Administrative System of the Marathas c18.s9.51

c18.s9.51

The village land was divided among Mirasdars and Upris. The Mirasdars were residents of the village who had permanent proprietary right in their land, and could not be ejected or dispossessed so long as they paid their rent. This rent again, as we shall see when we discuss the revenue system, was a fairly fixed amount. But as the village community was regarded as an organic whole, the Government held Mirasdars as a body responsible for the payment of revenue; in ordinary cases, they were obliged to make up for failures in the payment of each of their body. The property of Mirasdars was hereditary and saleable, and even when ejected for non-payment of land tax, the Mirasdars did not lose the right of recovering their ancestral farm land for a long period. If they could repay the government dues they were entitled to restitution even after so long a period as thirty or forty years. The Upris, on the other hand, were tenants-at-will, and generally strangers holding government land under the management of Mamlatdars. They had therefore none of the advantages of the Mirasi; but the latter did not enjoy his privileges gratis. He had to pay heavier taxes, and the major portion of the burden of village expenses fell on his shoulders. It is believed that originally there were no Upris, and the Mirasdars were the descendants of the original settlers who became the natural proprietors of the village lands, according to Manu's code which lays down that land belongs to the clearers of the wood; and there is reason to believe that this assertion is not without a strong foundation. Even to-day the Mirasis form the majority of the cultivators while the Upris are in the minority. So the Maratha villages, like other Indian villages, were originally inhabited by independent proprietors. This, with their isolated situation in a mountainous tract, perhaps helped them to remain the independent autonomous republics that they originally were throughout the Maratha period, and even during the first few years after English conquest.