British Indian Land Consolidation

This paper chooses the land settlement of India under British rule as the research object, and mainly stated the land settlement in Bengal. In the early of India under British rule, the East India Company was either Business Company or governing institution and ruled the India for more than 100 years. The land settlement was one of example of British colonial plunder and Bengal was the typical area. From Clive to Hastings, and to Cornwallis, all implemented a series of experiment in Bengal for the levying land revenue and land settlement. In the process, the former social structure in Bengal village and land revenue system were broken down, the experiments which had plunder characteristics were unsuccessful. Until the Permanent Settlement, the land revenue system in Bengal tended to stability. This paper shortly introduced three kinds of land settlement in India carried out by the British and mainly discussed the process of land settlement in Bengal.