Land Revenue systems

Feature Permanent Settlement (1793) Mahalwari Settlement (1822) Ryotwari Settlement

→ Holt Mackenzie ( Mackenzie minute → Captain Alexander Read &
Introduced by → Lord Cornwallis
of 1819 ) Munro
North Western Provinces of Bengal
Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Banaras, North South India (Madras, Bombay
Area Covered Presidency , Punjab , Gangetic valley ,
Karnataka Presidencies, central)
central India

Area 19% of British India 30 % 51 %

Revenue
Village headman & village community
Settlement Zamindars (landlords) Individual cultivators (ryots)
(mahal)
With
Land Revenue
Fixed permanently (no revision) Periodically revised Revised every 30 years
Fixation
Land
Zamindars -hereditary landowners Village headman acted like zamindar Ryots -landowners
Ownership
Based on soil quality &
Demand Basis Fixed sum set by Company Estimated revenue of entire mahal (vil
productivity

Assessment No Surveyed Surveyed

Permanent Settlement (1793) / Zamindari System

 Agreement between the East India Company and  Many zamindars became absentee landlords → moved to
rajas/taluqdars → they were classified as zamindars cities
 Land revenue was → fixed permanently (in perpetuity) over  Focus shifted to collecting rent, not improving agriculture
the entire estate
 → Revenue division: 89% to Company, 11% to Zamindars Drawbacks of the System
 Purpose → Ensure regular revenue and promote
agricultural development  Strengthened the feudal upper class → weakened poor
 Rarely extended to any region beyond Bengal peasants
 Government revenue didn’t increase → even if productivity
Role of Zamindars improved
 Cultivators had no rights → no legal protection or fixed rents
 Earlier Zamindars were not actual landowners → they were  Gave rise to absentee landlordism, land degradation, and
revenue collectors exploitation
 Now - Zamindars were declared → permanent landowners
 Zamindars were given a patta (legal land grant) → Rise of Rich Peasants (Jotedars etc.)
confirmed their permanent ownership rights
 Patta fixed zamindars’ responsibility to pay fixed revenue  Rich peasants gained power → called jotedars, haoladars,
to the Company gantidars, mandals
 Zamindars’ rights → hereditary and transferable  Acquired large landholdings → sometimes thousands of
 Controlled multiple villages → sometimes 400 or more per acres
estate  Employed sharecroppers (adhiyars/bargadars) for land
 Collected flexible rent from peasants → paid a fixed sum to cultivation
the Company  Controlled rural trade, credit, and land → had more influence
 Sunset Law (1794) → if revenue was not paid by sunset on than zamindars
due date → estate was auctioned
How Jotedars Weakened Zamindars
Problems and Failures
 Jotedars lived in villages → unlike urban-based zamindars
 Revenue demand was too high  Controlled poor peasants directly → delayed payments,
 Agricultural prices were low → made it difficult to collect resisted zamindari officers
enough rent  Bought zamindari estates at auctions → increased their
landholding and influence
 Most powerful in North Bengal → but also significant in other regions

Important points

 Amlah → an officer of the zamindar

 Mehtab Chand of Burdwan helped British during the Santhal Rebellion and 1857 revolt

Munro System / Ryotwari Settlement

 Initiated by → Captain Alexander Read on a small scale, Developed and extended by → Munro
 Revenue settled directly with the ryot (actual cultivator) → no intermediaries like zamindars
 Land was individually assessed → soil types and productivity evaluated
 Government estimated → average income from different soil types
 Revenue demand → fixed as a proportion of the ryot’s capacity to pay
 Land was resurveyed every 30 years → revenue rates revised accordingly
 Allowed revenue to rise with agricultural productivity

Mahalwari Settlement (1822) - Combined elements of Zamindari & Ryotwari; called Modified Zamindari

 Revenue officials → visited each village, measured fields, recorded customs & rights of groups
 Revenue demand → calculated by adding up estimated revenue of all plots in a village (called a mahal)
 Revenue demand → not permanently fixed; subject to periodic revision
 Responsibility for revenue collection → given to village headman, not zamindars
 Village as a unit → village community collectively responsible for revenue payment
 Implementation → under the supervision of Robert Martin Bird ( father of Land settlements in North India ), completed under
James Thompson

Revision under Lord William Bentinck (1833)

 System revised and modified in 1833 by Lord William Bentinck

 Incorporated elements from → Zamindari and Ryotwari systems
 Land divided into mahals under this system
 Village headman essentially became a zamindar → system called the Modified Zamindari system
 Revenue calculated based on → actual produce of the land