practice rather than the theory which was of essential Early importance to the ryot. In the division of crops the proportions theoretically allowed to the cultivator were the same as in the case of paddy in zamindari land; but 'many after collections were made, and the renter usually exacted a higher price for his proportion than that of the market, which reduces the ryot's share to a fourth or even a fifth part of the produce.' The cultivators, in fact, were as much under the thumb of the renters as of the zamindars. They had no right in the soil, and the renter let the land to the highest bidder. Bad as was the condition of the zamindari ryots, their fields were better cultivated than the havili farms immediately dependent on the Company.1[1]
The Chief and Council at Masulipatam did little or nothing to check this maladministration and oppression, and in 1775 the Court of Directors, aware of the evils of the existing system, and anxious both to protect the ryots and to secure a more adequate revenue from the zamindars, ordered that a Committee of Circuit, to be composed of five Members of the Council of Fort St. George, should be appointed 'to inquire into the state of the Northern Circars by ascertaining with all possible exactness the produce of the country, the number of inhabitants, . . . the gross amount of the revenues, the articles from which they arose, the mode by which they were collected and the charges of collection.' The Directors further ordered that enquiries should be made into the military strength and financial position of the zamindars; and intimated, that, while not desirous of depriving these latter of their revenue, they were determined to protect the ryots from violence and oppression.
Hardly, however, had this Committee begun its labours than its work was interrupted by the intervention of the new Governor of Madras, Sir Thomas Rumbold, who in 1778 decided to summon the zamindars to Madras and himself make a settlement with them there. The arrangement made accordingly was for five years at a rate 12½ per cent, above the mámúul jamabandi, i.e., the amounts the zamindars had hitherto been paying.
Sir Thomas Rumbold ceased to be Governor in 1780 and in 1783 the Committee of Circuit was reappointed. It conducted a lengthy enquiry into the resources of the district and the other points referred to in its instructions, and its reports on the havili and zamindari lands dated respectively December 18, 1786 and February 15, 1787 contain a full and valuable
- ↑ 1 Circuit Committee's Report, dated February 15, 1787, para. 45.
