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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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VI. The last phase in Northern India

Collection:: Economics Books

162 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA reports, and the absence of competition for land is borne out abundantly from other sources.! In the actual practice of the period, these peasants usually came to terms with the managers either once a year or once a season, and written agreements were frequently exchanged; except in the case of existing Contract-holdings, the peasants were usually reluctant to bind themselves for a longer period, and their attitude was undoubtedly prudent at a time when the natural risks of agriculture were supplemented by the dangers arising out of the disturbed condition of the country. In effect, then, the position of these peasants was con- tractual, though the terms of the contract were probably influenced by traditions dating from earlier times, traditions which, under other circumstances, might have crystallised out as definite rights and liabilities. The available records justify the statement that at this period a Brotherhood existed in most villages, but certainly notin all. The institution consisted of a number of peasants held together by the tie of a common ancestry, each in- dividual having separate possession of the land which he cultivated, but the whole body acting together, through its representatives, in managing the affairs of the village, and paying the revenue to whoever might be entitled to receive it." The members were ordinarily grouped in divisions and subdivisions on a scheme representing, or at any rate be- lieved to represent, the operation of the Hindu law of inheritance; and land which was not possessed by an in- dividual member might be held jointly by the members of a subdivision, or of a division, or by the whole Brotherhood. It was frequently observed at the time that the areas assigned to the various subdivisions or individuals did not correspond exactly with the areas they would have received under the law of inheritance, so that a subdivision recorded as holding, say, one-fourth of the village would not neces- sarily hold one-fourth of the area: and two explanations of these discrepancies were recorded, both of which were probably true in one village or another. The first explana- tion was that the distribution took quality as well as quantity 1 As an example, I may refer to Twining’s description of his journey from Delhi to Fatehgarh in 1794-5, Part IT of Travels in India a Hundred Years Ago (London. 1893)

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