32 LANDLORD AND TENANT 



landlord and tenant which is to be applicable throughout the 

 Provinces should be as simple as possible in its provisions, 

 and be capable of almost complete enforcement. Such 

 evils as the luw cannot anticipate or provide against, and 

 such as could only be provided against by prohibitions 

 which cannot be enforced, must be controlled in a different 

 way by the paternal action of the State, which must then 

 step in and adopt such special measures as are needed to 

 meet the case in regard to each particular estate. 



When we come to examine the main features of the 

 existing Tenancy Acts in these Provinces we see that the 

 development of the law has depended upon the existing 

 circumstances from time to time. The tenancy law has never 

 been thought out with a view to securing the future pro- 

 gress of agriculture. A fixed system was established which 

 prevents progress. It is true that provisions were made in 

 both the Agra and Oudh Tenancy Acts to encourage the 

 making of improvements both by the landlord and tenant : 

 but for various reasons these have worked unsatisfactorily in 

 practice. The great need of the present time is an elastic 

 tenancy system which will give opportunity for the progress 

 of agriculture. It should not be inferred that I think thut 

 the proposals which I shall make for present adoption 

 could advantageously have been adopted twenty or thirty 

 years ago. In my opinion the time is now ripe for the 

 first time for a great effort to liberalize the relations 

 between landlords and tenants, and thereby to secure agri- 

 cultural prosperity. 



Recent experience has shown that even the most 

 elaborate tenancy acts are incapable of controlling bad land- 

 lords. The public have become well acquainted with some 

 of the abuses practised in Oudh such as the wholesale 

 ejections, the heavy nazrana and the enforcement of begdr. 

 It should, however, be realized that it is only on a minority 



