70 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS 



During the past ten years the full annual rental value of 

 land has risen very considerably in certain parts of Oudh, 

 perhaps partly owing to the effects of the improved com- 

 munications, but mainly on account of the general rise of 

 prices. Thus the full rental value of the land has risen until 

 in some places it greatly exceeds the statutory maximum 

 rental payable under the lease system. The inevitable 

 result has been that landlords who wish to increase their 

 income to the maximum have adopted the practice of re- 

 letting land to the person who will pay the highest nazrana 

 or premium on admission. Some landlords go further 

 than this. In the belief that when the next settlement, due 

 about twelve years hence, comes to be made the revenue will 

 be assessed on the rent rolls, some landlords are avoiding 

 enhancements of rent and are seeking to obtain the whole of 

 the enhanced annual value of the land in the form of nazrana. 

 Thus on re-letting a holding a purely nominal* enhancement 

 of one pie in the rupee may hv made, which is only one- 

 twelfth of the legal enhancement, but a heavy nazrana is 

 charged. Although the exaction of nazrana is obviously 

 contrary to the spirit of the Oudh Rent Act it has been 

 held by the courts that it is not illegal. 



The Oudh landlords, or some of them, have other sources 

 of income besides rent and naznina charged on new leases. 

 There is the local custom by which the TaluLdar receives in 

 addition to his cash rents certain offerings in kind, 

 such as a maund of grain or a load of straw or a pot of gur 

 (sugar-cane juice) at the harvest time each year. There 

 has been some grumbling amongst tenants because larger 

 loads of straw, and larger pots of juice are now exacted than 

 formerly. Then there is the begar or compulsory labor for 

 the landord's business which the tenant is obliged to render 

 for a merely nominal payment. In some cases the landlord 

 luis the right to the occasional use of the tenant's bullock 



