Much of our information about the disposition of inams in Pudukkottai comes from the records of the 1888 Inam Settlement. The terms and operations of this settlement were based largely upon those devised by the Inam Settlement Commission in Madras Presidency which had carried out the settlement and enfranchisement of inams in the Presidency in the 1860s (CPRIS). This earlier settlement was the outgrowth of concerns and policies which the British had articulated from the first days of their administration over Madras, namely to abolish all “feudal” forms of agrarian relations, introducing instead proper rights of property. While these concerns and policies were made explicit (as we saw in some detail in Chapter 11), we must keep in mind that the grouping together of all inams in a single category was itself a vital if not verbalized component of the Inam Settlement. In other words, much of our very data is the artifact of a scheme that was designed to eliminate the different kinds and forms of land, privilege, and political relationship that are the subject of much of this book.

The classification of inams in Pudukkottai varied until 1880, by which time there was general agreement between local officials and British agents on basic classes and definitions. The term “inam” was defined in the Rules for the Settlement of Inams as meaning “whole villages or small holdings exempt wholly or partially from land-tax” (RSI 1888).