Do you agree that the idea of permanent fixation of land revenue of 1793 in Bengal was highly influenced by the Physiocratic school of thinking? Discuss.

Answer:

The Permanent Settlement of 1793 fixed land revenue permanently in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa under Lord Cornwallis. The idea had some connection with the Physiocratic belief that land was the main source of wealth and that agriculture should be encouraged through secure property rights. However, the Permanent Settlement was shaped not only by Physiocratic thought but also by British administrative, fiscal and political needs.

Physiocratic Influence on Permanent Fixation

Land as the source of wealth:

• The Physiocrats in 18th-century France believed that agriculture was the real source of surplus.
• British officials in Bengal also saw land revenue as the main basis of colonial income.
• Permanent fixation was expected to encourage agricultural improvement by giving security to revenue-paying landlords.

Creation of improving landlords:

• Physiocratic ideas supported the view that secure property rights would encourage investment in land.
• Cornwallis and his associates believed that zamindars, if made proprietors, would improve agriculture.
• By fixing revenue permanently, the state hoped zamindars would increase cultivation and productivity.

Limited state interference:

• Physiocracy favoured a natural economic order with minimum interference.
• The Permanent Settlement tried to limit repeated state revisions of revenue demand.
• It created a stable contractual relationship between the state and zamindars.

Other Factors Behind Permanent Settlement

Fiscal certainty for the Company:

• The East India Company wanted a fixed and regular income after the acquisition of Diwani in 1765.
• Annual and short-term settlements had created instability and uncertainty.
• Permanent revenue demand gave the Company a predictable financial base.

Administrative convenience:

• The Company lacked detailed knowledge of village-level agrarian conditions.
• It was easier to deal with zamindars than directly with millions of peasants.
• Permanent Settlement reduced the administrative burden of repeated assessment.

Political objective:

• The British wanted to create a loyal landed aristocracy in Bengal.
• Zamindars were expected to become supporters of colonial rule.
• Thus, the settlement had a clear political purpose, not merely an economic-theoretical basis.

Critical Assessment

Misreading of Indian agrarian society:

• British officials treated zamindars as landowners similar to English landlords.
• In reality, zamindars were often revenue intermediaries with customary claims, while peasants had important occupancy rights.
• This misunderstanding created hardship for cultivators.

Failure of expected agricultural improvement:

• Many zamindars did not invest in agricultural improvement.
• They often extracted rent from peasants without improving irrigation, technology or productivity.
• Subinfeudation and absentee landlordism increased in Bengal.

Colonial revenue priority:

• The state demand was fixed at a high level.
• Zamindars who failed to pay revenue lost their estates under the “sunset law”.
• This shows that the colonial state’s immediate concern was revenue security.

Ranajit Guha argued that the Permanent Settlement created a new structure of domination in Bengal by strengthening zamindars over peasants. R.C. Dutt and nationalist economists criticised it for producing landlordism and peasant oppression. Therefore, Physiocratic ideas did influence the intellectual justification of permanent fixation, but the actual settlement was more strongly shaped by colonial revenue needs, administrative convenience and political control.