ECONOMIC HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA - WARREN HASTING IN - TopicsExpress



          

ECONOMIC HISTORY OF BRITISH INDIA - WARREN HASTING IN BENGAL: RAJSHAHI ESTATE: Rani Bhavani Her great estates had virtually embraced the whole of Northern Bengal before Lord Clive won the battle of Plassy. She had witnessed the greatness and decadence of the Mahomedan power and the rise and extension of the British power. Her talents and abilities stood forth as a signal example of the capacity of Hindu women in administration. And her pious life and unbounded benevolence made her name cherished as a household word in Bengal. To the present day her story is read by Hindu girls and boys as one of the nine women in history and fiction who are the models of Indian womanhood. The new revenue system introduced by Warren Hastings, and the five-years settlements made in 1772, affected Rajshahi as they affected every other estate in Bengal. The Governor and Council, in their letter of the 3 1 st December 1773, remarked that Rani Bhavani, the zemindar of Rajshahi, proves very backward in her payments. And on the 15 th March 1774 they determined to make a declaration to the Rani, that if she did not pay up the revenue due from her to the end of the Bengal month of Magh [10th February] by the 20th Phalgun [1st March], we should be under the necessity of depriving her of her zemindari, and putting it into the possession of those who would be more punctual in fulfilling their engagements with Government. In another letter, dated 18th October 1774, the Governor-General resolved to dispossess her both of her farm and her zemindari, and of all property in the land, and to grant her a monthly pension of 4000 rupees (£400) during life, for her subsistence. Among the many petitions which the aged Rani submitted to avert this disgrace and humiliation, there are some which are of more than usual interest. In one of these petitions she recounted the history of her estate since the five-years settlement of 1772, the oppressions committed by the farmer, Dulal Roy, who had been appointed, and the depopulation of the country in consequence. In the year 1179 [a.d. 1772], the English gentlemen of the Sircar [Government] did blend all the old rents of my land together, and did make the Ziladari Mathote [exactions on tenants] and other temporary rents perpetual. ... I am an old Zemindar ; and not being able to see the griefs of my Ryots, I agreed to take the country as a farmer. I soon examined the country, and found there was not enough in it to pay the rents. . . . In Bhadra, or August 1773, the banks broke, and the Ryots ground and their crops failed by being overflowed with water. I am a Zemindar, so was obliged to keep the Ryots from ruin, and gave what ease to them I could, by giving them time to make up their payments ; and requested the gentlemen (English officials] would, in the same manner, give me time, when I would also pay up the revenue ; but not crediting me, they were pleased to take the Cutchery [rent-collection office] from my house, and bring it away to Motijhil, and employed Dulal Roy as a servant and Sazawal, to collect the revenue from me and the country. . . . Then my house was surrounded, and all my property inquired into ; what collections I had made as farmer and Zemindar were taken ; what moneyI borrowed and my monthly allowances were all taken ; and made together Rs.22,58,674 [£226,000]. In the new year 1181 [a.d. 1 774], for the amount of Rs.22,27,824 [£223,000] the country was given in farm to Dulal Roy, taking from me all authority Then Dulal Roy and Paran Bose, a low man, put on the country more taxes, viz., another Ziladari Mathote [exaction on tenants], and Assey Jzaffer, loss of Ryots desertion taken from present Ryots, &c. These two men issued their orders, and took from Ryots all their effects, and even seed grain and ploughing bullocks, and have depopulated and destroyed the country. I am an old Zemindar; I hope I have committed no fault. The country is plundered, and the Ryots are full of complaints. For these reasons I make my petition now ; that as Rs.22,27,817 [£223,000] is become the revenue which Dulal Roy is to pay for this year, I am ready, and will take care that the Sircar [Government] suffers no loss, and that this sum be paid. These extracts are valuable because they give us an insight into what was going on in most parts of Bengal. Old zemindars, if they failed to compete with auction bidders, were turned out from estates which their fathers had held for generations. If they kept their estates as farmers at an enhanced revenue, and failed in prompt payment, managers were forced on their estates, and they plundered the tillers of the soil and caused misery and depopulation. The land revenues failed, however, in spite of the utmost coercion one-third of the cultivated lands in Bengal were overgrown with jungles. Pran Krishna, son of Rani Bhavani, submitted other petitions, and there were many revenue consultations. Philip Francis protested against the practice of European servants holding farms in the names of their Banians or Indian agents. The country, he said, belongs to the natives. Former conquerors contented themselves with exacting a tribute from the land. . . . Every variation hitherto introduced from the ancient customs and establishments of the country appears to have been attended with fatal consequences, insomuch that I understand it to be the general opinion, that at least two-thirds of the whole surface of Bengal and Behar are in a state of total depopulation. The timid Hindoo flies from the tyranny which he dare not resist. In the end, the majority of the Council resolved in 1775 to deprive Raja Dulal Roy of the farm of Rajshahi, and that the Rani be reinstated in possession of her lands in farm. Hastings never entirely approved of this decision ; he never appreciated, like his successor Lord Cornwallis, the claims of the old hereditary families of Bengal; he never withdrew his support from the auction purchasers and farmers, who grew up under his harsh and unsympathetic system. Large shoes of the old Rajshahi estates were carved out to create a flourishing estate for Kanta Babu, the Banyan of Warren Hastings. The evils of an oppressive and ever-changing system of land administration were aggravated by the fact that virtually the whole of the revenues of the province were drained out of the country, and did not return in any shape to the people, to fructify their trades, industries, and agriculture.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 14:16:23 +0000

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