Permanent Settlement (nonfiction)

The Permanent Settlement, is also known as the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, was an agreement between the East India Company and Bengali landlords to fix revenues to be raised from land, with far-reaching consequences for both agricultural methods and productivity in the entire British Empire and the political realities of the Indian countryside. It was concluded in 1793 by the Company administration headed by Charles, Earl Cornwallis, also known as Lord Cornwallis. It formed one part of a larger body of legislation enacted, known as the Cornwallis Code. The Cornwallis Code of 1793 divided the East India Company's service personnel into three branches: revenue, judicial, and commercial. Revenues were collected by zamindars, native Indians who were treated as the landowners. This division created an Indian landed class that supported British authority.

The Permanent Settlement was introduced first in Bengal and Bihar, and then in the south district of Madras and Varanasi. The system eventually spread all over northern India by a series of regulations dated 1 May 1793. These regulations remained in place until the Charter Act of 1833. The other two systems prevalent in India were The Ryotwari System and The Mahalwari System.

Many argue that the settlement and its outcome had several drawbacks when compared with its initial goals of increasing tax revenue, creating a Western-European style land market in Bengal, and encouraging investment in land and agriculture, thereby creating the conditions for long-term economic growth for both the company and region's inhabitants. Firstly, the policy of setting the rate of expected revenue for the foreseeable future meant that the income of the Company from taxation actually decreased in the long-term because revenues remained fixed while expenses increased over time. Meanwhile, the condition of the Bengali peasantry became increasingly pitiable, with famines becoming a regular occurrence as landlords (who risked immediate loss of their land if they failed to deliver the expected amount from taxation) sought to guarantee revenue by coercing the local agriculturalists to cultivate by the countrymen cash crops such as cotton, indigo, jute (opium plantations were managed directly by the Company), while the long-term private investment by the zamindars in agricultural infrastructure failed to materialize.

See also

• Cornwallis Code (nonfiction) - a body of legislation enacted in 1793 by the East India Company to improve the governance of its territories in India. The Code was developed under the guidance of Charles, Earl (Lord) Cornwallis, who served as Governor of Bengal from 1786 to 1793

The code contained significant provisions governing, policing and judicial and civil administration. Its best known provision was the Permanent Settlement[1] (or the zamindari system enacted in 1793), which established a revenue collection scheme that lasted until the 20th century.

• Mahalwari (nonfiction) - a land revenue system in British India, introduced by Holt Mackenzie (1787-1876) in 1822. The system consisted of landlords or Lambardars claiming to represent entire villages or even groups of villages. Along with the village communities, the landlords were jointly responsible for the payment of the revenues.

• Ryotwari (nonfiction) - a land revenue system in British India, introduced by Thomas Munro in 1820 based on system administered by Captain Alexander Read in the Baramahal district. It allowed the government to deal directly with the cultivator ("ryot") for revenue collection, and gave the peasant freedom to give up or acquire new land for cultivation. The peasant was assessed for only the lands he was cultivating.

• Zamindar (nonfiction) - an aristocrat in the Indian subcontinent. The term means "land owner" in Persian. Typically hereditary, zamindars held enormous tracts of land and control over their peasants, from whom they reserved the right to collect tax on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes. Their families carried titular suffixes of lordship.

• Permanent Settlement @ Wikipedia