Colonial Qacts - Budget, Revenue etc.,

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  • Budget and income tax were introduced in India in 1860.
  • Average land holding size in India in 1771 was 40 acres, it came down to 7 acres by 1901.
  • DR Gadgil and Hunter once pointed out that in thirty years of British rule in India, per capita food availability in India came down by 29%.
  • Cornwallis in 1793 introduced Permanent settlement with zamindars of Bengal region.
  • Zamindari system was prelevant in Bengal and north India.
  • It was the continuation of the Mughal system. 
  • Under British the system  worked as follows:
  • To collect tax from a land, the British had zamindars bid for the highest tax rates; i.e., zamindars quoted a tax rate that they promised to obtain from a particular land.
  • The highest bidder was made the owner of the land from which they collected the taxes.
  • The farmers and cultivators who owned the land lost their ownership and became tenants in their own land.
  • They were to pay the landlords/zamindars the tax for the land only in the form of cash and not in kind.
  • If a zamindar was not able to collect the quoted amount of tax, he lost the ownership.
  • Ryotwari system was introduced in 1820 by Thomas Munro and Alexader reed in Madras region and later extended to Bombay region.
  • The individual landholder is responsible for the tax payment.
  • The rate was not based on the actual revenue but on the quality of land. This sometimes took the rate up to 50% of the produce.
  • Thomas Munro was the governor of Madras
  • Lord Hasting during his time as governor general of India between 1813 to 1823 introduced Mahalwari system in Punjab and UP regions.
  • Lord Hastings (1813-23) is different from Warren Hastings, who was the first governor-general of India from 1773 to 1784.
  • First Chief Justice of India for Supreme court at Fort William is Elijah Impey(1774-1784), he and Warren Hastings were impeached on the corruption charges.
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