History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c44.54

v2.c44.54

The actual causes of the *pāik* rebellion were double. The *pāiks* held land on service tenure. It was a regular feudal system consisting of infeudation and sub-infeudation from the chief to the humble *pāik*. Major Fletcher, who had been placed in charge of the territories of Mukandadeva II, is still notorious in Orissa for his incapacity and dishonesty. :He was persuaded by his Bengali subordinates to resume the *Chākrān* lands of the Khurda *pāiks*. The 20th century Englishman gives a true exposition of facts nearly a century after the event. O’Malley says :—“Nor was this all. Deprived of the lands which they had enjoyed from time immemorial, they were subjected to the grossest extortion and oppression at the hands of the farmers, *sarbarāhkārs*, and other underlings to whom our Government entrusted the collection of the revenue and also to the tyrannies of a corrupt and venal police.”²