Question

The Permanent settlement introduced by Cornwallis in Bengal is known as ____________.
A) Ryotwari System
B) Mahalwari System
C) Zamindari System
D) Iqtadari System

Answer 1

Hint: Two new innovations were brought in the Indian land system by the permanent settlement. One of which was the creation of landlordism and another was the introduction of private property rights.

Complete Answer:
Lord Cornwallis in 1793 brought into being the Permanent Settlement, also known as the Zamindari System. According to which the property had to be entrusted in the care of a class of native entrepreneurs who had a solid interest in the land and were politically reliable as it was necessitated by the distance between the two countries. This alone could ensure the permanence of dominion. Thus, Cornwallis’s natural preference was for the zamindars. They were expected to invest in the improvement of agriculture if their property rights were secured.

Zamindars were the middle people, who gathered income from at least one town under their innate control and sent the income to the state depository subsequent to deducting their standard levy of around $10\% $ of the assortment. There were also other practical reasons for this: it was easier to collect revenue from a small number of zamindars than from the innumerable peasants, which would require large administrative machinery; and also, it would ensure the loyalty of a powerful class of the local population. Therefore, zamindar became the proprietor of his zamindari and now he could transfer, sell, and mortgage it, and also it could be inherited by his heirs. This was the creation of private property in land. Despite Permanent Settlement being favourable to the zamindars, it too was at the mercy of British administration.

The zamindar had to pay a fixed amount of revenue by a particular date, which is also called the Sunset law, failure to pay it before the sunset on the due date could lead to the sale of zamindari through auction. The result was the frequent sale of zamindars as the demand was too high.

The bulk of the surplus went to the company and became the state’s share. The land revenue was decided to be fixed at a high level. The landlords would invest money in improving the land, as with the state demand being fixed the whole of the benefit from increased production and enhanced income would be appropriated by them. The state demand was fixed at $89\% $ of the rental, leaving $11\% $ with the zamindars as the share for their trouble and responsibility. The peasantry also had to bear this burden ultimately and was further reduced to penury due to this high level of demand which also ruined the zamindars, whose zamindaris were auctioned off.

Thus, option (C) is correct.

Note:
The Zamindari System created a class of hereditary landowners who led a luxurious life and ignored the plight of the farmers and were also negligent of the conditions of the land.