[14] It is a proverb among the people of these
territories, and, I believe, among the people of India generally,
that the lands which pay no rent to Government have no 'barkat',
blessing from above--that the man who holds them is not blessed in
their returns like the man who pays rent to Government and thereby
contributes his aid to the protection of the community. The fact is
that every family that holds rent-free lands must, in a few
generations, become miserable from the minute subdivision of the
property, and the litigation in our civil courts which it entails
upon the holders.[15] It is certainly the general opinion of the
people of India that no land should be held without paying rent to
Government, or providing for people employed in the service of
Government, for the benefit of the people in its defensive,
religious, judicial, educational, and other establishments. Nine-
tenths of the land in these Nerbudda territories are held in lease
immediately under Government by the heads of villages, whose leases
have been renewable every five years; but they are now to have a
settlement for twenty.
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