Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/51

Rh phraseology the villages contained in the estate are termed Mauzás: a word which would not be employed by an ordinary speaker talking of the village in which he resided or to which he was bound. But whether the estate were large or small, the Zamíndár was entitled to demand his rent from every tenant: and he alone could induct new tenants into their holdings. All waste and untenanted lands were his. He might cultivate them by hired labour, which he rarely or never did, or he might induce new Ryots to settle there under his protection, build houses for themselves, clear the jungle, and break up the soil. In such instances the rent demanded was at first very small. On lands that had been long under cultivation the rent varied with the nature of the crop. There was a moderate rate for rice crops grown on the higher ground, and a heavier rate on rice in the deep land. The better kinds of produce were more heavily taxed than either of the above, such as sugar-cane, tobacco, and pán: and gardens and homesteads usually paid the highest of all. All plots vacated by famine, desertion, or death, ipso facto reverted to the Zamíndár. He was allowed to challenge the titles of all who claimed to hold small plots as Lákhiráj or rent-free, and the onus of proving a valid grant from some former authority, empowered to make such a title, was by the judicial courts always thrown on the Lákhirájdár. It was held in the case of squatters or Ryots who had never