The various categories of land rights in medieval Deccan are Mirasi right. In right, state land, and wasteland or lands of extinct families.
Mirasi Rights: This category refers to transferable property holders of which are termed as mirasders under a respective tenure who has the right to exact rent in terms of money or services from those living on their part of owned land.
It was held on the basis of village coparcener which is also known as the Ancient Thai system. Buying and selling of these lands chiefly required the sanction of village officials so of neighbours.
Inam Right: These lands either were totally exempt from or subjected to a low tax. It was known as a privileged category of land right where the holders were chiefly termed as inamders.
State Land: This category of land is held by the government or rulers which are managed by the local bureaucratese. However, selling and buying of the same requires approval from the central government.
Waste lands: These can be sold either by the village headmen or assembly or state. However, the purchaser did not require any sort of tax to pay. They were sold either as inam or Mira’s lands, applying heavy pay on the later.
While a watan was a hereditary rent-free grant to a village resident in lieu of services that the resident was expected to perform for the village on an ongoing basis, an inam was granted in recognition of past service to the state, usually but not always in relation to the military. A watan grant continued for as long as its holder had the confidence of the village community, whilst an inam grant, which might also take the form of a share of village land revenues, was held in perpetuity.
After independence, in 1958, the then state of Bombay passed a law to abolish the watan system and transfer the land to the government. The law had a provision to grant land titles to all watan landholders if they completed some paperwork and paid a one-time tax. However, the process did not complete, and the government began using the watan lands for public projects instead.
“These are our own lands, and yet we don’t have them.” says T. Vincent Manoharan, chairperson of the National Federation of Dalit Land Rights Movement.
In the case of Achakdani village, 50 acres of land were granted to 50 families from the two communities. In the 1970s, the land was transferred to the Maharashtra forest department for carrying out afforestation under the Central governments Drought Prone Areas Programme. The community members allege that the government had promised to transfer the land in their names after the afforestation drive was completed. But that did not happen, and the government evaded the issue. The watan holders, meanwhile, strengthened their demand.
They accessed historical records from the Maharashtra state archives and wrote Jetters to the district collector. In 2018, the tehsildar informed them in writing that since their land was under the jurisdiction of the state forest department, it is protected by the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Section 2 of the Act prohibits the diversion of forestland for non-forest parposes without the prior approvat of the Centre.
The two communities have refused to accept this position and continue to campaign against the government and demand land. They are part of a larger movement started by the descendants of the Mahar and Rantoshi watan_holders who wish to reclaim their lands and become self-sufficient farmers.
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