GENERAL VIEW. REVENUE, 11 



Three Revenue systems: 1st, the Village joint CHAP. 



rent system. By bearing in mind the village communi- ; 



ties, it is easy to obtain a general view of the Revenue sys- l \ 

 terns which prevail in the Madras Presidency. First of all 

 we have the relic of ancient times, the village joint rent 

 system ; in which the inhabitants of each village still pay 

 through their Head man to the Collector of the District, 

 a yearly lump tax for the whole of their lands ; and then 

 they are left to allot to each one of their number, the lands 

 he is to cultivate, and the yearly contribution he is to pay. 

 The defect in the village joint rent system is, that each vil- 

 lager is responsible not only for the payment of his own 

 contribution, but virtually for the payment of the contribu- 

 tions of all the others ; whilst at the same time there is no 

 clear definition of his individual right to the land which he 

 cultivates and holds. 



2nd, The Zemindary system. This system may also 12 

 be explained in a few words. A set of middle-men or aris- 

 tocracy, arose between the Sovereign and the Head men of 

 the villages, known by the general name of Zemindars. 

 Some had received villages as rewards for services ; others 

 were simply farmers of the revenue ; others again may have 

 obtained villages in return for supplies of troops, or by chi- 

 canery or force during the dark days of a declining dynasty ; 

 whilst some were undoubtedly descendants of old feudal 

 chiefs and barons, who had held possession of the villages 

 from time immemorial. Be this as it may, we found all 

 these Zemindars exercising proprietary rights, and paying a 

 fixed annual sum to the existing Government. According- 

 ly, this Zemindary system has, in many parts, still continu- 

 ed to exist under British rule. The objections to it are that 

 the Zemindar's profits swallow up from 15 to 33 per cent, of 



the revenue derived from the lands under cultivation, as 

 well as the whole of any future revenue which may arise 



from the waste lands being taken into cultivation. 



