CHAPTER I. 



INDEBTEDNESS OF THE LAND-HOLDING CLASSES. 

 [Extracts from the Report of the Deccan Riots Commission, 1875.'] 



The earliest record shows that indebtedness was common among 

 the Deccan ryots when their country came into our hands. Mr. 

 Commissioner Chaplin reporting on the newly acquired Deccan 

 districts in 1822, writes : 



" The ryots in many villages, though usually frugal and provident, 

 are much in debt to soivkars and merchants owing to the oppression 

 of the revenue contractors ; many of these debts are of long standing, 

 and are often made up of compound interest and fresh occasional 

 aids which go on accumulating so as to make the accounts exceedingly 

 complicated ; a ryot thus embarrassed can seldom extricate himself. 

 His exertion may be compared to the hellish torments of Sisyphus, 

 who had no sooner rolled his burthen to the summit of the hill than it 

 fell back upon him with redoubled violence. * * * The Mir as* fields 

 of ryots are sometimes mortgaged for these debts." 



Again he writes : " The Collector of Ahmednagar, notwithstanding 

 some embarrassments, is of opinion that there is an universal tone of 

 satisfaction among the ryots resulting from the improvement of their 

 condition, and he thinks that they are gradually extricating them- 

 selves from their difficulties. The general feature of the picture is 

 correct, but it is perhaps charged with colours a little too brilliant. 

 He thinks that complaints against them from the soivkars are 

 decreasing, but this circumstance is partly to be ascribed to many of 

 these debts having been declared inadmissible. 



These debts were of two kinds, public and private. The public 

 debt of the village community arose usually from advances or loans 

 made by the Mahratta Government to be recovered with interest from 

 the revenues of villages assigned to the State creditor; the private 



* Miras tenure comprised a right of occupancy at the customary rate and other 

 privileges distinguishing it from the ordinary tenancyat-will. 



