A History of Agriculture in India v2.c74.s9.3

v2.c74.s9.3

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.