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 VI. The last phase in Northern India

Collection:: Economics Books

178 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA the mugaddams of Mogul times were very like the mugaddams described in the passages already quoted, men with sufficient power to render them a danger to the other peasants in the village. When we go back to the fourteenth century, the ground is less firm, for there are a few instances in Ziya Barni’s chronicle where the word mugaddam seems to refer to the Chief of a considerable area, but in most cases the natural interpretation is identical with that of later times. It must be remembered that Arabic names for Indian in- stitutions can in no case be older than the twelfth century, and it is not necessary to assume that the official terminology was fixed all at once. We have seen that the word zamindar had not been definitely chosen to denote a Chief in Ziya Barni’s time, though it was coming into use in that sense, and I suspect that the term mugaddam, as denéting a village Headman, was, so to speak, crystallising out at the same period; it might still carry the unspecialised meaning of a leader or a prominent man, but, when used in relation to a village, it had become practically specialised. It is probable then, though it is not formally proved, that the institution of village-Headmen continued through the Moslem period, and dates from Hindu times. In the same way, the few chance references to the village- accountant seem to furnish definite evidence of continuity. Under Alauddin as under Aurangzeb, we have seen this functionary recording the village-accounts in such a form that they might be of great value to the administrator; while Akbar’s rules for collectors show him incidentally at his daily work, keeping records which could serve as a check on the officials employed in assessment and collection. We cannot argue with entire certainty from the Headman to the Brotherhood, because, as we have seen, the word mugaddam covered managers in villages of all sorts; and a student reasoning i# vacuo might contend that the mugad- dams of whom we read during the Moslem period were in all cases managers of villages without a Brotherhood, or, examination of the various passages discloses no trace of a distinction between these terms, and I take them to be one instance of what is a common feature in this portion of the work, the attempt to secure the ntmost possible variety of diction by a free use of synonyms.

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