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 VC. The seventeenth century

Collection:: Economics Books

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 misappro- priated 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 pre- cisely 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 re- ference to gumjayish. Professor Sarkar renders this “unlawfully appro- priated 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.

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