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System v. Expediency: The Reality of Land Revenue Administration in the Bombay Presidency, 1812–1820

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Neil Rabitoy
Neil Rabitoy
Affiliation:
California State University at Los Angeles
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Extract

Historians of early British administration in India have traditionally focused their attention upon the two major ‘systems’ of that administration—the ryotwari and zamindari land revenue settlements, or variations thereof. This is understandable: these systems provide a convenient framework within which to measure variations in administrative policy and consequent social and economic results. This preoccupation seems further justified by the attention that was given to the merits of these systems by officials high in the Company's administration in India and London in the early nineteenth century.

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Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , July 1975 , pp. 529 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 For an example of the use of this generalization see Percival, Spear, India: A Modern History (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961), p. 238.Google Scholar

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3 This is described in, among other sources, Baden-Powell, B. H., The Land Systems of British India (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1892), III, 207–10;Google ScholarModak, D. S., The Bombay Land System and Village Administration (Poona: Oriental Watchman Publishing House, 1932), pp. 6–9;Google ScholarPatel, G. D., The Land Revenue Settlements and the British Rule in India (Ahmedabad: Gujarat University, 1969), pp. 380–6;Google ScholarRavinder, Kumar, Western India in the Nineteenth Century: A Study in the Social History of Maharashtra (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968), passim.Google Scholar

4 In this respect Bombay was going through an anti-‘native’ stage which seems generic to British administration; Bengal had gone through it some thirty years earlier. Marshall, P. J., ‘Indian Officials under The East India Company in Eighteenth Century Bengal’ Bengal: Past & Present, 84 (1965), 95.Google Scholar

5 Pamela, Nightingale, Trade and Empire in Western India, 1784–1806 (Cambridge: University Press, 1970), pp. 175–214.Google Scholar

6 The only common policy shared by both Duncan's and Nepean's administrations was the necessity to increase the revenue. However, they went about this task in quite different fashions.Google Scholar

7 Nepean was a product of the modernization which took place in British government in the 1780s and 1790s. Long before he arrived in India he had gained a reputation for being ‘highly efficient,’ ‘very active,’ and as one who insisted on behaving according to the letter of the law and with ‘absolutely correct’ deportment.Google ScholarVincent, T. Harlow, The Founding of the Second British Empire, 1763–1793 (London: Longmans, Green and Co., Ltd, 1964), I, 573;Google ScholarTaft, Helen Manning, British Colonial Government after the American Revolution, 1782–1820 (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1966), pp. 84, 93–4.Google Scholar

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9 Only two civil servants elected to quarrel with this assumption during this period. Both were ultimately demoted.Google Scholar

10 There were many such examples. M.S.A., R.D.D., 44:33, Walker to Government, 8 April 1804; M.S.A., R.D.D., 44:329–30, Resolution of Government, 12 January 1805; M.S.A., R.D.D., 59:184–85, Broach Revenue Commission to Duncan, 31 May 1807.Google Scholar

11 M.S.A., R.D.D., 85:1019, Resolution of Government, 14 May 1813; M.S.A., R.D.D., 85:880–81, Minute of Nepean, 1 April 1813.Google Scholar

12 See, for example, I.O., Rev. Letters to Bombay, 1:116, Ct of Dirs to Bombay, 10 January 1810; M.S.A., R.D.D., 76:1990, Resolution of Government, 11 December 1811; M.S.A., R.D.D., 79:1285–88, Minutes of 11 August 1812. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, 2:487.Google Scholar

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19 At least none appears in the official records. If there was any controversy over this question it is very unlikely that it could have altogether escaped these documents. Certainly the records are replete with extensive arguments on other questions.Google Scholar

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35 M.S.A., R.D.D., 81:2131–32, 2135, Rowles to Warden, 22 October 1812.Google Scholar

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45 I.O., Bombay Civilians, p. 352a; I.O., Elphinstone Collection, MSS Eur. F 88, box, #I, letter #109, Warden to Elphinstone, 17 February 1821. Shubrick was apparently appointed by Nepean as a favor to a member of the Court of Directors. I.O., MSS Eur. D 166, Nepean to Inglis, 23 Augusy 1813.Google Scholar

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48 There was a constant flow of complaints to Bombay against Sukaram's abuse of his power between 1809 and 1820.Google Scholar

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50 M.S.A., J.D.D., 87:3301–02, Rowles to Warden, 17 September 1816.Google Scholar

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52 See also: M.S.A., R.D.D., 112:582, Jones to Newnham, 10 February 1817; M.S.A., R.D.D., 112:733–34, Newnham to Shubrick, 14, March 1817.Google Scholar

53 M.S.A., J.D.D., 108:4024, Shubrick to Newnham, 21 November 1818.Google Scholar

54 M.S.A., R.D.D., 48:1954–56, Walker to Diggle, 24 June 1805; M.S.A., R.D.D., 65:158–59, Diggle to Warden, 11 January 1809.Google Scholar

55 M.S.A., R.D.D., 39:988, Dessobhai to Duncan, 18 November 1803; M.S.A., R.D.D., 39:966, Government to Walker, 30 November 1803.Google Scholar

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60 A good example is the case of George Corsellis who was appointed as the Kaira judge and magistrate in 1805. Shortly after his arrival he ordered that all human waste had to be deposited outside of the city. He also ordered that all dogs and cattle had to be tethered and that a court order was necessary for any Kaira inhabitant to travel beyond a certain distance from the city. The result was a strike by Kaira's shopkeepers and, ultimately, Corsellis's removal five months after his appointment. M.S.A., J.D.D., 31:1613–26, Walker to Corsellis', 29 September 1805; M.S.A., J.D.D., 32:2084–96, Corsellis to Duncan, 2 October 1805; M.S.A., J.D.D., 32:2475, Minutes of Government of 27 December 1805.Google Scholar

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68 This was unlike the situation in Benares where, consequently, the results were different. Bernard, S. Cohn, ‘The British in Benares: A Nineteenth Century Colonial Society,’ Comparative Studies in Society and History, 4 (1962), 170–3.Google Scholar

69 Malabari, , Gujarat, p. 108.Google Scholar

70 This idea is also suggested in Van Aalst, ‘The British View,’ p. 14; Embree, Ainslie T., ‘Landholding in India and British Institutions,’ in Frykenberg, (ed.), Land Control, p. 36; Misra, Central Administration, pp. 210–11.Google Scholar An excellent fictional account of this same phenomenon can be found in Iltudus, Prichard, The Chronicles of Budgepore; or, Sketches of Life in Upper India (2 vols London: Wm. H. Allen, 1893).Google Scholar