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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262 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA from the 24th year onwards makes it certain that a Valuation of the Empire must have been in regular use in the Revenue Ministry. We must then choose between two alter- natives: either the compilers of the Account incorporated the Valuation current at the time; or they collected a vast amount of information, not already on record, regarding the current Demand made on the peasants by a multitude of assignees, which they incorporated with the Ministry’s figures for Demand in the Reserved areas. The former course would be obvious, natural, and easy; the latter would be exceedingly difficult, and I doubt whether it would have even suggested itself to the compilers in the circumstances of the time. I have found no direct evidence on the question, and it is necessary to enquire which alternative is supported by the statistics. We may allow that it would have been possible, though diffi- cult, to collect figures for Demand from the assignees; and that, in the provinces where Measurement was in force, the areas assessed could have been obtained from the same sources with a few exceptions, represented by the blanks for some subdivisions in the statistics. We may allow further that it might have been possible to obtain figures for Chiefs’ holdings, representing either the tribute paid by the Chiefs, or their Demand on their peasants —we cannot say which. There remains what seems to me the insuperable difficulty of accounting for the figures for areas lying outside the Empire. These are found principally under the province of Bengal: how can we explain the detailed figures for, e.g. the district of Chittagong (Ain, i. 406), which was never administered by Akbar, either directly or through assignees? I can detect no relevance in the collocation of Demand with the strength of the local forces, or various other details given in the statistics, but these are matters of minor importance: the figures for areas outside the Empire are, to my mind, the great obstacle to accepting the hypothesis that we are dealing with statements of Demand, compiled specially for the *“ Account.” The alternative view, that we have here the current Valuation of the Empire, presents no difficulty. For the older provinces, this would be the Valuation made in the 24th year, but kept up to date; while for the newer provinces we would have figures representing the Valuation made at the time of annexation. Taking as an example of the older provinces the paragraph relating to Agra, which has been quoted above, we have, first, the total Valuation. From the latter we have of course to

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