A History of India, Third Edition

THE PERIOD OF COLONIAL RULE

enabled the British of those days to master the tasks demanded of them by
an environment of which they initially knew so little.
As far as the land revenue was concerned the British showed less
consideration: even after the cruel famine of 1770 which killed about one-
third of the population, they tried their best to squeeze as much money out
of hapless Bengal as they could. Hastings adopted a method which had
also been employed earlier by the nawab of Bengal: he auctioned the rights
of revenue collection to the highest bidder. In this way he hoped to get
optimal results with a minimum of administrative effort. But this system
collapsed, and the commission of inquiry which Hastings had appointed in
order to find out about the land revenue took some time to submit its
report. In the meantime, Philip Francis—Hastings’ inveterate rival—
produced a plan of his own which greatly influenced future debates on the
land revenue settlement.
Francis was well read in contemporary economic thought and produced a
blend of liberal and mercantilist ideas mixed with precepts borrowed from the
French Physiocrats, who taught that a tax on land should be the only one
demanded by the state. Governed according to such precepts, Bengal would
prosper and pay the tribute to its foreign rulers without much difficulty. First
of all, there should be free trade in Bengal and the company should buy goods
for export in the free market and no longer tie down producers by means of
advances and contracts which made them dependent on the company. Exports
from Bengal should consist only of manufactures and not of precious metals.
Revenues should be assessed with a view to the needs of good government
rather than on the principle of squeezing everybody as much as possible.
There should be no tax other than the land revenue, because this revenue was
a tax on the society as a whole by virtue of its being passed on to the consumer
by means of higher prices. All other taxes could be abolished—especially all
duties, which encumbered free trade. The land revenue should be settled
permanently and the property on which this revenue would be assessed should
be heritable and freely alienable. This last point was especially emphasised by
Francis. However, permanent settlement and the emphasis on private landed
property made sense only in the context of his other recommendations.
Hastings did not give much thought to his rival’s proposals and Francis,
who left India in 1780, could do nothing about their implementation.
Hastings stuck to the annual assessment of the landlords (zamindars)
without improving the legal position of their property. He was more
concerned about the general problem of the civil jurisdiction of the Diwan
of Bengal, for which he was responsible.

British law and Indian law

When Hastings turned his attention to the problem of civil jurisdiction he
soon found out that under the benign supervision of his Indian