Under-ryot
Topic: Colonial Economy: Land Revenue, Drain, Deindustrialisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
An under-ryot was a sub-tenant, someone who rented land from a ryot. A ryot (peasant cultivator) in Bengal sometimes farmed only part of his land. He gave the rest to under-ryots on rent. This shows that land rights below the zamindar had many layers. Power and rent passed down from the Company, to the zamindar, to the ryot, and then to the under-ryot.
Example
In late 18th-century Bengal, after the Permanent Settlement of 1793, a ryot paid rent to the zamindar. Then he collected rent from the under-ryots who farmed part of his land. The under-ryots were near the bottom of the village, with few rights of their own.
Don't confuse with
- Bargadar (adhiyar): a sharecropper on a jotedar's land who handed over half of the harvest. The under-ryot paid rent to a ryot.
Related concepts
- Francis Buchanan
- Jotedar
- Bargadar
- Gantidar
- Haoladar
- Mandal
- Patta and qabuliyat
- Kist
- Munsiff
- George Chinnery