Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Lord William Bentinck

Lord William Bentinck was Governor of Madras from 1803 to 1807, long before he became Governor-General. He came to doubt the permanent zamindari settlement, and backed Thomas Munro's ryotwari system in the Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema. He planned to tour those districts himself, and sent William Thackeray instead. After he left, the Madras Government replaced ryotwari there with village leases, against his strongly stated views. In Nellore a census was taken in 1804 for a house-tax he proposed.

Lord William Bentinck is best known as a later Governor-General of India.1 But he first governed Madras, and there he took sides in the great argument over how Rayalaseema should be taxed.2 He stood with Thomas Munro, who dealt directly with each cultivator, against settling the land on zamindars.21 See East India Company and Thomas Munro.

Governor of Madras

Maclean’s list of Governors shows Bentinck in office from 30 August 1803 to 11 September 1807.3 He came just after the permanent zamindari settlements of Lord Clive’s time.1 See Lord Clive.

Against new zamindars

The Fifth Report says that Bentinck early came to a clear view.1 Permanent zamindari tenure was not the best system for much of the coast.1 Creating zamindars where none had existed would not help the poor, and was not politically wise.1

In a minute (official note) of 29 April 1806 he wrote: “I am satisfied, that the creation of zemindars, is a measure incompatible with the true interest of the government, and of the community at large.”4 He added that he admired the principle of the permanent settlement, a fixed limit on the government’s demand.4 He differed only on how it had been carried out.4

Munro and the Ceded Districts

Munro was then Principal Collector of the Ceded Districts.2 Arbuthnot’s memoir of Munro says that he received “active and consistent support” from Bentinck.5 The Governor was convinced of Munro’s views at an early stage.5

Bentinck meant to tour Canara, Malabar and “the districts ceded by the Nizam” himself.6 Public business kept him at Madras.1 So in November 1806 he sent William Thackeray on the same tour.61 See Bellary and Kadapa.

After he left

The changes Munro feared came only after Bentinck and Munro had both gone.5 Early in 1808, the Bellary and Anantapur gazetteers say, the villages were ordered to be leased for three years to their headmen.78 This was done “in opposition to the strongly expressed convictions of Lord William Bentinck”, who had gone back to England the autumn before.78 The Imperial Gazetteer also records his opposition.9 See Anantapur.

A census in Nellore

Bentinck also proposed a house-tax in place of the moturpha (a tax on trades and professions).10 To estimate what it would yield, the Collector of Nellore, Mr. Travers, took a census in 1804.10 He counted 294,010 people living in 59,117 houses.10 The Nellore manual warns that the count cannot have been complete or accurate.10 See Nellore.

Footnotes

  1. W. K. Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee … on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. I (1917), p. 308 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. Alexander J. Arbuthnot (ed.), Major-General Sir Thomas Munro: Selections from his Minutes, Vol. I (1881), memoir, p. xcviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. C. D. Maclean (ed.), Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1885), p. 269, list of Governors of Fort St. George (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. Firminger (ed.), Fifth Report, Vol. I (1917), p. 309 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Arbuthnot (ed.), Sir Thomas Munro, Vol. I (1881), memoir, p. xcix (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Firminger (ed.), Fifth Report, Vol. I (1917), p. 310 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Bellary (1904), p. 160 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (1905), p. 111 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 443, s.v. Bellary District (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  10. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 475 and note (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

Dynasties

East India Company

1759–1858 CE

The English East India Company in the Telugu country, from its first landing on the coast in 1611 to the Crown's take-over in 1858. For a century and a half it traded through factories at Masulipatam, Nizampatnam, Madapollam, Viravasaram, Vizagapatam, Injaram and Bendamurlanka, under farmans of the Golconda kings and the Mughals. Its fort at Madras stood on land granted in 1639 through the Nayaka Damarla Venkatadri. After Forde drove out the French it received the Masulipatam country (1759), the five Northern Circars by the emperor's grant of 1765 and the treaties with the Nizam of 1766 and 1768, Guntur (1788), the Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema (1800) and Nellore with the Carnatic (1801). It governed through Chiefs and Councils, then Collectors. It fixed the coastal zamindars' land revenue permanently in 1802–03, and assessed the Rayalaseema cultivators under Thomas Munro's ryotwari system. It broke the power of the Vizianagaram raja at Padmanabham (1794) and of the poligars. After the Guntur famine of 1832–33 it built the Godavari and Krishna anicuts.

References

Sources (7)
  1. C. D. Maclean (ed.), Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (Appendices) (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1885, pp. 269. [Public domain]
  2. Walter Kelly Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Affairs of the East India Company, dated 28th July 1812, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), R. Cambray and Co., Calcutta, 1917, pp. 308–310. [Public domain]
  3. Alexander J. Arbuthnot (ed.), Major-General Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras: Selections from his Minutes and other Official Writings (opens in a new tab), C. Kegan Paul, London, 1881, xcviii–xcix. [Public domain]
  4. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Bellary (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1904, pp. 160. [Public domain]
  5. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Anantapur (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Addison & Co.), 1905, pp. 111. [Public domain]
  6. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 443. [Public domain]
  7. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras, 1873, pp. 475. [Public domain]

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