Malguzar
Topic: Colonial Economy: Land Revenue, Drain, Deindustrialisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 4 "Framing the Constitution"
Meaning
A malguzar was a revenue-paying landholder in the Central Provinces under British rule. He was often the village headman. He collected land revenue from the cultivators and paid it to the government. Like zamindars elsewhere, malguzars had a lot of power over poor villagers. The term matters because it shows that the colonial revenue system created local agents of power across different regions.
Example
In the Constituent Assembly (1946–49), peasant leader N.G. Ranga argued that the real minorities were the poor. He named zamindars, malguzars and moneylenders as the people who exploited them.
Don't confuse with
- Zamindar (Permanent Settlement): the Bengal zamindar was settled with in 1793. He was defined as a revenue collector of the state, and his revenue was fixed forever. The malguzar belonged to the Central Provinces and to a different, non-permanent settlement.
Related concepts
- David Ricardo
- Ricardian theory of rent
- Rentier
- Bombay Deccan
- Thomas Munro
- Ryotwari system
- Temporary settlement
- Mahalwari system
- Deccan famine of 1832-34
- Peasant indebtedness