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 VC. The seventeenth century

Collection:: Economics Books

140 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA crops such as sugarcane. In the same way, the farman stresses the distinction between tithe-land and tribute-land, which, as we have seen in Chapter I, lies at the root of the Islamic system; but I have failed so far to find a single case of tithe-land existing in India, and, if any existed, it was certainly unimportant in extent. We must not then read the order as recognising peasants’ proprietary rights, or as indicating the existence of an important date-growing industry, or as necessarily implying the prevalence of tithe- land; and in a few other cases the question arises whether the provisions of the farman were really required, or whether they are mere surplusage, introduced by the conditions in which it was drafted. The only one of these questions which requires discussion relates to the distinction drawn throughout the order between two forms of tenure, denoted by the words muqdsama and muwazzaf. These words are not defined in the order itself, but the distinction between them is brought out clearly in the fatwa, which shows that, under the former, land paid revenue only when cultivated, while, under the latter, it paid whether it was cultivated or not. The same distinction appears in the order (H. 2) and its provisions show that muwazzaf was a form of what I have described as Contract-holding, where a fixed sum is paid for the occupation of land, independent of cropping or produce; while the term mugasama is sufficiently wide to cover both Sharing and Measurement, applying in all cases where the amount of the revenue-Demand depends on the produce of the season. Now up to the date of this order, I have found no definite evidence to show that Contract- holding existed as a tenure in Moslem India, and the question arises whether the references to it are mere sur- plusage, or were in fact required by Indian conditions. On this question two considerations suggest themselves. The first is that Contract-holdings were quite common in ! Payment of wazifa, i.e. muwazzaf-tenure, is mentioned in the Ain (i. 294), but in a disquisition on the general Islamic revenue-system, and with no suggestion that wazifa was paid in India. In the Indian chronicles the word wazifa occurs frequently, but in none of the passages noticed does it refer to peasants’ tenure; the usual meaning is an allowance granted, ordinarily in cash, by the Emperor to a learned man or some other claimant on his liberality

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