 the first instance was a perpetual litigation be- 
 tween the Zemindars and the under proprie- 
 tors, the former offering agreements on his own 
 terms, and the latter not having forgotten that 
 they possessed rights independent of all agree- 
 ments, and refusing demands they deemed un- 
 conscionable. When at last the revenue of 
 government was affected by the confusion which 
 ensued, without enquiring into the root of the 
 evil, the legislature contented itself with arming 
 those who were under engagements to the govern- 
 ment with additional powers, so as to enable them 
 to realise their demands in the first instance, 
 whether right or wrong,— a proceeding which una- 
 voidably led to extensive and grievous oppression." 
 
 "146. It has been urged, however, that though 
 the rights of the former cultivating proprietors 
 have been suffered by the regulations to pass away 
 
 * Vide section liv. Regulation viii. 1793.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 211 
 
 sub silentio, still, as the Zemindar and his tenants 
 have reciprocal wants, their mutual necessities must 
 drive them to an amicable adjustment." 
 
 " 147. The reciprocity is not, however, so clear. 
 The Zemindar certainly cannot do without tenants ; 
 but he wants them upon his own terms, and he knows 
 that if he can get rid of the hereditary proprietors, 
 who claim a right to terms independent of what 
 he may vouchsafe to give, he will obtain the means 
 of substituting men of his own ; and such is the 
 redundancy of the cultivating class, that there 
 never will be difficulty of procuring ryots ready to 
 engage on terms only just sufficient to secure a 
 bare maintenance to the engager." 
 
 " 148. If it were the intention of our regulations 
 to deprive every class but the large proprietors 
 who engaged with government of any share in 
 the profits of the land, that effect has been fully 
 accomplished in Bengal. No compensation can 
 now be made for the injustice done to those who 
 used to enjoy a share of those profits under the 
 law of the empire, and under institutions anterior 
 to all record for the transfer of their property to 
 the rajahs." 
 
 Reference to the Bengal records will show the 
 violence that the real landowners have suffered in 
 all parts of that presidency under our regulations. 
 In Bundelcund especially I have heard it estimated 
 that two thirds of the landed proprietors have been 
 ejected. Many of them, driven to desperation, at- 
 tacked the new occupants by force j and after some 
 
 p 2
 
 gig LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 time, those unhappypersons being taken up, suffered 
 death under our laws: and so palpably inapplicable 
 did the existing rules or laws appear to the govern- 
 ment itself, that on one occasion, within a very few 
 years, a special commission to investigate and decide 
 questions of proprietary right was appointed, which 
 was directed to act according to existing local cir- 
 cumstances without reference to the regulations. 
 
 In the ceded countries, in 1820, several important 
 discoveries as to tenures were brought to light by the 
 enquiries which had arisen regarding the tenures ; 
 four descriptions of which are particularly noticed : 
 
 " * 1st. Villages, the proprietary rights of which 
 belong to one person. All traces of any other 
 partner have been lost in the revolutions which 
 have taken place in latter times in Rohilcund. 
 
 " 2d. Putteedary (copartnercy) villages, the 
 whole land of which is held in shares." Most of 
 the shares are subdivided, and sometimes they con- 
 sist of a vast number of subdivisions; but the 
 author of the minute justly observes, "The most 
 complex detail of fifty or more dissimilar shares 
 might be as readily kept in the Tehsildafs (Col- 
 lector's) office as it is now in the Putwarrie's (vil- 
 lage accountant's) accounts." 
 
 " 3. Byacharry (brotherhood) villages. The only 
 difference between these and the Putteedarry vil- 
 lages is, that in the latter each partner is ac- 
 countable for the rent of his own land only : in 
 the former, the whole fraternity is responsible for 
 
 * Sir Edward Colebrooke's Minute, dated 20th July 1820.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. C 21S 
 
 the whole rent ; and in cases where one share- 
 holder's crop fails, the assessment is made good by 
 the whole of the remainder. 
 
 " 4. Villages of which there are no proprietors. 
 Some of these villages are to be met with in every 
 district; but they are principally in Rohilcund, 
 where some entire pergunahs are thus situated, 
 in consequence of the Rohilla government having 
 reserved to itself the proprietary sovereignty on 
 the expulsion of the Zemindars. The settlement 
 of these villages has hitherto been made with the 
 Mocuddums, or Pardhans (chiefs) ; and the only 
 objection of which I am aware against perpetuating 
 the settlement with them is, that the creation of a 
 proprietary right in them may militate with other 
 rights in other persons, and nominally with the 
 privileges of the rest of the inhabitants of the vil- 
 lage, among whom they have hitherto been no 
 more than * primi inter pares.' " The propensity 
 to create public officers proprietors of the land, in 
 Bengal, almost amounts to a mania. From this 
 simple account it appears a set of Zemindars, pro- 
 bably the public local officers, who had usurped 
 the rights both of the sovereign and the people, 
 were expelled by the Rohilla government, but the 
 village community remained and still exists; the 
 chief) or representative, who manages its concerns, 
 is merely " primus inter pares." The constitution 
 of the village seems to differ in no respect from 
 the copartnercy and brotherhood villages in sub- 
 stance, though the confraternity may have been 
 
 i> 3
 
 21 4 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 infringed on by the Purdhans ; but it is by no 
 means apparent why this mayor or alderman, or 
 whatever European title he may receive, should be 
 created the proprietor of all the corporate rights. 
 
 " The Putteedary, and particularly the Bya- 
 charry villages, still present the same primitive state 
 of society as may be supposed to have existed 
 centuries ago. In these villages, also, besides the 
 hereditary cultivators of their freehold portion of 
 the soil, will be found the several classes of hired 
 labourers, both resident and occasional."* 
 
 The consequence of our want of local intelli- 
 gence up to this period, twenty years after these 
 districts came into our hands, is lamentably exhi- 
 bited in the following observations : — 
 
 " Of the villages originally Putteedarry and 
 Byacharry, many have already, under the operation 
 of the system introduced by the British govern- 
 ment, assumed the character of the first description 
 of villages belonging to a single proprietor ; and 
 whole communities, with their exclusive corporate 
 privileges, have all merged into the hands, perhaps, 
 of some foreign speculator. With regard to such 
 of them as have changed their nature under public 
 sales, it is apprehended that no retrospective legis- 
 lation could now re-establish the former tenure. 
 They were understood, at the time of sale, to have 
 been sold as the exclusive property of the engaging 
 
 * The Khood-Kasht and Pay-Kasht of Bengal ; the Ool- 
 coody and Paracoody of the Tamil country ; the Tulkurry and 
 Wawandkurry of the Marratta country describe the same per- 
 sons in each of those countries.
 
 LAND-TAX JN BENGAL. 215 
 
 party, on the principle introduced from the lower 
 provinces at the cession; and government could not, 
 without incurring the charge of a breach of faith, 
 attempt now to restrict the value of the purchase, 
 by explaining their intention to have been to sell 
 no more than the undefined right, be it greater or 
 less, which the engaging party might have held in 
 the estate." 
 
 " The errors of the permanent settlement in 
 Bengal were two-fold : first, in the sacrifice of 
 what may be denominated the yeomanry, by merg- 
 ing all village rights, whether of property or occu- 
 pancy, in the all-devouring recognition of the 
 Zemindar's proprietary right in the soil ; and, se- 
 condly, in the sacrifice of the peasantry in one 
 sweeping enactment, which left the Zemindar to 
 make his settlement with them on such terms as 
 he might choose to require. Government, indeed, 
 reserved to itself the power of legislating in favour 
 of the tenants ; but no such legislation has ever 
 taken place, and, on the contrary, every subsequent 
 enactment has been founded on the declared ob- 
 ject of strengthening the Zemindar's hands." 
 
 To the several queries put by government to the 
 collectors, in order to ascertain the rights of the 
 minor proprietors, and the share they were allowed 
 to enjoy of the crops, by the revenue contractors 
 or their superiors, the answers for the most part 
 tended to show that from thirty to fifty per cent., 
 and more commonly the latter, . was the portion 
 abstracted from the cultivator. 
 
 r 4
 
 216 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 In the imperfect state of information, with the 
 conviction that the Zemindars neither are nor ever 
 were the real proprietors of the land, and without any 
 defined plan for fixing the rates of taxation on the 
 real landlords, the Court of Directors have strenu- 
 ously resisted all attempts to induce them to consent 
 to a settlement, like that of 1793. In the mean 
 time, subdivided as the districts have been into very 
 small portions, seldom exceeding "one village, and 
 with periodical settlements of from three to ten 
 years with revenue contractors, they have suc- 
 cessively improved, and have yielded an excess of 
 revenue almost unparalleled. In 1808, they only 
 afforded 3,019,033, and in 1823 they yielded, with- 
 out compulsion, a sum of 4,288,180 rupees, being 
 an increase of about 33 per cent. This increase 
 has been owing principally to the quantity of waste 
 land that has been brought under the plough, and to 
 a light taxation. However strange this latter obser- 
 vation may at first sight appear, when we know the 
 collectors have reported that the average rate of 
 taxation is from one third to one half of the pro- 
 duce, yet we find that in the district of Moradabad, 
 the average tax per beegah, of 3,600 square yards, 
 does not exceed 1,431 of a rupee, and that of Seha- 
 ranpore, not more than one rupee per beegah. From 
 two shillings to three shillings per beegah of 3,600 
 square yards does not make the rates exceed from 
 half- a-crown to four shillings an acre. Now, however 
 low the value of agricultural produce, as compared 
 with money, we cannot imagine it to be so low as
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 217 
 
 to make such a tax heavy. Moreover, in the 
 absence of a regular survey of the lands, and in 
 the state of ignorance we still are with regard to 
 the statistics of the ceded and conquered countries, 
 it must be next to impossible to arrive at any 
 conclusion tolerably correct. The condition of 
 the people, and the increased cultivation, suffi- 
 ciently indicate progressive amelioration and im- 
 provement. 
 
 The enquiries that have taken place lately in 
 these provinces have tended to prove, that six 
 centuries of Mahomedan rule have not altogether 
 subverted the original village communities ; that 
 they still exist, and preserve the frame of their con- 
 stitution. This has been shaken, and was in immi- 
 nent danger of being altogether overthrown, as there 
 is too much reason to believe it has been in Bengal 
 and Behar, by the violent shock all the Hindoo 
 local institutions suffered in the introduction of the 
 permanent settlement of 1793, — a scheme so highly 
 applauded at the time, both by the Court of 
 Directors and the ministers of the crown. 
 
 Few countries have suffered such a sudden and 
 complete revolution of landed property as these, 
 without more dreadful consequences than have en- 
 sued on this occasion j but the cause may be easily 
 traced, when we recollect that the small landed 
 proprietors, from the oppression of the government, 
 had sought protection under the shadow of the 
 local officers, and that, owing to those oppressions, 
 they had already lost all the value of their lands
 
 218 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 beyond those cultivated by their own hands, which 
 still afforded them a subsistence though but a scanty 
 one. A decree which transferred them formally, 
 therefore, from the protection of government to 
 the hands of those whom they looked up to as 
 guardians, seemed not an unnatural transition from 
 voluntary submission to permanent serfage. 
 
 Enough of the original state of society still re- 
 mains in the provinces of Bengal, to show what 
 was its real state previously to the great reform or 
 innovation of 1793. The information we possess 
 on this subject is of double value, when we reflect 
 
 that the author of it is bv no means aware of the 
 
 j 
 
 existence of any other landed proprietors than 
 those created by Marquess Cornwallis, though 
 every page of his work confesses to the contrary. 
 This information is derived from the statistical re- 
 ports of Doctor Francis Buchanan Hamilton, a 
 name too well known in the world of oriental 
 literature to need eulogy from me. His statisti- 
 cal labours in the Burman empire, in 1795, first 
 brought him into notice ; and his tour through 
 Mysoor, for the same object, is already before 
 the public. The statistical reports of Bengal and 
 Behar, contained in sixteen folio volumes in ma- 
 nuscript, are still unpublished, though they deserve 
 to be, from the very curious details of manners and 
 customs which they exhibit to our view regarding 
 the middling and agricultural classes in Bengal 
 and Behar.* After his report on Mysoor, Doctor 
 * These volumes exist in the Libraries of the East India
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 219 
 
 Hamilton was appointed to make a similar report 
 on the provinces under the Bengal Presidency, 
 as well those as had been included in the permanent 
 settlement, as the ceded and conquered countries. 
 
 With a deference due to the regulations, when- 
 ever he speaks of landlords and proprietors, he 
 means Zemindars; but the selections from his own 
 work will show that there were other proprietors 
 with real hereditary privileges, which they once 
 enjoyed and were gradually losing. In his report 
 on Behar and Patna, he finds a description of 
 cultivators termed Ashraf (literally gentlemen). 
 Of this class he observes, " *they have more solid 
 advantages than the other cultivators, paying less 
 rent, a privilege which is permitted to them from 
 the landlords, the Zemindars. They assist in 
 all the labours of the field but that of holding 
 the plough, to which they object. In some parts 
 which I have surveyed, these gentry have a great 
 advantage in keeping large herds of cows. These 
 are a great source of nuisance to their poor neigh- 
 bours, on whose fields they occasionally trespass ; 
 but here this resource fails, for the lower classes in 
 Behar would not hesitate to abuse the owners, 
 which is so disagreeable that many of them avoid 
 keeping cows in consequence." 
 
 In Goruckpoor, hestatest, that " until the Eng- 
 lish took possession, the Ashrafs, or gentry, held 
 the whole of the lands, and every man except them 
 was condemned to the manual drudgeries of agri- 
 House and of the Royal Asiatic Society, from the latter of which 
 I was enabled to make my selections. 
 
 * Vol.ii. MS. f Vol. ii. p. 19. MS.
 
 '2 C 20 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 culture." From this we may fairly conclude, that 
 these Ashraf's are the landed proprietors, like the 
 Cawniatchikars, Mirasdars, Jenmakars, Bhoomias, 
 &c. in other parts ; but as the English government 
 denied such a right to exist, mark what follows : 
 " Of course no distinction of rank could then be 
 made in the rate of rent. Since the canaille 
 have obtained lands, it has been customary to grant 
 some deduction to the Ashrafs when the payments 
 are made." 
 
 Again : " *The rents arise principally from the 
 arable lands, and, until the English government, 
 the occupancy of these, even as tenants at will, was 
 entirely confined to the Ashrafs, when the restraint 
 was removed." " This measure," it seems, " threw 
 part of the lands into the hands of those who were 
 mere labourers." " The Ashrafs still, however, 
 farm the greatest portion of the land, and are 
 always, in one way or other, favoured by paying a 
 lower rate of rent." They also "enjoy the advantage 
 of keeping very large herds of cattle ; nor do any 
 of the lower classes presume to find fault with the 
 trespasses which these herds commit, for they still 
 look up with awe to them as persons of rank, who, 
 until lately, held great discretionary power over 
 the lower classes. Very few of the Ashrafs either 
 plough, sow, or reap, but the greater part by far 
 weed and water j and as the difficulty of procuring 
 workmen must still increase, there is little doubt 
 that the number of the gentry must either be very 
 much reduced, or that they must betake themselves 
 * Vol. ii. p. 56. MS.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 221 
 
 to the plough, as both the Brahmins and Rajputs 
 have done in the west. 
 
 " There is another class of farmers, called Gra- 
 histas (or inhabitants). Since the English govern- 
 ment, this class of farmers has greatly improved its 
 condition ; indeed it could hardly before have been 
 said to exist. Now, many have farms, and few will 
 condescend to work for wages, most of the people 
 hired in that manner coming from other districts. 
 The labourers of this district are usually paid for 
 ploughing, sowing, and reaping by a share of the 
 crop ; very few indeed have, however, obtained a 
 stock sufficient to trade, and almost all the farmers 
 who trade in grain belong to the gentry." 
 
 " The petty Zemindars* of these districts! are 
 not called Zemindars, but Malekst, and by far the 
 greater part of them are military Brahmins, and 
 appear to have been the proprietors of the land 
 before the Mahomedan conquest ; that is to say, 
 they held them in military tenure from Hindoo 
 kings, but whether in perpetuity is very doubtful. § 
 In all probability the ryots (landholders) here, as 
 elsewhere, were the real owners of the land, the 
 military tenant exacting only the land-tax imposed 
 by government." 
 
 " Under the Mogul government, these Maleks 
 were certainly not the officers of the government, 
 
 * Proprietors of land in villages. 
 
 f Behar and Patna. \ Proprietors. 
 
 § If they still continue to enjoy them in virtue of their 
 ancient tenures from the Hindoo government, which has ceased 
 to exist for six centuries, they have surely some right to meet 
 with consideration from us.
 
 222 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 as the Zemindars undoubtedly were, nor had they 
 in general the management of their lands. 
 
 " An officer of the government granted leases, 
 collected the rent, and gave the Malek one tenth 
 of the produce. The Malek appointed an account- 
 ant to see that he received his due, and he usually 
 received a trifling present from the tenants (land- 
 holders) of each village, as an acknowledgment of 
 superiority in a feudal sense. 
 
 " These Maleks were probably the ancient feudal 
 militia or knights of the Hindoo government." 
 If so, their title to a share of the crop has been 
 respected during the whole six centuries of Maho- 
 medan rule. They never had the management of 
 their own lands, nor do they seem to appertain to 
 the village, but to hold each, perhaps a knight's 
 fee (a hide of land), direct from the crown." 
 
 " The chief of each village (Mahato, or Jeth 
 Ryot*) holds his office b\ hereditary tenure. He 
 does not league with the oivner\ of the land to 
 oppress the tenants, but in general supports their 
 interests ; and being a wealthy man, of some educa- 
 tion, assists the poor and illiterate in settling their 
 accounts. In all well-regulated Indian govern- 
 ments, this is the proper duty of such persons. 
 Ample deductions were made to the Zemindars by 
 Lord Cornwallis, in making the settlements for the 
 fees of those officers. On some estates, the Mahato 
 is a kind of security for all the tenants ; and when 
 one of these goes away, it is he who appoints the 
 
 * The Potel, or Jetta Ryot and shareholder of the Deccan. 
 \ Zemindar.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 223 
 
 new one, the owner of the land (the landlord 
 created by Lord Cornwallis) giving himself no 
 trouble about it." 
 
 Orissa presents to us the remainder of the terri- 
 tories under the Bengal presidency. The northern 
 part of this province touches on Bengal, and ap- 
 pertained to the British government at the time of 
 Lord Cornwallis (1793). The rest of the province 
 was wrested from the Marrattas in the war of 1803, 
 and has followed the same system as introduced into 
 the provinces of Bengal and Behar. 
 
 I have before remarked * the resemblance which 
 the ancient political institutions of Orissa bore to 
 the feudal system of Europe ; and the concomitant 
 testimony of so many writers! on the same subject, 
 who state that which has fallen under their ob- 
 servation, without pretending to support any par- 
 ticular hypothesis, leaves us no room to doubt of 
 the fact, in spite of the opinions of those authors 
 who treat the idea with utter contempt and de- 
 rision. 
 
 At a remote period (says the author of the 
 Memoir on Orissat), the province of Orissa was one 
 of the four great divisions of the Dehly empire of 
 the Hindoos; and afterwards becoming independent, 
 the sovereign prince divided the lands among his 
 military chieftains, to be held free of rent on con- 
 
 * Vide Part I. chap. ii. p. 68. 
 
 f Tod's Rajasthan ; Malcolm's Mai wa ; Wilford's As. Res.; 
 Macmurdo, vol. ii.; Bombay Transactions. 
 
 % Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 220. Calcutta quarto ed.
 
 224s LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 sideration of joining him in the field ; which lands 
 their descendants still hold. This was also the con- 
 dition of the feudal tenures in Malabar. 
 
 " * These chiefs may be safely considered as 
 de facto proprietors of their possessions under 
 the native governments ; that is to say, they held 
 them hereditarily, exercised uncontrolled terri- 
 torial jurisdiction within their limits, and appro- 
 priated the entire revenues, subject to the condi- 
 tion of performing military service, or other offices 
 and duties, at the court of their superior raja, 
 residing mostly at Cuttack, which services have 
 in later ages been commuted for a large tribute 
 or money payment." This tribute is supposed to 
 be equal to about one tenth of the whole income 
 derived by these chiefs from their patrimonial 
 estates. Of these there are eleven great chiefs, on 
 whom are dependent one hundred and forty-four 
 subordinate chiefsf, and possessing three hundred 
 and thirty-seven gurhs or castles. The territory 
 held by these feudal officers exceeds considerably 
 that which belongs to the sovereign, or lord 
 paramount, denominated khalsa, or fiscal domain ; 
 but the tribute paid by them falls short of the pro- 
 duce of the fiscal estate. I have already given 
 an account of the constitution of the Orissa 
 government under its native princes. The reve- 
 nue officers of the fisc were denominated either 
 Chowdris or Talukdars, who acted conjointly w r ith 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, p. 221. 
 
 \ These were denominated Zemindars by the Mahomedans.
 
 LAND-TAX IN" BENGAL. 225 
 
 the Mocuddums, or village chiefs, as the fixed 
 hereditary local officers of the state. Among 
 other duties are described* that of the collection of 
 the government revenue assessed on their several 
 divisions; the control of police ; the adjustment 
 of disputes within their districts generally ; and 
 the enforcement of all the government orders 
 relating to the appropriation of lands. Their 
 acknowledged profits were five per cent, on the 
 collections ; certain perquisites on fisheries, orchards, 
 produce of the jungles, &c. such as timber, bees' 
 wax, honey, drugs, and dying woods ; taxes on 
 trades; the privileges of granting leases to new set- 
 tlers in villages where there were no village chiefs 
 (Mocuddums). These officers also, in later times, 
 exercised a right, though not distinctly avowed, of 
 alienating in gift, or even sometimes selling, small 
 portions of the waste land of villages.! In order 
 to control and to superintend their conduct, 
 Akbur established the offices of Sadder Canungoe 
 and Sadder Talukdar. The distinction between 
 these officers of Akbur's government and those of 
 the ancient Hindoo rule are now scarcely distin- 
 guishable, except by the former being descended 
 from Bengaly ancestry, while the latter have been 
 always, and still are, of Oria origin. 
 
 At the period when the province was conquered 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, p. 236. 
 
 f I entreat the reader's attention to the fact of the privilege 
 of alienating, either by gift or sale, the waste land, not by the 
 sovereign, but by the villagers. 
 
 Q
 
 226 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 from the Marrattas by the English, in 1803, the 
 functions and situations of these officers remained 
 precisely as has been described when, according 
 to the system established in Bengal, they were 
 created proprietors of those lands of which they 
 were in reality only the public superintendents or 
 stewards. The author of the Memoir marks the 
 distinction forcibly between these officers, which 
 the Bengal government denominated Zemindars, 
 and the feudal military chieftains, called also Ze- 
 mindars by the Mahomedans, and who really held 
 their estates on military tenures, and latterly paid 
 one tenth of their income as " scutage," in lieu of 
 service. The former civil officers collected the 
 whole revenue of the fisc for the state, and re- 
 ceived one twentieth part of the collections as a 
 remuneration. The Talukdars, not unfrequently 
 taking advantage of the weakness of government, 
 withheld the revenues, and by degrees assumed the 
 appellation of Zemindars, while the real Zemindars 
 (feudal chiefs) not unfrequently took the name of 
 raja (prince). In this way, in Orissa, the author 
 of the Memoir traces seven descriptions of Ze- 
 mindars, who, though the tenures be essentially 
 different, all receive the same title under our 
 government : — 
 
 1. The ancient Zemindars, now styled rajas or 
 princes. 
 
 2. Zemindars created by the Mahomedan rulers, 
 or by Marrattas.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 2Tj 
 
 3. The Chowdri and Canungoe Talukdars (of 
 districts). 
 
 4. The independent Mocuddums (heads of vil- 
 lages), who farmed their village revenues and paid 
 them direct to the government. 
 
 5. Village accountants, who, in the absence of 
 the Mocuddums, also paid the revenue direct to 
 the government, and managed their villages. 
 
 6. Pursettis, or chiefs of hamlets, who managed 
 their concerns direct. 
 
 7. Holders and proprietors of small portions, 
 entitled kheridah y or purchased lands. These have 
 been obtained from the broken down and desti- 
 tute families of Mahomedans, who had originally 
 received them for services performed, or in 
 charity. 
 
 All of these persons, enjoying certain privileges 
 from land, are indifferently denominated Zemin- 
 dars, and have in many instances been proclaimed 
 proprietors of the soil, without reference to the 
 real village proprietors. 
 
 Although the village communities have not been 
 so clearly traced in the public records in Cuttack 
 as in other parts, yet we cannot suppose them to 
 be less entire than in Bengal and Behar. Late 
 discoveries have brought to light a class of Mow- 
 roosee Mocuddums, or hereditary village chiefs j 
 and the right of permanent occupation of their 
 lands by the cultivators, at fixed rates, according 
 to the nature of the soil, has already been adverted 
 to (from Mr. Stirling's report). No permanent 
 
 q 2
 
 228 LAND-TAX IN BENGAL. 
 
 alienation of the rights of these cultivators has yet 
 taken place in Orissa, and it is to be hoped that 
 more full information will be obtained before any 
 such measure be adopted.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. Q2 l J 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 MADRAS SYSTEMS. 
 
 Northern Circars. — Among the earliest of our 
 territorial possessions on the coast of Coromandel 
 may be reckoned those denominated the Northern 
 Circars, including the country lying between 
 Ganjam and Masulipatam, extending inland as far 
 as Innaconda, and comprehending the districts of 
 Cicacole, Rajahmundry, Ellore, Condapilly, and 
 Guntoor. These districts were ceded by the 
 Nizam to the French, from whom they were con- 
 quered in 1759, and afterwards formally transferred 
 to the British government by a grant of the Great 
 Mogul in 1765. This tract had originally formed 
 part of the dominions of the two Hindoo kingdoms 
 of Carnatic and Orissa, whose capitals were Vija- 
 yanagar on the Toongbudra, and Cuttack on the 
 Mahanudda river. After the fall of those two 
 cities, and the dismemberment of the kingdoms by 
 the Mahomedans, the local chieftains called Zemin- 
 dars, whether holding magisterial authority or pos- 
 sessing military power, maintained against their 
 invaders and partial conquerors an unequal struggle 
 for independence for more than a century. 
 
 The contest was principally with the state of 
 Hydrabad, under whose subjection they had never 
 
 q 3
 
 230 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 been effectually brought. The Hindoo chiefs, 
 however, had in some cases acknowledged the 
 Mahomedan supremacy, and occasionally paid 
 tribute. The territory in the neighbourhood of 
 Masulipatam, Elloor, and Guntoor had formerly 
 belonged to the kingdom of Vijayanagar, and had 
 been more effectually subdued than that of which 
 mention has just been made, and admitted of being 
 placed under a Mahomedan governor appointed 
 from Hydrabad, who, under the title of Nabob, 
 resided at Masulipatam. After the occupation of 
 the Circars by the British government in 17«59, the 
 Zemindars first described were left in possession of 
 their estates ; and the lands which had been con- 
 quered originally from the Vijayanagar government 
 were suffered to be managed for some time by 
 Hoossein Ally Khan, the Nabob of Masulipatam. * 
 In 1769, the whole of the Circars were placed 
 under the control of three boards or councils, 
 composed of European civil servants, one at Masu- 
 lipatam, another at Cicacole, and a third at Ganjam. 
 These council boards received the revenues and 
 ruled the country till the year 1788. At this time 
 a separate special committee was formed, to enquire 
 more fully into the actual state of the Circars, pre- 
 paratory to the introduction of the new and per- 
 manent settlement which was then in contemplation 
 for Bengal. . It was found that the Circars might be 
 considered under two denominations, viz. Zemin- 
 dary, or land occupied and managed by native 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 204, 205.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 2S1 
 
 chiefs; and Havelly, or land under the immediate 
 management of government, and which it has been 
 shown was formerly held for the state by the Nabob 
 of Masulipatam. 
 
 The Zemindaries comprised the whole hilly tract 
 lying along the sea-coast between Masulipatam and 
 Ganjam. The chiefs were surrounded by bands of 
 military tenants, whose lands were held by them 
 from ancient times on stipulations of service ; and 
 the attachment of these retainers towards their 
 chieftains was increased by the bond of family 
 connexion. They formed a body of highland clans- 
 men, consisting of tribes of Velmawars, of Telinga 
 origin, and of Rachewars, who claimed affinity with 
 the ancient house of the kings of Orissa. On the 
 plains was another description of chiefs, who appear 
 to have had no title to military distinction, or to 
 have held lands on feudal tenures. They were the 
 Des- Adikars, or hereditary district officers, called in 
 this part of the country Naidoos, and were the 
 original civil managers of their districts, whose 
 revenues they were bound to collect for the state. 
 Both these classes of Hindoo chiefs were blended 
 by the Mahomedans under the common title of Ze- 
 mindars, — a term which, it has been already shown*, 
 was applied to all persons having landed rights. 
 
 When we consider the ignorance of our pre- 
 decessors, the Mahomedans, of these distinctions, 
 it cannot be surprising that we should have fallen 
 into the same error. The whole of the Ze- 
 
 * Vide chapter on Bengal, p. 226. 
 Q 4
 
 23& LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 mindars, therefore, were deemed by us to be the 
 hereditary managers of certain tracts of country, 
 for which they were required to pay a sum of money 
 to the superior state. The amount payable varied 
 from year to year, according to circumstances of 
 apparently good or bad seasons; but the whole in- 
 ternal management of realising the revenue, and of 
 superintending the police, was left in the hands of 
 the Zemindar. The rents were found to be usually 
 raised from the cultivators of wet lands in kind, and 
 of dry grains in money estimated at the market 
 price, though it was not unusual for the Zemindars 
 to farm the revenue for money to sub-contractors on 
 annual or longer leases. These contracts included 
 one or more villages, districts, or larger portions, 
 and sometimes even whole Zemindaries. 
 
 By the custom of the country the cultivators 
 retained one half of the gross produce of rice in 
 the husk, and two thirds of dry grain : " particular 
 castes (say the committee of the House of Com- 
 mons) were allowed to retain a larger share.'* I 
 conclude these to have been the hereditary landed 
 proprietors of the village community, which will 
 be more particularly described hereafter. The 
 members of this community were denominated 
 Reddys by the Hindoo, and Kudeem by the Ma- 
 homedans, — the latter word denoting the antiquity 
 of their rights. The quantity of grain being 
 fixed, it was optional with the cultivator either to 
 pay in kind, or to commute the delivery of the grain 
 for a sum of money. But with us the pecuniary
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 233 
 
 payments fell so heavy on the husbandmen, that 
 they seldom retained more than a fifth or a sixth 
 of their harvest. The burthen of these exactions 
 arose out of the measurement of the land, and the 
 impost of a money-rent instead of a corn-rent, 
 the commutation being liable to be over- rated 
 and to frequent annual variation. It seems ne- 
 cessary to explain how the measurement of the 
 lands could have this effect. On inspecting the 
 village books, the number of acres cultivated by 
 each individual, and of which he was perhaps the 
 landlord, stood opposite his name, and the assess- 
 ment, equal to half of the crop, was imposed on 
 it. But the same cultivator frequently occupied 
 other land also, which did not appear on the re- 
 cords, the town clerk being induced to exclude 
 it from the standard extent of his farm. Ac- 
 tual survey brought these apparent frauds to 
 light, and an extra demand was accordingly made. 
 Such and other arts of concealment and decep- 
 tion were the only means left to the cultivators 
 under the native governments, in order to satisfy 
 the exorbitant demands of the public, which re- 
 quired them to pay one half of the actual crops of 
 their own fields. Thus, till surveys were made, 
 the accounts were in reality always false. The 
 villagers almost always cultivated a larger propor- 
 tion of land than that entered in their names on 
 the books : and it was erroneously supposed that 
 they paid four fifths or five sixths of their crops, a 
 proportion which must appear to all practical agri-
 
 234 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 culturists to be quite impossible. These observ- 
 ations apply more particularly to those countries 
 where minute surveys afterwards took place. 
 
 Not content with these extravagant demands, 
 the farmers of the revenue demanded the rent from 
 the cultivators in money before the crops were 
 sold, which reduced them to the necessity either 
 of borrowing from bankers (to whom they paid a 
 heavy interest, never less than 24, usually 36 per 
 cent), or of selling or mortgaging their crops at 
 less than their real value. This system prevailed 
 both in the Zemindaries and in the Havelly, or 
 fiscal lands under the direct management of the 
 government, which farmed its revenues in much 
 the same way as the Mahomedans. The persons 
 to whom the fiscal lands were rented, being, for the 
 most part, the native stewards and personal servants 
 of the European civil officers, had peculiar advan- 
 tages of oppressing the cultivators. " * The un- 
 qualified conveyance, by the government itself, of 
 most of its powers to these large speculating 
 renters, necessarily conferred upon them the most 
 ample means of oppression ; and appears to have 
 occasioned, but in a still greater degree, the unjust 
 and vicious system of internal administration which 
 existed in the Zemindary lands." The village 
 establishment of magistrate, or head cultivator, and 
 register, together with the district magistrate and 
 register, existed every where in the Circars ; but 
 instead of being the useful agents of the govern- 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 221.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 235 
 
 ment, while it exercised legitimate authority, they 
 became, under the present circumstances, the in- 
 struments of extortion and corruption.* 
 
 Such was the nature of the report of the com- 
 mittee appointed in 1788. On the following year 
 a fixed settlement was made with all the Zemindars, 
 whose revenues being estimated, they were re- 
 quired to pay one third of their rental to the 
 British government. This arrangement was con- 
 firmed on the 29th September 1789 ; while those 
 lands hitherto managed by the stipendiary officers 
 of the government, or rented to revenue farmers, 
 were placed under the control of European col- 
 lectors ; and the three Boards of Masulipatam, 
 Cicacole, and Ganjam were abolished in the year 
 1792. 
 
 In fixing the portion of the tribute or tax pay- 
 able by the Zemindars, we fell into the error into 
 which we had been led by our predecessors. 
 The Zemindars evidently possessed distinct rights. 
 The military feudal chiefs, under their own kings, 
 never paid more than a tythe of their incomes, as 
 is at present the case in Orissa, by way of scutage, 
 or exemption from service. In exacting one third 
 of their rental from them we might have adopted 
 the practice of the Mahomedans, who imposed as 
 large a tribute as the government had it in its 
 power to enforce ; but I question whether the 
 whole of the military chieftains of the northern 
 Circars had ever agreed to any such composition. 
 
 * 5th Report, p. 226.
 
 230 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 On the other hand, limiting our demand on those 
 Zemindars denominated Naidoos, or hereditary 
 officers of the district, to one third of the receipts, 
 we, in fact, gave up three fifths of our legitimate 
 rights. As these arrangements were rendered 
 permanent at a subsequent period, they do not 
 now admit of alteration, and, according to all ac- 
 counts, the inhabitants live tolerably easy under 
 the rule of their native chiefs; but neither they 
 nor their dependents can be deemed so entirely 
 under our control as in those parts of the country 
 where our authority is more immediate and direct. 
 In this latter condition are the inhabitants of the 
 villages termed Havelly. The committee recom- 
 mended, and the collectors adopted, the plan of 
 making annual settlements with the heads of vil- 
 lages for the revenue of each township. They are 
 represented as subrenting every field to the inha- 
 bitants, but, in reality, the village community 
 (Kudeems) subdivided the weight of assessment 
 within itselfj each member bearing his own par- 
 ticular share of the burden. At a subsequent 
 period it was thought advisable to render these 
 assessments more permanent, and an average of 
 the gross produce in grain for a certain number 
 of years was struck ; the whole was then con- 
 verted into money, according to the selling prices 
 of the same years, and a commutation tax in 
 money was levied. At length it was thought ad- 
 visable to change this system, which was liable to 
 fluctuation, owing to the occupation and abandon-
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 237 
 
 ment of lands. The anticipated advantages of the 
 new system of Bengal now determined the govern- 
 ment to adopt the same plan in Madras. The ter- 
 ritorial division of the whole country was renewed. 
 A certain number of villages were formed into a 
 Zemindary, or, as they were called, a Moottah, or 
 revenue farm, and the waste lands were made over 
 to the contractor as the source cf his profit. These 
 Moottahs have been sold and re-sold till they have 
 at length found their level, and the system of Ben- 
 gal has been adopted throughout the Havelly lands 
 of the northern Circars. 
 
 The Jaghire. — The country immediately sur- 
 rounding Madras, the seat of government of the 
 Nabob of Arcot, is styled the Jaghire, from being 
 the private personal estate granted to him by the 
 Great Mogul. The wars in which the Nabob 
 Mahomed Ally Khan was involved, and the 
 services rendered to his family by the English, 
 induced him to cede a part of this estate into 
 their hands in the year 17<50, and the remainder 
 in 1763. This tract was, however, farmed to 
 the Nabob's agents till the year 1780, when the 
 Madras government took the management into 
 its own hands. During the period it was thus 
 rented, the district exhibited one entire scene of 
 rapine and oppression j added to which, the Car- 
 natic had been twice ravaged and sacked, by the 
 invasion of Hyder in 1768 and in I78O, and on 
 the latter occasion hardly a vestige of any villages 
 was left, while the whole plain is represented as
 
 238 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 " beino- strewed with the bones and carcasses of 
 human beings." To the ravages of war a famine 
 succeeded, and the emigration that ensued nearly 
 depopulated the country. 
 
 It was not till the year 1783 that the people had 
 returned sufficiently to enable the government to 
 divide the district into fourteen revenue farms, for 
 nine years, at progressively increasing rates. This 
 scheme did not answer : for long ere the term ex- 
 pired most of the farmers had failed in their pay- 
 ments, and their property was attached to make 
 good the defalcations. In 1790 the Jaghire was 
 divided into two collectorships; and in 1794 the 
 whole was put under charge of Mr. Lionel 
 Place. It is to this gentleman we are indebted for 
 the first correct information obtained of the landed 
 tenures in India. Villages were discovered to be 
 corporate bodies, with their internal municipality, 
 the land belonging to the corporation ; this was 
 subdivided into shares which were saleable, and 
 still retained all the value of real property. In 
 each village were many cultivators, tenants of the 
 shareholders, having prescriptive rights according 
 to ancient agreements ; besides whom was a third 
 class, cultivating from year to year without any 
 other privileges. The important distinction be- 
 tween the shareholder and the tenant consisted in 
 the latter having no right to sell his rights of occu- 
 pancy, nor enjoying any of the various immunities 
 and advantages belonging to the former as a mem- 
 ber of the corporation.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 239 
 
 After the desolation of 1780, a vast number of 
 individuals of these corporations had been reduced 
 to the extreme measure of parting with their heri- 
 tages ; many of them, during the famine, had sold 
 their patrimony for small considerations, not equal 
 to one month's bare subsistence. These sales had 
 been made chiefly to the private servants and 
 interpreters of English officers, whether civil or 
 military ; and they alone, as in the Circars, were 
 the few individuals that derived any advantages 
 from the general calamity. 
 
 On the return of tranquillity the wretched land- 
 holders consented to cultivate the lands of their 
 ancestors, as tenants of the new purchasers, for a 
 mere subsistence ; and they were so fast falling 
 into the condition of serfs, that the interpreters 
 (or Dubashes, as they were called,) anticipated in 
 a short time to become the sole proprietors of the 
 lands of the Jaghire. In the course of the ad- 
 ministration of Mr. Place, which lasted till 1798, 
 things reassumed their wonted condition : the 
 real landholders repurchased their lands, and were 
 restored to others which had been violently taken 
 from them ; the heads of villages and accountants 
 again took their places in the society ; and the 
 Nautwars, the district officers of that part of the 
 country, were restored. 
 
 On enquiring into the internal rates of assess- 
 ment, it was found they had been so excessive that 
 it is matter of astonishment the lands were not 
 altogether abandoned. Those rates, which were
 
 240 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 nominally fixed throughout the district, were dis- 
 covered to be every where unequal ; and so exces- 
 sive had been the exactions, that when the col- 
 lector proposed to modify and equalise them, by 
 taking half the gross produce for the government, 
 the cultivators gladly acceded to the project. It 
 was stipulated, however, that the payments were 
 not to be made in kind, as heretofore, but that the 
 cultivators should pay a sum of money equal to the 
 value (at that time) of half the rice crops. While 
 this division of the produce was made on the rice 
 lands, the proprietors enjoyed other advantages. 
 Attached to each rice-field was a portion of land 
 held rent free, and the ancient landholders of each 
 village received certain fees in common, entitled 
 Grama Manium, out of the rents paid to them by 
 the cultivating tenants. The assessment, although 
 readily assented to at the time by the landholders, 
 was found in practice to be more than they could 
 pay ; and the effects of this erroneous estimate of 
 their means were afterwards severely felt. 
 
 In the northern Circars, under the Mahomedan 
 government, the chief of each village community 
 had, from his direct and separate intercourse with 
 the government officers, assumed a supremacy to 
 which, according to the ancient Hindoo institu- 
 tions, he was not entitled : he was merely the 
 chief among equals, but he had there been raised 
 to the superior dignity of head. This was not 
 found to be the case in the Jaghire, and in the 
 other parts of the Madras provinces where the
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 241 
 
 village communities still retained their privileges 
 entire : with these whole communities, therefore, 
 and not with any particular individual, did Mr. 
 Place make his settlements, leaving it to them to 
 assess themselves individually. 
 
 The home farms, situated in the immediate 
 vicinity of Madras, are not included in the Jaghire. 
 Here the same advantage had been taken of the 
 distresses of the cultivators. The lands had been 
 almost all brought into the possession of that class 
 of people termed Dubashes, who, availing them- 
 selves of the names of their masters, and of their 
 own influence, had occupied a vast quantity of 
 those lands that had been deserted during the 
 famine, and of which they had retained the posses- 
 sion, allowing the real proprietors to cultivate them 
 as their tenants. 
 
 The information which the government had 
 already acquired enabled it to remedy these evils, 
 and the real proprietors were eventually replaced 
 in possession of their property. 
 
 In the year 1793, the settlement of Pondicherry 
 was conquered from the French. In 1795, Pulicat 
 and Sadras were taken from the Dutch. In 1792, 
 the province of Dindigul, and in 1799 that of 
 Coimbetore, fell into our hands in the wars with 
 Tippoo Sultan ; and in the same year the Raja of 
 Tanjore made over the management of his country 
 to the English government. 
 
 In the year 1801, the whole of the possessions of 
 the Nabob of Arcot, situated in the Carnatic, with 
 
 R
 
 QiQ LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 the exception of a small portion retained by him as 
 the household lands of his family, also came into the 
 hands of the English. These last consisted of the 
 districts of Palnaud, Nellore, Areot, the Pollams of 
 Chittoor, the districts of Sattevaid, Tinnevelly, and 
 Madura. 
 
 The Tamil country. — The most of this tract 
 had in a great measure escaped the dominion of 
 the Mahomedans, and we therefore find the Hindoo 
 institutions more perfect than in other parts. It 
 embraces the dominions of the ancient kings of 
 Conjiveran and Madura, and may be included 
 under the general appellation of the Tamil coun- 
 try, applicable to it on account of that language 
 prevailing throughout its extent. 
 
 " * In every Tamil village (according to the 
 opinion of the Board of Revenue), the exclusive 
 right to the hereditary possession and usufruct of 
 the several descriptions of land situated within its 
 boundaries, was originally vested j in the Vellallers, 
 one of the principal Soodra castes of that nation, by 
 ■whom it is termed cawniatchy, or free hereditary 
 'property in the fruid." When this property has 
 fallen into the hands of Brahmins, it is denominated 
 swastium, signifies one's own. The same property 
 is sometimes found in possession of Mahomedans 
 and native Christians, when it is denominated 
 meeras, an Arabic word, probably introduced by 
 
 * Minute Madras Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. See 
 Letter from Mr. Ellis, 30th May 1816. 
 
 t Minute Madras Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 243 
 
 the Moslem invaders, and implying inheritance or 
 patrimony. 
 
 The lands of every Tamil village may be divided 
 into two distinct kinds of tenure: — 1. Those held 
 free from the condition of any payment by the 
 landholders. 2. Those which they hold on the ex- 
 press condition of rendering a certain portion of 
 the produce to the state. 
 
 In the first class are included lands incapable of 
 cultivation, and waste lands. 
 
 In the second are included all the cultivated 
 lands, consisting not only of land paying the full 
 proportion of the crop to government, but also all 
 lands the government portion of whose produce has 
 been either relinquished to the owner, or assigned 
 away to another person. 
 
 " *89. On the establishment of every Tamil village, 
 as now constituted, the rights of occupancy of the 
 whole land were equally shared by all the Vellaler 
 settlers, as a collective body, not by each indivi- 
 dually: every one of them possessed a separate 
 equal share of the whole j and hence, in each vil- 
 lage, to the present day, the number of equal shares 
 into which the land was at first divided remains 
 the same as when the village was originally settled. 
 In some villages there are a hundred shares, in 
 others fifty, in others only ten, and even less ; but 
 whatever may now be the number of landholders, 
 the number of shares never alters. From the land- 
 holders having increased in number, and owing to 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 R c 2
 
 214 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 the law of equal division of property among heirs, 
 many of these shares are found extensively sub- 
 divided ; while in other cases shares have been 
 acquired by purchase, or otherwise, so that one per- 
 son may have several shares in the same village." 
 
 This share of the village lands is not confined to 
 that portion which is either cultivated or capable 
 of being cultivated, but extends to all land whatso- 
 ever. Supposing a village divided into thirty-two 
 shares, each person holding a whole share, or a por- 
 tion of it, has a right to an equal portion of all the 
 advantages arising out of mines or quarries, fisheries, 
 forests, pasturage, &c. In mortgaging or selling 
 his share, the landholder, though he actually con- 
 veys the land of which he is possessed to him who 
 buys it, only transfers the common right of all 
 other perquisites over the remainder of the land, 
 in proportion to his share of the whole, as a mem- 
 ber of the agricultural community, but does not 
 alienate any particular part of the land. 
 
 It has been before stated, that the cultivated 
 lands of every village comprehend those lands 
 paying a share of the produce as tax to the govern- 
 ment ; the share of which has sometimes been 
 alienated by government to some individual or 
 individuals. "The latter tenure is termed man- 
 nium* Maunium lands are divided into Turabudy 
 and Doombala : the former are arable lands, the 
 public tax on which has from time immemorial 
 been payable to certain descriptions of people 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 245 
 
 belonging to the village community, and which are 
 therefore held by them under the authority of the 
 village register ; the latter are arable lands, the 
 public tax on which has been alienated to indi- 
 viduals, either connected or unconnected with the 
 village, and which are held under special grants 
 from the ruling power." The remaining lands of 
 the village under cultivation pay a stipulated 
 portion of the crop, either in money or in kind, to 
 the state. 
 
 " Thus the Meerasidars render the public dues 
 on all the lands they cultivate to the officers of 
 government appointed to receive them ; but they 
 pay the tax on all maunium, or alienated lands, 
 to those individuals to whom the rights of govern- 
 ment have been transferred." 
 
 " In addition to the exclusive right to the here- 
 ditary possession and usufruct of the lands in each 
 village, which, on the tenure above explained, was 
 vested in the Tamil Meerasidars, a peculiarity dis- 
 tinguished those who inhabited that particular 
 portion of the Tamil country which is known by 
 the name of Tondeimandelum ; and which, ex- 
 tending from the southern extremity of the Nellore 
 district nearly to the river Colleroon, includes 
 chiefly the Company's Jaghire now the Zillah of 
 Chingleput, and the two divisions of the Arcot 
 Soobah." 
 
 " From the earliest times it would appear, that 
 in the villages of that part of the country a certain 
 portion of arable land, to be held altogether tree 
 
 it 3
 
 246 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 from tax, was attached to the Meerasy, an integral 
 and important part of that right. It is termed the 
 Cawniatchy, or Grama Maunium, and is altogether 
 distinct from the Turabudy, or Doombala Mau- 
 niu ms : for on these the public tax was paid by the 
 Meerasidars to the several individuals holding the 
 same j but on the Grama Mauniums they paid 
 the public tax to themselves, in other words, they 
 held it exempt from tax." 
 
 " Inseparably connected with the Cawniatchy 
 Maunium was another peculiar privilege of the 
 Meerassidars of Tondeimandelum ; namely, their 
 right to certain fees, which they received in the 
 shape of deductions from the gross produce of all 
 the cultivated lands paying tax to the government." 
 
 These fees are distinct from those paid to the 
 village officers, as well here as in other parts. The 
 fees above alluded to are paid to the Meerassidars : 
 whereas the fees to village officers are paid by the 
 Meerassidars, in common with all other cultivators. 
 
 In parts of Bengal the village tenures are found 
 (as we have seen*) to consist of two descriptions ; 
 viz. Byacharry, where the lands are held and cul- 
 tivated in common by one joint stock ; and Puttee- 
 darry, where the fields are subdivided among the 
 members of the community. A similar system 
 prevails under some parts of the Madras presi- 
 dency; and it may be said, almost universally in 
 the Tamil country. 
 
 * Part II. chapter I. p. 212.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 24-7 
 
 These tenures are thus described : — " * Pasang- 
 carei in Tamil, and Saradayan in Sanscrit, are 
 terms both implying collective proprietary right, 
 used to denote that particular joint tenure of land 
 which was universal throughout the Tamil country, 
 and still prevails in many villages in every part of 
 it. Under this system, the meerassy right to any 
 particular spot of cultivated land in the village is 
 not vested in any individual : the meerassy of the 
 entire cultivated lands attached to it, like that of 
 the common waste t and common fallow^ lands, 
 belonging to the whole body of Meerassidars, each, 
 in proportion to the shares, or parts of a share, he 
 holds, being entitled to participate in the common 
 property. The number of shares belonging to 
 each Meerassidar being known, the lands are in 
 some cases cultivated by the whole in common, 
 and the net produce, after payment of tax, is di- 
 vided according to the share of each. In others, 
 the meerassy land itself is divided either annually 
 or at every five, six, or ten years, the fields of 
 which the meerassy is to be held by each for that 
 period being fixed by drawing lots. 
 
 " In many villages, however, especially in those 
 of Tanjore, Tinnevelly, Madura, Dindigul, and the 
 other Tamil provinces to the south of the Colleroon, 
 the Meerassidars, instead of dividing the cultivated 
 lands of the village periodically, have declared the 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 
 f Perumboe. t Tarissee. 
 
 it 4
 
 248 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 division permanent, and have thus converted the 
 ancient collective tenure into one of severalty, 
 which is distinguished by the Tamil denomination 
 Arudi-carei, or by the corresponding Sanscrit word 
 Palabhogum. Under this system each Meerassidar 
 enjoys the meerassy of his own particular culti- 
 vated fields, and has no interference whatever 
 with those of his neighbours ; and when he sells 
 his meerassy, he transfers to the purchaser not 
 only his individual right to certain fields, but also 
 a right to participate in the waste or common 
 arable land ; the meerassy maunium, or portion of 
 land free of tax ; the marahs, or corporation fees ; 
 and other collective property in the village, in 
 proportion to the share of his meerassy right." 
 
 In some instances in Tanjore, and occasionally 
 in other districts, the whole meerassy of a village 
 is found vested, either by purchase or by other 
 means, in one individual. This tenure is denomi- 
 nated eha bhogum. 
 
 In Madras these tenures are found more com- 
 plete than in the upper provinces of Bengal, but 
 they are easily recognised as belonging essentially 
 to the same system. 
 
 We have also perceived that in the upper pro- 
 vinces of Bengal there were three descriptions of 
 cultivators : first, Malicks, Ashrafs, or village Ze- 
 mindars, as they are indifferently called in various 
 parts, answering to the Meerassidars of the Carna- 
 tic. In addition to these we find a class of culti- 
 vators called Khood-Kasht, and another class de-
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 249 
 
 nominated Pay-Kasht : the first occupying the land 
 as permanent tenants ; the second, as temporary or 
 occasional tenants.* 
 
 The Tamil Meerassidars occasionally rent out 
 their lands to tenants denominated Pyacarries, of 
 which, say the Board of Revenue, there are two 
 kinds : Oolcoody Pyacarries, or permanent tenants ; 
 and Paracoody Pyacarries, or temporary tenants. 
 
 In the villages where the lands are held in com. 
 mon the tenants hold of all the Meerassidars as a 
 corporation ; where they have been divided they 
 hold of individuals. In addition to their stipulated 
 rents, payable in kind or in money, they pay the 
 established fees to the corporation. In no case 
 have they any concern whatever with the Meerassy 
 Maunium, or rent-free land attached to meerassy 
 tenure, or to any of the other privileges belonging 
 to the members of that community. The Meerassi- 
 dar, after receiving his rents, pays to the govern- 
 ment its share, and whatsoever remains surplus 
 is retained by him as his profit or rent. This pro- 
 fit is termed Swamy-bhogum, signifying landlord's 
 portion. 
 
 It now remains to explain the difference between 
 the Oolcoody, or permanent tenant, and the Para- 
 coody, or temporary tenant.t " In some instances 
 the same family has rented the same farm, at a sti- 
 pulated amount}, for several generations, in which 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 f Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 J Share of the erop.
 
 l >50 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 case the Oolcoody tenant enjoys a right by pre- 
 scription to hold the same lands for ever, on pay- 
 ment of the same rent. The Oolcoody tenant can 
 never be ousted from his farm as long as he pays 
 the rent, nor can that rent be raised by the landlord 
 or Meerassidar. The right to cultivate descends to 
 his children ; and he may even mortgage, but 
 cannot sell that right." 
 
 " The Paracoody, or temporary tenants, do not 
 enjoy these privileges : they make their stipu- 
 lations for a term, after which the agreement must 
 be voluntarily renewed by both parties, or the 
 right to occupation ceases."* 
 
 " t The foregoing may be considered a tolerably 
 correct view of the landed tenures in the Tamil 
 country, under the ancient Hindoo government. 
 While they were respected land was a valuable 
 saleable property ; and the numerous deeds of sale 
 still extant in the southern provinces, where the 
 Mahomedan arms never reached, prove that it was 
 so, and that the Meerassidars every where enjoyed 
 a clear landlord's rent." 
 
 " It is by no means, however, to be understood, 
 that this is the state of meerassy property at 
 present. The severe and arbitrary policy of the 
 Mussulman princes proved so detrimental to the 
 
 * The similarity of these tenures with those of the coloni and 
 the aratores of the Romans is curious, and verifies the remark 
 of Dr. Robertson, that " man placed in the same situation and 
 circumstances will usually act alike in all countries." 
 
 f Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 18J8.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 251 
 
 interests of the Meerassidars, that, by successive 
 augmentations of their demands, they not only 
 absorbed all the landlord's rent, but in many places 
 the farmer's profit also. Most of the Meeras- 
 sidars were thus reduced to a condition which, 
 except in name, differed little from the Oolcoody, 
 or permanent farmers* j and the Mussulmans thus 
 became not only the sovereigns but the landlords 
 of the country, enforcing in practice the favourite 
 maxim, that the state is the exclusive proprietor 
 of the soil :" — a maxim, however, it will be recol- 
 lected, unknown to Mahomedan law, and unas- 
 sumed by any of its kings. 
 
 So long as there remained to the Meerassidars 
 a clear landlord's rent, they wanted no other sti- 
 mulus to urge them to cultivate to the utmost ; 
 but where this now became absorbed in the govern- 
 ment demands, the land-tax was converted into 
 a land-rent, the landlords sunk into land occupiers 
 or holders, and restricted to the profit of the mere 
 farmer, the Meerassidar, unable to procure tenants 
 for his lands, abandoned them. 
 
 To prevent the public revenue from suffering 
 from arable land thus left vacant, the British go- 
 vernment resorted to the expedient of transferring 
 it temporarily to Pyacarries, or tenants of its own 
 selection ; and in many instances these leases have, 
 it is feared, been rendered permanent, and the real 
 owners excluded for ever. When this step was 
 taken in cases of real property belonging to indi- 
 
 * Minute of Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818.
 
 252 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 yiduals, it may easily be believed that it was also 
 extended to the common lands of the village 
 community. 
 
 Such was the attachment of the Meerassidar, 
 however, to his land, that he submitted to a heavier 
 tax on his patrimonial estate* than the Pyacarry 
 could afford to pay : accordingly it is found that 
 the government tenants held their leases on more 
 favourable terms than were allowed to the Meeras- 
 sidars ; but this difference was more than compen- 
 sated by the latter retaining their Cawniatchy mau- 
 nium, or rent-free lands, which the Pyacarries 
 never enjoyed, and which the Meerassidars have in 
 some cases retained, though they have lost part of 
 their original meerassy land. 
 
 This system of oppression in many instances 
 displaced the Meerassidars altogether, and thus 
 villages are found almost entirely occupied by 
 Pyacarry tenants. Mr. Place, in his reportt on the 
 Jaghire, enumerates 15,994 meerassy shares, held 
 by 8,387 Meerassidars, the total number then in 
 the Jaghire. Independently of this number of 
 shares there remained 1,827 shares unclaimed, 
 which were occupied by Pyacarries. 
 
 Mr. Lushingtont, in his report on Tinnevelly, 
 particularly mentions whole villages of this de- 
 scription, as distinguished from those in which the 
 meerassy tenures remained entire. " The Pyacarry 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 
 f Mr. Place's Report, 6th June 1799. 
 
 $ Mr. Lushington's Report, dated 29th December 1800.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 2.53 
 
 villages, being neither held by a community, nor 
 purchased outright by individuals, are found to 
 contain none of those practices of paying fees to 
 certain individual proprietors of shares ; nor have 
 the tenants, indeed, any of the right of Meerassidars 
 to dispose of or alienate in perpetuity the lands 
 they occupy." " *Thus, where the meerassy was 
 not yet destroyed, the Meerassidars still possessed 
 a saleable property in the land ; but where, by over 
 assessment, over collections, or compulsory con- 
 tracts, they had been reduced to a situation little 
 different from that of mere Pyacarry tenants, or on 
 their quitting or giving up their lands their former 
 tenants had usurped or been placed in possession 
 of them by the government, all vestige of the 
 original shares into which the village was divided, 
 or of the existing share of each Meerassidar, was 
 obliterated." 
 
 Such, more or Jess, was the situation of each 
 of the Tamil provinces. Tanjore, which had never 
 been under the immediate sway of the Mahome- 
 dans, is the only one in which the meerassy right 
 was found nearly unimpaired, and the landlord's 
 rent was stated to be somewhat less than twenty- 
 five per cent, of the crop.t Here the Mee- 
 rassidars amounted to upwards of sixty thousand 
 in number. In TYitchinopoly the collector's re- 
 portt shows that meerassy was there generally 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 f Appendix, 5th Report. Vide Mr. Harris's Report, 9th 
 May 1804. 
 
 % Mr. Wallace's Report, 8th September 1805.
 
 254« LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 prevalent and valuable.* " In Tinnivelly the sur- 
 plus, estimated at thirteen and a half per cent, of 
 the gross produce, was received by the Meerassidar 
 as the landlord's rent." | These tenures also ex- 
 isted in Dindigul, Madura, and Coimbetore; they 
 were, however, found to be universal nowhere ex- 
 cept in Tanjore. 
 
 It will hereafter be shown how these rights 
 have been respected under the British govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In the year 1793 the British government ob- 
 tained possession of Baramahl and Dindigul, from 
 Tippoo ; and in the year 1799, after the downfall 
 of his kingdom, it received Canara and Coimbe- 
 tore as its share of the conquest ; and subsequently, 
 according to a treaty made with the Nizam on the 
 12th of October 1800, the whole territory lying 
 south of the Toongbudra, and of the Krishna 
 river after its junction with the former, was 
 ceded in perpetuity to the British government. 
 
 The claims of the government to the revenues of 
 these lands were of two descriptions: — the one 
 arising from its direct supremacy as sovereign over 
 the cultivators or landholders; the other, over 
 them in indirect supremacy, through the inter- 
 vention of certain hereditary chiefs termed Poligars. 
 The Poligars in the Madras provinces were pre- 
 cisely similar to those already described in the 
 
 * Mr. Hodgson's Report, 24-th September 1807. 
 f Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 9,55 
 
 northern Circars ; and their hereditary rights were 
 of the same variety of description : viz. — 
 
 1st. Poligars, descendants of the royal families 
 of Vijayanagar, Conjiveran, and Madura. 
 
 2d. Poligars, the military feudal chieftains of 
 those sovereignties who had resisted the conquest 
 of the Mahomedans, and had either retained by 
 force, or through indulgence and tolerance, the 
 estates, or, more properly speaking, the princi- 
 palities, they enjoyed under their ancient govern- 
 ments. 
 
 3d. Poligars, who, in capacity of district col- 
 lectors, had contrived to elude the immediate con- 
 trol of the Mahomedans, and who had gradually 
 usurped the sovereignty of the districts, of which 
 they had once been merely the hereditary local 
 chiefs. These nice distinctions were not recog- 
 nised by the Mahomedans, nor consequently by 
 us. They were all made to pay tribute, not 
 according to any fixed principle, but according to 
 the power of the government to enforce it. The 
 management of their chiefships, and the sole control 
 over their subjects, were left entirely in their hands. 
 The imbecility or the oppression of the supreme 
 government excited these chieftains to encroach 
 on its authority, and on that of each other ; they 
 were almost always, therefore, either in a state of 
 warfare with their neighbours, or in revolt against 
 the state. Whenever the exactions of the Maho- 
 medans were exorbitant, they were at first resisted 
 by remonstrances, and even if eventually paid, the
 
 256 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 Poligar took the earliest opportunity of reimbursing 
 himself and taking revenge, by an attack on the 
 villages holding direct of the government. In vain 
 did the inhabitants call for protection from the 
 sovereign, so that in many cases they were obliged 
 to compromise with the invaders, by agreeing to 
 pay a stipulated amount as a " bonus " for for- 
 bearance, denominated Cavel, or protection-money, 
 paid to one Poligar against the encroachment of 
 some marauder less powerful. 
 
 Under the systematic control of the British 
 government, it was highly necessary to check the 
 loose and unbridled conduct of some of these 
 Poligars ; but having no knowledge of their true 
 rights, they were as frequently driven into rebel- 
 lion by the exercise of an unlicensed authority on 
 our part as by their own proneness to plunder 
 and encroachment. With the Zemindars of the 
 northern Circars permanent settlements were 
 made, which left to them about two thirds of their 
 estimated revenue, and which probably very much 
 exceeded it. Similar arrangements were made 
 with those in the Chittoor, Kalistry, Venkataghirry, 
 and Bomrauz Pollams ; and most of those chieftains 
 or their descendents still retain their hereditary 
 estates, though on some occasions they have been 
 first driven into rebellion and then subdued at the 
 expense of their estates. 
 
 In the southern part of the Tamil country there 
 were thirty-one Poligars, for the realisation of whose 
 tribute it was found necessary to appoint a spe-
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. Q5J 
 
 cific European collector, whose object, as well as 
 whose duty, appears always to have been to endea- 
 vour to raise the amount annually. The rebellions 
 of the southern Poligars, who fought so desperately 
 for their rights, form one among many of the bril- 
 liant epochs of our military annals. 
 
 Of these chiefs, who had held their patrimonial 
 estates for several generations, we find in the year 
 1803, out of thirty-three, thirteen only still in pos- 
 session ; the lands of fourteen others were under 
 charge of the European collector, and six were 
 forfeited, given away, or sold. In the districts 
 ceded by the Nizam in 1800, there were no fewer 
 than eighty Poligars : of whom only twenty-seven 
 appear to have held their estates on military tenures.* 
 These were bound to appear in the field with their 
 sovereign at the head of 29,800 infantry, and 
 1200 cavalry. During the Mahomedan rule, they 
 gradually fell off from their allegiance j and in 
 latter times it is found they were permitted to 
 retain their estates, on payment of a small tribute 
 in lieu of performing service. 
 
 When the ceded districts fell into our hands, 
 the Poligars, as they were all called, discovered 
 that the nature of our government was ill suited to 
 their loose habits, and they soon learned that a 
 
 * It does not appear clear whether the remaining fifty-three 
 were all Des-Adikars, or hereditary district officers, of the 
 Hindoo government. The general term of Poligar, like that 
 of Zemindar, being applied to all descriptions of chiefs in pos- 
 session of or in the management of lands, leads to great con- 
 fusion.
 
 258 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 continuation of those privileges, which they had 
 inherited or assumed, was incompatible with our 
 rule. 
 
 They were called on to appear in person and 
 recognise the representative of the new govern- 
 ment. Many of them refused, and some even 
 armed to resist his authority. Driven to excesses, 
 they were attacked and reduced to subjection by 
 force of arms ; and in 1807 they are found to have 
 been thus disposed of: — 
 
 Pensioned . - ... 2 
 
 Holding a Jaghire 1 
 
 Residing on their estates deprived of authority 23 
 
 Managing their own estates 40 
 
 Expelled by force 6 
 
 In confinement 8 
 
 Total - 80 
 
 Having disposed of the question of the Poligars, 
 and explained the nature of the landed tenures in 
 the Tamil country, I shall renew the examination 
 of the landed tenures in other parts of the Madras 
 territory. 
 
 Baramahl. — In the occupation of Baramahl 
 and Dindigul, in 1793, from the government of 
 Tippoo, a new system appears to have been intro- 
 duced. The continuation of these territories under 
 Mahomedan sway had, in a great degree, swept 
 away many traces of private landed property ; and 
 the favourite maxim of the proprietary right of the
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. W& 
 
 crown was asserted by Tippoo, and in a great 
 measure even admitted, by those unhappy people 
 who had been compelled to feel its reality. Al- 
 though the real right in the soil had been virtually 
 destroyed by over-assessment, the constitution of 
 villages and districts still existed. The contest 
 between the government to exact the greatest pos- 
 sible amount of revenue, and of the inhabitants 
 to deceive the public officers, had produced such 
 a system of chicane, that no satisfactory conclusion 
 could be drawn from the records of the resources 
 of the country. The officer appointed to assume 
 charge of Baramahl was Captain, subsequently 
 Colonel Read, to whom were attached as assistants 
 Captains Munro, Graham, and Macleod, and Mr. 
 Hurdis of the civil service. Colonel Read, from 
 his acquaintance with the language and literature 
 of the Mahomedans, derived all his notions of 
 finance and the institutions of the country from 
 that people. He was a disciple of the creed, that 
 the sovereign has an indisputable proprietary right 
 in the land ; and he conceived that the real re- 
 sources of the province could only be ascertained 
 by a survey and assessment like that attempted by 
 Akbur, but which, I have already stated, failed in 
 practice. The cause of this failure is ascribed by 
 Abul Fazel to the difficulty of assessing according 
 to the varieties of the crop ; and, accordingly, 
 Akbur is represented as assessing whole villages 
 in a sum of money, equivalent to the actual receipts 
 for the preceding ten or twenty years. 
 
 s 2
 
 260 land-tax in madras. 
 
 It was on this principle Colonel Read commenced 
 a survey of the lands of the Baramahl, relying more 
 on his own exertions, and those of his European 
 assistants, than on the local officers. The district 
 officers (those cherished remains of the ancient 
 governments, to whom the whole proprietary right 
 in the soil had been consigned by Lord Corn- 
 wallis,) were by Colonel Read entirely removed 
 from all employment, and the same principle which 
 dispensed with their services was extended to the 
 resumption of their hereditary lands and fees. 
 
 In making the assessments for whole villages, an 
 average of the recorded collections for the last ten 
 years was taken ; and that sum, distributed over the 
 aggregate lands in cultivation, gave an average for 
 each field. These were now classed into good, 
 middling, and indifferent, according to the nature 
 of the soil ; and the rates proportionably varied. 
 As under the native government, the assessment 
 was supposed to be about fifty per cent, of the 
 gross produce; its amount was regulated accord- 
 ing to the land actually cultivated, and the nature 
 of the crop. It became, therefore, the object of 
 the villagers to record as small a portion of land 
 occupied as possible, and to conceal a large part 
 of that actually in possession. Thus the amount 
 paid would always seem to bear a much larger 
 proportion to the cultivation than was in reality the 
 case. The estimated assessment of Colonel Read 
 was therefore erroneous from the beorinnins. When 
 those lands found in occupation, and not recorded,
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. l 26l 
 
 were discovered, they were triumphantly exhibited 
 as concealed lands, and they afforded an argu- 
 ment for the utility and advantage of the survey. 
 These were nearly assessed at the same rate as 
 the other lands ; and we are not, therefore, sur- 
 prised to find the surveyors themselves confessing, 
 that the assessments were upon the whole too heavy; 
 and when the total amount of fields was added to- 
 gether, it greatly exceeded the proposed aggregate. 
 The rates were accordingly reduced from fifty to 
 about forty-five per cent, of the gross produce*, 
 which was fixed as the maximum demand on each 
 cultivator. Although the right of the cultivator 
 to the same field annually was expressly denied by 
 Colonel Read, yet it was thought by him politic to 
 constitute the cultivators perpetual tenants, as long 
 as they paid the government dues. The survey was 
 no sooner completed by the subcollectors, each of 
 whom conducted that of his own district, than it was 
 found the rates differed materially in each division. 
 Many cultivators were compelled to quit their lands, 
 and a clumsy expedient of re-assessment every 
 year, by making such remissions from the standard 
 rates as were deemed necessary, was had recourse 
 to in order to remedy inequalities which never 
 could be prevented. Among other evils of this 
 system, one of the most serious appears to me the 
 effect it had in breaking up the village communities 
 or constitutions, and of granting to under tenants 
 those especial rights which belonged peculiarly to 
 
 * Appendix to 5th Report, p. 294. 
 S >
 
 262 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 one class of the commonalty; but of this I shall 
 speak more fully hereafter. This separate division 
 of the common interest received the appellation of 
 Ryotwar, because the settlement was made annually, 
 not with the whole village, which formerly assessed 
 itself, but by levying the tax from each ryot or 
 cultivator through a government officer. A system 
 that, on the first blush, bears the semblance of such 
 even-handed justice, by fixing the amount pay- 
 able by each cultivator, and which produced a great 
 increase of revenue from what appeared to be con- 
 cealed land, received the highest approbation from 
 the government abroad, and the authorities at home. 
 
 Mr. Hurdis, one of the assistants of Colonel 
 Read, was sent into Dindigul to carry the same 
 measure into effect. On making the surveys in this 
 province*, and subsequently in Coimbetoref, it was 
 found the usual assessments had been limited to 
 one sixth of the crop, and in many instances did 
 not actually exceed nine and ten per cent, before 
 the invasion of the Hyder. The Court of Directors 
 at a subsequent period, in expressing their appro- 
 bation of the meritorious services of the officers 
 employed to make these investigations, observe, 
 " that the system is perhaps better adapted for 
 ascertaining the resources of a new country than 
 for continued practice." 
 
 Meanwhile the arrival of the Marquess Wellesley 
 
 * Vide Mr. Hurdis's Report, 16th Feb. 1803. Appendix, 
 5th Report, p. 754. et seq. 
 
 t Appendix, 5th Report. See Mr. Hodgson's Report on 
 Coimbetore.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 263 
 
 at Madras, in 1799, brought with it positive orders 
 to introduce throughout the Madras establishment 
 the system adopted by the Marquess Cornwallis, in 
 1793, in Bengal ; and such was the determination of 
 the Governor-General to have his orders carried 
 into effect, that he proclaimed his resolution to re- 
 move from his office any public servant who evinced 
 a want of zeal in fulfilling the intentions of his 
 government. 
 
 The plan of the Marquess Cornwallis had already 
 undergone some modifications. The police was in 
 future to be left to the management of the new 
 Zemindars; and instead of farming the land revenue 
 in such large portions as in Bengal, the regulations 
 required the districts not to exceed an annual 
 rent of 10,000 pagodas, or 4000/. The experience 
 of several years had enabled the government to 
 judge tolerably well what each district could yield, 
 and such information ought to have regulated the 
 amount of the sales ; but the desire of obtaining 
 the largest possible land revenue prevented atten- 
 tion to this circumstance. Adventurous specula- 
 tors, many of them wholly unacquainted with 
 agricultural concerns, engaged in a scheme which 
 promised such permanent advantages. The pur- 
 chasers were required not to eject the tenants, then 
 occupants of the land, from whom they were re- 
 stricted from taking more than the survey rates ; 
 but they were to have the full advantage of all 
 rents to be derived from extra cultivation, and to 
 enjoy their estates for ever. 
 
 s 4
 
 264< LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 In pursuance of this decree, in the years 1803-4-5, 
 the Baramahl was subdivided into two hundred 
 and twenty-eight, and subsequently the province 
 of Dindigul into thirty-five, revenue farms, and 
 sold to the highest bidders. The numerous bank- 
 ruptcies which occurred proved there was some- 
 thing wrong in the system ; for of the thirty-five 
 permanent estates sold, in 1805, in Dindigul no 
 fewer than twenty-nine of the proprietors failed 
 in the second year, after having pillaged the 
 villages that had been placed at their mercy ; and 
 the farming system again gave way to the more 
 detailed one styled Ryotwar. Surveys were now 
 ordered to be every where introduced, and the 
 rates to be fixed. In this last measure no prac- 
 tical certainty could be ensured ; and as forty-five 
 per cent, of the estimated gross produce was more or 
 less the rule adopted, especially in the districts 
 ceded by the Nizam, great annual remissions from 
 that standard were necessary, but in no cases 
 were they to be allowed where absolute poverty 
 did not prevent the full payment. 
 
 The equal rights which the ryotwar system 
 conferred alike on all the cultivating classes, could 
 only be extended to those countries where the 
 real landlords had been annihilated by the Maho- 
 medan system ; but even where those rights were 
 lost it seems that the agricultural communities of 
 villages had not been entirely destroyed. Colonel 
 Thomas Munro, who from being an assistant under 
 Colonel Read became the strenuous supporter of
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 265 
 
 his system, seems to me to describe them in the 
 following sentence : — " *In all villages the ryots 
 (landholders) are in the habit of meeting and de- 
 bating upon the subject of rent, but there are 
 many villages in which they settle among them- 
 selves the exact proportion of the whole rent that 
 each individual has to pay : these are called Vees- 
 puddy, or sixteenth villages, from the land and 
 rent being divided into sixteenths ; and they com- 
 pose a considerable part of the Cuddapah province, 
 which is about one third of the ceded districts ; 
 besides being scattered, though more thinly, over 
 other parts of the country." When the " season 
 of cultivation draws near, all the ryots of the Vees- 
 puddy villages assemble to regulate their several 
 rents for the year ; the Pagoda is the place usually 
 chosen for this purpose, from the idea that its 
 sanctity will render their engagements with each 
 other more binding. They ascertain the amount 
 of the agricultural stock of each individual and of 
 the whole body, the quantity of land to the culture 
 of which it is adequate, and they divide it accor- 
 dingly, giving to each man the portion which he 
 has the means of cultivating, and fixing his share 
 of the rent; and, whether his share be one or two 
 sixteenths, he pays this proportion, whether the 
 whole rent of the village be higher or lower." 
 
 He goes on to observe, " So that every village 
 is in fact a small collectorate, or, more properly 
 
 * Appendix, 5th Report, p. 74<5. Letter from the Principal 
 Collector of the Ceded Districts, 30th Nov. 1806.
 
 2C6 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 speaking, a small corporation or community of 
 cultivators, with its own laws and usages." Colonel 
 Munro, however, who had now derived fourteen 
 years' experience as a collector, conceived that this 
 republic, corporation, or community of agriculture, 
 with its own laws and usages, had no proprietary 
 rights in the land. He does not explain what the 
 rights were for which they had especial laws and 
 usages, but he very broadly pronounces what they 
 were not. " In the ceded districts, and through- 
 out the Deccan, the ryot has little or no proprie- 
 tary right: he does not even claim it.* He is so 
 far from asserting either a proprietary or possessory 
 right, that he is always ready to relinquish his 
 land, and to take some other which he supposes 
 is lighter assessed. All land is supposed to revert 
 to government at the end of every year, to be 
 distributed as it may think proper."t Whatever 
 had been the practice, according to Colonel 
 Munro's statement, in the village corporation, 
 which formed so large a portion of his district, he 
 fancied that it was more advantageous to the 
 people, and to the government, that assessments 
 should be made on each field through the agency 
 of stipendiary officers of government. As the 
 assessment was calculated at 45 per cent, of the 
 gross produce, and was probably in many instances 
 
 * This assertion was, to say the least of it, hasty, because, 
 when I come to treat of the Deccan, I shall show that the 
 ryots had positive proprietary right in their lands. 
 
 f Appendix, 5th Report. Col. Munro's Letter, 15th August 
 1807.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 267 
 
 a great deal more, there was no expectation of 
 realising the whole amount imposed. Every year, 
 after the crops were pretty far advanced, the 
 European collector and his native assistants were 
 required to go forth, and make what was termed 
 the settlement, — a new process, of which the fixed 
 assessment was only the extreme limit. Remission, 
 therefore, was necessary every where ; but the 
 amount to be remitted was left to the discretion 
 of the collector and his native servants. The 
 struggle was incessant between the opposite par- 
 ties : the collector to realise as large a revenue 
 as possible, the cultivator to obtain as large a 
 remission as possible. It was quite impracticable 
 for the collector to make the assessment, even of 
 three or four villages, in person during the season 
 with tolerable exactness ; the whole duty was left, 
 therefore, to the native public servants: and in order 
 to preserve their integrity, or to check their mal- 
 practices, the ingenious though expensive device 
 was adopted of having a double set of servants for 
 every department of the collector, by which it 
 was anticipated one party might be played off 
 against the other. In practice it is found, that as 
 long as the two parties are hostile to each other, 
 public business is impeded ; and when they coa- 
 lesce, they are as likely to become sharers in pe- 
 culations, and be corrupt, as if there had been 
 but one party. The surveys were extended to 
 Dindigul ; and the advantages of the Ryotwar 
 system were so loudly proclaimed, that it was
 
 268 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 carried into those parts where the Zemindary 
 system had not yet been introduced. 
 
 The success of Colonel Munro in the ceded 
 districts, in discovering the resources of the 
 country, added to the indefatigable zeal and talent 
 he brought to the duty, enabled him, by making 
 judicious remissions, and by great attention in 
 equalising the rates as much as possible, to increase 
 the land revenue, during six years, to nearly sixty 
 per cent, of that which it had yielded in the first 
 year of his management. A more convincing proof, 
 however, of over-assessment could hardly have been 
 exhibited than the confession of Colonel Munro 
 himself, after an experience of seven years of his 
 own labours, that, in order to maintain the present 
 cultivation, it would be requisite to lower the rates 
 considerably. At the same time, the Ryotwar 
 settlement was recommended by Colonel Munro to 
 be rendered permanent. To effect* this, it was 
 required " that the government should remit 25 
 per cent, of the present rates on all lands, but 
 more on lands watered by machinery ; that each 
 cultivator should be declared proprietor of his fields 
 as long as he continued to pay the revenue ; that no 
 remissions forbad crops should hereafter be allowed; 
 and that in case of an individual not having the 
 means of paying his rent, the same should be levied 
 on the other cultivators, provided the defalcation 
 did not exceed 10 per cent, of the whole assessment 
 of the village." The waste land was reserved to 
 * Appendix, 5th Report, p. 899.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. Q69 
 
 be let out by government, and the land-tax of such 
 as might hereafter become occupied was recom- 
 mended to be carried to the public account. Thus 
 it was shown, that while any other permanent 
 arrangement, by villages or districts, necessarily 
 involved a limit to the demand of the state, the 
 present scheme held forth the expectation of a con- 
 stantly augmenting land revenue. Under the 
 system proposed, Colonel Munro anticipated that 
 the population and cultivation would increase so 
 rapidly, that in twenty-five years lands formerly 
 cultivated, whose tax would amount to 555,962 
 pagodas, or about 30 per cent, in addition to the 
 present revenue, would be brought under the 
 plough.* The Board of Revenue remarks on this 
 plan: — " If the exigencies of government allowed 
 of so great a sacrifice, as a remission on the present 
 standard rents to the extent of 25 per cent., or 
 even 15 per cent., we should consider the measure 
 highly advisable, and calculated to produce great 
 ulterior advantages. Indeed, it would be absurd 
 to dispute that the less we take from the cultivator 
 of the produce of his labour, the more flourishing 
 must be his condition." But the Board objected 
 to a continuation of the Ryotwar system, and recom- 
 mended that denominated Mozawar, or settlement 
 by villages, in these terms : — " t The village Moza- 
 
 * The remission of twenty-five per cent, of the land revenue 
 was not made, and the revenue of the ceded districts, twenty 
 years after, was less than when Col. Munro wrote this letter. 
 
 f Report of the Board of Revenue, 25th April 1808.
 
 270 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 war system is, at least, as old as the age of Menu : 
 that venerable legislator alludes to the disputes 
 about village boundaries, just as they occur at 
 present. While the village remains entire, the 
 community cares not to whom it is transferred ; on 
 whomsoever it devolves, the internal management 
 remains unaltered : the head inhabitant is still the 
 collector and magistrate." 
 
 " From the age of Menu to the present day, the 
 settlements have been made either with or through 
 the head inhabitants. The influence of the head 
 inhabitant among the people is much greater than 
 that of a Zemindar or Poligar ; and, when he is not 
 over assessed, he will always exert that influence 
 in favour of government, for he is properly one of 
 its officers, and feels that he is of more consequence, 
 and is more secure in the enjoyment of his rights 
 under it than under a Zemindar." 
 
 " The amount payable by each village should be 
 fixed on the average collections of former years, 
 except in those districts where the survey has been 
 completed, and can be depended on. In such dis- 
 tricts the revenue should be fixed with a reference 
 to the payments under the survey rent." 
 
 " The advantage to be expected is facility of 
 collection ; moreover it is adapted to the customs 
 of the country, and the constitution of villages. 
 The sum to be paid is fixed ; the head inhabitant 
 is the renter ; and the corporation of the village 
 are left to settle among themselves the land and 
 the rent, which they are respectively to occupy and
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 271 
 
 pay." From what has before appeared, and from 
 this extract, it seems, that Colonel Munro's opinion 
 as to the advantage of settling with individuals is 
 directly opposed to that of the Board of Revenue. 
 In consequence of this report, the Madras govern- 
 ment resolved to make trial of the Mozawar or 
 village settlement for three years, and the Board 
 of Revenue was directed to carry the measure into 
 effect. 
 
 The plan, however, in a great measure failed. 
 In many parts the head inhabitants, conceiving the 
 assessment excessive, and rinding themselves obliged 
 to ask for remissions annually, refused to rent their 
 villages. Speculators then came forward, and 
 outbid each other, so that the villages were rented 
 at a sum beyond what they could yield, and the 
 contractors failed. The seasons, also, for two out 
 of the three years being unfavourable, rendered the 
 failure more complete. But the greatest error of 
 all was to permit the renters to exercise their dis- 
 cretion in making remissions on the survey rates, 
 which the framer of them himself had declared 
 ought to be lowered at least 25 per cent. Before 
 the three years had elapsed, and the evils of the 
 plan had become apparent, so pleased was the local 
 government with its success, that it resolved to 
 make a second settlement for ten years, and to pro- 
 mise, if the measure were approved by the Court 
 of Directors, that it, like that of Bengal, should 
 be rendered permanent. The evils of the Bengal 
 permanent settlement had by this time become
 
 272 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 apparent to the authorities at home; the extortions of 
 the Zemindars, and the frequent sales of estates, had 
 produced a strong feeling against the system; and 
 with the opinion, that as the land was the only 
 source from whence a revenue in India could be 
 derived, it was deemed highly imprudent to limit 
 the demands of the government, in order to throw 
 wealth into the hands of a few individuals. More- 
 over, it was argued that a heavy loss had been 
 actually sustained already, by the haste incurred in 
 1793, since it appeared that vast tracts of land then 
 waste were now cultivated, which paid no revenue : 
 whereas, had they been contributing ever so little, 
 according to the ryotwar plan, they might have 
 been adding so much to the present resources. 
 An argument so strong, and so specious, though, 
 I conceive, founded on a false basis, could not but 
 have much weight with those persons who were 
 convinced of its truth. It appeared, also, that the 
 triennial village settlement had not succeeded 
 better than the Zemindary project of 1803. The 
 renters were for the most part ruined, and the in- 
 habitants groaned under their exactions. It is due, 
 however, to the question, to remark, that the 
 causes of these failures did not originate in the 
 renting system so much as in the assessment. In 
 Bengal, the pernicious effects of the permanent 
 settlement were felt, by the government being 
 unable to define the rights of the cultivators occu- 
 pying the land, or to fix the rates they were to 
 pay. In Madras, the rights of occupancy had
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 273 
 
 been guaranteed ; the rates also had been fixed, 
 but avowedly too high. To make over the culti- 
 vators, therefore, with these fixed rates, to the 
 mercy of revenue contractors, was in fact to an- 
 ticipate the ruin of both parties. The Court 
 of Directors disapproved the projected scheme 
 of the decennial settlement, in these words : — 
 " * They (the Board of Revenue) admit that the 
 triennial lease settlement had failed : that the rate 
 at which that settlement had been formed was too 
 high ; that two of the three years during which 
 it was in operation had been unfavourable, one 
 of them having been a season of extraordinary 
 drought ; that the stock and subsistence of the 
 ryots had continued to be in a state of declension 
 under our government, from the too heavy pressure 
 of the public assessment upon the land ; that the 
 season of the present year threatened to be unfa- 
 vourable ; and that the poverty of the ryots would 
 in many instances disqualify them from becoming 
 the renters of their villages." The Court, there- 
 fore, resolved not to enter into such permanent 
 engagements as should involve them in any risk 
 of losing all future advantages from extended cul- 
 tivation. They accordingly directed, that the 
 settlements should in future be made, not through 
 the agency of revenue contractors, but direct with 
 the cultivators of the soil. Before this letter reached 
 India, the decennial settlements had already been 
 
 * Revenue Letter to Fort St. George, 16th Dec. 1812. 
 
 T
 
 T t ± LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 concluded with revenue contractors in the ceded 
 districts and in Dindigul. The evil consequences in 
 the former is thus adverted to in the Court's letter 
 of 1814 : — "* The engagements entered into by the 
 renters of Bellary, under the fear of losing their 
 enaums (rent-free lands) and the hereditary ma- 
 nagement of their villages, are represented, both by 
 the collector and the Board of Revenue, to have 
 been in many instances more favourable to the 
 Sircar (government) than they were able to fulfil, 
 in reference to the state of cultivation, and to the 
 means of the ryots; whilst a latitude was left to 
 the renters under the lease of exacting the full 
 survey rent from their under tenants." The col- 
 lector of Bellary thus expresses himself on the 
 subject : — " I have already found emigration to 
 take place in some places since the establishment 
 of the lease, but more particularly amongst the 
 substantial ryots." Again, " There is a decrease 
 of four thousand three hundred and thirteen inha- 
 bitants, arising partly from death, but chiefly from 
 emigration to Mysore." On these extracts the Court 
 of Directors make the following observations : — 
 " We are certainly willing to admit, that the 
 sudden and injudicious increase of assessment in 
 Fusly 1218 (A. D. 1808), may have impaired the 
 future resources of these districts ; a consequence 
 which must always follow from over-assessment, 
 under any plan of administration that may be 
 
 * Letter to Fort St. George, 6th June 1814.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 2J5 
 
 resorted to. We know, however, from the expe- 
 rience of eight years, that it was practicable under 
 a ryot war settlement to effect a progressive aug- 
 mentation of the revenues of those territories, 
 to the extent of above three lacs of pagodas 
 (120,000/.), without retarding their advance in 
 improvement, or repressing the industry of the 
 population ; and we know also from experience, 
 that under the renting system the revenue has 
 been diminished in amount, its collection has been 
 impeded, and numbers of cultivators have been 
 driven to seek refuge from oppression upon a 
 foreign soil.' 5 
 
 The Court's letter having arrived too late to 
 prevent the decennial settlement being made in 
 some districts, it was thought advisable, for the 
 sake of uniformity, to extend it to the rest of the 
 provinces of the Madras establishment. 
 
 The following appears to be the present actual 
 condition of the several descriptions of settlements 
 now prevalent in Madras. In the northern Cir- 
 cars, in which are included the districts of Ganjam, 
 Vizagapatam, Rajahmundry, Masulipatam, and 
 Guntoor, as well as in the districts of Salem (Bara- 
 mahl), Chingleput, Cuddalore, and the western, 
 southern, and Chittoor Pollams, the settlement de- 
 nominated Zemindary prevails ; by which it is to 
 be understood, that those several tracts of country, 
 being subdivided into portions of unequal size, are 
 granted for ever to the Zemindars or chiefs, who 
 are entitled to all the land revenue they can derive 
 
 t 2
 
 2f6 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 beyond the stipulated amount. In all the rest of 
 the Madras provinces (since the termination of the 
 decennial village leases), the revenue is derived 
 direct from each husbandman, by a subordinate 
 government officer, under the European collector, 
 on the system denominated Ryotwar. 
 
 Malabar. — The remainder of the Madras pro- 
 vinces consists of Malabar and Canara. In the Hin- 
 doo chapter I have already described the ancient 
 feudal system which existed in Malabar. The 
 country was in the hands of a race of Rajas, or 
 military leaders, and their retainers or knights, 
 under the denomination of Nayrs, who held in 
 subjection the Teers, and other description of 
 labourers, the ancient inhabitants of the country. 
 Instead of the districts or departments in Malabar 
 being assessed at so many thousand pagodas, it 
 was rated at so many men. When called to the field, 
 each soldier received a certain sum per diem, to 
 provide him with rations. At the peace of 1792, 
 the province of Malabar was ceded to the British 
 goverment by Tippoo Sultan. This territory had 
 been first invaded by the Mahomedans under Hy- 
 der Ally, only thirty-four years anterior to its cession 
 to us by his son Tippoo. Its invasion was invited 
 in the first place by the Palghaut Raja, to enable 
 him to repel the attack of the Zamorin, or king of 
 Malabar, whose rage for conquest eventually led 
 to his own overthrow. It may be imagined the 
 landlords of Malabar did not yield readily to the 
 foreign yoke, especially when it was coupled with
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 277 
 
 the knowledge of the Mahomedan practice of exact- 
 ing from the landholder all he could possibly give. 
 The contest was long and desperate, but the tre- 
 mendous power of the Mysoor government at 
 length succeeded in establishing its authority, 
 though not before most of the ancient landed pro- 
 prietors were either slain or expelled. In the year 
 1783, Arshed Beg Khan was nominated governor 
 of Malabar on the part of Kyder, and his adminis- 
 tration appears to have been the most lenient and 
 equitable of any of his predecessors. The princi- 
 ples of his assessment are said to have been as 
 follows : — 
 
 To the cultivator - - - 5\ tenths. 
 
 To the proprietor - - - 1 J tenths. 
 
 To the government - - 3 tenths. 
 
 When the province was transferred to us the 
 original Hindoo proprietors had almost all aban- 
 doned it. Shortly after the cession, a committee, 
 consisting of two Bengal and two Bombay ser- 
 vants, were deputed to make a settlement of the 
 country ; and their valuable Report, consisting of 
 several volumes, dated 11th October 1793, fur- 
 nishes the most ample account of their proceedings. 
 In this province, where the landholders main- 
 tained that they were not only the proprietors of 
 their estates, but that under their native princes 
 they had never paid a land-tax at all, the doc- 
 trine of the proprietary right to the land, and a 
 claim to half the produce assumed by us in other 
 places, were not likely to be acceptable. The 
 
 t 3
 
 278 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 Bengal commissioners brought with them their 
 ideas from that quarter where the most extravagant 
 notions of the privileges of the state had been pro- 
 mulgated : but they found that, in Malabar at 
 least, no such claims could be enforced. The 
 Commissioners therefore proposed to regulate the 
 future demand by the assessment of Arshed Beg 
 Khan. 
 
 Our first settlement, or rather realisation of re- 
 venue, fell short of that amount about twenty-five 
 per cent. ; and an attempt to raise the rates 
 caused an open rebellion, which lasted for some 
 years, and cost a heavy expenditure of lives and 
 money. 
 
 In 1800, the province was transferred from the 
 Bombay to the Madras government, and its man- 
 agement was made over to a distinguished ryot- 
 war collector, formerly assistant of Colonel Read. 
 One of the earliest of his measures was a 
 survey and assessment : this led to urgent com- 
 plaints, which were unattended to and ended in 
 another more furious rebellion than the former; on 
 which the collector, relinquishing his situation, re- 
 tired from the country. The rebellion was at 
 length suppressed, more by conciliation than coer- 
 cion, and the result was the recognition on the 
 part of government of the proprietary right of the 
 landholders to their estates. Peace and confidence 
 being restored, all the chief Brahmins and landed 
 proprietors were invited to assemble at the collec- 
 tor's office, where, having selected a committee
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 279 
 
 from among themselves, the constituents left their 
 interests in the hands of their representatives, who 
 were empowered to arrange matters for the future 
 administration of the province. On this occasion 
 the landholders agreed, after allowing fifty per 
 cent, of the produce to the cultivator, to pay to 
 government a sum of money estimated at twenty 
 per cent, of the gross produce, themselves retaining 
 thirty per cent, as rent. As this sum was payable 
 in money, the inequality has since become very 
 great, both on account of the variable nature of 
 land, and because the original assessment was too 
 heavy, and almost in all cases erroneous, but the 
 country has been tranquil. 
 
 The nature of the landed tenure is thus de- 
 scribed : — " *The exclusive right and usufruct of 
 the soil in Malabar is denominated Jenum, or 
 birthright, and it belonged originally partly to 
 the Namboories, a race of Brahmins peculiar to 
 that coast, and to the Nayrs, a military tribe. In 
 latter times the Moplas also (descended from the 
 Arabian colonies that emigrated and settled in that 
 country in the early period of Mahomedan history) 
 have become possessed of a considerable share of 
 the Jenum property. The fact of these lands 
 being held free of tax to the state is very re- 
 markable ; but though the circumstance is without 
 parallel, still the evidence is so strong in its favour 
 that it is difficult not to believe it." 
 
 The proprietary right of these landholders was 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 T <t
 
 280 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 thus more complete than is any where else to be 
 found. It can easily be believed that among 
 these proprietors, such as the rajas or chiefs, the 
 Namboory Brahmins, and even theMopla merchants, 
 few superintended the culture of their own lands. 
 They were rented on limited leases to a class of 
 tenants denominated Patomkars. The Jenumkar, 
 or hereditary proprietor, when in pecuniary dis- 
 tress, seldom sold his birthright : he generally 
 borrowed money on the security of his land, 
 which he pledged to his creditor for the liqui- 
 dation of the debt; and, by a series of deeds 
 well known in Malabar, he could gradually raise 
 nearly the full price of his estate, in the shape 
 of a loan on this kind of mortgage. The debt 
 thus incurred was considered fastened to the 
 soil, which, with this encumbrance, might be 
 transferred by the Jenumkar to others ; but the 
 debt, until liquidated, could never be separated 
 from the land. 
 
 The mortgagee, however, had no power over the 
 estate as long as the interest was paid. In failure 
 of payment, the mortgagee was immediately en- 
 titled to possession, and might then rent the estate 
 to new tenants, but he was bound to account to the 
 proprietor for all part of the landlord's rent be- 
 yond the amount of the interest of the debt. If 
 the landlord's necessities induced him to continue 
 borrowing money of his creditor, till the interest 
 amounted to the whole of the landlord's rent, the 
 mortgagee then held the entire estate in posses-
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 281 
 
 sion ; but he could not sell it, though he might 
 sell his mortgage. The landlord never lost the 
 power of reclaiming his property by paying the 
 principal of the debt, and always was entitled to 
 some recognition of his ownership, even if it were 
 only given in the shape of a sheaf of corn, or a 
 pound or two of butter. There was another peculi- 
 arity in the Malabar mortgages that must not be 
 omitted, which is the principle which they contained 
 of self-redemption. On the death of the owner of 
 mortgaged lands, it was usual for the heir to fur- 
 nish a new instrument, recognising the act of his 
 predecessor, and on this occasion he was entitled 
 to deduct thirteen per cent, of the principal of the 
 debt ; so that, in a few generations, the lands would 
 revert to the ancient family proprietors. This prac- 
 tice, however, has not been recognised by our 
 courts of justice, owing to its not having been 
 always insisted on, and in consequence of its form- 
 ing no part of the written engagements of the 
 parties. 
 
 The number of private estates in Malabar are 
 stated to amount to 44,378*, but few of the origi- 
 nal proprietors still retain possession of them. 
 They have passed into the hands of tenants or 
 mortgagees. Many of those proprietors who fled 
 from the oppression of the Mahomedan govern- 
 ment, and since from under our authority, reside 
 in Travancore and other parts, and receive from 
 
 * Mr. Warden's Letters to Madras Government, dated 20th 
 April and 21st Sept. 1815.
 
 282 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 the present possessors, annually, a portion of the 
 produce. There is no instance, however, of their 
 selling their estates. 
 
 The assessment that had been fixed after the 
 second rebellion in Malabar was founded on the 
 survey and assessment of 1800, which was confess- 
 edly erroneous ; and became so unequal in a few 
 years, that the landed proprietors, and the popu- 
 lation in general, complained loudly of the griev- 
 ous weight of taxation under which the country 
 laboured. It is stated * there was a great deal of 
 poverty " throughout Malabar ; and the general cry 
 was for a repeal or modification of the salt and 
 tobacco monopolies, and a new and more equal 
 assessment of the land." The Madras Board of 
 Revenue! repeats the same sentiments. It observes, 
 that " in the opinion of Mr. Baber (the judge), 
 the most grievous source of complaint was 
 the inequality of the land-tax, which is repre- 
 sented to be so great that some are not taxed at 
 all, and that the inequality varies from twenty to 
 one hundred per cent. ; that, in consequence, not 
 one man in ten knows what he has to pay on 
 each separate estate." 
 
 Many complaints of a similar nature were re- 
 peatedly pressed upon the notice of government, 
 without its having adopted any decided measures. 
 
 * Letter of the Judge and Magistrate of Wynand, 12th May 
 1812. 
 
 f Minute of the Madras Board of Revenue, 30th June 1812.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 283 
 
 Colonel Munro, who had been the principal agent 
 in suppressing the last rebellion, and in making 
 the last settlement with the landholders, was de- 
 puted to visit and report on the condition of the 
 province in 1817-* 
 
 So attached was this distinguished person to 
 the theory of making the land-tax the principal 
 source of revenue, that although there ought, I 
 think, to be little doubt of the fact that no land- 
 tax had been formerly paid to the kings of Ma- 
 labar, yet, as it is fully authenticated that the 
 prince maintained a considerable military retinue, 
 Colonel Munro says, " His expenses f must have 
 been great, and he must have had a large re- 
 venue, drawn, if not from the land, from some 
 other sources. Though denied by the landholders 
 in general, it is asserted by some, that besides his 
 ordinary sources of revenue, the rajah levied in 
 money or kind a land-tax from all lands, excepting 
 those of Brahmins and Pagodas, equal to about 
 one fifth of the produce." Again : "There is 
 reason to believe, that if this tax was not regu- 
 larly collected every year, contributions were occa- 
 sionally imposed upon the landholders to at least 
 an equal amount : but, even independent of such 
 contributions, the revenue from other sources was 
 ample, and must have pressed as much upon the 
 inhabitants as the revenues of Canara, including 
 the land-rent, did upon the inhabitants of that pro- 
 
 * Col. Thomas Munro's Report, 4th July 1817. 
 f Report on Malabar, 4th July 1817.
 
 284< LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 vince, and must have been productive of more indi- 
 vidual oppression in its realisation." The fact of 
 the landholders of Malabar being exempt from 
 a land-tax has been so generally admitted, that 
 one is really surprised to hear it now maintained 
 that the reverse is true. That the rajas, in cases 
 of war or any great exigencies, received, in the 
 shape of benevolences or contributions, occasion- 
 ally supplies from their feudal landed chiefs, seems 
 very probable ; and therefore some confirmation 
 is given to the notion that the landholders some- 
 times paid contributions : but the writer himself 
 states, that " # the revenue from other means 
 was ample, and consequently, he concludes, must 
 have pressed as much upon the inhabitants as the 
 revenues did in Canara, including the land-tax, 
 and must have been productive of more individual 
 oppression in its realisation." The conclusion to 
 be drawn from this sentence fairly implies, that, 
 because an ample revenue was derived from other 
 sources than the land, therefore the taxation must 
 have been productive of more individual oppression 
 in its realisation. 
 
 The author of the report proceeds to the de- 
 scription of the local institutions of Malabar, which 
 differ in no very material respect from other 
 countries in India. " The village, in Malabar, is 
 called Desim. The headman was called Desway, 
 or Jelmiwar, according as he enjoyed the whole 
 or only part of the rights which were supposed 
 * Revenue Selections, vol. i. p. 839.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. l 2Ho 
 
 necessary to the constituting the complete chief of 
 the Desim. These rights were as follows : — 
 
 1. The Ambulpuddi, or the direction of the 
 religious ceremonies of the village pagoda. 
 
 2. The Ooraimah, or the management of the 
 pagoda lands and servants. 
 
 3. The Desimi, or the control of marriages and 
 all village ceremonies, none of which could be per- 
 formed without his leave. 
 
 4. Disadeput, or the general superintendence of 
 all affairs of the Desim, or village." 
 
 When the whole of these functions were united 
 in one person, the chief was termed Desway : when 
 he only exercised the two latter, he was simply 
 termed Jelmiwar. 
 
 " These rights, together with the landed pro- 
 perty of the village, were first obtained from the 
 Namboory Brahmins, who were the original pro- 
 prietors of the whole country ; and they are so 
 highly prized, that the owners can hardly ever be 
 brought to sell them, because, while they retain 
 any part of them, they retain their influence and 
 respect as chiefs of villages." The Desways were 
 the sole proprietors of villages, but the law of equal 
 inheritance has broken up the land into small 
 portions, composing a community. The head of 
 the family officiates as Desway. " * He had the 
 direction of all the affairs of the village, all orders 
 regarding which were sent to him. He was the 
 civil magistrate in time of peace, but always 
 
 * Revenue Selections, vol. i. p. 810.
 
 C 2 8G LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 headed the village quota in time of war. He was 
 the head of the village police, and superintended 
 the decision of village disputes. In police and 
 judicial matters, he was aided by two or three 
 respectable inhabitants, who were called Pra- 
 manis*," literally, confidential men. 
 
 " 10. There were usually from one to five or 
 six Pramanis to a Desim, or village, but in some 
 villages nonet: they were of all the superior 
 castes. Any respectable man in the village, who 
 was considered as more intelligent than his neigh- 
 bours, and who was on that account resorted to 
 by the inhabitants for the adjustment of their little 
 differences, gradually acquired among them the 
 title of Pramani. The Desway, in addition to his 
 income from the land, received some small fees 
 from the several tradesmen of the town once a 
 year. There was no town clerk, because, as there 
 was no land-tax paid either in money or kind, no 
 public accounts were necessary to be kept for the 
 government, and the Desways kept their own. 
 
 " 15. The office t next above the Desway, and 
 placed between him and the Raja, or Naurwalli, 
 was the Naurwai, or the chief of the Naur, or dis- 
 trict. He was a kind of district Desway, and 
 claimed to hold his office by a tenure as ancient 
 
 * This is the same word as is used in Rungpore, in a remote 
 part of Bengal, for the same office. 
 
 f A sort of village council, like the court of aldermen or 
 council in Europe, and the Chotia court in Rajpoothana. 
 
 J Revenue Selections, vol. i. p. 840. 

 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 287 
 
 as that of any of the present rajas, and to have 
 derived it from the Namboory Brahmins, or from 
 the same former conqueror from whom they derived 
 their rights.* He was sometimes the Desway of 
 every village in his district, and sometimes of only 
 one or two, the rest being held by separate Des- 
 ways, or by the raja as part of his domains. 
 
 " He was the chief police and judicial officer of 
 the district ; and in those capacities he had a share 
 of all confiscations of the property of offenders, and 
 of the fees of all the suits brought before him." 
 
 " 17. The Naurvvai collected the ordinary and 
 extra revenue ; and in this duty he was assisted by 
 one, two, or more accountants, called Putwallisf, 
 according to the extent of the district : this office 
 was, like that of the Naurwai, hereditary, and was 
 coeval with it." 
 
 " The Naurwai was the civil magistrate in time 
 of peace ; but in time of war he led the local 
 troops into the field, who marched under their 
 respective Desways. Once in two or three years, 
 each of the Naurwais was accustomed to attend, 
 with their district quotas, at the court of the Raja 
 of his principality ; and there they were in the 
 habit of displaying sham fights, which seldom 
 terminated without the loss of a few lives. These 
 combats, it is said, were instituted with the view of 
 keeping up the martial spirit of the Nairs (the local 
 
 * The Desway seems to be the Gram-Adikar, and the Naurwai, 
 the Naty war, Des-Mook, or Des-Adikar of the Sastra. 
 •j- The Malabar pronunciation of Putwarry, or clerk.
 
 c ^88 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 troops). It may easily be conceived, that the 
 Naurwai, with such followers at his command, was 
 sometimes tempted to rebel : but even when re- 
 duced, though he was himself punished, his office 
 and estate were not coiifiscated, but went to his 
 heirs." * 
 
 " 19. The Raja, as has already been noticed, 
 besides his revenue from the customs, licences, and 
 other fluctuating sources, was the possessor of ex- 
 tensive domains (the fisc). Of some villages he 
 was the sole owner of the lands, and also of the 
 Desway rights ; of others, he was the proprietor of 
 part or of the whole of the lands, while the Desway 
 rights were still retained by the original landlord. 
 The revenues of the Raja's own villages were col- 
 lected by temporary officers, appointed by him. 
 All appeals from the decisions of Naurwais and 
 Desways (the county and village magistrates) were 
 decided by a court, or Punchayet, in his presence, 
 or in that of his minister." 
 
 " 20. The system of administration, of which an 
 outline has been given above, was that which pre- 
 vailed throughout Malabar, when that province was 
 invaded by Hyder Ally, in I766. But, as the 
 country could never be reduced to subjection while 
 it existed, it was destroyed, and another substi- 
 tuted in its room, resembling, as near as the cir- 
 
 * The sanctity of the estates of hereditary officers was, I be- 
 lieve, never infringed by any government but our own ; but from 
 the first year of our administration till the present day they 
 have been subject to resumption.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 289 
 
 cumstances of the country then permitted, that 
 which was established in the other provinces of his 
 dominions ; and though wars in other quarters 
 compelled him to leave some of the inferior Rajas 
 as his agents in the management of their territories, 
 what he left undone was completed by his son 
 Tippoo Sultan, who expelled them all." 
 
 This expulsion was effected by the introduction 
 of large bodies of troops into all parts of the 
 country, and by a continued war for many years, 
 during which most of the Naurwais and many of 
 the Desways lost their lives, either fighting at the 
 head of their troops, or by being put to death as 
 they were taken. Almost all prisoners of inferior 
 importance were carried out of the country, and 
 compelled to embrace the Mahomedan religion. 
 Among others, it is stated, that no fewer than thirty 
 thousand Nestorian Christians were led into capti- 
 vity, and either became proselytes or suffered death. 
 
 " Some of the Desways of minor consequence 
 still remained concealed in their own or other vil- 
 lages ; and as the authority of the Mysore govern- 
 ment became established, they were permitted to 
 reassume their functions and properties, but under 
 a new constitution. All military tenures were 
 abolished ; a regular land-rent, founded on in- 
 spection, not on actual survey, was imposed on the 
 country ; and the local officers, like those in other 
 parts of Mysore, removable at pleasure, were 
 placed in the room of the Naurwais, or hereditary 
 district chiefs. Independently of the Desways, a
 
 ( 29Q LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 certain number of the principal inhabitants were 
 selected by government to conduct the public 
 business, according to the size of villages, from 
 one to five or six in each. These received the 
 appellation of Mookyest (literally, head man). 
 The first duty of the Mookyest was to aid in re- 
 calling the Nairs (the yeomanry) to their lands, 
 and to withdraw them from their fugitive Rajas : 
 they assisted in forming the annual settlements, 
 and in estimating the produce both of the lands 
 and fruit trees, on which the survey assessment 
 was fixed. These officers were removable at 
 pleasure, though they usually held their office 
 through life : on the death of one of them, his 
 place was supplied either by a person out of his 
 own family, or of another. He had no concern, 
 however, in collecting the revenue ; this duty 
 belonged to a public officer, denominated Parputti, 
 under whom was a clerk, termed Menuca, whose 
 duties extended over one or more villages, accord- 
 ing to the size. " * 
 
 This description of officer is not unknown to the 
 native government, under the denomination of 
 Sheikdar; but in Malabar he has to perform most 
 of the duty of the Mocuddum, or Potel in other 
 parts, and that of the Desway in Malabar, because 
 the latter could not be trusted with civil authority, 
 which might be converted to a military purpose 
 against the state. This danger no longer subsists ; 
 and it is recommended by Colonel Munro, that the 
 
 * Revenue Selections : Col. Munro's Report, 4th July 1817.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. @Q$ 
 
 Naurwais and Putwallis, wherever they can be 
 found, may be reinstated in their offices, the former 
 as head of the district, and the latter as record 
 keeper; that the Desways be also reinstated in 
 their villages, and when the family has become 
 extinct, that the Mookyests take their places ; that 
 village accountants also be established on the same 
 footing as the same office in other parts of India. 
 
 "The land-owners," says Colonel Munro, "in- 
 stead of dwelling together in villages, reside on their 
 own estates, scattered at a distance from each other, 
 and often separated by hills and jungles. Their 
 houses and crops are guarded by their servants and 
 slaves. They have, indeed, little to fear ; for the 
 natives, being chiefly engaged in agriculture, are 
 little addicted to thieving, and strangers are so 
 different from them in language and appearance 
 that none can pass through the country without 
 being instantly known. The rents being fixed, and 
 in general moderate, are usually paid when called 
 for, so that it is not necessary to employ servants 
 to make repeated demands." * 
 
 In another part of the report it is stated, " The 
 assessment in Malabar is, in general, very mo- 
 derate, but were it lowered one half, failures would 
 still be frequent : they must always be expected 
 amongst such a body as 40,000 petty landholders, 
 a considerable share of whom are little above the 
 rank of common cultivators. Government receives 
 from them so great a portion of the produce of 
 the soil, that it ought to act rather as an indulgent 
 
 * Colonel Munro's Report, 4-th July 1817. 
 
 u 2
 
 2<)2 land-tax in madras. 
 
 landlord than as a rigid creditor." A commis- 
 sioner was subsequently deputed into Malabar, in 
 1821, and the result of his investigations is thus 
 stated, in a minute of the Governor's: — " # The 
 original assessment was extremely unequal, and, 
 what is a greater evil, it was in many places too high. 
 The inequality has not grown up gradually, but was 
 created at once, by taking in some cases ten, in 
 others ninety per cent, of the landlord's rent. This 
 rent furnished a groundwork for regulating the 
 public assessment, which is very rarely to be found. 
 Had we ascertained its amount, and fixed a certain 
 share of it, half or three fourths, as the govern- 
 ment due, and had there afterwards been complaints 
 of inequality, or inability to pay the assessment, 
 we might have been certain that they arose from 
 mismanagement, or some temporary causes which 
 would easily be remedied : but when we take ninety, 
 and sometimes even a hundred per cent, of the 
 proprietor's rent, we annihilate one species of pro- 
 perty — his rent as landlord. We reduce him to 
 the necessity of living, like his tenants, on the 
 agricultural profits of such lands as he may have 
 in his own hands ; and we leave him no way of 
 retrieving himself, because his land has long since 
 attained its highest point of fertility." f 
 
 These confessions from Sir Thomas Munro are 
 peculiarly valuable, though at variance with all 
 
 * Minute by Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras, dated 
 16th July 1822. 
 
 f This is the state of things which in 1817 is represented as 
 a very moderate assessment : vide p. 291.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 293 
 
 the schemes for raising; revenue to which his mind 
 .had been addicted during the former thirty years. 
 The assessments in Baramahl were intended to be 
 permanent, at 45 per cent, of the gross produce ; 
 which, according to practical agriculturists and 
 political economists, would not only absorb the 
 whole of the rent, but also encroach largely on the 
 subsistence of the tenant. The same scale was 
 adopted throughout the ceded districts by the 
 same officer; but an experience of seven years in- 
 duced him to declare, that unless the assessment 
 be reduced 9.5 per cent, it would not stand. By 
 this reduction he proposed to assume 33 per cent, 
 of the produce, being the whole of the landlord's 
 rent, for the state. With regard to remedying the 
 evils of the heavy assessment on land, the Court of 
 Directors observe, in a letter dated 12th December 
 1821, paragraph 99. '• " A view of the subject 
 favourable to the remodelling the land revenue is 
 countenanced by several authorities entitled to 
 great respect." It concurs with the opinion of 
 Mr. Baber, the opinion of the present collector, 
 Mr. Vaughan, the opinion of the commissioner, 
 Mr. Graeme, and even, as it would appear, with 
 the opinion of the Board of Revenue, who, though 
 they object to a certain time and mode, say, " they 
 are not prepared to state, as the unanimous opinion 
 of their Board, that it would not be practicable to 
 devise means by which the land assessment in 
 Malabar might be better regulated, and placed 
 
 u 3
 
 294 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 upon a fairer footing, without infringing on the 
 rights or compromising the just claims ot indivi- 
 duals. We are aware that the difficulty lies in 
 ascertaining the degree in which, in all the variety 
 of cases, the surplus produce already is or is not 
 absorbed by the government demand. But this is 
 the same difficulty which exists in forming or ad- 
 justing the settlement every where. Minute accu- 
 racy cannot be attained ; but in making the best 
 approximation to it in our power, we shall avoid 
 
 ALL MATERIAL EVIL, IF THE SURPLUS PRODUCE IS 
 IN ALL CASES MADE THE UTMOST EXTENT OF OUR 
 DEMAND." 
 
 By this latter sentence, it seems clear that, in 
 the latter end of the year 1821, the Indian admi- 
 nistration in England was of opinion that it w 7 as 
 just and expedient to take from the landholders 
 of India the surplus produce, i. e. the whole of 
 the landlord's rent, leaving to the cultivator only 
 a sufficiency for his own subsistence and the main- 
 tenance of his stock. 
 
 Canara. — It remains now to speak of the pro- 
 vince of Tooloova, called by Europeans Canara. 
 We have already seen that the condition of its 
 government was changed, by its conquest from 
 the original conquerors, in the year 1232, by a 
 prince of the Pandyan dynasty, and that it subse- 
 quently fell under the dominion of the kings of 
 Vijayanagar. In later times it had been partially 
 subdued by the Mahomedan prince of Mysoor,
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 29<5 
 
 and had shared much the same fate as that of the 
 sister province, Malabar. "* Accordingly, when the 
 British Government obtained possession of the 
 province, the saleable lands were few in number, 
 and limited in extent; many of the landlords were 
 reduced to the situation of labourers on their own 
 estates." 
 
 The ancient land-tax of the Hindoo government 
 of Canara, though it suffered an increase under 
 the new conquest of Vijayanagar, had never ex. 
 ceeded 361,802 pagodas. By extra assessments 
 under the Hindoo government of Bednore, and 
 that of the Mussulman government of Mysore, 
 a sum of 217,913 had been imposed, being about 
 60 per cent, on the ancient Hindoo assessment, 
 and making altogether the sum of .579,715. The 
 actual collections under Tippoo never amounted 
 to five lacs of pagodas. 
 
 " Satisfied that the whole course of Hyder's 
 administration was nothing but a series of expe- 
 riments, made for the purpose of discovering the 
 utmost extent to which the land rent could be 
 carried, or how much it was possible to extract 
 from the farmer, without diminishing cultivation," 
 Major Munro, the first collector in Canara (who 
 expresses this opinion), felt the necessity of reduc- 
 ing the assessment. He accordingly limited his 
 demand for the first year of his administration to 
 
 * Major Monro's Report on Canara, 1800. See Board of 
 Revenue's Minute, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 
 U 4
 
 29(J LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 440,630, being about °25 per cent, less than the 
 estimated rental of the Mahomedans, but still 
 an increase of -34 per cent, of the standard 
 assessment of the ancient Hindoo government. 
 The effect of this diminution of the late burthens 
 was instantly evinced, by inspiring the inhabitants 
 with confidence against any further unlimited 
 demands on the part of government : it gave rise 
 to innumerable claims to land, which began to 
 assume a value in the market, and general improve- 
 ment was sensibly observable in all parts of the 
 district. 
 
 The Board of Revenue observes, " * It is greatly 
 to be regretted that a limitation, founded on such 
 wise principles, and followed by such happy effects, 
 should on any account have been infringed by the 
 local authorities." This has been done in more 
 ways than one. In the first place, by way of main- 
 taining the revenue at a certain standard, in cases 
 of failure, one estate has been taxed to make good 
 the deficiency of another. "tThe consequence has 
 been that though the land revenue of the fourteenth 
 year exceeds that of the first by 23,763 pagodas, 
 yet of this increase only 5,569 pagodas arises from 
 the extension of cultivation, the remainder being 
 ascribable to the additions made to the rents of 
 estates considered too lowly assessed." Thus, out 
 of 43,366 estates, nearly half are paying more than 
 the standard fixed by Major Munro. 
 
 * Board of Revenue Minute, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 f Ibid.
 
 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 2 ( J7 
 
 " This, however, is not the only evil ; for although 
 the rates fixed by Hyder are not actually enforced, 
 yet on the annual settlement made with each of 
 the individuals* paying land-rent (tax?) in Canara, 
 the ancient Hindoo assessment, as well as the full 
 amount of Hyder's additional impost, are both en- 
 tered as forming the limited demand of the British 
 government." 
 
 To these two practices alone may be ascribed 
 the failure of that prosperity which would certainly 
 have taken place had a moderate land-tax con- 
 tinued. But the collector confesses, at the end of 
 fourteen years' residence, " that the present assess- 
 ment is beyond the resources of the province." 
 
 The Board observes, " It may be satisfactory to 
 know, that the practice adverted to, however pre- 
 judicial in its tendency, has not yet been carried so 
 far as to produce any serious permanent evil. It is 
 the landlords' mortgagees, in possession of the land- 
 lords' rent, whose interests have been affected by 
 the increase of the land-tax" (as if that were no 
 serious evil of itself ) : "on an average they receive 
 sixty per cent, of the gross produce on their entire 
 estates; but as the land-tax now absorbs from fifty 
 to ninety per cent, of this rent, the landlord's net 
 income has been materially reduced from its ancient 
 standard." 
 
 These land-taxes, imposed on the llyotwar sys- 
 tem of private fields, is more liable to inequality 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818.
 
 298 LAND-TAX IN MADRAS. 
 
 than if whole districts were taxed, and the internal 
 distribution left to the people themselves. A toler- 
 able notion may be formed of the inequality of the 
 present assessment, when it is found that one estate 
 will not fetch more than " # one year's rent, while 
 others sell for as much as thirty-five years' pur- 
 chase." 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. ^99 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 BOMBAY SYSTEM. 
 
 1he territorial possessions of the Company, on the 
 western side of India, were comparatively limited 
 till the treaties with the Peshwa and the Gykwar, 
 in 1802, gave to the British government some 
 valuable country in Guzerat. Anterior to that 
 period, Malabar had been placed under the manage- 
 ment of the Bombay presidency, but was trans- 
 ferred in 1800 to Madras. 
 
 Shortly after Malabar was relinquished by Bom- 
 bay, the latter presidency received the districts of 
 Jambosur and Ah mode, in addition to Broach south 
 of the Nerbudda, and Kaira, with some other dis- 
 tricts on both banks of the Mahye river. In the 
 last Marratta war, in 1817-18, all the Peshwa's pos- 
 sessions in Guzerat fell into our hands ; and a sub- 
 sequent treaty with the Gykwar prince has not 
 only put into our possession almost the whole of 
 Guzerat including Anjar, but we now possess the 
 privilege of collecting the tribute from the Catty- 
 war chiefs payable to the Gykwar, and of con- 
 trolling them so far as to prevent their disturbing 
 the peace of their neighbours. These territories 
 are independent of the Peshwa's late dominions in 
 theDeccan, of which I shall speak at the end of the 
 chapter. 
 
 Guzerat. — It appears from the Mahomedan
 
 800 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 histories, that although Guzerat formed one of the 
 kingdoms of the Dehly empire for nearly two cen- 
 turies, most of which time it was under a separate 
 sovereign, yet the various Hindoo leaders, whether 
 descendants of rajas, military feudal chieftains, or 
 merely district officers, maintained a degree of 
 independence, and commanded so much respect 
 from their conquerors, that they can hardly be 
 said to have ever been entirely subdued, although 
 all more or less tributary. In this country each 
 village is found to have much the same institutions 
 as in other parts of India. At its head was a 
 Patel, or hereditary magistrate, with a Dessaye, or 
 district magistrate, and a Mozumdar*, or district 
 register, having superintendence over many vil- 
 lages. When we obtained the country, it had been 
 long the practice to permit the Patels, or head 
 men, to manage the concerns of the village without 
 control, and to allow them to collect and pay the 
 revenue. The consequence of this system was, 
 that the village accountant, instead of continuing 
 to be a public officer under the Mozumdar, or 
 district register, had, by degrees, fallen completely 
 under the power of the Patel, and become his de- 
 pendant. Thus in many villages there were no 
 accountants at all, and in others they were the 
 private servants of the head man, removable at his 
 pleasure. Under our administration this evil was 
 
 * The term Mozumdar is a corruption of the Persian com- 
 pound word Mujmooadar, or accountant : the Hindoo appellation 
 of the district register seems lost here as well as in Bengal.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 801 
 
 severely felt, and it became necessary to replace the 
 village accountant (called here Tallaty)as a govern- 
 ment officer. In restoring this officer to his place 
 in the village society, it seems that, by a slight alter- 
 ation in the tenure, we have altogether changed the 
 nature of his situation. Where the Tallaty exists, 
 as he does under all the native governments, his 
 office is hereditary : he has a small piece of land, 
 and certain fees of office derived from the cultiva- 
 tors, and he is essentially a member of the village 
 community. In restoring the office, we have 
 made the Tallaty a * mere official organ of the 
 government : he is now a stipendiary without lands 
 or fees ; he is liable to be removed at will, and the 
 office is not hereditary. Instead of his being an 
 aid to the Patel, and a member of the community, 
 he acts more as a supervisor. He is viewed with 
 jealousy, even by the minor members of the so- 
 ciety ; but to the Patel, and to the superior classes 
 of society, his situation is peculiarly offensive, and, 
 so far from aiding the village and district authori- 
 ties in the execution of their duties, no opportunity 
 is lost on both sides of opposing and exposing 
 each others' acts. This effect has been very gene- 
 ral in those parts where the Patels, or heads of 
 villages, managed their own concerns ; but it has 
 been peculiarly felt by the several hereditary chief- 
 tains so thickly dispersed over Guzerat, and who 
 have done all in their power to withstand the 
 nomination of these public superintendants of their 
 private concerns.
 
 302 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 The district chiefs, here entitled Dessaye, 
 and the country register, termed Mozuuidar, have 
 been permitted, under our government in Guzerat, 
 to retain their hereditary lands and fees, though 
 they are not employed ; but it has been frequently 
 a subject of discussion whether their offices, and 
 with them their hereditary property, should not be 
 confiscated, or at all events whether they should not 
 be deprived of their fees, and a land-tax be imposed 
 on their estates. This question I believe has not 
 yet been decided, and is one of the many that 
 must become the subject of future legislation. 
 The reader will recognise, in the Dessaye and Mo- 
 zumdar of Guzerat,the Des-Adikar and Des-Lekuk 
 of the Sastra, and Zemindar and Canungoe of 
 Bengal. 
 
 While the Zemindary system of 1793 received 
 high eulogies on its first introduction into Bengal, 
 and was brought into the northern provinces of 
 Madras, under the latter presidency it had not so 
 well succeeded, and before the year 1800 many of 
 its defects had become apparent in Bengal. Among 
 other evils, the undefined rights of the husband- 
 man, and the unlimited power of the Zemindar, 
 appeared to call loudly for redress and investiga- 
 tion. In order to remedy these defects in Madras, 
 Colonel Read introduced the settlement called 
 Ilyotwar, already described, by which he not only 
 dispensed with the services of the district officers 
 (the Zemindars, so much the object of the Mar- 
 quess Cornwallis's care), but absolutely deprived
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 303 
 
 them of all their lands and emoluments. His ob- 
 ject was to remove, as far as was practicable, from 
 between the peasant and the government all inter- 
 mediate management ; and for this purpose, as has 
 been shown, he made a minute survey of all the 
 lands : he also assessed them according to the 
 best of his information, at 45 or 50 per cent, of 
 the gross produce. The Ryotwar system, which 
 so thoroughly brought to light the territorial re- 
 sources of the country, and which, while it pro- 
 mised to yield so large a revenue, defined also the 
 rights of the cultivators, had its admirers, and it 
 received the unbounded approbation both of the 
 local government and the authorities in Europe. 
 When the territorial acquisitions of Bombay, there- 
 fore, came into our possession, the Ryotwar set- 
 tlement became an early object of attention. 
 Hitherto, the revenue had been made over to con- 
 tractors, these found it convenient to settle direct 
 with the Potels, or village chiefs, in whose hands 
 rested the whole control of the community. Re- 
 venue contractors were now no longer employed ; 
 the land revenue was separated from all other 
 branches, and the settlement was made with the 
 village chiefs. In the mean time, a minute survey 
 of the land was commenced, which has been brought 
 to a conclusion in three districts in the vicinity of 
 Surat. This survey appears to be the most per- 
 fect that has yet been attempted. The most com- 
 plete information of the state of the land has been 
 obtained ; a register of the possessions of each in*
 
 304* LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 dividual has been formed, with a statement of the 
 nature of his tenure. In the course of this investi- 
 gation, these tenures have been classed under the 
 different heads to which they belong, pointing out 
 the proportion of the full rent or tax to which 
 they are liable, and a revenue committee has re- 
 ported their opinion on each case. No attempt 
 has been made to alter them ; and hitherto no new 
 assessment has been attempted. The practice of 
 former governments has been attended to, and inno- 
 vation has been avoided. 
 
 By the Bombay records, hitherto published, the 
 districts of Oklesur, Hansoote, and Baroach, lying 
 south of the Nerbudda, and situated along the 
 sea-coast, in the neighbourhood of Surat, have 
 already been surveyed ; and from this investigation 
 it appears that about two thirds of the cultivated 
 land, pays what is deemed the full government 
 tax, equivalent to about one half of the produce, 
 while the other third pays a very small quit-rent 
 to government : but as this latter portion of the 
 cultivated land is occupied chiefly by the same 
 cultivators, who pay the full taxes, the whole 
 weight of imposition falls comparatively lighter on 
 them than in other parts of our dominions. The 
 landholder in these districts also enjoys another 
 advantage, to which our system has rendered him 
 a sufferer in other parts. In these districts, the 
 rent is estimated according to the quantity of the 
 crop ; when, after undergoing an estimate and 
 valuation, in conjunction with the village commit-
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 305 
 
 nity, the collector calculates the money rate, which 
 being usually agreed to without demur, is paid 
 without trouble. 
 
 The villages in Guzerat, like those in Bengal 
 and Madras, are of two kinds : those which have 
 fallen into the hands of the village chiefs, and 
 a few of his relations j and those which still con- 
 tinue in possession of the members of the ancient 
 village community. The latter are called Baugdar, 
 or copartnercy villages." In the Broach district, 
 " the tulput * villages are all either farmed by the 
 Patel, or by an association of Baugdars (copart- 
 ners), like those called Nerwa, beyond the Mahye.f 
 The assessment is made entirely by villages, with- 
 out any enquiry into the circumstances of indi- 
 viduals. One of the hereditary revenue officers 
 is sent to inspect the crops of each harvest : he 
 makes a statement of the quantity of land culti- 
 vated with each sort of produce by each ryot, 
 and calculates the quantity that will be produced 
 in each field. The sum of these gives the whole 
 amount of each sort of grain produced in the 
 village. The collector compares this with the 
 produce of last year, and then the market price 
 of each article with that of last year j after 
 which he looks at the sum paid by the village 
 for last year, and if he finds that the crops are 
 
 * This term is used to signify land from which the govern- 
 ment derives its revenue, and is distinguished from that land, or 
 those villages, assigned to private individuals or feudal chieftains. 
 
 f Mr. Elphinstone's Minute, 25th April 1821. 
 
 X
 
 30G LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 more abundant, or the price higher, he puts a pro- 
 portionate increase on the revenue. The general 
 principle is to take half of the money produced by 
 the sale of the crops, and to leave the rest to the ryot. 
 Considerably more than three fourths of the vil- 
 lages in this district are managed on the Baugdar 
 plan ; and in the Broach Pergunnah, as well as in 
 Jambosurand Ahmode, the minor Putteedars form 
 a great majority of the cultivators. In the Broach 
 Pergunnah there are ninety-six villages which have 
 not a single cultivator besides Putteedars : but 
 there are some Baugdar villages in which the 
 heads of the Baugs, five or six in number, hold by 
 that tenure, all the lands being cultivated by 
 common ryots :" by which is meant husbandmen 
 not belonging to the village corporation or com- 
 munity. Governor Elphinstone, from whose Minute 
 the above is a quotation, observes, " The most 
 striking defects in this mode of assessment are its 
 uncertainty and its irregularity." He adds, how- 
 ever, in another place, " That the assessment being 
 subject to increase and decrease, as the crops are 
 good or bad, is not perhaps an evil ; for though 
 it increases the fluctuation to the government, it 
 diminishes it to the ryot, in whose condition, 
 a fixed rent (money rent), with fluctuating crops, 
 would occasion more variation than the present plan.-* 
 But he very justly remarks, " If) however, the 
 assessment were light, it would be of advantage to 
 him also to have it fixed, as his chance of gain
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 307 
 
 would be increased, without a corresponding risk 
 of loss." 
 
 This mode of settlement is put in a clear light 
 by Mr. Prendergast, one of the members of the 
 Bombay Council ; and, as it places in a very re- 
 markable point of view the coincidence between 
 the institution called Veesapuddi, in the Madras 
 ceded districts, and that which exists in Guzerat, 
 I give the description in the councillor's own 
 words : — 
 
 " * Under the system which obtains in the 
 Broach districts, the cultivators* are well protected 
 from any attempt on the part of an ignorant, 
 indiscreet, or oppressive collector ; for, independ- 
 ently of the desire of this government, so re- 
 peatedly and strongly intimated, that they shall be 
 most careful not to over-assess, the Patels them- 
 selves would remonstrate against any such attempt, 
 if the collector, from ignorance or obstinacy, re- 
 fused to listen to reason. The Patel would dis- 
 tinctly tell him the village cannot, and they will not 
 agree to pay the exorbitant money-assessment, and 
 desire that he will take the well known and estab- 
 lished portion of the crops, collected as they all 
 are, into the village Icully or general barn-yard. 
 As the collector must take this alternative, there 
 the dispute between him and the village is settled. 
 This, however, is certainly a measure that entails 
 on the collector some additional trouble, though 
 perfectly practicable; and he will, for his own 
 
 * Minute by Mr. Prendergast, 29th June 1821. 
 x 2
 
 308 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 sake, endeavour to avoid over-assessing. The 
 Patels and other cultivators are also averse to it, 
 and will not have recourse to it unless the assess- 
 ment is really oppressive, and then there is no 
 doubt they would ; but I do not think they would 
 do so, if the assessment was a little higher than in 
 strict fairness it ought to be, for any trifling excess 
 does not, under the system which obtains in Broach, 
 fall upon any particular Patel, or Baugdar, or 
 Putteedar : it is actually equally divided among 
 all and every man possessing any right of his own 
 in the cultivation of the government (village ?) 
 lands, who, on the other hand, as certainly enjoys 
 his fair share of the benefit of a light assessment, 
 as I shall explain : — 
 
 " Every share of the government (village ?) lands 
 possessed by a Patel or other cultivator, down to 
 the smallest Putteedars, is known and is denomi- 
 nated a four ana* share, or a three hundred and one 
 ana share, or a half ana share. 
 
 " Supposing, then, that the government assess- 
 ment is fixed, say at one thousand rupees, the Patels 
 (the mayor and aldermen, or representatives of 
 the communities), with whom the amount has been 
 adjusted by the collector, return to their village : 
 all persons interested meet them at the public 
 meeting place in the village ; the amount is de- 
 clared, and every man, by the simplest process, in- 
 
 * It seems necessary to explain, that the silver rupee of India 
 is divided into sixteen parts, called anas ; an ana share, therefore, 
 simply signifies a sixteenth.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOM 13 A V. 809 
 
 stantly knows precisely what he has to pay. The 
 Patel, who has a four ana share ^or rather four 
 whole shares), has to pay four thousand anas ; the 
 Putteedar, who has a half ana share (or half a share), 
 has to pay five hundred anas. 
 
 " Now really, to my mind, I must say this ap- 
 pears to me a * Ryotwar system* under another 
 name, and with very superior advantages to the 
 Ryotwar system, under which the government offi- 
 cers are supposed to make separate bargains and 
 leases with each cultivator every year, indepen- 
 dently of the Baugdars or Patels. It is not a sys- 
 tem of our formation : it has existed from time im- 
 memorial, and survived all changes of government 
 and Marratta and Mahomedan oppression. We 
 had but to abolish a few obvious innovations of 
 theirs, such as * Narnootee' and ( Sookree Chau- 
 dell,' and for twenty years it has been adhered to 
 under our government with, I think, great suc- 
 cess." Mr. Prendergast also animadverts with 
 much force on the tendency of our government to 
 alter the native institutions, which he conceives are 
 in their nature excellent. He thinks the restora- 
 tion of the Tallaties should have been confined to 
 the original intention ; and that every part of our 
 regulations which renders them less dependent on 
 the village community, and more completely the 
 servants of the government, affords to them a mis- 
 chievous power, while it limits the authority and 
 cramps the efficiency of the magisterial duties of 
 the Patels and seniors of the village. He is also of 
 
 x S
 
 310 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 opinion, that the dispensing with the duties of the 
 district officers is pernicious, and entails an extraor- 
 dinary and unnecessary expense, by rendering it 
 necessary to provide other persons to fulfil their 
 functions. 
 
 The introduction of the Ryotwar system, advert- 
 ed to by Mr. Prendergast 5 appears to have taken 
 place in the two contiguous districts of Surat and 
 Oklesur, according, as it seems, to the desire of 
 the Court of Directors, and in consequence of the 
 great favour with which it was every where viewed 
 by very many of the highest European authorities. 
 " In 1817-18, the first years when these districts 
 came into our hands, out of one hundred and thir- 
 ty-nine villages, the revenue of one hundred and 
 thirty-eight villages was settled through the agency 
 of the district and village officers* (or the village 
 communities in bodies). In 1820-21, a complete 
 change is observed : three villages only are settled 
 through the agency of the Patels, and one hun- 
 dred and thirty-six are settled with each cultivator 
 individually." 
 
 In speaking of Ryotwar assessments, or a fixed 
 money impost on the field or fields of each cultiva- 
 tor, Mr Prendergast makes the following excellent 
 observations : " I have no hesitation in saying that 
 the most accurate knowledge that can be obtained 
 of the number of beegas or acres, and the quality 
 of the land of every field, would still not enable the 
 most intelligent British farmer or the most skilful 
 
 * Mr. Prendergast's Minute, 8th July 1821.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 311 
 
 native to pronounce what fixed rent (money rent?) 
 such land could afford to pay for a series of years, 
 or even for a few years ; not only from the vicissi- 
 tudes of good and bad seasons, which fluctuate in 
 this country so incalculably beyond what is known 
 in Europe ; but even in seasons in every respect 
 equally favourable the same land will not yield 
 the same crop. Lands which last year produced a 
 most luxuriant and valuable crop of, suppose cot- 
 ton, will not do so this year, and will probably be 
 sown with some early grain mixed with cotton, the 
 former of which springs up quickly, and is gather- 
 ed about the time the cotton shrubs are an inch or 
 two above the ground j and the next season it must 
 be sown with some inferior grain, and then lie fal- 
 low, for manuring is very little if at all used, and 
 from causes that will most probably preclude its 
 ever being used generally. It is, however, calcu- 
 lated by those who are favourable to permanent 
 leases, that, by fixing the rents moderately, the pro- 
 fits of very favourable seasons will so enrich the 
 cultivators that they will acquire funds to enable 
 them to pay their revenue to government in sea- 
 sons of failure, or unfavourable ones. But who 
 that recollects the unthrifty habits of the natives, 
 their lavish expenditure of all they may have ac- 
 quired and can borrow in the constantly occurring 
 religious ceremonies, family rejoicings, marriages, 
 and mournings, will think of relying on their pro- 
 fits being husbanded to enable them to pay their 
 rents in bad seasons." 
 
 x 4
 
 312 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 With regard to the moderate rents so unceasingly 
 ordered by the Court of Directors in almost every 
 despatch on the land revenue of India, and so 
 strictly enjoined by all the governments, I confess 
 myself unable to discover where such a measure 
 has ever been tried. The Court themselves think 
 they cannot do wrong if they limit their demand 
 to the surplus produce, that is to the whole of the 
 landlord's rent, estimated by all practicable agri- 
 culturists and political economists at one third of 
 the gross produce. The cultivators in Guzerat 
 consent to pay, and do pay annually a sum equal 
 to the current value of one half of their crops, and 
 they are not ruined ; while the money tax of 45 
 per cent, in the Madras ceded districts is so oppres- 
 sive, that it has always been found necessary to 
 make annual remissions at the discretion of the 
 collector and his servants to prevent the lands 
 being abandoned. I have been unable to discover 
 any where a land-tax avowedly so low even as a 
 third of the gross produce, the whole landlord's rent. 
 The moderate rent or tax so often spoken of and re- 
 commended, therefore, is, like the cultivator's rights, 
 an object of visionary attainment, but still far from 
 being determined. Both Mr. Prendergast and the 
 governor of Bombay have recorded their opinions 
 of the defects of the Ryotwary system in practice, 
 the more ample discussion of which must be re- 
 served for another part of this work. 
 
 I cannot give a more clear and condensed view 
 of the several landed tenures in the other parts
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 313 
 
 of Guzerat than by quoting from the luminous 
 minutes of the Governor, Mr. Elphinstone, re- 
 corded on his return from a short tour he made 
 througli his government shortly after his taking his 
 seat. 
 
 The collectorates of Ahmedabad and Kaira con- 
 tain two sorts of villages : Khaka, or those under 
 the sole control of government officers; and Grassia, 
 or those held by hereditary chiefs, not unlike the 
 Zemindarries of some parts of Bengal, and the 
 Madras northern Circars, and the chiefships denomi- 
 nated Pollams, and Poligaries in the south of India. 
 They are, as has been before explained, the rem- 
 nants of those great Hindoo sovereignties which 
 once existed, whose kingdoms were subverted by 
 the Mahomedans, but whose feudal barons, military 
 chiefs, or district local officers, more or less suc- 
 cessfully resisted the power of their Mahomedan 
 conquerors, and preserved themselves from utter 
 annihilation. That which the Mahomedans could 
 not effect by open force is gradually being brought 
 about by us by sinister attacks on their privileges, 
 which, if persisted in, will sooner or later lead to 
 their entire disappearance and dissolution. 
 
 " * The most striking division of the Grassia vil- 
 lages is those held by Rajpoots, or Grassias, 
 properly so called, and those held by Coolies, 
 generally termed Mowass. The former, though 
 foreigners, were in possession of Guzerat when the 
 Mussulmans invaded it : they retained some talooks 
 
 * Governor Elphinstone *s Minute, 6th April 1821.
 
 3M< LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 and villages at that time, and they recovered others 
 by encroachments on the final weakness of the 
 Moguls. They are at once a more civilized and 
 more warlike race than the Coolies ; and it is 
 perhaps owing to those circumstances, as well as 
 to their having more recently possessed the govern- 
 ment of the province, that their claims appear to 
 be much more respected than those of the Coolies. 
 The latter, though probably* the aborigines, seem 
 generally to be considered as rebellious, or at least 
 refractory villagers, who have, from the weakness 
 of former governments, eluded or resisted the just 
 claims of the state. Both pay a sum to govern- 
 ment, which the state appears to have the right 
 to increase. It was not usual to interfere with 
 the internal management of their villages, or to 
 examine the state of their receipts. Our govern- 
 ment have asserted the right, without always as- 
 suming the exercise, of internal interference ; but 
 it is only of late that it has begun to enquire into 
 the collections by establishing Tallaties in Grassia 
 and Mowass villages : " and the government re- 
 ceive from those villages almost thirty per cent, of 
 the gross produce, leaving the remainder to be 
 shared between these hereditary chiefs and the 
 cultivators. The police has been also taken out 
 of their hands, and has been vested in those of 
 Mookhee Patelst, a sort of head magistrate ap- 
 
 * Vide Part I. Chap. II. p. 21. 
 
 j The printed copy of the correspondence has Moonshy 
 Patells, which is probably an error of the press.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 315 
 
 pointed to villages, who are in a manner indepen- 
 dent of the authority of the feudal chiefs, and are 
 subject to the European magistrate of the district. 
 
 " The land of villages immediately under the Cir- 
 car is divided into Nukroo, Salamee, and Tulput. 
 The Nukroo is or has been rent free ; the Salamee 
 pays a quit-rent, increasing with the prosperity of 
 the field, but no specific share of the produce ; the 
 Tulput is that which pays a fixed proportion of the 
 produce to the Circar. 
 
 " The principal divisions of Nukroo and Salamee 
 are, 
 
 1. Waunta. 
 
 2. Wuzeefa. 
 
 3. Pussaita. 
 
 4. Vauchan. 
 
 5. Geerauneeo. 
 
 6. Harreeo, Runwutteeo, and Palleeo. 
 
 7. Grass. 
 
 8. Puggeeo, Barreeo, and Cooliapa. 
 
 9. Kovellee Pussaita. 
 
 10. Mulluk Nukroo. 
 
 11. Tir Zemeen. 
 
 12. Dubanneeo. 
 
 " Waunta was originally a fourth of the land 
 of each village, left or restored by the Mogul go- 
 vernment to the Grassia, who was the original 
 proprietor of the whole. It is now reduced by 
 sale, mortgages, and encroachments of the Patels, 
 and of the government officers, until it has ceased 
 to bear any thing like its original proportion to
 
 316 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 the Tulput. It is sometimes managed by the pro- 
 prietor, who pays a quit-rent to government ; but 
 it is very often managed by the Patel, who pays a 
 pecuniary amount to the proprietor. 
 
 " 2. Wuzeef'a, though strictly an allowance to 
 persons of the Mahomedan faith, seems here to be 
 extended to all grants by the kings to individuals, 
 whether from charity, favour, or reward for ser- 
 vices. Many of the lands held by this tenure 
 have been transferred by gift or sale, lost by 
 encroachment, or subjected to assessment, so as to 
 lose their character of rent-free lands. 
 
 " S. Pussaita, includes the lands assigned to dis- 
 trict and village officers, and likewise the lands 
 allotted by any besides the kings to Brahmins, 
 Bhats, and other Hindoo religionists, as well as to 
 temples, mosques, and fakiers. 
 
 " 4. Vauchan, are lands sold ; and, 
 
 " 5. Geerauneeo, are lands mortgaged by Patels 
 to enable them to pay the revenue and other ex- 
 penses of the villages or of their own.* 
 
 " 6. Harreeo, is land granted to persons whose 
 estates have fallen in defence of the village ; Run- 
 wutteeo, to those who have fallen in attacking: 
 others j and Tullio, to Bhats or others who have 
 died by Traga in its cause.f 
 
 * There are several modes of mortgaging the land, which it 
 does not seem necessary to enter into. 
 
 f Traga is the act of self-destruction of a holy man, who, 
 being provoked by anger or revenge, slays himself, and thus 
 transfers the guilt of his death to him who has been the cause
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 317 
 
 " 7* Grass, is a sum paid to a powerful neighbour 
 or turbulent inhabitant of the village, as the price 
 of forbearance, protection, and assistance. 
 
 " 8. Puggeeo, Barreeo, and Cooliapa, are lands 
 held by Coolies similar to the Waunta (or fourth 
 share) held by Rajpoots j but it is thought that 
 most of them are usurpations on the timidity of 
 the Patels, clothed under the respectable sem- 
 blance of Waunta. 
 
 " 9. Kovellee is land granted rent free, or on 
 payment of a quit-rent, to a person who has dug 
 a well. 
 
 " 10. Mulluk Nukroo, a favourable tenure of 
 the Mulluks or Mulliks (a particular tribe of 
 Mahomedans) of Tasra alone. 
 
 " 11. Tir Zemeen land, granted by an owner of 
 Waunta to his wife, and still held by her descend- 
 ants, though the rest of the Waunta has escheated 
 to government. 
 
 " 12. Dubanneeo, usurpations. Almost all these 
 classes are held rent free, or on payment of a quit- 
 rent, according to the grant. 
 
 " The rest of the lands of every village are 
 Tulput," which, while the government only re- 
 ceived a small proportion of the surplus produce, 
 might be deemed the lands of the village commu- 
 
 of it. The Bhats and Charuns (the bards and chanters of the 
 Hindoo legends and chronicles) were held to be sacred person- 
 ages ; and they not unfrequently put an end to a feud by self- 
 immolation between the parties, such as father and son, or two 
 brothers, if one or other refused to be reconciled on the terms 
 the chronicler bade him.
 
 318 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 nity j but when government took the whole of 
 the surplus, and, as at present, exacts even one 
 half, they may with propriety be called the lands 
 of the government, but obtained, as I conceive, 
 by the usurpation of the rights of the cultivators. 
 " * The land is cultivated by ryots (husbandmen), 
 who hold it on different tenures, pay their revenues 
 in different modes, and are under different forms 
 of village government. The ryot holds his land 
 on a general understanding that he is not to be 
 dispossessed as long as he pays his rent, which, 
 though not fixed, is regulated by the custom of 
 the village. He receives a portion of each of the 
 three different classes into which the land is 
 divided, according to its fertility ; and he is obliged 
 to cultivate (that is, to pay for) the bad, as the 
 condition of retaining the good. This is almost 
 the only tenure in Ahmedebad, and it is very 
 common in Kaira likewise : but in many villages 
 in the latter Zillah (district) there is a more com- 
 plicated tenure, called Thattabundee. Each culti- 
 vator receives a perpetual lease of a portion of the 
 best land, which is called his vaita, and which is 
 assessed much above its value : along with this he 
 receives a portion of inferior land at a favourable 
 rate. The vaita varies from one to four beegahs, 
 and the other land bears a proportion to the extent 
 of the vaita. All cesses fall on this vaita; and so 
 completely is it the scale for regulating the pay- 
 ments, that a ryot is compelled to increase it if 
 
 * Governor Elphinstone's Minute, 5th April 1821.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 319 
 
 his circumstances improve, and allowed to diminish 
 it if his means fall off. Should he throw it up 
 entirely, he must sink into a common labourer, 
 and would not, while he remained in the village, 
 be permitted to cultivate on his own account rent- 
 free land, or even land belonging to another vil- 
 lage." By this it appears, that of the agricultural 
 corporation every individual is bound, according 
 to his capacity, to cultivate in such a way as to bear 
 his due proportion of the public assessment ; and 
 if he chooses to infringe the bye-laws of the corpo- 
 ration, the freedom of it is withdrawn from him. 
 " These tenures (observes Mr. Elphinstone) greatly 
 resemble that used in the southern Marratta coun- 
 try, where the vaita is called chalee." The same 
 tenures prevail in the south of India and in Can- 
 deish, particularly in villages much of whose land 
 is fertilised by aqueducts, derived by damming 
 and turning the courses of rivers; and they appear 
 to me to confirm more and more the fact of village 
 communities being the original prevalent system 
 of society throughout all India. " The modes in 
 which the land revenue is usually paid are two : 
 in kind, by a division of the produce, which is 
 called Baugbuttee (sharing) ; or by a money rent, 
 regulated by the value * of the land, and likewise 
 
 * It is simply the value of the produce, without reference to 
 the value of the land. The money rate is fixed on certain arti- 
 cles, when produced on a certain description of land ; in other 
 words, according to the value of the produce, so is the assess- 
 ment rated. 1 know an instance of the same land in Candeish,
 
 ,320 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 by the nature of the article cultivated : this is 
 called Beegotee. The shares of the government 
 and the ryots on the Baugbuttee plan vary in 
 different places ; but in general it is thought the 
 government is entitled to one half of the crop cul- 
 tivated during the rainy season, and from one third 
 to one fifth of that cultivated in the dry weather, 
 if raised by irrigation ; if not irrigated, a larger 
 portion is taken. The land paying Beegootee is 
 divided into three classes, according to its fertility j 
 and it pays a higher or a lower rent, as it may 
 belong to the first or to an inferior class. But as 
 this classification has not been found sufficiently 
 minute, the rent further varies in some villages 
 according to the species of produce cultivated on 
 the land. Thus in one district, Badjeree and 
 Jowaree pay on the first sort of ground four 
 rupees per beegah ; on the second, three rupees ; 
 and on the third, one rupee and a half. Sugar- 
 cane pays on the first sort twenty rupees per 
 beegah ; on the second, seventeen rupees ; and on 
 the third, ten rupees. Some circumstances raise 
 the beegootee, such as the use of well-water and 
 manure; and others diminish it, such as the distance 
 of the land from the village : but the proportion 
 between the different kinds of land and the pro- 
 duce is still kept up. The forms of village govern- 
 
 lying altogether contiguous in two fields, paying in the one case 
 only \5d. an acre, and in the other Ql. This difference arises 
 from the one field being irrigated by a natural stream, and the 
 other lying two or three feet higher, the water cannot reach it.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 321 
 
 ments, and consequently the channels through 
 which the revenue is collected, are four. 
 
 The first is that by which the Patel, or village 
 magistrate, becomes security for a certain annual 
 revenue, and is allowed to enjoy the advantage of 
 any amount realised beyond that sum. As the 
 rates are all well understood by the cultivators of 
 the community, and the rights of those holding 
 alienated lands are bound to be respected, this 
 plan did not affect them. Such mode of manage- 
 ment is termed sunja. 
 
 In some cases, however, when the Patel is incap- 
 able of undertaking this responsibility alone, it is di- 
 vided among the different branches of the family, on 
 the same principle as that of the Hindoo law of inhe- 
 ritance. They ascend to the common ancestor, and 
 divide the village into as many portions as he had 
 sons. These portions are called bangs, and each is 
 made over to the progeny of one of the sons ; these 
 divide it into as many shares as there are indivi- 
 duals in that branch of the family. The head of 
 the branch is called Baugdar : he acts as Patel (as 
 far as Patel is required on this system), and shares 
 with the other Baugdars the lands and allowances 
 attached to the Patel's office ; but he has no larger 
 share than any of the younger members of the same 
 branch, and each has full power to manage his own 
 share as he pleases. The ryots fall under the in- 
 dividuals to whose share the land belongs, and are 
 called his assanmies, like the Oolkury tenants of 
 the Madras provinces. " It often happens that 
 
 Y
 
 322 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 the Patel's descendants are so numerous as to cul- 
 tivate nearly the whole land of the village : in that 
 case there are few or no ryots (tenants). The 
 minor shares are called puttees, and the holders 
 Putteedars (partners). The whole association is an- 
 swerable to the government for the revenue ; but 
 each Baug is answerable for the revenue due by 
 each of its Putteedars ; and the defalcations occa- 
 sioned by a few individuals do not fall on the other 
 Baugs, unless it is entirely beyond the power of 
 the one to which they belong to make them good. 
 Puttees are saleable, and thus persons not of the 
 Patel's family are sometimes introduced as Put- 
 teedars into villages." 
 
 This system, the Governor thinks, is founded on 
 that of leasing the village to the Patel, and is, in 
 fact, nothing more than dividing the lease among 
 his relations. It, however, so entirely corresponds 
 with the practice of the village communities all 
 over the Madras provinces, and in some parts of 
 the ceded and conquered countries, that to me it 
 seems, where the Patel himself manages the concern 
 separately, it is the consequence of the usurpation 
 of the rights of his brethren. " The number of 
 persons interested, and the advantage of their mu- 
 tual responsibility, has made it more permanent, 
 and it appears to have stood its ground wherever 
 the assessment was at all moderate :" that is, where 
 the puttees or shares retain a surplus after paying 
 the government tax, and continue saleable. " It 
 has been swept away by long oppression in the
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 3Q3 
 
 Ahmedabad district, but it still remains in many of 
 the villages of Kaira." 
 
 " Two other modes of village management seem 
 rather to have been occasionally resorted to than 
 uniformly adopted. The first was to farm the vil- 
 lage (revenue) to any stranger who might be will- 
 ing to agree to higher terms than the Patel ; and 
 the other, to keep it in the hands of government, 
 the Patel, or a person deputed for the purpose by 
 the government, settling with the ryots, and col- 
 lecting their revenue without any avowed profit or 
 responsibility." 
 
 " This view of the revenue system," observes 
 Mr. Elphinstone, " enables me to explain the steps 
 our government have hitherto adopted, both towards 
 the Grassias and our other dependents. 
 
 " The most striking circumstances in the pro- 
 gress of our government, are the extraordinary ob- 
 stacles that existed to introducing order, and the 
 surprising success with which they have been over- 
 come. The continual intermixture of our territo- 
 ries with those of the Gykwaur, the Peshwa, the 
 Nabob of Cambay, and the unsettled tributaries of 
 Kattywar and Myhee Cauta, the number of half- 
 subdued Grassias and Mowassies within our own 
 limits, the numerous and ill-defined tenures in 
 almost every village, and the turbulent and preda- 
 tory character of a large proportion of the people, 
 combined to make the country beyond the Mahye 
 more difficult to manage than any part of the Com- 
 pany's territories j yet by the caution of govern- 
 
 y 2
 
 324 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 ment, and the judgment and temper of the local 
 officers, our authority and our system have been 
 established with the utmost tranquillity, without 
 either irritating our subjects or embarrassing our- 
 selves by any sudden or violent changes. Of late 
 years, our innovations have been proceeding with 
 accelerated progress ; and, although the danger of 
 hasty improvements is diminished, it may still be 
 necessary to retard their advance, or at least to fix 
 the limit beyond which it is not designed they 
 should extend." 
 
 " When we first obtained the pergunnahs forming 
 the old Kaira collectorship, the whole were put 
 in charge of Colonel Walker, and managed by his 
 assistants." No alteration of the native system 
 took place, and it continued so for many years ; for 
 although a trifling increase was made to the tribute, 
 to which the chiefs were at all times liable, no 
 scrutiny was attempted of their resources, nor in- 
 terference in the management of their villages." 
 
 The judicial regulations, which w T ere early ren- 
 dered applicable to these villages, were a very great 
 innovation, which has been followed up by the ap- 
 pointment of Mookhee Patels, who have become 
 amenable to the European magistrates, and by 
 that of Tallaties (village clerks), who, under the 
 present system, are sufficiently offensive to the 
 Patels of villages belonging immediately to govern- 
 ment, and are still more so to the tributary chiefs. 
 The tribute had also been increased, three years 
 before the administration of Mr. Elphinstone, con- 
 siderably beyond that of the fifteen preceding
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 3£5 
 
 years of our government, and the Grassias are 
 now left with only about one fourth of the rent or 
 revenue from their lands. 
 
 "The Adawlut (judicial system) also, as we 
 came into closer contact with the chiefs, has been 
 more felt; and we have reason to regret that some 
 modifications were not made in our code before it 
 was applied to a people in a state of society so 
 different from that which our laws contemplate, 
 and employed to enforce agreements concluded at 
 a time when the strict execution of them was so 
 little foreseen. The Raja of Khote, who in 1804 
 maintained a body of one hundred and fifty horse 
 and two thousand Sibundies (infantry), was sent 
 to prison for neglecting a summons from a magis- 
 trate ; and the chief of Poutree, who once resisted 
 for two months the attacks of the Gykwaur army, 
 was thrown into jail for his inability to pay debts 
 contracted in consequence of war, and contributions 
 during the period of his independence. I cannot 
 more strongly show the change that has taken 
 place, than by pointing out that these are the 
 persons whom Colonel Walker, and I believe all 
 the gentlemen employed in the first introduction 
 of our authority, declared to be sovereign princes, 
 with whom we have no right to interfere beyond 
 the collection of their tribute ; and that they are 
 now deprived of all power and consequence, and 
 nearly all their revenue. Almost all these changes 
 have taken place within the last three years." 
 
 Again : " If they, the chieftains, are to pay a 
 y 3
 
 326 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 tribute, and not to be brought under regular assess- 
 ment, it is of no use to appoint a Tallatty (village 
 register), and it is hurtful to do so ; because, even if 
 the Tallatty does not purposely interfere from love 
 of consequence or corruption, his presence, as an 
 agent of government, must weaken the influence 
 of the Grassias, and lead his ryots (cultivators) to 
 look to government for redress whenever they are 
 dissatisfied with the Grassia. If such a contest is 
 to be encouraged, we must go farther and see that 
 we secure protection to the weaker party, whom 
 we engage to support against the stronger : a point 
 on which we are said to have failed in Bengal, and 
 are surely more likely to fail in Kattyvvar." 
 
 In speaking of the Mowassies, or the aborigine 
 chiefs, which the Governor distinguishes from 
 Grassia Rajpoots, he observes, " It appears there 
 is no trace in history of their ever having been on 
 a footing of greater dependence than they are at 
 present ; and it follows that we have derived no 
 claim from our predecessors to reduce them fur- 
 ther, and must rest our right to do so on the law of 
 nature, which entitle us to control our neighbours 
 as far as is required by our own security ; and this 
 ought, therefore, to be the limit of our interference. ,, 
 " Considering the want of military force in the terri- 
 tory, it is surprising how little disturbance the Mow- 
 assee chiefs have given us since we first came into 
 Guzerat ; and it would be equally inconsistent with 
 justice and good policy to risk this tranquillity for 
 a little addition to the revenue, or a fancied im- 
 provement in the police. That the improvement
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 3^7 
 
 would be real, I think more than doubtful ; for 
 unless where coolies have acquired habits of in- 
 dustry and order, they can only be restrained by 
 rendering the communities to which they belong 
 responsible for their conduct ; and if we could 
 quietly succeed in bringing each individual under 
 the direct operation of our police, the effect, I doubt 
 not, would be a great increase of robberies." 
 
 Adverting to the revenue system again, Mr. 
 Elphinstone observes, the changes in the manage- 
 ment of the government villages have been greater 
 but more beneficial than those in the Grassia and 
 Mowassee villages. 
 
 Up to May 1816, the villages had been rented 
 either by Patels, or by strangers, who gave se- 
 curity for the revenue when some of the former 
 refused or were incapable of contracting ; but by 
 far the greater part remained under the manage- 
 ment of Patels. Since that period, the Tallaties, 
 or village accountants, have been appointed by 
 government, and by minute investigations the set- 
 tlement has been made with individual cultivators, 
 though chiefly through the agency of the Patels; 
 so that, in 1821, three hundred and seventy out of 
 five hundred and sixty-seven villages were settled 
 in that way. 
 
 The advantages of these new measures are re- 
 presented to be, a check to the abuses in collection 
 and expenditure, and the prevention of much op- 
 pression. The disuse of the custom of requiring 
 security for the revenue has saved each ryot a 
 
 y 4
 
 328 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 very large per-centage, which used to be paid to 
 a banker who was answerable for him ; and the 
 manner of collecting has become, in other respects, 
 much less vexatious. " But the greatest change, 
 with the least appearance, was wrought by the 
 appointment of new Tallaties : these officers, all 
 over India, are hereditary functionaries of the vil- 
 lage, subordinate to the Patel, to whom they 
 serve as a clerk and assistant. When on their best 
 footing, they are generally in league with the vil- 
 lages, and their accounts are often falsified to 
 serve the purpose of the Patel." There can be 
 no doubt the Tallatty had it in his power to serve 
 the Patel, and the village community, of which he 
 was, in reality, one of the chief members : he felt 
 more interest, and had more power, perhaps, than 
 the town clerk, or register of a corporation in 
 England ; but his identification with the villagers 
 alone afforded him the extensive means of render- 
 ing his office thoroughly efficient. He was, in 
 reality, a servant of the village j the record keeper 
 of all its affairs, from that of a petty dispute decided 
 in the village court to the title-deeds of all the 
 land. The government trusted to his integrity 
 only as far as it chose, for there were other 
 specific checks by which fraud could be detected, 
 if carried to any extent, almost to a certainty. 
 " The new Tallatty is an officer direct from go- 
 vernment, and looked up to in the village as its 
 agent. He examines every man's condition, and 
 his tenure ; and he is now employed to make the
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 329 
 
 collections, and in a great measure to supersede the 
 Patel in all his acts as agent of government. 
 There can be no doubt of the excellence of this 
 regulation, both as promoting the advantage of 
 government, and of the ryots ; but it must not be 
 overlooked, that it has a tendency to extinguish 
 the authority of the Pate], already much weakened 
 by other parts of our management j and care should 
 be taken, when the necessary information has been 
 acquired," (which can, I conceive, only be tho- 
 roughly clone by a regular and scientific survey,) 
 " to bring the Tallatty's power within its natural 
 bounds, and to withdraw it from all interference 
 with the immediate duties of the Patel." 
 
 It is by extracts of this nature that one is able 
 to perceive how extremely difficult it is for us in 
 India to change, in however slight a degree, the 
 institutions of the people without deranging the 
 whole frame of society. The Patel is the heredi- 
 tary mayor or chief of the village : his duties are 
 two-fold ; on the one hand, they are due to the 
 community as the superintendent of the collections 
 and disbursements of the village expenses ; on the 
 other, as the organ between the people and the state, 
 as their representative. He is the chief magistrate 
 of the village court, the head of the police, the chief 
 coroner on all inquests, and one of the principal 
 landholders of the corporation. On the part of 
 the government, also, he aids in forming the as- 
 sessment ; in collecting the revenue, for which he is 
 in some measure responsible ; as also for all rob-
 
 330 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 beries, and for the production of criminals or 
 enemies of the government residing within his 
 township. To exercise these functions he must be 
 armed with considerable authority, and possess the 
 confidence of the government and the village com- 
 munity. To introduce, therefore, a government 
 inspector to manage the concerns of the village, 
 and to humiliate him in the estimation of the 
 community, is to cramp his energy, and to destroy 
 the efficiency of his office. It is perhaps fortunate 
 that the situation of the new Tallaty in Guzerat, 
 under any circumstances, must render him in a 
 very short time either the colleague of the Patel 
 and the community, in spite of the efforts of the 
 government to prevent it, when most of the advan- 
 tages he is now supposed to enjoy will cease ; or 
 he will in effect supersede the authority of the 
 Patel, and eventually step into his place, when he 
 will equally have a leaning towards the people 
 from interested motives. The probability of his 
 retaining his present footing in the village for 
 many years does not appear at all likely. 
 
 Of the condition of Guzerat generally, I find 
 the following observations, which may be relied on 
 as correct: — 
 
 In the districts north of the Mahye, or central 
 Guzerat, the Governor observes, " The facts that 
 present themselves in a hasty view are, that the 
 Grassias are weakened and depressed ; that the 
 Dessayes and all the hereditary officers, including 
 the Patel, are stripped of power and influence,
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 331 
 
 and have security of persons and property in ex- 
 change ; that the bankers are deprived of one 
 large branch of their profits by the change in our 
 system of revenue, and of another by the decline 
 of commerce, occasioned by the downfall of so 
 many native states, and the equal diffusion of 
 property ; that the Bhats, once so important in 
 Guzerat, are now almost too insignificant to men- 
 tion ; and that the ryots have gained much in 
 wealth, comfort, and security among all the suf- 
 ferers. Those engaged in commerce, and perhaps 
 the Grassias, are the only classes that give rise to 
 regret. There are no hereditary chiefs, no esta- 
 blished military leaders, and no body of men that 
 claim respect from even an apparent devotion to 
 learning or religion. The property of those who 
 have suffered was built on the depression of the 
 people ; and their fall has been compensated by the 
 rise of the ryots, the most numerous, most indus- 
 trious, and most respectable part of the community. 
 To that order our government has, beyond all 
 doubt, been a blessing. It has repelled predatory 
 invasion, restrained intestine disorder, administered 
 equal and impartial justice, and has almost extir- 
 pated every branch of exaction and oppression. 
 The appearance of the country on this side of the 
 Saubermuttee (river), which has been long in our 
 possession, is what might be expected in such cir- 
 cumstances. The former affluence of the upper 
 classes is apparent in the excellence of their houses; 
 and the prosperity of the ryots appears in the
 
 332 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 comforts of their dwellings, the neatness of their 
 dress, and the high cultivation of their lands. 
 
 " In the fertility and improvement of the fields, 
 there are many parts of the Bengal provinces 
 which cannot be surpassed ; but in the abundance 
 of trees and hedges, in the substantial well-built 
 villages, and in the decent and thriving appearance 
 of the people, I have seen nothing in India" (and 
 he had visited almost all parts of it) "that can bear 
 a comparison with the eastern Zillah of Guzerat." 
 
 In speaking of the condition of the Broach dis- 
 trict, he remarks, " Until within these three years, 
 there is reason to think that the assessment was light ; 
 but in appearance the country falls very short of 
 the western districts (north of the Mahye), though 
 almost every spot of ground is occupied, yet the 
 total absence of hedges and of trees, except close 
 to villages, makes it seem naked. The villages 
 are entirely built of unburnt brick, and though 
 good, compared to most in India, have nothing 
 of the comfort and solidity of those beyond the 
 Mahye. The dress of the inhabitants is not so 
 inferior ; and they seem a quiet, industrious, and 
 respectable race of men." In mentioning the 
 Surat districts, he says, " If I were to decide on 
 the present condition of the people in this col- 
 lectorship, I should pronounce it to be very much 
 depressed. The ryots seem to be ill clothed and 
 ill lodged ; and although some parts of the district 
 are highly productive, I should think that in 
 others the cultivation was very imperfect. Land
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 333 
 
 that has been in use for a few years, is so exhausted 
 as to be considered unfit for cultivation. From 
 this or some other cause, the Pergumah of Chou- 
 rassee, contiguous to the populous city of Surat, is 
 the most (worst?) cultivated; and this is the more 
 remarkable, as the Wuzeefa (rent free) lands in 
 the same neighbourhood are in a high state of 
 improvement. These evils are by no means to be 
 ascribed to the present system : on the contrary, I 
 am persuaded that the measures now in progress 
 will go far to relieve us from the system which 
 we inherited from our predecessors. The great 
 obstacle will be the extreme heaviness, and per- 
 haps the inequality, of the assessment." — " I have 
 applied to the collector for some information re- 
 garding the general rates of assessment, on receiving 
 which I may resume the subject; in the mean 
 time, it is satisfactory to say that no increase has 
 been put upon the district since the introduction 
 of the Ryotwar system, and that in no instance has 
 it been found necessary to send a ryot to prison, 
 or to sell his house or cattle, for arrears of revenue. 
 " Scarcely any part of these remarks apply to 
 the Pergunah of Oolpar. That division, like all 
 other possessions of the Vinchoor Jageerdar, w r as 
 lightly assessed and equitably governed. It is 
 a rich country, with few trees, but in the highest 
 state of cultivation. The villages are said to be 
 excellent, and the people easy in their circum- 
 stances and independent in their manners. The 
 assessment is said to bear to that of the other
 
 334 
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 Pergunahs under Surat, the proportion of one 
 third to one half; but, from what I can learn, it 
 does not appear to be more lightly assessed than 
 the Broach district, or near so lightly as that of 
 Kaira." 
 
 On the subject of the assessments in general of 
 the most fertile parts of Guzerat, it seems desirable 
 to penetrate a little farther into the secret than 
 one is at first capable of doing. The Broach dis- 
 trict, and that of Kaira, are particularly mentioned 
 as the most highly cultivated, and the husbandmen 
 in the most easy circumstances; although it is 
 generally supposed that they pay a sum equal to 
 half of the produce. Fortunately, the surveys of 
 these districts have been completed, and are now 
 lying before me ; and by this means alone I shall 
 be able to solve this otherwise difficult enigma : — 
 
 Broach District. 
 
 Alienated lands 
 paying a small 
 quit- rent, or 
 held entirely 
 rent free. 
 
 Lands paying 
 full revenue. 
 
 
 Broach, Pergmia 
 Hansoot, ditto - 
 Oklesur, ditto 
 KairaCoUectorate 
 
 Beegahs. 
 
 132,359 
 
 32,203 
 
 30,218 
 
 410,835 
 
 Beegahs. 
 
 278,882" 
 51,266 - 
 54-,l73. 
 
 301,911 
 
 Broach district.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 335 
 
 By this abstract we perceive that in the Broach 
 district, where the corn rents prevail over 384,321 
 beegahs, at the rate of half the produce, the culti- 
 vators occupy 194,780 beegahs of alienated lands, 
 for which they pay a small rent to those individuals 
 to whom the produce is assigned. It is owing to 
 the favourable terms on which they cultivate these 
 lands that they are enabled to give half the produce 
 of the Tulput land to government, and to maintain 
 a decent appearance. 
 
 In Kaira, where the inhabitants are represented 
 to be in so much better circumstances, we find that 
 although many of them pay fixed money rents, yet 
 they have other local advantages, which have been 
 before explained.* The Tulput land, paying full 
 rent, instead of bearing a proportion of two to one, 
 as in Broach, here bears the proportion of about 
 three to four, and thus affords more ample means 
 of bearing the apparently heavy burthen, which is 
 in reality light, and produces the effects so fully 
 described in the Governor's Minutes. 
 
 The Dec can. — I need not enter into the details 
 of the war of 1817-18, that placed in the hands 
 of the British government the dominions of the 
 Peshwas, who for several generations had been 
 deemed the heads of the Marratta state. In 
 noticing the probable condition of the Hindoo 
 states previously to the Mahomedan invasion, I have 
 described the limits of the Marratta country to be 
 bounded on the north by the Satpoora mountains, 
 * See pp. 318, 319.
 
 336 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 on the west by the ocean, from Surat to Goa ; the 
 rivers Warna and Toongbudra form the southern 
 limit ; and a line drawn from Boorhanpoor on the 
 north-east, through Dowlutabad, Pietun on the 
 Godavery, Solapoor, and Bagracota, to near Bel- 
 lary, will give a tolerably correct outline of the 
 territorial acquisitions from the Peshwa. Within 
 these limits, it must be observed, are situated 
 a tract of country lying between the western 
 mountains, called Syhadree, and the Bheema river, 
 east and west, and from the Poonadhur hills to the 
 river Krishna, north and south, granted to the 
 Raja of Sattara and his feudatory chiefs, while 
 a considerable territory, lying to the south of 
 his dominions, belong to the Raja of Kolapoor, 
 and to several feudal military leaders of the late 
 government, who have been allowed to retain their 
 estates, holding them direct of the British govern- 
 ment. The whole is divided into six principal col- 
 lectorates ; viz. Candeish, Ahinudnuggur, Poona, 
 Dharwar, and the country lying below the western 
 mountains, which, separated by the Panwell river 
 opposite to Bombay, are denominated the northern 
 and southern Concan. 
 
 The Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, 
 resident at the court of the Peshwa, was directed, 
 on the breaking out of the war, to assume the 
 government of the conquered territory, under the 
 title of sole commissioner ; and his able report, 
 made only a few months after we obtained posses- 
 sion of it, is a proof how much may be learned of 
 the institutions and establishments of the native
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 337 
 
 governments, even in a short period, when en- 
 quiries are properly directed. After the occupa- 
 tion of the Peshwa's territories, the Governor-Gene- 
 ral was desirous of keeping the administration 
 separate from that of any of the presidencies, in 
 order to give a fair trial to an administration 
 grounded on that of the natives, under the general 
 superintendence of a few European collectors. 
 Scarcely a year elapsed after the complete termi- 
 nation of the war, when the commissioner was 
 appointed Governor of Bombay ; and subsequently 
 most of the judicial and revenue establishments 
 being introduced, this tract is now placed much on 
 the same footing as that of Guzerat. Some remark- 
 able differences, however, seem still to prevail. 
 The hereditary chieftains, who hold their lands 
 direct of us, as they did from the Peshwa, enjoy all 
 the privileges of superiority over their dependants 
 and tenants, as under his rule. They have the 
 sole management of their estates, both as to reve- 
 nue collections, police, and general jurisdiction, 
 without any government supervisors. This in- 
 dulgence does not appear to have been abused, 
 though its exercise must always depend on the 
 personal character of the chief; and experience, 
 as well as the general practice of all good 
 Hindoo management, has taught them to impose 
 light assessments on the lands. The revenues are 
 raised almost entirely by the local hereditary of- 
 ficers, at little or no additional expense j and botli 
 the fertility of their estates, and the condition 
 
 z
 
 338 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 of their tenants, sufficiently attest the excellence 
 of the system. They have the advantage of a 
 thorough knowledge of all its intricacies, which 
 they follow from habit, rather than from a convic- 
 tion of its superiority over any other ; and to this 
 they are frequently compelled to return, after 
 making great sacrifices in attempting alterations. 
 
 The administration of the Deccan during the 
 last ten years has tended to afford us more infor- 
 mation regarding the national institutions than has 
 been acquired in Bengal during the last sixty. 
 The advantage of the government being in the 
 hands of a person of extensive acquaintance with 
 the Hindoo governments was incalculable, not 
 only in acquiring the requisite information to place 
 him on a footing with his predecessors, but in be- 
 ing sufficiently aware of the importance of altering 
 nothing till the evil effects of its action could no 
 longer be misunderstood. 
 
 Candeish, the most northerly of the five divi- 
 sions, had suffered under a series of calamities of 
 war, rapine, and famine, for the preceding twenty 
 years, when it first came into our hands. The 
 northern part, constituting about half the district, 
 had formed a part of Akbur's government, and 
 there the measurement and assessment, according 
 to the quality of the crop, had once prevailed ; but 
 in later years no attention had been paid but to 
 the apparent capability of the cultivator to pay, 
 and the revenue, instead of being collected accord- 
 ing to any precise system, was extorted rather
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 339 
 
 than realized. The government of Aumngzeeb, 
 and his successors the Soobadars of the Deccan, 
 had effectually deprived the lands of their value, if 
 they were saleable in the time of Akbur ; and there- 
 fore that proprietory right which constitutes the 
 privilege of the village copartners in other parts 
 was destroyed. In the more southerly part of the 
 same district, the land had been restored to the 
 original proprietors by Mullik Umbur, who is said 
 to have confirmed, to the ancient hereditary village 
 occupants of fields, a right of sale. " * The lands 
 of the village were considered the joint property of 
 the township : the fallow land was the common for 
 the pasturage of the cattle ; and the ploughed land 
 was either the property of individuals, or cultivated 
 by tenants who received a portion of the crops." 
 With regard to the other landed tenures in Can- 
 deish, they were found to be numerous, but the 
 lands had for the most part been abandoned for 
 many years. All land held under more favourable 
 tenures than those of the ordinary cultivators (pay- 
 ing what is termed the full government assessment, 
 being at least one half of the produce), are deno- 
 minated wuttung, or household and hereditary : 
 they are saleable in all parts of the district, accord- 
 ing to the portion of exemption of land-tax, to 
 which they are entitled. 
 
 " "f Mullik Umbur' s village assessment, under 
 * Revenue Selections : Revenue Letter from Bombay, Nov. 
 1823. 
 
 f Revenue Letter from Bombay, 5th Nov. 1823. Mullik 
 Umbur, an Abyssinian, was the Regent of the last of the Princes 
 
 z 2
 
 340 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 the last of the Nizam Shahee princes, is said to 
 have been a fixed money payment, formed with re- 
 ference to a division of the crop, probably of two 
 fifths to the government, and three fifths to the 
 cultivator. He is believed to have revived and 
 confirmed the Meeras tenures." 
 
 It is to be observed, that throughout the new 
 territories the payments have long been made in 
 money, a practice which, while the rates are high, 
 invariably requires annual remissions. " Only in 
 rich and well situated land can he (the cultivator) 
 afford to pay one half without any distress. Mr. 
 Chaplin (the late commissioner) furnishes the fol- 
 lowing as the result of the information of the 
 collectors, and of his own enquiries, reducing the 
 several items to the scale of 100 : — 
 
 Gross produce, 100. 
 
 Sircar's share, - 35 
 
 Ryot's share, - 65 
 
 100 
 Of the ryot's share, fees to village officers, and 
 
 expense of cultivation, - 30 
 
 Maintenance of a family of six persons, 30 
 
 Saved after the above disbursement, - 5 
 
 Total 65." 
 Such rough and general calculations of the ave- 
 rage of a fixed money impost on the several de- 
 
 of Ahmudnuggur, and lived in the latter end of the sixteenth 
 century : he is quoted as the wisest financier of India.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 341 
 
 scriptions of lands, affected as they must be by the 
 variation and value of the crops, vicinity to mar- 
 kets, &c. must be very loose and uncertain. A 
 much more satisfactory proof of the rates being 
 moderate, is to be found in the following paragraph 
 of the same letter : " 40<2. Distraint of a ryot's 
 property for the realisation of the revenue is rarely 
 resorted to." 
 
 The cultivators in the Deccan, like those in 
 other parts, may be divided into three classes : 
 Meerasdars, or landed proprietors ; Oopries, 
 or permanent tenants ; and Wawandakurries, or 
 temporary tenants ; the former compose the per- 
 manent village community, or yeomanry. These 
 tenures vary in different parts, and are thus de- 
 scribed : — 
 
 " Paragraph 403. The existence of Wuttun, or 
 Meeras, prevails from the Kistna to the Ghauts, 
 which divide Gungturee from Candeish. It may 
 be allowed to be of considerable antiquity. Traces 
 of it are discovered in accounts of one hundred and 
 fifty years standing, but nothing certain is known 
 of the period of its institution.* Of late years the 
 heads of villages have commonly exercised the pri- 
 vilege of granting lands on Meeras tenure. The 
 Meeras Putter (grant) was delivered on payment 
 of a fee, varying from one to two rupees and a 
 half per beega. The tenure invariably confers 
 possession from generation to generation, as long 
 as the grantee or his heirs shall continue to pay 
 
 * Which is to say, that it is antecedent to recorded history. 
 z 3
 
 342 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 the government assessment, according to the esta- 
 blished usage of the village. 
 
 " 404. Though not drawn up with much pre- 
 cision, or uniformity of language, the deeds of 
 sale have been attested by the village managers, 
 and (barabullootee) twelve public officers, as wit- 
 nesses ; and the new Meerasdar used to make them 
 a present on the occasion. 
 
 " 405. The hereditary rights and privileges of 
 Meerasdars seem occasionally to be the result of 
 long possession, and regular uninterrupted pay- 
 ment of the same assessment. 
 
 " 406. Hindoo law authorities, and the practice 
 which has obtained, show that the heads of villages 
 have not an exclusive right to dispose of lands in 
 perpetuity ; but the government was often obliged 
 to connive at the practice. 
 
 " 407. The fees, or a portion of them, have 
 sometimes been paid to the government, or to pro- 
 pitiate the government officers, or to make up the 
 defalcation of the village rent, but most frequently 
 they were laid out in the improvement of the vil- 
 lage, or the repair of the temple, or public choul- 
 try (town hall). 
 
 " 408. The sale, gift, or mortgage of the Meeras 
 in the Deccan has been usual without obtaining 
 the permission of government, though it has some- 
 times interfered. The purchaser is bound to dis- 
 charge the public dues, according to the village 
 rates, whether the land be cultivated or not, re-
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 34*3 
 
 mission being only granted in case of great failure 
 of crops, or other serious calamity.* 
 
 " 409. A Meerasdar will sometimes let his land 
 for one half, a third, or a fourth of the produce, 
 which does not invalidate his right ; but while pre- 
 sent, and retaining his right on the land, he is re- 
 sponsible for the assessment: when absent, the cul- 
 tivator to whom he may have let his land pays the 
 government dues. The assessment, however, is 
 seldom lower than that paid by an ooprie tenant of 
 government land ; and when relinquished, is often 
 cultivated by an ooprie at a reduced rent, or on 
 cowl (agreement) for a term of years. From the 
 greater interest felt by the Meerasdar in the 
 improvement of his land, a temporary occupant 
 seldom makes it produce so large a return as the 
 owner : the difference is often found to be twenty- 
 five per cent. 
 
 " 410. The rent, supposed to have been origin- 
 ally fixed at one half, becomes a smaller portion as 
 the land is fertilised. That paid by the ooprie is 
 less ; for, having a precarious interest in the soil, 
 he must be compensated by a higher immediate 
 profit. 
 
 "411. A Meerasdar seldom abandons or dis- 
 poses of his wutlun (household land) but from 
 extreme necessity. If, through insolvency, he do 
 so, he meets with great forbearance, and can regain 
 
 * The law authorities are not referred to, and the writer has 
 just before stated, that practice is in its favour. The right never 
 belonged to the head man, but to the whole community. 
 
 z 4
 
 34f4> LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 possession on the close of any temporary lease of the 
 land. If, from long absence, it should have been 
 granted to another in Meeras, he will not be eject- 
 ed ; but very long dereliction is required by pre- 
 scription to constitute absolute divestiture. 
 
 " 412. Government can in such case dispose of 
 Meeras ; or, if the owner refuse to sow his land, he 
 may be compelled to give a deed of renunciation.* 
 Meeras is also forfeited by treason or rebellion, a 
 provision being usually allowed for the family. 
 
 " 413. It is liable to be split into very minute 
 shares, under the Hindoo laws of inheritance. 
 Though divided, it sometimes remains entered in 
 the name of the original possessor. This seems to 
 be the jut ha, or federative system, under which a 
 mutual responsibility exists for the payment of the 
 public revenue, and for the maintenance of the 
 widows and families of the deceased members of the 
 class. It is beneficial, and will be encouraged. 
 
 " 414. Excepting land which has been greatly 
 improved, meeras, when sold, does not fetch much 
 money (about two or three years' purchase), which 
 indicates that the assessment leaves but little to the 
 proprietor.t 
 
 " 415. The value of meeras is said not to have 
 
 * Unless the government tax be excessive, this can hardly 
 ever happen, for, if a proprietor could not cultivate it himself, 
 he could easily rent it to any tenant, merely on condition of the 
 latter paying the taxes. 
 
 f This observation is perfectly just, and the conclusion natural ; 
 but I myself have witnessed the sale' of rent-free lands in the 
 Deccan in the same year, at as high a rate as twenty, and even 
 thirty years' purchase.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 315 
 
 increased under our government, because the 
 ooprie tenure is now almost as valuable. 
 
 " 416. The privileges of a Meerasdar in the 
 Mawul districts are, exemption from several extra 
 cesses, a voice in the village council, right of pasture 
 on the village commons ; and he can build a house, 
 and dispose of it by sale." No other cultivator but 
 a member of the corporation can become the pro- 
 prietor of a house in the village. He may rent, 
 but can neither build nor purchase. 
 
 " In the eastern districts, in addition to these 
 privileges and some further exemptions, the Mee- 
 rasdar and his wife are entitled to precedency in 
 village ceremonies and meetings, and he can form 
 a more respectable connection than the Ooprie 
 marriages. 
 
 " 417. These immunities and privileges make 
 his situation superior to that of the Oopree. He 
 possesses personal consequence; andnotbeingliable 
 to ejectment, is animated to exertion and enter- 
 prise in the sure prospect of enjoying the fruits of 
 his labour. 
 
 "418. In some places, however, it has been 
 customary for government to participate in im- 
 provements. A tax of four or five rupees was laid 
 on each well, or the baghaet (garden) ; rates were 
 raised on dry land, when converted into garden. 
 This, tending to discourage improvements, is for- 
 bidden to be acted upon, except where it is the 
 established custom. Even there, a long cowl 
 (agreement) of twelve years' exemption from the 
 higher assessment, is allowed.
 
 310 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 " 119. A meerasputtee, or tax, is in some parts 
 levied once in three years, on the sanction of long 
 proscription. This may have originally been an 
 encroachment, but the meerasputtee seldom men- 
 tions more regarding the terms of assessment than 
 they shall be ' the customary rates.' 
 
 " 420. In Poona * (near the seat of the old go- 
 vernment) the proportion of Meerasdars to Oopries 
 is as three to one. In Ahmudnuggur they are 
 nearly equal. The relative proportions of their 
 lands cannot be ascertained but by a survey. In 
 Candeish, the number is small ; but that of old 
 hereditary ryots, who are nearly on the same footing, 
 is to that of temporary ryots as six to ten. 
 
 "421. The existence of meeras right becomes 
 less genera], and its distinction less apparent, to the 
 north, beyond the Godavery, and to the north-east 
 of the hills dividing Seogaum from Nuggur. 
 
 " 4'22. A priority of right to purchase meeras is 
 enjoyed in some parts of this collectorate by the re- 
 lations of the Meerasdars ; after them by the Patel ; 
 and then by the principal Meerasdars of the village, 
 before it can be sold to a stranger. The custom is 
 beneficial. 
 
 " l- l 23. There is no meeras in the southern Mar- 
 ratta country, nor in Beejapoor, and permanent 
 occupancy, though recognised, does not confer 
 similar advantages. 
 
 "424. The Commissioner (Mr. Chaplin) consi- 
 ders it desirable that a definite sum should be substi- 
 tuted for the present indefinite annual payments to 
 
 * The Poona collectorate.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 31-7 
 
 be rendered for meeras ; but considers a revenue 
 survey, which shall record what the assessment shall 
 be, as the only effectual security to the Meerasdar. 
 
 " 425. In Poona and Ahmudnuggur, a right is 
 supposed to exist in the villages to all Ghutkool, 
 i. e. meeras that has lapsed from the death or ab- 
 sence of the Meerasdar. But it is incompatible 
 with the undoubted right of the government to dis- 
 pose of it; and it would be unwise to allow that 
 right to be compromised under the existing rules 
 of assessment." The fact of the village community 
 demanding as a right the privilege of sharing in 
 common, or of renting the land of an absent 
 Meerasdar, ought to render the question one of 
 doubt, at least, and might warrant investigation. 
 That this right exists every where in Tondei- 
 mandelum has been shown, and most probably in 
 the Baugdar villages of Guzerat, in the lapse of a 
 bang, or share. It does not seem unlikely, there- 
 fore, that the same privilege may have once existed, 
 but has been encroached on in the Deccan ; and 
 at all events it is probable, if the question were to 
 be tried before two impartial judges, whose minds 
 were free from theoretical prejudices, that at least 
 one of them, if not both, would give the decision in 
 favour of the village corporation. 
 
 The opinion of the Bombay government is in 
 favour of the practice ; for in the same letter it is 
 observed : " para. i-5 ( J. It seems clearly to be esta- 
 blished, in the course of the Commissioner's view 
 of the Meeras tenure, that there does not exist in
 
 348 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 the village community any right to sell the waste 
 lands of the village ; but, considering how much 
 that community has the power to encourage, and 
 still more to discourage, new settlers, it appears 
 desirable to interest it in the extension of the 
 Meeras tenure, by allowing it to sell Ghutkool 
 lands as formerly, provided that the purchasers 
 shall take the land subject to the discharge of all 
 dues of government, and we have desired Mr. 
 Chaplin's opinion on the measure." 
 
 Before closing my observations on the actual 
 state of real property in India in general, it appears 
 necessary to advert to a source of revenue derivable 
 from landed property, which has hitherto not been 
 examined. The quit-rent, or fee on land, which 
 has been from time to time alienated for ever, 
 either in reward for service, or for the performance 
 of duties, has ceased to be demanded by our 
 government, and thus the lands may be deemed 
 essentially the allodial property of the families en- 
 joying them. These families are, for the most part, 
 possessed of wealth, which they object to employ 
 in business, from prejudice against trade; and, ex- 
 cepting in the maintenance of an extra number of 
 retainers in order to add to their own state and im- 
 portance, they diffuse their riches in a small degree 
 throughout the people, and contribute in a very 
 inadequate proportion to the burthens of the state. 
 
 Under the native governments, it was customary 
 for persons of this description to pay considerable 
 fees for the peculiar privileges they enjoyed. In
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 349 
 
 the case of district officers unemployed, and of the 
 proprietors of alienated lands, in some cases they 
 paid the usual government rates once in three 
 years, and in others one third annually, as a quit- 
 rent. This latter practice is probably the origin of 
 the quit-rent tenures, so common in Guzerat ; but 
 in the loose practice of renting districts annually 
 to revenue farmers, under the late government of 
 the Peshwa, the holders of alienated lands escaped 
 the tax to enforce which the immediate authority 
 and scrutiny of the government were requisite. 
 
 When no quit-rents were paid, the government 
 levied another imposition on this favoured class of 
 landholders, which was that of requiring heirs to 
 pay fees on succeeding to the estates. These were 
 levied according to circumstances, and were a very 
 legitimate source of the public revenue. Under 
 the Malabar Zamorins, where no land-tax existed, 
 the state was compelled to realise its revenue from 
 other sources, which do not appear to have been 
 few. Among others was the tax on property of 
 deceased Moplas, the foreign Mahomedan settlers 
 in that country, A similar tax was sometimes levied, 
 under the Marratta government, from wealthy 
 landed proprietors ; but much more depended on 
 the circumstances of the family, than on any esta- 
 blished principle. This subject is adverted to by 
 the Marquess of Hastings, in Bengal, as one that 
 merits attention ; but the Commissioner of the 
 Deccan has reduced it to a system, which is
 
 350 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 capable of becoming a fixed and advantageous 
 source of supply. He suggests, with reference to 
 former usage, half a year's revenue or income from 
 the land, as the rate of taxation on direct inherit- 
 ance, which, estimating the property to be saleable 
 at twenty years' purchase (most of which sells at 
 thirty years), would amount to only 9\ per cent, on 
 the whole value of the property. That three fourths 
 of a year's revenue be paid by collateral heirs, or 
 about 3f per cent., and a full year's revenue on the 
 succession of an heir adopted during the pro- 
 prietor's life ; 5 per cent, and one year and a quar- 
 ter's revenue, or 6f per cent, of the whole value of 
 the property, in cases where the widow of the 
 proprietor obtains permission of the government, 
 as is sometimes customary, to adopt a successor. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great success which has 
 attended the administration of the affairs of the 
 Deccan, according to the system of the native 
 government, it is thought that the rates of assess- 
 ment are too loose and undefined ; and it is certain 
 that the rights of individuals to the fields they 
 occupy is not sufficiently known. 
 
 The success of the survey under the Madras 
 presidency, and in the Guzerat provinces, in de- 
 veloping the resources of the country, has been 
 already adverted to. The assessment has been 
 adopted only in the former territory, while in the 
 latter no attempt to alter it has taken place j on 
 this subject, the governor has stated the following
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 351 
 
 powerful reasons for abstaining from interfering 
 with the present practice in Guzerat : — 
 
 " There can be no doubt of the advantages of 
 a survey : it shows the real state of the land ; it 
 prevents concealed cultivation, or encroachments of 
 rent-free fields on those belonging to government ; 
 it gives facility and precision to future assessment ; 
 and it prevents disputes about boundaries, either 
 between villages or individuals. 
 
 " But the question of a new assessment stands on 
 different grounds. It lias been pronounced by 
 the highest authorities to be indispensable to any 
 equitable settlement, on the ryotwar plan at least j 
 but it would make so complete a change in the 
 circumstances of all the cultivators in Guzerat, 
 that I feel disposed to pause before I entertain the 
 proposal. The extraordinary prosperity of the 
 ryots of Guzerat, on their present footing, takes 
 away all hopes of improving their condition by a 
 change ; while it increases the doubt, which would 
 be felt in any case, whether they may not be 
 losers by the alteration suggested. The settle- 
 ment of what each beegah is to pay hereafter 
 must be confided to numerous natives on low pay, 
 and if they are deficient either in honesty, dili- 
 gence, or judgment, it will be unjust; even suppos- 
 ing those qualities united, local experience would 
 still be required. The rent of each beegah I un- 
 derstand to depend on many minute particulars, 
 which it is impossible to appreciate without long 
 knowledge on the spot. The distance of the field
 
 352 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 from the village; of the village from a market-town ; 
 the precise degree of fertility of the ground, which 
 cannot be accurately provided for in any classifi- 
 cation : all these particulars render an assessment 
 difficult for a stranger ; and if a Punchayet (com- 
 mittee) of the neighbours is had recourse to, their 
 partiality or envy, obsequiousness or corrup- 
 tion, constantly interpose to prevent a just de- 
 cision. On the other hand, what a field has long 
 paid, we are sure it may continue ; and the suitable- 
 ness of the rent to the land is probably the result 
 of many unsuccessful experiments, which, if we 
 commence anew, we must expect to have to repeat. 
 To be sure of its not bearing hard on the people, 
 it would be necessary to make the new assess- 
 ment very low j and this, though it would have a 
 good effect in time, would occasion an immediate 
 loss of revenue. Even if the new assessment were 
 fair and accurate, it might still be unadvisable 
 merely because it was new, as every man's rate of 
 payments and consequently his circumstances, 
 would be altered ; and the inconvenience suffered 
 by him whose income is reduced, is out of all pro- 
 portion to the advantage gained by him whose pro- 
 fit has been augmented. A new assessment would 
 also require the new modelling, or more probably 
 the breaking up, of all Nerwa villages (villages cul- 
 tivated in lots) ; since, if each field is to be assessed 
 according to its actual value, it is almost impossible 
 that the proportion of the revenue now due by each 
 JPutteedar (under proprietor) should not be altered.
 
 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 353 
 
 The tenure of the Katta Coonbee (the cultivator 
 of an estate containing various sorts of land at a 
 fixed rate) would also be destroyed, as the unnatu- 
 rally high rent of his katta (superior land) must be 
 reduced, while that on his other land would perhaps 
 be raised ; but whether in the same proportion, or 
 more or less, would be uncertain. All veras (im- 
 posts) that fall on land, not alienated, must also be 
 abolished j for when the land paid all that was 
 deemed equitable in direct tenure, it could not be 
 taxed in any other form. I do not know if this 
 would be a loss to government or to the ryot, nor will 
 I pronounce that it would be in itself disadvanta- 
 geous; but it would certainly be a change, and ought 
 therefore to be examined on its own merits, before 
 a system is adopted to which it is a necessary con- 
 sequence. For these reasons, I should wish it to 
 be considered whether a general new assessment 
 be actually necessary, before it is undertaken." 
 
 These opinions were expressed in the early part 
 of 1821, and Guzerat has escaped the evils which, 
 I conceive, must arise out of such assessments. 
 The Commissioner in the Deccan, however, at- 
 tached to the practice and rules of the Ryotwar 
 school, strenuously recommended that the Deccan 
 should undergo a money assessment as well as a 
 survey ; and the Bombay government eventually 
 resolved to adopt that measure. 
 
 I shall hereafter proceed to show the difficulty 
 of rendering any assessment, which is to fix the 
 rate on the surplus produce of the land, stable, even 
 
 A A
 
 3.54 LAND-TAX IN BOMBAY. 
 
 for a very few years j and as to a permanent money 
 rent of land, there is no agriculturist in the uni- 
 verse who does not know from experience its im- 
 practicability. 
 
 I have taken no notice of the low tract along the 
 coast, lying between Goa and Surat, denominated 
 Northern and Southern Concan, as the enquiry 
 would lead to the developement of no new in- 
 formation.
 
 355 
 
 PART III. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 I have already exhibited the consequences that 
 have attended the several modes of raising the reve- 
 nues at the three presidencies. The Zemindarry 
 system of the Marquess Cornwallis has still its ad- 
 vocates, who point to the tracts of waste lands 
 brought into cultivation in the Zemindarry estates, 
 and to the general appearance of many parts of 
 Bengal and Behar, as evidences of its success. The 
 land-tax, which had before been fluctuating, and 
 difficult of collection, has, since the introduction 
 of the permanent settlement, been realised with a 
 regularity unknown till that period j while the 
 other branches of revenue are said to have in- 
 creased. That the government itself has benefited 
 by the measure, I am not prepared to deny; but 
 that the mass of the people has been rendered as 
 wealthy or happy as it might have been, had indi- 
 vidual rights been respected, is a point which is 
 contested, and which, according to the latest ac- 
 counts from the local authorities, seems every 
 where to be doubted. Wherever the mode of set- 
 
 A a °2
 
 356 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 tlement has been conducted through heads of 
 villages, and the managers of small districts, as has 
 been the case in the Dehly territory, and some- 
 times in the ceded and conquered countries, the 
 plan is said to have met with better success. The 
 land assessed triennially has yielded a considerably 
 increased tax ; but the rights of the occupants yet 
 require adjustment. The possession of the country, 
 during thirty years, has not brought us much 
 nearer to the point of information at which we 
 have been striving to arrive, than when we first 
 took possession. This appears to me still to be a 
 desideratum ; and, unless the same measures be 
 had recourse to which have been so successfully 
 adopted both at Madras and Bombay, to ascertain 
 and define private rights, we must continue in the 
 same state of ignorance for ever. 
 
 While the good effects of permanent Zemindarry 
 settlements are strenuously maintained by one 
 party, the evils of the subversion of private pro- 
 perty, by the sale of estates, are exhibited by 
 others. The advocates of the Zemindarry plan 
 point to the regulations, and the judicial courts, as 
 the means by which justice is always at hand. 
 They assert, and with truth, that private rights can 
 only be established by specific laws, or by reference 
 to custom : but let us see what is the state of the 
 question, with respect to landed property in India. 
 The Zemindar was constituted by law, in 1793, 
 the proprietor of the land: it is in vain to deny it : 
 the regulations, however, reserved to actual occu-
 
 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 357 
 
 pants their rights. These were supposed to consist 
 in the privilege of each cultivator occupying cer- 
 tain lands, on condition of paying the customary 
 tax annually for the same. Now it is, and was 
 then, notorious, that no certain sum either was or 
 could be fixed j that the amount, under the best 
 government, must vary annually according to cir- 
 cumstances ; and that rates differed in every vil- 
 lage. But there was this essential difficulty to 
 encounter: that, during the preceding fifty or 
 sixty years, at least, a constant struggle had ex- 
 isted between the cultivators to evade the tax, 
 and the Zemindar contractors, or collectors, to 
 exact the largest possible amount. It was alto- 
 gether a scene of anarchy and oppression : no 
 rule nor system, but that of extortion, had existed. 
 To escape from the trouble of enquiry, and to 
 avoid the determination of rights absolutely lost, 
 we granted to the Zemindars the exclusive pri- 
 vilege of — what ? Not of collecting according to 
 any fixed principle, but according to that usage 
 which had brought the country to the brink of 
 ruin. We confirmed to them the right of the 
 usual extortionary system, and compelled the cul- 
 tivator by law to submit to it. As a simple 
 example of this truth, let us suppose that a culti- 
 vator had paid, during ten or fifteen years, one year 
 with another, at an average of 100 rupees ; that 
 calamities, such as loss of cattle, loss of children, 
 or relations, who formerly aided him, were followed 
 by low prices of corn, it is clear the first grade to 
 
 a a 3
 
 358 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 inability to pay had already come upon him. The 
 Zemindar, however, insists on his making good his 
 payments of one hundred rupees : the cultivator 
 borrows, for one or two years, money to do so, 
 rather than be expelled from his lands, or than go 
 into a court of justice. At length, unable to hold 
 out any longer, he refuses to take the Zemindar's 
 agreement; and the latter, in his proprietary capa- 
 city, ejects the occupant. The latter now appeals 
 to the court : he states, with truth, that lie and his 
 ancestors have occupied the same land for ages ; 
 that he is no longer able to pay annually what 
 may be the amount of an average of years, but 
 he demands the right of occupancy, the right to 
 mortgage, to sell, or to let his lands himself; and, 
 I contend, those occupants whom we have seen 
 denominated Malicks, Ashrafs, Baugdars, Puttee- 
 dars, Meerasdars, Jenmikars, Cawnyatchikars, or 
 under whatsoever name we find them, in all parts 
 of India, have these rights. In this view of the 
 case, I would appeal to the whole judicial service 
 of Bengal, to know whether or not the sentence of 
 the court would not be passed in favour of the 
 Zemindar against the ryot. It could not be other- 
 wise : for the regulations require that the Zemindar 
 should be recognised, not as a farmer of revenue, 
 but as a proprietor of land. There are, however, 
 several descriptions of landholders, and mischief 
 may, in another point of view, be done : the Mal- 
 icks, the Khoodkasht, and th e Pay kasht, each having 
 specific rights ; the Talookdar, the Putteedar, the
 
 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 359 
 
 Byacharry cultivator, the petty Zemindar of the 
 village, the great Zemindar of the province or dis- 
 trict, and the Zemindar of the regulations, — the 
 latter usually some banker, shawl-merchant, ma- 
 nufacturer, private servant, perhaps the butler of 
 some great European, who purchases the proprie- 
 tary right of the regulations. These regulations 
 require that each estate, as the revenue farms are 
 denominated, should be sold entire to one indi- 
 vidual. In almost all cases, where the revenue of 
 single villages is contracted for, the joint copart- 
 nercy of the village land puts forth one of its mem- 
 bers to purchase. The community raises the money, 
 and it is paid ; but, owing to competition, the con- 
 tract is sometimes made at a sum beyond what 
 the village can afford. In one, two, or three years 
 the contracting Zemindar fails in his payments, the 
 estate is exposed to auction, and sold. A banker 
 becomes the purchaser, and the landed community, 
 the copartners, are dispossessed of their hereditary 
 lands, to make room for new tenants. Instances 
 are on record of whole estates being sold for the 
 recovery of a very insignificant balance of revenue, 
 one of which has lately been brought to my notice, 
 wherein, for a failure in payment of 1000 rupees 
 (100/.), the whole estate was sold, which brought 
 90,000 rupees, or 9,000/. sterling. To enumerate 
 all the instances of injury done to the small landed 
 proprietors, the frauds practised both on the Zemin- 
 dars, whether hereditary chieftains, or mere revenue 
 farmers, and on the government, by these sales of 
 
 A A 4
 
 360 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 estates, and the injustice to all classes of persons 
 concerned, would fill several volumes. They are 
 now acknowledged, I believe, by all those persons 
 who choose to read and rely on local Reports ; 
 while there are others, who, having left India many 
 years, and who^ have not witnessed these evils, 
 still dwell with delight on the perfection of the 
 scheme of the Marquess Cornwallis, and persist in 
 asserting that mischief can only arise w T here the 
 regulations are misunderstood, misapplied, or ne- 
 glected. 
 
 The Zemindarry system, under the Madras go- 
 vernment, has been more successful. Where reve- 
 nue contractors have been raised to the dignity of 
 great landholders, they have frequently been dis- 
 possessed ; but we owe it to the revenue inquiries, 
 first instituted under that presidency, that the 
 rights of the under-proprietors have been recog- 
 nised and protected. None of the ancient Zemin- 
 darries, left in the full management of their estates, 
 such as those of the northern Circars and the Pol- 
 lams, have been sold. Several of those which have 
 fallen into the hands of minors, or which have been 
 deeply mortgaged, and failed in their payments, 
 have been temporarily sequestrated, and placed 
 under European management, a provision being 
 made for the Zemindar's family. In the course of 
 a few years, these estates have been restored to the 
 owners, with the debts paid off, and considerable 
 balances paid to the family on its restoration. 
 This fact shows two things : first, that Zemindars
 
 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 36l 
 
 require this sort of aid to retain their lands ; and, 
 secondly, that it is absolutely necessary to prop the 
 system with the support of extraneous superinten- 
 dence, to prevent the whole from falling to the 
 ground. 
 
 In Bombay, the government, without adopting 
 either the one system or the other, seems to have 
 adhered steadily, for the most part, to the ancient 
 practice of the country, making its settlements 
 annually with the villages, through the agency 
 of their natural chiefs : in some instances, esti- 
 mating the revenue by the portions of the crop 
 assignable to government ; in others, receiving it 
 according to the rates of assessment belonging of 
 old to each village. Under this system, the pro- 
 vince of Guzerat, although occupied, for the most 
 part, by numerous restless, and formerly warlike 
 and predatory chiefs, seems to be in a more flou- 
 rishing condition than any portion of India. The 
 territory conquered from the Peshwa is said to be 
 gradually improving, though the symptoms of 
 wealth and comfort have yet by no means been 
 developed, as in the northern province alluded to. 
 
 The history of the Madras government, during 
 the last thirty years, tends to show that there has 
 been a contest between the advocates of the various 
 systems that have been there introduced ; and the 
 arguments with which each party has supported his 
 opinion merit consideration. 
 
 When we reflect on the fluctuating state of the 
 public finances, derivable almost wholly from the
 
 362 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 land, which existed in early times in Bengal, we 
 cannot be surprised at the desire expressed, both 
 by the authorities in England and India, to render 
 this resource more certain ; and in order to attain 
 that end, a permanent settlement of the land re- 
 venue appeared to be the great desideratum. The 
 only mode of effecting this object was to contract 
 with monied men for the land-tax, in the same 
 way as tolls, or other imposts, are farmed at pre- 
 sent in many countries in Europe. It is main- 
 tained, by those who support the expediency of 
 collecting the land revenue through the agency of 
 farmers of this description, that they should not 
 only be vested with authority to collect the rents 
 from the under proprietors of the soil, but that 
 they should be allowed to enjoy all profit derivable 
 from the cultivation of waste lands which they may 
 rent to tenants. 
 
 The proportion of the produce payable to the 
 state being fixed, the revenue farmer has no excuse 
 for increasing his demand on each cultivator ; 
 while, owing to his having a personal interest in 
 the improvement of the resources of his farm, it 
 evidently becomes his object to extend agriculture. 
 It is concluded, also, that courts of justice will suf- 
 ficiently protect the under proprietor or tenant 
 from oppression, and the revenue contractor from 
 fraud, and consequent loss. 
 
 This mode of farming the revenue is supposed to 
 leave the cultivators more free in their agricultural
 
 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 363 
 
 pursuits, than when superintended by the public 
 officers of government. 
 
 It is also argued that this mode of realising the 
 land revenue is of very great antiquity ; of which 
 there can be no doubt, for the class of officers 
 which we have every where found as hereditary 
 district magistrates, were also the collectors of 
 their divisions. It appears certain, however, that 
 in many parts their agency has been transferred to 
 strangers ; and the prevalent and successful system 
 of permanent leases to revenue contractors through- 
 out Malwa, under the government of Holkar, some 
 of whom, according to Sir John Malcolm, have 
 held the same farm from year to year, through 
 three and four generations, seem to prove the prac- 
 ticability of the measure under the native govern- 
 ments. 
 
 It is quite evident, where the land is subdivided 
 among a numerous body of small proprietors, that 
 it becomes necessary to have some intermediate 
 agent to collect it. If the assessment or tax be 
 light, there can hardly ever occur a plea for re- 
 quiring a remission ; but where the tax absorbs, 
 as in the British possessions in India, not only all 
 the landlord's profit, but usually a large proportion 
 of that which, in other countries, is deemed neces- 
 sary for the cultivator's subsistence and supply of 
 stock, it seems clear that remissions must be made 
 annually. In this state of the question, we have to 
 consider whether that remission is more likely to 
 be made with judgment and impartiality, through
 
 364 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 the agency of native public servants, under the 
 superintendence of a collector and his assistants, 
 or through the agency of a local contractor. In 
 the case of the former, if his salary is fixed, and 
 he has no motive to realise the taxes, beyond the 
 mere impulse of duty, it does not appear why he 
 should not act honestly and fairly in making the 
 requisite remissions in bad seasons ; but the means 
 of doing so efficaciously, and with justice both to 
 individuals and to the state, are points of much 
 more difficult attainment. On the other hand, if 
 it be admitted that our pecuniary necessities compel 
 us to adhere to the present rates of the land-tax, it 
 is evident that we cannot expect to realise the same 
 quantity, either of produce or of money, for many 
 years successively. In order to remedy this incon- 
 venience to the state, the native governments had 
 recourse to contractors, who were for the most part 
 landowners, or the hereditary officers of districts. 
 These made up in good years what they lost in bad. 
 The rights of individual proprietors were protected 
 by appeals to the financial department, the mem- 
 bers of which had no particular apparent interest 
 in favouring the contractor. 
 
 In favour of this species of agency, the following 
 has been quoted by its advocates : — 
 
 " The greatest misfortune of a country is an in- 
 digent tenantry. Whatever be the native advan- 
 tages of the soil, or even the skill and industry of 
 the occupier, the want of a sufficient capital confines 
 every plan, as well as cripples and weakens every
 
 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 365 
 
 operation of husbandry. This evil is felt where 
 agriculture is accounted a servile or mean em- 
 ployment ; where farms are extremely subdi- 
 vided, and badly furnished with habitations ; where 
 leases are unknown, or of short and precarious 
 duration. With respect to the encouragement 
 of husbandry, in this, as in every other employ- 
 ment, the true reward of industry is in the price 
 and sale of the produce. The exclusive right to 
 the produce is the only incitement which acts 
 constantly and universally, the only spring which 
 keeps human labour in motion : all, therefore, that 
 the laws can do, is to secure this right to the occu- 
 pier of the ground ; that is, to constitute such a 
 system of tenure, that the full and entire advantage 
 of every improvement go to the benefit of the im- 
 prover ; that every man work for himself, and not 
 for another ; and that no one share in the profit 
 who does not assist in the production. By the 
 occupier I here mean, not so much the person 
 who performs the work, as him who procures 
 the labour and directs the management ; and 
 I consider the whole profit as received by the 
 occupier when the occupier is benefited by the 
 whole value of what is produced, which is the case 
 with the tenant who pays a fixed rent for the use 
 of his land, no less than with the proprietor, who 
 holds it as his own. The one has the same inte- 
 rest in the produce, and in the advantage of every 
 improvement, as the other. Likewise the proprie- 
 tor, though he grant out his estate to farm, may be
 
 366 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 considered as the occupier, inasmuch as he regu- 
 lates the occupation by the choice, superinten- 
 dence, and encouragement of his tenants ; by the 
 disposition of his lands, by erecting buildings, pro- 
 viding accommodations, by prescribing conditions, 
 or supplying implements and materials of improve- 
 ment ; and is entitled, by the rule of public expe- 
 diency above mentioned, to receive, in the advance 
 of his rent, a share of the benefit which arises from 
 the increased produce of his estate. The violation 
 of this fundamental principle of agrarian policy, 
 constitutes the chief objection to the holding of 
 lands by the state, by the king, by corporate 
 bodies, by private persons, in right of their offices 
 or benefices. The inconvenience to the public 
 arises, not so much from the unalienable quality of 
 lands thus holden in perpetuity, as from hence: that 
 proprietors of this description seldom contribute 
 much, either of attention or expense, to the cultiva- 
 tion of their estates, yet claim by rent a share in 
 the profit of every improvement that is made. 
 This complaint can only be obviated by long leases, 
 at a fixed rent, which convey a large portion of 
 the interest to those who actually conduct the cul- 
 tivation. The same objection is applicable to hold- 
 ing of land by foreign proprietors, and in some 
 degree to estates of too great extent being placed 
 in the same hands." * 
 
 Such are the arguments used by the persons who 
 recommend that the land revenues of each district 
 
 * Hume's Essays.
 
 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 30j 
 
 should be farmed in perpetuity to a contractor ; and, 
 in order to give him additional interest in the farm, 
 that he should be allowed to let or sell, for his own 
 benefit, all the waste land fit for cultivation. 
 
 In answer to this it may be said, however desir- 
 able it may be to have agents for collecting the 
 revenue, with the means and the disposition to pro- 
 mote the welfare of the present proprietors of the 
 land (for proprietors, it seems, are everywhere 
 found to exist), there seems great reason to doubt, 
 that all persons who are disposed to speculate as 
 farmers of the revenue, are also fit to be intrusted 
 with so much discretionary power. Experience 
 shows that this power is liable to daily abuse ; and 
 although courts of justice are established to correct 
 these abuses, yet we find that they have failed : 
 that in Bengal ruin to individuals, whether Zem- 
 indars or village proprietors, has everywhere been 
 the result j and that in Madras the same evils, 
 though not so extensive, are reported to have oc- 
 curred j while, in many instances, the Zemindars and 
 their tenants have been only saved by the govern- 
 ment placing the estates under the direct manage- 
 ment of European agency. 
 
 One of the strongest arguments in favour of 
 Zemindarry agency for realising the land-tax is, that 
 the contractor is more directly amenable to the 
 local courts of justice than the European ryotwar 
 collector. The latter is screened by the regulations : 
 he is the sole arbiter of assessment : on his statement 
 and representation alone is the government, or
 
 368 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 rather the Board of Revenue, to rely for inform- 
 ation. The motives to prevent his oppressing the 
 cultivators ought not to exist. A per-centage on 
 the amount of collections is evidently an excite- 
 ment to over-assessment; and the approbation or 
 censure of government, awaiting the success of his 
 measures in filling the public coffers, are additional 
 stimulants to exactions. But these motives are feeble 
 compared with those of the revenue contractor, 
 whose very existence depends on the quantity of 
 money he can raise. Every rupee is to him clear 
 gain ; and great must be his virtue who can with- 
 stand so much temptation, supported by such regu- 
 lations. 
 
 Where we found hereditary chiefs exercising 
 authority almost regal, we had no alternative but 
 to recognise or to destroy them. In adopting the 
 former rule, in such cases, we were guided by motives 
 of sound policy; but we were not warranted in rais- 
 ing up a race of revenue contractors, to feed on the 
 harvest of the industrious landholder, and to render 
 him a landlord who was only a tax-man. 
 
 The following observations on this subject, by 
 one of the most acute revenue officers of Madras, 
 appear to be in point : — " * The laws and customs 
 which keep great estates together originated in 
 pride and fear. They were only suited to and 
 admitted into countries where the sovereign power 
 was weak. The great improvements in the police 
 as well as agriculture of Europe have chiefly re- 
 
 * Mr. Thackeray's Report, 4-th August 1807-
 
 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 369 
 
 suited from the breaking up of those overgrown 
 estates. It may be said that great estates never 
 existed in India : but the same kind of policy which 
 kept them united so long in Europe, produced 
 Poligars, Rajahs, and Zemindars. Force, official 
 convenience, anddefence, under weak governments, 
 seem to have produced these monsters in civil 
 society ; but as they were all officers of government, 
 pensioners, or petty princes, they seem neither to 
 have claimed nor exercised the rights of property 
 in the soil, nor did they interfere further than to 
 receive theCircar rents from the ryots: they affected 
 and still affect the style of princes. Where such 
 people existed it was proper to keep them quiet, and 
 convert a dangerous chieftain, if possible, into a 
 country gentleman of large estate ; but it was in 
 itself inconsistent with prospects of agricultural im- 
 provement. It might be state policy, but it was not 
 immediately adapted to increase the produce of 
 land, or the general opulence. To make a petty 
 prince, a great military or police officer, the land- 
 lord of an immense tract of country, including 
 towns, and rivers, and forests, and mountains, and 
 roads, might have been prudent, just as war, as 
 expense, as sacrifice of territory are sometimes pru- 
 dent: but it could never effect the improvement 
 of agriculture, or increase the general prosperity, 
 except indirectly, by securing the state from the 
 opposition, and even rebellion, which those chief- 
 tains might have excited. It indeed produced ad- 
 vantage to the country, by limiting the demand of 
 
 B B
 
 370 THE ZEMINDARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 government : but demand may be limited without 
 creating great landlords, or rather great farmers of 
 revenue. To convert an hereditary office, a juris- 
 diction, or military district (an office which, at most, 
 could be considered a kind of incorporeal pro- 
 perty), into a parcel of land, into absolute partible 
 property in the soil, appears to be doing what the po- 
 licy of Europe has been labouring for ages to undo." 
 The advantages or disadvantages of the Zemin- 
 darry system, as it prevails at present, may be thus 
 stated. It fixes the demand on the land ; it encou- 
 rages the extension of cultivation ; it increases the 
 wealth of the Zemindar ; it renders the land-tax sure, 
 and easy of collection ; and it reduces the expense 
 of the civil establishment. On the other hand, 
 in Bengal it has subverted the rights of the real 
 proprietors, and given them to speculators and 
 contractors ; it has a tendency to create numerous 
 agents (all of whom must have their profits) between 
 the landholder and the government ; it is open to 
 great abuse, from the power vested in Zemindars, who 
 too frequently expel the real proprietors by raising 
 their taxes j it precludes the possibility of doing 
 justice, owing to the rights of the cultivators being 
 undefined ; it exposes whole estates to be sold, for 
 the recovery even of small balances of revenue ; 
 it overthrows the whole municipal system of the 
 country, by depriving the people of their natural 
 and hereditary village chiefs; and, lastly, it is, 
 as now established, an entirely novel invasion of 
 the ancient usages and institutions of the people.
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 371 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 If the ryotwarry plan had done nothing more than 
 afford us the complete information we now possess 
 of the agricultural economy, and the condition of 
 landed tenures, wherever it has been extended, it 
 would be deserving of all the eulogy which has 
 been bestowed on it on that score. Until land 
 surveys were adopted, we were, in truth, embar- 
 rassed at every step we took ; we were surrounded 
 by a maze of obscurity, through which no human 
 foresight could penetrate ; and we hastily adopted 
 such projects of finance as promised something like 
 permanency, without enabling us to perceive all the 
 effects which so blindfold a proceeding must have 
 on the general happiness of the people, or on the 
 future prosperity of the country. 
 
 But the projectors of the ryotwar scheme were 
 not satisfied with discovering the superficial extent 
 of the land, and of recording the registered rights 
 of individuals ; they went further, and resolved to 
 frame a standard money assessment, intended to 
 protect the cultivator from illegal exactions, and to 
 ensure to him for ever the full benefit of pro- 
 gressive improvements. One of the leading prin- 
 ciples of the ryotwar school is to claim the soil for 
 
 b b 2
 
 3J2 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED, 
 
 the government. It denies the existence of various 
 tenures ; it assumes all the cultivators to have equal 
 rights, and that these rights are confined to the oc- 
 cupancy of their fields as long as they pay the 
 government demands. The object of the survey 
 being to fix these demands, the following proceed- 
 ing was adopte 4 d : — The amount of the whole col- 
 lections of each village, during ten years, was de- 
 rived from the local records, and an average was 
 struck, which, compared with the average quantity 
 of land sown, gave the gross amount of land-tax 
 derived. I have already shown how erroneous this 
 mode of calculation must have been. It was ad- 
 mitted that the districts, on coming into our hands, 
 were found to be impoverished by over exactions 
 and bad management. This did not, however, 
 suggest itself as a reason for our exacting less : on 
 the contrary, those very exactions were the stand- 
 ard to which our new assessments were referred. 
 The mode of making these assessments was less 
 accurate than those lately proposed to be made ; 
 and the result was, that, after the most favourable 
 remissions, the government share of the produce 
 was found to be equal to forty-five per cent. This 
 tax was fixed as the maximum ; and, in conse- 
 quence, it became necessary to enter into the 
 minute detail of good and bad crops of every 
 field, to warrant a departure from it according to 
 circumstances. The rate of remission was left to 
 the discretion of the collector, or his assistants, and 
 their native agents. As the full assessment was
 
 THE ltYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. SJS 
 
 never realised, it being confessedly beyond what 
 the country could yield, we may justly conclude 
 that it was originally founded on error. It seems 
 likely that the sum paid by the village might have 
 been tolerably correctly entered in the village re- 
 cords, though Sir Thomas Munro has stated that, 
 in his life, " he never knew a Coolcurny (village 
 accountant) give a correct account." Besides the 
 number of acres actually recorded as cultivated, 
 there were thousands of others which, though 
 under the plough, were never acknowledged to 
 have been so, till discovered by the survey : it seems 
 evident that an average assessment of a certain sum 
 of money, distributed over those acres only re- 
 corded in the books, must have been essentially 
 false. Moreover, as the greatest experience of 
 practical agriculturists and political economists 
 admits the necessity of allowing two thirds to the 
 cultivating tenant, in all parts of the world, it must 
 be considered a radical defect of any scheme of 
 assessment that fixes forty-five per cent, as the 
 share of the government, even granting that the 
 king be the true proprietor of the soil. 
 
 But let us hear what says a pupil of the ryotwar 
 school, and one of its great admirers, on this subject. 
 In writing from Coimbetore, twenty-four years after 
 the assessment was fixed, and the ryotwar settle- 
 ment introduced, he says: " * A survey affords 
 a good general standard, but is too unequal to be 
 the sole rule of assessment. If, indeed, the survey 
 
 * Mr. Thackeray's Report from Coimbetore, 4th Oct. 1S17. 
 I! 15 3
 
 374 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 had been equal at first, and would continue so, no 
 loss would result from this freedom ; because the 
 rent being everywhere exactly proportioned to the 
 value of the land, the ryot, wherever he went, and 
 whatever extent of land he occupied, would have 
 to pay the proportionate rent. But no survey rate 
 can be so nicely adjusted at first ; and if it could, 
 would soon change. The value and rent of land 
 fluctuate like the value of any thing else. But 
 even at first we cannot so easily appraise earth ; and 
 if we could, ten thousand mistakes must find their 
 way into a survey. Frauds cannot be prevented, 
 and erroneous principles are frequently adopted. 
 
 " Our survey, as it now stands, may be nearer 
 than the beezwarie (estimate of produce by the 
 seed sown) of the native governments ; but we 
 have attempted too much if we proposed to make 
 the survey the sole rule of assessment. If we made 
 it the sole rule here, and allowed the ryots to throw 
 up what lands they pleased, we should lose above 
 half a lac of pagodas : if we demanded the whole 
 survey rate on the whole of the lands, we should 
 ask for nearly a lac and a half of pagodas more 
 than the country can pay. 
 
 " The annual operation of settling the jumna- 
 bundy*, in valuable puTCUTt estates, is expensive 
 and troublesome, fetters agriculture, and opens a 
 door to the disputes, frauds, and errors which may 
 be supposed to find their way into the annual ad- 
 justment of a hundred thousand accounts current, 
 
 * Annual Assessment. f Farms.
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 375 
 
 where so many interests are concerned, and so 
 many circumstances are to be taken into consider- 
 ation." He thus describes the process of the an- 
 nual settlement : ':* The jumnabundy begins in 
 November or December, according to the season, 
 and goes on till the end of the year, when there are 
 generally some claims to remissions still left to be 
 settled. It is a struggle the whole time between 
 the ryots and revenue officers, to keep up revenue 
 on the one side, and to evade payment on the 
 other." " There is no doubt of the great advantage 
 of some permanent settlement in every respect; 
 many of its practicability : here the people, if not 
 impoverished, are debased and suspicious. After 
 so many years of peace and plenty, it is lament- 
 able to find the revenue less secure, the people less 
 respectable, and perhaps intelligent, the servants less 
 to be depended on, and private rights not more cer- 
 tain and secure than when the province first came 
 under the Company's government. The system 
 here (as everywhere else) has been to make the 
 cutcherry (office) of the collector the focus of all 
 business, the depository of all power, the source of 
 all influence, the arbiter of the fortunes of the 
 landed proprietors, the controller-general of agri- 
 culture and commerce. The collector not only 
 regulated whether rent should be paid, but whether 
 half or quarter rent. The most intelligent and 
 active collector will make not unfrequent mis- 
 takes ; but where, from whatever cause, he ne- 
 glects his duties, the worst abuses follow. It gets 
 
 i? b 4
 
 376 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 more difficult, every day, to carry on the present 
 system of temporary expediency ; and the govern- 
 ment may lose more by the struggle between the 
 revenue officers and ryots, than by giving up what 
 may be necessary to induce them to come to some 
 permanent terms. The revenue officers must not 
 give up the just rights of the government ; they act 
 at their peril, and must be considered the stewards 
 of a great landlord rather than, as formerly, the 
 representatives of the government." 
 
 The source of many of the evils of the ryotwar 
 system of management consists in the principle of 
 fixing a maximum money assessment, seldom if 
 ever paid ; and one of the most mischievous effects 
 of the proceeding is that the amountvaries annually. 
 At the period of making the annual settlements, 
 there is a constant struggle between the cultivators 
 and the government officers for remissions — remis- 
 sions on which the collector (the only public servant 
 of the establishment placed beyond the temptation 
 of corruption) cannot possibly decide in person. 
 He depends, therefore, on the statements of his 
 native assistants, who, when we consider how ill 
 they are paid, we cannot expect to be honest under 
 the vast temptation offered by the contribution of 
 a whole district in order to obtain a favourable 
 settlement. It is, too, notorious that the revenue 
 servants are all more or less corrupt, not only owing 
 to the temptation in which they are placed, but 
 also from the familiar practice, under all native 
 governments, of receiving fees and remunerations
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 377 
 
 for services rendered. Corruption of this nature 
 is with them scarcely deemed criminal under the 
 native states, as it makes part of the perquisites of 
 office ; and until we pay our native assistants more 
 liberally, we cannot hope to be better served. The 
 whole series of our administration at Madras points 
 out the inefficiency of any means hitherto adopted, 
 under the ryotwar system, to prevent fraud and 
 corruption. The exclusion of the power of courts 
 of justice is an inherent part of it, and is necessary 
 for its support; while that very exclusion places 
 the whole country at the mercy of every collector, 
 whether young or old, inexperienced or wise, to 
 assess at will, seeing that the maximum is unattain- 
 able, and that the produce is always fluctuating. 
 
 It is in vain the ryotwar collectors talk of fixing 
 the rents, if they are so far beyond the practicability 
 of payment as 45 per cent, of the gross produce. 
 Another objection to the ryotwar settlement is, 
 that it confounds all ranks of society ; it encroaches 
 on the rights of the real landed proprietor, and 
 reduces him to a level with his tenant ; and it tends 
 to dissolve the unity of village communities, which 
 I conceive it should be our especial object to keep 
 entire. The ryotwar system has the additional 
 disadvantage of disuniting the heads of districts 
 and villages from the people. Their natural-born 
 chiefs are humiliated under the plea of affording 
 the inhabitants more complete protection : whereas 
 the identity of interest of an hereditary magistrate 
 or alderman of a community with the corporation
 
 378 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 is too clear to need illustration. Theory may 
 suggest the possibility of abuse of authority, but 
 experience affords ample proofs of the benefit of 
 preserving the efficiency of village magistrates, in 
 preference to a system which degrades them. As 
 the ryotwar settlement and assessment has still many 
 advocates, as it has been strenuously upheld by the 
 authorities in England, and as the late Sir Thomas 
 Munro has added the weight of his great name to 
 its support, it seems proper to examine whether a 
 ryotwar assessment, such as is recommended by 
 one of the most able and accomplished disciples 
 of that school, is likely to be successful. The 
 ryotwar assessments, hitherto made in the Madras 
 provinces, were supposed to take 45 per cent, of 
 the gross produce for the government. The expe- 
 rience of thirty years proved that this portion 
 could never be realised ; and accordingly we find, 
 in the assessment recommended by the Commis- 
 sioner in the Deccan in 1825, a modification of 
 those rates. In these instructions it is said, " One 
 half of the gross produce of dry land is usually 
 considered the government share ; but, to enable 
 the ryots to thrive, the proportion must always 
 have been smaller. To exact the half would cer- 
 tainly fall heavily : of one hundred, therefore, sixty 
 may be considered the share of the cultivator, and 
 forty of the circar. In baghaet land, watered from 
 wells, of which the expense of cultivating is greater 
 than the dry lands, seventy rupees may be left to 
 the ryot to reimburse him, and thirty taken as the
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 379 
 
 government portion. In wet land, or baghaet 
 watered by tanks, out of one hundred gross pro- 
 duce, sixty-five may be fixed as the share of the 
 cultivator, and thirty-five as the share of the 
 circar." 
 
 " The fixing of the assessment of waste land is 
 no less an important operation than that of defining 
 the rent (tax) of those that are cultivated ; for it 
 has been found from experience, that where they 
 have been rated too low, in consequence of their 
 being waste, the stock of the ryots has afterwards 
 been transferred to them from the cultivated lands, 
 to the great detriment of the revenue : great stress 
 has therefore, in the instructions to assessors, been 
 laid on the subject of relatively equalising the rent 
 of waste and cultivated land." * 
 
 From these instructions we gather, that 30, 35, 
 and 40 per cent, of the gross produce, estimated 
 in money, is to be fixed as the demand of govern- 
 ment ; and that great care must be taken not to 
 induce the cultivators to transfer their stock from 
 lands paying the full revenue, to the waste paying 
 a lighter tax. The whole instructions! form a 
 curious specimen of the laborious attempts made 
 to render money assessments permanent, but they 
 are too long for insertion. The little success of all 
 former ryotwar assessments does not seem to deter 
 others from persisting in the attempt to fix money 
 
 * Letter from the Commissioner in the Deccan, 25th Feb. 
 1825. 
 
 f Revenue Selections, vol. iii. pp. 861 — 882.
 
 380 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 taxes on land, exceeding the rent : whereas it is 
 notorious that money is the most fluctuating me- 
 dium that has ever been devised, and thus we find 
 that the rents in England vary every five or ten 
 years. To attempt to frame any standard of this 
 nature as a measure of finance must inevitably fail, 
 as it always hitherto has done. * 
 
 Dr. Smith remarks*, " Rentt not only varies with 
 the fertility of land, whatever be its produce, but 
 with its situation, whatever be its fertility. Land 
 in the neighbourhood of a town gives a greater rent 
 than land equally fertile in a distant part of the 
 country. Though it may cost no more to cultivate 
 one than the other, it must always cost more to 
 bring the produce of the distant land to market." 
 
 " Good roads, canals, and navigable rivers, by 
 diminishing the expense of carriage, put the remote 
 parts of the country more nearly upon a level with 
 those in the neighbourhood of the town." 
 
 " X Such parts only of the produce of land can 
 commonly be brought to market of which the 
 ordinary price is sufficient to replace the stock 
 which must be employed in bringing them thither, 
 together with its ordinary profits. If the ordinary 
 price is more than this, the surplus part of it will 
 naturally go to the rent of land. If it is not more, 
 though the commodity may be brought to market, 
 
 * Wealth of Nations, vol. i. chap. xi. pp. 234, 235. 
 f Rent is generally admitted to be about one third of the 
 gross produce. 
 X Wealth of Nations, vol. i. chap. xi. pp. 231.
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 381 
 
 it can afford no rent to the landlord. Whether the 
 price is or is not more depends on the demand." 
 
 " * In forming a register of the different classes 
 of landed property, it is very difficult to ascertain 
 the several differences, and still more so to find 
 people who have no interest in mistaking them. 
 This creates two kinds of injustice : that which is 
 in the officer of government, and that which is in- 
 herent in the thing itself. But if) on the whole, 
 the tax be not excessive, if it still leaves plenty to 
 the people, these particular inequalities are of no 
 moment. If, on the contrary, nothing is left to 
 the people but what is precisely necessary for their 
 existence, the least disproportion will be of the 
 greatest importance." 
 
 " t A land-tax (observes Dr. Smith), assessed 
 according to a general survey and valuation, how 
 equal soever it may be at first, must, in the course 
 of a very moderate period of time, become unequal. 
 To prevent it becoming so would require the con- 
 tinual and painful attention of government to all 
 the variations in the state and produce of every 
 different farm in the country. The governments 
 of Prussia, of Bohemia, of Sardinia, and the Duchy 
 of Milan actually exert an attention of this kind : 
 an attention so unsuitable to the nature of govern- 
 ment that it is not likely to be of long continu- 
 ance ; and which, if continued, will probably, in 
 the long run, cause much more trouble and vex- 
 
 * Montesquieu, l'Esprit tie Loix, book xiii. chap. 7. 
 f Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. p. 286, 287.
 
 382 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 ation than it can possibly bring relief to the cul- 
 tivator. 
 
 " In 1666, the generality of Montauban was 
 assessed to the real or predial taille, according, it 
 is said, to a very exact survey and valuation. By 
 1727, this assessment had become altogether un- 
 equal. In order to remedy this inconvenience, go- 
 vernment has found no better expedient than to 
 impose upon the whole generality an additional tax 
 of a hundred and twenty thousand livres. But it 
 is imposed only on those where the tax is supposed 
 to be light, in order to make up for the remissions 
 granted where the assessment has become heavy. 
 The application is pretty much regulated according 
 to the discretion of the intendant of the generality, 
 and must therefore be in a great measure arbi- 
 trary." 
 
 The practice forced on Montauban, by the in- 
 equality of money assessments, has spread through- 
 out every part of Europe where it prevailed. The 
 assessment, originally light, has, owing to the 
 greater improvement of some lands, and the dete- 
 rioration of others, become altogether unequal. 
 But as this tax falls on the landlord who receives a 
 rent, and not on the tenant who subsists by his 
 labour, it affects the proprietor, whose land sells, 
 not only with regard to its fertility, but with refer- 
 ence to the rate of tax also. Were our own expe- 
 rience in India, and the experience and opinions of 
 the soundest political economists and practical 
 financiers in Europe, not sufficient to prove the fu-
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 383 
 
 tility of any attempt at a permanent lyotwar settle- 
 ment in money, whether with reference to the sum 
 total of collections of villages, or with reference even 
 to the produce of fields, the tables given in Play- 
 fair's edition of Smith's " Wealth of Nations," of 
 the rates of the price of corn in England, from 
 1202 to 1805, a period of six hundred years, must 
 convince us of the fallacy [of such a project. A 
 few examples from the tables may be convenient 
 to the general reader. 
 
 From 1202 to 1223, the average price of wheat 
 appears to have been 1/. 16s. 4<d. Let us suppose 
 an assessment, made with the utmost possible accu- 
 racy, setting aside all the difficulties of arriving at 
 that perfection, at one third of the gross produce, 
 being 12s. l^d. Let us, for the sake of argument, 
 imagine this assessment to have been made in the 
 year 1215 ; and that, owing to the money value of 
 wheat, the peasant had paid this tax for eight 
 years. Let us now examine the recorded value of 
 wheat during the very next twenty-one years, and 
 we shall perceive that, so far from being enabled to 
 pay a tax of 12s. \\d. t the cultivator never ob- 
 tained, during the whole period, in any one year, 
 a higher price than 10s. for the quarter of wheat, 
 and during the greater part of the twenty-one 
 years he only received 6s, j the whole gross pro- 
 duce being, in the latter case, less than one half 
 the amount of the tax. But do not let it be sup- 
 posed that this is an unfair example. During the 
 ensuing forty-five years the average price of wheat
 
 384 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 rose to 4>L 12s. Gel. Had the assessment been made 
 at that time, the tax, if only one third, would have 
 amounted to 1/. 10s. lOd. : whereas during the 
 next forty years the entire average produce was 
 1/. 18s. 8d., and during the succeeding century did 
 not exceed 11. 3s. per quarter. In the following 
 hundred years the average amounted to only 12s. \d. 
 the quarter. These calculations are made in the 
 money of the present day, and will be better 
 understood by reference to the tables themselves.* 
 At what period, I ask, would the ryotwar assessors 
 of the money value, of one third or two fifths of 
 the produce, wish to have made their settlement ; 
 and were it now made, is it likely the revenue 
 could be collected without remissions for ten years 
 together ? 
 
 * The following abstract of Dr. Smith's tables may save the 
 reader the trouble of reference to them.
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 38.5 
 
 Abstract from Dr. Smith* s Tables of the Average Prices of 
 Com in England, between the Years 1202 and 1805. 
 
 Printed in Professor Playfair's Edition of 1805. 
 
 
 Number of 
 
 Average Price 
 
 Highest Price 
 
 Lowest Price 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years for each 
 
 during 
 
 during 
 
 during 
 
 
 Period. 
 
 each Period. 
 
 each Period. 
 
 each Period. 
 
 1202 
 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1223 
 
 21 
 
 1 16 4 
 
 2 3 
 
 16 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1244 
 
 21 
 
 8 If 
 
 10 - 
 
 6 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1289 
 
 45 
 
 4 12 6 
 
 16 16 
 
 1 8 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1338 
 
 41 
 
 1 18 8 
 
 5 18 6 
 
 6 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1369 
 
 41 
 
 1 8 10 
 
 3 2 2 
 
 5 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1416 
 
 46 
 
 1 8£ 
 
 1 17 4 
 
 8 11 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1451 
 
 35 
 
 1 1 Si 
 
 2 13 4 
 
 8 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1497 
 
 46 
 
 14 1 
 
 1 17 
 
 3 8 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1560 
 
 63 
 
 10 0^ 
 
 1 10 
 
 2 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1601 
 
 41 
 
 2 7 5i 
 
 4 12 
 
 8 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1636 
 
 35 
 
 2 6 
 
 2 18 
 
 1 8 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1670 
 
 34 
 
 2 13 1± 
 
 4 5 
 
 1 6 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1700 
 
 30 
 
 2 9 1 
 
 3 11 
 
 15 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1733 
 
 33 
 
 2 2 
 
 3 18 
 
 1 6 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1750 
 
 27 
 
 1 13 9 
 
 2 3 
 
 1 4 3 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1764 
 
 14 
 
 19 
 
 1 16 2 
 
 10 7 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1799 
 
 35 
 
 2 7 
 
 3 3 5 
 
 2 3 2 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 1805 
 
 6 
 
 4 1 6£ 
 
 5 18 
 
 2 12 4 
 
 c c
 
 386 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 It was a knowledge of this inequality between 
 the relative value of corn and currency, and the 
 fluctuating nature of agricultural produce, that 
 induced the Chinese and the Indians, and all 
 other nations, to regulate the public demands by 
 the crops, — a measure which the Mahomedans 
 adopted till the last, as has been shown, but which 
 it has been the chief aim of our administration 
 to abandon. 
 
 The complete failure of all our former ryotwar 
 assessments has been every where acknowledged. 
 The public records teem with proofs of the neces- 
 sity of reducing them ; and no one has been more 
 loud in his demand for a moderate assessment than 
 Sir Thomas Munro himself: what are his notions 
 of moderation have already been apparent. One 
 third of the produce paid to government, he con- 
 ceives, would render land a valuable saleable com- 
 modity. * 
 
 The candour of Colonel Read, who had derived 
 an experience of five years' trial, is not more ad- 
 mirable than his labour and zeal were indefatigable. 
 In addressing his assistants, requiring their opinion 
 of the system, he observes : — 
 
 * In order to ascertain, by practical experience, the advan- 
 tages of agricultural pursuits, the author occupied from twenty 
 to sixty acres of arable land for seven years, which he rented 
 of proprietors, and cultivated through the agency of servants. 
 The result was much the same as if he had made the experiment 
 in England. The surplus, after expenses, fell considerably 
 short of one fourth even of the produce to pay the rent to 
 the proprietor. It need hardly be added, that the extension of 
 such a farm would have been ruinous.
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 387 
 
 " * Paragraph 8. The process is no doubt curious, 
 and a proof of what may be done by the extraor- 
 dinary means in the power of Indian collectors ; but 
 the difficulty of performing it, likewise proves the 
 machine employed in conducting the business of 
 revenue to be too complicated and unwieldy for 
 the purpose. It always has been so in the country ; 
 and, of consequence, it has always been getting out 
 of order, unless when directed by uncommon vigi- 
 lance and attention. We have thought we could 
 mend it, and in some respects succeeded ; but, in 
 having refined the old system, we have added more 
 wheels, rendered it more complicated, and, of 
 course, more unfit for carrying on the various 
 branches of revenue economy. " 
 
 " Para. 9. The radical defect in it appears to be 
 our over assessment, which augments the public, and 
 reduces the private property in the soil, to such a 
 degree as to involve the necessity of ousting all 
 between government and the cultivators, and mak- 
 ing their concerns the objects of its attention. 
 That is the principal objection to the lease : it 
 impedes agriculture, and obstructs the ordinary 
 course of justice." 
 
 The Madras Board of Revenue have thus de- 
 scribed the ryotwar system : — " Ignorant of the 
 true resources of the newly acquired countries, as 
 of the precise nature of their landed tenures, we 
 find a small band of foreign conquerors no sooner 
 obtaining possession of a vast extent of territory, 
 
 * Col. Read to his Assistants, 12th April 1798. 
 c c 2
 
 388 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 peopled by various nations, differing from each 
 other in language, customs, and habits, than they 
 attempt what would be deemed an Herculean task, 
 or rather a visionary project, even in the most 
 civilised countries of Europe, of which every statis- 
 tical information is possessed, and of which the 
 government and the people are one ; viz. to fix a 
 land-rent — not on each province, district, or 
 country, nor on each estate or farm — but on every 
 separate field in their dominions. In pursuit of 
 this supposed improvement, we find them unin- 
 tentionally dissolving the ancient ties which united 
 the republic of each Hindoo village, and, by a 
 kind of agrarian law, newly assessing and parcel- 
 ling out the lands which, from time immemorial, 
 had belonged to the village community collectively, 
 not only among the individual members of the pri- 
 vileged order (the Meerasdars and Kudeems, or 
 ancients), but even among the inferior tenantry 
 (Pyacarries) ; we observe them ignorantly denying, 
 and by their denial abolishing private property in 
 the land ; resuming what belonged to a public 
 body (the rental to all the proprietors), and con- 
 ferring in lieu of it a stipend in money on one 
 individual*; professing to limit their demand on 
 each field ; and in fact, by establishing for such 
 limit an unattainable maximum, assess'mg the ryot 
 
 * The fees of every alien cultivator, payable to the village 
 community, were abolished ; and in lieu of it, a head man was 
 selected by the government, and paid in money for the per- 
 formance of his duty as a magistrate.
 
 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 389 
 
 at discretion ; and, like the Mussulman government 
 which preceded them, binding the cultivator by 
 force to the plough ; compelling him to till land 
 acknowledged to be over assessed ; dragging him 
 back if he absconded ; deferring their demand 
 upon him until his crop came to maturity ; then 
 taking from him all that could be obtained, and 
 leaving to him nothing but his bullocks and seed 
 grain ; nay, perhaps, obliged to supply him even 
 with these in order to enable him to resume his 
 melancholy task of toiling for others." 
 
 The advantages or disadvantages of the ryot- 
 warry system may be thus stated : — 
 
 It professes to grant to every individual, in per- 
 petuity, a certain spot of land ; it professes to limit 
 the demand for ever on that land ; it endeavours 
 to alleviate, according to circumstances, the bur- 
 then of the assessment, without increasing it; it 
 pretends to guard the cultivator from over taxation 
 by the village officers for parish rates ; and it defines 
 rights. On the other hand, in many instances, it 
 confers the property of landlords on tenants : the 
 limitation of the demand being from 30 to 40 per 
 cent, of the gross produce, if taken in grain even, 
 would absorb the whole profit ; but taken at a 
 fixed money rate, it makes the burthen fluctuate, 
 and when the fluctuation turns against the culti- 
 vator, it must end in ruin. From the very nature 
 of the tax, remissions become necessary ; and an 
 annual assessment is made, open to the greatest 
 abuses, eternally placing the cultivator and the 
 
 c c 3
 
 390 THE RYOTWARRY SYSTEM CONSIDERED. 
 
 government officer in a state of opposition to each 
 other, producing thereby chicane on the one 
 hand, and corruption on the other. It subverts 
 the established order of society, by reducing all 
 classes to the same level. It requires enormous 
 civil establishments, and demands the agency of ex- 
 traordinary talents, zeal, and integrity throughout 
 every branch ; and, lastly, it is a novel invasion of 
 the ancient usages and institutions of the people.
 
 391 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 SYSTEMS. 
 
 Lhe ancient history and form of the Hindoo go- 
 vernment have been examined ; those of the Ma- 
 homedans have been explained; the revenue systems 
 of the three Presidencies in India under our own 
 government have been exposed ; and, finally, a 
 review of the arguments for revenue contracts, and 
 for detailed management and land assessment, has 
 been just laid before the reader, in which we find 
 strong objections against every system that has been 
 as yet attempted. It seems necessary to go a little 
 farther, and to investigate upon what principles we 
 have been hitherto acting, and what are the motives 
 which actuate our government in supporting the 
 present system — a system that has been, for the last 
 eighteen or twenty years, so stoutly advocated by 
 the legislators at home, and by some of those 
 abroad. 
 
 I shall not stop to refute the doctrines of those 
 who maintain "the danger * of admitting the pro- 
 prietory right of individuals in the land ;" nor of 
 others who pretend that " the right of the state to 
 tax at discretion the landholder, is undoubted and 
 
 * Grant on the Northern Circars : vide Appendix to 5th Report. 
 
 c c 4
 
 39% VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 undeniable*;" because I hope that better know- 
 ledge has since been obtained, and at all events that 
 the evidences of Hindoo and Mahomedan law and 
 practice, previously adduced in this work, have 
 shown not only that private property does, and 
 always has existed throughout the earliest ages in 
 every field in India, but that our predecessors, when- 
 ever they professed to govern according to law, fixed 
 a limit which, among the Hindoos, never exceeded 
 a sixth in time of peace, and which, under the last 
 Mahomedan governments, was restricted to a fourth 
 of the value of the crop estimated on the actual 
 produce. 
 
 Were these facts universally admitted, I should 
 at once proceed to the discussion of the policy or 
 otherwise of continuing our present plan of finance ; 
 but, so far from this being the case, it has been 
 strenuously maintained that the land belongs to the 
 sovereign t ; and, in virtue of the doctrines and 
 practice erroneously supposed to be derived from 
 our predecessors, the government maintains the 
 policy of taking from the cultivator the whole sur- 
 plus produce. 
 
 That India has been, from the earliest ages, con- 
 sidered the most wealthy country with which the 
 western world was acquainted, is a matter of simple 
 
 * Marquess Cornwallis's Minute, 1793: vide ut supra. 
 
 | " In the ceded districts, and throughout the Deccan, the 
 ryot has little or no property in land : he has no possessory 
 right: he does not even claim it." Col. Munro's Letter, 15th 
 Aug. 1807.
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 393 
 
 history. It cannot be denied that when the Maho- 
 medans invaded the country, and during the whole 
 course of their campaigns of six centuries' dura- 
 tion, it every where afforded abundant plunder, for 
 enriching those merciless bands, to the admiration 
 of themselves and the whole world. The flourish- 
 ing condition of the country, under the Mogul 
 Emperors, is recorded by all the European travel- 
 lers who have visited the east within the last three 
 centuries ; and the wealth, the population, and na- 
 tional prosperity of India, far surpassing what they 
 had seen in Europe, filled them with astonishment. 
 That the condition of the people and the country 
 under our government presents no such spectacle, 
 is every day proclaimed by ourselves, and we may 
 therefore assume it to be true. If, as is asserted, 
 it be correct that, in deriving all our revenue from 
 the land, and leaving no surplus profit with the 
 landholder, we have merely followed the practice 
 of those governments under which India once flou- 
 rished, it is clear we must seek for the cause of 
 the great difference in the condition of the people 
 in some other source : but if I have proved that 
 we have departed from the practice of our pre- 
 decessors — that we have established a system far 
 exceeding theirs in rigour, even in the worst of 
 their regular governments, then indeed there is 
 some reason to call for a reform, and to hope at 
 least for investigation. 
 
 The impartial reader will perhaps be satisfied 
 with the evidence on this subject that has been
 
 39^ VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 already laid before him ; but the weight which 
 attaches to great names, and the deference so 
 naturally paid to commanding talents, extensive 
 experience, and spotless integrity, have combined 
 to render in some measure sacred, the opinions 
 and sentiments of the late Sir Thomas Munro. 
 That these sentiments should have met with con- 
 sideration is not to be wondered at ; but it is to be 
 regretted that the statesmanlike opinions of the 
 Revenue Boards and Councils of Madras and 
 Bengal, so often recorded in opposition to the 
 sentiments of the officer above mentioned, should 
 have been so little regarded, when we consider the 
 fundamental principles on which those opinions 
 were grounded. 
 
 I am far from wishing to detract from the cha- 
 racter of one whose name deserves to be held in 
 such high veneration as the late lamented Gover- 
 nor of Madras ; but it would be leaving my task 
 unfinished, were I restrained, from my veneration 
 for the individual, to suffer his opinions to stand 
 on record and unrefuted, when perhaps the welfare 
 of many millions of people may be at stake in their 
 adoption. 
 
 The impracticability of fixing money assessments, 
 equal to from thirty to forty per cent, of the gross 
 produce, I have already shown ; and I should 
 have been content to proceed at once to seek for 
 remedies, had not Sir Thomas Munro taken pains 
 to show that the ryotwar system, as it exists, is 
 calculated to lead to inestimable benefits. At the
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 395 
 
 same time, he has endeavoured to prove that the 
 heavy imposts on the land, which I conceive are the 
 cause of the present exhausted state of the country, 
 have always existed in the same, or rather in a 
 greater degree, under all the native governments, 
 from time immemorial. 
 
 It appears, from the commencement of the 
 document from which I shall have occasion to 
 make some extracts, that the late Sir Thomas 
 Munro framed a Minute in 1823, at a period when 
 he was preparing to quit his government, but did 
 not record it till the last day of 1824. This docu- 
 ment is full of philanthropy, and contains many 
 noble and amiable sentiments, and is particularly 
 valuable as containing the latest opinions he en- 
 tertained on the subject of our finance and on 
 landed tenures generally. 
 
 He observes, " I do not expect that my remarks 
 will contain much information. Their object is 
 chiefly to show that we possess very little ; to 
 recommend our going on with patience and perse- 
 verance in acquiring more ; and to inculcate the 
 necessity of our avoiding every attempt to form 
 any permanent system whatever, in the present 
 very defective state of our knowledge. 
 
 " We are now masters of a very extensive em- 
 pire ; and we should endeavour to secure and 
 improve it by a good internal administration. Our 
 experience is too short to judge what rules are 
 best calculated for this purpose.* It is only within 
 
 * An experience of sixty years, during which we have had 
 the immediate rule over from thirty to ninety millions of people.
 
 396 VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 the last thirty years we have begun to acquire any 
 practical knowledge : a longer period must prob- 
 ably elapse before we can ascertain what is best. 
 Such a period is as nothing in the existence of a 
 people ; but we act as if this were as limited as 
 the life of an individual. We proceed in a country 
 of which we know little or nothing as if we 
 knew every thing, and as if every thing must 
 be done now and nothing hereafter. We feel 
 our ignorance of Indian revenue, and the diffi- 
 culties arising from it ; and, instead of seeking 
 to remedy it by acquiring more knowledge, we 
 endeavour to get rid of the difficulty by pre- 
 cipitately making permanent settlements, which 
 relieve us from the troublesome task of minute 
 or accurate investigation, and which are better 
 adapted to perpetuate our ignorance than to pro- 
 tect the people. We must not be led away by 
 fanciful theories, founded on European models, 
 which will inevitably end in disappointment. We 
 must not too hastily declare any rights permanent, 
 lest we give to one class what belongs to another. 
 We must proceed patiently ; and as our knowledge 
 of the manners and customs of the people, and 
 the nature and resources of the country, increases, 
 frame gradually, from the existing institutions, 
 such a system as may advance the prosperity of 
 the country and be satisfactory to the people. 
 The knowledge most necessary for this end is 
 that of the landed property and its assessment; 
 for the land is not only the great source of the 
 public revenue, but on its fair and moderate
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 397 
 
 assessment depend the comfort and happiness of 
 the people.'* 
 
 How can it be said that we are still in such a 
 state of ignorance, regarding the tenures and insti- 
 tutions of the people, that we are yet unfit to legis- 
 late for them ? Nearly forty years have been em- 
 ployed in obtaining information. To the indefa- 
 tigable labours of Colonel Read and his coadjutors, 
 among whom was Sir Thomas Munro himself) we 
 are indebted for the most perfect statistical in- 
 formation — information which the Madras Board 
 of Revenue declares to be " as complete as that of 
 any country gentleman of his own estate ;" and if 
 we look at the nature of the investigations which 
 have been made, and are now lying before the 
 government, the Board is fully justified in the 
 assertion. 
 
 The Board, according to Sir Thomas Munro *, 
 " suppose that the land assessment, under the 
 Hindoo government, was low. That the Maho- 
 medan exactions converted the Hindoo tax into a 
 land rent, reduced the landlord to a land occupant 
 who ceased to employ tenants, and restricted him- 
 self to such land as he could cultivate with his 
 own servants ; and then government transferred the 
 vacant land to strangers temporarily, and more 
 often permanently." Sir Thomas Munro adds, 
 " but there is no proof whatever of this former 
 state of light assessment, of the time when it ex- 
 isted, when the change began, or when it reached 
 its present standard." Assertion, however, can- 
 * Revenue Selections, vol. ii. p. 607.
 
 398 VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 not be allowed to stand in the place of proof. In 
 order to bring this part of the argument to issue, 
 we can only place the various evidences already 
 adduced on one side, and Sir Thomas Munro's 
 opinion on the other. In support of this same 
 doctrine, he observes : " Had the public assess- 
 ment, as pretended, ever been, as in the books of 
 their sages *, only a sixth, or a fifth, or even only 
 a fourth of the gross produce, the payment of a 
 fixed share in kind, and all the expensive ma- 
 chinery requisite for its superintendence, never 
 could have been wanted." Sir Thomas Munro 
 has failed to exhibit the expensive machinery to 
 which he alludes. There is in fact little ma- 
 chinery requisite : the corn is divided, the reve- 
 nue is calculated according to the price of the 
 market, and the farmer pays his money ; or, in most 
 instances, an intermediate broker undertakes to pay 
 a certain sum of money, and takes the sale of the 
 corn into his own hands. The simplicity of the 
 whole proceeding is well explained by Mr. Pren- 
 dergast, in his Minutes in the Bombay council, t 
 " It was," says Sir Thomas Munro, " because the 
 assessment was not moderate that assessments 
 in kind were introduced, or continued." But in 
 ancient Greece and Rome, where the assessment 
 did not exceed one tenth of the produce, the reve- 
 nue was paid in kind. In China, where the assess- 
 
 * The sages alluded to probably are Menu, Vidyaranya, and 
 the several celebrated law works, whose evidence is thus 
 tauntingly alluded to. 
 
 f Vide Part II. Bombay, pp. 308, 399.
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 399 
 
 merit does not at present exceed one tenth of the 
 produce, the revenue is paid in kind. In Venice, 
 where the assessment does not exceed three per 
 cent, of the produce, the revenue is regulated 
 according to the produce. In England, owing 
 to the fluctuation and value of the crops, many 
 great landed proprietors have been obliged to have 
 recourse to corn rents, because payments in money 
 were too unequal ; and the same reason prevails 
 for the continuation of a similar practice in Scot- 
 land, Sir Thomas Munro's native country. A re- 
 venue levied according to produce, therefore, is no 
 proof that the tax must necessarily be heavy. I 
 shall hereafter show, that Doctor Smith asserts a 
 tax regulated on that principle is better suited for 
 durability than any other land-tax ; and its dura- 
 tion in India and China, till the present day, veri- 
 fies the assertion. It is recorded that the ancient 
 Hindoo land-tax did not exceed one sixth: tradition 
 even limits the demand to one tenth; and experience 
 shows us, in Ceylon, Travancore, Cochin, and the 
 little principality of Coorg on the Malabar coast, 
 that one tenth only is still exacted by those govern- 
 ments. To Sir Thomas Munro these afford no 
 proofs of a light assessment. But what says he 
 himself : " * On our accession to the province, 
 (of Canara) the ancient land-tax of the Hindoos was 
 estimated at 36 1,802 pagodas, and the extra assess- 
 ments by the Bednore government and Hyder 
 Ally raised it .579,715 pagodas. Tippoo's assess- 
 
 * Major Munro's Report, 31st May 1800.
 
 400 VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 ment exceeded six lacs. His * (Sir Thomas 
 Munro's) settlement for the first year after our 
 acquisition, Fusly 1209 (1799-1800), was 440,630 
 pagodas, being still an increase on the rekha (Hin- 
 doo tax) of about 34 per cent. ; but about a lac and 
 thirty-nine thousand pagodas below the rekha and 
 shamil of Hyder." Thus it appears from the state- 
 ment of Sir Thomas Munro, submitted to the 
 Revenue Board in 1800, that he himself fixed the 
 assessment of Canara 34 per cent, higher than that 
 of the Hindoo government, though it was still 25 
 per cent, lower than that of the Mahomedans.t 
 
 It is in the face of these proofs, of which he is 
 himself one of the witnesses, that Sir Thomas 
 Munro proceeds to say, " I never could discover 
 the least foundation for the assumption that the 
 Hindoo assessment had been raised by the Maho- 
 medan conquest, or for believing that the assess- 
 ment which we now find did not exist before that 
 period. We find the assessment as high in the 
 territories of Hindoo as of Mahomedan chiefs. 
 Among the only Hindoo chiefs unsubdued by the 
 Mahomedans, the llajas of Ceylon, Travancore, 
 Cochin, and Coorg, the land-tax is still but ten per 
 
 * Minute Board of Revenue, 5th Jan. 1818. 
 
 f Sir Thomas (then Major) Munro's Report, dated 31st May 
 1800, will be found in the Appendix to the 5th Report. In that 
 document he distinctly states, that although the Bednore govern- 
 ment made some addition to the ancient assessment, that made 
 it, according to calculation, appear like one fourth, yet in reality 
 the assessment was nearer one sixth than one fourth when 
 Hyder invaded the country in 1762.
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 401 
 
 cent. How can it be said, then, that the assess- 
 ment always was and is as high in the territories 
 of Hindoo as of Mahomedan chiefs ? Again : — 
 " * This cannot have been owing to the progress of 
 the Mahomedan arms, because over many of the 
 petty states they never established more than a no- 
 minal dominion, nor ever assumed the management 
 of their revenue." And he goes on to exemplify 
 this reasoning by referring to " the chieftains of 
 the Northern Circars, descended from the ancient 
 sovereigns of Orissa, and the Rajas of the Upper 
 and Lower Camatic." 
 
 For nearly two hundred years before our inter- 
 course with these Hindoo chiefs, they had been the 
 prey of the Mahomedan kingdom of Hydrabad. 
 Scarcely a year passed without a campaign, the 
 object of which was to subdue them, and seldom 
 ended without the imposition of a heavy tribute. 
 How was this demand to be met by the Hindoo 
 chiefs but by having recourse to their land- 
 holders? Benevolences, contributions, and finally 
 imposts, were levied, either to defray Mahomedan 
 tribute, or to resist Mahomedan invasion. These 
 imposts, so often renewed, gradually became per- 
 manent ; and the increase of the land-tax in those 
 Hindoo states not absolutely governed by Maho- 
 medan rulers was occasioned by Mahomedan 
 warfare. 
 
 Sir Thomas Munro, assuming that real pro- 
 
 * Minute by Sir Thomas Munro, 31st Dec. 1824. 
 D D
 
 402 VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 perty exists but rarely in India, observes *, " But 
 private landed property! is of slow growth in 
 countries where it has not previously existed, and 
 where the government revenue is nearly half the 
 produce ; and we must not expect that it can be 
 hastened by regulations or forms of settlement, or 
 by any other way than by adhering steadily to a 
 limited assessment, and lowering it wherever, after 
 full experience, it may still, in particular places, be 
 found too high. By pursuing this course, or, in 
 other words, by following what is now called the 
 ryotwar system, we shall see no sudden change or 
 improvement. The progress of landed property 
 will be slow, but we may look with confidence to 
 its ultimate and general establishment." 
 
 I leave it to the reader to judge at what period 
 land, paying a permanent land-tax in money, equi- 
 valent to nearly half of the produce, will arrive at 
 that state to become real property. 
 
 Thirty years have passed away in the ceded dis- 
 tricts since Sir Thomas Munro's assessment, but 
 there have been yet no symptoms of its formation. 
 Sir Thomas asserts, "This long continuance (thirty- 
 six years) of a known and fixed assessment has begun 
 to introduce saleable private landed property into 
 the Baramahl, where it was never known before. 
 
 " In many Mootahs J several fields are saleable, 
 and in some every field is so." 
 
 * Minute by Sir Thomas Munro, 31st Dec. 1824. 
 -j- My enquiries have not enabled me to discover any country 
 where private landed property does not exist — even in Turkey. 
 % A division of villages, the land-tax of which is farmed to
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 408 
 
 It is not, then, under the ryotwar system that 
 any such improvement has yet taken place, but in 
 the Mootah or Zemindarry system, where a quantity 
 of waste land is made over to a farmer of revenue, 
 who is competent to sell it or rent it at what rate 
 he pleases. He may also find it his interest, as no 
 doubt he would, to lower * the " limited assess- 
 ment ;" for though limited it be, it amounts, even 
 according to Sir Thomas Munro, to nearly half 
 the produce, and very frequently to much more. 
 This limited assessment, or maximum, as it is also 
 called, is the favourite standard of Sir Thomas 
 Munro, nor can he be brought to admit the validity 
 of any proofs to the contrary. The evidences of 
 the present condition of the unconquered Hindoo 
 states ; the laws of Menu and Vidyaranya ; the in- 
 stitutes of Akbur ; the history of the Rajas of 
 Vijayanagar ; the numerous deeds of sale of land 
 in the south of India, all pass away as nothing in 
 the scale of evidence ; and he broadly asserts, that 
 " there is no proof whatever of light assessment, 
 of the time when it existed, when the change 
 began, or when it reached its present standard." 
 But he is equally incredulous regarding the Maho- 
 medans. In a plan for making a permanent 
 
 a contractor, to whom all waste lands are also consigned in 
 perpetuity. 
 
 * Since writing this I have been informed by Mr. Hodgson, 
 that the assessment of Baramahl has every where been lowered 
 by the Mootahdars, or revenue contractors, which at once ac- 
 counts for the land becoming saleable. 
 
 D D 2
 
 40-4 VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 ryotwar settlement in the ceded districts, Colonel 
 Munro applies his theory of the right to take half 
 the crop for the government, opposing himself as 
 usual, to recorded history.* 
 
 " t The assessment of Akbur is estimated by Abul 
 Fuzl at one third, and by others at one fourth, of 
 the gross produce t ; but it was undoubtedly higher 
 than either of these rates." His mode of refuta- 
 tion of this historical evidence is singular : " for," 
 adds he, " had it not been so, enough would have 
 remained to the ryot, after defraying all expenses, 
 to render the land private property ; and as this 
 did not take place, we may be certain that the 
 nominal one fourth, or one third, was nearly one 
 half." In order to bear out this reasoning, it 
 would be necessary to prove, in the first instance, 
 that by only taking one third or one fourth of 
 the crop, the land would become private property ; 
 and, secondly, that it did not become so : but 
 the proof rests on bare assertion. Sir Thomas 
 Munro was never in his life, I believe, in any 
 part of the country which formed the dominion of 
 Akbur. It is more than two centuries since that 
 monarch reigned ; and it is notorious that his 
 successors abandoned the light assessment (such 
 as it was) that he wished to establish. The argu- 
 ment, however, is not at an end. Sir Thomas 
 Munro proceeds to say, " This (an assessment 
 
 * Appendix, 5th Report, p. 941. 
 
 f Col. Munro's Letter, 25th August 1807. 
 
 % One third if taken in grain, one fourth if taken in money.
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 405 
 
 equal to one half of the crop) seems to have been 
 the opinion of Aurungzeeb ; for he directs that 
 not more than one half of the crop shall be taken 
 from the ryot. It is evident that Aurungzeeb 
 thought that one half was, in general, enough 
 for the ryot; and that he ought in no case to 
 have above two thirds." Sir Thomas Munro also 
 agreed with Aurungzeeb ; but being more liberally 
 disposed, he recommends to the Madras govern- 
 ment, that, instead of making his first assessment of 
 45 per cent, of the crop permanent, the public 
 demand should be limited in future to one third, 
 that is to the whole of the landlord's profit — the 
 standard from which the government conceives no 
 material evil can accrue, if limited to that point. 
 Now it is singularly unfortunate for the argument, 
 that, according to history, Aurungzeeb, the great- 
 grandson of Akbur, notoriously departed from the 
 policy and institutes of his great ancestor. He 
 adopted the cruel and unjust system of Alla-ood- 
 deen ; he persecuted his Hindoo subjects ; he 
 imposed a poll-tax on them, which had long been 
 abolished ; and, by his exorbitant exactions on the 
 land, he sowed the seeds of that revolution among 
 the Hindoo states which laid his mighty empire 
 in ruins in a few years, and subverted for ever the 
 dominion of the Great Mogul, the monarch of a 
 hundred millions of subjects. 
 
 It was long, as I have before shown, a favourite 
 maxim of the ryotwar school, that the land was 
 the exclusive property of the sovereign. Sir 
 
 D D 3
 
 406 VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 Thomas Munro, in early life, asserted it * ; and 
 gave it as his opinion, that in the Deccan, at all 
 events, it reverted to the sovereign at the end of 
 each year. But in the celebrated Minute of 31st 
 December, 1824, he states, " It has been sup- 
 posed by some that the Zemindars were the 
 landlords or proprietors, and the ryots their under- 
 tenants or labourers ; and by others (among whom 
 was Sir Thomas himself), that the sovereign was 
 the sole landlord, and the ryots the mere culti- 
 vating tenants. But the ryot is the real pro- 
 prietor ; for whatever in the land does not belong 
 to the sovereign, belongs to him." 
 
 This admission of the proprietory right in the 
 ryot, with the qualification, is absolutely worth 
 nothing, if the portion belonging to the sovereign 
 be not so limited as to leave the proprietor some- 
 thing beyond his food. At all events the assertion, 
 though vague, is in opposition to that unqualified 
 claim of yore which made the sovereign the sole 
 proprietor, and which has been attempted to be 
 proved out of the mouth of the venerable Menu 
 himself, the legislator and the defender of his 
 country's rights. 
 
 It was erroneously maintained by Sir Thomas 
 Munro andotherst, that in the institutes Menu has 
 ordained a fine to be imposed on the husbandman 
 for not sowing his land ; and on this circum- 
 
 * Vide note p. 392. Colonel Munro's letter, 15th August 
 1807. 
 
 f Vide Wilks's Mysore, vol. i. chap. 5.
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 407 
 
 stance an argument was founded of the proprie- 
 tory right of the sovereign in the soil. The learned 
 author of the History of Mysore has sufficiently 
 combated the error of this conclusion, by pointing 
 to the laws of Greece and Rome, wherein the cul- 
 tivators were urged to till their lands, because a 
 portion of the produce formed a part of the reve- 
 nue of the state ; but it is unfair, he observes, to 
 conclude therefore that private lands belonged 
 to the state. In the present instance, however, 
 there is not a shadow of foundation for drawing 
 such a conclusion. The passage alluded to in the 
 institutes is thus translated by Sir William Jones : — 
 " If land be injured by the fault of the farmer 
 himself, as if he Jails to sow it in due time, he shall 
 be fined ten times as much as the ki?ig's share of 
 the crop that might otherwise have been raised; 
 but only five times as much if it was the fault of 
 his servants, without his knowledge." This passage 
 occurs in the eighth chapter ; but in the original 
 there is no reference whatsoever to the sowing of 
 land. The words in Italics are the interpolation 
 of the commentator, which Sir William Jones very 
 judiciously caused to be so printed, to distinguish 
 that passage from the text. 
 
 In order to understand the bearing of the above 
 passage, it is necessary to take the context.* 
 
 " 229. I now will decide, exactly according to 
 principles of law, the contests usually arising from 
 
 * Institutes of Menu, chapter viii. 
 D D 1<
 
 408 VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 the faults of such as own herds of cattle, and of 
 such as are hired to keep them." 
 
 The subsequent verses advert to the duties of the 
 herdsmen and their owners towards each other. At 
 length we have a description of the boundary 
 hedges of villages, for the protection of cultivation 
 from such cattle. 
 
 " V. 240.* Should cattle, attended by a herds- 
 man, do mischief near a highway, in an enclosed 
 field, or near the village, he shall be fined a hundred 
 panasf; but against cattle which have no keeper 
 let the owner of the field secure it. 
 
 " V. 241. In other fields, the owner of cattle 
 doing mischief shall be fined one pana and a quar- 
 ter ; but in all places the value of the damaged 
 grain must be paid : such is the fixed rule con- 
 cerning a husbandman. 
 
 " V. 242. For damage done by a cow before ten 
 days have passed since her calving, by bulls kept 
 for impregnation, and by cattle consecrated to the 
 Deity, whether attended or unattended, Menu has 
 ordained no fine. 
 
 " 243. X If damage be done by the fault of the 
 farmer, the fine ought to be decuple for each ; but 
 if owing to servants, the farmer being ignorant, 
 then shall the fine be half. 
 
 * Chapter viii. f Fanams. 
 
 \ The following are the words of the text, literally translated : 
 
 Kshetrikasya tyaye dando bhagad dashaguno bhavet : 
 
 Of the farmer if by the fault the fine for each decuple ought to be: 
 tato addhadando bhrityanam ajnanat kshetrikasya tu. 
 
 tlien half the fine by the servants in the ignorance of the farmer but if.
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 409 
 
 " 244. These rules let a just prince observe in all 
 cases of* transgression by masters, their cattle, and 
 their herdsmen. 
 
 Thus, it appears, in the original text there is no 
 allusion made to sowing of fields at all : the law 
 has reference solely to their protection, or to the 
 injury to which they are liable from cattle. The 
 passage refers to the fine to be imposed on the 
 cattle of husbandmen trespassing on fields, in 
 distinction to the cattle of graziers; and Menu 
 therefore imposes ten times the fine on farming 
 cattle which he does on the cattle of graziers, and 
 the reason is obviously to prevent husbandmen 
 allowing their cattle to graze down their neigh- 
 bours' crops. It is to be hoped we shall hear no 
 more such futile arguments against the validity of 
 real property.* 
 
 I have fulfilled a painful task, in endeavouring to 
 expose the fallacy of the opinions of one for whose 
 memory I cherish a very high regard ; but when 
 I consider the paramount duty we owe to the mil- 
 lions whose interests hang on the decision of the 
 legislature, whether landlords shall or shall not be 
 suffered to exist in India, personal respect for the 
 individual must give way to the welfare of nations. 
 Were it admitted that the people of India have, 
 from time immemorial, flourished under such a 
 system as prevails under our government, in vain 
 
 * While correcting this proof-sheet, I have found an able 
 refutation of a similar passage on the same subject by a native 
 revenue officer of Madras.
 
 410 VIEW OF ANCIENT 
 
 should we endeavour to better their condition ; but 
 I conscientiously believe that under no govern- 
 ment whatever, either Hindoo or Mahomedan, 
 professing to be actuated by law, was any system 
 so subversive of the prosperity of the people at 
 large as that which has marked our administration. 
 Let it not be supposed, however, that I mean to 
 reflect on the good intentions of any of those who 
 have legislated for India ; I believe never were mo- 
 tives more pure than those which have actuated all 
 who have rendered themselves conspicuous in the 
 East or in the West. We have, however, been 
 acting in ignorance and darkness. History has 
 been disregarded or misunderstood : interested per- 
 sons have deceived some, while others have shut 
 their ears to advice rather than wait to receive it. 
 Had Mr. Hastings and Sir John Macpherson been 
 suffered to prosecute their investigations, had the 
 voice of Lord Teign mouth been attended to, we 
 might have become well informed forty years ago ; 
 but the hasty project of a statesman, inexpe- 
 rienced in the history and institutions of India, laid 
 the foundation for a system surrounded with diffi- 
 culties, from which I fear it is scarcely possible to 
 disengage ourselves. The revenue schemes of 
 Madras have hitherto failed, and the province of 
 Guzerat alone, in all India, seems to form the 
 Oasis in this desert of error. To the discreet 
 forbearance and long experience of Mr. Jonathan 
 Duncan I ascribe the flourishing condition of that 
 district, and, in general, to the unwillingness of
 
 AND MODERN SYSTEMS. 411 
 
 his successors to alter existing institutions, which 
 appear to have been more respected under the 
 Bombay Presidency than under any other of our 
 Indian governments. 
 
 The foregoing statements, so far from impugning 
 the merits of our administration, only show the 
 extraordinary difficulties we have to encounter; 
 difficulties which the fullest and most impartial in- 
 vestigation of facts can alone tend to remove. It 
 is one among other proofs of the necessity of our 
 comprehending every part of the subject before 
 we venture to encroach on the ancient institutions 
 of the country *, — institutions which, by a powerful 
 writer, have been compared to a magnificent pile 
 of building, " a fabric neither without shape nor 
 beauty, but of which many parts are in a dilapi- 
 dated state, and all more or less soiled or decayed. 
 Still it is a whole, and coimootod in an its parts : 
 the foundations are deep laid, and, to the very 
 summit, arch rests upon arch. We are now," says 
 the author, " its possessors ; and, if we desire to 
 preserve while we improve it, we must make our- 
 selves masters of the frame of the structure, to its 
 minutest ornaments and defects : nor must we re- 
 move the smallest stone till another is ready to fill 
 the vacant niche j otherwise we may inadvertently 
 bring a ruin upon our own heads and those of 
 others, on that spot where we too eagerly sought to 
 erect a monument of glory." 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm's instructions to his assistants.
 
 412 CONCLUSION. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The object of the foregoing sheets has been to show 
 the state of the landed tenures under our prede- 
 cessors, and to prove that, until we advanced an 
 opposite doctrine, the existence of private real pro- 
 perty in India had never been disputed. Having 
 established the fallacy of our pretensions, I shall 
 proceed to examine how far such a maxim is likely 
 to prove beneficial to us if we exercise this assumed 
 right, and reserve the whole surplus profit of the 
 land to ourselves : thus virtually perpetuating a 
 svstem which prevents the existence of a single 
 landlord in the country. It has been already 
 shown * that such is the recorded intention of our 
 
 government. 
 
 Whatever may be the future determination on 
 this point, one thing appears quite necessary to be 
 considered, which is, that in fixing the demand for 
 the whole surplus profit reference should be had 
 to the actual produce of the land, instead of attempt- 
 ing to realise a certain sum of money supposed to 
 be equal to that profit. Our predecessors, the Hin- 
 doos and Mahomedans, however stupid and oppres- 
 sive they are supposed to have been, knew better 
 
 * See Court of Directors' Letter to Fort St. George, dated 
 12th December 1821, para. 99., p. 293.
 
 CONCLUSION. 41S 
 
 than to attempt a project so futile as that we have 
 aimed at. The law and practice never differed in 
 that respect : the demand was a limited portion of 
 the produce, a tax on agricultural income, but not 
 an enormous fixed money assessment on fields rated 
 at the estimated surplus, which must vary accord- 
 ing to the seasons, the changes of soil, and the 
 quantity of produce and demand in the market. 
 He who has run his eye over the tables of the rela- 
 tive value of corn and specie for the last six cen- 
 turies in England ; he who has been a practical 
 agriculturist ; or he who has been a receiver of rent 
 of land for the last thirty or forty years, will not 
 dispute the absurdity of such a scheme of assess- 
 ment as has already been adopted, and as is now 
 proposed to be adopted, in India. This scheme has 
 been found in practice to be worse than useless, it 
 has been grossly mischievous : annual assessments, or 
 rather relinquishments of revenue, at the discretion 
 of ignorant or corrupt stipendiary agents exempt 
 from local control, have exhibited, in almost every 
 part of the Madras provinces, more or less the evil 
 consequences of the much applauded ryotwar 
 settlement. 
 
 The rapid accession of territory; our ignorance 
 of the languages, the customs, and the institutions 
 of the people ; the necessity for money to meet 
 our immediate exigencies, all combined, at first, 
 to render the task of investigation, and the relin- 
 quishment of any of the burthens under which 
 r we found the people labouring, peculiarly difficult.
 
 414- CONCLUSION. 
 
 The oppression of those burthens produced that 
 feeling which made them our willing subjects. 
 Under our government they hoped for some re- 
 lief: the} r anticipated justice and respect for their 
 rights, and relief from private tyranny. How 
 have we merited this confidence, or justified those 
 expectations? Although we have every where 
 confessed that the heavy pressure of taxation was 
 the most cruel injury they sustained, we have in 
 no instance alleviated that pressure. So far from 
 it, we have applied a false measure for fixing the 
 impost, that of money instead of produce : we 
 have pretended to abolish minor taxes on other 
 classes, but have laid the amount on the land- 
 holder ; and, by minute scrutiny into every indi- 
 vidual's concerns, have, under the plea of justice 
 to ourselves, in many instances deprived the culti- 
 vators of the means they enjoyed of paying the 
 heavy taxes from which they sought relief under 
 us, till, by rigid exactions, we have increased 
 our own revenue, and reduced the people to the 
 condition of mere labourers. This is the professed 
 maxim of our rule, the certain and inevitable 
 result of taking the whole surplus profit of the 
 land. 
 
 The public lands of Greece and Italy yielded for 
 a long time a revenue which defrayed most of the 
 expenses of the government, The crown lands also 
 long constituted the source of the greatest part of 
 the revenues of the sovereigns of Europe, and of 
 most of the kingdoms of Asia.
 
 CONCLUSION. 415 
 
 But in those ancient states almost every citizen 
 was a soldier, who both served and prepared him- 
 self for war at his own expense. This was the 
 case not only in Europe but in many parts of 
 India, as appears from the history of Rajasthan, 
 Orissa, Ceylon, Malabar, Canara, and Travancore. 
 The rent of a very moderate landed estate (the 
 fisc of feudal nations) might under such circum- 
 stances be fully sufficient for the current expenses 
 of government. 
 
 In the present state of Europe, the rent of all 
 the lands in the country, managed as they probably 
 would be if they all belonged to one proprietor, 
 would perhaps scarcely amount to the ordinary re- 
 venue necessary in times of peace, without even a 
 national debt ; but such a revenue would be quite 
 inadequate to meet the extra expenses of war. 
 
 With regard to public lands generally, Dr. Smith 
 is of opinion, that the crown lands of Great Britain 
 do not yield at present one fourth of the rent which 
 could be drawn from them if they were the proper- 
 ty of private persons. If they were more extensive, 
 they would probably be still worse managed. Pro- 
 fessor Playfair, in a note on this subject, states that, 
 according to the surveyor-general's report in 1801, 
 crown lands that ought to produce nearly half a 
 million, appear to produce only seven thousand 
 pounds ! ! ! 
 
 " * The revenue which, in any civilised monarchy, 
 the crown derives from the crown lands, though it 
 
 * Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. chap. ii. p. 267-
 
 416 CONCLUSION. 
 
 appears to cost nothing to individuals, in reality 
 costs more to society than perhaps any other equal 
 revenue which the crown enjoys. If the crown 
 lands of England were sold, at however small a 
 price, it would enjoy a trifling revenue immedi- 
 ately from the land-tax, but in the course of a few 
 years it would enjoy another revenue. In a short 
 time, from being ill cultivated and neglected, 
 they would be improved ; an increase of their pro- 
 duce would increase the population, by augmenting 
 the revenue and consumption of the people; addi- 
 tional means of consumption would necessarily af- 
 ford objects which could be taxed without oppress- 
 ing the nation." 
 
 The very reverse of this maxim has been the 
 policy of our Indian governments of late years. 
 Having assumed that the government is the sole 
 landlord, it considers the land to be the most pro- 
 fitable source of all revenue j it employs a host 
 of public servants to superintend the cultivation, 
 and it professes to take all the profit. 
 
 A land-tax like that which now exists in India, 
 professing to absorb the whole of the landlord's rent, 
 was never known under any government in Europe 
 or Asia ; it has therefore not entered into the con- 
 templation of political economists: but the remarks 
 of Dr. Smith on land-taxes in general, levied ad 
 valorem on rent, are worthy of consideration. He 
 remarks, with regard to a tax on the rent of land, it 
 is worth while examining the several modes of assess- 
 ment practised in other countries. There are two 
 modes by which this may be effected. The one is,
 
 CONCLUSION. 417 
 
 by imposing a fixed money assessment on districts 
 or villages, leaving it to the landholders to distri- 
 bute the tax ; the other is, to impose a percent- 
 age on landlords' rent. The former mode was 
 adopted in England, in the reign of William and 
 Mary, when the whole country was assessed in a 
 certain sum by counties, which was subsequently 
 distributed to parishes. This tax, according to 
 Dr. Smith, was originally very unequal, and has 
 since become more so, because it is the nature of 
 land to improve or fall off, according to circum- 
 stances which neither individuals nor the state can 
 control. The first principle of taxation, therefore, 
 which requires that an impost shall fall equally on 
 every subject, according to his means of paying and 
 to the protection he receives, has been departed 
 from in this article ; but as the assessment did not 
 originally exceed one fifth of the landlord's rent, the 
 inequality that has so inevitably taken place, in the 
 proportion which the money-assessment bears to the 
 produce, has not been felt as a grievance. This 
 inequality occurs every where, from the improve- 
 ment or deterioration of the soil, a consequence 
 which arises out of the unequal application of capi- 
 tal to the land. Capital vested improves the estate, 
 capital withdrawn deteriorates it ; the inequality, 
 therefore, is in most cases perfectly just, and regu- 
 lates the value of the land in the market. 
 
 When the assessment is light, the inequality falls 
 on the landlord : his rent is more or less, according 
 to circumstances : but when the assessment trenches 
 
 E E
 
 418 CONCLUSION. 
 
 so closely on the whole of the rent as to leave but 
 a very small portion to the landlord, there is great 
 danger of his losing his rent altogether. Having 
 absorbed the whole of the rent, the next effect of 
 the inequality is to encroach on the cultivator. In 
 this case, he first foregoes his comforts one after 
 another; he next gradually loses his stock; and, 
 eventually, abandons his land. Such are the sure 
 and inevitable effects of a land-tax which takes 
 any large portion of the surplus profit or rent: 
 what must be the result of taking the whole ? 
 
 " In the Venetian territory all the arable* lands 
 which are given in lease to farmers are taxed at a 
 tenth of the rent, being about 3 per cent, of the 
 gross produce. The leases are recorded in a pub- 
 lic register, which is kept by the officers of revenue 
 in every province or district. When the proprietor 
 cultivates his own lands, they are valued according 
 to an equitable estimation ; and he is allowed a 
 deduction of one fifth of the tax, so that for such 
 lands he pays only eight instead often per cent, of 
 the supposed rent." Though this tax varies with 
 improvement and deterioration, which is usually 
 considered by the economists as detrimental to the 
 encouragement of industry, still Dr. Smith appears 
 to think it much better than any fixed money as- 
 sessment. He observes, " f In all the variations in 
 the state of society, in the improvement and in the 
 
 * Memoires concernant les Droits, &c. pp. 240, 241. See 
 Playfair's Notes on Adam Smith, vol. ii. p. 277. 
 -f- Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. chap. ii. p. 283.
 
 CONCLUSION. 419 
 
 declension of agriculture, in all the variations in the 
 value of silver, and in all those in the standard of 
 the coin, a tax of this kind would, of its own ac- 
 cord, and without any attention of government, 
 readily suit itself to the actual situation of things, 
 and would be equally just and equitable in all 
 those different changes. It would, therefore, be 
 much more proper to be established as a perpetual 
 and unalterable regulation, or as what is called a 
 fundamental law of the commonwealth, than any 
 tax which was always to be levied according to a 
 certain valuation." 
 
 It was on this principle all the ancient govern- 
 ments acted when they levied one tenth part of the 
 gross produce for the state. It was the same prin- 
 ciple that guided the ancient legislators of India ; 
 and it is that which regulates the land-tax at this 
 day prevalent throughout China. Money assess- 
 ments on land are acknowledged by all political 
 economists to be the most variable of all imposts, 
 and consequently the most unequal. A tax on 
 produce is in reality an ad valorem duty: it is 
 only onerous and impolitic when it takes too large 
 a portion of profit. 
 
 Such is the nature of the land-tax which exists 
 in India, in opposition to the practice of our pre- 
 decessors and all other nations, and to the acknow- 
 ledged maxims of political economy. It is almost 
 needless to support these assertions by further 
 proofs or illustrations. The truth of the assertion, 
 that the greater the surplus profit left in the hands 
 
 E E 9.
 
 420 CONCLUSION. 
 
 of the landholder, the more ample will be his 
 means of encouraging industry and of contributing 
 to the public wealth, is, I believe, pretty generally 
 admitted. The impolicy of imposing taxes on raw 
 produce has been lately exposed in an able manner 
 by Sir Henry Parnell ; and the advantage to the 
 public, by limiting the demand in the shape of tax- 
 ation on each article till it is about to be consumed, 
 may be shown in the following simple case : — Let 
 us imagine the government wished to raise a tax 
 to be derived from iron, we shall see what would 
 be the consequence of taxing the article in the 
 raw mass, and what when it had passed into its last 
 shape previously to consumption. If ten pounds 
 of ore, worth ten-pence at the mine, were taxed at 
 an ad valorem duty of ten per cent., the ore 
 would yield a revenue of one penny only; the 
 result would be to check the production, so as to 
 render iron ore dear, and this dearness would affect 
 all iron manufactures, from a common nail to a 
 watch-spring. Let us suppose, however, the ten 
 pounds of ore worked up into five hundred watch- 
 springs, worth four shillings a piece, and that an 
 ad valorem duty of ten per cent, were imposed 
 on each ; the same quantity of ore would, in that 
 shape, yield a revenue of 1/. sterling, instead of a 
 penny, and no check whatever would be sustained, 
 either in the produce of the mine or in any of 
 the several implements of iron. The advantage 
 of taxes on consumption is not only that the same 
 rate of tax produces an infinitely larger revenue,
 
 CONCLUSION. 421 
 
 but that the revenue is derived from those alone 
 who are willing and able to contribute. Persons 
 who must be unacquainted with the simplest rules 
 of political economy have attempted to compare 
 the land-tax of India with those of the customs 
 and excise in England ; but there is, in truth, 
 no analogy whatsoever between them : the former 
 is a direct tax on production, amounting in many 
 instances to positive prevention ; the latter depend 
 on the choice of the community to contribute, 
 according to its means and inclination. A falling 
 off of the revenue on any one article immediately 
 points out the necessity of reducing the rate, 
 which, so far from diminishing the revenue, fre- 
 quently increases it by additional consumption. 
 The land-tax in India affords no such corrective j 
 and heavy taxation drives the proprietor from his 
 land, and renders the article of no value either to 
 himself or to others. 
 
 If I have succeeded in proving the injustice 
 towards the people, as well as the impolicy 
 towards the government, of continuing the present 
 taxation in India, a great step has been made 
 in preparing the way for a reform in our finan- 
 cial system in that quarter of the globe. By the 
 ancients, the inhabitants of India are represented 
 as a wealthy and civilised people. The remains 
 of cities, and public works of vast labour and of 
 high utility, show that these accounts were not 
 false ; and the European travellers and voyagers, 
 from Faria e Souza down to Bernier, confirm the 
 
 i; i; 3
 
 422 CONCLUSION. 
 
 general opinion of the opulence and flourishing 
 condition of those nations. Since the beginning of 
 the last century, when the great empire of Au- 
 rungzeeb tottered to its fall, misrule succeeded, and 
 to that misrule alone ought we to ascribe the easy 
 transfer of so many millions of people to our do- 
 minion, Sixty-five years have passed since we 
 obtained possession of Bengal, Behar, Orissa, and 
 the Northern Circars ; forty since we got posses- 
 sion of the Carnatic, the south of India, and Mala- 
 bar j and nearly thirty since we occupied all the 
 rest, with the exception of the Deccan. Sufficient 
 time has elapsed, one would think, for the restor- 
 ation of prosperity under a good government ; 
 but what is the state of the country at this mo- 
 ment ? Are any of the symptoms of that prospe- 
 rity which formerly existed under our predecessors 
 to be seen ? — those predecessors whom it is the 
 fashion to revile with the epithets of cruel, law- 
 less, and stupid, and whose very laws and institutes 
 are stated to have been framed for theorists, but 
 which were never carried into practice. It is not 
 my wish to adopt the exaggerated language of those 
 persons who have an object in misrepresenting facts : 
 but the condition of the natives under our govern- 
 ment is fairly stated by the Marquess Hastings, 
 Governor-General of India, in 1822; by Sir Thomas 
 Munro, Governor of Madras, in 1825 ; by Mr. 
 Elphinstone, the Governor of Bombay, in the same 
 year ; and, lastly, by a gentleman once high in 
 office, and now an East India Director. The latter
 
 CONCLUSION. 423 
 
 supplies us with the following picture, to furnish 
 an excuse for the present system of taxation : 
 " * The habits of the great body of the people 
 are simple and uniform ; their diet is spare, and 
 confined generally to a few articles of the first 
 necessity — rice, vegetables, fish, and the smaller 
 grains ; their clothing is scanty and mean ; their 
 habitations poor and unfurnished : what we term 
 luxuries are confined to the opulent few. Capital is 
 thinly distributed over the surface ; and even the 
 advantages of a genial climate, a prolific soil, and 
 of manufacturing skill, were not found sufficient 
 to swell the stream of commerce." That " the 
 stream of commerce" once did flow, and that abun- 
 dantly, the ancient and modern histories of Egypt 
 and of Venice sufficiently attest : that it no longer 
 flows, may be very naturally ascribed to that state 
 of society which the author has painted. The 
 various descriptions of the actual condition of the 
 people of the same class in different parts of India, 
 show, if such evidence were wanting, that their 
 simple food and wretched state are not the off- 
 spring of choice, but of necessity. In this state of 
 things, it is said the land is and ever has been 
 the principal, if not the sole source of revenue, 
 and must continue so. But this is to mistake 
 cause for effect. Let us imagine, as in India, that 
 the sovereign of England claimed, as proprietor of 
 the soil, the whole of the landlord's profit or rent. 
 
 * Tucker on the Financial Affairs of the East India Company : 
 London, 1824. 
 
 E E 4
 
 i-2J- CONCLUSION. 
 
 I ask what other source of revenue would be left ? 
 Could there exist any consumers of the comforts, 
 much less the luxuries of life? Landed proprietors 
 would be reduced to till the land with their own 
 hands ; and where would be the means of supply- 
 ing " the stream of commerce," if all the profit 
 went into the public treasury ? How can we won- 
 der that the revenue declines annually, that the 
 very products of the earth are no longer what they 
 have been, and that trade languishes ? The sole 
 remedy is an abandonment of that system to which 
 the government at present so fondly clings ; and to 
 renovate the prosperity of India, the land-tax must 
 be reduced, and recourse must be had to the true 
 and just principles of finance, which are equally 
 applicable to the inhabitants of the east as of the 
 west. Systems may truly be said to arise out of 
 circumstances ; but principles are immutable, and 
 ought never to be lost sight of. If we keep them 
 constantly in view, we cannot err : it is by their 
 abandonment that we become involved in a maze of 
 inconsistency that leads to endless embarrassments. 
 No example of this truth was ever more clearly elu- 
 cidated than the whole scheme of Indian finance. 
 By the adoption of plans at variance with these 
 principles, we have brought ourselves into inextri- 
 cable difficulties. Every project for collecting a 
 revenue derived almost entirely from the land has 
 failed. In spite of the most anxious desires of a 
 pure legislation at home and abroad to do justice, 
 to be moderate in taxation, and to secure individual
 
 CONCLUSION. 425 
 
 rights, we have brought about the most fearful 
 changes of landed property under the Zemindarry 
 system of Bengal : the taxation has been onerous, 
 and corruption has pervaded almost every branch of 
 our administration under the ryotwarry system in 
 Madras, and we are now left in doubt what is best 
 to be done. We have but one alternative, and 
 that is to acknowledge, in the first place, the fallacy 
 of that doctrine which assumes a right to take 
 the whole surplus profit from the landholder; and 
 to recognise the opposite maxim, that the more 
 which is left in his hands the greater will be his 
 means to contribute to the national wealth, and 
 consequently to the public revenue. 
 
 The Marquess Corn wal lis perceived how impo- 
 litic such a tax was, and he felt anxious to relin- 
 quish it; but in doing so he overlooked the true 
 proprietors, and, with the best intentions, he sacri- 
 ficed their rights. The most cruel injustice has 
 been the consequence, but in the end the land- 
 tax has found its level ; and though the ancient 
 proprietors have in many instances suffered, the 
 effect of limiting the demand on the soil has led 
 to the extension of cultivation, and to provide 
 for a population more dense than in any quarter of 
 the globe. The principle was correct, though the 
 mode of carrying it into effect was wrong, The 
 same principle has been recommended by the 
 Marquess Hastings, and by the most able of our 
 Indian statesmen, among whom we may consider 
 Messrs. T. H. Colebrooke, Stewart, Dowdeswell,
 
 426 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Tucker, Trant, and others, all of whom have for 
 many years recommended a limitation to our de- 
 mand on the land, and a reliance on the increas- 
 ing wealth of the people to afford other means of 
 supply. The same language has also been used by 
 the Madras government, and the members of the 
 Revenue Board, among whom the names of Hodg- 
 son, Fullarton, Alexander, Cochrane, and Wayte, 
 are most conspicuous. Even Sir Thomas Munro 
 himself has been a great advocate for lowering the 
 rates of the land-tax ; but when he states that a 
 steady adherence to the rates of Colonel Read, 
 of 45 per cent, of the crop has in the end pro- 
 duced land to be saleable *, and that a money 
 assessment fixed at a third t or fourth of the gross 
 produce, according to the laws of Akbur, would 
 have produced the same effect, he appears to me 
 to have entirely lost sight of the real proportion of 
 the crop which is absolutely necessary to maintain 
 stock and labour, and what ought to remain over 
 for the surplus profit. The same error belongs to 
 the scale of assessment recommended for adoption 
 by the late commissioner in the Deccan. All the 
 local authorities have seen the necessity of having 
 a surplus profit for the landlord, after payment of 
 the tax : whereas the authorities of England have 
 pronounced t that it is expedient to take this surplus 
 for the government, and that no evil will accrue 
 from it. 
 
 * Part III. chap. iii. p. 402. f Vide ut supra, p. 404. 
 
 % Part II. chap. iii. p. 294.
 
 CONCLUSION. 4'27 
 
 The science of political economy is of recent 
 origin, and does not necessarily comprise part of 
 modern education, like the dead languages and 
 other sciences more obscure though less useful to 
 legislators. The errors which the statesmen of 
 England have sometimes committed will surely 
 form some excuse for those who have legislated for 
 India: when the fallacy of the principles of the 
 sinking fund, the offspring of the greatest men of 
 the day, are at last acknowledged ; when the errors 
 of our domestic taxation, of our protecting duties, 
 and of our bounties, are every day exposed and 
 generally admitted, who shall condemn too harshly 
 the precepts which have been inculcated regard- 
 ing our Indian finance; and who can be astonished 
 that erroneous doctrines have from time to time 
 been promulgated, when we consider the various 
 difficulties, which are almost insuperable, that 
 Europeans in India have to encounter in arriving 
 at truth ? 
 
 We have, however, stronger motives even than 
 justice to the people, if stronger there can be, for 
 altering our present system of taxation — a regard 
 for our own safety. Almost all those persons 
 who have advocated the limitation of our demand 
 on the soil, have not failed to adduce, as a sub- 
 stantial argument, the policy of having a body of 
 landed proprietors to give stability and attachment 
 to our rule. Our native soldiery may be deemed 
 the main pillars of our strength in the East : while 
 they are steady, obedient, and faithful, we may 
 dictate submission to our foreign and domestic
 
 428 CONCLUSION. 
 
 enemies : but this body, of nearly 200,000 men, with 
 arms in their hands, is composed chiefly of land- 
 holders. In case of invasion what have their 
 brethren at the plough to lose by the downfall of 
 our empire ? Can they be worse off? Have they 
 any peculiar privileges under our government ? Are 
 they wealthy and happy ? Have they patrimonial 
 possessions to fight for? Have the better classes been 
 raised or have they been depressed ? Let the public 
 records answer these questions. Let us for a mo- 
 ment suppose a wise and virtuous prince to arise at 
 Hydrabad, Mysore, Nagpoor, or in central India. 
 Let us imagine him resolved to reform the abuses 
 of modern governments, and to adhere to the laws 
 and practice of his ancestors in the good old times, 
 when the king only demanded a twelfth, a tenth, 
 an eighth, or even a sixth part of the produce. 
 Let us imagine such a prince steadily adhering to 
 such a system for twenty or thirty years, or for 
 any length of time sufficient to inspire his subjects 
 and neighbours with confidence ; and then let us 
 conceive our being involved in war with him, allied 
 perhaps with others pursuing the same plan. Is it 
 not likely that our own subjects would desire to be 
 placed under his authority, in order to reap the 
 same advantages ? Where then would be the fidelity 
 of our native soldiery? This supposition is stated 
 to show that our empire in India depends solely 
 on the superior advantages we can ensure to our 
 subjects above those of the native states. We do 
 not sufficiently bear this in mind. We act as if 
 our power was founded on some supernatural basis,
 
 CONCLUSION. 4^9 
 
 and that no human events could shake it ; but, in 
 truth, our strength lies wholly on the contrast our 
 government affords to the misrule of our neigh- 
 bours. We have more cause to dread the prox- 
 imity of good and virtuous princes than of wicked 
 ones, however powerful. The wise and mild ad- 
 ministration of Nana Furnevese resisted all our 
 power for eight years : we met with nothing but 
 discomfiture in the long war between 1775 and 
 1784 : whereas, in less than eight months, the same 
 state, in the hands of the unpopular and unprin- 
 cipled Bajee Rao, was subverted, and the extensive 
 confederacy formed against us was dissolved. Eight 
 short months sufficed, I say, to hurl him from his 
 throne, and to render us the masters of his country 
 and of his subjects, who received us with open arms. 
 The successful rebellion of the Malabar landholders, 
 to whom we eventually yielded in 1800, after a 
 tremendous loss of men and money, ought to serve 
 as an example of what difficulties we have to contend 
 with in opposing good governments and in sub- 
 verting popular rights ; while, on the other hand, 
 we see how easy it is to subvert dominions profess- 
 edly unpopular, like those of the Peshwa and the 
 Pindarries. 
 
 Without entering into the expensive nature of 
 our Indian establishments, or of the impolicy of con- 
 fining our taxation to the actual necessaries of life, 
 such as grain and salt, from whence our revenue is at 
 present derived, I shall confine myself to the remedy 
 which I conceive is still left open to us to relieve
 
 430 CONCLUSION. 
 
 us from the difficulty we are placed in with regard 
 to the land-tax. To effect an alteration in the whole 
 system of finance of a great empire, all attempts 
 at any hasty or immediate changes would probably 
 be disappointed. That which I shall propose will 
 be as gradual as it is expected to be effectual and 
 advantageous. 
 
 Fortunately for us, we possess in our hands the 
 means of carrying this measure into effect without 
 relinquishing any portion of our present revenue. 
 All enquiries, whether historical or local, prove that 
 the lands of every village are accurately defined, 
 and that they belong to some township. The most 
 sceptical of those advocates who contend for the 
 sovereignty of the soil being vested in the king, will, 
 I believe, not now deny that in a very great part of 
 India cultivated lands belong to the occupants for 
 the time being, and all have unanimously declared 
 that if they do not, they should be conferred on 
 them. On this point, happily, there is no difference 
 of opinion ; but the privilege of tilling the same field 
 for ever, coupled with the condition of delivering up 
 the fruits of the harvest, leave the boon little worth 
 acceptance. Besides the cultivated, there are vast 
 tracts of uncultivated land lying waste in almost 
 every village. This waste in some places, such as 
 in the Deccan and Tondeimandelum, is claimed as 
 the joint property of the community, while in others 
 it is usually considered at the disposal of the govern- 
 ment. It is this land to which the advocates of the 
 ryotwar plan look for the future source of revenue,
 
 CONCLUSION. 4i3I 
 
 without sufficiently considering that the very process 
 of bringing it into culture is full of difficulties. It 
 would be advantageous to the government to let it 
 on the lowest terms ; but the effect of this is found 
 to be detrimental to the revenue, for those lands 
 assessed more heavily are abandoned, and the land- 
 tax suffers diminution. The collector, therefore, has 
 to take care that the waste land be not too inviting* 
 so that it requires a delicacy of management to 
 which few but the mo^t experienced ryotwar collec- 
 tors can pretend to be equal ; and, under the most 
 vigilant inspection of the keenest scrutineer, in- 
 stances will occur of the husbandmen of one village 
 throwing up lands paying the full share of taxation, 
 to occupy others on more favourable terms. 
 
 To reduce the tax, these lands should, I conceive, 
 be given up altogether, as a bonus to enable the 
 cultivators to continue to pay their present rates ; 
 and in many places it may be found necessary 
 even to make some permanent remissions — a mea- 
 sure which time and circumstances alone must 
 determine. Having come to the resolution of 
 abandoning all future claim to waste lands, the 
 government must determine, as in the case of the 
 permanent assessment, to limit its demand on the 
 land to its present amount. This opinion, as 
 has been shown, . is by no means novel; it has 
 been lately put forth in a work of great merit, 
 " On the Landed Tenures and Constitution of 
 the Indian Government," professedly written in 
 India.
 
 432 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The first step which appears to me requisite is 
 to ascertain the precise extent of the land, and the 
 prescriptive and avowed rights of individuals. It 
 has been argued with much force, that the en- 
 registering or recording rights is quite superfluous ; 
 and that, when they are disputed, courts of justice 
 can investigate and determine them. I have al- 
 ready shown that it is for want of this knowledge 
 that all the mischief of the Bengal settlements has 
 taken place ; and such is the confessed state of 
 ignorance, even of collectors, that all those in the 
 ceded and conquered countries recommended a 
 suspension of any permanent settlement till it 
 was determined to whom the proprietory right in 
 the soil belonged ; and the language of the regu- 
 lations with respect to proprietors is so much at 
 variance with the conviction on the minds of 
 the public servants, that the latter are unable to 
 reconcile them to each other and to the actual state 
 of things. The mere verification of the superficial 
 extent of townships with the village books, is a much 
 more simple process than is usually believed ; but 
 the investigation and determination of rights is one 
 of more difficulty, and ought to be entrusted only to 
 the most intelligent and confidential civil servants, 
 aided by some well-paid natives. A commission 
 of this nature should follow the surveyors, and 
 have authority to confirm rights. Those of a doubt- 
 ful character might be reported on separately to 
 government; but wherever they did not encroach 
 on individuals, they ought to be viewed with the
 
 CONCLUSION. 433 
 
 most indulgent consideration with respect to ac- 
 tual occupancy. 
 
 Having decided on the question of rights, the 
 next for consideration is the distribution of the 
 waste lands. 
 
 The author of the work on the landed tenures, 
 above referred to, suggests two modes of effecting 
 this measure : — " The one is to sell the land out- 
 right, but in portions that would form estates of 
 a fair size, neither too large nor too small. The 
 other is to make it over in similar portions, without 
 any payment in money, and to render its proprie- 
 tors perpetually liable to the payment of a certain 
 fixed sum to government." Both these plans in- 
 volve inconveniences which I shall proceed to dis- 
 cuss. The preservation of the size of the estates 
 forms a necessary part of the scheme ; or, in the 
 succession of equal heritage, we should fall into the 
 dilemma of a minute and eternal division of atoms. 
 To obviate this difficulty, the author proposes that 
 the law of primogeniture should attach to these 
 estates. It appears likely that under such circum- 
 stances there would be no purchasers ; and, at all 
 events, great difficulty must arise in effecting a 
 departure from the practice of the equal division 
 of property among the brothers of the same family. 
 So palpable an infraction of the law of the Hin- 
 doos, and, I may also add, of nature, would be 
 exceedingly repugnant to them, and I question 
 whether it would succeed. If it did not, the in- 
 tegrity of these new estates could not be calculated 
 
 F F
 
 kS4 CONCLUSION. 
 
 on as part of the scheme. The second objection 
 is, that the present landholders, who are poor, 
 could not become the purchasers. The new land- 
 lords, therefore, who bought the lands (I do not 
 understand they are to be taxed at all), would so 
 completely undersell the produce of the original 
 cultivators, that the latter must abandon their lands 
 altogether, and would probably fall into the condi- 
 tion of tenants to the new purchasers ; while, in the 
 mean time, government would lose the revenue of 
 the abandoned lands before any new source could 
 be created. In this point of view, the injustice of 
 this measure towards the old proprietors would 
 not be greater than its impolicy towards the 
 government. 
 
 In differing from the talented author of the 
 pamphlet before me, I do so with great diffidence 
 and respect for what has fallen from his pen on 
 this subject ; while I shall proceed to show that 
 estates in India are preserved entire without the 
 law of primogeniture. 
 
 In those parts of Europe where this law does 
 not prevail, and landed property is equally shared 
 among brethren, estates must necessarily, in a 
 few generations, be subdivided into unprofitable 
 portions, and be sold to other proprietors. This pro- 
 cess has already began to display itself in France, 
 and is likely to continue, to the great detri- 
 ment of national wealth. In the Hindoo institu- 
 tions, the integrity of estates is preserved for many 
 generations, if not for ever, though the law of pri-
 
 CONCLUSION. 435 
 
 rriogeniture does not exist. The land of many 
 villages is cultivated in common, each individual 
 contributing his labour and capital according to his 
 means, and sharing the amount of the net annual 
 profit. In this way the integrity of the whole 
 land can never be destroyed. In other villages, the 
 land is subdivided into a certain number of shares 
 (as we have seen), each of which remains for ever 
 in the same family. Hindoo families sometimes 
 live united, without separating their common in- 
 terest in the land for several generations : one or 
 more members manage the estate, while the others 
 receive their portion of the produce, either on the 
 spot, or wherever they may go in order to seek 
 employment.* Family pride is opposed to their 
 selling even a portion of these estates ; and when 
 done, it can only be effected by obtaining the con- 
 sent of all direct and collateral heirs, who have 
 each a preference in the purchase. This practice 
 has grown into a law, and preserves landed pro- 
 perty in the same family for a longer period and 
 more essentially than any acts of European legis- 
 lation. The demands of our government render it 
 impossible to relinquish any portion of the present 
 tax on land; but by limiting it to the present de- 
 mand, we may effect the reduction by other means. 
 To confer the waste lands on any but the pre- 
 sent payers of the tax would involve the incon- 
 
 * Many of the Brahmin proprietors of the village of Ootram- 
 aloor are embodied in the corps of guides and surveyors in the 
 Quarter-Master-General's department at Madras. 
 
 F F 2
 
 436 CONCLUSION. 
 
 veniences already alluded to; and to divide and 
 allot them to individuals, we should run the 
 risk of doing great injustice to some, and of 
 creating an endless source of jealousy and heart- 
 burning in all. The measure, however, may be 
 done by giving up, free of tax, the lands now lying 
 waste; but difficulties exist, in the mode of con- 
 ferring this boon, which ought not to be over- 
 looked. It has been already shown that to give 
 them away for nothing, to any but the present con- 
 tributors to the land-tax, would be not only an 
 injustice to them, but would inevitably lead to the 
 relinquishment of much of the present land, in 
 order to cultivate the waste on more favourable 
 terms, by which an immediate defalcation of re- 
 venue would ensue. 
 
 A more equitable and more advantageous plan 
 would be to proclaim, after the surveys were com- 
 pleted, that the unclaimed waste of each village 
 (assumed by us to belong to the state) shall be 
 given up gratuitously to townships. The result of 
 such a step would be, that all the agriculturists 
 possessing the means would instantly extend their 
 farms, stipulating with each community for an ex- 
 emption from contribution for a limited period. This 
 measure would confer great immediate advantages 
 on those individuals ; while, as soon as the lease of 
 exemption expired, the lands would bear part of 
 the public burthens. This process would proba- 
 bly continue till the whole of the waste lands 
 became cultivated, and the assessment fell lighter
 
 CONCLUSION. 437 
 
 and lighter on each acre. It may be assumed, 
 also, that the altered condition of the landholders 
 would induce them to improve their property, 
 which, by increasing the quantity and quality of 
 the produce, would rapidly reduce the proportion 
 which the land-tax now bears to that produce, and 
 gradually bring about that real value in land so 
 much to be desired. 
 
 Village communities, perceiving these advantages, 
 would, in cases where their own members had no 
 capital, either borrow money for the purpose of 
 rendering the waste land productive, or sell it to 
 strangers ; and thus, by extending the number of 
 their copartners, lighten their own fixed assess- 
 ment, as is practised daily in the Deccan*, in the 
 sale of Ghutkool. Wherever land is found unat- 
 tached to any village or community, it will be for 
 the government to make its own arrangements for 
 securing an additional revenue from it. 
 
 The next question is, to fix the amount to be 
 paid by villages. It seems probable, with the ad- 
 vantages of a permanent tax, and the free gift of 
 the unclaimed waste to each village community, 
 that its members would willingly enter into agree- 
 ments for a sum not to exceed the average paid 
 during the last twenty-five years. With all those vil- 
 lages who refused to enter into such engagements, 
 I should propose to revert to the ancient system of 
 taxation of the native governments ; by which I. 
 
 * See Part II. chap. iii. p. 347. 
 F F 3
 
 438 CONCLUSION. 
 
 mean an annual assessment on a portion of the 
 gross produce, fixed with reference to the price of 
 grain at the time in the neighbouring markets. 
 
 The Hindoos took a twelfth, a tenth, an eighth, 
 and even a sixth portion ; the Mahomedans and 
 Marrattas, a fourth on dry crops : any thing beyond 
 that is a violation of the law and practice of those 
 of our predecessors who professed to rule justly. 
 
 The transfer of whole communities of proprie- 
 tors to contractors, without defining the portion 
 the former have to pay, or the latter have a right to 
 demand ; the fixing heavy money assessments on 
 fields, and appraising land at a rate equal to thirty 
 or forty per cent, of the gross produce, and 
 making that rate to stand for twenty or thirty 
 years, are schemes of finance, the one for simplify- 
 ing collections, and the other for raising an onerous 
 land-tax, which have both failed ; and it is hoped 
 they will, as far as is practicable, be abandoned, 
 and in time be forgotten. In the former scheme, 
 what was once uncertain is becoming every day 
 better known : the interest of the revenue con- 
 tractors is gradually beginning to tell ; and they 
 find that light assessments and easy rents are, on 
 the whole, more advantageous to themselves than 
 rack-renting and oppression. 
 
 Having determined on the amount of future as- 
 sessments, the next object seems to be the mode of 
 realisation. This, instead of being a question of 
 finance, is one of legislation. The notorious cor- 
 ruption of revenue officers, ill paid and open to
 
 CONCLUSION. 439 
 
 great temptations, wherever discretionary power is 
 left to individuals to grant remissions, renders it 
 absolutely necessary that receivers of revenue 
 should be amenable to courts of law. Hitherto 
 there have been two methods of collection under 
 our government : the one direct by natives, for 
 their own advantage, either paying smaller or larger 
 fixed sums for the privilege ; the other, through 
 natives under the orders of European collectors. 
 In the latter case, the collector and his assistants 
 have stipulated salaries, and are vested with great 
 discretionary powers in granting remissions or en- 
 tering into bargains on the public account, and 
 in determining private rights. These establish- 
 ments are extremely expensive, as all the business 
 is carried on in minute detail. They are subject to 
 no local control, but are under the orders of the 
 Board of Revenue, which holds its sittings usu- 
 ally several hundred miles distant. Experience has 
 shown that extensive corruptions almost always 
 prevail under such a system ; and it seems advis- 
 able, in every point of view, that more efficient local 
 checks than have yet been adopted should be ap- 
 plied to it. The question, as 1 have before said, is 
 one of legislative interference for the protection of 
 private rights, rather than of finance. In either of 
 the plans I have proposed for the reform of the 
 revenue system, an attainable limit of assessment is 
 defined : there is no discretionary power in cither 
 case ; and, excepting in the security of the full por- 
 tion of the produce for the government, there is no 
 
 I' F 4
 
 440 CONCLUSION. 
 
 difficulty. This process is found simple in Baroach, 
 and was once the universal practice of the native 
 governments, till villages consented to pay an aggre- 
 gate fixed amount, when the waste lands were 
 made over to them. Such is the practice under 
 many of the feudatory chieftains of the Marratta 
 government, in the Deccan, and in Malwa; and 
 the flourishing condition of their districts exhibit 
 its good effects. 
 
 It is instructive and satisfactory when one is 
 able to bring parallel cases near home of what is 
 proposed to be practised abroad. In the course of 
 my enquiries on the Continent of Europe I disco- 
 vered that, throughout Germany, village communi- 
 ties, not unlike those in India, have also long existed 
 in Europe. Each of the towns, large or small, in 
 Germany, consists of a municipality which frames 
 it own bye-laws and manages its own concerns. 
 The whole of the land, not belonging to private 
 individuals, appertains to the village community, 
 not in severalty but in common, as in many parts 
 of the Carnatic. This common land is managed 
 by a village council, of which the mayor is the 
 head, and the profits are applied to defray the vil- 
 lage expenses. Lighting the town, the construc- 
 tion and repair of churches, of public buildings 
 and roads, and generally all expenses connected 
 with the advantage of the village, are defrayed out 
 of the common fund. In the kingdom of Wur- 
 temburg the lands were newly assessed during the 
 present century, and the mode of fixing the amount
 
 CONCLUSION. 441 
 
 is curious, if it be only to show the great difficulty 
 which belongs to all measures of this nature. A 
 former assessment, which had been made on fields, 
 was found so unequal as to render its revisal 
 desirable ; and the'government accordingly called 
 on villages to exhibit the average gross produce 
 and surplus of all the private lands in the 
 kingdom. When the returns were received, the 
 minister was surprised to find that the expense of 
 cultivation was represented to be equal to the 
 whole gross produce, leaving no surplus at all. 
 The minister accordingly, viewing the whole pro- 
 ceeding as a fraud, added one third to the estimated 
 produce, and fixed an assessment on the rent. 
 
 A distribution in detail was then made among 
 themselves by village communities. In the course 
 of time great inequalities have arisen ; but as the 
 assessment, like that, of England, was made on 
 rent, not on the gross produce, these inequalities 
 adjust themselves by falling on the landlord in the 
 sale of his land, but do not affect the tenant. 
 
 The laws for the village communities in the king- 
 dom of Wurtemburg will be found in the Appen- 
 dix to this work, and may afford useful hints for 
 the legislation of India. In each of these is a mayor, 
 or Potail, elected for life : his duties are precisely 
 those of an Indian Gram Adikar. The village 
 lands are managed by a council, or Punchayet, 
 which aids the Potail in all the internal concerns 
 of the community. The village also elects a com- 
 mittee of control, to check the conduct of the mayor
 
 442 CONCLUSION. 
 
 and council, half of the members of which go out 
 of office in rotation every two years. 
 
 In consequence of this system many of the vil- 
 lages and towns of the kingdom of Wurtemburg 
 support all the internal expenses of the community 
 by the profits accruing from the common lands and 
 village property. 
 
 But to revert to our Indian systems. When I 
 regard the expensive establishments and the corrupt 
 practices of revenue servants under the detailed 
 system of management, and look back at the vio- 
 lent usurpations of private rights which appear by 
 the records to have taken place under direct Euro- 
 pean agency, possessing almost unlimited authority, 
 I cannot but feel the vast difficulty, I had almost said 
 impracticability, in the actual state of affairs, of con- 
 ducting our revenue business on the plan at present 
 in force, denominated ryotwarry. The nature of 
 tenures and rights are so complicated, and so various 
 in each district, that it is no wonder if they are for 
 the most part unknown and little understood, even 
 by the most experienced Europeans who have dedi- 
 cated their lives to the enquiry; much less are they 
 known to any inexperienced collector. The very 
 Boards of Revenue and Commissioners themselves 
 have confessed their ignorance on these points: how 
 then can it be expected that judges, whose duties 
 are of so multifarious a nature, and whose lives are 
 occupied, not with becoming acquainted with laws 
 by studying cases of precedent, but whose spare 
 time out of court must be occupied, if they do their
 
 CONCLUSION. 443 
 
 duty, in studying the technicalities and forms of 
 their courts, comprised in several folio volumes of 
 regulations ; whose qualifications for office do not 
 consist in a knowledge of law so much as of forms j 
 and whose pretensions are most usually founded on 
 the stations they fill in a graduated list of civil ser- 
 vants entitled to hold office, and to receive a certain 
 sum of money? Litigations on landed tenures have 
 been worked out even by the judges of the Supreme 
 Courts at the Presidencies, but not before a lapse 
 of years and an expenditure of vast sums of money, 
 which, after all, almost amount to a denial of justice 
 altogether. The records of Bengal and Madras es- 
 pecially teem with instances of the grossest injustice. 
 In the former, they appear under the Zemindarry 
 system ; in the latter, chiefly under the Ryotvvarry. 
 As one of many instances which have come under 
 my observation, I quote the following candid state- 
 ment from a Report, dated 31st March 1818, from 
 Mr. Graeme, the collector of Arcot : — "Para. 112. 
 It must be admitted that it has only been by the 
 Company's government that a resumption has been 
 made of the maimium (tax free) land, and the privi- 
 leges in kind, from the mere notion of expediency. 
 The resumption of the lands and privileges in these 
 districts took place in Fusly 1213 (A. D. 1803), 
 under the sanction of government, on the recom- 
 mendation of my predecessor. 
 
 " 113. This I am inclined to believe to have 
 been a measure of unnecessary hardship, particu- 
 larly as the supposed equivalent in money which 
 was established is by no means equal to the pro-
 
 444 CONCLUSION. 
 
 duce of the maunium lands and sosuntrums* which 
 they formerly enjoyed. It (the measure) has too 
 much undermined their hereditary attachment, 
 and lessened the interest which they had in increas- 
 ing the produce of the village. It has, besides, 
 rendered it too easy, under a revenue administra- 
 tion which does not sufficiently respect ancient rights 
 and customs, to admit strangers to the head of the 
 villages, by the intrigues of revenue servants. I 
 therefore recommend that their former maunium 
 lands and sosuntrums be restored, whatever system 
 of general management may prevail hereafter for 
 these districts." t 
 
 If other instances of this nature were required, 
 numerous examples might be adduced ; and I fear 
 an enquiry would show that the rights of indivi- 
 duals, of the better classes particularly, have been 
 as much infringed, if not more so, by European 
 collectors in Madras, under the authority of govern- 
 ment, acting from ignorance and over zeal, than 
 they have been violated by revenue contractors 
 under the sanction of the regulations in Bengal. 
 Where rights are recognised and defined, the pro- 
 prietors of village revenue, of winch there are so 
 many thousands in all parts of India, are restrained 
 
 * Personal fees. 
 
 f Mr. Graeme succeeded to the temporary charge of the 
 government on the death of the late Sir Thomas Munro, and 
 issued a proclamation granting the privilege of trial by jury, in 
 all criminal cases, to the natives under the Madras presidency. 
 This measure was disapproved, and the order superseded, by 
 his predecessor ; and the boon at present remains a dead letter 
 on the records.
 
 CONCLUSION. 445 
 
 from encroachments. There are many reasons for 
 this. In the first place, these proprietors are aware 
 that their own rights are confined to the sovereign's 
 legitimate share of the produce, or its equivalent 
 in money ; that the landed proprietors cannot be 
 ousted while they pay that portion ; and they also 
 know that the government, essentially just in its 
 preservation of rights between its subjects, will 
 allow of no encroachment. Moreover, the land- 
 holders themselves, in a body, resist any attempt 
 at innovation on the part of the revenue proprietor 
 or receiver. It is to these causes we must ascribe 
 the extremely flourishing condition of those vil- 
 lages whose revenues, or land-tax rather, has been 
 assigned to individuals, and which are held under 
 the exclusive management of natives. Wherever 
 you travel in India, the fact stares you in the face. 
 Whenever, in a poor country, you perceive one or 
 more flourishing villages, you are sure to find it is 
 under the individual control of some one who 
 holds it free of European interference. The truth of 
 this will not, I believe, be contested ; and it only 
 proves how much less competent we are to manage 
 the country than the inhabitants themselves. The 
 whole of the statements made in support of this 
 assertion may be proved by enquiry from those 
 persons now in England who have the highest 
 character and the greatest experience in these 
 matters. If this view of the case be correct, we 
 ought to adopt some medium course between 
 that of the Zemindar, or revenue contractor of
 
 446 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the Bengal regulations, and the uncontrolled and 
 ignorant European collector, with his expensive 
 establishment of ill-paid and greedy dependents. 
 There are many instances, under the Madras Pre- 
 sidency particularly, of splendid temples and of 
 hostels being built by native contractors of land 
 revenue, both for the use of their own countrymen 
 and for European travellers ; and in the extreme 
 heats of the hottest seasons, numerous charitable 
 establishments, to supply cool water and afford 
 shade to travellers, are to be seen throughout the 
 country, maintained entirely by opulent individuals 
 of this description. Whatever may be the ill 
 effects of the religion of the Hindoos, it not only 
 strongly inculcates charity, but it produces it in a 
 very general degree amongst the people. Every 
 European traveller must be struck with the absence 
 of importunate beggars, as in the more civilised 
 regions of the west. Village societies not onlv 
 provide for many of their own poor, but also for 
 itinerant mendicants. 
 
 In permitting villages to assess themselves, 
 it is to be hoped that measures will be adopted 
 to enable the inhabitants to manage their internal 
 concerns as they are accustomed to do under 
 their own governments ; and that the eternal 
 interference of revenue officers, under the plea of 
 protecting the people, will be prevented. 
 
 It is preposterous to suppose that a European 
 collector, having charge of 1,500 or 2,000 villages, 
 and collecting taxes from 100,000 cultivators, can
 
 CONCLUSION. t4? 
 
 be competent to regulate the quantity of oil which 
 ought to be used in all the temples and at all the 
 village gates in the country, nor to judge of the 
 quantum of food which shall be distributed to 
 mendicants and priests, to travellers or public 
 officers : yet such are the duties of every ryotwar 
 collector. These expenses so entirely concern the 
 people themselves, that it is mere impertinence on 
 our part to interfere with them: it originates from 
 that utter contempt with which Europeans are apt 
 to view the natives; from that assumed superiority of 
 our own knowledge ; from that unfortunate propen- 
 sity to distrust them, even in the management of their 
 own business ; and that laudable, though mistaken, 
 wish of supplying, by our own wisdom and superin- 
 tendence, all the defects which we attribute to their 
 character. The task of regulating these matters 
 must be trusted to stipendiary native agents : no 
 European collector can ever superintend one thou- 
 sandth part of such a concern ; so that, in the end, 
 it usually terminates in corruption, and leads to 
 extortion and oppression, sanctioned by official 
 authority. We treat the people as if they were 
 savages, without any frame of society : whereas I 
 am sure we might, if civilisation were an article of 
 commerce, in the words of Sir Thomas Munro, 
 import largely, with great advantage, into Europe. 
 In the permanent assessment of the land, and 
 in limiting our demand on it, we need be under no 
 apprehension for other objects of taxation. This 
 apprehension does, however, exist in a very alarm-
 
 448 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ing degree among those people who persist in be- 
 lieving that the natives of India will never be 
 brought to consume those articles which constitute 
 the comforts and luxuries of life. In order to 
 meet this objection, let us imagine that every cul- 
 tivator or landowner in India were allowed, for one 
 year only, to enjoy the whole profit of his crop : there 
 would, in this case, remain about seventeen mil- 
 lions sterling in the pockets of the people at the 
 end of the year. Can it be supposed this sum 
 would lie idle ? Would not the sudden acquisition 
 of wealth lead to the natural desire of each person 
 to improve his condition, and to enjoy some of those 
 good things in which his more wealthy neighbours 
 had hitherto indulged ? Can it be believed that 
 spare and coarse diet, scanty clothing, bad lodg- 
 ing, and hard labour, are things which these people 
 submit to from preference ? In a tropical climate 
 neither clothes nor lodging are absolutely necessary 
 for the preservation of life ; yet few of the people 
 are without either or both. The wants of the 
 people of India are, like those of the rest of the hu- 
 man race, bounded only by the means of attainment. 
 We see this every day. In some parts, where the 
 taxes are heavy, the inhabitants are described as 
 wretchedly clothed, their houses are mere hovels, 
 their agricultural machines imperfect, and their ge- 
 neral condition miserable. In Guzerat the culti- 
 vators are represented as sleek and well looking ; 
 all of them decently clad, and cleanly ; their 
 dwellings comfortable, and the whole economy of
 
 CONCLUSION. 41-9 
 
 their household respectable. One cannot be at a loss 
 to account for this difference. It is because the 
 former people have not means to procure those 
 comforts which it is permitted to the Guzerat hus- 
 bandman to enjoy. But let the latter become a 
 proprietor, we shall see him mounting his pony, 
 to go and visit his lands ; and, rather than eat cakes 
 of the poorer grains, he will always have abun- 
 dance of rice in his house. Let it not be supposed, 
 however, that he and his household will be satisfied 
 with better food merely, or with an extra quantity 
 of butter in his curry. Instead of his wife and 
 daughters going out to weddings and other parties 
 among their neighbours in cotton clothes of the 
 country, they will not fail to let the proprietor 
 know that such gear is very unbecoming the fe- 
 males of a gentleman who rides on horseback. 
 These will be changed for silken dresses : gold 
 and jewels will necessarily attend the change; and 
 a carriage of some sort (whether drawn by ponies 
 or oxen is immaterial) will add to the luxury of 
 the family. The farmer's family will certainly vie 
 with that of the shopkeeper ; and the latter, as he 
 becomes wealthy, with the shawl merchant ; and 
 the shawl merchant with the banker ; and so on. 
 Do we not see this take place daily in every town 
 in India as well as in England? Where there is 
 wealth to purchase, and means to display, it is ab- 
 surd to suppose that the inclination will be want- 
 ing. Vanity is a more common passion than 
 avarice: the consequence is, that more people, nil 
 
 G G
 
 450 CONCLUSION. 
 
 over the world, are ruined by extravagance than die 
 rich out of parsimonious savings. It is pretended 
 that the Zemindars, or land-tax contractors in 
 Bengal, do not spend the money they acquire, 
 but place it at interest in government securities. 
 This may certainly be the case with a few, espe- 
 cially those who have purchased the contracts on 
 speculation, without themselves being agricul- 
 turists. To place their savings at interest is to 
 follow the calling to which they have been 
 brought up as bankers ; but it will be different 
 with farmers and landed gentry : they will natu- 
 rally desire to improve their estates ; mere articles 
 of food will give place to cotton, sugar, indigo, 
 cardamums, and other more expensive productions 
 yielding larger returns than corn. The deficiency 
 in these products at present is owing to the absence 
 of capital. The whole surplus profit is absorbed in 
 the tax, and agriculture has fallen off and must 
 decline. At the Presidencies, where there is 
 still some trade, and wealth is acquired, we find 
 the natives vying with each other, and with 
 Europeans, in their expenses. The use of English 
 carriages, of all descriptions, is common ; and 
 I verily believe that in Bombay those of the 
 natives do not fall much short of the number of 
 those of the European community. Scarcely a 
 house of respectability on the island is without 
 its chairs, couches, tables, looking-glasses, and all 
 the conveniences of the domestic comforts of Eu- 
 rope. The natives do not universally adopt the 
 use of our luxuries ; but those persons who have
 
 CONCLUSION. 151 
 
 travelled much on the Continent of Europe, and 
 have visited the three capitals of India, will be dis- 
 posed to think with me that the natives of the 
 latter country more readily conform to our habits 
 than the natives of Europe do to the customs of 
 their neighbours. 
 
 The financial system of India has, as much as 
 any thing else, tended to exhibit the natives to us 
 in a very unfavourable point of view. Undefined 
 taxation, limited only by the means of paying, must 
 inevitably lay the foundation of every vice. The 
 peasants and the public officers of the villages are 
 incessantly trying to deceive each other : the for- 
 mer to obtain remissions, the latter to extort the 
 utmost farthing. The village officers, in their 
 turn, endeavour to deceive the local native serv- 
 ants, in order to give up to them as little as 
 possible ; and the latter to retain all they can out 
 of the collections. The local native officers play 
 the same game where they can with the collector ; 
 and the whole system naturally begets chicane, 
 deceit, and mistrust. 
 
 A fixed assessment, capable of being easily paid, 
 would remove these evils, and render the people 
 less prone to such deceptions. A knowledge of them 
 in the finance department, and their exhibition 
 as criminals in the courts of justice, comprise 
 nearly the whole of the intercourse of our European 
 civil servants with the natives. That their opinion 
 of them, on the whole, should be unfavourable, is 
 not therefore to be wondered at ; but the prejudice 
 
 o g 2
 
 452 CONCLUSION. 
 
 against them is wearing away, and their more ex- 
 tensive employment has been lately much recom- 
 mended. By this measure we shall derive many 
 advantages : while we attach the people to us, 
 we shall provide a cheaper and more efficient ad- 
 ministration, and give them an interest in our 
 government, which at present is so much wanting. 
 The good effects that have already ensued from 
 the extensive employment of native judges on the 
 Madras establishment, affords a convincing proof 
 of the benefit to be derived from the practice. 
 Our present civil establishments are enormous, 
 still we are always complaining of their inefficiency. 
 It is hardly credible that no fewer than one hun- 
 dred thousand native civil servants form the train 
 of our European agency; and I speak from the 
 very highest authority when I assert that to be the 
 case. To this may be added nearly twice as many 
 native soldiers, maintained in a time of profound 
 peace. The necessity for the support of so large 
 an army arises out of the nature of our situation 
 in India. Besides independent chiefs, there are 
 no fewer than thirteen sovereign princes with whom 
 we have contracted subsidiary alliances. These 
 connections involve us in the necessity of being in a 
 constant preparation for war at avast expense, while 
 the allies themselves are enabled, by the protection 
 they receive from us, to lay by a large proportion of 
 their revenue yearly. The nature of these alliances 
 renders the native sovereigns wealthy, though, 
 it deprives them of power. Their subjects and
 
 CONCLUSION. 4)53 
 
 thev both feel the humiliated condition in which 
 they are placed ; and the prince who has sued for 
 our friendship and protection, soon learns to hate 
 the power to which he owes his security, but whose 
 superiority he is daily taught to recognise. Oppor- 
 tunity is only wanting to avail himself of the 
 accumulated wealth of a long period of peace to 
 break out into open war, or to foment discord in other 
 quarters. This it is which constantly involves us in 
 such vast military expense in all parts of India — an 
 expense from which we cannot escape with safety 
 to our dominion. Of our own subjects, Sir Thomas 
 Munro, in his excellent Minute of 31st December 
 1824, has thus spoken : — " What is to become of 
 the people ? I require it to be distinctly avowed 
 whether they are to be raised or lowered. Are 
 we to be satisfied with merely securing power and 
 protecting the inhabitants, leaving them to sink 
 gradually lower than at present ; or are we to 
 endeavour to raise their character, and to render 
 them worthy of filling higher situations in the 
 management of their country, and of devising 
 plans for its improvement ? It ought, undoubtedly, 
 to be our aim to raise the minds of the natives; 
 and to take care that, whenever our connection 
 with India might cease, it did not appear that the 
 only fruit of our dominion there had been to leave 
 the people more abject, and less able to govern 
 themselves, than when we found them. Many 
 different plans may be suggested for the improve- 
 ment of their character ; but none of them can 
 
 G G 3
 
 4o4 CONCLUSION. 
 
 be successful, unless it be first laid down as a main 
 principle of our policy that the improvement 
 must be made. This principle once established, 
 we must trust to time and perseverance for realis- 
 ing the object of it." 
 
 " We should look upon India, not as a temporary 
 possession, but as one which is to be maintained 
 permanently, until the natives shall, in some future 
 age, have abandoned most of their superstitions 
 and prejudices, and become sufficiently enlightened 
 to frame a regular government for themselves, 
 and to conduct and preserve it." 
 
 We are too apt to ascribe to the inhabitants of 
 India a character for timidity and pusillanimity. 
 They are neither timid nor pusillanimous : they 
 are bold and enterprising. He who has read their 
 history cannot deny it. The deeds of our armies in 
 India verify the assertion ; and the false estimate 
 we have of them may lead to our ruin. When we 
 recollect the scene at Vellore in 1800, and the 
 state of the Madras army at that period ; when we 
 see a population of a hundred thousand inhabitants 
 quitting their houses and their property, and en- 
 camping for whole weeks in the open fields, rather 
 than pay a house-tax imposed without their con- 
 sent, as did the inhabitants of Benares, we may 
 judge whether they will tamely submit to injuries 
 affecting whole communities. So far from their 
 being supine, they are so tenacious of their wonted 
 privileges, that it requires the experience of an 
 European's life to be fit to be placed in authority
 
 CONCLUSION. 155 
 
 over them. The hold we have on them is already 
 too loose : it should be our object to bind them 
 more strongly to our government. We have, for- 
 tunately, in the Hindoo institutions themselves, 
 a broad basis on which to build. Each village 
 is entire within itself: its elders form a body of 
 senators at home, and representatives of the peo- 
 ple abroad. A number of such villages consti- 
 tute a district, which has its chiefj who represents 
 each of these little states at the court of his 
 sovereign. These individuals enjoy their family 
 estates absolutely independent of the favour of 
 their prince. They hold their representative offices 
 hereditarily, as he holds his crown ; and cannot 
 be dispossessed, but for treason, without violence 
 and injustice. 
 
 In the subdivision of the land among ten, 
 twenty, or thirty families, as is the case in many 
 villages, we have a body of ancient landholders 
 ready made to our hands : when these shares are 
 again subdivided among many individuals, each 
 is less opulent, but not less a proprietor of his 
 family estate. When the estates are large, and 
 comprehend several hundreds, or even thousands 
 of acres, they may be regarded as great landlords. 
 Such did, and even now do, exist under the Hin- 
 doo government, and, in some parts, under our 
 own, where we have not disturbed the ancient 
 state of society. 
 
 It has been too much the practice, of late, to talk 
 of our ignorance of the institutions of these people : 
 
 g g 1
 
 4>56 CONCLUSION. 
 
 this confession implies that we have, at least, learned 
 enough to know how little we do know ; but there 
 is, in reality, no dearth of information for those 
 who wish to obtain it. No science is acquired by 
 intuition, or without intense study : how then can 
 we expect to know the intricacies of the domestic, 
 civil, and political institutions of an ancient and 
 civilised people, like those of India, without appli- 
 cation ? The necessary knowledge cannot be com- 
 pressed into one volume : it lies buried in hundreds 
 of volumes. How many local Reports are there 
 written, and even published ? But nobody reads. 
 Information regarding India is, of all topics, the 
 most nauseating in English society: the scene is 
 too remote to excite interest, and ignorance renders 
 the subject unpalatable. If it be really the object of 
 the government to obtain information, in order to 
 legislate for India, it would do well to call into its 
 aid the talents of those able men, governors, coun- 
 cillors, and heads of the service, who are daily 
 returning from the very scene. These might be 
 formed into committees, and be required to report 
 on given subjects submitted to them. These re- 
 ports would serve better as guides for the ruling 
 authorities in England, who are eventually respon- 
 sible, and have to decide on them, than any 
 opinions derived from the mere perusal of docu- 
 ments, on subjects to which the rulers themselves 
 may be strangers. Had a committee of this nature 
 sat twenty years ago, on the subject of this work,
 
 CONCLUSION. 15"/ 
 
 the question would have long since been decided 
 on just and equitable principles. 
 
 I have limited my subject to the land-tax, the 
 principal source of our revenue. I have shown, 
 I believe, how we have erred, not from intention 
 but out of ignorance. Our resources are now begin- 
 ning to fail us ; we endeavour to meet the contin- 
 gency by reduction of expense, but we must avoid 
 inefficiency. In India we have no sinecures nor 
 pensions to clip away : every public functionary has 
 his full share of employment and responsibility, and 
 the services he performs cannot be dispensed with. 
 The great engine of the government is its army : 
 it cannot be tampered with without danger. I 
 have already witnessed two or three commotions 
 that threatened our empire with ruin : twice from 
 the disaffection of the natives ; once from the dis- 
 content of the Europeans ; and the latest accounts 
 are not favourable to tranquillity. In times of 
 peace and order the machine is sufficiently man- 
 ageable, and works well : it is in times of commo- 
 tions that superior minds are requisite to regulate 
 it. Weakness of judgment and inexperience may 
 do more harm in one year than can be repaired in 
 an age. 
 
 I have hitherto spoken of India as regards itself 
 merely : let us see how our administration affects 
 the mother country. The public is at present 
 inundated with works against the continuance of 
 the present system of government. An unrestricted 
 intercourse with every part of the extensive coast of
 
 i,)8 CONCLUSION. 
 
 India, free admission throughout the whole country 
 for Europeans, and the privilege of purchasing and 
 holding lands, are demanded. By the acquisition 
 of these privileges it is maintained that the manu- 
 factures of England would obtain a ready and 
 almost unlimited demand; that the residence of 
 Europeans in the interior would tend more largely 
 to diffuse commerce, and would communicate 
 a taste for the articles of European produce ; and 
 that the occupation of land by Englishmen would 
 lead to the improvement of agriculture, and to the 
 production of the most valuable raw materials for 
 the markets of Europe. 
 
 India at present contains a vast population, com- 
 posed of poor peasants who have barely sufficient 
 to feed themselves and their children. We are 
 willing enough to furnish its inhabitants with our 
 manufactures, but they require the means of pur- 
 chasing. Under the present system it would be of 
 no avail, even if the soil produced gold instead of 
 grain, if the great landlord (the government) were 
 to take all the produce, except what is necessary to 
 pay the labourers : in that case, as now, there 
 would be no surplus to purchase manufactures. 
 The country is absolutely without the means of 
 carrying on a foreign trade, or even of improving 
 its soil ; and these means have been greatly reduced 
 by the supercession of its home manufactures, and 
 the onerous duties levied in England on its raw 
 produce. The imports into India are favoured by 
 limiting the duties to two and a half per cent.,
 
 CONCLUSION. 4>59 
 
 while the imports from India are burthened with 
 duties of from 25 to 30 per cent. Can any trade 
 thrive under such circumstances? We must deal 
 with that country on a perfect equality before she 
 can be made profitable to the parent state. The 
 import and export duties of both nations ought and 
 must be put on a par to render the trade beneficial. 
 But, above all, the landholders must be allowed to 
 retain a portion of the surplus of their crop, instead 
 of paying the whole. Were this tax even expended 
 in India, the evil would be less : but how is it dis- 
 posed of? About one fifth of the gross taxation, 
 that is to say, four millions annually, is withdrawn 
 from it, either in produce or in specie, to be 
 expended in England. This sum is necessary to 
 meet the charges of the home and St. Helena esta- 
 blishments, for the pensions of public officers re- 
 siding in Europe, and for the purchase of public 
 stores to supply an army of two hundred thousand 
 men — not one sixpence of which ever returns to 
 benefit the country from which the tribute is de- 
 rived. The nature of our rule demands that India 
 should support the home establishments ; and I fear 
 it is too much the interest of En gland that she 
 should continue to supply our army there with 
 clothing, equipments, and ammunition, to hope for 
 the adoption of any measures which might alle- 
 viate the burthen that country now sustains from 
 our injustice. 
 
 Much has been said of the necessity of opening 
 the trade more than at present: but, in reality, the
 
 4(30 CONCLUSION. 
 
 trade with India, in every respect, is under less 
 restriction than any of our colonies. Enough of 
 speculators surely have been ruined in the attempt 
 to force a trade with that country. The people are 
 poor ; they have no means of purchasing : England 
 refuses to receive Indian goods on equal terms ; 
 and the government taxes the land in the whole 
 surplus produce. Place India on an equal footing 
 with the mother countrv ; treat her as a trading 
 nation, and not as a tributary colony ; and ninety 
 millions of people, with a thriving agricultural 
 population, and a ready market for their produce, 
 will not fail to consume all that the manufac- 
 tures of England can supply in the way of 
 broadcloth, cutlery, machinery of every descrip- 
 tion (from a steam-engine to a pocket watch), 
 porcelain, glass ware in all shapes, jewellery, wines, 
 and a hundred other articles, which the want of 
 means alone now prevent the natives from purchas- 
 ing. On the other hand, we must not hope to 
 compete with the native country of cotton and 
 silks in manufactures of those articles : we must be 
 content to receive the raw materials to work up 
 for the markets of Europe. We must also take in- 
 digo, spices, sugar, dyes, drugs, and all the indi- 
 genous produce of the East in return, or we shall 
 in vain hope to sustain a trade with that country. 
 
 As connected with the subject of this work, it 
 seems proper to say a few words respecting the 
 free admission of Europeans into India, for the 
 purposes of settling and purchasing lands, and of
 
 CONCLUSION!. Hi ( 
 
 residing in the interior. Ninety millions of people 
 already occupy the soil ; and the old territory in 
 Bengal, according to a very accurate census made in 
 1820, contains 39,679,000 souls, over a superficies 
 of 162,000 square miles, exhibiting a population 
 more dense than any equal portion of the globe, 
 China not excepted. To talk of colonising India 
 with Europeans, therefore, is evidently an absurdity. 
 But to admit them even to an unrestricted and free 
 residence, with all the rights of citizens, necessarily 
 involves a question of high consideration. In legis- 
 lating for so large a population, whose laws and 
 usages are peculiar, we are bound to consider 
 their advantage as the primary object ; and when 
 we talk of allowing a few foreigners to settle among 
 them as citizens, it is quite clear the latter must be 
 subjected to such laws as may be thought necessary 
 to protect the rights of the original inhabitants, 
 and to ensure the safety and welfare of the existing 
 government. If there were due encouragement 
 given to engage in agriculture and manufactures, 
 there is abundant capital in the hands of the native 
 population to render them wealthy ; but it is our 
 financial and our exclusive commercial systems 
 which paralyse their efforts. Supposing, however, 
 Europeans were encouraged to go to India, it is 
 certain that the climate, which drives to England 
 annually so many public servants of the govern- 
 ment, and which is the grave of so many others, 
 would hold out no inducement for Englishmen 
 of property "to become permanent occupants <>i
 
 4()2 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 the soil. The only object which people can have 
 to dwell in an unhealthy and ungenial clime, 
 is to accumulate wealth rapidly. How is this 
 to be done by occupying land in India ? Of all 
 speculations, agriculture is that which affords the 
 least prospect of a very rapid accumulation of 
 property in any country : but when we consider 
 the difference of soil, of climate, of seasons, of 
 produce, and, lastly, of practice, between the agri- 
 culture of England and India, I think I may ven- 
 ture to say that the most skilful English, or even 
 Scotch farmer, would rind himself almost as much 
 at a loss in an Indian climate and soil as if he had 
 never practised the rural art. In India an European 
 farmer has every thing to learn. He has to study 
 the seasons, the rotation of crops, the different de- 
 scriptions of produce, the modes of ploughing, sow- 
 ing, harrowing, of irrigating the land, of weeding, 
 and a thousand other intricacies of the art, before 
 he can venture to libpe for any success ; and the 
 chances are that in the end he will be ruined. 
 The restriction imposed on Europeans going to 
 India might perhaps be less rigid ; but the permis- 
 sion to reside in the interior, and their removal 
 even from the country in extreme cases, must, as at 
 present, I conceive, be vested in the local govern * 
 ment. Europeans in India are in reality aliens, and 
 they must conform to the laws conducive to the 
 welfare of the country. The idea of every Eng- 
 lishman having a right to expatriate himself at will 
 into every English colony or dominion, and there
 
 CONCLUSION. 4()3 
 
 exercise all the privileges to which his birthright 
 entitles him at home, is absurd. An Englishman's 
 rights are confined to English ground, and are de- 
 fined by the laws of his own country ; but he can 
 surely have no pretence to demand those rights in 
 a foreign land, at the expense of the prosperity and 
 happiness of its people. 
 
 I am by no means averse to the admission 
 of Europeans into India, with the above reserv- 
 ations. I have seen the good effects of the in- 
 tercourse of English merchants at the Presiden- 
 cies, where the same laws protect both parties : 
 there the European finds the necessity for native 
 assistance, and interest prompts both to aid one an- 
 other. In the great mercantile houses of Calcutta, 
 Madras, and Bombay, if not actual partners, the 
 natives have extensive commercial transactions 
 with the European merchants, and mutual advan- 
 tages accrue. The natives, in the accumulation of 
 wealth, and in constant communication with the 
 Europeans, vie with them in luxury and comforts ; 
 and that taste for expense, conducive to the en- 
 couragement of trade and manufacture, necessarily 
 follows. 
 
 Let it not be supposed that any thing which I 
 have said in this work is intended to reflect on the 
 characters of those great men whose measures have 
 been exposed to censure ; nor do I wish to impute 
 blame to those high authorities in England who 
 have taken views different from mine as to the ex- 
 pediency of continuing the present system of
 
 4<64 CONCLUSION. 
 
 finance. My whole life has been devoted to the 
 study of the history, the manners, the customs, 
 and the institutions of the country. It is from 
 these sources I have borrowed materials to show 
 that our measures have been founded on false as- 
 sumptions ; that the ninety millions of freemen in 
 India were once ruled by judicious laws which 
 we have overlooked ; that their institutions are 
 founded on wisdom, and have withstood the shock 
 of eight centuries of conquest in a manner that no 
 other institutions with which I am acquainted ever 
 have or could have done ; that these people pecu- 
 liarly claim our protection in their ancient rights 
 and privileges ; and that until they are restored to 
 them they must gradually sink lower and lower in 
 the scale of humanity : but I believe that they will 
 never sink into a condition so abject as to render 
 our dominion over them secure from subversion. 
 On the contrary, every thought which I have ever 
 given to the subject convinces me that our own 
 safety will be rendered more permanent by the 
 adoption of a system that may raise the natives to 
 that scale in the state to which they have a right 
 to aspire, and for which they are fitted; and that, 
 by affording them advantages equal if not superior 
 to those they would enjoy under the native govern- 
 ments, we shall supply them with motives of attach- 
 ment and fidelity. The connection is, however, an 
 unnatural one, and will probably, in the end, be 
 dissolved. Let us prepare ourselves and them for 
 this separation, by rendering them fit to govern and
 
 CONCLUSION. 4-65 
 
 to defend themselves, and leave them disposed to 
 continue a friendly connection with us. To act 
 otherwise, — to retain them in forcible subjection, to 
 withhold from them those natural rights to which 
 they are entitled,— will be to hasten that disunion 
 which may be protracted, and to lay the seeds of 
 that revolution which may end fatally to our domi- 
 nion in India. 
 
 The ministers of this kingdom, in whose hands 
 the legislation of that vast empire centres, have a 
 fearful responsibility : let them avail themselves of 
 the present time to seek for and obtain the requi- 
 site information ; and, above all, let them be cau- 
 tious how they entrust the fate and welfare of those 
 vast regions into unskilful or inexperienced hands, 
 if they intend to preserve the rights of the people 
 and the superiority of the British rule in that quarter 
 of the globe. 
 
 u ii
 
 467 
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 After the proof sheets had been nearly all cor- 
 rected and struck off, I discovered, among the dona- 
 tions to the Royal Asiatic Society, a MS. Memoir 
 on the Madras revenue system, written by the late 
 Ramaswamy Naidoo, formerly a public officer of 
 the government, and who, at the time of drawing 
 up the Memoir, had retired from public life, and 
 was residing in a village, the revenue of which had 
 been assigned to him for his long and faithful ser- 
 vices in the revenue department. 
 
 The document is written in English, and is in 
 the original shape given to it by the author. It 
 contains three remarkable features : — The first, is 
 the refutation of the doctrine of the sovereign's 
 proprietory right in the soil, which he has handled 
 in a very able manner ; the second, is a recom- 
 mendation that the whole of the waste lands 
 should be given up to villages gratis, as the only 
 alternative left of restoring the value of the lands 
 now occupied ; and the third, contains his observ- 
 ations on our revenue system. The latter is valu- 
 able, as containing the view this intelligent native 
 
 h h 2
 
 468 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 takes of our system of management in India. The 
 Manuscript has been badly copied, and some gram- 
 matical errors, whether of the original or the copy 
 is immaterial, have been corrected : the rest is the 
 simple language of Ramaswamy Naidoo himself : — 
 
 " Your government has by denying {abandoning) 
 at one time, and by confirming {adopting) at ano- 
 ther, different systems, given room {encouragement) 
 to all persons who are so inclined to propose plans 
 for the revenue, in order that they may surpass 
 those .then in practice. Not to say that time and 
 experience might not have suggested continual 
 modifications. The changes, however, have been 
 endless, and have served rather to weaken the 
 confidence of the cultivators in the British govern- 
 ment than to secure them in their rights, which, 
 after all, is the only mode of binding them strongly 
 to the interests of the state. 
 
 " It cannot be questioned, however, that the hon- 
 ourable the Court of Directors, remote as they are 
 from this part of the world, could not but choose 
 some amongst the various plans submitted to them 
 by persons supposed to have had experience of the 
 manners and customs of the people ; and that they 
 did select such as to their superior wisdom seemed 
 best, and most calculated to ensure the principal 
 object of their administration, namely, the interest 
 and comforts of their subjects. 
 
 " Your Governors, generally speaking, are persons 
 of noble birth and extensive capacity, and have, no 
 doubt, always evinced every inclination to do just-
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 469 
 
 ice* to individuals ; but owing to so great a part of 
 their time being devoted to extensive political duties, 
 and other affairs of their station, very few of them 
 appear to have done any thing in revenue matters 
 for the good of the country. The blame of failure 
 of the plans which have been adopted, therefore, 
 belongs rather to those persons who suggested 
 them than to the Governors themselves. 
 
 The entire management of revenue affairs is 
 vested in a Revenue Board, sometimes composed 
 of qualified persons, at other times not : this is 
 because you have made it a rule amongst yourselves 
 that you are all fit for any situation whatever, 
 from merely residing a certain number of years 
 in India. For instance, one person is made a com- 
 mercial resident or a collector of sea customs this 
 day, and he becomes a collector of land revenue 
 the next. So, in like manner, are your judges and 
 registers (assistant judges) appointed. In this case 
 the rule which applies to the King's Court is not 
 observed : there no one can become a judge unless 
 he has acted a certain number of years as a bar- 
 rister. 
 
 " You do not show similar indulgence to the 
 natives. When a man comes to you and asks for 
 employment, you question him as to where he has 
 served before, and in what situation ; and if he says 
 he has never served at all, or if he names an em- 
 ployment different from that to which he aspires, 
 you tell him he is unqualified. 
 
 * The writer alludes to the injustice done by encroachments 
 on the rights of landholders by the revenue officers.
 
 470 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 " The Board of Revenue transacts its business 
 chiefly by correspondence with the collectors, who, 
 acting to the best of their judgment, in settling the 
 jummabundy of their districts, forward long reports, 
 dictated in their best style, to the Board, accom- 
 panied by an abstract, but not a detailed account, 
 consisting of sundry calculations drawn up so as in 
 one way or another to account for any deficiencies 
 there may be. At the same time the collector 
 assigns satisfactory reasons for the falling off, and 
 usually apologises for the delay in transmitting his 
 accounts : these, in some cases, pass the Board 
 with great applause, which commends the collector 
 for having got so well through so difficult a task. 
 The Board, in like manner, looks for applause from 
 its superiors. 
 
 " The detailed accounts are never asked for, nor 
 are there any native servants with the Board* ; and 
 even if the details were sent, the gentlemen could 
 not spare time to look at them. 
 
 " The delay in beginning and concluding the 
 jummabundy is never noticed; nor neglect of 
 management in not advancing tuccavy (pecuniary 
 assistance) in due time ; nor in the delay of cutting, 
 threshing, and dividing the crops between the 
 inhabitants and the government. These matters 
 are never enquired into : nay, the gross inattention 
 of some indolent or unqualified collectors in the 
 
 * Since this Memoir was written, an establishment of native 
 examiners of local accounts has been attached to the Revenue 
 Board.
 
 SUPPLEMENT. 471 
 
 course of their management is often passed over ; 
 sometimes because the affair is deemed too trivial 
 to notice, at others it is overlooked out of delicacy. 
 
 " You always decide in your own minds upon 
 affairs which may often require the intervention of 
 the natives. You allow them no freedom of speech, 
 with a conviction, which all Englishmen entertain, 
 of the necessity of keeping more power in their 
 hands than in their native country. In the 5th 
 Report, p. 913., I find, in the Memoir of Mr. 
 William Thackeray, addressed to Lord William 
 Bentinck, the following observation : — ' In all 
 countries it may be good to limit the power of the 
 prince ; but here the government must keep as 
 much power as is consistent with private right in 
 its own hand.' The author of this Memoir, being 
 an Englishman, did not like to part with any 
 portion of his delegated authority. 
 
 " The constitution of England, as far as I have 
 learned, is such, that all classes are represented by 
 their jurors (peers): that is, you have the House 
 of Commons to represent the affairs of the com- 
 monalty ; the House of Peers, that of the nobility ; 
 the Spiritual Lords, that of the clergy and church ; 
 and the king in council possesses the executive 
 power, and at the same time preserves the dignity 
 of the royal family. 
 
 "You will say we have no morality, and that 
 you cannot vest these privileges in us. Very true. 
 How can you acknowledge that (virtue) in us, in 
 which you wish to persuade us we are deficient?
 
 472 SUPPLEMENT. 
 
 But you do not choose to open the door to us.* 
 Until you treat us with civility, and allow us free- 
 dom of speech, then only ought you to expect us 
 to attain that excellence which you now deny us 
 to possess." 
 
 * This phrase means, " You do not choose to give us a fair 
 trial ; you afford us no opportunity, by paying us ill and treat- 
 ing us with mistrust."
 
 473 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 f 11 
 
 L he following extract from the law promulgated on the 
 14th March 1814, for the village municipalities of Wur- 
 temburg, exhibits a very striking analogy between then- 
 organisation and that of the village communities in India ; 
 and the document may afford some useful hints in framing 
 any future regulations for the internal economy of Hindoo 
 townships : — 
 
 " Every village and town forms a Commune. On its 
 first formation each village must consist of at least five 
 hundred persons. 
 
 " Every individual, and every description of property 
 within the limits of the township, is amenable to its laws, 
 unless especially exempted. The Commune alone has the 
 right of regulating its own affairs, which include the man- 
 agement of the common property, and the superintendence 
 of the local police. 
 
 " The affairs of the township shall be entrusted to a 
 Common Council, which shall consist of not less than seven, 
 and not more than twenty-one members. 
 
 " The members of the Council shall be elected by the 
 Commune, according to a majority of votes.* 
 
 " Every citizen elected into the Council is required to 
 serve for at least two years. Minors, bankrupts, servants, 
 convicted criminals, and relatives within the first or second 
 degree of members of council, are ineligible for election. 
 
 " Every member is required to vacate his seat after the 
 first two years of his election ; if he choose to become a can- 
 didate again, and is re-elected, he shall hold his office for life. 
 
 " The Council represents the interests of the village in its 
 
 * Every adult male enjoying civil rights is entitled to vote. The vote 
 is given in writing, and put into a box, which is opened in public, and 
 the successful candidates are announced.
 
 474 APPENDIX. 
 
 relations with the Government; its duty is to protect the peo- 
 ple from external encroachments and from internal disorder. 
 
 " Every village or town elects its Mayor, or chief, who is, 
 ex officio, chairman of the Council. 
 
 " On the vacancy of the office, the Commune shall pro- 
 ceed to elect three candidates, whose names shall be sent 
 to the King for his choice. Whosoever is eligible to sit in 
 the Council is also eligible to the office of Mayor, with the 
 exception of publicans. In the election of a Mayor at least 
 two thirds of the Commune must be present to form a 
 quorum. 
 
 " The King elects the Mayor from the three candidates 
 submitted to him. If, however, one of the candidates has 
 the votes of two thirds of the electors present, he (the 
 King) is bound by law to recognise him as Mayor. This 
 office, like that of Councillor, is for life. 
 
 " The Mayor receives a salary from the village, which 
 is paid out of the common fund. 
 
 " The duties of the Mayor are to maintain public order 
 and security ; to superintend the police, both for the security 
 of the community and for the benefit of the government; to 
 execute the laws ; to assist and expedite the poor and helpless ; 
 to give information and assistance to strangers ; to prevent all 
 acts of injustice and oppression ; to superintend and act for 
 the welfare of the village ; to direct the management of its 
 affairs, in concert with the Council ; and to prevent abuses.* 
 
 " The Mayor may confine the refractory for forty-eight 
 hours, and may impose a fine not exceeding eleven shillings 
 on his own responsibility. 
 
 " The Council shall elect a public record keeper, whose 
 office lasts for life : he, like the Mayor, shall be paid out 
 of the common fund. 
 
 "The Council shall have the management of the funds 
 of the corporation, and elect a treasurer from amongst its 
 members, who shall superintend and examine the accounts. 
 
 * The same duties, the same office, anil the same mode of election, 
 are common throughout most parts of Germany.
 
 APPENDIX. 47.5 
 
 " The Council shall decide on the best mode of managing 
 the public funds, and shall judge of the necessity of all 
 charges in the most frugal manner ; on the employment of 
 the surplus funds ; and, in case of deficit, on the mode of 
 raising means to defray the expenses. 
 
 " In default of means, out of the village funds the Council 
 shall take measuresfor meeting the surplus by animpost, made 
 on the same principle and ratio as the public assessment. 
 
 " The Mayor shall form the annual budget of the Com- 
 mune, and submit it first to the Council, subsequently to the 
 Committee, and eventually to the Government. 
 
 " The Mayor and Council shall distribute the assessment. 
 
 " The assessment shall be distributed according to the 
 law and practice of the village. 
 
 " Every year the public accounts shall be closed, and read 
 by the register, in the absence of the treasurer, to the as- 
 sembled Commune, and shall be left in possession of the 
 Council for eight days. They shall then be submitted to 
 the village Committee with the necessary vouchers, which 
 is bound to return them to the Council within one month, 
 with any remarks it may think necessary. These remarks 
 shall be examined by the Council, which shall add any ex- 
 planation of its own ; when the whole shall be submitted to 
 the Government. 
 
 " The Council may require, in difficult cases, the pre- 
 sence of the government officer* of the district, who has a 
 right if he chooses to be present on all occasions of the 
 meeting of the Council. 
 
 " The Community takes no immediate concern in the 
 public affairs, nor can it assemble without being summoned 
 by the Mayor ; but it has a right to elect a permanent 
 Committee to control the acts of the Council. 
 
 " This Committee consists of the same number of members 
 as the Council : it is elected for two years ; half of whom 
 go out, and remain out one year, when they are eligible to 
 re-election. No person is exempt from this duty. The 
 
 * Each officer lias from twenty to thirty-five villages, and answers to 
 the Sheikdar of the Indian government.
 
 470 APPENDIX. 
 
 community elects both the President and the Committee, 
 and the election requires no confirmation from any higher 
 authority. 
 
 '* The Council is obliged to obtain the consent of the 
 Committee of Control in the following cases : — 
 
 "1. In the formation of the budget and the assessment. 
 
 " 2. In the defraying of any expenses. 
 
 " 3. On the occasion of forming all contracts on account 
 of the village which are not put up to public auction ; 
 especially should the contract be made with a member of 
 the Council. 
 
 " 4. On remunerating the members of the Council lor 
 extra services. 
 
 " 5. On the occasion of remitting any balances due from 
 individuals, or bodies, to the village. 
 
 " 6. In all changes whatsoever of the public disburse- 
 ments or the public funds. 
 
 " When the Council and Committee of Control cannot 
 agree in any matter, no change shall take place. 
 
 " The Committee, on examining the budget, shall be 
 competent to annex any remarks it may have to make on the 
 general state of the community and its concerns. 
 
 " The Committee shall address its remarks at first to the 
 Council ; and in case of the latter body not acceding to 
 the wishes of the former, it is entitled to appeal to the 
 Government. 
 
 "The resolutions of the Council require the confirmation 
 of Government in every case wherein the interests of the 
 Commune and the Council, or that of the present members 
 of the community, may affect the interests of posterity, or 
 when the interests of one Commune is opposed to the 
 interests of another." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London : 
 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 
 
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