Judicial Dictionary
Title | Raiyat |
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Details |
The term raiyat originates from an Arabic word raiyat [from ra'a] meaning
etymologically, 'a herd at pasture' and 'subjects' in collective sense.
Raiyat a nomenclature used customarily and legally for the peasantry of
Bengal during the Mughal and British periods, but in its widest sense, also
used for subjects of the state and of the ruling classes. The term seems to
have been used first in the Todar Mall settlement (1582) and since then it
was in currency until the term expired legally and practically on the
enactment of the East Bengal Estate Acquisition Act of 1950 under which the
raiyats got a new legal nomenclature, malik.
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