Vol. 5, Issue 3, Part B (2019)

Abstract
The Mahalwari system was the last one among the three major land revenue settlements introduced by the British colonial set- up of East India Company in a series of experimentation. And believed to be an improvement over both the previous existing land revenue system on the basis of its hybrid and innovative nature. It was a settlement for the estates of proprietary bodies, first introduced in the region of North-Western Provinces* under the Regulation VII of 1822. Further, it was extended up to the region of the Central Provinces* and the British Punjab*. The other two major land settlements were permanent Zamindari in Bengal presidency and Ryotwari in Madras and Bombay Presidency respectively. The new system, where the land revenue tax was assessed and realized by the village Body of Co-sharers, made land a commodity for market, which might be bought, sold, purchased and mortgaged easily with a proper value. The agrarian consequences of all land revenue settlement so of Mahalwari system fell harshly on Indian peasantry and negatively impacted all the agrarian communities. The high rental demand of land revenue by the state made cultivation uneasy, uneconomical and unprofitable. The agrarian consequences of Mahalwari system of land revenue settlement are heavy and costly for India in terms of financial and material losses. It changed the whole existing agrarian structure of India and brought an “extensive and melancholy revolution in landed property” in India. The consequences of Mahalwari operation was very much determined by the procedure of land revenue assessment and realization. It developed a bourgeoisie sense of ownership in land. Here, in this paper, I would like to answer the question that how the Mahalwari System of land revenue settlement, initiated by the British Colonial set- up, created a new type of ownership and possession rights and brought the concept of proprietary rights and private property in land.