DOI article:
Chakravarty-Kaul, Minoti: The commons in nineteenth-century Punjab
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49004#0049
THE COMMONS IN PUNJAB
41
Table 4. Zone II: The Dry Tract: Grazing Wastes
Districts Grazing Wastes Season
Sirsa
Open “primuval” waste
Khiras1 or grass enclosure
Post-harvest and Monsoon
Hissar
Winter
Rohtak
Riverine fallows of Ghaggar2 Sutlej, Saraswati,
Chautang
Winter and Summer
Ferozepur
Forest fallow in Lakhi near Muktsar3
Siwalik, Dehra Dun4
Droughts and Scarcities
Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh Grazing grounds in
Bikaner5 Sialkot, Patiala6, Bhawalpur7
Winter or Scarcity
Sources: 1) J. H. Oliver, Deputy Commissioner Sirsa, to Comm, and Superintendent Hissar Division,
No. 102, 14/4/1863, in Sirsa SR, 1900-04.
2) Land Rev. & Agriculture (Famine), Pros 3-4A, Sept. 1885, p. 335.
3) Sirsa SR, 1876; also Irfan Habib: Atlas of Mughal India, plate 4A; also Singh Vol.XXV,
No. 3, July-Sept. 1988, pp. 319-340.
4) G. M. Ogilvie, Deputy Comm. Hissar, to Comm, and Superintendent, Hissar Division,
No. 413, 6/9/1884, Section VI, Famine Pros 3A, Sept. 1885.
5, 6, 7) Famine Pros 3-4A, Sept. 1885, p. 335.
Tafel 4. Zone II: Der Trocken-Landstrich: Unbesiedelte Weidelandereien.
to send them (the cattle) to villages inhabited
by zamindars of his own tribe or caste, or
where he has (had) friends or relatives” (Ogil-
vie, para. 5). Thus the Bagris of the district -
that is, the Bagri Jats and the Bagri Bishnois
living in the west and the south of the Hissar
district - “frequently had friends in Bikaner
and other parts of Rajputana; and a great
many cattle are (were) sent away to those lo-
calities when the seasons there have been fa-
vourable and pasture is obtainable” (Ogilvie).
Similarly, even in ordinary times, the Fate-
habad cattle went to the Sirsa district, and the
cattle from the northern parts of the district
went to the Patiala territory. These inter-
changes in the favourable seasons were then
reciprocated at other times. When there was a
fodder famine, proprietors who had large
herds and possessed the means to send ani-
mals to more favoured tracts sent them away
to distant locations. “The villages on the
banks of the Jumna on the east and Sutlej on
the west were frequently resorted to; and in
some cases the cattle were sent as far as the
Siwaliks and Dehra Dun” (Ogilvie).
In this regime, definite rights in the banjar
kadim within the villages did not arise. No
tract was inhabited for long and no one could
call a particular area his own. Towards the
end of the last quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury, an official remarked, “there was very
little cultivation, and as the extent of virgin
land was so great, it was seldom that the same
field was cultivated for any length of time by
the same family” (Sirsa SR 1874-83, 379-383).
The evolution of defined property rights
began with three official measures: (i) colo-
nisation of the waste with settlers from other
districts beginning in the 1820s, and therefore
restrictions were placed on nomadic pastoral-
ists who had perforce to become sedentary
(ii) limitations placed on unlimited grazing
grounds as part of settlements; and (iii) divi-
sion of the savannah-like plains into grass
preserves or khiras. Thus with the revenue
settlement operations the open waste de-
41
Table 4. Zone II: The Dry Tract: Grazing Wastes
Districts Grazing Wastes Season
Sirsa
Open “primuval” waste
Khiras1 or grass enclosure
Post-harvest and Monsoon
Hissar
Winter
Rohtak
Riverine fallows of Ghaggar2 Sutlej, Saraswati,
Chautang
Winter and Summer
Ferozepur
Forest fallow in Lakhi near Muktsar3
Siwalik, Dehra Dun4
Droughts and Scarcities
Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh Grazing grounds in
Bikaner5 Sialkot, Patiala6, Bhawalpur7
Winter or Scarcity
Sources: 1) J. H. Oliver, Deputy Commissioner Sirsa, to Comm, and Superintendent Hissar Division,
No. 102, 14/4/1863, in Sirsa SR, 1900-04.
2) Land Rev. & Agriculture (Famine), Pros 3-4A, Sept. 1885, p. 335.
3) Sirsa SR, 1876; also Irfan Habib: Atlas of Mughal India, plate 4A; also Singh Vol.XXV,
No. 3, July-Sept. 1988, pp. 319-340.
4) G. M. Ogilvie, Deputy Comm. Hissar, to Comm, and Superintendent, Hissar Division,
No. 413, 6/9/1884, Section VI, Famine Pros 3A, Sept. 1885.
5, 6, 7) Famine Pros 3-4A, Sept. 1885, p. 335.
Tafel 4. Zone II: Der Trocken-Landstrich: Unbesiedelte Weidelandereien.
to send them (the cattle) to villages inhabited
by zamindars of his own tribe or caste, or
where he has (had) friends or relatives” (Ogil-
vie, para. 5). Thus the Bagris of the district -
that is, the Bagri Jats and the Bagri Bishnois
living in the west and the south of the Hissar
district - “frequently had friends in Bikaner
and other parts of Rajputana; and a great
many cattle are (were) sent away to those lo-
calities when the seasons there have been fa-
vourable and pasture is obtainable” (Ogilvie).
Similarly, even in ordinary times, the Fate-
habad cattle went to the Sirsa district, and the
cattle from the northern parts of the district
went to the Patiala territory. These inter-
changes in the favourable seasons were then
reciprocated at other times. When there was a
fodder famine, proprietors who had large
herds and possessed the means to send ani-
mals to more favoured tracts sent them away
to distant locations. “The villages on the
banks of the Jumna on the east and Sutlej on
the west were frequently resorted to; and in
some cases the cattle were sent as far as the
Siwaliks and Dehra Dun” (Ogilvie).
In this regime, definite rights in the banjar
kadim within the villages did not arise. No
tract was inhabited for long and no one could
call a particular area his own. Towards the
end of the last quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury, an official remarked, “there was very
little cultivation, and as the extent of virgin
land was so great, it was seldom that the same
field was cultivated for any length of time by
the same family” (Sirsa SR 1874-83, 379-383).
The evolution of defined property rights
began with three official measures: (i) colo-
nisation of the waste with settlers from other
districts beginning in the 1820s, and therefore
restrictions were placed on nomadic pastoral-
ists who had perforce to become sedentary
(ii) limitations placed on unlimited grazing
grounds as part of settlements; and (iii) divi-
sion of the savannah-like plains into grass
preserves or khiras. Thus with the revenue
settlement operations the open waste de-