whatever they collected over and above the settlement. The first quarter of the nineteenth century was a formative period in the land revenue history of the Madras Province. First after a great deal of deliberations Permanent Settlement was adopted. The districts of Chengalpattu, Salem and Dindigul were divided into a number of mittahs and sold to the highest bidders.
Most of the purchasers, after fleecing the peasants, failed in the course of a year or two. The experiment was therefore abandoned. Then the Board of Revenue tried a system of village leases. Mahalwari was introduced in during the period of William Bentinck.
Under the system the revenue settlement was made with the proprietor of the estate but the land revenue was collected from individual cultivators. Under the Village Lease system the assessment of each village was to be fixed for a period of three years based on the actual collections over a series of past years. In districts where mirasi rights existed, the mirasdar was made responsible for the rent collections. In districts where the mirasi rights did not exist, an arrangement was made with the village headman.
This system failed due to various reasons such as bad monsoons, low price of grains and the short period of lease. When crops failed entire villages defaulted and fled without paying the revenue. The government had to seek the help of the district collectors to bring back the peasants to the village. Thomas Munro: Munro arrived Madras in .
In the first years he was engaged in Mysore War as soldier. He worked in the Baramahal (Salem district) from - and Kanara from - . He was collector of Ceded Districts: Kadapa, Kurnool, Chittoor, Anantapur. It was during this period that he conceived the idea of Ryotwari Settlement.
In he became Governor of Madras Presidency and served for seven years. In he officially enforced the Ryotwari System in Madras. During his governorship, he gave attention to education and regarded any expenditure on it as an investment. He also emphasized the need for Indianization of the services.