243 



powerful Zemindar and a poor ignorant ryot, the odds are, 

 of course, immensely in favour of the former. The rights 

 too, whose origin has to be referred ^"^ back to times when 

 there was no settled Government or regular administration 

 of law, are not capable of easy proof or even of exact defi- 

 nition. In this state of things, the natural result is that 

 whatever is not proved to belong to the ryot is taken to 

 belong to the Zemindar. The only effectual way of protect- 

 ing the ryot, then, is to define his rights precisely by legis- 

 lation and to allow him freedom to contract himself out 

 of them only to a limited extent, seeing that in the case of 

 cultivators cultivating for subsistence, with no alternative 

 occupation to fall back upon or education or means to hold 

 their own in a contest with their landlords, there can be no 

 real freedom of action. Bearing the.se considerations in 

 mind, the principles on which the legislation should be based 

 may be thus stated : — According to the common law of the 

 country, there are two distinct interests in land recognized, 

 viz., the Melvaram and Kudivaram. Melvaram belongs to 

 the Government or its assignee the Zemindar ; and the 

 Kudivaram to the ryot. There are also two distinct classes 

 of land, viz., one Pannai, Kamar, home farm or private lands, 

 and the other Aiyan, Jeroyati, or peasant lands. In the 

 first class of lands both the Melvaram and Kudivaram rights 

 belong to the Zemindar ; and in the second, the Melvaram 

 right alone. The bulk of the lands belong to the latter class, 

 and so the presumption must be that land not proved to be 

 private land is peasant land. This rule should be applied to 

 cultivated land as well as the waste. As regards waste, 

 the Zemindar should be entitled to apply to a Civil Court 

 for permission to enclose waste lands and treat the en- 

 closed lands as " private " in view to forming planta- 

 tions, establishing factories, growing jungles, &c. The Court 

 should in such cases give notice to the ryots to state any ob- 

 jections they may have to the enclosure and, after hearing 

 their objections and making such arrangements as may be 

 found necessary to reserve sufficient area of waste land to meet 

 the requirements of the ryots as regards bond fide increase 

 of cultivation and pasturage, it may grant the application. 

 In regard to the grant of unenclosed waste lands,^°^ the 



'°* Vide extract (appendix VI.-B. (7)) from Sir H. S. Maine's speech in the Legisla- 

 tive Council of India for a full explanation of the difficulty of ascertaining the rights 

 of ryots when there is no settled Government. See also extracts from Sir Frederick 

 Pollock's " Land Laws " regarding the manner in which the rights of tenants became 

 gradually abridged (appendix VI.-B. (8)). 



'^"^ As to the discussions in the case of Government waste lands and the final settlement 

 of the question — vide note printed as appendix VI.-B. (9). 



