312 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
that the Maratha Government had made a very prodigal use of its power of alienating the right of the State to claim assessment in favour of private individuals and had created a very large class of alienated lands popularly called Inams, the holders of which were designated as Inamdars and Watandars. These Inams fell into four classes namely (1) Personal, (2) Devasthan, (3) Political and (4) Non-Political and were all hereditary Inams. From the point of view of service these Inams fell into two classes : (A) Inams which formed a remuneration for service to the State and (B) Inams which were gifts and for which no service was required to be rendered to the State. The Personal and Devasthan Inams belonged to the class of non-service Inams, while Political and Non-Political Inams belonged to the class of Service Inams.
- During the first 23 years of the British Rule (1818-1841) the enormous extent of the claims made by individuals to hold lands as Inam was not realised by the British Government. It was in 1941 that the question of examining these claims was taken up. In 1943 a Committee of two was appointed to inquire into the alienated lands of the Southern Maratha Country. The inquiry by the Committee appointed in 1843 proceeded for a period of nine years, till 1852, when the Committee was transformed into the Inam Commission and its proceedings were given a legal status by Act XI of 1852. By this Act, Government were empowered to appoint Inam Commissioners with Assistant Commissioners “to investigate the titles of persons holding or claiming against Government the possession or enjoyment of Inams or Jahagirs, or any interest therein, or claiming exemption from the payment of land Revenue.” The operations of the Commission were very slow and did not extend to Gujarat. It was finally decided to abolish the system of inquiry by the Commission and to substitute for it a system of “Summary Settlement” to be extended over the whole Presidency. This system of Summary Settlement was carried into effect by two Acts, namely, Act II of 1863 which applied to the so-called “New Provinces” of the Deccan, Khandesh and Southern Maratha country, and Act VII of 1863 which was applied to the so-called “Old Provinces” of Gujarat and the Konkan,