Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/133

Rh claims, and treatment of certain Rájás; to the rights of their tenant-proprietors; to certain villages held at quit-rents; and to other points which it is unnecessary here to specify in detail. It was roundly stated at the time that of the whole Province eight-twelfths were settled with the Zamíndárs; three-twelfths were still left in the hands of the Amils; and the remaining twelfth was, in the revenue phraseology, Amání ; that is to say, the revenue was neither farmed nor settled, but was collected by an official yearly, from each contributor direct; and it is indisputable from the language and style of the Regulations of this year that the administrators of the day had begun to recognise the existence of new and different tenures. The pattídár, or principal shareholder in a village, was admitted to engage in his own name for the payment of revenue, while those shareholders who were then styled inferior pattídárs, were 'annexed to or blended in common with the principal of the family,' or the head man of the cultivating brotherhood. But it was left optional with the inferior pattídárs to bring suits in the Civil Court for a separation of their family shares, and for the entry of their name in a distinct and separate engagement.

Village communities, if they ever existed in Bengal Proper, had disappeared when our rule began.