The three methods of land revenue assessment viz Batai, khet Batai, lang batai were releated to :
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
There were two stages of revenue assessments during cultivation season. The first
assessment was done at the Kharif harvest and second assessment was done on Rabi
harvest.
First of all the assessment(taskhis) was estimated (jama) and then actual
collection(hasil) was obtained.
After assessment a written document was prepared by the state officials called patta
which contain the revenue demand. At the same time assessee gave, in
acknowledgement, his qabuliyat is acceptance of the obligation upon him.
There are various kinds of methods of assessments:
i. Gahalla bakshi or batai(crop sharing). Abul Fazl mentions three kinds of crop
sharing:
a. The crop was divided between cultivator and state at the threshing
floor.
b. Khet batai. It was done when the crop was still standing in the field.
c. The crop was cut and stack in the heaps, then divided between
peasants and state.
The contemporary official documents reveal that the crop sharing as the best
method of revenue collection because both parties shared equal risks of the season. But
Abul Fazl writes that this system was very much expensive because it needed large number
of officials to prevent the embezzlement.
ii. Kankut or danabandi. In this method, the land was measured either by means
of rope (jarib) or by pacing. After that yield of each crop per unit of area was
estimated and applied to the entire area under the cultivation
iii. Hast-o-bud. In this method of assessment, the assessor inspected the village
and viewing good and bad together, made an estimate of the total produce
on the basis of which he fixed the revenue.
iv. Zabti system. The system was practice during the reign of Sher Shah. Under
this system, cultivable land ( polaj- regular in cultivation, chachar- it was left
fallow for three to four years, parauti- generally left uncultivated for a
seasion and banjar- it remain untilled for a long period) was measured and on
the basis productivity e,i good, middle and bad , average produce rai
(productivity per bigha) was prepared, laying down the state’s share of the
different types of the crop. This could be converted into cash on the basis of
prevailing rates at the court.
Initially Akbar adopted zabati system which was enacted by sher shah but this
system lead to excessive reliance on the part of the state upon local officials and
since the prices used were those prevalent at the court generally quite high than the
prevalent market prices in different areas. There were two in this method:
i. It fell heavy upon peasants and it also involved delays since the
procedure of commutation used to take long time.
ii. Besides uncertainties prevailed for the state did not know how
much could be annual estimated income in the current year.
In order to put the check on the problem Ain i dahsala was introduced.
Akbar tried to standardise the schedule ( dastur ) instead of fixing the rai at
each harvest and the task was assigned to Raja Todar Mal.
To prepare a dastur an average yield of last ten years( 15th regnal year to
24th regnal year of Akbar,s reign ) were taken and an average of
prevalent prices of the same ten years were calculated.
By commuting these average prices with average yield a standard final
dastur(cash revenue rate per bigha) were worked out and thus the
revenue demand was assessed and cash revenue demand per unit of area
for each crop was fixed.
During the reign of Akbar, the region of Allahabad, Agra, Oudh, Lahore
and Malwa were put under zabti system.
In this system the peasants were given option to pay revenue either in
cash or kind.
The collection of land revenue started for rabi crops from Holy and for
kharif crop from Dusshehra