Urban nightmares and the politics of land

There are few subjects that trigger as much emotion and debate as the acquisition of agricultural land.* For centuries, it was the relationship to land that defined the wealth and power equations in what were essentially agrarian societies. The state in pre-colonial India was no exception. It relied heavily on taxation of the peasantry for its resources. In the north, the Mughals created the zamindars or jagirdars as intermediaries, whereas in the Deccan the Marathas and other successors to the Vijayanagara kingdom collected taxes more directly from peasants under the less-onerous ryotwari system.

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