Banjar

Topic: Mughal Agrarian Society and Economy · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"

Meaning

Banjar was land that had not been farmed for five years or more. It was the last of the four classes of land that Akbar set out, as recorded in the Ain-i-Akbari. The class matters because it shows how the Mughal state sorted land by how often it was farmed. It also shows that the state counted even long-abandoned land as part of the area it could tax in future.

Explanation

Why the state classified land

• Land revenue (the tax on farm produce) was what kept the Mughal Empire running. The money was managed by the daftar, the office of the diwan (finance minister).
• To fix a fair tax, officials first needed to know about the land.
• Step 1: they collected details of each piece of land and what it produced.

• Step 2: they fixed the tax, called jama (revenue assessed). The amount actually collected was called hasil (revenue collected).

• Not all land gave the same yield. A field farmed every year paid more than one left empty for years. So Akbar grouped land by how long it had been left fallow (unfarmed, so the soil can rest).

The four classes, with banjar at the bottom

Class	How long it was left unfarmed
polaj	Never. It was farmed every year.
parauti	A short time, so the soil could recover.
chachar	3–4 years
banjar	5 years or more

• Banjar was the most neglected class. It had been out of use the longest.
• Only polaj and parauti were graded into good, middling and bad. Banjar and chachar had no such grades.
• The basic rule for the state's share was one-third of the medium (average) produce. This was the royal dues. It applied in full to the regularly farmed classes.

How banjar fitted into the revenue system

• Banjar was still counted. The Mughals measured cultivated and cultivable land (land that could be farmed) province by province. Banjar was cultivable land, so it was part of the state's records.
• Forests were left unmeasured. Banjar was not forest. It was farmland that had gone out of use.
• Getting banjar farmed again meant more revenue. Historians generally say such land was taxed at lower rates at first, so that peasants would be willing to farm it again. The study note does not give these rates, so treat the details as approximate.
• Officials who handled this land:
• amil-guzar: the revenue collector. Akbar told him to prefer payment in cash, but to let peasants pay in kind (in grain) if they chose.
• amin: the officer who made sure imperial rules were followed in the provinces.

What the classification led to

• More detailed records over time. Aurangzeb's order of 1665 asked for farming records village by village and peasant by peasant (asamiwar).
• It aimed at kifayat (careful state finance).

• It also aimed at the welfare of the peasant.

• There was a gap between paper and practice. The state could label land banjar and plan to tax it, but local conditions decided what it really collected. This is the gap between jama and hasil.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the 16th–17th centuries, under the Mughal Empire.
• Ruler: Akbar made the four-fold classification. Aurangzeb later called for more detailed village records in 1665.
• Region: the empire's twelve subahs (provinces), where land was measured province by province. Measurement worked best in north India.
• Key people:
• Abul Fazl, author of the Ain-i-Akbari.

• Todar Mal, Akbar's finance minister, who carried out the land survey.

• How we know: the Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl is the third volume of the Akbarnama. Its third section records the methods of land survey and the duties of finance minister Todar Mal [2][3]. The Ain also gives the total measured land of each province.

Don't confuse with

• Chachar: fallow for 3–4 years. Banjar is uncultivated for 5 years or more. Check the number of years in the question.
• Parauti: left fallow for only a short time so the soil can recover. Parauti was graded good, middling and bad. Banjar was not.
• Polaj: farmed every year, never left fallow. It is the opposite end of the scale from banjar.
• Unmeasured forest land: forests were not measured at all in the Mughal survey. Banjar was cultivable land and was counted in the records.

Prelims Hooks

• Akbar's four classes, from most to least farmed: polaj → parauti → chachar → banjar.
• Banjar = uncultivated for 5 years or more. Chachar = 3–4 years fallow.
• Only polaj and parauti were graded good, middling and bad. A statement saying banjar was graded is a trap.
• Royal dues = one-third of the medium produce.
• The classification is recorded in the Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl, the third volume of the Akbarnama [2][3].
• Forests were not measured in the Mughal land survey. Banjar was cultivable land, not forest.

Mains Points

• Banjar shows that the Mughal state tried to tax all land that could be farmed, not just land that was being farmed.
• By recording long-abandoned land, the state marked it as future revenue.

• This fits the wider aim of province-wide measurement and, later, Aurangzeb's peasant-wise (asamiwar) records of 1665.

• The four-fold classification is a strong example of the jama–hasil gap.

• On paper, every class of land had its place and its rate.
• In practice, bringing banjar back into use depended on peasants, local conditions and intermediaries such as zamindars.

• Use this to argue that Mughal central control was strong in its records but had to be negotiated on the ground.

• The state's interest in reviving banjar ties into the expansion of farming and monetisation.

• More land under the plough meant more revenue. Akbar's preference for cash payments pushed peasants to sell grain in markets.
• But heavy revenue demands and recurrent famines limited how far peasants could take on and farm abandoned land.

Related concepts

• Mughal land revenue system
• Jama
• Hasil
• Amalguzar
• Kankut
• Batai
• Khet-batai
• Lang batai
• Classification of lands under Akbar
• Polaj

Read more

• The land revenue system