LAND TENURE REFORMS

(New Land System / British Land Revenue)

In the Pre-British period in India there is no evidence to show the existence of private ownership of land. The peasants worked the land and the King of Government received a proportion of the produce, which was usually fixed at 1/6th to 1/12th of the produced and in times of trouble, was raised to 1/4^th. The British conquest of India led to a change in the existing land system. The new system introduced by the British created two forms of property of land- landlordism in some parts of the country and the individual peasants’ proprietorship in others. The first step taken for this change was that of assessments and registration the ownership of land. The King’s or Government’s share was replaced by fixed money payments irrespective of the year’s production, in good or bad harvest, and whether more or less of the land was cultivated or not.

Lord Cornwallis created the first group of landlord in India by introducing the permanent settlement for Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1793, it was later extended to parts of North Madras. By the settlement, the Zamindars who were the collectors of land revenue were converted to landlords. They had to make a fixed payment to the government to the East India Company. The Company also created a group of landlords out of the petty chief by transferring their tributes into revenue and by taking over their political, military and administrative power. Persons who rendered valuable military or other aid to the British Government were also granted land and were transformed into landlords.

The Permanent Settlement recognized the landlords as the proprietor of the land with the right of hereditary succession. They had also the right to transfer, sell or mortgage the land in their possession. But all their rights ended with their failure to pay the fixed revenue on the fixed date to the government. The government entrusted the landlord with duty of safeguarding the rights of their tenants by giving them land to look after and its rent was stated. The peasants on the other hand, suffered the most from the Settlement. They were left entirely at the mercy of their landlords, who also had share in the production and the land which was not fixed.

It was soon found that it was economically disadvantages to the government to have fixed permanent revenue from the landlords. A new land settlement so far as revenue was concerned, was introduced on a temporary basis. The Temporary Settlements covered the major portions of the united provinces, certain parts of Bengal and Bombay, the Central provinces and Punjab.

While the British rule created in some parts of India, landlordism, in other parts, it created individual peasant proprietorship known as the ‘Ryotwari System’ which was introduced by Sir Thomas Munro in 1820, the Governor of Madras (1820-27). Under the Ryotwari System, the individual cultivator was transformed into the owner of the land he tilled. The Ryotwari Settlement prevailed in Bombay, Sind, Madras, Berar and Assam.

Under this system, there was no middleman like the landlord who mediated between the government and the tiller of the soil. The government fixed the revenue directly with the cultivators. The land was classified according to the fertility and nature of the soil and the crops produced. The revenue was collected with the help of local hereditary village officers who were recognized by the Government. The state demand was mostly kept at 50% of the produced. The Ryotwari Settlement protected neither the rights of the cultivators nor put them to any financial gain. The cultivators had to pay regular revenue otherwise they could be dispossessed of their land at any time. The high rate of assessment fixed by the government proved at times hard for cultivators. They often suffered oppression and harsh treatment at the hands of the government’s tax collectors.

The most area of U.P, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, a new type of land system known as the Mahalwa or village settlement was introduced.

Under the Mahalwari System, the state fixed the revenue for a limited period of 30 years at some places. The settlement of the revenue was made with the members of the villages. The amount of the revenue which the whole village was required to pay was paid by the individual villager according to their respective holdings. Thus, the villager himself was the owner of the land as long as he pay his revenue for the land. In most cases the revenue was fixed according to the yielding capacity of the soil, the nature of crop it produced, and the prices of such crops.

The Mahalwari System brought low benefit for the cultivators. It was a modified version of the Zamindari or Permanent Settlement which benefited only the upper class of the village. The headman and some well-to-do villager act as middlemen between the cultivator and the government. They took large area of village land under their possession and used the small tenants as cultivators. The headman submitted the fixed revenue to the government while the rest went to his pocket. The burden of all other heavy taxation fell on the cultivators.

The main motive behind the introduction of Zamindari, Ryotwari and Mahalwari system of revenue by the British was to increase the revenue of the Government. It brought about an agrarian revolution. One of the consequences of the system was that the objective of village agricultural production for village used was replaced by that for the market. The mode production and produced were now determined by the new objective, that of sale. The collection of the revenue under the different system were not in the interests of the cultivators as the demand of the state went on increasing. The British policy gave advantage only to the government or the privileged sections of the society at the cost of the cultivators. One of the most important result was the creation of new form of private property which had never existed in India before this period and which benefited the government.