113 



years varying from almost nothing to a bumper crop; but 

 though, as I shall have hereafter occasion to show, I do not 

 believe that the values assigned by the settlement department 

 to the various factors which enter into the calculations from 

 which the Government assessment is deduced are even ap- 

 proximately correct, there is no reason to suppose that the 

 proportion of the assessment of ryotwar lands to the gross 

 produce is higher than those above given. In the ^^ case of 

 lands in the poorer dry districts it is very much less. 



50. The Income'tax. — The revenue derived from this 

 LAKHS, source amounts to 18^ lakhs 



Tax on salaries and pensions ... 6i of rupCCS. The portiou of the 



Tax on Companies ^ r ^ r 



Tax on interest on Government taX relating tO tradcS IS UOt a 



TaronptofitBoftrades;&c. :;■. Ill ucw ouc, but is the represcnt- 



— ative of the old moturpha, some 



— account of which has already 

 been given. Unpopular as the income-tax is, it is nothing 

 so unbearable as the old all-embracing moturpha, which, in 

 an ably drawn up petition, presented by the Madras Native 

 Association to the Committee of the House of Commons, 

 appointed to enquire into Indian affairs in 1853, is described 

 as **a tax on trades and occupations; embracing weavers, 

 carpenters, all workers in metals, all salesmen, whether 

 possessing shops, which are also taxed separately, or vending 

 by the roadside, &c., &c., some paying impost on their tools, 

 others for permission to sell, extending- to the most trifling 

 articles of trade, and the cheapest tools the mechanic can 

 employ ; the cost of which is frequently exceeded six times 

 over by the moturpha, under which the use of them is per- 

 mitted." The tax, according to Mr. Dykes, the Collector of 



" Of course the small proportion of the assessment to the gross produce does 

 not necessarily show that the assessment is light as there is a vast extent of poor 

 lands in arid tracts, which are on the margin of cultivation. The only use of these 

 calculations is to show that the land revenue now taken by the British Government 

 does not exceed much, if at all, the one-sixth share prescribed by Menu, the Hindu law- 

 giver, and which I suppose must have had reference to unirrigated lands and not 

 to lands for which irrigation is provided by expensive irrigation-works constructed and 

 maintained by Government. The statements of Sir Thomas Munro and Mr. Russell 

 referred to in a previous part of this memorandum show that the ryots in former days 

 paid between 45 and 60 per cent, of tho crop to Government, and that the Government 

 share was further enhanced by the unduly high money valuation put ou the crop. The 

 ryots, on the other hand, cheated the Government by holding more lands than they 

 paid for, and further the large area of inam lands enabled the better classes of ryots to 

 exist, it was a case of perpetual struggle between the Government oflBcers and the 

 ryots, the former by means of forced cultivation and torture trying to extort the reve- 

 nue which was impossible of realization except occasionally and in a spasmodic way, 

 and the latter by practising all manner of deception and by concealment of property 

 trying to evade payment of Government dues. Even Sir Thomas Munro, whose one 

 object was to*give saleable value to lands, and encourage enterprise in the ryots, fouiid 

 it necessary to prohibit the cultivation of in^m lands to the neglect of lands which paid 

 the fall assessment. 



15 



