PEASANTS IN REVOLT 69 totally impossible to bring out some popular versions of such books at low prices and in a more familiar langauage for the benefit of the ordinary workers of the peasant movement and the people in general interested in these struggles ? Taluqdars of Oudh and Peasantry The immediate cause of the 1920-22 peasant unrest in Oudh was the taluqdari and zamindari oppression which, according to the Royal Commission of Agriculture, "had caused greater pauperisation in U P than in other states. These taluqdars, in the words of Canning, "had acquired their positions by holding office under a corrupt government"; they were formerly "local Chiefs, revenue-farmers, revenue officials, Mahajans and...revenue agents", who taking advantage of the decline of the central authority "abrogated to themselves the status of Taluqdars". The British administration, after the annexation of Oudh, made these taluqdars owners of land, who had to pay to the government revenue which could be enhanced at regular intervals, and who left the actual cultivators at their tender mercy. Immediately after the annexation, the British wanted to settle directly with cultivators and curb the power of taluqdars who were forced to surrender their forts and defence establishments. Out of 23,543 villages which the taluqdars held before the annexation, only 11,640 were settled with them immediately after the annexation. The taluqdars, who still remained a powerful force, joined the revolt of 1857. In order to secure the assistance of the taluqdars in re-establishing British supremacy, a taluqdars settlement was enforced from May 1, 1858 under which the confiscated lands were restored, except in the case of those who had not been pardoned; their lands were given to those who were considered to be loyal. Now the taluqdars had 23,986 villages settled with them. Kapil Kumar rightly describes this new settlement as a political bargain "to avert confrontation between the British and the taluqdars who helped the British'5 to speed up the process of establishing their authority. They emerged as a bastion for the consilidation and stability of the British Empire "and were in turn allowed to buttress" their economic interests to the detriment and impoverishment of the peasantry. On October 25, 1959 the taluqdars were issued sanads (document of entitlement) conferring on them for all time to come, permanent and hereditary rights. Although there was a provision in the sanad that the taluqdars would preserve all lights, wherever they existed, of subordinate proprietors", it was not clarified whether it included those who had lost their rights in the same manner as the taluqdars. About tenants there was not a word in these sanads and they naturally became tenants-at-will. Immediately a controversy arose about the cultivators who had lost proprietory rights over the land they still occupied and they were