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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[NOVEMBER, 1911.
was usually a Muhammadan and almost always a favourite of the Nawab. The revenues of each Subhá were farmed out in large portions, never less than taluks, or sometimes even whole Subhds, to renters,70 who paid the revenue sometimes to the Fauzdar and sometimes direct to the Nawab's court.
"All the demands of the State were" writes an authority,80 " in this manner farmed out to the highest bidder, whose hope of profit, therefore, lay in what he could extort from the people, The ancertainty of his position-liable as he was to be ejected at the caprice of the Nawab made the renter neglectful of developing or fostering the resources of his charge, which it would have been his interest to do had his tenure been more permanent. His aim was simply to get as much out of the country as he could ; to conceal what he got ; and to pay the Nawab or his agents as little as possible. The renters, on obtaining the rent, had to pay a Nazrana or benevolence to the Nawab, and another to the Fauzdar; and if it became notorious that the renter had made a good thing of his contract, or if the Nawab wanted money, extra Nazrdnas were, from time to time, demanded. If the renter could not or would not pay, eitber the rent was given to another, or the demand was discontinued, and the holder of th: Nawab's orders Vested with fall power to recover the amount any way he could. The renters when pressed by the Government, tightened the screw on the sub-renters, generally the head inbabitants of villages, and these in their tarn, recouped themselves at the expense of the other inhabitants, who were the ultimate sufferers. The Faazdár, whose power was the only check on the renters, leant to their side as being those who could pay best, so that the inhabitants got scant justice. Even this slight check disappeared in the last quarter of the 10th century when the misgovernment of the Carnatic reached its height under Mubammad Ali and Umdatl-ul-Umra. Then whole provinces were leased out and the Fauzdâr and head-renter were often the same person, This was repeatedly the case in Nellore.31 Under these circumstances the last resource of the inhabitants was flight. Large numbers were thus driven from their villages and took refuge either in the Ceded Districts, Madras, or the Company's territory in the Northern Circars. The renters themselves, when bard pressed by the Nawab, adopted a similar course. When the Fauzdür was also renter, the peculation and corruption that took place under the other systum were doubled. All the demands from all the sources of the revenue and all payments on account of the Naw&b, were then in the hands of the renters. Tankas or orders for money, which the Nawab used to issue on the renters, were unpaid, but credits were taken in the accounta; 80 also for the pay of the Nawab's troops stationed in the di pict; which bad never been disborsed; for pensions, which were paid to the generality of the recipiente for from three to six months of the year; and in short, fraud and extortion flourished, of course, under a government by anscrapulous speculators." The oppression of the under-renters (usually heads of villages)," says the Fifth Report, 82 principally consisted in levying private contributions on frivolous pretences; in under-assessing lands in the occupation of themselves, their relations, or friends, and making up the differences by an over-a89essment of the other village cultivators, more especially those who were the poorest, and therefore unable to protect themselves; in forcing the poorer ryots to coltivate their lands and to perform for them, free of charge, various
1) North Arcot Dt. Manual, I, 119; Garstin's South Arcot Dt. Manual, 233; Moore's Trichinopoly Dt. Manual, 179; Nellore Dt. Manual, 182; Nelson's Madura Dt. Manual, III, 274, 277, 280, and IV, 4 et seq. ; Caldwell's Tinnwoolly, 125-6. As to Chinglepat, see Orme's Indostan, II, 368, 512, and Chinyle put D. Manual, 231. Also sa Follarton's View of the English Interests in India, 102-3, 138, 245-6, and 248-252 particularly.
"M. C. S."in the Nellore Dt. Manual, p. 482-4. "So it would appear in the other Subhas also. See Fullerton's View of the English Interests in India, p. 248-252.
# Fifth Report of the Parliamentary Committee for the East India Affairs, 1813.
