Milkiyat

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

Meaning

Milkiyat (from milk, "property") was the zamindar's own private land, kept separate from the land whose revenue he collected for the state. It was worked by hired or servile (unfree) labour, and he could sell it, bequeath it (leave it in a will) or mortgage it (pledge it for a loan) as he wished.

It matters because it shows that the Mughal zamindar was more than a tax collector. He was also a private owner of land that could be bought and sold. Milkiyat was one of the bases of his wealth, his power and his role in the rural market.

Explanation

Background: who held milkiyat

• Zamindars were landed proprietors. They lived off the land, but they did not plough it themselves.
• They sat at the narrow apex (very top) of the rural pyramid. Village headmen came below them, then the peasants (raiyat), then the landless workers.
• Their status rested on two things:
• Caste, meaning birth high in the caste order.

• Khidmat (service to the state). Service earned rank, and rank earned rights over land.

• The word zamindar is Persian: zamin (land) + dar (holder). [2]

• The Mughals used this one word for every kind of intermediary, from a small village headman to a powerful local chief. [2]

Main features of milkiyat

• Private property. Milkiyat was the zamindar's personal land. It was not the wider area where he collected tax for the state.
• Extensive. These holdings were large.
• Worked by others, not by his family:
• Hired labour, meaning workers paid a wage.

• Servile labour, meaning bonded or unfree workers.

• Full rights of transfer. He could:

• sell it,
• bequeath it (pass it on in a will),

• mortgage it (pledge it as security for a loan).

• Result: milkiyat land could change hands in the market. It was not frozen inside one family.

How it fitted into the zamindar's wider power

• Milkiyat was one pillar of power. The other two were:
• Revenue collection. He collected land tax for the state and was paid (compensated) for doing it.

• Military strength. He held fortresses called qilachas and kept armed men: cavalry (horsemen), artillery (cannon) and infantry (foot soldiers).

• Rights over land were bought and sold. Zamindaris grew by colonising new land, by transfer of rights, by order of the state, and by purchase.

• Sales were brisk.
• So even "lower" castes could buy their way into the zamindar class. Money could beat birth.

Results: milkiyat and the rural economy

• Zamindars sold the produce of their milkiyat in the market. It was not grown only for their own kitchens.
• They also:
• led the colonisation of new land,
• settled cultivators on it and gave them cash loans for seed, cattle and tools,

• founded haats (periodic village markets).

• Effect: more coins moved around the countryside. This sped up rural monetisation, the shift from barter to the use of money.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the Mughal Empire, 16th–17th centuries.
• Region: across the Mughal countryside. The meaning of zamindar changed from region to region:
• In Bengal, a zamindar was a hereditary tax collector who kept 10 per cent of the revenue he gathered. [2]

• In parts of northern India (for example present-day Uttar Pradesh), a zamindar was a big landowner with full proprietary (ownership) rights. [2]

• Lineage zamindaris (whole tracts held by one clan): Rajputs and Jats in northern India, and Sadgops, a peasant-pastoralist caste, in central and south-western Bengal.

• Key source: the Ain-i-Akbari
• Written by Abu'l Fazl. It is the third volume of the Akbarnama. [3]
• It has five sections. The third covers methods of land survey and the duties of the finance minister Todar Mal. [3]
• It gives the total armed strength of the zamindars and data on which castes made up the zamindar class.

• Copies are digitised as e-books (Vol. II and Vol. III) on the Government of India's Indian Culture portal. [4]

• Textbook: NCERT Class 12, Ch 4 "Peasants, Zamindars and the State".

Don't confuse with

• Zamindari revenue area: this was the land where the zamindar collected tax for the state and was paid for the work. Milkiyat was his own land, which he could sell, bequeath or mortgage.
• Jagir: a jagir was the right to collect an estate's revenue and govern it, given by the state to an official (jagir = holding land, dar = official). [5] A jagirdar was a state assignee who could be transferred. Milkiyat was the zamindar's private, saleable property.
• Raiyat land: the raiyat (peasant) ploughed his own land with his family's labour. Milkiyat was worked by hired or servile labour, never by the zamindar's family.
• Sanad: a sanad was an imperial order or grant that confirmed a zamindari won by conquest. It was a document of the state. Milkiyat was the property itself.

Prelims Hooks

• Milkiyat = the zamindar's personal land, worked by hired or servile labour, and freely sold, bequeathed or mortgaged.
• Trap: milkiyat was not tilled by the zamindar or his family. NCERT's Mughal zamindar did not plough the land himself.
• Qilachas = fortresses held by zamindars, defended by cavalry, artillery and infantry.
• Haats = periodic rural markets founded by zamindars. Along with the sale of milkiyat produce, they pushed rural monetisation.
• The Ain-i-Akbari is the third volume of the Akbarnama, by Abu'l Fazl. [3]
• Zamindar = Persian zamin (land) + dar (holder). In Bengal he kept 10 per cent of the revenue he collected. [2]

Mains Points

• Milkiyat shows land had become a market commodity in Mughal India.
• Zamindari rights could be sold, bequeathed and mortgaged, and sales were brisk.
• So "lower" castes could buy their way into a class led by the Brahmana–Rajput combine.

• Mughal rural society was hierarchical, but it was not frozen.

• The zamindar was both an exploiter and a builder of the economy.

• He used hired and servile labour on his milkiyat and took surplus from peasants.
• But he also sold milkiyat produce in markets, gave cash loans, settled new land and founded haats.

• Together these sped up rural monetisation. A GS-I answer should show both sides.

• Continuity and change under colonial rule. The Mughal zamindar combined private property (milkiyat), revenue duties and ties of patronage with peasants. The colonial Permanent Settlement turned the zamindar into a pure rent-extractor and broke that old give-and-take.

Related concepts

• Zamindar
• Zamindari consolidation

Read more

• The zamindars