ABSTRACT

This book analyses the character of British rule in nineteenth-century India, by focusing on the underlying ideas and the practical repercussions of agrarian policy. It argues that the great rent law debate and the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 helped constitute a revolution in the effective aims of government and in the colonial ability to interfere in India, but that they did so alongside a continuing weakness of understanding and in effective local control. In particular, the book considers the importance of notions of historical rights and economic progress to the false categorisations made of agrarian structure. It shows that the Tenancy Act helped to widen social disparities in rural Bihar, and to create political interests on the land.

chapter Chapter One|35 pages

Property, classes and the state

chapter Chapter Two|40 pages

Official will and administrative capacity

chapter Chapter Three|25 pages

A necessary reform

chapter Chapter Four|45 pages

The great rent law debate

chapter Chapter Five|34 pages

Custom and the law

chapter Chapter Six|34 pages

The magic of property

chapter Chapter Seven|32 pages

The politics of land

chapter Chapter Eight|32 pages

Keeping the record

chapter Chapter Nine|35 pages

Colonial rule and agrarian structure

chapter Chapter Ten|29 pages

Rents and rights

chapter Chapter Eleven|31 pages

Peasants, property and nation