Zamindar in the context of "Landed aristocracy"

Murshidabad (Bengali pronunciation: [murʃidabad]), is a town in the Indian state of West Bengal. This town is the headquarters of Lalbag subdivision of Murshidabad district. It is located on the eastern bank of the Bhagirathi River. During the 18th century, Murshidabad was a prosperous and cosmopolitan town. Murshidabad was the capital of the Bengal Subah for seventy years. This town was the home of wealthy banking and merchant families from different parts of the Indian subcontinent and wider Eurasia. European companies, including the British East India Company, the French East India Company, the Dutch East India Company and the Danish East India Company, conducted business and operated factories around the city. The town was also a centre of art and culture.

The city's decline began with the defeat of the last independent Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daulah at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. The Nawab was demoted to the status of a zamindar known as the Nawab of Murshidabad. The British shifted the treasury, courts and revenue office to Calcutta. In the 19th century, the population was estimated to be 46,000. Murshidabad became a district headquarters of the Bengal Presidency. It was declared as a municipality in 1869.

The Rowther (IPA: [(i)ra(ːʋ)ut̪ːɐr], also known as Irauttar, Rawther, Ravuttar, Ravutta, Ravuthar, Ravuthamar) are a distinct Muslim community living largely in the south Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. They are a native warrior clan population who converted to Islam under the influence of saints like Nathar Shah (Nathar Wali) in 10th–11th centuries. Even after conversion they retained their Ravuttar caste name. they were one of the earliest Muslim communities in India. They were elite cavalrymen of the Chola and Pandya kingdoms. They were traditionally a martial clan like the Maravars, and constitute large part of the multi-ethnic Tamil Muslim community. Rowthers have also been found as Tamil polygars, zamindars and chieftains from the 16th to 18th centuries. The traditional homelands of the Rowthers were in the interior of Southern Tamilakam.

Samanta (Sanskrit: सामंत, IAST: Sāmanta) was a title or position used in the Indian subcontinent primarily from the 4th to the 12th century CE to denote a feudal lord, vassal, or tributary chief. The Sankrit root roughly translates to "neighbor". The institution is considered to be closely associated with the origin and growth of feudalism in ancient and medieval India. Such offices as zamindar, jagirdar, and mansabdar, among others, may be considered rough equivalents to the Samanta in the latter history of India.

The institution is known to have existed prior to the Gupta period, though details are vague. A Pallava inscription dating to the time of Santivarman (455–470 CE) uses the term Sāmanta-Chudamanayaha ("best among feudatories"). The term "Samanta" in South India usually referred to a vassal to a king or emperor. In North India, the earliest use of the term in a similar sense was in Bengal in the Barabar Hill Cave Inscription of the Maukhari Chief, Anantavarman (dated 6th century CE).

Nayak, Nayaka or Nayakar, was historically a honorific title conferred on a military captain in various feudal states of the Indian subcontinent, as a derivative of the ancient Sanskrit word Nāyaka. The title often came with a prize in the form of a palayam, jagir, zamindari, or similar grant of a fief carved out of the newly annexed territory. Today, they are also used as surnames by the descendants of the original recipients and as the modern military rank of Naik, while the film industry has co-opted the term with Katha Nayagan and Kathanayakudu. The title is closely related to the Telugu Nayakudu, Nayudu, or Naidu, the Malayali Nair, and the Tamil Nayakar, Nayakan, Naicken and Naicker. Nayaks are mostly Hindu with a few Sikhs.

A jagir (Persian: جاگیر, romanized: Jāgir, Hindustani: जागीर/جاگیر, Jāgīr, Marathi: जहागीर, Jahāgīrá) also spelled as jageer, was a type of feudal land grant in the Indian subcontinent at the foundation of its Jagirdar (Zamindar) system. It developed during the Islamic era of the Indian subcontinent, starting in the early 13th century, wherein the powers to govern and collect tax from an estate was granted to an appointee of the state. The tenants were considered to be in the servitude of the jagirdar. There were two forms of jagir, one conditional, the other unconditional. The conditional jagir required the governing family to maintain troops and provide their service to the state when asked. The land grant, called iqta'a, was usually for a holder's lifetime; the land reverted to the state upon the death of the jagirdar.

The jagirdar system was introduced by the Delhi Sultanate, and continued during the Mughal Empire, but with a difference. In the Mughal times, the jagirdar collected taxes which paid his salary and the rest to the Mughal treasury, while the administration and military authority was given to a separate Mughal appointee. After the collapse and takeover of Mughals, the system of jagirs was retained by Marathas, Charans, Rajputs, Rajpurohits, Jats, and Sikh jat kingdoms, and later in a form by the British East India Company.

Tanguturi Prakasam (23 August 1872 – 20 May 1957), also known as Prakasam Pantulu, was an Indian jurist, politician, and Gandhian anti-colonial nationalist. During a demonstration against the Simon Commission in Madras, he exposed his chest to armed police and dared them to shoot. A major anti-colonial leader, his actions earned him the epithet 'Andhra Kesari' (lit. 'Lion of Andhra') among his admirers. He served as the premier of the Madras Presidency from 1946 to 1947 and played a major role in the abolition of Zamindari in the region. Following Indian independence, Tanguturi served as the first chief minister of the newly created Andhra State, from 1953 to 1954.

Indian feudalism refers to the feudal society that made up India's social structure until the formation of the Republic of India in the 20th century.

The Permanent Settlement, also known as the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, was an agreement between the East India Company and landlords of Bengal to fix revenues to be raised from land. It had far-reaching consequences for both agricultural methods and productivity in the entire British Empire and the political realities of the Indian countryside. It was concluded in 1793 by the Company administration headed by Charles, Earl Cornwallis. It formed one part of a larger body of legislation that later came to be called the Cornwallis Code. The Cornwallis Code of 1793 divided the East India Company's service personnel into three branches: revenue, judicial, and commercial. Revenues were collected by zamindars, native Indians who were treated as landowners. This division created an Indian landed class that supported British authority.

The Permanent Settlement was introduced first in Bengal and Bihar and later in Varanasi and also the northern districts of Madras. The system eventually spread all over northern India by a series of regulations dated 1 May 1793. These regulations remained in place until the Charter Act 1833. The other two systems prevalent in India were the Ryotwari System and the Mahalwari System.