DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9551#0077
OF INDIA. 6f
mercy of the Zaniihdars' avarice and ambition ; in the
other, they are subjected to the extortions and intrigues
of the surveyors and other government revenue officers.
I deeply compassionate both; with this difference in
regard to the agricultural peasantry of Bengal that there
the landords have met with indulgence from government
in the assessment of their revenue, while no part of this
indulgence is extended towards the poor cultivators. In
an abundant season, when the price of corn is low, the
sale of their whole crops is required to meet the demands
of the landholder, leaving little or nothing for seed or
subsistence to the labourer or his family.
31. Q. Can you propose any plan of improving the
state of the cultivators and inhabitants at large ?
A. The new system acted upon during the last forty
years, having enabled the landholders to ascertain the full
measurement of the lands to their own satisfaction, and
by successive exactions to raise the rents of the cultivators
to the utmost possible extent, the very least I can propose
and the least which government can do for bettering the
■condition of the peasantry, is absolutely to interdict any
further increase of rent on any pretence whatsoever;
particularly on no consideration to allow the present set-
tled and recognized extent of the land to be disturbed by
pretended remeasurements ; as in forming the Permanent
Settlement (Reg. 1. of 1793. Sec. 8. Art 1.), the govern-
ment declared it to be its right and its duty to protect the
cultivators as being from their situation most helpless,"
and " that the landlord should not be entitled to make
any objection on this account." Even in the Regulation
(VIII of 1793, Sec. 60. Art. 2.), the government plainly
acknowledged the principle of the Khud'Kasht cultivators
5
mercy of the Zaniihdars' avarice and ambition ; in the
other, they are subjected to the extortions and intrigues
of the surveyors and other government revenue officers.
I deeply compassionate both; with this difference in
regard to the agricultural peasantry of Bengal that there
the landords have met with indulgence from government
in the assessment of their revenue, while no part of this
indulgence is extended towards the poor cultivators. In
an abundant season, when the price of corn is low, the
sale of their whole crops is required to meet the demands
of the landholder, leaving little or nothing for seed or
subsistence to the labourer or his family.
31. Q. Can you propose any plan of improving the
state of the cultivators and inhabitants at large ?
A. The new system acted upon during the last forty
years, having enabled the landholders to ascertain the full
measurement of the lands to their own satisfaction, and
by successive exactions to raise the rents of the cultivators
to the utmost possible extent, the very least I can propose
and the least which government can do for bettering the
■condition of the peasantry, is absolutely to interdict any
further increase of rent on any pretence whatsoever;
particularly on no consideration to allow the present set-
tled and recognized extent of the land to be disturbed by
pretended remeasurements ; as in forming the Permanent
Settlement (Reg. 1. of 1793. Sec. 8. Art 1.), the govern-
ment declared it to be its right and its duty to protect the
cultivators as being from their situation most helpless,"
and " that the landlord should not be entitled to make
any objection on this account." Even in the Regulation
(VIII of 1793, Sec. 60. Art. 2.), the government plainly
acknowledged the principle of the Khud'Kasht cultivators
5