Jama

Also called: Jumma · Topic: Mughal Agrarian Society and Economy · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Rebels and the Raj"

Meaning

Jama was the amount of land revenue the Mughal state assessed, or fixed on paper, as its demand from the land. It is different from hasil, the revenue it actually collected.

It matters because the gap between jama and hasil shows how far the Mughal state's power really went. What the empire claimed on paper was often more than it could collect on the ground.

Explanation

Background: why the state needed an assessed figure

• Land revenue was the economic mainstay of the Mughal Empire. The state ran on what it took from farming.
• The whole system was run from the daftar, the office of the diwan (the finance minister).
• Before the state could ask for money, it needed one fixed figure for what each area owed. That figure was the jama.
• So many revenue officials worked on fixing and collecting it that they became decisive agents in agrarian relations. They shaped how peasants, zamindars and the state dealt with each other.

How jama was fixed: the two-step procedure

• Step 1: gather information. Officials first collected details of the lands and of what those lands produced.
• Step 2: assess, then collect.
• The assessment produced the jama, the amount fixed on paper.

• The collection produced the hasil, what really came in.

• The state's share. Akbar's rule was that one-third of the medium (average) produce was the royal dues.

• Land was graded first. Akbar's officials sorted land into four classes:
• polaj: cultivated every year, never left fallow (left unsown to rest).
• parauti: left fallow for a short time so the soil could recover.
• chachar: fallow for 3–4 years.
• banjar: uncultivated for 5 years or more.
• polaj and parauti were graded again as good, middling and bad.

Methods used to reach the jama

• zabt: the cash method linked to Todar Mal.
• He surveyed crop yields, prices and area cultivated over ten years.
• A fixed cash rate was then set by how productive the land was. It came to about one-third of the average produce, turned into a cash value [3].
• Land was measured in bighas, and crops were classified and priced [3].

• It worked best in north India, where land could be measured and accounts kept. It was not workable in provinces such as Gujarat and Bengal [3].

• Share-of-crop methods were used where measuring was not possible:

• kankut: from kan (grain) + kut (estimate). Officials estimated the grain yield without cutting the whole crop. In doubtful cases the crop was cut in three lots: good, middling and inferior.
• batai / bhaoli: crops were reaped and stacked, then divided by agreement in front of everyone involved.
• khet-batai: the fields themselves were divided after sowing.

• lang batai: grain was cut and heaped, then divided.

• Cash or kind. Akbar's decree told the amil-guzar (revenue collector) to prefer cash, but to keep payment in kind (in grain) open as a choice for the peasant.

Change over time and results

• Akbar's period: cultivated and cultivable land was measured province by province, and the totals are given in the Ain-i-Akbari. Forests were left unmeasured.
• Aurangzeb's order of 1665: officials had to keep cultivation records village by village and peasant-wise (asamiwar, meaning for each peasant).
• It aimed to balance two goals: kifayat (sound state finances) and the welfare of the peasant.

• These detailed records made the paper claim more exact. They did not make it easier to collect.

• Result: the jama–hasil gap. The state set its claim as high as possible on paper, but local conditions limited what it could actually collect.

• The burden on peasants: revenue was usually about one-fifth of produce, but under some sultans it reached one-half. Recurrent famines cut further into what peasants had left.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: 16th–17th centuries, under the Mughal Empire. The key rulers are Akbar (land classes, zabt, the cash decree) and Aurangzeb (the 1665 order).
• Region: the empire's provinces. Akbar's empire had twelve subahs. Measured, cash-based assessment worked best in north India. It failed in Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• Key people and officials:
• Todar Mal: Akbar's finance minister, who ran the ten-year survey of crop yields and prices [3].
• diwan: head of finance, working from the daftar.
• amil-guzar: the revenue collector.

• amin: made sure imperial rules were actually carried out in the provinces.

• How we know:

• The Ain-i-Akbari by Abul Fazl is the third volume of the Akbarnama. It records the methods of land survey and the duties of Todar Mal [2][4]. It also gives the province-wise totals of measured land.

• Mughal revenue records, including the asamiwar records ordered in 1665.

• Later use: the word stayed in use in early British revenue records, where it was often spelt "jumma", to mean the revenue demand fixed on an estate or zamindari.

Don't confuse with

• Hasil: the revenue actually collected. Jama is what was assessed. Exams often swap the two.
• Jagir: an assignment of a territory's revenue to a mansabdar in place of a salary. Jama was the amount assessed on that land, not the assignment itself.
• Zabt: a method of assessment (a cash rate based on Todar Mal's ten-year survey). Jama is the result of assessment, whatever method was used.
• Kifayat: the state's goal of sound finances, named in Aurangzeb's 1665 order. It is not a revenue figure.

Prelims Hooks

• jama = revenue assessed; hasil = revenue collected. Do not swap them.
• Royal dues under Akbar = one-third of the medium produce. Land was sorted as polaj, parauti, chachar, banjar.
• Aurangzeb's 1665 order = cultivation records village by village and peasant-wise (asamiwar), with kifayat and peasant welfare as its aims. It ordered records to be kept; it did not just "fix the jama".
• zabt rested on Todar Mal's ten-year survey of yields, prices and area. It was not workable in Gujarat and Bengal [3].
• Ain-i-Akbari (by Abul Fazl) = third volume of the Akbarnama. It records land survey methods and Todar Mal's duties [2][4].
• Trap: forests were not measured in the Mughal land survey.

Mains Points

• The jama–hasil gap is the main argument about Mughal state power.
• On paper the claim was large: one-third of medium produce, land measured province by province, and asamiwar records from 1665.
• In practice, collection depended on local conditions and local intermediaries such as zamindars.

• So Mughal centralisation was strong on paper but had to be negotiated on the ground.

• How the jama was fixed depended on what officials could manage, not on a single uniform rule.

• zabt needed measurement and accounts, so it worked in north India and failed in Gujarat and Bengal [3].

• batai and kankut continued where land could not be measured. The rules were the same for the whole empire, but practice differed from region to region.

• Cash-based jama tied villages to the market.

• Akbar's decree to prefer cash meant peasants had to sell grain to pay in coin.
• This helps explain the use of money in the countryside and the later commercialisation of agriculture.
• The burden still fell on the peasant, and rates of one-fifth to one-half of produce together with famines made it heavier.

Related concepts

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

Read more

• The land revenue system