zamindarhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zamindar_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezamindar, n.
Revised 2018

zamindarnoun

Now historical.
  1. 1683–
    In South Asia: (in the Mughal period) a landholder responsible for paying land revenue for an area to the emperor and carrying out certain other duties in return for retaining a percentage of the amount collected; (later, under British rule) a landowner required to pay a fixed land tax directly to the government.
    The status of the zamindars and the extent of the lands they held varied considerably, some being extremely wealthy and powerful. The zamindari system continued to operate in some form in many parts of British India until Independence in 1947, although it was more prevalent in the north than in the south where the ryotwari system predominated (cf. ryotwari adj.).
    1. 1683
      We lay at Bogatcher,..ye Gemidar invited us ashore, and shewed us Store of Deer, Peacocks, &c.
      W. Hedges, Diary (1887) vol. I. 77
    2. 1698
      Paying the said Rent to the King as the Jemidars have successively done.
      Extract Consultations at Chuttanutte 31 October in W. Crooke, Yule & Burnell's Hobson-Jobson (1903) 980/1
    3. 1713
      Mr. Edwd. Page... Jemendar.
      in H. Yule & A. C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson (1886) at Zemindar
    4. 1764
      To all governors, officers..and zemindars..in the provinces of Bengal.
      Annual Register, State Papers 188/1
    5. 1783
      The Zemindars, who are the present great landholders of India, are likewise a sort of hereditary princes of the country.
      Annual Register 1781 Hist. Europe 177*/1
    6. 1845
      The Zemindars had been formerly charged with the management of the police, and were held accountable for all acts of robbery or violence committed within their Zemindaris.
      H. H. Wilson, History of British India 1805–35 vol. I. vii. 401
    7. 1876
      We have the overlord, the zemindar, no longer holding in feudal tenure and receiving customary dues and services, but turned by us into a rent-receiver.
      Journal of Statistical Society. vol. 39 652
    8. 1914
      Joseph Henry Atkinson, Esq...for many years of Calcutta, Rajmahal, and Maldo, Contractor, Indigo Planter, and Zemindar.
      Times 27 November 1/1
    9. 1978
      East Bengal had (until shortly after independence) a landholding system in which large numbers of tillers were tenants or under-tenants to large landowners (known as zamindars), or to intermediary absentee rent collectors.
      M. Weiner, Sons of Soil iii. 101
    10. 2015
      The zamindars..had since Mughal times, owned land and looked after the maintenance of irrigation works and embankments.
      I. Bannerjee-Dube, Hist. Modern India ii. 63

zamindar, n. was revised in June 2018.

zamindar, n. was last modified in December 2024.