Permanent Settlement Policy

Beginning of the colonial ‘divide & rule policy’

with far reaching socio-economic and political
impacts over the people of Indian sub-continent

Presented by :
Nishat Anjum Bini ( NIB)
Junior Lecturer
Department of History and Philosophy
North South University 1
Contents:
Introduction of Permanent Settlement System
in 1793 and British strategy of Divide-and-rule
Main features of the Permanent Settlement
System
Impact of the system on the traditional families
of Bengal

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Permanent Settlement Policy
“After the famine of 1770,British parliament had
begun to take an interest in the administration in
India, and decided to change its structure.
Although Clive was not impeached, his conduct
and that of others who had enriched themselves
by doubtful means had stirred public opinion.”

(Source: S.M. Burke and Salim Al-Din Quraishi,The British Raj in

India: A Historical Review, University Press
Limited,Dhaka,1995,pg-12)
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 Divide et Impera
(Divide-and-Rule Policy)
• Divide et Impera is a Latin term. In simple words, it means to
split up the opposition into smaller groups so that it ceases to
threaten your power.
• The British colonial authority during its prolonged stay in Indian
sub-continent cultivated communal politics to repeal frequent
peasant rebellion in order to continue trade and promote
regional drug trafficking.
• In line with the Divide et Impera pursued by the classical Greeks
and Romans ,the colonial government adopted a similar policy
for establishing their political and trade supremacy in the
foreign territory.
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Divide et Impera
(Divide-and-Rule Policy)
• In ancient Greece the maxim had been practiced by Phillip II
of Macedon(359-36 BC), and then picked up by the Roman
King Julius Caesar to administer the conquered territories.
• In Book VI of The Art of War,Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-
1527) advocated this strategy advising that a Captain should
endeavour by every means to divide the forces of the
enemy ,either making him suspicious of his own men over
whom he has complete trust, or by explaining him the
reason why he should disperse his forces, and by doing this
become weaker.
• The French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte recycled divide
and rule strategy in his overseas policies until his final
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defeat in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Divide-and-rule policy & Permanent
Settlement System of 1793

• British authority deliberately pursued the typical Divide-and-

Rule Policy to take advantage of the differences between the
Hindus and Muslims in the Indian sub-continent.

• The colonial authority adopted the Permanent Settlement of

1793 and ultimately expelled the Mughal landed aristocracy
from their privileged position in the society. Having applied
this policy, the colonial rulers broke the larger concentration
of local power base in order to retain their supremacy in a
hostile territory.
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Warren Hastings by Tilly Kettle

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Divide-and-Rule Policy and
Permanent Settlement System of
1793
• Warren Hastings was appointed as the new Governor of Bengal in 1772.
After the passing of the Regulating Act of 1773 in British Parliament, he
became the first Governor-General of India.
• The Governor-General was given the authority to control the Governors
of Madras and Bombay Presidencies.
• Upon his arrival, Warren Hastings, the new Governor-General of Bengal,
directly took over the Diwani and Nizamat administration. He gathered
an impression that the traditional Zamindars were not bringing the
expected amount of revenue what they had planned for.
• In line with the so-called Opium Monopoly, Hastings introduced an
auction system under which the right to collect revenue was sold out to
the highest bidders for a period of five years. 8
Divide-and-Rule Policy and
Permanent Settlement System of
1793
• The auction system miserably failed, as the peasantry was unable
to pay a higher rate of revenue imposed by the collectors
• Consequently, bribery and corruption became rampant in tax
administration and the disastrous consequences were debated in
the British Parliament in 1784.
• In view of the facts, the British Prime Minister William Pitt the
Younger directed the Kolkata administration to address the
revenue system.
• After his retirement, Hastings was impeached in Parliament for
corruption charges. Although he was finally acquitted, the
proceedings dragged on for eight years and ruined him financially.
• Warren Hastings was succeeded in office by Sir John Macpherson
as the new Governor- General. His tenure lasted for 20 months. 9
Then Lord Cornwallis arrived in the year 1786.
Charles Cornwallis(1738-1805), 1st
Marquess Cornwallis

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Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John
Trumball

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Warren Hastings: the builder of the
Bengal Government Opium Lord Cornwallis: the architect
Monopoly in 1773. of the Permanent Settlement
Policy in 1793.
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Divide-and-Rule Policy and
Permanent Settlement System of
1793
• Charles Cornwallis also known as the Earl Cornwallis was a
British Army General and official. He was born into an
aristocrat family of England. He fought as a Commander-in-
Chief during the American War of Independence(1776-
1781).It was he who had surrendered at York Town in
1781,and brought the war to an end.

• At that time, William Pitt the Younger was the Prime Minister
of Britain. Pitt’s India Act of 1784 was passed to impose
further restrictions upon BEIC. He was on friendly terms with
Lord Cornwallis. Because of him, Lord Cornwallis accepted
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the position of Governor-General and went to India in 1786.
Divide-and-Rule Policy and
Permanent Settlement System of
1793
• In 1789 Cornwallis was drawn into a war with Tipu Sultan of
Mysore. The war continued for three years and Tipu fought
hard but at the end was forced to surrender half of his
dominion. Taking help from the Nizam of Hyderabad and the
Marathas, Lord Cornwallis managed to defeat Tipu Sultan.
• Cornwallis’s administrative reforms in India were far-reaching
and the outlines of the government machinery drawn by him
endured till the end of British rule in India.
• One of the most significant measures introduced by him in
the year 1793 was the Permanent Settlement of Bengal. This
measure was in a way, the beginning of the colonial “divide
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and rule” policy.
Tipu Sultan ,Tiger of Mysore

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The Last Effort and Fall of Tipu Sultan by Henry
Singleton, c. 1800

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Divide-and-Rule Policy and
Permanent Settlement System of
1793
• A debate continued between Lord Cornwallis and Baron Sir John
Shore about the future role of the Mughal zamindars under the
colonial administration.
• To give the revenue generation a permanent shape, Lord Cornwallis
in March 1793,introduced the Permanent Settlement Policy.
• Later on, the colonial government perceived the Mughal Zamindars
as hindrance for monopoly trade and for extracting high rate of
land revenues. Then Lord Cornwallis decided to replace them by a
new bunch of native collaborators from Hindu background to assist
the British government enthusiastically.
• The colonial government dissolved the positions of the legal
advisers and traditional Quazis causing tremendous economic
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hardship to thousands of Muslim families.
Main features of the Permanent
Settlement Policy
• The Permanent Settlement was brought into effect in Bengal,
Bihar,Orissa and Varanasi in 1793.This was basically an
agreement between the company and the Zamindars to fix
the land revenue.
• Due to this policy, zamindars, who had been the revenue
collectors only , became the owners of the land. They were
given the rights to collect rent from the peasants.
• The realized amount of rent would be divided into 11
parts.1/11th of the share would belong to the Zamindars and
10/11th of the shares would belong to the East India
Company.
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Revenue Hierarchy in Permanent Settlement Policy 19
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Main features of the Permanent
Settlement Policy
• Permanent settlement declared the newly appointed landlords
to be the real proprietors of the land
• It reversed the age-old practice of the Mughal administration,
whereby the state was the owner of the land and zamindars
acted as mere rent collectors
• Under the new arrangement of permanent settlement,
zamindars became the owners of the land.
• Revenue or tax to be fixed in perpetuity.
• Some rules were fixed for the Zamindars to pay the fixed annual
land revenue for all time to come.
• However, zamindars were warned if they failed to pay the yearly
instalment(kisty) before the sunset of the last day of the fiscal
year, their land would be sold in auction. It was known as the 21
Sunset Law.
Main features of the Permanent
Settlement Policy

• With this new policy in place, the landlords earned the

capacity to raise the land tax, sell or mortgage any piece of
their land or use it in any manner they liked.
• It paved the way for anyone to become zamindar who had
cash money and was ready to invest it for attaining superior
power and status in the society.
• In this way, British rulers managed to create a class of people
who were loyal to them.

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Impact of Permanent
Settlement
The newly adopted permanent policy brought tremendous
impact over the socio-economic and political life of the local
population. Such as:
establishment of a powerful zamindar class
commercialization of land
harsh treatment to the ryots for revenue collection
absentee landlords becoming the owners of the land
refusal by zamindars to make any discount or mercy for
the ryots(farmers) during draught, flood or other
natural disasters
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Impact of Permanent Settlement on
Traditional Muslim Families
• Due to the new policy, local merchants and creditors, who were generally
Hindus and were commonly known as “banians” became Zamindars.
• Under the Mughal dynasty, Zamindars were generally from the Muslim
background, but following the permanent settlement the Muslims
constituted only about one sixth of the zamindars.
• With the appointment of English collector in each district, the traditional
Muslim nobility lost their former positions and the vast majority of the
Muslims attained very poor condition in the rural society.
• A Scottish historian and member of the colonial administration William
Wilson Hunter mentioned in his writing about the amount of deprivation
and sufferings that were particularly inflicted upon the Muslims.
• Thus the permanent settlement policy worked as the new mechanism for
British colonial rulers to cause communal conflicts among the people of
Indian sub continent.
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Further Readings
Dr. M. Emdadul Haq, Colonial Drug trade in
South Asia: From Palashi to Partition (Dhaka:
Century Publications, 2nd edition, 2019, pg:43-
49)
Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India,
(Oxford University Press, New Delhi,6th
Impression,1994, pg : 302-304 )
Sirajul Islam(edited), Banglapedia, Asiatic
Society of Bangladesh (Relevant Entries)
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Thank You!

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