The settlement of this amount in the case of every single field in the whole of Kashmir was, necessarily, a gigantic operation and took six years to carry out. But the information collected regarding its area and bearing capacity showed, with considerable degree of accuracy, what each field could produce. The average cash value of this amount of produce in an ordinary year was then determined, and the State had then to say what proportion—whether two-thirds as before, or an half or a third—they would take. Lastly, had to be decided for how many years they would agree with the occupier to take this fixed amount of cash—whether for ever, as in Lord Cornwallis' settlement of Bengal, or for thirty, twenty, or ten years.
Mr. Lawrence, though making very great changes, had naturally to also use caution. He could not at once fix the whole revenue in cash. Some had still to be taken in kind. And he could not safely make his settlement for more than ten years, for his calculations of the produce of a field and of the money value of that produce might at this first settlement often be unfair, either to the State or the occupier.
At first even the villagers, who were most to be benefited, distrusted the settlement and hampered the operations, and the old style petty official, now happily extinct, encouraged them in their distrust. But gradually, under Mr. Lawrence's influence, the attitude of the villagers changed. When they saw that for ten years to come the amount the State was to take was to be fixed and at a diminished rate, that only a small part was to be taken in kind, and enough was to be left to them for food, and that thereby the ever-present sepoy was to be removed from the villages, the people began to realise that some good was to come of these operations for settling the revenue. Ruined houses and desolate gardens were restored, absentees returned, and applications for waste land came in faster than was for the time convenient.
At the end of the ten years a second settlement was made, and this time with much diminished troubling, for not only were people and officials better disposed, but there were now available much more reliable statistics as to the produce of the fields. The yield of each field and the money value of the yield could now be fairly accurately known; and the proportion of this money value of the yield which the State should take had now to be fixed. Formerly, exclusive of perquisites for local officials, the State would take half the yield. But it was now decided to take only 30 per cent of the gross yield, and to take the money value of it instead of the actual produce in kind as in old days. Each occupier was then given a small book containing a copy of the entries in which he was interested, the area of the field, the rate he had to pay, and so on.
The all-round incidence of the new land revenue proper is Rs. 3. As. 2. (or 4s. 2d) per acre cultivated; and the rates varied from Rs. 12 (16s.) per acre on some of the less irrigated (market garden) land, to ten annas (tenpence) per acre on the poorest unirrigated land in the coldest part of the province.
The period of the settlement was fixed at fifteen years.
CHAPTER XI
PRODUCTS AND MANUFACTURES
What Kashmir is principally known for to the outside world is its shawls; but the wool from which they are manufactured is not produced in Kashmir itself: it comes from Tibet and Chinese Turkestan. It is the soft down lying under the long hair of the Tibetan goat. Kashmir does, however, produce a coarser wool of its own. Kashmir villagers keep immense numbers of sheep, for round their villages and on the mountain uplands there is an abundance of rich grass, the leaves of the willow trees and of irises furnish winter fodder, and these animals are not only thus easily fed, but also furnish their owner with clothing, with food and with manure, and by crowding in the lower portion of his house keep him warm in winter. They are shorn twice in the year, once in early summer and again in the autumn. The wool is of good quality, and in the winter months the women spin it, and the men weave it into blankets and into the well-known "puttoo" cloth, in which sportsmen in Kashmir clothe themselves, and for which, since the Swadeshi movement, there has been a great demand in India.