Zamindar or Zimmidar

 

A North Indian Farmer

Zamindar, in India, a holder or occupier (dār) of land (zamīn). The root words are Persian, and the resulting name was widely used in India as Persian influence spread by the Afghan and the Mughals or dynasties ruling India. 

In rural folk of Punjab and Haryana, the term Jimidar or Zimidar is used to define the peasant farmer who owns the agriculral land. The two terms Zamindar and Zimidar are used as synonym by the rural population of punjab an Haryana. However these two terms define two different concepts, both associated with centuries of economic expoitation of the peasants.

Mughal Zamindari System

When Mughal invader Babur conquered India, there were many autonomous and semiautonomous rulers who were known locally as Rai, Raja, Rana, Rao, Rawat, etc. In Persian chronicles they were referred as Marzabans. They were vassals who ruled, mostly hereditarily, over their respective territories. These Marzabans then used their subordinate Zamindars to collect the revenue from the farmers. Typically hereditary, Zamindars held enormous tracts of land and control over their peasants of one or more village, from whom they reserved the right to collect tax on behalf of the Islamic rulers.

Native Hndu Zimmidars in Mughal Court

After the conquest of India, Babur informs us that one-sixth of his total revenues came from Marzabans. He writes: "The revenue of the countries now held by me (1528 A.D.) from Bhira to Bihar, is fifty-two crores as will be known in detail. Eight or nine crores of this are from the parganas of rais and the rajas who have submitted in the past (to the Sultans of Delhi), receive allowance and maintenance." 

Zimmi and Jezia

Dhimmi, Arabic: ذمي‎, (prounced as Zimmi in Persian means a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia — Islamic law.  The Islamic law defines a pact contracted between non-Muslims and authorities from their Muslim government. This status was originally only made available to non-Muslims who were People of the Book (i.e. Jews and Christians), but was later extended to include Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs. 

Non-muslims in Islamic Rule

The status of Zimmi applied to millions of people living from Arabia to India during the expansion of Islam to these regions. Over time, many Zimmis converted to Islam. Most conversions were voluntary and happened for a number of different reasons. However, forced conversion did play a key role in some later periods of Islamic history, mostly in India.

Zimmis were allowed to "practice their religion, subject to certain conditions, and to enjoy a measure of communal autonomy" and guaranteed their personal safety and security of property, in return for paying a tribute or tax known as Jezia to the Muslim rulers and acknowledging supremacy of Islam. 

Zimmidars of India

By the 12th century, the Turks of Central Asia had invaded the Indic plains, and brought Islam to Northwestern parts of India. By the 15th century, major parts of Northern India was ruled by Muslim rulers, mostly descended from invaders. The Muslim rulers from Turks to Mughals retained their Islamic identities, and made various attempts at conversion and subjugation of native Hindu populations.

These Islamic rulers ruled India with the help of conquered Indian Kings or Rajas and their appointed straps or Nawabs, the Muslim authority for a region. The Rajas or the native rulers were allowed to retain thier kingdoms and religions provided the pay a taxation to the Islamic rulers  These rulers were the Zimmmidars or  the leaders of the native population or Zimmis. 

Mughal Revenue System

Zimmidars would collect taxation and/or Jezia from the farmers and merchants in their territories on behalf of their masters, the Islamic rulers. The oppressed went on oppressing the others for their survival.

Sikhs Abolish Zamindari System

The Zamindari system was more prevalent in the north of India because Mughal influence in the south was less apparent. The Muslim Nawabs ruled from Punjab to Wester UP. Most prominent were the Nawabs of Lahore, Sirhind, Samana, Pataudi, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, and Sardhana.

Baba Banda Singh Bahadur led the Sikh rebellion after the cruel execution of the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh. After punishing Wazir Khan, the Nawab of Sirhind and destroying the city, the Sikh army grew in numbers and liberated Eastern Punjab and Haryana from the rule of Mughal Nawabs. 

Banda Singh liberates Haryana and Wester UP

The Sikhs took Haryana and then ran over Jalalabad and Saharanpur. Banda Singh was much helped by the Jats of Haryana and Western UP, as well as Gujjars and other native farming commnities According to Khushwant Singh, "His arrival was a signal for local farmers to rise against the Nawab and Zamindars who had oppressed them for many decades." 

After Saharanpur fell the neighbouring towns of Behat and Ambheta, the Pirzadas of Behat who were notorious for their anti-Hindu policies, were slashed to a man. Just as the Monsoons broke, Nanauta was captured by the Sikhs with the massive support of the Gujjars. The Shaikhzadas of the place put up a defence, but ultimately submitted to the Sikhs. The town of Nanauta was razed to the ground and since then it has been called Phūṭā Shahar or 'Ruined Town'. 

After destroying the Mughal aristocracy, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur distributed the land to the people of the land - Jats and Gujjars. before this, the farmers were tilling the land owned by the Zamindars paying hefy tax in a subortinated order. Baba Banda Singh made the Jats of Punjab, Haryana, and Western UP, the owners of their lands after a long oppressive rule by the Islamic invaders.

British Zamindari System

During Mughal Era the Zimidars were not proprietors of the land. They never looked after the land and used armed millitia to intimidate peasants and collect tax.. The East India Company under Lord Cornwallis made Permanent Settlement in 1793 with the Zamindars and made them proprietors of their land in return for a fixed annual rent. If the Zamindars were not able to pay the rent until sunset, parts of their estates were acquired and auctioned. 

Tax Collection during British Raj

Under the British Empire, this new class of Zamindars were to be subordinate to the crown and acted as hereditary lords.The British continued the tradition of bestowing both royal and noble titles to zamindars who were loyal to the paramount. The title of Raja, Maharaja, Rai Bahadur, Rao, Nawab, Khan Bahadur, and Sardar Bahadur were bestowed to princely state rulers and to many Zamindars from time to time. 

In fact, the farmers of Punjab, Haryana, and Western UP were once again subjected to a harsh reveue collection with the help of Zamindars. The British government enacted three laws that ultimately declared the Britishers the master of the land and denied the ownership rights of the peasants. The laws reduced the farmers to leaseholders. They could neither build houses nor fell trees on these lands. The laws also said that if the eldest son died before reaching adulthood, then the land will become the property of Government and not reach the younger son. This led to the Pagri Sambhal Jatta Movement.

Pagri Sambhal Jatta Movement 1917

As unrest started brewing against the colonial rulers, Bhagat Singh‘s father, Kishan Singh, and uncle, Ajit Singh, and their revolutionary friend Ghasita Ram had formed Bharat Mata Society with an ultimate aim to spark a revolt against British government. The Pagri Sambhal Jatta Movement began to spread from the peasants to the Army. The 2020 farmer agitation has remained largely non-violent. The result of all this agitation was that the British government withdrew its laws. It also returned the ownership of the land to the peasants.

The Zamindari System was finally abolished in independent India soon after its creation with the first amendment to the constitution of India which amended the right to property as shown in Articles 19 and 31.

Farmers Protest in Delhi

The farm bills introduced by the Modi government in India, has brought the farmers of Punjab, Haryana, and Western UP together again. This time their fight is not against Mughals or the British. This time they are up against their own government. 

Thus time the Zamindars are the large corporations of India, primarily the Reliance Corporation of Mukesh Ambani and the Adani Group. The collusion of Modi government with these crporations is publically visible. But the farmers see the intent same as the Zimmidars of Mughal period or the Zamindars of the British Raj.  “Agitating farmers fear that the new farm laws will again usher in the era of Zamindari system in Punjab though in a new ‘avtar’ in the form of big corporates as new Zamindars, ” says farmers’ senior leader Surinder Bains of Kirti Kisan Union.

Farmers Protest in Western UP

Now its up to the Modi government to appear transparent and win the trust of the farmers by demostrating the intent of the farm bills to improve the standard of Indian farmers. If they fail to do so, the combined power of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and Western UP will emerge as a formidable force with serious impact on political scene of the region.

References

https://www.britannica.com/topic/zamindar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamindar

https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/paper1/land-revenue-systems-in-british-india

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhimmi

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dhimmi

https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/resources/blog/what-do-you-know-dhimmi-jewish-legal-status-under-muslim-rule

http://www.brandbharat.com/english/up/districts/Saharanpur/history.html

https://www.punjabnewsexpress.com/special-stories/news/kirti-kisan-union-invokes-banda-singh-bahadur-to-find-solution-into-farm-issue-122595