Land Revenue Policy of the Indian Government

About the middle of the ccJItury z e. before the Mutiny the question of the relative shares of the State and of the landlords in the net produce of the soil came again under careful review in Northern India ; and the result of this further consideration of the matter was embodied in what are known as the Saharanpur Rules" (so called because they were issued in connection with the resettlement of [...] It is dependent upon a number of varying factors such as the industry and resources of the cultivator the nature of the crop the capacity security and situation of the holding and the chance of the seasons. [...] The aim of local taxation is the benefit of the community and the spread of elementary education amongst the cultivating classes is the surest preventive of the carelessness which allows so large a proportion of the increased value that settled government and improved communications have given to the produce of agricultural industry to slip through the fingers of the people. [...] The first of these is the pitch of enhancement ; the second is the levy of the same assessment in bad years as in good on the assump tion that savings in the one will meet the losses of the other ; the third is the effect of local deterioration upon land revenue payments. [...] The question of varying the revenue demand to meet the character of the season is similar to the preceding in that it involves departure from the theory of settlement at the cost of some revenue to the State.