Thangellapali Vijay Kumar - Colonial Land Tax and Property Rights: The Agrarian Conditions in Andhra Under the British Rule: 1858-1900

Over several decades, modern Indian historiography has evolved in many different directions. But this book reminds us, its time to return to the foundations of modern Indian history writing. Economic and agrarian history has been the bedrock on which Indian historical thinking and imagination was built. Dr. Thangellapalli Vijay Kumar may have reopened this field with rigorous archival research and analytical study of the Andhra region of Madras Presidency. This work definitely deserves attention.

LAXMAN D. SATYA

Professor of History

Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania

Thangellapalli Vijay Kumars Colonial Land Tax and Property Rights is a pioneering study of agrarian conditions in colonial Andhra (1858-1900). His narrative locates production conditions in agriculture under the determinants of ecological system, British instituted property relations, irrigation and land taxation regime.

A TLURY MURALI

Professor of History,

University of Hyderabad

This volume analyses the importance of property rights on land which were transformed by the British in the form of colonial land revenue system in Andhra region of Madras Presidency. It initiates a discussion of the traditional production systems like irrigation, agricultural methods, etc., which were replaced by the colonial ones. It further shows how the small peasantry suffered under the new system. This book also deals with the relations between the colonial state, rich peasants, zamindars and peasants under the ryotwary and zamindary settlements, which were introduced at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It further examines how the peasantry lost their rights on lands and how it went under the control of merchants and rich peasant moneylenders. Consequently, de-peasantization, wage labour, and general agrarian impoverishment followed.

The colonial legal system favoured zamindars, landlords and rich peasants against small peasants, who could not go to colonial courts due to heavy legal costs. The volume analyses in minute detail various Acts, which affected the property rights of peasants on their lands.

Thangellapali Vijay Kumar is Associate Professor and Head, Department of History, Sikkim University. He was educated in Osmania University where he received his MA (1984) and Ph.D. (1993).

THANGELLAPALI VIJAY KUMAR

First published 2018

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ISBN: 978-1-138-32377-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-45122-5 (ebk)

Typeset in AGaramond 11/13

by Kohli Print, Delhi 110 051

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This book is an outcome of my doctoral thesis submitted to the Osmania University and awarded in 1993. Subsequently, having discussed with experts in the field and after contacting some of the major institutions, I revised the text. Owing to my tight academic schedule and family responsibilities, it took me several years to bring it to its present form.

The task of completion of this work was possible only due to the intellectual and material support of some significant individuals and institutions. The University Grants Commission, India, provided the junior as well as senior research fellowships for five years from April 1988 to April 1993. I would like to record the help I received from the directors, librarians, archivists and staff of various institutions, especially, the Andhra Pradesh State Archives, Osmania University General Library, Andhra Pradesh State Central Library, Sundarayya Vignana Kendram, Narla Memorial Museum and Dravidian Research Center (all in Hyderabad); Tamil Nadu State Archives, Connemara Library (both in Chennai); Office of the Inspector General of Registrations, Chennai; and the National Library, Kolkata.

I am deeply indebted to Y. Vaikuntham for his supervision of my research work. I gratefully put on record the help extended by Atlury Murali, who not only advised me from the beginning of my research work but also thoroughly read the drafts of my thesis and the subsequent revisions. I thank Pala Krishna Murthy for his valuable suggestions in the material collection. Laxman Das Satya painstakingly read all the chapters of the manuscript and gave invaluable suggestions and comments. I am grateful to him. The insights of Chinta Srinivasa Reddy into the earlier drafts helped me to revise them properly. The discussions I had with and the comments made by K.S.S. Sheshan, G. Sudarshan Reddy, M. Venkateswar Rao, G. Krishna Reddy, V. Anil Kumar, B. Yadava Raju, Peter L. Schmitthenner, D. Ramasubba Reddy, Adapa Satyanarayana, Wolde-Tinsae Tewolde, Bhukya Bhangya Nayak, G. Arun Kumar, K. Muthyam and R.K.K. Rajarajan were educative and constructive. I express my sincere thanks to them. The moral and material support given by my friends, Potu Seetharamayya (Seetharamulu), B.B. Rajendra Prasad, Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu, V. Ram Reddy, and K. Venkateswarlu when I was in need, is highly appreciable. I am also thankful to Meera Reddy, who read the manuscript and made corrections. Finally, the imperceptible support extended by my wife Padmavathi, daughter Sangha Mithra, and son Chandhra Has made my effort in bringing out this book less burdensome.