230 



too distant and inaccessible to be of any use to persons who 

 had never left their villages, nor known any other judicatory 

 than their own caste punchayets. The powers possessed and 

 arbitrarily exercised by the Zemindars of forcibly procuring 

 the attendance of the ryots and of ejecting them for not ac- 

 cepting puttahs offered had been distinctly legalized. The only 

 course open ii> the circumstances for affording effectual pro- 

 tection to the ryots was for Government itself to have settled 

 the rents payable by the ryots and recorded them carefully. 

 The Government of the day had, however, too much of other 

 urgent work on hand to enter on this laborious and difficult 

 enquiry. It was therefore not at all surprising that the 

 Board of Revenue reported in 1820 on the condition of the 

 Zemindari ryots as follows : 



"The Board are assured, not only from the reports of 

 officers deputed to enquire into complaints in the Provinces, 

 but from other unquestionable sources of information, that 

 the great body of ryots is not in that state of ease and secu- 

 rity in which the justice and policy of the British Government 

 mean to place them. In general, the ryots submit to oppres- 

 sion and })ay what is demanded from them by any person in 

 power rather than have recourse to the tedious, expensive 

 and uncertain process of a law-suit. The cases in which they 

 are sufferers are so numerous, various, intricate and technical, 

 — they and their witnesses are so far from the seats of the 

 Courts of Judicature — delays are so ruinous to them — they 

 are so poor, so averse to forms, new institutions and intricate 

 modes of procedure — they are so timid and so simple a race, 

 that it is necessary for the Government to endeavour to 

 protect them by a summary and efficacious judicial procedure ; 

 and it is evident that the officer entrusted with the general 

 government of the Province, as having the greatest and most 

 immediate interest in the welfare of those under his govern- 

 ment, and as the only officer having a free and full intercourse 

 with them, should be vested with the duty of conducting 

 these summary proceedings. It is necessary, therefore, in 

 the opinion of the Board to provide by regulation, first, for 

 the protection of the ryots, the great object of all our pro- 

 vincial institutions, and indeed of civil government in the 

 country, but one most difficult of attainment ; and for that 

 purpose the Collector or other officer entrusted with the 

 general government of the Province, his assistants when he 

 delegates his authority to them, and the native officers acting 

 by his orders should have primary and summary j^urisdiction 

 in all disputes between Zemindai-s and their under-farmers and 

 ryots regarding rates of assessment, occupancy of land, and 



