20.5 



In the vast majority of cases the lands owned by the ryots 

 are farmed by them, either by themselves working on the 

 fields or by employing farm servants monthly or yearly or on 

 the sharing system known in the southern districts as the 

 porakudi system. In the last case it is often erroneously 

 supposed that the land is leased out and that the porakudi 

 is a tenant/^^ but the fact is that the land is farmed on the 

 co-operative principle, the labourer being remunerated by a 

 share of the crop instead of being paid daily wages, on 

 condition of his furnishing the stock, the labour and the seed 

 required, and the owner bearing the expenses of farm repairs, 

 of the clearance of irrigation channels and of manures. The 

 arrangement is highly advantageous to the labourer and is 

 sought after by such of the labourers as have the means to 

 purchase a pair of cattle and engage in cultivation. It is in 

 fact the system of metayage prevalent in European coun- 

 tries in regard to which Professor Marshall remarks that it 

 " makes a man who has next to no capital of his own to 

 obtain the use of it at a lower charge than he could in any 

 other way and to have more freedom and responsibility than 

 he could as a hired labourer ; and thus, the plan has many of 

 the advantages of the three modern systems of co-operation, 

 profit-sharing and payment of piece-work." The leasing out 

 of land for fixed rent in kind or money marks the next 

 higher stage in the status of a labourer. He attains to a 



^'' There is much misconception as to the part taken by the Mirassidars of Tanjore 

 and corresponding classes in the other districts in the farming of lands. The true state 

 of the case was pointed out by Mr. John Wallace, the Collector of Tanjore, in 1805. He 

 said : " Although the Mirassidars, in employing either class of porakudis, renounce all. 

 interference in the business of tillage, it is not to be considered that they neglect the 

 management of their lands. On the contrary, they superintend and direct the labours 

 of the porakudis in all the particulars of rural economy. Their engagements with 

 porakudis are not for a fixed quantity of grain or a determinate sum of money. The 

 porakudis have an active interest in cultivating the lands of the mirassidars in the most 

 beneficial manner possible, as a fixed proportion of the produce is the only remuneration 

 they have to look to for their labour. This proportion varies in different villages. It is 

 not anywhere less than 22 per cent, of the gross produce nor more than 30." The 

 remuneration of the labourer is, of course, determined by the standard of living of his 

 class, which, as pointed out in a previous portion of this Memorandum, has to some ex- 

 tent risen and certainly not deteriorated. It must also be remembered that, 1st, where 

 the land-tax is so high as to leave to the landholder nothing more than the barest means 

 of subsistence, the State has to perform the functions of a landlord by supplying him 

 with the means of cultivation and often of subsistence ; 2ndly, where the tax is so 

 moderate as to leave a suflicient margin to meet both the expenses of cultivation and 

 of subsistence, the State is relieved of the functions of a landlord, but the ryot has to 

 resort to the money-lender on account of the vicissitudes of the seasons to obtain the 

 wherewithal to live and carry on cultivation in years of scanty produce, the advances 

 made being repaid from the surplus of years of abundant produce ; and, 3rdly, where the 

 tax is still more moderate so as to leave a margin sufficient to meet not only the cost of 

 cultivation and subsistence, but also to enable him to lay by savings which would help 

 him to tide over bad seasons, resort to a money-lender can be dispensed with. At this 

 stage, however., the landholder in many places no longer consents to be a mere peasant 

 actually working in the fields, but he becomes a farmer, with skill, intelligence and 

 capital suflScient to adopt improved methods of cultivation provided it is found to pay, 



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