Draw a table showing the features of land revenue systems (Permanent settlement, mahalwary and ryotwari)
Answers
Answer:
Ryotwari system
This system of land revenue was instituted in the late 18th century by Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras in 1820.
This was practised in the Madras and Bombay areas, as well as Assam and Coorg provinces.
In this system, the peasants or cultivators were regarded as the owners of the land. They had ownership rights, could sell, mortgage or gift the land.
The taxes were directly collected by the government from the peasants.
The rates were 50% in dryland and 60% in the wetland.
The rates were high and unlike the Permanent System, they were open to being increased.
If they failed to pay the taxes, they were evicted by the government.
Ryot means peasant cultivators.
Here there were no middlemen as in the Zamindari system. But, since high taxes had to be paid only in cash (no option of paying in kind as before the British) the proble
m of moneylenders came into the show. They further burdened the peasants with heavy interests
Mahalwari system
The Mahalwari system was introduced by Holt Mackenzie in 1822 and it was reviewed under Lord William Bentinck in 1833.
This system was introduced in North-West Frontier, Agra, Central Province, Gangetic Valley, Punjab, etc.
This had elements of both the Zamindari and the Ryotwari systems.
This system divided the land into Mahals. Sometimes, a Mahal was constituted by one or more villages.
The tax was assessed on the Mahal.
Each individual farmer gave his share.
Here also, ownership rights were with the peasants.
Revenue was collected by the village headman or village leaders.
It introduced the concept of average rents for different soil classes.
The state share of the revenue was 66% of the rental value. The settlement was agreed upon for 30 years.
This system was called the Modified Zamindari system because the village headman virtually became a Zamindars
Permanent Settlement
Landlords or Zamindars were recognised as the owners of the land. They were given hereditary rights of succession of the lands under them.
The Zamindars could sell or transfer the land as they wished.
The Zamindars’ proprietorship would stay as long as he paid the fixed revenue at the said date to the government. If they failed to pay, their rights would cease to exist and the land would be auctioned off.
The amount to be paid by the landlords was fixed. It was agreed that this would not increase in future (permanent).
The fixed amount was 10/11th portion of the revenue for the government and 1/10th was for the Zamindar. This tax rate was way higher than the prevailing rates in England.
The Zamindar also had to give the tenant a patta which described the area of the land given to him and the rent he had to pay the landlord.