20 THE OWNERSHIP OF LAND 



land, and thus place existing landlords in the position 

 of annuitants drawing a fixed income from the land, 

 but having no power to control the use of it. 



This was the view taken of land in India by those 

 who maintained that the land revenue was not a tax, 

 but was rent. It was asserted that the State in India 

 had never divested itself of its supreme proprietary 

 right in the land ; the most that could be asserted was 

 that Indian rulers in the past had recognised the tenant's 

 claim to fixity of tenure; but while recognising his 

 right not to be dispossessed from his holding as long 

 as he paid his rent to the paramount landlord, they 

 had actually exercised their privilege of appropriating 

 to the State the whole of the increased value of land. 

 This view was fortified by the reflection that it is the 

 State which now renders to agriculture, and to all 

 industry, the services which the zamindar used in 

 lawless days to perform ; it is the State which now 

 confers upon the agriculturist security in which to 

 pursue his industry, and it is the State which executes 

 most of the permanent improvements upon the land — 

 such as irrigation-canals, drainage-cuts, roads, and 

 railways. According to this view of the relation of 

 the State to land, the Indian zamindar was but an 

 agent for the collection of the State revenue, and he 

 was entitled to nothing more than a percentage of his 

 collections as a recompense for his trouble. This 

 view gained support from the fact that a considerable 

 number of persons who are now recognised by the 

 British Government as the owners of estates, were 

 originally nothing more than farmers of the revenue — 

 i.e., persons who accepted the contract of collecting 

 the Government Revenue on condition of keeping to 

 themselves a certain percentage of their collections. 

 The practical application of this view would, of course, 

 have been to raise the land-tax so as to take from the 

 zamindar all profits in excess of those surrendered to 

 him at the last settlement. The theory of State land- 



