An Overview of Land Revenue Systems of British India

When Britishers got the Diwani rights of Bengal in 1765, agriculture was the main occupation of village community in India. Economy was mostly agrarian and other industries were dependent on it. There was a strong relation between agriculture and cottage industries. Within three to four decades, Britishers adopted far-reaching changes in the country’s agrarian structure by introducing new systems of land tenures and policies of revenue administration to get maximum income from land without caring much about Indian interests of the cultivators. After their advent, the British under Hastings adopted the Izaradari system in 1773 in which the highest bidder were given the land right for 5 years. Again in 1786 Annual tenure was adopted to maximize the land revenue collection. After failure of all these changes, the Court of directors asked Lord Cornwallis to make long term settlement with Zamindars. Accordingly, the company adopted three types of land tenures. The Zamindari System or the Permanent Settlement was introduced in around 19 per cent of the area under British rule comprising of Bengal, Bihar, Banaras, division of the Northern Western Provinces and northern Karnatak. The Mahalwari Settlement, was introduced in about 30 per cent of the total area under British rule i.e., in major parts of the North Western Provinces, Central Provinces and the Punjab with some variations. The Ryotwari System covered about 51 per cent of the area under British rule comprising part of the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, Assam and certain other parts of British India. All these revenue settlement proved disastrous for farmers and Zamindars too. As the revenue fixed by the system was too high, many zamindars defaulted on payments and their property was seized. High rates of land revenue, indebted the farmers for lifelong.