BAH
148
may
press as hardly upon fciadly-cultivated land as higher rents areas. I found four rupees per local bigha, or about twenty rupees per acre, p3.id for good tobacco land, and one rupee to one rupee four- annas per loe^I bjgha, five rupees to six rupees four annas per acre, as the ordinary ra.te for wheat, peas, rice, arhar, in south Bahraich,
low rents
upon more productiye
taken at random in pargana Fakhrpur, leaving out the Brahmans who on account of their religious position hold at favourable rates, all the rest of the tenants belonging to above twenty different castes hold according to the taluqdars' rent-roll 4,675 bfghas recorded at 1,640 Government bjghas, or 1,025 aeres, paying Es. 5,195, or above Rs. 5 per acra AJloAving for the usual understatement of assets, eleven shillings per acre would be about the rate. There was rto sugarcane in these viliages, and they comprised an average Rents exhibit more of bad pultivators, such as Chhattris and Musalmans. variation between the different classes, and more consideration for the Brahman and Chhattri clans in Bahraich than in cis-Gogra Oudh. Brahmans pay twelve annas where other castes pay one rupee generally. They give the landlord only one-third of the gross grain produce when other The rise of rents has been very rapid of late. In six castes pay one-half. or seven years that of Brahmans has risen over extensive tracts of country in south Bahraich from 8 annas to 12 annas, or 50 per cent., while other castes have been raised to 20 amias for ordinary land, from 10 annas or from grain rents.
In two
villages
Neotala Haudigaon
The increase of grain rents is also noted it was formerly customary for tenants breaking up wastelands to hold on exceptionally low terms for two or three years so as to remunerate them for the labour and expense incurred. Tenants now, at any rate in southern Bahraich, break up land paying half the crop as grain rents from the first year. The landlords defend the rise of rents on the ground that the tenants are very lazy, and that they require the spur of high rent to induce them to cultivate properly. This is partially true the Brahmans are extremely lazy they depend for their cultivation almost entirely upon their Sawaks alresidy described ; they will not touch a plough with their own hands ; they occasionally condescend to handle a spade for an hour or two in the day, but continuous hard labour is apparently beyond their powers. On the other hand, however, it must be remarked, that they have no inducement to be industrious, for, adjoining theirs are the fields of Muraos who have been paying high rents, but have been recently raised still higher.
A
I quote a few instances out of many. Mur^o in Rampurwa has 8 local bighas of garden cultivation near the village site and 9 in the outer lands, the hdr ; for this he paid Rs. 24 six years ago it was then raised to 25, then to 35, and this year, although harvests have been bad for three seasons, to Rs. 41. fair rent for the land, which was ordinary, would have been Rs. 30 at the utmost, and the Government revenue, which is supposed to be half the rent, was not more than It is obvious that in such cases rents are only limited by the possiRs. 15. bility of exaction from the helpless, for the Murao was of course in debt, and could not leave the village to seek a more profitable farrh elsewhere. The rise of rents is well exemplified by the garden lavnds. These consist really
A
