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 I. Antecedents

Collection:: Economics Books

16 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA Assignments were made regularly by the Afghan kings in the twelfth century; and the Chief of Ghiir paid revenue (khardj) to Ghazni, before he attained the status of an independent king! Thus the system which Moslem conquerors brought with them from Afghanistan to India was substantially identical with the system which they found in operation. They came prepared to claim a share of the produce of the soil, and they found the peasants accustomed to pay a share to whoever might be in a position to take it : they were prepared to assess either by Sharing or by Measurement, and they found that both methods were known in the country; they knew of Chiefs paying revenue for their territories, and they found Chiefs ready to do so; they were familiar with Grants and Assignments, institutions already known in India, as well as with Farming, which was probably practised there; and there can have been no great obstacle to a fusion of two systems so nearly identical, when once the Moslems had established their rule by force of arms. Two differences only require to be noticed. In the first place, the Moslem claim to the full economic rent was at variance with the arithmetical limitation to one-sixth (or some other fraction) of the produce recognised by the Hindu Sacred Law; but, as we have seen, the limitation was some- what elastic, and it would present no very serious obstacle to conquerors sufficiently strong to enforce their demands. In the second place, there was a difference in regard to the scale of the revenue-demand. If I understand the authori- ties correctly, the scale laid down in the Sacred Law was aniform, that is to say, the same proportion of the produce was claimed from all crops alike, while the Moslem scales were differential, making allowance for variations in the cropping and in the source of irrigation. To take one example, Abi Yisuf suggests (pp. 74-76), the following charges: Wheat and barley, 2 when naturally watered, fo when watered by wheels; dates, vines, green crops, and gardens, 4; and summer crops. + Whether any ! T. Nasiri. For assignments outside India and before the establishment of the Delhi kingdom, see pp. 86, 87, 107, 121, 1 32. For Ghiir as a revenue- paying chiefship, see pp. 40-49: we are told that when the Chief rebelled against Sabuktigin, he withheld the Akard; which was due.

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