Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/266

234 the relations between landlord and tenant. The Agrarian Disputes Act of 1876 was passed as a temporary measure to meet urgent cases, and a Bill to provide at the same time immunity of the ryot from oppression and greater facilities for the speedy realisation of arrears of rent was taken in hand. The Select Committee on the Bill, however, urged that a more comprehensive measure revising the whole rent law of Bengal was urgently needed. Consequently in 1879 the Government of India appointed a special commission to enquire thoroughly into the matter. So great was the subject with which the Bill dealt and so keen the controversy it aroused that it was not until 1885 that the Bill finally emerged as the Bengal Tenancy Act (VIII of 1885). There were at one time during its progress no less than two hundred amendments to the Bill down for discussion and no bill that preceded it had ever come in for so large a share of criticism and discussion. It has been called with much reason the most important measure of the nineteenth century, and there can be no doubt that, though no measure can be regarded as perfect, the Bengal Tenancy Act has been productive of an immense amount of good to both landlords and tenants. The Maharaja in all the discussions in which he took part was fully alive to the necessity of strengthening the position not only of the landlord but also of the ryot. He was anxious above all that the