Based on the study of contemporary and near contemporary original documents, this book is a revised version of the lectures delivered under the auspicies of the prestigious Dr. Kalaignar Thiru M. Karunanidh Endowment Lectures, Madras University in April, 1995. This is a study of an important pre-nineteenth century political and landed institution, the palegars, and the critical analysis of nature of the two phases of their struggle on south India, especially the Ceded Districts, during the period 1800-1846. through these lectures the author has made an attempt to compare the power, position, and status (both de facto and de jure) enjoyed by different categories of these landed elites with the categories of the zamindars, though having different nomenclature, in northern and other parts of India during the mughal age. The other thing highlighted by the author is that there is no doubt the resistance of these palegars during the late 18th and early 19th centuries was aimed at gaining/retaining the political and economic power and status, the resistance of 1846 was basically against the English policy towards the in’am lands (whether secular or religious) at least in south India. There was a general feeling that the English government had completely neglected the value of the indigenous institutions as a means of giving social happiness and material well being to the people. It is hoped that this book would be of great interest to all those interested in the study of the history of south India particularly the factors behind pre-1857 resistance against the policies of the English East India Company, later on duly commented upon by even persons like the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Benjamin Disraeli.
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