An Analysis of the Landholdings in Villages in a Taluk in South India

该项目旨在分析印度南部重要的土地收入记录，即定居登记册，以澄清1865年至1925年种姓制度和土地所有权的历史变化。记录或定居登记册包含每个村庄的每一笔土地的详细信息，并为每个村庄编制了三次，即1865年，1895年和1925年。我们收集了印度泰米尔纳德邦Tiruchirapaslli区Lalgudi Taluk约60个村庄的定居点登记册缩微胶卷副本（共约180卷）。该项目包括三个阶段。第一项工作是将结算登记册上的资料输入电脑，制成电脑可读的资料档案。在项目实施的两年时间里，我们建立了一个数据库，其中包含了约三分之二的数据，第二阶段是阅读计算机化的数据，并将其汇总，编制表格，显示每个村庄每年按种姓和大小分配的土地所有权。我们已完成为22条乡村编制统计表的工作，第三阶段是分析已编制的统计表，以评估1895至1925年间土地业权的历史变化。我们的分析表明，这一时期上层种姓的土地占有量逐渐减少，而出现了大量的下层种姓的小土地所有者。

The project aims to analyze an important land revenue record in south India, the Settlement Register, to clarify the historical change in the caste system and Landholdings between 1865 and 1925. The record or Settlement Register contains detailed information for each plort of land of each village and was compiled therr times for each village, ie, 1865, 1895 and 1925. We have collected the microfilm copies fo the Settlement Registers for about 60 villages ( totally about 180 volumes) in Lalgudi Taluk in Tiruchirapaslli District, Tamil Nadu, India.The project consists of three phases. The first one is to input the information available from the Settlement Registers into the computers and make a machine-readable data file. Within two years of our project, we constructed a data base which contains data from about two thirds of total volumes.The second phase is to read the data thus computerised and aggregate them to compile tables which show the caste-wise and size-wise distribution of the landholdings for each Village and for each year. We have completed the compilation of tables for 22 villages.The third phase is to analyze the compiled tables to assess the historical changes in the landholdings between 1895 and 1925. Our analysis indicates that the landholdings of upper castes decreased progressively and instead a large number of small landholders of lower castes appeared in this period.