The Last Zamindar

He grew up in the last days of feudal Kashmir when it was still ruled by the Maharaja who was interested to collect revenue and maintain peace. The land was given by the Durbar and the Zamindar’s word was the law in the seven villages, that the family owned. The peasants did not own anything, not even the mud houses they lived in. Everything belonged to the Zamindar and he could throw out a peasant whenever he felt like it. The peasants had to bring the entire produce to him and out of this he would give them one fourth keeping three fourths with himself. It was a very cruel system, in which the kisan [peasant] had no say. The zamindars kept a sharp eye on the people around themselves and maintained peace with the help of goons employed by them

In recent times there were signs of unrest as the people held meetings and rallies demanding an elected government.

“A responsible government” “what non-sense? How is that possible ; who are they to demand that, Don’t they know that Kashmir was bought for cash.
The Zamindar felt that it was time to show some firmness to “these wretches, who were being misled by the so-called politicians, real thugs”
He was very disappointed when the government negotiated with the Kisan leaders and agreed to hold free and fair elections. Within days the old system broke down and a new system came into existence giving all the power to the “elected members of the assembly”, representatives 0f the kisans.