PKOBLEM OF NAZRANA 73 



into the improvement of his holding ; and if he has but 

 little capital, he mast borrow the whole or part of the 

 premium. The tenant would in fact be better off if he paid 

 an increased rental for the whole seven years amounting to 

 15 or even 20 per cent on the amount of the premium, and 

 so would the landlord. 



The problem of abolishing the nazrana exacted by many 

 of the Talukdars on admission to a new lease is one of 

 extreme difficulty. It can only be entirely abolished by 

 removing the occasion for its payment in other words, by 

 prohibiting ejectments. Government has in fact already 

 taken this course as a temporary measure by an administra- 

 tive order allowing ejections to be made only with the 

 sanction of the district magistrate and for serious reasons. 

 If this were followed as a permanent policy it would 

 practically mean the grant of fixity of tenure to all existing 

 tenants subject to their paying their rent and not being 

 guilty of gross misbehaviour. 



Such fixity of tenure is the very last thiug which ought 

 to be granted, having in view the principles explained in 

 preceding chapters, and especially the progress of agricul- 

 ture. The search for an alternative measure of preventing 

 nazrana cannot, I think, be completely successful. So long 

 as the rent proposed by the landlord is below the economic 

 rent and so long as there is competition of tenants to 

 obtain land (which presumption is strictly speaking involv- 

 ed in the former) there is bound to be the opportunity for 

 .the landlord to exact a premium. It is in the interest of 

 both parties the landlord and the proposed tenant who 

 desires to get the land that a premium be paid if the right 

 of admission is granted to the highest bidder. The interest 

 of both parties being alike makes it impossible to enforce 

 any legal prohibition of nazrana. 



Personally, 1 am disposed to favor the gradual abolition 



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