Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/50

44 very little effect on the actual tenant-proprietor or cultivator. And his position was to some extent safeguarded by a rule that the Zamíndár was not at liberty to enhance the ordinary rent without resorting to a regular civil suit. Actions to fix the rent of a Ryot or to bring it up to the standard of the Parganá or the neighbourhood became common. The judicial rent now familiar to English readers from its recent introduction into Ireland, was the law of the land in India a century ago. It has never been shown how this necessity of a resort to a judicial tribunal could be compatible with any theory of absolute and unlimited ownership.

Still, the position of the Rájá, Zamíndár, or Chaudárí during and after the administration of Cornwallis was in many respects one of power, privilege, and profit. And something must now be added in regard to what was either conferred on him by law or recognised by judicial decisions. An estate, which is often used as the English equivalent for the term Zamíndárí or Táluk, in Bengal merely denotes a certain tract of land, with boundaries loosely given or not defined at all, which is burdened with a certain specific amount of revenue. It may mean a single village, a cluster of villages, portions of several villages, or a principality as big as an English county. Each estate bears a separate number on the roll of the Collectorate and is usually described as situated in such or such a Parganá or Chaklá. In revenue