Previous Year Question
With reference to revenue collection by Cornwallis, consider the following statements :
Under the Ryotwari Settlement of revenue collection, the peasants were exempted from revenue payment in case of bad harvests or natural calamities.
Under the Permanent Settlement in Bengal, if the Zamindar failed to pay his revenues to the state, on or before the fixed date, he would be removed from his Zamindari.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Correct Answer: B
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 cannot safely be treated as simply incorrect. General textbook accounts describe the Ryotwari system as a rigid land-revenue arrangement, and an IGNOU study states in the broader context of British revenue administration that there was no general system of remission even during floods, droughts and famines.
However, historical administrative evidence is more nuanced. Land Revenue under the Company, available through LBSNAA, records that under the Ryotwari system remissions of assessment were granted in unfavourable seasons for entire or partial loss of produce. Likewise, the Madras High Court, while referring to the old Board of Revenue Standing Orders, recorded that provision existed for tax remission in cases of total crop failure.
Thus, saying that peasants “were exempted from revenue payment in case of bad harvests or natural calamities” is too broad. The existence of provisions for remission and an automatic exemption from revenue in every case of bad harvest or natural calamity are not identical propositions. This makes Statement 1 difficult to classify categorically without qualification.
Statement 2 has much firmer historical support. Under the Permanent Settlement of 1793, Zamindars were required to pay a fixed revenue demand to the Company. NCERT explicitly states that anyone who failed to pay the revenue lost his Zamindari, and numerous Zamindaris were sold at auctions organised by the Company.
Another relevant fact is that the Ryotwari Settlement was not Cornwallis's system. Its development is associated principally with Alexander Read and Thomas Munro, whereas Cornwallis is associated with the Permanent Settlement in Bengal. However, this fact alone is not sufficient to make Statement 1 false, since the wording of the question's opening phrase is itself somewhat awkward.