Land Revenue Research Articles

An Early Map and the Cadastral Survey of St. Croix, Danish West Indies 1734-41 / A Cartographic Cul-de-sac

In 1733, the Danish West India and Guinea Company, in which the upper levels of Danish politics and commerce were involved, purchased the Caribbean island of St. Croix. The Company was for a surprising time unable to marshall the cartographic and organizational expertise and resources needed to make satisfactory maps of its important new colonial acquisition. One result was a drastic discrepancy between the actual area of the island and calculated returns from land revenues. The communication between colony and metropolis reached a cartographic impasse when the Danish colonial authorities ordered the superimposition of the emerging cadastral pattern on a quite materially inaccurate 17th-century base map - an impossible undertaking.

Landlord and peasant in Persia: a study of land tenure and land revenue administration. By Ann K.S. Lambton. pp. lxvi, 481 map (on endpapers). London and New York, I. B. Tauris 'Co., 1991. £39:50 First Published 1953.

Landlord and peasant in Persia: a study of land tenure and land revenue administration. By Ann K.S. Lambton. pp. lxvi, 481 map (on endpapers). London and New York, I. B. Tauris 'Co., 1991. £39:50 First Published 1953.

The Distribution of Tax Burden - A Case Study of Jodhpur District

The objective of fiscal policy in the developing countries is to achieve a high rate of growth with equitable distribution. Without reducing inequality of income, benefits of development may not reach the poorer strata of the society. Redistribution of income from the rich to the poor can be achieved by a combination of progressive taxation and regressive government expendiutre on social services, such as education, health and welfare services. The present study attempts to examine these aspects with respect to distribution of burden of five taxes, that is, union excise duty, sales tax, state excise duty, income tax and land revenue with the help of Information collected through a household survey in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan State in the year 1977-78. According to the findings of the study, the income tax is progressive, the other direct tax - land revenue is regressive and all the three indirect taxes are regressive with respect to household income in urban as well as rural areas. Even after adding the burden of progressive income tax, the total burden of direct and indirect taxes is regressive with respect to income.

Land Tax Revenue Estimate Updated

Land Tax Revenue Estimate Updated

The political ecology of traditional farming practices in Thana district, Maharashtra (India)

This article attempts to discuss the traditional agricultural practices dalhi and rab, in Thana district, Maharashtra (India): in 1818, when the British took over the district; the 1880s, when the effects of the British land revenue and forest policies were visible; and the 1980s. It is suggested that the traditional system was appropriate, in the past, given the existing ecology and the level of development of technology; and that even now a well‐regulated utilisation of forest resources for rab may be sound, in the long run, from the viewpoint of preservation of soil fertility and a pollution‐free environment, especially in the absence of viable alternatives.

Limits to Radical Intervention: Agricultural Taxation in West Bengal

ABSTRACTAgricultural taxation policy formulation under the Left Front government in West Bengal indicates landed interests are now powerful enough to resist enhanced taxation. As the most radical government in India abandoned proposed agricultural tax increases in the face of landowner opposition, and felt obliged to lower land taxes instead, India is not likely to increase land revenue for economic development. This effective landowner veto power over taxation policy indicates significant agrarian reform is not forthcoming in India, and the trend is towards greater subsidies for surplus‐producing farmers. The research was conducted through interviews with the policy formulators in West Bengal.

Government revenue and expenditure in an agrarian economy: North Arcot District in South India

AbstractThis paper uses disaggregated data to assess the recent history and geography of revenue mobilization and expenditure allocation in a district where rice production increased by 50 per cent during the decade 1973–83 and where gross urban output (to judge from research in one market town) increased in real terms by a factor of 8. At the district level, land revenue is a small and unstable component of revenue despite the dynamism of the rice economy. Furthermore rice is exempt from commercial taxes, which are eight times more important than land revenue, just under half of which derives from traded agricultural goods. Despite the region's commercial dynamism, real revenue has increased by only 76 per cent over the decade, suggesting substantial evasion. The district appears to be a net donor to the state fisc. Direct expenditure shows urban bias (being 60 per cent more per caput than rural expenditure), though the gap has been narrowing. Despite this trend the rice‐producing sector appears to be a net beneficiary from direct revenue and expenditure. A rural micro‐level case study shows that the village panchayat is a net donor and the urban panchayat union a net recipient of an unstable quantum of revenue. A case study of an urban municipality shows real revenue declining over the decade, forcing an increasing dependence upon discretionary grants from the state government, which cannot prevent a deterioration in urban infrastructure. Indirect revenue and expenditure shows a recent trend towards the rural population. Public sector employment is numerically significant, urban, and has average incomes equal to the top decile of rural cultivators.

The Ryotwari Land Revenue Settlements and Peasant Resistance in the 'Northern Division of Arcot' of the Madras Presidency during Early British Rule

The Ryotwari Land Revenue Settlements and Peasant Resistance in the 'Northern Division of Arcot' of the Madras Presidency during Early British Rule

A question of Sovereignty? The Bengal land revenue issue, 1765–67∗

A question of Sovereignty? The Bengal land revenue issue, 1765–67∗

The Magnitude of Land Revenue Demand in Kashmir-1846 to 1900 A.D.

The Magnitude of Land Revenue Demand in Kashmir-1846 to 1900 A.D.

Food and Population Problems in India

Discussion focuses on 2 important problems in India namely the interrelated problems of food and population growth. If the population grows at a faster rate than food production there will be shortages and famines. Marked increases in food output can feed the people and possibly leave a surplus for future periods of scarcity. To deal with the population problem an integrated rural urban policy is needed. More emphasis must be placed on problems in rural areas where 77% of Indias population lives. Half of the countrys national income comes from the agricultural sector. If socioeconomic growth is to be bolstered foundations must be laid in the rural sector. If socioeconomic growth is to be bolstered foundations must be laid in the rural sectors. The future of India depends on progress in villages. Thus the government must give priority to rural development. The present government spends too much time and money on improving the lot of the urban middle classes. The rural sector could be helped by the establishment of heavy industries in selected country areas and by the development of agriculture and expansion of productive activities and employment opportunities. Family planning programs need to be more extensively implemented. A radical change in the approach to population planning could stem the tide of economic stagnation and proverty. Food is not a new problem and is a legacy from the colonial period. Much of the difficulty was related to the poverty of the rural masses. This in turn was the direct result of excessive land revenue charges. When the British first came to the Indian continent the food situation was tolerable. The partition of India in 1947 aggravated the food situation as new elements were added to food production and distribution problems after independence. The development of agriculture and an increase in food production can be seen as desirable objectives for all underdeveloped nations. Comprehensive agricultural planning was initiated by India in its 1st 5-year plan in 1951. Despite problems the production of foodgrains has grown at a more or less steady rate since the beginning of the planning period. Food grain production increased during the 1st plan period at the rate of 4.4% during the 2nd plan period at 4.5% and 2.1% during the 3rd plan period. Population has been increasing at an average annual growth rate of 2.5% during this period. The new agricultural strategy came into operation in 1966 and helped by favorable climate conditions the food grain production in 1967-68 reached an all time record of 95.6 million tons. Although in 1970-71 food grain output reached a new record level of 108 million tons the impact was lost as production declined over the next 3 years because of irregular rainfall. The 5th 5-year plan ran into immediate trouble because of the oil crisis. With population increasing and food production stationary food will continue to be a major national problem.

Colonial Rule and Economic Subordination

This paper examines the impact of colonial rule on a region of India that was very partially integrated into external trade markets. In particular, it suggests that while, as in other parts of India, imports of manufactured goods from the metropolitan country undermined local, artisanal and proto-industrial production, in the agricultural sector considerable growth in output occurred. In addition, as a result of state land revenue policy and the structure of local product markets, the proportion of output marketed also rose. This process of commercialization was accelerated by investment in social overhead capital, particularly in railways. However, with a high degree of skewedness in land holding and asset endowments, in a context of substantial agricultural population growth, commercialization led to a very uneven distribution of rewards. The longer term consequence was that the North Indian regional economy achieved major growth in output but without establishing the preconditions for a more sustained process of development.

The personal issue underlying T. A. Knight's controversy with William Forsyth

Kensington; yet Knight's attack on Forsyth ended by destroying Forsyth's good name. Since then, the two men have tended to be reduced to stereotypes, with Knight the disinterested experimentalist who went on to a distinguished career and Forsyth the fraudulent scoundrel who died discredited. In fact, Knight was certainly not perfect nor Forsyth wholly bad; and, furthermore, there was a scientific issue underlying the affair which was of vital importance to Knight at that early stage in his career. Its existence has never been acknowledged but it goes far to explain why no one until Knight saw fit to criticize Forsyth, some eleven years after the award, as well as the extreme harshness which Knight showed to Forsyth and to anyone who came to Forsyth's support. Forsyth's interest in curing trees apparently began after he went to Kensington in 1784 when he found many of the fruit trees suffering from the dangerous fungal infection known as canker. His treatment consisted partly in excising the infected wood and partly in coating the cut surfaces and the bark of the tree with a secret 'Composition' or 'plaister' of which the active ingredients were cow-dung and urine1 (which is not as farfetched as may appear2). In addition, many of the trees were old and past bearing, and Forsyth claimed that if they were 'headed-down' in the spring (i.e. virtually pollarded), new shoots would arise from the stump and soon bear fruit. As he wrote, 'A tree thus prepared will, in the course of three or four years, produce more and finer fruits than a maiden tree that has been planted upwards of twenty years'.3 Forsyth's award from Parliament arose in a completely different context, the investigation of the Crown Estates carried out by the Commissioners of Land Revenue from 1786 onwards/ One of their major concerns was to ensure a supply of timber, preferably oak, for the Navy, and towards the end of 1788, they were alarmed to discover that many oaks in the Royal forests had been seriously damaged by foresters. A piece of bark about six inches square was being cut from each trunk and the exposed wood branded with a crown, the name of the forest and the number of the tree, with the result that the wood became wet and rotted, leading eventually to loss of the entire tree.5 On hearing this, the Commissioners approached Forsyth

: The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in Colonial India . Eric Stokes.

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY nature and pattern of village social, economic, and political life are thus of vital concern. One must note that, regarding rural development, no regime (not the Christian Democrats, Allende's Popular Unity, or the present dicta- torship) really allowed the campesi nos basic ini- tiatives. None have had faith in the ability of rural people. No leaders were truly committed to relinquishing that modicum of power to the torturable class, to use Graham Greene's memorable term . This is an essential book for students of Chile and anyone concerned with peasant life and rural proletariats in the development process. It is also an easily used reference and a model of scholarly achievement . The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in C.Olonial In- dia. Eric Stokes. Cambridge South Asian Studies, 23. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978. viii + 308 pp. $27.50 (cloth). Karen Leonard University of California, Irvine Officials of the British East India Company sought to understand unfamiliar social and cul- tural systems, above all the system of land ten- ure, as they assumed administrative control of ever-larger portions of the Indian subcontinent from the late 18th century. It was certainly a problem in applied anthropology, one that pro- duced voluminous records and debates over issues both theoretical and practical. According to much of the historical literature, British mistakes in the assignment and collection of land revenue led to large-scale transfers of pro- prietary rights to land and helped provoke peas· ant uprisings, notably in the Rebellion of 1857 . Pointing to errors and overstatements in this lit- erature, Eric Stokes has turned to British settle· ment reports to attempt a reconstruction of the complex Indian agrarian systems and their functioning under colonial rule . Stokes is a historian. In this collection of 12 studies (all but one published previously in jour- nals and books in England, India, and the U.S. from 1967 to 1977), he formulates hypotheses relating secure agriculture to population den- sity, the various forms and functions of tenure, the degree of social and economic stratification, and participation in political processes. He tests his hypotheses in detailed case studies. Three examine particular North Indian districts dur· ing the 1857 rebellion; two trace the historical evolution of North Indian landholding and agriculture from 1860 to 1948; one focuses on moneylenders and peasants in central India; one tries to explain why tax-free (inam) tenure was least prevalent in northern India . The studies are densely written, demanding famil- iarity with 19th-century sociology, Indian rev- enue terms , and British legal categories. Stokes has couched his discussion in the terminology of 19th-century political economy, making his findings less comprehensible and useful for comparative purposes than they deserve to be . While the detailed studies will be of most in· terest to regional specialists, three general in· terpretive essays synthesize historical evidence and the views of other scholars in a very read- able and stimulating way. In one of these , Stokes assesses the impact of the first century of colonial rule; in another, he relates the 1857 Mutiny Rebellion to traditional resistance movements and Afro-Asian nationalism . The final essay, Return of the Peasant to South Asian History, is particularly fine , combining conclusions reached in his own detailed studies with wide-ranging and critical comments on current social-science work on peasant societies. In an earlier, perhaps the narrowest, chapter of the book, Stokes explores official efforts to apply Western legal categories to Indian social reality (the Ricardian rent theory vs. Richard Jones's theory of peasant rents); in this final essay, he is able to show the relevance of that early l 9th- century debate to neo-Marxist theories concern· ing the rich peasant and underdevelopment in rural India. His point is that theory has gotten ahead of empir ical inquiry, and he succeeds in demonstrating the need for fuller explication of the historical dimension of India's agrarian order.

The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in Colonial India

1. The first century of British colonial rule: social revolution or social stagnation? 2. Privileged land tenure in village India in the early nineteenth century 3. Agrarian society and the Pax Britannica in northern India in the early nineteenth century 4. The land revenue systems of the North-Western Provinces and Bombay Deccan 1830-80: ideology and the official mind 5. Traditional resistance movements and Afro-Asian nationalism: the context of the 1857 Mutiny Rebellion 6. Nawab Walidad Khan and the 1857 Struggle in the Bulandshahr district 7. Rural revolt in the Great Rebellion of 1857 in India: a study of the Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar districts 8. Traditional elites in the Great Rebellion of 1857: some aspects of rural revolt in the upper and central Doab 9. The structure of landholding in Uttar Pradesh 1860-1948 10. Dynamism and enervation in North Indian agriculture: the historical dimension 11. Peasants, moneylenders and colonial rule: an excursion into Central India 12. The return of the peasant to South Asian history.

“A curious exercise of political economy”: Some implications of British land revenue policy in the central provinces of India 1861 ‐c. 1900

(1976). “A curious exercise of political economy”: Some implications of British land revenue policy in the central provinces of India 1861 ‐c. 1900. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies: Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 14-33.

The Congress at the 1937 Elections in Madras

In February 1937, the Congress party in the Madras Presidency won 159 of 215 seats in the provincial Legislative Assembly at the first elections under provincial autonomy. It was the most convincing victory for the Congress in any province of British India, and neither the Madras Government nor the Congress leaders had expected it. In the two and a half years Congress rule that followed, their ministers made adept use of their powers. They cut land revenue and dismantled the procedure for revising the land revenue demand, thus appealing to the pocket of every landholder. They re-instated all the village officers who had been dismissed for aiding the Congress during Civil Disobedience, thus instructing the leaders of rural society where the source of power and influence now lay. They passed two measures to alleviate the burden of agricultural debt, and threatened to legislate in favour of the tenants inside the major landed estates. Meanwhile, for the first time, the Cogress established a network of committees throughout the province, and by 1939 this new machine had placed virtually every local government board under a Congress régime. The number of Congerss members in the Tamil and Andhra areas rose from 115,971 on the eve of the 1937 elections to 594,397 in 1938.

Commentary and Critique

At first sight, the last fifteen years has been the most creative—as certainly it has been the most productive—period in the history of the study of why the Mughal empire in India declined. The succession of magisterial publications from the Department of History at the University of Aligarh—Satish Chandra's Parties and Politics at the Mughal Court 1707–1740 (1959), Irfan Habib's The Agrarian System of the Mughal.Empire (1556–1707) (1963), M. Athar Ali's The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb (1966), and Noman Ahmad Siddiqi's Land Revenue Administration under the Mughals (1700–1730) (1970)—have, taken together, offered formulae for the understanding of the growing weakness of the empire from the later seventeenth century almost Newtonian in their force and simplicity.

Commentary and Critique

At first sight, the last fifteen years has been the most creative—as certainly it has been the most productive—period in the history of the study of why the Mughal empire in India declined. The succession of magisterial publications from the Department of History at the University of Aligarh—Satish Chandra's Parties and Politics at the Mughal Court 1707–1740 (1959), Irfan Habib's The Agrarian System of the Mughal.Empire (1556–1707) (1963), M. Athar Ali's The Mughal Nobility under Aurangzeb (1966), and Noman Ahmad Siddiqi's Land Revenue Administration under the Mughals (1700–1730) (1970)—have, taken together, offered formulae for the understanding of the growing weakness of the empire from the later seventeenth century almost Newtonian in their force and simplicity.

Book Reviews : H. B. VASHISHTA, Land Revenue and Public Finance in Maratha Administration, Oriental Publishers, Delhi, 1975

Book Reviews : H. B. VASHISHTA, Land Revenue and Public Finance in Maratha Administration, Oriental Publishers, Delhi, 1975