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‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’ [‎426v] (56/274)

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The record is made up of 1 item (136 folios). It was created in 1925. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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20
BOMBAY, 1923-24
that, owing to a partial of total failure or destruction of crops throughout
any tract, suspension of the collection of land revenue is necessary, to
grant suspensions according to a scale to all occupants, agriculturists
and non-agriculturists alike, without enquiry into the circumstances of
individuals. As regards remissions, the grant of them depends on the
character of three seasons following that in which the assessment is
suspended. Ordinarily suspended arrears which are more than three
years old are to be remitted by the Collector. The remissions are to
be granted to occupants cultivating their own holdings and also to
non-cultivating occupants, provided that when land is cultivated by
tenants, corresponding remission is granted by the superior holder or
landlord to the inferior holder or tenant.
SYSTEM OF LAND TENURE
In the Bombay Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. outside Sind the land revenue system is with
few exceptions ryotwari, i.e., a system of settlement with the rayats, or
cultivators of small holdings whose revenue payments are fixed after
careful measurement and classification of the land in their possession.
The maximum and usual term of settlement is thirty years.
At the conclusion of the term of settlement the land revenue payable is
liable to revision ; but the holder has the right of occupancy in perpetuity
provided he pays the assessment as revised from time to time ; and this
right is heritable and transferable. This is known as the full survey
tenure and is that on which land is ordinarily held. The position of the
occupant is thus more secure than it was before the advent of the British
Government. In earlier times, it is true, the hereditary occupant or miras-
dar held land on terms which precluded its forfeiture on failure to pay the
revenue demand unless he absented himself for a term of over thirty years.
But on the other hand he was liable to extra and arbitrary impositions and
was responsible for the default of neighbouring mirasdars, while his lien
on the land was also conditional on his reimbursing all arreais due and
expenses incurred during default.
Moreover, before the days of the British Government land would not
sell for moie than two or three years’ purchase and could not be mortgaged
for more than half the gross yearly produce, whereas to-day the price
realised for land varies from twenty-five to 100 or more times the
assessment.
It should be noted, too, that it is laid down in the Land Revenue Code
that " In revising assessments of land revenue regard shall be had to the
value of land and, in the case of land used for the purposes of agriculture,
to the profits of agriculture ; provided that if any improvement has been
affected in any land during the currency of any previous settlement
by or at the cost of the holder thereof, increase in the value of such land
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About this item

Content

Annual administration report of the Bombay Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. , providing a summary record of the main events and developments in each department of the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. during the financial year 1923-24. The report was printed at the Government Central Press, Bombay [Mumbai], in 1925.

The report is divided into two parts. Part I (ff 405-416) comprises a report ‘GENERAL SUMMARY’, consisting of: [Political]; Finance; Trade and Commerce; Agriculture; Department of Agriculture; Education; Law and Justice; Police and Crime; Bombay City Police; Public Health; Salt; Excise; Forests; the Co-operative Movement; Public Works; Development Department.

PART II (ff 417-527) comprises the following headings, which are further divided into sub-headings:

  • CHAPTER I ‘INDIAN STATES.’ (ff 417-424), consisting of: I. North Gujarat; II. South Gujarat; III. North Konkan; IV. South Konkan; V. The Deccan; VI. Kolhapur and Southern Maratha Country States; VII. Sind [Sindh]; VIII. Aden; Condition of the people
  • CHAPTER II ‘ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAND.’ (ff 424-429), consisting of: Land Records; Revenue Surveys; the Record of Rights; Remissions of Revenue; System of Land Tenure; Gujarat Talukdars’ Act; Sind Incumbered Estates Act; the Court of Wards Act; Department of Land Records; Routine Measurement Work; Revenue Surveys; City Surveys; Revision Settlements
  • CHAPTER III ‘LAW AND JUSTICE.’ (ff 430-436), consisting of: the Budget; Resolutions and Questions; Course of Legislation; Administration of Justice; Civil Justice; Criminal Justice; Registration; Conditions of Trade; Joint Stock Companies
  • CHAPTER IV ‘POLICE AND CRIME’ (ff 437-447), consisting of: Mofussil and Sind Police; Bombay City Police; Village Police; Aden Police; Government Male and Female Workhouses; Bombay Jails; Criminal Tribes
  • CHAPTER V ‘AGRICULTURE, WEATHER AND CROPS’ (ff 448-466), consisting of: Nature of the Crops; Outturn of the Crops; Condition of the Agricultural Population; Agricultural Research and its Application; Checking of Pests and Blights; Note on the Weather; Prices; Labour and Wages; Famine; Forests; Co-operative Movement; Horticulture
  • CHAPTER VI ‘TRADE AND COMMERCE’ (ff 466-483), consisting of: [Industries]; Department of Industries; the Factories Act; Sea-borne Trade; Foreign Trade; Foreign Merchandise; Indian Produce and Manufactures; Trade According to Countries; Shipping; Coasting Trade; Subordinate Ports of the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. ; the Trade of Sind; Shipping Offices; Labour Office
  • CHAPTER VII ‘PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT’ (ff 484-492), consisting of: Irrigation; Sind; Deccan and Gujarat; Railways
  • CHAPTER VIII ‘VITAL STATISTICS AND MEDICAL RELIEF’ (ff 493-499), consisting of: [Births and Deaths]; Epidemic Diseases; Hospitals and Dispensaries; Sanitation; Vaccination; Bombay Bacteriological Laboratory; Veterinary; Chemical Analysers; Wild Animals and Venomous Snakes; Mental [psychiatric] Hospitals; Acworth Leper Asylum [hospital for people affected by leprosy or Hansen’s Disease], Matunga; Emigration and Immigration
  • CHAPTER IX ‘LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT’ (ff 500-504), consisting of: District Municipalities; Bombay Municipality; Local Board Administration; Bombay Improvement Trust; Bombay Port Trust; Karachi Port Trust; Aden Port Trust; Working of the Rent Acts
  • CHAPTER X ‘COLLECTION OF REVENUE AND FINANCIAL REVIEW’ (ff 505-517), consisting of: the Budget for 1923-24; Loan Accounts; Land Revenue; Public Works Revenue; Customs Administration; Salt Department; Excise; Cotton Duties Act; Stamps; Taxes on Income
  • CHAPTER XI ‘INSTRUCTION’ (ff 517-521), consisting of: Education; Yeravda [Yerwada or Yerawada] Reformatory; Books and Publications; Newspapers; Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay; Victoria and Albert Museum, Bombay; Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay; Natural History Section; Victoria Museum, Karachi
  • CHAPTER XII ‘ARCHAEOLOGY’ (f 522), consisting of: [Archaeological Survey of India, Western Circle]
  • CHAPTER XIII ‘MISCELLANEOUS’ (ff 523-527), consisting of: Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; the Established Church of England; the Established Church of Scotland; Stationary; Printing; Bombay Development Department; Back Bay Reclamation Scheme; Town Planning Schemes; Industrial Housing; Suburban Schemes; Salsette-Trombay and Kurla-Trombay Railways; Water Supply; Organisation of the Directorate; Sanitary Committee; Military (Indian Auxiliary and Territorial Forces); Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The report includes the following photographs:

  • ‘Excavations at Mohinja-daro [Mohenjo-daro] (Sind) where important archæological discoveries have been made.’ (f 404v)
  • ‘Kaira [Kheda] District Police. Officers and men who participated in raids against outlaws Namdar Garbad and Kalya Abha.’ (f 439)
  • ‘Panch Mahals [or Panchmahal] District– Recovering stolen property buried by dacoits. The men on the left of the picture armed with bows and arrows are the village Police Patil and his two Rhakwaldars.’ (f 439)
  • ‘Chair making at Thana [Thane] Special Prison.’ (f 443)
  • ‘Karachi Prison: Muhammadan [Muslim] convicts at Id Prayers.’(f 445)
  • ‘Karachi Prison: Carpet weaving.’ (f 445)
  • ‘A Panchayat amongst the Settlers.’ (f 447)
  • ‘Bamboo basket making: Women of Hubli Settlement.’ (f 447)
  • ‘The Deccan can grow first class Crops. Crops of oats obtained at Manjri (Poona [Pune] District) by the Agricultural Department.’ (f 449)
  • ‘Cotton Crop from N. R. Cotton at Jalgaon.’ (f 451)
  • ‘Effect of Dry Farming methods on Jowar [or sorghum]. Left: methods recommended by Agricultural Department. Right: ordinary methods.’ (f 453)
  • ‘Loni Agricultural School (Poona District). Lesson in sugar-cane crushing and gul boiling.’ (f 455)
  • ‘Exhibit of Bombay Agricultural Department as prepared for Wembley Exhibition.’ (f 457)
  • ‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Left Guide Bank. Pitching in progress. Narrow gauge railway distributing stone. Barrage launch lying off bank.’ (f 485)
  • ‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Machinery Dump outside store shed. Part of 1[and a half]-ton and 10-ton steel derricks in foreground. 10-ton hand crane unloading. 5-ton steam crane and boilers for pile drivers in background.’ (f 487)
  • ‘Lloyd Barrage Circle: Quarry 17 Rohri, South face. Removing overburden for use as pitching stone, to clear beds for large cut stone. 2’ 0” gauge railway removing stone.’ (f 489)
  • ‘Lake Whiting District. The Lloyd Dam. 4 ft. diam[eter] outlet sluices, Down Stream face.’ (f 491)
  • ‘Lloyd Dam showing outlet pipes.’ (f 492)
  • ‘Pandharpur Fair: Water supply arrangements at Wakhari showing distribution of water through taps.’ (f 496)
  • ‘Pandharpur Fair: Outflow from the Waiting Shed. Women waiting their turn to enter the temple via Women’s Shed.’ (f 498)
  • ‘Government Central Distillery, Nasik [or Nashik] Road.’ (f 515)
  • ‘Khanapur Distillery: The Fermentation room.’ (f 515).

There are also diagrams showing the following: ‘DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL HEADS OF REVENUE FOR THE YEAR 1923-24.’ (f 506); ‘DISTRIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL HEADS OF EXPENDITURE MET FROM REVENUE FOR THE YEAR 1923-24.’ (f 508); ‘TOTAL EXPENDITURE CHARGED TO REVENUE FOR THE YEARS 1912-13 TO 1923-24.’ (f 510).

There are appendices on folios 527-530, and an index on folios 531-533. There is a map of the Bombay Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. on folio 534.

A table of contents listing the headings and sub-headings of the report is on folios 402-403. In a small number of instances, there are discrepancies in the phrasing or inclusion of sub-headings between the table of contents and the body of the report. In these cases, the sub-heading as it appears in the body of the report is included above.

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‘BOMBAY 1923-24. A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE PRESIDENCY’ [‎426v] (56/274), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/V/10/317/3, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100152998489.0x00003e> [accessed 2 August 2026]

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