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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter III. The Sayyid and Afghan dynasties

Collection:: Economics Books

112 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA appropriate; but he was prohibited from coming to terms with them for a revenue-Demand assessed on the village as a whole, a course which was condemned as leading to inefficiency and oppression. The headman in fact was aseful, but he was not to be given too much authority. What I have spoken of as the traditional policy of de- velopment is given a prominent place. It was the collector’s duty to secure extension of cultivation, and improvement in cropping; the general idea was that he should offer liberal terms to peasants to induce them to increase production, and should hold them firmly to their engagements when once engagements had been made. In order to secure improved cropping, he was authorised to reduce the sanc- tioned assessment-rates on high-grade crops; while, for extension of cultivation, he was empowered to depart from the regulation system of assessment by Measurement, and agree to practically whatever the peasants wanted, to either Sharing or Group-assessment, and to payment in either cash or kind. It is somewhat remarkable that there is no specific reference to sinking wells, a topic which is promi- nent in some later documents of a similar type; provision is made for advances of capital to needy peasants, and pre- sumably this would cover loans for wells, but the omission is nevertheless noteworthy. The provision that Group-assessment, which was pro- hibited for the village as a whole, might be sanctioned in the special case of land newly brought under cultivation, carries us back to one of the proposals made by Raja Todar Mal in the 27th regnal year. Interpreted strictly, the accepted method of assessment involved the measurement in each season of every field under crop, and, in cases where the fields were well defined and under continuous cultiva- tion, this must have meant much repetition of labour, and much harassment of busy peasants. The Raja wrote! with reference to the progressive decline of cultivation in the Reserved districts: “if the cultivated land is once measured, the capacity of the peasants being increased yearly, a partial Group-assessment should be sanctioned.” I take this to mean that the actual size of the defined fields in regular L Akbarnama, iii. 381.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation