The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-12 00:00:00

THE LAND SETTLEMENT OF OUDA

The following letter has been addressed to the
editor of the Times :
SlR,—Lord Canning's Proclamation twice over
names—and concerns only—" the talookdaro,
chiefs, and landowners of Oude, with their fol-
lowers." Its object is to proclaim that, subject to
indulgence for past or future good behaviour, the)!
"proprietary right in the soil of the province is
confi-cated." It is addressed, of course, to the
people of Oude, but in that sense only are the pet"
ple at large affected by it. The whole question of
whether this proclamation is wise or blameable
turns upon the nature of the right thus destroyed,
and the number and dais of individuals in conse-
quence damaged. I assume that as conquerors 0.0
are entitled to confiscate a right known to be Ina
c-msistent with good government and the welfare
of the people at large, held as it is by the particu-
lar classes who have specially opposed and fought
against us.
Lord Ellenborough has been entirely misled by
the expression of " proprietary right." He evi-
dently supposes the talookdars, chiefs, and land-
owners, or, as they call themselves there general,
`the zemindars" of Oude, to form the great mites
of the people, and to resemble the industrious
zemindars of Bengal ; whereas they are a totallY,
different dais of men, and constitute a very small
section of the population. In fact, Lord Ellen-
borough, like many people, has confounded 66 thei
proprietary," or "zemindarree," or "talookdarree'.
right in the soil with the right of occupancy and
cultivation; whereas the two things are quite di 8-
tinct. It would take a volume to explain the 01"
tricacies of Indian land tenure, but I assert gene-
rally that the zemindars of ()ode are its oppressors,
not its cultivators, for proof of which assertion
appeil to Sir W. Sleeman's official report on oede,
passim. The reader will there find how in that
regi.Jri of anarchy and crime the zemindar with his
armed followers lives upon the plundered industry
of the poor cultivator—how seldom he demeans
himself by labour of any kind--how easily and
summarily the small landowner is dispossessed by
the large one—and, as a consequence, how small a
proportion "the talookdars, sirdarg, and zemin-
dars" form of that "great body of the people"
whom Lord Eilenborough accuses Lord Canning
of " having deprived of all hope."
Seventy years ago, when these questions were
very imperfectly understood, Lord Cornwallis,
making the same mistake into which Lord Ellen-
borough has now fallen, concluded the permanent
zemindarree settlement by which Bengal is even
still hampered. By it he produced a state of things
there not in accordance with the usual laud tenures
of India, which, among other evils, has occasioned
a confusion of terms, frequently leading, as in the
present instance, to the error of supposing the
zemindars to possess the sole right of cultivating
and occupying the toil.
When the re-settlement of our North-Western
Provinces—in which I had the honour to be em-
ployed—wasmore recently undertaken, every effort
consistent with law and justice was made to get rid
of tha zemindarree or talookdarree claims over the
and hereditary occupants, as an evil which
svas gene rally admitted to interfere with the pros"
perity and encouragement of the real cultivators o',
the soil.

These rights, however, were constantly too stroll
to be set aside. Though inconvenient, arbitrary'
and oppressive to the people, they were, like many
of our old feudal institutions, legal.
Mr. Edmonstone, au officer having unusual se'
qui)intance with the land tenures of Upper India,
has, under Lord Canning 's orders, wisely end
acutely seized the opportunity of a state of war,
specially waged against us by these very zemindare,
to take the power—to be used hereafter with the
moderation he points out—of setting aside these
zeruindarree or "proprietary" rights. In doing thio
he is carrying out a system predetermined on before
the war broke out, as necessary for the civilisation)
improvement, and good government of the 0001
try ; and though Lord Ellenborough, in the aix";
paragraph of his letter, alluding to that intend
system, infers that it was ono of the causes of the
war, still, without discussing that point, we melt
at least, now claim to reap
uits of tho slrug gle!
after having suffered its convulsions and brought it:
to a successful issue.--I alp, sir, your cliedieuu
,
servant,
F. S. HEAD, late of the Bengal Civil Service,
and formerly employed in the re-settlement
of the North-Western Provinces.
Chapel-street, Grosvenor-sqaare, May 11.