The problem of unpaid revenue
The estates of the Burdwan raj were not the only ones sold during the closing years of the eighteenth century. Over 75 per cent of the zamindaris changed hands after the Permanent Settlement.
In introducing the Permanent Settlement, British officials hoped to resolve the problems they had been facing since the conquest of Bengal. By the 1770s, the rural economy in Bengal was in crisis, with recurrent famines and declining agricultural output. Officials felt that agriculture, trade and the revenue resources of the state could all be developed by encouraging investment in agriculture. This could be done by securing rights of property and permanently fixing the rates of revenue demand. If the revenue demand of the state was permanently fixed, then the Company could look forward to a regular flow of revenue, while entrepreneurs could feel sure of earning a profit from their investment, since the state would not siphon it off by increasing its claim. The process, officials hoped, would lead to the emergence of a class of yeomen farmers and rich landowners who would have the capital and enterprise to improve agriculture. Nurtured by the British, this class would also be loyal to the Company.
The problem, however, lay in identifying individuals who could both improve agriculture and contract to pay the fixed revenue to the state. After a prolonged debate amongst Company officials, the Permanent Settlement was made with the rajas and taluqdars of Bengal. They were now classified as zamindars, and they had to pay the revenue demand that was fixed in perpetuity. In terms of this definition, the zamindar was not a landowner in the village, but a revenue Collector of the state. Zamindars had several (sometimes as many as 400) villages under them. In Company calculations the villages within one zamindari formed one revenue estate. The Company fixed the total demand over the entire estate whose revenue the zamindar contracted to pay. The zamindar collected rent from the different villages, paid the revenue to the Company, and retained the difference as his income. He was expected to pay the Company regularly, failing which his estate could be auctioned.
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About Me
- IAS Cracker
- Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
- Hi Aspirants, I'm Aditya Malviya, a civil service aspirant from Indore, Madhya Pradesh. I'm a Science Graduate. I've done B.Sc. (Electronics) from DAVV, Indore. I know how I've done it. From 8th Standard my dream is to be an IAS. Reason is that I want help needy people specially the disadvantaged class, socially backward people. The power in the hand of an IAS, the White Ambassador with yellow flashing light on the top always attract me. My subjects are Sociology as Optional 1 & Pub. Ad as Optional 2. I created this blog just to help other aspirants as well as to gethelp from them. So keep blogging........!!!!!!!!!