What were the features of Leases?

There are tenures partaking the character of leases both temporary and permanent.

Temporary Leases

Verumpattam: It is a simple lease. Where no term is fixed, it tenures for one year only sometimes it is for longer periods. This goes under various names: Verumkari or Verum Kozhu, meaning a bare lease, i.e. one unaccompanied by an advance. In Verum Pattam generally a rent of 2/3rd of the produce of the land is annually paid by the tenant to the landlord.

Sometimes, after deducting the bare cost of seed and cultivation the whole of the estimated net produce is payable to the landlord. The tenant is in fact a labourer on subsistence wages liable to be turned out when the landlord chooses.

In certain cases, a year’s rent called Muppattam will be paid in advance at the commencement of the tenancy as security for the annual payment of rent which will be refunded at the determination of the lease. This is otherwise known as Talappattam or Katta Kanam.

Kuli Kalam and Kuli Kanam Pattam:

These are improvement leases, the former applying to waste lands and the latter partly to cultivated and partly not. The lease tenures for 12 years

Pandarapattam:

As a rule no fee is paid to the leaser but in case of Pandarapattam lands (lands belonging to the Rajas), a fee is paid by the leasee usually at the rate of one rupee for every Paras seed area. By the payment of this fee the leasee acquires a right to hold for 12 years.

Perpetual Leases or Saswatham

The Saswatham leases do not require renewal and run either for the life time of the lease or until failure of heirs. They mostly involve an element of service either past or future or both. The grant, if made to a Brahmin is called Santati Brahmaswam, if made to one of equal or higher class non-Brahmin; it is called Anubhavam; if to a low class man, Adima or Kudirna, or Adima Yavana or Kudima Janma or Kudimanir.

A nominal fee is ordinarily payable to the Janmi in acknowledgement of his title in which case, it is called Koram Kari or janma Kozhy. Where the tenure is one for service in connection with temples, it is called Karaima. Where in addition to doing service, the tenant is to produce a certain quantity of rice for Naivedyam or offering to Deity, it is called Arijanmam. The inferior temple servants hold land on Kazhagam tenure.

For centuries, the relation between the landlord and the tenant was very cordial. It was based on the customary law known as Kana Janma maryada which neither the Janmi nor the tenant wanted to violate. But during the later half of the 19th century agrarian discontent flared up due to several reasons.

Many of the Janmis and non-cultivating Kanamdars have begun to act in utter disregard to the moral unwritten law. All the sentimental obligations that bound the Janmi and the tenant in their relation to one another began to die out and a litigous disposition emerged out of their ashes.

Whether the Janmi had the unlimited and absolute proprietary right or not, there is little doubt that under the customary law, the right of redemption was rarely exercised. In former times continuity was the general rule and change was exception. As Mr. Rickards pointed out, “it was a point of honour with the great Nayar family’s neyer to turn out a tenant while he continued to pay his rent.”

Dr. Buchanan also testifies that the right of redemption was rarely exercised by the Nambudiries and that the same families had continued to hold estates in mortgage for generations. Ancient families in Malabar often built their Taravad or family houses on Kanam lands and gave the names of these lands to the Tara wads themselves.

The family deities are also located and worshipped in these houses. All these show that tenants had no fear of arbitrary evictions. The tenant’s rights were thus recognised by customs and usages. The position was nevertheless anomalous. In law, he was little more than a tenant at-will and liable to capricious eviction. In practice so long as he got along with his landlord, he had a permanent right of occupancy.