A History of Agriculture in India v2.c74: Chapter 22. Administrative Reforms of Akbar

A History of Agriculture in India v2.c74

Language: English

v2.c74.s1 Todar Mal's Land Revenue Regulations — 24 parts
v2.c74.s2 Revenue Divisions — 1 part
v2.c74.s3 Provinces Under the Regulation System — 3 parts
v2.c74.s4 Tax on Cattle — 1 part
v2.c74.s5 Tax on Fruit Gardens — 2 parts
v2.c74.s6 Taqavi Loans — 1 part
v2.c74.s7 Administrative Divisions — 5 parts
v2.c74.s8 Village Administration — 2 parts
v2.c74.s9 Needy Peasants and Small Holdings — 5 parts
v2.c74.s10 The Role of the Zamindars — 10 parts

Chapter 22. Administrative Reforms of Akbar

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TODAR MAL'S LAND REVENUE REGULATIONS ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS, VILLAGE ADMINISTRATION NEEDY PEASANTS AND SMALL HOLDINGS

The land-tax was the main source of revenue in Mughal India. After the abolition of jizya, and over fifty minor duties, land revenue became all the more important. As such reconstruction of the revenue system was imperative. This is the task which Akbar entrusted to Todar Mal. There is no name in mediaeval history of India more renowned than that of Todar Mal. 'Careful to keep himself from selfish ambition,' writes Abu-l-Fazl, he devoted himself to the service of the State, and earned an everlasting fame.'

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Todar Mal was a Tandan Khatri, a native of Chunian, a small town near Lahore. He first served under Sher Shah and gained valuable experience in the management of lands and revenue. In 1573 he joined Akbar's service and assisted Muzaffar Khan, the Chancellor of Exchequer, in settling the newly acquired kingdom. After the conquest of Gujarat he was left there to assess that province. After settling several financial matters in Bengal and Orissa, Todar Mal went to Court, and was employed in revenue matters. In 1582 Todar Mal became Chief Finance Minister, and introduced his financial reforms which made him famous. The third book of the Ain contains his new rent-roll, or Asl-i Jam-i Tumar, which superseded Muzaffar's assessment.

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The most important reform introduced by Todar Mal was the change in the language and the character used for the revenue accounts, which were kept in Hindi by Hindu muharrirs. Here it may be mentioned that Muslims had no aptitude for accounts and accounting, and that is why nearly all the appointments in the revenue department were filled by the Hindus. Todar Mal ordered that all government accounts should henceforth be written in Persian. He thus forced the Hindus to learn the court language of their rulers. As the study of Persian was necessary for its pecuniary advantages, the Hindu employees soon learnt it and became proficient in it. As a result they acquired an effective share in Government services.

Todar Mal's Land Revenue Regulations

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Abu-l-Fazl provides the following details about Todar Mal's revenue regulations.

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'At the beginning of this year (37th year of the reign), His Majesty directed his attention to an improvement of the administration of his territories, and passed new laws for the management of civil and revenue business. Raja Todar Mal had, previous to this, been named wazir; but the dangers and difficulties of the post, and the opposition to be encountered, made him unwilling to accept the office. But this unambitious man, who was acquainted with all the mysteries of administration, was now elevated to the office of diwan, and in reality to the wakalat. His clear judgement soon set matters to right. Civil and revenue matters received his especial attention. He devoted his skill and powerful mind to simplify the laws of the State, and he allowed no grasping and intriguing men to obtain any inflence over him. He now proposed several new laws calculated to give vigour and glory to the government.

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'That the collectors of the khalisa lands and the jagirdars should realize the mal and jihat (cesses) according to the dasturu-l 'amal; and if by fraud or oppression anything beyond the settled amount should be received from the cultivators, they were to account it in excess of the proper payment, and were to levy a fine upon those who had exacted it, and enter the amount in the monthly accounts.. At every harvest they were to carefully guard the rights of the lower classes.

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'The 'amils of the khalisa had two subordinates, a karkun (manager), and a khass-navis (accountant). These officers had been oppressors, and, leaguing with the rich, they had been a great source of evil to the poor. If, instead of these two infamous officials, one worthy and honest man should be appointed, the country would prosper, and the people would be contented.

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'It had been discovered that in the khalisa districts the cultivated lands decreased year by year; but if the lands capable of cultivation were once measured, they would increase year by year in proportion to the powers of the raiyats; and engagements should be made for them according to rule.

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'For lands which had lain waste four years, they were to receive a deduction of one-half for the first year, for the second year one-quarter, and for the third year they were to pay according to established rule. For lands which had lain untilled for two years they were to receive a deduction of one-fourth for the first year. For uncultivated lands, they were to receive a small allowance of grain, so as to make the lands capable of yielding revenue. When advances were made for the assistance of poor cultivators, engagements were to be taken from men of respectability, and part was to be repaid at the spring harvest, part at the autumnal harvest. By these arrangements, the country would in a short period become cultivated, the raiyats would be contented, and the treasury flourishing.

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'When a portion of cultivated land was fixed upon, some surveyors, in proportion to its extent, were to be appointed. They were first to measure the land, and were then to acquaint themselves with its quality and produce.

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The collectors were to select a central spot for their residence. They were to carry out their duties everywhere diligently, and to inquire into the state of affairs. In seasons when a sufficient quantity of rain fell, and the lands received adequate irrigation, two and a half *biswas* in the *bigha* were to be left unassessed; in jungles and sandy lands, three *biswas* were to be left. Weekly accounts of sequestrations, and daily accounts of the collections, were to be sent monthly to the Imperial Exchequer. An Imperial order was issued that when lands suffered under any visitation of Providence, a description of them was to be drawn up, and a copy of it sent to Court, so that the Emperor might give directions appropriate to the case.

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'Whatever was levied from the *raiyats* was to be paid over to the treasurers, and they were to give receipts to the *raiyats*. The collectors were to remit the payments four times a month, and at the end of this time no balance was to be left unrealized from the *raiyats*. The *raiyats* were to be so treated that they should be willing to make their payments to the treasury voluntarily.

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'A descriptive account was to be drawn up of the assessment of each individual, according to his cultivation and labour, and the dates were not to be either postponed or anticipated. The *patwari* (accountant) of each village was to apportion the village, name by name, among the various subordinate agents, and the collectors were to send the cash under the seal of the *patwari* to the treasurer.

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'Instead of the former expenses (*kharch*), the amount having been settled at one *dam* for each *bigha* of cultivated land, it was hoped that, upon this principle, 24 *dams* might be the estimated sum to be allowed for each cultivator.'¹

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¹ Abu-l-Fazl, *Akbar-nama*, in Elliot and Dowson, *The History of India*..., Vol. VI, pp. 61-65

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Akbar's revenue system, though so celebrated for the benefits it conferred on India, presented no new invention. It only carried the previous system of Sher Shah into effect with greater precision and correctness.

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The objects of Akbar's revenue system were—Firstly to obtain a correct measurement of the land. Secondly, to ascertain the amount of the produce of each *bigha* of land, and to fix the proportion of that amount that the cultivator should pay to the government. Thirdly, to settle an equivalent for the proportion so fixed, in money.

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For the first purpose Akbar established a uniform standard to supersede the various measures formerly employed by public officers. The units of measurement were standardized. A yard, colled a *gaz*, was adopted consisting of forty-one digits. An area of sixty yards square was called a *bigha*. To bring greater uniformity the old practice of measuring lengths with a rope was given up, because it shrank in wet season; instead bamboo rods joined together with iron rings were used. The Emperor then deputed persons to make a complete measurement of all the lands capable of cultivation within the empire.

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The assessment was not so simple as the measurement. The land was divided into three classes, according to its fertility; the amount of each sort of produce that a *bigha* of each class would yield was ascertained; the average of the three was assumed as the produce of a *bigha*, and one-third of that produce formed the government demand. This assessment was designed to fix a maximum; for every cultivator who thought that the amount claimed was too high, he could insist on an actual measurement and division of the crop. Land which never required a fallow paid the full demand every harvest, called *polaj*. It was the best land which was cultivated every year. Land which required fallows only paid when under cultivation. It was called *parathi*. Land which had suffered from inundation, etc., or which had been three years out of cultivation, and required some expense to reclaim it, was called *chhakkar*. It paid only two-fifths for the first year, but went on increasing till the fifth year, when it paid the full demand. Land which had been for more than five years out of cultivation was called *banjar*. It enjoyed still more favourable terms for the first four years. The first two classes—*polaj* and *parathi*—were further classified into three categories—good, middling and bad. Then the law of averages was applied and the annual average for each category of land was worked out. This average was then standardized by taking the average for a period of ten years. One-third of the annual average, thus standardized, was fixed as the State demand for revenue.

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It is not explained in the *Ain-i-Akbari* how the comparative fertility of fields was ascertained. It is probable that the three classes were formed for each village, in consultation with the inhabitants, and the process was facilitated by another classification made by the villagers for their own use, which seems to have subsisted from time immemorial. By that distribution, all the land of every village is divided into a great many classes, according to its qualities, as black mould, red mould, gravelly, sandy, loam, and mixed loam, etc. Other circumstances were also considered, such as command of water, vicinity to the village, etc., and great pains were taken so to apportion the different descriptions among the cultivators as to give equal advantages to all.

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The quantity of produce due to the government being settled, it was next to be commuted for a money payment. For this purpose, statements of prices current for the nineteen years preceding the survey were called for from every town and village; and the produce was turned into money according to the average of the rates shown in those statements. The commutation was occasionally reconsidered, with reference to the actual market prices; and every husbandman was allowed to pay in kind if he thought the money rate was fixed too high.

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All these settlements were at first made annually; but their continual recurrence being found to be vexatious, the settlement was afterwards made for ten years, on an average of the payments of the preceding ten.

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The above measurements and classifications were all carefully recorded; the distribution of land, and increase or diminution of revenue, were all entered yearly into the village registers.

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At the same time when Akbar made these improvements respecting the land tax, he abolished a vast number of vexatious taxes and fees paid to the officers.

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Besides the regulation system described above, there were two other revenue systems, *galla baksh* (crop-sharing) and *nasq* (village assessment). The former was in use in far-off places where the measurement of land presented a difficult problem; whereas the latter assumed importance after Akbar's death, when the *zabti* system fell gradually into disuse.

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The result of these measures was that though the amount of the public demand was reduced considerably, the profit to the State remained nearly the same due to prevention of defalcations. Abu-l-Fazl asserts that the assessment was lighter than that of Sher Shah, who professed to take only one-fourth of the produce, while Akbar took one-third.

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Akbar's instructions to his revenue officers show his anxiety for the liberal administration of his system, and for the ease and comfort of his subjects. The collectors were enjoined, in their agreements and collections, to deal directly with individual cultivators, and not to depend implicitly on the headman and accountant of the village.

Revenue Divisions

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Akbar also made a new revenue division of the country into portions, each yielding a *karor* (i.e. 10,000,000) of *dams*, equal to 250,000 rupees, the collector of each of which was called the *karori*. The primary duty of these officers was fostering extension of cultivation. This was not achieved as they furthered their own interests and great part of the country was laid waste, and wives and children of the cultivators were sold, and everything was thrown into confusion. The *karoris* were properly punished by Todar Mal.

Provinces Under the Regulation System

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The regulation system extended, broadly speaking, to the plains of northern India, excluding the areas left in the hands of the Hindu chiefs, that is to say, to the provinces of Multan, Lahore, Delhi (excluding the Kumaon hills), Agra, Allahabad, and the bulk of Bihar. The southern parts of Allahabad and Bihar bordering on the Gondwana and the hill-country lying between Bihar and Bengal were excluded from its operations. The system was in force also in those parts of Ajmer which were not left to the chiefs and also in Malwa. In the outlying provinces, local practices were ordinarily continued.

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Lane-Poole thus sums up the main features of Akbar's revenue regulations. 'Care was taken to provide easy means of complaint when undue collections were exacted and to punish severely the guilty exactors. The number of minor officials employed in realizing the recorded dues was diminished by one-half. The cultivators were to be made responsible, jointly as well as severally; the cultivators of fallow land were to be favoured for two years; advances of seed and money were to be made when necessary, arrears being remitted in the case of small holdings. Collectors were to make yearly reports on the conduct of their subordinates. Monthly returns were to be transmitted to the imperial exchequer. Special reports were to be sent up of any special calamities, hail, flood, or drought. The collectors were to see that the farmers get receipts for their payments, which were to be remitted four times in the year; at the end of that period no balance should be outstanding. Payments were if possible to be voluntary, but the standing crops were theoretically hypothecated and, where needful, were to be attached. Above all, there was to be an accurate and minute record of each man's holding and liabilities. The very successful land-revenue system of British India is little more than a modification of these principles.²

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² Lane-Poole, Stanley, *Mediaeval India—Under Mohammedan Rule*, A.D. 712-1764, Vol. II, p. 182

Tax on Cattle

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The two major objects of taxation in an ordinary village, apart from the cultivated fields, were the cattle and the orchards. The *Ain* lays down that if a man kept land otherwise liable to land-revenue (*kharaji*) under pasture, a tax of 6 *dams* per buffalo and 3 per cow or bullock should be imposed upon him. But a cultivator having up to four bullocks, two cows and one buffalo to each plough was to be exempted. Moreover, no tax was to be levied upon the *gaushalas*, or herds of cows kept for religious or charitable purposes.

Tax on Fruit Gardens

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Fruit gardens were treated in a special manner. A flat rate of Rs 2½ per *bigha* was charged, even if the trees did not bear fruit. Exception was made if the orchard was planted with grapes and almonds, in which case the demand was realized only when the plants bore fruit. Sometimes, if it were found that the orchard was not sufficiently productive, a fifth or a sixth of the net produce was claimed. If the maintenance of the orchard costed more than the value of the yield, no charge was made.³

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³ Querashi, I. H. *Administration of the Mughal Empire*, p. 171

Taqavi Loans

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Taqavi loans were given to cultivators in distressed circumstances for purchase of seed and cattle. These loans were advanced through the *chaudharis* and *muqaddams*, who stood surety for their repayment. Repayment was exacted in part at the first harvest and fully by the next.

Administrative Divisions

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The empire was divided into fifteen *subahs* or provinces. The original fifteen were Allahabad, Agra, Oudh, Ajmer, Gujarat, Bihar, Bengal, Delhi, Kabul, Lahore, Multan, Malwa, Berar, Khandesh, and Ahmednagar. The three additional were Bidar, Hyderabad, and Bijapur. The chief officer in each was the viceroy (*sipah salar*), who had the complete control, civil and military, subject to the instructions of the king.

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Under him were the revenue functionaries above districts (*foujdars*), whose authority extended over the local soldiery or militia, and over all military establishments and lands assigned to military purposes, as well as over the regular troops within their jurisdiction, and whose duty it was to suppress all disorders.

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Justice was administered by a court composed of an officer named *mir-i-adl* (lord justice) and a *kazi*. The *kazi* conducted the trial and stated the law; the *mir-i-adl* passed judgment and seems to have been the superior authority.

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Each *subah* was divided into a certain number of *sircars*, and each *sircar* into *parganas* or *mahals*, and the *parganas* again were aggregated into *dasturs* or districts. The words used before Akbar's time to represent tracts of country larger than a *pargana* were *shakk*, *khitta*, *ursa*, *diyar*, *vilayat*, and *ikta*, but the latter was generally applied when the land was assigned for the support of the nobility or their contingents.

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The police of towns was under an officer called the *kotwal*; in smaller places it was under the revenue officer; and in villages under the internal authorities.

Village Administration

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The *muqaddam* and the *patwari* were the two principal village functionaries. The *muqaddam* was responsible for collection of land revenue. For that work, he was paid a commission, which was about 2.5 per cent of the total revenue collected. The *muqaddam's* jurisdiction over the village was not purely financial. He was held answerable for any crime committed within or near his village. Finally, the *muqaddam* possessed the right of alloting the land of the village to such as wished to till it. This right was implicitly recognized by the authorities when they entrusted the task of settling new villages to *muqaddams*. In any village not utterly ruined by the burden of land revenue, the position of the *muqaddam* was a profitable one.

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Moneyed persons, therefore, were sometimes tempted to buy this office as a good investment.

Needy Peasants and Small Holdings

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A question is often asked whether the agrarian system prevailing under Akbar's rule was *zamindari* or *ryatwari*. Moreland replies that it comprised both. There was a general recognition of the peasant's title to permanent and hereditary occupancy of the land he tilled. The inviolability of occupancy right of the peasants was recognized in regulations of Akbar. Akbar cautioned revenue officials against entering in their records 'peasant holdings' (*raiyat-kashta*) as 'personally cultivated lands' (*khud-kashta*) of *madad-i-maash* holders.

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The peasant's right to the permanent and hereditary occupancy of the land he tilled was saleable, though on occasion none might think it worth buying. The peasants could transmit their land to their heirs and could transfer it by sale or mortgage, but always subject to the condition that the revenue due was paid. But there was no question of really free alienation—the right to abandon or dispose of the land as its holders might choose—which is an essential feature of modern proprietary right. If in one sense the land belonged to the peasant, in another the peasant belonged to the land. He could not (unless, perhaps, he found a successor) leave it or refuse to cultivate it. The village officials bound themselves not to allow any cultivator to leave his place.

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The readiness with which the authorities recognized the peasant's right of occupancy and the anxiety they showed to prevent him from leaving the land were both natural in an age when land was abundant and peasants scarce. In Mughal times, the area of land under cultivation was in many regions probably only half, and in others two-thirds to three-quarters, of the area of such land in 1920. There were, therefore, always stretches of virgin land beckoning the peasant, while with his low level of subsistence and primitive huts he had no immovable possessions to tie him to his old place of habitation.

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The peasant of Mughal times enjoyed a right which in British India was conferred on some sections of the peasants in some provinces only by special tenancy legislation, viz. the permanent and hereditary right of occupancy. In certain circumstances this right could be considered proprietary in nature. But a proprietor must be a free agent and he must possess the right of free alienation. Since the peasant could not legally abandon his land, he was really a near-serf. If, therefore, the king was not the owner of the soil, neither was the peasant. This means in other words that in *raiyati* areas, at least, a single owner cannot be located. There were different rights over the land and its produce, and not one exclusive right of property.

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The position was different in the *zamindari* areas. There the *zamindars* sometimes possessed rights which were practically proprietary. ‘There existed almost throughout the Mughal Empire,’ states Irfan Habib, ‘a fiscal claim of the *zamindar* upon land lying within his *zamindari*, the claim being met either through a separate rate on the peasants or through the holding of a portion of the land revenue-free or a cash allowance from the revenue collected from the entire land by the authorities. In the last two forms, it was known by the names of *malikana* and *do-biswi* in northern India and Bengal, and as *banth* in Gujarat and *chauth* in the Dakhin.’

The Role of the Zamindars

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As regards the role of the *zamindars*, Moreland states that while some of them performed valuable economic functions in helping and supporting their peasants, others were parasites pure and simple. The political and social environment was unfavourable to the fruition of the idea of agricultural development. The high pitch of the revenue demand, approximating to the full economic rent, could be justified from Islamic texts by anyone who might care to take the trouble, but its actual motive was to be found in the needs of successive administrations and their officers; and its influence was necessarily increased by the miscellaneous exactions, prohibited from time to time but recurring regularly after each prohibition. The direct result was to take from the peasant whatever he could be made to pay, and thus to stereotype a low standard of living; but in addition there was the further effect of requiring the peasant who was making money to conceal his good fortune from everyone outside the village, and perhaps even from his neighbours. Thus the normal position was a contest between the administration and the peasants, the former endeavouring to discover and appropriate what the latter endeavoured to retain and conceal—an environment in which agricultural development could not be expected to make much headway.⁴

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⁴ Moreland, W. H. *India at the Death of Akbar*..., p. 207

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To sum up, the condition of the peasantry, who provided the surplus for construction of magnificent forts, palaces, mosques and mausoleums, was wretched. The bulk of them were small men with limited resources. Their holdings were small and there is no evidence that they could accumulate capital to make improvements. They were scantily dressed and their tools were primitive. In a rare painting relating to the reign of Akbar, farmers are shown harvesting wheat, threshing it by trampling under the feet of bullocks and winnowing. They wear turbans and tie a piece of cloth around the waist to cover their nudity (Fig. 34). Though they are well-built, they look far from affluent. It was on the toil of such people that the economy of the Mughal empire rested.