Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/65

Rh Some of the Ryot's rights and customs may at first sight appear conflicting and irreconcilable. But they are in reality quite capable of distinct identification and of severance.

Zamíndárs, on the one hand, usually know perfectly well how far they can assert their privileges, and when they will be resisted or upheld by the law; and Ryots, on the other, though pressed for rents, harshly treated by agents, and compelled to supply additional funds for the necessities and the caprices of the landlord, have often successfully met violence by artifice, learnt in their turn the power of combination for safety, and held their ground till their position was defined, stereotyped by statute, and eventually upheld in the courts of law.