IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : India History From 8th to Mid 15th Century - Mughal Land Revenue System

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History India From 8th to Mid 15th Century

Mughal Land Revenue System

Structure

16.0 Objectives
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Methods of Land Revenue Assessment
16.3 Magnitude of Land Revenue Demand
16.4 Mode of Payment
16.5 Collection of Land Revenue
16.6 Relief Measures
16.7 Land Revenue Administration
16.8 Let Us Sum Up
16.9 Key Words
16.10 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

16.0 OBJECTIVES

In this Unit, we will discuss some important aspects of Mughal land revenue system.
After going through this Unit, you should be able to know the following:

the methods of assessment;
the magnitude of land revenue demand;
mode of collection of land revenue;
the different methods used to collect the land revenue; "
what sort of relief was available to peasants in case of adverse circumstances; and
the duties and obligations of different officials engaged in land revenue system.

16.1 INTRODUCTION

The central feature of the agrarian system under the Mughals was the alienation
from the peasant of his surplus produce (produce over and above the subsistence
level) in the form of land revenue which was the main sour& of state's income. Early
British administrators regarded the land revenue as rent of the soil because they had
a notion that the king was the owner of the land. Subsequent studies of Mughal
India have shown that it was a tax on the crop and was thus different from the land
revenue as concieved by the British. Abul Fazl in his Ain-i Akbari justifies the
imposition of taxes by the state saying that these are the remuneration of
sovereignty, paid in return for protection and justice.
The Persian term for land revenue during the Mughal rule was ma1 and ma1 wajib.
Kharaj was not in regular use.
The process of land revenue collection has two stages: (a) assessment
(tashkhidjama), and (b) actual collection (basil). Assessment was made to fix the
state demand. On the basis of this demand, actual collection was done separately for
kbarif and nbi crpps.