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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
THE LAND TENUKES OF INDIA. 
SYLLABUS OF LECTURE BY MR. JOHN SHELLY. 
(Read March 27th, 1884.) 
The historical interest of the subject. Its social and political 
importance. The village communities of India ; their nature and 
varieties of constitution ; their history, changes, growth, and 
decay ; their relations to the government and to the cultivators of 
the soil. The two chief types of the village community — the first 
village, where the land is held by the village body as a whole ; 
and the non-united village, where each holding is separate. The 
theory that the land belongs to the State. The counter-theory of 
an absolute ownership in a landlord, or in the occupant of the soil. 
The idea of privilege or of customary right rather than that of 
absolute property is the true key to the land tenures of India. 
The land revenue. The application of English ideas, and the 
results of English rule. The farmers of the land revenue made 
proprietors by the permanent settlement in Bengal. The occupants 
of the soil made proprietors in Madras and Bombay. The village 
communities or village headmen made proprietors in the Punjaub 
and North- West provinces. The present difficulty of the Bengal 
system — the protectiou of the occupant against the middleman 
proprietor. The difficulty of the system of Madras and Bombay — 
the protection of the occupant against his mortgagee. The im- 
portance of maintaining in this country an active and intelligent 
interest in Indian affairs. The danger of the mere official view 
on the one hand, and of the mere sentimental view on the other. 
Our duty to govern India for the benefit of the people of India. 
