1830.] 
On Land Revenue. 
223 
grumbling at the demand : but on a new settlement raise it to twenty rupees per 
j Dacca biga; and although at a great inconvenience, and probably loss, lus patience 
being outdone, he would most likely sell his house for the value o. the 
materials, and build upon a neighbouring spot of ground, equally good, but not at 
present liable to this heavy assessment : the garden would go to ruins, and the 
Government would be just where they were, if not worse. This is just the case with 
the cisan, who takes it into his head to cultivate a superior produce, when he finds 
he has been taken in, and obliged to give it up, by the exorbitant taxation ; or pro- 
bably finds that his profits on inferior produce were just as good, or sufficient to 
keep him comfortable, without the risk*. In this way others are deterred, and im- 
provements of every kind are looked upon with suspicion as a fraib (pretext) foi 
fresh imposts; and I am very much mistaken if this new tobacco and cotton seed 
will not be received very cautiously. I perceive some has been sent to Bundel- 
c,hand; a very proper present, after the screw they got on the old system some ten 
years ago. Collectors may send down flaming accounts of the thankfulness of the 
ratals, but when they looked at it, their thoughts must have been naturally guided 
to the amount of assessment on an article of this very superior sort. This is a 
feeling not peculiar to the natives, but common to human nature. It was a feeling 
of this sort that some years ago made the Europeans batter the ttyermandidote 
with brickbats out of the barracks, as conceiving it some pretext for depriving 
them of part of their batta 8 . 
The taxing of the lands on the quantity of soil and products, leaves every open- 
ing for bribery and corruption, and embroils the collector with the peasantry. A 
constant teazing enquiry is going forward throughout the country, and it would be 
no difficult matter to prove that he is after all grossly deceived in the. reports of 
every village ; and in order to put a stop to these evils, the only plan is to reduce 
the assessments of the revenue to as simple a method as possible, leaving the 
products altogether out of the question, which is the only way to secure an im- 
proved agriculture. 
It has been ascertained by measurements of parts of the buildings at Agra, 
and the distance between the cos minors, that Acber’s gaz was as near as possi- 
ble 33 inches ; sixty gaz is the side of a pacca biga, or fifty-five English yards, 
giving a biga of 3025 square English yards ; this biga of cultivation assessed at one 
rupee, will be found to be nearly the average revenue of the whole of the Upper 
Duab ; and if this was made the groundwork of the assessment, the whole would 
be immediately simplified, and the collector would have nothing to do but to look 
to the quantity of cultivated land; the tax of the culfurable waste might be assessed 
at 3 anas per pacca biga, allowing live bigas for the pasturage of each cow or 
buffaloe, and the value of the produce of a cow or buffaloe being estimated as low 
as 15 anas per year, one-third of which may be taken as the Government revenue, 
while the fodder from the cultivated lands may be presumed as giving sufficient 
food for the working cattle employed in agriculture. Land that is not worth 5~ 
anas per cacha biga of 1008 square English yards, (the zamindar's biga is about 
800 yards,) is not worth cultivating, and the only evils which this assessment 
would ever produce, would be, in case of being over assessed, to drive the cultivators 
to better lands yet uncultivated ; but it may be relied on, that no cisan will, under 
any system, ever put his plough into a soil which is not capable of producing 
this amount of revenue with advantage to himself ; and in no case could any risk 
be run, of ruining rich and improving villages, which should be every way encou- 
raged and protected by the Government. 
An assessment of this nature would of course do away with all allowances or per 
centages from Government to proprietors, as he would derive the full benefit from 
the value of his estate, and the capital he might expend on it. Where the village 
was farmed to another person, the former would be charged with such allowance 
of malicana or nankar to the proprietor, as the value of lands might seem to 
warrant. 
These remarks have been hastily drawn up, and I hope the attention of others, 
more capable, may be attracted to the subject, which is of much interest, and de- 
serving of every consideration, as affecting the condition of the whole population 
of the country. I remain, Sir, your m6st obedient servant, 
Upper Doab, 1830. 
2 Gujars and other indolent tribes, feeling the tax on industry, cultivate little or no 
spring crop ; perfectly satisfied with their autumn produce on a trifling assessment, 
3 Some old used hands in breaking machinery in England, were probably at the 
bottom of it, and might have taken the uncouth looking Tbermandidote for an Indian 
mule-jenny. 
