Zail was a revenue and administrative unit, extending between forty and hundred villages, under an officer in charge

Zaildar Zaildar was the title of the grand jagirdars (landlords) of the area, who were in charge of a Zail which was an administrative unit of group of villages during the British Indian Empire. The Settlement Officer, with the advice of the Deputy Co ...

in the colonial rural administration of

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. The system was abolished in 1952.

Demarcation of Zail

Each

Tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

was subdivided in to several Zails.C.A.H. Townsend
Final report of thirds revised revenue settlement of Hisar district from 1905-1910
Gazetteer of

Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Haryana Department of Revenue and Disaster Management, Haryana is a Ministry and department of the Government of Haryana in India. Description This department came into existence when Haryana was established as a new state within India after being sep ...

.Culture and heritage of Hisar
/ref> Zail was a grouping of villages. Tehsils, zails and village were headed by the

tehsildar In India and Pakistan, a Tehsildar or Mamlatdar is a tax officer accompanied by revenue inspectors. They are in charge of obtaining taxes from a tehsil with regard to land revenue. A tehsildar is also known as an executive magistrate of the relev ...

zaildar Zaildar was the title of the grand jagirdars (landlords) of the area, who were in charge of a Zail which was an administrative unit of group of villages during the British Indian Empire. The Settlement Officer, with the advice of the Deputy Co ...

and

muqaddam ( ar, مقدم) is an Arabic title, adopted in other Islamic or Islamicate cultures, for various civil or religious officials. As per the Persian records of medieval India, muqaddams, along with khots and chowdhurys, acted as hereditary rural in ...

. Mqaddam was usually a prominent chaudhury who was appointed as numbardar of the village, villages with large revenue land had more than one numberdar. Zail were established and demarcated by the

District collector A District Collector-cum-District Magistrate (also known as Deputy Commissioner in some states) is an All India Service officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre who is responsible for ''land revenue collection'', ''canal reven ...

during the land revenue settlement exercise. Settlement officer, with advice from the District collector and by the final approval of the state's Financial Commissioner, appointed a ''Zaildar'' to each ''Zail'',1930
Punjab Settlement Manual, 4th Edition
Punjab Government publications, point 235 and 578-282 on page 115, 272-273. who were equivalent to the Chaudharis (feudal

zamindars A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

) of earlier times and were hand-picked by the deputy-commissioner, who based his decision on issues such as caste or tribe, local influence, extent of landholding, services rendered to the state by him or his family, and personal character and ability.The Indian Army and the Making of Punjab, Rajit K. Mazumder, Permanent Black

Tan Tai Yong Tan Tai Yong () is a Singaporean academic and politician who served as the President of Yale-NUS College from 2017 to 2022. He is also Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies, an autonomous university-level research institute in NUS. H ...

, 2005
"The Garrison State: The military, government and society in Colonial Punjab, 1849 - 1947."

SAGE Publications SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...

, page 118-119, .

Revenue from Zail

Zaildar collected the revenue from the cluster of villages under him and passed it to the

British raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

district collectors, Zaildars were remunerated for their duties with life grants of either fixed amountRevised Settlement of Hisar District, p37-40
/ref> or grant equal to one per cent of the revenue of their zails from the assessment of any single village that they chose.Final Report of Revised Settlement, Hoshiarpur District, 1879-84 By J. A. L. Montgomery

Impact and Legacy of Zaildari System

Zails and Zaildari system extended the influence of the colonial state right into the villages. Zaildar

Abolishment

Post Indian independence in 1947, the system of Zails, Zaildars and Safedposh continued to exist till 1948 but were finally abolished in 1952 by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

References

{{reflist History of Punjab, India History of Haryana

Demarcation of Zail

Revenue from Zail

Impact and Legacy of Zaildari System

Abolishment

See also

References