Mughal Administration c9.s5: § 5. Why revenue officials exacted perquisites.
Mughal Administration c9.s5
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§ 5. Why revenue officials exacted perquisites.
c9.s5.1
The exaction of perquisites and presents by the officials from the subahdar downwards was one of the greatest evils of mediæval administrations, in the East and the West alike. In the Mughal empire the evil was aggravated by three other causes, *viz.*, (1) the custom of offering presents to the Emperor and the princes by the higher officers and to the higher officers by the lower, (2) the nominal salaries paid to the lower officers, and (3) the submissive, indifferent spirit of the people.
c9.s5.2
Immemorial custom and the prevalent notions of social etiquette, as well as the more worldly motive of keeping one’s superiors in good humour, made it imperative for the subahdars to offer rare or valuable presents to the Emperor on his birthday, and also at their visits to the Court. The High Chancellor also had to be propitiated by similar means.
c9.s5.3
This pressure passed from the top to the bottom, though it was unintentional and its real effects were not fully realized by the head of the State. The Emperors, without meaning it, squeezed the subahdars and the subahdars did so to the zamindars ; the provincial diwan had to gratify the High Diwan and therefore he had to squeeze the subordinate collectors of the revenue ; and these men at the bottom of the official ladder squeezed the ryots.
c9.s5.4
This was quite distinct from giving bribes to cause a failure of justice or to win a favour that was undeserved by the man or injurious to the real interests of the State. Taking bribes was recognized as a wicked and disgraceful thing even in Mughal times, though it was extensively practised under the veil of secrecy.
c9.s5.5
The low salaries paid by the Government had necessarily to be supplemented by the clerks and other subordinates exacting unauthorized fees from the men who had to do business with them. It was called “the writer’s fee” *haqq-ul-taharir* (or *tahariri* as used in the law courts and some other offices here even now). In the Manual (page 74) the auditor (mushrif) is advised, "Take the writer's fee that the people pay you willingly, for how else can a man deserving Rs. 50 but paid a salary of Rs. 20 a month contrive to live?"
c9.s5.6
§ 6. The krori or collector of revenue of a district.
c9.s5.7
The actual revenue collector was the krori, so styled because he was placed in charge of a tract theoretically expected to yield a revenue of one kror of dām, i.e., 2½ lakhs of Rupees. The arrangement was Akbar's (Ain, i. 13.) But the title of krori was continued in later times irrespective of the amount of revenue to be collected by this officer. It latterly meant simply 'a collector of State dues', and we have a class of kroris of ganj, i.e., collectors of markets.
c9.s5.8
"The krori ought to entertain a body of militia (sehbandi) proportionate to his jurisdiction and collect the revenue without negligence and at the right time. He should not demand mahsul (the State due in cash or kind) from places not yet capable of paying, lest their ryots should run away. He should urge his subordinates not to realize anything in excess of the regulations, lest he should, in the end, be subjected to wāsilāt (examination of accounts with a view to detecting peculation.) He should be honest." (Manual, p. 66.)
c9.s5.9
The duties and necessary virtues of an ideal "collector of the revenue" under Akbar are described in the Ain, ii. 43—47; but he seems to have been a higher officer than a krori of the 17th century.
c9.s5.10
The sanad appointing a new krori runs thus: "Collect the revenue season by season as assessed by the *āmin*, and pay it to the *fotahdār*. With the advice of the faujdar and amin, carefully deposit the [accumulated] money in the imperial treasury, giving a receipt for it to the fotahdar. Send to the Government Record Office your abstract accounts and statements of income and disbursement and other papers, as laid down in the regulations. Do not collect any *ābwāb*, such as *nahib* (? fee for expediting business), the collector's perquisite (*tahsildāri*), etc., lest the money should be taken back from the offender and he be dismissed''.