Advice to the Indian Aristocracy/Chapter 12
YOUR ZAMINDARI.
Though I give to this lecture the title "Your Zamindari," the Zamindari is not at all your own absolute property. You are simply a life-tenant of it and are to improve it and enjoy a proper share of its produce in a manner suitable to your rank and position. Most of our Zamindaries have been obtained by valour; but the modern ones have been acquired by the prudent management of our ancestors, whom we now proudly represent. "It is of their merits and greatness that you now enjoy the fruits; and, as you have inherited the fruits of their labour, so you have inherited the responsibilities which greatness always brings with it. See that you prove yourselves worthy of them; that you be great as they were."[1] But a few of our forefathers took a different view of the question and thought that the ancestral estate was their own absolute property. Though in one sense the Zamindar had an absolute right by law in certain circumstances, it was not for him to alienate any part of it in his life-time. Not bearing the above fact in mind, some of our forefathers alienated several villages and lands belonging to the original Zamindari, or borrowed money to such an extent that after them large portions of the estate had to be sold for paying off the debts. Even to the present day many of the estates in our Presidency are involved in such heavy debts that large portions of them will have to be sold in order to save the remaining portions.
An ancestor of mine, whom I am very sorry to mention in this connection, had no children, and had three younger brothers, who all died childless too before him. Then for want of children he most unconcernedly alienated by gift several villages and many large pieces of land in this Zamindari to his people* Once he was a very capable ruler and administrator and acquired four new estates. But being childless, as said above, he gave the newly acquired estates away to his different relatives, I knew very well another Zamindar, who, being under a mistaken impression in regard to the absolute ownership of his estate, greatly involved it in debt. Once a well-wisher of his approached the Zamindar when he was in a good humour and told him that the estate would be totally ruined, if he should continue to borrow money in the manner he had already done. Thereupon the foolish master replied thus:—"As long as I live there will be no lack of meals and clothes for me." Another Zamindar in connection with titles and honours said : "I would sacrifice my Zamindari if I could thereby get the salute and honours which my father used to have/' There may be several more of the above stamp.
Now, my friends, think of those and such other people, and note how foolish they were in thinking that their ancestral estates were obtained for them and for them alone. Many of our Samsthanams were bestowed upon our ancestors in recognition of their meritorious military services to the Government. So long-standing are many of these Samsthanams that they have already passed through the hands of no fewer than twenty-five generations of rulers; and of a few of them, it is no exaggeration to say that the thirtieth ruler in succession, counted down from the founder, is at present in possession. Again, fortunately, most of the Zamindars knew not clearly that they had a right to alienate their estates to any one they liked against the interests of their heirs until the unfortunate Privy Council's decision declared it in the Pittapore Suit. (O. S. No. 6 of 1891.)
If instead of a few the majority of the Zamindars of past generations had had the foolish idea of those I mentioned above, or if they had known they had a right to alienate portions of their estates, is it not right to think many of the estates would have been lost long ago? Now our grateful thanks are due to our present able and worthy Governor, Lord Ampthill, for the Madras Impartible Estates Act which has been passed last year (Act II of 1904). By this enactment, two important objects have been secured:—
(I). More than one hundred estates are saved from partition or even from the fear of very costly and ruinous litigation against partition. (II). The proprietor of an impartible estate shall not alienate or bind by his debts, such estate or any part thereof beyond his own life-time, unless the alienation is made or the debt incurred under circumstances which would entitle the managing member of a joint Hindu family to do the same. Hereafter no money-lender will readily lend money to the proprietor of an impartible estate; because the burden of proving that the purpose for which the money was borrowed was lawful rests on the money-lender. This is a great permanent boon to all holders of impartible estates. Now we must know either by common-sense, or by the Impartible Estates Act, that we have only a life-interest in our estates; that we must manage them to the best possible advantage and that we have only a right to enjoy a proper share of our incomes according to our position and rank.
Even proprietors who do not come under this benevolent Act should treat their estates as inalienable as they were obtained by their forefathers either for meritorious services or by their prudent management as clearly stated in the first part of this lecture.
In bygone days our ancestors had a chance of showing their military genius to the then existing Governments and of obtaining a new estate or estates from Government as a reward for their military services. Now there is no such need for the Government to ask us to help it and therefore we have no chance of enlarging our Zamindaries in the above way. Now the only chance of enlarging our estates is that we should manage them prudently, save annually a' fair share of their income and spend it on improving the agricultural resources of our own estates or in buying new lands, villages and even estates.
I may here classify the holders of estates:—
I. Rajahs who have the hereditary title of Rajah are those whose ancestors in bygone days exercised regal powers. They come next in rank after the independent Chiefs,
II. Poligars and certain Zamindars are those who hold estates that were given by the Government or by tlie ruling Chiefs for military services ; but they never exercised regal powers.
III. The other Zamindars are those that were created by the then Government or by the then ruling independent Chiefs, or by the above Rajahs, not particularly for military services, but for other causes and were always subject to the Government or the ruling Chiefs or Rajahs.
IV. Jaghirdars are those who hold estates that were given by the then Government or by the ruling Chiefs for some charitable purpose, but not at all for military services. V. Proprietors are those who hold estates that were sold in auction for arrears of Peishcush, or Government taluqs sold by the East India Company. The East India Company, whose main object was trade, sold Government lands in lots for their revenue for the sake of convenience.
Except the proprietary estates, all the rest were in existence before the Permanent Settlement.
- ↑ (The above words in quotation are Mr. Macnaghten's in his lecture on money.)