Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Permanent Settlement

The article in Wiki on The Permanent Settlement is quite mild.  It merely says
In addition, the government tax demand was inflexible and the British East India Company's collectors refused to make allowances for times of drought, flood or other natural disaster. The tax demand was higher than that in England at the time.
Apart from beggaring the country, the class of landlords that the British created was to have a significant impact on India.  The Indian National Congress was promising land reform, and that would hurt this class.   The Hindu landlords had no where to go, but the Muslim landlords became supporters of the separatism of the Muslim League.