Famines and Land Assessments in India (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECOND LETTER TO LORD CURZON: MADRAS My Lord,?In continuation of my letter of the 12th February I have the honour to submit to Your Excellency this brief note on Land Settlements in the Madras Presidency. The subject has repeatedly come under the consideration of Your Lordship's predecessors, and will probably receive Your Lordship's attention. 2. Madras was one of the first Provinces in India which came under British administration, and while some estates were permanently settled with landlords, in the rest of the Province a Ryotwari Settlement was made directly with the cultivators. Sir Thomas Munro, the virtual author of this system, explained the principle of the Settlement in his evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Commons on the 15th April 1812. And his idea was to regard each cultivator as the proprietor of his holding, and to make a perpetual Settlement with the cultivators, as a permanent Settlement had been made with Zamindars in Bengal in 1793 by Lord Cornwallis.1 3. This was the principle recognised by the Government of Madras for over forty years after the time of Sir Thomas Munro. As late as 1855-56, the Ryotwari system was thus explained in the Madras Administration Report:?" Under the Ryotwari system every registered holder of land is recognised as its proprietor and pays direct to Government. He is at liberty to sublet his property or to transfer it by gift, sale, or mortgage. He cannot be ejected by Government so long as he pays the fixed assessment. . . . The ryot under this system is virtually a proprietor on a simple and perfect title, and has all the benefits of a perpetual lease." And in 1857 the Madras Board of Revenue thus described the Ryotwari tenure in a report to Government on the Survey and Settlement then proposed to be mtrodu...