Revenue Experiment :pro And Anti-trends On Village Lease Settlement In Early Eighteenth Century Tamil Country

Based on the exhaustive report of Hodgson, a Member of the Board of Revenue who examined the local revenue system, the Government directed the introduction of Villlage Lease Settlement from 1808 to 1809 , a system of village –rents for three years -Triennial Lease Settlement (faslis 1218-1220). The rates were finally fixed in April 1809 due to the difficulty in finding figure and because of the fluctuation of revenue from year to year. The system was evidently considered satisfactory enough. Hence in 1811 the Government ordered for the introduction of a decennial village –rent intending thus to pave the way for the establishment of permanent leases. The Court of Directors, on learning of these arrangements , strongly disapproved and directed that the system of Village Lease Settlement should be withheld. Further the Court of Directors expressed their great surprise that the Board of Revenue , who had issued circular instructions on the subject to collectors , Should have sanctioned such an arrangement and should have assumed such “extraordinary and unwarrantable discretion”. The decennial lease had been actually introduced in fasli 1222 (1812-1813). The Madras Government pointed out in reply that it was impracticable , at any rate in case of the wet lands, to adopt a ryotwari system. They were prepared to follow such system in regard to dry lands. In 1815, the most positive orders, directing the discontinuance of rents and the introduction of aryotwari system reached the Madras Government. In 1817 a definite attempt was made to introduce a ryotwari settlement in the place of Village Lease Settlement in one wet village , Perunkulam in Srivaikuntam Taluk of Tirunelveli District. One school headed by Thomas Munro , Graham and Ravenshaw favoured the Ryotwari Settlement .The other school including Hodgson, Place, J.N. Norton, John Briggs and Campbell insisted the continuance of Village Lease Settlement. The pro and anti- Village Lease Settlement affected the revenue experiment of the Company Government and subsequently the ryots suffered at the hands of the Land Lords, Money Lenders ,Rack Renters and Speculators who exploited much the ryots and tillers of the soil.