Village Officers.The ámil or mámlatdár dealt directly with the village officials, namely with the mukaddam or headman, the patwári or lease manager, the kánúngo or accountant, and the haváldár or grain-yard guardian. The haváldár superintended the separation of the government share of the produce; apportioned to the classes subject to forced labour their respective turns of duty; and exercised a general police superintendence by means of subordinates called pasáitás or vartaniás. In ports under the mutasaddi was a harbour-master or sháh-bandar.
Desáis.Crown sub-divisions had, in addition, the important class called desáis. The desáis’ duty appears at first to have been to collect the salámi or tribute due by the smaller chiefs, landholders, and vántádárs or sharers. For this, in Akbar’s time, the desái received a remuneration of 2½ per cent on the sum collected. Under the first viceroy Mírza Ázíz Kokaltásh (a.d. 1573–1575) this percentage was reduced to one-half of its former amount, and in later times this one-half was again reduced by one-half. Though the Muhammadan historians give no reason for so sweeping a reduction, the cause seems to have been the inability of the desáis to collect the tribute without the aid of a military force. Under the new system the desái seems merely to have kept the accounts of the tribute due, and the records both of the amount which should be levied as tribute and of other customary rights of the crown. In later times the desáis were to a great extent superseded by the district accountants or majmudárs, and many desáis, especially in south Gujarát, seem to have sunk to patels.
Land Tax.Up to the viceroyalty of Mírza Ísa Tarkhán (a.d. 1642–1644), the land tax appears to have been levied from the cultivator in a fixed sum, but he was also subject to numerous other imposts. Land grants in wazífah carried with them an hereditary title and special exemption from all levies except the land tax. The levy in kind appears to have ceased before the close of Mughal rule. In place of a levy in kind each village paid a fixed sum or jama through the district accountant or majmudár who had taken the place of the desái. As in many cases the jama really meant the lump sum at which the crown villages were assessed and farmed to the chiefs and patels, on the collapse of the empire many villages thus farmed to chiefs and landlords were
Introduction.
Under the Mughals, a.d. 1573–1760.
Land Tax. retained by them with the connivance of the majmudárs desáis and others.
Justice.The administration of justice seems to have been very complete. In each kasbah or town kázis, endowed with glebe lands in addition to a permanent salary, adjudicated disputes among Muhammadans according to the laws of Islám. Disputes between Muhammadans and unbelievers, or amongst unbelievers, were decided by the department called the sadárat, the local judge being termed a sadr. The decisions of the local kázis and sadrs were subject to revision by the kázi or sadr of the súbah who resided at Áhmedábád. And as a last resort the Áhmedábád decisions were subject to appeal to the Kázi-ul-Kuzzát and the Sadr-ûs-Sudûr at the capital.
Fiscal.The revenue appears to have been classed under four main heads: 1. The Khazánah-i-Ámirah or imperial treasury which comprehended the land tax received from the crown parganáhs or districts, the tribute, the five per cent customs dues from infidels, the import dues on stuffs, and the sáyer or land customs including transit dues, slave market dues, and miscellaneous taxes. 2. The treasury of arrears into which were paid government claims in arrear either from the ámils or from the farmers of land revenue; takávi advances due by the raiyats; and tribute levied by the presence of a military force. 3. The treasury of charitable endowments. Into this treasury was paid the 2½ per cent levied as customs dues from Muhammadans.[11] The pay of the religious classes was defrayed from this treasury. 4. The treasury, into which the jaziah or capitation tax levied from zimmís or infidels who acknowledged Muhammadan rule, was paid. The proceeds were expended in charity and public works. After the death of the emperor Farrukhsiyar (a.d. 1713–1719), this source of revenue was abolished. The arrangements introduced by Akbar in the end of the sixteenth century remained in force till the death of Aurangzíb in a.d. 1707. Then trouble and perplexity daily increased, till in a.d. 1724–25, Hamíd Khán usurped the government lands, and, seeking to get rid of the servants and assignments, gradually obtained possession of the records of the registry office. The keepers of the records were scattered, and yearly revenue statements ceased to be received from the districts.[12]
Assigned Lands.Akbar continued the system of assigning lands to military leaders in payment of their contingents of troops. Immediately after the annexation in a.d. 1573, almost the whole country was divided among the great nobles.[13] Except that the revenues of certain tracts were
Introduction.
Under the Mughals, a.d. 1573–1760.
Assigned Lands. set aside for the imperial exchequer the directly governed districts passed into the hands of military leaders who employed their own agents to collect the revenue. During the seventeenth century the practice of submitting a yearly record of their revenues, and the power of the viceroy to bring them to account for misgovernment, exercised a check on the management of the military leaders. And during this time a yearly surplus revenue of £600,000 (Rs. 60,00,000) from the assigned and crown lands was on an average forwarded from Gujarát to Dehli. In the eighteenth century the decay of the viceroy’s authority was accompanied by the gradually increased power of the military leaders in possession of assigned districts, till finally, as in the case of the Nawábs of Broach and Surat, they openly claimed the position of independent rulers.[14]
Minor Offices.Of both leading and minor officials the Mirăt-i-Áhmedi supplies the following additional details. The highest officer who was appointed under the seal of the minister of the empire was the provincial diván or minister. He had charge of the fiscal affairs of the province and of the revenues of the khálsa or crown lands, and was in some matters independent of the viceroy. Besides his personal salary he had 150 sawárs for two provincial thánás Arjanpur and Khambália. Under the diván the chief officers were the píshkár diván his first assistant, who was appointed under imperial orders by the patent of the diván, the daroghah or head of the office, and the sharf or mushrif and tehwildár of the daftar khánáhs, who presided over the accounts with munshis and muharrirs or secretaries and writers. The kázis, both town and city, with the sanction of the emperor were appointed by the chief law officer of the empire through the chief law officer of the province. They were lodged by the state, paid partly in cash partly in land, and kept up a certain number of troopers. In the kázis’ courts wakíls or pleaders and muftís or law officers drew 8 as. to Re. 1 a day. Newly converted Musalmáns also drew 8 as. a day. The city censor or muhtasib had the supervision of morals and of weights and measures. He was paid in cash and land, and was expected to keep up sixty troopers. The news-writer, who was sometimes also bakhshi or military paymaster, had a large staff of news-writers called wákiâh-nigár who worked in the district courts and offices as well as in the city courts. He received his news-reports every evening and embodied them in a letter which was sent to court by camel post. A second staff of news-writers called sawáníhnigár reported rumours. A third set were the harkárás on the viceroy’s staff. Postal chaukis or stations extended from Áhmedábád to the Ajmír frontier, each with men and horse ready to carry the imperial post which reached Sháh Jehánábád or Dehli in seven days. A line of posts also ran south through Broach to the Dakhan. The faujdárs or military police, who were sometimes commanders of a thousand and held estates, controlled both the city and the district police. The kotwál or head of the city night-watch was appointed by the viceroy. He had fifty troopers and a hundred foot. In the treasury department were the amín or chief, the dároghah, the
Introduction.
Under the Mughals, a.d. 1573–1760.
Minor Offices. mushrif, the treasurer, and five messengers. In the medical department were a Yúnáni or Greek school and a Hindu physician, two under-physicians on eight and ten annas a day, and a surgeon. The yearly grant for food and medicine amounted to Rs. 2000.[15]
Land Tenures.Besides the class of vernacular terms that belong to the administration of the province, certain technical words connected with the tenure of land are of frequent occurrence in this history. For each of these, in addition to the English equivalent which as far as possible has been given in the text, some explanation seems necessary. During the period to which this history refers, the superior holders of the land of the province belonged to two main classes, those whose claims dated from before the Musalmán conquest and those whose interest in the land was based on a Musalmán grant. By the Musalmán historians, landholders of the first class, who were all Hindus, are called zamíndárs, while landholders of the second class, Musalmáns as a rule, are spoken of as jágírdárs. Though the term zamíndár was used to include the whole body of superior Hindu landholders, in practice a marked distinction was drawn between the almost independent chief, who still enjoyed his Hindu title of rája, rával, ráv, or jám, and the petty claimant to a share in a government village, who in a Hindu state would have been known as a garásiá.[16]
Hereditary Hindu Landholders.The larger landholders, who had succeeded in avoiding complete subjection, were, as noticed above, liable only for the payment of a certain fixed sum, the collection of which by the central power in later times usually required the presence of a military force. With regard to the settlement of the claims of the smaller landholders of the superior class, whose estates fell within the limits of the directly administered districts, no steps seem to have been taken till the reign of Áhmed Sháh I. (a.d. 1411–1443). About the year a.d. 1420 the peace of his kingdom was so broken by agrarian disturbances, that Áhmed Sháh agreed, on condition of their paying tribute and performing military service, to re-grant to the landholders of the zamíndár class as hereditary possessions a one-fourth share of their former village lands. The portion so set apart was called vánta or share, and the remainder, retained as state land, was called talpat. This agreement continued till, in the year a.d. 1545, during the reign of Mahmúd Sháh II. (a.d. 1536–1553), an attempt was made to annex these private shares to the crown. This measure caused much discontent and disorder. It was reversed by the emperor Akbar who, as part of the settlement of the province in a.d. 1583, restored their one-fourth share to the landholders, and, except that the Maráthás
Introduction.
Under the Mughals, a.d. 1573–1760.
Hereditary Hindu Landholders. afterwards levied an additional quit-rent from these lands, the arrangements then introduced have since continued in force.[17]
Levies.During the decay of Musalmán rule in Gujarát in the first half of the eighteenth century, shareholders of the garásia class in government villages, who were always ready to increase their power by force, levied many irregular exactions from their more peaceful neighbours, the cultivators or inferior landholders. These levies are known as vol that is a forced contribution or pál that is protection. All have this peculiar characteristic that they were paid by the cultivators of crown lands to petty marauders to purchase immunity from their attacks. They in no case partook of the nature of dues imposed by a settled government on its own subjects. Tora garás, more correctly toda garás, is another levy which had its origin in eighteenth century disorder. It was usually a readymoney payment taken from villages which, though at the time crown or khálsa, had formerly belonged to the garásia who exacted the levy. Besides a readymoney payment contributions in kind were sometimes exacted.