SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The Northern Sarkars rank among the earliest possessions of the East India Company. Clive's foresight and the vigilance of the Madras government resulted in the procuration of the imperial farman of 1765 and in the treaties of 1766 and 1768 with Nizam Ali and Hyderabad by which the Company had acquired them. Until 1769 the Sarkars had been given up to anarchy and misrule. Hussain Ali was the principal party to the dual administration maintained in the country before the Madras government took direct responsibility in that year. The Chica-cole Sarkar, where Sitarama Razu's power had been predominant, was administered on a different footing altogether. In 1769 the government did away with renters and intermediaries but were faced with problems requiring experience and vision. Mistakes were committed, but the appointment of the Circuit Committee in 1777 augured the better goverment of the Sarkars. But Rumbold complicated the revenue administration by the Madras settlement of 1778. Though partly Justified by the political exigencies of the time and by inherent administrative merits, his settlement unravelled the corrupt practices typical of the times. The reformist attitude of the Court of Directors found Lord Macartney only too willing to make a beginning in the reorganisation of revenue affairs on efficient lines, and the investigations of the later Committees of Circuit greatly furthered his work. The creation of the Board of Revenue in 1786 ensured the future good government of the Sarkars.