4.2 Ryotwari Settlement

Ryotwari Settlement

2020-04-27 15:01:56

Overview

  • Introduced in parts of Madras and Bombay presidency by Thomas Munro.
  • Cultivator was to be recognised as owner of land
  • The rights to Mirasdars or mem of village community and the peasants who directly paid taxes to state.
  • Mirasdars became small landowners
  • directly settled with ryot,
  • avg income from different types of soils was estimated,
  • a proportion of it fixed as the share of state, land resurveyed every 30 yr.
  • Covered 52 % of cult land.

Problems

  • Exorbitant land revenue
  • Govt right to enhance revenue at will
  • Payment by ryots even when produce was partially/wholly destroyed
  • poor soil, fluctuating rainfall,
  • severity of collection,
  • famine in 1832-34,
  • mounting debts from loans

Analysis and Historians Views [1]

  • Sindh, Assam, Coorg
  • Absence of Z class in Madras -> RS
  • Intro 1801 - 1807
  • Local poligars recog as Z
  • Villages aggregated sold in auction to highest bidder
  • Scottish Enlightenment : primacy of agri, importance of Yeoman farmers
  • Utilitarian ideas influenced Munro, Elphinstone took initiative
  • Ricardo's theory of rent : state had legitimate share to surplus from land
  • 1st started by Alexander Reed in Baramahal in 1792
  • Revenue directly from village
  • Asses each ciltivator/ryots separately

Ludden : State was supreme landlord peasants were landowners who obtained title by paying annual cash rent

  • Rent to be premanently assesed through general survey of all lands
  • Required detailed land survey - not done in practice
  • Abandoned in 1807 reinstated in 1820 Munro back argued Ryotwari was ancient IN
  • Rev fixed on entire farm not field
  • Privileges of Mirasidars, Brahmanas was respected
  • Revenue officials combined police duties -> inc bribery, coercion, corruption as shown in Madras Torture Commission Report 1855
  • After 1855 scientific fresh survey undertaken, rate 1/2 net value of produce made for 30 yrs intro 1864

Impact

  • Luddens study of Tirunelveli : mirasidars manipulated sys to convert collective right to individual property
  • Willem van Schendel study Kaveri delta Thanjavur : showed a polarised society, golden age for mirasidars
  • A Satyanarayan : rise of peasant-bourgeoisie
  • Brought in Bombay by Elphinstone in 1818
  • Rates high -> frequent crop failure -> increased prices
  • Bombay Survey Sys to fix land rates lowered demand to reasonable limit

Impact in Rural Society

  • Rural uprising 1875
  • Neil Charlesworth :
    • Bombay survey sys did not cause any dramatic change in west IN,
    • village patil - ordinary peasant this process was already started,
    • rights of Bhagadars, narudars were respected in Guj,
    • political vacuum only in central deccan filled by Marwari, Gujarati banias
  • H Fukazawa : no evidence land being bought by money lenders
  • Catanach : dispossession did occur but did not cause uprising
  • Ravinder Kumar, Sumit Guha : social upheaval/ status rev caused riots
  • Social effects were less dramatic vis a vis PS

PYQs

  1. Explain the essential features of the ryotwari system of land revenue with special
    reference to Thomas Munro's contribution to its evolution. [1984, 60m]
  1. Discuss the main features of the 'Raiyatwari Settlement' in South India. Did it satisfy the aspirations of the peasantry? [2001, 60m]
  1. "Ryotwari falls into three stages -- early, middle and late, and the only description common to all is that it is a mode of settlement with small farmers, so small, indeed, that their average holding is, on recent figures, only about 6 ½ acres," Critically examine. [2013, 10m]

  1. From Sekhan Bandyopadhyay↩︎