Land Revenue System of British in India

1. Permanent Settlement /Zamindari System: Roughly 19% of total area under British rule – Bengal, bihar, Banaras, NWFP divisions.

2. Ryotwari System: Covered about 51% of the area under British Rule – Assam, Bombay and Madras Presidencies.

3. Mahalwari System: Covered 30% of area under British Rule – major parts of NWFP, central provinces and Punjab.

1. Permanent Settlement or Istamarari (Sthayi) Bandobast :

• It was introduced in Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and districts of Benaras by Lord Cornwallis in 1793. John Shore planned the Permanent Settlement.

• Under the Pernmanent Settlement, zamindars were recognised as the owners of land as long as they paid the revenue to the East India Company regularly.

• The amount of revenue that the zamindar had to pay was fixed and it was decided that it won’t be raised for the given period of time.

• The zamindars had to pay 10/11th or 89% of the revenue collected to the East India Company while keeping the rest 1/11th or 11% to himself.

• The zamindars were free to fix the rent.

• The ryots(cultivators) were considered tenents/ tillers of soil.

• Under Permanent settlement, zamindars lost their administrative and judicial functions. They were performed by the Company now.

• If a zamindar did not pay the fixed amount, his property was seized and sold. leading to ruin of zamindar.

Impact of Permanent Settlement :

• The effects of this system both on the zamindars and ryots were disastrous.

• Many zamindars defaulted on payments.

• Their property was seized and distress sales were conducted leading to their ruin.

• The rich zamindars who led luxurious lives left their villages and migrated into

towns.

• They entrusted their rent collection to agents who exacted all kinds of illegal taxes besides the legal ones from the ryots.

• This had resulted in a great deal of misery amongst the peasants and farmers.

• Therefore Lord Cornwallis’ idea of building a system of benevolent land-lordism failed.

• Nevertheless, this system proved to be a great boon to the zamindars and to the government of Bengal.

• It formed a regular income and stabilised the government of the Company.

• The zamindars prospered at the cost of the welfare of the tenants.

2. Ryotwari System :

• It was introduced in Bombay, Madras, Assam and Berar. Sir Thomas Munro introduced it in Madras. It was during the term of Lord Hastings.

• Since there were no zamindars in south India, the company recognised the peasant as the proprietor.

• Under the Ryotwari system, a direct settlement was made between the government and the ryot / cultivator.

• The revenue was fixed for a period from 20 to 40 years, where every individual was responsible for payment of revenue.

• So long as he paid the revenue in time, the peasant was not evicted from the land.

• Every peasant was held personally responsible for direct payment of land revenue to the government.

• The revenue was fixed on the basis of quality of the soil and the nature of crop. It was based on the scientific rent theory of economist Ricardo.

3. Mahalwari Settlement :

• In 1833, the Mahalwari System was introduced under Wlliam Bentinck . This was basically a modified form of the zamindari system/settlement introduced in the Ganga valley, Punjab, North-west Frontier Province, parts of Central India.

• The basic unit of revenue settlement was the village or the Mahal.

• As the village lands belonged jointly to the village community, the responsibility of paying the revenue rested with the entire Mahal or the village community.

• So the entire land of (‘Mahal’) the village was measured at the time of fixing the revenue.

• There were also known as Bhaichare, or Mahals, which were basically groups of villages.

• Yet its benefit was largely enjoyed by the government.

Impact of Mahalwari System:

• Since the government revised the revenue periodically, the peasants had not much benefit of elimination of middlemen between the government and the village.

• This brought about some improvement in irrigation facilities, though major benefits of the system were largely enjoyed by the government.