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Taluqdar Sanskrit and Hindi word, also Arabic (ta'al-luk), meaning to hang or depend. The term taluqdar has different meanings in different parts of India. In north India a taluqdar is a great landholder. But in Bengal, a taluqdar is next to a zamindar in extent of land control and social status. Eighteenth century Bengal witnessed the rise of great territorial zamindaris at the expense of smaller landholders who were reduced to the status of dependent taluqdars, because they were required to pay their revenue to government through the intermediary of the great zamindars called rajas and maharajas. Yet many old taluqdars paid revenues to government directly. The great zamindars themselves had created many taluqs under several denominations, such as, junglburi taluq, mazkuri taluq, shikimi taluq, and so on. These were created partly as a strategy of zamindari management and partly as a fiscal policy for raising zamindari funds for specific purposes. These were virtual sales of land in the name of creating dependent taluqs. Under the rules of the permanent settlement all such dependent taluqs were separated from their parent estates and assessed as independent revenue paying estates. All independent and dependant taluqs of various denominations were thus turned into independent zamindaris.
After the Permanent Settlement new variety of taluqs
were created by zamindars. Under the pressure of the Permanent Settlement
many zamindars had been creating dependent taluqs denominated as pattani
taluq, noabad taluq and osat taluq. These were all intermediate
tenurial rights having rights and obligations of the nature of the Permanent
Settlement. A taluqdar's rent was fixed permanently and taluqdari right
was transferable on payment of salami to the zamindar. All these
subordinate taluq tenures sprang up without any clear legal validity of
their bonafide. However, the bengal
tenancy act of 1885 (Act VIII) had recognised these tenures
as regular intermediate tenures with definite rights and obligations.
All taluqa rights were abolished with compensation under the East Bengal
Estate Acquisition Act, 1950. [Sirajul Islam] |
