RAS question
The Ryotwari System was introduced by:
Correct answer: (D) Thomas Munro and Captain Alexander Read.
The Ryotwari System was introduced by Captain Alexander Read and subsequently developed by Thomas Munro, with direct revenue settlement made with cultivators or ryots.
Explanation
The Ryotwari System, also called ryotwar, marked a move away from the Permanent Settlement in the British territories of the South. NCERT states that Captain Alexander Read first tried it on a small scale in areas taken over by the Company after the wars with Tipu Sultan, and that Thomas Munro later developed it and extended it across south India. Its key feature was direct settlement with the cultivators, or ryots, instead of collection through zamindars. Read and Munro argued that traditional zamindars were absent in the South, so fields should be separately surveyed before revenue assessment. Under Ryotwari, the peasant paid revenue directly to the government without an intermediary, the system was used in Madras and Bombay, and revenue was revised periodically.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) NCERT does not link Lord Dalhousie with introducing the Ryotwari System.
- (B) Lord Cornwallis is associated here with the Permanent Settlement, a zamindari-based system with permanently fixed revenue, not Ryotwari direct settlement with ryots.
- (C) NCERT does not identify Warren Hastings as the introducer of the Ryotwari System.
Concept
This tests colonial land-revenue settlements, especially the distinction between Permanent Settlement, Mahalwari and Ryotwari. It recurs in RAS because revenue systems connect administrative history with agrarian society under Company rule.