The Decline of the Bengal Zamindars, Midnapore 1870-1920 by Chitta PandaReview by: Subhajyoti RayBulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 61, No. 2(1998), p. 370Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3107701 .

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Seddon's earlier gloom over Nepal, so power- fully expressed in Nepal in crisis and less apocalyptically in Nepal: a state of poverty, is more trenchant. This is a sad reflection on the fruits of Nepali democracy.

Nepal in the nineties is a good book. It is not an introductory volume but is essential for anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understand- ing of Nepal at a critical juncture in the country's history. Its title is a little misleading as the majority of the essays concentrate on the opening years of the decade and are very much focused on political development. Only two of the chapters are general and fit more clearly under the rubric 'Nepal in the nineties'. But this problem of titling and scope is common to many edited works and does not detract from the quality of the individual essays. The book is of a uniformly high standard and is a welcome analytical contribution to the study of Nepal.

T. LOUISE BROWN

CHITTA PANDA: The decline of the Bengal zamindars, Midnapore 1870- 1920. (Oxford University South Asian Studies Series.) x, 231 pp. Delhi, etc.: Oxford University Press, 1996. Rs. 450, ?7.99.

In the historiography of colonial Bengal the encounter between the zamindars and the East India Company/Crown has been interpreted from three perspectives. The first emphasizes that the Permanent Settlement of 1793 with its high pitch of revenue demand and stringent conditions of payment ruined many zamindars and their estates. The second and more nuanced approach suggests that in spite of the large- scale sale of the estates and ruin of individuals, the zamindars as a class did not suffer. For, in most cases, when an estate was auctioned the principal buyers were the family members and officers of the erstwhile owners. The third view is that notwithstanding the difficulties that followed the establishment of the East India Company as the ruling power in Bengal, the zamindars were able to retain their economic and social prestige.

Chitta Panda's monograph, compiled with reference to the district of Midnapore, sub- scribes to the first of the three positions. The view that the zamindars declined after the establishment of the rule of the East India Company in Bengal has been held for long by British administrators as well as historians of colonial Bengal, but Panda's is the first major work to muster rich empirical evidence from a locality to give substance and, indeed, a new lease of life to this argument.

There were five sets of causes which, accord- ing to Panda, led to the decline in the social and economic position of the different categor- ies of zamindars in Midnapore. The first of these was the high level of revenue demand and the rigidity of the collection system which led to the fragmentation of many estates (ch. i). The second was that the creation of tenures (patnis) to offset the immediate problems did not prove to be effective. Henceforth the zamindars were dependent on the goodwill of

Seddon's earlier gloom over Nepal, so power- fully expressed in Nepal in crisis and less apocalyptically in Nepal: a state of poverty, is more trenchant. This is a sad reflection on the fruits of Nepali democracy.

Nepal in the nineties is a good book. It is not an introductory volume but is essential for anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understand- ing of Nepal at a critical juncture in the country's history. Its title is a little misleading as the majority of the essays concentrate on the opening years of the decade and are very much focused on political development. Only two of the chapters are general and fit more clearly under the rubric 'Nepal in the nineties'. But this problem of titling and scope is common to many edited works and does not detract from the quality of the individual essays. The book is of a uniformly high standard and is a welcome analytical contribution to the study of Nepal.

T. LOUISE BROWN

CHITTA PANDA: The decline of the Bengal zamindars, Midnapore 1870- 1920. (Oxford University South Asian Studies Series.) x, 231 pp. Delhi, etc.: Oxford University Press, 1996. Rs. 450, ?7.99.

In the historiography of colonial Bengal the encounter between the zamindars and the East India Company/Crown has been interpreted from three perspectives. The first emphasizes that the Permanent Settlement of 1793 with its high pitch of revenue demand and stringent conditions of payment ruined many zamindars and their estates. The second and more nuanced approach suggests that in spite of the large- scale sale of the estates and ruin of individuals, the zamindars as a class did not suffer. For, in most cases, when an estate was auctioned the principal buyers were the family members and officers of the erstwhile owners. The third view is that notwithstanding the difficulties that followed the establishment of the East India Company as the ruling power in Bengal, the zamindars were able to retain their economic and social prestige.

Chitta Panda's monograph, compiled with reference to the district of Midnapore, sub- scribes to the first of the three positions. The view that the zamindars declined after the establishment of the rule of the East India Company in Bengal has been held for long by British administrators as well as historians of colonial Bengal, but Panda's is the first major work to muster rich empirical evidence from a locality to give substance and, indeed, a new lease of life to this argument.

There were five sets of causes which, accord- ing to Panda, led to the decline in the social and economic position of the different categor- ies of zamindars in Midnapore. The first of these was the high level of revenue demand and the rigidity of the collection system which led to the fragmentation of many estates (ch. i). The second was that the creation of tenures (patnis) to offset the immediate problems did not prove to be effective. Henceforth the zamindars were dependent on the goodwill of

the patnidars for the timely payment of revenue. More importantly, with the creation of a class of tenure-holders the zamindars lost much of their de jure and de facto rights over land as well as all direct links with the peasantry (ch. ii). Little wonder, therefore, that they failed to raise the level of rent from the peasants- especially from those peasants who, having five to seven acres of land, were able to profit from the 'overall changes in a not so buoyant agrarian economy' (ch. iii). Faced with an extensive financial crisis and an erosion of power, the zamindars failed to improve their position by making fresh purchases in a growing market in land. According to Panda, the land market in Midnapore was dominated by peasant purchasers, which illustrated the strength of this group against the zamindars and moneylenders (ch. iv). Finally, the law in the form of the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 and its subsequent amendments, favoured the 'rich peasants' and sealed the fate of the zamindars (ch. v). Deprived of their power and prestige in the countryside, the zamindars joined the nationalist movement to recover some of their lost honour.

Recently John McLane had argued that faced with similar problems the successive zamindars of the adjoining Burdwan raj not only survived with honour, but also expanded their estate at the cost of their neighbours, including the zamindars of Midnapore (Land and local kingship in eighteenth-century Bengal, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). The unqualified decline of the Midnapore zamindars perhaps provides a counterpoint to the qualified rise of the Burdwan raj. But the role of one set of zamindars in the decline of another (a point not considered by Panda) tends to corroborate the argument that in spite of specific cases of decline, the zamindars as a class did not suffer from their encounter with the East India Company/Crown.

Arguably the most important intervention of Panda in the agrarian history of colonial Bengal is to trace the rise of a powerful group of rich peasants in Midnapore, a district of western Bengal (chs. iii, iv and v). Over a decade ago, in a very influential monograph Sugata Bose had suggested, against the contemporary wisdom, that the existence and the importance of a class of rich peasants who appropriated the labour of poor peasants and sharecroppers were limited only to north Bengal, and that the agrarian systems in east and west Bengal were structurally different (Agrarian Bengal: eco- nomy, social structure and politics 1919-1947, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). Against Bose, Nariaki Nakazato had found that the rich peasants were equally powerful and important in eastern Bengal (Agrarian system of eastern Bengal, Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi and Sons, 1989). Panda's monograph by estab- lishing quite clearly the importance of this section of peasantry in western Bengal-as major players in the land market, and as controllers of rural credit, trading networks and poor peasants (chs. iii, iv and v)-reinvigor- ates the position of those who, not adhering to the regional agrarian typologies of Bose, believe in the presence and the importance of the rich peasants throughout Bengal.

SUBHAJYOTI RAY

the patnidars for the timely payment of revenue. More importantly, with the creation of a class of tenure-holders the zamindars lost much of their de jure and de facto rights over land as well as all direct links with the peasantry (ch. ii). Little wonder, therefore, that they failed to raise the level of rent from the peasants- especially from those peasants who, having five to seven acres of land, were able to profit from the 'overall changes in a not so buoyant agrarian economy' (ch. iii). Faced with an extensive financial crisis and an erosion of power, the zamindars failed to improve their position by making fresh purchases in a growing market in land. According to Panda, the land market in Midnapore was dominated by peasant purchasers, which illustrated the strength of this group against the zamindars and moneylenders (ch. iv). Finally, the law in the form of the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 and its subsequent amendments, favoured the 'rich peasants' and sealed the fate of the zamindars (ch. v). Deprived of their power and prestige in the countryside, the zamindars joined the nationalist movement to recover some of their lost honour.

Recently John McLane had argued that faced with similar problems the successive zamindars of the adjoining Burdwan raj not only survived with honour, but also expanded their estate at the cost of their neighbours, including the zamindars of Midnapore (Land and local kingship in eighteenth-century Bengal, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). The unqualified decline of the Midnapore zamindars perhaps provides a counterpoint to the qualified rise of the Burdwan raj. But the role of one set of zamindars in the decline of another (a point not considered by Panda) tends to corroborate the argument that in spite of specific cases of decline, the zamindars as a class did not suffer from their encounter with the East India Company/Crown.

Arguably the most important intervention of Panda in the agrarian history of colonial Bengal is to trace the rise of a powerful group of rich peasants in Midnapore, a district of western Bengal (chs. iii, iv and v). Over a decade ago, in a very influential monograph Sugata Bose had suggested, against the contemporary wisdom, that the existence and the importance of a class of rich peasants who appropriated the labour of poor peasants and sharecroppers were limited only to north Bengal, and that the agrarian systems in east and west Bengal were structurally different (Agrarian Bengal: eco- nomy, social structure and politics 1919-1947, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). Against Bose, Nariaki Nakazato had found that the rich peasants were equally powerful and important in eastern Bengal (Agrarian system of eastern Bengal, Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi and Sons, 1989). Panda's monograph by estab- lishing quite clearly the importance of this section of peasantry in western Bengal-as major players in the land market, and as controllers of rural credit, trading networks and poor peasants (chs. iii, iv and v)-reinvigor- ates the position of those who, not adhering to the regional agrarian typologies of Bose, believe in the presence and the importance of the rich peasants throughout Bengal.

SUBHAJYOTI RAY

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