The Zamindars of Bengal were zamindars (hereditary landlords) of the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent (now divided between Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal). They governed an ancient system of land ownership.
The Bengali zamindars managed a plantation economy in the Bengal Presidency which produced cotton, jute, indigo, rice, wheat, tea, spices and other commodities. Like the British landed gentry, they were bestowed with titles; their plantation economy has been studied by many scholars and can be compared with historic plantation complexes in the Southern United States. The land was cultivated by tenant farmers who paid rent to the zamindars. A big portion of the rent was in turn paid to the imperial government as taxes. The zamindars were the principal revenue collectors for the imperial administration under Mughal and British rule. The system was abolished by 1951. The Zamindars of Bengal were generally less powerful and had less autonomy than the Zamindars of Bihar who were able to maintain standing armies of their own.
The British entrenched the precolonial zamindari system through the Permanent Settlement. The zamindars dominated most of the villages in Bengal by collecting rent from tenant cultivators. The zamindari system mirrored the European system of serfdom. Bengali zamindars were often recognised with titles like Maharaja, Nawab and Khan Bahadur but they never ruled over princely states. With Bengal being the most populous and politically influential province in British India, Bengali zamindars were the most politically influential landed gentry in British India.
Etymology
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "zamindar, in India, a holder or occupier (dār) of land (zamīn). The root words are Persian, and the resulting name was widely used wherever Persian influence was spread by the Mughals or other Indian Muslim dynasties. The meanings attached to it were various. In Bengal the word denoted a hereditary tax collector who could retain 10 percent of the revenue he collected. In the late 18th century the British government made these zamindars landowners, thus creating a landed aristocracy in Bengal and Bihar that lasted until Indian independence (1947). In parts of north India (e.g., Uttar Pradesh), a zamindar denoted a large landowner with full proprietary rights. More generally in north India, zamindar denoted the cultivator of the soil or joint proprietors holding village lands in common as joint heirs. In Maratha territories the name was generally applied to all local hereditary revenue officers".
History
During the 14th century, the Hindu zamindar Raja Ganesha overthrew the Ilyas Shahi dynasty and placed his son on the throne. In Richard Eaton's The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, there is mention of Khan Jahan Ali as the zamindar of Bagerhat. According to records collected in 1870, Khan Jahan Ali settled in the area "to reclaim and cultivate the lands in the Sundarbans, which were at that time waste and covered with forest. He obtained from the emperor, or from the king of Gaur, a jaghir [revenue assignment] of these lands, and in accordance with it established himself on them. The tradition of his cutcherry site [court] in both places corresponds with this view of his position, and the fact of his undertaking such large works—works which involve the necessity of supporting quite an army of laborers—also points to his position as receiver of the rents, or chief of the cultivation of the soil.…After he had lived a long time as a great zamindar, he withdrew himself from worldly affairs and dwelt as a faqir".