The agrarian system of Moslem India

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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 II. The 13th and 14th centuries

Collection:: Economics Books

THE 13ta AND 1l4tH CENTURIES 29 also Reserved (khdlisa) land! that is to say, land adminis- tered directly by the Revenue Ministry for the benefit of the treasury. The King thus drew revenue from two principal sources, the receipts from the Reserved lands, and the surplus-income? remitted from the provinces. Something can be added to this vague outline by arguing back from the reforms of Alauddin to the system which he changed. It is clear that, at the end of the thirteenth century, the Hindu Chiefs were sufficiently numerous and important to dominate the political outlook, and con- sequently they must have been of great importance from the agrarian standpoint also. As remuneration for their services to the kingdom, they were allowed a portion of land free from assessment, and the income from this source, described as their “right” or “perquisite” (hagq), was intended to suffice for their maintenance; but they were suspected—and the suspicion is at least probable—of taking more from the peasants than they paid to the State, so that “the burden of the strong fell upon the weak,” to use a phrase which occurs more than once in the discussions. Clearly then the arrangements for assessment and col- lection from the peasants were in the hands of the Chief, where one was recognised. Now the course of events in the thirteenth century was not, on the whole, favourable to an increase of the Chiefs’ authority: despite occasional periods of weakness, there was a considerable extension and development of the King’s power, and it is probable that the Chiefs, regarded as a whole, were at least as strong in the middle of the century as at its close. and that they were stronger at the beginning than in ! From the nature of the case we hear very little of this topic, but a Superintendent of Reserved Lands is mentioned in T. Nasir (p. 249) before the middle of the century. The word khdlisa means * pure” or ‘‘free,” hence, ‘‘unencumbered,’’ and its use in this special sense would be natural in the Revenue Ministry, but *“ Reserved gives the actual position more clearly, because, at any moment, certain lands were kept apart for the Treasury, while the remainder were assigned. The common rendering “Crown lands” is, I think, misleading, because in modern use the phrase carries with it the idea of permanence, while throughout the Moslem period there was no permanence whatever, reserved land being assigned, and assigned land being reserved, at the will of Ruler or Minister: the dis- tinction between the two classes was permanent, but a particular area might pass from one to the other at any moment. ! Surplus income is denoted by the word fawazi! (Barni, 164, 220, &c.).

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