When Babur conquered Hindustan, there were many autonomous and semi-autonomous rulers known locally as Rai, Raja, Rana, Rao, Rawat, etc., while in the various Persian chronicles they were called Zamindars and Marzabans. They were vassals who mostly ruled hereditarily over their respective territories. They possessed not only a considerable part of the economic resources of the empire, but also military power. After the conquest of Hindustan, Babur informs us that one-sixth of his total income came from the territories of the chieftains. He writes: “The income from the lands I now own (1528 AD) from Bhira to Bihar amounts to fifty-two crore, as will be known in detail. Eight or nine crores of them come from the Parganas of Rais and the Rajas, who have submitted in the past (to the sultans of Delhi), receive an allowance and alimony. [6] According to Arif Qandhari, one of the contemporary historians of Akbar`s reign, there were about two to three hundred rajas or rais and zamindars who ruled their territory from strong fortresses under the emperor`s suzerainty. Each of these rajas and zamindars commanded his own army, usually composed of members of his clan, and the total number of their troops, as Abul Fazl tells us, amounted to forty-four lakhs with 384,558 cavalry, 4,277,057 infantry; 1863 elephants, 4260 cannons and 4500 boats. [7] During the Mughal period, there was no clear distinction between princely states and zamindari states. Even the ruling autonomous rulers of the princely states were called Zamindars. Moreland was one of the first historians to draw our attention to the importance of the Zamindars in medieval India. He defines the Zamindars as “vassal chiefs”.
He points out that there were territories under the direct control of the Mughals where there were no Zamindars, and then there were territories of vassal chiefs who had autonomy over their state but were subjugated by the Mughals and paid tribute to the Mughal emperor/Nazarana. However, Irfan Habib, in his book Agrarian system of Mughal India, divided the Zamindars into two categories: the autonomous chiefs, who enjoyed “sovereign power” over their territories, and the ordinary Zamindars, who exercised superior rights to land and collected land seizures, mainly appointed by the Mughals. [8] [9] These people were known as zamindars (middlemen)[10] and received income mainly from ryots (peasants).[11] The zamindari system was more common in northern India because Mughal influence was less evident in the south. [10] The Mughals created an aristocratic class to support their rule. Known as the Zamindars, the Mughals of this noble class needed to maintain an army that the emperor could call upon to keep the peace or go into battle. During the Mughal Empire, the Maratha Empire and the British Indian Empire, the Zamindars belonged to the nobility[1] and formed the ruling class. Emperor Akbar granted them Mansabs and their ancestral domains were treated as Jagirs. Some Zamindars who were Hindus and Brahmins by religion or Kayastha or Kshatriya by caste were forcibly converted into Muslims by the Mughals. [2] During the colonial period, the permanent settlement consolidated what became known as the Zamindari system.
The British rewarded the zamindars of support by recognizing them as princes. Many princely states in the region were pre-colonial possessions of the Zamindar that were elevated to a broader protocol. The British also reduced the land holdings of many princely states and pre-colonial rulers, degrading their status to a zamindar of previously higher noble ranks. The zamindari system was largely abolished in independent India shortly after its establishment with the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution, which changed the right to property, as stated in Articles 19 and 31. [22] In Bangladesh, the East Bengal State Acquisition and Leasing Act of 1950 had a similar effect in ending the system. [23] Ottoman tax farming was the dominant system of tax collection in the Ottoman Empire. During the Mughal period, the Zamindars were not owners. They fought wars and plundered neighboring kings. So they never cared about improvements in their country. The East India Company under Lord Cornwallis, recognizing this, made a permanent settlement with the Zamindars in 1793 and made them owners of their lands in exchange for a fixed annual rent, leaving them independent for the internal affairs of their lands. [14] [best source needed] This permanent settlement created the new zamindari system as we know it today. After 1857, the army of the majority of the Zamindars was abolished except for a small number of police/Digwari/Kotwali forces in their respective lands.
If the Zamindars were unable to pay the rent at sunset, part of their land was bought and sold at auction. This created a new class of zamindars in society. When the rest of India later came under the control of the East India Company (EIC), different ways were introduced in different provinces than in relation to the ruling authorities of the region to bring them to join the authority of the company. The Mughal emperors did not elect the Zamindars; Instead, they lived genetically and inherited sons when their fathers died. They, too, had armies of armed partisans. The British continued the tradition of conferring royal and noble titles on zamindars loyal to the colonel. The titles Raja, Maharaja, Rai Saheb, Rai Bahadur, Rao, Nawab, Khan Bahadur were conferred from time to time on princely rulers and many Zamindars. According to an estimate by the Imperial Gazette of India, there were about 2,000 ruling chieftains who bore the royal titles of Raja and Maharaja, including rulers of princely states and several grand chiefdoms. This number is increased tenfold when zamindar/jagirdar chieftains with other non-royal but noble titles are taken into account. Leaders have used tribute collection, fiscal agriculture, and innovative tax collection systems to generate revenue to increase state power and expansion. During the Mughal Empire, historians grouped Zamindar into three types, each with different strengths. Todar Mal, Akbar`s finance minister, was responsible for compiling data on agricultural yields for ten years, from 1570 to 1580, and setting prices.
Based on this information, the Delhi Sultanate imposed a monetary tax on each crop. Each province was divided into income circles with their crop-specific income rates. Zabt was the name of this income system. The approach was common in the administrative areas of the Mughals so that they could keep meticulous records and evaluate the property. However, this was not possible in the provinces of Gujarat and Bengal. In India, a zamindar is someone who owns or occupies land (zaman). The expressions Zamin and Dar evoke images of Urdu, indicating that it owes its origins to Persian influence. As a result, the name Zamindar was coined during the reign of Turkish and Afghan monarchs and remained an important part of the Mughal empires.
The zamindari system made it easy for rulers to collect taxes and get enough money and profits to run their empire. After reading this article, you will understand who the Zamindars were and what their role was. The Mughal monarchs appointed zamindars, who were powerful local chieftains. They wielded great power and influence by collecting peasant taxes and passing them on to the Mughal emperor. As a result, they served as intermediaries. The Zamindars gained more control in some places. They revolted as a result of the exploitation of the Mughal administrators. In their rebellion against Mughal rule, they received the support of the peasantry. In this article, we will discuss who the Zamindars were and the role of the Zamindars.
The Zamindars were middlemen who collected income from the peasants. The zamindari system was more prominent in northern India because the Mughals were less known in the south. The zamindar acted as agents of state interests in revenue collection and exercised great local power in administrative and social matters. The British generally adopted the existing zamindari system of tax collection in the north of the country. They recognized the Zamindars as landowners and landowners as opposed to the Mughal government and demanded in return that they levy taxes. Although some zamindars were present in the south, they were not as numerous and British administrators used the ryotwari (herders) method of collection, in which some farmers were selected as landowners and asked to pay their taxes directly. [10] The failure of fiscal agriculture: The Ottoman state sold contracts to levy taxes on agricultural production and the production and sale of goods. This system initially led to efficient tax collection without the government setting up a large tax collection bureaucracy. However, the system has led to the economic exploitation of farmers and traders.
