101 



c=f 



process of any Court for personal debts. They 

 should be treated as entailed property, of which the 

 life interest only can be alienated. The result from 

 preserving- and increasing- the existing- Hucks will 

 be g-ood. But it will be much better from continu- 

 ing- the system which Lord Canning* has commenced 

 of establishing- new rig-hts of the above description, 

 by giving- Estates, Talooks, &c.'* 



In another place the Eaja says : < Institution of 

 a new enquiry into grants. Selling- rights (Rucks)- 

 which the subjects value dearer than their lives, and 

 many other thing's which will be described here- 

 after, are contributing- to the dissatisfaction of the 

 subjects/ 



I have heard it said moreover, by other native 

 gentlemen, not inferior in status, or of less intelli- 

 gence than the author of these Observations, that 

 the right of occupancy in India, is an exclusive and 

 permanent rig-lit, which cannot be alienated or pur- 

 chased, except with the consent of the holders. The 

 savage races who dwell on hills and in jungles, are 

 the owners of those hills and jungles ; the tribes who 

 squat on lands are the owners of those lands; 

 villagers, who, like the patriarchs of old, graze their 

 flocks on vast pasture lands, who cut grass or fire- 

 wood in forests, have, if not an ownership in those 

 lands and forests, a prescriptive title to these rights 



* Memorandum of Observations on the Administration, of 

 India by Raja Dinker Rao of Grualior, Member of the Gover- 

 nor- General's Council for making Laws, p. 8. Home Office, 

 Calcutta, 1862. 



