PERMANENT SETTLEMENT is a revenue term in British India, usually applied to an agree ment introduced in 1793, during the administra tion of Lord Cornwallis, by which certain agents for collecting the rents or taxes on the land were granted the right of occupying that position per mane fitly, on making annual payment to the Govern ment of the amount of rents then being paid. The object in view was to create a body of landlords like those of Great Britain. It is an immemorial law that ' the resident ryot, simply as such, is, throughout the continent of India, possessed, as a rule, of hereditary occupancy at the customary rates of the vicinity.' Lord Cornwallis insisted that whoever cultivates the land, the landlord can receive no more than the established rent. To permit him to dispossess one cultivator for the sole purpose of giving the land to another, would be vesting him with a power to commit a wanton act of oppression, from which he could derive no benefit.' The enhancement of rent was positively prohibited, unless the ryots could be induced to cultivate the more valuable articles of produce, and to clear the extensive tracts of waste which are to be found in almost every zamindari in Bengal.' The zamindar of those days was perfectly cognisant of the conditions attached to his position, among which was the right reserved by the Court of Directors, as suc cessors of the Ifoghul Government, to make from time to time all such regulations as may be necessary to prevent the ryots being improperly disturbed in their possessions, or loaded with un warrantable exactions.' Tho court added that
their `interposition, where it is necessary, seems also to be clearly consistent with the practice of the 3foghul Government, under which it appeared to be a general maxim that the immediate culti vator of the soil, paying the rent, should not be dispossessed of the land he occupied.' The zamin dars, in the year 1880, were supposed to be receiving about 16 millions sterling from their ryots, but paying to the Government only the amount fixed in 1793, and the cultivators have not shared in the increase of wealth of the country. Three times since the middle of the 19th century, the Government has tried to alleviate the cultiva tors' condition in British India, but hitherto with out success. The exact nwnber of ryots not known, but there are nearly ten millions who pay less than £10 a year rent for their hold ings, and of these upwards of six millions pay less than 10s. Below these two classes, again, come the untold millions of day-labourers, who barely exist from hand to mouth, and whose unparalleled fecundity is becoming a positive danger to the State. See Pattadari; Ryotwari.