Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/795

771 ADMINISTRATION.] INDIA 771 This survey, however, has only a topographical value. No statistical inquiries were made, and no record obtained of rights in the soil. Even the village landmarks then set up have fallen into decay. The permanent settlement was confined to the three pro vinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, according to their boundaries at that time. Orissa Proper, which was con quered from the Marhattas in 1803, is subject to a tem porary settlement, of which the current term of thirty years will not expire until 1897. The assessment is identical with that fixed in 1838, which was based upon a careful field measurement and upon an investigation into the rights of every landholder and under-tenant. The settlement, however, was made with the landholder, and not with the tenant, and in practice the rights of the cultivators are no more secure than in Bengal. In Assam Proper, or the valley of the Brahmaputra, the system of settlement is simple and effective. The cultivated area is artificially divided into mauzds or blocks, over each of which is placed a native official or mauzdddr. Every year the mauzdddr ascertains the area actually under cultivation, and then assesses the fields according to their character, at a certain prescribed rate. .yat- The prevailing system throughout the Madras presidency is the rdyatwdri, which takes the cultivator or peasant ^ proprietor as its rent-paying unit, somewhat as the Bengal system takes the zaminddr. This system cannot be called indigenous to the country, any more than the zammddri of Bengal. If any system deserves that name, it is that of village assessment, which still lingers in the memories of the people in the south. When the British declared them selves heir to the nawab of the Carnatic at the opening of the present century, they had no adequate experience of revenue management. The authorities in England favoured the zaminddri system already at work in Bengal, which appeared at least calculated to secure punctual payment. The Madras Government was accordingly instructed to enter into permanent engagements with zaminddrs, and, where no zaminddrs could be found, to create substitutes out of enterprising contractors. The attempt resulted in failure in every case, except where the zaminddrs happened to be the representatives of ancient lines of powerful chiefs. Several of such chiefs exist in the extreme south and in the north of the presidency. Their estates have been guaranteed to them on payment of a peslihish or permanent tribute, and are saved by the custom of primogeniture from the usual fate of subdivision. Throughout the rest of Madras there are no zaminddrs either in name or fact. The influence of Sir Thomas Munro afterwards led to the adoption of the rdyativdri system, which will always be associated with his name. According to this system, an assessment is made with the cultivating proprietor upon the land taken up for cultiva tion year by year. Neither zammddr nor village officer intervenes between the cultivator and the state, which takes directly upon its own shoulders all a landlord s respon sibility. The early rdyatwdfi settlements in Madras were based upon insufficient experience. They were preceded by no survey, but adopted the crude estimates of native officials. Since 1858 a department of revenue survey has been organized, and the old assessments have been every where revised. Nothing can be more complete in theory and more difficult of exposition, than a Madras rdyatw&ri settlement. First, the entire area of the district, whether cultivated or uncultivated, and of each field within the district is accurately measured. The next step is to calculate the estimated produce of eacli field, having regard to every kind of both natural and artificial advantage. Lastly, a rate is fixed upon every field, which may be regarded as roughly equal to one-third of the gross and one-half of the net produce. The elaborate nature of these inquiries and calculations may be inferred from the fact that us many as thirty-live different rates are some times struck for a single district, ranging from 6d. to 1, 4s. per acre. The rates thus ascertained are fixed for a term of thirty years; but during that period the aggregate rent-roll of a district is liable to be affected by several considerations. New land may be taken up for cultivation, or old land may be abandoned ; and occasional remissions are permitted under no less than eighteen specified heads. Such matters are discussed and decided by the collector at tz jamabandi or court held every year for definitely ascertaining the amount of revenue to be paid by each rdyat for the current season. This annual inquiry has sometimes been mistakeiM&amp;gt;y care less passers-by for an annual reassessment of each rdyat s holding. It is not, however, a change in the rates for the land which he already holds, but an inquiry into and record of the changes in bis former holding or of any new laud which, he may wish to take up. In the early days of British rule no system whatever prevailed throughout the Bombay presidency ; and even at the present time there are tracts where something of the old confusion survives. The modern &quot; faurvey tenure,&quot; as it is called, dates from 1838, when it was first introduced into one of the tdlukas of Poona district, and it has since been gradually extended over the greater part of the presi dency. As its name implies, the settlement is preceded by survey. Each field is measured, and an assessment placed upon it according to the quality of the soil and the crop. This assessment holds good, without any possibility of modification, for a term of thirty years. The average rate varies from a maximum of 4s. Gd. an acre in the rich black soil lands of Guzerat to a minimum of lOd. an acre in the barren hills of the Concan. The primary characteristic of the Bombay system is its sim plicity. The field is the unit., and its actual occupier is the only person recognized by the revenue law. He knows exactly what he will have to pay, and the state knows what it will receive, during the currency of the term. The assessment is, in fact, a rent-charge liable to be modified at intervals of thirty years. Secondly, the system is characterized by its fairness to the tenant. He possesses &quot;a transferable and heritable property, continuable without ques tion at the expiration of a settlement lease, on his consenting to the revised rate.&quot; To borrow a metaphor from English law, his position has been raised from that of a villein to that of a copyholder. In exchange for the mere leave to exist and till the soil he has received a right of property in the soil he tills, and he stands forth a free man. If the Bombay peasants have not reaped all the advantages from this system that might have been hoped for, the fault rests, not with the system, but with themselves. They were unequal to the responsibilities of property which they had not won by their own exertions, but which the state (perhaps prematurely) cast upon them. The North-Western Provinces and the Punjab have a similar land system. In that part of India the village community has preserved its integrity more completely than elsewhere. Government therefore recognizes the village, and not the zaminddr s estate or the rdyat s field, as the unit of land administration. Throughout the North Western Provinces, indeed, the village is commonly owned by proprietors with the title of zaminddr, whereas in the Punjab the community is still the proprietor. But this is a distinction of tenure rather than of administration. In both cases alike the state recognizes only the village, and makes its arrangement with the owners of the village, whether they be one or many, whether they be individuals, a corporation, or a bhdydchdra (brotherhood). The survey there becomes a more comprehensive undertaking than in Madras or Bombay. In addition to measurement, and agri cultural appraisement and calculation, it includes the duty of drawing up an exhaustive record of all rights and sub-tenures existing in every village. The proprietors are alone responsible for the revenue; but, when the state limits its claims against them, it is no less careful to define at the same time the rights of other parties interested in the soil. The term of settlement both in the North- Western Provinces and in the Punjab is thirty years. The principle of assessment is that the Government revenue shall be equal to one-half of the improved rent, leaving the other half as the share of the landlord, who is liable for due payment, and has tho trouble of collecting it from tho