Land administrative reforms in Kashmir have a long history. Rajtarangni, and other historical books are a testimony to this fact.
A careful perusal of the historic sources reveal that the land in Kashmir was divided into three categories – private, communal and royal, or state.
The essential attributes linked with the ownership is the right of transfer by sale, gift or mortgage, and the Rajatarangini provides us with many examples of such transfers of land. During the rule under the Hindu kings, land purchase and sale agreement was put in practice.
There are stories of purchase of land by persons no less than kings in the past having purchased lands themselves for different reasons. Different kings would allow all land transactions to be recorded with the official recorder known as (Adhikiarana lekha) so all kinds of land including residential, bare land, commercial, land farm etc., were off hand recorded by the competent authority under the kings of the past.
There are references to show that even women owned private property in Kashmir, and the rights of individuals were supported and protected by the state, and that illegal allotment of land was subject to heavy fines and punishments.
The tradition of communal ownership also is very old. The grazing grounds around a village known as ‘kahchari land’ were used for grazing purposes and were owned by the villagers in common.
So one may presume even during Hindu kings all the lands in Kashmir never belonged to the king or state. This might have been the position in the ancient Kashmiri, of which we have no proof.
However many historians differ on this account and have strong explanations to their assertions. The majority of Kashmir historians confirm that there was lawlessness and insecure conditions prevailed from time to time, during the rules of Hindu Kings in Kashmir, viz., land administrations. So sadly ancient Kashmir under different rulers depicts complex set of land relations involving private ownership, royal administration and communal rule of villages.
As hierarchical social structures based on inequality and exploitation was rampant and very much part of land relations in Kashmir that prevented a change in socio-economic order, forcing peasantry to abandon their land and prefer extreme poverty.
Arrival of king Zain-ul-Abdaden’s rule in Kashmir was a calm after a storm, and his administration is chiefly remembered in the history of Kashmir. When he assumed power in 1420 A.D., the whole administrative machinery had collapsed. King Zainal AbIdin tried every possible course of action in order to reconstruct it almost from a scratch. It was indeed a herculean task. But he admirably conducted himself in this that he has earned an undying fame as an administrator.
Registration of documents: Before Zain-ul-Abidin came to power, there was no practice of registering the documents. As a result, imitation, forgery was rampant and documents were tempered with. Despite stern justice, cases of this nature took place in the early days of sovereign power of Zain-u-Abidin.
Once, a person named Lalraja sold one of his ten plots of land to a buyer, who forged an entry into the sale deed to the effect that Lalaraja had sold him all of his plots, and forcibly took possession of his other nine plots also.
The son of the deceased appealed to the sultan, who very wisely sent for the sale deed and put it into water. The insertion was at once erased. The trickster was severely punished and land restored to its right owner.
Promotion of Agriculture
Owing to continued lawlessness and insecure conditions before Zainul Abadin’s rule, much of the land had fallen vacant, and peasantry had been reduced to a miserable condition due to corrupt officials. Zain-ul-Abidin very wisely ordered the permanent land settlement under competent officers which extended to every part of greater Kashmir.
In this connection the country was divided into many divisions and sub-divisions comprising a number of villages. The holdings of each cultivator in every village was measured with the help- of a new ‘jarib,’ an iron chain of 55 feet length, and these measurements were recorded on copper plates or bhojdatra (Birch bark); the records thus prepared were preserved in the central record room established at apple town Sopore.
Thus the first settlement record room ‘Muhafiz Khana’ started from Sopore during Zain-ul-Abidins rule, and with the passing of time it was finally established in Srinagar, with many branches at district levels.
Around this time Zain-ul-Abidin issued orders of first major commencement of settlement in the country. After the completion of record’s that were prepared carefully were well preserved subsequently; the state demand on land was also fixed.
The king assured that all his revenue officials were honest, asked to be lenient with the peasants. According to Prof M.L. Kapur, in his book ‘The history and culture of Kashmir’, in order to help elevate the poor peasants, king Zain-ul-Abidin got constructed the biggest network of canals in the country, like Firoz Shah Tughlaq, Sultan of Delhi, in the year 1355. Many of the irrigation canals exist even now like the ‘Kakapur’ canal in Pulwama district, Awantipor canal, ‘Shahkul’, ‘Zainageer cannal’, ‘Mar canal’ in the heart of Srinagar city that sadly has been filled.
In the year 1586, when Kashmir was incorporated in the dominions of the great Akbar, who visited Kashmir three times, made a land revenue settlement and appointed Raja Todar Mal who camped at Pattan village, nearly 26 kms away from Srinagar city, and supervised land settlement operations, till its completion.
Subsequently another land settlement office was established at village Pattan, in addition to two major offices that were already established by king Zain-ul-Abidin during his reign. Following years no serious attempts was made by any of the rulers to organise a complete land settlement in Kashmir till 1887.
After a gap of nearly three centuries on the orders of Maharaja Pratab Singh an effective land revenue settlement of greater Kashmir was carried out. According to Francis Younghusband, in his book ‘Kashmir’, written in 1908, the settlement of this amount in the case of every single field in the whole of Kashmir was, necessarily a gigantic operation and took six years to carry out. He further adds, “Mr. Walter Lawrence, though making very great changes, had naturally to also use caution. He could not at once fix the whole revenue in cash. Some had still to be taken in kind.”
So land revenue system in Kashmir was based upon income from land, thus rated according to the productivity and kind of soil. At times it was fixed 1/6, 1/8 or 1/12 according to the quality of the soil, rainfall and irrigation facilities. The system of measurement and survey and differentiation of soil according to productivity also indicate that land revenue assessment was not permanent but revised at intervals although a constant revision was not necessary.
Following years, few settlement operations were undertaken with due care and procedures though with crude and conservative methods. Unfortunately our present land settlement operation running in its third decade with all modern sophisticated machines in place is still struggling in its infancy making legendary sir Walter Lawrence taking turns in his grave.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.