Social Studies PBL
Storyboard Text
- Hi all, today I will tell you all about the first revenue system proposed by the British the zamindari system. This revenue system was introduced by Cornwallis in 1793 which gave the zamindar rights to collect the rent from us peasants and give them to the British. This power made the zamindars the owners of the land while we farmers became tenants. The tax was fixed at the same rate for every farmer and was even had to be paid when our crop yield was very poor.
- The rent charged by the zamindar was very high which could not be paid every time left little to no profit for us farmers. We had to take loans to pay the high rents charged and thus, having alot of debt on our heads. When the farmers could not be able to pay the loan back, thier lands were taken away from them. The extremely high rents charged by the zamindars which took away the lands from many farmers became the downfall of this system.
- Talking about the Mahalwari system. It was devised in 1822, by Holt Mackenzie in the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency (most of this area is now in Uttar Pradesh). Under the Mahalwari system, the land revenue was collected from the farmers by the village headmen on behalf of the whole village (and not the zamindar).
- The entire village was converted into one bigger unit called ‘Mahal’ and was treated as one unit for the payment of land revenue.The revenue under the Mahalwari system was to be revised periodically and not fixed permanently.At times, it made the Company spend more for the collection than the revenue collected. Consequently, the system was regarded as a failure.
- Optimistic officials had imagined that the new system would transform the Peasants into rich enterprising farmers but this did not happen. Driven by the desire to increase the income from land, revenue officials fixed too high a revenue demand that peasants were unable to pay.
- The Ryotwari system was a land revenue system in British India, introduced by Thomas Munro in 1820 based on system administered by Captain Alexander Read in the Baramahal DistrictIn the Ryotwari system, revenues were collected by the Company directly from the ryots (farmers). There was no intermediary like a Zamindar between the peasant and the government. So long as he paid the revenue in time, the peasant was not evicted from the land.
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