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 Zam...