CESSES IN ADDITION TO RENT 47 



'To a non-resident zemindar, not desirous of keeping 

 up the custom of division for any ulterior object, the 

 system would naturally possess great attractions, and 

 it is quite easy to conceive of his overcoming the 

 objections of other tenants by allowing them to pay 

 the amount of the estimate in grain instead of in money. 



' And once introduced, the convenience of the system 

 would soon cause it to extend and take a firm hold on 

 the people. The tenants would find themselves free 

 to cut the crops as soon as they were ripe, and free to 

 store and sell them when they liked ; the zemindar, on 

 the other hand, would find himself relieved from the 

 vexatious task of watching the crops and dividing 

 them, besides in most cases escaping the cost of carry- 

 ing off his share in kind. Thus, as first introduced, 

 the system was probably of mutual advantage almost 

 everywhere. Unfortunately the opportunities it gives 

 for oppression were too great to be long resisted, and 

 in the hands of the less respectable zemindars, and 

 especially in those of the karindas, it has now become so 

 misused that the tenants almost universally entreat to 

 be allowed to keep to actual batai in spite of all its 

 inconveniences. The appraisement has to be made 

 just when the crop has ripened, almost immediately — 

 that is, before it should be cut, and when any consider- 

 able delay must cause it to deteriorate. To the tenant 

 the loss of even one crop often means ruin, and the 

 landlord or his karinda have thus a hold on each of 

 them individually, which they well know how to use. 

 The appraisement made is therefore usually as high as 

 they think it possible to go, but as it is common to all 

 humanity to make mistakes, so occasionally the crop 

 turns out better than they thought it would be. It 

 was on some occasion of this sort that the idea of 

 dhala struck one of them. The crop, he argued, had 

 turned out about 20 per cent, better than had been 

 expected ; therefore, the least the tenants could do in 

 justice was to pay up at least 10 per cent, more over 



