Zamindar

A zamindar or zemindar on the Indian subcontinent was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who held enormous tracts of land and held control over his peasants, from whom the zamindars reserved the right to collect tax (often for military purposes). Over time, they took princely and royal titles such as Maharaja (Great King), Raja (King), Nawab (Lord), Mirza (Prince), reddy (ruler), Chowdhury (Lord), and many others.

Although zamindars were considered to be equivalent to lords and barons in some cases they were also seen as independent, sovereign Princes.

Often zamindars were Indian princes who lost their sovereignty due to British Rule (see: Madras Zamindari). For example, the Sivaganga Zamindari and Ramnad Zamindari were the lesser and greater Kingdom of Marava ruled by the Royal family till the 1800, ever since then they were the Zamindars of Marava.

There is no clear distinction between royal zamindars, such as Raja Venkata Ranga Rao, or merely aristocratic zamindars. Many Kings were former zamindars, such as the Royal House of Benares; conversely many new zamindars were old Kings. As a result, there is some confusion about the Indian Kingdoms about who is a King and who is a zamindar, as there were as many as 568 kingdoms and according to some other sources, 572 princely states in India before independence. During the Mughal Empire, zamindars belonged to the nobility and formed the ruling class. Emperor Akbar granted them mansabs and their ancestral domains were treated as jagirs.

The practice took structural footholds prior to the Mughal Era but was solidified by the indirect system of taxation in the Mughal Empire and British Raj. After the British withdrew, the system was legally abolished with the creation of India, Pakistan and (after independence in 1971) Bangladesh; however, it is still current in some areas of modern Pakistan. They built lavish palaces, lush gardens, schools, temples and other venues of philanthropy. Several families were of ancient lineage and had been independent rulers in earlier periods of history. In most cases, zamindar families were descendants of cadet branches of earlier royal families. Zamindars held considerable powers within their territories: magisterial, army recruitment (as lathials), revenue collection and taxation, among others.

Various other terms for zamindar were and are used in various provinces. For example, a zamindar is known as a Wadera in Sindh and as a Thakur in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya pradesh, Himachal pradesh, Haryana, Uttrakhand, Chhatisgarh and Bihar. In the Punjab and Haryana, there are multiple variations, such as Chaudhary (which often became lambardar or zaildaar during the British Empire's occupation of North India), Sardar and Malik (an Arabic term which literally means "King"). The word zamindar is derived ultimately from the Persian زمین Zamīn, "earth/land", and the common suffix دار -dār, "-holder" (also found in many of the terms above). The term means, in Persian, 'land owner.'