136 | THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA

headmen and accountants! The Diwan was required also
(R. 11) to examine the records of receipts and payments
kept by the village accountant, and, by comparison with
the official accounts, to determine the amount misappropriated
 by each individual, whether an official, or a headman
or accountant; the latter classes were to be allowed only
their established Customary dues, and anything received
by them in excess of these was to be recovered.
Here, by a rare chance, we find in official records some
glimpses of the inner life of a village, and they agree precisely
 with what we learn from the records of the early
British period. Wherever Group-assessment was practised,
the headmen and accountants, or a dominant clique?
occupied a dual position. In one aspect they were the
champions of the village, negotiating the assessment with
the officials, and bearing the brunt of any official severity
which might be practised; in the other, they were potential,
if not actual, oppressors of the smaller or less influential
peasants, overcharging them for revenue, and levying
additional sums for village-expenses, an item characterised
in general by elasticity. Official records naturally bring
the latter aspect into prominence, and it is impossible to
discover to which side the balance inclined ; but we may
safely infer that, then as now. the villages varied greatly
among themselves.
Turning from assessment to collection, the instructions

! The second subsection of this clause (R. 6) contains an obscure reference
 to gumjayish. Professor Sarkar renders this “unlawfully appropriated
 lands.” "I have not heard the expression in current use in this
sense, and have found no parallel passages, but, from the etymology and
the context, I suspect it to refer rather to the ** margin,” by which headmen
would naturally protect themselves. They had undertaken to pay a fixed
sum, and if they demanded only that sum from the peasants, some of
these might default, and the loss would fall on the headmen. It would be
natural therefore to begin by charging the peasants something more than
the sum due from them, so that the solvent men would help to pay for
the insolvent; and such a practice, once started, would be very likely to
develop into a serious abuse. I.think this subsection means that the
Diwan was to look into this question, and ensure that a large “margin”
should not stay in the pockets of the headmen. A quotation given in
Chapter VI shows that in the country near Delhi the headmen occasionally
charged more than they had to pay, and enjoyed the difference.
? 1 take “dominant clique” to be the meaning of mutaghalliban in R. 6, 9.
The existence of such cliques in a village was a prominent feature of the
position in the early days of British rule. and they were clearly of old
standing in the eighteenth centurv.