A Sketch of Assam: With some account of the Hill TribesButler, John, Major
History
A Sketch of Assam: With some account of the Hill Tribes
Butler, John, Major
Assam (India) -- Description and travel; Assam (India) -- Social life and customs; Ethnology -- India -- Assam
Under the Ahoom Government the monopoly of office was at first confined
to the Ahooms, or original conquerors of the soil; but in the reign
of Rodroo Sing, 1695, A.D., when the Assamese natives of the soil
had become proselytes to the Hindoo religion, they were admitted to a
share in the public employ. When the British Government conquered the
country in 1825, this system of revenue, founded upon personal labour,
was still in existence; but a money rate of taxation under the form
of a poll-tax was introduced as far as circumstances would allow,
the rates being fixed with reference to the customs of the ancient
government. The two poorahs of land allowed to each cultivator were
deemed equivalent to two English acres: the land could not be taken
from him as long as he paid his revenue, but it was nevertheless
considered the property of the state and could not be disposed of
by the tenant. Almost the whole of the land in Assam is now taxed
according to its quality, at so much per poorah or acre, but in some
places any quantity of land may be cultivated by paying a certain sum
per plough. The poll tax is likewise collected where the population
is unsettled and scanty.
The religious wants of the people were provided for by the Assam rulers
apportioning a certain number of paicks or cultivators to each Shuster
or temple, for the support of which one-half of their revenue was
assigned: the other half was appropriated by Government. Independently
of this, grants of land were made to various religious persons, under
the title of Debootur (service of the Gods), Dhurmooter (religious
purposes), and Bramooter, for the support of the Brahmins (or priests);
and a remission of half the usual rate of taxation was allowed when
the claims of the parties were fairly established.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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