Question

When the Janmi-Kudian Act was passed that granted the land ownership to the tenants in Travancore?
a. 1892
b. 1894
c. 1896
d. 1898

Answer 1

Hint: In Travancore, one of the major changes which led to agricultural change was giving more rights to the tenants holding Pandaravaka lands. Some of the tenants did not have rights like transfer occupancy rights, proprietary rights, etc. This was because of the concept of Janmi in which the State was considered to be the landlord of the lands.

Complete answer: Even if the State was the Janmi, the tenants used to enjoy many rights as the State demanded only land revenue from them. So, this group of tenants had increased in number as the population increased. But the tenants did not enjoy any rights except the power to transfer the right of compensation for improvements. This created a situation wherein the land’s value was limited to the value of crops produced. The government then issued a proclamation which conferred all the rights to tenants.
The above change helped increase the value of commercial land. The tenants of the Janmom land were in the same situation and so an act was passed named Janmi Kudiyan Act in the year 1896. This provided all the rights to the kanam kudians or the tenants in the form of fixed rents and fees.
Let us look at the given options.
Option a- For providing the tenants with the necessary rights, the government issued regulations for the tenants of Janmom land. The first proclamation was issued in 1829 and the Janmi-Kudiyan act was passed much later but not in 1892. This is the wrong answer.
Option b- The Janmi-Kudiyan act was passed to provide relief to the tenants and was passed after making many amendments. But the year in which it was passed was later than 1894. So, it is an incorrect answer.
Option c- After the two proclamations passed did not meet the requirements, a Janmi-Kudiyan Act was passed in the year 1896 and in which the tenants were bestowed with permanent occupancy rights and other reliefs. Thus. This is the correct answer.
Option d- The Janmi-Kudiyan Act was not passed in the year 1898. It was passed years before that. However, many changes continued to be made till 1946 for making favourable changes in agriculture.
Hence, option ‘c’ is correct.

Note: Again in 1932, amendments were passed in the Janmi-Kudiyan Act which helped confer an absolute proprietary right on the kudiyan (tenants) while making payments of the Janmi dues and in 1946 a land proclamation tax was passed which introduced a uniform rate of tax.