History · Ch 9 — Colonialism and the Countryside — Exploring Official Archives
The zamindars resist
The zamindars resist
The zamindars did not simply accept the new system. Faced with impossibly high revenue demands and the threat of losing their estates at auction, they fought back — not with open rebellion, but with clever, often deceptive, strategies that exploited the Company's own rules.
Strategies of resistance
Fictitious (benami) sales were the most common tactic. The zamindar would orchestrate a fake auction to buy back his own land at a low price. The Raja of Burdwan used a two-step version of this. First, he transferred part of his zamindari to his mother, because the Company had decreed that women's property would not be seized. Then his agents manipulated the auctions. They deliberately withheld the Company's revenue, letting arrears pile up. When a portion of the estate was put up for auction, the zamindar's own men would bid and buy it. But they would then refuse to pay the purchase money, forcing a resale. This cycle — auction, purchase, non-payment, re-auction — was repeated until other bidders and the state itself were exhausted. Finally, the estate was sold back to the zamindar at a very low price. The zamindar never paid the full revenue demand, and the Company rarely recovered the unpaid balances.
This was not a minor trick. Between 1793 and 1801, four big zamindaris of Bengal — including Burdwan — made such benami purchases worth a total of about Rs 30 lakh. Over 15 per cent of all auction sales during this period were fictitious.
Physical resistance was another method. When an outsider bought an estate at auction, he often could not take possession. The former zamindar's lathyals (armed retainers) would attack the new owner's agents. Even the peasants (ryots) sometimes resisted the entry of outsiders. They felt a sense of loyalty to their own zamindar, seeing him as their authority and themselves as his proja (subjects). The sale of the zamindari disturbed their identity and pride. The zamindar was not easily displaced.
Consolidation and decline …
Figure 9.5 is a simple but powerful diagram that maps the hierarchy of power and economic relationships in rural Bengal under the Company’s rule. At the very top sits the Company (the East India Company), shown as the ultimate authority. Below it is the Zamindar, who controls numerous villages. The diagram makes clear that the zamindar’s power flows downward: he is responsible for paying revenue to the Company and for distributing the revenue demand (jama) across villages.
Below the zamindar, the diagram places the Ryot — the ordinary cultivator. But the ryot is not a single, uniform category. The figure distinguishes a special kind of rich ryot, the Jotedar, who is also a trader and moneylender. The jotedar is placed at the same level as the ordinary ryot, but with arrows showing that he gives out loans to other ryots and sells their produce. This captures the jotedar’s dual role: he is both a cultivator and a source of credit, which gives him leverage over poorer peasants.
Below the ryot, the diagram shows Under-ryots — tenants who cultivate land that the ryot does not work himself. The arrows indicate that under-ryots pay rent to the ryot. Meanwhile, every ryot — big or small — pays rent to the zamindar. So the flow of payments is: under-ryot → ryot → zamindar → Company. The jotedar’s arrows for loans and produce run horizontally, showing that his power cuts across this vertical chain. …