The Permanent Settlement in Bengal: Zamindars, Jotedars and the Fifth Report (Class 12 History)
Updated 15 October 2026 · Fact-checked
The Permanent Settlement, introduced in Bengal in 1793 under Cornwallis, fixed for ever the revenue that each zamindar paid the East India Company. Officials hoped for steady revenue and improving landlords, but high demands, low prices and the Sunset Law made zamindars default, estates were auctioned, and rich peasants called jotedars gained power.
Follow the arrows: a revenue fixed for ever at a high level, with low prices and the Sunset Law, pushed zamindars into default and let jotedars rise.
Illustration drawn for QuestionBuddy.
Understand The Permanent Settlement in Bengal
Why this topic matters. The Permanent Settlement is the most examined part of Theme 9. Expect 8-mark questions on why it was introduced and its consequences, why zamindars defaulted, or the rise of the jotedars; 3-mark questions on its objectives or on the Fifth Report; and the 'jotedars of Dinajpur' source. NCERT section 1 (1.1-1.6) with Sources 1-2 and Fig. 9.5.
1. Background. Colonial rule was first established in Bengal, where the earliest attempts were made to reorder rural society with new land rights and a new revenue system. The Company acquired the Diwani of Bengal in 1765. By the 1770s the rural economy was in crisis, with recurrent famines and declining agricultural output.
2. Aims of the Settlement (1793).
- Develop agriculture, trade and revenue by encouraging investment in agriculture.
- Do this by securing rights of property and permanently fixing the revenue demand.
- The Company would get a regular flow of revenue; entrepreneurs could be sure of profit, as the state would not raise its claim.
- Create a class of yeomen farmers and rich landowners with the capital and enterprise to improve agriculture, and who would be loyal to the Company.
- Charles Cornwallis was Governor General when it was introduced in 1793.
3. Who was the zamindar now? After prolonged debate, the settlement was made with the rajas and taluqdars, now classified as zamindars, who had to pay a demand fixed in perpetuity.
- In this new definition the zamindar was a revenue collector working for the state, not the owner of village land.
- He might hold many villages (sometimes as many as 400), together forming one revenue estate.
- He collected rent from villages, paid revenue to the Company, and kept the difference; if he failed to pay, his estate could be auctioned.
4. An auction in Burdwan, 1797. Estates of the Raja of Burdwan, who had piled up arrears, were auctioned. The Collector found that many buyers were the raja's own servants and agents: over 95 per cent of the sale was fictitious, and the raja stayed in control. Across Bengal, over 75 per cent of zamindaris changed hands after the Settlement.
5. Why zamindars defaulted (four reasons).
1. High initial demand: since the demand was fixed for ever, the Company pegged it high to avoid losing future gains, arguing the burden would fall as output and prices rose.
2. Depressed prices in the 1790s: ryots found it hard to pay rent to zamindars.
3. Rigid, punctual payment: revenue did not vary with the harvest; under the Sunset Law, if payment did not arrive by sunset on the due date, the zamindari could be auctioned.
4. Curbs on zamindars' power: their troops were disbanded, customs duties abolished, their cutcheries (courts) put under a Company Collector; they lost control of local justice and police. The collectorate became an alternative centre of authority.
Add to these the problems of rent collection: the amlah came to collect, but bad harvests, low prices and deliberate delays by ryots made it hard; jotedars and mandals were happy to see the zamindar in trouble; suing defaulters was slow (over 30,000 pending suits in Burdwan alone in 1798).
6. The rise of the jotedars. Described in Francis Buchanan's survey of Dinajpur (North Bengal).
| Feature | Jotedars |
|---|---|
| Land | By the early nineteenth century, vast areas, sometimes several thousand acres |
| Economy | Controlled local trade and moneylending |
| Labour | Much land worked by sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars), who gave half the produce |
| Location | Lived in the villages, unlike zamindars who often lived in towns |
| Resistance | Opposed increases in the village jama, obstructed zamindari officials, mobilised dependent ryots, delayed revenue payments |
| At auctions | Often among the purchasers of zamindars' estates |
Most powerful in North Bengal; elsewhere similar men were called haoladars, gantidars or mandals. Their rise weakened zamindari authority. Fig. 9.5 shows the chain: Company <- revenue <- zamindar <- rent <- ryots, with jotedars lending to ryots and ryots sub-letting to under-ryots.
7. How zamindars survived.
- Fictitious (benami) sales: the Raja of Burdwan transferred part of his zamindari to his mother (the Company would not take over women's property); his agents then bought estates at auction, refused to pay, forced re-auctions again and again, until the estate came back cheaply. Between 1793 and 1801, four big zamindaris including Burdwan made benami purchases worth up to Rs 30 lakh; over 15 per cent of all auction sales were fictitious.
- Force: lathyals (strongmen) attacked agents of outside buyers.
- Loyalty of ryots: ryots saw themselves as the zamindar's proja (subjects) and resisted outsiders.
- Better times: by the early nineteenth century the price depression ended and payment rules became somewhat flexible, so surviving zamindars grew stronger. They finally collapsed only in the Great Depression of the 1930s, when jotedars consolidated their power.
8. The Fifth Report (1813).
- Submitted to the British Parliament in 1813: the fifth in a series on the Company's administration.
- 1002 pages, over 800 of them appendices: petitions of zamindars and ryots, collectors' reports, revenue tables, notes on revenue and judicial administration of Bengal and Madras.
- Background: groups in Britain opposed the Company's trade monopoly; private traders and industrialists wanted access; Parliament passed Acts (the Regulating Act, 1773) and demanded regular reports.
- Use with care: research in zamindars' archives and district records shows that, keen to criticise Company maladministration, it exaggerated the collapse of zamindari power and overestimated how much land zamindars were losing.
Key quotations
Short lines worth knowing by heart: who says them, when, and why they matter.
the zamindar was not a landowner in the village
NCERT, section 1.2: On how the Permanent Settlement defined the zamindar: a revenue collector of the state.
Key to understanding the zamindar's new legal position.
Over 95 per cent of the sale at the auction was fictitious
NCERT, section 1.1: The 1797 auction of the Raja of Burdwan's estates.
Shows how zamindars defeated the auction system.
know that the zamindars have no power over them
Francis Buchanan on the jotedars of Dinajpur (Source 1): Describing jotedars who paid little and held more land than their deeds allowed.
Contemporary evidence of the jotedars' strength.
the Fifth Report exaggerated the collapse of traditional zamindari power
NCERT, section 1.6: Summarising recent research on the report's bias.
Why official reports must be read critically.
The Permanent Settlement in Bengal: key facts
- Key dates
1765 Company acquires the Diwani of Bengal 1773 Regulating Act 1793 Permanent Settlement under Cornwallis 1797 Burdwan auction 1798 over 30,000 suits pending in Burdwan 1813 Fifth Report to Parliament - The crisis of the 1770s lay behind the Settlement.
- Aims of the Settlement
Revenue a regular flow for the Company Investment secure property rights and a fixed demand Class yeomen farmers and rich landowners Loyalty a class nurtured by and loyal to the Company - Fixed demand was meant to give security to both sides.
- The zamindar's position
Role revenue collector of the state, not village landowner Estate sometimes as many as 400 villages Income rent from villages minus fixed revenue to the Company Penalty default led to auction - Settlement made with rajas and taluqdars, now classed as zamindars.
- Why zamindars defaulted
High demand pegged high since it was fixed for ever Low prices depressed in the 1790s Sunset Law payment by sunset on the due date, whatever the harvest Curbs troops disbanded, customs abolished, cutcheries under the Collector - Plus rent-collection problems and slow lawsuits.
- Jotedars
Land several thousand acres Economy local trade and moneylending Labour adhiyars or bargadars, giving half the produce Residence in the villages, unlike zamindars Tactics resisted jama, delayed payments, bought at auctions - Strongest in North Bengal; haoladars, gantidars, mandals elsewhere.
- How zamindars survived
Benami sales land to the raja's mother; agents bid, defaulted, forced re-auctions Lathyals strongmen drove off outside buyers Ryots loyal as the zamindar's proja Recovery prices rose in the early nineteenth century - 1793-1801: benami purchases up to Rs 30 lakh; over 15 per cent of all sales fictitious.
- Fifth Report
Date 1813, to the British Parliament Size 1002 pages, over 800 of appendices Author a Select Committee Bias exaggerated the collapse of zamindari power - Invaluable but to be read critically.
How to answer The Permanent Settlement in Bengal questions
Expect 1-mark items on Cornwallis, the Sunset Law, jotedars and the Fifth Report; 3-mark questions on the objectives of the Settlement, the role of jotedars or the Fifth Report; 8-mark questions on why zamindaris were auctioned, the consequences of the Settlement or the rise of the jotedars; and the Dinajpur source.
- 1Set the context: 1765 diwani, 1770s crisis, 1793 Settlement under Cornwallis.
- 2State the aims: fixed demand, property rights, investment, regular revenue, loyal landowning class.
- 3Define the new zamindar: revenue collector over an estate; rent minus revenue; auction on default.
- 4Explain default with four reasons and rent-collection problems.
- 5Show the outcome: auctions (75 per cent changed hands), rise of jotedars, zamindar strategies.
- 6Bring in the Fifth Report and its bias for answers on sources.
- 7Conclude: the Settlement did not create improving landlords; power shifted unevenly between zamindars and jotedars.
The Permanent Settlement in Bengal in real life
The idea, met in an everyday situation. Answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.
A fixed contract in changing times
Suppose a shop owner signs a lease fixing rent at a high figure for ever, just as a slump hits and customers stop paying their bills on time.
Why might the shop owner default, and how is this like the Bengal zamindar after 1793?
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- The fixed rent was set high in anticipation of future growth.
- In the slump, income fell, as agricultural prices were depressed in the 1790s.
- Customers delayed payment, as ryots and jotedars delayed rent.
- The lease had a strict deadline, like the Sunset Law.
Answer: A high, rigid demand fixed in bad times, with unreliable income, led to default; this is exactly why many zamindaris were auctioned.
Memory hook: Fixed high + falling prices + strict deadline = default.
Benami buying
Imagine a property owner whose flat is put up for auction by a bank, but his cousin quietly buys it, never pays, and the process repeats until the bank sells it back cheaply.
Which Bengal strategy does this resemble?
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- The Raja of Burdwan's agents bought his estates at auction.
- They refused to pay the purchase money, forcing re-auction.
- Repeated many times, this exhausted the state and other bidders, and the estate returned to the zamindar at a low price.
Answer: The fictitious or benami sale; between 1793 and 1801, such purchases by four big zamindaris came to as much as Rs 30 lakh.
Memory hook: Bid, don't pay, repeat.
Tricks to remember The Permanent Settlement in Bengal
Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.
H-P-S-C default
High demand, low Prices, Sunset Law, Curbed power: 'Heavy Payments Spoil Calm'.
Use it when: Four reasons for zamindars' default.
Numbers ladder
1793 Settlement, 1797 Burdwan auction (95 per cent fake), 1798 (30,000 suits), 1813 Fifth Report (1002 pages): '93, 97, 98, 13'.
Use it when: Dates and figures in order.
Jotedar = J-O-T
Jama resisted, Owners of thousands of acres, Traders and lenders.
Use it when: Quick recall of jotedar power.
The Permanent Settlement in Bengal: solved examples
Ordered from board level to HOTS. Try each one before you open the solution.
Example 1: The sharecroppers · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
In rural Bengal, the sharecroppers who cultivated much of the jotedars' land and handed over half the produce were called:
(a) amlahs
(b) lathyals
(c) adhiyars or bargadars
(d) projas
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Adhiyars or bargadars brought their own ploughs, worked the fields and gave half the harvest to jotedars (1 mark).
Answer: (c) adhiyars or bargadars
Example 2: Hopes of the Company · 3 marks · Short answerBoard level
What did East India Company officials hope to gain by fixing the revenue demand permanently in Bengal? (3 marks)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Background: crisis of the 1770s; development of agriculture, trade and revenue through investment (1 mark).
- Fixed demand: regular revenue for the Company; secure profit for investors (1 mark).
- A class of yeomen farmers and rich landowners, with capital and enterprise, loyal to the Company (1 mark).
Answer: By the 1770s Bengal's rural economy was in crisis, with recurrent famines and falling output. Officials believed agriculture, trade and the state's revenue could all grow if investment in agriculture was encouraged by securing property rights and fixing the revenue demand for ever. The Company would then receive a regular flow of revenue, while entrepreneurs could be confident of earning profit, since the state would not take it away by raising its claim. Officials also hoped this would produce a class of yeomen farmers and rich landowners with the capital and enterprise to improve agriculture, who, nurtured by the British, would be loyal to the Company.
Example 3: Assertion and reason: the Sunset Law · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder board level
Assertion (A): Many zamindaris in Bengal were auctioned in the years after 1793.
Reason (R): Revenue had to be paid punctually whatever the harvest, and late payment could lead to auction under the Sunset Law.
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- The rigid, punctual demand under the Sunset Law is one of NCERT's reasons for default and auction (1 mark).
Answer: (a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
Example 4: Curbing the zamindars · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
"The Company recognised the zamindars as important but wanted to subdue them." Explain with three measures, and show how this made revenue collection harder. (3 marks)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Troops disbanded and customs duties abolished (1 mark).
- Cutcheries placed under the Collector; loss of local justice and police; collectorate as rival centre (1 mark).
- Effect: zamindars could not easily force ryots and jotedars to pay; suits slow (30,000 pending in Burdwan, 1798) (1 mark).
Answer: The Company wished to control and regulate zamindars and restrict their autonomy. Their troops were disbanded and their customs duties abolished. Their cutcheries (courts) were brought under the supervision of a Collector, and they lost the power to organise local justice and police, so the collectorate became an alternative centre of authority. As a result zamindars could not easily compel ryots to pay rent: they had to go to court, where cases dragged on, with over 30,000 suits for arrears pending in Burdwan alone in 1798. Weakened in this way, many failed to pay the Company on time.
Example 5: Source-based: the Fifth Report's figures · 4 marks · Source-basedHarder board level
Read the source (summarised for this page from the Fifth Report extract in NCERT) and answer.
The report complained that revenue in Bengal was not paid on time and that large areas of land were regularly put up for auction. For 1796-97 it listed land carrying an assessment of about 28.7 lakh sicca rupees as advertised for sale and land assessed at about 14.2 lakh actually sold; the next year about 26.7 lakh was advertised and about 22.7 lakh sold. It named old families, such as the rajas of Nadia, Rajshahi and Bishnupur, among the defaulters facing ruin.
(i) When and to whom was the Fifth Report submitted? (1)
(ii) What impression of the zamindars does the report try to create through these figures? (1)
(iii) Why do historians today treat this impression with caution? (2)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- (i) 1813, to the British Parliament (1 mark).
- (ii) That zamindars were collapsing: estates being dismembered, old families ruined (1 mark).
- (iii) Written to criticise Company maladministration; archives show it exaggerated the collapse and overestimated land loss; benami sales kept many zamindars in control; two years are too short for generalisation (2 marks).
Answer: (i) It was submitted to the British Parliament in 1813, the fifth of a series of reports on the East India Company's administration. (ii) That Bengal's zamindars, including some of the oldest families, were steadily losing their estates and heading for poverty and ruin because of the revenue system. (iii) The report was produced amid intense criticism of the Company in Britain, and its authors were intent on exposing maladministration. Research in zamindars' archives and district records shows that it exaggerated the collapse of zamindari power and overestimated land loss: even when estates were auctioned, zamindars often kept control through fictitious sales, lathyals and the loyalty of ryots. Figures from only two years also cannot support long-term conclusions.
Example 6: Long answer: who gained from the Permanent Settlement? · 8 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency
"The Permanent Settlement did not produce the improving landlords it promised; instead, power in rural Bengal was contested." Examine the working of the Settlement in the light of this statement. (8 marks)
Try it first, then show the solutionSolution
- Aims of 1793 (1 mark).
- Nature of the zamindar's role (1 mark).
- Reasons for default (1 mark).
- Auctions: Burdwan 1797; 75 per cent changed hands (1 mark).
- Rise of jotedars and their resistance (1 mark).
- Zamindars' counter-strategies (1 mark).
- Fifth Report and its exaggeration; long-term outcome to the 1930s (1 mark).
- Judgement (1 mark).
Answer: The Permanent Settlement of 1793, introduced under Cornwallis, fixed the revenue of Bengal's zamindars in perpetuity. Officials hoped to end the crisis of the 1770s by securing property rights, encouraging investment and creating a loyal class of yeomen farmers and rich landowners, while ensuring a regular flow of revenue.
The zamindar became a revenue collector of the state over an estate that could include as many as 400 villages: he collected rent, paid the fixed revenue and kept the difference, on pain of auction. In practice zamindars regularly defaulted. The initial demand was set very high; it was imposed when prices were depressed; it had to be paid punctually under the Sunset Law regardless of the harvest; and the Company disbanded zamindars' troops, abolished their customs duties and put their cutcheries under the Collector. Rent collection was difficult and lawsuits were slow.
The result was a flood of auctions: over 75 per cent of zamindaris changed hands. Yet the beneficiaries were often not improving landlords. In North Bengal, jotedars, rich peasants with thousands of acres who controlled trade and moneylending and worked land through sharecroppers, resisted increases in jama, delayed payments and often bought auctioned estates. Similar figures, called haoladars, gantidars or mandals, rose elsewhere.
Zamindars fought back. The Raja of Burdwan transferred land to his mother and used benami purchasers who repeatedly bought and defaulted: in the 1797 Burdwan auction over 95 per cent of the sale was fictitious. Lathyals drove off outside buyers, and ryots loyal to their zamindar as proja resisted newcomers. When prices recovered in the early nineteenth century, surviving zamindars consolidated their power, which collapsed only in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The Fifth Report of 1813 portrayed a wholesale collapse of zamindars, but recent research shows it exaggerated this to attack Company misrule.
The statement is therefore valid: the Settlement brought instability rather than improvement, and power was contested among the Company, zamindars and jotedars.
Where students lose marks in The Permanent Settlement in Bengal
The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.
Mistake: Calling the zamindar the owner of village land
Confusing Mughal and colonial meanings.
Wrong working
The Permanent Settlement made zamindars owners of all village lands.
Right working
Under the Settlement the zamindar collected revenue for the state over an estate; he did not own the village lands.
Do this: Write 'revenue collector, not village landowner'.
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Confusing 95 per cent and 15 per cent
Two 'fictitious sale' figures.
Wrong working
Over 95 per cent of all auction sales in Bengal were fictitious.
Right working
Over 95 per cent of the 1797 Burdwan auction was fictitious; over 15 per cent of total auction sales (1793-1801) were fictitious.
Do this: 95 = Burdwan alone; 15 = Bengal total.
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Listing only one reason for default
Writing 'high revenue' and stopping.
Wrong working
Zamindars defaulted because the revenue was high.
Right working
High demand, depressed prices, the rigid Sunset Law and curbs on zamindari power, plus rent-collection problems.
Do this: Use H-P-S-C.
Usually costs: 2-3 marks in 8-mark answers.
Mistake: Treating the Fifth Report as plain fact
Not evaluating the source.
Wrong working
The Fifth Report proves that zamindars were wiped out.
Right working
It exaggerated the collapse and overestimated land loss; zamindars often survived through benami sales.
Do this: Always add who wrote it and why.
Usually costs: 1-2 marks.
Exam tips
- Asked in: 2023 board paper 61/4/1 Q30 (8 marks: (a) how jotedars became powerful; (b) why zamindars failed to pay revenue); 2024 board paper 61/3/1 Q30(a) (8 marks, factors behind the Settlement and its consequences); 2025 board paper 61/5/1 Q26 and sample paper 2026-27 Q26 (3 marks, objectives of the Settlement); 2025 board paper 61/7/1 Q25 (3 marks, role of jotedars); 2024 board paper 61/2/1 Q26 and 2026 board paper 61/3/1 Q26 (3 marks, the Fifth Report); 2023 board paper 61/3/1 Q33 (4-mark source, jotedars of Dinajpur); 1-mark items such as 2023 61/3/1 Q7, 2024 61/2/1 Q15, 2025 61/1/1 Q16, 61/2/1 Q17 and 61/5/1 Q21, 2026 61/1/1 Q16 and 61/3/1 Q15, sample paper 2025-26 Q15-16. Answers here are our own.
- For 8-mark answers on default, give the four reasons and add rent-collection problems and the 30,000 pending suits.
- For jotedars, cite Buchanan's Dinajpur survey and the term adhiyars or bargadars.
- For the Fifth Report, state date, size, purpose and bias.
- Keep the Burdwan 95 per cent and the Bengal-wide 15 per cent figures separate.
Practice questions on The Permanent Settlement in Bengal
Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.
Q1 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
Which Governor General is linked with the 1793 revenue settlement in Bengal?
(a) Warren Hastings
(b) Charles Cornwallis
(c) Lord Wellesley
(d) Lord DalhousieHint
He had commanded British forces in the American War of Independence.
Answer
(b) Charles Cornwallis.
Q2 · 2 marks · Very short answerBoard level
What was the Sunset Law, and what happened to a zamindar who broke it? (2 marks)
Hint
Deadline and penalty.
Answer
Under the Sunset Law, revenue had to reach the Company by sunset on the specified date. If it did not, the zamindari was liable to be auctioned.
Q3 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
Why were jotedars more powerful than zamindars within the villages of North Bengal? (3 marks)
Hint
Where they lived and what they controlled.
Answer
Jotedars held vast areas of land, sometimes several thousand acres, and controlled local trade and moneylending, so poorer cultivators depended on them. Much of their land was worked by sharecroppers (adhiyars or bargadars) who gave them half the produce. Unlike zamindars, who often lived in towns, jotedars lived in the villages and directly controlled many poor villagers, whom they could mobilise to resist zamindari officials, oppose increases in jama and delay revenue payments.
Q4 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
In what ways did ryots help zamindars resist displacement after their estates were auctioned? (3 marks)
Hint
Proja and identity.
Answer
When outsiders bought an estate at auction, ryots sometimes refused to let them enter. They felt bound to their own zamindar by loyalty, regarded him as their natural authority and called themselves his proja (subjects); the sale of the zamindari hurt their sense of identity and pride. Together with the zamindar's lathyals, who attacked the agents of new purchasers, this meant outside buyers could not always take possession, so zamindars were not easily displaced.
Q5 · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder board level
Assertion (A): The Fifth Report should be accepted as a complete and neutral account of rural Bengal.
Reason (R): It ran to 1002 pages and contained petitions, collectors' reports and revenue statistics.
(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true but R is false.
(d) A is false but R is true.Hint
Size is not the same as neutrality.
Answer
(d) A is false but R is true: the report is invaluable, but it exaggerated the collapse of zamindari power because it was written to criticise Company rule.
Q6 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Suppose you are a jotedar in Dinajpur in 1800. Your zamindar wants to raise the jama of your village. Explain three ways in which you might resist, using Buchanan's evidence. (3 marks)
Hint
Delay, courts, ryots.
Answer
First, pay only a few rupees of each instalment (kist) and fall into arrears, delaying payment to the zamindar. Second, if the zamindar's officers summoned and detained me at the cutcherry, complain at once to the police station and the munsiff's court, tying the zamindar up in disputes. Third, use my influence over dependent ryots, to whom I lend money, and encourage them not to pay their rent while the cases are pending. I would also hold more land than my pottah allowed and be ready to buy the estate if it came to auction.
Q7 · 4 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Officials who designed the Permanent Settlement assumed that security of property would lead zamindars to invest in improving agriculture. Using evidence from the chapter, explain why this assumption failed. (4 marks)
Hint
Demand, prices, power, behaviour.
Answer
The assumption ignored the conditions zamindars faced. The demand was set very high and imposed in the 1790s when prices were depressed, so zamindars struggled merely to pay, let alone invest. The rigid Sunset Law put estates at risk every year, which undermined the very security the Settlement promised: over 75 per cent of zamindaris changed hands. The Company also stripped zamindars of troops, customs duties and judicial powers, so they could not easily collect rent from ryots or control jotedars. Zamindars therefore spent their energy on survival strategies, such as benami purchases and lathyals, rather than on improving land; and later officials concluded, following Ricardo's ideas, that Bengal's zamindars had become rentiers living on rental income.
Test your recall
Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.
1.In which year was the Permanent Settlement introduced?Show answer
1793.
2.What share of zamindaris changed hands after the Settlement?Show answer
Over 75 per cent.
3.Who came to the village to collect rent for the zamindar?Show answer
The amlah, an officer of the zamindar.
4.What does 'benami' mean?Show answer
Literally anonymous: a transaction in the name of a fictitious or insignificant person, the real beneficiary staying unnamed.
5.How many pages did the Fifth Report have?Show answer
1002, of which over 800 were appendices.
6.When did the zamindars finally collapse?Show answer
During the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The Permanent Settlement in Bengal: frequently asked questions
What was the Permanent Settlement?
A revenue system introduced in Bengal in 1793 by which the East India Company fixed, for all time, the revenue each zamindar had to pay; estates of defaulters were auctioned.
Why did zamindars fail to pay revenue?
The demand was set very high, prices were depressed in the 1790s, payment was rigid under the Sunset Law, and the Company curbed zamindars' power, making rent collection difficult.
Who were the jotedars?
Rich peasants of Bengal, strongest in the north, who held vast lands, controlled trade and moneylending, used sharecroppers and often weakened zamindari authority.
Why should the Fifth Report be read carefully?
It was written to criticise Company maladministration and exaggerated the collapse of zamindari power and the scale of land loss.