Sher Shah’s land revenue system is the high water mark of his achievements for which he gained therespect love and gratitude of his subjects, a majority of whom were cultivators and peasants. In the Tarikh i-Sher Shahi, Abbas says that the emperor believed (that) “…the cultivation depends on the humble peasants; for if they be ill off, they will produce nothing; but if prosperous, they will produce much.”

The land revenue reforms introduced by Shi Shah had three objectives: (i) increase in agricultural output; (ii) improvement of the condition of the peasants; and (iii) increase in the revenue income of the state.

The programme consisted of initially bringing land into the ambit of direct civil administration After that was done, the concerned officials such as amils, quanungos, patwaris and muqaddams were directed to measure the cultivable land by using standard measurements and to determine the specific proprietary rights of the cultivators. Normally, the 1 Sikandari ga^, the measuring standard introduced by Sikandar Lodi, probably equal to 3/4th of a present day metre length, was used for such purposes. The standard for measurement was a jarib or rope which was used to demarcate a bigha, 60 gaz x 60 gaz as the basic unit for the assessment of land revenue.

As regards the yield from the soil, which depended on its fertility, there were three classifi­cations, good, middling and bad. Taking that into account, the output per bigha per year for each crop estimated for the three categories. The average of these three was regarded as the standard output per bigha. One-third of this average was fixed as the tax or the land-revenue to be paid by the cultivator in kind or cash.

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With a view to forming an idea of the revenue- income in cash, the state prepared and circulated among the public the rate-lists of various crops showing their prevailing prices at different parts of the empire from time to time.

It was a systematic process for all times and a revolutionary one for the time in question, which formed the basis of calcu­lation of the land-revenue for a cultivator to pay. All such tax-paying cultivators were issued two documents by the state. The first one was called a patta or title-deed which gave all the details of the various categories of land held by the cultivator and the rate of land-revenue payable by him on different crops.

The second document was known as the quabiliyat or the deed or agreement according to which the cultivator made a promise to pay a certain amount of land revenue to the state. The peasants were also required to pay, besides the land revenue, some additional cesses such as jaribana or the surveyor’s fee and muchasilana or the tax-collector’s fee at the rate of 2.5 and 5 per cent of the land revenue respectively.

Commenting on this, Dr J.L. Mehta observes: “The most significant feature of the land revenue system as introduced by Sher Shah was the elimi­nation of the intermediaries, zamindars, agents or contractors for the purpose of collection of the land revenue. Instead, his government had established contacts with the ryots or the cultivators and had thus saved both the parties from being exploited by the middlemen.

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That is why his land revenue system has been called the Ryotwari System or system of the cultivators or ryots. It is important to remember, however, that Sher Shah could not introduce this uniform land revenue system throughout his domin­ions. The iqtas of Multan, Malwa, Rajputana and a large number of feudatory states did not benefit from his reforms.”

It is also to the credit of Sher Shah that he actively encouraged reclamation of lands by the people so as to increase agricultural output, stopped collection of taxes from the people by the state at the time of failure of rains and the resulting famines, gave takavi loans to peasants during lean periods to dig wells, and introduced schemes and of canal irrigation to help agriculture. All the time he tried to further the interests of the cultivators and to save them from the oppression of the revenue and other government officials.

Evaluating Sher Shah’s revenue policy, Dr Meera Singh writes: “Sher Shah’s revenue settlement has been unanimously acclaimed and it has been con­tended that it provided the basis for Todar Mai’s ‘bandobust’ during Akbar’s reign, as also for the ‘ryotwar system’ in British India. Notwithstanding its obvious strengths, it would be unrealistic to describe his revenue settlement as a masterpiece for the system was not without defects.

“While Sher Shah’s revenue system did possess features similar to later ryotwari system, the jagirdari system continued to be a salient feature of his administration.

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“The cultivators of the middling and bad lands had to pay a greater share of their actual produce while their counterparts in possession of the good lands paid proportionately less, and enjoyed a distinct advantage over the not so affluent ryots.

Moreland however, opines that in equality might have adjusted itself by variation in the crops grown and that the peasants of poor quality land may have got additional incentives to improve their standard.

“Secondly, the payment in cash required precise information, fast procedure and prompt action of a proportion that an ordinary administrative machin­ery with the usual red-tapism could not have provided. The delays caused, therefore, in calcula­tion must have hampered the efficiency of the local collectors and harassed the ryots”.

Land revenue was not the only source of income for the state.

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There were taxes on heirless properties, trade and commerce, salt, mint, khams (l/5th of war spoils), jiziya and presents from feudatories, traders, nobles, etc. Local taxes known as abwabs were imposed on production and consumption of items by various trades as also on professions and trans­port. The main items of expenditure were the maintenance cost of the army, salaries of the sizeable number of government employees and the expenses of the royal establishment as also of the monarch.