LORD CURZON: THE WISEST FOOL IN HINDUSTAN?

Download pdf book by Roderick Matthews - Free eBooks.
Table of contents

Sir Richard Temple was sent as Famine Delegate of the Government of India Famines in India ii in January , and he unwisely reduced the wages in relief works to a scale which, in the opinion of the Sanitary Commissioner, Dr Cornish, provided Jess than subsistence for the labourer. Sir Eichard Temple stated his reasons thus: There might indeed be a question whether life cannot be sustained with one pound of grain per diem, and whether Government is bound to do more than sustain life.

This is a matter of opinion ; and I myself think that one pound per diem might be sufficient to sustain life, and that the experiment ought to be tried. The intensity of the famine decreased when the rains commenced, and the numbers receiving relief fell from 2,, in September to , in December The loss of life from this famine was estimated at over five millions. Lord Lytton was succeeded as Viceroy of India by the Marquis of Ripon, and he tried to settle the vexed land question of Madras on an equitable basis.

In his Despatch of the l7th October , Lord Ripon laid down the principle that in districts which had been sur- veyed and settled by the Settlement Department, assess- ments should undergo no further revision except on the sole ground of a rise in prices. This decision gave the 12 Famines in India Madras cultivator some fixity of rent after the old right of a jperpetual assessment had been ignored ; it did away with the harassing reclassification of soils and recalculation of grain returns at each recurring settlement ; it left the door open to an increase of the Government revenues on the reasonable ground of an increase in prices ; and it was a reasonable compromise which was accepted by the Madras Government itself.

It is one of the saddest episodes in the history of Indian administration that this moderate measure, calculated to give some security of rent and tenure to the harassed and famine-stricken Indian cultivator, was rejected by the Secretary of State for India in his Despatch of the 8th January The interests of the land revenue are placed higher than the well-being of the people. The average daily number of relief works for twelve months was ,, and in poor houses, 13, The relief works were placed under the Public Works Department with little control from the local civil officers, and the result was disastrous.

The excess mortality from this famine was 1,, Relief works were started in Famines in India 13 Ganjam, but gratuitous relief to the infirm and the weak was unfortunately delayed with fatal results. When Lord Connemara, the Goveriior of Madras, visited Ganjam in June , 18, people were employed on relief works, and people had been admitted to gratuitous relief. Lord Connemara recorded that "a large amount of distress, amounting to starvation, existed, and that the most urgent orders and the most prompt action were required if many lives were not to be lost by the most lingering and dreadful of deaths.

The mortality in Ganjam during the famine year Oct. In Orissa the distress was less, the numbers on relief did not exceed in September , but the deaths from the combined effects of famine, cholera, and other diseases generally brought on by privation, were numerous. The average numbers relieved in Madras in June rose to over 87, ; in Behar to 47,, and in Ajmer-Merwara to 34, In Burma the numbers in February were 30, In Madras the death-rate was higher than usual ; in Bengal " there were no deaths from starvation.

The number of persons relieved in the different Provinces, when the famine was most acute, are shown in the following table. Provinces and Oudh the famine relief operations were " a conspicuous success. In Madras the operations were " as a whole adequate and successful " though there was some increase in the death-rate in the affected districts. In Bombay "as a whole the measure of success attained was very great," although there was an increase in the death-rate.

Related Video Shorts (0)

In the Punjab, the measures adopted were eminently successful Towards the conclusion of their report the Famine Commissioners record the following significant remarks about the labouring classes of India. So far as we have Famines in India 15 been able to form a general opinion upon a difficult question from the evidence we have heard and the statistics placed before us, the wages of these people have not risen in the last twenty years in due propor- tion to the rise in prices of their necessaries of life.

The experience of the recent famine fails to suggest that this section of the community has shown any larger command of resources or any increased power of resist- ance. Far from contracting, it seems to be widening, particularly in the more congested districts. Its sensi- tiveness or liability to succumb, instead of diminishing, is possibly becoming more accentuated. In the present month June nearly six millions of people are on relief works, and in spite of every effort on the part of relief officers, mortality is high in Gujrat and elsewhere. It is a sad but a significant fact that the last famine of this century is also the most wide-spread and the severest famine that has ever visited India.

One cannot read without a feeling of sadness and of humiliation this melancholy record of famines in India under British rule. There were reasons for famines in the last century and in the early years of this century. When an old system of government breaks down, and the country passes under a new power, wars and dis- orders are inevitable.

When the Moghal power broke 1 6 Famines in India down in India, and Mahrattas and Afghans contended for supremacy, war and devastation followed. And when the British nation entered into the arena, they too took their part in many wars which impeded culti- vation and harassed the population of peaceful villages. In the words of Sir Thomas Munro, wars were added to unfavourable seasons to bring on recurring famines in India. We may also add to these reasons the misrule of the servants of the East India Company, and the unhappy blunders which were perhaps inevitable, when a new race of rulers found themselves suddenly called upon to administer the land revenues of a strange and newly conquered country.

But these causes have longed ceased to operate. In , the administration of the country passed from the East India Company to the Crown, and since then India has enjoyed profound peace, undisturbed by a single war within her natural frontiers. The land is fertile ; the people are peaceful and loyal, industrious and frugal ; and generations of British administrators have been trained in the duties of Indian administra- tion.

And 3''et famines have not disappeared. Within the last forty years, within the memory of the present writer, there have been ten famines in India, and at a moderate computation, the loss of lives from starva- tion and from diseases brought on by these famines may be estimated at fifteen millions within these forty years. It is a melancholy phenomenon which is not presented in the present day by any other country on earth enjoying a civilised administration. An explanation is sometimes sought for this pheno- Famines in India 17 menon in the supposed improvidence of the people, in the rapacity of the money-lender, or in the increase of population.

A close examination of facts, however, shows the unsoundness of such explanations. The increase of population in India is slow, slower than in England and Wales, slower than in eighteen other countries out of twenty-eight for which figures are available. The peasantry of India are not improvident, they are the most frugal and the most provident of all races of peasantry on earth.

And the money-lender is the result, not the cause, of the poverty of the culti- vators. In portions of India where cultivators are well off, the money-lender has little influence; where the peasantry are in perpetual poverty, the money-lender saves them in times of difficulty but gets a good grip over their land and property.

If we honestly seek for the true causes of recent famines in India, without prejudice or bias, we shall not seek in vain. The immediate cause of famines in almost every instance is the failure of rains, and this cause will continue to operate until we have a more extensive system of irrigation than has yet been pro- vided. But the intensity and the frequency of recent famines are greatly due to the resourceless condition and the chronic poverty of the cultivators, caused by the over-assessment of the soil on which they depend for their living. We have no wars within the natural frontiers of India now, but peace has not brought with it a reduction in the public expenditure or in the public debt.

India maintains the most expensive foreign B 1 8 Famines in India government on earth, and one-third or one-half of the net revenues of India is sent out of India every year, instead of being spent in the country to fructify her industries and trades. Land revenue is the most important item of the Indian revenues, and so it happens that the taxation falls heavily on the cultivators of the soil, and reduces them to a condition of chronic poverty.

They can save nothing in years of good harvest, and con- sequently every year of drought is a year of famine. It is necessary, for a clear understanding of the subject, to consider the different Provinces of India. In Bengal and in Northern India the cultivators generally pay rents to private landlords, and wise laws have been made to restrict the demands of landlords, though a further extension of these laws is still necessary.

But in Bombay and in Madras the State itself is virtually the landlord ; it has not provided adequate protection to the cultivator against over-assessment ; and the land revenue realised is between twelve and thirty-one per cent, of the gross produce in Madras, and probably more in Bombay. Famines in India 19 recent settlements the rents have been raised from two to twenty per cent, and the revenue from twenty to one hundred per cent.

In il there was a famine in Bengal which caused no loss of life; in there was a famine in Madras, and over five millions of the population perished. In there was a general famine in many parts of India ; there was loss of life in Madras, but in Bengal "there were no deaths from starvation. And in the present famine the distress is most severe, and the deaths most numerous, in Bombay and the Central Provinces. There is no people on earth animated by a more loyal and sincere desire to contribute to the resources of the Government according to their power than the people of India.

They pray that the revenues of the Government be not increased by over-assessing the soil and impoverishing the people. Any endeavour to increase the revenues of India by over-assessment of the soil is both unjust and unwise — unjust because the soil in India is now virtually the only means of the nation's subsistence, and unwise because the revenues of India and the trade with India will not increase in the long run if the people are impoverished.

My Lord, — I had the honour, in course of the interview which Your Excellency granted me, to place certain facts and figures relating to Settlements in the Central Provinces before Your Lordship. I take the liberty of noting those facts somewhat more fully and clearly in this letter, and hope they will receive such consideration from Your Lordship as they may seem to deserve.

The first regular Settlement of the land, after the Provinces came under British administration, was effected after Moved by a sincere desire to improve the condition of the people of the newly- conquered Provinces, Lord Canning's Government ex- pressed itself, in letter No. And para 24 of the Settlement Code modified the old rule of demanding sixty-six per cent, of the landlord's assets, and fixed fifty per cent, of the assets as the proper and equitable Government revenue.

Unfortunately the intentions of the Government were not carried into effect in the Settlement which followed. Two mistakes were made. In the first place the rents payable by cultivators to landlords Malguzars were fixed too high ; and in the second place the 22 First Letter to Lord Curzon: Under the old Hindu Law, one-sixth the gross produce of the soil was recognised as proper and equit- able rent, and for thousands of years the cultivators of India have paid at this rate.

Some Hindu or Mahomedan sovereigns occasionally demanded a higher rate of rent, but in the olden days there were various ways of evading such demands, and it may be safely asserted that no higher rent than one-sixth the gross produce was ever actually realised in any Province of India.

At the present time the Zemindars of Bengal make their own arrangements with the cultivators, and in no District is the general average of rent higher than one-sixth the gross of produce, while in many Districts it is considerably less. The principle, however, which was adopted in the Settlement of the Central Provinces after was that one-half the net produce of the soil should be paid by cultivators as rent to landlords.

The net produce was ascertained by deducting from the gross produce the supposed cost of cultivation. Calculations about the actual cost of cultivation can never be accurately made, and the errors committed by Settlement Officers were not always in favour of cultivators. The result was that about one-third of the gross produce was The Central Provinces 23 deducted as the cost of cultivation, and one-half of the remainder was fixed as the rent payable by cultivators to landlords. Virtually, therefore, the rent fixed was about at one-third the gross produce, — a rate which is unexampled in Bengal or Northern India, and which is double the rate prescribed by the old Hindu Law.

The second mistake which was made was to demand an unduly large share of the Malguzar's assets as Government revenue. The principle that one-half of the Malguzar's assets should be demanded as revenue was repeatedly laid down and insisted upon in the orders of the Government of India, and I have failed to discover under what authority this principle was departed from in practice. As a matter of fact, however, the revenue demanded was sometimes seventy- five per cent, of the Malguzar's assets, a rate which is unexampled in Northern India at the present day, and which would be ruinous to the landlords of any poor and agricultural country.

A double injustice was thus perpetrated in the first Settlement of the Central Pro- vinces ; the rents payable by cultivators to Malguzars were fixed too high ; and the revenue payable by Malguzars to the Government was fixed too high. One redeeming feature of the Settlement, how- ever, was that it was made for a long period of thirty years. New lands were brought under cultivation within this period, and as the Government revenue remained fixed, the severity of the Settlement was felt less and less with the lapse of time.

The period of Settlement at last expired, and the time came for a new Settlement. It might be expected that the mistakes made in the first Settlement would now be avoided after the experience of thirty years, and that the peasantry of the Central Provinces would receive the same con- siderate treatment as the peasantry of Northern India. As a matter of fact, however, the Settlement which has been effected in the Central Provinces since has been felt as more harsh and severe, and has caused more actual suffering and distress, than any previous Settlement in any part of India.

My information is, that the rents now fixed can with difficulty be paid even in years of good harvest, that they leave no fair margin for saving for bad years, and that they can never be realised by Malguzars from year to year. Large tracts of the country, which were previously under cultivation, have gone out of cultivation owing to over-assess- ment, and instances have occurred in which Malguzars have applied to surrender their estates in order to be relieved of their liability to pay a Government revenue which they cannot pay, and their application has not been granted.

The Central Provinces 25 provement in the condition of the people from a state of hopeless penury and indebtedness. Rents have been enhanced at this last Settlement after very complicated calculations which need not be described in detail in this letter. Briefly speaking, lands were first classified after " crop experiments " and "local inquirj''," and the incidence of the old rental for each " soil unit " was ascertained by a process of calcula- tion illustrated in the footnote. The standard unit enhancement rate was then applied to the holding of each cultivator according to the " soil units " comprised in his holding.

These complicated calculations were unintelligible to the cultivator, and were moreover made in the dark. What the cultivator did understand was that a general enhancement had been effected over the high rental of the old Settlement ; and there was alarm and consterna- tion in the country when the new enhanced rents were proclaimed. I repeat, my Lord, that these rents if en- forced will leave the peasantry of the Central Provinces in a permanent state of indebtedness and destitution.

Rate of first class soil to second class is 20 to The old rental of the village is R's. Incidence of old rental. The revenue demanded from Malgiizars was fixed equally high. Departing from the old rule of demand- ing fifty per cent, of the landlord's assets as revenue, — a rule which is in force in Northern India, — the autho- rities of the Central Provinces asked the sanction of the Indian Government to demand fifty to sixty-five per cent, of the Malguzar's assets as revenue.

The Govern- ment of India in its letter No. If we add to these high rates another twelve and a half per cent, which has been added as rates, it will be easy to see that between seventy and eighty per cent, of the landlord's supposed assets, i. My Lord, the question to which I have ventured to invite Your Lordship's attention is one of life and death to the Indian cultivator in the Central Provinces. The question is not a complicated one but a very simple one. If after the experience of nearly a century of ad- ministration it has been found in Northern India that the wisest, safest, and most considerate policy is to let landlords make their own arrangements with cultivators as regards rents, subject to salutary checks imposed by the Government, is it a wise policy in the Central Pro- vinces for the Government to fix after calculations, which are unintelligible alike to landlord and tenant, what rent each cultivator should pay for his holding?

The Central Provinces 27 If private landlords in Northern India consider one-fifth of the gross produce a fair rent for the lands held by their tenants, is it considerate of the British Govern- ment to impose on the poorer peasantry of the Central Provinces a rental of one-third or more of the gross produce?

These are simple questions which will demand from Your Lordship an early con- sideration, because they affect the well-being of more than ten millions of Her Majesty's Indian subjects, who have suffered most acutely during the famines of and of the present year, and who are at present the most helpless and resourceless class of peasantry in all India. The main reason of their wretchedness is manifest from the facts stated above.

There is not a cultivator in India who does not understand and recognise three annas in the rupee out of the gross produce of his holding as a fair and equitable rent, leaving a fair margin of saving. Sir Antony Macdonnell has pointed out that though the Government in the N. Provinces takes about forty per cent, of the rental, its proper theoretical share is fifty per cent.

I accept this correction, but it does not aflfect my argument, as I have recommended that fifty per cent, of the rental he fixed as the Government demand in the Central Provinces and elsewhere. My Lord, Your Excellency's administration has been marked by a famine which exceeds in its intensity any previous famine known in India.

I trust and hope that Your Excellency's administration will also be marked by one of those great remedial measures which permanently ameliorate the condition of the people, and which the grateful population of India cherish and remember from generation to generation. The im- poverishment of an Indian Province under British administration is a more serious calamity than any defeat or disaster which has been known in the history of British rule in India, and if Your Lordship be con- vinced after inquiry that the impoverishment of the people of the Central Provinces is due to any extent to the exhausting rental fixed in those Provinces, as compared with Northern India, I feel convinced, Your Excellency will not lay down the reins of administration in India without removing the cause of their permanent wretchedness, and enabling them to improve their own condition, as the peasantry of Bengal and of Northern India have been enabled to do.

The close of the present famine operations in the Central Provinces may appear to Your Lordship an appropriate time to institute an inquiry, not merely into systems and rules of relief works, but into the general condition of the people, and the incidence of the land revenue and rents, as compared with Northern India. Such an inquiry may elicit facts which are The Central Provinces 29 not now clearly known, and may be fruitful of some suggestions for permanently improving the condition of the agricultural population, an object which Your Lordship is endeavouring to secure by every possible means.

No one can be better fitted to superintend, help, and direct such an inquiry than the present Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces, Mr Fraser, who has already won the esteem of the people by his sympathy and his real desire to secure their interests. The people of the Central Provinces will have confidence in him, and in any other officers whom Your Excellency may entrust with the task. And should Your Excellency consider me fit to represent the views and wishes of my countrymen on the Commission which may be appointed to conduct the inquiry, I shall be prepared, on receipt of Your Excellency's commands, to return to India, to join the work at any time that may be fixed for the inquiry.

And I shall ask for no remuneration for my humble services in the conduct of an inquiry needed for the well-being of millions of my countrymen. The subject has repeatedly come under the consideration of Your Lordship's predecessors, and will probably receive Your Lordship's attention. Madras was one of the first Provinces in India which came under British administration, and while some estates were permanently settled with landlords, in the rest of the Province a Eyotivari Settlement was made directly with the cultivators. Sir Thomas Munro, the virtual author of this system, explained the principle of the Settlement in his evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Commons on the 1 5th April And his idea was to regard each cultivator as the proprietor of his holding, and to make a perpetual Settlement with the cultivators, as a permanent Settlement had been made with Zamindars in Bengal in by Lord Cornwallis.

This was the principle recognised by the Govern- ment of Madras for over forty years after the time of Sir Thomas Munro. He is at liberty to sublet his property or to transfer it by gift, sale, or mortgage. He cannot be ejected by Government so long as he pays the fixed assessment. This is altogether an error, for a Madras ryot is able to retain his land perpetually without any increase of assessment, as long as he continues to fulfil his engage- ments.

My Lord, the first point to which I desire to invite Your Excellency's attention is that this right of the Madras cultivator to a fixed, perpetual, and unalter- able assessment, recognised by the British Government during half a century, has been virtually confiscated by the British Government within the last forty years. This will appear perfectly clear from the following extract from para 4 of the Madras Board of Revenue's Standing Order I. The Collector shall then notify the period in the District Gazette, and explain to the ryots that the new rates will not be liable to altera- tion during the currency of the Settlement period ; but that on the expiry of the said period, Government reserves to itself the right to revise the assessment in such manner as may then seem just and proper, either with reference solely to a rise or fall in prices,.

I cannot believe that the British Government deliberately desired on this or on any other occasion to violate a right which it had deliberately affirmed and recognised before. I am inclined to believe that in the Settlement and Survey operations which were intro- duced after , the real position of the Madras cultivator was lost sight of, and rules were introduced to secure an increase of the land revenue without an adequate consideration of the rights of the cultivator.

So far as the Madras cultivators are concerned, there can be little doubt that the rights previously assured to them have in effect been withdrawn, and the pledges previously given to them have in effect been violated. This grave and important matter attracted the attention of Your Excellency's predecessors. Lord Mayo was of opinion that when the quality of soil and the quantity of produce were once determined, there should be no further alterations in the assessments except on the ground of fluctuations in prices. Lord Northbrook was also in favour of a self-regulating system of assess- ments, and was against the system of repeating valua- tions at each fresh Settlement.

The great famine of occurred under Lord Lytton's administration, and is estimated to have carried off five millions of the im- poverished population of the Madras Presidency. This calamity hastened a solution of the problem, and Lord Eipon, who succeeded Lord Lytton, proceeded on the lines laid down by his predecessors. In his despatch of the l7th October , Lord Ripon laid down the principle that in Districts which had once been sur- veyed and assessed by the Settlement Department, assessments should undergo no further revision except on the sole ground of a rise in prices.

This decision was accepted by the Madras Government in And while it restored to the cultivators something of their old right to a perpetual assessment, it conferred on the Government the right to increase the revenue on the reasonable ground of an increase in prices. It was 34 Second Letter to Lord Curzon: Unfortunately, after the departure of Lord Ripon from India, his proposal was vetoed by the Secretary of State for India in his despatch of the 8th January The lessons of the Madras famine of were to some extent forgotten, the impoverished condition of the peasantry was overlooked, and the proposal to which both the Madras Government and the India Government had agreed, for giving some security of assessments to the Madras cultivators, was disapproved by the authori- ties in London.

For the people of Madras, the despatch of the 8th January is one of the saddest documents ever issued from London; it reopened the question which had been wisely solved after years of mature deliberation in India ; and it has thrown back the Madras cultivators into another era of uncertainty, needless harassment, and unjust enhancements. I venture to hope that this grave question will receive Your Excellency's attention, and that Your Excellency will receive the sanction of the Secretary of State for India to the solution which Lord Ripon, agreeing generally with the views of Lord Mayo and Lord Northbrook, proposed in his despatch of the 17th October The second point to which I solicit Your Lord- Madras 35 ship's attention is the manner in which assessments are now revised at each recurring Settlement in Madras.

The calcula- tions are made by Settlement officers, and are not always in favour of cultivators, and mistakes which are inevit- able in such calculations are fatal to successful agriculture. For good lands in Tanjore District the estimated annual cost of cultivating an acre of land is fixed at Rs.

But what I wish to specially point out is that while Es. Your Excellency 1 The absurdity of the present methods of assessment in Madras has been exposed by Mr A. Rogers, late member of the Bombay Council. The Madras authorities must themselves be aware of this fact. So far from this being the case, the poorest land often demands the greatest outlay. Ryots know this well to their cost. Rogers, one of the greatest authorities on revenue settlements that the Indian Civil Service has produced, that over three millions of acres of cultivable lands are out of cultivation in Madras.

Another rule which regulates the assessments made in Madras is that the rent or revenue fixed by such calculations should not exceed one-third of the gross produce of the soil where the land is not irrigated at Government cost. I have had occasion to point out in another place that this proportion is excessive, and will necessarily impoverish the peasantry of any part of India.

In Bengal, the cultivators do not pay more than one -sixth the gross produce to their landlords in a District, if the District average be taken. And in Northern India, according to Sir A. Macdonnell's evi- dence before the Currency Committee, the cultivators pay about one-fifth of the gross produce of the soil to their landlords.

I hold it, my Lord, that where the British Government stands virtually as landlords, the Government should be less exacting, and not more exacting, than private landlords in India. And I also hold it, that cultivators living directly under the British Government should be treated more leniently, and not less leniently, than cultivators living under private land- lords.

I feel confident that these views will commend themselves to Your Lordship, and that Your Lordship will condemn both the rule of levying one-half the net produce as revenue, and the rule of making that revenue approximate one-third the gross produce. There is not 1 38 Second Letter to Lord Curzon: And there is not a cultivator in India who does not consider 5 or 6 annas out of each rupee of gross produce to be an oppressive and impoverishing rate of rent.

The third and last point to which I beg to invite Your Excellency's attention is the Bill recently- introduced in the Madras Legislative Council to euable the Government to levy a compulsory water-rate on all lands within the wet cultivation area, without allowing the cultivators the option to take or to refuse water.

The reason assigned in the Statement of Objects and Reasons is that, " where a field is in the midst of wet cultivation, any attempt to exclude the water is frustrated by percolation. There are large tracts of country in Behar, in Burdwan, and in Orissa, which are within the irrigation area, but no cultivator is compulsorily assessed on the ground that attempts to exclude the water from his field are frustrated by percolation.

A private cultivator who digs a well or a tank to irrigate his field cannot recover a part of the cost from his neighbour even if he proves that his neighbour's field has been benefited by percolation ; and the Government should not, by legislation, assume a power which would be considered unjust and wrong in a private individual. A compulsory water-rate has been repeatedly condemned by the highest authorities.

In , the Duke of Argyll, then Secretary of State for India, refused his sanction to the Northern India Canal and Madras 39 Drainage Bill because His Grace held that " to force irrigation on the people would be not unlikely to make that unpopular which could otherwise scarcely fail to be regarded as a blessing. There is far less reason for a com- pulsory rate in Madras than in Northern India, because it was shown in a Memorandum prepared in , and presented to both Houses of Parliament, that while canals paid only four per cent, on their cost in the Punjab and the N.

Provinces, the irrigation works in Madras paid more than fifteen per cent, on their cost. It is not stated in the Statement of Objects and Eeasons that the revenue has declined in recent years. The High Court of Madras has held that, under the present law, a cultivator cannot be taxed unless he applied for the water. It is proposed in the Bill, not only to alter the law and to make the water-rate compulsory within wet cultivation areas, but also to bar the jurisdiction of the High Court and all Civil Courts in cases relating to assessments of water-rate made by the Collector.

My Lord, the people of India have the greatest veneration and faith in the High Courts of Justice, and to bar the jurisdiction of High Courts in the matter of water-rate assessments would create the impression that the Government seeks to uphold an act of wrong -doing by stopping all appeals to Courts of Justice. It is neither fair nor wise that such an impression should be created in India, and it is not 40 Second Letter to Lord Curzon: The suggestions, therefore, which I have the honour to submit to Your Excellency with regard to Madras are these.

That Your Excellency will find it possible to confer on the Madras peasantry that quali- fied permanency of assessments which was contemplated by Lord Mayo and Lord North brook, and was proposed by Lord Ripon in with the concurrence of the Madras Government. That in revising assessments, one-fifth of the gross produce and not one-half of the net produce be accepted as the maximum of rent. And that the water-rate within the wet cultivation area be not made compulsory in Madras, as it has never been proposed to make it compulsory in Bengal. I trust and hope that Your Excellency's adminis- tration will be marked by these remedial measures for improving the condition of the Madras cultivators.

There never has been a time within my recollection, which goes back to the closing years of the East India Company's rule in India, when the people of India suffered so intensely from two such desolating famines within three years, as the famines of and And there never has been a time when they deserved a more considerate, a more lenient, a more sympathetic treatment at the hands of their rulers.

No Government measures affect the well-being of the masses of the people of India to the same extent as the assessment of agricultural holdings.

And should Your Excellency find it possible to place these assessments on a moderate Madras 41 and 'permanent basis, precluding harassing surveys and reclassifications of the soil, and permitting the culti- vators to save and to improve their condition in the future. Your Lordship's administration will be remem- bered as a beneficent era in the history of British Rule in India.

The distressed condition of the agriculturists of the Deccan and Southern India has often received the attention of Your Excellency's predecessors, and I feel convinced that in the present year of famine the subject will receive Your Lordship's attention, and that every suggestion made with the honest desire of improving the condition of the peasantry of Bombay, Madras, and the Central Provinces will receive Your Lordship's consideration. Land System in the Deccan under Mahratta Rule. When additional contributions were required by the Stale for prosecuting wars or other purposes, they were levied in the shape of extra cesses or special de- mands from the village communities, and did not disturb Bombay 43 the unity of village life and the permanence of the Land Tax.

Extraordinary contributions were frequent in the last years of the Mahratta rule ; village communities were harassed with unending demands and went largely into debt to meet them ; but even then the unity of village life and the permanence of the land assessments were seldom disturbed.

Early Land Settlements under British Rule. In the revenue realised in the newly -acquired territories was eighty lakhs, in it was raised to lakhs, and in a few- years more it came up to lakhs, or a million and a half tens of rupees. The village community system broke down under this pressure, and the Byotwari system, introduced in Madras by Sir Thomas Munro, suggested the introduction of a similar Byotwari system in Bombay, i.

Settlement of Pringle and Gruickskank. But the estimates of produce made were incorrect, the share demanded as revenue was therefore unfair, and the cultivators were reduced to poverty and distress. The settlement operations, both in the Gujerat and in the Deccan, were stopped in Numbers aban- doned their homes and fled into neighbouring Native States ; large tracts of land were thrown out of cultiva- tion, and in some districts no more than a third of the cultured area remained in occupation. First Regular Settlement from Their Joint "Report, submitted in , pro- posed a new Land Revenue Settlement on an improved plan.


  • HOT FREE BOOKS • Modern India • William Eleroy Curtis?
  • Womens Health Solutions?
  • Find and Download Book.
  • The Shy Child?
  • Product details.
  • .

The proposal was accepted, and forms the basis of what may be called the first regular Settlement in this Presidency, which commenced in The principles of this Settlement were these: The Settlement, commenced on these principles in , was completed, or nearly com- pleted, by , and showed an increase of land revenue from Rx. Second Regular Settlement from Out of 27, villages in the Pro- vinces, 13, villages have up to date been resettled, and the total land revenue of these villages has increased from Rx.

Third Regidar Settlement from, Seventy-eight villages in the Poona Collectorate have been resettled, and the revenue of these resettled villages has increased from Rx. Undue Enhancements of Land Revenue. The produce of the soil does not increase, either in quantity or in value, thirty per cent, every thirty years, and the endeavour to obtain such an in- crease in land revenue necessarily leaves the cultivators in a state of greater helplessness and poverty after each Settlement.

Much of the best lands in the Deccan was under cultivation in , i. Settlement have necessarily impoverished the peasantry and made them more resourceless and helpless in years of bad harvests. The late Sir William Hunter, speaking in the Viceregal Council in about the Bombay Settlements, said that " the fundamental difficulty of bringing relief to the Deccan peasantry No Chech on Enhancements provided in the Revenue Law. The assessment made is not based on estimates of the produce of the fields, but on a scientific but thoroughly unpractical appraisement of the intrinsic value of the land, and an examination of the fiscal history of the Talooka.

Enhancements are made not merely on the equitable grounds of extension of cultiva- tion and rise of prices, but also on the vague and in- definite ground of improvements effected by the State. A new road constructed, a new line of railway opened, and even the general advance of the country in times of peace, may be, and are, included under this third head as a ground of enhancement ; and it will be obvious to Your Lordship that the condition of the Deccan peasantry can never improve so long as the Deccan Settlement Officer is armed with this comprehensive power to raise Bombay 47 the rental with the general advance of the country.

So far as the cultivator of the Deccan is considered, the blessings of peace and the benefits of a civilised adminis- tration add to his impoverishment, because improved roads and communications, and the general advance of the country are made a ground of enhancement of his rent. If such roads and communications have increased the prices of the produce, an enhancement of the rental on this definite ground is just and fair.

If the roads and communications have not increased the prices of food grains, wherein is the cultivator benefited? All the real advantage which the cultivator secures from the general advance- ment of the country is shown in the rise of prices, and that is a just and legitimate ground of enhancement of rents.

No EquitahU Limitations on Enhancements, — My Lord, there are no equitable limitations to the enhancements which the Settlement Officer is em- powered to make. The rule is that 1 the increase of revenue in the case of a Talooka, or group of villages, should not exceed thirty-three per cent. I beg that these checks on the powers of the Bombay Settlement Officer may be compared with the limitations prescribed in the Tenancy Act for the Bengal Zemindar.

It is undesir- able that the Government should take wider powers of enhancement with respect of cultivators living under the State, than it allows to private landlords in respect of cultivators living under such landlords. No Judicial Checks on Enhancements. In , an appeal in an assessment suit was preferred in the High Court of Bombay, and the High Court decided the case against the Settlement Officer, and in favour of the plaintiff.

Immediately after, a Bill was introduced in the Council to exclude the jurisdiction of the High Court and of all Civil Courts in matters relating to assessments, and the Hon. Mr Ellis explained the object of the Bill in these memorable words: My Lord, I do not wish to make any reflection against Revenue Officers. I have been a Revenue Officer myself all Bombay 49 through my official career, and I speak from personal knowledge when I state that Revenue Officers en- deavour to perform their difficult and onerous duties as justly and conscientiously as Judicial Officers, or as any other class of officers in India.

the story of jamie small and the wisest wizard of them all Manual

But it will appear from a moment's reflection that in the matter of assessment suits the Revenue Officer and the Settle- ment Officer are virtually a 'party to the suit, and it cannot meet the ends of justice if they are made tlie final judges in such suits. The failure of justice which often results from this inequitable system is illustrated by the facts I have mentioned in paragraph 8 of my letter to Your Lordship of the 20th of February last; the cost of cultivation in Madras is underestimated by the revenue authorities ; and the Madras raiyat obtains no redress from this injustice because he cannot ask a Civil Court to determine the actual cost of cultivating his field.

In Bengal, the Tenancy Act of permits the cultivator to take his case to Civil Courts ; all over India the private citizen and the private trader are per- mitted by the British Government and by British laws to seek redress, even against the Government itself, in the impartial Civil Courts of the land. But the cultivators of India, the poorest, the most ignorant, and the most helpless class of the Indian population, are debarred except in Bengal from seeking redress against the assessment of Revenue Officers; and the assessment becomes necessarily unfair and excessive because it is unchecked by an appeal to an independent tribunal.

The check on enhancements which was generously provided by Sir Charles Wood, Secretary of State for India, as far back as , has turned out to be ineffective in practice. In his memorable despatch of that year Sir Charles Wood laid down the principle that as- sessments on lands should not on any account, and under any circumstances, exceed one-half of the net produce of the land, i.


  • course in nepali curzon soas books Manual.
  • Book review.
  • A Spectrum of Relationships: A Guide to Understanding Social Connections for Teens and Adults with A.

This rule, laid down with the most benevolent intentions, has completely broken down in its application. In Madras the cost of cultivation is underestimated in many cases, and no appeal is allowed to Civil Courts against such under- estimation ; in Bombay the cost of cultivation is not estimated at all, lands being assessed with an eye to their intrinsic value and their fiscal history. My Lord, it has been a painful task for me to place all these facts and ciucumstances relating to Land Assessments in India before Your Excellency ; and I have done it because I feel convinced that Your Excellency's Government is animated by a sincere desire to materially improve the condition of the Bombay 5 1 Indian cultivator.

There is no race of cultivators on earth who are more loyal, more peaceful, more willing to pay their proper contribution to the State, and more provident and capable of helping themselves if they are allowed the chance. But the continuous enhancement of the rental at each recurring Settle- ment, not merely on just, and equitable, and real grounds, but on vague, shadowy, and unreal grounds, precludes the possibility of any improvement in the condition of the cultivator, and takes away from him all motive and all power to effect permanent improve- ments.

It is possible, my Lord, without interfering with the steady increase of the Land Revenue of India, to make that increase commensurate with the improve- ment in the condition of the cultivator ; and I trust and hope Your Excellency's Government will adopt measures to secure this desirable object, viz. We do not ask for anything that is unreasonable or impracticable ; we ask for those rules and limitations which experience has proved to be practicable and bene- ficial in some parts of India. In Bengal the rent does not generally exceed one-sixth of the average gross pro- duce in any district; in the North- West it is about one-fifth of the average gross produce, according to Sir Antony MacdonnelFs evidence before the Currency Committee.

We beg, my Lord, in ike first place, that this limitation, which is generally observed by private landlords in Northern India, be introduced in the Central Provinces, Madras and Bombay, where Govern- 52 Third Letter to Lord Curzon raent Settlement Officers fix the rental. In the North- Western Provinces again, the Government is satisfied, according to Sir Antony Macdonnell's evidence before the Currency Committee, with forty per cent, of the rents re- ceived by landlords from cultivators.

Thirdly, in the North-West and in Bombay also. Settlements are made for thirty years ; we beg that this rule may be in- variably adhered to in all provinces of India, and that no shorter terms of settlement, involving frequent harass- ment to the people as well as frequent enhancements, be sanctioned under any circumstances. Fourthly, we beg that where the Settlement is made directly with cultivators, the rule proposed by Lord Ripon in with the concurrence of the Madras Government be adopted, and that in districts which have been completely surveyed and settled, no enhancements of rents be made in subsequent Settlements except on the sole ground of a rise in prices.

Fifthly, where water-rates are imposed for irrigation, we beg that the rates be optional, as it is now in all parts of India ; and that it may not be made compulsory until there are stronger grounds for doing so than have yet been shown to exist in the Bill recently introduced in Madras. And, sixthly and lastly, we con- sider it fair, both in the matter of water-rates and of land assessments, to permit the cultivator an appeal to a civil tribunal against the action of the Revenue Officer who is virtually a party to such suits.

I do not think Bombay 53 that sucli a permission is likely to foster litigation ; the Indian cultivator is not often likely to question the action of the Revenue Officer unless the Revenue Officer has committed a mistake. Such an appeal is necessary to guard against unfairness and undue assessments, for the best and most conscientious amongst us are not free from blunders, and it cannot be the desire of the British Government that such blunders should remain unchecked precisely in those cases which affect the interests and the well-being of the helpless and voiceless peasant popula- tion of India.

I have passed all my official life in Bengal districts, and among Bengal culti- vators, and I venture to hope that such facts as I am able to lay before Your Lordship about the agricultural condition of the Province will receive Your Lordship's consideration. I will not enter into any matters of controversy ; I will endeavour to make my letter a brief and clear statement of facts.

History of the Bengal Zemindars under the 1 1 Afghan Bute. When the Afghans conquered Bengal, they carved out estates, here and there, for military Commanders and Jaigidars, but left Hindu Zemindars generally in possession of the estates which they had inherited from their fathers. Mahomedan Kazis and Kotwals per- formed judicial and police work in towns, but within their own estates the Hindu Zemindars were left with their old powers. They levied rents, preserved peace and order, settled disputes, and led large armies. History of the Bengal Zemindars under the Moghal Rule.

We read in the Ayeen Ahhari that the Zemindars of Bengal were mostly Kayests by caste, that the militia force in the Province consisted of 23, cavalry, , infantry, elephants, guns, and boats; and that the revenue of Bengal, including Orissa, was Rs. Roughly speaking, the land revenue of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa demanded from the Zemindars by the Government of Akbar, but perhaps never fully collected, was about two Krors.

The land revenue of the same Provinces I actually collected in was Rs. Real Position of the Bengal Zemindars. This is not the fact. Zemindars have not only been de facto landlords, but also de facto rulers within their own estates, since the dawn of his- tory. They performed the same necessary and useful part in the history of Bengal, previous to the British rule, that the barons of Europe performed, or were supposed to perform, in the Middle Ages. They pre- served peace and order within their own estates, re- pressed crime and punished offenders, adjudicated cases and protected labourers and cultivators, and represented and maintained the royal authority and influence.

Their system of administration was no doubt rude, their exercise of power was often arbitrary, and their forces were often engaged in warring with each other, as was the case in Europe down to the eighteenth century. But in spite of all this, the Zemindars of Bengal played a useful and necessary part in the history of those times ; they maintained order in the interior where the King or Subahdar had no means and no agency to preserve the peace ; they settled disputes, adjudicated cases, and punished crime ; and they encouraged learn- ing and arts in their courts.

The literature and tradi- tions of Bengal reflect to this day the position and influence which Zemindars occupied in the political and social economy of the Province. Policy of Warren Hastings. Feudalism had died a natural death in Europe, and it was inevitable that such quasi-feudal powers as the Zemindars exercised before should also be withdrawn. Warren Hastings deprived them of their judicial and police powers, and bestowed those powers on newly- created district collectors and police officers.

I will not enter into a discussion as to whether this was wisely or hastily done, but it is obvious that the step was inevitable, for under a modern system of rule the functions of the judge and the police can be exercised only by officers of the Crown. But when Warren Hastings imprisoned defaulting Zemindars, sold their estates to outsiders for arrears, or let them out on short leases, he scarcely acted with sufficient regard to the ancient traditions of the Province, or to the position which the hereditary landlords had held for centuries among their people. Policy of Lord Cornwallis. He did not render back to the Zemindars those judicial and police powers of which they had been deprived, but he wisely sought to secure to them that honoured place which they had held for centuries.

With the true instincts of a nobleman, he saw that it was not good for the people, or for the rulers, that the estates of the ancient houses should pass into the hands of shroffs and money-lenders and other auction pur- 58 Fourth Letter to Lord Curzon: All the estates of Bengal were very severely assessed after an elaborate inquiry, but this assessment, made with a strict regard to the interests of the Government, was declared to be permanent, by the famous Regulation of Result of the Permanent Settlement — My Lord, this Permanent Settlement of the land revenues of Bengal is sometimes condemned by writers who merely look upon it as a loss to the Government revenue.

But administrators who have lived and worked in Bengal districts, and have studied the far-reaching and bene- ficial results of Lord Cornwallis's policy, do not share this opinion. In the first place, the placing of a limit to the Government demand in the permanently settled tracts of Bengal has enabled the Government, by sub- sequent legislation, to limit the demand of the Zemin- dars themselves from the actual cultivators ; and the cultivators of Bengal are therefore more prosperous, more resourceful, and better able to help themselves in years of bad harvest, than cultivators in any other part of India.

In the second place, the limitation of the State - demand has fostered agricultural enterprise, extended cultivation, and led to the accumulation of some capital in the hands of private proprietors, a result which far-sighted administrators wish to bring about in other parts of India. This capital is expended in fostering trades and industries, in supporting schools. Studied Medieval History under Maurice Keen. Read more Read less.

Books by Roderick Matthews

Kindle Cloud Reader Read instantly in your browser. Sponsored products related to this item What's this? Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1. The History and Legacy This book chronicles the controversial history of the Age of Exploration's most famous corporations, and how they influenced and propelled colonialism. Charles River Editors examines the history of British imperialism. The Partition of British India: The History and Legacy of the Division of the Briti The Partition of British India delves into the complicated process by which the British partitioned India and Pakistan.

French and Indian War: A History From Beginning to End. Do you want to learn about the French and Indian War? But don't have the time or patience for a page book? You don't want to miss this! The story of America's greatest generation through the eyes of the men and women who would be forever haunted by their experiences A History In 50 Events. Do you want to learn about the History of India?

A Life From Beginning to End. Do you want to learn about Galileo Galilei? Product details File Size: August 29, Sold by: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Customer reviews There are no customer reviews yet. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Set up a giveaway. Feedback If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us. Would you like to report poor quality or formatting in this book?

Click here Would you like to report this content as inappropriate? Click here Do you believe that this item violates a copyright? There's a problem loading this menu right now.