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t the time of independence there were three types of land
tenure prevailing in India. They were the Zamindari system, the Ryotwari
system and the Mahalwari system. The basic difference between these systems was
made of payment of land revenue. But in this three systems the usual practice was,
land cultivated by the tenants.
Tenants themselves were three types
1) Occupancy tenants ---- enjoyed
permanent and heritable rights on land, eligible to claim compensation from the
land lord.
2) Sub tenants
----- appointed by the occupancy tenants. They did not have any security as tenure.
3) Tenant at will
---- appointed by the land lord and did not have security as a tenure could be evicted
from the land at any time.
Now we discuss the three main intermediaries system of land
one by one.
Zamindari system ---- This system was
started during the British period in India. The pioneer of this system was Lord
Cornwallis. This system came in to its form when in 1973 British government
entered in to permanent settlement with land lords with an interest to increase
the revenue of the company. Under the system the landlords (Zamindars) were
full proprietors of this large area of land and they were responsible to
collect the rent from the farmers. Actually Zamindars played a role of
intermediaries between the cultivators and the state. But this system suffered
from a numbers of defects. Zamindars snatched a large portion of produce as a
form of tax without participating personally in the productive process. During
the time of independence this system prevails in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and
Uttar Pradesh. Due to this kind of exploitation cultivator was left with no
surplus to invest for better implement.
Mahalwari System -----William
Bentinck introduce this system in 1833.At the time of independence the system
was extended at the large area of north west frontier of India, Agra, Madhya
Pradesh, Punjab. In this system land was divided in to mahals each mahal comprise
one or more village. The responsibility to collect the land revenue and
depositing it in the treasury was on the village head man.
Ryotwari system
------Under this system the responsibility for paying the tax to the government
was on individual rayot or cultivator himself. In this system cultivators had
full power on their land they could not be evicted from the land as long they
were paid land revenue. This system was initially introduced in Tamil Nadu and
latter extended on the other area. Though this system emerge some satisfactory result,
but cultivators were failing on the trap of Mahajans and money lenders. In this
area Mahajans and money lenders granted loan to the cultivators for cultivation
and social purpose by mortgaging their valuable lands. If the cultivators were
unable to return the amount then a substantial portion of land slipped out from
their hand. The cultivators then enforced to cultivate as a tenant on their own
land and the new Zamindars class emerged in Ryotwari system also.
After independence it was found that these intermediaries
systems were the main cause of stagnation of our agriculture system. Poor farmers
were exhausted and they are unable to do better implementation on agriculture sector.
More over due to slip out a large portion of produce the capital to reinvest on
land was limited.
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