ON FAMINES AND LAND ASSESSMENTS BY ROMESH C. DUTT, C.I. E. LATE OF THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE LECTURER ON INDIAN HISTORY AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON 66 66 LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LTD. 1900 21 FIRST LETTER TO LORD CURZON: THE CENTRAL PROVINCES SECOND LETTER TO LORD CURZON: MADRAS THIRD LETTER TO LORD CURZON: BOMBAY FOURTH LETTER TO LORD CURZON: BENGAL FIFTH LETTER TO LORD CURZON: NORTHERN INDIA . FAMINE INSURANCE GRANT, RAILWAYS AND IRRIGATION FALLACIES CONCERNING THE INDIAN LAND TAX APPENDIX A. PROPORTION OF REVENUE AND OF RENT TO E. SPEECH OF THE HON. A. CHARLU, C.I.E. J. PROPOSAL OF DO. IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 157 " K. PROPOSAL OF DO. IN MADRAS JAMES CAIRD ON THE CONDITION OF INDIA Q. MR SULLIVAN ON INDIAN LAND REVENUE R. MR ROGERS ON SETTLEMENTS IN MADRAS S. LAND REVENUE UNDER HINDU RULE ·T. LAND REVENUE UNDER MAHOMEDAN RULE U. ROYAL COMMISSION ON INDIAN EXPENDITURE : EVIDENCE OF LORDS NORTHBROOK, RIPON, LANSDOWNE, WOLSELEY AND ROBERTS, SIR H. BRACKENBURY, SIR E. COLLEN, LORD PREFACE IN December last I had occasion, in the course of my Presidential Speech at the Lucknow Congress, to draw attention to the fact of the over-assessment of agricultural holdings in some provinces of India, and the consequent impoverishment of cultivators and agricultural labourers, who form four-fifths of the population of India. I pointed out that while in Bengal and Northern India, where cultivators paid rents to private landlords, the rents were comparatively moderate, in Madras, Bombay and the Central Provinces, where the Government assessed the soil, the assessments were excessive and the people were poorer and more resourceless. And I also stated that in the famines of 1877, 1897 and 1899, the parts of India which were over-assessed had suffered most severely. The question has naturally received a great deal of attention both in England and in India within the last six months. In England an important debate took place in the House of Commons in April last, and Mr Samuel Smith, M.P., in referring to my statements, spoke the simple truth when he said that the best remedies for famines in India were the moderating of rents and the extension of irrigation works. And Lord George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India, while doubting the accuracy of my statement about moderate rents in |