SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The British Administration promised at the time of the Permanent Settlement of 1793 in Bengal, to enact such laws as it might think necessary for the protection and welfare of the raiyats. But it was not until the enactment of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1835, that fulfilment of that promise was achieved, and the law of landlord and tenant in agricultural land in Bengal was codified. The object of this thesis is to expound the rights and liabilities of the Bengal raiyats as defined in the Act and subsequent legislation up to 1947. Chapter 1 is introductory: it indicates what rights the raiyats had in land before the commencement of the British Administration in Bengal and explains hog the Code of Lord Cornwallis, and subsequent legislation up to 1859, failed to protect their interests against the zemindars. The failure of the Rent Acts of 1859 and 1869 to safeguard their interests is discussed as well as the circumstances leading up to the enactment of the famous Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885. Chapter 2 deals with the classes of raiyats and the incidents of their tenures. Particular attention is paid to the development of the concept of occupancy right. Chapter 3 relates to the rights of raiyats given by the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885 and a comparison is made between these rights and those occurring under the Rent Acts of 1859 and 1869. Chapter 4 explains the raivats' liability for rent and the failure of the attempt to introduce the theory of rent, as propounded by Ricardo and other Western Economists. Chatter 5 deals with the rules governing payment and suspension of rent and the attempts of the British Administration to prevent zemindars imposing illegal imposts on raiyats. Chapter 6 deals with the grounds of enhancement and reduction of rent and the procedure by which they were effected. Chapter 7 explains the various modes of recovery of arrears of rent, and the restrictions imposed on the zemindar seeking to realise arrears. Chapter 8 deals with the grounds on which a raiyat could have been ejected from his holding and the procedure that followed. In Chapter 9, the last chapter, the development of the law from the Permanent Settlement, which at first resulted in the enhancement of the zemindar's status and derogation of the status of the raiyat, to his rehabilitation by the Act of 1885 is briefly set out, together with the subsequent change of policy, resulting in the abolition of the zemindar and the vesting of title in the cultivator, holding directly under government, with an occupancy right but subject to a ceiling regarding the extent of his holding.