persons) was entitled by custom, law or usage to make his 

 demands for rent according to his convenience, or in other 

 words, that the cultivators of the soil had the solid right from 

 time immemorial of paying a defined rent and no more for the 

 land they cultivated." Mr." Hodgson pointed out that " the ' 

 first principle of the permanent settlement was to confirm 

 and secure these rights" and that "the proprietary right of 

 the Zemindars was no more than the right to collect from the 

 cultivators that rent which custom has established as the 

 right of Government ; and the benefit arising from this right 

 was confined, first, to an extension of the amount, not the rate^ 

 of the customary rent by an increase of cultivation ; secondly, 

 to a profit in dealings in grain, where the rent may be rendered 

 in kind ; thirdly, to a change from an inferior to a superior 

 kind of culture, arising out of a mutual understanding of 

 their interest between the cultivator and proprietor." Mr. 

 Webbe, however, did not think it necessary to adopt Mr. 

 Hodgson's suggestion on the grounds that the rights of the 

 ryots would be best developed in the Courts, then for the first 

 time to be established, and that to suppose knowledge of 

 them would be suppressed by the acts of the Zemindars was 

 " contrary to the whole course of human experience." ^^ 



84. As might be expected the safe-guards provided by 

 the permanent settlement regulations for 

 vid?dZ'tf°p^ecL" the protection of the rights of the ryots 

 of the ryot' 8 rights nuga- provcd entirely unavailing. No steps were 

 sures takenTn\8'i2!''^' ^^kcn to SCO that io accordaucc with these 

 regulations, puttahs and muchilikas were 

 exchanged between the Zemindars and their ryots and that 

 all cesses levied under various denominations were consoli- 

 dated into a single specific sum within two years from the 

 date of the permanent settlement. The ryots were mostly 

 illiterate peasants who could not understand written agree- 

 ments containing stipulations regarding rates of rent; and 

 the kurnams who were supposed to be the guardians of their 

 rights were in the pay of the Zemindars and had no motive 

 to help the ryots, even if they dared to do so. The ryots 

 themselves had for long periods of time been subjected to the 

 arbitrary power of the Zemindars and could not be expected 

 to become bold enough to try conclusions with them, by a 

 mere legislative declaration that they were free to do so. 

 The Courts, then for the first time established, and in which 

 the rights of the ryots were to be " developed," were also far 



38 Vide Proceedings o£ the Board of Revenue, dated 2nd December 1864, No. 7843. 



