View source for Zamindar

{{short description|Indian hereditary aristocrat}}
{{Other uses}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Original research|date=December 2022}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}

[[File:Salimullah.jpg|thumb|[[Khwaja Salimullah]] was a ''zamindar'' with the title of [[Nawab]]. His family's landholdings in [[Bengal]] were one of the largest in [[British Raj|British India]].]]
A''' zamindar'''{{efn|Alternative spellings: '''zomindar''', '''zomidar''', '''jomidar''' and '''jamindar'''}} in the [[Indian subcontinent]] was an autonomous or [[semi-autonomous]] [[Indian feudalism|feudal lord]] of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the [[Mughal Empire]], when [[Persian language|Persian]] was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the Persian for ''landowner''. During the [[British Raj]], the British began using it as a local synonym for "estate". Subsequently, it was widely and loosely used for any substantial landed magnates in the [[British India]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gupta |first=Kalyan Kumar Sen |date=1974 |title=Bengali Intelligentsia and the Politics of Rent, 1873-1885 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516249 |journal=Social Scientist |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=27–34 |doi=10.2307/3516249 |issn=0970-0293|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Zamindars as a class were equivalent to lords and barons; in some cases, they were independent sovereign princes. Similarly, their holdings were typically hereditary and came with the right to collect taxes on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes. This continued in states like [[Bihar]], [[Haryana]], [[Rajasthan]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], and [[West Bengal]] even after [[Independence Day (India)|independence]] until the abolition of zamindari in 1950.

During the [[Mughal Empire]], as well as the [[British Raj|British rule]], zamindars were the land-owning nobility of the [[Indian subcontinent]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Metcalf |first=Barbara Daly |date=1984 |title=Moral conduct and authority: the place of adab in South Asian Islam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5-vzVq8hdkC&pg=PA269 |publisher=University of California Press |page=269 |isbn=978-0-520-04660-3 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-date=8 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308154712/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5-vzVq8hdkC&pg=PA269 |url-status=live}}</ref> and formed the ruling class. Emperor [[Akbar]] granted them [[mansabdar|mansabs]] and their ancestral domains were treated as [[jagir]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.preservearticles.com/2011103016233/give-an-account-of-the-ruling-classes-of-mughal-empire.html |title=Give an account of the Ruling Classes of Mughal Empire |first=Shreya |last=Acharya |website=preservearticles.com |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521201142/http://www.preservearticles.com/2011103016233/give-an-account-of-the-ruling-classes-of-mughal-empire.html |archive-date=21 May 2013 |date=30 October 2011}}</ref> Most of the big zamindars belonged to the [[Hindu]] high-caste, usually [[Brahmin]], [[Rajput]], [[Bhumihar]] or [[Kayastha]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Choithani |first1=Chetan |title=Migration, Food Security and Development |date=11 May 2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-84037-8 |page=106 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39WgEAAAQBAJ&dq=zamindar+hindus+were+brahmin,+rajputs&pg=PA106 |language=en}}</ref> During the colonial era, the [[Permanent Settlement]] consolidated what became known as the ''zamindari system''. The British rewarded supportive zamindars by recognising them as princes. Many of the region's [[princely state]]s were pre-colonial zamindar holdings elevated to a greater protocol. The British also reduced the land holdings of many pre-colonial princely states and chieftaincies, demoting their status to noble zamindars from previously higher ranks of royalty.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} During the period of [[British Raj|British colonial rule in India]], many wealthy and influential zamindars were bestowed with noble and royal titles such as ''[[Maharaja]]'', ''[[Raja]]/[[Rai (title)|Rai]], [[Babu (title)|Babu]]'', [[Rai Sahib|Rai sahib]], [[Rai Bahadur]], ''[[Nawab]] and'' [[Khan (title)|Khan]].<ref>"Santanu Ghosh: মুন্সিয়ানায় চল্লিশ পুরুষ (in Bengali)">Santanu Ghosh. "Munshianay Chollis Purush" Publisher: Dey's Publishing</ref><ref>Motilal, Anup; Bandopadhyay, Ranjankumar (1991). ''Baranagar: Itihas O Samikshya''</ref>

The system was abolished during [[land reform]]s in [[East Pakistan]] (present-day [[Bangladesh]]) in 1950,<ref>{{cite book |last=Baxter |first=C |date=1997 |title=Bangladesh, from a Nation to a State |publisher=Westview Press |page=72 |isbn=0-8133-3632-5}}</ref> [[India]] in 1951<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gktoday.in/blog/abolition-of-zamindari-in-india/ |title=Abolition of Zamindari in India |website=gktoday.in |publisher=General Knowledge Today |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130035711/http://www.gktoday.in/blog/abolition-of-zamindari-in-india/ |archive-date=30 November 2016}}</ref> and [[West Pakistan]] (present-day [[Pakistan]]) in 1959.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.dawn.com/news/570487 |title=Land reforms in Pakistan |date=11 October 2010 |work=Dawn |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130024141/http://www.dawn.com/news/570487 |archive-date=30 November 2016}}</ref>The zamindars often played an important role in the regional histories of the subcontinent. One of the most notable examples is the 16th-century confederation formed by twelve zamindars in the [[Bhati (region)|Bhati]] region ([[Baro-Bhuyan]]s), which, according to the [[Jesuits]] and [[Ralph Fitch]], earned a reputation for successively repelling [[Mughal conquest of Bengal|Mughal invasions]] through naval battles. The zamindars were also patrons of the arts. The [[Tagore family]] produced India's first [[Nobel Prize|Nobel]] laureate in literature in 1913, [[Rabindranath Tagore]], who was often based at his estate. Similarly, many zamindars also promoted [[Neoclassical architecture|neoclassical]] and [[Indo-Saracenic]] architecture.
[[File:Jorasanko Thakurbari.jpg|thumb|[[Jorasanko Thakur Bari]], the seat of [[Tagore family]]]]

== Mughal era ==

[[File:Mehtab Chand of Burdwan.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Mehtab Chand (1820–79) (zamindar of the [[Burdwan (Zamindari)|Burdwan Raj]]) as a young man, {{circa}} 1840–45 AD.]]

When [[Babur]] conquered North India, there were many autonomous and semiautonomous rulers who were known locally as Rai, Raja, Rana, Rao, Rawat, etc., while in the various Persian chronicles, they were referred to as zamindars and {{Transliteration|hi|italic=no|marzabans}}. They were vassals who ruled, mostly hereditarily, over their respective territories. They commanded not only a considerable part of the economic resources of the empire but also military power. After the conquest of Hindustan, Babur informs us that one-sixth of its total revenues came from the territories of the chiefs. He writes: "The revenue of the countries now held by me (1528 A.D.) from Bhira to [[Bihar]], is fifty-two crores as will be known in detail. Eight or nine crores of this are from the parganas of rais and the rajas who have submitted in the past (to the [[Sultan of Delhi|Sultans of Delhi]]), receive allowance and maintenance."<ref name="Ansari2000">{{cite thesis |last=Ansari |first=Tahir Hussain |year=2008 |title=Mughal Administration and the Zamindars of Bihar |type=PhD |publisher=Aligarh Muslim University |url=http://ir.amu.ac.in/3707/1/T%207407.pdf |page=1 |access-date=26 September 2019 |archive-date=2 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102060810/http://ir.amu.ac.in/3707/1/T%207407.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Arif Qandhari, one of the contemporary historians of [[Akbar]]'s reign, there were around two to three hundred rajas or rais and zamindars who ruled their territory from strong forts under the emperor's suzerainty. Each of these rajas and zamindars commanded an army of their own, generally consisting of their clansmen and the total numbers of their troops, as [[Abul Fazl]] tells us, stood at forty-four lakhs, comprising 384,558 cavalry, 4,277,057 infantry, 1863 elephants, 4260 guns and 4500 boats.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fazl |first1=Abul |title=Ain-i-Akbari |page=120 |edition=1. Saiyid Ahmad Khan, Delhi, 1856}}</ref>
During the Mughal Era, there was no clear difference between the princely states and zamindari estates. Even the ruling autonomous chiefs of princely states were called zamindars.
Moreland was one of the first historians to draw our attention to the importance of zamindars in medieval India. He defines zamindars as "vassal chiefs". He points out that there were areas under direct control of the Mughals where there were no zamindars and then there were territories of the vassal chiefs who had autonomy over their state, but were subjugated by the [[Mughals]] and paid a tribute/ nazarana to the Mughal Emperor. However, Irfan Habib in his book ''Agrarian System of Mughal India'', divided the zamindars into two categories: the autonomous chiefs who enjoyed "sovereign power" in their territories and the ordinary zamindars who exercised superior rights in land and collected land revenue and were mostly appointed by the Mughals.<ref name="Ansari2000" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Voyages in World History, Volume 2: Since 1500 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klcYZE-jE74C&pg=PA461 |page=461 |chapter=The Politics of Empire in Southern and Eastern Asia |first1=Valerie |last1=Hansen |first2=Kenneth R. |last2=Curtis |date=30 December 2008 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-618-07725-0}}</ref> These people were known as the zamindars (intermediaries),<ref name="Jaffrelot2000">{{cite journal |last=Jaffrelot |first=Christophe |author-link=Christophe Jaffrelot |date=September–October 2000 |title=Sanskritization vs. Ethnicization in India: Changing Indentities and Caste Politics before Mandal |journal=Asian Survey |volume=40 |issue=5 |pages=756–766 |doi=10.2307/3021175 |jstor=3021175}}</ref> and they collected revenue primarily from the [[Ryot]]s ([[peasant]]s).<ref>{{cite book |first=Irfan |last=Habib |orig-date=1963 |title=The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1526-1707 |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=2nd revised |year=2000 |isbn=0-19-562329-0}} For the meanings of ''zamindar'' see pp. 140ff.</ref> The zamindari system was more prevalent in the north of India because Mughal influence in the south was less apparent.<ref name="Jaffrelot2000" />

[[File:Vasantrao S Dempo 2016 stamp of India.jpg|thumb| [[Vasantrao S. Dempo]], [[Indian peers and baronets|Barao Dempo]], zamindar and richest man of [[Goa]] and one of the wealthiest in India post Independence]]

Historian [[S. Nurul Hasan]] divided the zamindars into three categories: (i) The Autonomous Rai/ Rajas or Chiefs, (ii) the intermediary zamindars and (iii) the primary zamindars.<ref>{{cite book |last=Khan |first=Ahsan Raza |year=1977 |title=Chieftains in the Mughal Empire: During the Reign of Akbar |location=Simla |publisher=Indian Institute of Advanced Study |page=7 |oclc=1045889555 |quote=Professor S. Nurul Hasan's article, "The Position of the Zamindars in the Mughal Empire" was however, a major breakthrough ... He has classified the ''zamindars'' in the Mughal empire into three broad categories: (a) the autonomous chieftains; (b) the intermediary ''zamindars'', and (c) the primary ''zamindars''.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=New breed of millionaires in Goa in the offing | date=11 March 2014 | url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/economy/story/19781231-new-breed-of-millionaires-in-goa-in-the-offing-823236-2014-03-11 }}</ref>

==British era==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Jagirdar Mustafa Ali Khan, a prominent zamindar of Bareilly British India.jpg|thumb|right|''circa 1898-1901''. Jagirdar Mustafa Ali Khan ''rais'', a prominent zamindar (with the honorary title of Nawab) of old city [[Bareilly]] (United Provinces) British India.]] -->

The [[East India Company]] established themselves in India by first becoming zamindars of three villages of Calcutta, Sultani and Govindpur. Later, they acquired the 24-Parganas and, in 1765, got control of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nasserwanji Driver |first1=Peshotan |title=Problems of Zamindari and Land Reconstruction in India |date=1949 |publisher=Bombay New Book Company LTD. |location=Bombay |page=10}}</ref> Later in 1857, the British Crown was established as the sovereign.

During the Mughal Era, the zamindars were not proprietors. The Mughal emperor was considered the supreme owner of the land.
Zamindars only had the right to collect revenue (tax) from peasants, not to own the land itself. By the late 18th century, the British East India Company had already gained control over Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha after the Battle of Plassey (1757) and Battle of Buxar (1764). The East India Company under [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|Lord Cornwallis]], made the Permanent Settlement in 1793 with the zamindars and made them proprietors of their land in return for a fixed annual rent and left them independent for the internal affairs of their estates.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historydiscussion.net/history-of-india/provisions-of-the-permanent-settlement-act-of-1793/2557 |title=Provisions of the Permanent Settlement Act of 1793 |date=29 November 2014 |type=User-generated content |access-date=14 March 2021 |archive-date=23 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923014415/https://www.historydiscussion.net/history-of-india/provisions-of-the-permanent-settlement-act-of-1793/2557 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{better source needed|reason=Blog source, this article requires WP:HISTRS compliant source(s)|date=March 2021}} This Permanent Settlement created the new zamindari system as we know it today. After 1857, the armies of the majority of zamindars were abolished with the exception of a small number of forces for policing/digwari/kotwali in their respective estates. If the zamindars were not able to pay the rent until sunset, parts of their estates were acquired and auctioned. This created a new class of zamindars in the society. As the rest of India came later under the control of the [[East India Company]] (EIC), different ways were implemented in different provinces to with regard to the ruling authorities in the region to get them to accede to Company authority.

The British generally adopted the extant zamindari system of revenue collection in the north of the country. They recognised the zamindars as landowners and proprietors as opposed to the Mughal government and, in return, required them to collect taxes. Although some zamindars were present in the south, they were not so in large numbers, and the British administrators used the [[ryotwari]] (cultivator) method of collection, which involved selecting certain farmers as being land owners and requiring them to remit their taxes directly.<ref name="Jaffrelot2000" />
[[File:Munshibari.jpg|thumb|Former estate of Zamindari [[Munshibari family of Ulipur|Munshi family of Ulipur]] in Northern Bangladesh]]
[[File:Kadirpara Babu Zamindar Bari.jpg|thumb|An old photograph of [[Kadirpara Estate|Kadirpara Munshi Bari]]]]
The [[Zamindars of Bengal]] were influential in the development of Bengal. They played a pivotal role during the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Patnaik |first=Utsa |author-link=Utsa Patnaik |date=18 March 2007 |title=Patriotic And Comprador Zamindars In The Great Rebellion Of 1857 |url=http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0318/03182007_1857.htm |work=People's Democracy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505171622/http://pd.cpim.org/2007/0318/03182007_1857.htm |archive-date=5 May 2012}}</ref> Similarly, they were largely influential in philanthropy and the development of the arts.
[[File:Interior jummah taltoli jama masjeed.jpg|thumb|Mosque constructed by Zamindari [[Munshibari family of Comilla|Munshi family of Comilla]] in Bengal]]
The British continued the tradition of bestowing both royal and noble titles to zamindars who were loyal to the paramount. The titles of Raja, Maharaja, Rai Saheb, Rai Bahadur, Rao, Nawab, Munshi, and Khan Bahadur were bestowed to princely state rulers and to many zamindars from time to time. According to an estimate in the Imperial Gazetteer of India, there were around 2000 ruling chiefs holding the royal title of Raja and Maharaja which included the rulers of princely states and several large chiefdoms. This number increases tenfold if zamindar/ [[jagirdar]] chiefs with other non-royal but noble titles are taken into account.{{cn|date=July 2025}}

===Accession===
Unlike the autonomous or frontier chiefs, the hereditary status of the zamindar class was circumscribed by the Mughals, and the heir depended to a certain extent on the pleasure of the sovereign.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Islam |first1=Sirajul |last2=Akhter |first2=Shirin |year=2012 |chapter=Zamindar |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Zamindar |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703120049/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Zamindar |archive-date=3 July 2015}}</ref> Heirs were set by descent or, at times, even adoption by religious laws.<ref>{{cite book |date=1888 |title=The Indian Law Reports: Madras series |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l9KyAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA385 |publisher=Controller of Stationery and Print |page=385}}</ref> Under the British Empire, the zamindars were to be subordinate to [[the Crown]] and not act as hereditary lords, but at times family politics was at the heart of naming an heir.<ref>{{cite book |last=McLane |first=John R. |date=2002 |title=Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YH6ijJnUPmcC&pg=PA223 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=223 |isbn=978-0-521-52654-8}}</ref> At times, a cousin could be named an heir with closer family relatives present;<ref>{{cite book |date=1872 |title=Madras High Court Reports: 1870 and 1871 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zc8DAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA209 |publisher=J. Higgingbotham |page=209}}</ref> a lawfully wedded wife could inherit the zamindari if the ruling zamindar named her an heir.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Great Britain. Privy Council. Judicial Committee. |last2=India. Courts. |title=Kashi Prasad ''v.'' Indar Kunwar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jc4oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA596 |year=1908 |journal=Allahabad Law Journal |volume=5 |publisher=Indian Press |page=596}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Woodman |first1=Joseph Vere |last2=Monnier |first2=Emile Henry |date=1902 |title=A Digest of Indian Law Cases: Containing High Court Reports, 1862-1900, and Privy Council Reports of Appeals from India, 1836-1900, with an Index of Cases |volume=III |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khoaAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA4-PT245 |publisher=Superintendent of Government Printing, India |page=5498}}</ref>

==Abolition==
The zamindari system was mostly abolished in independent India soon after its creation with the [[First Amendment of the Constitution of India]], which amended the [[right to property]] as shown in Articles 19 and 31.<ref name="Guha">{{cite book |last=Guha |first=Ramachandra |title=India After Gandhi |publisher=Ecco |pages=219–220 |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-330-54020-9}}</ref> In East Pakistan, the [[East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950]] had a similar effect of ending the system.<ref><nowiki>{{State Acquisition and Tenancy Act, 1950 [XXVII of 1951, Section 3]}}</nowiki></ref>

==In global health and tropical medicine==
Critics have likened the discipline of global health and tropical medicine to having a feudal structure where individuals and institutions in high-income nations act as zamindars over health issues of low-and-middle-income nations,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bhaumik |first=Soumyadeep |date=31 December 2024 |title=On the nature and structure of epistemic injustice in the neglected tropical disease knowledge ecosystem |journal=PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |language=en |volume=18 |issue=12 |article-number=e0012781 |doi=10.1371/journal.pntd.0012781 |issn=1935-2735 |pmc=11687857 |pmid=39739949 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Keshri VR, Bhaumik S |date=September 2022 |title=The feudal structure of global health and its implications for decolonisation |journal=BMJ Global Health |volume=7 |issue=9 |article-number=e010603 |doi=10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010603 |pmid=36167407 |pmc=9516156 |s2cid=252565623}}</ref> thus sustaining the imperial nature of global health.<ref>{{cite journal |display-authors=6 |vauthors=Kwete X, Tang K, Chen L, Ren R, Chen Q, Wu Z, Cai Y, Li H |date=January 2022 |title=Decolonizing global health: what should be the target of this movement and where does it lead us? |journal=Global Health Research and Policy |volume=7 |issue=1 |article-number=3 |doi=10.1186/s41256-022-00237-3 |pmc=8784247 |pmid=35067229 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Rasheed MA |date=December 2021 |title=Navigating the violent process of decolonisation in global health research: a guideline |journal=The Lancet. Global Health |language=English |volume=9 |issue=12 |pages=e1640–e1641 |doi=10.1016/S2214-109X(21)00440-X |pmid=34798014 |s2cid=244286291 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Affun-Adegbulu C, Adegbulu O |date=August 2020 |title=Decolonising Global (Public) Health: from Western universalism to Global pluriversalities |journal=BMJ Global Health |volume=5 |issue=8 |article-number=e002947 |doi=10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002947 |pmid=32819916 |pmc=7443258 |s2cid=221220715}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Indian honorifics]]
* [[Ghatwals and Mulraiyats]]
* [[Mankari]]
* [[Thakur (title)|Thakur]]
* [[Zerat]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{India topics}}

[[Category:Government of the Mughal Empire]]
[[Category:Titles in India]]
[[Category:Titles in Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Indian feudalism]]
[[Category:Feudalism in Pakistan]]
[[Category:Feudalism in Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Indian landlords|Zam]]