Zamindar

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A zamindar^[a] in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a zamindari (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; zamindar is the Persian for landowner. During the British Raj, the British began using it as a local synonym for "estate". Zamindars as a class were equivalent to lords and barons; in some cases they were independent sovereign princes. Similarly, their holdings were typically hereditary and came with the right to collect taxes on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes.

During the Mughal Empire, as well as the British rule, zamindars were the land-owning nobility of the Indian subcontinent^[1] and formed the ruling class. Emperor Akbar granted them mansabs and their ancestral domains were treated as jagirs.^[2] Most of the big zamindars belonged to the Hindu high-caste, usually Brahmin, Bhumihar, Kayastha and Rajput.^[3] During the colonial era, the Permanent Settlement consolidated what became known as the zamindari system. The British rewarded supportive zamindars by recognising them as princes. Many of the region's princely states were pre-colonial zamindar holdings elevated to a greater protocol. The British also reduced the land holdings of many pre-colonial princely states and chieftaincies, demoting their status to noble zamindars from previously higher ranks of royalty.^{[citation needed]} During the period of British colonial rule in India many wealthy and influential zamindars were bestowed with noble and royal titles such as Maharaja, Raja/Rai, Babu, Malik, Chaudhary, Nawab, Khan and Sardar.

The system was abolished during land reforms in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1950,^[4] India in 1951^[5] and West Pakistan in 1959.^[6] The zamindars often played an important role in the regional histories of the subcontinent. One of the most notable examples is the 16th-century confederation formed by twelve zamindars in the Bhati region (Baro-Bhuyans), which, according to the Jesuits and Ralph Fitch, earned a reputation for successively repelling Mughal invasions through naval battles. The zamindars were also patrons of the arts. The Tagore family produced India's first Nobel laureate in literature in 1913, Rabindranath Tagore, who was often based at his estate. The zamindars also promoted neoclassical and Indo-Saracenic architecture.

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