Publisher's Synopsis
A zamindar on the Indian subcontinent was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who held enormous tracts of land and held control over his peasants, from whom the zamindars reserved the right to collect tax (often for military purposes). Over time, they took princely and royal titles such as Maharaja (Great King), Raja (King), Nawab (Lord), Mirza (Prince), Chowdhury (Lord) and many others. Zamindars had played a very important role in the political, economic and social life of Bengal. However there is a dearth of studies into the zamindari system from the standpoint of social history as most of the researches in this arena are focused on the agrarian economy of Bengal. The present work, by taking the Sinhas of Kandi, and the Acharyyas of Muktagachha as the two representative families tries to give a truthful pen picture of the different stages of vicissitudes and evolution that the institution of zamindari had gone through during colonial rule in India.
