ARBITRARY EXACTIONS 7J 



carts and animals and his plough as well as to the man's 

 own services . The latter are remunerated at the very 

 old rate of one anna per day, whereas the average rate 

 of wages for agricultural labor now is six annas per day. 

 A few landlords have created much disaffection amongst 

 their tenants by the imposition of arbitrary nazrana at 

 any time when the landlords happened to require some 

 money. It is an old-standing Indian custom that presents 

 known as salami should be offered to a rajah or chief when he 

 goes on tour visiting his villages ; and officers of all grades 

 in the Moghul Empire received such presents. A traditional 

 custom has been degraded and commercialized until it has 

 become a serious oppression on the estates of some land- 

 owners. If the landlord wants to buy an elephant a levy is 

 made from all tenants in proportion to rent. In recent 

 years he generally buys a motor-car, and this is provided in 

 similar manner. The tenants speak of these exactions as 

 lt(tthiana and motorana. In some cases subscriptions to Wai- 

 Loans were exacted from the tenants without their obtaining 

 credit for their payments. 



The lust mentioned arbitrary exactions, the hathiaita, 

 motorana, etc., should be prohibited by law and Government 

 should make it well-known in the villages that payments not 

 stipulated in the lease are illegal. It is probable that one 

 result of the non-co-operation movement will be that the 

 tenants in future will combine and refuse to pay the illegal 

 exactions. The Kisan Sabhas, or peasant societies, which 

 are springing up in many places will, if they survive the 

 present political movement, exercise a useful function in the 

 protection of the tenants against exactions by the landlords 

 or their agents and subordinates, which are sanctioned 

 neither by the law nor by custom. As regards the ftt^ar^ 

 some of the smaller landlords who do their own cultivation 

 are apt to abuse this privilege, thereby creating some 



