The Cornwallis Code is a body of legislation enacted in 1793 by the East India Company to improve the governance of its territories in India. The Code was developed under the guidance of Charles, Marquess Cornwallis, who served as Governor of Bengal from 1786 to 1793.
The code contained significant provisions governing, policing and judicial and civil administration. Its best known provision was the Permanent Settlement [1] (or the zamindari system), which established a revenue collection scheme that lasted until the 20th century. Beginning with Bengal, the system spread over all of northern India by means of the issue of a series of regulations dated 1 May 1793. On these the government of British India virtually rested until the Charter Act 1833.
The system, as codified in these regulations, provided that the East India Company's service personnel be divided into three branches: revenue, judicial, and commercial. Private trade was forbidden to the members of the first two branches, and they were instead compensated by a new and generous scale of pay. The land revenue assessment (the major source of revenue) was fixed permanently with zamindars, or hereditary revenue collectors. These native Indians, provided they paid their land taxes punctually, were treated as landowners, but they were deprived of magisterial and police functions, which were discharged by a newly organized government police. This “permanent settlement” provided the British with an Indian landed class interested in supporting British authority. The local administration was placed in the hands of the revenue collectors of districts. The judiciary was reorganized; there were district judges with magisterial powers responsible to provincial courts in civil cases and to courts of circuit in criminal cases. The law administered was Hindu and Muslim personal law and a modified Muslim criminal code. The higher ranks of the services were restricted to the British, thus depriving the Indians of any responsible office.
As a whole, the system gave social and political stability to Bengal at the price of neglecting the rights of the lesser landholders and undertenants and of excluding Indians from any responsible share in the administration.
Company rule in India refers to regions of the Indian subcontinent under the control of the British East India Company (EIC). The EIC, founded in 1600, established their first trading post in India in 1612, and gradually expanded their presence in the region over the following decades. During the Seven Years' War, the East India Company began a process of rapid expansion in India which resulted in most of the subcontinent falling under their rule by 1857, when the Indian Rebellion of 1857 broke out. After the rebellion was suppressed, the Government of India Act 1858 resulted in the EIC's territories in India being administered by the Crown instead. The India Office managed the EIC's former territories, which became known as the British Raj.
The district magistrate, also known as the district collector or deputy commissioner, is a career civil servant who serves as the executive head of a district's administration in India. The specific name depends on the state or union territory. Each of these posts has distinct responsibilities, and an officer can assume all of these roles at once. The district magistrate is primarily responsible for maintaining law and order, while the district collector focuses on land revenue administration, and the deputy commissioner is in charge of overseeing developmental activities and coordinates government departments. Additionally, they also serve as election officers, registrar, marriage officer, licensing authority, and managing disaster responses, among other things. While the specific scope of duties may vary from state to state, they are generally similar. The district magistrate comes under the general supervision of divisional commissioner.
The Permanent Settlement, also known as the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, was an agreement between the East India Company and landlords of Bengal to fix revenues to be raised from land that had far-reaching consequences for both agricultural methods and productivity in the entire British Empire and the political realities of the Indian countryside. It was concluded in 1793 by the Company administration headed by Charles, Earl Cornwallis. It formed one part of a larger body of legislation, known as the Cornwallis Code. The Cornwallis Code of 1793 divided the East India Company's service personnel into three branches: revenue, judicial, and commercial. Revenues were collected by zamindars, native Indians who were treated as landowners. This division created an Indian landed class that supported British authority.
A sub-divisional magistrate, also known as sub collector, revenue divisional officer, or assistant commissioner, is the administrative head of a sub-division in an Indian district, exercising executive, revenue, and magisterial duties. The specific name depends on the state or union territory. The primary responsibilities include revenue collection, maintaining law and order, overseeing developmental activities and coordinating various departments within a sub-division.
Pargana or parganah, also spelt pergunnah during the time of the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal Empire and British Indian Empire, is a former administrative unit of the Indian subcontinent. Each parganas may or may not be subdivided into pirs. Those revenue units are used primarily, but not exclusively, by Muslim kingdoms. After Indian independence the parganas became equivalent to Block/ Tahsil and pirs became Grampanchayat.
The Singranatore family is the consanguineous name given to a noble family in Rajshahi of landed aristocracy in erstwhile East Bengal and West Bengal that were prominent in the nineteenth century till the fall of the monarchy in India by Royal Assent in 1947 and subsequently abolished by the newly formed democratic Government of East Pakistan in 1950 by the State Acquisition Act.
The Economy of India under Company rule describes the economy of those regions that fell under Company rule in India during the years 1757 to 1858. The British East India Company began ruling parts of the Indian subcontinent beginning with the Battle of Plassey, which led to the conquest of Bengal Subah and the founding of the Bengal Presidency, before the Company expanded across most of the subcontinent up until the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
British General Charles Cornwallis, the Earl Cornwallis, was appointed in February 1786 to serve as both Commander-in-Chief of British India and Governor of the Presidency of Fort William, also known as the Bengal Presidency. He oversaw the consolidation of British control over much of peninsular India, setting the stage for the British Raj. He was also instrumental in enacting administrative and legal reforms that fundamentally altered civil administration and land management practices there. According to historian Jerry Dupont, Cornwallis was responsible for "laying the foundation for British rule throughout India and setting standards for the services, courts, and revenue collection that remained remarkably unaltered almost to the end of the British era."
The Salem riots of 1882 were serious Hindu-Muslim disturbances which took place in the city of Salem, Tamil Nadu, in the then Madras Presidency in August 1882.
The East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950 was a law passed by the newly formed democratic Government of East Bengal in the Dominion of Pakistan. The bill was drafted on 31 March 1948 during the early years of Pakistan and passed on 16 May 1951. Before passage of the legislature, landed revenue laws of Bengal consisted of the Permanent Settlement Regulations of 1793 and the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885.
The Zamindars of Bengal were zamindars of the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. They governed an ancient system of land ownership.
Zamindars of Natore were influential aristocratic Bengali Zamindars, who owned large estates in what is today Natore District in Bangladesh .
The Mahalwari system was used in India to protect village-level-autonomy. It was introduced by Holt Mackenzie in 1822. The word "Mahalwari" is derived from the Hindi word Mahal, which means a community made from one or more villages.. Mahalwari consisted of landlords or Lambardars assigned to represent villages or groups of villages. Along with the village communities, the landlords were jointly responsible for the payment of revenue. Revenue was determined on basis of the produce of Mahal. Individual responsibility was not assigned. The land included under this system consisted of all land in the villages, including forestland, pastures etc. This system was prevalent in parts of the Gangetic Valley, Uttar Pradesh, the North Western province, parts of Central India and Punjab.
The 1912 Birthday Honours were appointments in the British Empire of King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were published on 11 June 1912.
The New Year Honours 1914 were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were announced on 2 January 1914.
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The 1924 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were published in The London Gazette on 1 January 1924.
The 1911 Delhi Durbar was held in December 1911 following the coronation in London in June of that year of King George V and Queen Mary. The King and Queen travelled to Delhi for the Durbar. For the occasion, the statutory limits of the membership of the Order of the Star of India and the Order of the Indian Empire were increased and many appointments were made to these and other orders. These honours were published in a supplement to the London Gazette dated 8 December 1911.
Deputy commissioner is a chief administrative, land revenue officer/collector and representative of government in district or an administrative sub-unit of a division in Pakistan. The office-holder belongs to the commission of Pakistan Administrative Service erstwhile DMG/CSP or the Provincial Management Service erstwhile Provincial Civil Service.
Revenue Sale Law, 1793 was a British era law concerning collection of revenue from Bengal and as part of the Permanent Settlement agreement. The law changed allowed the auction of the land of Zamindars who could not pay taxes.
It is regulation 1 of the long series of regulations passed by the Supreme Council on 1 May, and known collectively as "the Cornwallis Code".