A History of Agriculture in India v2.c74.s9.5

v2.c74.s9.5

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.’