ABSTRACT
By injecting the dynamics of British contractual law into the Indian land revenue system, the new rulers toned up that system in a big way. This also applied to the regions of India to which the Permanent Settlement was not extended and where the peasants were assessed directly. These revenue-paying peasants were defined as government tenants whose land was also subject to forced sale when they did not meet their contractual obligation of paying the revenue punctually. In keeping with the philosophy of the freedom of contract, the peasant was free to relinquish the land, if he felt that the revenue demand was too high, but as he had nowhere else to go this option was not open to him. If he did forfeit his land, he usually stayed on to till it for somebody else.
