ORIGIN OF LAND RIGHTS IN ASSAM

Assam Land & Revenue Regulation,1886

Introductory

SECTION 1 - ORIGIN OF LAND RIGHTS IN ASSAM

Till the dawn of civilization, man was only a nomadic creature migrating from place to place and living on fruits of trees and flesh of animals. Even when agriculture was discovered, he continued to do only sifting cultivation for several thousands of years. No question of rights over land could arise in such a state of society. Later on, when the great river valleys of Indus, Ganges, Nile, Tigris and Euphrates were discovered, man became settled down in permanent cultivation of the fertile soils of these bountiful valleys. But permanent cultivation requires peaceful condition and security of life in the society. In those days, however, peaceful condition was an exception rather than the rule, there being no proper defense organization in the society. The different communities of colonists in the great river valleys were constantly at war with one another. In course of time, someone more enterprising than the others in each community took the leadership in his hand and organized defence for the whole community, and in exchange for security, demanded unquestioned allegiance to his authority. He was the chief of the community and he maintained fighting forces and asked the rest of the community to contribute part of their crops to him. From this it was only a small step forward to claiming his absolute ownership of the lands which were cultivated by the rest of the members of the community. Later on, when the chiefship evolved into full-fledged monarchy he claimed himself to be the absolute proprietor of all lands under his dominion. Thus arose, in brief, the concept of state ownership of lands. Ever since then, kings of all countries have claimed properties in lands under their dominion; and where kings have been overthrown, the successor, government, whatever form, have made the same claim of ownership of all lands in the country.

This concept of absolute state ownership of lands was prevalent in Assam during the Ahom rule too. The Ahom King regarded himself as the absolute proprietor of all lands in the Ahom kingdom. Sometimes he made free grants to idols, Brahmins. religious institutions and elites in the field of learning and administration. In making such grants, he alienated his proprietory right in favour of these grantees. When the British annexed Assam. these grantees claimed the same proprietory rights as they used to enjoy under the Ahom rule. But the British Government did not acknowledge these claims straightway. General Jenkins, the then Commissioner made a detailed enquiry and divided such grants into 3 classes, - Debottor (dedicated to idols), Dharmottor (dedicated to religious purpose) and Brahmottor (dedicated to priests). He acknowledged the Debottor grants which included Bhogdhani and Paikan lands as Lakhiraj or revenue-free but assessed the other two classes to half the ordinary rates of revenue, which are. therefore, known as nisfkhiraj or half revenue-paying estates.

Apart from these grants made by Ahom Kings to Satras, Temples, Brahmins or learned people, all other lands during Ahom period were allowed to be cultivated by Paiks. The whole population was divided into Khels, each khel containing 1,000 to 5,000 persons and each Khel was sub-divided into Gotes. Each Gote contained 3 to 4 Paiks or Raiyats. One Paik of each Gote rendered personal service to the King or some officer of the State. In return, each Paik of the Gote was allotted two Puras (8 bighas) of riceland or orchard free of rent, the two Paiks who remained at home cultivating not only their own shares, but also that of the 3rd Paik whose turn it was to give his labour to the state. In addition, each Paik was allowed a piece of land for his house and garden for which he paid Re. 1/- annually as house tax or poll-tax. If a Paik cultivated any riceland in excess of his 2 Puras, he was assessed to Re.1/- per Pura. The non-cultivators paid a higher rate of poll-tax and the pans cultivators a tax on their ploughs, while the Hill tribes paid what was known as a hoe-tax.

Thus, during the Ahom rule, traces of two distinct categories of land-rights could be detected,
namely - 
1)    absolute proprietory rights of Lakhirajdars, and

      2)     some kind of an occupancy right of Paiks who were actual cultivators,

The British Government in Assam welcomed the theory of absolute state ownership of lands. It also adhered to the two-fold divisions of the holders of lands under the State. But it added other sub-divisions to them in order to systematise the various tenures prevailing in different parts of the Province.

Prior to 1886, for the purpose of land-administration, the British Government had prepared certain waste-land grant rules for special cultivation(Rules of 1838, 1854,1862, 1874 and 1876) and settlement rules for ordinary cultivation (Rules of 1870 and 1883) and had also followed various Bengal Regulations and Acts of Governor-General-in-Council.

In 1886, it enacted the all-comprehensive and well-drafted Assam Land and Revenue Regulation which is still in force. The Regulation, besides giving legal sanction to the various rules and orders then in force and repealing the Bengal Regulations and Acts of Governor-General-in-Council, enunciated the basic principles of land-rights which the British Government decided to recognise.

Under section 6 of the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886, the British Government recognised the following categories of land rights and no other

(a) Rights of proprietor, landholder and settlement holder other than landholder

(b) Right legally derived from (a);

(c) Rights acquired under Section 26 and 27 of the Indian Limitation Act (i.e., prescriptive rights); and

(d) Rights acquired by any person as tenant under any Rent Law in force.

Though four categories of land rights are mentioned here, the categories (b) (c) and (d) are all derivative rights flowing from (a). Those mentioned under (a) are the basic rights and they relate to proprietor, landholder and settlement holder. Landholder, again, is only a species of the broader class called settlement holder, so that in the ultimate analysis, there are only two broad classes under the Regulation, and they correspond, though somewhat remotely, to the two classes existing under the Ahom rule. The history of land rights as described in the Introduction to the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation is mostly a history of the evolution and systematization of the rights of the proprietor, the landholder and the settlement holder other than the landholder. Thus in order to fit in the rights of the owners of the permanently settled estates of Goalpara and Sylhet, the like of which were not found in the rest of Assam, they were included within the definition of proprietor alongside the owners of Lakhiraj and revenue- free waste land grants. Again, in order to encourage permanent cultivation persons holding land for more than 10 years were given permanent heritable and transferable rights, and formed a superior subclass within the wider class of settlement holder. In short, all classes of lands were, by one way or another, brought under the scope of the estates of these 3 main classes, namely :

(1) Proprietor, (2) Landholder, and (3) Settlement holder other than landholder.