SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In no part of India have political events played a more prominent part in changing the form of land tenures than they did in Oudh. Between 1856 and 1868 the whole province was thrown into controversy over this issue. Decisions reached in those years continued to affect the life of the province for many years thereafter, so that to understand the discontent among the cultivating classes of Oudh in the beginning of the twentieth century, it is necessary to look back to 1856. In the first chapter of this thesis, the condition of the landowning classes and the cultivators under the Nawabs of Oudh is described. The measures of Lord Dalhousie were designed to correct what he saw to be wrong. In the second chapter, Dalhousie*s settlement on the village system, and its overthrow after the Mutiny by Canning, are described, and the justification of this reversal of policy is discussed. The problems arising from Canning's taluqdari settlement form the subject matter of the rest of the thesis. One main issue was the rights of subordinate proprietors, whose position is discussed in Chapter III. While Canning and Wood sought to protect such rights, the Chief Commissioner, Wingfield, opposed their recognition. Only when Lawrence arrived as Governor-General did Wingfield abandon his extreme position. An account of the settlement which resolved this conflict concludes the chapter, A second question, that of occupancy rights, is the subject of Chapter IV. Wingfield's refusal to acknowledge such rights forms the main theme. In Chapter V is described the Enquiry into the existence of such rights, ordered by Lawrence. The compromise reached as a result of that enquiry, and the tenancy legislation of 1868 which gave effect to it, provide the theme for the sixth and last chapter.