We have before us the question of ending zamindari in several provinces. We have also before us the question of payment of compensation to the Zamindars. There are all kinds of difficulties before us. I am a member of the U.P. Zamindari Abolition Committee which has to deal with such questions. I can say with all the authority at my command that if we have to pay the compensation for zamindari according to its market value, I have no doubt that it will be almost impossible for us to end zamindari: and even if it could be made possible, it would result in the peasantry remaining burdened for another 20 or 25 years to the same extent as they are today. After all from what source the compensation will be paid ? It will be taken from the pockets of the poor. Under these circumstances for another 20 or 25 years the peasants will have to remain under the same financial burden which they have to bear today. They will not benefit in any way for this period of 20 or 25 years. Besides the statement of Raja Sahib that “just” compensation should be paid is rather extremely odd. Is Raja Sahib prepared that a general examination of the titles of the Zamindars in respect of their landed property be undertaken to verify as to how many of these titles can be termed just ? If he agrees to this his amendment may be considered. There are many estates in the country and particularly in Oudh, to which province Raja Sahib belongs, which were acquired by the present holders as rewards for their traitorous support to the English during the Mutiny of 1857. The recipients of these estates had no estate previously. The Englishmen gave them these estates for their treachery against India. Raja Jagannath Bakhsh Singh claims that the Zamindar participated in the war of liberation of 1857. I welcome those who had fought for freedom and I do recommend that they should be given the maximum concessions. Raja Sahib knows that there are instances of many who betrayed their countrymen and in return for their treachery received big estates. Such people have no right to demand compensation. Many of them enjoy exemption from payment of revenue, and have been continuously enjoying the profits of these estates for the last 90 years. They have been realising rent from the tenants for the last 90 years without having had to pay even a pie of land revenue. If any body had even paid the price for it, he has already received five times its value. Those who acquired these estates as a reward for their betrayal of the country now demand compensation. The question of ‘just’ compensation does not arise so long as we have not examined the validity of the titles to these estates. Even if the word ‘just’ is not added here the clause as it stands, can be widely interpreted to include compensation to those who were never entitled to receive these estates, who have been receiving the profits of the estates for nearly 90 years and many of whom had not even to pay any land revenue to the Government. It would be improper to pay any compensation to these people. There is a ‘saving grace’ in this clause that the Government would consider the principles and basis on which compensation should be given.
