Paper Details

In an agrarian country like India, the economic aspects of land, revenue, and farmers have long influenced rural society and the larger state system. It is necessary to reveal the extent to which land-revenue management protected the interests of those in the contemporary state system and how the land-revenue-peasant-landlord-state relationship was conducive to economic development or how it helped improve the living standards of the common man. In addition to this, it is necessary to determine the extent to which the conventional land policy of the British rule and the land management associated with it protected the interests of the British ruling class or their loyal community. Since the introduction of Company rule in India, the land revenue system of this country has been experimented with in various ways. In the light of this point of view, Bengal became one of the areas of experimentation in the land-revenue policy of the British government. In order to collect revenue regularly and adequately, British administrators like Lord Warren Hastings, John Shore, Philip Francis and Barwell tried to build a revenue system in Bengal. But Lord Cornwallis took the helm of the land revenue system of Bengal as a kind of coercive revenue collection did not succeed. But the land revenue policy introduced by him needs to be properly ascertained as to how much the land settlement of Bengal and the peasant society associated with it, the interests of the zamindars were protected, or not at all. Through this research paper, my aim is to highlight the impact of the land revenue system of Bengal during the colonial period.

company governance, land revenue, farmer, landlord, influence.