a84 A-AIRA DISTRICT
Assistant Collector and a Deputy-Collector respectively, and is com
Admtolstretton. posed of the seven talk., of A.Atm, BoxsAu,
KAPAMANJ, MATAR, MEHMAUnenb, NADIAD, and
Txdsan. The Collector is ex 'o Political Agent for Cambay State
and Additional Political Agent for Rewa KSntha
For judicial purposes the District is included in the jurisdiction of
the Judge of Ahmadabad. There are 5 Subordinate Judges for civil
work, and 13 officers, including a bench of magistrates,. to administer
criminal justice. The common offences are murder in Borsad' and
Annual, and house-breaking, burglary, cattle-stealing, and thefts al-
where.
In r8o3, when Kaira was ceded to the British, the District afforded
xamples of various forms of land re e administration. In the
centre were three kinds of villages: r&d or peaceable, -hear or
refractory, and an intermediate class of rdrei-mehrvdr villages. The
refractory villages were occupied by the turbulent descendants of the
Rajput and Kolf warriors. Here Koll thakmrr or chiefs administered
despotically their little clusters of huts. Revenue was demanded but
seldom paid. The peaceable villages were mostly grants from Govern-
ment to those who had done some public service. The most important
Muhammadan grants w called rnaAhs, and were held rent-free.
Internal administration was the concern of the village community,
There were four forms of village government, the commonest being
that by which the village headman engaged Annually for the payment
of a certain an, to Government, The profits of a good year, under,
this the most simple and general system, went to the headman; on the
other hand, the headman had to bear any loss from failure of crop or
short tillage. Above the headman or ydtel were the revenue-farmers
(hamavfsddr), who fixed the village contributions; and below the head-
ere the cultivators and coparceners of the village. A class quite
aparq called maaotida>s, o money-lenders, A sureties for the
payment of the revenue. This short statement furnishes nn outline of
the MmIIhk revenue system. It had the merit of simplicity and was
calculated to an sre the recovery of revenue. At the same time it is
clear that it was productive of abuses and stiffening to the cultivating
classes. When the District was taken over by the British in r8o3, the
system was continued with but small modification until 186,. In that
year the revenue survey system, which deals directly with individual
cultivators, was introduced. The result of the survey assessment w
to increase the land re e demand from u} to r3}lakhs, or by
x per cent. In 1894 a resettlement w undertaken and completed
1896, which further enhanced the total re us by 17 per Ant.
The a erage rates of assessment are: 'dry' land, Ra. 3-y (ma1
-Rs.6-:;minimum Re.-8); rice land, Rs. 5-n (maximum Rs6 za,
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