Class started (at 5:01 PM)

Land revenue systems (5:10 PM)

• Farming system 1772 in Bengal- by Warren hastings (7385), GG Bengal (1773-85).
• Bcakground= 1757-65- Plassey Plunder +1765 +over extraction of LR and some hasty experiments to maximise LR collection.
• Therefore by 1770, the golden egg-laying goose was killed by the British, that is Bengal the richest province of India suffered from the great Bengal famine of 1770 where 10 million Indians died.
• Now, the LnO situation was set and LR income declined rapidly.
• Therefore dual government and indirect rule were ended and in 1772 direct rule of EIC began in Bengal.
• 1772 farming system was introduced to increase LR collection whereby the right to collect LR was farmed out /auctioned to the highest bidder revenue farmer (The revenue farmer is not a farmer).
• Orientalism was in operation as this system was similar to the Izaradari system.
• Supervision /In-charge of LR collection was to be European DC.
• The result was high exploitation of peasants due to huge LR demand by RF leading to no revenue collection at all in many cases.
• Tax demand =100, I have 30, pay 0 or pay 30. In both cases, one is a defaulter so I don't pay.
• The overall rural population was ruined.
• Now Cornwallis (8693) was sent as GG Bengal with the primary goal of LR reforms as LR was now an important source of funding.

Permanent Settlement -1793(PS-1793) by Cornwallis (8693)

• PS was influenced by the landlordism and authoritarianism of Cornwallis.
• Zamindar was made a legal land owner therefore first-time property rights in land were created.
• That is the legal ownership of land.
• Therefore land was now saleable, leaseable, mortgage commodity and a land market would gradually come to exist in India.
• Reason-
• Belief in landlordism or agrarian capitalism or big landowners who worked for profits and have the security of property.
• They would make big investments in property.
• And therefore food security would be achieved and LR will increase with the increase in production and trade revenue will increase with increased production.
• The settlement was done with zamindar.
• Reason= ease of collection for government because of a limited number of landowners.
• LR was assessed permanently at an absolute amount.
• LR is calculated as 10/11 of produce at the time of settlement an amount arrived at was fixed forever.
• Reason=Incentive to capitalists for investing in land as an increase in production won't lead to LR demand.
• This will lead to food security and greater agrarian polity.
• Also, the government will have certainty of LR income.
• Even if bad harvest government LR income is not impacted.
• Because the government gave up the right to increase LR income therefore LR was decided at the absolute maximum at the time of settlement which is 10/11 of produce.
• Also, Cornwallis anticipated a decrease in corruption and the burden of administration(as the assessment workload is now zero).
• Sunset Clause-
• By the evening of a pre-decided date, the zamindars must pay LR as automatically his lands will be up for auction to anyone who agrees to pay the decided LR.
• Jotedars- those who bought these lands in an auction that is relatives of zamindars to keep the land within family and moneylenders etc.
• Political-create a loyal class which was rich and socially influential therefore leading to political stability for EIC rule.
• 1857 revolt Bengal zamindars stayed loyal to the British.
• Overall Impact-
• in short term many zamindars lost land in the auction as 10/11 of produce was very high LR demand.
• Therefore in the short term, the growth of Jotedars.
• But in the long term stability came and zamindars did emerge loyal to the British.
• British did get certainly and regular inflow of LR.
• Failures = Zamindar did not act as an agrarian capitalist as LR demand was very high.
• Therefore, nothing was left for investment and agrarian productivity lagged.
• Impact on ryots= became landless and rightless since rights of tenants were not recognised by PS 1793 and all rights in land were vested in zamindar.
• Therefore now ryots became tenants well with no occupancy rights for them and the operation of high rents as the traditional Patta system wasn't respected.
• And abwabs that were illegal were still collected by zamindars.
• Therefore the security of property was only for zamindars and not for ryots.

Regulation VII of 1799

• Cornwallis had taken away the police powers of zamindars.
• Now, under this regulation VII zamindars were given back police powers eg imprisonment, Right to cease property etc
• Peasants revolts forced the British to bring the rent act of 1859 in Bengal that gave occupancy rights to those tenants who had cultivated land continuously for more than 12 years and took away police powers.
• However, the act was not effectively implemented leading to further peasant unrest.
• Therefore finally Bengal tenancy act of 1885 brought relief as the rights of tenants were properly recognised.
• Break from 6:59 PM to 7:12 PM
• Any tenant riot who has cultivated different pieces of land within the same villages and continuously for more than 12 years was given occupancy rights. (Zamindar used to vacate the tenant from the land before the completion of 12 years so he doesn't have occupancy rights)
• BOB went to north madras and settled permanently.
• PS-1793 were implemented in  Bengal, Bihar Odisha and North madras.

Ryotwari settlement -1792

• It was a B-grade scam/Scam B in Sindh, Coorg, Assam, madras, and Bombay.
• Alexander reed in madras experimented with ryotwari; then applied the advice of Thomas Munro in madras from 1801-07; then reapplied by Munro as governor of madras from 1820 onwards.
• Landowners=Ryot and big landowners suffered the loss of land.
• Reason=ideology of Munro.
• Munro was from Scotland where a yeoman farmer that is land owner cultivator was championed.
• He was an orientalist and argued that in ancient times in India there were no very big landowners and ryot that the actual cultivator was the landowner.
• He also argued that PS-1793 was not suited for madras because big zamindars were unavailable.
• Deccan always had problems with finances-Anglo -Mysore war.
• Therefore removed intermediaries for financial reasons.
• He argued that making ryot landowners will increase the political hold of EIC.
• A common man that is ryot will become loyal to the state.
• The settlement was done with ryot.
• The periodic revision was possible that LR was not permanently assessed.
• LR could be in percentage terms.
• Overall Impact-
• Improper field surveys led to unjust LR demand that led to -
• 1. Ryots becoming indebted to moneylenders and consequent loss of land due to indebtedness that defaults on loans.
• 2. Loss of land in government action on nonpayment of LR.
• 3. Mirasidars -were land owner cultivators who joined the lower bureaucracy of the British, had police powers and revenue collection roles and judicial powers and were also corrupt.
• They bought the best lands in auctions, therefore gradually emerged as big landowners leading to the rebirth of intermediaries.
• They oppressed the ryots so much at the final British acted in form of the Madras Torture Commission report 1885 which finally brought relief to the ryots.
• Now proper field surveys were done, LR decreased and Mirasidars was held accountable.

Mahalwari system -1822

• The settlement was done with Mahal/Estate/District/Village community represented by the village headman/Lambardar(In most cases say 90%).
• Or with zamindar/talukdar is available in 10% of cases.
• Assessment of LR was done at the estate level, not per field calculation of LR demand.
• LR was to be collected from the village community represented by village headmen and the community decided the individual contribution of each member.
• Reason= to respect village-level autonomy.
• The landowner is most cases actual ryot and in some cases zamindar.
• Therefore malware is equal to PS and Ryotwari in terms of land ownership.
• Impact-
• Improper field surveys in northwest provinces and summary settlement in Awadh led to unjust LR demand and consequent landlessness due to loss of land in government auction or to moneylenders.
• In most cases, zamindars suffered the loss of land and therefore lost economic status.
• Therefore ryots and talukdars came together in the 1857 revolt.

The topic for the next class- Is acts till Govt of India act 1858.

Q-1857 revolt acted as a catalyst for the end of EIC rule in India.