ABSTRACT
D E S P I T E its far-reaching implications the ryotwari system of land-revenue was only one facet of the utilitarian programme of reform for Maharashtra. Pringle and other administrators who were influenced by Bentham were equally anxious to reform other parts of the administration which they had inherited from the Marathas. Since they subscribed to the principles of legality and rationality, and since they also subscribed to the belief that the centralisation of authority ensured efficiency in government, the utilitarians looked upon the administration of the Marathas with marked disapproval. The absence of clear channels of authority in the former government; the ambiguity in the obligations and responsibilities of the mamlatdars and other officers; and finally, the arbitrary powers exercised by hereditary officers like the deshmukhs and the patils were anathema to the utilitarians. An efficient administration, so they believed, was one which possessed a simple and centralised structure, and in which the powers and responsibilities of the various officers were clearly defined. An efficient administration, they further believed, was one which exercised strict control over hereditary officers like the patils and the deskmukhs, who possessed strong ties of tradition with the villages under their control, and who had consequently been a source of constant trouble to the Peshwas. While the rigorous rationality which characterised Pringle's system of land-revenue had aroused the hostility of administrators like Chaplin and
Robertson, the utilitarians and the conservatives were both agreed upon the need for substantial reforms in the rest of the administration. As a result of such a consensus, the institutions of government which grew up under British aegis represented far more drastic a break with tradition than the ryotwari system of land-revenue after it had been modified by Goldsmid and Wingate.
