116
THE CAUSES OF SUB-DIVISION
AND FRAGMENTATION OF LAND IN THE VILLAGE
The most natural question that arises at this stage is :
what are the causes of this grave problem ? In our en-
quiry into the historical aspects of this problem, we came
across an interesting case illustrating some of the most
important causes of this tendency. It refers to a Dhodia1
family headed by a man called Kikla Panchia2 and may
be described as under :
Kikla Panchia lived in the 'seventies of the last cen-
tury. It is reported that he had a family of about 50
persons and was a holder of extensive land. The ex-
tent of his landed property is not available, but what it
must have been can be guessed from two stories current
about him. It is said that he annually produced about
Rs. 2,000 worth of gul and 4,000 maunds of paddy.
No records are available to show how much land his des-
cendants possessed till we come to the year 1900 when
the Bodkhat3 gives some interesting figures. In this re-
cord we find that the original single family was divided
into five separate ones and consequently the landed pro-
perty of the family was parcelled into five divisions. All
the five together held 247 acres of land in 80 plots, An
examination of the present owners of the Survey numbers
that formed these 247 acres gives us the following results :
(i) the total number of landholders has increased from
5 to 53;
(ii) of these 53 landholders, 14 belong to the original
stock and 39 are outsiders who have come in possession
of this property. Of these 39, 37 have purchased.land
(mostly received in. repayment of debt) from different
1 A section of the Kaliparaj Which is in a majority, in this village.
2 In his Settlement Report of the Bulsar Taluka submitted in 1870 to
the Government of Bombay, Mr. Beyts refers to a rich Dhodia family
in Atgam. On enquiry we ascertined this family to be the same as that
of this man—Kikla—whose history we are relating.
3 A register of landowners prepared at the time of the last Settlement
in 1900.