RACK-RENTING DEVICES 59 



the mode of taking rent or in the cultivator's tenure. 

 As I have just described, the pyrbatai of this year is 

 transformed into kankut next year. After a short 

 period money-rents are introduced. On these, again, 

 a variety of changes is rung. The bigha rate of one 

 year vanishes into the halsari, or plough-rent, next ; 

 and then a lump lease to the whole tenant body closes 

 the round, ending generally with the destruction of all 

 rights of occupancy previously acquired. 



'But this is not all; lessees, generally strangers, are 

 frequently let loose upon the people. My experience 

 of these persons is not in their favour. They have 

 not even the lingering spark of scruple which may 

 sometimes have restrained the rapacity of their prin- 

 cipals ; they do not know, and they do not care to 

 know, the people ; and in their turn they work through 

 a hired agent, with what results it is not difficult to 

 guess. 



'The effect of this sort of treatment is to impoverish 

 and depress the people. It would be a miracle if the 

 Amroha cultivators, patient and industrious as they 

 are, enjoyed the prosperity of their Bilari and Sambhal 

 brethren. In those tracts the tenant is stimulated by 

 the prospect of a fair return for his labour. He has a 

 tenure, too, which is respected by his landlord. He 

 may be called a happy man. The goad which urges 

 the Amroha tenant is far oftener despair. He sticks 

 doggedly to his plough, and holds on at his well for 

 sheer love of life and nothing more. The aspect of 

 his field may differ but little from that of a Jat's field 

 in Sambhal, just as the handiwork of a life-prisoner 

 may differ but little from that of the " free independent 

 mechanic."*' 



I have quoted this detailed picture of the behaviour 

 of the landlords of Amroha not because I believe it 

 to be typical of the relations between landlord and 



* 'Final Report on the Settlement of the Moradabad District, 

 1881, by E. Alexander. 



