A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous Indian feudalism of a zamindari (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian language was the official language; zamindar is the Persian for landowner. During the British Raj, the British began using it as a local synonym for "estate". Zamindars as a class were equivalent to lords and barons; in some cases, they were independent sovereign princes. Similarly, their holdings were typically hereditary and came with the right to collect taxes on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes. This continued in states like Bihar(Bhumihar), Haryana(Tyagi), Uttar Pradesh(Bhumihar), Rajasthan(Thakur), and West Bengal(Brahmins & Bhumihars) and even after Independence untill the abolition of zameendari in 1950 , the biggest zamindar at present being the prince of Sathasi raj "Akshit Rai".books.google.com/books/about/1857_Bihar_Jharkhand_Main_Mahayudh.html?id=9cGgdEGTxvYC#v=onepage&q=zamindar%20bihar%20hindi&f=false
During the Mughal Empire, as well as the British Raj, zamindars were the land-owning nobility of the Indian subcontinent and formed the ruling class. Emperor Akbar granted them mansabdar and their ancestral domains were treated as . Most of the big zamindars belonged to the Hindu high-caste, usually Brahmin, Rajput, Bhumihar, or Kayastha. During the colonial era, the Permanent Settlement consolidated what became known as the zamindari system. The British rewarded supportive zamindars by recognising them as princes. Many of the region's were pre-colonial zamindar holdings elevated to a greater protocol. The British also reduced the land holdings of many pre-colonial princely states and chieftaincies, demoting their status to noble zamindars from previously higher ranks of royalty. During the period of British Raj, many wealthy and influential zamindars were bestowed with noble and royal titles such as Maharaja, Raja/Rai, Babu, Rai Sahib, Rai Bahadur, Malik, Chaudhary/Chowdhury, Nawab, Munshi, Khan and Sardar."Santanu Ghosh: মুন্সিয়ানায় চল্লিশ পুরুষ (in Bengali)">Santanu Ghosh. "Munshianay Chollis Purush" Publisher: Dey's PublishingMotilal, Anup; Bandopadhyay, Ranjankumar (1991). Baranagar: Itihas O Samikshya
The system was abolished during in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1950, India in 1951 and West Pakistan in 1959. The zamindars often played an important role in the regional histories of the subcontinent. One of the most notable examples is the 16th-century confederation formed by twelve zamindars in the Bhati region (), which, according to the Jesuits and Ralph Fitch, earned a reputation for successively repelling Mughal invasions through naval battles. The zamindars were also patrons of the arts. The Tagore family produced India's first Nobel Prize laureate in literature in 1913, Rabindranath Tagore, who was often based at his estate. Similarly, many zamindars also promoted neoclassical and Indo-Saracenic architecture.
Mughal era
According to Arif Qandhari, one of the contemporary historians of Akbar's reign, there were around two to three hundred rajas or rais and zamindars who ruled their territory from strong forts under the emperor's suzerainty. Each of these rajas and zamindars commanded an army of their own, generally consisting of their clansmen and the total numbers of their troops, as Abul Fazl tells us, stood at forty-four lakhs, comprising 384,558 cavalry, 4,277,057 infantry, 1863 elephants, 4260 guns and 4500 boats.
During the Mughal Era, there was no clear difference between the princely states and zamindari estates. Even the ruling autonomous chiefs of princely states were called zamindars.
Moreland was one of the first historians to draw our attention to the importance of zamindars in medieval India. He defines zamindars as "vassal chiefs". He points out that there were areas under direct control of the Mughals where there were no zamindars and then there were territories of the vassal chiefs who had autonomy over their state, but were subjugated by the Mughals and paid a tribute/ nazarana to the Mughal Emperor. However, Irfan Habib in his book Agrarian System of Mughal India, divided the zamindars into two categories: the autonomous chiefs who enjoyed "sovereign power" in their territories and the ordinary zamindars who exercised superior rights in land and collected land revenue and were mostly appointed by the Mughals.
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Historian S. Nurul Hasan divided the zamindars into three categories: (i) The Autonomous Rai/ Rajas or Chiefs, (ii) the intermediary zamindars and (iii) the primary zamindars.
British era
During the Mughal Era, the zamindars were not proprietors. They used to engage in wars and used to plunder neighbouring kings. So they never looked after the improvements in their land. The East India Company under Lord Cornwallis, realising this, made the Permanent Settlement in 1793 with the zamindars and made them proprietors of their land in return for a fixed annual rent and left them independent for the internal affairs of their estates. This Permanent Settlement created the new zamindari system as we know it today. After 1857, the armies of the majority of zamindars were abolished with the exception of a small number of forces for policing/digwari/kotwali in their respective estates. If the zamindars were not able to pay the rent until sunset, parts of their estates were acquired and auctioned. This created a new class of zamindars in the society. As the rest of India came later under the control of the East India Company (EIC), different ways were implemented in different provinces to with regard to the ruling authorities in the region to get them to accede to Company authority.
The British generally adopted the extant zamindari system of revenue collection in the north of the country. They recognised the zamindars as landowners and proprietors as opposed to the Mughal government and, in return, required them to collect taxes. Although some zamindars were present in the south, they were not so in large numbers, and the British administrators used the ryotwari (cultivator) method of collection, which involved selecting certain farmers as being land owners and requiring them to remit their taxes directly. The Zamindars of Bengal were influential in the development of Bengal. They played a pivotal role during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Similarly, they were largely influential in philanthropy and the development of the arts. The British continued the tradition of bestowing both royal and noble titles to zamindars who were loyal to the paramount. The titles of Raja, Maharaja, Rai Saheb, Rai Bahadur, Rao, Nawab, Munshi, and Khan Bahadur were bestowed to princely state rulers and to many zamindars from time to time. According to an estimate in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, there were around 2000 ruling chiefs holding the royal title of Raja and Maharaja which included the rulers of princely states and several large chiefdoms. This number increases tenfold if zamindar/ jagirdar chiefs with other non-royal but noble titles are taken into account.In Odisha, the local kings of the princely states appointed or sometimes rewarded individuals as village heads or gountias. Such titles are closely related to the zamindar titles. Sometimes the king's own family members were created gountias such as Veer Surendra Sai whose ancestors were the kings of Sambalpur state and whose family was the gountia of Khinda village.24 some princely states like athamallick, khandapada,rairakhol,had local villageheads like gountias they are called "Pradhan". People have surnames like biswal,dhal,sahoo, gadanayak had changed their title to Pradhan between 1700 and 1900 after becoming villageheads. They own large amount of land.
Accession
Abolition
In global health and tropical medicine
See also
- Indian honorifics
- Ghatwals and Mulraiyats
- Mankari
- Maratha titles
- Thakur
- Zerat
Notes
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