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ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT] [BULLETIN No. 17

THE ECONOMICS

OF

TENANCY LAW

AND

ESTATE MANAGEMENT

Being a Course of Public Lectures delivered

IN THE University of Allahabad

February to April, 1921

BY

H. STANLEY JEVONS

M.A„ B.Sc, F.S,S.

University Professor of Economics, Editor of the

" Indian Journal of Economics "

PUBLISHED AT THE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT

UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD

1921

BULLETINS OF THE

ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT

UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD.

The following Bulletins are still in stock and may
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L Economics in India.— Inaugural Lecture, by
Professor H. Stanley Jkvons. 1915. Post
free As. 10.

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mics Department).— Post free As. 2.

8. Sources of Information.— (A guide to stu-

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field inquiries in India.) Post free As. 6.

9. The Consolidation of Agricultural

Holdings in the United Provinces.—
By Professor H. Stanley Jevons. Post free
Re. 1-2.

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Economics Department in the

Session 1917-18.— Post free As. 4.

11. Prospectus of the Seminar and Re-

search Course, 19l8-19.-"[With list of
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Economics in the University of Allah-
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13. Ditto 1920.— Post free As. 2.
15. Ditto 1921.— Post free As. 4.

17. Economics of Tenancy Law and Estate
Management.— Post free Re. 1-10.

ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT] . . t^ULLETIti No. l7

THE ECONOMICS

OF

TENANCY LAW

AND

ESTATE MANAGEMENT

Being a Ooukse of Public Lkctuuks delivkukd

IN THE University of Allahabad

February to Apkil, 1921

BY

H. STANLEY JEVONS

M.A., B.Sc, F.'^.S.

University Professor of Economics, Editor of the

" Indian Journal of Economics "

^ lUba bail

PUBLISHED AT THE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT

UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD

1921

• ••••.,•••,

•• ••••••• t ,• • • •••

MAHIUe-.A, c:., T.JREDBI-aa

3^^

CONTENTS

Page

Preface ... ... ••• ..• v

Introductory Remarks ... ... ... 1

Lecture I. — Growth of Population ... 7

Lecture III.*— Other Economic FAcroits ... 19

Lecture IV. — Landlord and Tenant ... 25

Lecture V.— Control of Rents ... ... 34

Lecture VI. — English Tenancy Systkm ... 46

\

Lecture VII. — Tenancy Reform in the United

Provinces ... ... 52

Lecture VIII. — Estate Management... .. 83

Lecture IX.— General Policy

Appendix ... ... ... ... 103

^A regrettable mistake has occmred id the narabering of the
Lectares so that there is no II. Od page 34 for IV read V.

518006

PREFACE

This Bulletin contains the substance of a course of public
lectures delivered in the University of Allahabad during
February, Marcli and April of the present year. It will be
oljvious that some of the lectures are not printed in full, but
are more or less summarised. A few parts, more especially
a review of fhe history of the land legislation in the United
Provinces, which is ficcessible in other books, have been
omitted altogether ; and there has also been some re-
arrangement of the order in which the >ubject-matter is
presented. Otherwise the contents of tliij^ volume represent
the lectures as delivered.

It might perhaps have been advantageous if some review
of land systems in other foreign countries besides England
had been included in the lectures ; but I felt that this would
unduly enlarge what was already an exterjsive subject. I
have attempted to remedy this defect in .some degree by
including in an Appendix to this volume a list of books
which give some description of the tenancy systems of other
countries, together with occasional extracts therefrom and
some comments.

After reading through the lectures again in proof, the
conviction grows on me that the agrarian problem in India
is of deeper significance and greater importance than was
indicated anywhere in my lectures. I seem to see it now
as the great political question which will emerge as soon as
the constitutional strife is laid to rest. It is essentially an
economic problem ; and one that will affect the very
roots of the future prosperity of India. I think the general
tendency of unenlightened public opinion will be to favor
peasant proprietorship in its broad sense, including tenants
with fixity of tenure as well as those holding proprietary
rights. The controver.sy as to the respective merits of large
and small holdings as a system of agriculture, will rage here

vi . _ e cc. ..c, c PREFACE
',' c^/' v«r; ^'L,j A-.-'

as in other countries. An outcry will be raised against
depopulation when hirge farms are created. The greater
the pressure of the population upon the land the greater
will tend to be the restrictions imposed by law upon the
freedom of landlords. In favor of the policy of peasant
proprietorship will be urged its apparent success in France
and Belgium, and the modern movement for the re-creation
of small holdings in England.

I feel it necessary to point out here that such arguments
will be wholly fallacious, because they do not take into
account the very different economic conditions prevailing in
Europe. The British Isles and all the Western countries
of the continent of Europe — Germany, Holland, Belgium,
France, Spain and Portugal — are essentially countries
with a maritime sea-board ; and their economic development
during the past fifty years has been largely conditioned by
the growing cheapness of ocean transport. The cultivation
of the sm ill holdings in Franc?, Belgium and Germany could
never supply the Food required by the present population.
These countries, as vvell as England, normally draw a large
part of their food-supply from the most distant pnrts of the
world. Wheat comes from Russia, Canada, the United
States, the Argentine and Australia : meat from North and
South America, Australia and New Zealand ; eggs and dairy
products from Russia, Australia and Canada. The main
fact, however, is the large importation of wheat ; the
cultivation of which is uneconomical on small holdings in
Europe. The peasants of these countries are devoting
themselves more and more every year to specialized
products — potatoes, vegetables, fruits, herbs, sugar-beet,
tobacco, and a host of njinor products, a demand for which
has been created by the growing populations of the cities.

How different is the situation in India I In normal
years we export wheat and rice. It is almost inconceivable
that India should ever become a country importing food-
stuffs ; for by the time our industrial development shall

^

preface; vii

have proceeded far enough to reverse "obV posfiiiOii' in' 'the
world's markets, countries which now export wheat will
have little, if any, surplus after feeding their own popula-
tions. Whatever surplus there may be will be bought by
Europe and the United States, not India. Hence we must
look forward to relyint4 for all titne on our own production
of foodstuffs. In a land so fertile as India a system of
agriculture developed to the extent prevailing in Western
Europe could easily support a population of five hundred
millions a; a far higher standard of living than now pre- ^
vails ; but agriculture will never develop to that standard
of living if the whole country is peopled with peasant
proprietors on small holdings. They mw.N-^ go on producing^
foodstuffs by uneconomical methods, to th(^ exclusion of the
more profitable produce.

In some purts of India, therefore, Uar^/^ scale farmwfj —
must he der eloped. ij In other parts too every stimulus will
be needed to raise the productiveness of agriculture. My
opinion is that success will only come by accepting the
circumstances as we find them. 'Where a landlord class
exists the most rapid means of progress will be the education
of that landlord class to exercise its true function in the
direction and improvement of the agriculture of the tenants^
[Where no landlord class exists the most fruitful agency will
be a co-coperative organization of purchasing and sales
societies, combined with numerous agricultural instructors
maintained by Government or otherwisej If the landlord
f^olass can be induced to take an active interest in the
promotion of agriculture, there is no doubt in my mind
that a higher standard of production will be reached more
rapidly in zamindaritrsicU than in ryotwari areas. I believe
that this outcome is not only possible but is the most
practicable if people would only realize the nature and
urgency of the problem. It is this conviction which is the
justification of the point of view which I have taken
throughout these lectures.

fl. STANLEY JEVONS

r < c c

LECTURES

ON THE

ECONOMICS OF TENANCY LAW

AND

ESTATE MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Proposals for the reform of land tenures always present
in any country the most complex and ditiicult economic
problems ; and where, as in the United Provinces, all the
conditions are more complicated than in any other part of
the world that I have heard of, there is every reason to be
cautious in expressing any opinion. Throughout the past
five years from time to time I have been studying the rural
economics of these Provinces; but I have always felt diffident
as to expressing any final or definite opinion on the subject
of the reform of the tenancy laws.

The present juncture seems, however, to be the appropriate
time for stating such opinions as I have reached, although I
cannot claim finality for them. The discontent of peasants of
Oudh has been brought to general notice by most regret-
table disturbances, and Government is proposing legislation.
The future prosperity of Oudh will depend greatly upon the
character of that legislation. I hope sincerely that it may be
the beginning of a bold constructive policy which will lead
to a progressive improvement of agriculture, and with it to a
rise of the standard of living of all classes of the population.

2 ..a i; -•' IKTSODOC'l^QRY REMARKS
;'.::^;^':'.' '\' r,: ' -. '

The present is indeed the time for action, for I cannot
help viewing the future in the rural districts of India with
grave concern. In almost every ancient country there
came with the growth of population a stage when the land
came under the proprietorship of feudal landlords whose
function was to protect their villeins and tenants, for which
they were paid a rent in kind or in labor, and later in cash.
Everywhere with the growth of power of the central
Government these great landed chiefs degenerated and
became commercialized ; they lived luxuriously in the
capital cities and handed over their estates to agents for
management. It was so in England in the 15th and 16th
centuries, in France in the 18th century, in Russia in the
19th and 20th centuries. In every one of these countries,
and others, there has followed an uprising of the peasants.
In England there were the widespread disorders of 1536,
repressed in the West with much bloodshed. We know that
the French Revolution was largely agrarian in origin. In
Ireland the pressure was relieved by emigration. In Russia
V the unrest of the cultivating classes, which prevailed before,
was deeply stirred by the recent Great War and its social
reactions. The first, or political revolution, did not affect
its causes, for the Constitutional Democrats could only
propose gradual reforms, and the Russian peasants were tired
of promises. Then the theorist followers of Karl Marx and
Tolstoy gathered strength and associated with themselves
the peasant party to whom they implicitly, if not explicitly,
gave license for the destruction of the land-owning class.
Throughout the vast area of Russia the peasants seized the
1 palaces of the nobles and houses of the smaller landlords,
and divided up their home farms amongst them. The
aristocracy of Russia is either dead, or in exile, or starving
in the streets of Russian cities.

Doctrines having a close resemblance to those of Tolstoy

SUMMAHY 3

are now being preached in India ; bat not at present those of
Marx. Consequently we have a breathing space. Yet we
must not underestimate the immediate growth of unrest due
to two distinct groups of causes : the one purely economic
and the other political. The economic cause is mainly the
growth of population and a commercialized land system ; but
the political is more complex. The constitutional reforms,
especially the grant of the franchise to tenants, and the
speech-making which has followed, are specially responsible ;
but the return of soldiers and men of the labor corps from
their service in foreign lands is also an important factor. At
last the idea is abroad that men have rights. This is an
element of progress, and should be a matter of congratula-
tion ; but it is also an element of danger. That danger
can only be averted by such changes as will adjust the
economic fabric to the awakened political consciousness.
It is impossible for India to continue much longer with a
mediaeval land system. In Europe the transition to modern
conditions came about more or less gradually ; in India,
on the other hand, the most advanced civilization of the
West impinges upon a social fabric and corresponding land
system having many of the economic characteristics of the
feudal period. The situation is for this reason all the more
difficult.

It may arouse your interest in the economic problems*
which I am about to discuss if at the beginning of this
course I give a brief general statement of the conclusions to
which I have come, and which I shall proceed to justify.
The most fundamental question is, what point of view should
be adopted ?— What is to be the general object of our land
policy ? I answer without hesitation that it is the duty of
the legislature to look forward to the distant future, and not
merely to apply temporary palliatives. It is necessary so to
reform the land system that it may conduce to the benefit of

4 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

the whole community and may bring the largest measure
of prosperity to the country. This can be done only by
devising a system of land tenure the principal object of which
will be to promote the improvement of agriculture. I hold
that the landlord system is not bad in itself ; and that if the
landlords — and in this name I include all talukdars and big
zemindars — can be induced to take an enlightened view of
their responsibilities, to undertake the development of their
estates and to promote the welfare of their tenants, far
more benefit will accrue to the country from the maintenance
of the landlord system than by seeking to extend any system
/ of peasant proprietorship, or sub-proprietorship, in which I
include the occupancy tenant system. The present time,
when improved methods of agriculture are receiving atten-
tion and exciting much interest in this country, appears to
me more favorable than any previous period for inducing
landlords to adopt more liberal methods of managing their
estates ; but if they fail to realize their duties as land-
owners, strong measures should be taken to dispossess them
and either to replace them by better landlords, or to
facilitate the purchase of full proprietary rights by the
tenants. I am altogether against introducing the occupancy
system in Oudh ; and believe that it must be gradually
abolished in the Province of Agra. Divided control over
land means stagnation.

Government has given the talukdars and zemindars their
present position ; and it would be unjust to place fetters
upon all of them without discrimination, i.e., upon those who
are good as well as those who are bad landlords. Steps must
be taken to educate the landlords and their agents in the
proper methods of estate management ; and some judicial
machinery must be devised whereby those landlords who fail
grossly in their duties shall be dispossessed. The analogy of
arbitration boards in industrial disputes suggests itself, but

SUMMARY 5

wonid need careful working out.

The Oudh tenancy system seems to have been devised
with the right objects in view, but with too many loopholes
for legal evasion. All practices opposed to the spirit of the
Act should be prohibited by law in detail ; and every effort
should be made to enforce the law. At the same time, the
best protection of the tenants is to raise their standard of
efficiency and their standard of living, which may be
accompanied by some measure of education. This will tend
to decrease the competition for land and increase the labor
supply for the development of industries ; and at the same
time it will put the tenants in a position to protect them-
selves by obtaining enforcement of the law. To reach these
ends there are many reforms in which Government most
directly concern itself. The most important is the consolida-
tion of scattered holdings. This is to be followed by demon-
stration of improved agricultural methods, and by distribu-
tion of improved seed — through the agency of the landlords,
if possible. Assistance needs to be given in the draining of
land by the construction of main drains to all villages where
the land requires drainage ; irrigation facilities should be
extended, not only from the canals, but also by grants of
loans through the Agricultural Department for the construc-
tion of wells and small pumping schemes. The staff of the
Agricultural Department needs to be enormously increased ;
and if officers be rightly chosen every pice of such expendi-
ture will be highly remunerative to the country.

Agriculture being the greatest industry of the country,
technical classes in this, and in estate management, are
even more necessary than technical schools for industries.
Everything should be done to encourage talukdars and
zemindars to study agriculture themselves, and to improve
the cultivation of their home farms. They may then become
interested in improving their tenants' cultivation and may

G INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

come to realize the great possibilities of advantage to
themselves as well as to the tenants and to the country as a
whole. The standardization of methods of estate manage-
ment, includincr forms of lease, of receipts for rent, and of
compensation for tenuots' improvements, must be taken up
at once ; but at first in a manner definitely regarded as
experimental. The English law of landlord and tenant, and
especially the Agriculture Holdings Act of 1908, will provide
useful analogies.

LECTURE I
THE GROWTH OF POPULATION

It is necessary at the outset to gain u thorough insight
into the economic laws governing the growth of population
and its relation to rents. This subject is but little understood,
which is unfortunate, because of its supreme importance.
It is necessary to understand the part played by the
standard of living in determining rents as well as wages.
Economists are now agreed that the standard of living to
which a class of workers has become habitually accustomed
is a factor of prime importance in determining the rate of
wages which they will receive ; for should a reduction of
wages below that necessary to maintain the standard of
living begin to occur, either as a result of falling demand
for the commodity, or from an increase of that kind of
labor, the workpeople resist the fall by every means at their
disposal. It will be found that they tend either to transfer
their services to other industries or to adopt a powerful
trade union combination. In one way or another the
standard of living reached by that class of workers is
maintained and the market price of the commodity they
produce must be based upon it. Of course, there are
occasional instances of dying industries in which the
standard of living of workers does actually decline ; but in
almost all employments after a wage rate has been reached

8 GROWTH OF POPULATION

which permits a certaia advance of the standard of living
to be maintained for a period of, say, four or five years,
any subsequent reduction of that standard of living is
strongly resisted.

Now cultivators are a class of agricultural workers who
in addition to laboring themselves undertake the risks of
the success of their agriculture. The standard of living
which they reach operates in exactly the same way to
maintain their earnings. The cultivator carefully calculates
what he is likely to be able to realize from crops upon land
he proposes to rent and what his expenses of cultivating will
be. In competing to rent more land a cultivator will not,
as a rule, offer more rent than can be paid according to his
estimate without reducing their average earnings. His
average earnings during the past few years usually deter-
mine pretty closely the standard of living adopted by a man ;
and when a class of people has become accustomed to a
certain standard of living, there will not be higher bids
of rent than will enable them to maintain their accustomed
standard of living. Whilst this is generally true, it has to
be remembered that in every community there are persons
incapable of making a careful estimate, and others who are
over-sanguine or of reckless temperament who will offer any
figure however high in order to obtain the particular piece of
land on which they have set their fancy. One of the evils of
letting land to the highest bidder is that good cultivators are
turned out in favor of such men, who exhaust their resources
in two or three years and desert the holding, leaving it in
an impoverished condition. Where lettings are made without
auction, however, the level of rents is determined, other things
being equal, by the standard of living. The qualification
"other things being equal" is of course very important ; for
in actual practice other things never remain the same. It
will be found that rents do actually rise at the same time that

STANDARD OF LIVING 9

the standard of living is rising. This is either because a
higher level of prices has permitted the standard of living
of cultivators who raise commercial crops to rise, and
rents at the same time ; or becaase the total production of
agriculture is increasing owing to the improvement of
methods of cultivation. The increased produce becomes
divided between the cultivator and the landlord ; but the
share which the cultivators retain depends largely upon how
far the standard of living of their class rises at the same time.

There are some important features of the standard of
living which require oar attention. It appears to be a
general economic law that when the standard of living ia
low, practically at the sabsisteoce level, it is difficult to
raise it, and when it has been raised from this low level
it is easily depressed again by adverse economic forces. In.
the cotton-growing districts many ot the cultivators did ex-
ceedingly well during the last three or four years of the war ;
and undoubtedly their standard of living was beginning
to rise. It is probable, however, that the present collapse
of prices occurring whilst cuhivating costs are still high is
depressing them again to the old standard of living. As
soon as a moderately high standard of living has been
attained and become fixed in a c«rtain class they exhibit
both a capacity to rise farther more easily, and a strong
resistance to any depression of the standard of living.

The standard of living of the great mass of the rural
population throughout the larger part of the Ganges Valley,
and in fact throughout most of India, is merely at the sub- ^
sistence level ; and their earnings must rise and fall in -
proportion with the cost of living. It has been observed in
Europe that the higher the standard of living of any class
of tha population the less prolific it becomes. Various causes^
such as the education of both men and women combine to
reduce the birth rate in any section in which a higher level /

2 ^

lO GROWTH OF POPULATION

and vat-iety of wants is developed. This applies as much
amongst the upper classes in India as in Europe.

With regard to the present problem of Indian rural
conditions, it is important to note, however, that the tenden-
cy of a high standard of living to limit the growth of
population does not come into operation until a very high
standard has been reached. The first effect of increased
earnings on any class of people who are at the subsistence
level is to reduce the action of the positive check of
starvation and disease, and to allow a more rapid exp-msion
of the number of that class. It will need, therefore, a
considerable and rapid expansion of earnings to lift the mass
of cultivators to such a standard of living as may begin to
restrict the growth of population.

A further analysis of the population question is necessary.
It will then be seen that the benefits supposed to accrue
from a peasant proprietorship or ryotwari tenure are, in
fact, largely illusory when the standard of living of cultivat-
ors is very low. We may consider four different cases :
the first of these is hypothetical, and the rest are more or
less reproduced in actual conditions in India. In the first
case we assume the peasant cultivators with low standard
of living settled in a country where there are no landlords,
and where the Government exacts no land revenue or taxes
whatever from smiU cultivators of, say, less than 50 acres.
It does not matter how the Government manages to exist ;
for our purpose the important point is that out of the gross
produce of agriculture in any given district of small
cultivators nothing whatever goes either to the maintenance
of the Government or the support of a landlord class. In
these circumstances, the cultivating population whose stand-
ard of living is very low can go on increasing in number ;
and they will do so until the limit of the sub-division of
holdings has been reached, that is to say, the minimum size

DENSITY OF POPUI.ATIUN 11

of holding which will support a family. Once this limit
has been reached the increase of population ceases, the con-
dition of the greater section of the people degenerates until
the positive check of starvation and disease keeps the death-
rate equal to the birth-rate. The important point to notice
for our present purpose is that in these circumstances the
land supports the maximum population possible with a
given technique of aijjriculture and industry. Furthermore,
it is to be observed that all improvements of agricultural
methods which can be adopted by an illiterate population
with low standard of living will merely tend to increase the
density of the population in the district, that is the number
per square mile. Facilities granted for cheap credit, and
even permanent i^nprovements of the land, will have the
same effect : they merely increase the number of persons
living on the land per square mile. In comparing the four
cases of different land tenure, however, I assume that the
method of cultivation and the degree of the improvement
of the land is the same in every case. All conditions must
be the same excepting only the difference of tenure.

In the second case we may assume conditions which are
familiar under the name of ryotwari tenure. The cultivators s—
hold their land subject only to payment of revenue to \
Government, and there are no landlords or other intermedi-
aries. In this case the gross produce of the land is not ^
entirely available for the support of the rural population,
consequently the population cannot multiply to a density
equal to that of the first case, and the minimum size of
holdinu; for every grade of land must he larger.

In the third case let us assume that the cultivating
population pays rent to a landlord class who pass
on a large proportion of it as land revenue to Govern-
ment ; but that there are various restrictions upon the in-
crease of rentals, by occupancy rights and so forth,

12 GKOVVTH UF JPUFULATION

so that the landlords cannot obtain the fall economic rent.
In this case the gross produce has to support not only
Government but also a landlord class, and the minimum
size of holdings will again be larger. It is worth noting
in passing that the landlord class living upon rents is
itself liable to multiply in number by natural increase within
the limit set by its standard of living ; and, in so far as rents
cannot be raised, the younger members of the landlord class
are largely squeezed out into occupations in the cities or
foreign countries. Yet according to Hindu Law they take
their share of the rentals with them.

In the fourth case let us assume that all the land is in
possession of the landlord, and that there are no legal
restrictions on the incresise of rentals so that the tenants
pay practically the full economic rent, keeping to themselves
merely a margin of subsistence. In this case the gross
produce supports the Government and the landlord class,
and a smaller number of cultivators, and the density of
population is the least of all the four cases.

The important point to be observed is that from the
point of view of the cultivating class, there is not much to
be said in favor of any one of these systems as against
another, for in every case the cultivating class having a low
standard of living will find its earnings sooner or later
reduced to the mere level of subsistence. The advantage
commonly urged in favor of either of the first two classes,
that is, peasant proprietorship, that the peasant has every
encouragement to make improvements on his little farm, be-
cause he is likely to reap the full benefit of them is largely
illusory, becausR the more such improvements are nrade the
smaller becomes the holding on which the average cultivator
has to support his family. There is no getting away from
the fact that it is the standHrd of living which is the chief
factor in regulating the earnings of the people.

DENHITY OF POPULATION 13

It appears therefore that these various systems of hind
tenure differ ultimately only in the maximum density of
the rural population which they permit for a given soil
and climate. There is indeed much to be said in favor of
the lai\dlord system on grounds which 1 shall presently
explain. In passing it is worth noting that relief to the
growth of population, which would enable peasant proprie-
tors, or others with fixed tenure rights, really to profit by
improvements they might make, could only result from
an active emigration of nearly half the number of the
younger people of each generation either to newly opened
agricultural tracts or to cities of growing industrial im-
portance.

It is obvious at the very commencement of our enquiry
that, in a country whose economic condition ' is stationary,
or in which the economic development is slow, the cKiracter
of the land tenure makes practically no difference as regards
the welfare of the cultivating po^mlation, and that the only
difference is in the ultimate density of the population. It
may possibly be a question of controversy as to whether a
large population is in itself a desirable object of statesmanship.
There have been periods in the histories of many countries, if
they appeared to be threatened with invasion by a foreign
power, when the increase of population seemed to be of para-
mount importance. Yet even here it has to be remembered
that a small population with a high standard of living may
bo more efficient in the defence of the country than a vast
population existing merely at the subsistence level. For
my own part, I would unhesitatingly say that a large
population is not a desirable end ; and I shall assume
throughout the rest of this course of lectures that the
aim of the economic reformer should rather be to restrict
the growth of population and to raise as large a proportion
of the people as possible to a high standard of living.

14 GHOVVTH OF POPULATION

We have not, however, finished with the difficulties
inherent in the growth oE population, for we may observe
that it appears to be almost impossible to avoid a landlord
class coming into existence in any tract of country which
is highly fertile and where the standard of living of the
cultivating class is low. Let us contrast the highly fertile
land such as that of the Ganges Valley eastwards from
Allahabad to the alluvial lands of Bihar, with the barren
hills of parts of Central India or the rocky valleys of the
foot-hills of the Himalayas. In those barren lands the
cultivator with difficulty ekes out an existence on a holding
of, say, 12 acres, and paying only about eight annas per
acre revenue. The land is so unfertile that the gross produce
can hardly expand sufficiently to support a landlord class.
Particularly is this the case where the Ufifertile but cultiva-
ble land is scattered amongst absolutely barren wastes, for
there no landlord can find a profit in the task of supervising
his estates and collecting the very small rents which alone
are possible. Consequently in such regions we generally
find no landlord class.

On the other hand, in highly fertile regions, even if the
population is first settled on the land with proprietary
rights from Government at quite a low revenue, there is
no reason to suppose that the landlord class will not in
course of time arise as a mere result of the economic con-
ditions. The gross produce from the land is capable of
considerable expansion by more intensive cultivation. Here
and there a cultivator is ambitious and saves a little capital
which enables him to work more land. It pays him either
to break some land from the waste if available or to rent
some fields or to work on some system of sharing with the
owner. Often he will save enough to purchase the proprietary
right. In the course of years an energetic man will manage
to buy so much land that he need not live wholly by his own

GROWTH OF LANDLORD CLAS8 15

cultivation, but can let out much of his land. If still
ambitious, he will continue to save and buy more land ; and
ultimately he will live solely on the rents of his sm^ll estate.
The sons brought up to hard work may follow his example
and greatly extend the family estate ; but tlieir sons brought
up to an easy life are content with living on the proceeds of
their father's savings.

There is another way in which the landlord class deve-
lops where no law prevents it. When the land is fertile, the
cultivator can in ordinary seasons expand his income by
greater labor, or some one else in his place can do so. The
bania or mahajan trades on this fact and advances money to
the cultivator on mortgage of his holding. Many of such
loans are not repaid, and the land falls into the hands of men
of the merchant and financial class who rarely make good
landlords. The latter form of encroachment on peasant
proprietorship has been to some extent retarded by Land
Alienation Acts ; but, as in the Punjab, if the trading
castes are excluded from the proprietorship of land there
soon arise money-lending individuals amongst the cultivating
classes, and the same result ultimately ensues. Throughout
the ryotwari tracts of India, and the great canal colonies,
the gradual formition of a landlord class is going on,
wherever the land is suflSciently fertile ; and it may be
doubted whether any law can stop it. Even if rents were
made irrecoverable at law, this would not prevent a man
letting his land to villagers whom he knows to be trustworthy
men and whose interest it would be to pay the rent regu-
larly lest they should be turned out ns tresspassers. Farming
through tenants who are nominally partners is also another
device which no law can prevent, lience it appears to me
impossible for any law to prevent the growth of a landlord
class where the economic conditions permit it, when the one
essential condition is satisfied, namely, that there is a large

16 GROWTH OF POPULATION

body of cultivators with a low standard of living.

It must not be thought that I would argue from this that
it is desirable to establish the landlord and tenant system
everywhere. As I shall point out shortly that system is
capable of being the most advantageous to the country, but
it may also be the worst system. We must always keep in
view therefore the '* principle of variety," namely, that it
is good for every country to have differences in different
parts. Differences of tenure are quite possible even in the
same district ; and there is no reason whatever to aim at
creating uniformity, except of course as regards the par-
ticular priviliges and obligations which may be imposed upon
landlords and tenants.

Having seen that the growth of a landlord class cannot
be altogether prevented in rich tracts, but only retarded, it
may be well to enquire whether a landlord class is a desira-
ble part of the commonwealth. If it is not, steps could be
taken to abolish it by forcing sales of proprietary rights to
tenants, or by state acquisition, by retarding the subsequent
re- aggregation of holdings, and again abolishing landlords'
estates every thirty years or so if necessary.

I think we shall be agreed that the only justitioation for
the continued existence of any class of persons being favor-
ably regarded is that they contribute something definite to
the well-being of the whole community. An important aim
of economic policy always must be to rid the country of
-the parasitic classes of persons who simply live upon the
hard work of others without contributing directly or indi-
rectly to increase the total production of the community or
to promote religion or learning or culture and social enjoy-
ment. The criterion as to whether it is good for a country
to have a landlord class or not depends, therefore, upon the
character of the men composir)g that class, and what view
they take of the responsibilities of their position. If the

LANDLORD'S DUTIES 17

landlords are good, it is better for the country to have the
landlord and tenant system rather than peasant proprietor*
ijhip ; on the other hand, if the landlords are bad and merely
parasitic on the commanity, they drain the other classes of
wealth and produce nothing in return. It is better to have
peasant proprietorship than a landlord and tenant system
with bad landlords.

This necessarily brings me to consider what a good land-
lord should be — what his functions are in regard to his
tenants, and in relation to the community at large. To
answer this question in a few words, I should say that the
landlord ought to be the brains directing the agricultural
operations on his estate. It should be his object to raise
the cultivation by his tenants to the highest possible standard
in outturn and profit. lie should see to all the wants of his
villagers — provide good wells aud suitable sanitary arrange-
ments. Above all things it should be his particular duty to
carry out permanent improvements of the land both by
erecting buildings and fences and by making drains and other
works. He must manage to save from the revenue of the
estate a sufficient amount in every good year to enable these
improvements to be carried out. Having the good-will
of his tenants, they can in fact be very cheaply carried
out.

This brief suggestion of the landlords' duties will be
elaborated in a later lecture. It is perhaps sufficient to show
that he has a highly important place in the agricultural
economy of the nation. If he understands and exercises his
duties, agriculture will be progressive, the condition of
tenants will improve and a spirit of co-operation will replace
the existing animosity. Some grumbling we must always
expect, — for is not that the prerogative of farmers all
over the world ? — but there is no reason why a general
spirit of mutual understanding should not prevail between

3

18 GROWTH OF POPULATION

landlord and tenant, the causes of friction being reduced to
the least possible by a standardised system of leases, which
include conditions requiring good cultivation from the
tenants. Every tenant when admitted must know exactly
what is expected of him ; but discipline also must be main-
tained, and for this reason the landlord's power of ejection
is an absolute economic necessity. It should be the landlord's
business to see that every piece of land is devoted to that
use in which it will be most fruitful, and to see that no tenant
by his negligent cultivation damages his neighbor's land
or crops. The great and difficult question into which
the problem resolves itself is how to teach the landlord
class their true economic function and induce them to
exercise it.

LECTURE III
OTHER ECONOMIC FACTORS

Perhaps the most important conclusion of my first
lecture was that relating to the function of the landlord class
in the national economy. It will be remembered that I
stated that if they understand and exercise their business
they ought to be the brains and organizing power of the
agricultural industry. Their guiding hands are needed to
promote progress and safeguard efficiency. Consequently
the landlord must not only usually be a resident upon his
estate — he should also look upon his duties as a profession.
On the other band, absentee landlords who merely receive
the rents which their agents can exact from a zemindari
which remains unimproved are a drag upon the nation —
socially a parasitic class. We saw that peasant proprietor-
ship was better than a system of rent-receiving absentee
landlords ; but that the best system of all for the promotion
of the country's economic welfare is a landlord system
with a class of resident landlords who take a vital interest
in their tenants and the promotion of agriculture.

In the present lecture I propose to consider the economic
conditions under which agriculture is carried on and the
relation of the landlord to them. This will provide us
with useful ideas as to the financial aspects of the landlord's
business ; and when in possession of this information we
may proceed in future lectures to see how the tenancy
law may assist the landlord in the proper conduct of his
business whilst yet offering to the tenant all necessary
safeguards.

20 OTHER ECONOMIC FACTORS

There are certain broad economic movements -which in
their progress automatically affect the landlord's position,
sometimes advantageously and sometimes adversely. These
he, as an individual, and even as a class, is powerless to
alter ; but he should make it his business to be acquainted
with them so that he may swim with the tide, so to say,
making use of every opportunity of adapting the control
of his estate to the trend of economic forces.

We saw in the last lecture how population continually
tends to grow. This of itself alone increases the com-
petition for land and so enlarges the economic rent. Hence,
the landlord, with no exertion of his own, can get some
increased rental by the mere lapse of time. Another
factor tending greatly to increase the total money produce of
agriculture and the net surplus retained by landlords is the
development of communications, particularly cheap trans-
port over long distances by rail and river, and the develop-
ment of roads for linking up the railways with the larger
villages. Herein, if they would but realise it, lies the
most profitable field of activity for zemindars and talukdars,
in stimulating the district boards to embark upon extensive
programs of road improvement.

The effect of cheap long distance transport is to
revolutionize the system of agriculture, changing what has
formerly been of necessity a subsistence economy into a com-
mercial economy. When there are no railways and no roads
every small group of villages must be practically self-sufficing,
and its inhabitants must grow a little of every kind of pro-
duct they require whether the soil be suited therefor or not.
When long distance haulage is cheap, on the other hand, it
is possible for every part of the wide territories of India to
specialize in growing those crops for which the land and
climate are most suitable in each place. By this means the
produce of capital and labor applied to the land is very

RISE OF PRICES 21

greatly increased — in far greater proportion than the mere
cost of transporting the produce from one part of India to
another. This specialization has already begun in parts of
India ; but there is room for very great progress in this
direction, and there are few things more profitable to which
the landlord can turn his attention than to discover those
crops which are particularly suitable to his locality and
to induce his tenants to take up their cultivation.

An important economic force which affects the welfare
of both landlords and tenants in different ways is a change
of the general level of prices. The effects of a general
rise of prices such as we have recently experienced are
very complicated, but the main features are these. The
tenant who cultivates crops for sale should gain theoretically,
but actually he derives only a partial gain ; for much of
the benefit of the rise of prices is absorbed by intermediate
merchants and village money lenders. Such advantage as
has accrued to the tenants from the rise of prices during
the war has not lasted long enough permanently to raise
their standard of living, and the increase of population will
rapidly depress them to their old condition on the subsistence
minimum. The landlords have suffered by the rise of the
cost of living, because they could not increase their rents
to provide increased profits in proportion to the rise of the
cost of living. The latter has certainly risen fully 40 per
cent since 1915 ; but in this time the Oudh landlords
could only, according to law, increase their rents on the
average about 5 per cent, or their profits, assuming the
land revenue to remain unchanged, by about 10 per cent.
For this reason some of them have been forced to adopt
practices contravening the spirit of the law.

When a general fall of prices comes, as it must come,
the events will not bo merely reversed. The advan-
tages which it might be thought the tenant class had

2^ OTHER ECONOMIC FACTORS

derived from the rise of prices have in fact been largely
dissipated in the manner I have indicated ; and it will not
be possible to reduce the cost of cultivation or the popula-
tion. Consequently with falling prices the landlord class
will not be able to go on increasing their rents. They may
keep the rates of rents stationary, but will have increasing
difficulties in actually collecting them. New settlements
will gradually absorb much of the advantage they might
secure from a falling cost of living. The economic
conflict between the two opposing classes is bound, there-
fore, to become more severe so long as landlords remain
mere rent-receivers. Harmony can only be attained by
inducing the landlords, and then permitting them, to
exercise their true function of organizers and directors of
the agricultural industry.

A full understanding of economics tells us clearly that
the welfare of the Indian people demands the increase of
the produce of the soil to the maximum. What we need
is the greatest yield per acre of every crop, grown in the
locality which suits it best. Increase this, and the wealth
circulating throughout all classes of the community is
bound to increase : this will stimulate industries and provide
the means for a higher standard of living amongst all

An important distinction is to be drawn here between
increasing the net produce and the gross produce of agriculture.
The former may be achieved by cutting down the costs of
cultivation, particularly by displacing labor by machinery,
by replacing intensive by extensive farming, by converting
arable land into irrigated pasture for cattle and sheep
raising. These may prove most profitable branches of
farming enterprise, and within reasonable limits will be
beneficial — particularly where applied to lands now waste.
The improvement of the profits of cultivation is not, however.

INCREASE OF GROSS PRODUCE 2B

the policy which will be the most beneficial to the coun-
try as a whole, in so far as it is achieved without increasing
the total wealth produced from the soil. What is needed
is that the primary industry — agriculture— shall, from
the lands of India, put a larger total of wealth into circula-
tion every year. Agricultural experts are unanimously
of opinion that the average yield of produce per acre in
India could be doubled, and in many parts even trebled ;
and the effects of this in providing cheaper food and
cheaper clothing for the whole population, and in setting
free labor for the manufacture of machinery and of luxuries,
would be almost beyond the imagination. The result would
be the raising of the standard of living to that of
a European country. It is essential, therefore, that the
tenancy policy should aim at increasing the gross produce
of the soil to the utmost.

This great economic advance has to be achieved by the
investment of a great amount of capital in the land, and
in the livestock and implements of agriculture, and by the
diffusion of knowledge and organization. My contention
is that this can best be effected through the agency of the
landlords who should be stimulated and assisted to* develop
their estates.

Proceeding, therefore, to consider the economic develop-
ment of estates we may adopt the following classification
of the various ways by which the productive capacity of an
estate may be improved : (1) permanent improvements —
wells, pumping schemes, farm buildings and granaries, silos,
drains^ fences, etc. (2) establishment of a better tradition
of cultivation by '* trying out '' various new methods and
retaining those which succeed, and (3) improving and
maintaining the strains of plants and animals by selection
and breeding. The economic benefit to the whole country
by having these improvements carried out by landlords — and

24 OTHER ECONOMIC FACTORS

they alone can do them on an adequate scale — would be
incalculable ; and it may be pointed out incidentally that
landowners will largely increase their rent rolls by such intel-
ligent development. Obviously this is a perfectly justifiable
enlistment of self-interest, which will be an important factor
in securing the economic development of the country.

It is a most important principle that the tenancy system
should be such as to provide due incentive to make an im-
provement for the person most capable of initiating it. The
tenant, short of capital and with scattered fields, can never
do anything appreciable : the landlords must somehow be
induced to take the initiative.

It must not be thought that I recommend a tenancy
policy which merely aims at increasing the profits of landlords
to the; maximum. Quite the reverse. I want them as a
class to work for their living. I am convinced that it will
be in the country's interest to go through a stage of the
development of argiculture by landlords ; and means must be
found to achieve this. My ideal is the paternal landlord,
studiously organizing his estate, benevolent to his tenantry
and occupying a central position in the social life of the
country-side.

LECTURE IV
LANDLORD AND TENANT

The preceding lectures have been devoted to an analysis
o£ the economic factors which affect the relation between
landlord and tenant. In the present lecture T propose to
deal with their relations from the point of view of the
efficiency of agricultural production ; and thereafter to seek
the principles which should regulate the tenancy law in
accordance with the economic generalizations which have
been explained.

The true function of the landlord class is to act as the
organizers of the agricultural industry. They must learn
improved agricultural methods and then arrange thut their
tenants may learn them. It is their function to attend to
the development of their estates. It is also the duty of
the landlord to dismiss bad cultivators, giving compensation
for any improvements made by them, and to select and
encourage those who are the best husbandsmen. The wealth
of the country depends very greatly upon the efficiency of
agriculture and it is only by seeing that the land is in the
hands of those who can use it best, that the maximum of
crops can be raised from the available land. It is necessary
to aim at the maximum of wealth production per acre, and
also at the same time to secure the maximum of output per
head of the population engaged in rural occupations.

The most efficient unit of organization in the agri-
cultural industry is not the holding of each cultivator, unless
these holdings are large farms of hundreds of acres each.
The realization of this has led to the developmebt in some

4

26 LANDLORD AND TENANT

countries where peasant proprietorship prevails oi: agricul-
tural co-operative societies for the combined purchase and
sale of produce. Such co-operation is suitable for any
country where democratic ideas prevail, and where a sense
of freedom and independence are valued beyond many of the
material goods of life ; but the co-operative ideal can only
be successfully translated into practice when a certain stage
of education and of social and political development has
been reached. In my opinion India has not yet reached
that stage ; and co-operation can have but little effect in
the improvement of agriculture in India.

The alternative unit of organization is the landlord's
estate. Here there should be a spirit of co-operation
between landlord and tenant, the landlord being the guide,
philosopher and friend of his tenants ; but also their master.
No industrial concern can be successfully managed unless
discipline be enforced. If a landlord's estate is to be
managed to the greatest economic advantage of the country,
a certain measure of discipline must be enforced on the
estate. No tenant should be at liberty by his carelessness,
ignorance or negligence in cultivation to exhaust the soil,
or to damage the crops of neighbouring tenants, as when he
neglects to clear his land of weeds, or drains his tiolds into
those of his neighbor, or lets his cattle stray For the
prevention of contagious diseases amongst animals, for
economy of fuel and manure, there are certain rules of
estate management, the observance of which should be
insisted on by all good landlords. We may rightly see in
the landlord who exercises his agricultural function an
omployer of labor who, instead of engaging a large number
of laborers directly under his control, hires out the use of
his land, improved with a certain amount of his capital,
under certain conditions which will ensure the working of
the whole estate to the mutual advantage of the landlord

WEAKNESS OF CO-OPERATION 27

and all his tenaots. This is the ideal which has been
evolved in England and is applied in practice in the English
tenancy law.

The conflict of ideals between the peasant proprietor-
ship with co-operative org«nization, and the highly
organized landlord's estate is liable to lead to much loose
thinking, and consequently to very ill-advised measures of
practical endeavor. In India the public, finding that only
a few landlords realise the position they should occupy
in the agricultural economy and exercise a useful function,
has turned very widely to the co-operative ideal. Much effort
has been expended ; but the ground has not proved fruitful.
Co-operative credit societies are flourishing in considerable
numbers ; but with how little effect in the improvement of
agriculture I The number of co-operative societies in these
Provinces which are reall}' promoting the progress of agri-
culture by distribution of better seed and implements or any
other way could be counted on the fingers of both hands.
The fact is that the rural population of India has not yet
arrived at the stage of educational, social and political
development in which alone co-operation can influence
eflSciency or production. Even if such an educational and
social development had been reached, the system of scattered
holdings on minute fields effectually prevents its being
efficient in application.

There is no doubt in my mind, therefore, that the
agricultural organization most appropriate to the stage of
social development in India is the landlord and tenant
system with fairly large estates, and a certain number of
large farms worked by gentlemen farmers.

As to the economic efficiency of the landlord system
when operated by a class of landlords who understand their
business and practise it, there can be no question ; but it
must be understood that, as pointed out in my first lecture,

28 LANDLORD AND TENANT

the landlords should earn their living by exercising their
true function as the brains of the agricultural industry. If
they do not do that, they merely waste the substance of
others and are a burden on the cummunity.

The landlord exercising his proper function as guide,
philosopher, friend and master of his tenant is, indeed, a
high ideal. It is nowadays the fashion to praise everything
democratic and everything tending to the freedom of the
masses. But the true ideal must be relevent to the state
of development of the people, and with this important
principle in mind, I maintain that the landlord exercising
his true function is the highest ideal for the conditions now
prevailing in India or likely to prevail within the next 6fty
or hundred years. The broad fact is that the people need
leaders ; I do not mean the " stump orators " who merely
stir their emotions, I mean men of action who can direct
the work of others. The nature of that leadership cannot
be set forth better than by Ruskin whose writings on
industry have not received the attention they deserve. Let
me refer you to some passages in his book entitled Unto
fhis Last. Ruskin wrote in words relating to England — an
industrial country — so his illustrations relate naturally to com-
merce and manufactures, but we can easily see the application
of his principles to landlords. Translating his ideas to the
realm of agriculture we easily see that it is the landlord's
function just as much as that of his tenants ** to provide
for the nation " — he with his brains and his savings, they
with their hands. The tenants are his children — they need
his guidance, his support. With them he can rejoice, and
with them he must suffer. " The manufacturer in any
commercial crisis or distress, is bound to take the suffering
of it with his men."*

And men will ever honor the landlord who thus regards
* Unto this Lastf Section 24.

LAND AS AN INVESTMENT 29

his fanotion and faithfully strives to fulfil his duties ; and
men will despise the landlord whose sole interest is his
swelling rent roll — careless of the struggles of those who
pay, himself contributing nothing and living in luxury.
He is rightly despised.

This leads me to notice a by no means pleasing feature of
the changing economy of these Provinces. I refer to the
growing habit of purchasing land as a mere investment of
capital. Lawyers and wealthy merchants who have money
to invest are keen on buying zemindari estates. The
purchaser continues his occupation in the city and puts
an agent in charge or sometimes continues the former agent.
Land is bought and sold merely on the estimate of its earn-
ings to the owner. The total annual collections are ascer-
tained and from this is subtracted the revenue payable to
Government, and the balance is called the profits. The
price paid by the investor varies from 25 to 30 years'
purchase of the profit, representing a yield of 4 per cent
or less upon his money. This seems peculiar in view of
the fact that the yield on the most convenient security
in India, namely. Government loans is 6 per cent per
annum. The investor in land is probably influenced partly
by an anticipation of an increased profit and partly by
his desire for the social status conferred by being a zemindar
or rais. It cannot be that the majority of such purchasers
of land are good landlords. Indeed many of the troubles
between landlords and tenants, for which the remedy must
be provided are due to the new owner taking a purely com-
mercial view of his property and trying to exact that
increase which he has anticipated, and also to his lax control
as an absentee landlord, over his agent and his subordinates.
I shall have to refer again to this diflScult problem in a
later lecture.

The principles which should govern the relation of the

30 LANDLORD AND TENANT

State to landlord and tenant now require our attention.
The general principle upon which the greater part oE our
legislation is based is that which Sidgwick calls " The
individualistic minimum of governmental interference." *
This seeks to realize the greatest happiness of the people by
allowing the miximum of freedom, and imposing restraint
only so far as to prevent definite injuries by physically or
ecenomically stronger persons on the weaker, and in general
to avoid infringements of liberty. There are, however, two
other important principles on which legislation is sometimes
based — the paternal principle which regards it as the duty
of the State to make laws guiding the conduct of persons for
their own benefit, as for example, prohibition of consumption
of alcohol or smoking by children ; and on the other hand
the socialistic principle in which the State definitely inter-
feres and concerns itself with the welfare of the whole
community. There is no reason to object to the socialistic
principle for land legislation in India, excepting on the
ground of the difficulty of securing its enforcement, as will be
seen in an example which I shall mention later. The prin-
ciple of the minimum of interference is undoubtedly that
which will lead to the best practical results, for if the
legislation be well devised with due consideration of all the
economic forces and social tendencies acting on the popula-
tion affected, considerable results may be obtained with a
degree of interference which is easily enforceable, and
liable to produce but little friction or irritation. The
paternal principle of legislation may also be kept in view
as applicable to this case so far as the conditions allow of
enforcement.

In relation to the land the State really occupies a
two-fold position. In the first place the State is the superior
landlord of the whole country. This still remains a legal
* Elements of Politics, 2nd ed„ p. 44.

REVIVAL OF STATE'S OVERLORDSIilP 31

fiction in England where even freeholders are tenants oi
the State free of rent. In India the interest of the State in
the land is closer, and the practice of making temporary
settlements by actual contract with zemindars is evidence
of that position, although it is a fact that zemindars,
talukdars, malguzars, and other holders from the State
are rapidly gaining the position of freeholders in England
subject to a land tux revised sit intervals. My own view
is that the degeneration of the State's interest in the land
should not be allowed to proceed further, and that it would
be beneficial to the whole community if the State were to
assert its rights of overlordship.

Just as the good landlord looks after the welfare of
his tenants and assists their agriculture, so the State should
take a fatherly interest in the affairs of the landlords and
see that they conduct their business properly. Arguing
from this point of view we shall easily see that it leads to
an important conclusion : namely, that there is no objection
on principle to putting definite estates as such under
special treatment, whether it be in accordance with special
rules laid down by the Board of Revenue under pro-
visions of an Act or whether it be by some more direct
form of administrative control.

The other relation which the State has with land i^ the
application of general law. Legislation us between landlord
and tenant is framed mainly with the object of preventing
abuses which arise on a minority of estates. Legislation on
the principle of the minimum of interference must be
applied uniformly to all land throughout the Provinces. If
such laws be designed in sufficient detail to control all
possible abuses in the management of land, they cannot fail
to be highly burdensome to good landlords, and needlessly
so, because the good landlords do not need control.

My conclusion is, therefore, that the law as between

32 LANDLORD AND TENANT

landlord and tenant which is to be applicable throughout the
Provinces should be as simple as possible in its provisions,
and be capable of almost complete enforcement. Such
evils as the law cannot anticipate or provide against, and
such as could only be provided against by prohibitions
which cannot be enforced, must be controlled in a different
way by the paternal action of the State, which must then
step in and adopt such special measures as are needed to
meet the case in regard to each particular estate.

When we come to examine the main features of the
existing Tenancy Acts in these Provinces we see that the
development of the law has depended upon the existing
circumstances from time to time. The tenancy law has never
been thought out with a view to securing the future pro-
gress of agriculture. A fixed system was established which
prevents progress. It is true that provisions were made in
both the Agra and Oudh Tenancy Acts to encourage the
making of improvements both by the landlord and tenant :
but for various reasons these have worked unsatisfactorily in
practice. The great need of the present time is an elastic
tenancy system which will give opportunity for the progress
of agriculture. It should not be inferred that I think that
the proposals which I shall make for present adoption
could advantageously have been adopted twenty or thirty
years ago. In my opinion the time is now ripe for the
first time for a great effort to liberalize the relations
between landlords and tenants, and thereby to secure agri-
cultural prosperity.

Recent experience has shown that even the most
elaborate tenancy acts are incapable of controlling bad land-
lords. The public have become well ac<juainted with some
of the abuses practised in Oudh such as the wholesale
ejections, the heavy nazrana and the enforcement of begdr.
It should, however, be realized that it is only on a minority

ABUSES IN ODDH 33

o£ the Talakdttrs' estates that these practices are pushed
to the point of oppression. Many of the Talukdars are good
landlords who manage their estates in accordance with the
spirit of the law and within the customs of the locality.

LECTURE

CONTROL OF RENTS

The conditious in India are so difiFerent from those ol
England that any proposal to adopt the English system of
landlord and tenant as it stands would be absurd. Nor is
it to be supposed that the English system is itself perfect.
Yet its main features have been developed in accordance
with the requirements of progressive agriculture, and it
stands as the result of long continued experience of what
is practicable in working. In India, however, we have a
system already established which has created not only
proprietary rights in the soil, but also various sub-
proprietary rights. These cannot be ignored ; and however
unfortunate it may be, it is clear that, as they were allowed
to be created their existence has to be recognized ; and
equity demands that they be allowed to continue, or that
compensation be paid for their extinction. Another differ-
ence is that in India over 95 per cent of the cultivators are
illiterate ; they are ignorant of the ideas and methods of
improved agriculture, and for the most part hopelessly in
debt : whereas the English farmer is literate, though often
badly educated. He is acquainted with a more advanced
system of cultivation ; and when in debt, this has usually
been incurred in purchase of stock for his farm and for
other productive purposes. Yet the Indian cultivator is
intelligent and alive to his own interests. The cultivating
castes, such as Kurmis, are industrious, and have a wide
knowledge of crops and the existing practices of cultivation,
and the necessary judgment to do the right thing at the

VARIOUS PROPOSALS 35

right time. A very great diiference is that the practice
of estate management as an art o£ running estates on
proper business lines and developing their productiveness is
hardly comprehended in India ; whilst in England such
knowledge and practice is widespread. It will be my
object in the next lecture to indicate the extent and the
direction in which the English law of tenancy and practice
of estate management may be applied in the existing Indian
conditions with the object of commencing a continuous
policy of development in that direction.

You may not be convinced, however, that I am at
liberty summarily to dismiss as fallacious or impracticable
the various proposals for improving the tenancy system of
these Provinces which have recently been put forward. I
propose, therefore, to examine briefly and critically some of
those which have come to my notice. The solution of the
Ondh tenancy trouble most frequently offered is the adoption
of the system of occupancy tenancy as it prevails in
the Provinces of Agra or Bengal, or any similar system.
It is generally conceded that the right of sub-letting should
be strictly limited ; and some would go so far as to limit
the right of succession to the widow and the immediate heirs
of the deceased, excluding collateral relatives. A somewhat
similar, but less drastic, proposal for Oudh is the conversion
of the existing seven years' leases automatically into long
leases of ten, twenty or even twenty-five years, the rent
being subject to the statutory enhancement of one anna in
the rupee every five or seven years. The first' proposal is
practically that of a lease for an indefinite period to a
family so long as succession continues in the direct line
and so long as some member of the family remains the
cultivator of the holding, but subject to moderate enhance-
ments of rent by order of the court on the basis of equality
with the general level of occupancy rentals.

36 CONTROL OF RENTS

The objection which may be raised to both of these
somewhat similar proposals is that their tendency is
retrograde or at least pQrel) static ; for they will do little
to secure better cultivation, excepting such incentive as may
be given to a small proportion of the cultivators by their
retaining fixity of tenure. We are on the eve of a great
awakening of interest in agriculture in India. Many forces
are working towards this ; but it is a fundamental axiom
in my argument that the landlord class being educated
and intelligent men, can be more rapidly and effectively
interested in the advancement of agriculture than the
tenant class. This may not be true in all parts of these
Provinces, for it depends on many factors in the social and
educational development of the two classes. Looking at the
question broadly, however, I feel that the State, by which
I mean both the Legislature and the Executive Govern-
ment, is more likely to attain results within a reasonably
short time by permitting and assisting the landlord class to
be the agents for improvement of agriculture than by
merely giving the tenants fixity of tenure. In the latter
case the great expenditure necessary to stimulate and in-
struct the cultivators to improve their agriculture would be
a charge upon the State ; but if done through the landlords
the expense will be much less. Both methods are practic-
able ; and might indeed be applied at the same time in
different parts of the Provinces. My own view, however, is
that the greater return in improved agriculture from a given
amount of public expenditure will be reaped if it is made
clear to the landlords that they are expected to be the agents
for effecting improvements of cultivators' methods, the
law of tenancy being so framed as to give them the oppor-
tunity of doing so with most effect.

Modifications of the occupancy system in which the
landlord can buy out the occnpancy tenant, or the tenant

SELECTION OF TENANTS BY LANDLORD 37

hay occupancy rights, are not capable, in my opinion, of
removing the objection which Cin be raised on principle
to the creation of new sub-proprietary rights of this
nature ; although of course they would lessen the objection.
It is not worth while, in my opinion, to consider proposals
for the purchase and sale of occupancy rights, excepting
as possible expedients during a transitional period.

The principle to be kept ever before us in judging of
the advantages and disadvantages of the infinite variety
of possible tenures is to devise such a system as will secure
ill the existing social conditions, the maximum out-turn of
produce of all kinds from the soil at the minimum of
economic sacrifice — that is to say at the minimum sacrifice
in labor and in investment of capital. Above all, therefore,
it is necessary for somebody constantly to be selecting and
encouraging as cultivators those men who know how to
carry on the cultivation in the most efficient manner under
the physical and the economic conditions of the locality.
In the rural economy there can be no better person to carry
on this selection than the landlord assisted by his agent,
when they know their business. Furthermore, the system
must be elastic, and capable of automatically adjusting
itself to social changes, and to the advancing knowledge of
agricultural methods.

Let me refer now to another type of proposal which
has been discussed in some quarters — the idea that the
State should assume the responsibility of holding the
balance between landlords and tenants by undertaking
the fixing of rents. Two fundamentally different principles
are involved in this idea according to the nature of
the proposal. On the one hand, it is suggested that
the level at which the State should aid in fixing rents
should be as nearly as possible at the eoonomic rent
for the time being of each piece of land. The margin

38 CONTROL OF RENTS

of error would be allowed in favor of the tenant ; but
as nearly as it was practicable to determine the econo-
mic rent, without risk of a mistake injuring the tenant,
the fall economic rent would be allowed to the landlord.
It may be urged, if the principle of governmental fixation
on rents is admitted at all, that fixation at approxi-
mately the economic rent has two advantages : (1) Jt
will not be necessary in practice to apply it to all
estates, but only to those where greedy landlords are
endeavoring to force up rents above the economic level,
thereby occasioning ruin to successive tenants, who are
unwise enough to pay the rent demanded. On ordinary
estates managed in a conservative spirit it would not be
necessary to bring the fixation into actual operation ; (2)
Rents being settled at approximately the level of economic
rent, there is no surplus to be disposed of except that
which goes to the landlord ; consequently the competition
for the use of land cannot result in various indirect
payments to landlords and their agents for the privilege of
securing a lease. Sub-letting will also be impossible for
the purpose of the tenant retiring to live wholly or partly
on the rent of a sub-tenant or on a half share of a product
of his labour if he be taken as a working partner. It is
objected to this principle of fixing at ^the economic level,
that it has no effect in raising the economic status of the
tenantry, for they are still left with only such earnings as
are necessary to maintain themselves at the prevailing
standard of living.

The alternative proposal is that rents should be fixed by
the State at some level which will be distinctly below the
economic rent of the land, thus leaving some surplus of the
rent— the true economic rent,— to be enjoyed by the
tenant. It will be observed that this second proposal
involves the fixing of rents over a far larger proportion of

MXATION AT ECONOMIC RENT 39

the agricultural land than in the former ease ; in fact, if any
substantial proportion of the surplus is to be allotted to
the tenants, rents must be fixed by State interference over
practically the whole territory. The advantage of this
latter course would be that the tenants would be able
either to increase their standard of living, or save a little
capital. They would first repay their debts and then be
able to purchase better bullocks and some improved agri-
cultural implements, to sow with their own seed and live
on their own capital until harvest time. But there are
also two other ways in which the surplus might be utilized
by members of the tenant class. Some who have large
holdings may prefer a life of comparative ease at a low
standard of living ; and will sub-let some of their fields or,
if this be impossible under the law, would take in a partner
who would be required to do most of the work. In many
cases, however, the enjoyment of the surplus by the tenant
will be comparatively short-lived. Excepting when an epi-
demic or other disaster occurs to reduce the number of the
family, there will almost certainly be several children
who, as they grow up, will have to be supported on the
produce of the holding. In the absence of education
providing the desire for a higher standard of living, the
tendency will be for two or more sons to settle on the
holding and bring up their families on it ; so that the
surplus would soon be swallowed up in supporting a larger
number of persons. In the conditions prevailing in these
Provinces we might perhaps anticipate that 10 per cent
of the cultivators would be in a position to save money,
through having small families, and would be prudent
enough to do so ; and that the other three classes into which
I have divided the tenants might each perhaps be about
30 per cent of the whole. These figures are of course
nothing more than a guess founded upon a general observation

40 CONTROL OF RENTS

of the people ; and they are given merely by way of
illustration of what would probably happen in the absence
of an efficient system of rural education and the concurrent
development of industries in the towns to attract away
surplus labor.

The proposal to fix rents at less than the economic
level involves an interference with the distribution of
wealth by competition in the direction of a transference
from the rich to the poor, that is from the few to the
many. Tt must therefore be classed as socialistic legislation.
I do not mean that I object to it on that ground — far
from it ; if I considered it practicable and on the whole
beneficial to the country in its results I should heartily
support it. I fear, however, that it would not only be
difficult to carry out in practice, but that the supposed
benefits are largely illusory in the present stage of the
development of the country.

I do not deny that in a country where there is universal
compulsory education, where the tenant cultivators have
been taught improved methods of agriculture and are
accustomed to prudent and thrifty habits, where co-operation
in credit and distribution has taken firm root, and where
a high standard of living is set by the productiveness of
manufacturing industries, a direct transference of wealth
from the landlord class to the tenant class may be effected
by State intervention, and is probably, in such circumstances,
desirable— at any rate if the landlord class is not fully
exorcising its true function. Those are not the conditions
existing now in the United Provinces ; and it may be
doubted whether they could possibly arise until another
two generations at least have passed away.

I think the principal results of any such attempt to fix
rents below the economic level would be : (1) the establish-
ment of a new and costly department of Government

FIXATION BELOW ECONOMIC KENT 41

whioh would contribute Dothiug to the productive power
of the nation, but concern itself merely with dividing the
present exiguous yield o£ agriculture on a non-competitive
basis ; or alternatively, i£ rents were fixed by courts, an
enormous development of the judicial branch. (2) In the
former case, the rents being fixed by a Government depart-
ment, nothing but unpopularity could accrue to Government
from undertaking such a business ; for in the case of almost
every holding either the landlord or the tenant would be
dissatisfied with the rent officially fixed. It is true that in
the early years Government might gain popularity with
the majority of tenants by fixing comparatively low rents,
and at the expense of great unpopularity with the landlord
class. The tenants having once got accustomed to low rents
would want to have them still lower, and would become
dissatisfied if they are not lowered still further. Experience
in Ireland seems clearly to point in this direction ; besides it
is only human nature that this should be the result. (3) The
present stagnation in the progress of agriculture would be
indefinitely perpetuated, unless the measure were accom-
panied by a really energetic propaganda by Government
amongst the tenants to teach them improved methods of
cultivation by demonstrations in every village, and by the
advance of considerable sums in takavi loans or through
co-operative societies for permanent improvements and
purchase of improved stock and implements. The co-
operative societies could only be made efficient by a
considerable expenditure on a Government-paid staff ; and
the progress which might be secured would be at the
expense of a very considerable direct charge upon the
Provincial revenues. Obviously, f he landlord class would
have no incentive to do anything to improve their estates or
interest their tenants in improvement of cultivation and
crops, unless they could be assured that as a result of such

6

42 CONTROL OF RENTS

efiEorts a sabstantial increase of their iocomes would He
secured. The rents fix^d could, of course, be m»de HuhJHct
to enh'4ncera**nt to the extent of a given perc*-nt«ge per
annum on the capital outlay by. the landlord, but here he
enters as a financier only and not as a teacher and director
of his tenants' work.

Let us consider for a moment the administrative ma-
chinery required for the fixation of rents at less than
the economic level. In the province of Agra there are 29
millions of acres of cultivated land, and in the province
of Oudh 10 millions of acres. Rents would necessarily
have to be fixed throughout practically the whole of this
area. It takes a settlement officer about two years to settle
the revenue in an average district assisted by a considerable
staff, and the cost of a settlement is approximately Rs. 3 lacs.
If rents were to be revised throughout the province even
once in every ten years a staff would be required equivalent
to six settlement officers and assistants in Agra and three
settlement officers and assistants in Oudh. The annual cost
could not be less than Rs. 5 lacs for Oudh alone.

It may be urged against this calculation that settlement
work consists largely in the ascertainment of rent rates and
in soil classification, that the former are ex-hypothesi known
and that the soil classification was made at the last settlement
and may be accepted as the basis of rental determinations.
As an indirect reply to these criticisms 1 would say that
the fact that we may know at any time in the future
the rents that have been legally fixed by previous operations
of the rent-fixing staff, does not mean that we know the
economic rent. It gives us no basis for revising the legally
fixed rents. These couldo nly be revised either (1) by a
minute enquiry as to the prices of agricultural produce and
costs of cultivation such as has been actually carried out in
England in limited areas since 1917, or by admitting a

SETTLEMENT NOT OOMPAUABLE 43

certain proportion of the land to be let freely at competition
rents, thereby obtaining an index of the economic rent on
each class of soil in every locality. We are faced in fact
with the difficalty which economists have for many years urged
against the proposals for the nationalization of land as a
measure of improving the lot of the cultivator in Europe —
that when all land is in the hands of the State there would
be no basis for the fixation of rents, excepting the old one
of free competition.

It may be argued, however, that the success with which
settlement operations are carried out and revenue is settled
throughout the whole district show that an officer with
experience and exercising his ordinary common sense could
hit upon a happy medium in the way of the fixation of
rents which would not be unfair to either side. To this I
would reply that it is not really a fair comparison, for the
land revenue is not itself a rent, but an arbitrarily determined
portion of the economic rent which the State assesses and
appropriates. As a matter of practice it is found that the
personal proclivities of the settlement officers enter largely
into the rate of assessment. One man is apt to take a full
45 or 50 per cent of the net assets, believing it to be his
duty to secure to the State the full share which traditional
practice assigns to it : whilst another man believes in erring
on the side of leniency and by underestimating the assets
keeps down his assessment to what he believes can be paid
very easily. The tendency to leniency is naturally greater
in those districts where there has been considerable econo-
mic development and consequent advance in the real econo-
mic rent since the last settlement. Here the task of the
settlement officer is comparatively easy : in fact he may find
himself embarrassed by the necessity of showing the net
assets at somewhat less than he finds them actually to be, so
that he may not be obliged to assess revenue which would

44 CONTROL OF RENTS

produce a greater increase than the 33 per cent laid down
by the Government of India as the maximum average in a
district between one settlement and the next. It is easy
to see the difference between settlement operations and
the fixation of rents. The settlement oflScer can incur the
odium of those who pay by assessing too heavily ; and
Government prefers that he should rather sacrifice some
revenue than produce a sense of grievance among the ze-
mindar class. On the other hand, in the fixation of rents the
Government officer enters as a third party, and- when he
pleases one party he must almost inevitably displease the
other. Honce the argument that the fixation of rent is
easy because Government can successfully carry out detailed
settlement of land revenue is seen to be due to a superficial
view.

There remains an alternative proposal — that instead of
establishing a new branch of the executive Government
to determine rents by systematic operations, it should be
left for the courts to decide. Cases for enhancement of rent
would come before the district magistrate as in the ordinary
course at present and he would fix what he believed to
be a fair rent after hearing evidence and after ordering
investigation if need be. The volume of business would be
over-whelming, however ; and if it were to be carried out
without inordinate delays additional joint or assistant magis-
trates would have to be appointed, who would probably tend
to specialize in this work. It would be better to follow the
analogy of cases relating to irrigation for which a special
class of judicial officers has been appointed — the canal
deputy magistrates. By specialization we might in a few
years have a body of honorable and skilled justices whose
experience in the work would enable them to give judg-
ments fixing rents with lefss delay and greater uniformity
than could be attained by any expansion of the ordinary

VOLUME OF WORK 45

revenue work of the district magistrate and his assistants.
Even in this case, however, the volume of work to be dealt
with by these rent courts would be enormous under the con-
ditions prevailing in these Provinces, and it may well be
doubted whether this work is not more difficult than any
judicial work at present extensively practised. The present
procedure in enhancement of occupancy rentals in the Agra
Province is hardly a fair comparison, because of the very
limited grounds on which enhancements are allowed by
law, and are in practice granted. In any case, it appears to
me that the addition of an enormous number of rent cases
to the already abundant litigation which conditions neces-
sitate, or the Indian cultivator enjoys, would be a social
and political disaster. It would need to be justified by the
prospect of an enormous economic gain ; and this, as I have
already pointed out. is illusory. It may be said in fact that
such a system would indefinitely postpone any real progress
in agriculture, for the energies and interest of the cultivators
would be centred in rent cases rather than in learning to
improve their cultivation.

LECTURE VI

THE ENGLISH TENANCY SYSTEM

The present lecture is devoted to a description of the
tenancy law of England by way of introduction to a con-
sideration of the principles on which the tenancy laws of
the United Provinces might be re-modelled. The English
system is particularly worthy of attention, because the land-
lord and tenant system has been in operation there for a
very long period under an improved system of agriculture,
and the present law and practice is the result of an
accumulation of very lengthy experience, both in estate
management and in legislation for the protection of tenants.
A long series of Acts for securing compensation to tenants
for improvements and regulating ejectment were consolidated
and amended in the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1908.
Before this can be fully understood, however, it is necessary
to be acquainted with the usual terms of the tenancy agree-
ments. The interesting points about these are : —

(1) That the landlord lets a farm for cultivation only
in accordance with an approved system of cultivation, and
rights over all timber and to dig for clay or sand or stone
are reserved to the landlord, with power of entry for
removal, but to pay compensation for damage done to
tenants* cultivation.

(2) The tenancy is for one year certain commencing
25th March and continuing from year to year until deter-
mined by one year's notice to quit which must expire on the
25th of March.

ENGLISH TENANCY AGREEMENT 47

(3) Most farms consist of both arable and pasture l»ind,
and it is provided that if the tenant ploughs up grass land a
penal rent of about Us. 500 per acre per annum for the area
so ploughed up will be charged.

(4) The tenant agrees to pay an increased rent cal-
culated at 6 per cent per annum on any money expended by
the landlord on improvements made with the tenant's
consent.

(5) The tenant undertakes to keep all the buildings,
drains, fences, etc., in good reptir provided that the land-
lord supplies free of charge all the requisite materials
therefor.

(6) The tenant shall haul in his own carts without
charge all material required for repairs whether done by
himself or the landlord.

(7) The tenant shall not sublet without written
consent.

(8) The tenant shall '* stock, manage, cultivate, and
farm the premises in a good, clean, and husband-like manner,
according to the best and most approved mode of husbandry
in reference to farms of a like nature ; and shall keep and
leave the same in good heart and condition."

(9) The tenant is required to manure the land as speci-
fically directed in a lengthy clause of the agreement in
accordance with the quantity of grain and straw sold off
the farm, the object being to maintain the soil in as pro-
ductive a condition as when the tenant entered.

(10) A section specifies how the cultivation is to be
carried on in the last year of tenancy if either side has
given notice.

(11) The landlord undertakes to keep buildings in
repair and insured against fire.

(12) The landlord, or the incoming tenant, shall pay
compensation to the out-going tenant for crops, grass,

48 ENGLISH TENANCY SYSTEM

and seeds sown, for root crops fed to stock within the last
year, and for any unconsumed hay and straw.

(13) A valuation is to be made at the end o£ the
tenancy of the amount of compensation to be paid by the
landlord, and the referee or valuers shall also determine what
sum, if any, ought to be paid to the landlord for any breach
by the tenant of the terms of tho tenancy or in respect of
the condition in which he has left the farm. Every valua-
tion is to be made either by a single referee or by two
disinterested persons appointed as valuers one by each party,
who choose an umpire who has to be called in, in case they
disagree.

This agreement is drawn up on the basis of the prevail-
ing tenancy custom, but, of course, also in accordance with
the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings Act (1908)
which we may now proceed to examine.

The principal provisions of that Act are : (I) that the
tenant must receive twelve months' notice of ejectment
(unless he has agreed on entering to six months notice), (2)
the right of the tenant to compensation for improvements,
(3) the right of the tenant to compensation for unreasonable
disturbance, (4) provision for arbitration according to a
simple procedure. The provisions as to compensation for
tenant's improvements are extremely important and are
applicable with but little modification to Indian conditions.
The Act divides tenants' improvements into three classes :
(1) those for which compensation can be claimed only if
constructed after obtaining the written consent of the
landlord, for example, buildings, formation of silos and
pasture land, irrigation works, improvement of roads and
bridges, making of improvements of water courses and wells,
permanent fences and fruit gardens, and the reclamation of
waste land, (2) improvements which may be effected by the
tenant, after h;iving given two months' notice to the landlord,

AGHICDLTORAL HOLDINGS ACT, 1908 49

ii the latter has failed to undertake them himself: withia
that time. Drainage works of all kinds come under this
heading. (3) Improvements in respect of which neither
the consent of the landlord nor notice is required. Examples
of the last are : putting lime upon the land, and all kinds of
artiGcial and natural manures. For all these improvements,
subject in class (1) to the landlord's consent having been
obtained, the tenant on leaving his holding, after having
given or received legal notice to quit, can claim compensa-
tion for the unexhausted value of the improvement.

Section 8 provides that when the tenancy is a yearly
one a tenant who has remained for two or more years
shall not on quitting his holding be deprived of his right to
claim compensation by reason only that the improvements
were not made during the tenancy on the determination of
which he quits the holding — in other words, so long as he is
in actual cultivating occupation of the holding, the tenancy
is considered to be continuous. However, the tenant is not
entitled to compensation in respect of improvements other
than manuring begun after he has given or received notice
to quit, unless he has given notice to the landlord of this
improvement prior to the giving or receiving of the notice
to quit. The tenant is also entitled to compensation for
damage by game preserved by the landlord ; but the most
important provision for our purposes is that of Section 11
giving compensation for unreasonable disturbance. This
provides that if the landlord, without sufficient cause, "and
for reasons inconsistent with good estate management "
gives notice to quit, or having been requested at least one
year in advance of the expiration of the tenancy refuses to
grant a renewal, or if the landlord demands an increase of
rent as the result of improvements executed by the tenant,
•cind such demand results in the tenant cjuitting the holding,
the tenant may demand a compensation for disturbance not

7

50 . ENGLISH TENANCY SYSTEM

exceeding the cost of the sale or removal of his household
goods, his implements of husbandry, produce and farm
stock.

Section 13 prescribes the method of arbitration, which
is to be by a single arbitrator under rules set out in the
Second Schedule to the Act. The main features of the
arbitration provisions are that the arbitrator is appointed by
agreement between the parties, or in default of agreement is
to be nominated by the Board of Agriculture. He may
examine witnesses on outh if he thinks fit. Arbitration will
be final and binding, but the arbitrator may state a case for
the opinion of the county court on any question of law. In
regard to vegetable and fruit gardens (market gardens)
special provisions for compensation are made for fiarticular
improvements set out in the Third Schedule. The remain-
ing provisions of the Act are chiefly formal or of minor
importance for our purposes ; but it is interesting to
notice that on many occasions the Board of Agriculture may
be appealed to intervene. The giving of this power to a
department of Government which is concerned with the
promotion of agriculture is one of the important features
of the Act.

Long leases of agricultural land are not often, given
in England ; but on the best managed estates, although the
tenant legally holds from year to year, he has in practice a
very fair security of tenure, provided he is a good tenant
and keeps his farm in a good working condition. In any
case he is now well protected by the law as regards outlays
which he makes on improvements ; but there are some land-
lords who refuse permission for making improvements of the
first class.

It is important to notice that the English tenancy
system, with its useful provisions for compensation to tenants
has called into existence a class of professional valuers whose

PROVISIONS FOR ARBITHATTON 51

principal business is to visit farms where tenants are quitting
and to make valuations either on behalE o£ the landlord or
the tenant, or to be called in as arbitrators. These men
have usually had the training of an estate agent, and have
afterwards specialized in this valuation work.

LECTURE VII

TENANCY REFORM IN THE UNITED
PROVINCES.

In the early lectures an attempt was made to survey the
economic forces which affect the tenancy problem and how
they might be expected to apply under the prevailing condi-
tions. We then gained some acquaintance with the English
law and practice relating to landlord and tenant ; and in the
last lecture I dealt briefly and critically with some of the
proposals which have been put forward for reform of the
tenancy laws in these Provinces. Having always in view the
good of the whole community and its advancement by
making agriculture more productive, we saw that any
extension of occupancy rights or any fixed tenure or long,
lease system would be likely to hinder progress, and must be
condemned on that ground. A proposal to fix rents either
by a branch of the executive Government or by judicial
procedure was found to involve very serious difficulties,
especially if it were sought to fix rents at less than the
economic rent of the land with a view to benefitting the
tenants by interfering with the competitive distribution of
wealth.

It remains for me in the present lecture to enter upon
the most difficult part of the task which I have set myself :
namely, to indicate the lines along which reforms generally
admitted to be necessary, should be directed. I do not
pretend to be able to give you in this short course of lectures
anything like a complete solution of the tenancy problems
of these Provinces. I cannot even say that I am satisfied
that my present opinions as regards the desirability and

SIZES OF HOLDINGS. 53

practicability o£ the various suggestions which I shall shortly
present to you are in all respects 6nal. There is always the
possibility that a further investigat\pn of facts and a more
complete analysis of all the economic and human factors
entering into the problems, may lead to some modification
of opinion. For this reason I shall endeavor to give as
fully as possible the reasons which lead me to put forward
particular suggestions.

Recognizing the necessary limitations as to the iinality
of my proposals, they may yet be of value as indicating
certain lines upon which further investigation and discus-
sion may proceed. I do not think it is appropriate, even if
there were time, that I should attempt in these lectures to
work out in detail the specific application of the principles
which I shall lay down.

It will be convenient to group the proposals which I
have to make into four classes, dealing in the first with the
law which should be universally applicable to all tenants-at-
will and sub-tenants, in other words applicable to all those
not protected by a lease or statutory right and who should
be entitled, I propose, to hold as yearly tenants. In the
second class will come all the questions relating to the rights
of lessees and occupancy tenants and others having a sub-
proprietary right, treated in this application to the existing
laws of these Provinces. In the third class I shall discuss the
specific measures of protection of tenants of all classes which
should be provided by law, and in the fourth class will come
proposals for the administrative measures for the protection
of tenants.

J^istinction of Holdings according to Size

No proposal which I could make would be valid, how-
ever, for agricultural holdings of all sizes and kinds. Their
variety is too great for it to be possible to bring them under
one rule of law without injuring the interests of one class

54: PiiOPUSED MNANCY REFORMS

or another. It will be necessary, therefore, in several oases
to distinguish holdings according to their size ; and I find
that holdings naturally .fall into three classes, which play a
different part in rural economy. The largest class is that of
medium-sized holdings varying usually from 5 up to 50 acres
in area, though in some districts the upper limit would be
more like 100 acres. These are the holdings on which a culti-
vator normally supports himself entirely by agriculture, or
at any rate in which it is the principal occupation of himself
and his family. On the larger holdings one or two laborers
will be employed and at times more. The traditional methods
of cultivation and old-fashioned implements are employed.

The other two classes consist of holdings which on the
one hand are larger and on the other hand are smaller than
this big class of the ordinary cultivators' holdings. The
larger holdings are generally those which would exceed from
50 to 100 acres in different districts and would each be culti-
vated as a single farm by a man with some knowledge of
modern methods of farming and possessing some capital
which would be invested in modern implements and in
improved live stock. On the other hand, the smallest hold-
ings varying from half an acre (less than a bigha) upwards
are generally cultivated by artisans, laborers or other persons
having some other occupation as their principal source of
income. This class of tenant is not dependent for his liveli-
hood upon the produce of his cultivation ; yet it is very
useful to him to have the opportunity of growing either some
commercial crop, or grain or garden produce for his own
consumption. He is put in a somewhat more independent
position by having the possibility of making something from
cultivation ; and the health of his family is promoted when
he can raise his own fruit and vegetables. In England
these small plots of land leased to persons for cultivation in
their spare time are called '* allotments ".

ALLOTMENTS OR SMALL HOLDINGS 55

I think it is clear that all three classes of holdings are
absolutely necessary to the rural economy o£ India. The
iireat mass oi the cultivators will continue to cultivate
medium-sized holdings for many generations ; though it may
be held that the holdings should not only be consolidated,
but that their average size should be somewhat increased.
Yet as a class the medium-sized holdings must remain, and
will probably, in most districts, form the greater part of the
cultivable area. It is equally necessary to have the small
holdings or allotments of less than 5 acres available in all
villages and particularly around the small towns and in the
suburbs of the larger towns. It is obvious that the proper
place for these small holdings to be located is as near as
possible to the abadi ; and it would be a great advantage
if all such small holdings lying within a mauza were concen-
trated in one place. When scattered amongst the medium-
sized holdings, they will form an obstacle to the improvement
of cultivation by the professional cultivators ; and scattering
of small holdings at a distance from the abadi greatly reduces,
their value to the artisans and laborers who cultivate them.
I would therefore discourage the existence of such small
holdings outside a specified area close to the abadi in each
village ; and this could be done by refusing to allow occu-
pancy rights or automatic leases or any other statutory
provisions to apply to such small holdings outside the
prescribed area. The only rights which would attach to
them when situated in any part of a mauza would be those
accruing under the general law applying to all tenants-at-

will.*

♦There may appear to be some confusion here in the use ot
the terms *♦ tenant-at-wiU " and "yearly tenant". The explana-
tion is that, according to mj proposal, no person could in fact
remain a tenant-at-will, for every person admitted to cultivating
occupation of land at all, whether directly by the landlord or
indirectly as a sub-tenant, would automatically obtain the status
of a yearly tenant, and could be ejected only after twelve months
notice, except for non-payment of rent. In the sequel, therefore,

56 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

The large holdings should not be restricted in any
way as to situation ; but their tenants, being generally men
of some education and business experience, will be less in need
of protection than the general class of cultivators. I would
suggest that the statutory privileges, other than the general
law relating to the yearly tenants, should not extend to
them, so that the tenants o£ holdings above sonae limit of
between 50 and 100 acres should not become occupancy
tenants, nor become statutory tenants in Oudh. They would
of course be free to enter into any contracts with the land-
owners ; and many of the landlords would probably be
prepared to grant leases on terms which would be negotiated
separately in each case. It will be seen that if my proposals
for the protection of tenants-at-will should be adopted the
tenants of large holdings would have ample inducement to
carry on their cultivation by improved methods.

The law relating to yearly tenants would apply also to
every kind of sub-tenant and to every person in cultivating
occupation of land who has not got some superior right.
In reality there will be no such thing as a tenant-at-wili.
I propose that the analogy of the English law be followevl
so as to modify the existing practice in a manner favorable
to the cultivator. It is necessary to provide for the yearly
tenant: (1) ample notice before ejectment, (2) the right
to compensation for improvements, (3) the right to com-
pensation for disturbance, and (4) a standard form of yearly
agreement, clearly defining his rights and obligations.

(1) The period of notice should not be less than twelve
months and it should terminate at the end of the agricultural
year which might be taken in these Provinces to be any
date between i5th of May and 30th of June. The notice

where the term " tenant-at-will " is used it must be understood to
mean tho class of tenant subject in greatest degree to the landlord's
will ; and such class, if ray proposals were adopted, would be the
yearly tenant.-

IMPROVEMENTS 57

of ejectment should be served by an officer of the Court,
the notice being duly entered in the Court Register together
with proof of service.

(2) The compensation for improvements should follow
the lines of the English law described in the last chapter. It
would be necessary to divide improvements into three classes
and I would suggest the following as a suitable classifica-
tion : —

I. Improvements for which compensation can be claimed
only if executed after the landlord's written consent has been
obtained : —

(1) Masonry wells exceeding Rs. 1,000 in cost.

(2) Tanks, bunds, irrigation channels and works of
all kinds, including pumping schemes.

(3) Farm buildings of all kinds.

(4) Grain pits and sij^.

(5) Fences.

II. Improvements for which compensation may be claim-
ed if they have not been undertaken by the landlord with-
in three months after the tenant has given notice of his
intention to make the improvement : —

(1) Masonry wells costing less than Rs. 1,000.

(2) Drainage works.

III. Improvements for which no notice is required : —

(1) Wells without masonry.

(2) Spreading and ploughing in lime, ash, or any
other beneficial substance on the land.

. (3) Manuring with any natural or artificial manure
beneficial to the ordinary crops of the district.

It may be questioned whether granting to tenants the
right to. compensation for improvements of the first class will
be of much advantage to them if they have to obtain the
landlord's consent before the improvement is undertaken in
order that the claim for compensation may be valid. The

;>8 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

existing tenancy acts in the Provinces of Agra and Oudh both
provide for compensation for improvements when the tenant
has obtained the landlord's consent; but it is said that this
is almost a dead, letter because landlords are so unwilling to
grant permission. Their objection to granting permission
appears to be based mainly upon the fact that by granting
permission they would be creating for themselves a contin-
gent liability, which might have to be met almost any year.
The landlord prefers to keep himself free from such liabilities,
and to make improvements with his own capital when avail-
able, and when he considers them really necessary. His
view of what is " necessary" does not, of course, usually
correspond with the tenant's desire. Another objection
which is raised by landlords is that if they grant such per-
mission to make improvements the tenants become more in-
dependent. If one has permission, others must have it ; and
they know that the landlord will not be in a position finan-
cially to pay them all out at the same time.

On the other hand, it is impossible to give the tenants
the right to make permanent improvements without the land-
lord's consent and the right to claim compensation, except to
a very limited extent ; especially if, as in the English law,
the tenant may claim such compensation if he himself quits
the holding of his own free will after one year's notice. The
provision that the. tenant may make a permanent improvement
after obtaining an order of the Court without consent of the
landlord exists in both the Tenancy Acts ; but not much use is
made of it, as the tenant is afraid that he would be making an
enemy of his landlord and his agents. Yet the provision
that improvements may be made by order of the Court, or of
some Government officer, should stand. As regards the pay-
ment of compensation when the tenant himself gives notice, 1
would suggest that it would not be an unfair arrangement if

COMPENSATION FOR DISTURBANCE 59

he were then entitled to olaim three-fourths of the cost of
the improvement.

The provision of compensation for the unexhausted value
of lime, manures, etc., which the tenants may have applied to
the land would be a new provision in the Indian law ; and
it would have, t am sure, a very salutary effect in inducing
tenants to use these means of maintaining the soil in a fully
productive condition.

(3) The grant of compensation for disturbance would be
u novelty in Indian tenancy law, as it was a novelty when in-
troduced in England by the Agricultural Holdings Act of
1908. It is obviously expedient as well a.« just that the ten-
ant should receive a refund of the monetary loss which he
must necessarily suffer on being ejected from his holding,
provided that the ejectment is not the result of some wrong-
doing on his part. Obviously, if the tenant fails to pay his
rent regularly when others can do so ; if he is contumacious
and raises unwarranted disputes with the agent or his zil-
ladars, or with neighboring tenants ; if he encroaches on
his neighbor's land or frequently injures the cultivation
of neighbors by allowing weeds to spread, or his cattle
to stray — in these cases he is not a desirable tenant, and
he does not deserve compensation for disturbance if the
landlord should decide to eject him. Ejectment on account
of such acts may be considered to be in accordance with
good estate management. The provision I suggest is that
if the landlord ejects a tenant for any reason which he con-
siders to be in accordance with good estate management,
he may apply to the Court to dispense with the compensation
for disturbance ; and doubtless, if the Court were satisfied
as to the reason for ejectment, the tenant would lose his
compensation for disturbance.

As regards the amount of compensation for disturbance, it
must be estimated on the presumed loss which the cultivator

60 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

will saffer by being ejected. In the first place he may
lose something through the time necessarily taken np after
receiving the notice in searching for another holding.
When the time comes for moving he has in many cases to
convey his family and personal belongings to another village,
also his live stock and agricultural implements, seed, etc.
Thirdly, in the first year of the cultivation of a new holding
he is necessarily at a disadvantage through not being fully
acquainted with the soil, and his cultivation will not be so
profitable as if he had remained another year on the old
holding.

When the competition for land becomes severe, it is
impossible to maintain the old legal fiction that the tenant
and landlord meet on equal terms and enter into a free
contract. The tenant undoubtedly needs some protection ;
but it seems to me that in the interests of progressive agri-
culture this protection should not extend to giving the ten-
ant any form of proprietary rights, but should be limited
merely to securing to him the full and regular fruits of his
labor. Theoretically the position should be that, even if he
should suffer a capricious ejectment by his landlord, he
would not thereby be put to a monetary loss.

We are not, however, much nearer to settling the
amount of compensation for disturbance ; obviously it ought
to be settled separately in every case, and this is the practice
under the English Law. In India we have not yet a suflS-
cient number of trustworthy men to act as valuers ; and
consequently it would be quite impracticable to settle the
compensation for disturbance separately in each case. The
important thing is to introduce the principle ; and after it
has become well-recognized some more refined method of
fixing it may be evolved. For the present I can only suggest
that the compensation for disturbance be fixed at some pro-
portion of the annual rental, possibly, say, 20 per cent at

FICTITIOUS RENTS 61

the least. This will admittedly he insufficient in many cases ;
but it will also he amply sufficient in a large numher of
cases in which the tenant merely shifts to another holding
in the same village. The effect upon the landlord will obvi-
ously be to discourage ejectment, unless there he some good
reason therefor — either that the tenant commits wrongful
acts of the kind specified above or the landlord considers
the rent of the holding to be much lower than he could get
from some other tenant. We must remember that we are
dealing with tenants-at-will, or perhaps I ought to say year-
ly tenants because in reality I propose that all tenants-at-
will should automatically have the status of yearly tenants
— and in the case of tenants-at-will it is generally admitted
that the landlord has a right to raise, the rent to such a
figure as would be paid readily by other applicants.

The question of the level of rents for yearly tenants is,
indeed, one which cannot be settled by legislation. It is a
question of good estate management. It is a well-understood
principle amongst good landlords that they should not try
to squeeze the uttermost rent out of each holding, because
the highest figure which anybody will bid is in many cases
really a "fictitious rent ", that is to say, one which is above
the economic rent. When the rent paid by the tenant is
fictitious, or above the economic level, it means that he can
pay it only in 'one of four ways: — (1) by reducing his
standard of living, which will generally impair the health
of himself and his family, (2) out of some extraneous form
of income, such as the earnings of his sons who may have
migrated to work at industrials centres, (3) by drawing on
his capital, either by selling his goods or getting into .debt,
or (4) by exhausting the soil of his holding by successive
crops of wheat or sugar-cane without manuring or rotation.
In all of these cases the tenant will get into difficulties after
three or four years, and, unless prices happen to rise, will

62 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

be forced to give up his holding, or the landlord will have
to forego the arrears and let him stay on at a lower rent.

Good landlords who understand their business and con-
duct it for the continued prosperity of their estates are un-
animous in the opinion that it does not pay to endeavor to
raise rents above the economic level or indeed above a figure
slightly below the economic rent. If the landlord willingly
foregoes a little even of the economic rent which may arise
a few years after the tenant has entered a holding, he there-
by gives the tenant encouragement to improve his cultiva-
tion. The landlord will get a reputation for being of a fine
and liberal disposition, and he will never be in want of good
tenants who will cultivate carefully and pay their rent
regularly.

It is obvious, however, that in getting his estate settled
with good tenants of the character just described the land-
lord must be free from time to time to eject the most un-
satisfactory tenants. By a constant process of ejecting the
worst tenants, and by the consciousness of liability to ejection
which the other tenants will experience, the whole estate
may in time be brought to be tenanted by industrious pea-
sants who understand and practise good agriculture and are
generally well-behaved.

(4) The form in which yearly agreements between
landlord and tenant are to be drawn up ought to receive
attention. It is obvious that the agreement must name
the fields which are let and state their area and define
the rent to be paid. The rent should be payable in two
half-yearly instalments in December or January and in May
or June, the second instalment being larger than the first
in a proportion according with local custom. If the tenant
be illiterate, the agreement should be read over to him by
the patwari and, when he understands and agrees to it, he
should affix his thumb impression. The agreement should

TENANCY AGREEMKNTS G3

be so drawn that it runs for one year, and tbereat'ter from
year to year until 12 months* notice to terminate it has been
given by either party. Provided there be no actual interval
exceeding three months in the occupation of the land the
tenancy thus held from year to year on one agreement is to
be considered continuous, and compensation for improvements
made by the tenant will be deemed to be due although made
during any year of such continuous occupation.

As has been pointed out in the preceding chapter, English
tenancy agreements contain elaborate provisions for securing
the proper cultivation of the holding and for preventing the
exhaustion of the soil. It is probably too early to do
much in this direction in India as yet ; but it should be
practicable for landlords in some districts to insert a provision
in the agreement requiring the tenant to follow a certain
rotation of crops and to apply green manure to the holding,
a penalty of enhanced rent being inserted if this be not done.
Landlords would soon find that they could only exercise com-
pulsion in this matter where the manuring when properly
done actually proves generally beneticial to the cultivation,
and the tenant would not object to this provision if he in-
tended remaining in occupation of his holding. I think a
little compulsion of this kind would be very useful in teach-
ing cultivators the better management of the soil.*
J'Jjects of the Yearly Tenancy System

For the purpose of gaining a clear comprehension of my
proposals it is now necessary to consider what would be the
economic etfects, if the system of yearly tenancies which I
have just outlined were to be made applicable to all land.
Let us assume for a moment something which I am

• Obviously provisions for manuring need not usually be enforced in
the gohan or goind land ; though ultimately the present advantage of the
gohan might diminish through a better distribution of the available manure
and water over the whole of the village land.

64 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

certainly not going to propose, namely, that all the
occupancy and lease-hold rights in these Provinces were
abolished ; and that in substitution therefor all tenants
would in future hold land on the system o£ the yearly
tenancies above outlined. The success of the system would
depend very much upon the attitude of the landlords. If
they continued in a conservative fashion keeping down their
personal expenditure and therefore their demands from
their tenants, it would be found to work quite satisfactorily.
The incoming tenant would certainly pay to the landlord
the compensation for improvements which the landlord
might have to pay to the out-going tenant. Assuming him
to be a good landlord he would not very often have to pay
compensation for disturbance because in cases where it was
iMAuifestly right to eject the tenant he would apply to the
©oart to avoid the compeiiBation, and this would be granted
immediately if he had a clear case. Ejections for other
causes would not be frequent because, if the landlord were
to seek to raise rents only when it was reasonable to do so,
the tenant, being aware that his rent really was below the
market value, would agree voluntarily to a reasonable en-
hancement rather than be ejected.

fjandlords who, besides managing their estates in this
conservative manner, were anxious to improve the agricul-
ture oE their tenants would have every inducement to do so.
They would have freedom to select the best tenants by gra-
dually ejecting those who failed to adopt ordinary precautions
in cultivation and simple improvements stipulated for in the
agreements. They could distribute good seed to their tenants,
and provide them with better cattle by maintainino a stud
farm in which selected animals were bred. They could invest
money in wells and other improvements. Knowing the
advantages of being tenants of such an estate there would
be competition always amongst tenants to obtain holdings ;

EFFECTS OF YEARLY TENANCIES rt/S

uud tbe rents coald be raised to a reusouable extent au aH
to give the landlord a fair return on his capital and for
his organizing work and personal supervision.

This pre-supposes conservative* and enlightened landlords.
There are sure to be many who are neither conservative nor
enlightened, but will seek, as they do at present, to extract
the highest income they can from the estate with the least
trouble on their part. If the landlord abdicates his proper
functions, the welfare of the community demands that he
should at least have a liberal-minded and enlightened agent
to represent him on the estate. The agent and bis sub-
ordinates must in the first place be honest ; secondly they
must understand the principles of good estate management,
and the bad economy which ultimately results from raising
rents to a fictitious level. They must understand how
the land deteriorates, must distinguish between good and
l^ad cultivators, and must generally work for the future
benefit and prosperity of the estate. Assuming that such
agents are available, the system o£ yearly tenancies will be
workable, provided such agents are employed wherever the
landlord himself does not personally supervise the estate.
Without dowbt it should be a duty of Government to
provide the means of educating honest, reliable and intelli-
gent men as agents and their subordinates ; and when a
supply is available to insist that they be employed.
Wherever such provisions failed to secure the proper
management of an estate, Government should itself take
over control, charging a little more than the full cost of the
management, by way of a tax or penalty on the landlord
I'or his want of reasonable attention to the duties of bis
[>osition.

Let us consider what would be the aspect of the yearly
tenancy system from the point of" view of tiie tenant. To

* The word " consepvative " is used here in its origiual seuse ;
aud applied to landlords it means one who " conserves "—that is
keeps aud preserves his estate in good order, accumulates and
invests capital thereip, and does not live beyond his income.

^6 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

the tenant the two questions which bulk largest are the
amount of rent he has to pay and the question of security.
Every man likes to make a good bargain and profit by it.
The lucky prospector who can take out a mining license of
valuable property at a ridiculously low figure may by a few
months' work make himself passing rich for the rest
of his life. We are all out for these bargains ; and so is
the tenant. If be can obtain occupancy rights he feels
secure in the enjoyment of profits sufiicient to maintain
his family, and probably without the necessity of such
continual hard work as might be necessary if he should have
to pay from time to time an enhanced rental. Whilst, as I
Stiy, every tenant likes to make a good bargain, I think the
average tenant is not averse from paying what may be con
sidered a fair rental : in other words, if he is a yearly tenant,
he will not feel that he is being dealt with unjustly if his
rent is enhanced to a reasonable extent at a time when the
profits of cultivation have increased or when he has received
any benefit from the landlord. If the enhancement of rent
of ;i yearly tenant is such as not greatly to exceed the average
then payable, which will be the case if all landlords follow
the same practice and make general enhancements or reduc-
tion of rent at approximately the same time, the tenant will
have little real cause for complaint. The trouble is that
landlords at present act without agreement and even without
considtation, so that there are marked differences between
the enhancements made on neighboring estates, producing
a sense of injustice in those tenants who have suffered from
considerable enhancement whilst seeing their neighbors get
off much more lightly.

Suggestions for Immediate Changes in Agra Province
I am of opinion that, if we had a body of enlightened
landlords devoting themselves to the development of agri-
culture on their estates, the system of yearly tenancies with
the various kinds of compensation above described could be
introduced with a view to replacing gradually all other forms

OCCUPANCY RIGHTS i;7

p£ tenant rights ; and that it woald be in the interest of the
country so to do. At the present time, however, this iw
obviously impossible. It would be immediately practicable,
•however, to introduce the yearly tenancy system such as 1
have described for small holdings not falling within the
reserved area, and for large holdings exceeding a limit fixed
at between 50 and 100 acres. This would mean that in an
amending act it would be provided that occupancy rights
could not in future be acquired in those scattered small
holdings or in new large holdings above that limit.

r think, however, that it is desirable to go further than
this at an early date in the direction of giving landlords
bigger freedom for the development of their estates. For
this reason I would make it lawful for a zemindar to buy out
the occupancy rights of any of his tenants or to force them
to accept other land in exchange, with suitable compensation
if necessary, for any reason consistent with good estate
management. Thus, if a zemindar proposes to make a pukku
well, and proposes to charge extra rent at the rate of 8 per
cent per annum on the cost of all lands lying within the area
which it can water, he should not be prevented by the refusal
of an occupancy tenant to pay this additional rental. The
mere fact that such a tenant could be bought out or shifted
to other land, would be a means of ensuring a reasonable
attitude on the part of occupancy tenants to proposed
improvements, which will really work even more in their
own interest than in that of the landlord. Furthermore, it
is very important that no zemindar who wishes to undertake
his own cultivation according to improved methods should
be prevented from resuming possession of his own land by
the existence of scattered fields rented to occupancy tenants.
In such cases occupancy tenants do sometimes agree volun-
tarily to accept other fields in exchange when convinced that
they will not be losers thereby ; but 1 feel sure it will

6« PROPOSED TENANCY REB^ORM^^

be in the general interest to allow the landlord the right of
forcing the removal of occupancy tenants in such cases,
subject to proper compensation. The purchase price for
buying in occupancy rights should be calculated at about
twenty times the difference between the rent payable by the
occupancy tenant and the full rent which the same land
would be worth if let to a yearly tenant. Such cases must
1)6 decided by a Court ; and the Court must take into con-
sideration the purpose of the landlord's resumption and
consider whether he is likely to be able to fulfil that purpose.
A landlord might, for example, seek to resume a considerable
area for the purposes of planting sugar-cane, and erecting a
factory ; but this might be only an idea, and he might have
no real chance of raising the necessary capital to carry the
scheme through. He should, therefore, be required to give
reasons for believing that he can carry out his purpose ; and
if these are convincing, he should certainly have the right ot
buying out the occupancy rights.

The question of occupancy rights is really very similar
to' that of leases. If the occupancy rights could be abolished
when needed with proper compensation, they would be
allowed to accrue more freely than at present. VV^hen
resumption by the landlord had thuis become possible there
would be no objection to allowing a tenant to purchase
occupancy rights after any length of tenure. The question
of the purchase price which had been paid by the tenant for
his occupancy right would naturally be taken into considera-
tion in determining the compensation to be paid to him if
the landlord should want to buy them back. There is no
objection whatever to making occupancy rights more freely
obtainable, so long they can be more freely abolished. The
whole question ultimately resolves itself into the determina-
tion of the fair compensation for tenants' improvements and
lor any interest with the tenant has in the land, such as a long

CHANGES IN OUDH tjy

lease or ocoapanoy rights, whioh has monetary value. Look-
ing at the matter from the broadest point of view, we see that
so long as the law and prevailing practice secure to each
party the respective property in material improvements or in
rights which that party has created, the interest of the country
is served best by having the greatest flexibility in the
|>ormissible conditions of contract and legal rio[ht :i8 between
the two parties.

Jmmediaie Chamjes in Oudli
The existing law in Oudh is a system of uuloniatic
leases with a restricted rate of enhancement of rent. When
waste land is being let for the first time, or land which has
been out of cultivation, or otherwise in the landlord's
possession, is let to a tenant, the two parties are free to
agree upon any rental ; but excepting on his sir land
the landlord is obliged tp let on a lease for not less than
seven years. The tenant can be ejected by order of the
Court at any time for arrears of rent, but otherwise only
by a notice under Section 55 served through the Court
twelve months before the expiration of the lease. At the
expiration of seven years the landlord may re-let the land
for another seven years to the same tenant, but the rent
may not be enhanced by more than one anna in the rupee.
If the tenant has been ejected the land cannot be let to
another tenant at any rent higher by more than one anna
in the rupee than the rent paid by the previous tenant. If
the letter of the law be strictly observed, therefore, it is
impossible for the landlord to enhance his rent by more
than one anna in the rupee in seven years (that is 0*86 per
cent per annum) however much he changes his tenants. The
provision that the rent cannot be enhanced more for a new
tenant than for re-letting to an old tenant was inserted
in order to discourage ejectments being made lor the pur-
pose of obtaining enhancements of rent.

70 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

During the past ten years the full annual rental value of
land has risen very considerably in certain parts of Oudh,
perhaps partly owing to the effects of the inoproved com-
munications, but mainly on account of the general rise of
prices. Thus the full rental value of the land has risen until
in some places it greatly exceeds the statutory maximum
rental payable under the lease system. The inevitable
result has been that landlords who wish to increase their
income to the maximum have adopted the practice of re-
letting land to the person who will pay the highest nazrana
or premium on admission. Some landlords go further
than this. In the belief that when the next settlement, due
about twelve years hence, comes to be made the revenue will
be assessed on the rent rolls, some landlords are avoiding
enhancements of rent and are seeking to obtain the whole of
the enhanced annual value of the land in the form of nazrana.
Thus on re-letting a holding a purely nominal* enhancement
of one pie in the rupee may be made, which is only one-
twelfth of the legal enhancement, but a heavy nazrana is
charged. Although the exaction of nazrana is obviously
contrary to the spirit of the Oudh Rent Act it has been
held by the courts that it is not illegal.

The Oudh landlords, or some of them, have other sources
of income besides rent and nazrana charged on new leases.
There is the local custom by which the TaluLdar receives in
addition to his cash rents certain offerings in kind,
such as a maund of grain or a load of straw or a pot of gur
(sugar-cane juice) at the harvest time each year. There
has been some grumbling amongst tenants because larger
loads of straw, and larger pots of juice are now exacted than
formerly. Then there is the hegar or compulsory labor for
the landord's business which the tenant is obliged to render
for a merely nominal- payment. In some cases the landlord
has the right to the occasional use of the tenant's bullock

ARBITRARY EXACTIONS 7J

carts and auituals and his plough as well as to the man's
own services. The latter are remunerated at the yory
old rate of one anna per day, whereas the average rate
of wages for agricultural labor now is six annas per day.
A few landlords have created much disaffection amongst
their tenants by the imposition of arbitrary nazrana at
any time when the landlords happened to require some
money. It is an old-standing Indian custom that presents
known as salami should be offered to a rajah or chief when he
goes on tour visiting his villages ; and officers of all grades
in the Moghul Empire received such presents. A traditional
custom has been degraded and commercialized until it has
become a serious oppression on the estates of some land-
owners. Jf the landlord wants to buy an elephant a levy is
made from all tenants in proportion to rent. In recent
years he generally buys u motor-car, and this is provided in
similar manner. The tenants speak of these exactions as
kathiana and motorana. In some cases subscriptions to War
Loans were exacted from the tenants without their obtaining
credit for their payments.

The last mentioned arbitrary exactions, the hathiana,
motorana, etc., should be prohibited by law and Government
should make it well-known in the villages that payments not
stipulated in the lease are illegal. It is probable that one
result of the non-co-operation movement will be that the
tenants in future will combine and refuse to pay the illegal
exactions. The Kisan Sabhas, or peasant societies, which
iu-e springing up in many places will, if they survive the
|)resent political movement, exercise a useful function in the
protection of the tenants against exactions by the landlords
or their agents and subordinates, which are sanctioned
neither by the law nor by custom. As regards the hegar,
>ome of the smaller landlords who do their own cultivation
are apt to abuse this privilege, thereby creating some

72 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

anrest. It should be made possible for the tenants to apply
to the Court to have the obligation to render hegar coininut-
ted into a small annual payment to be added to the rent.
The annual presents in kind of grain, s:<fraw, etc., may be
left to be regulated by local custom ; though where they
are a source of friction it should be made competent for the
Court to commute them into a small money payment.

We have now to consider the rent and the nazrana
payable on the grant of a lease. These two are interrelated
because nazrana represents economically a payment of rent
in advance. Thus supposing that the full rental value of a
holding is Rs. 200 per annum and the holding is let for
Rs. 160, nazrana may be calculated as the present value of
Rs. 40 per annum for seven years, discounted, say, at the
rate of 10 per center more per annum, as interest rules high
in Indian agriculture. The way in which the landlord puts
the matter to the tenant was explained to me by a landlord
somewhat as follows. After having given the tenant the
notice of ejectment the landlord will call him and say ** your
rent is now Rs. 160 per annum, but I can let your holding
to any new tenant at Rs. 225 per annum. I intend to
increase your rent only a little to Rs.l65 per annum so I
shall be losing Rs. 60 per annum, if I let it to you at that
rate. In all 1 shall lose Rs. 420 in the seven years. How
much will you pay me in order that you may have the land
at this low rent ? Other peasants are offering me Rs.300
and more". Finally perhaps he allows the existing tenant
to retain the holding on payment of Rs. 250. If the tenant
has not got this, he must go to the mahajan to borrow, and
he may have to pay at least 24 per cent per annum interest,
making Rs. 60 per annum.

It is obvious that this system is economically unsound.
It uses up all the tenant's free capital — just that money
which he ought to put into better cattle, or implements or

PKOBLEM OF NAZKANA 73

into the improvement of his holding ; and if he has bat
little capital, he most borrow the whole or part of the
premium. The tenant would in faot be better oi£ if he paid
an increased rental for the whole seven years amounting to
15 or even 20 per cent on the amount of the premium, and
90 would the landlord.

The problem of abolishing the nazrana exacted by many
of the Talukdars on admission to a new lease is one of
extreme difficulty. It can only be entirely abolished by
removing the occasion for its payment — in other words, by
prohibiting ejectments. Government has in fact already
taken this course as a temporary measure by an administra-
tive order allowing ejections to be made only with the
sanction of the district magistrate and for serious reasons.
If this were followed as a permanent policy it would
practically mean the grant of fixity of tenure to all existing
tenants subject to their paying their rent and not being
guilty of gross misbehaviour.

Such fixity of tenure is the very last thing which ought
to be granted, having in view the principles explained in
preceding chapters, and especially the progress of agricul-
ture. The search for an alternative measure of preventing
nazrana cannot, I think, be completely successful. So long
as the rent proposed by the landlord is below the economic
rent and so long as there is competition of tenants to
obtain land (which presumption is strictly speaking involv-
ed in the former) there is bound to be the opportunity for
the landlord to exact a premium. It is in the interest of
both parties — the landlord and the proposed tenant who
desires to get the land — ^that a premium be paid if the right
of admission is granted to the highest bidder. The interest
of both parties being alike makes it impossible to enforce
any legal prohibition of nazrana.

Personally, 1 am disposed to favor the gradual abolition

10

74 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

of the legal restriction on enhancement of rents in Oodh, so
that in the course of, say, 20 or 30 years or more the
whole of the land would come to be held on yearly tenancies.
This could be permitted, however, only in so far as Taluk-
dars and zamiodars prove themselves to be good landlords
and to be conservative in their demands for rent. The
protection of the tenant must remain for many years.

As the abolition of the landlord's right of ejectment is
in my opinion highly undesirable, the only alternative is to
provide the tenant with compensation when he is ejected
for no fault of his own. The Oudh statutory tenant on
being ejected at the end of his lease should be entitled not
only to compensation for disturbance, but also to a further
compensation for loss of prospective profits. The equity of
compensation for loss of prospective profits arises from the
spirit, if not from the letter, of the Oudh Rent Act, which
was certainly designed with the intention of giving the
tenant the benefit of the option of continuing on his holding
with a new lease for a further period of seven years at an
enhancement not exceeding one anna in the rupee. It
must have been realised when the Act was passed that this
enhancement would be often less than the increase of the
full rental value of the land, and it was definitely intended
that the sitting tenant should enjoy the benefit of the
profits arising from obtaining a renewal of his lease at less
than the full competition rent. The compensation for loss
of profits ought theoretically to be calculated at the present
value of the difference between the full rental value and
the maximum legal rent after enhancement, but this present
value should be calculated by discounting at a high rate of
interest— at least 12 or 15 per cent per annum, the latter
being the rate which most co-operative credit societies are
charging to cultivators.

It might be worth while making an experiment in one

COMPENSATION FOR LOSS OF PROFITS 75

of the most advanced districts as to whether the oalcalation
of the compensation for loss of profits ooald be aotaally
ascertained on this basis by means of a small local arbitration
coart, the landlord having two representatives and the
peasants two representatives, and the Tahsildar or other
Government officer acting as Chairman. I am afraid there
would be too much work for these courts, and that they
would need expert advice, and to obtain honest advisers
would be rather expensive.

So far as I can see at present, therefore, the compensa-
tion for loss of profits would be more conveniently settled
for the present either by the courts or by a special Govern-
ment officer. The law might, however, lay down that the
minimum compensation for loss of profits should be 30 per
cent of the annual rental, and the maximum 100 per cent.
The field of disputes between the two parties would thus be
strictly limited and in most cases the compensation would
be settled by agreement. As in the case of compensation
for disturbance the landlord could, of course, apply to the
court to dispense with compensation for loss of profits on the
ground the tenant was being ejected for reasons consistent
with good estate management.

The effect of providing compensation for disturbance
and for loss of profits on the two parties concerned would be
as follows. The landlord who desired to eject the tenant
merely for the sake of admitting another tenant and exacting
nazrana, would find himself faced with the necessity of
paying the court-fee equal to half the annual rental but
not exceeding Rs. 25 and compensation for disturbance and
loss of profits amounting possibly to more than the whole of
one year's rental. If the holding were rented at Rs. 50 he
might have to pay Rs. 85 altogether and could not pay less
than Rs. 50. If the rent of the holding were Rs. 100
he might have to pay Rs. 145 and could not pay less

76 PROPOSED TExNANCY REFORMS

than Rs. 75. In these oases the out-going tenant would
receive Rs. 25 less than the landlord paid. The heavy
court-fee on ejectment was prescribed by the law with
a view to discouraging ejectments ; but through being
limited to Rs. 25 it failed to have this effect. In equity,
instead of merely penalizing the landlord, the money
should be paid to the outgoing tenant. It may be
suggested that the court-fee be reduced to Rs. 5 and that
a fixed amount of Rs. 20 be added to the compensation
for loss of profits payable to the outgoing tenant. The
tenant who had received notice of ejectment should be
entitled to retain the last half-yearly instalment of rent
due from him, which amount would be credited to the land-
lord as part payment of the compensation. This would leave
the tenant with a certain amount of money in hand which
would be useful in case of any delay which might arise in
paying the tenant his compensation as the result of dispute.
This would also tend to prevent the landlord from making
an application to the court to dispense with the compensation
on the ground of the tenant being undesirable. The land-
lord ought to make this claim immediately after filing his
ejectment notice so that the tenant should receive good notice
of the right of withholding the last half-yearly payment of
his rent having been lost by an adverse decision of the
court.

I do not claim that the institution of this system of
compensation would entirely abolish the nazrana, but it
would certainly go a long way towards reducing it by
making it less profitable for landlords and it would remove
the tenant's sense of grievance.

A further measure of reform which would tend to
reduce the amount of nazrana on certain estates would
be a revision of the methods of assessing land revenue, to-
gether with a public announcement that such changes would

SETTLEMENT PROCEDURE 77

be iutrodaced at the next settlement, of Oadh. I have
already explained that some landlords refrain from enhancing
their rents by more than a purely nominal amount, and
charge nazrana instead, in the belief that by thus keeping
the rent-roll low the estate will be assessed to revenue at a
lower rate in the same proportion at the next settlement. In
theory the settlement officer is expected to settle the revenue
at about 45 per cent of the net assets of the land. The net
assets mean the whole produce of the land less the cost of
cultivation, including the living expenses of the cultivator
and his family at the ordinary standard of living. The ** net
assets " is in reality the economic rent. The actual rent may
be either below or above the economic rent. It is
below when a conservative landlord does not care to press
his tenants to pay the utmost rent ; and it is also below
when nazrana is charged on admission to a lease. The
rents of some holdings, particularly small holdings, are
sometimes above the economic rent when a large part of the
income of the family is derived from some non-agricultural
occupation or from remittances by family members who have
migrated to industrial centres. The family clings to the
holding in spite of enhanced rent, because of a sentimental
connection with the village and the social status the holding
of land confers. I believe, however, that much the larger
area is rented below the economic rent, and only a small
area above it.

In zemindari tracts the settlement officers have been
permitted to regard the rents actually paid as a fairly
close indication of the net assets of the land, and as being
sufficiently close to be taken as the principal evidence on
which the assessment is to be based. It would have a
beneficial effect if this practice were discontinued and
settlement officers were instructed to inquire for themselves
as to the real net assets of the land by ascertaining its total

78 PROPOSED TE>^ANCY REFORMS

prodace and dedacfcing therefrom the estimated cost of
caltivatioQ. Local enquiries will generally enable these
estimates to be made fairly closely though care should be
taken that a normal price level is assumed in estimating
the gross money produce. I anticipate, in the case of many
estates, that if the revenue were assessed at 45 per cent of
the net assets so calculated there would be a considerable en-
hancement of the revenue. . If this method were adopted it
would probably be desirable for Government to limit its
demand to 40 per cent of the net assets of any particular
zemindari estate.

If an announcement of this change of policy were made,
it would at once lead to the Talukdars enhancing their rents
to the full legal rent, and would thus diminish the amount of
nazrana which they could claim.

Administrative Control

It may be surmised that the system outlined above would
not altogether prevent the exaction of nazrana on a few
estates inspite of its having been definitely declared to be
illegal. It is true that the peasants are becoming enlightened
and are banding themselves together in certain localities
in the formation of kisan sabhas (or peasant societies). This
movement, associated as it has been to a large extent with
the non-co-operation movement, has in many parts assumed a
lawless character. It is reasonable to hope, however, that
it will lead to permanently beneficial results. The peasants
are by nature a law-abiding class, who merely wish to be
left to pursue their cultivation in peace. When their just
grievances are ameliorated the unruly elements will find
themselves in^a minority, and the tendency will be for the
kisan sabhas, wherever they survive, to interest themselves
mainly in the enforcement of the law and in the checking
of illegal practices.

ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL 79

Whilst it is to be hoped that this power of self-protection
is growing amongst the tenants, it would be idle to plaoe
too much reliance on its effectiveness whilst the mass of the
caltivators remain illiterate. It would appear essential,
therefore, for Government to interest itself directly in the
suppression of illegal practices, and this it can do only by
establishing some form of special control over estates where
such practices occur in the manner suggested in a previous
lecture. The illegal exactions may be divided into two classes
— those made by the orders of or with the knowledge
oi the landlord himself, and those made by his agent or
his subordinates without the knowledge of the landlord. It
is probably impossible to stop altogether the exaction of
gratuities by the landlord's subordinate staff, for it is almost
an established custom of the country that such payments
should be made to subordinate officers holding authority.
In the railways, irrigation canals, and other Government
services the practice is wide-spread. Oontrol would not
need to be established on this account, unless the exactions
were made on such a scale as to be unreasonable and
oppressive.

As I said in an earliar lecture, there might be three
degrees of control : (1) in the first instance, where the land-
lord himself is well-disposed, it would be sufficient for
Government to insist that the agent and his subordinates
be certificated men — that is to say, those who have had a
proper training and are considered on grounds of character
and reputation suitable for such positions of responsibility j
(2) in more serious cases, where the landlord himself seems
to have connived at the illegal exactions, or in oppression
of the tenants, control should be taken away from him
entirely and the estate should be put at once in charge of
the Managing Department. This assumption of control
would, however, be regarded as temporary, and the landlord

80 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

would be consulted as to the policy of improving the
management of his estate ; (3) in still more serious cases,
where it appeared hopeless to expect the owner of the estate
ever to become an efficient manager, the control would be
permanently removed to the Department, and the owner
would simply receive the income, which might be paid to
him by the managing department after deduction of the
expenses of management and of a tax imposed by way of
penalty.

In the latter case the law might give Government the
option of deciding to sell the estate, and the sale would be
made to the highest bidder amongst the purchasers approved
by Government as likely to be good landlords— the obligation
for residence for the greater part of the year being one of
the conditions imposed on the purchaser. The decision as
to whether an estate should be pot under any of these
forms of administrative control would be most advantageously
decided by an arbitration court of five members, composed
of two representatives of the landlord class or their agents,
two representatives of tenants on other estates and an inde-
pendent chairman, who should be either a Government officer
of the status of a district magistrate, or perhaps an honorary
magistrate who was not himself a landowner. In Oodh it
might be possible to have the landlord members nominated
by the British Indian Association and the tenant repre-
sentatives by a kisan sabha. It is undesirable that the four
non-official members of the arbitration court should be
nominated by Government.

It may be supposed that the management of estates
decided to be put under administrative control would
naturally be handed over to the Court of Wards. I do not
think, however, that this would be the best course. The
Court of Wards generally still manages according to the old
fashioned traditional, methods : only a very few of its

TRAINING OF ESTATE AGENTS 81

officers are interested in the development of agrioultare,
or know anything about it. Moreover, criticisms are not
wanting as to the zilladars on Court of Wards estates
behaving in a manner almost as oppressive as on private
estates. I believe that a new department should be created
under the control of the Director of Agriculture which would
undertake the management of such estates on the most liberal
and enlightened lines.

Training of Estate Agents
For the success of the policy I have outlinedi it is an
essential condition that a body of trained estate agents and
subordinate officers should become available. They should be
men of undoubted integrity, taught to regard their profession
as one of the most honorable which they could take up. Their
pay must, therefore, be adequate to all their needs ; and
obviously they must be efficiently trained if their work is
to be economically worth a high pay,

I would suggest that Government should establish a
Diploma of Estate Management for which a two years'
course of study would be required at the Agricultural College
at Cawnpore, and in Agricultural Institutes at Lucknow,
Allahabad and Agra, which might be either Government or
aided institutions having the status of Intermediate colleges.
The diploma would be a necessary quali6cation for a man to
be put in charge of any estate extending to more than 500
acres in area. The agents' subordinates, and the managers
of small estates, should be required to possess a certificate
which could be obtained after one year's course of training. T
think that having passed the matriculation or school-leaving
certiHcate should be a condition precedent to the admission to
the diploma course ; but a lower qualiScation would be
admissible for the certificate course. A man who had obtained
the diploma should not be permitted to become the agent in
hurge of an estate until he had passed through a period of

11

82 PROPOSED TENANCY REFORMS

probation for at least three years as an assistant to a diplo-
maed agent.

It is impossible to overemphasize the advantages which
would accrue to the country from the establishment of
such courses of study in estate agency, and of ultimately
making this qualiiScation compulsory.

Protective Provisions in Detail

A great deal could be done to prevent the disputes and
oppression which prevail on some estates by inserting in the
Tenancy Law provisions for certain business-like forms of
procedure. It is most important that landlords should be
required to give receipts for rent and other payments on
printed forms. In Gwalior the law provides that a standard
form of receipt shall be used by all landlords, and these forms
can be purchased at a low price from the State Press. I
would like to see such standard rent receipt forms made
available in numbered books with counterfoils, these books of
receipt forms being on sale at all post offices. It might be an
advantage if separate forms, possibly on dififerent colored
paper, were issued for each of the two half-yearly payments
of rent. This would assist the tenant in knowing that he was
getting the proper receipt ; and if it were further enacted
that no rent for the current half-year could be accepted
until all arrears had been cleared off, the use of these
separate receipt forms would go a long way to prevent
disputes.

It might be advantageous also for Government to issue
forms of yearly agreements and of standard leases. The
latter should, however, be in skeleton form, as it would be
unwise to prevent a landlord inserting covenants which
might be necessary to ensure the maintenance of the land
in the proper condition and to improve or safeguard the
cultivation.

LECTURE VIII
ESTATE MANAGEMENT

The present lecture will be devoted to a general review
of the various ways in which agricultural estates may be
developed by the investment oi; capital, and the principles
on which their management should be conducted. We
shall take a brief survey of those means which the landlord
should adopt for improving the agriculture of his tenants
for securing good relations with his tenants, and generally
for managing his property and his finances in a prudent and
profitable manner.

To begin with, we must notice that the development
of a landed estate has two distinct aspects. On the one
hand are to be considered its external relations : its access
to markets, its connection by fMcca roads with a main road
and with the nearest railway station or market town ; its
relation to an irrigation canal or big river, and the means
of draining surplus water from the estate. On the other
hand, there is the internal development of the estate — the
provision of water-supply, of farm buildings, and plantations
of trees for fuel and fruits, and so forth. These we must
consider separately ; and then we may consider how the
practice of agriculture on the estate may be improved by
the introduction of machinery, improved live-stock, better
seed and so forth. We must then consider the business side
of the managment of the estate — how it* should be organized,
and how the improvements should be financed ; and finally we
may consider the various ways in which a good landlord
will seek to improve the health and general welfare of his
tenants.

84 ESTATE MANAGEMENT

External Development
Agriculture is tending to become more and more com-
mercial, which means to say that an ever larger proportion
of the produce of the farm is being sold in more or less
distant markets, the cultivator utilising the money so
obtained to purchase his requirements. It is to his advantage
to specialize in growing just those crops for which the soil
and climate of the estate are particularly suited ; and it
may be to his advantage even to sell nearly the whole of
the produce of his fields, and to buy from the nearest market
town the food which he requires. In any case the prosperity
of the tenants will depend greatly upon their being able to
dispose of the strictly commercial crops, such as cotton,
sugar, tobacco and others to the best advantage.
For this reason the landlord would he rendering
a great service to the tenants, and incidentally would be
improving the rental value of his estate, by doing everything
possible to secure improved communications by road,
railway and river with the big markets of the country. He
should carefully study the situation of his estate in relation
to main roads and to railways ; he should seek to induce
the District Board to make pticca roads which will bear
heavy cart traffic connecting some points on his estate with
a railway station and also with a main road. If his property
is extensive and the crops are valuable, either through the
fertility of his soil or the use of canal water, it may very likely
be advantageous to offer the District Board to pay half the
cost of constructing the necessary road or even, in case of
refusal, to bear the entire cost of making three or four miles
of metalled road himself. Where the cost of metalled roads
is excessively high owing to the absence of any local source
of road metal, it may be more advantageous to connect the
estate with the nearest railway station by means of a light
railway or tramway of 2' or 2' 6'^ gauge, as has been done

PERMANENT IMPROVEMENTS 85

by Rai Bahadar Gaoga Ram at Gangapnr in the Lower
Chenab Canal Colony. Where canal water is available the
landlord will be saved much trouble and expense ; otherwise
he must seek some external source of water, soch as the
construction of a tank or bund upon other people's land by
means of a combined scheme carried out by agreement as
provided for in the Act of 1920, or otherwise he may seek
to put a bund across some river, and pump water therefrom,
paying the owners of intermediate land for the privilege. If
he undertakes to supply them with a certain quantity of
water on their land, this will probably be more acceptable than
any practicable money payment. An outlet for the drainage
of his land is of paramount importance, and he must seek the
right to drain across his neighbor's land, if necessary, to the
nearest nulla.

Internal Development
The internal development of the estate is carried out by
making what are called permanent improvements. Of these
the most necessary usually, where canal water is not available,
are deep masonry wells. In certain districts tube-wells might
prove advantageous ; and the assistance of the Agricultural
Department can be obtained for sinking these. The method
of drawing water from the wells needs attention, but no rule
can be laid down. Where the well gives an abundance of
water, pumping by means of an oil engine should be adopted
as this will enable a much larger area to be watered. If
the water-supply is not good, water should be raised either
by means of an improved Persian wheel, or, if the water-
level be deep, by a mot raised by one or two bullocks.
Various improved forms of mots are available which
considerably reduce the cost of raising water. The water-
supply having been secured, the whole estate should be
planned out in holdings of suitable size, and suitable build-
ings and fences should be erected. The landlord is here

S6 ESTATE MANAGEMENT

faced with a decision as to his general policy in developing
his estate. I£ he has a considerable area of sir land, and
land let on yearly tenancies, he will probably find himself
free to effect a re-arrangement of holdings with a little
trouble so as to secure compact areas. He will either have
a large farm which will be worked as his own cultivation on
modern methods or he may divide up this free area into
compact blocks which he will let to the best cultivators he can
find, selecting them definitely because they are good farmers.
The landlord will be hampered in obtaining compact
holdings if he has a number of occupancy tenants whose
holdings consist of scattered fields. It should be his endeavor
to induce the occupancy tenants to accept an exchange of
fields with a view to making their own holdings compact
areas and also to secure compact areas of non-occupancy
land. This re-distribution of fields requires to be very
carefully planned out. All the fields must be inspected
and valued according to the character of the soil, water-
supply, etc. ; and care must be taken to give to the
tenant in exchange for the fields he gives up others of at
least equal value. The tenant will gain by having his holding
compact ; but it will be necessary to err on the side of
being generous to the tenant ; and if he has refused to
recognize the advantage of the exchange, a slightly larger
area may be offered to him, or some other advantage, such as
reduction of rent. In making such concessions, the land-
lord must be careful to see that the aggregate effect upon
his rents is to increase his total income and not to diminish
it ; for this certainly ought to be the financial result of
carrying out a consolidation of holdings. At present the
law does not enable a landlord to compel occupancy and
other privileged tenants either to vacate their holdings with
compensation or to accept land in exchange to carry out a
consolidation of holdings ; nor is consolidation possible

CONSOLIDATION OF HOLDINGS 87

where the owner is hampered by his lands being scattered
amongst the fields of other owners. Legislation is badly
needed to enable consolidation to be carried out in these
cases in spite of the objection of a minority of owners or
occupancy tenants.

The policy I would recommend to a landowner is to
carry out the consolidation of holdings in such a way as to
provide all occupancy tenants with areas equal to those now
held, and on free land, whether sir land or not, he
shoulds provide holding of various sizes, taking special care
to have some larger holdings of 50 or 100 acres and
upwards which could be rented to men who are enter-
prising cultivators and have learnt, or are willing to learn,
improved methods.

Upon the larger holdings so provided landlords should
invest some money in providing the tenant with a good bouse
and with proper farm buildings. He will need grain pits (in
dry soil) or asubstantial godown for storing grain and hhusay
etc. He will need a cattle-shed, and a shed to store his
ploughs, harrows, seed-drills and other improved implements.
On compact holdings, it is a great advantage to have fields
fenced in some way. Wire fences may prove too expensive ;
but mud walls which may perhaps be covered with heavy
ridge-tiles securely fixed on the top will usually prove satisfac-
tory ; and the landlord may offer to pay the tenant half the
cost of constructing these to the landlord*s satisfaction.

I have assumed that on the larger of the compact hold-
ings the tenant will be induced to live on the holding ; but
the great majority of the tenants will still prefer to live in
the village and to go daily to and from their fields. It will
be the landlord's duty, therefore, to do all he can towards
improving the houses in the village and its sanitation. The
present custom by which the tenant pays no rent for his
house and nothing for the land on which it stands

8b ESTATE MANAGEMENT

is not conducive to improvements being made by the landlord.
It may be found necessary to modify this custom in some
places and to charge a small rent for the house if it be
substantifilly improved at the landlord's cost.

The landlord cannot be satisfied, however, only with
improving his tenants' holdings and his own cultivation. He
has to regard his whole estate as a single unit ; and he should
seek to devote all his resources to its development. He is
a lucky man if there is no waste land, or land bringing in a
very poor rent, within his boundaries. Of whatever kind
the waste land is, there is some means known of improving
it and making it bear crops or some useful or saleable pro-
duce. It is, however, a question whether the reclamation
of such waste land will be financially worth while. In most
cases it will be ; but if the land is nearly pure sand, or ex-
tremely alkaline, the cost may be too high. VVliere canal
water is available ordinary reh land can be turned into good
productive soil, as experiaieats by the Agricultural Depart-
ments in these Provinces and the Punjab have demonstrated.
Ravine land may be reclaimed for cultivation by small
bunds and progressive levelling ; or if very bad they may
be planted with quick-growing trees as a fuel reserve. Even
if there is no waste land to be planted, it is quite essential
that the landlord should see that some land is put under
quick-growing trees for the supply of fuel. He should
encourage the tenants to cut fuel therefrom for a purely
nominal charge on the understanding that they cease to use
cow-dung as a fuel and utilize it for manuring their fields.
He will also plant trees which produce good timber for
ploughs and building purposes, and should plant groves of
mango and other fruit-trees suitable to the climate, and
have them properly looked after by his own agent. In
these and many other ways the landlord can increase the
resources of his whole estate. A large zamindari is indeed

IMPROVEMENT OF AGUIOULTUKE 89

a kingdom in miniature, and whilst encouraging its com-
merce with distant markets, the development of its own
resources must be attended to.

Improvement of Cultivation.

The landlord, more than anybody else, can improve the
standard of cultivation of his tenants; and this by working
along several lines at the same time. The tenants are
not quick to learn ; especially when they are illiterate and
suspicious. Moreover, they have often a well-founded objec-
tion to trying experiments. To them the failure of a crop
is a terrible disaster ; and they need practical certainty of
success before they will venture on something new. The
landlord can do little by way of direct assistance of his
tenants. The majority of them will listen respectfully, but do
nothing. He will probably be successful, however, if he se-
lects one or two or the more enterprising and intelligent men
from each village, gains their confidence and promises them
some reward if they are successful in trying the new seed
or implements he proposes. Such men, once they have
succeeded with a new method, will probably of their own
accord instruct the neighboring tenants of the same village.
But, if necessary, they may receive some little inducement
to do so.

The landlord will be well advised to have a farm of his
own on which he tries all the new seeds, implements and
other improvements before recommending them to his tenants.
They will see that they are successful on land close to their
own ; but it will need experiments actually on their own
land to convince them that the cost is not too great for their
own resources — in fact, that the improvements are profitable.
The landlord should not farm his own land only for the sake
of gaining the greatest profit by large-scale farming. If he
wishes to farm part of his land in that way, well and good :
but on another part of his sir or khudkashl land he will have

12

90 ESTATE MANAGEMENT

a kind oi: central depot where he keeps in stock all kinds of
modern implements and a small experimental farm. The man
in charge of this depot should be instructed to admit the
tenants freely and to give them all the information and
instruction he can. I am inclined to think that one way of
gaining the tenants' contidence is to provide them with hand
machines for doing much of the laborious work carried on
in the villages, such as a small hand-grinding mill for making
atta^ and chaff-cutting machines for chopping bhusa, and
steelrolling-mills for sugarcane. If the tenants cannot
purchase these machines, they should be lent to them on
hire. They will certainly prove popular, and may pave the
way for the specifically agricultural improvements.

There is no time for me to mention all the other im-
provements which the landlord may usefully introduce ; but
1 must refer to the great importance of improving the breed
of cattle both for draft purposes and for milking. A good
supply of milk is a most urgent necessity in the villages,
and the development of a business of supplying pure gJiee is
likely to be very profitable. For this purpose, the landlord
may encourage the laying down of pasture with artificial
grasses, and the cultivation of fodder crops. He should also
construct silo-pits in the villages and see to the filling of
these silos with the chopped fodder under the superintendence
of a trained man in his own employment.
Managing Staff

The present practice of zamindari management in Jndia
amounts to nothing more than an organization for collecting
rents and for keeping the tenants in order, preventing
encroachments, and securing the landlord'? rights. The
landlord employs an agent (or karinda) and he is assisted by
one or two clerks (munshis). Under his control are a number
of subordinates known as zilladars^ each having charge of
one village, in which he usually resides. On large estates

MANAGING STAFF 91

the agent may have an assistant who is not a mere olerk ;
or the estate may be divided into sub-divisions each in charge
of a taJisildar, each having from 8 to 12 zitladars under him.
This comprises the administrative and executive stafiF. The
legal business of the estate is important and intricate ; and
every estate extending to 2,000 acres or more will have a
permanent legal representative, termed a mukhtar, whose
business is to attend local courts and file ejectment-notices
and conduct all the numerous cases in which the landlord
enters as plaintiEE or defendant.

In conversation with talukdars, zemindars and their
agents, the impression gained is that most of their thoughts
about the management of their estates are centered in litiga-
tion. They are proceeding against contumacious tenants,
or being sued by tenants who claim various rights. They
also get involved in suits with neighboring landowners and
their tenants, and also in disputes with more or less distant
relatives, claiming some share or division of the property.
This I regard as the greatest tragedy of the economic life
of rural India and the greatest hindrance to progress. Every
effort should be made by simplification of the tenancy law
and of procedure in luwcourts to avoid and curtail litigation.
I believe that in Oudh a dispute involving no more than a
thousand rupees can be carried through seven successive
courts (Revenue, Civil and Appellate) before the question is
finally settled, involving the continuous attention of both
parties and much expenditure for two or three years.
Training of Agents
In the preceding lecture I advocated the training of men
for the positions of estate agents and their subordinates. I
believe that one advantage of employing trained and certi-
ficated men would be to reduce litigation. Instead of their
fomenting disputes, as now sometimes happens, they would
f'ndeavor to prevent their occurrence ; and being men of

9»2 ESTATE MANAGEMENT

edacation they could often sncceed in settling disputes by
compromise. In many cases it might be possible to have
disputes settled by private arbitration, calling in the agent
of a neighboring estate as arbitrator.

The training of agents, such as I have described, must
evidently be undertaken along comprehensive lines. The
two years' diploma course for the agents themselveal will
need to cover a general knowledge of improved methods
of agriculture, dealt with in an essentially practical spirit ;
a knowledge of simple civil engineering so as to design and
lay out ordinary farm buildings and irrigation works ; and
especially a knowledge and interest in the general develop-
ment of the resources of the estate. He should also have
some mechanical knowledge, sufficient to be able to supervise
the trained mistrit who must be kept on the estate for the
repair of the modern agricultural implements belonging both
to landlord and tenants. The agent must also understand
the proper keeping of accounts and the finance of investing
capital. He must also have a little training in orderly*
business methods so as to be prompt and systematic in his
dealings with the tenants, and so that he may keep all papers
properly filed, and be able to conduct correspondence and
give proper instructions to the mukhfar.

LECTURE IX
GENERAL POLICY

A reformed tenancy system on the lines indicated in a
previous lecture (number V^II) will not confer so much
benefit as we hope upon the tenant, or prosperity on the
country at large, unless it be accompanied by vigorous action
in other directions for the improvement of agriculture and
the status of the rural population. The Legislative Council
should give its earnest attention to a big series of measures
for the amelioration of the rural population.

I pointed out in my first lecture that no permanent im-
provement of the condition of ryots was possible without
raising their standard of living, for the population would
always inevitably increase and thereby swallow up any por-
tion of the produce of the land which might be transferred
to them. We have, therefore, to consider by what means
the standard of living can be raised, and shall find at least
four distinct methods presenting themselves which should all
be adopted simultaneously.

(1) The most direct method of raising the standard of
living is by education ; and this has two distinct aspects :
(a) general education which will stimulate the wants of
the people and give them the idea of a higher standard of
life, {h) education and industrial training with a view to
making labor more productive, in other words, to provide
the means of satisfying the ne'w wants which the general
education develops. The productive education would take
the form of giving to the instruction in rural primary
schools what is called an agricultural color ; and a number
of agricultural middle schools should also be established.

94 GENERAL POLICY

(2) It is essential to make labor more productive
by increasing the proportion of land to labor — in other
words, by increasing the average size of the holdings
per person employed in cultivation. This necessitates provid-
ing more land or, what comes to the same thing, bringing
into full use land which is now used only to part of its full
capacity. The extent of waste lands in India which are not
even bearing forests is extraordinary ; and these can be re-
claimed and improved in various ways now well understood.
Particular attention should be given to ravine lands and
alkali lands. Many stretches of sandy country could also be
made fertile by a few years of proper treatment, the crops
being well manured for the first years. There are lands
over-run with weeds, and so called pasture land, which are
mere deserts and should be put under fodder crops.

Besides the waste lands which yield practically no return
there are large stretches of land in private ownership which
are much under-developed and yield but one-tenth or one-
eighth of what they might do. It is characteristic of many
Indian landowners that they do not seem to care whether
their land is being properly used or not. So long as they
get the rent to which they have been accustomed for many
years past they will allow much of it to lie uncultivated,
and the rest to decline in fertility. The wealth created by
agriculture started in England all her industrial advance-
ment ; and it is safe to say that if English landlords had
shown this indifference to the proper utilization of their land,
England could never have achieved the extraordinary
progress of the last century.

The remarks which I have just made apply to areas of
land of all sizes, there being many comparatively small
holdings which are themselves neglected. There are places
where there are large areas of waste land amounting to
several thousands of acres in a compact block, and special

COLONIZATION OF WAOTE LANDS 95

sohemes shoald be devised for reclaiming and ooloniziog
them. I would suggest that Government should encourage
private enterprise to take up such colonizAition schemes on
waste land by granting liberal financial assistance by way of
mortgage loans which would be advanced by stages as the
improvements were carried out.

(3) Whilst the development of waste lands will obviously
provide room for the emigration of cultivators from surround-
ing districts, there is another line of economic development
which will be more fruitful in making labor more productive.
— I mean, the investment of more capital in the land already
under cultivation. The permanent improvement of lands
has been the burden of my lectures ; and it is unnecessary
here to repeat a description of the various works by which
this is achieved. I am concerned to emphasize that the
investment of capital in the land has the result of making
the existing labor more productive and also of giving
employment to more labor : consequently the investment of
capital in the land has just as useful results from the point
of view of national economy as bringing more waste land
under cultivation.

The raising of the standard of living also results from
making labor more productive by investing capital in
the operations of cultivation as well as in the permanent
improvement of land. Capital invested in better cattle
and other live-stock, in keeping and distributing stocks
of improved seed, and in agricultural implements and
machinery will not only bring a considerable profit to the
farmer, but will also result in the payment of a higher rate
of wages — in technical language the marginal productivity
of labor is increased by this investment of capital.

(4) The last, but not the least important, are the methods
of raising the standard of living by the development of
industries. By this I mean large scale production in the

96 GENERAL POLICY

mining and metallurgical industries, the development of
hydro-electric power schemes, as well as the building of
power driven mills and factories in those cities which become
industrial centres. It is not to be supposed, however, that
the development of urban industries alone is important :
it is nearly of equal importance to develop rural industries.
This will take two directions : in the first place, the
introduction of machinery, largely driven by hand or bullock
power, for carrying out the simple operations of the
villages ; and on the other hand, the introduction and
fostering of suitable cottage industries, such as the knitting
of hosiery, and making of toys which the peasants can carry
on in their spare time. Every device which makes labor
more efficient, or enables people to work in what would
otherwise be waste time, increases the total production of
wealth and tends to raise the standard of living.

I am not here concerned with the development of urban
industries, excepting to point out that their healthy growth
will have a reflex action upon the standard of living of the
cuUdvating classes, and this in two ways — partly by attract-
ing labor, from the agricultural districts and thus forcing
cultivators to adopt more efficient methods of employing
labor, with the use of machinery, and partly by making
manufactured commodities of all kinds cheaper for the rural
population to purchase.

Limits of State Aid ami Intervention

1 revert, therefore, to the general problem of the direct
improvement of the condition of the rural po})ulation ; and
I propose now to discuss the extent to which it is necessary
that the State should take the initiative therein. It appears
to me to be the function of the State to adopt every measure
which it can to promote the improvement of agriculture.
In pursuing this aim it is important to work in three
distinct directions at the same time : (1) by stimulating

DRAINAGE SCHEMES 97

agriculture by direct assistance in research, demonstration
and distribution of seed, rendering technical advice available
and so forth, as is now done on a limited scale by the
Agricultural Department, and by agricultural education ;
(2) to seek to remove obstacles to the progress of agricul-
ture, and (3) to render indirect assistance, as in the matter
of finance. The first of these methods requires a great
extension of the operations of the Agricultural Department,
which is organized at present on a painfully inadequate scale.
When one sees the huge organizations which Government
creates and maintains for the defence of the country, for
the police, the railways, and even the irrigation canals, the
conviction grows that the agricultural activities of the State
can only be made commensurate with the needs of the
country by organizing upon a similar scale a department
which shall permeate the whole country, so that it has
thousands of stations with officers situated in every pargaua

and even in every group of villages.

I come next to the indirect State action for the removal
of obstacles to improv6ment. The most important of these
has been already indicated — I mean the establishment of a
Tenancy law carefully thought out with the object of giving
inducements both to landlords and cultivators to pursue
agricultural improvements to their own advantage. Other
lines of progress must be followed, however. The State
has assumed responsibility for the supply of water through
canals over a large area ; but it has not sufficiently realized
the advantages which would accrue from undertaking
large drainage schemes in a similar manner. It is true that
in certain tracts watered by canals, where the land has tend-
ed to become water-logged, the Irrigation Department has
devoted much attention to drainage, and important main
drains and feeder drains have been constructed. Yet it may

be confidently said that there are many parts of the country

13

98 LAND MORTGAGE BANK

not watered by canals which suffer severely from water-
logging during the monsoon season, thus generally lowering
the fertility of the soil. In these districts main drains and
feeders passing close to all villages need to be constriacted.
I think this work ought to be undertaken by a Government
department; but interest on the capital outlay may be realiz-
ed by a cess collected through the district boards and levied
upon those lands so situated that they may benefit by the
drains constructed. The initiative should be with Govern-
ment, however, and not be left to the district boards, or
nothing will be done. In England drainage schemes have
been extensively carried out by the larger landlords ; but
Government has recognized the importance of stimulating
and assisting them, and for this reason considerable sums
of money were advanced by Government in the first half of
the nineteenth century both to individuals and to groups of
landlords and to local authorities. Waste lands in England,
lor example, fens and bogs, have been reclaimed by com-
panies which carried out drainage schemes, sometimes with
Government assistance. In India, besides the drainage
schemes which are needed to be carried out by Government,
a policy of making loans to the larger zamindars for drainage
purposes cannot fail to be advantageous if expert advice be
made available for their execution.

The making of permanent improvements is very largely
a matter of finance. A few zamindars possess suflScient
free capital of their own for this purpose, if they could
be induced to invest it ; but on the other hand,
there are many whose estates are already encumbered and
who save very little out of their incomes. Government
already has arrangements for assisting the finance of improve-
ments of many kinds by the advance of loans through the
Agricultural Department. It may be questioned, however,
whether the time has not arrived to establish what is known

UNCERTAINTY OF TITLE 99

in other countries as a *' Land Mortgage Bank ", the special
object of which is to make loans to land-owners for executing
permanent improvements beneficial to agriculture. Such
a bank, if established on a large scale, would advance
money at about 7 or 8 per cent interest, being 1 per cent
higher than it paid on fixed deposits. Existing mortgages at
high rates of interest could be paid off, and additional money
advanced, whereby the improvement of the estate could he
begun. The plans for such improvements would be approv-
ed by an agricultural engineer as adviser to the bank, and
this would be of advantage to land-owners in preventing the
possible waste of capital through their undertaking works
which had been hastily considered or improperly designed.
In Germany and other European countries such *' nobles'
banks " or *' landed proprietors' mortgage banks " have been
in existence for nearly a century. In England they do not
seem to have been so necessary, for big insurance companies
and other financial institutions have been ready to lend
money to landed proprietors for long periods on satisfactory
terms.

A great difficulty in the way of successfully promoting
land mortgage banks in India, and in fact a difficulty which
hampers the investment of capital in the land in all
directions, is uncertainty of title. The law of succession,
both Hindu and Mahommedan, leaves many openings for
unforseeable claims to a share in the property to arise at
any future time. If any such claim be put forward it may
either invalidate the sale or mortgage of the land, or the
claimant may force the purchaser or mortgagee to pay him
a share of the property in capital or income. Many of
the joint-stock banks which in former years frequently
advanced money on mortgage of land have suffered heavy
losses in costly litigation to defend their titles ; and they
have now very properly almost entirely discontinued

100 SUB-DIVISION OF HOLDINGS

advancing money on the mortgage of land. In any case,
it is not a bank's business to lock up money in permanent
mortgages ; and the risks connected with uncertainty of title
make such business doubly undesirable. Even the private
capitalist is none too ready to lend money on mortgage to
strangers ; and the high rate of interest required is accounted
for partly by the risks attaching to such transactions, as
the title cannot be guaranteed secure. I cannot over-
emphasize the importance to the prosperity of agriculture
and industries in India of undertaking legislation which
would have the effect of removing, or at least mitigating,
this uncertainty of title.

Another great reform which seems essential to the
economic progress of the country is to modify custom and
law in such a manner as to discourage the sub-division of the
control of landed property amongst the heirs of the owner
on his death. When a man with four sons dies, each of them
succeeds to a one-fourth share of the property ; and each
usually insists on having a perfect partition of the land so
as to have his share under his own direct control. Very
largely this is a social custom which can only be modified by
the general spread of education and by the opening of
alternative occupations for some of the sons. A similar
law of inheritance exists throughout France and Belgium
and has led there to a considerable sub-division of holdings.
In rt'cent times this tendency has been checked by the
migration of the younger sons to industrial occupations,
one of the sons, often the eldest, either manages the property
on behalf of others, paying them their share, or more
usually he manages to accumulate a sufficient capital out
of the profits of his cultivifion to buy out the other heirs.
There are many people who argue in favor of the introduc-
tion of permissive or even compulsory adoption of the law
of primogeniture with a view to avoiding sub-division of

BACKWARD 00N1)1T10H QF^AOMjOULT^^lE 101

landed property in India : and primogeniture is the rule in
taluhdari estates in Oudh, and in farms held for special
purposes in the canal colonies of the Pnnjah (especially the
Upper Jhelum colony) ; and a permissive law for this pur-
pose has recently been passed in the At^ra Province. It is
doubtful whether the legislature can do anything further ;
but social reformers will be doing a service to the country
in trying to establish a custom of avoiding in various ways
the further sub-division of land.

In conclusion, I would ask you to notice that the
various measures of reform which I have mentioned in
this lecture are all necessary as auxiliaries in the pro-
motion of the general economic welfare of the country.
In this course of lectures I selected two particular
lines of reform for detailed discussion, ej»pecially in their
economic aspects, namely, tenancy law and estate develop-
ment. These I selected not only on account of their
present interest, but also because they appear to me to be
precisely those lines of advance which promise the greatest
fruits in enhancing the welfare of the people of India.
Furthermore, it is these very subjects — the economics of
tenancy law, the improvement of land, and the principles
of estate management — which are so little understood in
this country.

The backwardness of India in the practice of agriculture
and everything which assists therein is both lamentable and
remarkable. Considering the extraordinary advance in
education of a literary character and the rapid growth of
universities ; considering the progress in introducing western
industries ] on a large scale, the backward condition of
agriculture is undoubtedly a reproach to the country— a
reproach to the^Government and a reproach to the people.
It is for the latter to arouse themselves to an understanding
of the'supreme importance of agricultural prosperity, to
learn the paths of^progress, to adopt a new ideal and to be

102 ; OBREJ^tAL POLICY

willing to make sacrifices for it.s achievement. This they
can do in the sure conviction that the future greatness of
India in the world of nations depends upon the progress
of agriculture more than upon any other single activity.
The production of ever increasing wealth from the soil
will create a demand for manufactured goods of all kinds —
trade will be stimulated and capital will be accumulated.
By advancing in agriculture, India will also advance in
industries. Her millions, being thus assured of their daily
bread, will have the opportunity of advancing in knowledge
and culture. Thus will India achieve h^^r heart's desire
and stand equal with the greatest nations of the world.

APPENDIX

In delivering the lectures published in this volume it
was not practicable to refer to the various books and docu-
ments which I had selected. It seems desirable, however,
that I should indicate briefly the literature on which I have
relied and give explanatory remarks as to the information
to be derived from each book. It is impracticable to print
an exhaustive list, and so I select those books on which 1
have relied more especially. Books relating to England
and foreign countries are given in the first list. They are
all available for reference in the Library of the University
of Allahabad ; and all the modern books can easily be
purchased from England through a bookseller. In the
second list I mention writings relating to India, and more
particularly to the United Provinces, which have a bearing
on the subject of my lectures.

I

Rural Reconstruction in Ireland. — By L. Smith- Gordon
and L. 0. Staples. (P. S. King <fe Son, London. 1919.)

Chapter II is devoted to land legislation in Ireland.
Legislation in favour of the tenant began in 1870. The
Act of this year applied particularly to yearly tenancies up
to the value of £100. The tenant of Ulster was guaranteed
a certain fixity of tenure ; and in case of arbitrary ejection
was entitled to compensation for disturbance as well as for
improvements. Judicial machinery was provided for deter-
mining such claims to compensation. A more thorough
and extensive Act was that of 1881, which for the first
time introduced the principle of definitely recognizing fixity
of tenure and the determination of a fair rent by the county

104 APPENDIX

courts and the reconstituted Land Commission. The tenant
was also granted power of sale of his lease.

*' Yet despite the liberality of the law of 1881 and the
enthusiasm of the Irish people for the reform, its success
was far from realizing the hopes which were based on it.
Agitation, pufictuated by agrarian crimes of every des-
cription, continued. In 188G, the publication of the Plan
of Campaign intimated that the tenants were bent on havint^
things even more completely their own way. In case rents
were considered unfair, there was to be a general no-rent
strike on the estate in question, and the amounts withheld
were to furnish the means for obtaining further concessions.
Nor did attempted improvements of the law in 1887, 1891
and 1896 have appreciable results. Nevertheless, up to
March 31, 1914, determinations had been made by civil
courts and the Land Commission in respect of 410,150
cases. Of these, 295,673 were for the first period of
fifteen years, 111,794 for the second, and 2,683 for the third.
These represent a very considerable proportion of the total
land holdings in Ireland. And the fact that already a very
considerable number of third-term determinations have been
made indicate that this legisation is still of importance."...
" Laissez-faire had produced in rack-rents an intolerable
situation ; governmental control under a system of judicial

rents had a hardly more satisfactory outcome.

"The reasons for this failure are not difficult to discover.
In the first place, the landlords had a grievance. The
judicial rents represented decreases over the previous
payments averaging 20, 19, and 9 per cent for the three
determinations It seemed a legal confiscation of property,
for in many cases the income of the owner was all but
completely absorbed. Nevertheless, no measure of Irish
reform could be withlield on that account. Irish condi-
tions were so serious as to merit unusual treatment.

APPENDIX 105

Vested interests can never continue indeBniteiy to prey on
any community ; they must sooner or later suffer a reaction
proportionate to their privileges. So long as the judicial
represented a decrease over the <Jompetitive rents, this legis-
lation was naturally popular with the tenant class. But it
was not clear what the attitude ot* the tenants would be in
the event of a market of rising prices. The measure of
success attained by the rent-fixing legislation was the out-
come of its incidental or particular results rather than a
justification of its principles. On this account, rather than
because of any paucity of results, the law of 1881 must be
looked upon as a failure. The rents were not fixed upon any
particular or just principle. The decreases bore no real
relation to the fluctuations in prices. What was determined
was not so much a judicial as a popular rent. Out of this
lack of a sound basis for the determination developed a dan-
gerous abuse, calculated not to strengthen Irish industrial
character as was necessary, but in fact to weaken it further.
A most important factor in the determination of the rent
came to be the evident prosperity of the tenant. One of
the chief abuses of the rack-rent system reappeared in a
new form. Thus of two brothers on similar holdings, the
more lazy and inefficient paid a lower rent than the more
enterprising. Not productivity, but production, and more
especially the evidences of production at the fifteenth
year, were the determining factors. The decrease in
agricultural prices during the eighties was a great spur to
increased efficiency of production in other countries, hasten-
ing the introduction of scientific agriculture, up-to-date
machinery, and better methods of business organization.
But in Ireland this quickening impulse was not felt for the
reason that the depression was met largely through the
decrease in rents. The attempt to put the landlord-tenant
system on a fair basis by artificial means evidently did not

14

106 APPENDIX

meet the situation. A more comprehensive and revolutionary
form of legislation was demanded."

State assistance in the purchase of land by the tenants
was recognized as early as an Act of 1869, and reaffirmed
in the Acts of 1870 and 1881 ; but the tenants usually
could not provide the one-fourth of the purchase price and
the heavy legal costs of transfer. The Act of 1885
provided a large fund for advance of loans to tenants at 3
per cent interest and 1 per cent sinking fund. The Act
of 1891 provided for the purchase of whole estates from
the landlords by the issue of Irish Land Stock. However,
the Land Stock rapidly fell below par and the terms of
purchase became unattractive to landlords. This resulted
in the Acts of 1896 and 1903. Finally in 1909 an
enormous sum of money was paid as a bonus by the British
Government to the Irish landlords to induce them to sell
their land on terms which enabled the tenants to buy the
land by means of an annuity for 68^ years including interest
and sinking fund, which was no greater than the reduced
rentals the tenants were already paying.

" The actual result of the Land Purchase Acts in Ireland
has been to create a country of peasant proprietors. By
March 31, 1915, nearly 300,000 holdings had passed into
the hands of their occupiers. These represented nearly ten
million acres of land. At the same time, an additional
100,000 holdings of over three million acres were in
process of negotiation. Together these comprised more than
three-quarters of the soil of the country. A sum of nearly
£100,000,000 had been advanced by the Government in
order to achieve this remarkable result. Ireland has, it is
true, not yet seen the end of agrarian legislation. There
have already been several efforts to amend further the Act
of 1903. Of the proposals made, the most important seems
to be the extension of compulsory sale throughout the

APPENDIX 107

country. Such a measure, however, would be a last resort
against a small and recalcitrant minority. The effects of
the present heavy issues of Government securities at a high
rate of interest is another matter which will inevitably
require adjustment after the war. On the whole, however,
the problem of agrarian tenures in Ireland has been solved.
The Irish problem is now chiefly a problem of small peasant
proprietors."

Many interesting details are given in this book which
cannot be quoted here ; and there is also a description of the
remarkable work done by the Congested Districts Board.

Land and Labour : Lessons from Belgium.— By

B. Seebohm Rowntree. (Macmillan & Co., London, 1911.)

This is a very remarkable economic and social study
of a small but thickly populated country. The land system
of Belgium is described and its economic results are con-
sidered. In Part I there are chapters on the history of
land tenure, the number of land-owners in Belgium classified
according to the size of their holdings ; the laws of succes-
sion and inheritance and methods of land transfer. In Part
III, which is devoted to agriculture, we find the first
chapter devoted to a description of the small holdings, which
are characteristic of a large part of the country. Three-
fourths of the smallest cultivators are tenants, and only
one-fourth own their holdings ; yet there is no obvious differ-
ence between the efficiency of cultivation in these two classes
of holdings. Belgium suffers like India from the continual
sub-division of holdings on account of the law of inheritance
by which people divide the property in equal shares ;
and although the State has done something to encourage
consolidation by exchange of fields, a large proportion of
the holdings still consist of a number of widely scattered
fields. The disadvantages of this are graphically set forth.

108 APPENDIX

We find that, as in India, the sentimental desire to be a land-
owner, induces peasants to purchase small plots of land at
inflated prices. There are, however, four features of the
agriculture of Belgium which are different from those of
India : (1) the peasant has learnt, and with the assistance
of the State Department of Agriculture continues increasingly
to learn, improved methods of cultivation ; (2) the Landlords
are men who themselves understand agriculture and are
therefore reasonable and helpful in their dealings with their
tenants ; (3) there are many big towns and industrial centres
in which there is a demand for fruit and vegetables, and
other garden produce, and much of such produce is exported
to England. Poultry and dairy farming are important for the
same reason. (4) There are active agricultural credit societies
and co-operative purchasing and sales societies.

The other chapters on agriculture deal with the methods
of letting land ; the common lands of Belgium ; the price
and rent of land ; woods and forests ; market gardening,
crops, live-stock ; the agricultural population ; agricultural
education ; and co-operative societies. In Part IV the
influence of means of transport, and especially the develop-
ment of roads and light railways, on agriculture is discussed ;
and the system of taxation.

Other parts of the book deal with the standard of life,
and the social conditions, housing, etc., of both the agricul-
tural and industrial classes. The author has collected a
great mass of original statistics, which are set out in a clear
and graphic manner. The book certainly ought to be
studied by all those interesting themselves in the welfare
of rural India. It is valuable as affording examples of how
a country has progressed in spite of difficulties similar to
many of those existing in India ; and it is equally valuable
as suggesting many possible fruitful lines of enquiry in
India.

APPENDIX 109

An Economic History of Russia. — By James Mayor.
2 volumes. (J. M. Dent & Sons, London. 1914.)

This comprehensive work contains several chapters
tracing the history of the agrarian movements from the
first efforts to ameliorate the condition of the serfs to the
great Emancipation Act of 1861. Previously the greater
part of Russia had been in the possession of landlords on
whose estates the peasants were settled as serfs bound to
their masters and with no proprietary rights in any land.
In return, for compulsory service {be</ar) rendered to the
landlord they were allowed to cultivate fields which were
re-allotted from time to time. The general principle of the
Emancipation Act was to turn them into fixed-rate permanent
tenants of the land owners. The lands of each village were
divided between the land-owner and the peasants, the
former usually getting from one-fourth to one-third. This
was land which he could cultivate or let out as he pleased.
The remaining land was divided amongst the peasants, the
area of land granted being proportionate to the number
of male workers in each family, and it was subject
to a fixed rent payable to the land-owner. Various special
arrangements were made in different parts of Russia. The
peasants were entitled to commute their rents at a certain
purchase price and some State assistance was given. The
system established by the Emancipation Act appears gradually
to have become economically unsound, owing to the growth
of population, and during the past twenty-five years
agrarian unrest has been chronic. The Author describes in
the second volume the condition of the peasantry and the
agrarian problem in 1905. The whole system has been
swept away by the Revolution of 1917.

Systems of Land Tenure in Various Countries.—

Essays published by the Gobden Club. (Macmillan & Co.,
London. 1870.)

110 APPENDIX

Although this book is much out of date it contains use-
ful information as to the former condition of land tenure in
France, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Ireland, the United
States, and other countries. There are eight different
authors who express various opinions about the systems of
land tenure which they describe. In Germany the land-
lord and tenant system flourishes, particularly in Prussia ;
but in various parts peasant proprietorship also exists.
France is essentially a country of small peasant proprie-
tors. The ease with which land can be transferred is a
factor of success in peasant proprietorship both in France
and Germany ; but I may point out that it has to be
remembered that the maintenance of the standard of living
of the peasant population depends in France on the fact
that the population is stationary in numbers and in Germany
on the enormous and rapid growth of industries, and the
consequent attraction of labor to the towns.

English Farming : Past and Present.— By R. E.
Prothero. (Longmans, Green & Co., London. 1912.)

This is one of the best of numerous books dealing
with the history of English Agriculture, The Appendix
contains an interesting bibliography of early books on
agriculture down to the year 1700 and numerous tables of
statistics.

A Pilgrimage of British Farming.— By A. D. Hall.
(John Murray, London. 1913.)

This book gives a remarkable picture of farming in all
parts of the United Kingdom as carried on immediately
before the war. The small holdings of Wales, Scotland and
Ireland as well as parts of England are described equally
with the large commercial farms. Market gardening,
dairying, agricultural co-operation, the effects of rising
rents, and many other topics are dealt with.

APPENDIX 111

The Disappearance of the Small Land-owner. —

By H. Johnson. (Oxford : Clarendon Press. 1900.)

A small book, giving much detailed and interesting in-
formation as to the changes of land tenure which have
taken place in England, especially during the past two
centuries.

Agricultural Tenancies. — By C. E. Cdrtis and
R. A. Gordon. (Crosby Lockwood & Son, London. 1910.)

This is a very practical and complete book on the
agricultural tenancy system of England. The Appendix
contains the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1908, and a
number of other Acts and rules in force in the United
Kingdom.

Estate Economics. — By Andrew Slater. (Constable
& Co., London. 1917.)

Land Drainage. — By J. L. Parsons. (Myron C.
Clark Publishing Co., Chicago. 1915).

These are typical of a large number of books which
have been published in recent years in England and America
on the permanent improvement of agricultural land. They
indicate how the study of this important subject should be
developed in India.

Encyclopedia of Agriculture. — By J. C. Loddon.
(London. 1831).

This very interesting and comprehensive book, written
at a period when English agriculture was already far
advanced, contains in Part III a detailed description of the
permanent improvements of farms, a complete treatise on
estate management, and a description of the relations of
landlord and tenant, in reading which it is to be borne in
mind that no legislation for the protection of tenant had
then been enacted in England. This book, like many others

112 APPENDIX

of the early works on agriculture of England, is of great
interest by way of comparison with the conditions prevailing
in India, the reason being that the mechanical appliances
adopted in the last fifty years by farmers in England, and
which attract so much of the attention of the public were
then wholly absent. We see how much improvement can be
efifected merely by the intelligent use of the resources of the
locality.

Estate Management. — By C E. Curtis. (Horace
Cox, " The Field " Office. 1911.)

This is a standard work on estate management and
gives an excellent idea of all the duties connected with the
management of landed property. Th^ principles must be
the same in India, though the particular trees and crops
are different and so also will be the design of the buildings.
The book has chapters on Letting and Leases, Farm
Valuations, the Management of Wood-lands ; the laying
out and management of the home farm, on repairs, and the
avoidance of pests on wheat and other crops. A Supple-
ment treats of the law relating to landlord-tenant and to
land agents. The book contains a typical agreement, and a
reprint of the Agricultural Holdings Act of 190i) with full
explanations.

II

The Bases of Agricultural Practice and Economics
in the United Provinces, India. — By H. Martin Leake.
(Macmillan & Co., 1921.)

This book is a very important contribution to the
agricultural economics of these Provinces. The ownership
of land and the relatiotas of landlord, tenant and the State
are discussed, as well as the zamindars role in the develop-
ment of agricultural operations and the means of supplying

APPENDIX n.'i

capital to the agricultural industry. The problems of
marketing and power receive attention, as well as the
economic and physical conditions affecting cultivation and
the other operations of agricultnro.

• The Revenue Administration of the United Pro-
vinces.—By W. H. MoRELAND, I. G. S. (" The Pioneer '
Press, Allahabad. 1911.)

After an historical introductiori, deals with the tenancy
legislation of Agra and Oudh, and describes the land records
system, the village field and proprietary registers, etc.,
and the organization of the revenue and record staff.

Notes on the Agricultural Conditions and
Problems of the United Provinces.— By W. H.

MoRELAND, I. 0. S. (Government Press, U. P., Allah-
abad. 1914.)

A mass of descriptive details of the districts separately,
with a general Introduction.

The Agriculture of the United Provinces.— By
VV. H. MoRELAND, I. C. S., C. S. I. (Government Press,
U. P., Allahabad. 1912.)

The best description of the agrlcuUure of these Pro-
vinces, with a chapter on the management and improvement
of estates.

The Ideal System of Land Tenure. — By Bhij Gopal
Bhatnagar, M. A. (Proceedings of the Conference of
the Indian Economic Association, 1920 21, in "Indian
.lournal of Economics", Volume 111, Part 4, 1921. Pub-
lished by the Head Clerk, Economics Department, The
University, Allahabad.)

This paper, read at the Allahabad Conference of the
Indian Economic Association, advocates the landlord system

114 APPENDIX

as advantageous to the country, which can thus have a
cultured leisured class.

The Way to Agricultural Progress. — By D. S.

DUBEY. (Thacker, Spii.k & Co., Calcutta. 1921.)

Deals with the whole problem o£ promoting agricultural
progress and briefly with tenancy questions.

Priuted by Rajizan Ali JShah at the National Press, AUahabad,

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