Rāmamohana Rāẏa; Ghose, Jogendra Chunder [Editor]: The English works of Raja Rammohun Roy (Band 2) (1901)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

ON THE

REVENUE SYSTEM OF INDIA.
-:o:-•

i. Question. By what tenure is land held in the pro-
vinces with which you are acquainted?

Answer. In the provinces of Bengal, Behar, and part
of Orissa {Midnapoor), land is now held by a class of
persons called Zamindars (i. e. landholders), who are-
entitled to perpetual hereditary possession, on condition
of paving to government a certain revenue, fixed on their
respective lands. This is termed the Zamindary system.
But in the ceded and conquered provinces belonging to
the Presidency of Fort William, no fixed agreement; has
yet been made with the Zamindars as to the amount of
assessment. Consequently their estates are not in their
own hands, but under the immediate management of
government, and subject to fresh assessments from lime
to lime at its discretion.

In die Madras Presidency, the revenue is for the
greater part, collected directly from the cultivators, (called
Ryots) by the government revenue officers, according to
the rate fixed on the different descriptions of land in
various situations. These cultivators may retain possession-
as long as t ley pay the revenue demanded from them.

2. Q. By what ten./re was land he'd under the former
government}

A. linger the Mohammedan government, lands were
held by hereditary right on the Zamindary system (though '
the revenue was sometimes arbitrarily increased) ; and