1210 Account of Kkyrpoor and the Fortress of Bukur, [No. 108. 



Note on Khyrpoor in North Sind. 



Land owners who hold Sunnuds (title deeds) of rent free tenures of the 

 Emperors of Dilhee and their successors, pay no revenue to the state. 



Suyuds pay one-fourth of the crop ; and the ung, or expense entailed by 

 Government in collecting the revenue, is remitted. 



Some noble families of Moghuls, Puthans, and Sindee Zumeendars pay 

 one-fourth like the Suyuds. 



A second class of cultivators pay one-third, a third class two-fifths, and 

 a fourth class one-half the crop. The cess varies in different districts, and 

 is regulated by the prince or his lieutenant. 



Proprietors of gardens pay revenue in cash. I have stated in my ac- 

 count of Khyrpoor that government leaves only one-sixteenth of the pro- 

 duce to the owner. I find on reference to my notes that in some places 

 it exacts sixty, and in others seventy-five per cent. Tndigo is taxed a 

 fourth, and is not cultivated in the districts of Roree and Sukhur. 



Buhawul Khan, the Nuwab of Daoodpotra, collects in kind, nomi- 

 nally a third and fourth of the crop, but fines and exactions leave 

 the farmer only half the produce of land near towns and villages pos- 

 sessing facilities for irrigation. Land distant from inhabited spots, and 

 watered from wells, is taxed a fourth and sometimes a fifth for a 

 term of years, according to agreement with the Zumeendar, who clears the 

 land and digs wells, to irrigate it. The people complain universally of 

 the high assessment, and the prince obliges Zumeendars to grind in their 

 mills a certain quantity of grain produced on the royal farms without re- 

 muneration. His oppressive measures have depopulated a large extent of 

 country, and numbers of the inhabitants have settled on the west bank of 

 the Sutluj, where the assessment though nearly as heavy as in Daoodpotra, 

 is levied fairly. The land on the west bank is of better quality, and yields 

 a large return, which enables the peasant to support his burthen, and he 

 enjoys complete security of life and property under the police system in- 

 troduced by the late Runjeet Singh. The inhabitants have put aside their 

 arms, and in the large district of Mooltan, bordering on the Sutluj, I am 

 informed that it is rare to find a sword or matchlock in a family. 



The people of the Sikh states west of the Sutluj pay a fourth and fifth of the 

 crop either in cash or kind, and the former is sometimes obliged to purchase 

 the government share at a price greatly in excess of the market rate. There 

 are also profit and loss settlements adopted, apparently from the system in 

 operation in the British provinces, which are unfavourable for the farmer. 



The ruler of the Punjab takes half the produce of " Silab," or land inun- 

 dated by rivers, and a fourth or fifth, and sometimes as little as a seventh, 

 of land irrigated from wells, according to situation and fitness for agricul- 

 ture. The ruyeeuts are on the whole better off than in Daoodpotra and 

 Mumdot, where they save nothing, and make a bare subsistence. 



The cess in the Puthan Chiefship of Mundot in the Sikh states east of 

 the Sutluj under British protection, amounts to a third and fourth of the 

 crop, and in 1839 the people were in a state approaching starvation from 

 the total failure of the periodical rains. 



G. E. Westmacott, Captain, 

 37th Regiment Native Infantry. 



