A taluqdar or talukdar (Urdu: تعلقدار, Hindi: तालुक़दार) (from Arabic ta'al-luq, "district" + dor "holding"), is a term used for Indian land holders in Mughal and British times, responsible for collecting taxes from a district. It may convey somewhat different meanings in different parts of India and Pakistan:
(1) A land holder (minor royalty) with administrative power over a district of 84 villages in Punjab, Rajasthan and rest of North India/United Provinces.
(2) An official in Hyderabad State during British era, equivalent to a magistrate and a collector.
(3) A landholder with peculiar tenures in various parts of British India.
According to the Punjab settlement report of 1862, great land holders were appointed Taluqdars over a number of villages during the Mughal era. That Taluqa or district usually comprised over 84 villages and a central town. The Taluqdar was required to collect taxes, maintain law & order, and provide military supplies/manpower to the provincial government. In most cases the Talqdars were entitled to keep one tenth of the collected revenue. However, some privileged Taluqdars were entitled to one quarter and hence were called Chaudhry, which literally means owner of the fourth part.
In Rajastan and Bengal, a taluqdar was next only to a Raja in extent of land control and social status; but in Punjab and U.P. taluqdars were much more powerful and were directly under the provincial governor. The late Mughal era saw the rise of powerful taluqdars in Oudh, northern India who seldom paid any collected revenue to the central government, and became virtual rulers of their districts. Similarly, in northern Punjab the taluqdars of Dhanni, Gheb and Kot were extremely powerful.
Eighteenth century Bengal witnessed the rise of great territorial land holders at the expense of smaller landholders who were reduced to the status of dependent taluqdars, required to pay their revenue to the government through the intermediary of the great land lords called rajas and maharajas. However many old taluqdars paid revenues to government directly and were as powerful as the Rajas.