REVENUE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BRITISH
The British policies revolved around getting maximum income from land without caring much about Indian interests of the cultivators. They abandoned the age -old system of revenue administration and adopted in their place a ruthless policy of revenue collection.
After their advent, the British principally adopted three types of land tenures as follows-
a)Zamindari System or the Permanent Settlement
b)Mahalwari Settlement
c)The Ryotwari System
The Permanent Settlement-
- Zamindari System was introduced by Cornwallis in 1793 through Permanent Settlement Act.
- The Permanent Land Revenue Settlement introduced in Bengal, which was later extended to the provinces of Bihar and Orissa.
- The zamindars of Bengal 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 zamindars had to pay to the Company was firmly fixed and would not be raised under any circumstances.
Note:
Warren Hastings introduced the annual lease system of auctioning the land to the highest bidder. It created chaos in the revenue administration.
Ryotwari Settlement-
- Ryotwari System was introduced by Thomas Munro in 1820.
- The Ryotwari settlement was introduced mainly in Madras, Berar, Bombay and Assam.
- Under this settlement, the peasant was recognised as the proprietor of land.
- There was no intermediary like a Zamindar between the peasant and the government.
- The land revenue was fixed for a period from 20 to 40 years at a time.
Note:
Under this settlement it was certainly not possible to collect revenue in a systematic manner. The revenue officials indulged in harsh measures for non payment or delayed payment.
Mahalwari Settlement-
- Mahalwari system was introduced in 1833 during the period of William Bentick.
- It was introduced in Central Province, North-West Frontier, Agra, Punjab, Gangetic Valley, etc of British India.
- Under this system the basic unit of revenue settlement was the village or the Mahal.
- The entire land of the village was measured at the time of fixing the revenue.
- The responsibility of paying the revenue rested with the entire Mahal or the village community.
Note:
Though the Mahalwari system eliminated middlemen between the government and the village community and brought about improvement in irrigation facility, yet its benefit was largely enjoyed by the government.