Question

Give a brief description of the ryotwari system

Answer 1

Dear Student,

Apart from the Permanent Settlement, two other land revenue systems were devised by the British in India. These were the Ryotwari and Mahalwari systems.
Initiated by Captain Alexander Read, the Ryotwari system was later developed by Thomas Munro. It was started on a small scale, but it slowly got extended all over south India. In this system, the peasant cultivators (ryots) were considered the owners of the land. They could sell, mortgage or gift their land. To garner more money, officials fixed too high a revenue demand which ryots were unable to pay. To pay their taxes peasants sometimes borrowed the money from moneylenders. This further burdened them with heavy interests. Left with no option, most of them fled the countryside, and villages became deserted in many regions.

Regards
​​