§ * MR. REESI beg to ask the Under-secretary of State for India whether in any part of India 75 per cent. of their net profits are collected by way of taxation from the peasantry by the Government of India, or whether, when any rate at all approximating to this figure is collected, it is taken not from the cultivators of the soil but from the middlemen, who were comparatively recently converted into landlords in the Central Provinces by the British Government, such landlords or middlemen being under legal control in respect of the rent which they may levy from their cultivating tenants, which is fixed by law with due regard to the circumstances and customs of the locality.
§ MR. BUCHANANIn no part of British India is it the case that the land revenue assessment represents 75 per cent. of the net profits of the cultivator. In provinces where the land is held by zemindars, or landlords, the revenue assessment is ordinarily below 50 per cent of the rental, and in provinces where the State deals directly with the cultivating occupant, it is considerably less than half the net profits of cultivation. In zemindari provinces tenancy laws, regulating the amount of the rent payable by the cultivators to the zemindars, are in force.
§ * MR. REESIs it not the fact that since British succeeded to native rule in India there has been a regular and progressive decrease in the share of the profits taken by the State from the cultivators?
§ MR. BUCHANANI believe that is the case.
§ * MR.SMEATON (Stirlingshire)But is the right hon. Gentleman aware that what is termed the legal rent does not represent the real burden imposed on the cultivator, who has to borrow money, 491 often from his landlord, at exorbitant interest, and has not seldom to pay extras and to render personal service?
§ * MR. LUPTON (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)asked if the 50 per cent. was not merely a nominal and theoretical figure, and if it did not amount in practice in some cases to 75 per cent. of the crop.
§ MR. BUCHANANIt is not theoretical at all.