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{{for|the website|RYOT}}
'''Ryot''' (alternatives: '''raiyat''', '''rait''' or '''ravat''') ([[Urdu]]: راعیت) was a general economic term used throughout India for peasant cultivators but with variations in different provinces. While [[zamindar]]s were landlords, raiyats were tenants and cultivators, and served as hired labour.<ref name="Ram1997">{{cite book|last=Ram|first=Bindeshwar|title=Land and society in India: agrarian relations in colonial North Bihar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2b_j0mNe2FwC&pg=PA76|accessdate=22 January 2011|year=1997|publisher=Orient Blackswan|isbn=978-81-250-0643-5|pages=76–}}</ref>

A raiyat was defined as someone who has acquired a right to hold land for the purpose of cultivating it, whether alone or by members of his family, hired servants, or partners. It also referred to succession rights.<ref name="Cranenburgh1894">{{cite book|last=Cranenburgh|first=D. E.|title=Unrepealed Acts of the Governor-General in Council, [India].|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FESAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA221|accessdate=22 January 2011|year=1894|pages=221–}}</ref>

==Etymology==
''Ryot'' originates from the [[Standard Hindi|Hindi]] word ''ra`īyat'' and the [[Arabic language|Arabic]] word ''ra`īyah'', translated as "flock" or "peasants", in turn originating from the word ''ra`ā'', meaning "pasture".<ref name="thefreedictionary">{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ryot|title=Ryot|publisher=[[TheFreeDictionary.com]]|accessdate=23 January 2011}}</ref>

==Classifications==
Under the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] system of land control there were two types of raiyats: khudkasta and paikasta. The khudkasta raiyats were permanent resident cultivators of the village. Their rights in land were heritable according to [[Muslim]] and [[Hindu]] laws of succession. The other type of raiyats was called paikasta. They did not cultivate land on a permanent basis in any particular mauza (lowest revenue plus village settlement unit), but instead moved from mauza to mauza and engaged themselves for a crop season. In terms of revenue, the paikasta raiyats were generally paid a much lower rate of rent than the khudkashta raiyats. The dividend to the khudkasta, who thus became an [[absentee landlord|absentee owner]], came from hard bargaining.<ref>{{cite book |last=Islam |first=Sirajul |year=2012 |chapter=Raiyat |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Raiyat |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> Pahikasht raiyats were a subgroup of peasants who cultivated the land away from the area where they resided.<ref>Ram, p. 79</ref>

Another subgroup included under-raiyats who were entitled to various rights of occupancy and transferable interests. An under-raiyat it was referred to as a ''korfa'', though an under-raiyat paying rent in kind was referred too as a ''bargait''.<ref name="LandRecords1896">{{cite book|author=Bengal (India). Land Records and Agriculture Dept|title=Survey and settlement of the Dakhin Shahbazpur estates in the district of Backergunge, 1889-95|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehNOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA17|accessdate=22 January 2011|year=1896|publisher=Bengal Secretariat Press|pages=17–}}</ref>

In March 1859, during the British rule, thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to grow Indigo.

The [[Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885]] was developed to regulate the rent of under-raiyats.<ref name="Jha2003">{{cite book|last=Jha|first=Usha|title=Land, labour, and power: agrarian crisis and the state in Bihar (1937–52)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lHAMkZGI_OoC&pg=PA152|accessdate=22 January 2011|year=2003|publisher=Aakar Books|isbn=978-81-87879-07-7|pages=151–152}}</ref> One of the causes of the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 was the Bihar Rent Committee report of 1879 which sought rights for the raiyat to resist illegal restraint and illegal enhancement, and allowing him to prove and maintain his occupancy rights.<ref name="Buckland1901">{{cite book|last=Buckland|first=C. E.|title=Bengal under the lieutenant-governors: being a narrative of the principal events and public measures during their periods of office, from 1854–1898|url=https://archive.org/details/bengalunderlieu02buckgoog|accessdate=22 January 2011|year=1901|publisher=S. K. Lahiri & Co.|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bengalunderlieu02buckgoog/page/n87 641]–}}</ref>

==Ryotwari system==
{{main|Ryotwari}}
There were two economic systems prevalent in India during the British rule: the [[ryotwari]] system and the [[mahalwari]] system. The ryotwari system was known as "severality villages and was based on the system of peasant proprietorship.<ref name="Madan1990">{{cite book|last=Madan|first=G. R.|title=India's developing villages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FQbujJdepwkC&pg=PA15|accessdate=23 January 2011|year=1990|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=978-81-7023-281-0|pages=15–}}</ref> The ryotwari (or ryotwary) tenure related to land revenue imposed on an individual or community owning an estate, and occupying a position analogous to that of a landlord. The assessment is known as zamindari.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Ryot |volume=23 |page=952 |inline=1}}</ref>

The land revenue is imposed on individuals who are the actual occupants, and this assessment is known as ryotwari. Under zamindari tenure, the land is held as independent property; while under ryotwari tenure it is held of the crown in a right of occupancy, which is under British rule both heritable and transferable by the ryots. The former system prevails in northern and central India, and the latter in Bombay, Madras, Assam and Burma.<ref name=EB1911/> The Ryot's association was formed by N. G. Ranga.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Indian feudalism]]
[[Category:History of taxation in India]]
[[Category:Indian words and phrases]]

Ryot - Revision history

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