Ryotwari Settlement

2020-04-27 15:01:56

![[Drawing 2022-09-10 10.31.39 Ryotwari Settlement.excalidraw |900]]

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.

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

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==

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

Explain the essential features of the ryotwari system of land revenue with special reference to Thomas Munro’s contribution to its evolution. [1984, 60m]
Discuss the main features of the ‘Raiyatwari Settlement’ in South India. Did it satisfy the aspirations of the peasantry? [2001, 60m]
“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]