Page:Advice to the Indian Aristocracy.djvu/119

 YOUR ZAMINDARI. Though I give to this lecture the title "Your Zamindari," the Zamindari is not at all your own absolute property. You are simply a life-tenant of it and are to improve it and enjoy a proper share of its produce in a manner suitable to your rank and position. Most of our Zamindaries have been obtained by valour; but the modern ones have been acquired by the prudent management of our ancestors, whom we now proudly represent. "It is of their merits and greatness that you now enjoy the fruits; and, as you have inherited the fruits of their labour, so you have inherited the responsibilities which greatness always brings with it. See that you prove yourselves worthy of them; that you be great as they were." But a