Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/60

54 generally been found possible to class them under three great divisions. Important but comparatively few in number, as has been often pointed out, are the tenants who hold land at rates positively fixed before the Perpetual Settlement, or at rates never enhanced or varied since that date. These valuable tenures are commonly denominated istimrárí, or mukarrarí, and to these titles there is often appended the word maurúsí, or hereditary. No claim for enhancement can affect a valid title of this kind.

Next in the scale are resident Ryots, who, though not holding nor claiming to hold at unchangeable rates, have been considered to have a right to retain their tenures as long as they pay their rents, and against whom claims for enhancement must be urged and proved by the formal process of a regular civil suit. These have a sort of proprietary right: they form a very considerable and important class; and much discussion and litigation have ensued in regard to individual cases as well as to the claims of the whole body. The third and last class is that of cultivators without any rights of occupancy. These latter are very often the sub- tenants of tenant-proprietors, and as such are variously known as shikmí, kurfa, or koljána Ryots. These terms are almost identical and are perfectly well understood. Of course this class is to be found on large and small estates holding directly under the Zamíndár or Tálukdár.

For all practical purposes it would not be diffi-