Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/290

 BENGAL.

2S0

them by the Government.

proprietors of the estates entrusted to

In

793, Lord Cornwallis declared their rights perpetual, and made over the land of Bengal to the previous quasi - proprietors or zamitiddrs, 1

on condition of the payment of a fixed land tax. This great piece is known as the Permanent Settlement of the Land Revenue. But the Cornwallis Code, while defining the position of the proprietors,

of legislation

adequate recognition to the rights of the under-tenants Its Regulations formally resen-ed the latter class

failed to give

and the

cultivators.

of rights, but did not legally define them, or enable the husbandmen to enforce

them

in the courts.

After half a centurj^ of rural disquiet,

an attempt was made to formulate the rights of the cultivators by Act X. of 1859, and by several subsequent enactments based upon it

This series of measures,

endeavoured to the

Cornwallis

holders.

The

effect

Code

for in

now known the

as the

Land Law

of Bengal,

under - holders and cultivators what

1793 had effected

for

legislation of 1793, conjointly with

superior land-

the

that of 1859

and

subsequent enactments, sought to define the status of each class of person interested in the soil, from the Government as suzerain, through

zam'tnddrs or

the

tenure-holders,

The

superior

landholders,

and the under-tenants, down

the

intermediate

to the actual cultivator.

practical working of the later measures disclosed, however, that

the protection which they gave to the rights of the cultivators was less effective

Code

and

less

complete than the protection given by the Cornwallis After a patient trial, extending

to the rights of the landholders.

Land Law of 1859, the Bengal Government issued a Commission to inquire into the conover twenty years of the Acts inaugurated by the dition of the agricultural classes,

and

to submit proposals for placing

the relations of landlords and tenants on a better footing.

The Report

Commission forms an invaluable storehouse of information A Tenancy Bill was based regarding the rural population of Bengal. on its recommendations at the instance of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, and introduced into the Supreme Legislative Council in 1883. of the

This important measure is still under discussion by the Legislative Council (1884). The Land Act of 1859 dates from the first year after the transfer of India from the Company to the Crown ; for meanwhile the

Mutiny had burst out

chiefly took place in

in

1857.

The

Northern India, and

will

events

of

that

revolt

be summarised under

India and the North-Western Provinces; the uprising, although and for a time perilous to our supremacy, was quickly put down. In Bengal it began at Berhampur and Barrackpur, was communicated to Dacca in Eastern Bengal, and for a time raged in Behar, producing the memorable defence of the billiard-room at fierce,