Pargana

A pargana (Hindi: परगना, parganā), or parganah, also spelt pergunnah during the time of the Sultanate period, Mughal times and British Raj, is a former administrative unit of the Indian subcontinent, used primarily, but not exclusively, by the Muslim kingdoms. many villages together made a pargana. for example Pune pargana . The Deshmukh and the Deshpande were the watandar officers of the pargana. The deshmukh was the chief of the Patils in pargana. The deshmukh did at pargana level, what Patil did at village level.The deshpande were the chief of all kulkarnis in the pargana.Deshpande did at pargana level, what Kulkarnies did at village level. Pune pargana was a big pargana. It consisted of 290 villages. There were 64 villages in the Chakan pargana.

The watandar officers were the link between the people and the government.in case of enemy invasions or drought, these watandars represented the grievances of the people to the government. Sometimes these officers misused their powers. Sometimes, they collected more money from the people than was due or did not remit the money so collected to the government in time.On such occasions,the people suffered harassment.

Parganas were introduced by the Delhi Sultanate, and the word is of Persian origin. As a revenue unit, a pargana consists of several mouzas, which are the smallest revenue units, consisting of one or more villages and the surrounding countryside. Larger subdivisions of parganas were called tarafs (quarters, districts).

Under the reign of Sher Shah Suri, administration of parganas was strengthened by the addition of other officers, including a shiqdar (police chief), an amin or munsif (an arbitrator who assessed and collected revenue) and a karkun (record keeper).

As the British expanded into former Mughal provinces, starting with Bengal, they at first retained the pargana administration, but, under the Governorship of Charles Cornwallis, enacted the Permanent Settlement of 1793, which abolished the pargana system in favour of the zamindari system, in which zamindars were made the absolute owners of rural lands, and abolished the pargana dastur and pargana nirikh. British administration consisted of districts, which were divided into tehsils or taluks. Parganas remained important as a geographical term, persisting in land surveys, village identification, court decrees, etc.

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