14 



INDEBTEDNESS OF THE LAND-HOLDING CLASSES. 



Wattandars or Inamders in addition to their Government holdings 

 and the assessment does not show any addition for well irrigation, 

 though the share in a well is a property of some value, and, as such, much 

 sought in security for debt. Of the cultivators not included among 

 the embarrassed class, some are in good circumstances, but the lowest 

 stratum is but little removed from embarrassment ; continuous bad 

 seasons or further fall in prices would rapidly swell the proportion 

 of embarrassed to solvent ryots, for there is no hard line between the 

 28 per cent involved and those above them. 



The extent to which land has been lost to the cultivating class 

 cannot be determined with accuracy, for much land is held in mort- 

 gage, of which the occupancy is not transferred to the sowkar. In 

 the villages scrutinised by the Commission in the Ahmednagar 

 District, it was found that about one-eighth of the occupancies had on 

 an average been transferred to sowJcars y namely, that the direct assess- 

 ment payable by sowkars for land was about one-eighth of the whole 

 demand on the village, but this only represents the amount of land in 

 their occupancy as Government tenants. The increasing extent to 

 which land is passing from the Kunbi to the soivkar has been illus- 

 trated above by the growth of the money-lender's khatas. These 

 properties have been acquired within the last 20 years, and for the most 

 part within the last ten years. In 1854 there were six suits on 

 mortgage bonds of immovable property in the Court of Talegaon in the 

 disturbed district of Poona, of which four were against Kunbis ; in 

 1872, there were 192 suits of this description, of which 143 were 

 against Kunbis. In the other courts having jurisdiction in the dis- 

 turbed portion of Poona, three decrees were issued on this class of suits 

 in 1854, of which two were against Kunbis; in 1872, 98 decrees 

 issued, of which 69 were against Kunbis. 



It is difficult to ascertain with any certainty the selling value 

 of ordinary ryots' occupancies in the region under report. There are 

 few bona-fide sales for cash, the returns of the Registration record 

 are valueless for this purpose, and the revenue sales of defaulters' 

 holdings are, for other reasons, little more reliable. The estimate 

 may perhaps be hazarded that an average of seven years' assessment 

 of dry-crop land would be a good price to the seller at present. 

 Irrigated land would fetch a much higher price, possibly up to 15 or 

 20 years' assessment. Taking the debt of the 12 villages dealt with 

 above, Us. 1,94,242, we find it is due from occupancies of Us. 10,G03, 



