Aspects of Revenue Administration in Assam

An attempt is made in this volume to present certain significant aspects of revenue administration of Assam between 1826, the year in which Assam pradesh under the control of the East India Company and 1874, when it was separated from Bengal and constituted into a Chief Commissioner’s province. In view of the unfavourable internal atmosphere, the British, in the initial years, desisted from making a redical change in the existing revenue system but retained it with such minor modifications as were considered absolutely necessary. In a predominantly agricultural province like Assam, land had been the mainstay of British economy. However, with the ever-increasing demands of the State, new avenues of taxation had to be explored. Facilities for additional revenues were found in opium, abkaree, custom and inland-duty, forest and forest produce, stamp, fishery, gold-washing.lime-quarry, house, poll and income-tax etc. These sources, their nature, magnitude, administration and above all their impact on the nineteenth century Assamese society and economy have been fully analysed and examined in this book. Based mainly on primary sources, both published, and unpublished the present work is the first scholarly and objective study of a hitherto neglected subject. Although the focal point in the study is the administration of the various miscellaneous revenues, the author also takes particular care to highlight the main trends of the British economic policy in this trouble-ridden frontier State during the formative period of British administration. The Book, therefore, not only fills up the existing gap in the revenue history of Assam but also provides the background for further investigation in future.

Born on 1-7-1947, Shrutidev Goswami graduated in 1967 from Cotton College Gauhati, standing second in order of merit in History Honours. He passed M.A. in 1969 from Gauhati University. Securing 1st class 1st in History. He is the recipient of the Surya Kumar Bhuyan Memorial Award and the Gauhati University Gold Medal. He was awarded Ph.D. by Dibrugarh University in 1981 for his thesis entitled Aspects of Revenue Administration in Assam, 1826-18274. He is currently serving as Reader in History, Dibrugarh University Dibrugarh. He is the author of about twenty research papers in standard journals in addition to large number of popular articles in news papers. journals etc. He is currently working on a research project entitled Tension in Assamese Agrarian Society in the 19th Century sponsored by the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), New Delhi. He is member of the Indian History Congress, North East India Council East India History Association. At present he is Joint Secretary of the North East India History Association.