The agrarian system of Moslem India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1804119261

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-188010

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Moreland, William Harrison http://d-nb.info/gnd/172263670

Title:: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Edition:: 2. ed. Reissue (d. Ausg. Cambridge) 1929; [Reprint]

Place of publication:: Delhi

Publisher:: Oriental Books, Munshiram Manoharlal

Year of publication:: 1968

Scope:: XVII, 296 S.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter III. The Sayyid and Afghan dynasties

Collection:: Economics Books

THE REIGN OF AKBAR (1556-1605) 99 mainly of procedure. The Emperor authorised Grants, in cash or in land, at his pleasure, just as he made appoint- ments or promotions; but in the former case his orders were carried out, not by the Revenue Ministry, but by the high officer of State designated Sadr. The administration of this department has a chequered history! into which it is unnecessary to enter; periods of liberality, or even prodi- gality, were punctuated by spasms of economy, but on the whole the amount of revenue which was alienated in this way was substantial. The tenure of such Grants can be described only as “during pleasure”; many of them were intended to last for a life, or for more lives than one, but a change of policy, or even of personnel, might in practice be followed by annulment or drastic reduction, as the passages quoted by Blochmann show. A further distinction in the procedure was that, while Assignments were made in terms of Income, Grants of land were made commonly in terms of area. A claimant was sranted so many bighas of land in a specified locality, and the local officials were then directed to demarcate the land, and put him in possession. The procedure in force at this period can be studied in a series of documents? which have been preserved in a Parsi family in Gujarat. In some of these documents the Grant is strictly personal, while others are drawn in favour of the grantee ‘with his children,” a phrase which is open to more than one interpretation, but which certainly indicates a grant for two lives at least. One interesting detail which emerges from these documents is the fact that, between the 4oth and the 48th regnal years, Akbar had issued a general order reducing by one-half all the Grants of land for maintenance existing in the province of Gujarat, action which furnishes definite proof of the con- clusion expressed above that the tenure was strictly “during pleasure’: while the instances of confirmations or renewals. ' The procedure is described in Ain, i. 198, and the history summarised in Blochmann’s note (i. 270 ff.) on his translation of the chapter. Allow- ances in cash were at this period designated wazifa, while Grants of land were milk or madad-t ma'ash. ? For these documents see S. H. Hodivala, Studies tn Parsi History, 1o7 ff.; J. J. Modi, The Parsees at the Court of Akbar, J.R.A.S. (Bombay), 1902, pp. 69 fi.; and A Farman of Emperior Jahangir. sdem, 1920, pp. 410 fF.

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