PARS TWO

STRUCTURE OP SHE ZAMHIBARI SYSTEM

•A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FGRTX-OEE ESTATES'

 ¥111

IHTROBUCTIOI

The zamindari system underwent considerable changes after

its foundation in 1793 by Cornwallis, and by the late nineteenth

century came to take on monstrous features mainly due to subin­

feudation. The famous Patni Regulation of 1819 and a series of

sale laws were two major factors that gave impetus to this
development.^ Both of them paved the way for the proliferation

of subinfeudation on an unprecedented scale by laying down rules

for arranging in order various conflicting landed interests and

for protecting the interests of each rung in the tenurial

structure. The zamindari system of our period thus* took the form

of a network of diverse landed interests from zamindari estates

down to se-natni or oaat-taluk or even lower kinds of tenures.

Scholarly British administrators of the late nineteenth

century saw the peculiarity of the land system of Bengal in this

^For, the Patni Regulation, see Taniguchi, 'The Patni

System/ Brief discussion on the role of sale laws in subinfeudation
process win be found in R. B. Chaudhary, The British Agrarian
Pnji-ny Eastern India. Bengal and Bibra** 1R5Q-80 (Patna. 1980)c
chap.1 •

153
 FIGURE ZZ
t

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rfcVfc'ftua t*
> GrovBrYi'menrEi
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*35 Haiaa.'tViSB^
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154

I
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 155
excessive subinfeudation and wrote detailed accounts of it-1 2 The

famous chart prepared by 0. I). Field makes a good example of their

efforts in this direction (Figure 22). And they tended to empha­

size that tdie zamlndars were separated from the actual tillers of

the soil by innumerable rungs of Intermediate tenure-holders. It

is here that a fundamental question as to the nature of the

zamindari system arises: low then was it possible for the zamlndars,

or the landlord class in general, to exact rents from the raiyats?

The object of land ownership is to appropriate surplus

labour from the cultivators in the form of rent, whether in labour,

in kind or in money. And Kohachiro Takahashi has once pointed out

that in a precapitalist society the appropriation of surplus labour

takes place directly, by 'extra-economic coercion* without the

2
mediation of the economic laws of commodity exchange. The

1B. H. Baden-Fowell, The Land-Systems of British India.

3 vols. (London, 1892) vol.1. pp.501-553: 0. D. Field. Land-holding
and the Relation of Landlord and Tenant in Vayioua Countries
(Calcutta. 1883) up.705-4.28 Hunter. Statistical Account. vol.5
pp.96-100, 324-5, 365-79, 448-53.
2
Kohachiro Takahashi, 'A Contribution,1 p.33. By the word
•commodity exchange' Takahashi means the exchange in a free market
of commodities owned by independent citizens of a bourgeois
society. He does not.deny the existence of commodity production
in a precapitalist society.

As to the term 'extra-economic coercion (or compulsion)'

—'ausser oekonomischer Zwang' in original German— he refers to
the famous passage in Karl Marx's Capital. Marx writes:
It is clear, too, that in all forms where the actual worker
himself remains the 'possessor* of the means of production
and the conditions of labour needed for the production of his
own means of subsistence, the property relationship mist
appear at the same time as a direct relationship of domination
and tiie direct producer therefore as an unfree person—an
unfreedom which may undergo a progressive attenuation from
serfdom with statute-labour down to a mere tribute obligation.
The direct producer in this case is by our assumption in
possession of his own means of production, the objective
 156

question to ask, then, is how Bengal landlords exerted this

' extra-economic coercion' on the ryots through such intricate

land property relations. In this respect Tapan Baychaudhuri's

study of the permanent settlement is very suggestive. He has

remarkedi 'In fact, the proprietor, rigidly circumscribed by the

permanent leases to his tenants, often saw the acquiring of

subtenures, unfettered by similar restrictions, as his best chance

of improving his prospects. It is at this point that the

supposedly pyramidal structure of land rights under the permanent

4
settlement dissolves into some indefinable shape.' from this

perspective, C. D. Field's elaborate chart may be seen as laying

undue stress on the 'pyramidal structure' alone and neglecting

the other side of the coin. For the purpose of bringing to light

various aspects of 'extra-economic coercion* we need to be

conversant with what Tapan Raychaudhuri has called 'indefinable

shape,' that is, the actual working of the zamindari system, rather

conditions of labour needed for the realization of his labour

and the production of his means of subsistence; he pursues his
agriculture independently, as well as the rural-domestic
industry associated with it. This independence is not abolished
when, as in India for example, these small peasants form a more'
or less natural community, since what is at issue here is inde­
pendence vis-k-vis the nominal landlord. Under these conditions,
the surplus labour for the nominal landowner can only be
extorted from them by extra-economic compulsion, whatever the
form this might assume. (My emphasis). (Capital1 vol.3*
chap.47, sec.2, p.926).

The point is that unless and until the actual worker is dispos­
sessed of the means of production and is compelled to appear in
the market as a seller of his labour power, surplus labour cannot
be appropriated through the mediation of the economic laws of
commodity exchange. As long as he is possessed of the means of
production, it 'can only be extorted from him by extra-economic
compulsion.'
* Tapan Rayohaudhuri, 'Permanent Settlement in Operation:
Bakarganj District, East Bengal,' in Land Control and Social
Structure in IndianHistory, ed. Robert Eric Frykenberg (1969f
enlarged Indian edition, New Delhi, 1979), p.168.
 157
than with its legal or institutional frame which 0. D. Field and

others dwelt upon. It appears to me that the legal or institutional

approach to the zamindari system is apt to cover up the mechanism

of exploitation instead of disclosing it. In the present part*

therefore, an attempt will be made to carry forward Tapan

Bayohaudhuri's line of work. We shall try to delineate the shape

of 'indefinable shape' in order to clarify the nature of powerP

legal, social and political,on the basis of which the Bengal land­

lords dominated the raiyats and exacted rents from them. And it

would be through this kind of approach that a scientific or merxist

study of the zamindari system can be conducted.

In this connection I may add that according to Takahaehi1 a

suggestion, the problem of the mode of production can be tackled

from two different angless first, from the point of view of

property relationship or of mode of exploitation; and secondly,

from the point of view of social existence form of labour power

or of its social reproduction.^ I am not prepared to deal with

this delicate problem here, but his suggestion serves to situate

our task in this part in relation to a wider plane of historical

theory. So examine the zamindari system is to deal with one side

of the coin of themode of production problems property relationship.

Our study may in this sense be regarded as a preliminary work tc

throw light on the entire problem of the mode of production in

modern Bengal.

The actual working of the zamindari system can of oouroe

^Takahashi, 'A Contribution,* p.33

 158
be studied in different ways. The method we have adopted here

is the case study of land management. Ve may with due restraint

expect that case study of a reasonable number of estates will

enable us to restore the approximate state of things in our time.

Putting together our findings on the management of individual

estates* we shall discuss several salient aspects of the zamindari

system in operation: social Character of landlords* composition

of their land property, land management system, relations between

landlords and raiyats, and problems concerning land management.

Our prime aim of analysing these details is to bring into relief

concrete forms of extra-*eoonomic coercion.

 IX

SOUSCS MA*rffRTAT,a

The ideal source materials for case study are, no doubt,

the private papers of individual landlords. However, as thlngn

stand now in Bengal, it is quite difficult to get access to them.

This leaves us no alternative but to rely on government reoordo,

particularly the Court of Wards1 papers. It need hardly be said

that by its very nature the management by the Court of Wards

differed in certain respects from the way in which the landlords

themselves operated their estates. Before going into detailed

discussion, therefore, we should form a clear idea of the character

and limits of the Court of Wards and its records.

The Court of Wards was tied in with the Permanent Settle­

ment from the very beginning.^ It was none other than Phillip

Prancis, the ardent advocate of the Permanent Settlement, that

emphasized the need for the institution of a Court of Wards.

John Shore dwelt upon his own plan of the Court of Wards system

1A brief account of the history of the Court of Wards is

given in Anand A. Tang, 'An Institutional Shelter: The Court of
Wards in late Nineteenth-Century Bihar,' Modern Asian Studies.
XIII-2 (1979), pp.248-9. See also W. X. Firminger. Historical
Introduction to the Bengal Portion of the Fifth Report (Calcutta.
19171 reprint ed.,Caloutia,1962), p.302j 'Mr. Shore's Minute
of 18 June 1789,* paras.318, 337 in Appendix_to the Fifth Report
from the Select Committee of the Aff&lca of The last India
Company! P.P.. 1812(377) vif (hereafter i.Pi). to 5tn Hep.T.

159
 160

in his famous minute of 18 June 1789. In 1791 the Governor-

General and Council passed rules* and the Court of Wards formally

came into being for looking after disqualified landlords and

their estates. She role assigned to them was to he a prop of the

permanent settlement. It is true that with the permanent settle­

ment obtaining stability, priority in the Court's policy was

gradually shifted from the protection of Government revenue to

the benefit of the proprietors.1 2 Yet
3 their primary function in

the ComwalliB system never changed. And as the permanent

settlement was not merely a system for financing the colonial

state but, in essence, the ultimate constitutional principle

underlying the whole configuration of the colonial regime in

Bengal, the Court's administration inevitably took on polictical

character. In fact Bengal Wards' Manual made no secret of this

and plainly provided: 'Ordinarily protection may be given on

political or semi-political grounds to families (i) whose members

have at some time rendered meritorious service to Government or

(ii) whose preservation is a matter of interest to the public

o
or Government.' Indeed such instances were not few in the Dacca

division of our time. A hopelessly encumbered estate was taken

charge of for saying the proprietor from the humiliation of

bankruptcy! simply because his father and relatives were senior

pleaders in the Dacca Judge's Court and the Calcutta High Court,

1Yang, 'Institutional Shelter', pp.248-9; Report on Wards'

and Attached Estates In the Poway PrrnrinfiftH fha-rnftfWr RWAEl.
1878-79, para.9.
2fhe Bengal Wards' Manual. 1909. revised ed. (Calcutta,
1909), p.49.
3
Board of Revenue, lower Provinces, land Revenue Depart­
ment, Wards and Attached Estates Branch (hereafter BOR-W), File
no.886 of 1904 & no.157 of 1905.
 161

And when the Dacca Nawab's huge estate faced a crisis on account

of serious dissensions among the co-shares, the Government

intervened in the dispute and after 'negotiations of much delicacy'

took over the management of the whole estate.^ In the case of

the Bhawal estate, the largest Hindu estate in eastern Bengal,

the Court went to the extreme of trying to assume it under their

charge in violation of established norms of administration and

o
against the proprietor's intension.

But it would not be proper to lay stress on the political

character alone. Estates of great political importance were

not so many and the Court dealt with most cases conforming to

the regular procedure. Political objectives of the Court of Wards

system seem to have been achieved through its smooth functioning

as a whole system, rather than by giving special treatment to

this or that estate.

How as to the regular formalities, there were five grounds

on which the Court could declare proprietors disqualified and

take over the management of their estatesi (a) females, (b) miners,

(o) persons of unsound mind, (d) persons of physical defects or

infirmities, (e) 'persons as to whom the Court has declared,

on their own application, that they are disqualified, and that

it is expedient in the public interest that their estates should

^ Colonel J. Hbdding, Report on the Dacca Hawcfo'a Famii t

Estate (Dacca, 1909), pp.1-2; Resolution on Report on Wards'.
Attached and frust Estates in the Pi aino District of the Province
of Eastern Bengal and Assam thereafter RWAE-EB). 1907-08.
2BQR-W, File no.311 of 1904.
 162
be managed by the Court.1 ^ The last ground was In most cases

Invoked to save heavily indebted proprietors. The grounds for

/majJbL.
/
ip as follows i

ground (a), 4; (b), 26; (c), 4; (d)f 0; (e), 11.2 The Court

thus performed a two-pronged task. They, on the one hand, gave

shelter to minor proprietors, and on the other, tried to salvage

encumbered estates or, in hopeless cases, to dispose of them

under the supervision of the government so that no law and order

problem should accompany their break-up. The above figures show

that the Wards' estates were not necessarily 'sick* before they

were taken over while the estates of the group (e) were undoubtedly

'sick', many of the group (b) were in normal conditions except

that the smooth succession to the property was disrupted by

untimely death of the late proprietor.

Furthermore, the Court had to look after another category

of estates which were technically called 'Attached Estates *,

while the above-mentioned five groups of estates were denominated

'Wards1 Estates.' The attaohed estates came under the Court's

management because of disputes between the co-sharers.

The Court's administration underwent many changes over

the years. The enactment of the Court of Wards Act, IZ(B.C.)

of 1879, which effected some significant alterations in the

^The Court of Wards Act, 1879, sec.6.

2RWAE. 1874-75 to 1.910-11. Several estates are counted

twice, and a few three times. Attached estates are excluded.
^Section 95(a) of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 7XII(B.C.) of
1885
 163

general, principles , marked a turning-point in its history. The

administration report for 1878-79 summed up principal features

as follows:

Under section 5» the Board of Revenue is now the Court of

Wards for the whole province. Hitherto each Commissioner
was the Court of Wards for the districts of his division.
Under section 10 , when a civil court has occasion to inak.e
provision for the charge and person of a minor under Act
XL of 1858, or of a lunatic under Act XXX¥ of '1858, It can
apply to the Court of Wards, which 1b empowered to undertake
or to reject such charge at its discretion. Formerly, under
similar circumstances, the civil court addressed an ordertdo
the Collector, not the Court of Wards, and he had no option
hut to obey it. Under section 12, the Court can at any time
withdraw from the charge of any estate of which it has
undertaken the management at the request of a civil court;
formerly no such power ms vested in the Collector... .Under
section 63 all arrears of rent on account of property under
the Court's charge can now he recovered by the certificate
procedure tinder Act ¥11(3.0.,) of 1868,...'

By this act the Court was authorized to manage estates in a more

stringent way, with a freedom to reject- the assumption of estates

whose managements were judged by them beyond rehabilitation and

2
with a weapon of certificate procedure strengthened to cover

all sorts of arrear rent; while the Board of Revenue were

empowered to exercise the increased concentration of control over

the Court' administration. The effect of this change was

instantly felt in the Court's administration. She most striking

feature was the sharp decline in the number of the estates

assumed, which was due to the Court starting to use their own

^RWAB. 1878-79» para.14* See also ibid., 1879-80,

para.20.
2
The certificate procedure was originally instituted by
Bengal Act YII of 1868 for the recovery, of arrear rents in Gov­
ernment estates and other public demands. Under this system
the Collector was empowered to record a 'certificate of arrears'
whioh acted like a decree of Court and could be executed con­
tinuously till all was paid. (Baden-Fowell, Land-Systems. vol.1P
pp.690-1. See also Huque, The Man behind the Plough, chap.xix).
 164
discretion to reject hopeless estates,1 2 In addition, another

Important change was made almost simultaneously with the enactment

of the Court of Wards Act: the Wards' Institution was closed down
2
in 1881. This Institution had been established in Calcutta to

bring together minor proprietors of important estates in one

place for educating thorn in conformity with the British ruler's

notions of the model zamindar. Its abolition marked the end of

the policy of glaring interference with the private life of tho

zamindars. After 1881 the responsibility for education wholly

feu on the Collector and he began to exercise governmental

influence in a more covert way. Minors were allowed to live

with their mother and other relatives in their own villages and

to go to local sohool.

How let us turn our attention to the points to be considered

when using the Court of Wards records. Technical as they are,

they have direct bearing upon our study.

In Idle first place, as has been pointed out above, the

estates under the Court's management falls into two different

classes: wards' estates and attached estates. Their difference

lies in the grounds for assumption. But there is another aspect

that is of greater importance to our study. Id the case of the

wards' estates 'the jurisdiction of the Court extends over all

property of a ward, including lands held without payment of

revenue, tenures or holdings, and share in revenue-paying lands

1RWAB. 1881-82, para.4.

2RWAE. 1879-80, para.19i 1880-81, para.28.

 165

held in common tenancy with other proprietors who are not

disqualified,'1 2whereas in the attached estates the Court's

jurisdiction 'is strictly confined to the estate or tenure of

which the Court has been placed in charge by the Judge; and tho

Court of Wards has no power to interfere with any other property

2
belonging to the owners of such estate or tenure • ' Shis meant!

that the records on a wards' estate always provide us with

information on the whole of the land properties owned by a

■5
particular landlord, while those on an attached estate are not

necessarily so.

Secondly, the way in which the Court of Wards managed

estates was to some extent different from that of the private

proprietors. So quote its own wordst

But it may be confidently stated, especially in regard to

any but the very largest estates, that Court of Wards*
management cannot hope to compete with the best and most
successful management of qualified proprietors. Court of
Wards' management is necessarily expensive and mechanical.
A proprietor who looks after his own estate saves the whole
or a great portion of the manager's salary; he has not to
entertain the establishment requisite to prepare the numerous
returns and reports which Court of Wards* management
necessarily entails....He exercises more personal influence
in the colleOtion of his rents, and has full discretion to
make on the spot any arrangement that appears expedient,
without being bound by rules or by the necessity of obtaining
the sanction of superiors. Court of Wards' management may
be, and usually, it is hoped, is just to the tenantry, and

1The Bengal Ward«* Manual. 1909. p.41.

2Ibid., p.272.

With few exceptions the Court strictly adhered to this

policy of assuming the whole immovable
It is noteworthy that the Court took a
petition for assumption submitted by a
after enquiry it came to light that he
ties held in benaml in the name of his
of 1902).
property of the ward(s).
decision to turn down a
zamindar in Dacca when
conceald some land proper­
wife. (BGR-W, File no.135

\
 166

comparatively free from abuse and corruption, but economical

and unhampered it can never be; by the very character of tho
agency engaged upon it, it must be expensive, and it must be
fettered by rules and restrictions.'

On the other hand, however, the Court, being a governmental

organization, had a decided advantage over the private landowners.

The administration report remarked: "...the superior orgsuiization

of the Court's management, the influence which the authority of

Government officials is able' to exercise, and it may be added, the

power of the certificate procedure for the reoovery of arrears of

rent, has enabled tho Court of Wards to show far more favourable
2
results than private proprietors would be able to do,...'

Thirdly, untill the early 1870s the Court appear to have

had a liking for managing estates by farming them out to the

highest bidders. It was in the middle of the 1870s that the

Board of Revenue, admitting that the farming system had been

oppressive to the tenantry, switched over to the policy of the

khas /“directmanagement.^

These differences are bound to have various effects on

the figures concerning the financial accounts of the estates.

Finally, therefore, we have to consider characteristics in

financial matters that distinguish the Court's management from

the private proprietors'. As admitted by themselves, the Court's

management was inevitably 'mechanical.* The Court attempted to

1RWAE. 1877-78, para.7.

%WAB. 1883-84, para.4. As to the 'certificate procedure',

see fh.2 on p.163*
3Ibid., 1878-79, para.10.
 167

keep control over the managers of assumed estates scattered all

over Bengal by directing them to achieve a set of standard

percentages which were uniformly fixed irrespective of a wide

divergence of size, location, etc. of the estates assigned to

them.

The most important standard related to rent collections.

There were prolonged discussions between the Lieutenant-Governor

and the Board of Revenue on what should be taken as the basis

for assessing the performance of rent collections.1 2 At any rate,

however, the standard finally set was extremely high. The Bengal

Wards' Manual provided that '(a) the current collections must

not be less than 90 per cent, of the current demand, and (b) the

total collections must not be less than 100 per cent, of the
2
current demand.' Here the term 'current demand* denotes what

waB often called 'mofussil rental', that is, the amount of rent

demand formally entered in the landlord's rent-roll; and the

'total collections' comprise the collections of arrears of rent

and of interest on arrears besides the 'current collections'

(i.e. the collections of the current demand). The movement of

rent collections from the 1870s onward shows that the managers

faithfully followed this rule. The percentage of the total

collections on the current demand for all Bengal from 1876 to

1904 varied over a very narrow range between 93 and 106.^

1RWAE. 1876-77, para.5? 1884-85, para.6; 1891-92, para.7;

Resolution on RWAB. 1890-91, para.2.
2The Bengal Wards' Manual. 1909, p.53.
x
^See RWAE for respective years. There were wider fluc­
tuations between 1873 and 1875.
 168

Compared with the actual collections realized by the private

proprietors, this percentage was strikingly high* She Court

itself must have been fully aware of this grim fact when it

remarked*

She full rent which is .entered in the zemindari books may

be paid in the most favourable years, but as a rule a
zemindar is willing to receive and be satisfied with a
rental considerably below the amount of the full demand as
shown on his books....It is no exaggeration to say that a
fair and liberal zemindar does not collect more than 75 per
cent, of his nominal rent-roll on an average of years.
There is good reason for believing that in some of the eastern
districts the' average of late years has not exceeded 60 per
cent • 1

So it was hardly surprising that the Court should have been

2
criticized for over-assessment and excessive demands. On the

other hand, since the private zemindars were content with

collecting only part of the demand, their account books were as

usual burdened with heavy arrear balances of rent. They must

have had their own reason to keep these balances, however nominal,

alive on the books year in year out. But the Court considered

this praotioe unhealthy and towards the end of the 1890s started

a systematic drive to weed out the balances that they regarded

3 -

bad and irrecoverable. Thus the accounts kept by the Court

differed from the private proprietors* at least in two significant

respectsi the rate of rent collections and the amount of balances.

The next point to be considered is the standard regarding

the management charges. It appears to have been set by the Court

at 10' per cent on the current demand. Though actual expenditure

1BWAE. 1883-84, para.4.

2Ibid., 1882-83, paras.8, 156.

^Ibid., 1898-99* para.9•

 169

onmanagement widely differed estate by estate, the average

percentage for entire Bengal ranged, roughly speaking, between

7 and 10 per' cent. * Bat it should be noted that the management

charges as defined by the Court excluded two items of significant

o
weights law expenses and rates. It need hardly be said a lot

of money was spent on litigation even under the Court's management.

'Bates' were levied on each estate for covering all expenditures

incurred in the Government offices related to the Court of Wards

administration such as Collector's office, Commissioner's office,

Board of Revenue, legal Remembrancer’s office, Accountant-General's

office, and treasury establishment. She Government from time to

time changed the pitch of rates, but on the whole, it averaged

* ■

about 2 or 3 per cent on the current demand. With these two

As the Court often changed the way of calculating the

percentage, it is difficult to show precise figures. During the
years from 1894 to 1899, for instance, when the 'management
charges' were defined as including (a) salary of manager, (b)
establishment, travelling allowances and commission, (e) contin­
gencies, and (d) construction and repairs of cut cherry buildings,
the percentage for the estates which was under Court's management
for the entire year varied between 7.1 and 8.7 per cent. (See
BWA1. 1894-95, para.11, etc.)
It may be added in this connection that the official
definition of the management charges underwent changes over the
years. Moreover, the Court sometimes used a different definition
in the main report from the one adopted in the statements appended.
We should, therefore, be very careful when using the data
available in RWAB. As to, for instanoe, definitions adopted in
the statements, from 1874 to 1881 no specifications were given?
from 1882 to 1886 the management charges comprised (1) manager's
pay, (2) establishment, travelling allowances, (3) contingencies,
(4) construction and repairs of cutcherry buildings, and (5)
survey and settlement charges; from 1887 to 1899 the last two
items were dropped; and since 1900 specifications were again not
given, though it is certain that the cost of survey and settlement
was excluded.

*BWAS. 1877-78, para.34.

3Ibid.. 1877-78. nara.36s 1883-84,
para.12.
 170

items added, the total management charges must have fairly exceeded

what the Court officially counted among the management charges.

How, then, did these total management charges compare with those

actually expended by the private proprietors? She Court stated

that their management was expensive. But our findings, which will

be shown in a subsequent section of this part, appear to prove to

the contrary. She first task the Court set about when it assumed

an estate was a trimming of the personnel on the estate, which as

a rule effected a considerable retrenchment in the management

charges. So, even if we take into consideration the rates, which

the private proprietors were never required to pay, it does not

seem that the Court's management was more expensive than that of
the private proprietors.*

Apart from the above-mentioned 'standards,1 there are a

few more problems to be considered in relation to the accounts

of the estates, first, the utilization of the surplus funds.

A considerable number of estates managed by the Court were solvent

enough to leave a surplus at the dose of the year. It appears

that till the early 1870s the managers used to invest it in

Government securities. Seeing, however, that on taking over the

management from the Court, some proprietors encashed the securities

and started squandering money, the Board of Bevenue found it

o
necessary to reconsider this practice. After some trials they

laid down new guidelines: 'measures should be taken to utilize

t

*Xhis observation is concerned only with the legal aspect

of estate management. It takes no account of Illegal exactions
by managerial staff.
-2RWAB. 1874-75.
 171

surplus funds to the best advantage of the wards and their estates

by (a) the purchase of landed property! (b) the maintenance in

efficient condition of the estatesy the buildings and other

immovable property belonging to the ward! (o) the payment of such

allowances or donations as may befit the position of the wards’

family, and above allv (d) the improvement, of the land and property

of the ward and for the benefit of the ward and his property
generally.*^ Moreover, as the Court became more and more conscious

of their role as a ’model landlord,' they came to lay special

stress on the improvement of land and property. In 1897 it was

made obligatory on solvent estates to disburse at least 3 per cent

of the rental on agricultural and sanitary improvements and 1 per

2
cent on education. She next problem relates to what was called

the suspense account. When we closely examine the account of an

estate, we find that under the head of 'suspense account* a

considerable sum, amounting to 10 or 20 per cent, or more, of the

total, is entered on both receipt and disbursement sides, The

suspense account is an account in which items were temporarily-

entered until their dispositions could be determined. This

undersirable pratice of leaving a significant portion of accounts

suspended stands in the way of a purposeful analysis of the

financial performance of estates. In addition, it is a well-known

fact that the Court, being hostile to the Bengal zemindars*

extravagant way of life, made it their policy to slash living

expenses of the wards and their family.

1RWAE. 1891-92, para.32.

2Ibid., 1897-98, para.16.

 172
All things considered i In what manner should we utilize

the Court of Wards1 records for our purposes?

In the first place, there Is no denying that the Court

of Wards' management differed in certain important respects from

the private proprietors'. One may well wonder whether it only

presents an 'artificial* or 'impure* state of things. But here

we should rather ask a more fundamental questions Could the Bengal

zemindars he 'pure' or 'natural* at all? It is widely admitted

that in the stormy years of the late eighteenth and early nine­

teenth centuries the colonial authorities actively intervened in

the estate management of hig zamindars and attempted to 'reform'

it. It seems, although this aspeot is not fully studied yet,

that the system of estate management underwent great changes

largely through the influence of British power. We might therefore

state that the difference is one of quantity, rather than of

quality.

Yet, certain differences did exist, particularly concerning

the financial figures. In dealing with these figures, we should

be cautious to the utmost, however tempting the detailed financial

statements appended to the Court's annual report may appear. Only

reliable figures should be taken up for analysis, and others,

rent collections for instance, should be treated as of secondary

value. But most information other than financial figures which

the Court of Wards' records furnish seems to me reasonably reliable.

Especially, there is no ground for doubting, until proved to the

contrary, the truth of the Collector's report submitted to the

Board of Revenue at the time of assumption. It provides us with

 173

an ample information on land properties owned, by the wards» their

social background, their debts, etc.

Another question may he raised concerning to what extent

those estates under the Court' represent the whole body of the

estates in Bengal. It is impossible to give a decisive answer

to thiB question, since little is known about the. latter. All

we can say is that not all estates were financially 'sick'; that

the estates assumed out of political considerations alone were

not so many; that the Court started rejecting .hopelessly encumbered

estates sifter the passing of the Court of Wards Act in 1879; and,

on the whole, that the estates managed by the Court were not

necessarily exceptional cases. Perhaps we should leave this

question unanswered till a good number of case studies based on

zemindars1 private, papers appear, which will enable us to make a

comparison between the two. For the time being we have no choice

but to carry on studies with however limited the source materials

available are.. She following case study may therefore have some

interim value as provoking further enquiries.

. /

Finally, not all the estates managed by the Court can be

taken up for analysis, for the attached estates do not well fit

in for our purposes. In order to conduct case study of the estates

for analyzing the structure of the zamindari system we should take

up as a unit of analysis the whole landed property owned by a

particular landlord. As an attached estate is an estate (or a

tenure) shared by a group of landowners, it does not give the

m

information sought by us except where all co-sharers belong to

a joint family, which is very rare. We shall therefore assign

 174
, i

the attached estates a mere supplementary role and deal chiefly

with the wards' estates.

 X

GENERAL VIEW OF FORTY-ONE ESTATES

According to the annual reports of the Court of Wards

from 1874-75 to 1910-11, the total number of the estates of the

Dacca division managed by the Court during this period comes to

76. Out of them, we have to exclude from the purview of our

study (1) those estates that give us very little information on

account of their having been under the Court only for several

months, and (2) the dwarf attached estates whose annual rental

amounts to no more than a few rupees or at the most about fifty

rupees. On the other hand, there are several sets of estates

which, though treated as separate by the Court, actually belong

to the same proprietor or the same family.. They should be

amalgamated and considered one estate in our study. ‘ By this

4
There are six such cases. (1) The Dacca Nawab's estate
was divided among many co-sharers at the beginning of the twentieth
century and the Court treated each share as an Independent estate.
In fact, however, these shares constituted a joint estate which was
managed by one manager appointed by the co-sharers. When the Court
assumed the share of the Nawab himself as a first step, the manager
appointed by. them was authorized to manage not only the Nawab's
share but also the other shares that were not assumed yet. (See
Hodding, Dacca Nawah1 ^ Family Estates, p.1). (2) The Hhukailas
estate was also divided into four parts. Unlike the Dacca Nawab's
estate the division was formally complete. But we shall treat
them as one estate, because at least until our period there seems
to have been family arrangements for maintaining cohesion as a
whole. (5) The Amrajuri estate and the Deb Nath Dutt Chaudhuri's
estate belonged to the same proprietors, Deb Nath Dutt Chaudhuri
and his wife. There is possibility of their owning some other
property. But the main portion is considered to be covered by the
two estates. (4) The estates of Miss L. M. Pogose and of N. P.
Fogose should be regarded as one, an Miss L. M. Pogose*s estate was
merely a portion of N. P. Pogose*s estate, which was joint and

175
 J

176

process the total somber Is reduced to 54, of which 57 are wards*

■ estates*
1 and 17 attached estates. As has been stated above, wo

are to deal chiefly with these wards' estates, 57 in total. But

four more estates might be added to this group. The Haturia

estate, which falls under the attached estates according to the

Court's classification, should rather be counted among the wards'

p
estates. And of the estates that were not taken charge of despite

District Judge's advice or proprietor's application, three estates

of Mymensingh give us an ample information of much importance.

Thus the total number of estates that come within the purview of

our analysis adds up to 41•

Now let us have a glance over them. The district-wiso

breakdown is as followsi Bakarganj 19, Faridpur 4, Dacca 6, and

Mymensingh 12. It is characteristic of our estates that the

Bakarganj district lias considerable weight. As regards the amount

of the current demand, or the mofusail rental, Figure 25 shows its

undivided. (5) The Bupapat estate and the Benodpore estate belonged
to the same proprietors, Gauri Das Bai and his brother's widow,
Bangini. (6) The Mathura Nath Bai Chaudhuri's estate managed by
the Court between 1877 and 1879 and the Madhabpassa estate managed
between 1904 and 1910 were actually the same estate. It was only
called in a different way.
1 There is a snag in the case of the Amrajuri and Deb Nath
Dutt Chaudhuri's estates. Though we have considered them as one
estate, they fall under different classesi the former is an attached
estate and the latter a wards' estate. Taking into consideration,
however, that the two estates cover almost all land properties
held by the Chaudhuris, we treat them as a wards* estate.
^The Haturia estate was classified as an attached estate
by the Court, as the ground for the assumption was disputes among
the co-sharers. But these quarrelling co-sharers were the eons
and daughters of one Colam All Chaudhuri and inherited his entire
estate. So the estate that the Court managed comprised all land
properties left by him, and in this respeot it has much similarity
with the wards' estates.
 177

FIGURE 23

DISTRIBUTION OF FORTY-ONE ESTATES BY

THE AMOUNT OF CURRENT DEMAND

MR
H8
Nu mW
<

H[1
F4-
of

H 3 H* D5 F l
D 1 H)(1 F3 B‘15 m M5
Lsta.te,s

M6 B i MT B IT BIS B18 Wr
F1 B Hl BIt B8 614- D3 Bfi
0 3 BT B 5 B Dl B l BG Bil BID B16 M- DG
r ip t § |S
■Sf
*&
&
so
$t
8
S
sill!
jf s s
CuTTercb De«ma*vA CEs.)

SOURCES & NOTESi See Table 13. Symbols used here refer to
serial numbers in Table 15.

♦The current demand in 1869 was Rs.17»838

 178
(CABLE 15
LIST OF FORTY-ONE ESTATES

SI. Current
Name of Estate Name of Proprietor®
No. Demand

Rs.
Bakargan;f Distript
B1 Nicholas Kallonas Nicholas Kallonas 3,589°
B2 Jagat Narain Ray 14,593^
Jagat Narain Ray
Prassana Kumar Datta Prassana Kumar Datta 205^
B3
Hari Charan Chakravarti Bari Ohayaw Chakravarti 4,340b
B4
B5 Bipin Blhari Das Bipin Bihari Das 1,991b
B6 Noakauri Lai Chakravarti Noakauri Lai Chakravarti 22,167k

B7 Basanta (Tarruck) Basanta (Tarruck)

Komar Chakravarti Kumar Chakravarti 568b
B8 Mohan Chandra Chakravarti Jogesh Chandra
Chakravarti 30,666b,e
B9 Eara Kumar Das Hara Komar Das 3,599
B10 Haturia4 1,19,311®
All Ahmad Chaudhrl
B11 Banina Fakhruddin Md.
Chaudhrl 90,203f
B12 Mrs. H. A. Lucas 1. A. Lucas 15,913
B13 Amrajuri & Deb Nath Dutt Deb Nath Dutt
Chaudhuri Chaudhuri 40,742
B14 Madhabpassa Hi yaiai Roy Chaudhuri 75,971
B15 Dasmina Md. Abdul Hamid
Talukdar 21,948
B16 Bhukailas I, II, III, IV Kumar Satya Badl
Ghoshal 3,08,043s
B17 Khalisakota n.a. 13,173
B18 Syedpore Lala Rajendra Kumar
Singh Chaudhury 68,942
B19 S. M. Tagore S. .M, Tagore 2,87,396
*
Fariduur District
F1 Chandra Kumar Sandyal Chandra Kumar Sandyal 546
F2 Pooma Chandra Rai Asvlnl Kumar Rai 20,180
13 Rukinl Kant Rai of Jopsha Chandra Ranii Rai 12,366
14 Ranakahay Kamakya Nath
Ghatterjee 20,307
(To be continued).
 179
TABLE 15-.-Gontln.ued

SI. Current
No. Name of Estate Name of Proprietor Demand
Rs.
»

Dacca District
D1 Moulvie Eradut All Shan Hamidan Nisa Ehatoon 3,631°
D2 Lallt Mohan Rai Shorasi Mohan Rai 8,289b
D3 Dhankoora Hem Chandra Rai 1,29,974
D4 Rani Silas Mani Debib 5,95,73s1
D5 Bakjuri Chandra Mohan Sen 12,433
D6 Dacca Navah's Family Nawab Khajeh Salimulla
Estate Bahadur 11,59,641^

Mfymensingh District
Ml Syam Sundari Chowdharani Syam Sundari
Chowdharani 30,895b
M2 J. R. Hollow and Brothers J. R. Hollow 5,0O9b
M3 Hara Govind La.g'hlraT* Hara Govind Lft.rihlrw.'r 2,208b
M4 Jagat Kiehore Aeharjya Jagat Kishore Acharjya 2,10,939
M3 £. S. Brodie Minor sons of K. S.
Brodie* 2,68,7441
M6 Annada lath Ghaudhari Armada Nath Chaudhari 827
m Bholanath Day Chakladar Krishna Nath Dey
Chakladar 6,247
M8 N. P. Pogose M. N. Pogose 35,924m
M9 Narayandahar Widows and minor sons
of Ram Joy Mojoomdar
and others 42,777
MX1 Durga Das Chaudhuri31 Durga Das Chaudhuri 8,233
MX2 Bindoo Baehini Goswamy11 Promatho Nath Goswamy 6,410
MX3 Sherepore11 Jnanendra Mohan
Chaudhuri 51,465

ADDENDUM I LIST OF ATTACHED ESTATES OUTSIDE

THE PURVIEW OF ANALYSIS
(To Be continued)
 180

TABLE 15—Continued

SI. Current
Rams of Estate Name of Proprietor Demand
Ro.

Rs.
Bakargan.1 Dlatriot
BA1 Rabadurga Debya Nabadurga Debya & 6 others 14,563°
BA2 Kasi Rath Baeu Kasi Rath Basu & 8 others 1,000°
BA3 Baikanta Chandra Baikanta Chandra Chatter;]ee
Chatterjee 5,198*
' ..8f 13 others
BA4 Konrul Chandra Basu Konrul Chandra Basu ft
others 365
BA5 Dakhin Shahbazpore The Gaspers, the Basaoks,
the Vises, the Hameys,
the Stephens, the Lucas',
the Aratoons 1,14,149
BA6 Annada Chandra Roy Annada Chandra Roy, Gopi
Krishna Sen 59,167
BA7 Lucas and Harney T. ft J. Lucas, Mrs. H.
Harney 7,393
BAS Eishori Mohan Rai Kishori Mohan Roy, Gopi
Mohan Roy, Baikant Rath
Roy 2,602
BA9 Ehantakhali Abdul Karim Ghowdhry ft
others 12,121
BA10 Govindapore About 80 shareholders 7,881
BA11 Memonia 120 shareholders 3,320°

Faridpur District
FA1 Rupapat & Benodpore Gauri Das Rai, Ramragini
Rai 43,088*
FA2 Krishna R*nn Rad. Krishna Ram Red. ft 44 others 800*
FA3 Katalipara More than 500 shareholders 15,389P

Dacca Diatriet
DAI Salipabad Khoda Rewaz Chaudhuri,
Raisuddin Chaudhri 17,875
Mymensingh Diqtric^
MA1 Hurkishore Joardar Gopi Kissen Joardar, Kali
Kissen Joardar 685

SOURCESs RWAEi RWAE-EBi Files of BOR-W.

(To be continued)„
 181

TABLE 15—-Continued

NOTES: The current demand usually shows annual variations (, the

reasons for which will he dealt with later on). X have adopted here
the figure of the year of assumption or Immediately after assump­
tion. Exceptional cases are separately noted below. When an estate
was assumed by stages, the year when the last portion was assumed
has been taken as the base year for calculation.

The first annual report was published in 1874-75* As regards

the estates taken charge of before thiB year, the figures as return­
ed in 1874-75 have been adopted. There is not much difference
between the currant demand of 1874-75 and that of the year of
assumption with one exception of the Nicholas Kallonas1 estate
whose current demand of the year of assumption (1869) stood at
Re.17,838 against Rs.3,689 of 1874-75.

The current demand mentioned here comprises idle current demand

of both rent and oesses. But as the cess'system did not come into
full operation till the late 1870s, the annual report before 1878-
79 does not mention the current demand of oesses. In such cases
only the current demand of rent is stated in the table.
aAs to the estates belonging to more than one proprietor, only
one name is mentioned.
^Exclusive of the current demand of cesses.

Estimated on the basis of the data given in BOR-W, File no.471

of 1878.
^This estate is an attached estate.

eThe Haturia estate was assumed twice, in 1893 and 1903. The
figure for 1904-05 has been taken.
f
Inclusive of minorf a grandfather1 s share with an annual current
demand of Rs.39,858. For the ground for this treatment, see BOR-W,
File no.211 of 1893*
gThe Bhukailas estates X,..I$, XIX, 17, were respectively assumed
in 1903, 1903, 1904 and 1909* Considering, however, that if we
take the year of the assumption of Bhukailas No.IY as the base
year, gross anomalies arise, the current demands of 1904, 1904,
1905 and 1910 for respective portions have been added up to get
the total current demand.
**Tbis person is wife of the late proprietor, Rajendra Narain
Roy Bahadur.
*The Bhawal estate was assumed twice, in 1904 and 1911-1912.
The figure of 1913 has been mentioned here. The annual report for
1910 returns the current demand at Rs.6,84,718. (RWAB-BB. 1910-
11, para.26-(3))*
*^As of reported in Bedding, Dacca Nawa^a Family Estate, p.3.

(To be continued)
 182
SABLE 15—Continued
^Sfllnor sons' names and ages were not procurable.

^Estimated by doubling the current demand returned in RWAE.

Revised figure. N. P. Pogose had seven children. When he

died, three of them were still minors. She Court assumed only
three minors' three-sevenths share. In view of the fact, however,
that the entire estate remained joint and undivided, the current
demand of the entire estate has been calculated and mentioned here.
(RWAE. 1878-79, paras.162-4).

aThese estates were not taken over by the Court.

°Exolusive of the share of a little more than one anna owned

by the Haturia estate. (gWAEflB 1912-13* para.27).

pThis estate was taken over in 1875* But the figure for 1879
has been taken, as the exact amount of the current demand could
not be ascertained owing to the non-submission of papers by most
of the proprietors before 1879* (RWAE. 1873-76, para.167).

distribution. (See also Table 15)* It is clear that our estates

cover a very wide range of sizes, extending from dwarfs with a

rental of only several hundred rupees to a giant with more than

a million rupees. As far at least as size is concerned, they do

not appear to be exceptional or aberranti but seem to be fairly

representative of the whole spectrum of the zamindari estates.

When we take the mean of the amount of current demand, we find

both the median and the mode fall in the class of Rs.20,000-

Rs.30,000. It might be worth while making further investigation

as to whether or not the estates of this size formed the core in

terms of number, if not in terms of rental, of the zamindari

system in eastern Bengal. And placing this class in the middle,

we may divide our estates into three groups: small estates (less

than Rs.10,000), middling estates (Rs.10,000 to Rs.100,000), and

large estates (over Rs.100,000). As Figure 23 shows, these groups

respectively comprise fifteen, eighteen and eight estates.

 183
TABLE 16
NUMBER Of ASSUMPTION Of ESTATES IH
THE DACCA DIVISION, 1871-1940

Tear Estates No. Tear Estates NO.

f '
1871 B3 19Q6 B15 B17 BA10BA11 4
72 B5 B6 B7 FA1 4 7 B18 D6 2
73 0 8 0
74 M2- 1 9 0
1875 f1 D1D2 M4 M5 EA3 6 1910 M 1
76 M M 2 11 D4* DA1*M M 4
77 B8 B14*M6 BA4 4 12 0
78 B7 F2 M7 MB MA1 5 13. 0
79 M9* 1 14 0
1880 0 1915 0
81 F3 1 16 0
82 D3* 1 17 0
83 0 18 M 1
84 0 19 0
1885 0 1920 M B 2
86 BA5 1 . 21 0
87 0 22 F B • 2
88 DA1* 1 23 0
89 0 24 D3* B 2
1890 F4 1 1925 D M B 3
91 0 26 M B 2
92 0 27 M M 2
93 B10*B11 2 28 B14*D3* 2
94 BA6 BA7 BAS 3 29 0
1895 0 1930 D D F 3
96 0 31 D D M B 4
97 0 32 0
98 0 33 D 1
99 B12 B13 2 34 M 1
1900 0 1935 0
1 0 36 0
2 0 37 M M M M B B 6
3 B10*B14*B16 B19 4 38 M9* M9* M M M 5
4 D4* 1 39 M M B B B 5
1905 D5 BA9 2 1940 D D M B . 4

(To be continued)
 184

TABLE 16-—Continued

SOURCES RWAE. 1874-75 to 1940-41* RVAE-EB. 1905-06 to 1910-11.

NOTES: 1. Symbols used here refers to serial numbers in Table

15.
2. B, D, F, and M stand for estates situated in the districts
of Bakarganj, Dacca, Faridpur and Mymensingh respectively.
3. Astrisked estates are those that were assumed more than
once.
4. Of the estates listed in Table 15, nine estates assumed
before 1871-72 are not mentioned here. They are 51 (taken over in
1869), 52(1863), 54(1868), M1(1868), M3(1870), BA1(1848), 5A2(1845),
5A3(1847) and FA2(1831).

In the next place, let us briefly review ahnual variations

in the number of estates assumed by the Court. Table 16 clearly

shows that there were four peaks in the number of assumption, i.o.

1874 to 1879, 1903 to 1907, 1924 to 1931, and 1937 to 1940. But

we are almost Ignorant of the causes that effected this pattern

of variations except that the sudden decrease after 1879 was

brought about by the new Court of Wards Act. Other probable

causes are the upsurge of peasant movements in the 1870s, the

Swadeshi movement, and the World Crisis of 1929. But in point of

fact these assumptions are yet to be established by further

studies. For the time being it suffices to know that our present

study covers the period up to the second peak.

 XI

A CASE STUDY OF THE KANAKSHAR ESTATE

OF FARIDFOR

1. Introductory

This chapter aims at conducting case study of an estate

" * »

as preliminaries to the general discussion in the subsequent

chapters. By this exploratory inquiry we shall try to show

• jtL .
location of/basic problems to be studied.

The estate into which we are going to make close scrutiny

is the Xanakshar estate^ of Faridpur in the possession of the

Chatterjees.. Vith the annual rental of Es.20,307 it may be counted

among the medium-sized estates. And, as will be shown later, it a

main portion consisted of various intermediate tenures. The

revenue authorities referred to it as an 'estate', just because

• \ ,

fractional shares in some independent talukdaria were comprised

in it.. The Chatterjees were, therefore, more intermediate tenure-

holders than zamindars or independent talukdars. .This estate was

located in the Palong thana of the Madaripur subdivision in

southern Faridpur. (see Map on p.206). In terms of pargana it was

^This estate was also called 'Xaneswar.'

185
 186

included in the Idilpur pargana. Idilpur was owned sixteen annao

by Kali Krishna Tagore of Calcutta1 2and
3 sprawled over a vast tract

of country from the Palong thana to the northern fringe of

Bakarganj. Moreover, it formed a part of the famous Bikrampur

tract and was naturally densely populated by Brahmans, Baidyas

2
and Kayasthas, among whom the Chatter;} ees, being kulin Brahmans s

held the highest social rank. Another special feature of the

Kanakshar estate is that it was under the Court of Wards management

from 1891 to 1906.? An analysis of the economic condition of this

estate win enable us to form some idea of the economic circum­

stances in which the bhadralok tenure-holders with modest resources

found themselves just before the commencement of the Swadeshi

movement in Bengal. Besides, considering that a few excellent

examples of case study published till now has dealt only with
gigantic landlords,^ it is hoped that this study may be regarded

as a new contribution to the literature of this field.

1Kali Krishna Tagore was a member of the senior branch of

the Tagores, being a great-grandson of Darpa Narayan. He belonged
to the same generation, idle fifth from Joyram, as Jotendra Mohun,
Sourindra Mohun and Debendranath. (Blair B.' Kling, Partner in
Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Ace of Enterprise in Eastern
India (Berkeley. 1976). p.14j.
2
See, for example, Paridpur 3SB. para.50.
3
‘'To be exact, the Court took charge of the estate on 3 Pob.
1891 and released it on 1 Sept. 1906.
^Nilmani Mukherjee, A Bengal Zam-indnr; Javkr.i ahnR Miikher.lee
of Uttarnara and His limeS'Hof Cantoo Baboo- 2 vols. (Calcutta.,
1978-81); S. Taniguchi,*The\Permanent Settlement and the Break-up
of the Zamindari of Dina;) purl’ Calcutta Historical Journal, iil-t
(1978). J
^ 1808-1888 fCalcutta. 1975): Somendra Chandra Kafadr. Id-fa and
 187

2. fVrl/rin nnri Growth of the Estate

She Kanakshar estate did not date back to olden times.

In fact* it was rather a new estate. It was Jagabandhu Chatter;]ee*

wards1 grandfather* who laid its foundation. She Settlement

Report of Kanakshar summed up its history as follows:

She Kanakshar Estate was the property of the late Babu Shyama
Charan Chatter;)ee of Kanakshar* a Tillage lying within the
estate; most of it was acquired by his father the late Babu
Jagabandhu Chatter;) i, a few petty tenures and shares of small
Estates haring been purchased by Babu Shyama Charan Chatterji
himself. He died in 1890* leering a widow* 3 sons, and 6
daughters.1

It is not known how old Shyama Charan was when he died. But,

taking that he managed the estate for a period of one generation

(thirty years), it may be assumed that the decades of his father

Jagabandhu* s activities stretched by and large from the 1830s to

the 1850s, and that the estate took shape during this period.

Then, how did he purchase lands? In this respect we just have a

feeble clue In a Bengali book on district history* which says:

•Jagabandhu Chattopadyay, resident of this place /TCanaksharJ,,

amassed lots of money by working as hudabhulurar. It is not

known what sort of occupation hudabhulurar exactly was. Howeror,

it would not- be beside the mark to suppose that it ms a petty

official of some Government office related with revenue business,

since in the Shahazadpur pargana of BB.iraTga.nj in the vicinity of

^ Settlt. Officer, Kanakshar to Cllr. Faridpur, 16 Feb.

1903* para.3 (hereafter Kanakshar 3SR 1905). Dacca Commissioner's
Office (hereafter DCO), land Revenue Deptt.* File No.33 of 1902-03
(Bangladesh National Archives (hereafter SNA), Revenue Bundle
No.29, File No.395).
^Ananda Nath Ray, Faridnurer Itihaah. vol.2 (Japsha /"Parid-
purJ7» 1328 B.S.), p.105.
 188
the Ka.i’ift.kflhft'p estate the term 'budgi' used to winan a 'kgnuggo.1 ^2 3

Jagabandhu must have speculated in lands with the money he raked

up through underhand dealings in the capacity of a hudahhuluvar.

Meanwhile, certain circumstances peculiar to the Idilpur

pargana appear to have favored the growth of the Kanakshar estate

during the time of Jagabandhu. It is a widely accepted theory

that the Permanent Settlement had much milder impact on the

structure of landlordism, especially on the zamindars, in eastern

Bengal than in western Bengal where a lot of big zamindars succumbed

2
to the heavy damands of land revenue. Tapan Raychaudhuri has

remarked: 'In Bakarganj District, ... , the evidence of family

tradition /"of his own_7 as well as the Government records

suggests continuity rather than discontinuity so far as "superior

rights" in land are concerned'. But as far at least as the

Idilpur pargana was concerned, the circumstances were quite

different. At the time of the Permanent Settlement this pargana

was owned by the Chaudhuries of Kayastha caste, but as they

repeatedly failed to pay land revenue, it was put up for sale in

1812. The purchaser was Mohini Mohun Tagore of Calcutta, youngest

son of Darpa Narayan. A serious dispute between Mohini Mohun and

^Haricharan Bandyopadhyaya (comp.), Bangjya Shabdakosh,

2 vols., 2nd ed. (New Delhi, 1978), vol.2, p.2374.'Huda* also
means 'a division of a Tahshil' (Shashishekhar Ghosh. Jamidari
Parnan. 6th ed. (Calcutta, 1923),- Parishishta, p.21) or
'statement of estates to be sold lay auction1 (H. H. Wilson,
A Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms, etc., of British India
(London,1855» reprint ed,, Delhi, 1968), p.211).
2
Sirajul Islam, The Permanent Settlement 1t» Bengal, g k
Study of its Operation. 1790-1819 (Dacca. 1979). u7i90: Tapan
Rayohaudhuri, 1Permanent.Settlement,1 p.166.
3Ibid.
 189
the Chaudhuriee followed, which culminated in an open violent
clash in 1815.^ Thus the proprietorship of the Idilpur pargana

changed in a dramatic and violent way from the locally-based

Chaudhuries, Eayastha by caste,- to the absentee Tagores, Brahman.

This must have given a considereable jolt to the economic as well

as the power structure of the pargana. It is quite likely that

this sort of structural changes and 'discontinuity* worked

favorably for the rise of Jagabandhu.

Jagabandhu bought many a landed interest, the largest and

most important of which was an extensive taluk in Idilpur

covering an area of 3,376 acres with a mofuaall rent roll of

2
Rs.11,289. It is a pity, however, that nothing is known about

his land speculation. As regards his son Shyama Charan's

purchase, rather deatiled accounts are available.

Shyama Charan bought a number of landed interests, though

the Kanakshar Settlement Report quoted above wrote that only a

few petty tenures, etc., were added by him to his father's

property. So far as could be ascertained, he purchased at least

twenty-one lots of land, the rental of which roughly amounted to

Rs.4,200, the total area being about 1,200 acres (3»600 bighas).

This means that in terms of rental around one-fourth of the -

*H. Beveridge, The District of Bakargan.1: Its History end

Statistics (Iiondon, 1876) pp. 125-30; Rav. Pariduurer Itihash.
pp. 12-17; Rohini Kumar Sen, Bak-ia. fBakharganlar Pratnatattva o
Adhwiiic Itihaah) (Barishal, 19157 pp.289-92; Loke Nath Chose,
The ModBm History of the Indian Chiefs. Ra.1as. Zaminflars. &c.„
Part Hi Ihe Native Aristocracy and aentrv iCalcutta. 1880)
pp.213-14.
^Cenl. Manager, Kanakshar to Ollr. Par., 30 May 1893,
para.4, BOR-W Pile-No.225 of 1893.
 190
TABLE 17

LARD PURCHASE BX JAGABANEfflJ AHD SHXAMA CHARAR

OP TIE TTARATTfliTAP ESTATE

Aj£gj| Rental
Bighas Rs. 5*

% Jagabandhu i2,764 78 14,155 77

By Shyama Charan 3,603 22 4,178 •23

TOTAL 16,367 100 18,333 100

SOURCES: 'Appendix III: A Statement Showing the Class of

Tenants, their Number, and Areas Held, and the Rent Paid by
them, of Certain Estates and Tenures of the Kanakshar Estate,'
appended to Tfan»>gYm-n SSR 1903 (hereafter 'Appendix III'};
Seal. Manager, Kanakshar to Cllr. Par., 30 May 1893, para.4,
BOR-1 Pile No.225 of 1893.

Kanakshar estate was acquired by Shyama Charan. (Table 17).

• •

The landed interests' bought by him were mostly the so-called

intermediate tenures such as taluk, osat taluk, oatni. haola.

entakali hania. and dar l.lara. The larger ones among them were

a taluk (rental, Rs.1,643! area, 1,140 bighas), an osat taluk

(Rs.683, 469 bighas), another osat taluk (Rs.269, 469 bighas),

a oatni (Rs.566, 891 bighas), a second oatni (Rs.198, 229 bighas),

a third oatni (Rs.192, 262 bighas), and so forth. The names of

those from whom he acquired lands were Kali Prasanna and Jagabandhu

Roy, Dwarkanath Rai, Shyama Sundari Chaudhurani, K. K. Bhattacharya,

&c. Only one Muslim name, Ali Khan, who sold a haola. was found
among them. ^

^ 'Village Rotes' appended to Tfa-nnirghn-n SSR 1903.

 191
It was characteristic of Shyama Charan's land purchase
that he did not appear to speculate in raiyati holdings, although
they were already actively traded among the raiyats.^ Since, as
will he shown later, he combined money-lending business with
estate management, he could have amassed a great number of raiyati
holdings by lending raiyats money on mortgage of their holdings.
But he did not do so. Far from it, he tried to ban trasfer of
2
raiyati holdings in his estate. In fact, even a single raiyati
holding did not occur in the long list of landed interests held
by the Eanakshar estate. Shis shows that he made a sharp
distinction between buying and selling of intermediate tenures
and of raiyati holdings, and that he took a diametrically opposito
attitude towards the two. And it is interesting to note that his
policy <makes a sharp contrast with that of the intermediate
tenure-holders in the early twentieth century and thereafter who
J. C. Jack pointed out began to buy raiyati holdings in order to
convert the raiyats upon them into bargadars.^ In the 1870s and
1880s the intermediate tenure-holders' class interests seem to
have still lain in preserving the status quo.

In minutely examining the cases of Shyama Charan's land

^As to the peasants' land market, see ch.5. See also I.

B. Chaudhuri, 1Depeasantization.'
2,The transfer of fraiyati_7 holdings are very limited as
the raiyats under contract and local custom are forbidden to do
this.' (Settlet. Officer.Eanakshar to Cllr. Faridpur,No.443»
17/29 Nov. 1897, para.27 thereafter lknak«>i«*» SSR 1897 7 in DCO,
Land Revenue Deptt., File nos.8 of 1898-99 and 7 of 1899-1900,
(BETA, Revenue Bundle No.7, File No.44)).
3See Sable 18.
^Faridpur SSR. paras.75, 181; Bakaraan.1 SSR. paras.180,
332.
 192

purchase, the interesting fact is that he had two distinctive

ways of speculating in lands: horizontal and vertical, fhe

horizontal way refers to a most ordinary method, that is, to buy

lands outside the area which a landlord already possessed in

order to expand the area under his control in actual terms.

*

Most of Shyama Charan's land purchases consisted of this type.

However, he sometimes bought intermediate tenures appertaining

to those he had already owned so that he could tighten his grip

on them, which we would call a vertical way of land speculation,

fake his land purchase in Altakuri /"village unit adopted

for survey and administration.,/ for instance, fhe village note

fhere are 8 estates under Settlement in this village:—

(1) Taluq Dharmanarayan Rai No.3934: in this Estate tho

Minors have got a Pattani right of 1/4 gds. and 1 kt.
obtained by their father late Shyama Ch. Chatterji from
Dwarka Nath Roy;

(2) Kharija Jagir Neeserat(?) Eoti....(?) Hissya Kirtl

Narayan Roy No .5020: in ’this estate the Minors have got
a proprietary right of 13 1/4 gds. and 1 krt;

(3) In the same Estate the Minors have got a Pattani right
of 3 ans. 121 gds. obtained by their father late Shyama
Ch. Chatterji from Kali Prasanna and Jagabandhu Roy;

(4) . In the same Estate the Minors have got a Pattani right
of one anna 61 gds. and 2 krt. obtained by their father
late Shyama Ch. Chatterji from Shyama Sundari
Ghaudhurani;

(5) faluq ... No.5236 ... proprietary right of 1 anna 61

gds. and 2 krt.

(6) In the same Estate the Minors have got a Pattani right
of 9 ans. obtained by their father late Shyama Ch.
Chatterj i from Kali Prasanna and Jagabandhu Roy;

(7) In 1die same Estate the Minors have got a Pattani right
of 1 anna 1 1/4 gds. 1 krt. obtained by their father
late Shyama Ch. Chatterji from Shyama Sundari Chaudhurani;

(8) faluq. No.5020: under this Estate of the land

Utsarga Ramkrishna Maroir(?), the Minors have got a
 193
rent-free right of the whole property.1 2

From this Tillage note we know that Shyama Charan bought catnip

and rent-free rights subordinate to the taluks no.5020 and no.5236

which his father Jagabandhu had purchased. Figure 24 shows the

tenurial structure in Taluk No.5020 so far as related with the

Eanakshar estate. Of the tenures shown in this figure patnis

and a rent-free tenure were added by Shyama Charan to the original

interests purchased by his father Jagabandhu.

What is most noteworthy in the figure is that the two

portions enclosed with a dotted line are exactly identical. This

does not seem to be a mere coincidence. Rather, it suggests that

the tenure-holders, rent-free holders and raiyats who appeared

twice in the figure under Taluk No .3020 and 2 Patnis respectively

were actually the same and one group of persons. In Jagabandhu.'s

time the Eanakshar estate collected only £s.21 from this group

in the capacity of a proprietor of a fractional share of the

Taluk No.5020, but Shyama Charan succeeded in putting in claims

2
for another Rs.198 by purchasing 2 Patnis subordinate to it.

This was also the case in the Taluk No .5236 as is shown in

Figure 25. Besides, the vertical method was sometimes resorted

to even where no immediate gain was likely to be had. Taluk

No.5550 makes a good example of this (see Figure 26). Shyama

1 'Village Note No.2(Altakuri)», in Kanakahay ssr lorn.

2
This points to the possibility that the process of
subinfeudation went on on the base of coherent small social groups
consisting of cultivating raiyats and lower-grade tenure-holders.
To put it in another way, there is a probability that subinfeudation
was to a certain extent regulated by the social structure in the
village where the actual production process took place.
 194

FIGURE 24

TENTTRIAL STRUCTURE IN TAIUK NO.5020

OF SHE EANMSHAR ESTATE
Ealuk No . 5020 . ||
l===i===^^=M
li- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1- - - - —
11 tenure- 29 rent-free N1.1 fln.kh«»
flftkhay 1 1lalkar
. holders lands (“I i b.) I.2 oar;
(Rs.2; 2 b.) (Re.Os 1/10 b.)
1 b.)

.14 raiyats 40 raiyats 37 raiyats 2 homestead

(?; 1 b.) (?; (Rs.19* lands
4 b.) 18 b.) (Re.£:
___________________\l3- ]?•_)_.

2 Fatnis
(Rb.190; 230 b.)

f---- ~1
11 tenure- 29 rent-free N13 akVha* alkar
holders
(Rs.12:
lands
(Re.Os
FT 4 b.)
f2 as:
1 b.)
15 b.) 8 b.)

14 raiyats 40 raiyats 37 raiyats 2 homestead

(?; 11 b.) (?; (Rs.182: lands
35 b.) 154 b.) (Rs.4i
_______________ __________ 2 bj___

SOURCE: Appendix III to Kanakahar SSR 1QQ^.

(To be continued)
 195
»

FIGURE 24—Continued

NOTES; 1, Tenures enclosed with a black straight line are those

belonging to the Kanakshar estate. Bracketed figures are the annual
rental collected and the area possessed by the estate.
2. Other bracketed figures show the rental paid and the area
directly occupied by each class of tenants.
5..,Jalkar is a fishery. Ni.i DaMtgr means the land in the direct
possession of a landlord. Utsarga refers to a rent-free grant.

FIGURE 25

TEKURIA1 STRUCTURE IE TALUK NO.5256

OF THE KMAKSMR ESTATE

SOURCE & NOTES: Same as Figure 24*

 196
FIGURE 26
TENURIAL STRUCTURE IE TALUK NO.5550
QF THE KANAKBHAR ESTATE
Taluk Ho.5550 l

(Rs.145.94 b.)
p------ -——| - -—— ——
i1 tenure-holder Patni
• (Re.1,12b.) (Rs.145; 94 b.

39 ryots
(Rs.13
£
tenor holder
(Re.1; 12 b.)
r

L 76 b
39 ryots i
(Rs.139j;
____ 76 _b.) J
SOURCE & NOTES: See Figure 24* Homesteads and a jaikar are
omitted.

GhaTan bought a Patni under this Taluk, though neither the rental
nor the area could be increased by the purchase. The most
probable reason for this apparently absurd behaviour would havs
been the need for efficient management of the Taluk, for instance,
to drive back another landlord's attempt to interfere in it. The
vertical way of land speculation was thus a countermeasure taken
by the landlords to the excessive subinfeudation peculiar to the
iand system of Bengal. It seems that the landlords of our time

tried to form a well-knit network of various landed interests by

scrupulously combining the horizontal method with the vertical
one as shown above.

The Kanakshar estate kept on growing up even after the

death of its 'founder Jagabandhu under the stewardship of Shyama
Charan, though the pace of agglomeration was considerably
slackened. But it is not very clear what kind of life Shyama
 197
Charan led* His will said that It had been drawn up 'in order

that there may be, after my demise, no dispute among my successors

* \

and the . persons brought up by me about what movable and immovable

properties and te.larati /”money-lending 7 and mahaJanl-karbars

£trade, businessJ7 I have and may have In future, whether

ancestral or in my name or benami. ...,1 So he was not only a

landlord but a money-lender as well. And Faridnurer Itihaah put

it*

Els £“Jagabandhu' bJ son Shyamaoharan Chattopadhyay was a nan

of Innocent nature. & performed his mother's sraddha
ceremony and held a Mahabharata's reoltatlon with great pomp
with Idle income from some nattania which his father had
obtained In the Idllpur pargana.*

Bitting these scanty references together, we get at a rough idea

about Shyama Charan* s life and occupation. He was no longer a

tough man like his father, who fought against his neighbouring

landlord, but led a pious life as a good Hindu. Instead of

engaging in a chakrl. or service of another man, he lived on

incomes from land property and money-lending business. And ho

was not so extravagant in life style aB to spend away all the

earnings, but prudent enough to invest a portion of surplus money

in lands to expand his father's property. It may safely be said

that the Chatterjoes grew into a typical small landlord-cum-money-

lender under the management of Shyama Charan. Moreover, it is

interesting to note that Shyama Charan's eldest son, Eamakya Hath,

entered Presidency College of Calcutta in 1901-02 and was educated

*'Shyama Charan Chatterjee's’ Will, dated 29 Jaiet 1297

B.S.,1 appended to Cllr. Far. to Cmmr. Dac., No.259/VIII-1, 5 May
1891, BOR-W File Ho.21 of 1891.

‘'Ray, Faridnurer Itihaah. vol.2, p.105.

3Ibid.
 198
4
up to B.A. standard during the Court of Wards' management. The
Chatter;) ees thus, grew into a bhadralok family perfect in every

respect of bhadralok! in three generations, making their way from

an unscrupulous hudabhuluvan in the remote countryside.

3. Irf*nd Property

The landed interests of the Eanakshar estate, which had

been apassed during the two generations, consisted of seventy-

three lots spreading over 16,376 bighas with an annual rental of

2
Rs.18,433* In this section their composition will be minutely

examined. In the first place, idle tenurlal makeup is shown in

Sable 18. She Eanakshar estate comprised as many as fifteen kinds

of tenures, and out of 73 tenures and estates three-fourths were

taluks, patnis. haolas or their derivatives, which reflected the

characteristics of the land system of riverine eastern Bengal.

/As
'will be discussed in chapter 13, this sort of diversity in

composition of landed interests was a common feature in the

estates of the Dacca division.

Secondly, the size distribution of these landed interests

is shown in fable 19. It is remarkable that most of them ware of

1RWAB. 1901-02, para.21; 1903-04, para.21j Cllr. Far. to

Cmmr. Dac., No.53W, 8 Feb. 1907 (hereafter Final Rftpnn-fcl. para. 14,
in DCO, Miscellaneous Revenue Deptt., File No.8 of 1906-07 (BNA„
Unclassified Court of Wards File;. However, his name does not
occur in the register of Presidency College. See, S. 0, Majumdar
and G-. N. Dhar, comps., Presidency College Register (Calcutta, 1927).
^'Appendix III to Eftriakaba-r SSR 19031: Genl. Manager,
Eanakshar to Cllr. Far., 30th May 1893, BOR-W File No.225 of 1893-
Other reoords give slightly different figures.
 199

TABLE 18

MAKEUP OP THE gANAgSHAR ESTATE i (1)

TENURIAIi COMPOSITION

Name of Tenure lumber

Estates
Kharija Taluka 22

Intermediate - Tenures
Taluk 1
Osat Taluk ' 3

Patni 14
Bar Patni 1
Haola . 8
Kaimi^ Haola . 5
Entakalai0 Kalmi Haola ' 1

Mirash. 1
Bar Mirash Ijarah 1
Bar Ijarah ‘ 3
Jagir 1
Musakkushi 1
rarinit imarxa t
Rent-free Tenures •
Utsarga* 4

TOTAL 73

SOURCEi 'Appendix III to gsMmkaVmT» SSR 1903*8 G-enl. Manager,

Kanakshar to Clir. Par.,30 May 1893, BQR-WPile No.225 of 1893.

NOTES: a. Independent taluk.

b. Kaimi means 'permanent' or 'independent*. In Bakarganj
and Paridpur it connoted permanence of rent as opposed to
ghirasthavd which referred to the duration of the tenancy.
(Government of Bengal, guide and Glossary to Survey and Settlement
Records in Bengal, 1917 /Calcutta. 1918 /. n.32J.
c. . Wilson's glossary defined this term as 'a transfer of
zamindari or other revenue property from one person to another:
the property bo transferred.' (p.219), while Bengali-English
Dictionary says it means 'conveyance from life to death.'
d. Subordinate tenures for whioh the holders engaged to pay
a fixed rent annually upon the whole lot (Wilson's glossary.
PP.357-58). t .
(To be continued).
 200

tatvivb 18—Continued

e. Portion purchased tenure.

f. Dedication.

TABLE 19
MAKEUP OF THE WAWATrawAtt ESTATE: (2)
DISTRIBUTION OF LAUDED INTERESTS BY SIZE

No. of Area in
Size-class landed bighas
interests ft ft
1,000 bighas
and upwards 2 2.8 11,268 69.0
1,000-500 2 2.8 1,728 10.6
500-200 4 5.6 1,338 8.2
200-100 7 9.7 876 5.4
100-50 4 5.6 322 2.0
50-20 17 23.6 571 3.5
20-10 11 15.3 157 1.0
10-0 25 34.7 70 0.4

TOTAL 72 100.1 16,330 100.1

SOURCE: Same as Table 18.

NOTES: 1. Fractions omitted.

2. Two tenures, i.e. a uatni and a dar-uatni. are counted
as one and the same tenure, considering that they actually
covered exactly identical lands and differed only in name.
The total number of landed interests therefore comes to 72 in
this table.

a very small size. Those measuring less than 10 bighas, which

were not even sufficient to support a single raiyat family,

accounted for over one-third, while larger tenures befitting a

landlord were very few. But nearly the whole of the area was
 201
covered by these few large tenures, landed interests below 50

blghas which, amounted to 73.6 per cent of the total number embraced

only 4*9 per cent of the total area. A similar tendency is

observable in the rental distribution as well, which is shown in

Sable 20.

It is true that the landed interests comprised in the

Kanakshar estate were numerous and multifarious in tenurial

composition, but, at the same time, it should not be overlooked

that there were a number of extensive landed interests which, as

it were, formed the core of the estate. She largest eight are

listed in Sable 21• It was these tenures, especially the

lucrative as well as extensive natni-dar-natni complex appertaining

to Estate No.3872, that constituted the nuclei of the estate.

Now, Estate No.3872, in fact,, was the tauli register number for

the Idilpur pargana owned by Kali Krishna Sagore. As is evident

from Sable 21, the Kanakshar estate was very closely connected

with it. Figure 27 shows the -relationship between the two. She

Chatterjees virtually were patnidars of Kali Krishna Sagore.

The next problem to be taken up is the geographical

distribution of the above seventy-three estates and tenures.

They were scattered over at least 70 villages. In Chhatiani mauza.

for instance, there were three estates belonging to the Kanakshar

estate, but their total area amounted only to 31*286 acres.1 Of •

1 * Village Note No, 22 (Chhatiani).1 Census of 1974 puts the

area of this village at 361 acres. (Government of People's
Republic of Bangladesh, Population Penan h nf Bang!adesh 1974.
District Census Report: Fariduur (hereafter. Bangladesh Census 1974.
Faridnur) (Dacca. 1979) P.59J.
 202
TABLE 20
MAKEUP OP TEE KANAKSHAR ESTATE: (3) DISTRIBUTION
OF LANDED INTERESTS BY RENTAL

Glass No. of landed Rental

interests *• * (Ha.) .
t

Rs.1,000 and
upwards 2 . 2.8 . 12,934 70.7
1,000-500 „ 4‘ 5.6 2,656 14.5
500-200 2 2.8 476 2.6
200-100 7 9.7 1,147 6.3
100-50 5 6.9 322 1.8
50-20 15 20.8 506 * 2.8
20-10 . 11 15.3 171 0.9
10-0 26 36.1 91 0.5

TOTAL 72 100.0 18,303 100.1

SODRGE: See Table 18.

NOTE: See Table 19.

FIGURE 27
RELATIONSHIP OF TEE KANAKSHAR ESTATE
WITH ESTATE NO.3872
Estate No.3872
Land Revenue: Re.65,908

1 •(Patni 2. Taluk
(Rs.1,645)
[Dar Patni
(Rs.11,289)

6. Kalmi Howla Osat Taluk

(Rs.526) (Rs.881)
NOTE: The number preceding the names of tenures refers .to
the serial number in Table 21. Bracketed figures show rental.
 203

table 21
LARGEST t.&wttot) INTERESTS H THE TTflN&TTRHflT? ESTATE

Particulars of Landed No. of Area Sagas Jama

Rental
Interests tenants

bighas Rs. Rs.

1. Patni Taluk Jasabandhu 'l
Chatterji in Estate
10.3872
* 604 10,128 11,289 2,012
Bor Patni Taluk Jaga-
bandhu Chatterji in
Estate No.3872 %
2. Taluk Shyama Charan
Chatterji in Estate
10.3872 - 111 1,140 1,645 1,119
3. No.5372 Taluk Ram
Eishore Barori 107 837 881 ?
4- Oaat Tnl.uk appertnining
to Estate Ho.3872,
Hisva / share,/ 8 as. 29 469 683 ?
5. Patni Shvama Charan
• Chatterji in Estate
10.3197 of the Backer-
gunge Collectorate but
situated in the
district of Faridpur 72 891 566 488
6- Kaimi Howla Jaaabandhu
Chatterji 107 378 526 100
7. Osat Taluk appertaining
to Estate lo.5358,
Hisva 16 as. 33 132 269 7
8. 10.5048 Taluk Radhanath
Cuba 17 69 207 ?

TOTAL 1,080 14,044 16,066

SOURCE: See Table 18.

course the area changed village by village, but, at any rate,

this estate occupied only a portion of each village. Table 22

shows geographical distribution as far as can be ascertained.

 204
TABLE 22
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE KAEAKSHAR ESTATE

Ho. of Mauzas
Adaiatratlve Unit of^MmulaB in which. Kana-
kshar had landed
Interests

District Faridpur

Madarlnur Subdivision
Goshairhat Thana
Ealmunl Tlnifyn 7 1
Idilpur U. 25 1
Goshairhat U. 15 3
Gariber Char U. . . 3 0
Kodalpur U. 2 0
Samantashwar U. 7 3
Eager Para U. 21 4

THAEA TOTAL 80 12
Damudya Thana
Darul Aman (2) Union 7 0
Eaneswar U. 22 16
Dhanukati U. 11 1
SIdhalkura U« 5 3
Damudya U. 18 1
. .
THAHA TOTAL 63 21
Bhedarganj Thana
* Chhyagaon Union 15 7 '
Mohishar U. 9 • 5
Earayanpur U. 5 1
Eight other Unions 53 • 0

THAEA TOTAL 82 13

(To be continued)-.
 205
TABES 22—fiaaSIfflSi

No. of Mauzas
Admistrative Unit Total No. in which Kana­
of Mauzas kshar had landed
interests

Palong Thana
Angaria Union .10 1
fiudrakar U. 10 3
Palong U. 20 3
Chandrapur U. 9 1
Six other Unions 55 0

THANA TOTAL' 104 8

Naria Thana 158 1

District ’Ba.lwMfga.Ti j

Mehendiganj Thana 111 9

SOURCE: Kanakshar SSR. .1-83.7...&.J.9Q2; Bangladesh Census 1974.

Fariduur.

NOTE: Administrative division adopted here is as of 1974.

The villages belonging to the Kanakshar estate were mostly situated

in either of the five unions: Samantashwar, Kaneswar, Sidhalkura,

Chhyagaon and Mohishar, most important of which was Kaneswar.

And these Unions were again looated in a southern half of the

gman tract which was only 55 km from north to south and 20 km

from east to west and surrounded by rivers, big and small, such

as the Palong, the Meghna, the Kailara, the Naya Bhangni, the Arial

Hun, and so forth. It is noteworthy that the Kanakshar estate

never went over this natural boundary of rivers except towards the
 206
MAP: LOCATION OF THE KANAKSHAR ESTATE
NOTE: Village names underlined red and those belonging to Kanakshar.
x.

MHmki
s./
P/X~r Rf C T
DACCA
northern, edge of the’ Bakarganj district to which a portion of the

Idilpur pargana also extended. So from the geographical point of

view, the estate was coherent rather than scattered, though it

extended over more than 70 villagers *. And again, the Kanakshar

mauza. in which the Chatterjees resided and after which their

estate was named, might he called the center of gravity of. the

estate, for they held as many as 19 landed interests there to

take a firm grip on it* (Table 23).

TABLE 23

THE CHATTERJEBS' LANDED INTERESTS IN MAUZA KANAKSHAR

Kharija Taluk 3
Patni .1
Ka.iroi Haola 7
Nim Haola 1
Portion purchased tenure 4
Gift (Rent-free) 3

‘ TOTAL 19

SOURCES: 'Village Note No.7 (Kanakshar)'; Annexure

C to Cllr. Ear. to Cmmr. Dae., No.259/VIII-1 G, 5 fey
1891, in BOR-W File No.21 of 1891.

NOTE: The sources from which the above figures have

been taken are different from those used for preparing
Table 18.

At first sight the Kanakshar estate may look like a confused

mixture of various landed interests, but when minutely examined

from the point of view of size distribution, etc,, it turns up

i

as a rather coherent and well-organized land property with solid

nuclei commanding strategic peaks. It need hardly be said that

an owner of this kind of land property cannot be an absentee

 208
landlord at the mercy-of the upper strata of raiyats as sometimes

alleged in a rough-and-ready way.

lastly, it should not he taken lightly that the Chatterjoes

were in possession of various kinds of useful land in addition to

arable land, She first survey and settlement undertaken by the

Court of Wards revealed that they owned a hat /"weekly market J in

mauza Chhatian and fairly large khas land (156 bighas in area)

producing a large amount of son Pthatching grass_7, and that,

interestingly enough, they granted one service-tenure measuring

0.29 acre to a barber,^ And according to the second survey and

settlement which covered an area of 2,064 bighas left out in the

first survey, this portion of the Kanakshar estate comprised 25

.lalkars /”fisheries^, 94 raiyati homesteads and 35 ni.i-.iots.*
2

Is will be fully discussed in chapter 15* the existence of these

various landed interests points to the important fact that

landlord-raiyat economic relationship under the zamlndari system

did not end in mere collection and payment of rent but extended

over wider spheres of economic and social life; and that the

landlord*s power basis, even if partially, lay in his control of

these places essential for daily activities of the raiyats.

4. Establishment. Raivat and Rent

The whole of the Kanakshar estate was placed under the

^Kanakshar SSR 1897. paras.8, 9, 31.

2Appendix III to Kanakshar SSR 1905.

 TABLE 24

ESTABLISHMENT OP THE KANAESKAR ESTATE IN 1891

Number Annual
salary
Rs*
Manager at Rs.50/- a month 1 600
Head tehsildar who will take accounts from
circle tehsildars and also collect rent
occasionally, at Rs.15/~ a month 1 180
Vernacular Mohurrir at Rs.10/- a month 1 120
English knowing clerk at Rs.15/- a month 1 180
Peon at Ts.5/- a month 1 60
Circle tehsildars at Rs.15/- a month 2 360
Peons under the tehsildarb at Ts.5/~ each
per month 240
Peons at Rs.4 each a month to remain at the
subdivisional Headquarters to carry letters
to the Manager and also to work under
tehsildars occasionally for collection
purposes 96

TOTAL 13 1,836

SOURCE: Cllr. Par. to Cmmr. Dac., No.259/VIII-1 G, 5 May

1891, BOR-W Pile No.21 of 1891.

khaB manamement, that is to say, the entire rent business was

handled by the Chatterjees themselves. Unfortunately, there are

no records showing the details of the establishment in the time

of Jagabandhu or Shyama Charan. Instead, we have reproduced in

Table 24 the list of the staff employed by the Court of Wards

when it began to run the estate in 1891The number of the staff

required to collect the rent amounting roundly to Rs.20,000 was

^ Some illustrative cases of the original zamindari

establishment before the Court’s assumption will be found in
chapter 14 below.
 210
just thirteen. Out of them those who were directly engaged in
rent collection numbered nine in alls Manager, Mohurrir,’Tehsildar,

2 Circle Tehsildars and 4 Peons. This formation may be regarded

as a typical tahsll establishment, which will be dwelt upon in

chapter 14. But as the names of these men are not mentioned

in the records, it is impossible to know their social origins.

The sheer physical force like lathials and barkandazes does not

occur in the list. It is quite probable, however, that the four

neons tinder the tahsildars performed such function in case of

need, and moreover, that when Jagabandhu and Shyama Charan managed
i

the estate, they maintained a number of muscle-men in some form

or other. In addition to these personnel, Kanakshar kept a law

establishment at the subdivisional headquarters paying about

Rs.100 a year, and spent a lot of money in litigation.^

How, this rather small establishment was in control of

some 13,000 bighas of lands held by a great number of tenants,

whose composition is shown in Table 25. Further, Table 26 has been

prepared for comparing the composition of tenants of the Kanakshar

estate with those of the Palong thana and the Faridpur district«

It is remarkable that the settled raiyats and rent-free holders

of Kanakshar exceeded those of Palong and Faridpur in both number

and area under their occupation; and that the tenure-holders of

Kanakshar held much larger area under their direct possession than

those of Palong and Faridpur despite their accounting for the

smallest proportion in terms of number. The relatively strong

^ 'Return Ho.XXXI of the Kanakshar Estate for 1904-05»'

• DCO, Mis. Rev. Deptt., File Ho.XIW 9 of 1905-06 (BHA, Revenue
Bundle Ho.40, File Ho.605).
 211
TABLE 25

STATUS AND BENT OF THE TENANTRY OF THE KANAKSHAR ESTATE AS

ASCERTAINED BY SURVEY AND SETTLEMENT IN 1897 AND 1903

No. of Area Rent3, Averago

Classes of tenants holdings held By rent per
each Blgha
class

Rs. A. p.
Area covered By the Survey and Settlement of 1897
1. Proprietor's sir - - - -
2. Held By proprietors But
not true sir 156
3. In cultivating possession
of tenure-holders 78 1,842 1,275 0-11-1
4. Raiyats at fixed rates or
fixed rents 2 5 2 0-10-8
5. Settled raiyats 1 ,238 8,175 12,450 1- 8-4
6. Occupancy raiyats 7 12 32 2-10-8
7. Non-occupancy raiyats 111 240 543 2- 4-2
8. Rent-free holders 99 477 - -

TOTAL 1 ,535 10,905 14,304 -

ff
Area covered By the Survey and Settlement of 1903
1. Proprietor's sir - • - mm

2. Held By proprietors But

not true sir 112 •m

3. In cultivatingjpossesslon
of tenure-holders 231 1l2b . 156 1- 6-3
4. Raiyats at fixed rates or
fixed rents .3 5 2 0- 6-5
5. Settled raiyats 712 2,073 2,800 1- 5-7
6. Occupancy raiyats mm - - -
7. Non-occupancy raiyats 74 82 125 1- 8-5
8. Rent-free holders 206 139° - -

TOTAL 1 ,226 2,523 3,083 -

SOURCE! ‘Appendix B to Kanakshar SSR 1897* ‘Appendix III to

' * Kanakshar SSR 1905*.
(To Be continued).
 212
TABLE 25—Continued
NOTES: aThis column for the Survey and Settlement of 1897 shows
the rent for all sorts of assessed lands.
°413 bighas of land held by 484 raiyats subordinate to these
tenure-holders is not included in this 112 bighas.
c108 out of this 139 bighas was held by 268 ryots subordinate
to these rent-free holders.

The Survey and Settlement Operations of the Kanakshar estate was

carried out in two installments, viz. in 1897 and in 1903.

TABLE 26

COMPARISON OP THE COMPOSITION OP TENANTS:

KANAKSHAR, PALONG AND PARIDPOR

Number ►
Area
Classes of tenants E P P P
P K

% 7> i 7° 1o 7°
1. Proprietor‘s sir - 2.0 1.8 - 4.8 2.9
2. Held by proprietors
but not true sir 0 mm mm 1.4 ••

3. In cultivating pos­
session of tenure-
holders 5.1 16.2 14.1 16.9 5.8 8o2
4. Raiyats at fixed rates
or fixed rents 0.1 1.2 3.2 0.0 0.5 0.5
5. Settled raiyats 80-.7 64.5 57.0 75.0 71.4 69.5
6. Occupancy raiyats 0.5 0.1 0.5 0.1' 0.1 4<>8
7. Non-occupancy
raiyats 7.2 5.8 2.4 2.2 13.9 0.6
8. Rent-free holders 6.4 3.2 2.8 4.4 0.3 4.2
9. Under-raiyats - 7.0 18.3 - 3.2 9.3
10. Produce rent - 2.4 11.2 - 1.3 6.3

TOTAL 100 100

SOURCE: ‘Appendix B to Kanakshar SSR 1897*; Paridnur SSR.

pp.vi-vii.
(To be continued)
 213

TABLE 26—Continued

NOTE: The figures for the Kanakshar estate are those of the
Survey and Settlement of 1897 only. K, P and P stand for Kanakshar,
Palong and Paridpur respectively.

position held by these tenure-holders and rent-free holders most

probably reflected the social character of the locality, which

was densely populated by high caste Hindus. In point of fact,

the Kanakshar Survey and Settlement Report of 1903 pointed outs

'The intermediate tenure-holders are mostly Hindus belonging to

the same class and of the same social status as their landlords
ri.e... the Ghatterjees_7. This sort of social situation might

have motivated the Chatter;} ees to take a softer stand towards them.

Furthermore, the most striking feature of Kanakshar was

the utter absence of bargadars (and under-raiyats). It is doubtful

whether or not a systematic and rigorous method was followed in

the survey operations in Kanakshar. Por instance, the very high

percentage recorded in this estate of the number of the settled

raiyats most probably points to the imperfection of the 'survey

technique. Nevertheless, there is no room for doubt that the

peasants paying produce rent directly to the Chatter;) ees did not

exist in Kanakshar, since the settlement report categorically

stated that 'No produce rents are taken.' (Of course, this does

not preclude the strong possibility of the rich raiyats keeping

bargadars under them). It goes without saying that this absence

^Kanakshar SSR 1903. para.1.

^Kanakshar 3SR 1897. para,23.

 214

of bargadars was the natural consequence of the Ohatterjees*

management principle to ban transfer of raiyati holdings on their

estate and not to purchase them on their own part, either. (This

point will he given a more detailed treatment in chapter 17).

The most numerous among the tenants were the settled

raiyats, and they seem to have fairly been differentiated. Though

no exhaustive survey was carried out, we can catch a glimpse of

the degree of differentiation by processing extracts from the rent

roll of the Kanakshar estate. The size distribution of fifty-one

holdings appearing in the extracts is given in Table 27.

TABLE 27

SIZE DISTRIBUTION OP RAIYATI HOLDINGS

IN THE KANAKSHAR ESTATE

Size-class in bighas Number of holdings

40-35 1
35-30 2
30-25 5
25-20 4
20-15 . 1
15-10 5
10- 5 7
5- 0 26

TOTAL 51

SOURCES Sub-Depy. Ollr. Kalkini to Cllr.' Faridpur,

No.92W, 25 July 1894, BOR-W Pile No.225 of 1893.

Since a considerable number of raiyats* supposedly held more than

one holding, Table 27 does not necessarily show the actual size
i

distribution, but there is ,no denying that fairly large holdings'

 215

were already there. In addition, about one-third of the raiyats

were Hindus. And the names of the holders of the largest three

holdings were Taribulla Sirdar, Chhachhai Mullick and Mohin Khan,

which seems to suggest that at raiyat levels the Muslims stood

even with their Hindu, fellow cultivators.

How, let us examine the relationship between the

Chatterjees and the tenants, especially the raiyats, from the

point of view of rent collection. Figure 28 sums up the results

of the Survey and Settlement of 1905 which covered about one-sixth

of the estate. It shows that out of 1,541 raiyats found in this

part of the estate 789, or 51 per cent, were under the direct

control of the proprietor. In terms of area 2,272 bighas out

of the total 2,921, or 78 per cent, were occupied by such

raiyats.^ Despite the subinfeudation process which had been

more and more separating the landlords from the raiyats,,the

Chatterjees had succeeded in establishing direct contact with

raiyats and lands to a much higher degree than sometimes

O
imagined. (In this respect, see also chapter 13 below).

Some raiyats may have been counted twice, or even thrice,

during the settlement, but this is not taken into consideration
in Figure 28.
2
See also Nilmani Mukherjee, A Bengal Zamindar. p.95»
 216
T3Tr*TTD*I? OQ
jfJ.U'UltGi <do

RELATIONSHIP OP THE KANAKSHAR ESTATE WITH TENANTRY

SOURCE? ‘Appendix III to Eanakshar SSR 1905.*

NOTE? See notes to figure 24. further, here the term ‘raiyats *
includes' all the classes of raiyats? raiyats at fixed rates or
fixed rents, settled raiyats, occupancy raiyats and non-occupancy
raiyats.
 217
The land management of Kanakshar was marked by very high
, i

rates of rent. Table 28 shows how high they were. The rates of

TABLE 28

RATES OP RENT IN KANAKSHAR, PALONC AND EARIDPUR

(per acre)

Classes of raiyats Kfl.nft.ksha.r Palong Paridpur

Rs * A * p• Rs. A. p. Rs. A. p„
Raiyats at fixed rates or fixed
rents 2- 1- 3 3- 9- 5 2- 6- 7
Settled raiyats 4-9-1 3-13- 1 2- 9- 2
Occupancy raiyats 8- 2—4 4- 0- 8 2-10- 6
Non-occupancy raiyats 4- 1-10 3- 7- 0 3-12- 3

SOURCEi 'Appendix B to Kanakshar SSR 18971; Paridnur SSR. p.x.

rent prevailing in Kanakshar were much higher than those of the

Palong thana,. which were again reported as the highest of all the

thanas in Paridpur. Settled raiyats of Kanakshar had to pay rents

at the rate 78 per cent higher than the average of the Paridpur

district. It has already been pointed out that no produce rent

was collected in Kanakshar. But, as a matter of fact, there was

no need on the part of the estate to do so at the risk of

provoking the raiyats* resistance, since it had already succeeded

in raising the rates of money rent to quite a high level. Three

factors most probably combined to make this rather extraordinary

enhancement possible. In the first place, as has been noted above,

the Chatter;}ees had established a high degree of direct contact

with the rent-paying raiyats, and moreover, their estate formed

a well-knit network of landed interests concentrated in one

locality. This must have enabled them to wield almost undisputed

 218

authority over the'raiyats, and accordingly, to deal with them

with firmness and fortitude. Secondly, the landlords of the

Palong thana to which the Kanakshar estate belonged appear to

have formed a very powerful body. In fact, J. C. Jack wrote:

'The only thana in which the landlords have made any attempt

to increase the rent proportionately to the rise in prices is

Palong. * Above all, the owner of the Idilpur pargana, Kali

Krishna Tagore, is said to have been a shrewd and meticulous

zamindar and have spent most of his time in operating his land
2
property. It was as a member of this mighty body of landlords

that the Chatterjees set about the general enhancement of rent.

And finally, the development of small commodity production among

the raiyats provided a favorable condition for enhancement. The

raiyats of Kanakshar were reportedly ’affluent*, and if they

acquired wealth at all, it could come from nowhere else but from

the cultivation of either jute or sugarcane for the market. The

Settlement Officer of Kanakshar left a brief note on each of them:

Jute, which is extensively cultivated, and largely exported,

forming the principal, and perhaps the only article of trade.
Sugarcane. from which gur (molasses) is prepared, and sent
to all the neighbouring markets---and even to Madaripur for
sale.3

The commodities produced by raiyats were marketed in small river-

side marts which were abundantly found in the locality: Madaripur,

Bhojeswar, Damudya, Haturia and the like (see Map).^ Raiyats’

‘affluence’ of this sort attained by their own enterprise, when

^Paridour SSR. para.74.

»

2
Ghose, Indian Chiefs. Ra.ias. part 2, p.214.
%
Kanakshar SSR 1903. para.1.
4]?ariapur SSR, paras.32, 36; KanakaW KSB 1Qn*i- para.1.
 219

trapped in the firm grip of the powerful landlord group, only

paved the way for the general enhancement of rent.

Now,, as to the methods of rent collections adopted by the

Kanakshar estate, it was reported:

....the tenants of the Wards’ estate do not pay at a uniform

rate of rent in the same village; some pay at higher rates,
while others pay at a lower rate, though both of them enjoy
land of similar quality... It appears that in making assess­
ment of ryots' holdings, no classification of land was made
both in the Wards’ estate and the Estate of other zamindars.
All lands comprised in atenant's holding such as homestead
land, garden land, nat culturable_7 first class were assessed
at a lump sum by the landlords, but"the tenants whose holdings
consist of a large quantity of homestead or garden land
generally pay higher rent.*

No systematic assessment of lands had been undertaken in the

entire locality, to say nothing of the Kanakshar estate, but

rents were collected in lump. Similarly, kists were never adhered

to. The Village Note candidly admitted: 'in practice rents are

never realised according to these kists.... rents are collected

whenever ryots can pay or can be made to pay.^ So it is quite

natural.that the Court of Wards, when they took charge of the

estate, should have found that ’no systematic account of the

properties was kept and relations between the land-lord and tenants
•3
were not satisfactory.'^ Arbitrariness rather than method marked

the rent business of the estate, and the above-mentioned enhancement

of rent was in all likelihood effected through such arbitrary

assertion of the landlord’s power. Hence the tenants' discontent

^Sub-Depy. Cllr. Kalkini to Cllr. Far. No.92W, 25 July

1894, paras.1-2, BOR-W Pile No.225 of 1893;
2 ’Village Note No.22 (Chhatiani)' appended to Kanakshar
SSR 1903.
%inal Report 1907. para. 5.
 220
1
lurked in the landlord-tenant relationship in Kanakshar.

What has been said above only relates to legal rent

collections. The Court of Wards' management revealed the practice

of levying abwabs. The Tillage Note wrotes

... during the time of the late Shyama Charan Chatterji the
abwabs were also realizeds
(1) Auck Charcha /"sugarcane
processing 7. i.e. ———-1 maund of goor per manufactur­
ing machine,
(2) Kali Puja Kharach
Puja expenses,/——According to circumstances of
ryots,
(3) Punya Nazar ——----- —1 Re. for every ryots of Jama
exceeding Rs.10/- annually,
(4) Rajdhuti /"zemindar'e
loin-cloth__7——------ ----An abwab according to circum­
stances on marriage occasions
in the zamindar's family,
(5) Durga bhit /"present 2
for Durga PujaJ---- ——During Durga Puja occasion.

It is not likely that these sundry abwabs amounted to a large sum,

assuming that all the abwabs were included in the above list.

Rather, the importance of abwabs seems to have lain in their

reflecting social, and to some extent economic as well, relationship

between the landlords and ryots. The economic aspect comes out

in levying an abwab for goor /"unrefined sugar J manufacture by

raiyats which was common in the region. By doing this the

Ghatterjees played a reactionary; as well as parasitic role in the

development of small commodity production. The other abwabs

represent the feudal and patriarchal character of the

^further discussion on the problem of rent collection will

be found in chapter 16,
2 'Tillage Note No.22(Chhatiani)* appended to Kanakshar
SSR 1903. Por Punva Nazar, see infra- vr>,37?- <S7.
 221
landlord-raiyat relationship under the zamindari system. These

points of argument are to receive a detailed treatment in chapter

15.

5. Financial Affairs

In analysing the financial affairs of the estates, it is

essential to go deeply into the account books kept by the private

landlords themselves, because the Court of Wards records are not

of great use in this regard. We have already noted that the state

of financial management under the Court of Wards differed from

that under the private landlords, in several significant respects %

high rate of rent collections, high percentage of management

charges, strict rules on the utilization of surplus funds, and

existence of a considerable amount of suspense accounts.

Considering, however, that the private papers are difficult to

2
get access to as things stand now in Bengal, we shall here

epitomize what we have been able to know from the Court of Wards'

records. The purpose is nothing more than to give a rough idea

of the way an estate functioned in financial matters, and thereby

*5
to level the ground for research in this field in the future.

^See supra pp.166-73.

2
The only work that has analysed in detail the economic
activities of a zamindar on the basis of private records is S. Co
Nandy's life and Times of Cantoo Baboo. He has made an extensive
use of his family papers.
3
In the subsequent chapters we shall abstain from interpret­
ing the financial figures except those relating to (1) the book
value of rental, (2) payments of land revenue and^rents to superior
landlords, and (3) rent arrears. 'T1 2 3
 222

The most authentic official report on the financial

affairs of an estate is Return Ho.XXXI annually submitted by the

Court to the Board of Revenue. Table 29 has been prepared by

o
processing the data given in the final Return No.XXXI on the

Kanakshar estate which embodies full information on the financial

transactions during the whole period of the Court's management.

TABLE 29

TOTAL RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS OP THE KANAKSHAR ESTATE

PROM 3 PEB. 1891 TO 1 SEPT. 1906

Rs. %
1. Collections of rent and cesses due to
the estate 319,549 90.2
2. Others, including interests on Govt,
securities, recovery of debts,
suspense accounts, etc. 34,850 9.8

TOTAL RECEIPTS 354,399 100.0

Disbursements.
1. Payments of revenue and cesses due
from the estate to Government 8,440 2.4
2. Taxes such as municipal taxes, income
tax. chaukidari tax. etc.a 1,251 0.4
3. Payments of rent and cesses due from
the estate to superior landlords 143,292 40.4

TOTAL (A) 152,983 43.2

4. Recurring management expenses,
including salary of manager,
establishment, construction and
repairs of cutcherry buildings,'
law expenses, rates,** etc. 55,226 15.6
5. Survey, settlement, measurement and
butwarrah / nartition 7 7,333 2.1

TOTAL(B) 62,559 17.7

(To be continued)
 223

TABLE 29—Continued
Rs.
6. Expenditure of landlord's household,
including allowances to proprietor
and family, social ceremonies,
religious ceremonies, doctor's fee
and medicines, education, etc. 58,873 16.6
TOTAL(C) 58,873 16.6

7. Suspense account and miscellaneous 26,191 7.4

TOTAL(D) 26,191 7.4
8. Investments 13,034 3.7
9. Maintenance in efficient condition
of estates, buildings and other
immovable property0 25,761 7.3
10. Donation to schools and dispensaries,
improvement of land and property,
etc. 7,450 2.1
11. Debts paid 7,417 2.1
TOTAL(E) 53,662 15.1

TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS 354,366 100

Rs. % on total
receipts
I. Total Receipts - Total(A) 201,416 56.8
II. I - Total(B) = Net Rental
Earnings 138,857 39.2
III. II - Total(C) & (D) a Surplus 53,793 15.2

SOURCE; 'Table VI, Return No.XXXI,' appended to Pinal Report

12Q2.
NOTES: aThis does not contain cesses amounting to Rs.4,394 in
all.
°As regards rates, see supra, p.169.
°This was expended for extending the Chatterjees' residential
house and buying a property in the District town.
 224

Let us look first at the receipt side. We see that the

Kanakshar estate derived about 90 per cent of receipts from rent

collections. She remaining receipts mostly consisted of suspense

accounts, while interests on Government securities amounted only

to Rs.2,406. And again, the makeup of rent receipts is given in

Table 30. It is evident that most of rental earnings came from

TABLE 30

MAKEUP OP RENT RECEIPTS OF THE KANAKSHAR ESTATE

Collections Payments8, Balance C/A x 100

(A) (B) (C) (D) ,
Rs. Rs. Rs.
From revenue-paying and \

revenue-free estates 25,519 8,440 17,079 66.9

From tenures of all kinds 292,708 143,292 149,416 51 oO
From house rent 1,322 0 1,322 100o0

TOTAL 319,549 151,732 166,495 52d

SOURCE: 'Table 1, Return No.XXXI,' appended to Final Report

1202 .
NOTE: aPayments to Government and superior landlords.

tenures. From the point of view of profitability, 'revenue-paying

and revenue-free estates' exceeded 'tenures of all kinds' by about

16 per cent. However, the former's Bhare was too small to raise

the overall profitability. Further, the percentage of the total

rent collections on the current demand of rents, which approxi­

mately corresponded to the amount of mofussil rent-roll, stood at

as high as 104.0 per cent. The rate exceeded 100 per cent, mainly

because collection of the arrears of rent which amounted to

Rs.19,627 at the time of assumption was included in the total rent

 • 225

collections. This high percentage is a telltale indicator of

the rigor with which the Court of Wards was engaged in rent

collection.

As regards the disbursements, it is notable that as much

as 43 per cent of rent collections by-passed the Kanakshar estate

in the form of Government land revenue and rents due to superior

landlords. And the high percentage of the latter is an indisput­

able evidence of the Chatterjees having virtually been inter­

mediate tenure-holders. In addition, it is also worthy of notice

that tax liabilities were very light. Counting in the amount of

cesses (Rs.4»394) in addition to the taxes shown in Table 29, the

total taxation works out at Rs.5»645, just 1.6 per cent of the

total receipts, or 4.1 per cent of the net rental earnings. Even

if we consider land revenue as a kind of tax, the picture does

not show a significant change, the total taxation by this

calculation turning out to be Rs.14,085, 4.0 per cent of the total

receipts, or 10.1 per cent of the net rental earnings, light

taxation on rent income was a distinguishing feature of the

colonial power’s policy towards the landlords.

To come to the management expenses (item nos.4 and 5 in

Table 29), it reached a high percentage of 17.7. That the entire

Kanakshar estate was under khas management was mainly responsible

for it. Broadly speaking, there existed three types of land

management in our- time; khas. patni and farm. When the whole of

^This was also the case with other estates. For details,
see chapter 13.
 226

or a major portion of an estate was leased out on patni or farm,

the management expenses dramatically diminished* For example,

they always stood at less than 5 per cent of the rental in the

Burdwan Raj well-known for its almost entire dependence, on patni0

However, it should not be overlooked that khas management, though

expensive at first sight, actually had manifold compensating

advantages. It was under khas management that landlords could

enhance rent to the highest possible limit, and eradicate inter­

mediate tenures in order to establish direct control of the ryots.

Thirdly, the expenditure of landlord’s household includes

all the expenses to maintain thirty members of the Chatterjees9

to educate three minors, to keep two pooks, two servants and one

maid-servant, and to perform social as well as religious #

■s
ceremonies such as sraddha, marriage, upanavan. Durga puja, etc.

It constituted 16.6 and 42,4 per cent of the total receipts and

the net rental earnings respectively. The fact that the latter

reached a very high percentage indicates that the prime object

of land management was household-keepingj and that the Kanakshar

estate was subjugated to and, as it were, buried in the private

household economy of the Chatterjees.

The balance obtainable after deducting the above-mentioned

items and .item 7 of Table 29 may be regarded as the surplus or

profit of estate management. It constituted 15*1 and 38.6 per

cent of the total receipts and the net rental earnings respectively,

1Cllr. Far. to Cmmr. Bac., No.259/VIII-1 G, 5 May 1891,

para.9, BOR-W File Ho,21 of 1891.
 227

Undoubtedly the Kanakshar estate was a considerably lucrative

property. The items 8 to 11 of the same table show how this

surplus amounting to Rs.53>662 was appropriated. Out of the

investments of some 13*000 rupees Rs.9*500 was spent for

purchasing Government promissory notes which yielded an interest

income of Rs.2,406 over a period of eight years, and the remainder

for buying petty landed interests, i.e. a strip of land in

Faridpur town and a small taluk.^ Rs.15,000 out of Rs.25,761 of

item 9 were defrayed to build a nucca brick-builtJ7 house on

the above-mentioned purchased land in Faridpur, which was leased

out at an annual rental of Rs.1,000, and with another Rs.8,000

a baitakkhana /""drawing room_7 was added to the Chatter jess*
2
residential house. Disbursements on donation and improvement of

property (item 10) were only nominal, and a small debt incurred

by Shyama Charan (Rs.7,417) was all repaid out of the surplus.

Thus, the Kanakshar estate appropriated surplus in five ways:

repayment of debts, purchase of Government securities, speculation

in landed interests, investment in urban immovable properties,

and construction. This surplus appropriation is marked by a

conspicuous lack of investments for productive purposes. The

Chatter;) ees could have exploited agricultural potentialities of

the locality by embarking upon sugar manufacture or jute trade s

if only they had so desired; but unlike Japanese landlords in the

early nineteenth century neither Shyama Charan nor the Court of

Wards authorities appear to have made such an attempt. They

^Final Report 1907. para.10, 11; Cllr. Far. to Cmmr. Dac0,

J5T0.43W, 28 Dec. 1903, BOR-W File Uo.855 of 1903.
2Final Report 1907. para.11, 12.
 228

rather preferred the safest and easiest course. It remains to

he seen by further studies whether or not Eanakshar * s case was

typical of the surplus appropriation by the Bengal landlords at

large.

low, let us turn our attention to annual fluctuations in

the financial position of the estate. As regards the receipts'

side, both the total receipts and the rent collections are

characterized by a very wide range of annual fluctuations, which

was supposedly inevitable when the estate/under khas management„

(Figure 29). Two factors seem to have been responsible for this.

The one is the power equations between landlords and raiyats.

The high rate of rent collections in the years of 1891 and 1898

was realized by the Court having recourse to a harsh measure of

p
certificate procedures. The other is weather. The years when

rent collections fell far short of the current demand of rent,

■Z.
viz., 1893» 1902 and 1905, were all marked by a poor crop. In

1902-03, for instance, jute and sugarcane, the most important

cash crops in Eanakshar, both failed. At any rate it is interesting

that even with its extraordinary power the Court was unable to

stabilize the rate of rent collections.

In connection with the disbursements, the payments of

land revenue, taxes and rents due to superior landlords were from

^Further, the big difference between total receipts and

rents collections in earlier years was chiefly owing to a large
sum of suspense accounts. -
2RWAB. 1891-92, para.27? 1898-99, para.21.

%WA1. 1892-93, para.25? 1893-94, para.231 1895-96, para.22.

 229

FIGURE 29
RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS OF THE KANAKSHAR ESTATE, 1890-1909
 230
FIGURE 29—Continued

LEGEND:
As Payments of revenue and cesses due form the estate to
Government and of taxes such as municipal taxes* incone
tax and mhwniriiiwjrf. tax.
B: Payments of rent and cesses due from the estate to
superior landlords.
C: Recurring management expenses, including Salary of
manager, establishment, construction and repairs of
cutcherrv buildings, lav expenses, rates, etc.
D: Expenses of landlord's household, including allowances
to proprietor and family, social ceremonies, religious
ceremonies, doctor's fee and medicines, education, etc.
Ei Suspense accounts.
Pi Survey, settlement, measurement and butwarrah.

. SOURCES: RWAE for respective years, &o.

ROTE: She annual payments of taxes and rates are not separately
shown in the statement of RWAE after 1899. In this Figure they are
presumed to have been Rs.85 and Rs.600 respectively in tide years
subsequent to 1899.

the very nature of things inflexible. On the other hand, it looks

as if the expenses of both management and landlord's household

had gradually increased during the fifteen years of the Court's

management. But this increase was a deceptive one. Due to the

sloppy way of book-keeping during the first half of this period,

the expenditure on both accounts was presented in our Figure at

much smaller amounts than the actual expanses. It would have

become much larger and the apparent increase would have been

offset if a large sum of suspense accounts had been duly adjusted

and distributed to each head of expenditure. On the whole, we

may observe that under the Court's management the volume of the

three major items of expenditure (i.e., revenue and rent, manage­

ment, and household) remained fairly stationery, as compared with

the total reoelpts (or rent collections).

 231
In this way, so far as the period under the Court's

management was concerned, the financial affairs of the Kanakshar

estate were marked by a pronounced contrast between the heavy

fluctuations in rent collections and the relative Inelasticity

of major disbursements. We do not know whether or not such was

also the case with the private management. If it had been truo

of it too, this asymmetrical pattern of movements of income and

expenditure would have given rise to a periodic financial

difficulty in the privately managed estates, which, needless to

say, had to be run without any of the special powers enjoyed by

the Court of Wards.

6. giMBmayir

In conclusion, let us summarize our findings on the socio­

economic character of the Kanakshar estate in accordance with

our theoretical framework.

She first point to be considered is the origin and

formative process of the estate. The Chatterjees belonged to a

new generation of landlords. The founder, Jagabandhu, in all

likelihood Hade a fortune as a petty official of the revenue

authorities and invested it in land speculation. Sis son, Shyoma

Charan, added several minor landed interests to his father's

property by investing in lands a portion of income from rent

*

collections and money-lending. It is characteristic of their

land speculation that they never tried to purchase raiyati holdings.

To put it in another way, the rise of the Chatterjees did not

 232
presuppose free transfer of raiyati holdings, or the so-called

dlffrentlation of the peasantry. On the very contrary, they even

tried to suppress it by prohibiting such transfer on their estate.

They took a hostile attitude towards it, most probably because

their economic base still lay in extracting rent from small

peasant .production and their class interests consisted in preventing

to the best of their ability its break-up through land transfer.

She prerequisites for their growth into landlords were rather

simples firstly, the subinfeudation that had proliferated to the

very limit under the protection of the steel-framework of the

Permanent Settlement; and secondly, the circulation as commodities

in the land market of various landed interests so created. Since

the superior land properties had bean well organized into something

like a closed circuit, the Chatterjees were able to rise to the

status of landlords without stepping out of it, or without

interfering in the property relations at raiyats' level. It is

by this particular characteristic that they can be theoretically

distinguished from the joMar-type semi-feudal landlords.

The next problem is the Chatterjess' power basis to

dominate their raiyats. * Unlike the feudal lords in Europe, Japan

or Mughal India, the Chatterjees were not Openly armed. Admittedly,

they maintained a number of muscle-men in the guise of neadas.

coolies, etc., but their number does not seem to have been very

large. Again, unlike the semi-feudal landlords of modem Japan,

they were not in a position to hold the cultivating peasants down

r
in their capacity as the purchasers of peasants* lands. It is

true that they had money-lending business. they oould have used

it as a lever to acquire raiyati holdings on a large scale. But

 233
. they did not do so. They may have lent money to raiyata to keep

control oyer them* hut they did not go the length of buying up

raiyati holdings.

However, it does not follow from this that the Chatter;]ees

had no bases to stand on. There were at least three j^La. pillars

which gave .support to their domination over the raiyats. In the

first place, the Chatterjees were in direct touch with the

majority of the raiyats, and moreover, theirs was a well-organized

solid land property, rather than a scattered and indefinable one.

The colonial land property relations established by the Permanent

Settlement, the Patni Regulation, etc., could still be a solid

basis for domination when utilized by meticulous landlords.

Secondly, as high caste Hindus, the Chatterjees held a social,

religious and personal authority over the raiyats. The fact that

they successfully levied abwabs like Kali mi la kiiaranh. Durga bhet

and ra.1 dhuti is positive proof of this. In addition, their

authority was buttressed by the local society. It was densely

populated by high caste Hindus, and at its apex was the powerful

zamindar of Calcutta, Kali Krishna Tagore. It was most probably

under the umbrella of this sort of social hierarchy that such

smaller landlords as the Ohatterjees managed to dominate the

tenantry. Thirdly, it is important that the Chatterjees were in

control of various kinds of useful lands other than arable land,

namely, hats, .lalkars and waste land. These lands worked as

effective levers, to control the raiyats.

The third problem is the role played by the Chatterjees

in the development of rural economy, or to put it more precisely,

 - 234
their attitude towards idle small commodity production which was

prevalent among the raiyats in our times. It has already been

pointed out that they contributed nothing to it by way of surplus

appropriation. On the very contrary, they levied a sort of tax

(auck charcha) on gur manufacture y which must have had a hampering

effect. Their role in the development of productive forces was

not only parasitic but reactionary as well.

*

Finally, we may conslude this case study by observing

that the Tfoma-igaha/r estate was in good, and sound condition from

the point of view of both financial affairs and land property

relations. It is good to keep in mind that the zamindari system

did not always oonsist of disarrayed .estates but comprised

healthy elements like Eanafcshar as well.

 XII

SOCIAL CHARACTER

In the present and the following six chapters we undertake

a comparative study of the forty-one estates listed In chapter 10

in the light of the results obtained from the case study of the

Kanakshar estate as well as In accord with the theoretical

assumption stated in chapter 8. To begin with, this chapter is

devoted to an inquiry into the landlords' social character.

This problem may be studied from three different angles: their

community and race, their dwelling place, and their social genesis.

The term 'social genesis' is usually used by Japanese historians

to indicate the rising process as well as the origin of a

particular socio-economic group in history.

First, the problem of communal and ethnic composition

of our landlords. Judging from their names and titles, thirty

of them were Hindus, five Muslims, five Europeans (including

Eurasians, Armenians, etc.), and one of unknown identity. (See

Table 15). This result endorses the widely accepted view that
I

the Muslim population, despite forming an overwhelming majority

in eastern Bengal, had only a comparatively small, number of

landlords. However, since there is no correlation between size

of estates and proprietor's community, we cannot go so far as to

say that Muslim landlords, even if there were some, were all small

and inferior ones. Among than we find quite big ones such as the

235
 236

Dacca Nawab and Haturia.

European proprietors' names were Kallonas, Hollow, Lucas,

Pogose and Brodle. The Brodies were Scotsmen, *
* and the Hollows

2
East Indians. Other proprietors' race is not mentioned in

official reports. But the Kallonas’ and the Pogoses, who owned
✓
properties in Bakarganj f may possibly have belonged to the group

of the old Greek, Portuguese and Armenian landholders who had

•5
settled in the district for many generations. So there is

possibility that they had more or less been Indianized by

intermarriage • ^

The five Muslim proprietors held titles of Chaudhuri,

Taiukdar, Khan and Nawab. The title of Nawab was conferred in

1873 by the British colonial, state to the biggest landlord family

in eastern Bengal who had remained loyal to British rule throughout

fi
the Mutiny years. Though they had nothing to do with the Nawab

of Daooa or Murshidabad, they came to be known as the Dacca Nawab

henceforth. Besides, interestingly enough, grandfather of the

Chaudhuries of the Haturia estate was called 'Ashak Mridha'

),6 which suggests this family in possession of a large

1RWAE. 1875-76, para.195.

2Ibid., 1874-75» para.226.
■5
Hunter, Statistical Account, vol.5, p.204.
*Por an interesting account of the Indianization of the
Portuguese in eastern Bengal, see J. J. A. Campos, History of the
Portuguese in Bengal (Calcutta, 1919; reprint ed., Patna, 1979)»
pp.182, 195, 201.
K
Chose, Indian Chiefs, pt.2, p.290.
^Ray, Phariduurer Itihash. vol.2, p.105.
 237

estate of Rs.1,19,311 had originated in humble circumstances.

Among the family names and titles of our thirty Hindu

proprietors, the most numerous one was Hay (or Hayohaudhuri),

numbering seven in all. They were followed by Chakravarti (four

in number), Chaudhuri (three), Has (three, including Das Chaudhuri),

and Datta (two, including Datta Chaudhuri). Chaudhurihood was

held by six families in all. The other names and titles were

borne by one family each: Chatterjee, Goswamy, Ghoshal, Acharjya,

Tagore, Sen, Sandyal, Lashkar, Dey Chakladar, and Majumdar. It

is difficult to determine their oastes. But as far as could be

ascertained, there were eleven Brahmans, two Baidyas and three

Kayasthas.^ It is notable that the large Hindu estates with the

current demand more than Hs.1,00,000, viz. Bhawal, Bhukailas,

S. M. Tagore, J. K. Acharjya and Dhankoora, were all owned by

Brahmans.

Furthermore, there were two non-Bengalees among the Indian

proprietors. One was Lala Bajendra Kumar Singh Chaudhury of the

Syedpore estate. He was a member of the Khattria family of

North-West Province which had migrated to Dacca seven or eight

2
generations ago. Another was Nawab Khajeh Salimulla Bahadur of

1Estates nos. B4, B6, B7, B11, B16, B19, F4, D3, D5, M4,
and MX2 were owned by Brahmans, D5 and F3 by Baidyas, and B3, 313
and M7 by KayasthasBesides, there is£possibility that F1
belonged to a Brahman, M3 to a Baidya, and F2 to a Kayastha.
(RWAB and B0H-W files for respective estates).
2
Cllr. Bak. to Gmmr. Dac., No.1424W, 11 Dec. 1906, para.2
DCO, Wards Branch (hereafter DCO-W). File no.23 of 1906-07 (NAB,
unclassified Court of Wants Bundles).
 238
• ' !
the Dacca Hawaii's estate, who was a Kashmiri. Considering that

there were several Burpean proprietors as well, it may he said

the ethnic composition of our proprietors was quite colourful.

How we go on to deal with the problem of landlord1 s2 * * 5

dwelling place. For the sake of clear discussion the Bengal

landlords might he divided into two types in terms of dwelling

placesi the urban landlord who dwelt in subdivisions! headquarters

or a higher administrative center, and the rural landlord who

dwelt in a village or a small town below subdivisions! headquarters.

Proprietors' dwelling places could be ascertained in

relation to 28 estates. Of them urban landlords numbered 6, rural

2
landlords 21 • The remaining one is a mixed type.

Out of the six urban landlords four were proprietors of

the large estates with the current demand over Rs. 1,00,000. The

G-hoshals of the Hhukailas estate had settled in Bhukailas on the

southwestern fringe of Calcutta since they vacated their ancestral

village for the construction of Fort William.^ The Tagores lived

in Calcutta, and the Dacca Hawab's family in Dacca town. K. S.

Brodie, a former indigo planter, retired to Scotland after

^Chose, Indian Qhiafa. p.288.

2
Estates grouped as owned by urban landlords are B16, 3318,
B19, D6, M5 and M8, while those grouped as owned by. rural landlords
are B2, B6, B7, B8, B9, B10, B11, B14, B15, F3, F4, D2, D3, D4S M1,
M4, M6, M7, M9, MX1 and MX2. The mixed type is D5.
5Chose, Indian Chiefs, p.382.
 239
appointing manager to look after his large estate.^

She remaining two were lala Hajendra Kumar Singh Chaudhury

of the Syedpore estate and the Pogoses. With the current demand

of Rb.68,942 and Rs.35*

*924 respectively, they belonged to the

group of the owners of middling estates, lala Rajendra lived in

2
Bakshi Bazar of Dacca town. She brothers and sister of the

Pogoses lived scattering over the most various places imaginable;

Dacca, Allahabad, Hussoorie and London. In London lived the

3
eldest brother who had once tried to manage the estate himself,

As regards the rural landlords, what is of interest is

that quite a few proprietors of large estates were comprised in.

them: Bhawal(current demand Rs.5*95*736), Jagat Kishore Acharjya

(Rs.2*10,939)* Dhankoora(Rs.1,29*974) and Haturla(Rs.1,19.311).

She Bhawal zamindars lived in Jaydebpur twenty miles north of

Dacca town; the Aoharjyas in Mulctagachha about ten miles west of

Mymensingh town; the Dhankoora zamindars in a remote village,

Dhankoora, twenty-five miles northwest of Dacca town; the Haturia

T>finypt*
mCUuJbXMagU* D 4n ilABfc VCU> JmmSm
a UWwJlAvjf
■fcwfiiii'.if Jjmil
UUImLCas
pD flAiiltl1)nocrfcI# a"P A’ACaUiQ^ JU^/uXi
UFJL tnit1 JLjUL

Faridpur. Another distinct characteristic of this group is that

they were all Bengalees without exception. Shis makes a marked

contrast with the urban landlords two-thirds of whom were

Europeans or non-Bengalees.

*
1RWA1. 1875-76, para.195.

%WAB-EB. 1907-08, para.26-(2); DCO-W, File no.23 of

1906-07

* 1878-79, para. 165; 1884-85, para.69.

 240

It 1b true that a considerable number of rural landlords

owned urban properties such as houses and gardens in district

towns and that in this sense they were connected with urban

areas* But they do not seem to have settled down there. Rather

they appear to have used them as mere temporary residences or

rented them out*

She distribution of the twenty-seven proprietors by both

dwelling places and size of their estates shows that although

large landlords had a much stronger tendency to be urban than

middling and small landlords, still half of the former resided in

rural areas. (Table 31). This points to an overwhelmingly rural

character of the landed class, particularly the Bengalee landlords,

in the Dacca division. Most landlords, including quite big ones

. t . i

like Bhawal zamindars, were strongly entrenched in rural society.

TABLE 31

CORRELATION BETWEEN SIZE OP ESTATE AND ITS

PROPRIETOR'S DWELLING- PLACE

Dwelling place
Rural Urban Unknown Total

Large 4 4 ■ 0. 8
Size Middling 9 2 .7 18
Small 8 0 7 15

Total 21 6 14 41

SOURCE: RWAE: BQR-W Piles.

 241

Nonetheless we should not draw a hasty conclusion from

this that absentee landlordism did not carry weight in the Dacca

division. The degree of the landlord's absenoe may be measured

by the distance between the place where his household economy

was run and the place where actual production process took place,

and hence arises the problem of his dwelling place as a criterion

of absenteeism. However, in order to discuss absenteeism in a

region like Bengal where an extremely confusing land system

evolved, it is insufficient and improper to take as a criterion

onr urban-rural dichotomy alone. It is not uncommon in Bengal

that a petty landlord residing in a small village held properties

scattered in far-off places. And moreover, mammoth urban

landlords, few as they were, were in possession of huge estates in

i
Bakarganj and Faridpur, whereas in Dacca and Mymensingh such cases
o
were reportedly rare. In Bakarganj, for example, the eleven

largest estates as ascertained by the Cess Operations in the late

1870s were mostly owned by the absentee landlords who lived in

Calcutta and Daoca. (Table 32). Rural landlords residing in

Bakarganj were only twos the Roys of Madhabpasha and Baradakanta

Roy of Ealshakati.^

Bakargani SSR. para.161; Faridnur SSR. para.56; Hunter,

Statistical Account, vol.5, pp.214, 333.
2Ibid.f vol.5, pp.106, 458.
^This family is listed in Table 15, serial no.B14.

^According to Beveridge, Barada Kanta Ray was the biggest

 242
SABLE 32
LIST OP ELEVEN LARGEST. ESTATES IE BAEARGAEJ DISTRICT

Valu­
Name of Estate lame of proprietor Revenue ation

Rs. Rs.
Zemindaree pergunnah Baboo Kalikrishna
Edilpore Tagore of Calcutta 65,904 4,19,599
Z. per. Selimabad; The Ghoshals of Bhu-
share 3 as. 13 gdB. kailash in Calcutta 41,945 3,16,616
Z. Chandradeep per.; Baboos Rajballabh Roy,
share 8 as. 12£ gds. Mathuranath Roy,
TTftl i Irnmn-r Roy, anti
others of Madahbpasha
In RaTffl-rgan j 44,538 2,67,226
Z. per* Dukhin Shah- J. B. Begram, P. E.
bazpore; share 12 as. Gasper, Baboo Ram
18'l/4 gds. Charan and Kista
Charan ~Ba.ian.lr and
others of Dacca 35,870 2,25,621
Ayela Phuljhuri Eawab Aaan-ullah of
Dacca 372 2,20,508
Z. per. Syadpore Lala Mrittujit Sinha
and Petam Koer of
Dacca 6,570 1,95,747
Z. per. Sultanabad; Eawab Ahsan-ullah, Syud
share 13 as. 18 3/4 Zea-uddin All, A1
gds. »nd 1- kranta Hoseni Chowdhury and
others of Dacca 23,048 1,66,779
Z. per. Eazirpore Baboo Kalikrishna
Tagore of Calcutta 28,783 1,64,048
Tulshiram Ghosh Taluq. Baboo Chandra Santa
(Boora Mozumdar) Makerjea of Jonai in
Hooghly. 13,101 1,30,954
Z. per. Selimabad; The Ghoshal family of
share 2 as. 17l gds Bhukail nab in
Calcutta 18,036 1,52,202
Per. Aurungpore; Baboo Baradakanta Roy
share 14 as. and others of
Kalshakati in
Backergunge 12,568 1,17,779

TOTAL 2,90,735 23,77,079

(To Be continued)
 243

TABLE 32—Continued

SOURCE: 1 final Report oh the Valuation of the Land of the

Baekergunge District under the Road Cess Act, X (B.C.) of 1871, ’
23 June 1877* para.35, BRP, Local Taxation Branch, Aug. 1877*
no.27.

NOTES: The word 'estate' here refers to the revenue-paying

estate as of recorded en the tau.1l register of the Collectorate.
So it is a purely administrative category, and therefore differs
in many repects from our use of the word 'estate. '
'Valuation' means the rental estimated by the Cess Operations.
The total valuation of the district stood at Rs.69,24,576,
the total revenue amounting to Rs.13,74,921.

Thus there are good grounds for characterizing the

landlordism of the Dacca division as absentee landlordism. The

point we would like to bring out here is that even so, it should

at least be distinguished from such absenteeism where a considerable

number of landlords had migrated to towns and cities for enjoying

urban amenities • To emphasize the rural, character of our

landlords, we may call it 'rural absenteeism' as opposed to

'urban absenteeism.'

As to the European and non-Bengalee urban landlords, they

all preferred to live in towns, irrespective of the size of th3ir

estates, most probably because of the sense of isolation they had

in the countryside. And among them, K. 3. Brodie's case deserves

special examination, because this case seems to show the extreme

point that absenteeism could reach in tbs colonial setup. He was

an indigo planter. When he retired to Scotland, he appointed

one V. B. Manson manager and trustee of his extensive estate.

On Hanson's death, however, it was found there was nobody to take

care of it in Bengal, and moreover, the Court could not even

 244

ascertain the names and ages of Brodie's minor sons, all residents

in Scotland, who had already inherited the father's estate. After

nearly one year's correspondence with the people in Scotland, this

trouble was finally solved by procuring from them a new letter of

attorney empowering Messrs. Be&s, Dunlop & Co., probably a

Calcutta-based firm, to take over and manage the estate.1 2 It is

ironic that in this way a typical European landlord like K. S.

Brodie should have become an absentee in every sense of the term,

when we call to mind the hot controversies on the European

colonization in India. It was alleged by its advocates that

Europeans, if allowed to proceed to India freely and hold lands

there, w^ould become energetic agents for innovating backward

o
Indian agriculture by European skill, capital and industry.

Brodie's failure to come up to this somewhat inflated expectation

seems to suggest that it was not oriental mentality or national

character but colonial eoonomlc and social institutions that bred

4
parasitic absenteeism in Bengal.

.Now we go on to deal with the social genesis of our

landlords. The first point to be examined is their oldness.

Perhaps many families of Bengal claim to be very old on genealogical

trees, but what matters us here is their oldness as landlords. A

simple and appropriate test of it would be whether or not a

particular family had existed as a landlord from before British

1RWAE. 1875-76, para.195I 1876-77, para.178? Hunter,

Statistical Account, vol.5, pp.415-6.
2
See, for instance, Reports from the Select Committee on
Colonization and Settlement in India with Proceedings. Minutes of
Evidence. Appendices and Index. 1859: P.P.1859 (i98) IV Seas.1 &
1859 (171) V Sees.2.
 {
245

rale. There are three such eases among our forty-one proprietors,

0 The estate of Syam Sundari Chawdharani in Mymensingh

formed a part of the Sherpur pargana. In the mid-eighteenth

century this second largest pargana in the district was owned by

one Jagajiban Chaudhury. But in 1770 it was divided up into a 9

annas and a 7 annas share. They were subdivided by. a further

partition which took place early in the nineteenth century. Syam

Sundari's estate consisted mainly of a 2 5/4 annas share of the

Sherpur pargana, which was a fraction of the above 9 annas share.1

The current demand of this estate only amounted to Rs.50,895.

But the two cases that follow were quite large.

The estate of J. K. Aeharjya had the current demand of

its.2,10,959. The Acharjyas were Barendra Brahmans and originally

resided in Jhakar of the Bogra district. The man who laid the

foundations of the prominence of this family as landlords was one

Sri Krishna Acharjya. He obtained the settlement of Taraf Jhakar

in the Sailbasha pargana from Murshid Kuli Shan. The way he added

the Alapsingh pargana to his property in 1727 Indicates that the

Acharjyas were powerful armed chieftains in Bogra. F. A. Sachse

ft&L
wrote down/family tradition purporting that Sri Krishna lent

Alivardi Khan military assistance against his brother and in return

o
obtained a grant of Alapsingh from him. Sri Krishna had four sons.

^Myrnfinaingh 3SR. para.212; Mvmenaingh Dfl. pp.162-4; RWAE.

f874-75, para. 223..
^However, there is a factual mistake in this family
tradition. It was only in 1740 that Alivardl Khan marched from
Fatna for Bengal.
 246

They migrated from Bogra to Mymensingh and aroud 1750 settled

down In Muktagaccha, a village In the central part of Alapsinghr

Their estate was partitioned Into four equal shares. Though the

first and third brothers1 shares became rapidly subdivided, the

second and fourth brothers* shares survived eventful decades of

the nineteenth century undivided, and moreover, were closely

connected with each other. What is of interst to us is that

these two branches of the Aoharjyas, not content with their

established status as leading zamindars of the district, embarked

upon large-scale land speculation in the nineteenth century. In

1833 at an auction sale Jagat Kishore's great-grandfather Bhowani

Kishore bought an important zamindari containing a big mart on the

Meghna, Bhyrub Bazar. And in the early 1870s Jagat Kishore' s

father Ram Kishore, with borrowed money and jointly with four

others, bought an estate of Indigo planters, Messrs. Wise and

Carnegie, for 13 lakhs of rupees. Unfortunately, however, this

purchase turned out failure. When the Court took over Ram

Kishore's estate on his death, they decided to resell the newly

acquired portion for repayment of loan. Unlike Ram Kishore,

Surja Kanta^was a successful zamindar and purchased many landed

properties all over eastern Bengal. In his lifetime his estate

grew into the largest one in Mymensingh. But he was not blessed
with a son. He adopted Jagat Kishore's son Sasi Kant a J In

this way even the old established landlord family like the

Aoharjyas kept changing through time so as to adapt themselves to

new situations.

^Mymensingh DC. pp.142-3? Chose, Indian Chiefs, pp.321-4*

RWAB. 1884-85, para.68.
 247

The next ease is the Bhawal estate of Dacca. The ancestor

of this estate is said to have been a learned pandit of

Bajrajogini in Munshiganj. In the late seventeenth century his

descendant Bala Bam served as a Aswan the then head of Bhawal,

Daulat Ghazi. By 1704 Bala Ham and his son Sri Krishna had

succeeded in ousting the Ghazis and establishing themselves as the

new masters of Bhawal with the sanction of the Mughal authorities.

Since then their descendants had been in possession of this large

estate right down to the twentieth century without dividing it

into shares. It is interesting that just like the Aeharjyas they

had also expanded their estate during the nineteenth century.

In 18^1 they bought a share of the Bhawal pargana from a famous

indigo planter, Mr. Vise, for Rs.4,46,GOG to become an unrivalled

chief of the area. And in the last quarter of the nineteenth

century Baja Rajendra Narayan Bahadur succeeded to the estate and

much enlarged it by his dynamic activities. What is more, it is

reported that they made-, a systematic attempt to eradicate under­

tenures from their estate J

Apart from the above three, there are some more estates

that can be deemed rather old, although their early history is

shrouded in obscurity. Among the Muslim estates, the Dasmina

estate in the Sundarbans of Bakarganj is reported to have been

2
’an old Mohamedan estate. * The two Bays of Faridpur also appear

4
B. G. Allen, Eastern Bengal District Gazetteerss Dacca
(hereafter Dacca DQ) (Allahabad. 1912V. p.184;Dacca 3SB. naraT253.
2Cllr. Bak. to Gmmr. Dac., No.625W, 25 July 1906, DC0-17,
File no.2 of 1906-07 (HAB, Unclassified Oourt of Wards Bundles).
 248
to hove been families of old tradition. She Poorna Chandra Rai
family described themselves as 'an ancient and respectable family
who were once the owner of the pergunnah Edilpore.* In fact at
the time of the Fermanent Settlement Idilpur was in possession of
numerous small Chaudhuries of the Kayastha caste among whom Ram
Ballab Rai, Kista Ballab Rai and Star Sing Rai were prominent.1
And the Rukini Santa Rad. family of Jopsha was said to be 'one of
the oldest and most respected in the district* and related to Raja
Raj Ballab of Rajnagar who Beveridge wrote had been 'the most
conspicuous native in the Dacca division in the middle of the last
/"i.e., eighteenth^/ century* in spite of his humble origin.2
Furthermore, Mohan Chandra Chakravarti of Rohomutpore in Bakarganj
was a descendant of Narayan Chakravarti who, being one of the
largest talukdars of the pargana Chandradwip, had served the Raja
of Chandradwip as a dewan.^ All these four belonged to the
middling estates with the current demand of Rs.21,948, Rs.20,180,
Rs.12,366 and Rs.30,666 respectively.

Thus the estates that had existed or appear to have

existed since before British rule add up to seven in all. There
are at least two types among them. One refers to zamindar families
which were in possession of a considerable portion of a pargana

1'Petition of Bama Sundari Dasi,' 24 Aug. 1878, BGR-W,

File no.543 of 1878; Beveridge, District of Bakargan.1. pp.125» 128.
2
Offg. Cllr. Far. to Crnmr. Dac., Ho.4W, 29 Mar./4 Apr.
1887, BOR-W, File no.2771 of 1878; Beveridge, District of
Bakargan.1. p.94, 96, 97.
•X
*T. C. Jack, Bengal District Qazettepyg; Bftira.-rga.nl (hereafter
BwIcmbcwiI (Calcutta. 1918}. p. 1881 Beveridge. District of
Bakargan.1. pp.91, 111; Sen, Bakla. p.196.
 249
*

and successfully retained this portion virtually Intact notwith­

standing the vicissitudes of time (J. K. Acharjya and Bhawal).

The other is those which belonged to the social class of talukdars

or their eighteenth century equivalents (P. G. Roy and M. C.

Chakravarti). It seems that the former was chiefly found in Dacca

and Mymenslngh, while the latter was numerous in Faridpur and

Bakarganj. It should be noted, however, that the former type

appears to have been relatively small in number. In Mymenslngh,

for example, out of the- eleven parganas whose detailed history

is known only three—Alapsingh, Mymenslngh and Jafarshahi, and

Susang—survived to the twentieth century not so much divided.1

What is more, it is not that tills type of estates weathered the

storm of decades in hibernation. Quite the contrary, as has

already been shown, they were rather active and kept expanding

through time.

She estates other than the above seven cases, it appears,

mostly belonged to the new generation of proprietors who seized

an opportunity of rising to the landlord class after the British

consolidated their rule in Bengal. And when we examine their

origins and occupations, we find six typess Government function­

aries, zamindar1 s /"managerial staff^, lawyers, merchants,

indigo planters, and money-lenders.

It is well known that many famous zemindars rose to social

prominence by making a fortune while in employ of the colonial

Government. fhe Ghoshals of Bhukailas and the Tagores were such

1
'Mymenslngh DG. chap. 14.
 250
zaraindars. Gokul Chandra Ghoshal, the founder of the Bhukailaa

raj, was originally a salt merchant. But it was his close

relation with Henry Verelst, Governor of Bengal from 1767 to 1769,

that put him on the true path of success. When Yerelst took

charge of Cittagong in 1761, Gokul Chandra aocompnied him there

as the Diwan of the Provincial Council and piled up a huge fortune

by his trade in salt, betelnut and tobacco. His son, Jaya Harayan,

also served the Company’s government as a kanungo of the island

of Sandip. During his service as the Diwan of Chittagong Gokul

Chandra was sent to Selimabad, the largest pargana in Bakarganj,

to settle disputes among the ssamlndars. He misused this occasion

to establish his own claim on the pargana by shady transactions.

His machinations worked very well and by 1806 the Ghoshals had

succeeded in obtaining more than 8 annas share in this sprawling

pargana comprising most of the west central part of Bakarganj and

even extending to JessoreJ

The Tagores' close relation with the Company needs no

2
explanation. Ve should just add that in the late nineteenth

century Sourindra Mohan Tagore, the famous musicologist, more than

doubled his ancestral property owned jointly with his brother

Jatindra Mohan by extensive land speculations all over Bengal in

Bajshahi, Madia, Murshidabad, Pumia, fiangpur, Dinajpur, Bogra,

^Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri, 'Land Market in Eastern India,

1793-1940, fart II: The Changing Composition of the Landed
Society,' IESHR. XII-2 (1975), pp.140-1j Chose, Indian Chiefs.
p.382; C. E. Buokland, Bengal under the Lieutenant-Governors.
2 vols. (Calcutta, 1902), vol.2, p.1080. See also Table 32.
%or instance, see ding, Partner in Bm-niye. chap.1.
 251
Nya Dumka, Hooghly and BurdwanJ

It is of lnterst that this type was not limited to large

zamindars. For example, the founder &£ the Amrajuri estate of

Bakarganj (current demand, Rs.40,742) was a darogah of the Salt
p
Department. The Syedpore estate (Rs.68,942) was laid its

foundation hy one Bhagirath Singh who held a post of kanungo.

The ancestor of the Bamna Ghaudhris (Rs.90,203) was one Mohamed

Shuffee who the popular tradition held was originally only a

salt-nlada /“armed footman, messenger J, It was in 1809 that he

managed to huy part of the joar Bamna-Ramna in the Sundarbans for

Rs.1,165.*
4 2 *

There are tMO. families that descended from zamindar's

amlas (Mohan Chandra Chakravarti and Eaturia). The

most interesting of them is the Eaturia estate. As has been

pointed out earlier, it was founded by one Ashak Mridha. When

4;V
MUvia A6ag|VA wD 'hftiijDfVi'fi
UUU^Uv Tfl 11 ,miT».p
AUAJ.^/«U e
0* 1
J*ot*£pp npi^iTniifl AT^prirl 4 Tirr
m)Lftv J^CUqCnUOi vJLvvIIUiJUIq
aitot
wVOA
1 'hA'fch
Uw |)U

Faridpur and Bakarganj, and faced the former proprietors' fierce

resistance, this man took sides with the Tagores and distinguished

himself • *
R
Judging from hia first **«««» and those of his sons «nd

daughters, he was a Muslim. And his title, Mridha, suggests that

he was a rich Muslim cultivator exercising a considerable

*Chose, Indian Chiefs, pp.197-9.

2Sen, Bakla, p.267.

^Beveridge, District of Bakargan.1. p.157.

4Ibid., p.111.

■*Ray, Eharidtmrer Itlhaah. vol.2, pp.105-6.

 252
influence over the locality.1 It is not known who gave him the
i

title i hut the Tagore a no douht used him as a tool to establish

2
a foothold in the newly acquired pargana. His son Golam Ali

who greatly enlarged the.father's property was notorious for

dacoity. J. C. Jack, who appears to have been disgusted at tho

✓
way in which he had risen to prominence, remarked: '...a dacoit

carved out a large estate in the latter part of the nineteenth

century by the use and terror of his clubmen, Whatever his

deeds might have been, however, he was now a big landlord and

the title of mridha no longer befitted a. man in such a high

position. He assumed chaudhurihood and began to call himself

Golam Ali Ghaudhuri. When the Court took over the estate at his

death, its current demand turned out to be about 1.2 lakh of

rupees. It is remarkable that a family of such a humble origin

rose to the class of large landlords in just two generations.

There are two cases of lawyer-tumed-landlords: Dhankoora

and Bakjuri. The Bakjuri estate belonged to a distinguished

» 4
Regarding mridhas. see Raychaudhuri, 'Permanent Settlement,'
p.171. The mridhas ranked highest among the bands of 'feudal'
retainers maintained by every important zemindar, as distinguished
from the clerical officials in his estate office 7.
They were well-to-do Muslim peasants armed at the zamindar's
expense to protect the zamindar's kacharis and village home and to
accompany the gnmnaiitaba (agents) on tours of collection.
2
The Bhukailas raj resorted to the same measure when they
were unable to get possession of a large share in the Selimabad
pargana in Bakarganj that they purchased. They appointed one
Prannath Indu jjai]j> • He was an lnfimwittui maw in the locality
by ruthless intimidation by means of lathials compelled the
tenantry to recognise the new purchaser.Inreward he obtained a
large .1imba at a nominal rental. (Bakargan.1 3SR. para.316).
^Bakargapl SSB. para. 201. Golam Ali. was a Solamalis
dacoit. (J. C. Jack to Gramr. Bac., 11 Jan. 1904, BOfi-W, Pile
no.578 of 1904).
 253

lawyer family. Chandra Mohan Sen, one of the two brothers

jointly owning the estate, was a senior pleader of the Calcutta

High Court. Moreover, his father, Munshi Gokul Krishna Sen, was

the Government pleader in the Dacca Judge's Court; and his uncle,

Munshi Radha Krishna Sen, was stated by Chandra Mohan to have

been '(me of the best pleaders of the then Sadder Dewany Adalat.*

There were still many other family members who had held or still
held high Government posts.^ It was perhaps because of their

close connections with the Government that when the Court decided

not to take over- the estate in view of its hopelessly indebted

state, the Lieutenant-Govemor himself intervened in the matter

and In hi. own name Issued an order to assume it1in public

o
interest,'

The great-great-grandfather of the wards of the Dhankoora

estate was a shop-owner as well as a legal practioner in

Mymensingh town. He was a Srotriya Brahman. It is notable that

unlike other zamindars who made a start as merchants, the Rays of

this estate kept their shop going even after they had grown into

quite large landlords with a rental of 1.3 lakh rupees. It was

reported! 'The deceased /"wards' father_7 bad a shop in the town

of Mymensingh in which besiness used to be done in piece-goods &

* 'Petition of Chandra Mohan Sen and another,' Apr. .1904,

BOR-V, File no.886 of 1904.
Lieutenant-Governor's order, Ho.1202, 6 Mar, 1905, BOR-V,
File no.157 of 1905. Among the cosharers of the attached estates,
too, we find a lawyer, Armada Chandra Roy, the leader of the Dacca
Bar. (Gaul. Manager, Wards Estates, to Cmmr. Dac., 14 May 1894,
BOR-W, File no.66. of 1894). He set about land speculation with
a retired Collectorate aheristadar as a partner.
3Paooa Da. p.183.
 254

iron & other ware. She value of the articles found in the shop

has been estimated at Rs.6,189-6-3.So their shop was quite

big.

She Dacca Hawab family, by contrast, got rid of commercial

activities to purify themselves into landlords. Their original

home was in the Kashmir Talley. They migrated to Delhi where they

served the Mughal court. But when Hadir Shah invaded Delhi ifi

1739, they fled from his massacre and came down to Sylhet. They

embarked on trade in gold dust and skins and bought immovable

properties including the land on which the District Collectorate

was built later on. Than, they moved to Dacca in search of better

prospects. It was when Maulvi Hafizulla became the head of tho

family that they abandoned trade, invested their- fortune in landed

property in the districts of Dacca, Bakarganj, Tippera and

2
Mymensingh, and thus established themselves as wealthy zamindare.

As far as could be ascertained, the first lot they obtained seems

to have been a 4 annas share in the Attia pargana of Mymensingh.

They acquired it in 1806 on the strength of a mortgage bond for

Rs.40,000. Since then they continued to buy land property from

time to time throughout the nineteenth century. By the middle of

the century they had emerged as the largest zamindar in eastern

Bengal. Perhaps the most important and lucrative investment was

1Cmmr. Dao. to BOR, Ho.W/802A, 4 Feb. 1883, BOR-V, File

no.3326 of 1878.
^Buckland, Lieutenant-governors. vol.2, p.1028; ghose,
Indian Chiefa- pp.288-9: Dacca, Dg. pp.1*81-2i F. B. Bradley-Blrt,
Thfe Romance of an Eastern Capital (London, 1906), pp.282-5.
3
•nyfamawalTurh Dfl-. p,145.
 255
the purchase of the villages of Alia Phuljhuri in the Sundarhans.

It was on 8th April 1812 that Maulvi Hafizulla bought them for

Rs.21,000. At that time this region, was Mostly covered with

jungle and therefore had been assessed at a ridiculously low rate

of land revenue, Rs.372 a year* although it covered an extensive

area of 44*000 acres. But Phuljhuri was the place where the first

clearing of the Bakarganj Sundarhans was effected, and was rapidly

developing. When the Cess Operations was conducted in the Into

1870s, its estimated total rental amounted to as much aB

Es.2,20,502.1

Indigo planters were Europeans: K. S. Brodie and Nicholas

2
Eallonas. Some Indian landlords, also had to do with this

industry. Chandra Kumar Sandyal's tiny estate in Faridpur, had

shares in two indigo factories, while the estate of Jagat Kishore

Acharjya farmed out a portion of its khaa lands to an indigo

4
concern. The Indian landowning class did not snap their

connections with the indigo planters despite having adopted a

pro-raiyat stand during the indigo disturbances. In addition,

there is an interesting case that an indigo planter tried to have

a hand in the management of an Indian zamindar's estate. When

Surja Kanta Acharjya of Muktagacha of Mymensingh succeeded to his

father's large estate as a minor in the early 1860s, the Court

^Beveridge. District of Bakaraan.1. uu.112-8: Dacca DC.

p.122; Table 32.
^Hunter, Statistical Account, pp.415-6; Myrnenelnah DG-.
p.147
5RWAE, 1875-76, para.157.

4Ibid., 1877-78, para.302.

 256

took it over and made a decision to farm it out to the highest

bidder. Of the five parties who submitted tenders, three were

*

Europeans: E. S. Brodie* indigo planter; the Eastern Bengal Jute

Manufacturing Company; and J. R. Barry who was reported to be in

close concert with the said company. The Court selected E. S.

Brodie as the farmer. This case is perhaps illustrative of the

fact that the European commercial community at one stage attempted

to utilize the Court of Wards system for expanding their influence

2
.into the countryside.

It is difficult to ascertain the landlords who were

engaged in money-lending, as both the landlords themselves and

the Court of Wards kept singular silence on this vital aspect.

The sole exception is the Madhabpassa estate, whose money-lending

business was described in detail by the Commissioner of Dacca.

But it is characteristic that he drew up the report without calling

■r
them ' money-lenders.' This was most probably because money-
lending business was deemed a dishonour to the landowning class.^

However this respectable people revealed their heart in their

wills, where money-lending was. duly counted among the activities

1BRP-ER, Feb. 1866, nos.17-20.

2
That the jute industry in its infancy tried to take a
grip on gaminflayi estate is very suggestive. It may have attempted
to follow the way the indigo planters expanded indigo cultivation
by means of what is called the 'raivati system.' As to the
.'raiyati system'» see Benoy Chowdhury. growth of Commercial Agri­
culture in Bengal (1757-1900). vol.1 (Calcutta, 1964), pp.165-190.
^Cmmr. Dac. to BOR, Io.268W, 25' June 1878, BQR-W, File
no.258 of 1878.
^Rayohaudhuri, 'Permanent Settlement,1 2p.172.
 257

that should be succeeded to by their children. Rukini Kant Sal

of Jopsha in Faridpur, for instance, left a will which reads:

1 these /"landed_7 properties and money-lending and trading business

which I have at present and which I shall acquire in futrue shall

■i
devolve on all my sons in equal shares by right of inheritance.'

Moreover, there are abundant evidences, in the Court of Wards files

that Kali Krishna Tagore, a member of the most cultivated family

in our time, accumulated land by lending money on mortgage to

o
landowners. We should, therefore, consider money-lending normal,

rather than exceptional, activities of the landlords and devise

some way to detect money-lender-cum-landlords.

We may reasonably assume that this type of landlords had

a good sum of debts due to them. When examining accounts of debts

due to and due by our forty-one estates, we find that at least

*
twenty of them had debts due to them. By sorting out those

satisfying the conditions that credits exceeded debts due by them,

and that the amount of the former was more than double the sum of

the rent income, we get three estates: Mohan Chandra Chakravarti,

Dhankoora and Karayandahar. (fable 33). It appears that these

proprietors were professional money-lenders with extensive

business connections. It may be said in this connection that, as

has already been pointed out, the estate of Mohan Chandra

Chakravarti was an old one dating back to the eighteenth century

^ 'Translation of Babu Rukini Kant Roy's Will, * in Dy. CUr.

Far. to Cmmr. Bac., K0.125W, 19 Sept. 1881, BQR-W, File no.2771 of
1878.
2See, for instance, BQR-W, File no,543 of. 1878.
3
Data on the remaining twenty-one estates are not available.
 258
TABES 53

THREE EXAMPLES 07 MOEEI-LENDER-CDM-LAEDLORD

Rame of Bstate Rent Income8, Credits Debts

Rs. Rs. Rs.

23,023*
Mohan Chandra Chakravarti 10,207 7,297
Dhankoora 83,711 2,60,996 2,00,805
72,117k
24,207 12,254

SOURCES; 0mar. Dac. to BOR, Io.W/249, 18 June 1878, BQR-W,

Pile no.471 of 1878} Cmmr. Dao. to BQE, No.W/802A, 4 Pels. 1885,
BQR-W, Pile no.3326 of 1878} Offg. Cmmr. Dac. to BQ{1, Ho.235W,
27 May 1879, BQR-W, Pile no.748 of 1878.
HOTES: aThe sum left over after deducting from the current
demand the government revenue, the rents due to superior landlords
and 10 per cent of the current demand as management charges.
^Debts due to the estate covered by bonds or execution decrees.

and that the Dhankoora estate owned a big shop in Mymensingh town.

X. X. Tagore was a descendant of a Government functionary. Thus

the money-lender type did not form an exclusive group but was

often found combined with another type of social background.

How, to sum up our findings on the social character of

forty-one estates, our landlords assumed an overwhelmingly rural

character in respect of their dwelling places. To highlight this

aspect, it has been suggested that the concept of absenteeism

should be subdivided into two classes; the urban and the rural
i

absenteeism. It seems that the rural absentee landlords were by

far greater in number than the urban absentee landlords.

The communal and ethnic composition was really diverse.

 259
i

But under this apparent diversity lay the conspicuous fact that

the Hindu landlords outnumbered the Muslim landlords by as many

as six times, and moreover that the Hindu landlords in possession

of large estates were all Brahmans. She Baidyas and Kayasthas

also seem to have had a sizable share in land property. In this

way landlordism was the mirror of the social hierarchy of eastern

Bengal. Mother way of saying this might be that it afforded a

material foundation to the social hierarchy.

Perhaps it is partly because of these two faots and partly

because of oases of dramatic and pathetic declines of big zamindars

having been relatively few that some scholars have not seen so much

discontinuity as continuity in the land property structure of

eastern Bengal from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century.

Ratnalekha Bay has considered the rapid transfer of land properties

after the Permanent Settlement a mere internal circulation of

revenue-paying rights within the ranks 6f the bhadraloks /"high

caste Hindus with land properties or education or bothJV1 And

Sirajul Islam has gone to the extent of saying that 'the old

Mughal landed structure remained more or less intact in the eastern

parts of Bengal, especially in the districts of Dacaa, Mymenslngh,

a
Tipperah, Chittagong and Sylhet.'^ Their views are based on an

assumption that the social composition of landlords determines the

character of a land property structure. They fall to realize that

Me latter is only an institutional expression of the relations of

1850 (Hew Delhi, 1979), p.230.

^^ AfTariW] W^-Yn
2Sirajul Islam, The
li A
Sfrady of its Operation.
 260
landlords and raiyats, and hence that the former merely constitutes

one moment of the latter. Apart from this* their generalizations

have been drawn chiefly on the basis of their findings till the

early nineteenth century. Quite a different picture will emerge

if only we extend the scope of study up to the turn of the century.

It seems to us that significant changes took place within the

aooial composition of landlords itself during the nineteenth

century.

Ve have no information about the social geneses of small

estates with the single exception of the estate of Nicholas

Eallonas. But so far at least as the proprietors of large and

medium estates are concerned, it seems that even in eastern

Bengal old zamindars ^ taluqdars been gradually replaced

^ by the new generation of landlords with various backgrounds.

For one thing, our oases, the Baooa Nawab, Golan All Chaudhrl of

Haturia, K. s. Brodle in particular, indicate that the social

mobility of the landlord class remained at quite a high level in

the nineteenth century. For another thing, the occupational

breakup of the new proprietors has shown that Government

functionaries numbered 5» zamindar'e amlas 2. lawyers 2, merchants

2, indigo planters 2, and money-lenders 4. Some of them might

have been landlords in the first place, and then taken up the

above-mentioned as additional occupations. But it seems that in

most oases these occupations served as a spring-board to rise to

the class of landlords. Leaving out double-counting, their

number comes to 14 against 7 of those who had been landlords since

 261
before British rule J In additionf it should not be overlooked,

either, that some of the large old zamindars was active in land

speculations even in the late nineteenth century. It is difficult

to infer from these data that the Mughal land structure survlvod

to the nineteenth century.

Besides, it is of interest that the advent of the new

generation of landlords is a phenomenon observable irrespective

of the size of estates. What has hitherto been pointed out by

many scholars about the origins of big landlords such as the

fagores and the Bandies of Easimbazar is applicable to smaller

ones as well. She impact of the Permanent Settlement seems to

have reached lower strata of the landowning class than sometimes

imagined.

It goes without saying that the institution which mediated

the above process was the land market. ' The unfettered circulation

of the quasi-proprietorship created by the Permanent Settlement

made it possible to induct various people, from dacoits to High

Court pleaders, from Kashmiri merchants to European indigo

2
planters, into the ranks of the landed class. It was through

this process that the zamindari system imbibed more energetic

1 She estate of Mohan Chandra Chakravarti has been counted

among both the new and the old landlord groups.
2 In fact, many problems remain to be solved as to the
social and economic conditions that prompted their transformation
into landlords. A partial answer has been given by B, B.
Chaudhuri, who has shown that such conditions were not constant,
but underwent considerable changes through time. (See his 'land
Market in Eastern India, 1793-1940; Part I: She Movement of Land
Prices,' IESHR. XII-1 (1975).
 262
elements of society, ramified into different sections of it, and

as the result strengthened its own foundation. Conversely, the

repercussions of this process must have been felt on the part of

the zamindari system itself. Its most important aspect, it

appears, lay in a gradual change in the relations between landlords

and raiyats, the manner of domination of raiyats by landlords.

And in this way the zamindari system came to acquire its own

processes of functioning as clearly.dintinguished from the Mughal

system,1

^As the legal aspects of this long gradual process have

been extensively studied in connection with the hatvfcam or
Regulation VII of 1799, the rmAum or Regulation V of 1812, the
Rent Act of 1899, t^e Bengal tenancy Act of 1885, etc., we wCould
do better to exclude them from our scope. She earliest attempt
to trace the history from the point of view of the raiyats is
perhaps Sunjeeb Chunder Chatterjee's Bengal Ryots. Their Rights
and Liabilities. Being an Elementary Treatise on the law of
landlord and tenant (Calcutta. 18&4.1 reprint ed.. Calcutta. 1977).
A terse treatment of the history will be found in Radharomon
Mookerjee, Qaem-nangy Right; Its History and Incidents (Calcutta,
1919)* PP»53-106. As to the changes in the management system,
see iri-pva chap. 14.
 3cm»
LA3STD EROPERIT

It goes without saying that the landlord's power and

authority to dominate Idle peasantry flows out from his property

in land. Shis quite obvious postulate, however, cannot be taken

for granted in the case of Bengal where very confusing land

property relationship flourished. When we examine the composition

of land properties in the possession of any landlord, we find

that it faithfully reflected the complexity of the zsmindari

system and, at least at first sight, took on an exceedingly

baffling look. To make out this maze of land property relationship

we have to go deeply into the concrete details.

The number of landed interests^ of which the respective

estates consisted might be taken as a convenient index to the

intricacy. Table 34 shows the breakdown of landed interests of

thirty-two estates. Although, unfortunatley, the figures for our

top five estates are not available, it is clear that, as far as

these thirty-two estates are concerned, they were mostly composed

of a great number of landed interests, adding up to. more than

*The term 'landed interests' is used here to indicate

(1) the estates such as revenue-paying zamlndari. independent
talukdari and revenue-free lekhirmi - (2) all kinda of intermediate
tenures,"and (3) the- raiyati holdings. But the raiyati holdings
were seldom in the possession of the landlord class of our time.

263
 264
(TABLE 34s BOMBER OF LAUDED HISRESTS COMPRISED IB ESTATES

Bo. of landed Interest Current

SI.
Bame of Estate Current _________ e__________ Demand per
Bo. Demand ^Estates tenures Total' Landed
Interest
Rs. Rs.
H4 J. E. Acharjya 2,10,939 116 278 394 535
D3 Dhankoora 1,29,974 213 207 420 309
BIO Haturia 1,19,311 114 290 404 295

B11 Banina 90,203 7 1,424 1,431 63

B14 Madhabpasea 75,971 16 397 413 184
B18 Syedpore 68,942. 3 600 603 114
B13 / Amnajari' 40,742 18 329 347 117
B8 M. 0. Chakravarti 30,666 16 350 366 84
B6 B. L. Chakravarti 22,167 40 237 277 80
B15 Dasmina 21,948 1 228 229 96
B12 H. A* Lucas 15,913 5 179 184 86
B2 J. B. Ray 14,593 8 145 153 95
B17 Ehalisakota 13,173 9 *178 187 . 70
F4 TftnalfHh«rt» 20,307 22 51 73 278
F2 P. C. Rai 20,180 39 31 70 288
P3 Jopsha 12,366 13 35 48 258
M9 Earayandahar 42,777 14 25 39 1,097
M8 Hi P. Pogose . 35,924 1 34 35 1,026
m S. S. Chowdharani
i
30,895 2 21 23 1,343

B4 Hi C. Chakravarti ' 4,340 5 95 . 100 43

B9 H. E. Dae 3,599 1 132 133 27
B5 B. Bi Das 1,991 1 98 99 20
B7 B. E. Chakravarti 568 1 9 10 57
D2 L. H. Rai 8,289 30 10 40 207
D1 E. A. *>»»*» 3,631 . 27 33 60 61
PI C. Ei Sandyal 546 76 0 76 7
MX1 D. D. Chaudhuri 8,233 2 14 16 514
M2 B. Bi Goswamy 6,410 3 21 24 .267

(So be continued).
 265
TABLE 54-—Continued

No. of Landed Interest Current

SI.
Name of Estate
Current r____________0___________
-------- Demand per
No. Demand Estates Tenures Total Landed
Interoat

Es. Rso
M7 B. D. Chakladar 6,247 10 20 50 208
M2 J. B. Hollow 5,009 1 0 1 5,009
M5 H. 0. lashkar 2,208 4 1 5 442
M6 A. N. Chaudhuri 827 2 2 4 207

SOURCES: RBAB. BGR-W Files.

fifty, and quite often as many as several hundreds. The most

surprising case was the Bamna estate of Bakarganj v whose landed

Interests amounted to staggering 1,431.

It is also evident from this table that the estates can

i

be grouped, according to the number of landed interests, into a

few types* The estates consisting of over one hundred were mostly

found in BakarganJ with only two exceptions, viz. Dhankoora of

Pacoa and Jagat Kishore Acharjya of Mymensingh. Dhankoora was,

as has been pointed out, a unique estate combining trade and

money-lending with land management. As regards Jagat Kishore

Aoharjya, its 'ancestral' portion consisted only of 55 landed

interests, the remaining 559 constituting a new addition acquired

4
from indigo planters in the 1860s. In Mymensingh, by contrast,

^RWAB. 1876-77, para.185. For the details of the ancestral

property, see infra. Table 56.
 266

there were several estates containing less than ten landed

interests.

FIGURE 30
DISTRIBUTION OF ESTATES BY CURRENT DEMAND OF RENT
PER LANDED INTEREST

/0
VL

BT n
B 17 F4
B2 D3*
B12 J
hg!
F1 B 15 M3;
B7 B 6 BIB m\ >■
*
oo cr

B4- B8 BT8 HX2

x

#
;
Jfc*

r^>

B5 B11 B14 BlO

* * * * » T ? t
Omm tfcHflKD peb Ua©> Interest
Cfe.)

SOURCES Sable 34.

NOTES* Asterisked estates are those extending over
tiro or more districts, though the main portion lies in
respective districts indioated by symbols (D, .F, B and
M respectively representing Dacca, Faridpur, Bakarganj
and Mymensingh). She figure for the ancestral property
of the estate of Jagat•Kishore Achariya (M4) is Rs.3,239-
 267

This district-vise grouping becomes all the more clear

when we analyse the amount of current demand of rent per landed

interest* (Figure 30). Two distinctive types were discernible

among the estates of the Dacca division: first, the Bakarganj

type consisting of a large number of tiny landed interests with

the average value of less than Rs.200; second, the Mymensingh

type containing a smaller number of landed Interests of

comparatively high average value, Rs.200 and above. The Dacca

and Faridpur estates appear to form a transitional type between

the two.

This typological pattern was without doubt projection of

the characteristics of the land property relationship in each

distriot. The current demand per landed interest was inevitably

small in Bakarganj where innumerable petty intermediate tenures

had been created by endless subinfeudation and, what is more, had

been further subdivided into fractional shares by what the

settlement officer called the 'aliquot system'.^ In point of fact

he went the length of dubbing his district 'the home of the most
2
tortuous and intricate system of land-tenure in the world.' In

Faridpur and Dacca the subinfeudation process had not gone to

such excess. And in Mymensingh, in contrast to the three

districts, subinfeudation was not a general phenomenon, with

4
intermediate tenures being virtually limited to the second grade.
 268
FIGURE 31i CORRELATION BETWEEN SIZE OF ESTATE AND
CURRENT DEHAND FIR LANDED INTEREST
Current Dehand
of
Rent
CRs.)

SOURCE ft NOTESs S*e Figure 30.

 269

It may be added In passing that the average value of

landed Interests seems to have been correlated with the size of

estates. As is evident from Figure 31, so far at least as the

Baharganj and the Mymensingh types are concerned t there was a

broad correlation between the two factors within each type.

The landed interests became more dwarfish, the more the estate

was reduced in size. The number of landed interests, to put it

in another way, did not necessarily decrease in proportion to

the size of estatesi and the smaller estates comprised a

relatively great number of landed interests for their size.

Despite the faot that from a financial point of view they were

mostly put at a disadvantage against the large estates, they were

not relieved of the trouble of managing numerous landed interests.

This raised serious difficulties in their management.

One may. well wonder, with respect to the Bakarganj type

in particular, if it was possible for a landlord to manage so

many landed interests efficiently; to what extent he had a hold

on the raiyats; how much returns he could expect from these tiny

landed interests, and so forth. It is admittedly difficult to

give a definite answer firmly founded on facts. The actual state

of things appears to have been complex, and we would do better

to carefully consider the details of land property relationship

as it really was before drawing a conclusion. The problem may

be viewed from three angles, namely, the geographical distribution

pattern of landed interests, their tenurial characteristics, and

their rental earnings.

When we study estate by estate how the numerous landed

 270

interests were geographically located, we find several patterns0

Broadly speaking, a dear line of distinction can be drawn between

the large estates (with the current demand of over Rs. 1,00,000)

and the medium and small estates. And again each group may be

divided into the scattered and the compact types.

On the large estates, to begin with, the landed interests

usually lay spread over a lot of districts, numbering three or

more, with the single exception of K. S. Brodie's estate which

was reportedly concentrated in the Mymensingh district alone.1

Of than those in the possession of the new urban landlords

displayed a tendency to be much more scattered than those owned

by the old traditional rural zamindars. These two types might bo

represented by the Dacca Hawab's family estate and the Hhawal

estate respectively.

The former extended over six districts and was for the

sake of better management divided into five circles, which were

again split into sub-circles totalling as many as twenty-six.

(Table 35). She latter was also situated in four districts

(i.e. Dacca, Mymensingh, Baridpur and Bakarganj), covering an

area of 4,39,163.3 acres spreading over 2,274 villages. But the

distinctive characteristic of this estate, which makes a sharp

contrast to the former, was that its major portion was located in

only one pargana, the Bhawal pargana stretching from Dacca to

Mymensingh, which is reported to have formed *a compact block

surrounded by a ring fence, i And moreover, the proprietor family

i
_____ _____________________ r

1RWAE. 1875-76, para.195.

 271

TABLE 35

LAND PROPERTY COMPOSITION OF THE

MOCA NAWAB'S FAMILY ESTATE

Name of No. of Demand Payment Payment Rental D/A

Circle Sub- of Rent of Govt. of Rent & Eaminga X 100
oircles & Revenue Cesses to
Cesses & Cesses Superior
Landlords
(A) (B) (c) (DsA-B-C)

Rs. As. Rs. Rs.

Barisal 11 4,50,588 98,340 1 ,75,447 1,76,801 39
Ramchandra-
piar
(Tippera) 4 3,97,636 1,75,880 37,920 1,83,836 46
Attia (Nest
Mymensingh
& Pabna) 4 1,08,509 1 r22,743 ]
Joanshye
(East My­ ’ 25,074 4 ’1,95,411 T7
mensingh
& Sylhet) 3 1,45,896 . k11,177 -
Dacca 4 57,007 16,774 4,896 10,528 44

TOTAL 26 11,59,636 3,20,964 2,57,814 5,80,857 50

4

SOURCE: Hodding, Dacca Nawab1 a Fajriiitr 'Rg-ha-fca. pp.2, 4, 16.

NOTE: Land properties situated in Pabna and Sylhet appear to

Have been rather small. Their payments of Government revenue and
cesses amounted only to Rs.312 and Rs.25 respectively.
Figures given above are all book value.

resided in a town in the heart of the pargana to exercise their

4
supreme personal authority over the local people. Of course,

*RWAB-EB. 1910-11, para.26-(3); Dacca DG. p.183f I. M. Mitra

& R. C. Chakravarty, comps., The Bhowal Case (Calcutta. 1936), pp.1-
28. It is doubtful whether this sprawling pargana was actually
'surrounded by a ring fence.' This phrase most probably only
suggests that title pargana had a clear line of demarcation, and not
more than that.
 272
\

the Dacca Nawab was also possessed of fine parganas and zamindaris,

if not so excellent as Bhawal, in respect of both size and.

compactnesss Ayela Phuljuri and Sultanabad of Bakarganj, and Attia

and Joanshahi of Mymensingh, to mention some examples J In many

of the sub-oircles, therefore, he appears to have been the most-

powerful man and, as such, placed in a position to assert, without

hindrance, his influence on the basis of land proprietorship.

Unlike the Bhawal zamindars, however, he had not taken firm root

in social relations of the respective localities, partly becauso

he was a Kashmiri as well as a resident of the Dacca town, and

partly because his estate was so huge and so scattered that it

was utterly impossible to look after it with personal care.

Instead, his estate was provided with a fairly bureaucratized

2 and much seems to have depended upon his
management system,

capability to nun it efficiently.

As to the medium and. small estates (with the current

demand of less than Es.1,00,000), they were mostly situated in

only one district, although there were several cases of a very

small portion spreading out to the adjacent district. As might

be expected, the Mymensingh type had a simple and compact formation,

and most of them covered just one to three parganas clustering In

a part of the district. However, the Bakarganj type was not

always scattered over many places, and assumed rather a

complicated look. Ye find at least two varieties in it, which

^Beveridge, District of Bakargan.1. pp.115, 146| Hymensingh

M.9 PP-144-5, 149-50.
’ 2
See infra, chapter 14.
 273

may be exemplified by the Madhabpassa and the Bamna estates.

Madhabpassa'a 413 landed interests (16 estates and 397

intermediate tenures), yielding an annual rental of Rs.75,971,

were literally scattered all over the district. Indeed the

Collector reported: ’These proparties are situated in the Kotwali,

Ccurnadi, Sackergunge, Mehndigunge, Jhalakati, and Nalchiti thanaB

/"police oircles_7 in the Sadar Subdivision, in thanae Path.uakb.ali „

Bauphal, Galaohipa and Amtali in the Pathuakhali Subdivision, and

in thana Swarupkati in the Pirojpur Subdivision, and in tbann.

Bhola in the Bhola Subdivision.’1 2 Bamna, with Bs.90,203 of

current demand, was a little larger than, Madhabpassa, and, as has

already been noted, comprised the greatest number of landed

interests, as many as 1,431 in all (7 estates and 1,424 intermediate

tenures)* For all that, interestingly enough, this estate was

reported by the Collector to be a ’compact' one surrounded by clear

natural boundaries. To quote his own words: 'With the exception

of a very small portion the estate is oompact and bounded on 3

sides by big rivers and on one side by a big khal /"canal,

channel_7.

What made this difference? It seems that the most

influential determinant was the formative process of the respective

estates. We have already noted that Madhabpassa belonged to a

money-lending family. They lent money not only on simple money

1Cllr. Bak. to Cramr. Dao., lo.W/747, 12 Jan. 1904, BQR-U,

File no.77 of 1904.
2
Qffg. Cllr. Bak. to Cmmr. Dao., Wo.69W, 17 Apr. 1894,
BOR-W, File no.211 of 1893.
 274

bond but on mortgage of landed property as well. So it was quite

natural for them to come to accumulate lots of foreclosed lands

• in course of time. It is doubtful* however, whether they took

account of the location of the lands that were, mortgaged when

they accommodated their land-owning customers with money. It was

most probably due to their nonchalant loan policy that their

estate had assumed such a scattered shape. .

She characteristic of the Banana estate, on the other hand,

lay in idle fact that it was situated in regions bordering the

Sundarbans. On this estate the clearing of waste land had been

on the mows until comparatively recently; and a considerable

uncultivated area had reportedly been brought under cultivation

since 1838-39 when the survey and settlement was undertaken by

the proprietor.^ Perhaps it is not-a mere coincidence that in

these regions we find two more estates that are said to have been -

'compact,* viz. Syedpore with 603 landed interests (3 estates and

600 intermediate tenures) and Dasmina with 229 landed interests

(1 estate and 228 intermediate tenures). There is every

probability that all of the three were fruits of relatively new

reclamation work and that they still more or less retained the

original compact formation built up in its process, except in ono

important respect. Ve must take account of a new development in

the late stage of clearing; the estate owners opened a systematic

10ffg. Cllr. Bak. to Cmmr. Dae.* Wo.69W, 17 Apr. 1894,

BQR-W, Pile. no.211 of 1893.
,
2‘Cllr., Bak. to Cmmr. Dac., No.22W, 5 Apr. 1906, DCO-W,
Pilo no *2 of 1906^07 (BNA| Unclassified Court of Vsxds Bundles)}
Cllr. Bak. to Cmmr. Dac., Ho.'1424W, 11 Dec. 1906, DCO-W, File
no.23 of 1906-07 (BNA, Unclassified Court of Wards Bundles).
 275

drive to recover intermediate tenures they themselves had created

in order to expedite reclamation. This downward movement is

vividly described in the following report:

At the time of the decennial settlement the greater part of

the district /”i.e. Bakarganj_7 was wastev and in order to
bring it into cultivation the sooner and the more easily,
the proprietors often gave away considerable areas of land
on permanent leases. The holders of these, for the same
reason, permanently leased away portions of their land' to
others. The process went on from one grade down to another
till the entire estate was split into thousands of tenures.
The profits were eaten up by these tenures, and in course of
time the estate-holders either ousted the holders or bought
them up. The general practice of old was dispossession by
violence, and this procedure is by no means abandoned now.'

In their attempt to share in- the profits of extensive reclamation,

it appears, the Bamna zamindars and two others came to pile up

such a large number of intermediate tenures within clearly

demarcated boundaries.

Thus we find two opposite types among the Bakarganj

estates. They may be called the ’land transfer type1 (Madhabpassa)

and the 'reclamation type1 (Bamna) respectively. The former had

a tendency to scatter out horizontally, while the latter tended to

concentrate in one area. 'Land transfer' may of course include

purchase and inheritance besides mortgage. It need hardly be said

that both are a kind of ideal types, and that, therefore, there

were every shade of geographical distribution pattern between the

two poles.

From the above discussion on the geographical distribution

^ 'Final Report on the Valuation of the Land of the

Bakarganj District under the Road Cess Act, X(B.C.) of 1871,'
para.59» BRP, Road Cess Branch, Aug. 1877, Ros.27-28.
 276

of the landed interests, it would be clear that in both cases cf

the large and the medium and small estates the degree of dispersion

or concentration was determined more by the historical and social

background of each estate than by the mere number of landed

interests. And it is noteworthy that even in Bakarganj 'compact1

estates were in existence.

Furthermore, in discussing the geographical distribution,

we cannot miss the problem of the very small estates, many of

which lay scattered in a most desperate manner. For instance,

the estate of Bipin Bihari Das of Bakarganj in reoeipt of an

annual gross rental of just Bs.1,991 consisted of no less than

one estate and ninety-eight intermediate tenures, which were

situated 'in the sudder subdivision of Burrisal and the subdivision

of Ferozepore, and a small portion in district of Jessore.' ^ It
was impossible to manage it economically. This kind of estates

no doubt were poor victims of excessive subinfeudation.

f

How we proceed to study the tenurial composition of tho

landed interests. What kinds of landed interests did our estates

consist of?

let us begin with the Mymensingh type, which had a simpler

formation. The ancestral portion of the Jagat Kishore Acharjya

provides a fine example of this type. With an annual rental of

Bs.1,45,751, it was quite a large property, but comprised only

thirty-five landed interests: six g«minfl*rHLa. nineteen kharlla

1BWAB. 1875-76, para.175.

 277.

TABLE 36

COMPOSITION OF THE ANCESTRAL PROPERTY OF JAGAT KISHORE

ACHARJYA'S ESTATE IN MIMENSINGH

*
Mymen- Murshi-
-
airurh • Bogra Total
u dabad
Zamindarlg Entire 3 - - 3
.Share 2 1 -
Zhariia h3|||s Entire 14 - 1 1?
.Share 3 •m 1 4
Government fchas mahala Entire 2 - — 2
permanently settled [Share - —
2 2
_ ,* *
Government Rhas mahals Entire 3 J
‘
temporarily settled - -
Share 2 2
Shikml tenures - 1 - 1

Entire 22 - 1 ‘ 23
Jofat- *
l.Share 9 2 1 12

SOURCEi RWAB. 1876-77, para.183.

NOTES: 'KharUe* and 'Bhllmi* mean 'separated Independent

taluk' and 'subordinate* respectively.

Cindependent^ taluks, nine leases of Government estates, and,

in sharp contrast to the Bakarganj type, only one

subordinate^/ tenure. And what is more, about two-thirds were

undivided 'entire' landed interests. (Table 36). Of these

thirty-five only seven were considered of great importance. The

largest of them was a 4 annas share of pargana Alapsing, which

since the partition, of this sprawling pargana in 1799 had been

treated as an entire estate bearing a separate number (no.7)

on 1die Mymensingh tau.1i. It covered a vast area of 76,074

 278
acres.^ She next largest one was zamindarl Ho.51 comprising

Bhyrub Bazar on the Meghna river. Other landed interests in

Mymensingh were of no weight v except for the 5 coitri share of

zamindarl Ho.1 in Alapslng. She Bogra property contained Idle

sole intermediate tenure in this estate, i.e. a Hian-mai iiara

ifheritable lease./ of M§1§£. /"subdivision of mauz.3.7 Kbanuhara,

and zamindarl Ho.3 made up of a 4 annas share of taraf /"portion

of an estate./ Jbakar where the zemindar family's residence had

been located until they moved to Muktagatcha in Mymensingh, Sho

2
property in Murshidabad consisted of two small independent taluks.

In this way the mainstay of the ancestral property was made up of

just a few big zamindaris • • And considering that it contained

only one intermediate tenure, it was no surprise that out of

1.4 lakh rupees of annual rental it paid no more than Be.400 as

rent to superior landlords. Jagat Kishore Acharjya's estate had

thus retained a purer form of what we usually conceive of ah the

zamindarl estate until his father embarked upon land speculations

in the 1860s.

Haturally, smaller estates of Mymensingh were not so pure.

They comprised many intermediate tenures. Yet it should be noted

that even so, their composition assumed a much simpler form than

the Bakarganj type's. For instance, the landed interests forming

the estate of Durga Das Chaudhurl with Rs.8,233 of current demand

added up only to sixteen, of which fourteen were tenures. (Table

37). It is of interest that these tenures consisted of only two

1M.vmenaingh 33R. para.261.

3rWAB. 1884-83* para.68.
 279
varieties, viz. leases of Government khas mahals and ahikmi
£"dependent.,/ taluks, most of which appertained to one zamindari
Raydom owned 12 annas by Durga Das himself. This zamindari and
a ahikmi taluk subordinate, to it in Parai digar(?) which
yielded about two-thirds of the total rental- earnings constituted
the backbone of the estate. The same by and large holds good
with the estate of Bindoo Bashlni Goswamy as well. (Table 38).

TABU 37
TUTORIAL COMPOSITION OF TIE ESTATE OF
BURGA DAS CHAUDHORI IN MIMMSINGH

Current Payment Rental

Demand of Govt. Earnings
Tau.1i No. & Name of Landed Interest Revenue
or Rent
(A) (B) (a)-(b)
Rs. Rs. Rs.
Estates
No .125 zamindari pargana Raydom,
hissa 12 annas 4,290 2,017 2,273
No.5441 Kanadakar, pargana Raydom 23 21 4
Total 4,315 2,038 2,277
GnvejmmFmt Khas Mahals
Farm of khaq rrinViol Sanura
appertaining to No.4982 Bil •
Tarakuri 92 '
Farm of khas mahal Baman Mowa(?) » 120 9
appertaining to No.7830 Bil
Tarakuri 37..
Shikmi Taluks annertaininn to Zamindari Ravdom
Mauza Parai digar(?) 1 *440 39 1,401
Mauza Pilati 462 219 243
Mauza Salehapur 191 23 168

(To be continued)
 280
TABLE 57—Continued

Current Payment Rental

Demand of Govt. Earnings
Tau.ii No. & Name of Landed Interest Revenue
or Rent
t •
(A) <B) (A)-(B)-

.Rs. Rs. Rs.

Mauzas Bagra, Durgapur» Rawha,
Bhandarpara, Ruprampur,
Gangapagar, Paikura, &'
ha-t /weekiy market,./
Shihgunge 1,161 111 1,050
Mauza Shampur 21 2 19
Mauza Hupenpur 47 5 42
Khatir Nagua(?) 8 • 7 1
Lakhipara 7 3. 4
Bhadrapara 15 13 2
Haripur alias Bashati 155 7 148
Taluk in the name of Ttairhi Narayan
Chakra appertaining to the said
zamindari 281 22 259
Nasirabad Bashabari /**lodging
hous e_7 ' - 6. . -6

Total 3,917 577 3,340

GRAND TOTAL 8,232 2,615 5,617

SOURCE: Cllr. Mym. to Cmmr. Dae., No.441W, 4 Nov. 1881 , BOR-Ttfj,

File no.2894 of 1878.
HOSES: The figures of columns (A) and (B) are inclusive of
cesses. Dak tax and Municipal tax (amounting to Rs.50) which this
estate paid to Government are not included in column (B)\
 281
TABLE 38
TENURIAL COMPOSITION OP TEE ESTATE OP
BINDOO BASHINI GOSWAMT IN MTMENSIEGH

Current Payment Rental

Bemand of Govt. Earnings
Tau.1l No. ft Name of Landed Interest Revenue
or Rent
(A) (B) (A)-(B)
Rs. Rs. Rs.
Estates
Bos. 1649 & 203 taluk Srinaragran
Sircar Kumaria, pargana Kagmari 619 36 583
Bos.1735 ft 137 taluk Shib Sirma
Kismat Gadurgati, pargana Kagmari 317 11 306
Nos.608 ft 352 taluk Shek Jharoo
kismat Barapyan(7), pargana
Barabazu 17 3 14
Total 953 50 903
Shilrmi Taluks
Mauza Aiwa appertaining to
zamindari No.46 3,015 57 2,958
Bo. Palsba do. do. 908 26 882
Bo. Indra Belta do. do. 59 1 58
Bo. Gadurgati do. do. 110 1 109
Do. Saratia do. do. . 436 15 421
Bo. Kumaria do. do. 149 16 133
Patnl Taluks
Enmaria do. do. 266 443 -147
Kismat Kai.-Jri(?) do. do. 41 0 . 4*1
Do. Jwair do. do. 99 87 12
Bo. Aiwa do. do. 73 0 73
Bo. Julabari do. do. 11 0 11
Rent-free Brahmattara
Chapar Kuna 32 0 32
Prannathpur 130 0 130
Basara 33 0 33
(To be continued).
 282
(CABLE 58—Continued

Current Payment Rental

Demand of Govt. Earnings
(Cau.1l No. & Name of Landed Interest Revenue
or Rent
(A) (B) (A)-(D)
i »
Rs. Rs. Ro*
Barabelta 50 0 50
Charabari 9 0 9
Daimia 6 0 6

Kajra 6 0 6
Neugi Jwar 9. . 0 Ci
w*

Golabari 11 0 11
Total 5,455 616 4,85?

GRAND TOTAL 6,406 .666 . 5,740

SOURCE: Cmmr. Dae. to BOR, No.267W, 16/17.July.1885, BOR-V/,

File no.165 of 1885.
ROSE: She figures of columns (A) and (B) are inclusive of ..
collections and payments of cesses.

(Che Bakarganj type, by contrast, contained intermediate

tenures of as various kinds as imaginable, lake for instance the
Dakhin Shahbazpore estate, which was about the size of the
ancestral portion of Jagat Kishore Acharjya's estate. * It was an
attached estate in the joint possession of seven sets of
proprietors.1

1Eor reasons, already stated, the attached estates do not

always furnish the data quite fit in with our aim. But they will
satisfactorily serve the limited purpose of getting a rough idea
of what divergent and numerous landed interests the Bakarganj
landlords were possessed of.
 283

TABLE 39

TENURIAL COMPOSITION OF AH ATTACHED ESTATE:

DAKHIK SHAHBAZPORE OF BAKARGANJ

Current Payment Rental

Description of landed Ho. Demand of Govt. Earnings
Interest Revenue
or Rent
(A) (B) (A)-(B)

Rs. Rs. Rs.

Estate
Zamindari estate Ho.1763 1 42,633 35,870 6,763

Intermediate Tenures
Taluk 108 63,031 19,080 43,951
Osat taluk 24 3,701 1,383 2,318
Him osat taluk 1 231 136 95
Etmam 3 234 114 120
Haola or Jimba 161 10,899 6,345 4,554
Osat haola 2 459 153 306
Him haola 16 1,128 528 600
Osat nim haola 2 142 48- 94
Total 317 79,825 27,787 52,038

GRAND TOTAL 318 1,22,458 63,657 58,801

SOURCE: F. M. Basu, Survey and Settlement of the Dalchln 3hphhp?.-mi-r

Egtajies .inJh^..Dl^SlSdl,ijfJakepaai. *889-1895 (hereafter
D. Shahbazpore SSR) (Calcutta. 1896). p.lxxvi.

NOTES* Besides the above-mentioned properties the proprietors

were in possession of ferries, fisheries, markets and grazing lands.
Both awfl jyLjg are prefixes moaning * sabordinate •'

Recorded as zamindari Ho. 1763 on the Bakarganj tau.1l. this

estate was composed of a compact cluster of forty-four villages

situated in the eastern half of Dakhin Shahbazpore Island in the

Ganges estuary. What arouses our interest is that the above group
 284

of proprietors held no less than 317 intermediate tenures

subordinate to it. These tenures fell into as many as eight

hinds and yielded about eight times as much rental earnings as

the estate No.1763 itself. (Table 39).

According to the settlement report, on this estate there

existed fourteen grades of intermediate tenures, viz. (1) taluk.

(2) nim taluk. (3) osat taluk. (4) dar uatni osat taluk. (3) nim

osat taluk. (6) dar nim osat taluk. (7) miras 1.1 ara. (8) etmam.

(9) mudafat. (10) haola or jimba. (11) osat haola. (12) nim haola.
(13) osat nim haola. (14) dar osat nim haola.1 2 And
3 their total

number and the rental due from them are roughly estimated at over
2
4,000 and Rs.135,000 respectively. So our proprietors were in

possession of about 8 per cent in terms of number and about 20

. per cent in terms of rent payment of the intermediate tenures

taken as a whole. Their motive for buying them up was to obtain

'direct possession of lands'. Ve have already seen this kind of

1Basu, D. Shahbaznur SSR. para.63#

2
Estimated frdm the data given in D. Shahbazuur SSR.
pp.lxvi-lxviii, lxxxvi.
3
Ibid., para.61. This paragraph runs as follows:
'It must not be supposed that because there is a great number
of under-tenures there must be at least an equal number of
distinct persons holding these separate rights. It often
happens that one and the same person holds several classes of
rights in the same piece of land. This is, to a certain
extent, due to the fact that in many instances the shareholders
of the zamindari acquired the additional status of tenure-
holders with the object of obtaining direct possession of the
i.1mali £ jointly held./ lands. Thus a person has a 2-anna
share in the zamindari, and there is a taluk or howla the rent
of which is payable to all the share-holders. If this taluk
or howla is sold, and the aforesaid shareholder of the
zamindari buy it, he acquires a new right and one which is
valuable to him, for he becomes thereby the full owner of tho
taluk or the howla and pays 14 annas of his rents to his
 285

downward movement in relation to the reclamation type of estates.

As regards the wards1 estate in Bakarganj we could not

find their accounts as detailed and exhaustive as Pakhin

Shahabazpore * a. However idle two oases that follow afford glimpses

into the complex situation.

The first one is the'Bamna estate. Table 40 is taken

from a list of properties drawn up when a proposal to raise a

mortgage on land was made* for repaying a long-standing debt.

It covers only 36 of the 1,431 landed interests constituting the

entire estate. But even among them we find five varieties* viz.

taluk haola. natni taluk, haola. nim haola. and osat nim haola.

They are mostly very small with the exception of several

properties. From the fact* however* that most of them have tha

same share of 15 annas and that almost two-thirds bear the nano

of either Hosanaddi Chowdhury or Afsaruddin (Atahruddin) Md. .

Chowdhury* it would appear that they are intertwined with one

another to form a fairly cohesive unit with Taluk haola Hosanadi

Chowdhury (No.1) and Haola Afsaruddin Choudhury (No.3), which

yield about half the rental earnings* as the nuclei. And that is

most probably why these multifarious landed interests .were chosen

for mortgage. Perhaps Banina*s 1*431 properties were first grouped

into this sort of coherent units and then were put together to

co-shares and 2 annas of it* to himself. Such a purchase*

however* does not necessarily give him any touch with the
land; for there may he osat howlas and nim howlaa and a
series of other under-tenures below the right purchased;
so that if he wishes for direct possession he must go on
purchasing all these rights in the land.1
 286
TABU 40
LIST OF BAMHA ESTATE'S PROPERTIES TO BE MORTGAGED
V •

Extent Current Payment Rental

Name of landed Interest of Demand of Govt. EarningB
Interest Revenue
or Rent
i (A) (s) U)-(B)

i
A-p Rs. Rs. Rs.
1. Taluk haola Eosanadl
Choudhury 9-11 1,333 56 1,277
2. Patnl taluk Idaneesa
Khatun 2-3 809 685 124
3. Haola Afsaruddln Md.
Choudhury 3-5 1,253 227 1,026
4. Him haola Bara Nath Dutt 15-0 215 95 120
5. Bo. Munshi Samiraddin 15-0 390 70 320
6. Haola Radha Prasad Boy 1-6 179 27 152
7. Bo. Afsaruddln Md.
Choudhury 15-0. 404 . 178 226
8. Bo. Sonaulla 8-0 29 16 13
9. Him haola Afsaruddln Ed.
Choudhury 15-0 55 , 13 42
10- Bo. Tilak Chahdza
Chakrvartv 15-0 . 33 19 14
11 • Haola Kali Kumar Gupta 15-0 22 16 6
12. Bo. Manik Bitub Haya 15-0 77 31 46
13* Him bWnla 1Ta.11 Fumay Dutt 15-0 17 13 4
14. Bo. Janakl Hath Butt 15-0 20 8 12
13* Bo. Hosanaddi Choudhury 15—0 493 290 203
16. Bo. . Bo. 15-0 201 45 156
17. Bo. Bo. 15-0 97 4t 56
18. Haola Bo. 15-0 588 241 347
19. Him haola Bo. 15—0 142 105 37
20. Bo. Bo. 15-0 24 6 18
21. Haola Bo. 15-0 256 134 122
22. Bo. Do. ' 15-0 86 33 53
23* Bo. Bo. 15-0 163 69 94
24. Him haola Bo. 15-0 87 42 45
(To be continued).
 287

TABLE 40—^Continued

Extent ' Current ‘ Payment Rental

of Demand of Govt. Earnings
Kame of Landed Interest
Interest Revenue
or Rent
(A) (B) (a)-(b)
-
A-p Rs. Rs. Rs.
25* Mm haola Afsaruddin Md.
Chowdhury 15-0 140 115 25
26. Bo. Atahruddin(?) Md.
Chowdhury 15-0 22 8 •, 14
27 0 Bo• Bo. 15-0 .11 4 7
28. Bo. Do. 15-0 11 4 •. 7
29. Bo. Bo. 15-0 28 27 1
30. Bo. Do. 15-0 28 27 • 1

31. Do. Do. 15-0 10 5 5

32. Bo. Bo. . 15-0 55 50 5
33* Osat nim haola Omda i
Khatun 15-0 13 5 8
34. Do. Bo. 15-0 61 28 33
35. Do. •DO ir 15-0 40 14 26
36. Do. Bo. 15-0 40 14 26

Total 7,432 2,761 4,671

SOURCE: Offg. Cllr. Bak. to BOR, Eo.196W, 15/16 May 1894, BOR-W,
Pile no.211 of 1893*

form the whole estate. .

Similarly* the Haturia estate was also composed of all

sorts of landed interests. The schedule of properties under the

Bengalee title of 1 Tamchhil Samuatti* /"i.e. 1 Taphashil Samuattl1 7

submitted by the proprietors to the Court of Vards mentioned at

least eighteen kinds, viz. (1} zamindari. (2) khn-riia taluk.
 288

(3) daiml bandobaati char /"alluvial land permanently settled

subsequent to 1793.7* (4) -lalkar /’fishery_7* (5) taluk. (6) osat

Ijajjakj (7) kharld taluk /”^Gjjk wbinh had been purchased but the

purchase of which had not been recognized by the superior

landlord_7, (8) kalm mukarrarl taluk /"permanent taluk with per­

petually fixed rent_7» (9) oatni taluk. (10) dar natni taluk.

(11) 1.1ara /"temporary lease_7, (12) haola. (13) nlm haola. (14)

osat nlm haola. (15) kalm mukarrarl haola. (16) -limba. (17) nlksha

utaarga /"rent-fees grant_7* and (18) karaha /"a kind of occupancy

right peculiar to Bakaraanj 7. raivati uatta. raivati jama.1

The 'Tapachhil Sampatti1 *provides us with a detailed

description of each landed interest* specifying their name*

position in the tenure tree* location, sadar jama (i.e. Government

revenue or rent to superior landlord), proprietor's name, his

share, route of acquisition, etc. Let us examine a few cases.

The one standing at the top of the list is a share of a zaminderl

in pargana Uttar Shahbazpurt

No.1. 1 anna 10 pies share of zamindari no.2709* in pargana

Uttar Shahbazpur, of the Bakarganj Collectorate's tauji.
First created in the name of Nyamatulla Sikdar. Purchased
by Jamina Shatun at auction sales. Owned by Mian Golan All
Ghaudhuri by virtue of inheritance. Situated in kiamat
Gobindpur, Chandpur, Gowal lhattar, Tetuliya, etc. in police
station Mehendiganj, mauza Dighaldi, etc. in policp station
Dhaniya, and mauza lohaliya, etc. in police station Bauphal.

1 'Tapachhil Sampatti4 /ll.e. schedule of properties/^,

BOR-W, File no.124 of 1893* no.29. As my extract from this
'Tapachhil' is incomplete, these eighteen items may not contain
all the descriptions of landed interests found in the Haturia
estate.
 289
Sadar ,1ama /“i.e. land revenueRs.236-8-7-4-10.1
It was most probably becauee this zamlndari was considered the
most prestigious of all the landed interests that it was placed
at the top. Nonetheless it was a mere fractional share paying
annual Government revenue amounting to just Es.236 odd. In fact
Haturla, with its current demand of no less than Rs.1,19,311»
comprised only a small number of zamlndari estates and mostly
consisted of independent taluks, flalml bandobaatis /"alluvial
land settled permanently subsequent to the permanent settlement/^
and intermediate tenures. Xhere< were large daimi bandobaatis
with land revenue of His.5*000, Rs.3,441, etc. Of the intermediate
. tenures the following case pointedly illustrates the complicated
situation which the Bakarganj type estates sometimes faced.
No. 252, Peat nim haola Mahamad Ahachan Chaudhuri in jowar
Bagura. ‘yin jjjg hgola Nazir Hahamud in the
possession by virture of inheritance of Nurannechha Bibi,
wife of the late Ajijuddin Ahamud, which is again subordinate
to haola Bairam Acharjya in jowar Bagura, which in turn is
subordinate to jyjiggjjyg, JggyjJj: Chnnflyimh airha-r* Chakravarti of
pargana Chandradwip, within the boundary of police station
Eotwali in district Bakarganj. Owned by Mian Gplam All
Chaudhuri by virtue of purchase. Sadar lama, /i.e. rent to
superir landlords./ Rs»3.

. 1'lapachhil Sampatti', BQR-V, File no.124 of 1893, no.29c

She original text runs as follows iy~, r C^
fcnr nv ?r: cr?5ri't cot?
winm-gf? ffefeorfv i5.s I van§V fw-cr? ferry
scrferr Vayrfer fyopr (srr^rry {xrfc (T^raV
(fct few 0nrfe\si@, ffaczs, W?,
\3 (& cife fewA (fe
r^SDrfSyv' sp^x hkw&pt l| \ 1 \o m3
(Glossaryi » ^7 uame (i.e. name of persons.in whose name a
property or-'a tenancy Is first created );.sf(3r , by virtue of;
, subdivision of mauza) **
\ ■ 2
Ibid. She original text is as follows:
 290
G-olam All Chaudhri of Haturia bought a tiny nim oaat haola of

the fourth grade which paid no more than Re.3 to Nuranechha Bibi,

the nim haoladar immediately above him. Heedless to say, not all

the intermediate tenures were as small and of as low grade as

this. For instance* the .1imba that he had bought at auction sales
*]
under another person's name paid about Rs. 1,773 to the natnidar.
He built a kaohhari /”offioej^ on it, which seems to suggest it

was one of his key properties.

Furthermore, he went the length of buying raivati

holdings, one of which is described as followst

Ho.303* Raivati natta Munshi Oolamnabi. Subordinate to

71 im |ggojy& Swarupchandra Sinha, Whinh in turn is subordinate
to haola Munshi Golam Habi, first created in the name of
Hijamaddi Pashari, in jowar Gopalpur in pargana Madaripur.
First created in the name of Jugalmajhi. Purchased under
the name of Earimannechha Khatun. Owned by Mian Golam All
Chaudhuri. Sadar .lama Rs.2-4-9*2

It is worthy of special notice that land purchase of this estate

had reached the level of raivati holdings. This problem will be

sr: fcrr
(5CW 3Tv3RT VSTTWlf
^ TO wwxwrr wrirc vay*^15?
SHSTWC ^3 • \wnrr$rrc OTtfe TO 353?y \3S& smtjjvc
lyrerw irrf^ fer (ww toife
' ; cJivs^c - isrz ‘tfr§V)
1'Tapachhil Sampatti*, BOS-W, File no.124 of 1893, no.102 .
2 Ibid., nd.303. The original text reads*

5|Yvcrl5^3 Isix.%3 (pcn^ CWfYRwfa (WTW

ipcftpvs w(? ‘mqr ogilfj

Gyr (Jnsrry Vwr^ c«M *r*c? w

 291

discussed in chapter 17*

In this way our estates, whether the Mymensingh or the

s

Bakarganj type, usually comprised not only zamindari estates and

independent taluks but also various intermediate tenures.

Contrary to the common assumption, therefore, no clear line of

distinction could be drawn between zamindars and tenure-holders.

Perhaps our smaller proprietors should rather be viewed as

intermediate tenure-holders than zamindars; but since they had

obtained estates, however small and fractional, they were

zamindars in the fullest sense of the term at least in the eye

of the law. Conversely, old and big zamindars had diluted their

character by embarking upon land speculation and adding many

intermediate tenures to their ancestral property.^ Thus there

were few genuine zamindars in our period; and similarly, we

should not assume, either, the existence of genuine talukdars.

osat talukdars. haoladars. etc. It is precisely with regard to

this state of things that Tapan Rayohaudhuri has written: 'the

supposedly pyramidal structure of land rights under the permanent

2
settlement dissolves into some indefinable shape.'

As to the motives behind the acquisition of intermediate

^In this connection we may add another interesting case:

even such an old zamindari as Susanga of Mymensingh followed the
policy of buying up the permanent tenures in the late nineteenth
century. The last Maharaja, Bhupendra Chandra Sinha, wrote in
his memoir: 'He / Raj Krishna^ gave complete shape to the scheme
of purchasing the permanent tenures, under the Susanga Raj started
by his father, Raja Pran Krishna £b. 1808-d. 1864_/, and thus
strengthened the collapsing hold of the Raj.' (Bhupendra Chandra
Sinha, ChangijogJEimes (Calcutta, 1969)', pp.150-1).
o
See supra, p.156.
 292
tenures, we have mentioned two of them before, that is, to share

in the profits of reclamation and'to obtain direct possession of

land. There most have been other reasons as wen. In studying

land property relations as a framework for dominating raiyats,

the central problem is no doubt that of direct possession of land.

How far did the landlords succeed in achieving their aim of

obtaining direct possession of land? Or what comes to the samo

thing, to what extent did they establish direct contacts with

raiyats?

Our case study of Kanakshar, a medium-sized estate in

district Faridpur, has shorn that about four-fifths of the total

area was occupied by those raiyats who paid rent directly to the
proprietor.^ In this particular case the degree of direct

possession or contacts may be considered very high. Unfortunately,

we are not provided with any other definite data in this respect.

But we can form a rough idea'by analysing the statistics on land

tenure furnished by the Cess Operations and the Survey and

Settlement Operations.

Since our landlords were simutaneously proprietors (i.e.

zamindars, independent talukars, etc.) and tenure-holders, we can

approach the problem from two angles. First, how were they, in

idle capacity of proprietors, related to the raiyats? When we

study the way the proprietors of private estates disposed of their

lands in Bakarganj, we find that they reserved only 1£ per cent

*See supra; pp.215-6. This figure is based on a survey

that covered abput one-fifth of the entire estate.
 293
TABTiB 41

PATTERNS OF LAND DISPOSAL BT PROPRIETORS

Reserved Leased Leased; Granted Occupied

by Propri­ to . to Free of by
%
etors Tenure- Raiyats Rent Rivers,
holders Roads,
.
* i*
i i ‘ '*
etc.

Bakarganj ' ' 1* :•

76 14 ■Sir ' ■ 3 ■

Faridpur 2 , .
55 .35 ' 5 3
Daeeaa 8 33 , 64 3
, 1 -------- T----------- J
Kymensingh
•
Susahg 5 • 76 1
[
i
19
Hosenshahi . 3 56 41
Joanshahi 8 46 •
46
"y
Jafarshahi 30 'i ’ 65
Mymensingh n 16 . 75
Alapsingh 7 17 76
Eagmari 12 13 75

SOURCES i Bakargan_1SSR. para. 163; Faridpur SSR. para.58;

Dacca SSR. para. 1 AO a MyrnernrHinffh SSR. para.116. ,
NOTE; ®The total of the figures for Dacca comes to 108 instead
of 100 for unknown reasons.'

as khan land and sublet as much as 90 per cent, of which 76 per

cent was given to the tenore^holders and 14 per cent to the

raiyats. (fable 415 * Judging by the proportion of lands directly

leased out to the. raiyats, i.e. 14 per cent, the degree of direct
contact in Bakargahj may he considered very low.\ In Faridpur,

however, the proportion rose to 35 per cent, and in, Dacca it

*There is possibility that a portion of khas land was also

let out to raiyats. But this does not affect the general tendency.
 294

further increased to the range of 60 per cent* twice as much as

i

the percentage let out to the tenure-holders. Unfortunately,

the figure for all Ifymensingh district is not available. But

data concerning several important parganaB suggest that the

proportion in this district might have been even higher than in

Dacca. Accordingly, so far at least as the JSyiaensingh and Dacca

estates are concerned, it was not exceptional at all that the

proprietors directly dealt with the raiyats, but It was quite a

normal state of things.

She next point to be considered is our landlords' relations

with the raiyats in the capacity of tenure-holders. Shis problem

• has special relevance to the Bakarganj type landlords who leased

out only a small portion of land directly to raiyats, and instead,

were in possession of innumerable intermediate tenures. Did they

succeed in making up for the unusually low degree of direct

• i

contact by obtaining intermediate tenures? She Hoad Cess

statistics on idle tenurial structure afford the key to the question.

She common idea about the tenurial structure would be

that it spreaded out like an unfolded fan from the top to the

bottom. J. C. Jack, for instance, tried to illustrate,what he

called a 'regular subinfeudation1 by a model where an estate of

2,000 acres was divided into four taluks of 900 acres each, each

of which was subdivided into five osat taluks of 100 acres. And

again each osat taluk was split into four haolas. As subinfeuda-

. tion went on in this way, this estate came to have 4 taluks.

20 osat taluks. 80 haolas. 160 nim haolas. and 320 raiyati

 295

FIGURE 32

TENURIA1 STRUCTURE IN BAZARGANJ IN THE 1870S

Number Co,ooo)

Te n u r e ^
of

SOURCE: 1 Final Report on the Vaulation of the Land of the

Bakarganj District under the Road Cess Act, X(B.C.) of 1870,1
Table B, BRP, Local Taxation Branch, Aug. 1877, nos .27-28.

NOTESs 1. In the Bakarganj Cess Operations the estates paying

revenue of less than Rs.50 a year were exempted from returning
the details and summarily valued. (Ibid., para.18}.
2. The number of intermediate tenures mentioned above
is not inclusive of those appertaining to such estatesa.
3. The chequered portion of the bar shoving the number
of estates indicates those paying revenue of Rs.90 and above a
year, while the portion drawn with the dotted line denotes those
paying revenue of less than Rs.50.
 FIGURE 33

TMURIAL STRUCTURE IN FARIDFUR IN THE 1870S

N u H S ■£ R C,000)

SOURCEi 'District Statistical Accounts (Furreedpore) by Ehuban

Mohan Raha,' Proceedings of the Government of Bengal, Statistical
Department, Sept.• 1873, nos.35-36.

NOTES s 1, In the Cess Operations the estates paying revenue of

less than Rs.100 a year were exempted from returning the details
ftnri summarily- valued.
2. The portion drawn with the dotted line of the above
bars indicates the number of such estates and the estimated
number of intermediate tenures appertaining to them. Other
portions denote the estates paying revenue of Rs.100 and above
and the intermediate tenures and raiyati holdings subordinate to
them.
 . 297

FIGURE 34

TENURIAIi STRUCTURE IN DACCA IN THE 1870S

NoHBfefc (j0eo)

T enures
of
SOURCE: 'Statistics of Land Tenures in the Dacca District,'
The Statistical Reporter. Hay 1876, pp.371-2.

NOTES: 1, See note 1 to Table 33.

2.- The number of intermediate tenures mentioned above
is not inclusive of those appertaining to the estates paying
revenue of less than Rs.100.
' 3* She chequered portion of the bar shoving the number
of estates indicates those paying revenue of Rs.100 and above a
year, while the portion drawn with the dotted line denotes those
paying revnue of less than Rs.100.

4
holdings. The Road Cess Returns, however, revealed that in

reality this was not the case.

The Road Cess returns, which not ohly relied chiefly on

the statements prepared and submitted by landlords themselves but

adopted a summary method for evaluating smaller estates, cannot

1
Bakargan.1 S3R. para. 146.
 298
lay claim to having been exhaustive and perfectJ There is much

possibility of tenures of lover grades having been understated.

Moreover, it is probable that the common practice of dividing on

estate or tenure into fractional shares vas not fully taken into

account vhen counting its number. Nevertheless, the results

obtained with regard to Bakarganj, Faridpur and Dacca were

forceful and eloquent enough to establish beyond doubt that tho

tenure tree fanned out only down to the first or the second grade,

and thereafter steeply contracted in geometric progression.

(Figures 32-34). Such was also the oase with the Mymensingh

district, where during the Survey and Settlement Operations over

110,000 Mmtinnn were issued to the first grade tenure-holders,

while only 30,901 and 5,017 were handed over to the second and
2
tiie third grade tenure-holders respectively*.

Thus even in Bakarganj the possibility of direct contact

with raiyats would have precipitously Increased if only the

landlords had been induced to obtain intermediate tenures at least

down to the second grade. And this, as we have noted before, is

exactly what they did. The process was reported as follows:

It is common to find, for instance, the dependent talua and

tiie subordinate osat talua in an estate held by the estate-
holder himself. The subordinate howla is held byaa second
party, and often the nim howla below it belongs again to tho
estate-holder•3

* 'Government Resolution on the Administration Report on

Cess Operations for 1872-73, * para.7, BRP, Road Cess Branch,
Aug. 1874, no.53«
2ttvmenaiy*gH 5SR. paras. 109, 114.
*
Final Report on the Valuation of the land of the Batarganj
District,' para.58, BRF, local Taxation Branch, Aug. 1877, noo.
27-8.
 299

Ixl relation to the Bakarganj type, we should take into

consideration yet another unique feature of the land system of

this district. According to the settlement offioer, about a

third of the tenure-holders were not middlemen, but what he called

'cultivating tenure-headers* who tilled almost all of their lands

»
by themselves. In fact, they belonged to the class of well-to-do

raiyats who were eagerly acquiring intermediate tenures in ordor

to elevate their social status.* So the percentage of the land

leased to tenure-holders mentioned in Sable 41 (i.e. 76 per cent)

should be regarded as somewhat inflated. At the same time, it is

interesting to note that at the very time landlords were climbing

down the tenurial ladder, a section of raiyats were mounting it

in the reverse direction. Both would come face to face half-way.

She landlords* movement toward the raiyats must have been

facilitated by this mutual act of coming nearer.

Considering the above state of tenurial structure, it may

be safely assumed that the degree of direct possession or contacts

was much higher then what the figures on the zamindari land

directly leased to raiyats suggested. So it is little wonder that

the above-mentioned medium estate in Paridpur, Eanakshar, attained

a degree as high as 78 per cent, which was more than double the

district average percentage of direct lease to the raiyats.

£he last point to be considered in relation to land

property is its economic aspects, the rate of rental earnings.

1Bakargan.1 3SR* paras. 137, 173.

 300
In the early years of the British colonial role the price

determinant of the rate was the colonial state's demands on the

zamindars, i.e. land revenue. The principle of the Permanent

Settlement was to assess land revenue at the rate of nine-tenths

< ,
of the zamindari receipts, leaving only one-tenth to the zamindars

to cover rent collection charges, household expenses, eto. But

in estimating the share of the landlords taken as a whole, we

should take into account at least two other major landed classes:
the lakhira.ldars /“proprietors of revenue-free lands_7 and the

tenure-holders who were in existence even at the time of the

Permanent Settlement. The Board of Revenue estimated that these

classes of landlords (i.e. zamindars, inWii-rw-idaya and tenure-

holders) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa retained about 100 lakhs

Company's rupees after the payment of 285 lakhs Company's rupees

4
as land revenue. So the landlords' share came to about a quarter

of the total rent receipts, the colonial state's slice still

being very big, as much as -three quarters. On the other hand, we

should also take into consideration the fact that the actual

assessment of land revenue was uneven from region to region, and

particularly, that eastern Bengal was very lightly assessed in

2
comparison with the other parts of the permanently settled area.

The landlords' share in our four districts at the time of the

Permanent Settlement, therefore, must have been well above

^RWAE. 1877-78, paras.12-13- According to this estimate,

the zamindars, the intermediate tenure-holders and the i&khi-p»iri&T»H
got 55 lakhs, 15 to 25 lakhs and 20 lakhs respectively.
2Bakargani SSR. para.215; Dacca SSR. paras.133-6; Paridnur
SSR. paras.94-5.
 301
25 per cent.)

« i «

Since then, with the development of agricultural

production as veil as the gradual rise in prices* the weight of

land revenue had remarkably fallen., the Road Cess Returns brought

to light that in the 1870s the proportion of the land revenue to

tiie total valuation of the rent receipts of 'estates* (i.e.

exclusive of the rant receipts of tenures) was 19.9 per cent in

t

Bakarganj, 27*7 per cent in Faridpur, 21*9 per cent in Dacca, and
2
16.2 per oent in Hymensingh. Shus the ratio between land revenue

and the proprietors * share had, by and large, reversed in the

course of eighty years.

In our period land revenue had ceased to be such an

overwhelming determinant as it used to be at the turn of the

eighteenth century. However, it does not automatically follov:

from this that the landlords found themselves in a position to

realize a very high rate of rental earnings, say 80 per cent.

When ve examine the financial affairs of our forty-one estates.

1Io estimate the actual incidence of land revenue at the

time of the Permanent Settlement is entirely a matter of conjec­
ture, but J. C. Jack made bold to write on Bakarganj* .'Judging
from such evidence as is available of the rate of rent and the
price at the time, of the Permanent Settlement, it would seem
that even then the rate did not amount to more than a quarter
of the average rate of rent paid by the cultivators of the
district or to more than 12 per cent, of the gross value of the
crops.' (Bakarganj SSR. para.215). In the light of data
concerning the late nineteenth century, he appears to have
underestimated the rate of land revenue,
o
'Administration Report on Gess Operations for 1872-73 &
1874-75,' BEP, Cess Branch, Aug. 1874, nos.51-52; Mar. 1876,
nos.4-5, 'Final Report on the Valuation of the Land of the
Bakarganj Destrict,' HEP, Local taxation Branch, Aug. 1877,
nos.27-28.
 \

302

ve find rent payment to superior landlords hold an important

proportion of the total disbursements. Since, as has been noted

before, the landlords of our time had turned into, so to speak,

zamindars-cum-tenure-holders, they naturally came to shoulder

the burden of subinfeudation as well as of the Feirmaneht

Settlement.

How much rental earnings, then, did they actually realize?

Before proceeding to analysis, we would do better to clearly

define the term 'rental earnings.1 It is used here to indicate

the difference between the amount of current demand of rent and

the payments of both land revenue to the Government and rent to

superior landlords. We shall ignore the sundry tax payments to

e

the Government like municipal tax and chowkidarv tax, as their

rate held incredibly low in our time; whereas we shall take

account of road cesses.^ Furthermore, it should be specially

noted that the figures we are going to consider are all 'nominal*

values as entered in landlords' books, and therefore, do not

necessarily represent the actual collections and payments. As

has been noted before, the Bengal landlords would seldom attempt

to collect a full amount of rent from the tenantry, and usually

' 2
contented themselves with realizing 60 to 73 per cent % By the

same token, collections of illegal cesses, (i.e. abwabs) are left

^In theory the role assigned to the landlords in the cess

system was just to pass on to the Government what they collected
from the tenantry. In practice, however, their collections and
payments did not tally, and henoe they occasionally gained from,
and occasionally lost on, cess collections, even if we leave their
fraudulent practices out of account. In calculating the rental
earnings in Table 42, such gains or losses have been taken
account of.
2
See suura. pp.167-8.
 303

out of account. In Bakarganj, on a conservative estimate, 'ono.

quarter of the entire rental of the district1 used to he exacted

as abwabaJ In spite of all these limitations, however, our

figures are valuable for the light they throw upon the fundamental
\

economic framework within which each estate Vas operated.

. She results of our study in the rate of rental earnings of

forty-one estates are shown in* Figure 35 and Sable 42. Shore is

a wide difference in the rate, ranging from 21 per cent of K. 3.

Brodie'B estate-, to 91 per cent of B. D. Chakladar's. But when

we oompare it with the amount of current demand per landed

interests, we notice a broad correlation between the two: the

larger the average value of landed interests, the higher the rate

of rethrns from them. Further, as is evident from the comparison

between oolumns A and B of Sable 42, there is also a considerable

divergence’ in the ratio between land revenue payments and rent

payments. However, a sort of polarization is in existence. Our

estates can be grouped into those paying much more land revenue

than rent and those showing an opposite tendency.

Apart from the question of divergence, on an average, tho

rate of rental earnings comes to 54 per cent, the details for

large, medium and small estates being 34, 30 and 70 per cent

respectively. ' She rate for the small, estates becomes high on

account of the existence of a few very profitable ones in

Mymensingh. land revenue payments and rent payments bear the

^Bakaraani SSR. para. 195* For a detailed discussion on

the pitch of abwabs. see jnfgg, pp. 369-72 •
 /

304

FIGURE 35

DISTRIBUTION OF FORTY-ONE ESTATES BY RATE OF

RENTAL EARNINGS

SOURCE: Table 42.

NOTES: Symbols used here such, as B1, D1, and M2' refer to
the serial numbers in Table 15* Asterisked estates extended
over two or Mire districts, although their main portions
were situated in the respective districts indicated by
alphabetical symbols.

same proportion to the current demand of rent, namely, 22 per

cent each. So our landlords taken as a whole, paying about ono

quarter each of their annual rental to the Government and superior

landlords, kept the remaining half for their own use and for rent
collection charges. Rent collection charges by and large averaged

ten per cent of the current demand. If we have correctly estimated

the rate of rental earnings at the time of the Permanent Settlement

 305

TABLE 42

RENTAL EARNINGS OF FORTY-ONE ESTATES

Current Govt. Rent due Rental

to

O
14
Name of Estate Demand Revenue Earnings j

o
Superior
Landlords
(A) (B) (c) Ds»A-(B+C)
Rs. Rs. is. Rs. *
D6 Dacca Nawab 11,59,641 2,52,202 3,26,576® 5,80,863 50
D4 Bhawal 5,95,736 83,052 50,590 4,62,096 78
B16 BhuRailas 3,08,043 1,27,369 33,912 1,46,762 48
B19 S. M. Tagore 2,87,396 1,37,467 19,530 1,30,399 45
H5 £. S. Brodie 2,68,744 12,568 1,98,770 57,406 21
H4 J. K. Acharjya 2,10,939 57,719 12,553 1,40,667 67
D3 Dhankoora 1,29,974 16,656 16,610a 96,708 74
B10 Haturia 1,19,311 17,150 49,132 53,029 44

B11 Bamna 90,205 45,506 44,697 50

B14 Madhabpassa 75,971 22,249 24,400 29,322 39
B18 Syedpore 68,942 14,246 33,899 20,797 30
B15 Amrajuri 40,742 5,310 12,617 22,815 56
B8 M. C. Chakravarti 30,666 5,996 11,396* 13,274 43
B6 N. L. Chakravarti 22,167 8,538 5,862 7,767 35
B15 Dasmina 21,948 672 6,224 15,052 69
B12 H. A, Lucas 15,913 3,454 5,709 6,750 42
B2 J. N. Ray 14,593 5,551 1,989 7,053 48
B17 Khalisakota 13,173 408 9,088 3,677 28
F4 TTgrialraViQf ,20,307 562 8,871 10,874 54
F2 F. C. Rai 20,180 514 11,588a 8,078 40
F3 Jopsha 12,366 3,641 3,688a 5,037 41
D5 Bakjuri 12,433 1,153 2,689 8,591 69
MX3 Sherepore 51,465 5,638 17,304a 28,523 55
M9 Narayandahar 42,777 3,863 10,429a 31,917 75
MB N. F. Fogose 35,924 7,931 7,194a 20,799 58
Hi S. S. Ghowdharani 30,895 4,372 546 25,977 84

(To be continued)
 306
TABLE 42—Continued

Current Govt. Rent due Rental

<

oo
SI. to

K
P“
No. Name of Estate Demand Revenue
Superior
Landlords
(A) (B) (0) DaA-(B+C)
Rs. Rs. Rs. " Rs.
B4 H. C. Chakravarti 4,340 1,349 1,473 . . 1,518 35
B1 N. Kallonas 3,689 2,124 691 874* 24
B9 H. K. Das 3»599 . 39 , 2,336a 1,224- 34
\

B5 B. B. Das 1,991 . 4., 944 . 1,043 52

B7 B. K. Chakravarti 568 . 196 ., 61 311 55
B3 P. K. Datta 205 i 49 156 76
F1 C. ?. Sandyal 546 . 141 , - 405 74
D2 L. M. Rai > 8,289 980 1 1 7,308 88
m 1. A. IThftn i 3,631 442 , 158 3,031 83
MX1 D. D. Chaudhurl 8,233 . 2,158 . 458 5,617 68
1•
MX2 B. B. Goswamy 6,410 . 72 . 593 5,745 90
M7 B. B. Ohakladar 6,247 232 , 342a 5,673 * 9t
M2 J. R. Hollow 5,009 1,201 . - 3,808 76
M3 H. G. T.ftghlrny 2,208 ; 3.9 . 226 1,943 88
M6 A. N. Chaudhari 827 16 . 249a 562 - 68

SOURCES? RtfAE; BOR-W Elies. ' .

NOTES: The figures for current demand, Government revenue and
rent to superior landlords are inclusive of the demands and the
payments to Government and superior landlords of cesses, except for
1die thirteen estates specified in Note (b) to Table 15. She figures
given above indicate book value.only. Aetu&L rental earnings varied
depending upon circumstances, for .other points, see Notes to Table
15.
®Jn the case of these estates only lump sums of cesses ,are
mentioned in the records, although they had to be separately paid
to Government and superior landlords. The entire lump sums have
been added to the rent due to superior landlords in column (0).
The particulars of added amounts are* Rs.68,762 (D6), Re.7,024 (3>3),
Re.1,434 (B8), Rs.124 (F2), Rs.1*059 (P3h Rf.3,731 (M3), Rs.3,432
(M9), Rs.4,207 (MB), Rs.246 (B9), Rs.203 (M7), and Rs.48 (M6).
 307

at veil above 25 per cent, it would follow from the above that It

had increased nearly twofold by our time.

Furthermore, the same pattern as we have seen before is

noticeable in relation to the rental earnings as well. The rato

of the Bakarganj district is much lower than that of the other

districts.* (Figure 35)• Compare, for instance, the rate of

rental earnings of the medium-sized, estates in Bakargan;} and

Mymensingh. The former comes to 43 per cent against the latter's

67 per cent. This difference of as much as 24 per cent was mainly

brought about by the disparity in the burden of rent payments to

superior landlords. The payment in Bakarganj was more than double

that in Mymensingh. (56 per cent against 15 per cent).

There were many grounds for creating intermediate tenures.

The Sakarganj Settlement Report cited sirs development, promotion,

o
revolt, interpolation, fraud, and family arrangements. But no

matter how various they might have been, there is no doubt that

subinfeudation in most cases aimed at protecting and promoting

the interests of landlords. For example, it served as a sort of

fortification for safeguarding land property against outsiders;

it made it possible for society to accommodate a very large number

of people as non-working respectable classes« At the same time,

*K. S. Brodie's estate (M5) of Mymensingh is a notable

exception to this. The unusually low rate is probably related to
the fact that the proprietor was a big indigo planter. His purpose
in owning land was different from that of the other landlords. He
possessed land not so much to earn rent income as to compel raiyats
to grow indigo through his influence as a landlord. So he did not
care much about his land property's economic viability.
%akargan-1 SSR. paras. 134-144.
 308
(CABLE 43
BREAKDOWN OF RENTAL EARNINGS OF SEVENTEEN ESTATES

From Estates From____o...

Tenures.
£• Name of 'Current Govt. Rental' ^Current; Rent to. Rental^
• Estate Demand Revenue Earnings Demand Superior Earnings
Landlords
(A) (B) CoA-B (D) (B) FaaD-E
• Rs. ' Rs. ' Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs.
B10 Haturia 41,373 15,593 25,780 71,210 34,454 36,756

B1.8 Syedpore 19*408 13,443 5,965 45,591 26,557 19,034

B13 Amrajuri 8,874 5,210 3,664 31,603 12,613 18,990
B6 N. S.
Chakravarti 8,781 5,527 3,254 5,330 3,567 1,763
B12 H. A. Lucas 5*822 3,454 2,368 10,091 5,709 4,382
F4 lCH.Tm.kghM* 1,635 417 1,218 18,515 8,186 10,329
F2 F. C. Ral 3,303 1,259 2,044 18,442 11,028 7,414
B5X3 Sherepore 9,604 9,369 235 35,831 13,573 22,258
M9 Narayandahar 16*891 5,644 11,247 25,591 8,671 16,920
i
B9 H. K. Das 46 39 7 3,290 2,060 1,230
B5 B. B. Das 10 4 6 1,968 944 1,024
B7 B. K.
Chakravarti 407 196 211 159 62 97
F1 C. K. Sandyal 546 141 405 — — —

MK1 D. D.
Chaudhuri 4,315 2,038 2,277 3,918 629 3,209
MX2 B. B.
Goswamy 953 50 903 5,457 616 4,841
M7 B. D.
•
vo
r*

Chakladar 4,670 251 4,419 992 896

M2 J. R. Hollow 5,009 1,201 3,808 - ——

SOURCES: RWAB. BOR-W Files.

NOTES: The figure given above indicate book value only. Actual
rental earnings varies according to circumstances.
The total of current demand mentioned above (A + D) some­
times differs from that of Table 15* as in some cases different
sources have been used.
(To be continued).
 309

TABLE 45—Continued

The current demand of the Sherepore estate is exlusive

of produce rent equivalent to Rs.4,237.

it is an undeniable fact that the landed class, especially that

of Bakarganj, had to pay the heavy price for these advantages

in the form of a considerable lowering of the rate of rental

earnings.

As regards the breakdown of the rental earnings according

to the sources (i.e. estates and Intermediate tenures) r* we are

only provided with data on seventeen estates, all of which except

one are medium- or small-sized. (Table 43) • There is no

meaningful difference between the rates of rental earnings from

estates and intermediate tenures except that the former varies

much more widely than the latter. But when we look at the ratio

between the amount of rental earnings from estates and that from

intermediate tenures in each estate, we find that in twelve estates

out of seventeen the latter is in excess of the former. Prom

this it would appear that our proprietors of medium- and small-

’sized estates take on the character more of tenure-holders than

of zamindars.^ *

I may conclude this chapter by remarking that it would

not be a sound view to consider the eastern Bengal landlords mere

annuitants who were divorced from the real process of raiyats'

1 This point has also been discussed in relation to the

*

tenurial composition of landed interests. See supra, p.291.

 310
life and converted into passive receivers of rent from their

amorphous land property oomposed of numerous small scattered

landed interests( simply and solely because eastern Bengal had

a very intricate tenurial system# This sort of view cannot

explain how the entire structure of landlordism could he built

on the basis of such unsubstantial land property relations. It

is impossible for a complex socio-economic institution like

landlordism to exist absolutely depending on the physical force

of the colonial state's police system or on the privately hired

musclemen like lathivals /"clubmen^. Of course there were

innumerable cases of brutal atrocities perpetrated by landlords.

However, an institution dependent solely upon physical force

cannot claim social legitimacy* and therefore cannot be stabilized#

landlordism must primarily build up a sound foundation in land

property relationship itself. It is on the basis of this

foundation that landlords effectively exert various forms of

extra-economic coercion Inclusive of physical force.

Our analysis in -this section has brought to light that

there were a olass of landlords who built a solid land property

with a higher degree of direct oontacts with the raiyats by means

of concentration of landed interests in one area as well as by

dint of the.buying up of tenures of lower grades. I assume that

it was this type of landlords that constituted the mainstay of

landlordism. Of course, as our tentative attempt at the grouping

of landlords has shown, there were a lot of types among them:

Bakarganj type and l^mensingh type, reclamation type and land

transfer type, eto. Shore must also have been a considerable

number of estates in a state of utter chaos. Eastern Bengal

 311
landlordism may be conceived of as a fabric woven by interlacing

the stout warp of the solid estates with.the weaker weft of the

other estates of various types. AY& this landlordism was laden

not only with the burden stipulated by the Permanent Settlement

but also with the load of the very system that it created for ito

own sake, i.e. subinfeudation. In economic terms both were of

the same weight. Out of the total current demand, of rent our

landlords paid one quarter each to the eolonial state and superior

landlords to retain about a half as their own share.

On the ether hand, however, there is no denying that the

intricate tenurial system posed a lot of problems for eastern

Bengal landlords. For instance, the relatively low rate of

rental earnings in Bakarganj and the difficulties experienced by

the tiny landlords are sure signs of land property relationship

having commenced to turn into something opposing the interests

of landlords themselves.
 XIV
• I

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

For the Bengal landlords of our time, who usually took

little interest in improvement of land or erection of a nev

industry on their estate, land management meant the collection of

rent (and illegal cesses)• So the study of land management may

he confined to the problems concerning the system of rent

collection. To he sure, the landlord's property in land consti­

tutes the fountainhead of fals control over the tenantry and his

claim on rent; hut in pre-capitalist society it does not readily

guarantee the realization of rent. In order to effect this object,

he must enter into concrete relations with, and penetrate, the

social fabric of the place where his land property is situated,

and thereby articulate his legal right into tangible profit-making

forms. This task is mainly carried out by his managerial

establishment. Of course the landlord who has turned into a pure

annuitant need not bother his head about this troublesome business.

However, such landlords were supposedly relatively small in number

in our time. Most landlords had to deal, to one degreb or another,

directly with the tenantry. In this section we shall try to throw

light upon the relationship between landlordism and local society

by examining certain aspects regarding the establishment for land

312
 313

In the Mughal period the zemindars used to deal with the

raiyats through mandala /"village headmenJP. As leaders of the

peasantry, they represented the common interests of the village

society'to the outBide world# Although cases are known of the

zemindars having well-equipped rent collection establishments of

their own such as in Dinajpur zamindari in the JTawabl period,* the

influence of this organization reaohed the raiyats only through the

mediation of the mandals. In everything connected with rent

business, i.e. assessment and settlement, collection, enhancement,

imposition of extra cesses, etc#, the zamindars negotiated with

them (and not directly with the respective raiyats), and employod

their assistance. The raiyats paid rent to the mandala. who

2
handed it over to the zamindars' staff. John Shore wrote a

vivid account of them. First, he explains their function:

In almost every village, according to its extent, there is one

or more head ryots, known by a variety of names in different,
parts of the country, who has in some measure, the direction
and superintendence of the rest. For distinction, 1 shall
confine myself to the term Mundal: he assists in fixing the
rent, in directing the cultivation, and in making the
collections.^

And as regards their position in the village society, he quotes a

report of 1778: 'The Mundal is ... chosen from amongst the eldest

and most intelligent inhabitants, and services depend solely on

the good opinion of the ryots....'^ The mgngg&'s officf was

^ Shlnkishi Taniguchi, 'Eikoku shntamj wnVii ghihai Zenya no

Kitabengaruchiho no Zamindar' /"A North-Bengal Zamlndar on the live
of the BritishJ-RuleJ, Alia Zejjkvu. OT-1 (Apr. 1977). pp.73-6.
See also Ray, Bengal Agrarian Society, pp.44-51•
2Ibid., pp.47, 65-7*

^'Minute of Mr. Shore, dated 18th June 1789,' para.242, in

Ann, to Fifth Report.
^Ibid., para.245.
 314

autonomous f and independent of both the Mughal state and the

zemindars.
i

Besides the mandals. the Bengal villages had another set

of village officials, the natwaris /"village accountants^.

Their office was as a rule hereditary, but they could be regarded

as a sort of semi-public officers in that they were nominated

either by the public officer like the n«»mrumefl or by the

zemindars

Thus the zemindars' rent collection during the Mughal rule

turned on the autonomous institution of villages, or communal

relations. But the British rulers' reforms culminating in the

a
Permanent Settlement did away with the Mughal revenue system

altogether. Moreover,, many newcomers joined the ranks of the

zamindars. Alongside these innovations, the rent collection

system also had tc undergo a considerable change. When in 1840

James Taylor published a report on the conditions of Dacca, he

found that although the manual and the uatwari still played a

major role in rent collection, their social character had been

transformed in toto. He observed)

The establishment of servants required to collect the rents

and keep the accounts of an estate varies according to its
extent, situation and number of shareholders. In some
pergunnahs or estates, several villages are annexed and are

*'Minute of Mr. Shore, dated 18th June 1789,' para.250.

. Regarding the significant .role played by these village officials,
see also N.. K.. Sinha, The Economic History of s Prom Plassev
to the Permanent Settlement, vol.2 {Calcutta. .1962) dp.6-7. 151-5;
Ray. Banzai ftgrnrinw Snoietv. pp.65-71. In the Swaruppur pargano,
of the Hat ore Raj, however,, a uatwari (and an amin) could be
removed if ten raiyats.were disatisfied with him. (Ibid., p.50).
 315

called a Tuppah; In others! a Jowar. In every Mowza or village,

there Is a servant called Mundul, whose business it is to
superintend the lands, and to settle disputes among the ryotts
regarding them* and over two or three villages or a Tuppah
there is stationed a Putwaree, whose office it is to draw out
the aecountsy collect revenues, and adjust differences
referred to him, regarding the allotment of land. In the more
extensive estates! there is an officer of a still higher grade,
■ who is called Chuckladar or Tehsildar, and who exercises the
same kind of control over the Putwareee, that -they have over
their subordinates the Munduls. ... She petty Talookdars
generally employ one Mundul, and collect the revenues them­
selves without the assistance of a Putwaree» or three or four
join and have a Putwaree among them. In some estates the
Munduls and Putwareee receive their wages in money, in others
in land and money. In many instances they follow other
occupations! and are paid at a rate varying from two and half
to three rupees a year for the. Mundul, and from three to ten
rupees a year for the Putwaree. In .parts of the district
subject to inundation, they are allowed boat hire from June
to November.1

Prom the way the are described in tills report, it would

be dear that their independence vis-h-via the zamindars had been

considerably eroded in comparison with John Shore's time. They

were now regarded as 'servants* who were 'employed' by the

zamindars and taluqdars and received remuneration 'in money' or

'in land and money* from them. But the more important point to

note here is, rather, that at this juncture the offices of the

mandal and patwari was still in existence despite everything and

were functioning as essential parts of the rent collection system.

In our forty-one estates, in sharp contrast to the above,

we find ho trace of the mandals or oatwaris except for a solitary

case. In tills connection, it is interesting that the enquiry

into the village officials conducted in the early 1870s

^James Taylor, A Sketch of the Topography ft Statistics

of Dacca (Calcutta, 1840}, pp.160-1.Emphases added.
 316
corroborated our findings.^ It revealed that in most parts of

Bengal except for some remote districts such as Dinajpur and

Mldnapore the authority and power of the manflflia had greatly

decreased, while the natwaris had disappeared altogether; and

that the sphere of activities left to the mandals was mainly

confined to law and police, i.e. deciding local disputes, receiving

the police party, etc* For instance, the report from the Dacca

Commissioner said: 'The old hereditary village putwaree, wherever

there may have been any, as in part of Mymensingh, has disappeared

along with the village community, and any men who now bear the

designation of putwaree, are nothing more than the servants of

the zemindars, and so are the munduls. * Obviously, the maintain

and natwarls had ceased to perform the function of rent

collection at some time between 1840 and the 1870s. That is, tho

articulation of landlords with the peasant masses below the mandali

ranks in respect of rent collection had been completed during tho

mid-nineteenth century. In the last quarter of the nineteenth

^ Papers Regarding the Village and Rural IndigaTirma Agenny

Employed in Taking the BengalCensus of~1872 (Calcutta. 1873).
Its contents are summarized with someadditional information in
Hunter's Statistical Account under the head of 'Village Officials.'
^V-mage and Rural Indigenous Agency, p.41. It is also
reported regarding Hfymensingh: 'The village officials of the old
village communities, have died out in Mymensing District, except
in name' (Hunter, Statistical Account. vol.5» p.453), and
regarding Faridpur: 'Properly speaking there are no village offi­
cials existing in this district. The old canoongo or putwari is
nowhere in existence, and the present race of mundals, whose
forefathers were held in much esteem in village councils, retain
but a shadow of their former prestige and power' ('District
Statistical Account (Furreedpore) by Bhuban Mohan Raha*, Proceedings
of COB, Statistical Department, Sept. 1873* nos.35-36). Further,
an anonymous writer remarked: 'In matters pertaining to right and
property, the edict of the land&l is very little respected now, and
his authority absolutely questioned* ('The Bengal Peasant,1 Tho
Bengal Magazine (hereafter BM), July 1880, p.459.)
 317

century landlordism no longer relied on communal, self-governing

institutions such as mandals and natwaris to have a hold on

raiyats, their society, and their surplus labour.

To discuss how this change took place is to open up the

entire controversy conceraig the 'Indian Tillage Community,' which

by far exceeds my ability as well as the scope of this chapter.

However,' so far as the problem of the rent collection system is

concerned, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal's circular directing

the above enquiry dated 16 July 1872 seems to furnish a quite

■ i

sufficient explanation. He wrote! 'The Lieutenant-Governor has

been informed by natives of position and experience that a

generation or two ago village headmen were much more general, and

occupied a better-defined and established position than now; tho

lnn-reftaing and more centralised power Of the gamlndnra having

caused their decadence in these days. He ’would like to know if

this is believed to be the case in each district.' * Returns from

different districts confirmed the basic correctness of this 'native'

view. The HugbU report elaborated on the subject! 'The causes

of the decline of this /""i.e. mandal 7 as well as all other

village institutions are, first, the systematic neglect of such

agencies by the Government; second, the growing power of the

zamindars; and third, the decreasing need of such agencies,

occasioned by the introduction of a regular police, a strong

*Offg. Secy to GOB in Genl. Deptt.to All Cmmrs., Circular

No.22, 16- July 1872 in vnipgft and Rural Indigenous Agency, p.2.
Emphasis added. ....
 318
governmentv and the multiplication of administrative divisions., (

It would be reasonable to assume from the above evidence that,

wi1;h the falling off of the Bengal village system,, centralization

of rent business in the hands of the landlords took place, in

which the functions of the manual a and uatwaris were gradually

absorbed into the zemindar! establishment. In this process,

Government's initiative in making the zamlndars the central agency

for collecting the surplus played a major part. She Bughli report

gave it first place in the reasons asked for. Taylor's account

quoted above may be taken as showing a transitional stage in such

changes.

We now proceed to analysis of the establishment of our

forty-raw estates* The central question to ask is what sort of

rent collection system took the place of the mnnflnia and uatwaris.

Broadly speaking, there were three systems of land

managment obtaining .in the late nineteenth century, that is, khas
/"direct management/^, farm, and natnl. Of the forty-one estates

only one, J. R. Hollow's estate in Ifymensingh, was managed entirely

^Hunter, Statistical Account, vol.3, p.318. In addition

to the three factors mentioned in the Hooghly report, we may
call attention to another possible reason for centralization.
With big estates being divided and subdivided into fractional
shares and with such shares being sold and resold among various
persons, a village, too, came to be shared by different groups
of landlords who were often at loggerheads with one another*
Under such circumstances it became increasingly difficult for
a landlord to collect rents relying on village community. So,
in a sense, he was driven by necessity to centralize rent
collection business in his own hands.
 319
4
by natni. v The farm system was adopted on more estates. Jagat

Kishore. Acharjya'e estate was the most Important of them. The

first and foremost of the major evils that were said to have led

1die estate to a crisis vas 'the mischievous system of fanning

each village of the estate to the highest bidder for a short tern
O
without a previous ryotwaree settlement of the property farmed.,£"

Indeed, in the 1870s the farming system vas quite popular and

widespread among the rich zamindars of Mymensingh. They made it

a practice to farm out their, property on a very short tern, seldom

exceeding five years. Jagat Kishore vas apparently one of them.

However, it should be noted that this unwholesome practice was

already on the decline and had almost died out by the 1910s. The

Mymensingh District. Gazetteer observed: 'At the present day they

rl.e.'iiaras 7 are increasingly rare, and most of those that

survived have been found in the jungly villages of Sherpur Pargana

near the Garo Hills and in the Madhupur < jungle. * ^

Thus, those landlords who were exclusively dependent upon

the natni or farm system do not seem to have run to a large number

in our period. Bather, our landlords mostly adopted the frfam

management system in greater or lesser degree, and accordingly.

4 •
This estate consisted of a single taluk covering 2,886
acres. In 1869 it was let out on natni to Baboo Hurry Kishore
Rai and Krishna Sunder Ghose on condition that these parties paid
a bonus of Rs.7»000 besides an annual rental of Bs. 1,800. When
the Court of Wards cancelled this contract and managed it
directly, its annual rental amounted to Bs.5,009. TrWAE. 1879-80,
para.160).

\RWAE. 1876-77, para.183.

^Hunter, Statistical Account, vol.5# p.452.

^vmenslngh DQ. p.105.

 320
had their own establishment for management. This is all the more

the case, because, as pointed out earlier, they were at the same

time tenure-holders like uatnidars. talukdars. or i.iaradara.

One may expect that organizational features of establish­

ments will show a wide variation, corresponding to such different

backgrounds and types of estates as have been .discussed in the

preceding chapters. However; an examination of . the available

evidence proves the contrary. Judging at least from the data at

our disposal, the establishments were strikingly uniform in their

structure. The khas management system, it seems, took basically

the same form irrespective of the size, etc., of estates,

following the nineteenth century convention, we may can it the

tshell * establishment. as opposed to the mandal system mentioned

above.

She sole exception to this is the Sherepore estate in

Kymensingh. Gn this estate the mandal system was in operation,

though partially and on a very small scale. It was reported:

•In certain villages collections were made by means of village

mandals and patwaris. These men are allowed a fixed pay. The

total expenditure under this head is Rs.t,791-8-0 .... This system

was introduced by the late proprietor in outlying villages only

for the sate of convenience and economy.This estate was

situated in a backward area adjacent to the Garo hills. Perhaps

it was mainly because of this backwardness that the old mandal

^Offg. Cllr. Mym. to Cmmr. Dac.., No.321G, 24 Apr. 1894r

BOR-W, File no.398 of 1892.
 321
system was easily restored and set to work by the proprietor

(Che other estates were managed by what I call the tahahil

system. Let us examine some illustrative oases. They are all

taken from those showing the original state of things before tho

Court of Wards took oyer and made a reform of the system of

management •

The establishment of Bindoo Bashini Goswami's estate in

Mymensingh may be regarded as showing the basic form of organiza­

tion. (Table 44)• The estate's current demand was Rs.6,410.

This small estate employed ten people, who were stationed at two

£Ma/*a sub-division of a pargana made for the convenience of

collection of rents_7 and two local administrative centers. Of

the two aihifl Dihi Kumaria was much larger and its office was

located in the proprietor's own residence. The setup of this dihi

was very simple, containing one naib /“zamindar's depu.ty._7, one

mimpponhjn /”accountant_7, one moharir /"assistant to the

Bumamobls 7 and three subordinates (two guards and an out

servant).1 The other dihi (Aiwa) was probably very small and

assgined to only two staffs, one gumaT-nnh-ig and one guard. Their

pay, counting for about 12 per cent of the annual rental, was

given in the form of a fixed amount of money, and not in the form

of land or commission. In comparison with the pay of the guards,

that of the gumayiinbia and moharir apperars to have been fixed

1For the meaning of these terms, see Ramshunker Sen, Report

<y> yhfi Agrionltural Statistics nf Jhewjdn.T Mammah, Baphirhat. and
Sunderbans. in the District of Jeasore. 1872-75 (Calcutta. 1874).
p.xxxv).
 322
TABLE 44
ESTABLISHMENT OP BINDOO BASHINI GOSWAMI'S
•
ESTATE IN MYMENSINGH
Karnes of Dehis Name & Designation of Amlahs Annual Salary
(Tehsil Cutche-
ries) Rs.
Dehi ft Naib (R. E. Banerjea) 180
■ . t . . ■ '
TazoO(7) Sircar Sumarnovis . .96
Out servant 60
Guard . 84
Muharir 72
Guard. 60
■ ■
552
Dehi.Aiwa Guard 84
Dwarka Nath Goswami Sumarnovis 60
* ' ( 144
In Hasirabad Muktear, Ishur Chunder Sircar 36
In Tangail Do., N. H. Mittra 6

* • . ■ i •
42

GRAND TOTAL - 738

. 1

SOURCE: Offg. Cmmr. Bad. to B0RfNo.267Wf 16/t7 July 1883,

BQR-W, Pile no.163 of 1883.

rather low, hut this apparent disadvantage must have been

compensated by illegal, exactions from the tenantry. Moreover,
it is noteworthy that the higher posts were all occupied by high
caste. Hindus, two Brahmans and one Kayastha. . The other employees'
names were not stated, probably because they belonged to the
ranks of lower caste Hindus or Muslims and therefore were not
considered worthy of specification. Besides the above main
establishment, this estate had to engage two mulct jars /"legal
 323
practitioners./ on a long-term contract in order to keep watch on,

and look after, legal affairs at the local courts in ffaslrabad,

or Mymensingh, and in Tangail.

The next case is the medium-sized flarayandahar estate in

Mymensingh, whose current demand amounted to Re.42,777. (Table

45)• As this estate was much larger than the preceding one, tho

naib's duties had to be devolved on a group of subordinate staffs

tahsildars /"collectors of rent./, oeshkars.^ and munahia

/"assistants to the SgibJ. The most important of them were

without doubt the tahsildarSi who took charge of collecting rents

from the raiyats; and from the name of this office was derived the

above-mentioned term 'tahail establishment'. There is no

conclusive evidence explaining why no less than twenty-three

mohainyi-rg /assistant accountants./ were on pay-roll. But the

money-lending business extensively conducted by the proprietors

2
seems to account for this. The estate needed so many mohamrigs

in order not only to keep the books but also to exact payment
from debtors.^ It is noteworthy that, in addition to these

underlings, the estate separately kept the sheer physical force

* According to Ramshunker Sen, the neahitwr was 'an officor

who puts up all matters before the zemindar or the dewan,' And
in case of disputes between raiyats he made local investigations.
(Sen, District of Jessore. p.xxxvii) •
^See sunra. pp.257-8.

'The accountant is sometimes the taaadgirs. and on him

involves the task of collecting the mahajan's dues. If the
mahajan's business is large, a staff of tagadgira is maintained,
who receive a small monthly salary, in addition to what they get
from the debtors as bonus.1 ('The Bengal Feasant,' Bffi, Feb.-
Mar. 1882, p.285). The tagadgir is 'a person appointed by a
capitalist to collect debts due to him'. (Wilson's glossary.
p.502).
 324
TABLE 43
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WABAYAlTOAffAK
ESTATE IN MTMENSINGH
Armnn.1 Salary
as.
Nail), Nabeen Sen 232
3 Tahsildars 672
3 Beahkara 624
2 Hbonshis 240
1 Sumarnobis 120
1 Treasurer 84
23 Moharirs 1,620
1 Jummadar 72
46 Peddas f~Peadas 7 1,908
83 . 5,592
1 Guard for Nussirabad building 60
Salary‘of Muktears 804
GRAND TOTAL 6,456

SOURCEj Offg. Cmmr. Dao. to BOR, No.405W, 31 July 1879, BQR-IJ,

File no.748 of 1878.
NOTEi Besides the staff specified above, this estate had one
Manager and four Peshkars and Moharirs on the pay-roll. They
have been left out in view of their salary being unusually high
(the manager got Rs.3,600, and the four staffs Rs.2,724).
Perhaps they were not ordinary managerial staff.

which consisted of forty-six peadag /“armed footmen./ headed by a

■iamadar. This miniature private army was built up for the sole
purpose of meeting the critical situation brought about by a
serious feud among the co-proprietors. The feud reportedly caused
'extreme disturbance of the peace of the ryots.'1 According to

10ffg. Cmmr. Dao. to BOR, No.235W, 27 May 1879, BQR-W,

File no.748 of 1878.
 325

another report, the co-proprietors 'quarrelled with one another

and attempted to extort more than their share of rent by setting

armed lathiala upon the tenants.'^ This case, therefore, may be

2
viewed as illustrative of the zamindar in a state of emergency.

She cost of maintaining the establishment amounted to Rs.6,456r

or 15 per cent of Idle annual- rental.

She next case, the Dhankoora estate of Dacca, belonged, to

the group of large estates, with the current demand of Rs.1,29,974.

Shis estate was operated through fit® kaeharia and three dihis

(Sable 46). A kachari was a full-fledged office headed by a

«PAUT.Ta 4g
«

ESSABLISBMBNT OP 'pro DHANKOORA

TagfpA«TO Tiff HAOGA
Name of Amlah Annual Salary
Rs.
Sehsil Cutchery Batta
1 Naib 96
1 Sehsildar 84
8 Mohurers 588
1 Duftry 18
1 Mridha 21
16 Peons 267
5 Coolies 168

(So be continued).

1A0AR, 1878-79, para.129.

p
Similarly, the estate of Poorna Chandra Rai maintained a
lot of armed men. In this estate the antagonism between landlord
and raiyats took such a serious turn that Pooma Chandra Rai, the
proprietor, was murdered by raiyats who were faraizia. Out of
the forty-three staff of this estate twenty-fi&e were ueadaa.
guards and servants. (Offg. Cmmr. Dae. to BOR, No.W/684t» 4 Nov.
1878, BOR-W, Pile no.543 of 1878| AG-AR. 1876-77, paras.50 , 74).
 326
TABLE 46—-Continued
Same of Aminh Annual Salary
Ra.
1 Muktear at Netrokona 60-

Dehi PaftMlrp
4 Mohurers 240
6 Peons 216
1 Coolie 60

Collection charges of the farm of 2jr ans.

share of pargana Nasirajael 120

Tehail Outeherr—»ghaJla1ir»»aa
1 Naib 300
1 Tehsildar 144
1 Tehsildar and his establishment 180
9 Mohurers 660
7 Peons 246
3 Coolies 129

Dehi Haray Bwndi

2 Mohurers 132
4 Peons 90

Laltnur Outehery
1 Naib 120
1 Tehsildar 48
2 Mohurers . 96
1 Jemadar 42
4 Peons 144
2 Coolies 72

Dftht Inwyjmnga
1 Tehsildar 60
1 Jemadar 34
1 Peon 48
2 Coolies 108
(To be continued).
 327

SABLE 46—Continued

Name of Amlah Annual Salary

Rs.
Rummy? Chiteherv
1 Naib 168
1 Mohurer 48
4 Peons 105
1 Coolie 60

1 Muktear at Kishorgunge 48

Catcher? Jamaimir
1 Naib 120
1 Mohurer 60
2 Peons 72
1 Coolie 60
\

1 Muktear at Jamalpur 24

Sudder Cutcher?—Mvmensi^^
1 Superintendent 300
1 Naib 144
1 Tehsildar 72
2 Mohurers 136
3 Muktears 204
1 Jemadar 60
7 Peons 204
1 Sweeper 60
2 Coolies 120

SRAHD TOTAL 6,696

SOURCE I Offg. Cmmr. Dac. to BOR, No.V/802Av 4 Peb. 188?,

BQR-W, Pile no.3326 of 1878.

naib or a superintendent, while a dihi of this estate was an

outpost with a skeleton staff such as a tahsildar. a moharir.

and peons. When we compare the set-up of these kacharla with

 328
that of the aihi of Bindoo Bashini Goswami' s estate shorn in

Table 45» we see that both have many features in common. It

seems that the managerial organization of larger estates did not

qualitatively differ from that of smaller estatesf but that the

former was a mere quantitative extension of the latter. The

staff employed by this estate totalled 122, for which Rs.6,696,

, or a little more than 5 per cent of the rental, was annually

expended. Their breakdown shows that the superintendent numbered

1; naibs. 6; tehsildars. 6; moharira. 29; muktears. 6; daftrr

/“record-keeper_7, 1; iamadars. 3; mridh&,1 1; peons, 51; coolies,

17; sweeper, 1. About half of them were staff of lower grades

who could be mobilized as armed men in case of necessity.

A giant property like the Dacca Hawab1s family estates

could not be operated without a centralized organization. It had

a three-tier system. At the top was a well-organized head office

consisting of six branches s

1 • The Management Office, which deals with the general

management of the estate;

2. The Account Office, which deals with the general incomo

and expenditure;

3. The Check Office, which deals with the Mufussil circle

account;

4. The Legal Office;

5. The Survey and Settlement Office;

6. The Record Office.2

1 Regarding the mridha. see sutfra. p.252, £n.1.

Nodding, Dacca Haw«hfw family Batatas, p.4.

 329

This head office only did supervisory work, and did not directly

handle the rent collection business* As much as Rs.47,000 hod to

he spent just to maintain it.1 2 The
* actual job of managing the

i«nfl properties scattered all over eastern Bengal was carried out

by the staff posted at five circles which were again divided into
o
twenty-six sub-circles. The relation between the head office

and these circles is explained as follows:

Barisal and Attia £circleswere in charge of Agents (Mr.
Meyer and Mr, Needham) and the remaining three circles were
under Indian Superintendents. Bach of these officers submits
yearly budgets for his circle and sub-circles, and, after
payment of the sanctioned local charges, remits his surplus
income to the Head Office. Monthly accounts of receipts and
expenditure are sent into the Head Office from each circle
and sub-circle, and in this way by comparison with the
sanctioned budgets a check is kept on the local expenditure.5

It is interesting that about half of this sprawling estate was in

charge of European 'agents.' The total management charges

' amounted to Rs.1,69,274, or 15 per cent of the current demand.4

From the above cases we can extract salient common

features in relation to the management system. It seems that the

basio unit for rent collection was formed -by such an establishment

as B. B. Ooswamy estate’s Dihi Exunaria or Dhankoora's tahsil

kaoharis. Certainly, larger estates had a greater number of such

units and, in addition, a head office to control them,' but it did

not affect the basic feature at all. A typical unit would consist

of (1) a naib or a tahslldar or both, (2) moharlrs. (3) neons or

1Hodding, Dacca Nswah'a Family Estates, p.16.

2
See sunra. Table 33*

Hodding, Dacca Natm-h*? Family Estates, p.4.

4Ibid., p.7.
 330

•paaflag who were occasionally headed by a jamming or a mridha; and

i

this unit was represented by a muktiar at a local court. Shis is

the organization we have proposed to call the tahsil establishment.

She tahsil establishment contained three indispensable elements,

viz. the collector of rent, the physical force to back up him,

and the legal practitioner to represent the,landlord’s interests

in the judicial system of the colonial state,

Generally speaking, the tahsil staff were paid in money.

i

At least till the early nineteenth century, the staff of lower

grades such as peons, neadaa. and iamadars seem to have been paid

in land, or partly in land and partly in money, while the superior

staff were recompensed in money J The,act of granting land to the
m
followers smacks of feudal relationship between seigneur and

vassal. In our period, too, there were some similar cases. In

the estate of Jagat. Kisho're Acharjya, for instance, the staff

2
used to be given rent-free land. However, the general tendency

was to remunerate the staff, irrespective of their rank, in money.

Even if some of them managed to obtain a portion of the estate,

,it was regarded as against established norms, and even as an

unscrupulous act. This change in the form of remuneration should

be veiwed alongside of the disappearance of the and natwarl.

It forms another aspect of the centralization referred to above.

With the years the zamindari rent collection system had gradually

diluted the communal, feudal character. On the other hand, it

does not seem that the tahsil staff were regularly transferred

^Taniguchi, ’Zamindari of Dinajpur,1 pp.49-51 *

2EWAE, 1.876-77, para. 183; 1877-78, para.302.

 331

from (me office to another. We do sot have evidence to this

effect; and It should not he overlooked that Jay Krishna Hukherjoe's

policy of transferring them at frequent intervals was considered

an innovation in the zamindari management system J This state of

things must have afforded them ample scope for building up their

own spheres of influence. There is all the more reason to beliero

so because, as will he shown later, they were mostly enlisted

from among the influential local people.

\

Now, of the above-mentioned three elements of the taheil

establishment, the latter two (the physical force and the legal
» ,
representative 5 obviously constituted the most conspicuous parts

of the extra-economic-coeroion apparatus; and their functions

might he regarded as forming a direct and organized aspect of the

whole spectrum of extra-economic compulsions. Their oppressive)

activities are so well-known that we have only to make a rough

sketch of them. The point to he emphasized here is just that

such oppressions should he taken not as mere accidental excesses

committed by this or that malicious staff, hut as indispensablo,

built-in components of landlordism itself.**

It is notable that the physical force elements like

1Mukherjee, A Bengal ZaTnitiflat*. p.106.

^For example, Kali Krishna Tagore was a member of the

Tagores of Calcutta and known as a generous and efficient zemindar.
But when a district officer, worried over the growing discontent
among the raiyats against his naib's oppressions, brought this to
his notice, he, far from taking steps to remedy this state of
things, supported the naib. (AGAR'. 1901-02, para.35). Perhaps
he had no choice but to take this attitude since Bengal landlordism
was so organized as to require this sort of oppressions as its
main trill at*.
■■ - JBr
 332

jamadara. mridhas. neadas and peons accounted for about half of

the establishment. As a rule they were lightly armed with club a „

etc.; and whenever troubles arose over rent, they were sent to

the raiyat's hut. The way they discharged their duties is

described as follows:

The defaulting tenants are then divided into two classes, the
recusant and the incapable. The incapables are let off with
the threat that they would be charged with interest at 300 per
cent of so. ' The recusants are generally subjected to what is
called the peon's mohsil. being a sort of restraint of their
liberty till they make the payment.'

In plain words, the 'peon's mohsil* appears to mean confinement of

a raiyat in a cell attached to the kaoharl building. This was the

commonest but very effective weapon of tbs landed class from olden

times. Although the British criminal law categorically prohibited

it, they ignored the law and continued to resort to this harsh

measure with impunity. It is also a well-known fact that in order

to frighten the ralyats they often went further and had recourse

to acts of brutal violence: arson, rape, murder, and so forth.

What is worse, some estates maintained an extraordinary number of

these armed men only to harass the ralyats. The Bhawal estate of

Dacca, for instance, kept no less than four hundred lumberies. or

peons, who were not paid at all. They roamed about the countryside

like 'raving locusts* and 'lived and even flourished by oppressing

2
the tenantry.' Similarly, one estate in the south of Bakargsnj

reportedly employed over four hundred lathials /"club-men 7 and

1'The Bengal feasant,' BM, Sept. 1880, p.60. The mohsil

/rnahsil. mahashil 7 is defined as 'an officer especially deputed
to realize arrears of revenue, to recover a debt, or to prevent
the escape of anyone' in Wilson's glossary. p.32Q.
2
'Report on the Administration of Wards' Estates in the
District of Dacca for the Tear 1904-05,* paras.23-4, BQR-W, file
no.422 of 1905.
 333
4
another over three hundred. It vas probably these rough estates

that hired out armed men to other estates when the necessity

arose.

Of course the raiyats strenuously resisted such tyranny.

Beatson Bell, a British officer posted In Faridpur, bluntly

observed that the big zemindars * retain in their service unscru­

pulous agents of the class who deserve to be killed, and are

killed. * When the raiyats* resistance assumed proportions which

could not be tackled by these private armed men, the landlords

sought the help of the police. Share were instances in which the
constabulary was stationed for a very long period. A report on

the Banma estate of Bakarganj put it: '...the Banina Estate...hao

been notorious as the most disturbed tract in this District

Bakargan;jJ7. For 17 years up to February last an additional

Police force had constantly to be posted in the Estate to preserve

•k
the peace between the tenants and landlords....* ' For this

service the estate had to pay Re.600 a year to the Government.

She above-mentioned physical force ranging from a small

batoh of peons, etc. to the speoial police force without doubt

played a role of no little importance in frightening the raiyats

into submission. At the same time we should remind ourselves

that the practice of resorting to open violence to settle disputes-

^Bakargani SSBt. para.200.

2ASAR. 1897-98, para.117.

^Cllr. Sak. to Cmmr. Dac., Eo.444W, 18 Aug. 1893, BQR-W,

File no.211 of 1893. Emphasis added.
 334

lathialiam as it vised to lie called—is said to have already ‘been

on the vane in the late nineteenth century• She enactment of

agrarian lavs and the expansion of the administrative network in

rural areas made it dispensable. Instead of the use of physical

t < *

force, it seems, the landlords came to rely increasingly upon the

judicial system.1 2 That even the small estate, with the current

demand of less than Hs.10,p00 such as B. B. Gosvamy's employed a

muktiar on a regular basis suggests the importance of this

device. There were innumerable oases in which the landlord

brought the raiyat to ruin by instituting a. rent suit or a

2
criminal suit, false or genuine, against him.

Nevertheless, there is no denying, that in rent business

(including exaction of illegal cesses) the indirect and informal

forms of extra-economic coercion played an important part. For

example, the settlement officer of Bakarganj reported that in his

district the illegal cesses were 'realized partly by ov^ert, but

chiefly by covert intimidation.' ? In inquiring into this indirect

and covert aspect, we would do better at first study the social

character of the tnhali staff. Other related questions will be

taken up in the next chapter.

1'The Bengal Feasant,' BM, July 1881, p.42t; Pradip Sinha,

lneteenth Century Bengali Aspects of Social History (Calcutta,
f 965), pp.14-15, 30.
2
Of course the physical force and the legal pratitioner
were also called out to fight with rival landlords. But this
aspect has been excluded from the above account, as it is not
directly related with the problem of rent, collection from the
raiyats.
^Bakarganl SSR. para.200.
 335

Prom what class of people were the staff of the tahsil

establishment enlisted? Ve have five different sets of evidence

throwing light upon this point.

First, there is a series of the Court of Wards' records.

By studying the existing establishment (i.e. the original estab­

lishment in force prior to the assumption by the Court) of Bin&oo

Bashini Ooswamy's estate (Sable 44), we have already noted that

the superior tahsil staff, viz. naib. accountant and mulctiar.

belonged to the bhadralok olass /"the educated or landed Hindus

of Brahman, Vaidya or Kayastha oaste_7. Such was also the case

with idie tahsil establishments that were reorganized by the Court

of Wards. Prom among many instances we cite just one, the tahsil

establishment of a circle of the Madhabpassa estate in Bakarganj.

(Sable 47). Shis estate was owned by a Hindu landlord. But

SABLE 47

ESTABLISHMENT OF SHE MADHABPASSA CIRCLE OP SHE

MADHABPASSA ESSASE 1ST BAKARGANJ

Designation Same of Officer Salary per Month

Es.
Sehsildar B. M. Mukherjea 25
Head Moharir K. K. Mukherjea 12
Moharir S. C. Q-hosal • 10
f • S. C. Bose 10
•t D. Ef. Roy 10
»* N. Sen 8

SOURCE: 'Copy, with Copy of the List, Submitted to the Commis­

sioner of the Dacca Division with Reference to his Ho. 119 M.R.,
dated 20 April 1904,' H0.1254W, BOR-W, Pile no.77 of 1904
 336

it should be noted that the Muslim landlord also preferred to

employ the Hindu bhadralok as his clerical staff J

Unfortunately, the Court*s records do not provide us with

any information on the subordinate staff. In this regard, an

article published in the 1870s furnishes interesting facts:

As a rule they /~i.e. zamindari amlas 7 are of the same class
as the village ryots, and are themselves cultivators. It is
not, thereforev matter of surprise, when it happens, as it
.often does, that the plots which are in their hands, are the
best in the village. Their proper work prevents them from
actually labouring in the fields, and they are supposed tc
pay those of the other ryots who till the soil for them, but
it is too frequently the oase that they manage somehow to get
this done gratis. And they are.by no means ignorant of the
art of obtaining the offer of gratifications whan they
require them.*2

This Recount indicates that the g-nminfla-H amlaB. or the tahsil

staff, were influential cultivators, who not only were in

possession of the best land in the village but also were able to

requisition fellow villagers' services for nothing. They did not

cultivate the soil themselves. However, if we may take it that

the writer of this article considered all the Kamindari Hmiaa to

be cultivators, his view is at variance with our findings baeod

on the Court's records.

Our third evidence is a report on the employment of a

staff for operating a tiny Government estate in Mymensingh, which

reads as follows:

The prospected tehsildar is an independent officer appointed

for this estate only. The appointment has been given to a

S5R. para.205.
2J. B. P., 'Rustic Bengal,' Calcutta Review (hereafter
CR), 111-117 (1874), p.199.
 337

respectable resident ryot of the Estate named Abdul Karim

Ghowdrl who is well acquainted with the estate and holds
some tenures under Govt, and has deposited Rs.5Q0/- in cash
as security...•

As a dakra, who will be a local man with the status of

a cultivating ryot wlJQ.be appointed under the tehsildar on
a monthly pay of / as. 7 5/~» he can perform all the duties
of a putwari ....Tsic)'

The man who was appointed tahsildar was a Muslim 'respectable

resident ryot.' He wa$ not a mere cultivator. His title

ehaudharl as well as his possession of 'some tenures under

Government' indicates that he was a very successful raiyat who

had been trying to elevate his social status to the level of tho

respectable tenure-holder by purchasing tenures. His status

might be regarded as a cross between a raiyat and a tenure-holdor,

By contrasty the dakra. who would perform the duties of a natwarl.

was to be enlisted from among the cultivating raiyats.

The fourth evidence relates to a tahaiiday of the estates

of Ramgopalpore and Gourlpore in thana Iswarganj of the ffitymenoingh

district. This tahsildar was a Muslim raiyat, Elim Sarkar by

name. He had been appointed tahsildar of his native village,

Bnmn>mnfl7»tiriBga'r, lay hla landlords,' BiShSSWari GhaUdrsni VmaM

Kishore Eai Chaudhri. However, when they made an attempt to

enhance his rents as well as those of other raiyats and impost*

abwabs. he objected to it and joined the agrarian league organized

by the local peasantry. The landlords dismissed this defiant

tahsildar. An officer who Investigated the dispute reported on

Slim Sarkar's economic conditions as follows:

Depy. Cllr. Mym. to Cllr. Mym., .25 June 1877 in Proceed­

ings of the Board of Hevenue, lower Provinces, 1st Section:
Settlement, no.274, 11 Aug. 1877* The word 'dakra' is not clear
in■ meaning.
1 tu#
 338

Elim Sarkar, son of Mahomed Aiab, of Bamchandranagor, thana

Isvargunge, pargana Malmansingh. Raiyat of .Biseswarl
Ohaudrani and Kashi Klshore Babu. Holds 8 oottahs of home­
stead lands, 12& oottahs of zirat bhiti, and 8 aras 8-jr
oottahs of rloe lands, altogether 9 aras 13 oottahs. She
rice lands are of three classes—first class Rs.2-8, second
class Rs.2, and third class Rs.1-12 per ara. Hates of
homestead bhiti and zirat bhiti are Es.4 and Rs.2-8 respec­
tively. Holds the'above-mentioned land since 1261B.S., and
has paid a jama of Rs.31-8 to the zemindars, without any
objection on his or their parts, from 1261B.S. to 1288B.S.
Is willing to pay the same jama now, bat the zemindars want
Rs.55 as rent, 4 annas per rupee as parbbi of pooja, and
4 annas per rupee as interest.*

In Ramgopalpore t ara was equal to 4 bighaa 17 oottahs 4 chittacka.

or about 1.6 acres. The area of rice lands in the possession of

Elim Sarkar works out roundly at 13.5 acres. This case, with the

above-mentioned third one, clearly shows that the tahallday was ■

recruited from the upper strata of the raiyatB. And besides, It

points to the delicate relationship between landlord and tahaildar.

The fifth and last evidence is a bunch of reports drawn

up when a thorough Investigation was conducted into the systematic

and atrocious oppression of raiyats by the zamindars of the

Mariohbonia group of estates in southern Bakarganj. The reporto

vividly described the manner in which the zamindars enlisted and

utilized the subordinate staff for the purpose of subjecting the

raiyats to their will. From one of them we take a few paragraphs,

which are interesting and informative enough to be qudted in

detail.

^Appendix B to. Offg. Cllr. Mym. to Cmmr. Dec., No. 114-18G-P

16 Apr. 1884, in A Collection of Papers relto the Bengal
Tananny Bill. -1884. p.14. Bhiti means raised land. Zirat refers
to proprietor's private lands.
^Offg. Cllr. Mym. to Cmmr. Dac., No.114-18G, 16 Apr.
1884, para.12 in ibid.# p.8.
 339
In order that their power and influence might go on undis­
turbed and there might not be any further possibility of the
tenants being combined against them, the maliks contrived to
take into their servioe the moat -in-pinayit-tnl Hpawanta. aa
Peadas. Mrldhaa. Sikdars. Jamadars and Matbars. etc. These
people were allured into this with being conferred with a sort
rpp e-pimiriai power to exercise upon their fellow brethren and
irfth a kind n-p recognized annramaev over the rest of the
people. These people were authorised to arrest any man who
committed any offence and to produce him to the malik's
presence for trial. To exact fines and to chastise a man for
his wrong doing became the duty of these men; in short, they
haeama something Ilka the -punitive police stationed in the
locality, sow-an a matter of fact, these positions came to
be envied by other tenants and thus a rivalry soon''sprang up
among the influential tenants for securing them. The cunning
maliks turned this opportunity to serve another item of
making money, and these noaitiona came to be set at something
lika an anntion-BBle and given to highest bidders Q-P aa~l mni „
The writer goes on to cite some of such instances:
For instance, we cite below a few cases, out of many:—
(1) Rajjab Mridha of Bazarghona was made a Mriflha on
• receipt of Bs.130 by Bisweswar Babu.
(2) Sodai Ghorami of Bazarghona was made a Matbar by
Bisweswar Babu, on payment of a salami of Rs.125.
(3) One late Abul Hossain had to pay fis.300 to Bisweswar
Babu for obtaining a «»nafl for the privileges of
using palanquin and shoes and for being made a
Mridha.

Thus we Bee that the Peadas, Mridhas, Jamadars and Sikdaro,

etc., acquired some distinctions in the society and their
position came to be recognised as such.
It may also be noted that in Mughal times, uivada meant armed
footman, .lamadar. head of pJ-vadaa. and shiadar. head of an
irregular force meant to take revenue from recalcitrants. The use
of force is explicit in these terms. As a result, the landlords
came to wield enormous power over the raiyats:
Through the agency of these men, the maliks dominated over the
social and private affairs of their tenants even and this was
to such an extent that nothing could taka nibrb in the society
or in a family without Hhelr permission and knowledge. The
maliks would dictate which men should occupy which position in
society and which men should sit down on which sort of things
(mats or carpets, etc.) at a social gathering. Verily a man
 340

acquired higher and higher position in his society as he paid

larger and larger amount of salami. So at present we see the
Mridhas, Jamadars, Paedas (sic.) and Matbara, etc. who got
aanads on payment of salami, to occupy high and influential
positions in society*

Besides this social distinction, these men had another

charm,too—-they were giygn a ahm*B of wimna-fc nil aorta of
Abvaba realised from the raivats. Therefore these men were
ever ready to carry out anv order of their mal lira. Ihus it
is seen that the contrivance of the maliks became’ successful
beyond any imaginations •»

Thus, learning the importance of the upper tenantry through their

dearly bought experiences of peasants' combinations, the landlords

of ‘this area appointed 'the most influential tenants' as mridhas.

etc. and von over their hearts both by conferring petty social

privileges upon them and by allowing them to have a share in tho

illegal oesses. Simple as they were, these tactics worked so

well that 'these men were ever ready to carry out any order of

their malike.' By manipulating these men who, coming from the

peasant stock, had the thorough knowledge of the fellow

cultivators' circumstances, the landlords dominated not only tho

social but even the private affairs of their tenants. Ve have,

for one thing, this kind of Intimidation in mind when we speak of

o
the indirect and covert forms of extra-economic coercion.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that these posts were not hereditary,

but on the very contrary, were sold to the highest bidders at

'something like an emotion-sale.' *

She evidence cited above do not necessarily agree with one

* 'Report of the Investigating Officer Maulvi Muhammad

Mohiuddln, Revenue Officer, dated 2nd October 1912,' Bakarganri
SBR. Appendix XVII, p.oii. Emphases added.
2
Other forms of coercion will be discussed in the next
section.
 341

another. On balance, however, we may feel justified In concluding

that the superior staff of the tahsil establishment from the naib

down to the moharir were selected from the Hindu bhadralok claus,

while such subordinate staff as mridha. ■^amndn.-r and neada wero

recruited from those ralyats who were allured by pay or status to

using force against their own class. But, of the superior staff,

the tabsIldar, the pivotal official in rent collection, appears to

have had a mixed character. He was sometimes chosen from the

bhadraloks. and sometimes from the well-to-do people of the

peasant stock, depending on the local conditions.

From the above one may naturally infer that the social

structure of rural Bengal was reflected in the tahsil establish-

9
ment. But we cannot go deep into the question. Here, we shall

confine ourselves to studying the social origin of the -tahaiiriar

/"collector of rent_7, an important official corresponding to tho

mandal of the eighteenth century.

In Faridpur in the 1870s a long chain of tenure-holders

—zemindar, uatnidar. taiukdar. iotdar of the first class,

haoladar. iotdars of the second and the third classes—had cone

into being as the result of subinfeudation. What was called tho

.Iotdars of the second and third classes were peasants corresponding

to the occupancy ralyats * She .iotdars of the first class

constituted a more powerful class wielding a vast influence over

rural society. A contemporary report depicted them as followo:

The jotedars /"of the first class./ sub-let, and sometimea
cultivate portions of their tenures by engaging servants.
Many jotedars have likewise other occupations, some being in
Government employ. The.v offop hpi nnp; to the middle class of
people, but a few are a]ho wen-to-do ryots. On the whole.
 342

the .lotedars of Furreedpore form a very powerful olaas.

disposed to oppose the- zemindara. and cannot easily be
trodden down under foot by them. Their combination brought
tae zemlndarl of Bhusna Into ruin, and they have frequently
managed to checkmate the landlords in other parts of the
district. As an instance, 1 may here state the case of
Babu Eajendro Chandra Eai of Choudarasi, who lately took
a portion of zamindari Havili in putni and demanded an
increase of rent from the jotedars. She result was that
the jotedars formed a strong combination and resisted his
demands. She Babu has not as yet succeeded in gaining his
object, and probably never will.1

And haola which was found mainly in the south of the district was

also a tenure of the same kind as .lot, and its holders were
2
composed 'both of the middle and ryot classes.'

In the above account the .1 otdar-h*fti«d a* class is portrayed

as the landlords' mortal enemy. Nonetheless, I would venture to

assume that the tahaildara mostly came from this olass, for it

cannot be a mere coincidence that the two had in common one

important feature of having a dual composition, comprising both

the hhadralok (or the middle class) and the substantial raiyat.

The landlords of our time wished to secure the alliance of this

formidable olass by giving them a pivotal role in rent collection

business, and tried to hold the reins of the local society. The

tahailday of such origin, who was assisted by peadaa. etc.,

enlisted from another influential rural class, upper raiyat a,

became powerful instruments in exerting various forma of indirect

coercion, and thereby making the landlord's authority most

pleroingly felt in the peasant society.

*'District Statistical Accounts (Furreedpore) by Bhutan

Mohan Baha,' Revenue Progs, of SOB, Statistical Deptt., Sept.
1873, nos.35-6. Emphasis added.
2Ibid.
 343

On the other hand, it is a well-known fact that the

leadership of the peasant movements which surged over eastern

Bengal in the last few decades of the nineteenth century lay in

the hands of the same class. To mention an instance or two, in

Pahna the famous agrarian league was led hy the substantial ralyats
in alliance with a section of the local bhadraloks*; and in

■Sushkhali, a large Government estate in Bakarganj; it was mazula.

osat talukdars and hani «d<yr»a that organized a -lot /“combination,

strikeJ7 to oppose a sudden enhancement of rent, and vent a stop

2
further and demanded fixity of rent rates in perpetuity. Still,

it should not be lightly dismissed that some leaders had once

been in the employ of landlords. She most conspicuous case in

point would be Shambhunath Pal, a prominent leader of the agrarian

league of Pabna, who was called 'Deputy Raja' by the rebel

peasants. Hie was a former employee of the most oppressive of the

zamindars, the Banerjees. Shis oase pointedly exhibits the two-

facedness of the class under our analysis, Shey functioned like

a two-edged sword, sometimes cutting the zamindars' throats and

sometimes the peasants'.^

*Sen Gupta, Pabna Disturbances, pp.49-50; Binay Bhushan

Chaudhuri, 'She Story of a Peasant Revolt in a Bengal District, ’
Bengal Past and Present. XCII-174 (July-Dee., 1973), pp.245-6.
^Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri, 'Peasant Movements in Bengal
1850-1900,' Nineteenth Century Studies. 3 (1973), p.370; idem,
'Agrarian Economy and Agrarian Relations1 in Bengal 1859-1885,' in
She History of Bengal (1757-1905). ed. Harendra Krishna Sinha
(Calcutta, 1967), pp.286-7.

'Sen Gupta, Pabna Disturbances, p.47. See also ibid.,

p.49.
^Shis state of things was in existence in the late eigh­
teenth century as well. Those who took the leadership of the
peasant uprising in Rangpur and Dinajpur in 1783 were the village
headmen who were locally called 'bosneahs.' (Narahari Eaviraj,
 344

Against this backdrop, therefore, the landlord's kachari

may be figured as a field where the landlord's force and the local

society's force represented by the tahail staff interact and once

in a while collide with each other. She landlord's staff were

generally known as unscrupulous people. And in many cases the

confused state of estates and their consequent ruin were

attributed to their corruption. But this should rather be seen

as cases of balance of power in the kachari tilting to the

■

landlord's disadvantage.

To sum up, the landlord of eastern Bengal gradually

shifted the base of their land management from the mandal to the

tfthflliifaa*
* recruited from what we called the .1 otdar-haoladar class

in Faridpur and their equivalents in the other districts. This

shift was necessitated by the falling-off of the village

autonomous system, an institution closely associated with feudal

society, as well as by the initiative of the colonial state power

A Peasant Uprising in Bengal 1783 (Hew Delhi, 1972), pp.35-6).

We have already noted at the outset of this section that this
social group was instrumental in zamindars' rent collection.
*One may say that the mandal of the eighteenth century
also came from the upper strata of rural society similar to
-lotdara and haoladars. However, the class character of a partic­
ular social group should be judged in relation to the total
structure of a given society, and not by a mere genealogical
continuity (or discontinuity). As has been discussed in part 1,
the .1otdar-hnn^fiflft.y class of our time was rapidly turning into
a small semifeudal landlords by right of purchase. And this
transformation was the outcome of the fundamental changes in
Bengal rural economy* What is more, late in the nineteenth
century this class began to exercise its influence directly, that
is, without the mediation of the village autonomous institution.
At least on these two counts the .1 otdar-haoladar class of our
period must be distinguished from its counterpart in the eigh­
teenth century. Otherwise, we will fall into a pitfall of the
hollow 'continuity theory* to which we have taken a critical
attitude in chapter 8.
 345
in Bengal in delegating central control of collection of the land
j 1 .1 .
surplus to the nev landlord olaa^ In this process the land

management system became more centralized In the sense that It

absorbed the functions hitherto carried out by the mandals. On

the other hand, as compared with the system in capitalist societys

our landlords' system was far more complex and still retained
a

many elements peculiar to pre-capitalist societies. A British

observer once remarked; 'it will be seen that the business of

collecting the rents of a Bengal maissaK £“administrative vlllcgoj?

is a very different thing from the work which is done by a

landlord's agent in England, and that it can only be carried on

through the means of an organized staff. In England where tho

landlord received from the big capitalist farmer the excess of

agricultural profit over average profit in the form of ground-rent,

rent collection as such was naturally a simple and smooth business

which could be carried on by an agent, fhe process came to bo

regulated by the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production

as well as the civil and criminal law structure which followed.

In Bengal at the turn of the century quite an elaborate establish­

ment —the -feahaii establishment as we call- it—was required to

exart on the raiyats various forms of extra-economic coercion;

sheer physical force, litigation and covert intimidation. Of

course, besides the tahail establishment, the landlords, especially

those who had an old family tradition, had various channels of

keeping contact with, and holding the reins of , the local society,

fhe Maharaja of Busanga, for instance, used to grant 'the

*J. B. P., 'Rustic Bengal,' p.197-

 346

traditional chiefs of the various communities' certain privileges

and treat them with due honour . Sometimes a very strong and deep

tie was formed between the chief and the Maharaja, a good

illustration of which will be found in an episode of Doya Mandalr

the chief of the maJhi jTfishermanJ class. This old man is said

to have remained devotedly attached to the titular head of the

family 'for some inexplicable reason' even amidst a deadly family

! 1
feud which rocked the whole Susang estate for very long time.

Though this aspect is very important for the proper understanding

of the zamindari system, we had to exclude it from the scope of

the present study because of the paucity of relevant records.

Be the matter as it may, we may remark in conclusion that the land

management system of our landlords mirrored the transitional

phase of Bengal rural society i

1Sinha, Changing Times, pp.71-2.

l
 X7

INDIRECT FORMS OP COERCION

Iren a casual observer of rural Bengal will easily notice

that the londlord-raiyat relationship in the colonial period did

not end in mere collection and payment of rent! it actually

spread over nearly every sphere of life. She vast realm of

cultural, social and economic ties outside rent relations, working

as a system of indirect extra-economic coercion, lent support to

the realization of rent hy the landlords. Although there are

numerous problems to look into, in this chapter we cannot but

confine ourselves to dealing with fairly well documented ones.

Particularly, we have excluded the caste problem from our scope,

partly because few reliable records are available, and partly

because the majority of raiyats in eastern Bengal were Muslims who

did not come under the caste restrictions, though they had a oaste-

like system of their own. At first we shall take up the questions

regarding the land under the landlords' direct control, and then

proceed to examine landlord-ralyat relations as reflected in the

^Of course, this is not to deny the importance of caste.

In point of fact, on some estates the landlords' threat of
excommunication is said to have worked like a magic wand in
subjugating the raiyats. (Jack to Director of land Records,
Eastern Bengal and Assam, 1 Oet* 1909, BakaygaiH ssr. App. Xr-YXX,
p.xej 'Report of Hr. F. D. Asooli, dated 1<> SeplG. 1909,* ibid.,
App. I—VIII, p.xcii; 'Report of the Investigating Officer Maulvi
Muhammad Mohiuddln, Revenue Officer, dated 2 Oct. 1912,' ibid.,
App. 1-XYH, p.ciii; 'Report of Maulvi Sheikh Abdullah, Revenue
Officer, dated 3 Oct. 1912,' ibid., App. L-X7IIX, p.exiv).

347
 348
abwab system.

One crucial aspect of the Permanent Settlement that has

not received due attention as yet seems to be that Cornwallis

conferred upon the zemindars what he called 'proprietary rights'

with respect to of land. The Permanent Settlement was,

so to speak, a blanket deal. Under this system, in addition to

cultivated land and homesteads which were let out to the raiyats,

all the remaining varieties of land, l.e. pasture, forest,

wasteland, marketplace, fishery,^ ferry, road, etc. were also

declared to be private property of one social class, the zamindors,

in disregard of the other classes' customary interests in them.

Shlle the zemindars made a substantial profit on this system orer

and above the rental from cultivated land and homesteads, the

raiyats were willy-nilly driven to depend upon their landlords,

since their economic and social life could not be carried on

solely on their small holdings without utilizing different kinds

i

of useful land that were under the landlords' control. Such

various valuable land may be roughly grouped into two classes s

those comparable to common land in other countries (pasture,

forest, wasteland, fishery, eto.) and those forming the basis of

the communication and trade system (marketplace, ferry, road,

etc.).

Admittedly, it did not take long before, the British rulers

came to realize the excesses of the Permanent Settlement.' They

took measures to rectify than. For instance, they fought a

1 Economically, a fishery can be counted among land.

 349

prolonged legal battle for the possession of the vast forest areas

in the Sundarbans with certain zamindars who claimed proprietary

rights in than on the strength of the Permanent Settlement. It

took the British a few decades to establish the State ownership

in themJ However, there is no denying that such remedial

measures were not intended to cover the entire range of problems,

especially those directly bearing upon the peasants' life. Many

problems were left unsolved. lake the roads for instance. During

the settlement operations, the settlement officer of Faridpur was

taken aback when a group of landlords headed by the Maharaja of

2
Haveli asserted their proprietorship in the Jessore Eoad. In

Dacca, too, the settlement officer had difficulty in handling

problems concerning roads and paths. At first he naively laid

down a rule that the roads constituting public rights of way

should be entered as 'possessed by the public' in special khativans

£“record-of-rights_7 opened in the name of Bharat Snmrat /“Emperor

of Indiajr. later, however, he found that there was no choice but

to change the rule, because 'the paramount power did not claim,

nor did the public possess, though they enjoyed the right to use,
■a
such roads.The case of roads shows beyond doubt that the

' Permanent Settlement was a system that did not care much about

the benefit of the whole society. And such was all the more \;ho
case with the raiyats' interests.

1Bskargaai SSR. paras.247-9.

faridpur SSR. para.203. Shis claim was rejected by the

settlement officer under section 9 of Regulation 42 of 1850.
a
•'Dacca SSR. para.263.
 350

It is a well-known fact that in pre-capitalist peasant

societies of Japan, China, Java, Vietnam, Russia or Europe, common

land in which peasant community enjoyed a customary usufructuary

right played an important role In complementing the production

process on small peasant holdings as well as in combining the

peasants into a community. With the spread of capitalist

relations or the coming of colonial rule, this gradually (or

abruptly by some special legislation) disappeared. Unfortunately,

9

however, as regards pre-colonial Bengal we do not know with

certainty whether such a common land system as comparable to tho

above-mentioned countries? was in existence. But the question, it

seems, cannot be lightly dismissed as an untenable hypothesis,

either. Even from official records of the late nineteenth and

early twentieth centuries we can cite cases, though small in

number, which might be regarded as relics of common right of clden

times.

Bor example, it was reported from Dacca: '.There are...

many tanks smaller number of grazing grounds in which the

public possesses a right of user.' In relation to the forest

we have an interesting case. A large part of the Attiah sub­

division of Kfymensingh was owned by Hawab Ahsanoolah and others.

Their property comprised a part of the Madhupur jungle and 'the

ryots have always cut wood, &o., from this forest without payment.*

However, when the zamindars appointed a joint superintendent to

bring in more efficient management# he tried to introduce a new

system of demanding 'rent for the jungle cutting carried on by the

1Dacca 3SR. para.262.

 351

ryots, and established cutcherries for collection of bankur

rhawTray. pent for gathering woods, etcThe raiyats put up

resistance to the new imposition, and nesessarily, * there were

several riots.' A zamindar is reported to have justified this

innovation by remarkings 'This is land permanently settled with

me for which I pay revenue and which 1 have leased to no one.'1

This case clearly shows that the raiyats of this area had enjoyed
2
the customary right to gather forest produce from olden times.

But their time-honoured right was now being threatened by the

so-called private property sanctified by the oolonial state. As

to fisheries, we are provided with richer evidence. A. C. Sen

reported on Dacca: 'In jheels forming private _1alkar mehals

/"fisheries, areas of oolleetKm of rents on rater_7 the public

have the right of fishing with the rod and the line, and, in

navigable rivers, with these contrivances as well as with fixed

traps (chai)....In many places on one or two days in the yearu

e.g. the last toy of the month of Pous, the public are allowed to
fish in private fisheries other than tanks and ponds.1 ^ Mymenslngh

also had a similar custom: 'Pishing with hand nets is free in all

,ABAR. 1877-78, para.76.

2In the Sundarbans forest the wood-cutters had a prescrip­

tive right to the timber and fire-wood. As to the right of
villagers, it is stated: 'The villagers have no right whatever
to cut timber, or other trees in the forest, but they have always
been permitted the privilege of doing so.' (J. E. Qastrell,
Gteograuhiftftl smfl Statistical Report of the Districts of Jesaore.
Burreednore and Bank-argnrigR fOftlmit-hft- IfifiBl. TMTft.Uti). this
passage may be interpreted as implying that Idle villagers held a
sort of customary right.
^Sen, Dacca District, para. 140a.
 352

navigable rivers and in most bile at least twice a week.In

this district the villagers sometimes went further in asserting

their right: 'In the cold weather it is a common sight to see

hundreds of villagers marching to a rendezvous, where they invade

idie £ii, in a solid line and it is a marvel that a single fish

escapes to stook the bil for another year. • • .She chief instruments

used on these occasions are the oala or tarna. a basket with a

broad open bottom and a narrow opening at idle top, through which

the fisherman puts his hand when he has succeeded in planting his
2
basket over a fish.' A relative abundance of evidence on common

right in fisheries seems to suggest that communal relations were

more strongly operative in fisheries than in other varieties of

land.^_

^Mymensirifrh p,85. It is further reported: 'There are

few villages where at least in some months of the year every
villager cannot catch his own fish in the nearest bil or ditch.
There is no objection to fishing with rod or basket even in
reserved fisheries, and the villagers have the right to fish all
shallow bila twice a week free even in the Ehaliajuri area, where
iaivay iB the chief source of revenue.1 (Ibid., p.70).
2Ibid., p.85.

^Ranajit Guha has attaohed special importance to 'corporate

labour' as a catalyst to Integrate rebellion as a corpoarate enter­
prise of the rural masses, and has counted 'nolo fishing* among its
most significant forms. During the agrarian league of Pabna,
fishing labour was utilized to mobilize support for tljeir struggle.
The Pabna raiyats entered in a body bila adjacent to villages which
had not joined their league, and oaught fish with a special type of
fishing basket called nolo. (Sanajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of
Peasant Insurgency In Oolonial India (Delhi, 1983), pp. 126-8). His
argument on this point is stimulating and convincing. Here we
should like only to supplement it from a different angle. It seems
that relationship between fishing and peasant insurgency can also
be seen from a more traditional viewpoint of economic history.
Wien we go through reports on fishing, we notice that fishing in
late nineteenth century Bengal formed an exceptional- domain of
economic activities where communal regulations operated in a fairly
explicit and articulate manner. In waters, unlike in land, the
eastern Bengal peasants seem to have succeeded in retaining
customary common right to some extent, and therefore were quite
 353

Be that as it may, a full enquiry into the history of tho

common land and right in Bengal is yet to he carried out. Heref

restricting our scope to the colonial period alone, we will only

discuss how the opposing interests of the landlords and the

raiyats crossed each other in pastures, fisheries, etc., and how

these lands played the part of an apparatus of Indirect extra*

*’
economic (i.e. non-market) coercionJ

familiar with communal regulations. For instance, when they went

out for communal fishing, they took only polos with them, although
they possessed a variety of fishing implements. Shis is most
probably because there was a well-established custom as to what
kind of fishing implement should be used on which occasion. It is
therefore natural that in building up a fraternal solidarity the
Insurgent peasants should have singled out and relied on this
particular domain, in which they had a concrete experience of
acting together under commonly accepted regulations. But it should
be noted that these regulations necessarily embodied a tacit
understanding with the proprietors of fisheries as well. Xhe Patna
peasants used to enter bils and do nolo fishing as a communal
pastime on the strength of such an understanding. However, when
they entered such bils with a firm purpose to organize a reboll Ion,
they were openly and consciously violating the sanctity of private
property. By doing this, they isolated oppressive elements
represented by an understanding with the landlords from their
communal regulations, purified their communal regulations into the
genuine bond of fraternity, and thus elevated mere festive fiohing
labour to true 'corporate labour.'
*In some estates the rents from these lands, i.e. banker,
(rent for gathering wood, etc.) and laiTon* (fishery rent) formed
a considerable portion of the total annual, income. We can cite
two cases from among our forty-one estates. A report on N. P.
Pogose's estate in Mymenslngh says: 'Xhe rental of the estate is
derived from lands, fishery, and bunkur, and therefore is not fixed,
but varies according to the quantity of fish that is procurable in
the bheels within the estate and the reeds and rushes cut by the
ryots and others.' (RWAE. 1878-79, para.163). Xhe Bhawal estate of
Dacca, on the other hand, comprised a vast 'wood mehal at Siripur.'
(Manager, Bhowal Raj to Cllr. Dac., 13 June 1904* in BQR-W File
no.811 of 1904). Xhis mahal was miserably mismanaged, but the
Conservator of Forest estimated that were it managed properly, it
would yield a yearly profit of one lakh of rupees from the trees.*
('Report on the Administration of Wards Estates in the District of
Dacca for the Year 1904-03,' para.24, in BQR-W File no.422 of
1903). But in this chapter we do not deal with the role of
forest, fishery, etc. in the financial management of the estates.
 354

Ve have already seen, that the raiyats had a sort of

prescriptive right in fisheries. On the other hand, however, it

should also be noted that the landed class showed a great

eagerness to control fisheries. Shis is pointedly illustrated

by the fact that even a tiny fishery yielding an annual rental of

only Bs.15 was under their possession.1 2 In point of fact, most
o
fisheries were held by private landlords. Admittedly, when the

government made an attempt to resume and tax* the fisheries of all.

navigable rivers in 1859, some of them were resumed and turned

into Government fisheries. But in many instances, it is reported,.

3
resumption proceedings ended in nothing. ‘

As a rule the landlords employed the policy of farming

out their fisheries to the middlemen.* lake for instance the

Jalkar Hehal Pergunnah Khaliajuri-No.74, a vast fishery belonging

to the Dhankoora estate of Dacca. In 1885 the Court of Wards put

it up at auction. Those who made a successful bid were Gopi Mohun

Kaibarta and eleven others, who proposed to take it on lease for

the period of three years at an annual rental of Rs.14,117. Xn

spite of belonging to the fisherman caste, Gopi Mohun Kaibarta

did not actually do fishing. He was a middleman. Under him and

the other farmers fishermen worked in the following manner:

1 * Statement Showing the Settlement of Soali and Ashular

Fisheries of the Talipabad Estate,* BOR-W File no.245 of 1892.
There are a lot of similar oases in the Court of Wards files.
2Hai Sahib Anil Chandra lahiri, Report on Rights in
Fisheries in the Main Rivers of Bengal (Allpore, 1940J, para. 1.
^Ibid., para.17.

*The Government fisheries were also farmed out. (Ibid.,

paras.24-25).
 355

She Hhaliajuri fishery, it is reported, consists of two

important rivers (Dhunnu and Finn) and certain beels in tho
Fergunnah of that name....The netting season extends from
Kartio to Choitra. During this period different groups of
fishermen come in from the neighbouring parts of the district
and settle themselves temporarily with their families on the
banks of the river, These temporary settlements are locally
called kholaa. and it is reported mat there are generally 94
of them on this fishery of which 8 are the principal. These
are presided over each by a kholadar or headman who supervises
the work of the entire gang, collects rents and settles all
disputes between them. The fishermen catch all. sorts of fish;
a portion of which is sold for local consumption and the rest
are either dried for exportation or boiled for the purpose of
extracting oil.'

These fishermen usually belonged to the professional fishing

castes such as Kaibarttas and Jhalos. Although they were actual

workers, they did not have a right analogous, for example, to the

occupancy right of the Bengal Tenancy Act. Most profits went to

the pocket. of landlords, farmers and intermediary traders.1
3 2 As

regards the farmers' castes, besides Kalbartta we also find tho

names of higher castes like Dey and Sarkar. In some of the

smaller fisheries, on the other hand, an actual fisherman was

nominated as a lessee. One of them was farmed out to one Bam

Keshab Halo, who an officer reported was himself a fisherman, for

two years at an annual rental of Rs.28.^

As stated in the report quoted above, the professional

10ffg. Cmmr. Dae. to BOR, Bo.127, 28 July 1889, BOR-W

File no.704 of 1883.
2lahiri, Rights in Fisheries, paras.99-105.
%
It was estimated that the fishermen of Mymensingh got
only 30 per cent of the total selling price of the fish caught in
the bile and rivers. fMcmonaingh PS. ,pp.82, 84).
,4 ^'Statement of Settlement of Fisheries Froposed to be Hado,
aitted for Sanction to the Collector of Mymensingh,' Bo.211V,
Jan. 1886, BQR-W File no.704 of 1883.
 356

fishermen fished only in the dry season, as daring the rains tho
fish were dispersed over so large an area that they could not
easily he caught.1 The common raiyats, by contrast, seem to have

exercised their prescriptive right mainly in the monsoon. J. 0.

Jack, for instance, described their monsoon life: 'during the

dismal period of the rains, from July to September, the cultivators

2
spend much of their time in fishing or in visiting their friends.'

In fisheries, therefore, the landlords * interests did not

necessarily clash head-on with the raiyats'. The fishing season

was so divided as to make it possible for the two interests to

coexist. And this is probably why the raiyats' customary right

was afcle to survive to some extent in the fisheries. But of

course their share was not large enough to satisfy their entire

demand for fish. According to a rough estimate, the fish caucht

by cultivators in various places including private fisheries

equalled in weight and number those caught for sale by professional

fishermen. That is, the raiyats had to depend upon the landlords

for the supply of about' half of the necessary quantity of this

essential foodstuff which their small holdings could not produce.

Forests, woods and clumps, which give us a vayiety of

important produce ranging from timber, firewood and fodder to

herb, honey and wax, are priceless to the economic life of the

4
'Dacca DG. p.12; p.86; Hunter, Statistical
Account, vol.5, p.389.
2
Jack, Economic Life, p.43*
•^Mvmensingh PS. p.86.
 357

peasantry. In Bengal marshy lands are hot necessarily waste, hut

in many cases produce valuable thatching grass and rushes.

Pastures are indispensable to the kind of agriculture which

employs animal power to cultivate the soil. At a certain stage'

of development in forces of production, e.g., such as found in

nineteenth century Bengal,1 farming cannot stably be carried on

without organically combining arable land with these kinds of

useful land.
m

It may safely be assumed that forests and pastures, etc.

were in existence in great abundance in Bengal of olden times.

Inscriptions of the Hindu period, for instance, tell ue that

natural meadow-land (go-chara) constituted a basic Component part

of a Bengal village. It not only provided pastures for live-stock

but produced various kinds of grass.^ This state of things seems

to have continued for many centuries. There was still plenty of

surplus land in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

According to an estimate, only 56 per cent of the total land area

was 'occupied1 in Bakarganj in 1770, while much less than half of

land was 'under cultivation' in Faridpur ait the time of the

o
Permanent Settlement. However, the great movement of reclamation

that commenced in the end of the eighteenth century changed the

picture altogether. Forest trees werfe felled down and pastures

were given up for the single purpose of expanding cultivation.

The survey and settlement operations which were conducted in the

i . ,

■ ■i,i i. ■ »nf........ ... ,

*R. G. Majumdar, ed., ghe m«torv of .Bengal, vol.t!

Hindu Period (Dacca, 1943)* p.6’43.
2Bakargani SSR. para.24; Fariduur SSR. para.10.
 358

Dacca division during the first two decades, of the twentieth

century brought to light that by then nearly all the culturablo

land had already been pat into cultivation, land classified as

other than cultivated land and homesteads formed only 17, 13, 24

and 25 per cent of the total land area of Dacca, Faridpur,

Bakarganj and Mymensingh respectively/ This means that the
. . \ * •
clearing1 process
2 * had virtually reached the maximum limit by tho

early twentieth century. In other words, our period corresponded

to the last phase of the reclamation movement. In fact, the area

under cultivation in Dacca was estimated at just 56 per cent in

,the late 1880s against the survey and settlement figure of 77 per
2
cent. The same figure for Mymensingh was 57 per cent in 1872
*
against 70 per cent. It is, therefore, during our period that

the contraction of forests, pastures, etc. started to be keenly

felt by Idle peasants/

It would be a one-sided view to regard the above change

merely as the development of forces of production in agriculture.

There was another side to the question: the rapid reclamation

process destroyed the balance between cultivated land and other

useful land like woods and pastures, and thereby brought about

^Mymensingh SSR. para.39.

2
Sen, Dacca Diatriot. para.56aj Dacca SSR. para.87.
^Mymewain^h DG. p.48; Mymensingh SSR. para.59.

^For a full discussion of the expansion of cultivation in

Bengal, see Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri, 4Agricultural Growth in Bengal
and Bihar, 1770-1860: Growth of Cultivation gince .the Famine of
1770,* BPP, XGV-180 (Jan.-June 1976), pp.305-14! and idem,
’Agricultural Production in Bengal, 1850-1900: Co-existence of
Decline and Growth,' BPP, 1X1X7111-166 (July-Dee. 1969) pp.170-81.

< .
 359

a series of unfavourable effects in the peasant economy. As early

as the 1880s a great scarcity of fuel hit the Munshigunge

subdivision of Dacca in consequence of the Clearing of the

Ghandpur jungleJ Even thatching grass that used to be freely

available in jungle and marshy lands before became difficult to

get. The settlement officer of Mymensingh wrote* 'Vith the

extension of cultivation thatching grass has also become a valuable

o
crop.* But it was in pastures that the repercussions of reclama­

tion was most seriously felt. Official reports published in tho

last quarter of the nineteenth century and afterwards almost

unanimously pointed out the great shortage of pasture grounds in

eastern Bengal..

Dacca was originally blessed vith fodder and pastures.

'Fodder was,' it is said, 'at one time very abundant throughout

the district,* the greater portion of which was under jungle and

long grass'; and 'the whole country was full of bathans (sometimes

called bhaors) or places where large heads of cattle, especially

milking cows and buffaloes used to be kept by the goalas or milk­

men. But in the late 1880s A. C. Sen found out that cattle-
food, had become scarce, while im-tharm had nearly disappeared.^

And a generation after, the settlement officer noted that the

situation had become even worse. He reported: 'There are

practically no grazing grounds in the district, and the only

*Sen, Dacca District, para.64*

^Myrnawpilngh gSR. para.55.

3
Sen, Dacca District, paras.63, 122.
^Ibid.
 3.60
pasture except in the northern division of the district is afforded
by the roads and village paths.'1 In the rains distressing scenes
were produced. As the district was inundated and fodder was un­
obtainable , many raiyats were compelled to sell the plough bullccks
at a considerable loss.2 * Ihe
4 situation in Bakafganj was equally
dismal: 'She cattle are generally of very poor quality and are
fed on straw and what they can find on the ails /"or alia, ridges
set up around a plot of arable laadL.7 of the fields. But
according to the cattle census,' BakarganJ had as many as 1,400,000
heads of cattle to feed.^ It is little wonder therefore that
cattle were constantly left half-starved. This without doubt
weakened the foundation of the agricultural production in* Bengal.

It was most probably on account of a great abundance of

surplus land in and before the eighteenth century that eastern
Bengal had not developed an institutionalized pasturage system.
And when, with the extension of cultivation, the need of earmarking
a fixed portion of land for grazing grounds became pressing, tho
Samindars* proprietorship in land came in the way. Xhe landlords'
short-sighted policy of indiscriminately turning pastures into
farm land for the purpose of increasing rent income went unchal­
lenged in the name of private property, and at the cost of common
interests of the peasantry.
t

1Dacca 8SR. para.46.

2Ibid*
Pfl. p.56. •
4Ibid.
 361
With the shrinking of pastures, forests, marshy land, otc.,

the space for grazing cattle and gathering such produce as

firewood, fodder and thatching grass came to carry scarcity value;

and the landlord began either to sell forest produce or to impose

rent on the raiyats for the use of the above-mentioned land. Wo

have already cited a oase of a group of landlords of Mymensingh

having made an attempt to collect b«mr«p from-the raiyats. Chare

is another similar case. In the Calipabad estate of northern

Dacca the landlords set up ghats at certain approaching points to

the jungle and collected rents

Che Izaradars /"farmer e_7 of these ghats realize rent according

to prevailingt, custom at the rate of one rupee per head from
the persons who go to cut grass and thatch and wood in the *
*
jungly part of the estate which Ms not been let out in jotos.
Likewise, in the bgthang /"*common graging grounds// which were

still in existence in the south of Bakarganj and the Meghna islands,

o
a fee of one rupee per head was charged. In Dakshin Shahbazpur,
ion,
too, it is reported many estates were let out/what was called a

gorkati settlement, and were used as grazing tracts for cattle

and buffaloes.^ And in other parts of the Dacca division, chera

/"new alluvial formations in big rivers_7 appear to have assumed

a special importance as pastures after the disappearance of

ha-thflnn and other grazing grounds.* As for thatching grass, It

came to be deliberately grown for sale in the beginning of the

twentieth century, while in 1877 .¥• W. Hunter reported that it

1Cmmr. Dae. to BOR, Ho.975MR/W, 27/29 Sept. 1893, BOR-W

Hie no.245 of 1892.
2Bak»rgmi1 Dfik p.57.
^Hunter, Statistical Account, vol.5, p.176.

*Ibid.; Sen, Dacca District, para.122.

 362
t
grew wild in Bakarganj

Against this backdrop, it is small wonder that unscrupu­

lous people had recourse to fraudulent means to lay hands on

scarce wasteland, particularly chars. .So give an instance, a

Government-owned char in Bakarganj was leased out in 17 Jotes at

a nominal rental for the purpose of reclamation. But these

1 lotedars* turned out to be men of doubtful character;

It 1ms been ascertained that the so-called jotedars, instead,

of -reclaiming the land, leased it for grazing purposes. Thoy
also sell the wood and reeds that grow on the char. They
thus realize a large sum every year., As there was no condition
in the khatian prohibiting subletting or compelling reclamation,
no action could be taken against them.*2

This story shows clearly that the excessive reclamation had in

places brought about an ironical situation in which it was more

profitable to leave the land waste than to clear it for cultivation.

In the eyes of the raiyats the changes examined above were

by no means welcome ones, for in the process they were .gradually

driven into a corner where they had little choice but to obtain

from the landlords in exchange for money those things on which

they used to enjoy prescriptive rights to gather or use freely.

And in this connection, I would like to draw an attention to the

fact that the development of forces of production achieved by

extending cultivation within the framework of the Permanent

Settlement, i.e. the zemindars' proprietorship in land, had the

^Bakargftwjj 33ft- paras.t9, 92? Hunter, Statistical Account.

yol.5* p.176. See.also, Faridonr SSE. paras.9. 39; Mvmensingh
SSR. para. 55.
2AGAR. 1894-95, para.103.
 363

effect of intensifying the raiyats' dependence upon the landlords,

Another variety of land to he considered is the sites for

hats ^village markets held once or twice a week_7• Ihese plaoos

played a significant part in the people's communication as well as

in the exchange of commodities, fhe importance of the hats in the

peasants' life is vividly described in the following account:

The hat is a most important ingredient in the village life

system. Here the producer brings his spare paddy, his
mustard seed, his betelnuts, his sugarcane, his gurh
treacle, his chillies, gourds, yams} the fisherman brings his
fish, the seed crusher his oils, the old widow her mats and
other handy work, the potter his ghnraa £earthen water-pot_7
and aamlas / basins./, the hawker his pieoegoods, bangles
and so on; the town trader's agents and the local media
£ merchant &J
come to increase their stocks; the rural folks
come to supply their petty wants; all alike assemble to .
exchange with one another the gossip and news of the day. <. <=

We may add another fascinating sketch of the village hat:

It is in these markets that the men of the surrounding

villages obtain their supply of the common necessaries of
life, the ordinary articles of food, vegetables, salt, oil,
rice, pulses, &c., being always bought in quantities sufficient
to last for a week or half that time, according as the markets
are held once a week or twice within that interval. The
cultivators attend these markets both to dispose of the things
they have to sell, and to purchase what they are in want of t
The market day is always a holiday with the cultivating classes,
for on that day the head of the family returns home in the
evening with a little cash money in his pocket, some cheap
sweetmeats for the children, one or two fishes, during the
rains invariably a stale hllsa fish, and sometimes one or two
pieces of new cloth.*
2

In short, 'the village hat is the beginning and end of all tr&do.

Moreover, it also functioned as an indispensable communication

center where people from different villages met one another. And

V. B. P., 'Hustle Bengal,' p.189*

2
Sen, Dacca District, para.160.
^Mymensingh PS. p.87.
 364

this essential institution was in the possession of the landlords.

It is a well-known fact that the zemindars of the eigh-

teenth century used to levy what were generally called saver

duties on buying and selling of commodities at bazars, hats, and

gan.les. on the transit of goods through their estates, on idle

o
use of &hats. on professions, and so forth. She imposition of

these duties formed one of the positive proofs $hat the zemindars

of the late Mughal period bore leading characteristics of

territorial lords. Shore is no denying that this feudalistic

system, along with the so-called town and transit duties, hindered

the deepening of the social division of labour, and obstructed the

development of the organic internal economy. Naturally, a

controversy arose among the British officials over whether the

aan.1es. bazars, hats and other saver collection should be included

in the settlement with the zamlndars or should be separated from

the jurisdiction of the zamlndars} in other words, whether or not

the Government should resume the gan.1es. bazars, hats and other
4
savers. The resolution passed on 11 June 1790 put an end to the

- In addition to hats.- landlords owned most of the ghats

£ ferries./, which formed an important traffic and marketing
institution in eastern Bengal. In this chapter, however, we
shall exclude ghats from the scope of our analysis. "
2
Tarasankar Banerjee, ffl-wtiwnr of Iptanwai Trade Barriers
In B-ri-fejah India, vol. 1 s Bengal Presidency tl7^5-185f>) (Calcutta-
1972), pp.38-407

^Besides, the hie zamlndars of the eighteenth century

maintained their own private amor and exercised police authority
and jurisdiction over the inhabitants of their estates to a certain
degree. In this respect, see also lay, Bengal Acrra-rian Society,
p.22.
^Banerjee, Internal Barriers, pp.15-17* 'John Shore's
Minute, 18 Sept. 1789** paras*78-93} * Governor-General* s Minute,
 365

controversy. It provieded that the power of imposing duties should

he taken from the landholders altogether, and that this privilege

should immediately and exclusively he exercised on the part of

government. By this resolution the zamindars' rights to the

ganies. bazars and hats were expected to he restricted to the

collection of rents for the use of land, or houses and shops

erected on itj and the zamindars' character as territorial lords

to he diluted.

It was on the strength of the above resolution of 1790

(and the Begulation XXVII of 1793 that followed it) that the

landlords of our time owned the hats and ghats and drew rent income

from them. What is most Interesting to us, however, is that the

resolution was repealed hy Act XXVII of 1871, because 'the practice

of making a profit out of hats had become too strong to make it

possible to enforce the 1790 order.*

1 In point of fact, as late

as the early twentieth century landlords continued to collect paver

at hats, 'landlords usually manage the hats.' it is reported from

Mymensingh, 'by means of Ijaga^gs /"farmers.7, who pay anything

from Rs.5 to 2,000. per annum for the right to collect tolls from

the temporary stall holders and a commission on all articles

sold. thus the resolution of 1790 proved a dead letter. In this

18 Sept. 1789', pp.474-5i 'Governor-General's Minute, 3 Feb. 1790',

pp.490-2, in Ann, to Fifth Sen.
1Banerjee, Internal Trade Barriers, p.18.

Mymensingh DG. p.87.

■3 *
’'Ibid., p.88. Lai Behari Day has given a more vivid aocunt
of the collection of tollsi
'Who is that up-country man with a red turban on his head and
a large basket in his hand, accompanied by a man who looks
 366
connection, we may add another example of the saver collection

having survived to the late nineteenth century. The proprietors

of the Dakhin Shahbazpore estate of Bakarganj used to levy

khotgari. or mooring fees, in the Daulat Shan and other khale

/“canals, channelsJ from traders and others. When the Court of

Wards took over the management, the annual collection on account

a

of the khotgari amounted to Rs.430. Although as the resolution

of 1790 had already been repealed, this levy wap no longer

illegal, the Collector of Bakarganj, observing the repeal was not

calculated to revive the saver duties, recommended withdrawal of

mooring fees, to which the Board of Revenue agreed J Indeed, the

most baneful of the saver duties, i.e. the transit and town duties

which were imposed by the Mughal government and subsequently by

2
. the East India Company, were finally abolished in 1836, - but

sundry saver duties continued to be exacted in the hats and other

•«
places by the landlords. This fact is not lightly to be dismissed

when we study the structure of Bengal rural society. Saver duties

like a clerk? It is the zamindar's servant, who has come to take

tola (rent) for the landlord of the village from every trader in
the market. She piece of ground, on which the hat is held,
belongs to the zamindar of the village, for which ground no one
pays him rent; the landlord, therefore, reimburses himself by
taking, on each market toy, from every trader a small quantity of
the goods in which he deals. Should the commodities J>e valuable,
like cloth or jewels, a few pice are paid as an equivalent for the
articles. I need hardly say that, by adopting this method of
remunerating himself, the zamindar gets a hundred times more than
he would have obtained if he had charged a fair rent for the
ground; and yet there can be no doubt that the traders themselves
prefer the zamindar's method to paying a monthly sum.' (lal
Behari Day, Bengal Peasant life 1 Calcutta, 1878; reprint ed.,
Calcutta, 1970)Ypp.127-8).
10ffg. Cmmr. of Dao. to BOR, Eo.2211M8/W, 27 Mar. 1889,
BQR-W File no.197 of 1889.
2Tarasankar Banerjee, Internal Ma-rirat Qf India (1854-1900)
(Calcutta, 1966), pp.1-35.
 367

were a kind of tax, and tax can be imposed only on the basis of

territorial authority. Therefore the landlords of our time not

only possessed the hats which, as noted above, formed a basic

marketing organization in rural Bengal, but also exercised

territorial authority over the hats and people who gathered thore,

although* with the winding up of their private army and the

introduction and improvement of the oolocial Government's polico

and judicial systems, suoh authority had decidedly been curtailed

as compared with that of the eighteenth century. And there wero

a great many of hats in Bengal. Faridpur had as many as 358 hats.

2 3
or 7 per square mile; and Dacca had 343. There is little doubt

that this type of oontrol over hats played a considerable part in

establishing the landlords' authority over the raiyats and other

Inhabitants. That landlords were fully aware of the profitability

and political importance of the hats is clearly shown in the

following account. They vied with one another in erecting a new

hat and tried to force their raiyats to oome only to the hats of

their owns
Each vendor £"in the hat 7 sits cross-legged on the ground
with his wares, set out around him, and for the privilege of
this primitive stall he pays a certain small sun, or a
contribution in kind, to the owner of the hat, who is
. generally the proprietor ... of the rest of the village land.
The profits thus derived from a popular hat are sufficiently

4
Cornwallis based his arguments against saver collection
on this point, when he remarked: *1 cannot conceive that any
government in their senses would ever have delegated an authorised
right to any of their subjects, to impose arbitrary taxes on the
internal commerce of the country.* ('Governor-General's Minute,
18 Sept. 1789,' in App. to Fifth Ren., p.475). He could not
conceive that territorial authority could be shared between the
colonial state and its subjects. •
2Faridpur DG. p.81.

^Daooa DG. pp.116-9.

 368
considerable, relative to ordinary rent, to induce a singular
competition in' the matter on the part of neighbouring
zamindars; each will set up a hat, and forbid his ryots.. .-jo
go to the hat of his rival. If orders to this effect fail cf
success, resort is sometimes had to force, and so it happens
that the holding of hata has become fraught with danger to the
Queen's peace, and the legislature had found it necess§ary to
give extraordinary preventive power to the Magistrate.'

Apart from the question whether the zamindars1 rights in

land given by the Permanent Settlement were private property in

the true sense of the word, there is no denying'that the so-called

private property was thrust upon Bengal from outside in utter

disregard of the direction and stage of its historical evolution.

The artificial and mechanical character caused various problems

in peasant economy. As regards forests, pastures, etc., consider­

ing tide stage of the farming technique in Bengal, it would have

been most desirable to place restrictions on the landlords'

proprietary rights in these useful lands, on the one hand, and to

sanction the raiyats' customary usufructuary right, on the other,

before the reclamation process had gone too far. Moreover, if

private property had come into existence as necessary consequence

of the development of bourgeois elements both in society and

economy, the landlords' ownership of, and control over, the hats

would have been placed under restriction, or even abolished, in

the name of the common interests of bourgeois society* But both

of the two courses were precluded in Bengal mainly because of the

presence of the inflexible framework of artificial and mechanical

private property which was sanctified and jealously protected by

the alien colonial rulers. It should be specially noted that the

1J. B. £., 'Bustle Bengal', pp.189-90.

 369

very framework of private property introduced by the Permanent

Settlement, to say nothing of such oppressive laws as Eaptam and

Pan;)ham Regulations, had the effect of strengthening the raiyato*

dependence upon the landlords. What we call the indirect forms

of extra-economic coercion rested greatly on such a tendency

inherent in the so-called private property.

In Bengal rent consisted of two parts, viz. legal rent and

■

illegal cesses. 9*he latter were usually called abwabs and the

landlords were strictly prohibited by the colonial government from

imposing them under pain of penalties. None the less, it was an

open fact that they never stopped exacting abwabs. Of course, one

may well condemn landlords for collecting these arbitrary and

oppressive exactions, and the Government for not taking stringent

• i

measures to prevent it. But may we not consider that abwabs had

died hard, because they were deeply rooted in the realities of

landlord-raiyat relations characteristic of Bengal? Here we shall,

refraining from criticizing the system, try to carry our

discussion on the landlord-raiyat relations forward by examining

, different items of abwabsJ

In the first place, let us take a glance at the pitch of

abwabs. In Bakarganj, where the evil of abwaba was most rampant

of the four districts of the Dacca division, the settlement

officer estimated that the total amount of abwab exactions came

^In this respeot, see also Minoru Takabatake'a suggestive

analysis of the illegal cesses in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries from the similar angle in his 'Zamindar-
Raiyat Kankel no Gehkei / The Root of Zamindar-Raiyat Relation­
shipsHokkaidodaigaku BnngnimTpn Ww. X7III-1, pp. 114-21.
 370
to about 'one quarter of the entire rental of the district,'1

although, in some extreme oases it rose to as high as 50 to 75 per

2
cent of the annual rental of the estate. She figure for the Dacca

district was much lower than this, '1£ annas in the rupee on the

cash rent-roll. She pitch in Faridpur was reported to be equally

insignificant. ^

In relation to this problem, the Bamna estate of Bakaxganj

makesa good illustrative case, fhe proprietors of this estate

did not in the least consider abwabs to be illegal. And when the

manager appointed by the Court of Wards abolished the collection

of abwabs. they submitted the following petition in protest

against iti

Shat according to the local custom from the time of the minors'
ancestors, various sums amounting to Rs.10 or 12 thousand were
paid by the ryots of their own accord. Consisting of Huzura
paid out of respect and for marriage, and for collection
charges &o., and the said sums have been incorporated in
Junglekati rent, and this is hot only the oustom in the minors'
Estate but is prevalent in the whole country. She submanager
under the Court of Wards has prohibited the ryots by beat of
drums from paying any of the said subs and is thereby causing
loss to the minors' Estate to the extent of Re.10 or 12
thousand both in the present and in the future.5

Assuming that the proprietors gave correct figures, the pitch of

abwab impositions in this estate came to 20 to 24 par cent of the

SSR. paras. 195-6 •

2
J. C. Jack to Director of land Records, Eastern Bengal
and Assam, 1 Oct. 1909*
* in ibid., Appendix Ii-TIX, p.lxxxiv.
•*Dacca 3SR. para.95.

^Faridpur S3R. para.88.

*

R
"fhe Humble Petition of Srimaty Afzalanessa Khatun, Widow
of 1die late Afsaruddin Mahamad Chowdry, to the Board of Revenue',
in BQR-W File no.211 of 1893. She passage is quoted verbatim.
 371

annual, legal rental. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that

the Bamna zemindars were reported to be ruthless and arbitrary

landlords by the managers 'From what I have seen of the conduct of

. the co-sharers of the minor, I am led to believe that they are

more eager to realize abwabs from the tenants and for that purpose

to use all sorts of foul means than to 'make a settlement of fair

4
rent according to the provisions of the law.1

From the fact that even such notorious landlords realized

only 20 to 24 per cent as abwabs. and also from the above figures

for a few districts, we may safely eonclude that the pitch of

abwabs did not reach a very high level in the Dacca division.

Moreover, if we also take into account that, with the rise in

prices, the relative level of legal money rent kept declining

ever since the mid-nineteenth century, and 'that, as noted in

chapter 9, the rate of rent collection remained rather low in

eastern Bengal, it may be said that as an economic burden the

o
abwab was not always unbearable. Of course tills is not to deny

the open fact that the abwab Bystem became extremely vexatious to

the raiyats when landlords, finding abwabs very useful as an

expedient means of rent enhancement, began to have recourse to tho

imposition of new abwabs in the last quarter of the nineteenth

century.^ On balance, however, it would not he perfectly proper

* Manager to OUr. Bak., Bo.3GB, 26 Mar. 1894, in BGB-W

File no.211 of 1893.
o
In relation to the situation in Dacca F. D. Ascoli
remarked: 'it would certainly be incorrect to* as.sume in a district
where rents rule low and the land is generally fertile, that the
abwab as generally levied falls hard upon the tenant.' (Dacca SSR„
para.93).
■^Bakargan.1 S3R. para. 199. See also Dacca 3SR. para.93.
 372

to regard idle abwabs merely as a lever of economic extortion.

They also afford the key to a deeper understanding of the character

of the zamindari system as an apparatus of social oppression. In

studying abwabs. J. C. Jack's following remark must always he kept

in mind:

Above all the abwab is sweet to the landlord himself, because

he tastes in it the joys of royal power. He feels that as
the recipient of rent he is merely the lord of land, but as
the recipient of sadiana. nazar. fines and other levies he is
the lord of subjects.*

Shat is, 1die abwab was imposed to confirm, and even to intensify,

the feudal relationships of domination and dependence that had

long existed between landlords and raiyats.

What kind of abwabs were exacted in our time? Let us

examine a few oases. We have already seen in chapter 11 that in

the Kankshar estate of Paridpur the following five items were

imposedi
(1) Ancle Chaynhft /"eugar-oane processing 7—1 maund of goor
per winmi'PftctuipiTig machine |
(2) Bali-Pud* /“Kali Puja expensesJ7—According to
circumstances of ryots;
p
(3) Biwyn Tfagn-r —1 He. for every ryot of Jama exceeding
Rs•10/— annually;
(4) Bnidhnti /“zamindar' s loin-clothJ7““An abwab according to
oiroumstanoes on marriage cncnmicnn in the zamindors*
family; /
(5) Durga bhit /"present for Durga puja^—During Durga Puja
occasion.*

the main abwabs collected in the Dakhin Shahbazpur estate of

^Dacca 8SR. para.93*

2Ihis was exacted at an ennua3 Durbar /"i.e. punvaha 7 held

by the landlord to mark the beginning of the annual collection.
^'Village Note No.22 (Chhatianl)', appended to Kanakahar
mjm-
 373

Bakarganj were as follows s

(1) Fees for opening separate accounts—31 times the annual

rents
(2) Ditto flnirMi lrhayj 1 £nrutation.7—times the annual
rents
(3) Sadiana /“marriage fee J on eon's marriage—12 annas;
(4) Ditto daughter's marriage—8 annass
(5) Daaturia
rent.”
£~
commissions jf for amlas—1 anna per rupee of

Xhe first two items were charged on the transfer of landed

interests. She landlord charged a very high fde when a raiyat

who purchased y inherited or subdivided a holding came to his offico

to get the entry in the register book changed in accordance with

the transfer; Xhe settlement officer of Dakhin Shahbazpur might

have considered these levies to be abwaba. since they were new

additions to the regular rent burden to which the Government had

not given its conaent. In the survey and settlement operations p

howeverf they were not counted among the abwabs. but were treated

separately. In this chapter we shall follow this official

convention. Besides the above five, five more abwaba used to bo

collected on this estates mokami karoha or village expenses, oher

chaula or one seer rice per rupee of renty nym»i i-mukararl £" ? J9
o
mathat, and durca bhet or present for Durga Puja. But these had
X
been consolidated with the regular rent long before the 1890s.

^D. Shahbazpur SSEt. paras.100-101.

^Mathaut. 'in extra or occasional cess or tax imposed

upon the cultivators for some special purpose, or under some
Incidental pretext, either by the state or the zamindar, or the
principal revenue officer of a district.* (Wilson's Glossary,
pp.334-5.)-
x •
D- abnbbazpur SSR. paras .100-101.
 374

In the Salipabad estate of Dacca the following abwaba

were collected even under the Court's management:

Over and above the rent the village officials get a tahari
from the raiyats. This they collect in the knowledge of the
zemindar, and is not Included in the recorded rental. Thero
is no fixed percentage. She chief naib of Srifaltoll gets
three pies per rupee, and the Baliatv naib 1 anna per rupee
from every raiyat. It Is reported that the Manager's
tahaildars take undue advantage of this custom. She village
officials get theig pay; formerly they used to get half-anna
as gram kharatch / village expenses^/, but this the zamindars
have stopped | there is still the custom of mn-rnnhn / maroelm,
a present exacted on marriages by the zamlndars from the
raiyats./ being paid. For every marriage raiyats used to
send in betel leaves, but now instead of that 1 rupee is paid.
It is a sort of invitation of the zamindar to the marriage
with respectful naior for such attendance.1

In addition to the above tahari and marooha. the zamindar is said

to have taken one jack fruit from every tree of the raiyat. And

the following five kinds of abwaba used to be exacted on this

estate before the assumption by the Court of Varda:

(1) Pakhi Sikari /“bird-shootingJ/r--Expenses of sikar /“hunting 7
of zamindar, a mathot / an extra cess./ realised from
the tenants at no particular rate;
(2) Dadhi Satoo /*"? 7—BTuenaea of enjoying curd and powdered
wheat by "the zamindar *s officials during Chaitra
awwVTwiri: / the last day of the Bengalee year a
majhot on holding.
(3) Fous Fabem /“Parban?. the festival held on the last day of
the month Foush,./—Expenses of a village nu.1a done
under the supervision of the zamindar' s amla. This
was no gain to zamindar.
(4) Oram Kharatoh /“village expenses/?—Expenses for tahsildar's
food and contingencies during collection period at
half-anna in the rupee. Shis does not exist now since
five to six years;
(5) Zabda Ra.1 So pay for survey amin's pay. It was
abolished from 1297 B.S., as zamindar makes no survey
of his own motive, but only sends amine out at request
of parties (of raiyats) who pay necessary costs.2

11 Final Report of the Survey and Settlement Operations51

Babu Jnan Sankar Sen, Settlement Officer, Salipabad Estate, tc bho
Director of the Department of land Records and Agriculture, Bengal,
Ho.33, 2 Hov. 1894, para.28, in SQR-W File no.208 of 1890.
2Ibid.
 375
We have cited above only three cases. But even from them it

would be dear that abwabs were imposed on pretexts as various

as imaginable, and that, their items Widely differed from estato

to estate. (This is certain evidence of arbitrariness of the

abwab system. Heedless to say, arbitrary wielding of power is

the surest way to secure absolute servitude.

Settlement officers made attempts to put this baffling

e
realm of abwabs in'order. J. C. Jack, for instance, divided abwab

into annual levies and occasional imposts, and F. D. Ascoli into

A
routine and ceremonious abwabs. . She basis of their classifica­

tions is regularity. But we cannot blindly follow these formal

classifications, since we intend to inquire into landlord-raiyat

relations by the study of abwabs. Instead, we should propose to

group abwabs under the following three heads:

(1) (Those levied in connection with rent collection business;

(2) those levied on small commodity production among the
raiyats;
(3) those levied on the basis of feudal relationships with the
raiyats.

Firstly, abwabs grouped under head 1, for example, included

dasturiB Of Bakhin ShahbazpOrS, and TchayanKh. dadtai aftton-

zabda ra.1 and tahari of (Talipabad. (This group had a4.ong history,
• p
dating back at least to the eighteenth century. We have already

seen in the preceding chapter that the landlord's staff were paid

at a ridiculously low rate. In Bindoo Bashini Gcswami's estate in

1^SffiLSt para. 195; Dacca 3SR.* paras.93-4.

2
Siaha, Economic History of Bengal. Vol.2, pp.136, 208.
 376

Mymensingh the monthly salary of clerks like sumarnovia and

mnhayjya amounted only to 5 to 6 rupees, almost as low as that cf

guards and out servants.^ They were allowed to collect abwabs to

make up for such disadvantage. This system no doubt enahledtho

landlord to sharply out down management charges. On the other

handv however, it should not he overlooked that it was necessitated

by a dominant characteristic of the land management system in

Bengal. As has already been pointed out, the landlords managed

their estates in alliance with local influential people who were

o
given the posts of tahsildars. etc. These people would not have

been satisfied with merely drawing a higher salary from the

landlord's treasury. They needed elbowroom in the management

system, which ms already centralized to a considerable degree,

to flaunt and expand their influence over the local masses. To

exact arbitrary abwaba independently of their master landlord

must have provided an ideal occasion to do so.

The abwaba grouped under head 2 included levies like £uok

Charcha. or a levy on sugarcane processing, in the Kanakshar

estate of Faridpur. Of the four districts of the Dacca division,

Faridpur used to be known as a sugarcane-growing and sugar (gur)-

manufacturing center. Admittedly, this industry was already on

the decline at the turn of the century mainly due to switchover

to jute cultivation as well as the unfavorable impact of the

1See suora. pp.321-3,

2
See supra. pp*330«1, 341-4. •
3
'Gastrell, Jessore. Furreeduore and Baokergunse. para-49.

\
 377
international sugar trade.1 Yet its potentialities for playing

a role as an important branch of the small commodity production

in an indigenous economic development can hardly be doubted. She

imposition of abwabs on the sugarcane-processing, therefore, la

clear evidence to show that the landlords, far from fostering the

small commodity production, chose to cling to it like leeches.

Shis sort of attitude must have hampered the healthy development

of productive forces.

In this connection one will recall that our landlords

collected tolls from the vendors who gathered in village hats,

and furthermore, that they stood in the way of development of the

free market of raiyati holdings by levying a very high salami on

their transfer. Assuming that the development of small commodity

production, free local markets and free landmarket forms a basic

index to such historical advancement of rural economy as eventually

leads to the collapse of the feudal formation of society, we may

remark that the role of the Bengal landlords in history was not

just parasitic but reactionary as well.

She abwabs coining under head 3 comprised a wide variety

of impositions such sla Kali Puia irha-rnnhh. tninva nazar. ra.ldhuti

and Durgabhet of Kanakshar, aadiana of Dakhln Shahbazpur, and

imirhi Pous narban and maroeha of Talipabad. In addition

to these, settlement officers reported the existence of begar

(forced labor to clear jungle, to plough the landlord's arable,

mmmm ■■■ .... hi •

1 Hague, The Man behind the Plough, ch.5» Paridnur SSR.

para.37.
 378

to supply fuel and fish, to keep up the landlord’s fruit gardens,

to erect all temporary buildings, to dig tanks and drains, to

carry bricks for permanent buildings and offices),^ bhet (gifts in

kind such as milk, ghee, curds, cocoanut and betelnuts),2 Chanda

(subscriptions collected by the landlord from all his tenants on

some memorial occasions such as a marriage in his family and hio

•visit to the village),, etc*3 Besides, powerful landlords held

regular courts for the trial of civil and criminal disputes and
social offences and inflicted fines.^ In fact, anything seems to

have served the landlord as a pretext for imposing an abwab. She

zamindars of Bauphal in the south of Bskarganj, for. example,

invented an illegal cess called ■na.v.ar ani ami. which was levied on

prostitution. Not only the unfortunate Hindu widows who had no

choice but to sell their bodies were forced to pay this abwab for

the licensing of prostitution, but immoral male persons who wished

to visit them ware not spared, either, and required to pay for
c
obtaining a 'passport1.

One may regard this group of abwabs as reflecting the

autocratic feudal character of the landlord-raiyat relationships.

But feudalism is a vague concept. Ve would better make a careful

".” r " ~ " •

S8R. para. 195; Dacca SSR. para.94*

^akargand SSR. para. 195.

3Ibid.

*Xbid., para.197.

3Ibid«, para.198I AQAR. 1885-86, para.142. It is not our

intention here to prepare a complete list of abwabs. For a full
treatment of the subject see BafeaTOnrH asw. paras.195-200,
nr\
j/JJ _e 1
J. yyifl
AAVV mAtIv •
 379

study of some important select items bo that we can clearly

qualify the term 'feudal*. We shall take up four aspects below.

Firstly, punva nazer is an abwab paid on the occasion of

punvaha Punvaha is a ceremony held by the landlord to

mark the beginning of the financial year of his estate. On thin

day all the raiyats went .to the estate office to hare an audience

of the landlord himself or his representative and paid punvaha

nazar. Rabindranath Tagore left the following account of punvaha„

which is most probably based on his own experience of estate

management in Shilaidaha of Eushtia:

'Punvaha means,' I s&id 'the first day of the zamindari year.

Today the subjects A.e. the ralyats_7, taking with them
any amount of rent they like* to pay, present themselves in
ffont of the naib at the estate office building who, wearing
a topar /a white conical hat made of sola 7. is dressed like
a bridegroom. On that day the money oollected this way is not
to be counted / as rent payment../. The idea is that payment
and collection of rent is just a voluntary act done in
delight/'

Rabindranath could write a vivid description like this, because

-the Tagores’’ estate had maintained a well established custom ao

to punvaha until he effected a radical reform. According to
• * t *

Amitabha Chaudhuri1 s study, the punvaha*s day opened in a festive

spirit with the firing of muskets, the blowing of- eonchshell horns

and shanais /"a kind of oboe J and womenfolk's ulu chorus.2 The

landlord observed two kinds of rituals: Brahma Samaj's prayer and

Hindu uu.1a. Then he proceeded to hold a darbar. He took a seat

in a velvet-covered ainima*m /"throneJ7» In front of him the

^Rabindranath Thakur* Panohabhut (1st ed., 1304 B.S.; 2nd

ed., Santiniketan, 1342 B.S.;, p.22.
2Plu (or hulu) is a high-pitched tremolo sound made by Hindu
women by moving their tongues in the mouth on a festive occasion.
 380
people of his estate sat down strictly observing the customary
order of precedence which Dwarkanath Tagore had fixed acoo^ng

to caste and social status. On'one side there was spread a

carpet covered with white doth, which was alloted to the Hindus.

Brahmans had a separate place to sit. The Muslims occupied a

bare carpet placed on another side. ^ These people must have paid

a certain amount of money to the landlord on the throne, although

A; Chaudhuri kept silence in thiB regard.

The most interesting and important point In the above

TBnnvaha. is that it was celebrated as if. it had been the biggest

family event, marriage. Every time the new year of the estate

began, the landlord (or his representative) came there as a new

bridegroom. All the members of the family' (that is, the estate)

received him in high delight, accepted him as a new patriarch by

a symbolic payment of nazar. and entrusted him with the power of

managing the family affairs (i.e. the estate) for that year. And

the landlord who assumed the new duties gave an audience to tho

family members. Therefore the estate management was not the

landlord's private enterprise for making a profit. In this

framework there was no room for collection of rent to be considered

exploitation. On the very contrary, the raiyats were induced to

make the first payment of rent as 'a voluntary act done in delight.-'

Since it was a genuinely spontaneous payment to the head of tho

family, no question could arise as to counting its amount or

entering it in the books. Thus rent relations were ideologically

4
'Amitabha Chaudhuri, Jamlda-r Rahjnd-panath (Calcutta, 1976),
PP«39-40, 57.
 381

projected in purely patriarchal idioms in the tmtivaim of the

fagores' estate* Other estates may have had their own way of

holding punyaha. But we may assume that the basic logic behind

this ceremony was the same. It is said that between the landlord

and the raiyats in Bengal there was a strong feeling of a parent-

child relationship. But this feeling was not a natural one, but

was carefully nurtured by the landlord so as to justify his

extortion.

Secondly, it is noteworthy that some of the abwabs were

collected in the form of labour (i.e. begar) or produce (i.e. bhet).

When we go through the items of this group such as begar for

clearing jungle, ploughing the landlord's arable, supplying fuel

and fish, etc. and bhet of milk, ghee, curd, cocoanut, etc., we

notice that they were requsitioned to satisfy sundry daily needs

of the landlord's household. It was probably easier and more

expedient to collect these diverse small items in labour or kind

than in money. Since the landlord was father to the raiyats and

his household was the center of the estate as conceptualized as

one family, no clear bounds could be set to the raiyats' duties a0

well as the landlord's rights. She raiyats were expected to comply

with any whimsical demand of the landlord. But it should be noted

that even by this standard begar was regarded as an oppressive

«
Imposition and very unpopular among the raiyats.'

Fiirthermore, one may raise a

question if abwabs in labour and produce were relics of labo'hr
services and rent in kind. It is difficult to. give a definite
answer. But I am inclined to deny such possibility, relying on
the view of the settlement officer of Bakarganj who considered
these forms of abwabs to be innovations. (Ibid., para.199).
 382

thirdly, the marriage fee (aadiana- maroeh) was fairly

commonly found in the Dacca division. This fee perhaps owes its

origin to the gift of betel leaves which the raiyats of Talipabad

used to send to the landlord as a sign of invitation. In the

process of being converted into the money form, however, such

personal color was diluted and it became a source of oppression,

a kind of marriage tax. But even then, it should be noted, the

practice of the landlord * s agent presenting himself at the raiyat1 s

1
marriage survived changes at least in an estate of Bakarganj.

The. personal tie between landlord and raiyats died hard. If one

considers the marriage fee alongside of the holding of regular

courts by some zemindars and the presence of the beaar system in

parts of Bakarganj and Dacca, it will not be difficult to draw a

conclusion that the landlords of our time intended to seize hold

of the person of each ralyat in its entirety (, which we may call

'personal domination'), and not merely to exploit him in the

capacity of a small producer.

Fourthly, various kinds of levies on the occasion of Hindu

religious rituals and festivals, particularly Durga Puja, were as

wide-spread as the marriage fee. These were exacted in spite of

about two-thirds of the population in eastern Bengal being

followers of Islam. Although syncretic tendencies were deep-

seated at the level of popular beliefs at least until the turn of

2 still this cannot be regarded as a healthy state of
the century,

* 'Report of the Investigating Officer Maulvi Muhammad

Hohiuddin, dated 2nd October 1912,' Bakargan.1 SSR. App. L-XVXI,
p.cvlll.
^Rafiuddin Ahmed, The Bengal Muslima 1B71-1QQ63 A Quest
for Identity (Hew Delhi, 1981),pp.4-5, 59-69.
 383

affairs. In point of fact resentment against these 'idolater?1

illegal oesses was already there in our time especially among the
fundamentalist Muslim raiyatsJ Chi the whole, however, most

Hindu landlords appear to have managed to exact this group of

abwabs from not only the Hindu but the Muslim raiyats as well.

It cannot be doubted that the Hindu landlords, mostly

belonging to the three higher castes, occupied a very high place

in the religious order in rural areas. Their status rested on the

basis not just of Hinduism but even of syncretism among common

Muslim peasants. And a variety of Hindu festivals and rituals,

which involved a considerable amount of expenses that common

p
people could not always afford, furnished them ideal occasions

to make a display of their superiority. It is a well known fact

that such festivals and rituals were so organized as to reiterate

the strict order of the society at the apex of which the high-caste

Hindu landed gentry stood. In eastern Bengal such was the case

even with the Holi festival, which is usually said to occupy a

unique place among many Hindu festivals in that it is celebrated

to create 'an order precisely inverse to the social and ritual

^Ahmed, Bengal Muslims. p.162; Muin-ud-Din Ahmad Khan,

Hiatnrv of the Fara'ldi Movement in Bengal (1818*1906) (Karachi,
1965), p.114.
^War
example, an anonymous writer described the way in
which the common raiyats enjoyed the Hindu festivals as follows:
'The mass of the ryots who form the population of the village
are too poor to have a family deity. They are forced to be
content with the opportunities they have of forming part of
the audience on the occasions of religious festivals cele­
brated by their richer neighbours^, and the annual mrtahs
performed at the village manflah /"maadan?. pavillion used as
a meeting place of the villagerson behalf of the
community.1 (J. B. P., 'Rustic Bengal,' part 1, p.195)>
 384

principles of routine life.

According to the memoir of the former Maharaja of the

Susanga estate of Mymensingh, the customary order of precedenco

was strictly observed at a few important stages of the Holi

festival, viz. idle procession carrying the swing of lord Krishna

2
and the offering of abir by the local people to the Maharaja.

Admittedly, when the king of Holi was elected, the order of

everyday life was turned upside down. He could whimsically fine

anybody, even the Maharaja himself, although he ms elected from

among common people and garbed himself in a most miserable and

laughable manner. However, even this pandemonium of Holi had to

be brought to an end, and the routine order had to be resotored,

by the influence of the landlords: '.In the evening all the members

of the procession would assemble before Raj Bari and the estate

used to pay the penalty on betialf of the culprits and bring a

huge quantity of sweets for distribution among every one of those

who had assembled. This would formally bring the Holi festival, to

an end.' By the act of paying'a fine the landlord family symboli­

cally projected Itself as the restorer and protector of the normal

social order.^

^MoKim Marriott, 'She Beast of love' in Rr-iatoms Mvfcha.

Rites, and Attitudes, ed. Milton Singer (Honolulu, 1966), p.210.
p
Sinha, Changing Times, pp.55-7.
3Ibid.» p.58.

4
As for a general discussion of the Holi festival,* see
Jffirmal Kumar Bose, 'She Spring Festival of India,' in his Cultural
Anthropology and Other BsBavs (Calcutta, t953)> pp.76-135.
 385

Payment of abwabs on such occasions of course Implied

that the raiyats endorsed the religious and social order in rural

Bengal. It should however he noted that so far at least as the

Durga puja is concerned, the landlords1 demands do not appear to

have been extortionate. For example, in an estate in the south

of Bakarganj an interesting combination of articles was collected

from each raiyats one cucumber, one gourd and a pair of cocoanutsJ

In another estate were levied one cucumber, a pair of eocoanuts,

£) *
one pumpkin and one pice ooin. Of course, the pu.ja's costs

ought to be defrayed by the landlord who organized it. But tho

raiyats were most probably willing to gather the above items from

their fields and kitchen gardens and hand them over to the

landlord as their humble gift to mother Durga. Perhaps what ho

m
aimed at by collecting these cheap things was to secure the

joining of all the raiyats (including the Muslims) in 'his' puja,

and thereby to cement a patriarchal tie. In this way religion

brought the landlord's patriarchal and personal domination over

the raiyats to completion.^

On the basis of the above study of four aspects of tho

abwabs grouped under head 3 we may characterize the landlord-raiyat

* 'Report of Maulvi Sheikh Abdullah, Revenue Officer, dated

3rd October 1912,' Bakargan.1 SSR. App. L-XVIII, p.cx.
.p
'Report of the Investigating Officer Maulvi Muhammad
Mohiuddin, dated 2nd October 1912,* Bakaraan.1 SSR. App. L-XFII, p.cv.
3
As for the relationships between the Islamic religion and
the Muslim landlords, we do not have any reliable evidence* But
we may cite a suggestive case where a Hindu landlord appointed a
mullah / village priest_7 ia receipt of and let him enjoy
the monopoly of effecting the marriage contract. (Ibid., p.ciil).
fhere seems to be no reason to believe that the Muslim landlords
did not interfere in the selection of mniiahn in order to keep a
firm hold on the Muslim raiyats.
 386
relationship in eastern Bengal as patriarchal and personal

domination shrouded in religious idioms. It must he kept in mind,

however, that what we have described is the scene looked through

tiie abwab impositions, that is, from the landlords1 point of

view. The Bengal raiyats, with their rich tradition of insurgency

as well as folk culture, must have left lots of elues to guide us

to properly deciphering the structure of their own consciousness

about landlord-raiyat relationship. This vast world has not been

explored by us. Our picture will remain unfinished until this

task is accomplished. Furthermore, it would not be out of place

to add here that we might have to assume some proto-relationship

to which salient features of the nineteenth century landlord-

raiyat relationship can be ascribed. It does not seem that its

heavily patriarchal character can fully be explained within the

framework of landlordism. It must have been originally formed :ln

a lineage-like social formation.

Be that as it may,, the results of our study of the three

sets of abwabs point to the fact that the eastern Bengal landlords

maintained a change-resisting and thickly feudal character in

their relationship with the raiyats at least until the turn of the

twentieth century.

To return to our main question of extra-economic coercion,

we should like to lay emphasis on the fact that the coercive

forces as crystallized in the land management establishment did

not work in bareness. Bather, they operated pnder covering of

different indirect forms of coercions (1) land occupation pattern

 387
decidedly advantageous to the landlordsj and (2) suoh feudal

social relations as mirrored in the various kinds of abwabs.

Despite having been deprived of important territorial powers

like army and police the landlords, could still behave, as J.

C. Jack pointed out, like territorial lords of subjects on tho

basis of these two factors. On the other hand, it was largely

by these 'soft* apparatus that the raiyats were goaded into

paying rents to them, although, admittedly, the landed class

was provided with armed personnel of their own and the police

in the last resort. Further, it'is noteworthy that the seemingly

'bourgeois* private property established by the colonial state

and the old 'feudal* elements in Bengal society, far from

confronting each other, combined to form such apparatus.

%
 EMI

low that we have treated major features of extra-economic

coercion, we oan proceed to disease the questions concerning rent.

Ve may limit the scope of our study to the money form of rent

alone, seeing that the landlords (i.e. zamlndars and intermediary

tenure-holders) of our-time, broadly speaking, had not yet

adopted the baraa system on a large scale J And we shall focus

our attention mainly on the rent payable by the raiyats, although

the landlords oolleoted the rents from both the raiyats and the

tenure-holders. In this chapter, first, the question of the rent

rate and its assessment will be seen in broad perspective, and

then the problems regarding collection of rents in individual

estates will be taken up for discussion.

To conduct a regular survey of the estate stands first

among the per-oonditions of good management. It appears, however,

that few landlords tried to fulfil this necessary prerequisite.

In the Bamna estate of Bakarganj there had been no sfirvey at all

ever since 1245 B.S. (1858-39 A.D.). Instead, the Bamna landlords
were heavily dependent on an arbitrary exaction of abwaba.1
2

1For my view in this respect, see chapter 17.

2 *
Offg. Cllr. Bak. to Cmmr. Dao, Bo.69W, 17 Apr. 1894,
BOR-W File no.211 of 1893.
 389

Jagat Kishore Acharjya's estate in Mymensingh was censured by the

Court of Wards for 'the mischievous system of farming each village

of the estate to the highest bidder for a short term without a

previous ryotwaree settlement of the property farmed.'* And even

in the famous estate of the Dacca Nawab a systematic survey tended

2
to be neglected. Of course there were exceptions like the Bhawal

estate of Dacca where a survey of the estate was reportedly made

every eight years to enhance the rates of rent. But such estates

were certainly in the minorityHow then did ihe landlords

assess the raiyats* rents?

In theory, rent was assessed by classifying the soil

according to quality, situation and kinds of crops raised on it,-

measuring the size of lands, and applying the rent-rates fixed for
i

the respective classes of the soil. The most important of those

three requisites was without doubt the rates of rent. In the

eighteenth century each zamindari had a very elaborate table of

rent rates of its own which were in turn regulated by the standard

'nargana rates,' although it is open to question how far this

1RWAE. 1876-77, para.183.

2Hodding, Dacca Navgfo'fl family Estates, p.6.

^ •
•'Dacca SEE, para.249•
fi considerable part of this difficult task was taken over
by the Government of Bengal in the twentieth century. After
conducting surveys In quite a number of estates from the 1880s to
1900s by personal application of ^landlords under chapter X of the
Bengal Tenancy Act, it commenced the full-scale survey and settle­
ment operations covering all Bengal. At present, however» the
kind of impact the operations had on Bengal's agrarian problems
has not fully been studied. As far at leaslf as the rent rates are
concerned, they appear to have produced the effect of putting .
them in deepfreeze. In this respect., see infra, p.403.
 390

principle ms translated into reality. And some reports give us

an Impression that the rent rates similar to those of the

eighteenth century survived to the late nineteenth century. W.

V. Hunter collected various data concerning the rate of rents from

all the districts of Bengal and published them in his A Statistical

Aocount of Bengal. A. C. Sen, too, reproduced the table of rent

rates of the Bhawal paraana in Dacca that follows:

Bent-rates pep bigha

(a) Bhiti /"Bhita? 7—
(1) Bastu or the homestead land,
generally .. ... ... Bs.2
(2) Palan. i.e. land round the
ryots* huts on which plantains,
jack-trees, and mangoes are
grown ...................... As.8 to Re. 1-4
(3) Chola or land round the palan
on which mustard, jute, and
karela are grown ......... As.12 to Re. 1-8
* (4) Ohhatpalan. i.e. land near the
homesteads covered with jungle
on which cows may graze ... As.4 to As.12
(b) Hal or arable land—
(1) Barear, i.e. land which is
inundated on WM fVh amart
may be grown—
Pindar, i.e. 1st class ... Re.1-2 to Re.1-8
Knmflfi-p. i.e. 2nd class ... Re.1 to Re.1-4
Sedar. i.e. 3rd class ... As. 12 to Re.1
(2) Hhama T ghamar?7. i.e. land
where less water accumulates in
the rainy season than in (1 )—
Purdar. i.e. 1st class ... Re.1-4 1
Zamdar. i.e. class ... Re.1
Sedar. i.e. 3rd class ... As.13 to As.14
(3) Tati. i.e. land higher than
khama—
Purdar. i.e. 1st class ... Re.1
Zarndar. i.e. 2nd class ... As.13 to As.14
Sedar; i.e. 3rd class ... As. 10
(4) Roaicha. i.e. high land which
is not inundated, but on
• which rain water collects and
on which transplanted paddy
may be grown—
Pindar, i.e. 1st class ... Re.1-4 to Rs.2-8
gjggg|§£, i.e. cl.ft.se ... As.14 to Re.1-2
Sedar. i^g. 3rd class ' ... As.12 to Re.1
 391

(5) Augj^ ••• «.« ... ••• As»14 1*0 Re• 1 "4
(6) Boro ••• ... ... Re.1 "to Re.1—8

But the question is to what extent this sort of table of rent

rates could be put into practice at the time when a survey was

not frequently conducted by the landlord. If the rent rates wore

not enforcedt the whole system of assessment was certain to

collapse. ... ...

let us study a few illustrative cases. «Q?he Dakhin

Shahbazpur estate of Bakarganj had an 'extraordinarily complicated'

system of assessment of rents. But this by no means implied

that the estate was correspondingly meticulous about the actual

process of assessing rents. She following passage gives us a

good ihsight into the real state of .affairs:

Except in a few villages there was nothing like a prevailing

rate of rent properly so called. She iiimahawdi papers / rent-
rolls./ of the proprietors show that there were several ratos
of rent in each village. In some villages there are as many
as fifteen different rates according to which the rents of the
tenants were assessed. Different plots of lands in the
possession of the same tenant and included in the same holding
were assessed at different rates, but the lands were never
subclassified into so many classes; Thergi is no such sub-
classification in the zamindari chittae / paper showing
measurement of fields./ and khatiana / record-of-rlgfats 7;
and it has been found that different portions of the land
measured in the same plot and shown in the nhi-fc-ha. to be of the
same description were assessed at different rates. It has
already been stated above that the rate of rent was a matter
of mutual contract, and that the contracts were very much
' affected by the amount .of nazarana / gift J
paid-in each case.
Almost every important tenant had a special rate for himself.
How much land of a holding should be assessed at such rates
was determined, not with reference to how they were sub­
classified in the chitta. but by mutual agreement on the
principle of 'give andtake. * Thus we find that when a tenant
took a lease of a single plot of land containing 5 gundas of
land of one and the name deaoriptlon 2 karaa of it were

^Sen, Dacca District, para.152.

2n. OiMmwm ssr. para.85.

 392

assessed at the highest rate of Rs.210 per kani, 5 karas at

Rs.104, and the remaining 2 1/4 gundas at Re.35 per kani.
She sub-classification of1lands for inmahawdi was merely
fictitious onfl imaginary.'

In this estate the detailed entries in the landlords1 hooks were

'merely fictitious and imaginary* and had nothing to do with the

real condition. Actually, the amount of rent was decided by

'mutual agreement on the principle of "give and take1" between

landlord and raiyat, and not by the methodical assessment. The

necessary result was that the upper strata of the raiyats took

advantage of the arbitrary system and obtained special rates cf

their own by paying a large amount of Tiarnmnn The

same may be said of the Srirampur estates in the northern end of

Bakarganj t

The system of assessment adopted by the proprietors was to

sub-olassify every description of land into Aval, Doem, Saem
and Chaharam / Persian words for first-grade, second-grade,
third-grade and fourth-grade in order of ranking from best to
worst 7, according to the productiveness of the soil, and
then to assess each such class of land at a particular rate.
Thus there were 10 to 19 different rates of rent prevailing
in each village. The sub-classifioations so made: by the
proprietors seemed, however, to be rather arbitrary than
real. They had no standard to go by...2

And the sub-classification system of this estate was in such a

confused state that the settlement officer came to a conclusion

that 'To make an aocurate sub-classification of this kind is

scientifically impossible.*3 He therefore made no attempt to

sub-olassify the lands. Tet, interestingly enough, the landlords

insisted on having a set of papers recording the results of

Shfthbazuur SSR. para.98.

o
'Final Report on the Survey and Settlement of the Srirampur
Estates Bearing Nos.3574, 3575 and 3613 on the Revenue Roll of
Backergunge, by Pyari Mohan Basu,' para.61, BQR-W File no.310 of
1897.
3Ibid.
 393

sub-classification. What did the settlement officer do? He

admitted:

A set of detailed iciwfcifmfl shoving the sub-classification was,

at the request of the proprietors, prepared at their expense,
for the purpose of making Jamabandis. But they vere not
adopted in our proceedings.*.

39ms a Government officer lent a helping hand to landlords in

. preparing fictitious papers, fhis story is eloquent of how far

off theory and practice vere divorced in the land management of

our time. ... •

In fine, even when the landlord had his table of rent

rates, it was seldom folloved in the. actual vork of assessment.

Bather, he depended chiefly on the negotiations on the give-and-

take principle with his raiyats. Inevitably, the rent came tc

take the form of what vas called the 'lump rent ’ which had not

much to do with the productivity, situation or size of each

ralyati holding.*
2 .

Such state of affairs vas not confined to the Dacca

division alone. While folloving a marathon discussion on the

Bengal Tenancy Bill, the Government of Bengal sent special officers

^Ibid., para.62. *

2
The Talipabad estate of Dacca collected the 'lump rent3.
('Pinal Report of the Survey and Settlement Operations under Para­
graph 38 of the Settlement Manual,' Settlet. Officer (Jhan Sankar
Sen) to Director of the Deptt. of land Records and Agriculture,
Bengal, No.33, 2 Bov. 1894, BOR-W Pile no.208 of 1890). The
ganakahar estate of Paridpur had the same system. (See chap.XI-4).
Prom the Dhankoora estate of Dacca and Mymensingh, too, if was*
reported: •
'In many places the raiyats pay a lump rentals the rents were
fixed in 1286. B.S. / i.e. 1879-80.J7, when there vas an enhance­
ment: this vac done by mutual arrangement, and not by measure­
ment of lands or calculation of the rent according to any fixed
rule.* (RWAB. 1891-92, para.89).
to several districts in order to conduct an on-the-spot survey of

the rent rates. Their reports, with a single exception of that

from Jessore, denied the existence of the scale of rent rates and,

instead, laid emphasis on the prevalence of the lump rent. To

quote the Bogra report: *

The result of the investigation both in the Government estate

and the private estates is'that" no rates or different descrip­
tions of soil are recognized for purposes of determining the
rents. Each ryot pays a lump sum for his holdings, and if he
adds to its area, he also adds a second lump sum to the first.
e
And from Hooghly it is reported:

The old classification of Soona and Sail has disappeared, and

there is now a tax on special crops....It will he observed
that present rates are not, properly speaking, rates at all,
but demands separately fixed (not calculated; for each
holding. This does not so much appear from the Gomasta's
statement of rates as from his guarded explanation that there
are really no rates at all.2

Relying on these reports, the Board of Revenue proposed to divide

Bengal into two regions according to presence or non-presence of

the scale of rent rates:

...the tracts of land under the Government of Bengal may bo

divided into two classes—(1) Those of the Jessore type, as
described in Mr. Finucane's report of the 21st March 1883, in
which a certain scale of rates is recognized and acted upon
in the arrangements between landlord and tenant, and (2) those
of another type, as described in all the other reports, in
which there is no trace of such a recognized scale, or a trace
so faint as to be of no particular use .3

Heedless to say, our Dacca division fell under class (2).

1Enclosed in Secy. BOR to Secy. GOB, Rev. Deptt., Ho.108A,

8 Mar. 1883, in Report of idle Government of Bengal on the Bengal
Tenann-g Bill. 1883 with Appendices (Calcutta. 1883). vol.2. 0.525.
2Depy. Gllr. (R. Castairs) to BOR, Ho.191, 15 Feb. 1883,
para.21, in ibid., p.542.

it. Sampler's Minute of 24 June 1883,* in ibid., p.425

 395

As a matte? of course the Government did not pay heed to

the scale of rent rates when it commenced the Survey and Settle­

ment Operations. It was already well aware that the detailed

table was hound to he imaginary. In fact, in sharp contrast to

Hunter's Statistical Account, we no longer find references to such

tables or scales in the survey and settlement reports of the four

districts of the Dacca division which do embody the results of the

most extensive and penetrating inquiry into agrarian relations.

Such a negative1 attitude of Government toward the traditional

system of redt rates also cast a long shadow upon the settlement

policy in the’estates under its direct administration, i.e.

Government estates. According to the principles of assessment

Adopted in the government estates of Bakarganj, land was to be

groupe*d into no more than six classesi (1) plough land, (2)

homestead and orchard, (3) pan gardens, (4) reeds, (5) shops,

and (6) the unassessable remainder. Moreover, the list was

followed by an important provisot 'It will be seen that no attempt

is made to divide paddy land into first class, second class, &e«,

though tile inmah&Tifli officer should always he prepared to consider.

local variations between one portion and another in the same

village.'* In a word, the government virtually gave up classifying

cultivated land. Ve may reasonably suppose that the government's

settlement operations and the assessment of government estates

dealt a fatal blow to the traditional scale of rent rates which

had long been existent only in name.

A •
'Memorandum on Principles of Assessment, by 1. D.
Beatson-Bell,' para.1, reproduced in Bakargaiifl SSR. para.356.
 396

Therefore the average pitch of rent at the turn of the

century thereafter indicates nothing more than an average per

unit of area of the total lump rents paid by all the raiyats.

According to the data collected in the survey and settlement

operations, such average pitch of oash rent payable by the settled

raiyats stood at Rs.4-8-10, Rs.2-9-2 and Rs.2-13-0 per acre in

Bakarganj, Faridpur and Dacca respectively.^ The question to ask,

however, is what was the relative level of rent, and not the

absolute pitch. Settlement officers made an attempt to compare

the total rental (inclusive of the rents paid by the tenure-

holders) with the value of the gross agricultural produce. The

figures they obtained were 9*6, 5.8 and 5.4 per cent for Bakarganj,
2
Faridpur and Dacca repectively. As to Hymensingh, it was reported

that 'what the landlords receive from their tenants is certainly

not more than 8 per cent, of the money value of produce.1 2 Thus

the relative pitch of rents in the Dacca division from the late

1900s to the 1910s was very moderate. However, we have to take

into account at least two important factors that affected these

data, namely, the rise .in prices which greatly gained momentum

from around 1905 and the spread of jute cultivation which hit the

ceiling in eastern Bengal around 1910. For these reasons the gross

agricultural produce was valued at a much higher level at the time

of the survey and settlement operations than in the nineteenth

1
Bakargan.1 SSR. para.179» Faridpur SSR. p.xj Dacca SSR.
para. 146. The figure for Mymensirigh was from Rs.3-8 to Rs.6 per
acre. (Mvmensingh DQ-. p.64).
2Bakargan.1 SSR. para. 185; Faridpur S3R. para.81; Dacca
SSR. para.98.

‘'Mvmensiwpft PS- p.101.

 397

century. So the above-mentioned estimate of the rent rates, most

reliable one as it is, cannot be considered a safe guide to our

study. Ve get an idea of the tempo of the change in the rent

burden since the mid-nineteenth century from J. C. Jack's

following inferences

Fifty years ago when the average rate of rent seems to have
been very much what it is to-day, it represented a much larger
proportion of the average produce of an acre than it does
to-day. She increase in the cultivation of jute and' in the
• price obtained for it has effected a very considerable change
in the -pitch of the rent, but even without jute the steady
increase in the price of rice would have made a rent, which
was harsh in 1860, very mild in 1914. As far as can be
calculated the average rent represents 19 per cent, of the
value of the gross produce of an acre in 1860, 12 in 1880,
9 in 1900 and 6 in 1914.1

Thus the estimated rent load in 1860 was 2.9 times heavier than

that in 1914. Even than, however, 19 per cent cannot be regarded

as a heavy imposition by any standard. And after 1860 there was

a tendential fall in the pitch of rent to reduce the rent burdon

by 60 per cent.

Fortunately, besides J. C. Jack's estimate, we are provided

with fairly reliable evidence as to the rent burden in the first

decade of the period under our review, the 1870s. First, an

enquiry was carried out in Dacca in 1873. J. C. Charles, who was

on special duty to investigate the causes of the rent^ disturbances

in Dacca, prepared the following report:

In the course of the inquiries...! have been much struck with

the large proportion of ‘the gross produce which falls to the
share of the cultivator of the soil in many parts of this
district. After a careful review of all the evidence I have
collected on the subject, 1 am satisfied that if an av.erage
were struck for the Mbonshigunge thana the proportion of the
value of tiie gross produce paid to landlords, including all

1Faridour SSR. para.74

 398

extras, would not exceed from 10 to 19 per cent, for occupancy

tenants, while in more fertile Tillages the landlord's share
is not so large. In the Sreenugger thana and the district of
Dacca generally, I do not heliere the proportion paid to the
landlord, including all extras, would on the average exceed
1/4 th, or 29 per cent, of the gross produce.'

Assuming that 'extras', namely abwaba. formed about 10 per cent

2 * - *

of the regular rental, the pitch of rent as such will be worked

out at 9 to 13-5 per cent in Hunshlganj and 22.5 in Srinagar and

the Dacca district in general.

She second data were prepared by S. 6. Dutt. On the basis

of his general experience as a revenue officer for over twenty-five

years as well as the results of his own enquiries, he remarkeds

'I found that the rents generally realised by Bengal Zemindars

were about one-sixth of the gross produce in some districts, and

were even less in others. She districts of the Dacca division

belonged to the latter lightly assessed group. His calculations,

based on V. V. Hunter's data given in A Statistical Account of

Bengal, showed that the pitch of rent in Dacca was 11.2 per cent;
in Bakarganj 15.7; in Earidpur 12.5| and in Mymenaingh 17.3«*
4 2 *

Thirdly, another experienced Indian officer, Parbati

^ Quoted in 'Memorandum on the History of the "Rent Question

in Bengal since the Passing of Act X. of. 1859, dated 1st June 1881,'
para. 31, in Report of the Goverwmewt of Bengal on the Proposed
AmanAmeigfc of the law of landlord and Tenant, in the Province with a
Revised Bill and Appendices (hereafter1 Proposed Amendment). 2 vols.
(Calcutta, 1883)* vol.i, PP-96-8.
2See supra, pp.569-71.

‘'RomeSh 0. Dutt, Open letters to lord Curgfm nn Fnnrinan

and land Assessment in India ilondon. 1900). pp. 60-61.
4Ibid., pp.61-2, 103-113.
 399

Churn Roy, estimated the rent burden in Dacca, Faridpur and

Mymensingh at 1/20, 1/13 and 1/20 respectively* He derived his

data from khas mahnl (Government estate) records J But he seems

to have made an error on the side of underestimation, eondisering

that even the settlement officers of the twentieth century gave

highmr» figures than his*

On the whole, it would not be wide off the mark to assume

that the pitch of rent in the four districts of 'the Dacca division
2
in the 1870s averaged at about 15 per.cent of the gross produce.

And this proportion gradually dwindled to 5 to 10 per cent in the

early twentieth century.

Heedless to say, the landlords worked out various ways cf

extorting money from the raiyats so as to make up for the steadily

declining pitch of rent* Ve have already seen that in Bakarg&aj

the abwabs constituted about .one-fourth of the regular rental on

a conservative estimate. Besides, the landlords imposed

on the sale of raiyati holdings which recorded a marked increase

after the passing of the Bengal Tenancy Act. When such was

legalized by the amendment to the Bengal Tenancy Act in 1928,

^Parbati Chum Roy, The Rent Question (Calcutta, 1876),

pp.8-12.
o
In this connection, it should, be recalled that earlier
versions of the Bengal Tenancy Bill had a provision to set a
ceiling on the rate of rent. The first plan of 1879 fixed it at
one-fourth of the value of the gross produce* However, after a
careful enquiry the Government of Bengal took a decision to lower
it to oner-fifth. Our estimate is 5 per cent lower than this.
(The Reuort of the Rent flnnrmi rm f with* the Draft rrf a. Bill
to Consolidate and Amend the law of landlord and Tenant, etc..
2 vols. (Galoutta, 1880), vol.1, Report, paras.12, 61; Dutt,
Open Letters, p.107).
 400
it came to light that the landlords realized about 2 per cent of
the total rent demand as the landlords' transfer fee J Some of

them also levied what was called a 'mutation fee' on succession

to a raiyati holding. And with the competition for land amons

the ralyats getting keener in the twentieth century, they started

exacting a large amount of premium (salami, nazurana) from tho

raiyat who took settlement of a holding. This was regarded as an

*

2
advance payment of rent. In addition to these, a section of
landlords, by changing the months of kists /“instalment of rent__7

or by increasing their frequency, deliberately made a regular

payment of rent difficult and charged a very high interest on the

'arrear rent* so created. In Haturia in the district of Bakarganj,

there were as many as nine kists in the year and in some instances

no less than 72 per cent interest was charged on arrears. This

device seems to have become prevalent only in the late nineteenth

4,
century.

We do not exactly know the total amount of these sundry

and harassing exactions. However, perhaps we may feel justified

in taking that their proportion was somewhere between one-fourth

^Huque, Man behind the Plough, pp.311-2.

2 •
'Memorandum by the Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha*, in
ELRG. vol.6, p.34. See also, ibid., vol.5» pp.3, 67, 74, 285.
30ffg. Ommr. Dac. to BOR, No.975ME, 21 Aug. 1894, BOR-W
Pile no.124 of 1893* furthermore, in the Bamna estate of
Bakarganj those who failed to pay the Asvin (Sept.-Oct.) klat hod
to pay 'eight annas more in each rupee in the month of Pous (Deo.-
Jan*)'. The interest charged in this case mis 200 per cent per
annum. (BOR-W Pile no.211 of 1893).
4'The Bengal Peasant,' Bg§, vol.8 (Peb. 1880), p.254.

r,
 401

and a half of the regular rental in Bakarganj, and much less in

the remaining three districts of the Dacca division.

Therefore even if we take the various exactions into

account, the rent burden (that isf the rate of money rent payable

by the settled raiyats) in the Dacca division in our period was

decidedly moderate as compared with the barga rent or the rents

paid by the contemporary tenant cultivators of Japan, both of

which amounted to about half of the gross produce. Precisely

speaking, the proportion of the rental to the gross produce in

not a good index to the degree of exploitation. Instead of the

gross produce we should have taken the amount of surplus labour

as the basis- of comparison, since rent collection is surplus

labour appropriation. In the present state of our knowledge,

however, it is impossible to estimate the quantity of surplus

labour with any degree of aocuracy. We have only considered

certain pointers to this incidence.

Wow let us briefly trace the long-term movement of rent

rate. At the time of the Permanent Settlement the pitch was not

so low as in the .late nineteenth century and afterwards. It

gradually declined over the years, mainly because the landlords

#•
were unable to enhance the rent rate in proportion to the

^This la not applicable to western Bengal where the pitch

of rent was much higher. Jay Krishna Mukherjee once remarked:
'...in Burdwan, Hpoghly, &c., the proportion of 50 per cent, in
paddy lands prevailed, and is still prevailing, while in Dacca
and many other eastern and north-eastern districts the proportion
is from 6 to 30 per oent.1 (’Memorandum on a Table of Bents, and
the Procedure for Enhancement by Joy Klssen Mookerjee,* in
Proposed Amg^flmarit. vol.2, pp.551-4.
 402
development of productive forces and the rise In prices. True,

the net rental earnings of the landed classes increased several

times in the course of the nineteenth century, hut such increase

was derived rather from the extension of cultivation than froa the

enhancement of rent rate. In point of fact, it was reported from

Dacca: '...we find that the gross rental of the district has

increased by 415 per cent, since the permanent settlement. Of

this increase about one-third is probably due to enhancement of

2
rent, and the remainder to extension of cultivation.1

There are a few cases illustrating the actual course of

rent enhancement in the Dacca division. In Jagat Kishore Acharjya’s

estate in Mymensingh the rent for the first class land rose from

&S.3-&-0 to Rs.4-0-0 per nura /"*3 beeghas 2 oottahs and 8 chit.tacksJT

in 1230 B.S. /“1823-24.7 to Rs.5 to Rs.7 in 1882.3 Therefore

there wee an enhancement of about 60 per cent in sixty years on

this estate. Another oase is the Tuahkhali estate in the south

of Bakarganj. This was a Government estate attached in 1833* In

1839-40 the rates payable by cultivators were fixed at Rs.1-5 per

bigha. But the farmers who took a lease from the Government

realized rents at muoh higher rates, varying from Rs.1-9 to Rs.2.

According to a rough estimate by the Board of Revenue, the

net rental earnings of the zamindars and intermediate tenure-holders
of Bengal increased from 100 lakhs of rupees at the time of the
Permanent Settlement to not less than 830 lakhs in the late 1870's.
(RWAE. 1877-78, paras.11-12). In this regard see also Binay
Bhushan Chaudhuri, 'MoVermont of Rent in Bastem India, 1793-1930,'
m, III-2 (1977), pp.348-62.
2Sen, DaccaDistrict, para.131a.

gB. T. Bill. 1883. vol.2, pp.622-3.

 403

There was widespread dlsaontent among the raiyats. Accordingly,

In the second settlement conducted in 1839-60 the rates were

reduced to Re. 1-2-2 on an average. After this assessment, the

rates were, gradually raised! Rs.1-9-1 per bigha in 1876; Rs. 1-12-3

in 1894-98; and Rs. 1-14-4 in 1912-16. The proportion of rent

enhancement from 1839-40 to 1.916 was therefore 30 to 63 per cent.1

from these two oases we know that although the money rent payable

by the raiyats was .enhanced, its pace was very slow.

What is more, even this sluggish pace seems to have

further slowed down in the twentieth century. When we compare

the results of the survey and settlement operations conducted in

Faridpur in 1904-14 with the findings of the revisional settlement

operations in 1940-43, it becomes clear that there was virtually

no change in the rent rates during these thirty years. The rate

payable by the settled raiyats slightly increased from Rs.2-9-2

per acre to Rs,2-11-9, or just 6.3$» while that payable by the

o
under-raiyats remained almost the same.

Thus in eastern Bengal the rent rates showed a considerable

^A. D. B. Ckxmess, Report of the Progress Made in the Reset­

tlement of the Government Estate of Tooshkhall (1877X paras.9. 16.
Appendix E,in Proceedings of the Board of Revenue, lower Prov­
inces, 1st Section, Ho.51, 18 Aug. 1877; Pyari Mohan Basu, Survey
and Settlement of TiiaViTTheli in the District of Baftkergnnge. 1894-
jiT (Calcutta, 1898), paras.64-70, 75, Appendix IF; R.JO. Sen,
fjWi Report of the Survey and Settlement of the TnahkhaJl govern­
ment Estate in the District of Backergupge. 1912-1916 (Calcutta.
19i6), paras.79, 81,The rates shown above for 1859-60 and
thereafter are an average for the total area of lands occupied by
the settled raiyats or by the raiyats in general. Further, the
raiyats of this estate were reported to be faralzis.
2Faridpur 3SR. p,
x; Item Gupta, Faridpur RevisioTmi Sattia-
rt II, pp.40-1.
ment. part See also fn.2 on p.117.
 404

inelasticity ever since the Permanent Settlement. Ihe irregular

and indifferent way of estate management, particularly the disap­

pearance of a dependable standard to assess rent and the casual

implementation of the survey, without doubt had much to do with

this. And this inelasticity, it seems, constituted the basic

oause of the tendential fall in the pitch of rent referred to

• above. As is quite well-known, the British officials called the

rent rates in a state of such diasarray the 'customary rates.'

e
In fact, however, they were not 'customary rates *, fen* there was

no longer any 'custom' to go by in rent assessment business. The

word 'customary' only indicated the change-resisting character of

the rates of money rent in Bengal.

However, it should be specially noted that, the decline in

the rent burdem did not equally benefit all sections of our

raiyats. We have already pointed out the advatageous position

enjoyed by the upper strata of the raiyats in the Dakhin

o
Shahbazpur estate. Moreover, even where a survey was undertaken,

a heavily biased assessment was unavoidable!

...in practically every case considerable area of surreptitious­

ly cultivated lands were discovered, for which no rent was being
paid. ...fhe difficulties began when it was attempted to make
settlements after completing the surveys. Naturally it was the
more powerful tenants who had encroached the most, and who
resisted most strongly the attempt to get them to pay extra
rent for the excess areas they were holding. When extra rent
was insisted on, combinations to withhold payment of rent
altogether were frequent ; costly litigation in the Civil
Courts followed, in practically every instance; and too often
the trouble and expenses was added to by proceedings in the
Criminal Courts....and in the end when after years of fighting

4 •
For instance, see RLRC. vol.1, 'Report,* para.261.
2See sunra. pp.391-2.
 405
and litigation a settlement of some sort was arrived at, it was
found in most cases that it vas the poorer tenants, and most
loyal ryots only, who were paying rent for the entire lands
they cultivated, the more turbulent tenants having profited
by the concession which they were strong enough to exact J

fhns it was mainly the more powerful raiyate that could take

advantage of poor management. In the' Dacca division at the turn

of the century,, it; seemsf, a similar situation to that of the late

eighteenth century still prevailed.

Now let us turn our attention to the rent problems at the

level of the individual estates managed by the Court of Wards.

By doing this we intend to form a rough idea of the basic determi­

nants of the movement of rent income.

4

9 ■ - ♦

As may be expected from the above analysis, the amount of

the current demand of rent showed little change during the

relatively short period of the Court of Wards’ management. She

\

conservative character of its management policy also partly

accounted for this. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the rent

demand did vary from year to year, though over a very narrow range

of one per oent or so. She estate was like a living thing which

breathed quietly. In the first place we shall take up these

yearly routine fluctuations.

In relation to this question, the Board of Revenue

remarked: 'Where the rent-roll has been increased, the increase

is almost entirely attributable to the resumption of direct

management on the expiration of farming leases, or to the

^Hbdding, Dacoa Nawab'a Family Estates, p.6.

 406
assessment imposed on waste lands brought under cultivation.' ^

Bat when we go through the annual reports of the Court of Wards

and the Board of Revenue files on the management of the wards'

estates, we know there were much more of factors affecting the

2
variation* "They may be condensed 'into the following eight points.

(1) Change in the area of the estate in consequence of

diluvion and alluvion. These river actions were a formidable

force to be reckoned with in eastern Bengal which was intersected

by great rivers, which in some instances threatend the very

existence of an estate. Bor example, Kishori Mohan Rai’s estate,

a small attached estate in Bakarganj which had the current demand

of Rs.2,602 in 1895-96, was entirely washed away in March 1957.^

(2) Increase on account of reclamation or detection of

«

unautliorized, concealed cultivation, and decrease because of

desertion or evacuation of cultivators. The Court, which seems to

have placed great importance on discovering concealed cultivation,

succeeded in causing a reasonable amount of increase in the

rental. But it is questionable whether the private landlords were

in a position to follow the same policy with an equal degree of

sternness. Deserted or evacuated lands, it appears, were

re-settled with.new tenants with comparative ease. There is no

evidence of the Court having had difficulty in finding them.

1RWA1. 1882-85, para.8.

%he explanation sheets accompanying the Return No .XXXI

submitted yearly by the manager of the Wards' and Attached estates
give us the minutest information in this regard. RWAE epitomizes
it. Our summary below is.based on these two sources.
3'Return No .XXXI for 1895-96—Estate of X. M. Roy and
others,' BQR-W Bile no,507 of 18951 RWAE. 1545 B.S. (1956-57),
para.54.
 407

(3) Periodical resettlement of markets, ferries,

fisheries, etc., which were farmed out on a short-term lease.

(4) Buying and selling of landed interests (zamindaria,

intermediate tenures and raiyati holdings). There are many cases

of land purchase in the Court's records. This.is because the

managers were instructed by the Court to invest surplus funds in

1
landed property. On the other hand, some estates were sold off

to pay back debts. Further, it is interesting that a few estates

bought a lot of raiyati holdings and intermediate tenures at a

2
nominal price of Re.1 each at execution sales.

(3) Fluctuations due to special systems of assessment.

In the marshy tracts of Mymensingh there was a local custom to

assess the land under the boro rice crop on the basis of the actual

area ot cultivation which was checked on the spot every yeat ?

She share-cropping system is also included under this head,

although few estates appear to have introduced this system in our

period.*
*

(6) Merger. She Court made a systematic attempt to merge

overlapping landed interests which were different only in name into

one consolidated right in order to eliminate the absurdity of a

landlord paying rents to himself. However, private landlords were

perhaps not so enthusiastic about this rationalization of land

^See supra, pp.170-1.

2For instance, see 'Explanation to Accompany Return Ho.ZZXI

of the Dakhin Shahbazpore Estate in Backergunge for 1897-98,'
para.56, BOR-W File no.632 of 1898.
50ffg. Cmmr. Dac. to BOR, Ho.W/698, 22 Sept. 1880, BOR-V
File no.678 of 1878? RWAE.1891-92. para.89. *
*See Chap.17*
 408
property relatione, partly because they found their interest in

retaining a confusing state of things to protect their estate

against outsiders, and partly because the land laws of Bengal,

curiously enough, did not make merger obligatory.

(7) Changes in the management policy. As has already boen

noted, there were three ways of managing an estate or part of an

estate: khas /"direct managementJ7» farm and natalJ When a switch­

over from one to another was effected, the amount of the current

demand was correspondingly affected, depending upon the profit

enjoyed by natnidars and farmers. In addition, modest changes

were also caused by attaching dubious rent-free tenures like

debattars, by leasing out khamar lands to raiyats, and so on.

(8) Survey and settlement of the whole or a part of an

estate. But the landlords did not regularly conduct this

operation.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to determine the relative

importance of the above eight factors. Judging by the Court's

records, factors (2), especially detection of concealed lands, and

(4), i.e. purchase and sale of land, seem to have carried a

considerable weight. But this may be a hasty conclusion.

She next question is the rent collection. She most

reasonable way of appraising the rent collection will be to see

the percentage of the annual total rent collection on the current

1See supra, pp.318-9.

 409 ,
demand.1 However, there Id little chance of arriving at a

meaningful conclusion by calculating such percentage, since, as

has been pointed out earlier, the rent collection was artificially

pushed up to a very high level under the Court's management.

2

Here we will only pick out several remarkable oases in which tho

Court, with its extraordinary powers, felt great difficulties in

attaining the standard percentage of rent collection, that is,

100 per cent, and try to locate major problems accompanying the

estate management.

The first case is the Dhankoora estate of Dacca with the

current demand of Es. 1,29,974. (Figure 56). The results of the

■uougeaert of thle estate l>y the Court of Wards »ere by no means

satisfactory. There were two basic reasons for this. First,

the amifta ^fmanagerlal staff_7 had formed such a powerful body

during the landlord's own management that even the Court

4
As has been noted in pp. 167-8, there was a lengthy contro­
versy among the Government officials over how to appraise the per­
formance record in estate management. One section maintained that
the 'current demand' of rents should be taken as the basis of
comparison, while another preferred the 'total demand' of rents.
The 'current demand' denoted the amount of annual rent demand
entered in the landlord's rent-roll. * The 'total demand* included
tiie arrear balance and the interest on it in addition to the
'current demand.1 in accordance with the Board of Revenue's view,
we take the 'current demand' as the basis. The reasons are fully
explained in the following extract from RWABs
'There is much variety and uncertainty as regards the arrear
balance, which depends upon the condition of the estate when
Government assumes the management; and different officers take
vary different views as to the possibility of recovering
arrears« A sanguine officer will keep on his books many
demands, while another officer who thinks more of the annual
statements will be more ready to recommend that balances should
be written off.' (RWAE. 1891-92, para.7)
o
See supra, pp.167-8.
 410
FIGURE 36
BENT COLLECTION IN THE DHANKOORA ESTATE
OF DACCA, 1862-1891

SOURCEi RWAE for respective years.

experienced great difficulty to bring than under effective control.

In point of foot, in the first one or two years the Court was

unable to replace those former £g&&& vho were opposed to its

management.* Moreover, the Court could not receive any proper

*RWAE, 1883-84, para.60.

 411
papers from the proprietors,^ who were completely kept in the

dark about the management by machinations of amlas. The manager

appointed by the Oourt reported on their' conduct:

•••in the time of the late proprietors, the naibs. tehaildarso

and other collecting agents in Mymenalngh used to keep no
proper records, but would* satisfy -the zemindars by showing a
fictitious and an inflated rent roll of ah increased jumma,
adding that they, have been able to effeot-an-enormous Increase
from year to year, which I have found the ryots know nothing
of. At the time of collecting rents - from, and giving
dnirirnn>tg / rent receiptto, ryots they used to give
receipts for arrear and current demand, so that the ryots
could not know how much was current and how much arrear.
They used to be kept altogether in the dark about the rates
of rental payable by each.2 * 4 5

In this way the amlas deceived both the proprietors and the raiyats

and consolidated their hold over the estate. She second reason

was the resistance by Idle raiyats* In the report of 1883 the Court

ascribed bad collection to 'a Moulyie who under cover of the Saw

Tenancy Bill stirred up the Mymensingh tenantry to refuse payment

of rent.1 In 1886, too, it reported the existence of 'habitual

defaulters.It was due to these basic weaknesses underlying

the management that the natural disasters, namely, unusually high

floods and outbreak of cholera,. could bring about such a sharp

fall in the percentage of rent collection in 1886 and 1887.^ In

1887 the Court took hard measures to tide over this difficult

situation. It not only ^dismissed the manager who had been accused

for inefficiency but also filed a large number of certificates for

^BWAE. 1883-84, para.60.

o
Ibid., para.6.

-'Ibid., paras.4, 60.

4Ibid., 1886-87, para.66.

5Ibid.
 412
the forcible realization of rent.* She result was the rise in the

percentage in 1887 and 1888. But it began to decline for the

second time in 1890 in consequence of 'the low price of jute, the

destruction of crops and cattle by unusual floods* and desertion

i

2
of certain localities by the ralyats on account of cholera.'

In 1891 the Court was compelled to have recourse to the certificate

procedure again.^ (Furthermore* the extremely low percentage

recorded in the first and the Inst years of the Court's management

was due to the confusion accompanying the assumption and release

of the management* and no more).

She second case is the small estate of Lalit Mohan Rai in

Dacca with the current demand of Rs.8*289. (Figure 37). She

problem that marred the smooth operation of this estate was the

disputes between the minor proprietors and their uncles regarding

the title to one-sixth of the whole estate. Protracted lawsuits .

instituted by the uncles drained the limited resources of this

small estate and deprived the manager of much of his time and

energy to operate it. Moreover* they put numerous impediments

in the way of the manager.4 She fall in rent collections in 1884

was attributable to. the unusually heavy burden of the oases in the

civil court* which brought the collection work to a standstill for

g» •
the greater- part of the year. In the meanwhile, the ralyats

1RWAB. 1887-88* pards.26* 56.

%bid.f. 1890-91, para.38.

3Ibid., 1891-92, para.27.

4Ibld., 1875-76, para.154i 1881-82, para.198? 1888-89*

para.71•
’’ibid.* 1884-85* para.62.
 413
FIGURE 37
RENT COLLECTION IN THE ESTATE OF MLXT MOHAN RAI
IN DACCA, 1875-1887
Percentage
of
Rent Coclection

W 80W WT
Year.

SOURCEt RWAB for respective years.

started to withhold rent payments in 1885 'on the plea that, under

the provisions of the Bengal Tenancy Act, their rates had been

reduced.' They also raised an objection to the form of rent

receipts under the Act.* As a result, the percentage remained

lov In the last years of the Court's management. *

1RWAB. 1885-86, para.61.

 414
*B»T#1TTDT3I VO
SJMVBM yo

BENT COLLECTION IN THE ESTATE OF BTOINI KANT RAI

OF JOPSHA, FARIDFUB, 1882-1885

SOURCE* BWAE for respective years.

 415

Thirdly, the rent collection in the estate of Rukini Sant

Rai of Jopsha, Faridpur (current demand^Rs.12,566), kept declining

steeply throughout the four, years? brief management by the Court.

(Figure 38). This was due to the manoeuvres of Guru Churn Pal.

This big money-lender in Bhojeswar had lent a large amount of

i ■

money to the estate and "had already obtained a judgment in his

favour from the civil court. In order to exercise his power as the

judgment creditor, however, he had to scuttle the Court's

management under which his debtor landlords took "shelter. He won

the raiyats to his side and told thorn to withhold payments of

rent.^ This stratagem brought prompt, decisive results as shown

in Figure 38. This case is illustrative of the profound and

formidable influence that big money-lenders exerted in rural areas.

Besides the above three, there are a few remarkable cases.

The Dasmina estate in the south of Bakarganj recorded a very low

percentage of rent collection, 41 per cent, in 1907 because of the

'disputes with the superior landlords, who had begun collection on

2
their own account.' In Jagat Harain Bay's estate in Bakarganj

the Court could not raise the percentage to the standard level on

account of 'the fact that there are numerous shareholders in the

estate, and that each endeavours to collect his own share and

opposes the collection of others.'*' The major cause of the diffi­

culties experienced in the estates of Hari Charan Chakravartl in

Bakarganj and of Moulvie Eradut All Khan in Dacca was the sabotage

1RWAE. 1882-83, para.160.

2RWAB-EB. 1907-08, para.7.

3RWAB. 1874-75, para.210.

I
 416
by the farmers.1

In fine, as far at least as the Court*s management Is

concerned, the problems immanent in the organization of an estato

itself told most on the rent collectio?).. They boil down to the

following three points: quarrels among cosharers.or relatives

which were in many cases accompanied, by endless litigation;

disputes with superior landlords or farmers; and unruly amlas who

could not easily be brought under control. And this inner

weakness occasionally give rise to the activation of formidablo

external forces: the raiyats' combination not to pay rents and

the money-lender's interference. In such cases the situation

took a sharp turn for the worse. Particularly, we have much

evidence to show what disastrous consequences for the landlords

were entailed when the above three problems got linked with the

raiyats* movement to keep back rent payments. In comparison with

these social factors, the influence of the crops and the natural

disasters seems to have beau relatively limited.

low we go on to study the question of the arrears of rent.

As will be expected from the fact that the actual percentage of

rent collection by the landlords of earstern Bengal ruled rather

m
low, our landlords usually piled up a considerable amount of

arrear rent on their books. They never wrote off outstanding

‘balances, even apparently irrecoverable ones, but made it a firm

policy to keep all of them alive. For instance, out of the total

balances, due to the Dacca Nawab*s estates amounting to Rs.22,24,229,

1RWAE. 1882-83, para.162; 1883-84, para.58.

 417

as much as Rs.14»35,16$ was classified by the Court as bad and

irrecoverable J From the English point of view, this practice

was irrational. But our landlords had a good reason of their otm

to do so. It is said that they purposefully retained the arroars

against the raiyats as a mark of their * perpetual servitude and

i

p
bondage.1

fable 48 shows the amount of the balance due to the estate

as of the year of assumption and its proportion to the current

demand with regard to twenty-eight estates, There were wide

individual variations in the proportion. The highest stood at

266 per cent recorded by Bhukailash estate, while the lowest was

just 5 per cent of Bholanath Bey Ghakladar's estate. If we strike

the average by dividing the total of the figures for each estate

by twenty-eight, we get 97 per cant. That is, our estates had the

arrear balances nearly equal to the annual rent demand. Moreovor,

it is interesting to note that there is correlation between the

size of the estate and the amount of arrear balances. The larger

the estate, the greater the quantity of the arrears. And no

estates with the current demand less than Rs.20,000 laid up a

balance exceeding the yearly rental. This phenomenon, it seems,

can be explained by the well-known fact that the smaller landlords

were more meticurous in operating their estates. It may also bo

said that the large estates, with their massive financial

resources, could afford to leave the rent arrears piling up.

« •
’Hodding, Dacca law*A * a Jamil y Estates, p.4.
Government's Resolution on RWAE. 1883-84, para.2.
 418
TABLE 48
AMOUNT OF THE BALANCE DUB TO TWENTY-EIGHT ESTATES AT
THE TIME OF ASSUMPTION BY THE COURT OF WARDS

SI. Current Balance

m|*«i

oo
Name of Estate Demand Due to the

M
No. (A) Estate (B)
Rs. Rs. £
D6 Dacca Nawab 11,59,641* 22,24,229® 192
D4 Bhawal 5,95,736 12,32,803 207
B16 Bhukailas 3,08,043 8,19,706 266
B19 S. M. Tagore 2,87,396 2,49,879 87
M4 J. E. Acharjya 2,10,939 1,34,250 64
D3 Dbankoora 1,29,974 2,09,379 161
B10 Haturia 1,19,311 1,50,379 126

B11 Bamna 90,203 36,618 41

B14 Madhabpassa 75,971 1,43,041 1G8
B18 Sypdpore 68,942 1,34,579 195
B13 Amrajurl & D, N. Butt
Chaudhuri 40,742 56,255 138
B8 M. C. Chakravarti 30,666 31,614^ 103
B15 Daamina 21,948 37,193 169
B12 H. A. Lucas 15,913 12,365 78
B17 Khalisakota 13,173 11,439 87
m TTannlrahn-r* 20,307 19,627 97
F2 P. C. Rai 20,180 15,032 74
F3 R. E. Rai of Jopsha 12,366 8,415 68
D5 Bakjuri 12,433 3,746 30
M9 Narayandahar 42,777 12,384 23

B9 H. E. Das 3,599 1,846 51

FI C. E. Sandyal 546 327 60
D2 L. M. Rai 8,289 4,762 57
D1 E. A. Ehaa 3,631 1,590 44
M? B. Dey Ghakladar 6,247 302 5
M2 J. R. Hollow 5,009 1,791 . 36
M3 H. G. Ti» Flhk-RT" 2,208 . 1,015 46
M6 A. N. Chaudhari 827 110 13

(To be continued)
 419

TABLE 48—Continued

SOURCE: RWAE. See also Rotes to Sable 19.

ROSES: Estimate made in 1909. (Hodding, Dacca Etowah1b
Estates, p.4).
^Figure of the year ensuing assumption.
t

Vhat were the causes of the arrear balances of such a

great volume? Sable 49'summarises the detailed reports on tho

i '

reasons for the arrears prepared by the managers of one attached

e
and two wards' estates in Bakarganj. In reading this table„

however, it should be kept in mind that the figures have not been

taken from the reports of the year of assumption* As regards the

estate of Amrajuri and Deb Rath Dutt Chaudhuri (current demands

Es,40h742)., the arrears stood at Rs.96,259 when it was taken charge

of in 1899-1900. She next year, however, mainly in consequence

of the writing off of. the balances by limitation the arrears were

reduced to Rs.27,538. It is the analysis of this sum that is

shown in the table. Such was also the oase with H. A. Lucas'

estate (current demand^Rs.15,913). She figures for the Dakhin

Shahbazpore (current demand=fis.1,14,149, attached estate) show

how things stood about ten years after the.assumption. Shere

were a reform in management system and a systematic survey and

settlement in between. So in this case the influence of the

unique way.of book-keeping mentioned above is supposedly Virtually

effaced by the Court.

. She causes of the arrears were diverse. Shere were five

to be reckoned with. •
 420
TABLE 49
CLASSIFIED LIS1D OF BALANCES OF RENT DOE 10 SHE ESTATES OF
H. A. LUCAS, AMRAJURI & D. E. DUTT CHAUDHURI,
AHD tiatthtw sbtattra zpnRTg

H. A. Amrajuri Dakhin
Classification Lucas & D. E. Shahtasz-
in Butt Chau- pore in
1900-01 dhurl in 1897-98
1901-02

B
Rs. Rs.

(
•
I. Bad and Irrecoverable
1. Barred by limitation 81 e 11
2. Realized by the proprietors but
6>Q|ftAil aKmm
cyvoifi DllvWAI on
Cue fiWAfli* in Vilv
CU X wCU JUJL
touzi 292 43
3- Excess .1ama. Jama of lands found
less than those for which
assessment was made. 466 218 H
4. Eon-admission of the relation of
landlord and tenants by the
tenants. She proprietors have
long been out of possession
from the land. 2,026 mra

5. Dilution of lands 65 63 482

6. Abscondence of tenants mm
87 ra

7. All the properties that could be

traced to the defaulters have been
sold. She.defaulters have now no
means to pay this outstanding
balance. 1,026 1,139
8. Others 32' 255 33 2
Total 644 3,967 2,031
II. Doubtful and Disputed
1. Eon-admission of the existence of •

relation of landlord and tenants

by the tenants 13 2,385 759
2. Eon-admission of the lamas and
tenancies by the tenants 478 3,863
3. Diluvion of lands which is
pending enquiry 569
4. Dispossession of the proprietors
from the tenancies purchased in
execution sales. Due from
tenancies purchased by the .pro­
prietors but not taken possession of 88 263
(So be continuod).
 421

TABLE 49—Continued

H. A. Amrajuri Dakhia
Lucas As D. ft. Shahbaz-
Classification in Dutt Chau-■ pore in
1900-01 dhuri in 1897-98
1901-02

Re. Rs. Rs.

5. Alleged payment 254 - ■V*

6* Disputes regarding the right of

the tenants to the tenancies mm
275
7. Others 23 - 67
Total 856 6,786 1,355
111. Doubtful but not Disunited
1. Abscondenoe of Idle tenants 61 •a

2. Due from the defaulters whose

properties are being enquired
into. The properties that
could be traced hare all been
sold. 58 704
3. Non-ascertainment of the actual
holder of the tenancy - • 91
Total 61 149 704
17. Good and Recoverable
1 • Poor and straitened circumstances
of the tenants 1,271 2,012 11,122
2. Recusancy of the tenants 189 . 8,859 1,267
3. Covered by decree under execution 591 2,245 -

4. Covered by Kistibandi - —
1,268
3. Due by the Estate itself; not
paid owing to non-adjustment of
accounts; etc. 566 8£8 40
6. Rot realizable before the close
of the year 464 1,029 •*»

7. Realized after the cIobs of the

year 637 . 406 104
8. Others 137 1,197 1,016
Total 3,855 16,636 •14,819

GRAND TOTAL 5,416 27,538 18,949

(So be continued)
 422

TABLE 49—Continued

SOURCES; 'Explanation to Accompany Return No.XXXI for 1900-01

of the Estate of Mrs. H. A. Inioas, in. Backergunge,' para. 17, BOH-W
Bile no. 123 of 1901; 'Explanation to Accompany Return No.XXXI for
1901-02 of the Amrajuri Estate in Backergunge,' para.25, BOR-U
File no.817 of 1902; 'Explanation to Accompany Return No.XXXI for
1901-02 of the Estate of Debnath Butt Chaudhuri & another in
Backergunge,' para.33»\for 1897-98 of the Dakfain Shahbazpore
Estate in Backergunge, paras.30-33, BQR-W File no.632 of 1898.
CjBQR-W File no.862 of 1902; 'Explanation to Accompany Return No.XXXI

Firstly, poverty of the tenants, indicated by heads 1-5 &

7, III-1 & 2, and 17-1 of our table, formed the most potent factor

in the two estates of E. A. Lucas and Dakfain Shahbazpore. There

were tenants, though not large in number, who lived in dire

poverty. Some of them were driven to give up their land and

'abscond' to another place in order to escape from the pressure

of the arrear demand. Others were stripped of all the properties

by the landlord, and yet the sale price of their belongings fell

short of the amount of the outstanding rents. By the side of

these destitute people,-a much greater number of tenants, who eked

out their livelihood in 'poor and straitened circumstances,'

struggled to repay the arrears. Moreover, it is highly probable

that in addition to the above five kinds of balances, those

classified as 'covered by decree under execution* and 'covered by

kistibandi /"payment by instalments_7* (X7-3 & 4), too, were

mostly due from these poverty-stricken tenants. The most

remarkable fact is that the balances on account of poverty of the

tenants accounted for no less than 68 per cent of the total

balances, and 11 per cent of the annual rental, in the Dakhin

Shahbazpore estate of which the-settlement officer painted an

optimistic picture in 1896, reporting that 'the condition of the

 423

people is good and prosperous.' And according to Ms report,, the

rent rates in this estate were as moderate as in other parts of

p
eastern Bengal. Zt is noteworthy that despite these seemingly

favorable economic surroundings a section of the tenants was too

poor to make regular payments of rent. (Further* the term

'tenants1 indicates both the raiyats and the tenure-holders. Wo

presume here that poor 'tenants' were mostly raiyats).

She tenants' resistance (17-2) formed the second important

factor. This problem assumed serious proportions in the estate of

Amrajuri and D. N. Butt Chaudhpri where 32 per cent of the balance*

equivalent to 22 per cent of the current demand* was caused by

'recusancy of the tenants*' whereas in the remaining two estates

«
proportion of the balance on tills account was negligible.

The third factor was the disputes concerning the

assessment of Jam, or rent (1-3* ZI-2). This cause formed a

reasonable proportion in our estates except for the Dakhin

Shahbazpore where rent problems had presumably been solved by the

survey and settlement operations from 1890 to 1893*

Fourthly, the complexity of the land system characteristic

of Bengal hampered the smooth collection of rent. (Z-4* IX-1 & 6*

III-3). In the other regions such a reason as 'non-admission of

the existence of the relation of landlord and tenants by the

tenants' would not have been counted among the major causes of the

4
pAkhin ahBhbftMtmr S3R. para. 187.
%bid«* p.lxxi.
 424

rent arrears.

lastly, It Is interesting that even under the Court's

management technical laxity in rent collection business such as

1-2 ('realized by the proprietors but again shown as arrear in

the touii») and IV-9'('realized after the olose of the year') was

responsible for a fair proportion of the arrears.

It is true that the existence of a large.amount of arrear

rents in almost every estate couid not be ascribed solely to

poverty of the raiyats. There were several other causes.

However, our findings on the above three estates appear to

substantiate the basic correctness of the prevalent notion. It

was the raiyat problem, namely their poverty and 'recusancy',

that constituted the root oause of the non-realization of rents.

To sim up, money rent in 'the Dacca division at the turn of

the century had already been so dissociated from the table of

rent rates as to be transformed into 'lump rent.' This had the

effect of intensifying the inequality between the rich and poor

among the raiyats whioh was already there. On the other hand, its

average rate showed a remarkable inelasticity at least since the

mid-nineteenth century, which gave rise to the tenddhtial fall in

the pitch of rent, i.e. the proportion of the rental to the value

of the gross agricultural produce. In the twentieth century in

particular, the rate seems to have remained almost unchanged.

Even if taking into account the impositions exacted on vSriouo

pretexts, we cannot but consider the rent burden to have been

moderate.
 425
Within this broad framework the rent collection of the

individual estates fluctuated year after year under the influonce

of diverse factors. Going by the Court's experiences, major

determinants that affected the movement of rent demands and

collections appear to have been clearing of waste land, purchase

and sale of landed interests, organizational weakness of

respective estates, withholding of rent payments by the raiyats,

and poverty of a section of them. Evidence at our disposal is

not sufficient to enable us to arrive at a clear-cut conclusion.

However, I am inclined to attach importance to the raiyat

problems, namely, their resistance and poverty. When read with

the large-scale sale of raiyati holdings we have discussed in

part 1, they clearly pointed to the increasing instability of the

base of the zamindari system, i.e. email peasant farming carried

on on the raiyati holdings held by right of custom.

On the whole, we notice in the rent problems at the turn

of the century the first indications that the zamindari system,

or zamindar-raiyat relationship, began to lose its overwhelming

and predominant position in the surplus appropriation mechanism

in eastern Bengal. She new relations to take its place—exploi­

tation through jotdar-bargadar relationship and commercial

agriculture based on jute and rice—were being formed amid the

common raiyats* utmost endeavors to adapt themselves to the new

conditions and their inevitable stratification.

 mi

RAIYAI

In this chapter we do not intend to make an exhaustive

inquiry into the problems concerning the raiyats. Among other
things, for the reasons given in chapter 8 we need not go into
e

the question of the social existence-form of labor power as

suehJ Here we shall confine ourselves to taking up one
particular problem, i.e. transfer of raiyati holdings, for study
in order to spell out a very important feature of the zamindarl
system* which distinguishes it from other forms of landlordism.

She most significant of the new developments during our

period that considerably affected the raiyats* economic and social
life was beyond all doubt the dramatic rise in the numbers of
mortgages and consequent sales of raiyati holdings. In the
process, a great number of poorer raiyats were turned into
baraadars. while the upper strata of raiyats and some sections of
landowners transformed themselves into the .lotdar type landlords.
She latter exacted produce rent from the former at a. much higher

^Excellent accounts of the economic conditions of various

classes of the raiyats from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth
centuries will be found in Senoy B. Chowdhurl, 'Agrarian Economy
and Agrarian Relations', pp.314-23; Amok Sen, ’Agrarian Structure
and fenanoy Laws,' pp.79-85* and Partha Ghatterjee, 'Agrarian
Structure in Pre-partition Bengal,' pp. 150-1, 160-81.

426
 427

rate than the customary rate of rents. Of course, the raiyatn

were already stratified to a fair degree even before the period

under our study, hut there is no denying that the above development
opened up a completely new phase in the process of stratification.1 2 3 4

It can readily be imagined that this posed serious problems for

our landlords' conventional method of estate management.

Fundamental characteristics of the aamindari system will manifest

themselves in a sharp-cut manner in the way in which the landlords

reacted to such drastic changes.

« i

In fact, we do not, exactly know from when transfer of

raiyati holdings became prevalent in Bengal. As regards the late

eighteenth century, we may assume on the authority of John Shore

that the raiyats could neither sell nor mortgage their holdings.

In 1828, it is said, the sale of a raiyati Jote at the Judge's

court in Bogra created quite a stir, because even sales towards

realization of arrears of rent were rare at the time.^ In the

discussions on the Bent. Act of 1859 we find no mention of

transferability of raiyati holdings But the Bent law Commission

organized in 1879 found it necessary to enact a provision on

transferability. It proposed to make occupancy right saleable by

law on the strength of unmistakable evidence furnished by the c.iv±l

1See supra, part f.

2'Minute of John Shore, dated 18 June 1789,' para.389, in

App. to Fifth Rep.. p.205. So far no evidence has been found to
disprove John Shore's statement.
3 •"
^Dharma, Kumar, ed., flhe ORmbridge Ecoriomic Hietorv of India.
Vol.2: C.1757-C.1970 (Cambridge, 1982} Indian reprint, 1984), p.152.
4RLRO. vol.1, 'Report', para.150| Huque, Man behind tho
Hough, p.298.
 428

courts that a considerable number of raiyats' holdings changed

hands at execution sales in most parts of Bengali Prom these

facts one may safely assume that transfer of raiyati holdings

came to assume serious dimensions as an economic and social

problem only from the 1860s or the 1870s. ■ Ve have already

discussed in part 2 what happened thereafter.

Our landlords1 reactions toward the new situation are

expressed in their arguments put forward in a series of

controversies on transferability of raiyati holdings. Ever since

the beginning of the prolonged deliberations of the Bengal Tenancy

Bill they had tenaciously opposed a proposition to give the

raiyats the right to transfer their holdings. Even after the

passing of the Bill which gave legal sanction to the transfer

under certain conditions they had stuck to this doctrine, and had

reiterated their standpoint every time amendment of the Act ms

placed on the agenda. Bor example, in his 'Remarks' on the Report

of the Rent law Commission, 1879, Peary Mohan Hookerjee, son of the

famous zamindar Jay Krishna Mukherjee, put on record that 'it

seems to me impossible to contend...that it is no injustice to a

landlord to deprive him of the right which he had by law of

selecting his own tenants...*i and he further observed that the

right to transfer would be detrimental to the true fhterests of

raiyats themselves, because the new right, giving an additional

value to their holdings, was bound to make them 'improvident nnd

1Rent law Cmmn. Reu.. vol.1, 'Report,' para.32j vol.2,

'Statement of Classes of Purchasers of Ryots' Holdings and Small
Under-tenures under Execution Sales}' 'Abstract Statement of
Compulsory Sales of Holdings under Rs. 1,000 in 1878-79.*
 429

unthrifty. His line of argument was carried to completion by

Surendra Chandra Sen in his 'Note of Dissent* to the majority

report of the Kerr Committee appointed in 1921 to consider

amendment of the Act* In the first place Sen held that since the

right of transfer Was an incident of proprietory right*

legislation designed to make raiyati holdings transferable would

be nothing short of interference in the zamindar'd proprietory

right conferred by the permanent settlement. Secondly, such

legislation would be unjust to the landlord's interest, becauoo:

(a) an undesirable tenant will be thrust upon him,

(b) the land will be liable to pass to rival and inimical
landlords,
(c) capitalists, planters, mahalans. pleaders and other
powerful people will come into the place of the raiyats,
(d) even the right of pre-emption, if given to the landlord,
would not be of any avail, for he may not have
• sufficient funds available to buy up the holdings
transferred.•..2

And thirdly, he alleged, transferability would be 'ruinous and

injurious to the raiyats' for the similar reasons given by Deary

Mohun Hookerjees

She rule that occupancy holdings are not transferable is a

protective measure so far as regards the ralyat himself; it
is a benefit which cannot be deprived of even by the landlord;
the land will always remain in the family which will have a
permanent interest therein; he will not run recklessly into
debt; he will not be able to abandon his village and to
venture on an uncertain trade and migrate elsewhere for gain;
he will not be able to mortgage his holding by borrowing a
small sum which will swell up to a large debt.'

So tiie government should not concede the right to transfer if the

dissociation of raiyats into under-raiyats and bargadars was not

^ 'Remarks by Baboo Peary Mohun Mbokerjee,' para.22, lx

Rent Law Cmmn. Ren., vol.1.
o
Kerr Ottee. Ren., p.43. •

"'Ibid., pp.43-4. Emphasis is mine.

 430
desirableJ

Of course the above argument was of a questionable

character. Above all things ..its proponents, evading going into

the root causes of stratification of raiyats, only preached the

» * * '

legal prohibition of transfer as if it had been a panacea; and

moreover, they applied the blind eye to the undeniable fact that

the landlords benefited from the transfer of raiyati holdings by

the widespread practice of collecting landlord's,fee from

purchasers. In spite of these apparent inconsistencies, however,

we can easily notice in their arguments a firm resolve of the

landed classes to maintain the status quo in the economic conditions

of cultivating raiyats and the relationships between landlord and

raiyats, especially their patriarchal and personal aspects

discussed in chapter 15. At least on an ideological plane our

landlords seem to have held a creed that such, a conservative

policy would best serve their class interests. Of course it is

possible that the proportion of landlords who had recourse to the

barga system gradually rose in the twentieth century. If such was

the case, discordance of their creed.with deed could have more and
o
more come to the fore. However, at least untli the turn of tho

century the above doctrine seams to have more or less faithfully

been followed by the landlords in their estate management. VTo can

*Kerr Ottee. Rep.. pp.37-51•

2
It is a moot question whether the management system of
the type of landlords with whom we deal in the present part,
especially of bigger zamindars, was so flexible as to be‘smoothly
made suitable for the produce rent system. -This must have
required various special arrangements for collecting, storing and
marketing rents In kind. Of such arrangements, few have come to
my notice at present.
 431

present some evidence to prove this point.

In the first place, judging by the data provided both by

the Court of Wards’ records and by the administration reports of

1die Registration Department, it appears that few landlords were

involved in the transactions in raiyati holdings before the first

decade of the twentieth century. We have already noted that

according to the Registration statistics, the zamindar type

landlords purchased a very small proportion of the raiyati holdings

with occupancy right transferred by registered deed, The landlord

class formed less than 10 per cent of the number of the purchasers
of such holdingsJ And when we look at the Court of Wards'

-records, we find that only a small number of estates comprised

« p
raiyati holdings as their components. So be exact, so far as
3
could be ascertained, there are five such cases. We know from

these facts that the landlords1 2opposition

3 to transferability

stemmed not merely from their inborn jealousy of giving too many

rights to the raiyats but from the actual state of their land

management as well. They could hold fast to an intransigent

stance, since they seldom want to the land market to buy raiyati

holdings.

Of the above five cases, two deserve a careful examination.

Govindapore was an attached estate consisting of one uatni and one

^See supra, chap.6.

2See also supra, chap.13. ’

3They are Haturia(BIO), Pakhin Shahbazpore(BA5), Annada

Chandra Roy(BA6), Ducas and Harney(BA7), and Govindapore(BAIO).
Probably there are some oversights.
 432

dar-patni situated in seven villages in the Mehendigan-j subdivision

of Bakarganj. The annual current demand amounted to Rs.7»881 , and

this tiny tenure was owned by as many as about eighty co-sharers.

As regards these people, it is reported! 'There are 82 share­

holders in the mehal ft these shareholders hold about three-fourths

of the whole area of the land of the mehal as karsha tenants

j[“occupancy raiyats peculiar to Bakarganj_7 and these lands are

let cut to kole karsha tenants /‘under-raiyats.7 a rack-rent.'^

It is also pointed out: 'Out of nearly 172 tenants of the mehal,

the 82 shareholders are themselves karsha holders of nearly

three-fourths of the whole mehal.* So they held not only the

natni-dar-natni complex but most of the occupancy rights

subordinate to it as well. And from their petition we can know of

the titles of twenty-seven co-sharers. They were mostly Muslims.

Their breakdown shows that there were 2 Sardars. 2 Madbara

rMathers? 7. 3 Talukdars, 5 Haoladars. 2 Bhuivas. 1 mrtl- 1 Eazi.

' 3
4 Benaris. 5 Khans, 1 Das and 1 Biswas. We may presume from

these titles that the co-sharers of this patni-dar-patnl complex

consisted of rich and influential raiyats, local pleaders, small

traders, intermediate tenure-holders of lower rungs, etc.

In this case intermediate tenure-holders of modest origin

Manager, Court of Wards, Gobindpur Estate to Cllr. Bok,,

Bo.1, 3 July 1906, DGO, Mis. Rev. Deptt., IX W 7 of 1906-07 (BRA,
Unclassified Court of Wards Bundles).
2Ibid.

3 .
^ 'English Translation of the Vernacular Petition of Twenty-
seven People to the Court of $he District Collector, Barisal,8
DGO, Mis. Rev. Deptt., IX W 14 of 1904-09 (BRA, Unclassified Court
of Wards Bundles).
 433 .

were in possession of occupancy rights and sublet them to under-

raiyats at a rack-rent• She baraa system was not introduced.

But, on the whole, tills may be regarded as a case clearly in

disagreement with the general tendency.1

Another case, Dakhin Shahbazpur, a large attached estate

in Bakarganj, exhibits a marked contrast to Govlndapore. A list

of properties drawn up at the time of assumption of this estate

shows that thirty-four out of about two hundred landed interests

2
comprised in this estate were raiyati holdings. It is doubtful,

however, whether the co-sharers exercised effective control ore?

such holdings. Por example, the Court deoided to release from

its management twenty-eight iotes /"occupancy holdings./ paying

rents ranging between Bs. 14-7-6 and Be.0-7-8 which the Basakh

Babus, one of the several sets of co-proprietors, had bought at

private sales. The grounds for this release were that as the

Babus had made no serious attempt at taking actual possession of

the purchased .loteg. the original iotedara were still in

possession of the lands and continued to pay their rent regularly

v

to a haoladar superior to them; and that even if the Court managed

to get possession, it would stand only in the position of a ryot

i •
We can interpret this case in a different way. The essen­
tial point is whether the landed classes who possessed intermediate
tenures purchased raiyati holdings or rich folk of humble origin
who held raiyati holdings bought shares in the uatni-dar-uatni
complex. It is impossible to decide which was the case. But if
the latter was the case, this example may be regarded as showing
the upward movement of the class holding a position between land­
lords and cultivating raiyats, rather than the downward movement
of the established landlord, class. Here we Jiave deliberately
adopted an interpretation disadvantageous to our argument.
^Offg. Cllr. Bak. to Cmmr. Dac., No.3389LR/W, 19 Mar. 1687,
BOR-W Pile no.309 of 1886.
 434

with the right of occupancy and would only he able to make too

gmaii a profit by reletting to nim-Jotedara to cover the cost and

trouble of getting possession by suits.* In the late 1880s, it

appears, the big landlords had not yet taken up a positive attitude

toward operating raiyati lands even if they purchased some. Ono

of the reasons may have been that it did hot pay to lease them out

on money rent calculated at a customary rate. Ihey would

reconsider the question from a fresh angle only when produce rent

at an unusually high rate—the barga rent—obtained general

o
acceptance in the early twentieth century.

From tha above brief study it would be clear that even

the small number of estates that were in possession of raiyati

holdings did not always operate them effectively.

Secondly, the proprietors of our estates seem to have

seldom collected produce rent. Although several of our estatea

were owned by money-lenders who are supposed to have spearheaded

the switchover to the barga system, we find only two cases of

collecting rent in kind, and that, too, of little importance.

One of the two is the Amrajuri estate of Bakarganj. In an annual

financial return of this estate Rs.84 is entered as 'demands of

10ffg. Cllr. Bak. to Cmmr. Dae., No.3017, 26 Jan. 1889,

BOR-W File no.1t4 of 1=889.
2
Furthermore, the Dekhln Shahbazpore estate bought by court
decree several dozens of raiyati holdings at nominal prices, say
Re.1, in 1897-98. ('Explanation to Return No.XXXI for 1897-98,
Dakhin Shahabazpore Estate, Baokergunge,' para.56, BOR-W, File
no .632 of 1898). It may have purchased more* raiyati holdings In
the same manner in other years as well. However, as far as could
be ascertained, there are no records to show how the estate
operated such holdings.
 435

tenancies the jamas of which are paid in kind & not realized last
year.... '^ This sum represents the money value of arrears of

produce rent. So the total value of the annual produce rent nuat

have much exceeded Rs.84. But it is doubtful whether rent in

kind formed a large proportion of the total current demand of

this estate, Rs.40,742. As regards another case, we are provided

with a little more information. The Collector of Mymensingh

reported on the state of the Sherepore estates

The total yearly demand of the Estate amounts to Rs.51,464-13.

This sum includes, a sum of Rs.4,237, the estimated value of
rents in kind due on the zemindar's khamar land.*2 3

So about 8.2 per cent of the annual rental was collected in kind.

But it should be specially noted that this produce rent was imposed

on the 'khamar lands. * As we have emphasized in chapter 7, this

type should be characterized as the traditional form of produce

rent, and therefore should he categorically distinguished from

what is called the barga rent which only came into being at the

end of the nineteenth century. Besides, we should also take into

account that this estate, located in the peripheral regions of

Bengal adjoining the Caro Sills, seems to have preserved lots of

•K
old elements.

* 'Explanation to Accompany Return So.XXXI for the Tea;?

1900-01 of the Amrajuri Estate in Backergunge,' para. 19, in BOR-W
Pile no,.703 of 1901.
2Cllr. Mym. to Ommr. Dae., So.3210, 24 Apr. 1894, BOR-W
Pile na.398 of 1892.
3 See also supra, pp.320-1 •In this connection, it is
interesting to note that another peripheral estate, Susang, treated
the lands occupied by the Bajongs as the khas lands and collected
rents in kind from the Hajong tenants, for, it is stated*, they
understood the economy of paddy bettor than* the economy of money.
Shis method was called the tanim system. (Sinha, Changing Times,
pp. 149-50; Mymensingh SSR, para.256).
 436
Lastlyi Jaykrishna Mukherjee's settlement policy In hie

estate draws our special interest. It is said that after a

personal inspection of a newly purchased estate this famous

zamindar would have it surveyed and summon all the peasants to

his kachari. Then, interestingly enough, he would 'allot lands

to each family in such a manner that each single holding would

comprise a proportion of good, had and-middling lands,' because

'good lands must not he monopolized by a minority. Nilmanl

Mukherjee is right in considering this redistribution of lands to

he the zamindar's' attempt to curb the power of the middlemen such

as manflala and mahaJans. It appears to us, however, that he

misses another important aspect of the case in question. That is,

apart from being a gross violation of the Rent Act, this case

seems to suggest that such efficient and exacting zemindars ao

Jaykrishna found it their own interest to retain the economic

conditions of their tenantry as uniform and equal as possible.

They extorted rents ruthlessly, but at the same time, they seoms

to have been aware, at least in principle, that they should

preserve idle operational unit of a small peasant family from

which their rent income came. This kind of attutude is, needless

to say, in line with their stubborn opposition £o giving the

right of transfer.

Thus, from whatever angles we study the problem, we only

find faint traces of our landlords having actually tried to change

the status quo by taking part in purchase and sale of raiyati

holdings*

1 Mukherjee, A Bengal Zftminda.-r. p.94.

 437
Conservatism of the landlord class both in theory and In

practice with respect to transfer of raiyati holdings stands out

in sharp contrast to their active participation in transactions in

zamlndari rights and intermediate tenures. In other words, they

maintained a diametrically opposite attitude toward the trade in

these two categories of landed interests. This furnishes a key

to the. proper understanding of the basic feature of the zamlndari

system.

It was solely by the power and force of the British rulers

that motley feudal elements existent in late eighteenth century

Bengal iike local chieftains, revenue farmers, etc. were vested

with the quasi-bourgeois proprietary rights in land, and remodelled

into the legally uniform class of the zemindars. In Bengal

property in land Was brought into being in a crippled form, and

that without being accompanied by a radical social revolution.

Since then, as has been discussed in chapter 12, different social

groups had joined the ranks of the zemindars. There were two

institutional prerequisites for this development. First, the

proprietary rights had to be multiplied and stratified by the

process of subinfeudation to accommodate more and more substantial

classes, and various, rights created in this way had to be set in

order by careful legislations and secondly, the market for those

rights had to be organized in such a way. that transactions could

freely and safely be carried out. Various moneyed people invested

in land and rose to the landed class mainly on the strength of

these conditions. In effect, history of the zamlndari system at

least till the turn of the century shows that the system originated

and unfolded itself without involving widespread and fundamental

 438

changes In property relations at the level of the actual producers*

or without causing the differentiation of the peasantry.

Eather, it may be remarked* the zamindari system

presupposed as its material basis such small cultivating peasants

with customary rights in their holdings as khudkasht raivats in

the late eighteenth century and occupancy raiyats in the

mid-nineteenth century and thereafter. The landlords collected

from them money rent at a more or less customary -rate. Differen­

tiation of the peasantry through land transfer would have more

undermined than strengthened such material basis. It is no wonder*

therefore* that the landlords raised a strong objection against

any proposal to give the raiyats the right to transfer their

holdings.

In this connection* some mention should be made on what

K. K. Sen Gupta has called- 'high landlordism.1 2 Although

3 he has

not given a clear definition* this term seems to mean 'the

tendency of the landlords to annihilate the tenants' newly acquired

right of occupancy*'1 their strategy 'to suppress or destroy tho
i

rights which Act E of 1859 had conferred on the.occupancy ryots

in order to clear the way for their future ejectment and the
subsequent resettlement of their holdings at competitive rental

based on the current market value of land*' or* in short* 'the

complete freedom for landlords in the management in their estates.^

1Sen Gupta* Palana. Disturbances. p*31 •

2Ibid., p.32.

3Ibid., p.102.
 439

We need not go into detailed examination of his view, for main

points for discussion have already been raised by B. B. Ohaudhuri.

But considering that Sen Gupta's argument is at direct variance

with ours, we would like to point out one serious weakness in his

formulation* We cannot accept his theory if it is his intention

to maintain that high landlordism in the 1870s and 1880b determined

the subsequent course of the agrarian changes in Bengal. Nobody

will dare deny the plain fact that most raiyats in the four

districts of the Dacca division were recognized as settled raiyats

with right of occupancy in the Survey and settlement operations.

Registration statistics show that the average rate of rents in

the raiyati holdings with right of occupancy rose only nominally

during the thirty years-from the early 1880s to 1904* Moreover,

as has been noted in chapter 16, as far‘as the Faridpur district

in the twentieth century is concerned, there Was no phenomenal

enhancement of rent rates payable by the under-raiyats as well as

the settled raiyats. Shese facts do not seem to give support to

high landlordism theory. High landlordism, if it existed at all,

was short-lived and petered out in the face of the raiyats*

determined resistance. Admittedly, ever since the 1870s an

increasing number of raiyats were ruined, turned into bargadars.

and compelled to pay very high rate of rents which can rightly be

regarded as 'competitive. * But such grim changes were brought

about not so much through 'annihilation* of occupancy right by

force as through the quiet economic process, l.e. dissociation of

^Binay ‘Bhuahan Ohaudhuri, review of Babna PistuTh^oeB

the Politics of Rent 1873-1885. by K. He Sen Gupxa, in l&R, II-2
I197C>J, pp.484-7e
 440
the peasantry through land transfer.1 And It would not he too

much to say that the zamindarl system was more a victim than a

heneflolary of the process.

She characteristic of- the zamindarl system to which wo

attach primary importance will he all the more clearly revealed

when we compare it with the baraa system. We have noted in part

1 that in marked contrast to the zamindarl system the barga system

came into being as the result of the stratification of the raiyats

into .lotdars and bargadars. which was caused by transfer of

raiyati holdings on an unprecedented scale. Shore were two

prerequisites, economic and legal, to tills development: the

formation of the so-called 'embryonic profit* in the hands of the

peasants who as small commodity producers had been deeply

committed in the growth of new commercial, agriculture pivoting

around jute and rice, on the one hand, and the establishment of

de facto 'peasant proprietorship' in consequence of the peasant

movements from the 1870s to the 1890s as well as the Bengal

Senancy Act, on the other. In short, the barga system postulated

a departure from the feudal social existence form of labour power.

By contrast, we cannot but consider the zamindeyri system, which

was not accompanied by radical changes in the economic conditions

of the actual cultivators, to belong to a type of landlordism

different from the barga system. So determine further the

character of the category which best fits the zamindarl system we

have been describing, we would better study the structure of tho

market for zamindarl rights and intermediate tenures. a

1For my argument in this regard, see part 1.

 xrai
LAID PRICE

She zamlndari system was accompanied by a well-organized

market for zamlndari rights and intermediate tenures. It would
not he too much to say that apart from the legal fiction of
treating the zamlndari right as if private property, the quasi-
bourgeois, quasi-^modem characteristic of the zamlndari system
found the most pronounced expression in the way the land market
functioned. In this chapter an attempt will be made to form a
clear view of the limits of such apparent modernity by studying
the structure of the land market, especially the price mechanism.
I am aware that evidence at my disposal is not always enough to
fully establish my arguments. My minimum aim, however, will be
achieved if the location of problems can be pinpointed by this
essayJ (Further, we have already noted in part 1 that the
raiyati holdings, too, began to be actively traded in the land
market from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. However,
in this chapter we will only deal with the market for zamlndari
rights and intermediate tenures. The terms land, land market and
land price are used here in this limited sense.)

*For a comprehensive study of the history of the land

market in colonial Bengal, see Binay Bhuahnn Ghaudhuri, ’land
Market in Eastern India, 1793-1940,' IESHR. XII-1 ft 2 (1975).

441
 442

First of all i we have to formulate an unequivocal

definition of the price of land. For several decades after the

Permanent Settlement the revenue authorities measured the land

prioe by the multiple of the yearly revenue. Shat is to say,

they oalculated the proportion of the yearly revenue payable by

the estate on the prioe realized at the land market. However,

this method had already become obsolete by the last quarter of

the nineteenth century. She following report gives us a dear

account of the changes that had taken place in between;

In the case of estates (zemindaris) and shares in estates the

standard fixed was, in accordance with the custom of the
revenue authorities, the yearly revenue paid to Government.
Shis standard, though ngima fade it should be correct, appears
to be ill-suited to the circumstances of the present day. She
yearly revenue of estates (zemindaris) was fixed in 1793, or
90 years ago. Ho doubt at that period endeavour was made to
fig the assessment at similar rates. Whether the settlement
was accurate for all districts cannot, so far as in known, be
now ascertained. Since then there have been changes in almost
every factor which determines the economic value of- land.
Apart from the enormous rises in the price of food-grains, the
opening up of new markets, Hie laying down of railways, the
introduction of new staple crops in many districts, the
process of subinfeudation, alluvion, diluvion, partition of
estates, changes in Hie rent law, changes in the population
and the status of the cultivators are all so many disturbing
elements which influence the value of land, fhe price now
paid for estates and shares in estates is determined not by
the yearly revenue, but by the profits derivable from the
estates. In districts where subinfeudation was early
introduced and has spread widely and deeply (such as the
Burdwan division where the patni tenures largely prevails),
zemindars and tenure-holders have become mere annuitants, and
the value of the estate or tenures can be easily ana accurately
gauged like stock or the public funds, in the outlying
districts and particularly Eastern Bengal, where #the assessment
in many districts was light owing to liability to flood, and
where, too, Hie extensive cultivation of valuable staple crops,
such as jute and tobacoo, and in Behar, such as indigo and
opium, can be traced within Hie memory of man, fluctuations in
value and prioe must be great. Hence it is doubtful whether
the yearly revenue of an estate is any longer an accurate
standard by which to measure value. Falling the standard, the
only one left is to endeavour to ascertain the standard by
 443

which the parties themselves determine the value, viz.,

profits.'

She reasons why the amount of yearly land revenue oould no longer

be tiie standard of the land price In late nineteenth century

Bengal, particulary in Eastern Bengal, are dearly and fully given

here. She land revenue, which ceased to represent the major

portion of the agrarian surplus on account of drastic economic as

well as institutional changes during the nineteenth century, could

not any more be the principal determinant of the value of land.

It is therefore pointed out 'the price now paid *for estates and

shares in estates is determined not by the yearly revenue, but by

the profits derivable from the estates.' furthermore, the remark

that 'the value of the estate or tenure can be easily and

accurately gauged like stock or the public funds' is very

interesting.

How then was the land price determined on the basis of

'the profits derivable from the estates'? She problems concerning

the relationship between the markets for land, stock and publlo

loans will be dealt with later on.

Unfortunately, we are not provided with direct documents

showing how private individuals bought and sold land among

themselves. Instead, we cannot but rely on Court of Wards'

records. She Court was at times obliged to sell a part, sometimes

even almost all, of the estate under their charge to extricate it

from the heavy burden of debts. Papers prepared on such occasions

m

^RRD. 1882-83, para. 18. Emphases are mine.

 444

may be supposed to fairly veil reflect the way of private transac­

tions, since at least buyers were private landlords or money­

lenders. From among several cases the following one has been

taken up for illustrating the definition of land price as

prevalent in the late nineteenth century.

The Pooroa Chandra Sal estate in Faridpur was In an

acute financial difficulty when the proprietor, Pooma Chandra

Rai, was murdered by raiyats. In 1878 his minor sons took

shelter in the Court of Wards to tide over this terrible crisis.

However, this estate was so heavily in debt that the Court hac'. no

choice but to dispose of most of the landed, properties. On this

occasion the following proposal to repay the debt due to Kali

Krishna Tagore was put forwards^

The 3 mehals marked A, B, ft 0 entered in the list appended to

are proposed by the Collector to be sold to Babu Kalikrishaa
Tagore, one of the principal creditors, whose claims amount
to Rs.29,900/- and this sum he wishes to offer as value of
the properties, being above 20 years' purchase of the net
profits. The statement given below will shew the net profits
ft values of these properties ftc.

Name of Cross Sudder Collection Net Value at

mehals assets jumma charges at profits 20 years’
10 per cent purchase
A. Talook Ram
Nath Sing
ftc 1,345 1,000 134 •211
B. Howla Raj
Narain
Sing 2,680 1,185 268 1,227*

C. Talook
Kashlram
Nath Sing 89 35 8 46

Total 4,114 2,220 410 1,485 x 20 » 29,680

10mmr. Dac. to BOR, No.175W, 12 Hay 1879, BQR-W File

no.543 of 1878.
 445
It is clear from this case that the land price was indicated in
terms of the multiple of the yearly 'net profits.* And to this
multiple was given a technical expression of 'so many years'
purchase.' Here the 'net profits* (Rs. 1,485) were worked out
hy deducting from the 'gross assets' (Rs.4,114) the airiflw inruan
(Bs.2,220) and the collection charges calculated at 10 per cent
(Rs.410) on the 'gross assets.' Again what is called 'gross
assets' comprised the annual rental and cesses due to the estate,
while the consisted of the Government revenue and
the rents and cesses due to superior landlords. Setting aside the
collection charges, the 'net profits* may he defined as the
difference between receipts from the subordinate tenure-holders
and raiyats and payments to the colonial state and the superior
landlords. 1 Further, to avoid minmnd-s-ng we aVmi i hereafter
*

refer to 'gross assets' as 'gross rental', and 'net profits' as

2
'net rental earnings.1

1As for the estimate of this 'difference', see supra,

pp.303-9.
^Furthermore, one may aek if the collection of abwabs
should be taken into consideration so that the land price may bo
calculated with stricter accuracy. This view is without doubt
right. In addition, we would better take acooqpt of the
proportion of the actual rent collections on the nominal gross
rental, in order to prepare an accurate calculation formula.
However, at the present state of our knowledge, it is impossible
to get reliable figures in these respects. Apart ffom it, there
is good reason to believe that such treatment will not produce
much change in the results. As has been noted before, the rate
of rent collections was rather low In our period, especially' in
eastern Bengal. And perhaps the amount of abwab collections was
not large enough to make up for this. So if our formula brings
in inaccuracy, the probability is that the land price indicated
in so many years' purchase tends to be slightly underrated,
since the amount of net rental earnings, on the basis of which
it was calculated, is rather overestimated than underestimated *
 446

On the other hand, it is possible, and natural as veil;

for a purchaser of land to regard the net rental earnings derivable

from the land as an annual interest: on the capital that he invested

to buy it. In fact we time and again come across such instances

in the Court of Wards files. So take the above-mentioned case for

instance, the invested capital was Es.29,680 and the annual

interest its. 1,485. Shus this investment yielded a 5 per oent

return per annum.

In late nineteenth century Bengal the price of land was

shown in terms of so many years' purchase, or what comes to the

same thing, the rate of yield on investment. She latter is a

reciprocal of the former. Now let us make an attempt at estimating

m
the level of the land price in the Dacca division from the 1670s

to the 1900s by using this particular concept. There are four

cases to study.

So begin with, the above-mentioned case of Pooraa Chandra

Hal’s estate gives us plenty of data on the land price. She

landed properties sold out tin 1881, including those referred to

above, are tabulated in Sable 50.

In spite of these sales the financial position of this

estate showed little improvement. Accordingly, the Court decided

in 1883 to put 19 properties and 11 intermediate tenures up to

auction. In view of the fact that these landed interests were

'either scattered, or subject to diluvion, or held in shares,

or depredated by such other circumstances as render their

disposal very difficult,* the Court expected them to bring rather

 447
TABLE 50
LARD PRICE IN THE ESTATE OP POORHA CHANDRA SAI
OF FARIDFUR (1)

Gross Govt. Coll- Net Tears* Rate

Tear Properties rental reve- ection rental pur­ Talue of
sold nue, ohar-. efirniTtga chase yield
rents gee at
i .• &c. m
Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. - Rs.
1879’Taiook R.
N. Sing & '
•
others 4*114 2,220 410 1,484 20 29,680 5.0
1881 Eowla A.
C. Roy <5b
Talook S.
C« Ohatta-'
&Ji 1,679 548 167 1,164 25.7 29,955 3.9
i» Howla Easis-
N
war & Dali-
suuker, 2 as.
share 180 71 16 93'I •

,, Tk. Ram Nara-

in* Gouri El- ■ 33.9 8,000 3.0
shore, 2 as.
share 235 68 24 143 j
»t lari Narayan
•
Bey‘ • «* 7 47.9 335 2.1
Total 6*208 2,707 617 2,891 23-5 67,970 4*5

SOURCES;. Cmrnr. Dac*/BOR, No.175W, 12 May 1879* and No.1042W,

23 Feb. 1881, BQR-W File no.543 of 1878.
 . 448
SABLE 51
LAUD PRICE UST THE ESTATE OF PQORNA CHANDRA RAI
OF FARIDPUR (2)

Gross Govt. Obi- Het Tears' High­ Rate

No. of. Heme of rent- reve- lec- rent- pur- est of
Estate mebal al nue, tion al cbase bid yield
rents char- earn-
&c. ges at ings
10g
Estates
Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. £
5048 R. N. Cuba 64 8 6 50 22.5 1,125 4.4
e
2906 Half of talook
R. D. Sadhu 45 6 5 34 16.2 550 6.2
4282 R* E. Roy 176 22 18 136 29.4 4,000 3.4
4432 S. H. Baeu 37 23 4 10 22.5 225 4.4
4119 13 annas share
of taluk L.
H. Shakur 127 47 13 67 23.1 1,550 4.3
5353 k: E. Roy 315 40 32 243 20.6 5,000 4.9
5159 D, D. Tarkalan-
ker (partly
diluviated; 70 12 7 51 2.5 130 39.2
5150 (Thayiri shib Das
Uo.) 28 9 3 16 1.6 25 64.0
Tenures
Raimi Hovla E.
P. Ohowdhury 1 >422 845 142 435 20.9 9,100 4.8
Eaimi Hovla
S. 0. Roy 195 68 20 107 6.1 650 16.5
•
Hovla P. C. &
A. C. Roy 66 34 7 25 4.4 110 22.7
Eaimi Hovla
E. C. Guha 479 202 48 229 9.8 *2,250 10.2
Daem tenure
0. C.
Bondopadhya 31 23 3 5 12.0 60 8.3
Earim(?) Hovla
Somajaddi &
others 27 9 3 15 30.0 45jp 3.3
Total 3,082 1,348 308 1,426'’ 17.7 25,225 5.7

(So be continued).
 449
TABLE 51—Continued
SOURCES; Qffg* Cllr. Dac, to Cmmr. Dac.,Ho.174W, 17 Aug. 1883,
and Annexure 5 to Senior Member’s Orders dated 14 June 1884 on
Furreedpore Gllr's Ho.119W/I-tQ dated 5 June 1884, BOR-W File
no.543 of 1878.
IOTEi Both of the words ’kaimi* and ’daem1 £*m daimi 7 mean
'permanent.*

a low price, say, 15 years* purchase. The amount of the highest

bids for twenty-four out of these thirty landed interests is
known. Weeding out the absurd bids for lands producing deficit
instead of surplus in consequence of dilution, we have tabulated
the results of 14 sales in Table 51•

* Coupling Tables 50 and 51v we get Table 52 showing the

overall results of land sales, which covered about 43 per cent
of the entire estate in terms of the gross rental. The average
land price in this estate works out at 21.6 years' purchase.

TABUS 52
AVERAGE MED BRIGS IE THE ESTATE OF
POQRHA CHAHERA BAX OF FARJDPUR

Gross Govt. Collec­ Net Tears' Value Rate

rental revenue, tion rental pur­ of
rents charge earnings chase * yield
&c. at 10#
Bs. Bs. Ms. Bs. Bs.
9,290 4,055 925 4,317 21.6 93,195 4.6

SOURCES; See Tables 50 & 51.

 450
(TABLE 55
LAND PRICE XH IRE ESTATE OF BHQLANATH BEX CSAKLADAR
IN MIMENSINGH

Name of pro*?- Gross Geyt. Collec- Net Tears1 Sale Bate

perty sold rental reve- tion rent­ pur­ price of
nue, charges al chase yield
rent's at 10# earn­
&c. ings
■ ■ Rs. Rs. Rs*. Rs. Rs. P
6769 Taluk kis­
met Ganeshpur ••• •*• •aat 551 41.4 22,000 2.4
555 Kharija tal­
uk Baratia 11 2 1 8 16.2 150 6.2
No.208 Kharija
taluk Bagbari 55 4 4 27 20.7 560 4*8
No.4749 Kharija
taluk Bakhin
Harina 22 1 2 19 10.5 200 9,5
17 Sikimi
tenuffes 1,863 81 186 1.596 17.8 28,550 5.6
Total 2,181 25.5 51,220 4.5

SOURCES! Offg. Onnnr.'Dac. to BOR, No.925W, 22 Feb. 1880;

and Cllr. Mym. to Cmmr# Dac., No.450W, 4 Dea. 1880, in BQR-lv
File no.408 of 1878.
NOTES* 1• Net profits of Taluk kismat Ganeshpur has been
computed by deducting Government revenue, rents Ac. from gross
assets without taking collection charges into account.
2. A khari.ja taluk is an independent taluk. Kismat
means a subdivision of mauza. Sikimi / aikami 7 tenures are
tenures subordinate to zamindaris or independerrt taluks.

The second case is the estate of Bholanath Dey Chakladar

of Junmejoy in Hymensingh. This tiny estate with an annual
rental of just about Rs.7,000 had incurred a large debt adding up
to no less than Rs.1,16,000. In 1880 the Qpurt decided to sell
nearly 50 per cant of the estate. The results are shown in
 451

fable 55* The average price realised by these sales was 25*5

years* purchase, which is very dose to that of the Purno Chun&er

Boy estate.

Thirdly, the Jopsha estate of Faridpur was owned by tho

Bais of Jopsha, one of the oldest and most respected families of

the district. In 1864 the Collector proposed to sell a portion

of the estate for the liquidation of debts. At first he planned

to put 15 properties up for sale for Rs.22,360, o? at 22 years1

purchase. However, he soon earns to realize that the properties

would not be able to get such a high prloe and submitted a revised

plan in which two more properties were listed for sale. More than

half the estate, 17 landed interests including 1 Mm-pi-ia. taluk,

*
2 frrahmnttnrH. 3 oshat taluks. 3 haolas. 3 nim-haolas. etc. wao

to be add. According to this plan shown in fable 54, the average

price of these properties came to 16.9 years* purchase, the rate

of return being 5*9 per cent. The land price in this estate was

TABLE 54
LAND BRICE IN THE ESTAfB OF RUKHTI KANT BAX
OF JOPSHA Iff FARIDPUR

Gross Govt. Colleo- Net Years* Estimated Bate

rental revenue, tion rental pur- sale * of
rents charge earnings chase price yield
Ac. at 10$ ■

Be. Bs. Rs. Re. Rs.

6,713 4,388 671 1,654 16.9 27,901 5.9

SOURCES Gffg. Gllr. Far. to Cmmr. Dao., No.168W/III-8f

16 June 1884, BQR-W File no.2774 of 1878. •
 452
aCo* <f
considerably low in comparison witly'the two preceding caseB. Shis
was most probably because the Rais were seriously indebted to one
Guru Chum Pal, a formidable money-lender of the locality* We
have already seen what disastrous results his intervention brought
about to the rent collection of this estateJ What is more, he

was a judgment creditor. It appears he successfully beat down the

price of these landed interests. • ...
. t

EASES 55
MED PRICE IE £HS BAKJURY ESTATE IE DACCA -

Gross Govt. Col- Net Years' Esti- Rate

Particulars of rental reve- leo- rent- pur- mated of
properties sue# tion al chase sale yield
rents char- earn- price
&e, ges at ings
. 1096
Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. $
Dihi Chandpur apper­
taining to Eo.271
Pargana Sultanpur of
the Dacca Gollector-
ate 2,707 1 ,621 271 815 27.6 22,500 3.6
Basdebpur 4 as.
share 200 0 20 180 11.1 2,000 9.0
No.61 Pargana Mokim-
abad, of the Daooa
Collectorate.
•

CM
CM

Earaf Okra. 2,102 210 1,600 35.6 57,000 2.8

Sotal 5>009 1 ,913 501 2,595 91.4 81,500 3.2

SOURCES Cllr. Sac. to Cmmr. Dac., No.734, 14 Jude 1905,

BQR-W Pile no.157 of 1905.
HOSES: Earaf means a portion of an estate. Dihi is an outpost
in an estate.

■ •

1See supra, pp.414-5.

 453

There is a two decades' break between the above cases and

the fourth one*. The Bakjnry estate of Dacca was so hopelessly

indebted that it was only through the direct intervention of the

lieutenant-governor himself that the Court of Wards reluctantly

consented to assume its management* The task assigned to the

Court was to save the proprietors from bankruptcy by any means*

In 1905 it drew up a plan to sell all the properties except a few

debottars. etc.j and several persons Informed of the plan gave

assurance that they would buy them 'at at least 30 times the not

annual receipts.' Accordingly, the Court proposed to sell

fourteen properties for the first instance, which were equal in

value to about 70 per cent of the entire estate. Heven of those

fourteen properties consisted mainly of revenue-paying estates,

yielding annual net receipts (gross assets minus Government

revenue, rents &e.) of fie.3,818. They were expected to fetch

fis.1,27,266 in the market. The number of years' purchase would

work out. at 53*3 without taking 10 per cent collection charges

into account.^ The plan of selling the remaining three properties

is summed up in Table 55* On the whole, the estimated price of

the fourteen properties would average a little over 30 years'

purchase*

In this way our data taken from the Court of •Wards’

records show that the price of land in the Dacca division stood

at 21.6 years' purchase in a Paridpur estate in 1879 to 1884, at

23*5 years' purchase in a Mymensingh estate in 1880, at 16.9 years'

1Cllr. Dac. to Gmmr. Dae., fio.734, 14 June 1903, BQR-W

Pile no. 157 of 1905.
 454

purchase in another Faridpur estate in 1885, and at a little more

*

than 30 years* purchase in a Dacca estate in 1905* From a similar

source we may cite another case. In 1878 Jagat Kishore Acharjya’s

estate- in Mymensingh. sold zamlndarl Ho.66, pargana Hosseinshye and

Joar Hosseinpore, with its subordinate tenures to Baboo Mohlm

Chunder. Hoy of Attaribari'.^ The sale price whs Rs.3,23,000
i

against the net rental earnings of about Rs. 14,000. In this case

the number of years* purchase approximated 23.

The land price was under the influence of various

determinants besides the net rental earnings. To mention some of

them, the seller's bargaining power (this factor assumed special

importance when the seller was Indebted to the purchaser), the

kind of the landed interests sold (whether zamlndarl rights or

intermediate tenures; whether shared or not, etc.), their

geographical distribution (whether scattered or compact), their

location, the influence of river actions (whether being alluviated

or diluviated). Widely different prices quoted for each landed

property listed in Tables 50 to 55 tell a' great deal about the

complexity of the actual, state of things, nevertheless, the cases

at our disposal, small in number as they are, seem to suggest

that the average in our period worked out at roundly 20 years”

purchase, or a 5' per cent yield. •

1RWAJB. 1878-79, para. 151.

2
In a full-fledged capitalist economy the* land price io
linked with the interest rate. As to Bengal in the colonial era,
however, we cannot presume the existence of such relationship.
This point of argument will be taken up later on.
 455

9Mb rough estimate is by and large corroborated by an

inquiry undertaken by the Board of Revenue. She Court was bound

by a rule laid down by the Board to report the value of the

estates under its management appraised by a uniform standard fined

for all Bengal. In 1877 the Board set the standard at 12 years'

purchase. However, it did not take long for it to realize that

it had been an underestimation. After an enquiry it found that

although property sold at very different rates in different parts

of the Lower Provinces, its price generally averaged between 15

and 20 times the annual, profits. In 1879, accordingly, the

standard price was raised from 12 to 18 years' purchase.1 * Our

estimate, therefore, is on the higher side of the prevalent price

o
in the late nineteenth century.

Indicating the land price in terms of not only the number

of years' purchase but also the rate of yield has an advantage of

enabling us to compare the profitability of investment in lands

with that of other fields. It is by this rate of yield that 'the

value of the estate or tenure can be easily and accurately gauged

like stock or the public funds. *3 Let us take up for comparison

1 Circular Order No.9 of March 1879, Board of Revenue, L.P.,

quoted in A Manual for the Guidance of Officers in the Administra­
tion of Wards *. Attached Tand Encumbered Estates, kavised ed.
(Calcutta, 1897), pp.98-99.
%urther, it is interesting to note that in his oral evi­
dence before the Land Revenue Commission the manager of the estate
of the Nawab Bahadur of Murshidabad put 'the market value of
estates' around 1957 at '20 times their profit.' (RLBC. vol.5,
p.90). In this respect see also 'Joint Note of Dissent by P. A.
Sachse and M. 0. Carter,* in ibid., vol.1, p.507i and 'Oral
Evidence by the Bengal Provincial Xlsan Sabha,* in ibid., vol.6,
p.71.
3See suss, pp.442-3.
 456

three major fields of investment, namely, money-lending, public

loans and jute shares.

India is notorious for its insurious money-lending system.

As far, however, as a loan on good security, e.g. lending to tho

zemindar class on mortgage of lands, is concerned, the interest

rate was not so high as sometimes imagined. True, a zamlndar

occasionally paid a very high interest , but the overall interest

rate oh his entire debts does not seem to have been usurious.

The Madhabpaesa estate of Bakarganj, for instance, used to pay

different rates of interest ranging from annas 8 to Rs.4 per cent

a month, or 6 to 48 per cent a year. However, the amount of

m TABIM 56
OF DEBTS IRCUBRED B3T
ESTATE OF M7MEN3IHGH

Principal Rate of Annual

Same of creditor
amount interest amount of
{$> per month) Interest
»S888«Sg
M O O

Rs. as. Rs.

lf\

Radha Rangini Debt 1,012 3

9k

9
O
*

Jm K. Roy Chowdhury 9 3,375

CM
*

B. Raj ft Multan Balm 1 8 432

O
K\
*

S. 0. 110110% 360
irv

U. C. Roy 1 64
Hul Balm (?) 2 12
«r-
*

B. Raj R. Chand Balm 8 354 13

Total 72,953 7.7# per year 5,613 5

SOURCE* Offg. Gllr. Mym. to Cmmr. Dac., Ho.3210, 24*April

1894, BQR-V File no.398 of 1892.
 457

interest they paid annually for a principal of Rs.65,264 added up

only to Bs*7,265* In this case the overall interest rate oomeo to

11.1 per cent a year* which is not unreasonably high nor usurious
4
at all. She case of Sherepore estate in Ifymensingh given in

fable 56, in which the overall interest rate works out at 7*7 per

cent per year, also shows the same tendency* fhe highest overall

sate that I have found in the Court of Wards files is a compound

o
interest rate of 13.5 per cent, while the lowest one is just 5*7
per eent.^ On the other hand, it' is interesting that the
e

Furreedpore Loan Office granted loans on mortgage of lands (1. ci.

zamindaris and natni lands), jewellery, promissory notes or shares
in the company at interest of 12 to 9 per cent per annum,1
4 2 *

Judging from these data, the rate of Interest on the loan oh good
m
security seems to have averaged about 10 per cent a year.

loans to the Government of India carried much lower

* * * .

interest. In our period it ranged between 4i and 3 per cent:

In 1859 the Government of the crown had to borrow at 5-J# and

that loan was not paid off till 1878-79. fhe 5^ loan was,
however, converted in 1871 into 4$#, so that after 1878-7S
practically the whole rupee Debt was at interest varying
between 4# and 4&&. fhe 4ir loan was converted by 1893 to 4$
....In 1893 commenced the first 3&$ debt and in the next
year the bulk of the 4$ debt was converted into this lower
rate debt. In 1896-97 a new loan of Es.4 chores was raised
at 39»» but in 1900 the rate was again raised to 3i which

1Cllr. Bak. to Gmmr. Dae., Bo.747W, 12 Jan. 1904, BOE-W

File no.77 of 1904.
2B0B to Gmmr. Dae., Ho.429A, 6 Sept. 1894, BGB-W File
no.124 of 1893.
^Offg. Cllr. of Bak.. to Gmmr. of Dae., No.69W, 17 Apr.
1894, BGB-W File no.241 of 1893.
4AGAB. 1884-85, para.72.
 458
remained the prevailing rate until war broke out in 1914.1 * *

So the interest rate kept on deelining throughout the late nine­

teenth century to touch bottom in the years from 1896-97 to 1900.

It should be noted that ours was a period of the cheapest money.

As for the jute industry, A. K. Bagchi says the average

rate of dividend for good companies on the face value of ordinary

2
shares exceeded 12 per cent for the years from 1901 to 1910.
* * « i , ,

But what matters most to an investor is the rate' of return. In

this respect’ he quotes the. following, passage from Investor^

191U

Xhe investor in the ordinary capital of a jute mill should

look to the average return which he is likely to receive
over a series of years rather than to the return in any
psgrticular year, and taking one year with another the
investor who does not purchase at too high a price can be
fairly certain of not less than 7# on his money

And, to back up this estimate, he refers to *the fact that most

companies had substantial blocks of preference capital (almost

as much as ordinary capital), which carried a dividend of T$> par

- annum.*4 So It may safely be assumed that the average rate of

yield on investment in jute shares was about 7 per eent per yeas.*

in the first decade of the twentieth century.

In our rough estimate the price of land in the Dacca

I. Shah, Sixty Tears of Indian Plnanhe (Bombay, 1921),

p.343.
o
Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Private Investment in India 1900-
1959. (Cambridge; 1972; reprint, ed., Hew Delhi, 1980), p.271.
^Bagchi, Private Investment, p.27,1 ••

4Ibid.
division was about 20 years* purchase; that is to say, investment

in lands roughly yielded 5 per cent a year. In comparison with

the rates of yield derivable from the above three types of

investment, one cannot but consider this 5 per cent a moderate

return, is a field for operating savings or surplus money in

general land (zamindari estates and intermediate tenures) was not

particularly lucrative at the turn of the century.

Prom the comparison of these rates it follows, firstly,

that if one invested in lands with borrowed money as many

landlords did in Bengal, he would incur a loss of at least about

5 per cent per year. Shis is a sure indication that the motives

behind the active tansactions in the land market were not merely

economic.

Secondly, it is interesting that the rates of yield

recorded in the above-mentioned five cases were fairly dose to

the interest rate of the public loans. Shis fact leadB us to a

supposition that the land price was in some way or other linked

with the movement of interest rate. In point of fact, since very

early years of the colonial rule the revenue authorities of Bengal

had tried to correlate them. For instance, they attributed the

recurrent fall in land prices in 1797, 1798 and 1807-04 to tho

abnormally high interest rate ranging between 8 jand 10 per cent.

If such relationship did actually exist, the fall in interest

rate, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century must have

caused a corresponding rise in the land price indicated* in terms

^Chaudhuri, 'land Market,* pt.1, pp.11-12.

 460

of the number of years’ purchase. However, the data on pi hand

are too scanty to prove this point. I will only point out hero

that this problem, being an important index of the maturity of the

land market, deserves a further study. Heedless to say, in a

full-fledged capitalist economy the land price is interlocked with

the prevailing interest*rate.

Finally, it is often alleged that investment in land was

so profitable that the Bengali landlords took no interest in

investing in the industrial sector. Our findings, however, do not

support this view. So take the first decade of the twentieth

century for instance, the return on investment in the jute

industry (720 was higher than that on lands (590 • If we take the

average rate of dividend on the face value of ordinary shares (125$)

for comparison, the difference becomes larger. Factors other

than eoonomlo, therefore, must have worked in deterring the

Bengali landlords from industrial investment. So put it in

another way, from the point of view of capital accumulation, two

most important seotors, agricultural and industrial, of Bengal

economy were disarticulated by certain nen-eoonomic factors, most

probably by those imposed by British colonial power. * Shis makes

a sharp contrast with the case of Japan after the Ohiao Ka’isei

(Hew Settlement of Iiand Sax) of 1374, where the economic surplus

*For the time being it is impossible for me to present

evidence to pinpoint such non-economic factors. Here I confine
myself to drawing attention to the well-known fact that all the
major industries in India were dominated by European business
houses, and that their dominance was supported and reinforced
by social discrimination against Indians a& wen as by a whole
set of administrative, political, and financial arrangements
within India. (Bagchi, Private Investment, chap.6).,
 461

extracted from the agricultural sector by landlordism was on a

. large scale transferred to the developing industrial sector

through landlords* investment in stocks and shares■

So sum up, the samindari system of Bengal was equipped

with a land market systematized on a rational principle, Zt was

rational in the sense that it had a calculation formula based on

the net rental earnings which was intelligible to everybody.

Moreover, the practice of indicating the price of, land by the

number of years' purchase resembled the method adopted in

o
capitalist countries. It may also be qualified as matured if it

can be established that the land prioe was linked with the interest

rate, ho doubt, without this solid foundation the subinfeudation

could not have proliferated to such an extent in Bengal. Although

at first sight the land system of Bengal, particularly of eastern

Bengal, appears te have been hopelessly confused and intricate,

it was supported from behind by the system of land price that was

rather simple and sound.

^Ifasanori hakamura, vindai ifihon Jinushiaei-ahl Kenkvu

(A Study of landlordism in Modem Japan) (Tokyo* 1979). it
is not that the zamindarl system did not pass through a phase
similar to the Meiji era of Japan. Dwarkanath Tagore's activities
from the 1820s to the 1840s opened up great possibilities in this
direction, (Sling, Partner in Empire). As is well-known, however,
such prospects were nipped in the him with his untimdly death that
was immediately succeeded by the economic crisis of 1847 which
brought about a sea change in the investment environment.
Furthermore, when discussing the transfer of agricultural surplus,
investment in the banking sector by the landlords should also bo
taken into consideration» This study is yet to be done.
2
As regards the practice of expressing the land price in
so many years* purchase in a capitalist economy, see Mazfit,
Capital, bk.3, chap.37, pp.759*762. •
 462

However, such apparent rationality, and the similarity

between the price systems of Bengal and capitalist countries

should not he taken as the indication that modem elements began

to strike roots in the agrarian system of Bengal.

First of all, in Bengal the land market was disarticulated

with the investment market in the industrial sector, the

structure of the land market reflected the fragmented state of

Bengal's economy, which is commonly found among the colonial

e
economic systems* this undoubtedly deterred its modernization,

the building of a balanoed national economy.

Secondly, the structure of the land price itself bore

m
characteristic marks in Bengal, to quote Marx, the price of land

is 'not the purchase price of the land, but rather of the ground-

rent that it yields, reckoned according to the prevailing rate

of interest.' * It goes without saying that the ground-rent in.

capitalist countries takes the form of the differential (and

absolute) rent, which is in the ultimate analysis regulated by

productivity of each piece of land, especially its fertility

and location. In sharp contrast to this, It was on the basis of

the 'net rental earnings* that the price of land, so many years'

purchase, was computed in Bengal* And the 'net rental earnings'

represented nothing more than the difference between receipts

from subordinate tenure-holders and raiyats and payments to

superior landlords and the colonial state. Shat is to say, the

land price in colonial Bengal was, so to speak, 'not the purchase

1Msrx, Capital, bk.3, ch.37, p.761.

 463

price of the ground-rent that it yields, hut rather of the

difference between the two levels of rental, * which was determined

by utterly accidental circumstances and virtually had nothing to

do with productivity of lands. She structure of the land pricer

therefore, reflected the attitude of Bengal landlords who would

live on the arbitrary intermediary appropriation sucking away

agricultural surplus like middlemen. Moreover, it should not be

lightly dismissed that the land revenue, payments to the colonial

state as the biggest of the landlords, still formed one of the

determinants of the amount of the 1difference,* although its

weight kept declining over the years.^

True, in appearance, the system of the land price in

Bengal* looked very modem and was as elaborated as that of

capitalist countries, but in essence, it only reflected the

colonial and parasitlo character of the zamindarl system.

^Our case study has shown that on an average the landlords

of the Dacca division paid about 22 per oen£ of the annual gross
rental as land revenue, and the same amount as rents to superior
landlords. In this respeot, see supra, pp.303-7*