ORIGIN OF OCCUPANCY RIGHTS 65 



served and strengthened by the general feeling that 

 whatever is old ought to remain unaltered. The 

 Native Governments also threw their weight into the 

 same scale by reason of their knowledge that the 

 payment and growth of the revenue depended on the 

 contentment and prosperity of those who cultivated 

 the soil, and hence it was commonly made a condition 

 of the tenure of the superior holder that he should 

 not only pay the Government revenue, but also should 

 foster the spread of cultivation, and keep the ryots 

 contented. 



1 When the early British rulers began to look into 

 the question, they were universally impressed with 

 the belief that the rights of the tenants were co- 

 ordinate with those of the landlord, and equal to his 

 in point of permanence. The authors of the Perma- 

 nent Settlement in Bengal considered the position of 

 the tenant no less entitled to protection and security 

 than that of the landlord, and undoubtedly intended 

 to place the one on as assured a footing as the other. 



' The same regulation (Regulation I. of 1793, Article 7) 

 which created the rights of the zemindars contained 

 the proviso that — " It being the duty of the ruling 

 power to protect all classes of people, more particu- 

 larly those who from their situations are most helpless, 

 the Governor-General in Council will, whenever he 

 may deem it proper, enact such regulations as he may 

 think necessary for the protection and welfare of the 

 dependent talukdars, ryots, and other cultivators of 

 the soil." It was added that no zemindar should be 

 entitled to make any objection to his assessment on 

 this account.* 



* The opinion quoted above differs somewhat from the view 

 which I took in the preceding chapter, and which is supported by 

 the authority of Mr. H. B. Baden-Powell. All the members of the 

 Famine Commission of 1880, with the exception of Mr. H. E. 

 Sullivan, held the opinion that the land revenue was to be regarded 



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