INDEBTEDNESS OP THE LAND-HOLDING CLASSES. 



the management of the mortgagor. This provision is severer than 

 that of the amended Civil Code under which the collector may liqui- 

 date a decree by managing the land, for a term not exceeding 20 years 

 through another ; that ."other" being, if the collector thinks fit, the 

 mortgagor, himself, who may then be kept on as the cultivator of the 

 land. If the debtor is turned out, and the land is let to another person 

 for a term of years, at the expiry of that term the debtor will re-enter 

 with no increased sense of the importance of thrift, but with additional 

 incapacity, through the disuse of years, for managing the land. AVe 

 therefore recommend that in all such cases the principle should be 

 followed of paying off the debt by instalments, the land remaining in 

 the hands of the debtor and being managed by him, on payment of a 

 full rent, the excess of which above the revenue would go towards the 

 liquidation of the debt; such payments being collected from him by 

 the Revenue Courts along with the land revenue, and being made over 

 every half year to the creditor. In the event of the debtor's failure to 

 carry out such an arrangement, and to pay the instalments thus fixed 

 unless he is prevented by drought or any other exceptional calamity, 

 he should be ejected and his rights in the holding sold, when it may 

 be hoped that he would be replaced by a better and more thrifty man. 



20. As a supplement to cheap and accessible Civil Courts, the 

 assistance of the Revenue officials in the repayment of agricultural debt 

 is probably the greatest benefit to both debtor and creditor which the 

 Government is able to offer. The Revenue officers are possessed alike 

 of the means of ascertaining what the debtor could pay, and of realiz- 

 ing the instalments of his debt with the minimum of cost and risk to 

 the creditor. In Upper India, a Zemindar who has a gross rental of 

 Rs. 100 pays Rs. 50 as land revenue, and about Rs. 15 in cesses. 

 Rs. 10 must be set aside for the vicissitudes of the season, and Rs. 25 

 may be taken as the minimum annual profit he receives as a proprietor. 

 In the majority of cases he himself cultivates a portion of the estate ; 

 if, then, he is content to pay a cultivator's rent, and to live on a culti- 

 vator's profit, he is able to pay his whole proprietary profits, or Rs. 25 

 a year, or 50 per cent on his government revenue, in liquidation of his 

 debts. Such an instalment will clear off a debt of Rs. 100 at 12 per 

 cent in 6 years, or of Rs. 200 at 9 per cent in 14 years. In Southern 

 India the margin between the Government rates and a full rent is 

 probably not so great, but the Revenue authorities would decide 

 what the average profits of a ryot are. On such considerations the 



