20 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



The highland region is comprehended within eleven 

 of the nineteen districts into which the province has 

 been subdivided for administrative purposes. A portion 

 of most of these districts lies also in the adjacent plains, 

 either to the north or south of the hills, a judicious 

 arrangement, which combines in one jurisdiction the hill 

 and the plain people who have dealings together. The 

 total area of these districts is, in round numbers, 44,000 

 square miles, of which about 11,000 are under culti- 

 vation, and the remainder waste. Where such extensive 

 mountains are included, it will not be surprising to find 

 that of this large unreclaimed area, about 20,000 square 

 miles are estimated to be wholly incapable of tillage, the 

 remaining 13,000 being probably more or less fit for im- 

 provement. These figures are obtained by the returns of 

 the department employed in what is called the "settle- 

 ment of the land revenue." * 



Few readers will require to be told that in India the 

 great mass of the land has always paid a tax to the 

 Government (which is really of the nature of a rent- 

 charge which had never been alienated by the original 

 proprietor of all land — the State) ; and in these provinces 

 most of the hill-chiefs even w^ere found, on the country 

 coming into our hands, to be liable to the land tax, 

 which in their case, however, was usually a very light 

 one. During the times of anarchy which preceded our 

 rule, the proper amount of this tax had become very 

 uncertain, the assessment, in fact, having very much 

 resolved itself into a struggle between the rulers and the 

 ruled, "that they should take who have the power, and 

 they should keep who can." It was also by no means 



* The writer served for three years as settlement officer of one of 

 these districts, and can vouch for the general accuracy of the statistics. 



