30 THE OWNERSHIP OF LAND 



with the modification of the English doctrine of land- 

 ownership the desire to see it introduced declined, 

 and the decision upon this point was therefore post- 

 poned. In the course of the ensuing thirty or forty 

 years the rise in the value of agricultural produce, 

 followed by a rise in rents, brought home to the 

 officers of the Government the fact that there might 

 be a rise in the value of land due to the progress of 

 society to which the owner of the land had not con- 

 tributed ; it is probable, also, that they were influenced 

 by the growth of economic opinion in England, and 

 the writings of J. S. Mill, which predisposed them to 

 sympathize with proposals for keeping all increase in 

 the value of land in the hands of the State. What- 

 ever the cause may have been, official opinion had 

 swayed by the time the first settlements made under 

 Regulation IX. of 1833 came up for revision from the 

 English doctrine of landownership and approximated 

 to the opposite theory of land nationalization. Opinion 

 eventually came to rest on a compromise between the 

 two extreme views, and the theory now generally held 

 is that to which I have given the name of the Indian 

 doctrine of landownership. The right to private pro- 

 perty in land is recognised, but it is subject to two 

 limitations, the first of which consists in snaring with 

 the Government all increments in the income derived 

 from land, and the second consists in the recognition 

 of the semi-proprietary right of the tenant to fixity of 

 tenure. 



The Indian landlord may well have thought that 

 the distinction between rent and tax was a mere matter 

 of words. What was of practical importance was the 

 amount which the State collected from him in the 

 shape of land revenue. The two questions of im- 

 portance to him were (1) what was the proportion of 

 his gross income from the land which he would have 

 to surrender to the State, and (2) upon what principle 

 the officers of Government would estimate his income. 



