Q153
Indian National MovementBritish Policy, Acts & Constitutional Reforms
Who introduced the Ryotwari settlement in Madras?
- a.Charles Metcalfe
- b.Thomas Munro
- c.John Malcolm
- d.Mountstuart Elphinstone
Answer: (B) Thomas Munro
The Ryotwari system, in which the government settled land revenue directly with each cultivator (ryot) and not through zamindars, was first tried by Captain Alexander Read in the Baramahal district (1792) and was developed and extended across the Madras Presidency by Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras from 1820. In Bombay it was introduced under Mountstuart Elphinstone (D). The three settlements: Permanent or Zamindari (1793, Cornwallis; Bengal, Bihar, Orissa), Ryotwari (Madras, Bombay, Assam) and Mahalwari (1822, Holt Mackenzie; North-Western Provinces, Punjab). Charles Metcalfe (A) is known as the liberator of the Indian press (1835), and John Malcolm (C) for the settlement of Central India.