NATIONALIZATION OF LAND 19 



State, and in determining the principles upon which 

 this land revenue should be assessed the Government 

 has been compelled to consider the theories governing 

 the ownership of land. Upon no other question of 

 public policy in India is the literature so voluminous 

 or controversial as that relating to the assessment of 

 land revenue. Official opinion has been swayed first 

 by one theory and afterwards by another the most 

 opposite, and even if we may assume that a settled 

 policy has at last been reached, the controversy is 

 still so fresh that abstract speculations regarding the 

 ownership of land have a very practical interest for 

 Indian students. For convenience of reference, the 

 three opinions which have principally influenced the 

 discussion upon the ownership of Indian land will 

 be referred to as (1) the Economic doctrine, (2) the 

 English doctrine, and (3) the Indian doctrine. These 

 names have not much claim to accuracy, but they are 

 distinctive and convenient. 



The rigid application of the Economic doctrine would 

 seem to require that private property in land should 

 be abolished, and that all land should become the 

 property of the State ; in other words, that the land 

 should be nationalized. In old countries, however, 

 this is hardly ever a practical policy, because the 

 State has usually recognised the rights of certain 

 persons to a beneficial interest in the land, and these 

 rights cannot be withdrawn without injustice. But 

 although the State is pledged to maintain the existing 

 privileges of the landlord, it might legitimately appro- 

 priate to itself all future increments in the value of 



together with the calculated rental value of lands held by the 

 proprietors themselves, or allowed by them to be rent free ; to 

 these may be added any other sources of profit, such as valuable 

 waste lands, income from grazing, fruits, and wild produce, etc. 

 The rental assets are, of course, the principal thing.' — 'A Short 

 Account of the Land Revenue and its Administration in British 

 India; with a Sketch of the Land Tenures,' by B. H. Baden-Powell. 



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