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Floud Commission a land revenue commission established by the government of Bengal in 1938. ak fazlul huq, a leader of the nikhil banga praja samiti (All Bengal
Tenants Association Established in 1929), and subsequently the leader of the krishak praja party
(Peasants and Tenants Party established in 1935) was committed to the abolition of the zamindari system and restoring the rights of peasants. This was one of the major items of the KPP 21-point manifesto for the general elections of 1937. The Congress and the
muslim league were also highly sympathetic to the peasantry. However, this sympathy was politically grounded on the fact that the peasant vote would be the deciding factor in the ensuing general elections in which the peasant section of voters constituted the absolute majority.
After the elections, AK Fazlul Huq formed a coalition
government with the support of the Muslim League and other parliamentary
groups. He was under pressure to take necessary measures to abolish the
permanent
settlement. To this end, a commission headed by Sir Francis
Floud was formed to look into problems of the land revenue administration.
In particular, it was to examine the question of the abolition of the
zamindari system. The commission submitted its recommendations on 2 March
1940. Among its recommendations were the abolition of the Permanent Settlement
and the end of rent receiving interests of all forms. It was observed
that agrarian conditions had so changed since the introduction of the
Permanent Settlement that the system had lost its utility and viability.
This recommendation was strongly supported by the Administrative Inquiry
Committee of 1944. But the government could do little towards implementing
the recommendations of the Floud Commission. The main obstacles were political
instability, the Great famine
of 1943, communal unrest, and the politics of partitioning India.
Under these constraints, successive governments led by Huq, khwaja
nazimuddin, and huseyn
shaheed suhrawardy kept the Floud Commission Report in abeyance,
though all these governments favoured the end of the zamindari system.
The system was formally brought to an end in 1951 by the East Bengal Estate
Acquisition and Tenancy Act, 1950.
[Sirajul Islam]
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