The zamindari system was eventually abolished by law after independence. In 1951, the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution amended Articles 19 and 31. Property rights were changed to allow states to enact laws to end the zamindari system. A zamindar or zemindar was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who owned large tracts of land and controlled his peasants, to whom the zamindars reserved the right to levy taxes (often for military purposes). Over time, they assumed princely and royal titles such as Maharaja (Great King), Raja (King), Nawab (Lord), Mirza (Prince), Chowdhury (Lord) and many others. 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] All categories of Zamindars among the Mughals had to perform certain police, judicial and military tasks. With elements of fiscal and political power, the Zamindars wielded enormous local influence, making them the most unchallenged potentates within the limits of their territories. In rural Bengal, however, a full-fledged police system did not develop during this period, so some tax officers were simultaneously tasked with policing duties. For example, gram-saranjami paiks, who were mainly used to help the Zamindar collect rents and keep crops in the fields, were also accused of arresting thieves and thieves and maintaining peace, law and order in public places such as hats, bazaars and fairgrounds. The regular police forces of the greater Zamindars were organized and controlled within a system of thanas, which were the largest police units, and among these were the smaller posts known as chaukies or preays. At the height of the Mughals, the Faujdar retained supreme authority over the Thanas, who were nominally under the control of the Zamindari. In Nawabi Bengal, the Thana gradually came under the control of the monopoly lands of Zamindari. The Zamindars have often played an important role in the regional history of the subcontinent.
One of the most notable examples is the 16th century Confederation formed by twelve Zamindars in the Bhati (Baro-Bhuyans) region, which, according to the Jesuits and Ralph Fitch, gained a reputation for successively repelling Mughal invasions through naval battles. The confederation was led by a Muslim Rajput Zamindar, Isa Khan, and included both Muslims and Hindus such as Pratapaditya. The Zamindars were also patrons of the arts. The Tagore family produced India`s first Nobel laureate in literature, Rabindranath Tagore, in 1913, who often resided on his estate. The Zamindars also promoted neoclassical and Indo-Saracen architecture. There is no clear distinction between royal zamindars, such as Raja Venkata Ranga Rao, or simply aristocratic zamindars. Many kings were ancient zamindars, such as the royal house of Benares; conversely, many new Zamindars were former kings. [3] As a result, there is some confusion about Indian kingdoms about who is a king and who is a zamindar, as there were up to 568 kingdoms in India before independence and, according to other sources, 572 princely states. During the Mughal Empire, the Zamindars belonged to the nobility[4][5] and formed the ruling class.
Emperor Akbar granted them Mansabs and their ancestral domains were treated as Jagirs. [6] Zamindar, in India owner or occupier (dār) of land (zamīn). The root words are Persian, and the resulting name has been used wherever Persian influence has been spread by the Mughals or other Indian Muslim dynasties. The meanings associated with it were manifold. In Bengal, the word referred to a hereditary tax collector who could keep 10% of the income he received. In the late 18th century, the British government made these Zamindars landowners, creating a landed aristocracy in Bengal and Bihar that lasted until Indian independence (1947). In parts of northern India (e.g. Uttar Pradesh), a zamindar was a large landowner with full property rights. In northern India, Zamindar designated the farmer of the land or one of the co-owners who jointly owned the village land as co-heirs. In the Maratha territories, the name was generally applied to all local hereditary tax officials. Peasant-related issues have been an important part of the liberation movement since the first decade of the twentieth century.
One of the themes on which the national movement focused after 1915 was the condition of the peasantry and its elevation. As a result, the abolition of intermediaries and thus of the zamindari system has gained importance. Here are some important events related to the reform of the land income system in the early twentieth century: The Zamindars of Bengal were influential in the development of Bengal. They played a central role in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. [21] In 1950, land reform was carried out in East Bengal with the abolition of the zamindari feudal system. The abolition of the zamindari system (which divides society into lords, property owners and citizens, property users) in Bangladesh after Pakistan`s independence was an important step, which was immediately adopted on September 10. It came into force in January 1972 under a presidential decree that became permanent under its new constitution on April 10 1973.In Bangladesh received titles such as Chowdhury, Sharkar, and Khan The British generally adopted the existing zamindari tax collection system 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] If the Zamindar`s offer was not satisfactory, another contractor was replaced in its place. The British created the zamindari system, a feudal system that rewarded some zamindars with the title of “prince,” but also reduced the land holdings of some pre-colonial aristocrats. The Zamindars were to collect taxes for the British. Most states abolished the system after independence, but it wasn`t until the 1950s that it was abolished throughout India, as well as neighboring Pakistan and East Bengal (later Bangladesh). The same English prejudice that led a Zamindar owner to recognize only one tenant at will in the ryot. 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. These sample phrases are automatically selected from various online information sources to reflect the current use of the word “Zamindar”. The views expressed in the examples do not represent the views of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us your feedback. Cornwallis closed the permanent settlement with the Zamindars in March 1793. The status of the Zamindars and their roles became very different under the permanent settlement. Landowners of all categories were declared landowners. As landowners, the Zamindars had to pay the state revenues unchanged for all times to come.
