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Charles Cornwallis

Governor-General of Bengal

As Governor-General, he oversaw the 1793 Permanent Settlement framework that fixed land revenue and formalized zamindar property rights under Company rule.

Context

Late eighteenth-century East India Company state-building in Bengal.

Charles Cornwallis

Contribution

As Governor-General, he oversaw the 1793 Permanent Settlement framework that fixed land revenue and formalized zamindar property rights under Company rule.

Impact

Policies associated with his administration transformed agrarian power, landlord-cultivator relations, and colonial revenue governance in Bengal.

1793permanent-settlementcolonial-governance

Appears In Events

Timeline View

1793

Permanent Settlement in Bengal

In 1793, the East India Company introduced the Permanent Settlement in Bengal. Revenue demand was fixed permanently, and zamindars and talukdars were recognized as hereditary proprietors under colonial law. The measure aimed to stabilize revenue and bind local landed elites to Company rule, but it also deepened agrarian inequality and weakened the customary position of cultivators.