274 Statistics of the [ No 38, 



are registered at Pytuu, the individual value of whom was Rs. 33-6 

 the duty paid was Ks. (38, on the whole. 



Tenure. 



As far as I can understand the true Meerasdar has entirely disap 

 peared from these districts, or at all events, if in existence, his prero- 

 gatives are inoperative, as there is no class of cultivator found pos- 

 sessing distinctive rights, such as were claimed by persons holding 

 lands, under this particular tenure in former days. 



The forms of tenures usually granted are either on a written lease 

 in which the tenant enters into undertaking for the current year 

 called Toka, subjected to certain arbitrary imposts ; or by a lease for 

 a specified definite period, by which an agreement is entered into, 

 to cultivate a certain amount of land, for a certain number of years, 

 the yearly rent of which rises with each successive year, until it 

 reaches its maximum in the last: the cultivator being subject to cer- 

 tain payments, varying according to particular agreements, or local 

 customs. 



The former tenure is called Toka and the latter Istawah. 



Under the first variety the mode generally followed is for the person 

 contracting for the Revenue, to obtain the highest possible amount 

 of rent short of actually deriving land out of cultivation, and from 

 the love the cultivator bears his fields, his forbearance has to be tried 

 severely before he abandons them, under so vague a tenure which is 

 governed solely by the wants and necessities of the contractor, it is 

 useless expecting improvement in the cultivator's condition : differ- 

 ences are for ever arising in the struggle of one party trying to outwit 

 the other, in the course of which both are generally so much in the 

 wrong, that it is often difficult to say who is most to blame ; attempts 

 at fraud and exaction, are met on the part of the cultivators by 

 duplicity and cunning: a recourse often proving very successful 

 in their hands ; to meet the payments of their kists they resort to 

 the money lender, or sell their produce at a disadvantage : under 

 these depressing circumstances, the cultivator labours on with list- 

 less apathy, his husbandry is slovenly performed, and he soon loses 

 all his self-respect, by finding himself inextricably involved in debt, 

 by the purchase of cattle, seed, and the bare means of subsistence. 



Revenue. 



The system of finance is based directly, upon the tax,- or rent 

 realized, from granting permission to cultivate the soil, and indirectly, 



