TELANGANA PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE 9 the Nizam in his wars. Thejagirs and samsthanams were given to reward officers who distinguished themselves in the Nizam's service. Maktas, banjars, agraharams and inams were given for various services ; the owners were entitled to fleece the peasantry and take as much as they could extract. Apart from these, there were the deshmukhs and deshpandes who were earlier tax collectors for the Government, but who were, after direct collection by the state apparatus was introduced, granted vatans or mash (annuities), based on a percentage of past collections, in perpetuity. These deshmukhs and deshpandes^ as collectors of taxes, grabbed thousands of acres of the most fertile cultivated land and made it their own property, reducing the peasants cultivating these lands to tenants-at-will. These feudal oppressors had acquired these lands by innumerable foul means from the people. The major portion of the lands cultivated by the peasants came to be occupied by the landlords during the first survey settlement. Using the power in their hands, they got lands registered in their names without the knowledge of the peasants cultivating them; the peasants came to know of this later, when it was too late to do anything. Even lands which were left in the possession of the peasants in the survey settlement were occupied by the landlords in the years of the economic crisis of 1920-22 and 1930-33. Owing to bad harvests or unfair prices for the crops, the peasants were unable to pay the taxes; the landlords tortured the peasants, unable to pay the taxes, and took possession of their lands. In many instances, the acquisition took place without the knowledge of the peasants. Lending agricultural products like grain, chillies, etc to the peasants at usurous rates, the feudal oppressors later confiscated the peasants9 lands under the pretext of non-repayment of the loans. The scale of the acquisition of lands can be judged from the fact that the Jannareddy Pratap Reddy family had one and a half lakh acres of land, and had laid a mango grove on a plot of 750 acres. These landlords were not only deshmukhs but also village chiefs (patel, patwari, mali pafel) with hereditary righ ts. Each one of them had about five to ten villages under him as vatan. These vatan villages were controlled through clerks or agents (seridars) appointed by the deshmukh. These senders collected products from the peasants by force. They did various other jobs for the deshmukh, including supplying information about the village. If this was the state of exploitation by the feudal lords in the ryotwari areas, one can Imagine what it must have been in the jagirdari areas. These jagirdars and deshmukhs had licenses for rifles and guns ; they had cavaly squads and armed forces as well. Vetti System The vetti system (forced labour and exactions) is generally understood to be confined to tribal areas or to some of the most backward social communities in other areas. In Telangana, the vetti system was