Ryot

Ryot (also raiyat) was a general term used throughout India for peasant cultivators, from the Arabic ra'iyah, 'flock' or 'peasants': where zamindars were landlords, ryots were tenants and cultivators. Under the Mughal system khudkasta ryots were permanent cultivators of a village with heritable rights in land, while paikasta ryots moved from village to village for a crop season and paid much lower rent. In March 1859, under Company rule, thousands of ryots in Bengal refused to grow indigo. Under British rule the ryotwari system of Bombay, Madras, Assam and Burma assessed land revenue on the actual occupants, who held land of the crown in a heritable and transferable right of occupancy.