RAS question
The Mahalwari System of land revenue was introduced in:
Correct answer: (B) North-Western Provinces, Punjab, and parts of Central India.
The Mahalwari land-revenue system was introduced in the North-Western Provinces, Punjab, and parts of Central India.
Explanation
The Mahalwari System treated the village, or mahal, rather than the individual cultivator as the unit of revenue assessment. Holt Mackenzie introduced the system in 1822, and it was later refined under Lord William Bentinck. It operated in the North-Western Provinces, Punjab, and parts of Central India; the North-Western Provinces covered much of present-day Uttar Pradesh. The estimated revenue from every plot was added together to determine the amount payable by the village. The village headman, or lambardar, collected each cultivator's share and paid it to the government. This village-based arrangement gave the system its name. Unlike the Permanent Settlement, its revenue demand could be revised periodically instead of remaining fixed forever.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Madras and Bombay were associated with the Ryotwari System, in which revenue settlement was made directly with cultivators rather than with the village as a mahal; they were therefore not Mahalwari regions.
- (C) Bengal and Orissa were associated with the Permanent Settlement, not the Mahalwari System. In Bengal, the revenue demand under zamindars was fixed permanently.
- (D) Assam and Burma were not among the standard regions of the Mahalwari System; different administrative systems operated there.
Concept
This question tests the Company-era colonial land-revenue systems—Permanent Settlement, Ryotwari, and Mahalwari—through region-system matching. It recurs in RAS because questions on modern Indian economic history often ask which system operated in which region.