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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter II. The 13th and 14th centuries

Collection:: Economics Books

44 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA was claimed; and minute variations in the share are re- corded on no other occasion, and are in themselves highly improbable. On the other hand, if the Governor was liable to pay a stated sum by way of surplus revenue, it would be the natural procedure of the Ministry to endeavour to in- crease this sum as quickly, and as largely, as possible. The result of such an increase would be that, in some form or other, the Governor would increase the burden on the peasants, and this would tend to hinder the development of the country, which was the King’s great object. To limit the enhancement on a province to about ten per cent. at a time would from this point of view be a reasonable rule of practice: development would be gradual, and the Gover- nor’s payment should increase pari passu, but should not be allowed to get ahead of the paying-capacity of the province. The sentence I have just examined has been read! in a different way, as stating that the Demand was limited to one-tenth or one-eleventh of the produce. Thisinterpretation would be a welcome addition to our knowledge of the pericd, but I do not see my way to accept it; the references to spies and enhancement-mongers cannot, so far as I see, be interpreted on these lines; the context indicates that the reference is to the relations between the Ministry and the Governors, not between the Governors and the peasants; and the point of the passage is enhancement of the sum payable, not the fixing of its proportion to the produce. The proportion claimed by Ghiyasuddin is not stated else- where in the authorities, and we can only infer that he did not alter the figure which he found established, but this figure again is not on record. Ziya Barni tells us merely (p- 383) that Qutbuddin “removed from among the people the heavy revenues and severe demands” imposed under Alauddin. The passage is rhetorical rather than precise; it cannot possibly mean what it seems to say, that he abolished the land-revenue altogether; and we can only guess that he reduced its incidence to some figure below Alauddin’s claim of half the produce, or in some other way alleviated the burdens on the people. 1 Ishwari Prasad, Medieval India, P- 231. The same view is taken in the Cambridge History (iii. 128)

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The agrarian system of Moslem India

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation