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 II. The 13th and 14th centuries

Collection:: Economics Books

THE 13tH AND 14tH CENTURIES 41 be enforced, because, when the charge was relatively heavy, as was the case throughout the Moslem period, the peasant would be unable to pay. Almost wherever we read of the system then, we find reference to allowances in case of crop- failure. Under Akbar, the rule was, as we shall see, that the area of failure was deducted, and the charge made only on the area which matured; and I take the word ““apportion- ments” to indicate that something of the same sort was done under Alauddin, the area sown being apportioned between ‘‘success’ and ‘failure’; while the other word, “innovations,” can be explained by the fact that he had introduced Measurement in places where it was not already customary. It is matter of common knowledge that such allowances for crop-failure require an administration both honest and efficient. They have to be made hurriedly, often at the very end of the season; there is little time for adequate verification of the facts; and the local staft are under strong temptations to negotiate with the peasants, and to overstate, or understate, the extent of loss according to the amount of the gratification they receive. In the conditions which prevailed in the fourteenth century, it seems to me to be quite certain that Measurement must have involved a large amount of extortion and corruption of this kind, and it is possible that the alternative method of Sharing was open to less objection in practice; but, however that may be, Measurement as the standard method of assess- ment now disappeared, to be restored two centuries later by Sher Shah. In regard to the Chiefs and headmen, Ghiyasuddin re- jected Alauddin’s view that they should be reduced to the economic position of peasants. They had, he considered, large responsibilities, and were entitled to remuneration accordingly; their perquisites were to be left to them without assessment, and their income from grazing was not to be taxed; but the Governors were to take measures to prevent them from levying any additional revenue from the peasants. In this way it was hoped to enable the Chiefs to live in comfort, but not in such affluence as might lead to rebellion. So far as this policy was carried out in practice, it may be inferred that the Chiefs recained in

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