DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29302#0038
( 4 )
Government demand from the portions of land each cultivates. Here there are
neither capital nor capitalists, or large landed proprietors who can act as agents
between the Government and the actual cultivators, and become responsible for
the due payment of the Government demand. Every man who cultivates the
land, however insignificant his possessions are, is termed a zemindar. He is the
hereditai'y proprietor of the portion of land he cultivates, and may mortgage or
sell at his discretion his proprietary interest therein. The settlement is made
direct with each zemindar for the lands he cultivates. Each receives a patta or
lease from the Government officer, bearing his signature and seal, in which
are set down the name of the lessee, his village and pergunnah, the extent
of his fields, together with a register of the number of the males and females
composing his family, wth the view of regulating the demand for begar, also the
amount of rent due thereon, in separate kists, are duly entered.
30. Two registers were ordered to be made of these pattas, one to be deposit-
ed in the tahsil of the district, and the other in the Suddur office. Other two
registers were also ordered to be made, and similarly deposited, containing the
extent and name of each field comprised in the lease, the quality of each, its
produce, and to whom it belongs. These registers have, however, never yet been
made of any Government pergunnah.
31. Each individual holding a lease from the Government is alone respon-
sible for the amount of the assessment due on the land he cultivates. There
are no village communities, as in the plains, who bound together by certain
local usages, share in the losses as well as in the gains of the land they cultivate,
and are jointly responsible to the Government for all defalcations. Hence the
realization of the fixed Government demand is highly precarious. The revenue
rests on no solid foundation, as a settlement in its strict sense cannot, it appears
to me, be made for any hill district ; for a settlement implies a contract between
the Government and certain parties, agents between it and the immediate culti-
vators, who hind themselves to realize the Government demand, and who are
responsible for all defalcations which may occur during the term of the Settle-
ment, and who are in a position that the payment of all balances may be enforced
from them.
From this short account of the previous history of the district,
I pass on to a description of each tract and of my operations in it,
BHARAULI AND KALKA.
5. The Kalka ilaqa consists of two villages, lying at the foot of the
physical geogra- Kasauli hill, just where the new road to Simla enters
phy and past history, the hills. They have a little irrigation and some
highly manured land that is not irrigated ; but three-fourths of their
land is rather poor soil cultivated on the two-year course mainly with
light crops of wheat or barley in the rabi, and mash in the kharif.
These villages were purchased from the Patiala State in 1843 in con-
nection with the new road to Simla.
The Bharauli ilaqa has been British territory since the close of
the Gurkha War in A.D. 1815. It lies in the hollow of the hill
country, midway between Kasauli and Simla.
It is in form a narrow strip of hill country, extending from
Subathu to Kiari Ghat near Simla. As the crow flies it is not more
than eight miles long, and its breadth varies from six to two miles.
It also includes the two detached villages of Kala and Kalag near
Sairi, 10 miles from Simla on the old Simla road ; and the defached
ilaqa of Shiwa (four sm'all villages) three miles north-west of Kasauli.
The whole is hill country.
Government demand from the portions of land each cultivates. Here there are
neither capital nor capitalists, or large landed proprietors who can act as agents
between the Government and the actual cultivators, and become responsible for
the due payment of the Government demand. Every man who cultivates the
land, however insignificant his possessions are, is termed a zemindar. He is the
hereditai'y proprietor of the portion of land he cultivates, and may mortgage or
sell at his discretion his proprietary interest therein. The settlement is made
direct with each zemindar for the lands he cultivates. Each receives a patta or
lease from the Government officer, bearing his signature and seal, in which
are set down the name of the lessee, his village and pergunnah, the extent
of his fields, together with a register of the number of the males and females
composing his family, wth the view of regulating the demand for begar, also the
amount of rent due thereon, in separate kists, are duly entered.
30. Two registers were ordered to be made of these pattas, one to be deposit-
ed in the tahsil of the district, and the other in the Suddur office. Other two
registers were also ordered to be made, and similarly deposited, containing the
extent and name of each field comprised in the lease, the quality of each, its
produce, and to whom it belongs. These registers have, however, never yet been
made of any Government pergunnah.
31. Each individual holding a lease from the Government is alone respon-
sible for the amount of the assessment due on the land he cultivates. There
are no village communities, as in the plains, who bound together by certain
local usages, share in the losses as well as in the gains of the land they cultivate,
and are jointly responsible to the Government for all defalcations. Hence the
realization of the fixed Government demand is highly precarious. The revenue
rests on no solid foundation, as a settlement in its strict sense cannot, it appears
to me, be made for any hill district ; for a settlement implies a contract between
the Government and certain parties, agents between it and the immediate culti-
vators, who hind themselves to realize the Government demand, and who are
responsible for all defalcations which may occur during the term of the Settle-
ment, and who are in a position that the payment of all balances may be enforced
from them.
From this short account of the previous history of the district,
I pass on to a description of each tract and of my operations in it,
BHARAULI AND KALKA.
5. The Kalka ilaqa consists of two villages, lying at the foot of the
physical geogra- Kasauli hill, just where the new road to Simla enters
phy and past history, the hills. They have a little irrigation and some
highly manured land that is not irrigated ; but three-fourths of their
land is rather poor soil cultivated on the two-year course mainly with
light crops of wheat or barley in the rabi, and mash in the kharif.
These villages were purchased from the Patiala State in 1843 in con-
nection with the new road to Simla.
The Bharauli ilaqa has been British territory since the close of
the Gurkha War in A.D. 1815. It lies in the hollow of the hill
country, midway between Kasauli and Simla.
It is in form a narrow strip of hill country, extending from
Subathu to Kiari Ghat near Simla. As the crow flies it is not more
than eight miles long, and its breadth varies from six to two miles.
It also includes the two detached villages of Kala and Kalag near
Sairi, 10 miles from Simla on the old Simla road ; and the defached
ilaqa of Shiwa (four sm'all villages) three miles north-west of Kasauli.
The whole is hill country.