60 



Notes on Rijotivar, or 



[Jan. 



extent in piice are common. Where such great fluctuations exist, it 

 must, I think, be evident, that a proviso, for casting upon Government 

 in seasons of great decrease of price, or produce, its full share, if not 

 the whole of the deficiency, is absolutely necessary, or the pro- 

 prietor will he in a few years ruined, by the large and varying demands 

 TV'hich he is unable to meet from the annual produce, and all trace of 

 property in the land must eventually be swept away. 



So little attention would seem to have been hitherto paid to this 

 eifect of an invariable annual money demand, especially under the dif- 

 ferent species of tenure, that this very proviso in the permanent field 

 assessment of the Tanjore province, which is essential to the existence 

 of merasi tenure, in other words, of property in the soil, has been pro- 

 nounced by high authority (Proceedings of Government 1833) wholly 

 indefensible, as at variance with Colonel Munro's ryotwar of the 

 Ceded Districts. That it is a departure from that system is palpable. 

 But the question is, is it not absolutely necessary to the existence of 

 proprietary right, not only in Tanjore, but elsewhere; and is it not a 

 further evidence that the ryotwar system of permanent money rents is 

 ill adapted to the circumstances of the agriculture, to the state of the 

 landholder, and to the condition of society in this country. 



In support of this opinion we may adduce the fact, that although the 

 ryotwar system of a fixed annual money demand for each field occupied 

 by the ryot, without reference to the annual out-turn from it, has been 

 professedly in force in this Presidency for many years, it has rarely, if 

 ever, heen carried out. In the Ceded Districts, and other ryotwar pro- 

 vinces, a departure in practice from one of its fundamental rules has 

 been admitted for years, by the grant of remissions; but more especially 

 by the practice of not making the annual settlement (dittam) fur the 

 ryots holding, till towards the close of the year, and then determining 

 his rent, not by the actual extent of his occupancy, and his cultivation 

 during the year, but by his productive fields. — Thus throwing the risk of 

 season on the Government, and annually regulating in fact the demand 

 of revenue in a province in each year, by the character of the season, 

 by ihe crop reaped, and the number and extent of the productive fields 

 of the ryot, and not, as ryotwar prescribes, by his occupancy. 



The 7th rule of ryotwar stands thus (see plan of ryotwar Colonel 

 Munro's letter 15th August 1807, appendix to 5th report p. 944). No 

 " remission shall be made on ordinary occasions of bad crops, or other 

 " accidents should failure occur which cannot be made good from the 

 " property, or land of the defaulter, the village shall be liable to 10 per 

 " cent." And the practical application of this rule is explained by 



