Permanent Settlement

The Permanent Settlement was an agreement concluded in 1793 between the British East India Company, under Governor-General Lord Cornwallis, and the landlords, or zamindars, of Bengal and Bihar, fixing land revenue payments permanently rather than periodically. It followed a ten year trial settlement begun in 1790 and was later extended to Varanasi and parts of northern Madras. The arrangement turned zamindars into hereditary landowners and was meant to encourage investment in agriculture, but its fixed revenue demand proved inflexible during famine and hardship, and contemporaries described it as subjecting the peasantry to grievous oppression. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/