— INTRODUCTION.
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deductions in favour of the middle classes which intervened between the taluqdar or the Muhammadan government and the actual tiller of the soil. Whatever other rights he possessed and it is not to be denied that he could evict tenants at his will, just as the English parliament can confiscate private property at will were derived not from any private ownership, but from the same source as gave him the miscellaneous taxes and the command of the militia, his theoretical position as head of the petty state. The above review has made us acquainted with all the principal classes of agricultural society in Oudh at annexation the ndzim or king's officer, the taluqdar grown out of the raja or the capitalist, the village communities basing their title on purchase, military grant, or immemorial prescription, and the cultivator himself. Only the muafidar (or assignee in special cases of the land revenue) has been omitted, as his case was not one of general importance or interest. The sketch will be completed by a short account of village communities and their relations with superior powers. The original assessment under which they paid their land revenue was in all cases, whether they held as birtias on sale or as old subordinate zamindars from prescriptive right, based on an appraisement of the value of the gross produce of the village lands. Their special privileges were of two kinds. stated deduction, varying from one-tenth to one-fourth, was made from And the state share from the the state share in their favour. fields in their own cultivation was fixed at a lower proportion to the gross produce than in the case of unprivileged cultivators. The former right was converted into cash when the total payment on the village was assessed in money and was then known as nankar. When once it had been so converted it almost always remained stationary, and lost all proportion to the gross assessment. Thus, a village revenue would originally be assessed at Rsl 400. Against this a deduction of Es. 100 would be allowed In the course of time cultias nankar to the village zamindars. assessed at Rs, 1,000, but village and the was increased vation Again, a hostile taluqdar remained Rs. 100. still nankar the were all either killed or villagers waste, and the whole the laid then show assessment would papers Government The in flight. nothing. Still, payable, net Rs. nankdr, 100; deduct Es. 100; the nankdir allowassessment, the to vary with ceased it though of the zamindar. application on the to revision subject was ance at favourable cultivation rates, that is say, right, to second The calculation the when the from wholly absent perhaps was never on the village condition of a whole held their owners village "*
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A
7
