The agrarian system of Moslem India

Bibliographic data

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) 105 for removing defects in the local revenue administration, which were duly sanctioned by the Emperor. During the next year his responsibility was reduced to purely revenue matters, and, not long after, he was for a time practically superseded, being directed to work “in consultation with” Fathulla Shirazi, a foreigner whom Akbar had invited to his Court from Bijapur, and who was given the temporary appointment of ‘Imperial Commissioner” (Amin-ul mulk), with orders to wind up old cases which had been pending in the Ministry from the time of Muzaffar Khan, that is to say, since about the 23rd year. The Imperial Commissioner produced the second document, and his proposals were sanctioned in the 30th year. We may say then that from the 21st to the 25th year the real Revenue Minister was Shih Mansir. Now Badaiini's account suggests that direct administration made a good start, and then failed, for he says that eventually the regula- lions were not properly observed ; we may therefore attribute the breakdown to Shah Mansiir's term of office. When Todar Mal resumed effective charge of the Ministry, he tried to put things right; and, if we read his proposals, which are siven verbatim in the Akbarnama (iii. 381), as practical measures intended to remove definite defects, it is easy to see what the defects were. Local officials had varied the sanctioned assessment-rates, and had demanded too much from the peasants; the collector’s clerks, in collusion with the village headmen, had oppressed the peasants; oppression in connection with the annual measurements had resulted in progressive contraction of cultivation; advances to peasants had been given without adequate security; there had been frauds in connection with the records of calamities; there had been many irregularities in making and crediting collections; there had been no effective control over the local officials. Between this indictment, which rests on the authority of Raja Todar Mal, and Badiiini’s rhetorical description of mal- administration, there is no essential difference; it is only a short step from a progressive decline in cultivation, to “a great deal of the country being laid waste”; oppressive over-demand and fraud in regard to collection

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