Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.12837

c10.12837

RYOT, s. Ar. *ra’iyat*, from *ra’a*, ‘to pasture,’ meaning originally, according to its etymology, ‘a herd at pasture’; but then ‘subjects’ (collectively). It is by natives used for ‘a subject’ in India, but its specific Anglo-Indian application is to ‘a tenant of the soil’; an individual occupying land as a farmer or cultivator. In Turkey the word, in the form *raiya*, is applied to the Christian subjects of the Porte, who are not liable to the conscription, but pay a poll-tax in lieu, the *Kharāj*, or *Jizya* (see JEZYA).