India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey.

  • John Strachey
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    459/552 page 429
    regulated, enhanced, and reduced, the circumstances under which evictions might take place; it imposed penalties for illegal exactions, laid down rules regard- ing compensation for improvements, gave power to the Government to order surveys and the preparation of records of rights, and dealt with a multitude of other matters of importance. There has undoubtedly been in recent years immense improvement. In the words of a paper which has been already quoted, “the rise in the price of agricultural produce has benefited all who have such produce to sell. For a long time the land- lords contrived to appropriate the greater part of the benefit, but partly owing to the increase in the number of districts and the creation of subdivisions, which have let the light of day into the remotest parts of the country, and partly owing to the Bengal Tenancy Act and the operations under it, a fair share has at last been secured to the ryot.” 1 The passing of the Tenancy Act was an excellent measure, and its results have been most valuable. More is required, but much progress has been and is being made. I have shown that in other parts of British India there has been a survey of every field, and that a permanent record is maintained of all rights and interests in the land. This, in other provinces, is the basis of our system of administration. Without such basis, in a country where nearly the whole population is agricultural, neither the executive authorities nor the courts of justice have the means of obtaining the know- ledge essential to the protection of the most important interests of the people. In land disputes the first essential is to know accurately where the land is situated, 1 “Memorandum on the Material Condition of the People of Bengal,” by L. P. Shirres, C.S.
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