Question

Q. Which one of the following land revenue settlements resulted in large scale benami transactions?

• A.
  Permanent settlement
• B.
  Ryotwari settlement
• C.
  Mahalwari settlement
• D.
  Both a and b

Answer 1

The correct option is A

Permanent settlement
Explanation:

• Benami, literally anonymous, is a term used in Hindi and several other Indian languages for transactions made in the name of a fictitious or relatively insignificant person, whereas the real beneficiary remains unnamed.
• In Permanent settlement, zamidar faced with an exorbitantly high revenue demand and possible auction of their estates, they devised ways of surviving the pressures. New contexts produced new strategies.
• Fictitious sale was one such strategy. When a part of the estate was auctioned, the zamindar’s men bought the property, outbidding other purchasers. Subsequently they refused to pay up the purchase money, so that the estate had to be resold. Once again it was bought by the zamindar’s agents, once again the purchase money was not paid, and once again there was an auction.
• This process was repeated endlessly, exhausting the state, and the other bidders at the auction. At last the estate was sold at a low price back to the zamindar. The zamindar never paid the full revenue demand; the Company rarely recovered the unpaid balances that had piled up. Such transactions happened on a grand scale.