Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 254

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
1 SEPTEMBER, 1923
especially in the eastern and northern parts, during the two years past (A.D. 1657-58), and scarcity of rain in some parts, had combined to make grain dear. To comfort the people and alleviate their distress, the Emperor gave orders for the remission of several taxes (a long list of them is given). But although his gracious and beneficent Majesty remitted these taxes and issued strict orders prohibiting their collection, the avaricious propensities of Jagirdars, Faujdars and Zemindars prevailed, and the regulation for the abolition of most of the imposts had no effect." The Emperor's edict remained a dead letter.
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In fairness, however, the authoritative account of Mr. James Mill-who probably derived information from other sources-of this famine of A.D. 1661 must be cited (History of India, vol. II, bk. iii, ch. iv, p. 349). "The third year of Aurangzeb's reign," writes Mr. Mill, "was visited with a great famine. The prudence of Aurangzeb, if his preceding actions will not permit us to call it his humanity, suggested to him the utmost activity of beneficence on this calamitous occasion. The rents of the husbandmen and other taxes were remitted. The treasury of the Emperor was opened without limit. Corn was distributed to the people at reduced prices. The great economy of Aurangzeb who allowed no expense for the luxury and ostentation of his court, and who managed with skill and vigilance the disbursements of the state, afforded him a resource for the wants of the people." This is high praise from a great historian who is by no means unduly biassed in favour of Aurangzeb.
The famine of A.D. 1661 was, as pointed out by Khafi Khan, partly due to war and scarcity of rain. The distress, however, continued long owing to the intolerable misgovernment. We have already seen how a rapacious civil service rendered futile even the good intentions of Aurangzeb. Add to this the imposition of a variety of new and vexatious duties upon the Hindus. A miserable, invertebrate, rack-rented peasantry; a vicious, corrupt, and rapacious civil service; and a fanatical Emperor: and you have a fairly good picture of the times. We have the testimóny of de Castro in 1662: "The Moghuls have destroyed these lands, through which cause many persons have died of famine" (Hopkins, India Old and New, p. 237); and the Portuguese now so suffered from dearth that de Castro had to raise money for relief by pawning the hairs of his beard!
Southern India was plunged at this time in those ceaseless, never-ending, dynastic wars, which were soon to be waged in the North also. The economic condition of the South had reached its nadir; and the miserable condition of the cultivators who formed the bulk of the population cannot be adequately described. In consequence of the changes introduced by the Muhammadan conquest, and the many abuses which later times had established, the share really enjoyed by the ryots was often reduced to a sixth, and but seldom exceeded a fifth. In those parts of the country where the practice of receiving rents in kind, or by a money valuation of the actual produce, still obtained, the cultivators were reduced to an equally unfavourable situation by the arbitrary demands and the contributions to which they were subjected beyond the stipulated rent. The effects of this unjust custom were considerably augmented by the common custom of Zemindars, of sub-renting their lands to farmers, who were armed with unrestricted powers of collection, and who were thus enabled to disregard, whenever it suited their purpose, the engagements they had entered into with the ryots, besides practising every species of oppression, which an unfeeling motive of selfinterest could suggest. They frequently reduced the ryots to the necessity of borrowing from money-lenders at the heavy interest of three, four, five per cent. per month.
In addition to the assessment on the lands or the shares of their produce received from the inhabitants duties were levied on inland trade, which were collected by the renters under the Zemindars. These duties, which went by the name of sayer, as they extended to grain,