THOMAS MUNRO AND ROYTWARI SETTLEMENT: IT’S EFFECT ON THE CEDED DISTRICTS OF MADRAS PRESIDENCY

The revenue from land being the main source of income in India the Colonial Administrators gave much emphasis on land settlement and land revenue administration. They introduced a series of land settlement in different parts of India. The Court of Directors, Board of Revenue all were concerned with the idea of collection of more and more revenue and had least interest for ryots and the people they ruled over. However Major General Munro also Governor of Madras had much concern for the ryots and the people of India and tried his best to introduce a system for the benefit of the ruled in addition to keeping in view the augmentation of the income of the British Government .He introduced ryotwari settlement in Madras. The points highlighted in this article are: (1) the effort made by Sir Thomas Munro in introducing the ryotwari settlement in Ceded Districts of Madras Presidency, (2) his objectives in introducing ryotwari settlement, (3) the principle and advantages of the ryotwari settlement as he suggested and his struggle to extend the same to other territories of Madras Presidency, (4) the reduction of land revenue proposed by Sir Thomas Munro, the refusal by the Board of Revenue to put it into effect and the success Munro achieved at the end.