Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/264

 BAH

186

after incorporation by the under-proprietors themselves or by cultivators put in by them. It always, in this district, paid rent, the rate being somewhat lower, but not as a rule very much lower, than that paid

by ordinary cultivators. It was not the policy of the taluqdar to drive the ex-zamindar from the village, however much it might be his object to crush out his independence in other ways.

Had he done so, a large number of the old cultivators would probably have followed their old master, and the village would not have recovered such a blow for many years. It was rather his plan to keep the ex-proas the headman of the village, provided this could be secured together with a due amount of subjection and to effect this it was absolutely necessary to allow him to retain his home cultivation, while the somewhat favourable rate at which he was allowed to hold soothed his pride, always an important element to be considered in the settlement of such questions, and recoiiciled him to the new state of things.

prietor in his old position



the word sir indicates all the cultivation tilled with the private ploughs of any one in tion. possession of, or charged with, the management of an estate, the " home-farm" in fact ; but as a sub-tenure its meaning is limited to the definition above given.

In

Its

its

wider

wider

signification, of course,

significa-

—

now, may be most aptly compared with the relics of the " commonable" fields in England and Scotland, commoDable attention to the existence of which has lately been relics of properties in England. drawn by Sir H. Maine in his " Village CommuniThe Burgess acres of the Burgh of Lauder noticed by him (page 95) ties." may almost certainly be said originally to have constituted the separate share, if not the " sir," of the 105 members of the old agricultural community. Generations hence, when the sir lands, which have now been decreed to ex-proprietors in accordance with their shares, have passed by numerous transfers out of the hands of the particular family to whom they have been adjudged, the various plots thus held in subordination to the landlord, but in a measure independent of him, will be the only trace that we shall have of the existence of the old communities.

The

tenure, as

Compared

-with

it exists

the

It has not unfrequently

Kakhanna. The tenure described.

happened that claims have been preferred by

members of the old cultivating community to plots of meadow land as " pasture" grounds.

certain

The right is never claimed as a general one over all the waste land in the village, but a particular area, a portion of such waste, is always named. The meaning of the word, which is " land set apart," would support the idea that separate portions of the waste were thus made over to, or rather retained by, the ex-zamindar when his property was merged in the lordship. The holder of this rakhauna would have the exclusive right to graze his cattle thereon, to cut the thatching grass, &c., but it is uncertain whether he would be allowed to break up the land for tillage or not.

My inquiries lead me to believe that this was not permitted, and that the holder of raJchauna, so breaking it up, would be liable to pay full rent on

it.