Prof Tirthankar Roy – Building a state in late-18th century India: Revisiting the Permanent Settlement debate

“The principle on which [Akbar] secured his conquest was [to show regard] to the right of the Zemindars, the ancient proprietors of the soil,” said Philip Francis in 1777. Disagreeing radically, his rival and critic Warren Hastings said that “much the greatest part of the Zemindars… are incapable of judging or acting for themselves, being either minors, or men of weak understandings, or absolute idiots.”

Two statesmen in charge of building a state in Bengal made these conflicting comments about the zamindar, a magnate in the countryside. Their debate reveals the complicated nature of the statebuilding project in Bengal at that time, with limited trust in indigenous institutions and intermediaries and yet limited power to supersede these. The talk will discuss this debate and suggest how we should read institutional reforms in early-colonial India.

Free and open to all at 14 Stephenson Way, NW1 2HD

To join us online email: mb@royalasiaticsociety.org