Zamindari System

Under the Zamindari system , which was introduced by Lord Cornwallis in 1793 in Bengal, land was held by one person or at the most by a few joint owners who were responsible for the payment of land revenue (Malguzari). Under the Zamindari system of tenure, these revenue collectors were raised to the status of land owners. The Zamindari settlements were of two types: (i) permanent with fixed land revenue in perpetuity, and (ii) temporary in which land revenue used to be assessed for a period ranging between 20 to 40 years and was subject to revision. Thus, between the state and the actual tiller, there grew’ an intermediary who was interested in land only to the extent of extraction of exorbitant rent. So Zamindari symbolised oppression and tyranny and agriculture was degraded to subsistence farming with low productivity.