Land revenue system and peasant economy in Jammu under Dogra rule, 1846–1947

This paper examines the evolution of the land revenue system in Jammu under Dogra rule and its consequences for the peasant economy between 1846 and 1947. It argues that land revenue was not merely a fiscal instrument but the central mechanism through which the Dogra state extracted surplus, organized rural society, and mediated relations between rulers and cultivators. Across the century of Dogra governance, revenue practices moved from arbitrary and often oppressive assessments toward gradual, though limited, reform under mounting peasant pressure and administrative change. Yet even where reform occurred, it rarely dismantled the deeper structures of agrarian inequality, indebtedness, and insecurity of tenure that shaped village life. By placing peasants at the center of analysis, the paper contributes to the historiography of princely states and agrarian history in South Asia.