Book I, Chapter 3: Land Settlements in Northern India

CHAPTER III

LAND SETTLEMENTS IN NORTHERN INDIA

THE British Province of Bengal, founded by Lord Clive, was rapidly extended under the rule of Warren Hastings and the Marquis of Wellesley. Benares and some adjoining districts were annexed by Warren Hastings in 1775, on the death of the Nawab of Oudh, by a treaty concluded with his successor. Allahabad and some neighbouring districts were ceded by the Nawab of Oudh in 1801, under pressure from Lord Wellesley, and were called the Ceded Provinces. Delhi and Agra and the basin of the Ganges were conquered from the Mahrattas in 1803, also during the administration of Lord Wellesley, and were called the Conquered Provinces.

In Benares, the State-demand from the soil was permanently fixed in 1795. A pledge of a similar Permanent Settlement was given to the land-holders of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces in 1803 and 1805, but the pledge was never redeemed. For in 1808 the Special Commissioners, R. W. Cox and Henry St. George Tucker, opposed the immediate conclusion of a Permanent Settlement in these Provinces.¹ And after a long controversy the Court of Directors finally declared themselves, in 1821, against the conclusion of a Permanent Settlement in Northern India. Regulation VII. of 1822 was then passed, which declared that the State was entitled to 83 per cent. of the gross rental of estates, and permitted the Settlement to be revised from time to time.

To Lord William Bentinck belongs the credit of reducing this excessive assessment, and of introducing long-term Settlements. He held a Conference at Allahabad in 1833, and the result was the passing of Regulation IX. of 1833, the basis of Land Settlements in Northern India. The State-demand was reduced to 66 per cent. of the rental, and Settlements were made for thirty years.

The great task was entrusted to Robert Merttins Bird, who performed it in the humane spirit in which Lord William Bentinck’s policy was conceived. The procedure which he followed was described by himself many years after, when he was examined as a witness before a Select Committee of the House of Commons. The first process was to make a rough summary of all the land within a fiscal area. The second was to make a map including every field. The third was to make a professional survey showing the cultivated and the uncultivated land. The fourth process was to fix the Land Tax for the entire fiscal area. And the fifth and final measure was to apportion the entire amount among the villages contained within the area.

It may easily be imagined that the last two processes, the fixing of the Land Tax for a Pergana or fiscal division, and its apportionment among the villages included in the division, were watched by the agriculturists with the keenest anxiety. And indeed the weak point of the system was the assessment. For although 66 per cent. of the rental was made the rule, the rental itself was ascertained by guess-work, especially in lands held by Village Communities. “We then proceeded,” said Merttins Bird, “to investigate the assessment of the Government Land Tax upon that tract, finding out, as best we could from the previous payments, and from the statements of the people themselves, from the nature of the crop and the nature of the soil, and such various means as experience furnished to us, what might be considered a fair demand for the Government to lay upon it.”²

This method left the widest latitude to the Settlement Officer, and the greatest uncertainty in the liabilities of the agriculturist. No two Settlement Officers could form the same judgment on data which were so vague; and the assessment made at one Settlement was departed from, and generally enhanced, at the next Settlement. Agricultural prosperity was impossible when the tax on agriculture was so variable; and the accumulation of wealth, which the advocates of a Permanent Settlement had contemplated, was equally impossible, when the first signs of wealth and prosperity naturally suggested a more rigorous assessment at the succeeding Settlement.

In spite of this defect, however, the Settlement commenced in 1833 was made in a humane spirit, and gave great relief to the peasantry of Northern India, harassed by severe assessments and short settlements during the first thirty years of British rule. Merttins Bird laboured for nine years, and, on the eve of leaving India in 1842, submitted a full and exhaustive report on the results of the Settlement which was then coming to a close.

The idea of a Permanent Settlement had been abandoned. But nevertheless Bird intended and desired that the Settlement he had made should be considered permanent in the districts where most of the cultivable lands had already been brought under the plough. We glean the following facts from his lucid report.

DELHI DIVISION.

Portions of this division, irrigated by canals, were well peopled and prosperous. They had been over-assessed in some instances, but the pressure was now removed, and the Government Revenue now assessed was fair. The remaining portion which was not irrigated afforded only a precarious return to the husbandman.

“I consider, therefore, that no increase of resources can be expected from the Delhi territory on a revision of Settlement, unless Government should hereafter open a canal.”

The average price of wheat was 73 lbs. for 2s.

MEERUT DIVISION.

Saharanpur District.—“This district had been partially very much over-assessed, and the measures employed for collecting the revenue had been equally harsh and illegal; some of the communities composed of the most industrious classes had been cruelly depressed. Every effort was made to effect an equalisation of the demand, and with considerable success; but a considerable inequality still remains.” An increase in the Government Revenue might be made in some villages of this district after the expiry of the Settlement, but, “one-fifth of the culturable land should always be left untaxed to allow for raising artificial grasses or other fodder for cattle, and to allow for fallows and chances of dereliction.” A moderate increase in the Government Revenue might be expected on the completion of the irrigation canal from Hurdwar to Allahabad.

The average price of wheat was 80 lbs. for 2s.

Muzaffarnagar District.—Some increase in the revenue might be expected at the next Settlement where low rates were now paid, but, “no Mauza [village] having brought one-half of its culturable area into the state known in the district by the term Meesum, and paying at the standard fixed for that rate, should be subjected to any enhanced demand.”

The average price of wheat was 75 lbs. for 2s.

Bulandshahar District.—Backward, and assessment low. Increase in the Government Revenue might be expected on the completion of the irrigation canal, and also from increased cultivation and the raising of rates.

The average price of wheat was 66 lbs. for 2s.

Meerut District.—A very fine district. Increase in the Government demand might be expected at the next Settlement from increased cultivation, “but none could be looked for from enhancement of rates, except what may be obtained by the introduction of canal irrigation.”

The average price of wheat was 66 lbs. for 2s.

Aligarh District.—A prosperous and well-cultivated district. Future increase of land revenue could be expected only in six Perganas named, not in others except by the introduction of canal irrigation. The Village Communities of this district had received large advances from the indigo planters, Morton and MacClintock, as well as from native bankers; and much trouble, and the sale of lands assigned for the debts, ensued.

The average price of wheat was 78 lbs. for 2s.

AGRA DIVISION.

Agra District.—Fully cultivated and assessed. “No increase of revenue can at any time be expected from this district, and the Jumma [assessment] should be declared permanent at its present amount. The only hope of any improvement in the products, or methods of cultivation, or increase of irrigation, must be founded on the agriculturists possessing an assurance that they will reap the whole return of their pains and cost.”³

Muttra District.—Also fully cultivated. “The revenue at its present rate should be confirmed in perpetuity. There is no prospect of any further improvement unless the people be assured of reaping all the advantage of it.”

Farrackabad District.—Some parts were fully cultivated, but others ought to yield an increase of revenue at the next Settlement, both from increase of cultivation and from increase of rates. The introduction of canal irrigation should also lead to an increase.

Mynpoori District.—Some parts fully cultivated and assessed, others not.

Etawa District.—Fully cultivated and assessed. “No future increase is to be expected from it, except from the introduction of canal irrigation. With this reservation the present assessment ought to be considered perpetual.”

ROHILKHAND DIVISION.

Bijnaur District.—The district had been heavily assessed before, and cruelly treated by previous Revenue Officers. “Forced transfers of property to unwilling purchasers and mortgagees, forced loans extorted from recusant bankers, forced labour required for the cultivation of Mauzas [villages] which from abandonment had fallen into the management of public officers, were among the practices resorted to.” These evils were now remedied, and an equitable revenue was fixed, but an equality in assessment was not yet obtained.

Muradabad District.—No information had been obtained.

Bareli District.—This district had been heavily over-assessed before, and portions of it had suffered severely from the famine of 1837. Many of the starving inhabitants had formed gangs for plunder, and many cultivators had left their homes. The assessment made at the present Settlement was moderate.

Budaon District.—The district was in a state of great distress at the time of the Settlement. The Settlement took place “when the disposition to over-assess was far from being allayed,” and had therefore to be repeatedly revised. Full relief was not yet given. “No slight benefit will have been gained if Government and its servants are convinced, as I trust they now are, of the actual loss of money which is certain to follow over-assessment, and resolve to maintain those principles of moderation which have now been brought into actual practical operation for the first time.”

Shajehanpur District.—The district had escaped the misery of over-assessment in past Settlements; was lightly assessed at the present Settlement, and was in a flourishing state.

Pilibeet District.—Half the district had been much over-assessed previously, but now obtained ample relief. The other half had been settled with Raja Gurnam Singh. The climate of the district was very unhealthy.

The average price of wheat was 57 lbs. for 2s.

ALLAHABAD DIVISION.

Cawnpur District.—Had been a good deal over-assessed before, but now obtained relief. Most parts of the district were however fully cultivated and assessed, and except by reason of canal irrigation, “the demand on Cawnpur should be considered as not liable to increase, and fixed in perpetuity.”

Futtehpur District.—These remarks applied to Futtehpur District. “With exception to the increase to be gained by the introduction of canal irrigation, this district must be considered settled in perpetuity.”

Allahabad District.—Had escaped the calamity of over-assessment in the past. With the exception of the increase due for canal irrigation, “this settlement should also be considered fixed in perpetuity.”

The average price of wheat was 54 lbs. for 2s.

BENARES DIVISION.

Azimgarh District.—A fertile, well-irrigated, and well-cultivated district. Some portions were fully assessed and should not be considered liable to future enhancement. The remaining portions “may fairly yield an enhancement proportioned to the increase of cultivation at the close of the present term. The rates ought not to be enhanced.”

The average price of wheat was 59 lbs. for 2s.

Goruckpur District.—A fertile and favourably circumstanced district and expected to yield an increase in the Government demand in the future, both from increased cultivation and from increased rate of assessment.

The average price of wheat was 62 lbs. for 2s.

The nett results of Bird’s Settlement are shown in the following figures compiled from tables appended to his report. Ten rupees are taken as equivalent to a pound sterling.

When the work, thus nearly completed by Merttins Bird after nine years’ labour, came before the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, that distinguished officer wrote a thoughtful minute, dated April 15, 1842. He recognised that the Settlement had been performed with consideration and judgment, and that increase of revenues had not been the object aimed at. He approved of the introduction of four instalments in the year for the payment of revenue. And he also approved of the demarcation of boundaries and the corrections of accounts. But he doubted if the appointment of a paid watchman in every village would be welcome to villagers, and he commented in severe terms on the harsh measure which had been adopted, by over-zealous subordinate officers, to resume rent-free tenures.

“The Settlement Officer swept up without inquiring every patch of unregistered rent-free land, even those under ten Bighas [three acres] exempted by a subsequent order, which did not come out before five-sixths of the tenures had been resumed. In one district, that of Farakkabad, the obligations of a treaty and the direct orders of Government were but lightly dealt with; and in all, a total disregard was evinced for the acts even of such men as Warren Hastings and Lord Lake.”⁴

Still more emphatic was the Lieutenant-Governor’s condemnation of the manner in which the rights of hereditary landlords had been interfered with. The following is one of the instances cited.

“The Raja of Mynpuri, whose predecessor had received the highest acknowledgments from the British Government for his unshaken loyalty, when the district was overrun by Holkar’s army in the year 1804, was, without a reference to Government, under the construction put on the right of a Talukdar, deprived entirely, he and his successors in perpetuity, of all power of interference in 116 of the 158 villages included in his Taluka, which had descended to him in regular succession before the introduction of the British rule.”⁵

The Lieutenant-Governor also regarded with disfavour a constant interference in the affairs of each village. “To keep up a record of the circumstances of every field there must be a constant interference of the Executive in the affairs in every village, or, it may be said, of every villager, which would be irksome to any people, and will, I suspect, prove intolerable to the Natives of India.” And generally the operations appeared to the Lieutenant-Governor to be “of a decidedly levelling character, and calculated so to flatten the whole surface of society as eventually to leave little of distinguishable eminence between the ruling power and the cultivators of the soil. It is a fearful experiment, that of trying to govern without the aid of any intermediate agency of indigenous growth ; yet it is, what it appears to me, that our measures, now in progress, have a direct tendency to bring about.”⁶

These remarks are of value for all time. The Settlement effected by Bird has been praised, and deservedly praised, for the great benefit it conferred on the agricultural population of Northern India. It moderated the assessment which had been excessive and oppressive during the first thirty years of British rule. And it gave the people some rest from continuous harassment by giving them a long term of settlement. At the same time it should be remembered that Bird’s declared intention to make the assessment perpetual, where the lands were fully cultivated and assessed, has been disregarded by later administrators ; and his desire to eventually follow the same practice in other districts, as they came more fully under cultivation, has not been fulfilled. On the contrary, the levelling character of the measures, deplored by T. C. Robertson in 1842, are more noticeable after the lapse of sixty years. The village Patwari, paid by the Government, is the master of the situation in North India to-day ; and to him is entrusted the power which should legitimately belong to the representatives of the people—the Village Landlord or the Village Community. " To flatten the whole surface of society as eventually to leave little of distinguishable eminence between the ruling power and the cultivators of the soil," is not a policy of wisdom in India.

The generous and kind-hearted James Thomason succeeded Robertson as Lieutenant-Governor in Northern India in 1843, and ruled that province for ten years. Under him were trained up a number of able administrators, like John Lawrence and Robert Montgomery and William Muir, who have left their mark on the history of India, as much by their sympathy with the people as by their able administration. Thomason himself was one of the most distinguished revenue administrators of India; and while he corrected some of the evils pointed out by his predecessor, he completed the work of Merttins Bird, and closed the great Settlement in 1849. Four years later, on the very day on which an order was signed by the Queen’s command to promote Thomason to the higher post of Governor of Madras, that great and good man died on September 27, 1853. Madras lost an officer whose humane policy was nowhere more needed than in that province.

Thomason’s first important work, after he became Lieutenant-Governor, was his “Directions for Settlement Officers,” drawn up in 1844, being the first complete Land Settlement Code compiled in India. It consisted of 195 paragraphs, and laid down the principles and procedure on which the Settlement of Northern India was conducted. A few of the provisions are quoted below.

“52. It is desirable that the Government should not demand more than two-thirds of what may be expected to be the nett produce to the proprietor during the period of settlement, leaving to the proprietor one-third as his profits, and to cover expenses of collection. By nett produce is meant the surplus which the estate may yield, after deducting the expenses of cultivation, including the profits of stock and wages of labour; and this, in an estate held entirely by cultivating proprietors, will be the profit on their Sir cultivation, but in an estate held by a non-cultivating proprietor, and leased out to cultivators or Asamees paying at a known rate, would be the gross rental.”

“128. Cultivators at fixed rates have a right to hold certain fields, and cannot be ejected from them so long as they pay those rates. If they fail to pay the rent legally demandable, the proprietor must sue them summarily for the arrear, and on obtaining a decree in his favour and failing after it to collect his dues, he may apply to the Collector to eject them, and to give him possession of the land.”

“129. Tenants-at-will have no right beyond the year of their cultivation.”

“154. When there are many co-parceners (as in Village Communities), it is usual to select one or more from their number, and to arrange that the others should pay their revenue through them to the Government. All the co-parceners are Malguzars [revenue-payers] or Putteedars [holders of land in severalty], but the persons admitted to the engagement are the Sadar Malguzars [revenue-payers to the State direct], and are commonly called Lumber-dars.”⁷

“159. It remains to point out the way in which the Record of Rights is to be formed. . . . The Record is to be permanent; it is to be, as it were, the Charter of Rights, to which all persons having an interest in the land, or seeking to acquire such interest, are to appeal. It is to be the common book of reference to all officers of Government in their transactions with the people, to the Collector, to the Magistrate, and, above all, to the Judge.”

Indian administrators will recognise in these rules some of the principles which have since been embodied in the Tenancy Acts of the different Provinces of India.

The Settlement of Northern India, finally completed by 1849, at last came before the Court of Directors. And in their important Despatch, dated August 13, 1851, the Directors reviewed that great work. Merttin Bird’s assessments had been revised and reduced by the exemption of many rent-free tenures, after that officer had left India; and the figures given in the Directors’ Despatch differ considerably from those quoted above from Bird’s Report.

We quote the following figures from the Despatch of the Court of Directors, taking ten rupees as equivalent to a pound sterling.

The figures for some districts like Agra, Muradabad, Allahabad, and Gurgaon, show a very considerable increase compared to Bird’s figures, possibly because the Settlement was yet incomplete when Bird submitted his Report. Other districts like Saharanpur, Farakkabad, Bijnaur, Pilibeet, Bareli, and Futtehpur show a considerable reduction.

The total land revenue demands and collections in Northern India during the last ten years of the Settlement operations are shown in the following figures:—

The healthy results of the Settlement are seen at a glance. The period began with a large demand, and nearly a million sterling remained unrealised. The period ended with a reduced demand, and nearly the whole of it was realised.

Reviewing these facts and figures, the Directors complimented the Civil Service of India on the great task performed, and singled out Robert Merttins Bird “as being eminently entitled to our marked and special approbation.”

Merttins Bird and the Civil Service deserved all the praise that was bestowed on them; but nevertheless the work was only half done. The very foundation stone of the entire structure was unstable; the fixing of the Land Tax for an entire Pergana or fiscal division was mere guess-work.

But the Land Tax was not only uncertain: it was excessive. Rule 52 of Thomason’s Directions, quoted before, indicated that the Government demand might reach two-thirds of the nett produce. Relatively, it was a humane rule; for the British Government had demanded 83 per cent. in 1822, and 75 per cent. in 1833. But in reality it was a crushing demand which left the landlords and cultivators of Northern India resourceless. This painful truth was perceived within a few years after the Directors had complacently signed their Dispatch of 1851.

The time was approaching for commencing operations for a new Settlement. The question of the relative shares of the State and the landlords in the nett produce of the soil came again for anxious consideration. Experience had shown that a tax of 66 per cent., claimed by the State, was excessive and impracticable. Thomason’s Rule 52 had proved oppressive, and had prevented land from becoming valuable property to its owners and tillers. It was necessary to revise Thomason’s Directions, and new Rules were accordingly issued in 1855, “designed to assist the Collector in points which have been omitted from or not sufficiently detailed in the Directions to Settlement Officers, or on which different rules from those laid down in that treatise have been subsequently issued by Government.” The new rules were issued in connection with the re-settlement of the Saharanpur district, and are therefore generally known as the “Saharanpur Rules.”

The most important of the Saharanpur Rules is Rule XXXVI., which reduced the Land Tax from 66 per cent. to 50 per cent. of the nett produce or the nett rental of an estate. The rule is as follows.

“The assets of an estate can seldom be minutely ascertained, but more certain information as to the average nett assets can be obtained now than was formerly the case. This may lead to over-assessment, for there is little doubt that two-thirds, or 66 per cent., is a larger proportion of the real average assets than can ordinarily be paid by proprietors, or communities, in a long course of years. For this reason the Government had determined so far to modify the Rule laid down in paragraph 52 of the Directions to Settlement Officers as to limit the demand of the estate to 50 per cent. of the average nett assets. By this it is not meant that the Jumma [assessment] of each estate is to be fixed at one-half of the nett average assets, but that in taking these assets with other data into consideration, the Collector will bear in mind that about one-half, and not two-thirds as heretofore, of the well-ascertained nett assets should be the Government demand. The Collector should observe the cautions given in paragraph 47 to 51 of the treatise quoted, and not waste time in minute and probably fruitless attempts to ascertain exactly the average nett assets of the estates under settlement.”

This rule may be said to be the basis of land assessments in India in the present day. After half a century of blunders and over-assessments, the British Government decided to limit its claims to one-half the rental or the nett produce of the soil ; and this limit was gradually extended to all parts of India where the Land Revenue was not permanently settled. It was extended to the Central Provinces of India, and to Oudh and the Punjab, after the annexation of those provinces. And it was also formulated by the Secretary of State for India, in his despatch of 1864, for provinces like Madras and Bombay, where the revenue was generally paid by the cultivators direct, and not through intervening landlords.

Footnotes