282 (#320) ############################################
282 ADMINISTRATION IN U.
282 ADMINISTRATION IN U.
Cambridge History of India - v4 - Indian Empire
The reformed
system, though not without defects, was an improvement on its
predecessor, and it remained without drastic change for the next forty
years. Police, however, continued to be a weak point in the adminis-
tration, while the strength and qualifications of the force did not keep
pace with growing requirements and progressive conditions, nor did
it secure public confidence. In spite of some minor improvements
effected in 1888-9 an enquiry made at the end of the century revealed
a considerable increase in crime of the more serious kinds. A com-
mission was appointed to investigate the whole subject of police
administration, and it reported in 1903. " While approving the fun-
damental principles of the existing system, it criticised adversely the
manner in which they had been practically applied, as well as the
qualifications of all ranks of the force. It recommended many drastic
reforms, most of which were introduced, and in a few years secured
highly beneficial results, as shown by the admirable manner in which
the modern police force has acquitted itself during recent periods of
disturbance.
Shortly after 1858 changes were made in the constitution of the
judiciary. In 1866 a high court was established for the North-Western
a
Provinces under the provisions of an English statute of 1861, and a
Report of Indian Police Commission, 1903, chap. ii.
· Government of India Resolution, 21. March, 1905, on Report of Police Commission
(Parl. Papers, 1905, lvii, Accounts, etc. c. 2478).
Field, Regulations of the Bengal Code, 1875, p. 149; Imp. Gaz. iv, 146; Moral and Mat.
Prog. Rep. 1882-3, p. 68.
a
## p. 278 (#316) ############################################
278 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
chief court with two judges for the Panjab. The constitution of the
subordinate criminal courts was now regulated by the code of criminal
procedure, the existing grades of sessions and magistrates' courts
being retained. The collector kept his magisterial powers; but in the
previously non-regulation areas, where such powers were wider, he
was gradually relieved of the disposal of the increasing volume of civil
litigation, except as regards suits between landlord and tenant; while
the criminal and civil jurisdictions of the commissioners of divisions
was transferred—in the Panjab as early as 1884_to divisional judges,
who corresponded to the district and sessions judges of regulation
provinces, and who in more recent years have been completely
assimilated to them both in name and functions. The Indian judiciary,
both criminal and civil, grew rapidly and for many years it has largely
predominated in all grades except the highest, nearly the whole of the
original civil litigation being in its hands.
In 1859 the Panjab became a lieutenant-governorship, and in
1861, that year of notable changes, the Central Provinces was con-
stituted a separate administration under a chief commissioner with a
judicial commissioner as principal judicial authority. It comprised
the Sagar and Narbada territories and the Nagpur state, together with
certain other tracts acquired at various times. Its arca, 100,000 square
miles including Berar, is slightly less than that of the United Provinces
and slightly greater than that of the Panjab.
After 1861 all provinces came within the sphere of the Indian legis-
lature, though by no means identical laws applied to all. Some, such
as the principal codes, did so; others applied to certain provinces only.
One result was the termination of any practical distinction between
regulation and non-regulation areas so far as administrative principles
and methods were concerned. The non-regulation system was replaced
by the constitution of "scheduled districts” under two enactments of
1870 and 1874. 4 In these areas only those legislative enactments were
to be in force which the government might so declare, and it was
further empowered to make special regulations for them. Both the
United Provinces and the Panjab contain minor areas of this kind,
mainly in the more renote hilly tracts.
After 1858 land administration shared in the general development,
though without radical changes. The increasing prevalence of money-
rents in the North-Western Provinces gradually furnished a more
accurate means of estimating the incomes of landlords, as well as the
rental value of non-rented lands, with reference to rents actually paid
or to those estimated to be fairly realisable; thus affording a sounder
basis for revenue assessment than the original rough "aggregate to
1 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, p. 646, and 1911-12, p. 31.
2 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, P: 37.
3 Government of India Resolution, Foreign Department, of 2 November, 1861; Adm.
Rep. Cent. Provs. 1882-3, p. 17.
Baden Powell, Land Revenue Systems of British India, 1, 89-92; Imp. Gaz. IV, 131.
## p. 279 (#317) ############################################
LAND-REVENUE ASSESSMENT
279
2
detail" method. 1 Later, from 1878, as rent records became more
plentiful and reliable, actual as opposed to estimated rents were used
as data. In the second series of regular settlements, which began in
1858 and was completed in 1882, the standard of assessment was
reduced from two-thirds to one-half of net rental, though it is now
exceptional for even one-half to be taken. In the Pan; b, rents being
comparatively rare and paid in kind, as is usually the case even now,
the original method of assessment was retained. But in the course of
the next fifty years, as the renting of land became more common,
increased stress was laid on a money valuation of the kind-rental
received by landlords or, in the case of non-rented lands, of the kind-
rental which they could fairly pay if rented; though in practice,
especially towards the end of the period, in view of the preponderance
of peasant proprietors as well as for other reasons, the actual state
demand has usually been substantially below the theoretical standard
as measured on a rental basis. Revenue assessment in the Panjab was
and still is a matter of local knowledge and individual judgment
rather than of arithmetical calculations from assumed data. In the
specially insecure tracts in the south-west of that province systems of
fluctuating assessment have been introduced, under which land-
revenue is assessed at prescribed rates on such crops only as actually
mature at each harvest. 3 The wide extension of state canal irrigation
in recent years has introduced complications into revenue adminis-
tration with which it is impossible to deal here. For the actual con-
sumption of water in irrigation specific water rates are charged, while
the increased rental value of the irrigated land is assessed to land-
revenue.
In Oudh after the Mutiny the estates of the rebellious talukdars
were formally confiscated, more in order to secure a clear field for the
determination of rights and the protection of subordinate tenures than
as a punitive measure. Accordingly their estates were returned to all
who submitted; and thereafter they held them as grantees of the
government. By a reversal of the policy of 1856, settlement of the
land-revenue was made in most cases with the talukdars; subject
however to the important proviso that where a subordinate village
community, or even single members thereof, had succeeded in main-
taining a virtual sub-proprietary status as against the talukdar, the
annual sum payable to him was fixed in amount, the community or
the single members retaining control of the land. This arrangement
is known as a "talukdari" settlement. After a second summary
'
settlement in 1858 the regular settlement of Oudh was begun on the
1 Baden Powell, op. cit. II, 47-61, 66–8; Moreland, The Revenue Administration of the
United Provinces, 1911, pp. 41-5; Adm. Rep. N. -W. Provs. 1882-3, pp. 43-4.
2 Baden Powell, op. cil. 11, 569 82; Panjab Settlement Manual, chap. vi.
3 Panjab Selt. Manual, chap. xxvi.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, bk un, chap. iii; Adm. Rep. N. -W. Provs. 1882-3, P. 39; Moral
and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882-3, p. 132.
## p. 280 (#318) ############################################
280 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
above lines in 1860 and completed in 1873. In about one-third of the
province, there being no talukdars, settlement was made with the
village communities in the usual way. Certain special incidents of
the talukdari tenure were regulated by legislation in 1869.
The land-revenue administration of the North-Western Provinces
was placed on a statutory basis by Act XIX of 1873 and that of Oudh
by Act XVII of 1876. They were replaced by Act III of 1901,
which
applies to the present United Provinces (of Agra and Oudh). The
corresponding enactments for the Panjab were XXXIII of 1871 and
XVII of 1887. All these deal with the powers and functions of revenue
officers of all grades, with the principles and procedure of land-revenue
assessment, and with the maintenance of records of rights; but the
subjects of tenancy and rent are regulated by separate enactments.
In the newly constituted Central Provinces most of the villages were
of the ryotwari type. Under the oppressive rule of the Marathas very
many of them had been farmed, commonly to their own headmen,
who were termed patels. Over groups of others various classes of
persons, local tribal chiefs or their relatives, grantees of state revenue,
and others, had acquired a proprietary status on quasi-feudal con-
ditions as jagirdar or talukdar. Prior to . 1861 summary settlements
of various kinds had been made. It was decided at the regular settle-
ment, which began in 1863 and was completed in 1870, to recognise
all the above classes as proprietors, under the common designation of
malguzar, or revenue-payer, and to make the settlement with them. 1
This arrangement, however, in strong contrast to the Bengal system,
was combined with an ample measure of tenant-right, by which a
large majority of tenants received substantial protection. This form
of settlement is known as malguzari. In the first regular settlement the
assessment of land-revenue followed generally the "aggregate to
detail" method already described. 2 Tenants whose claims were based
on length of time or on the expenditure of capital on improvements
were recognised as full proprietors of their holdings, practically
independent of the malguzar. Others with weaker claims were allowed
an occupancy tenure, varying in its incidents, but in all cases affording
security in respect of ejectment and rent, the latter being fixed at
settlement but liable to periodical revision. The tenancy law was
codified on the above principles by acts passed in 1883 and 1898,
which also gave a measure of similar protection to ordinary tenants
without occupancy right. The land-revenue "law of the Central
Provinces was embodied in Acts XVIII of 1881 and XII of 1898. 4
In consequence of the special position of tenants rents have ceased to
be the direct result of economic forces, so that the assessment of land-
1 Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 385-8; Adm. Rep. Cent. Provs. 1911-12, pp. 22, 23; Moral and
Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882–3, p. 137.
2 Baden Powell, op. cit. II, 390.
· Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 478-99; Adm. Rep. Cent. Prous. 1911-12, p. 26.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 17, 501.
## p. 281 (#319) ############################################
TENANT RIGHT
281
revenue is primarily the assessment of such rents as the settlement
officer may consider reasonable in the circumstances of the tract
concerned. The actual method employed, known as the “soil unit"
system, is complex. Its main object is the equalisation of rent incidence
with reference to the quality of soil, which is minutely classified by
means of a proportionately numerical valuation in terms of an
assumed common unit, known as the "soil unit". Having regard to
certain general considerations a fair rent rate per unit is determined,
and by a discreet application of this rate, more or less modified
according to local circumstances, a fair rental for each holding and
village is framed. 1 The land-revenue due to the government is about
one-half of the sum thus obtained. The land-revenue of Berar, which
is not legally British territory, though it is attached to the Central
Provinces, has been settled on the ryotwari system in force in the
Bombay Presidency. 2
In all three provinces assets due to agricultural improvements
effected by private labour and capital are exempted from assessment
for a period of years sufficient to yield a remunerative return; while
the rigidity of the fixed land-revenue demand is mitigated by its
suspension or, when necessary, by its ultimate remission, on occasions
of widespread agricultural calamity.
For many years after the Mutiny tenant right constituted a very
intricate problem in the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, and the
Panjab. The Bengal Act X of 1859 applied only to the first, but it was
replaced by the successive North-Western Provinces Acts XVIII of
1873 and XII of 1881, though neither effected any change of prin-
ciple. These acts protected certain tenants of long standing in the
permanently settled Benares districts as well as tenants who had once
been proprietors, and they maintained the twelve-years rule which
has been already explained in another chapter. A certain measure of
protection was also accorded to the interests of all tenants, while
collectors and subordinate revenue officers were empowered to dispose
judicially of suits between them and landlords. The later Act II of
1901 effected no radical changes. In Oudh the first tenancy law was
the Rent Act XIX of 1868. In view of the wide protection afforded
to sub-proprietors under the talukdari settlement, occupancy right was
allowed only to those tenants who had lost proprietary right within
the thirty years preceding annexation, but this being found to be
insufficient, a subsequent act (XII of 1886) went further by ensuring
to all non-occupancy tenants a tenure for seven years without increase
of rent; and even this measure has been found to be inadequate.
In the Panjab in 1863 a controversy arose as to the propriety of the
1 Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 415-31; Adm. Rep. Cent. Prous. 1911-12, pp. 30–2.
: Adm. Rep. Cent. Provs. pp. 27, 33.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, p. 175; Adm. Rep. Unit. Provs, 1911-12, p. 19.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. n1, 246-9; Adm. Rep. Unit. Provs. p. 19.
## p.
282 (#320) ############################################
282 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
methods by which tenant right had been treated in the first regular
settlement. It led to a lengthy enquiry into the actual status of tenants
throughout the province, of which the ultimate outcome was the
Panjab Tenancy Act XXVIII of 1868. 1 While saving, subject to a
few exceptions, all rights previously conferred, it abolished, for the
future, acquisition of occupancy right by mere lapse of time. On the
basis of existing custom and with reference to considerations of equity,
five classes of cultivators were defined as eligible for such a right, its
incidents varying with each class. The act also regulated the rents of
occupancy tenants, and afforded some measure of protection to all
tenants. It was considerably amended and amplified in details by the
existing Act XVI of 1887.
Mainly as a result of the famine of 1860–1 the question of the
extension of the permanent settlement to Upper India was revived
after the lapse of fifty years. 2 An influential official school inclined
to the view that such a measure would foster economic prosperity, and
in 1862 the secretary of state, Sir Charles Wood, went so far as to
accept it in principle. But further prolonged discussion of methods
and details showed not only its impracticability but also its essential
unwisdom, and in 1882 it was finally abandoned after it had been
established that in permanently settled tracts prosperity was no
greater than elsewhere. In recent years short-period settlements have
been avoided as far as possible, and a general term of thirty years
adopted, except in tracts where specially rapid development due to
the construction of state canals is foreseen.
Special measures for the organised collection of reliable information
regarding the economic condition of a vast agricultural population,
coupled with the maintenance of correct records of landed rights, were
initiated in the last quarter of the century. 3 Previous efforts in this
direction had been confined to the occasion of a settlement of the
land-revenue, so that by the expiration of its term, many years later,
the statistics and records had necessarily become hopelessly out of
date. In 1875 reform was initiated in the North-Western Provinces,
and five years later a Famine Commission strenuously recommended
the establishment of special departments in each province. These
were constituted in 1880 under the designation of departments of land
records and agriculture, each under a provincial director. Originally
they had little concern with technical agriculture: their function was
to secure the two main objects alrcady indicated. Of the first the
primary purpose is to obtain the earliest possible information of the
premonitory symptoms of famine, though many other useful ends are
also secured. By the continuous maintenance of correct records of
1 H. of C. Papers, 1870, vol. Lui; Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 100 sq. ; Baden Powell, op. cit.
II, 705-22.
2 H. of C. Papers, 1887, vol. 2; Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 340–9; Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 254;
Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882-3, pp. 117-19.
3 Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 349-60; Report of Famine Commission, 1880; Imp. Gaz. IV, 24.
## p. 283 (#321) ############################################
IRRIGATION
283
a
rights it was hoped to shorten the settlement operations periodically
undertaken in each district, a hope which has been realised. The
introduction of more scientific methods of cadastral survey has greatly
promoted progress in this direction, while all transfers of right are
promptly attested and registered, correct record being thereby facili-
tated. As the result of the policy adopted, the three provinces now
possess up-to-date land records probably unrivalled in the world, and
containing detailed information about each one of several millions of
fields and holdings and many thousands of villages; while the usual
duration of settlement operations in a district has been reduced from
six years to little more than three.
The importance of irrigation is indicated by the fact that the total
area of crops irrigated by state canals in the Panjab and the United
Provinces increased from seven and a half million acres in the first
years of the present century to nearly eleven million acres in 1917-18,
while the entire capital cost of the works in the latter year was approxi-
mately twenty-two millions sterling. The greatest progress has been
in the Panjab where the area irrigated quadrupled during the forty
years ending 1918. It was in 1866, when Lord Lawrence, as viceroy,
inaugurated the policy of financing productive public works from
loan funds, that the modern development of irrigation began. The
first-fruits were the Sirhind Canal in the cis-Satlej-Panjab, which,
originally proposed in 1841, was sanctioned in 1870 and opened in
1882, with a total length, inclusive of branches and distributaries, of
3700 miles; the Lower Ganges Canal in the southern part of the Doab
of the North-Western Provinces, sanctioned in 1872 and completed
in 1878, and the Agra Canal, opened in 1874, which provides irriga-
tion on the west of the Jumna. Between 1870 and 1876 the Upper
Bari Doab Canal, and fifteen years later the Western Jumna Canal
were greatly improved and extended.
But the colony canals of the Panjab have been the most striking
irrigational development of the period under review. Their primary
object was not to serve areas already cultivated, but to make possible
the colonisation and development of the immense areas of waste
crown land which existed in the province within recent years and on
which large numbers of colonists selected from congested districts
have since been settled on specific terms as lessees of the state. The
encouraging results of two experiments made on non-perennial canals
in the 'eighties led to more ambitious schemes. In 1890 work began
on a perennial canal, with a head weir from the river Chenab,
designed to irrigate the waste tract-termed Bar-lying between it
and the Ravi. Now known as the Lower Chenab Canal, it has proved
1 Imp. Gaz. II, 331; Statistical Abstract relating to British India, 1917-18, p. 150.
Imp. Gaz. IV, 329; H. of C. Papers, 1866, vol. Lii; 1867, vol. i.
• Triennial Review of Irrigation, 1918-21, Calcutta, 1922, pt , chap. v.
• Idem, pt m, chap. vi.
## p. 284 (#322) ############################################
284 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
to be one of the most successful irrigation systems in India, if not in
the world. Its total length is nearly 2700 miles. Colonisation began
in 1892, with the aid of a defective "inundation" canal, but the new
canal was not complete until 1899. By 1901 the population of the
tract had increased from practically nil to 800,000, while the area
now annually irrigated exceeds two million acres. The yearly net
revenue from the canal is nearly 40 per cent. of its capital cost of more
than two millions sterling. The headquarters of the colony are at
Lyallpur, one of the most flourishing towns in Upper India. The
second Colony Canal, the Lower Jehlam, in the tract between the
rivers Jehíım and Chenab, though sanctioned in 1888 was not begun
until 1898 and was opened in 1902. Its results have been satisfactory.
At the beginning of the century a project was on foot for the irrigation
of the lower portion of the Bari Doab from the river Satlej. Meanwhile
a commission’ was appointed in 1901 for the formulation, after full
enquiry into past results and existing needs, of a definite irrigation
policy for India as a whole. It reported in 1903. It found in the
Panjab one of the few tracts in which there was scope for the execution
of large productive schemes, which would both be financially re-
munerative and also augment the food supply of the country. It
supported the proposal to irrigate the lower part of the Bari Doab
while recommending the examination of an alternative scheme,
suggested by Sir James Wilson, a distinguished civil servant, and
Col. Jacob, an eminent irrigation officer, which substituted for a canal
from the Satlej a chain of canals which would successively convey the
water of the river Jehlam across the intervening Chenab and Ravi
rivers to the lower Bari Doab. This scheme, now known as the Triple
Projects and comprising the Upper Jehlam, Upper Chenab and
Lower Bari Doab canals, was ultimately approved. Its construction,
which cost seven millions sterling, took ten years, from 1905 to 1915.
The first two canals supply water to the third while irrigating extensive
areas in the tracts through which they pass. The total length of the
canals with distributaries is 3400 miles and the area irrigated nearly
two million acres. Colonisation was still in progress in 1918.
In the United Provinces the Betwa Canal, a protective work for
insecure districts in Bundelkhand, was opened in 1885 and proved its
value in the later famines. The Irrigation Commission recommended
other protective but non-remunerative works, of which the Ken Canal,
also in Bundelkhand, was opened in 1908. Up to 1907 there were no
state irrigation works in the Central Provinces. Until 1896 a com-
plete failure of rain had been unknown, but in the following famine
years the tract suffered severely. The commission, holding that pro-
tective irrigation was necessary, recommended the construction of
i Triennial Review, p. 137.
: Imp. Gaz. II, 351 sq. ; Triennial Review, pp. 109-10; Report of Indian Irrigation Commission,
3 Triennial Review, pp. 131 599.
Calcutta, 1903.
## p. 285 (#323) ############################################
FAMINES
285
small canals, and also of reservoirs for the storage of local rainfall and
of the comparatively precarious river supply. Up to 19181 several of
the latter had been completed, the most notable being the Ramtek
tank in the Nagpur district with a capacity of 4000 million cubic feet,
while three fairly large canals were still under construction. In 1918
several large new schemes for the Panjab and the United Provinces
were being considered. Some of these have since matured, the most
noteworthy being the Satlej valley project, with an estimated capital
cost of nine and a half millions sterling.
As a result of the extensive development which has been sketched
above irrigation had by 1918 become an important branch of district
administration. Local work is in the hands of officers of the irrigation
branch of the provincial public works department, but the collector
is intimately concerned with its success and is generally consulted in
all important developments. Moreover, he and his superiors, as land-
revenue officers, have a preponderant voice in the determination of
the rates charged for the consumption of canal water, while he is also
responsible for the collection of the resulting demand, though its
actual assessment at harvest time is usually made by irrigation officers.
In 1917-18 net revenue from state canals in the Panjab was 1. 8 millions
sterling, in the United Provinces £580,000, while in the Central
Provinces there was none. 3
Modern famine policy has been treated in another chapter, but a
few facts may be added here. In 1860-1 severe famine affected an
area of 50,000 square miles containing a population of twenty millions.
It comprised the south-eastern Panjab and the west of the present
United Provinces. The policy of relief on public works, initiated in
1837-8, was retained and expanded, while poorhouses for the gra-
tuitous relief of the incapable were opened for the first time. Remis-
sions of revenue were comparatively small but considerable advances
were made. Gratuitous relief appears to have been liberal: in the
Hissar district of the Panjab, for example, its recipients were treble
the number of persons on relief works. The same tract was again
severely attacked in 1868-9 by a famine which was far more wide-
spread than the last. Distress was extreme, mortality great, and the
destruction of cattle immense, while a heavy influx of starving multi-
tudes from the feudatory states, which were without famine organisa-
tion, greatly aggravated the situation and in fact broke down the
relief system. In the United Provinces the state spent nearly Rs. 30
lakhs in addition to heavy expenditure in the Panjab. In 1896–7 the
same areas again suffered from intense famine, and the Central
Provinces were for the first time affected. But on this occasion the
1 Triennial Review, p. 128.
2 Idem, p. 170.
3 Statistical Abstract, 1917-18, p. 150.
Imp. Gaz. II, 485; Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1880, p. 12; Adm. Rep. Unil. Provs. 1911-12, p. 12;
H. of C. Papers, 1862, vol. XL.
s Gazelleer of Hisar District, 1892, p. 23.
• Imp. Gaz. 111, 487; Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1880, p. 12; Adm. Rep. Unit. Prous. 1911-12,
p. 22.
## p. 286 (#324) ############################################
286 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
organisation, as testified by the subsequent Famine Commission of
1898,- was far more efficient than it had been previously, while the
agricultural population generally showed a power, hitherto unknown,
of meeting the disaster. In the Panjab Hissar was again the most dis-
tressed district, and it accounted for more than one-half of the total
number relieved in that province, at one time as many as 15 per cent.
of its total population being in receipt of relief. Rs. 167 lakhs were
spent in the United Provinces and Rs. 23 lakhs in the Panjab in addi-
tion to heavy suspensions and remissions of land-revenue. Once more
in 1899–1900 the south-eastern Panjab and the Central Provinces
were very severely attacked. Distress was more intense than in 1896-7
and cattle mortality, owing to a complete failure of fodder, enormous. 3
In the Panjab the death-rates of the affected districts rose considerably
but mortality from actual starvation was prevented. Relief operations
in that province cost Rs. 48 lakhs, most of which was incurred in the
Hissar district. The great development of irrigation and of communi-
cations which has been achieved in recent years, the elaboration of
a complete famine organisation, not only in British territory but also
in the feudatory states, and, last but not least, the growth of general
economic prosperity have gone far to vanquish one of India's direct
and most persistent scourges.
The forests of India are of the first importance, not only for their
natural products but also through their influence on climate, rainfall,
and water supply. As has been truly said they are "the headworks
of Nature's irrigation scheme in India". Under native rule unchecked
destruction and wasteful misuse did untold damage. Up to 1855
British attempts at management were sporadic and dominated by
considerations of revenue, but in that year Lord Dalhousie inaugurated
a policy of scientific conservation and regulated exploitation. An
inspector-general of forests was appointed nine years later, but it was
not until 1869 that an organised forest department with a staff of
trained officers came into existence. Indian forest lands are the
property of the state, though generally more or less burdened with
public or private customary rights of user, largely grazing, in favour
of village communities or individuals; a fcature which mainly decides
the degree of conservation which can be applied. Those classed as
reserved” are important for purposes of scientific forestry. Forests
are “protected” with a view to later reservation or in order to increase
their direct utility to the agricultural population; while in “unclassed”
forests very few, if any, restrictions are enforced. The first legal basis
for forest administration was the Indian Forest Act of 1865, which
was replaced by the existing Act VII of 1878. It prescribes, inter alia,
1 Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1898.
* Adm. Rep. Unit.
system, though not without defects, was an improvement on its
predecessor, and it remained without drastic change for the next forty
years. Police, however, continued to be a weak point in the adminis-
tration, while the strength and qualifications of the force did not keep
pace with growing requirements and progressive conditions, nor did
it secure public confidence. In spite of some minor improvements
effected in 1888-9 an enquiry made at the end of the century revealed
a considerable increase in crime of the more serious kinds. A com-
mission was appointed to investigate the whole subject of police
administration, and it reported in 1903. " While approving the fun-
damental principles of the existing system, it criticised adversely the
manner in which they had been practically applied, as well as the
qualifications of all ranks of the force. It recommended many drastic
reforms, most of which were introduced, and in a few years secured
highly beneficial results, as shown by the admirable manner in which
the modern police force has acquitted itself during recent periods of
disturbance.
Shortly after 1858 changes were made in the constitution of the
judiciary. In 1866 a high court was established for the North-Western
a
Provinces under the provisions of an English statute of 1861, and a
Report of Indian Police Commission, 1903, chap. ii.
· Government of India Resolution, 21. March, 1905, on Report of Police Commission
(Parl. Papers, 1905, lvii, Accounts, etc. c. 2478).
Field, Regulations of the Bengal Code, 1875, p. 149; Imp. Gaz. iv, 146; Moral and Mat.
Prog. Rep. 1882-3, p. 68.
a
## p. 278 (#316) ############################################
278 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
chief court with two judges for the Panjab. The constitution of the
subordinate criminal courts was now regulated by the code of criminal
procedure, the existing grades of sessions and magistrates' courts
being retained. The collector kept his magisterial powers; but in the
previously non-regulation areas, where such powers were wider, he
was gradually relieved of the disposal of the increasing volume of civil
litigation, except as regards suits between landlord and tenant; while
the criminal and civil jurisdictions of the commissioners of divisions
was transferred—in the Panjab as early as 1884_to divisional judges,
who corresponded to the district and sessions judges of regulation
provinces, and who in more recent years have been completely
assimilated to them both in name and functions. The Indian judiciary,
both criminal and civil, grew rapidly and for many years it has largely
predominated in all grades except the highest, nearly the whole of the
original civil litigation being in its hands.
In 1859 the Panjab became a lieutenant-governorship, and in
1861, that year of notable changes, the Central Provinces was con-
stituted a separate administration under a chief commissioner with a
judicial commissioner as principal judicial authority. It comprised
the Sagar and Narbada territories and the Nagpur state, together with
certain other tracts acquired at various times. Its arca, 100,000 square
miles including Berar, is slightly less than that of the United Provinces
and slightly greater than that of the Panjab.
After 1861 all provinces came within the sphere of the Indian legis-
lature, though by no means identical laws applied to all. Some, such
as the principal codes, did so; others applied to certain provinces only.
One result was the termination of any practical distinction between
regulation and non-regulation areas so far as administrative principles
and methods were concerned. The non-regulation system was replaced
by the constitution of "scheduled districts” under two enactments of
1870 and 1874. 4 In these areas only those legislative enactments were
to be in force which the government might so declare, and it was
further empowered to make special regulations for them. Both the
United Provinces and the Panjab contain minor areas of this kind,
mainly in the more renote hilly tracts.
After 1858 land administration shared in the general development,
though without radical changes. The increasing prevalence of money-
rents in the North-Western Provinces gradually furnished a more
accurate means of estimating the incomes of landlords, as well as the
rental value of non-rented lands, with reference to rents actually paid
or to those estimated to be fairly realisable; thus affording a sounder
basis for revenue assessment than the original rough "aggregate to
1 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, p. 646, and 1911-12, p. 31.
2 Adm. Rep. Panjab, 1882-3, P: 37.
3 Government of India Resolution, Foreign Department, of 2 November, 1861; Adm.
Rep. Cent. Provs. 1882-3, p. 17.
Baden Powell, Land Revenue Systems of British India, 1, 89-92; Imp. Gaz. IV, 131.
## p. 279 (#317) ############################################
LAND-REVENUE ASSESSMENT
279
2
detail" method. 1 Later, from 1878, as rent records became more
plentiful and reliable, actual as opposed to estimated rents were used
as data. In the second series of regular settlements, which began in
1858 and was completed in 1882, the standard of assessment was
reduced from two-thirds to one-half of net rental, though it is now
exceptional for even one-half to be taken. In the Pan; b, rents being
comparatively rare and paid in kind, as is usually the case even now,
the original method of assessment was retained. But in the course of
the next fifty years, as the renting of land became more common,
increased stress was laid on a money valuation of the kind-rental
received by landlords or, in the case of non-rented lands, of the kind-
rental which they could fairly pay if rented; though in practice,
especially towards the end of the period, in view of the preponderance
of peasant proprietors as well as for other reasons, the actual state
demand has usually been substantially below the theoretical standard
as measured on a rental basis. Revenue assessment in the Panjab was
and still is a matter of local knowledge and individual judgment
rather than of arithmetical calculations from assumed data. In the
specially insecure tracts in the south-west of that province systems of
fluctuating assessment have been introduced, under which land-
revenue is assessed at prescribed rates on such crops only as actually
mature at each harvest. 3 The wide extension of state canal irrigation
in recent years has introduced complications into revenue adminis-
tration with which it is impossible to deal here. For the actual con-
sumption of water in irrigation specific water rates are charged, while
the increased rental value of the irrigated land is assessed to land-
revenue.
In Oudh after the Mutiny the estates of the rebellious talukdars
were formally confiscated, more in order to secure a clear field for the
determination of rights and the protection of subordinate tenures than
as a punitive measure. Accordingly their estates were returned to all
who submitted; and thereafter they held them as grantees of the
government. By a reversal of the policy of 1856, settlement of the
land-revenue was made in most cases with the talukdars; subject
however to the important proviso that where a subordinate village
community, or even single members thereof, had succeeded in main-
taining a virtual sub-proprietary status as against the talukdar, the
annual sum payable to him was fixed in amount, the community or
the single members retaining control of the land. This arrangement
is known as a "talukdari" settlement. After a second summary
'
settlement in 1858 the regular settlement of Oudh was begun on the
1 Baden Powell, op. cit. II, 47-61, 66–8; Moreland, The Revenue Administration of the
United Provinces, 1911, pp. 41-5; Adm. Rep. N. -W. Provs. 1882-3, pp. 43-4.
2 Baden Powell, op. cil. 11, 569 82; Panjab Settlement Manual, chap. vi.
3 Panjab Selt. Manual, chap. xxvi.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, bk un, chap. iii; Adm. Rep. N. -W. Provs. 1882-3, P. 39; Moral
and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882-3, p. 132.
## p. 280 (#318) ############################################
280 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
above lines in 1860 and completed in 1873. In about one-third of the
province, there being no talukdars, settlement was made with the
village communities in the usual way. Certain special incidents of
the talukdari tenure were regulated by legislation in 1869.
The land-revenue administration of the North-Western Provinces
was placed on a statutory basis by Act XIX of 1873 and that of Oudh
by Act XVII of 1876. They were replaced by Act III of 1901,
which
applies to the present United Provinces (of Agra and Oudh). The
corresponding enactments for the Panjab were XXXIII of 1871 and
XVII of 1887. All these deal with the powers and functions of revenue
officers of all grades, with the principles and procedure of land-revenue
assessment, and with the maintenance of records of rights; but the
subjects of tenancy and rent are regulated by separate enactments.
In the newly constituted Central Provinces most of the villages were
of the ryotwari type. Under the oppressive rule of the Marathas very
many of them had been farmed, commonly to their own headmen,
who were termed patels. Over groups of others various classes of
persons, local tribal chiefs or their relatives, grantees of state revenue,
and others, had acquired a proprietary status on quasi-feudal con-
ditions as jagirdar or talukdar. Prior to . 1861 summary settlements
of various kinds had been made. It was decided at the regular settle-
ment, which began in 1863 and was completed in 1870, to recognise
all the above classes as proprietors, under the common designation of
malguzar, or revenue-payer, and to make the settlement with them. 1
This arrangement, however, in strong contrast to the Bengal system,
was combined with an ample measure of tenant-right, by which a
large majority of tenants received substantial protection. This form
of settlement is known as malguzari. In the first regular settlement the
assessment of land-revenue followed generally the "aggregate to
detail" method already described. 2 Tenants whose claims were based
on length of time or on the expenditure of capital on improvements
were recognised as full proprietors of their holdings, practically
independent of the malguzar. Others with weaker claims were allowed
an occupancy tenure, varying in its incidents, but in all cases affording
security in respect of ejectment and rent, the latter being fixed at
settlement but liable to periodical revision. The tenancy law was
codified on the above principles by acts passed in 1883 and 1898,
which also gave a measure of similar protection to ordinary tenants
without occupancy right. The land-revenue "law of the Central
Provinces was embodied in Acts XVIII of 1881 and XII of 1898. 4
In consequence of the special position of tenants rents have ceased to
be the direct result of economic forces, so that the assessment of land-
1 Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 385-8; Adm. Rep. Cent. Provs. 1911-12, pp. 22, 23; Moral and
Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882–3, p. 137.
2 Baden Powell, op. cit. II, 390.
· Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 478-99; Adm. Rep. Cent. Prous. 1911-12, p. 26.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 17, 501.
## p. 281 (#319) ############################################
TENANT RIGHT
281
revenue is primarily the assessment of such rents as the settlement
officer may consider reasonable in the circumstances of the tract
concerned. The actual method employed, known as the “soil unit"
system, is complex. Its main object is the equalisation of rent incidence
with reference to the quality of soil, which is minutely classified by
means of a proportionately numerical valuation in terms of an
assumed common unit, known as the "soil unit". Having regard to
certain general considerations a fair rent rate per unit is determined,
and by a discreet application of this rate, more or less modified
according to local circumstances, a fair rental for each holding and
village is framed. 1 The land-revenue due to the government is about
one-half of the sum thus obtained. The land-revenue of Berar, which
is not legally British territory, though it is attached to the Central
Provinces, has been settled on the ryotwari system in force in the
Bombay Presidency. 2
In all three provinces assets due to agricultural improvements
effected by private labour and capital are exempted from assessment
for a period of years sufficient to yield a remunerative return; while
the rigidity of the fixed land-revenue demand is mitigated by its
suspension or, when necessary, by its ultimate remission, on occasions
of widespread agricultural calamity.
For many years after the Mutiny tenant right constituted a very
intricate problem in the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, and the
Panjab. The Bengal Act X of 1859 applied only to the first, but it was
replaced by the successive North-Western Provinces Acts XVIII of
1873 and XII of 1881, though neither effected any change of prin-
ciple. These acts protected certain tenants of long standing in the
permanently settled Benares districts as well as tenants who had once
been proprietors, and they maintained the twelve-years rule which
has been already explained in another chapter. A certain measure of
protection was also accorded to the interests of all tenants, while
collectors and subordinate revenue officers were empowered to dispose
judicially of suits between them and landlords. The later Act II of
1901 effected no radical changes. In Oudh the first tenancy law was
the Rent Act XIX of 1868. In view of the wide protection afforded
to sub-proprietors under the talukdari settlement, occupancy right was
allowed only to those tenants who had lost proprietary right within
the thirty years preceding annexation, but this being found to be
insufficient, a subsequent act (XII of 1886) went further by ensuring
to all non-occupancy tenants a tenure for seven years without increase
of rent; and even this measure has been found to be inadequate.
In the Panjab in 1863 a controversy arose as to the propriety of the
1 Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, 415-31; Adm. Rep. Cent. Prous. 1911-12, pp. 30–2.
: Adm. Rep. Cent. Provs. pp. 27, 33.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. 11, p. 175; Adm. Rep. Unit. Provs, 1911-12, p. 19.
• Baden Powell, op. cit. n1, 246-9; Adm. Rep. Unit. Provs. p. 19.
## p.
282 (#320) ############################################
282 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
methods by which tenant right had been treated in the first regular
settlement. It led to a lengthy enquiry into the actual status of tenants
throughout the province, of which the ultimate outcome was the
Panjab Tenancy Act XXVIII of 1868. 1 While saving, subject to a
few exceptions, all rights previously conferred, it abolished, for the
future, acquisition of occupancy right by mere lapse of time. On the
basis of existing custom and with reference to considerations of equity,
five classes of cultivators were defined as eligible for such a right, its
incidents varying with each class. The act also regulated the rents of
occupancy tenants, and afforded some measure of protection to all
tenants. It was considerably amended and amplified in details by the
existing Act XVI of 1887.
Mainly as a result of the famine of 1860–1 the question of the
extension of the permanent settlement to Upper India was revived
after the lapse of fifty years. 2 An influential official school inclined
to the view that such a measure would foster economic prosperity, and
in 1862 the secretary of state, Sir Charles Wood, went so far as to
accept it in principle. But further prolonged discussion of methods
and details showed not only its impracticability but also its essential
unwisdom, and in 1882 it was finally abandoned after it had been
established that in permanently settled tracts prosperity was no
greater than elsewhere. In recent years short-period settlements have
been avoided as far as possible, and a general term of thirty years
adopted, except in tracts where specially rapid development due to
the construction of state canals is foreseen.
Special measures for the organised collection of reliable information
regarding the economic condition of a vast agricultural population,
coupled with the maintenance of correct records of landed rights, were
initiated in the last quarter of the century. 3 Previous efforts in this
direction had been confined to the occasion of a settlement of the
land-revenue, so that by the expiration of its term, many years later,
the statistics and records had necessarily become hopelessly out of
date. In 1875 reform was initiated in the North-Western Provinces,
and five years later a Famine Commission strenuously recommended
the establishment of special departments in each province. These
were constituted in 1880 under the designation of departments of land
records and agriculture, each under a provincial director. Originally
they had little concern with technical agriculture: their function was
to secure the two main objects alrcady indicated. Of the first the
primary purpose is to obtain the earliest possible information of the
premonitory symptoms of famine, though many other useful ends are
also secured. By the continuous maintenance of correct records of
1 H. of C. Papers, 1870, vol. Lui; Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 100 sq. ; Baden Powell, op. cit.
II, 705-22.
2 H. of C. Papers, 1887, vol. 2; Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 340–9; Panjab Sett. Manual, p. 254;
Moral and Mat. Prog. Rep. 1882-3, pp. 117-19.
3 Baden Powell, op. cit. 1, 349-60; Report of Famine Commission, 1880; Imp. Gaz. IV, 24.
## p. 283 (#321) ############################################
IRRIGATION
283
a
rights it was hoped to shorten the settlement operations periodically
undertaken in each district, a hope which has been realised. The
introduction of more scientific methods of cadastral survey has greatly
promoted progress in this direction, while all transfers of right are
promptly attested and registered, correct record being thereby facili-
tated. As the result of the policy adopted, the three provinces now
possess up-to-date land records probably unrivalled in the world, and
containing detailed information about each one of several millions of
fields and holdings and many thousands of villages; while the usual
duration of settlement operations in a district has been reduced from
six years to little more than three.
The importance of irrigation is indicated by the fact that the total
area of crops irrigated by state canals in the Panjab and the United
Provinces increased from seven and a half million acres in the first
years of the present century to nearly eleven million acres in 1917-18,
while the entire capital cost of the works in the latter year was approxi-
mately twenty-two millions sterling. The greatest progress has been
in the Panjab where the area irrigated quadrupled during the forty
years ending 1918. It was in 1866, when Lord Lawrence, as viceroy,
inaugurated the policy of financing productive public works from
loan funds, that the modern development of irrigation began. The
first-fruits were the Sirhind Canal in the cis-Satlej-Panjab, which,
originally proposed in 1841, was sanctioned in 1870 and opened in
1882, with a total length, inclusive of branches and distributaries, of
3700 miles; the Lower Ganges Canal in the southern part of the Doab
of the North-Western Provinces, sanctioned in 1872 and completed
in 1878, and the Agra Canal, opened in 1874, which provides irriga-
tion on the west of the Jumna. Between 1870 and 1876 the Upper
Bari Doab Canal, and fifteen years later the Western Jumna Canal
were greatly improved and extended.
But the colony canals of the Panjab have been the most striking
irrigational development of the period under review. Their primary
object was not to serve areas already cultivated, but to make possible
the colonisation and development of the immense areas of waste
crown land which existed in the province within recent years and on
which large numbers of colonists selected from congested districts
have since been settled on specific terms as lessees of the state. The
encouraging results of two experiments made on non-perennial canals
in the 'eighties led to more ambitious schemes. In 1890 work began
on a perennial canal, with a head weir from the river Chenab,
designed to irrigate the waste tract-termed Bar-lying between it
and the Ravi. Now known as the Lower Chenab Canal, it has proved
1 Imp. Gaz. II, 331; Statistical Abstract relating to British India, 1917-18, p. 150.
Imp. Gaz. IV, 329; H. of C. Papers, 1866, vol. Lii; 1867, vol. i.
• Triennial Review of Irrigation, 1918-21, Calcutta, 1922, pt , chap. v.
• Idem, pt m, chap. vi.
## p. 284 (#322) ############################################
284 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
to be one of the most successful irrigation systems in India, if not in
the world. Its total length is nearly 2700 miles. Colonisation began
in 1892, with the aid of a defective "inundation" canal, but the new
canal was not complete until 1899. By 1901 the population of the
tract had increased from practically nil to 800,000, while the area
now annually irrigated exceeds two million acres. The yearly net
revenue from the canal is nearly 40 per cent. of its capital cost of more
than two millions sterling. The headquarters of the colony are at
Lyallpur, one of the most flourishing towns in Upper India. The
second Colony Canal, the Lower Jehlam, in the tract between the
rivers Jehíım and Chenab, though sanctioned in 1888 was not begun
until 1898 and was opened in 1902. Its results have been satisfactory.
At the beginning of the century a project was on foot for the irrigation
of the lower portion of the Bari Doab from the river Satlej. Meanwhile
a commission’ was appointed in 1901 for the formulation, after full
enquiry into past results and existing needs, of a definite irrigation
policy for India as a whole. It reported in 1903. It found in the
Panjab one of the few tracts in which there was scope for the execution
of large productive schemes, which would both be financially re-
munerative and also augment the food supply of the country. It
supported the proposal to irrigate the lower part of the Bari Doab
while recommending the examination of an alternative scheme,
suggested by Sir James Wilson, a distinguished civil servant, and
Col. Jacob, an eminent irrigation officer, which substituted for a canal
from the Satlej a chain of canals which would successively convey the
water of the river Jehlam across the intervening Chenab and Ravi
rivers to the lower Bari Doab. This scheme, now known as the Triple
Projects and comprising the Upper Jehlam, Upper Chenab and
Lower Bari Doab canals, was ultimately approved. Its construction,
which cost seven millions sterling, took ten years, from 1905 to 1915.
The first two canals supply water to the third while irrigating extensive
areas in the tracts through which they pass. The total length of the
canals with distributaries is 3400 miles and the area irrigated nearly
two million acres. Colonisation was still in progress in 1918.
In the United Provinces the Betwa Canal, a protective work for
insecure districts in Bundelkhand, was opened in 1885 and proved its
value in the later famines. The Irrigation Commission recommended
other protective but non-remunerative works, of which the Ken Canal,
also in Bundelkhand, was opened in 1908. Up to 1907 there were no
state irrigation works in the Central Provinces. Until 1896 a com-
plete failure of rain had been unknown, but in the following famine
years the tract suffered severely. The commission, holding that pro-
tective irrigation was necessary, recommended the construction of
i Triennial Review, p. 137.
: Imp. Gaz. II, 351 sq. ; Triennial Review, pp. 109-10; Report of Indian Irrigation Commission,
3 Triennial Review, pp. 131 599.
Calcutta, 1903.
## p. 285 (#323) ############################################
FAMINES
285
small canals, and also of reservoirs for the storage of local rainfall and
of the comparatively precarious river supply. Up to 19181 several of
the latter had been completed, the most notable being the Ramtek
tank in the Nagpur district with a capacity of 4000 million cubic feet,
while three fairly large canals were still under construction. In 1918
several large new schemes for the Panjab and the United Provinces
were being considered. Some of these have since matured, the most
noteworthy being the Satlej valley project, with an estimated capital
cost of nine and a half millions sterling.
As a result of the extensive development which has been sketched
above irrigation had by 1918 become an important branch of district
administration. Local work is in the hands of officers of the irrigation
branch of the provincial public works department, but the collector
is intimately concerned with its success and is generally consulted in
all important developments. Moreover, he and his superiors, as land-
revenue officers, have a preponderant voice in the determination of
the rates charged for the consumption of canal water, while he is also
responsible for the collection of the resulting demand, though its
actual assessment at harvest time is usually made by irrigation officers.
In 1917-18 net revenue from state canals in the Panjab was 1. 8 millions
sterling, in the United Provinces £580,000, while in the Central
Provinces there was none. 3
Modern famine policy has been treated in another chapter, but a
few facts may be added here. In 1860-1 severe famine affected an
area of 50,000 square miles containing a population of twenty millions.
It comprised the south-eastern Panjab and the west of the present
United Provinces. The policy of relief on public works, initiated in
1837-8, was retained and expanded, while poorhouses for the gra-
tuitous relief of the incapable were opened for the first time. Remis-
sions of revenue were comparatively small but considerable advances
were made. Gratuitous relief appears to have been liberal: in the
Hissar district of the Panjab, for example, its recipients were treble
the number of persons on relief works. The same tract was again
severely attacked in 1868-9 by a famine which was far more wide-
spread than the last. Distress was extreme, mortality great, and the
destruction of cattle immense, while a heavy influx of starving multi-
tudes from the feudatory states, which were without famine organisa-
tion, greatly aggravated the situation and in fact broke down the
relief system. In the United Provinces the state spent nearly Rs. 30
lakhs in addition to heavy expenditure in the Panjab. In 1896–7 the
same areas again suffered from intense famine, and the Central
Provinces were for the first time affected. But on this occasion the
1 Triennial Review, p. 128.
2 Idem, p. 170.
3 Statistical Abstract, 1917-18, p. 150.
Imp. Gaz. II, 485; Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1880, p. 12; Adm. Rep. Unil. Provs. 1911-12, p. 12;
H. of C. Papers, 1862, vol. XL.
s Gazelleer of Hisar District, 1892, p. 23.
• Imp. Gaz. 111, 487; Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1880, p. 12; Adm. Rep. Unit. Prous. 1911-12,
p. 22.
## p. 286 (#324) ############################################
286 ADMINISTRATION IN U. P. , C. P. , AND PANJAB
organisation, as testified by the subsequent Famine Commission of
1898,- was far more efficient than it had been previously, while the
agricultural population generally showed a power, hitherto unknown,
of meeting the disaster. In the Panjab Hissar was again the most dis-
tressed district, and it accounted for more than one-half of the total
number relieved in that province, at one time as many as 15 per cent.
of its total population being in receipt of relief. Rs. 167 lakhs were
spent in the United Provinces and Rs. 23 lakhs in the Panjab in addi-
tion to heavy suspensions and remissions of land-revenue. Once more
in 1899–1900 the south-eastern Panjab and the Central Provinces
were very severely attacked. Distress was more intense than in 1896-7
and cattle mortality, owing to a complete failure of fodder, enormous. 3
In the Panjab the death-rates of the affected districts rose considerably
but mortality from actual starvation was prevented. Relief operations
in that province cost Rs. 48 lakhs, most of which was incurred in the
Hissar district. The great development of irrigation and of communi-
cations which has been achieved in recent years, the elaboration of
a complete famine organisation, not only in British territory but also
in the feudatory states, and, last but not least, the growth of general
economic prosperity have gone far to vanquish one of India's direct
and most persistent scourges.
The forests of India are of the first importance, not only for their
natural products but also through their influence on climate, rainfall,
and water supply. As has been truly said they are "the headworks
of Nature's irrigation scheme in India". Under native rule unchecked
destruction and wasteful misuse did untold damage. Up to 1855
British attempts at management were sporadic and dominated by
considerations of revenue, but in that year Lord Dalhousie inaugurated
a policy of scientific conservation and regulated exploitation. An
inspector-general of forests was appointed nine years later, but it was
not until 1869 that an organised forest department with a staff of
trained officers came into existence. Indian forest lands are the
property of the state, though generally more or less burdened with
public or private customary rights of user, largely grazing, in favour
of village communities or individuals; a fcature which mainly decides
the degree of conservation which can be applied. Those classed as
reserved” are important for purposes of scientific forestry. Forests
are “protected” with a view to later reservation or in order to increase
their direct utility to the agricultural population; while in “unclassed”
forests very few, if any, restrictions are enforced. The first legal basis
for forest administration was the Indian Forest Act of 1865, which
was replaced by the existing Act VII of 1878. It prescribes, inter alia,
1 Rep. of Fam. Comm. 1898.
* Adm. Rep. Unit.
