the ethnological notebooks of karl marx - Marxists Internet Archive

(if he has it not otherwise, by custom etc) a personal right of occupation onpayment of a fair and reasonable rent; and occupation for 20 years at auniform rate of rent generally confers a right of occupation at that rate. Avery large number of ryots in Bengal have in one way or another acquiredpermanent right of occupancy in the land which they cultivate, but the remainder, a larger number, merely occupy, on payment of the rents and dues whichusually have been paid to the zamindar’s kachahri in respect of their land;meist much less in rate than rents paid by agricultural tenants in Engld. Zamindarkann theoretically verlangen was ihm gutdünkt before the commencementof every year, u. turn this class of ryot out, if he does not agree, butseldom does so. (157-158) On %iraat, khamar, nij-jot, or sir-lands zamindarkann d. Land auf eigne Rechng bebauen, or put in cultivators on any termswhich they agree to accept; sie sind seine tenants, er ihr landlord im(europäischen) ordinary sense of the word; hier hat d. zamindar unqualifiedownership in land ... In ryottee lands the use belongs to the ryots.142 (158-159) I In einigen Theilen Bengals, jots od. ryottee interest in considerabletracts of unclaimed jungle, or otherwise waste lands, have at times beengranted, of a perpetual character, upon insignificant rents; dies land afterwardssublet to cultivators. In solchen Fällen nicht zu unterscheiden betweenthe jot-dar u. an ordinary middle-tenure-holder. (159)Ways and Means.Fast absence of the means of intercommunication between village andvillage, and between one portion of a rural district and another. (161)There is not a stone, or anything harder than clay, to be found in the soil of thedelta; and the floods of the rainy season break down, and sometimes almostobliterate, such roadways as have not been expensively constructedby skilled engineers. (161, 162)The vehicle(s) in use for the carriage of goods are boats, the heads of menand women, little tiny bullocks, and bambu carts of very rude construction; whenwell-to-do people travel they are carried in palkis and doolies, or go byboat. In the dry season, the men, the bullocks, and the carts can and do goanywhere. The local traffick usually takes place in detail of very smallquantities. The dana (= grain) or other seed is trodden out by the bullocksat the khaliän almost on the plot where it is grown. [In some districts wiein Chota Nagpore, a rude handflail is used for thrashing grain]; and boththe grain and the straw are very easily carried to the homestead on theheads of the various members of the ryot’s family. The surplus produce, ifany, of the ryot which does not go to his mahajan passes in little items tothe nearer häts, and so becomes diffused over the neighbouring mau%ahs>or is carried on further to the larger hats, the mahajan u. the modi affordingthe only village depots. The larger hats again, or local centres of countryproduce trade, are commonly situated on roads or khäls. The produce traderhere, by his agents, gathers in the results of his scattered purchases, and sends it265