Abstract

Land Revenue is the back bone of a government. Different land revenue administration prevailed in the Madras Presidency during the native governments. Land Revenue system was at the hands of petty officials and middlemen. The Britishers who introduced the system of land revenue settlement, linking the assessment to the productivity of land commuted at the average market rates which were unchangeable during a spell of 50 years. An era started to bring prosperity to the agriculturist. The National Government took more progressive views and put a stop to the periodical resettlement from the year 1937 onwards. Land Revenue Administration has undergone progressive changes in different countries or different parts of a country, from time lo time creating various types of tenures in land holdings thus deviating from the Ryotwari tenure. Time has proved that the Ryotwari tenure is the only ideal tenure both for the state and for the land holders as intermediary tenures that were created from time to time have only helped middlemen to prosper at the cost of the agricultural economy. This research work deals, succinctly with various types of tenures and the steps taken over the years to all intermediaries and confer rytowari rights on the occupancy ryots or land holders who had resorted to pannai cultivation. The period 1947-1967 marks a significant stage in the general as well as in the revenue administration of the Madras State. This period witnessed the gradual constitutional, political administration and revenue reforms and changes in the state. This period may be called as a new earn in the revenue administration of the Madras State because the welfare and well- being of the people was the key-note of the administrators.