Permanent Settlement

The 'Permanent Settlement' - also known as the 'Permanent Settlement of Bengal' (Bangla: ?????????? ?????????, Chirosthayi Bandobasto) - was an agreement between the East India Company and Bengali landlords with far-reaching consequences for both agricultural methods and productivity in the Empire and the political realities of the Indian and Pakistani countryside. It was concluded in 1793, by the Company administration headed by Lord Cornwallis.

Nature of the Permanent Settlement

The question of incentivisation now being understood to be central, the security of tenure of landlords was guaranteed; In short, the former landholders and revenue intermediaries were conferred proprietorial rights to the land they held. In addition, the land tax was fixed in perpetuity, so as to minimise the tendency by British administrators to amass a small fortune in sluiced-away revenue.

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Smallholders were no longer permitted to sell their land, though they could not be expropriated by their new landlords.

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