136 | THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
headmen and accountants! The Diwan was required also 
(R. 11) to examine the records of receipts and payments 
kept by the village accountant, and, by comparison with 
the official accounts, to determine the amount misappro- 
priated by each individual, whether an official, or a headman 
or accountant; the latter classes were to be allowed only 
their established Customary dues, and anything received 
by them in excess of these was to be recovered. 
Here, by a rare chance, we find in official records some 
glimpses of the inner life of a village, and they agree pre- 
cisely with what we learn from the records of the early 
British period. Wherever Group-assessment was practised, 
the headmen and accountants, or a dominant clique? 
occupied a dual position. In one aspect they were the 
champions of the village, negotiating the assessment with 
the officials, and bearing the brunt of any official severity 
which might be practised; in the other, they were potential, 
if not actual, oppressors of the smaller or less influential 
peasants, overcharging them for revenue, and levying 
additional sums for village-expenses, an item characterised 
in general by elasticity. Official records naturally bring 
the latter aspect into prominence, and it is impossible to 
discover to which side the balance inclined ; but we may 
safely infer that, then as now. the villages varied greatly 
among themselves. 
Turning from assessment to collection, the instructions 
! The second subsection of this clause (R. 6) contains an obscure re- 
ference to gumjayish. Professor Sarkar renders this “unlawfully appro- 
priated lands.” "I have not heard the expression in current use in this 
sense, and have found no parallel passages, but, from the etymology and 
the context, I suspect it to refer rather to the ** margin,” by which headmen 
would naturally protect themselves. They had undertaken to pay a fixed 
sum, and if they demanded only that sum from the peasants, some of 
these might default, and the loss would fall on the headmen. It would be 
natural therefore to begin by charging the peasants something more than 
the sum due from them, so that the solvent men would help to pay for 
the insolvent; and such a practice, once started, would be very likely to 
develop into a serious abuse. I.think this subsection means that the 
Diwan was to look into this question, and ensure that a large “margin” 
should not stay in the pockets of the headmen. A quotation given in 
Chapter VI shows that in the country near Delhi the headmen occasionally 
charged more than they had to pay, and enjoyed the difference. 
? 1 take “dominant clique” to be the meaning of mutaghalliban in R. 6, 9. 
The existence of such cliques in a village was a prominent feature of the 
position in the early days of British rule. and they were clearly of old 
standing in the eighteenth centurv.