The Mahalwari System of 1822
What was the Mahalwari system in 1822?
The Mahalwari System of 1822
The mahalwari system of 1822 was one of the land revenue systems that was introduced by the British in India. If nothing other than a modified version of the zamindari system and it was introduced basically in the states of north India, such as the Ganga Valley and the Northwest provinces and some parts of Central India and Punjab.
In this system, the settlement was made village by village; that is, each village had a different person or Zamindar who was accountable for extracting the land revenue from the cultivators. Secondly, the Zamindar or the landlord was the head of the family, and they claimed that they collectively owned the land of the villagers.
The revenue that was set was very high, and the cultivators could not afford it. Also, revenue was revised periodically, which created more problems for the small cultivators or farmers. The company was now able to earn more money than they previously did from the permanent settlement method, and the cultivator was left with nothing. The land quality also degraded due to overuse, and the British did very less to restore the fertility of the topsoil. On the other hand, they began extracting more and more money from the poor peasants, which put them further into the clutches of poverty.
– Written By Soniya Sanyal
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