INAMS

The word 'inam' literally means gift. In former times the distinction between a jagir grant and
an inam grant was that the former was a large political grant implying conditions of service
and the latter a smaller personal grant with no condition of service. The word inam is a
generic term applicable to all Government grants as a whole, but in course of time when that
word alone was used without any sort of qualification or restriction, it cause to denote a grant
in perpetuity not resumable (Unide RR Bommarauce Bahadur vs Venkatry Naidu, 7 MIA
128).

MAJOR INAM AND MINOR INAM:

When a grant is made of a whole village, it is known as dehaut and is technically called major
inam, when only some lands in a village are granted, it is known as a minor inam. These
grants are divided into two classes according to the date of their creation, Tarapadi inam or
manyam and Sanad or Dumbala inam or manyam. A tarapadi inam is one granted at the
original formation of a village for village purposes or one inherited or held from an uncertain
period as an independent right. The sanad or Dumbala inam is one that is held under a
specific grant from the ruling power by individuals or by religious or charitable institutions.

CLASSIFICATION OF INAMS

The beneficial grants may be divided into two categories as

(1) person grants and

(2) service grants

1. PERSONAL GRANTS

Personal grants are those made for the support or subsistence of the grantee in the form of
assignment of land or of land revenue in conformity with the mode of conferring benefits
adopted in earlier days. They were mainly granted in favour of learned and pious people or
officers of State to support them in their old age, to persons unable to earn their livelihood,
such as those crippled etc, and was generally tenable for lite or in the line of succession upto
a certain limit.
Personal grants when made in favour of Brahmins went by the generic name Brahmadayam
which means grants held by brahmins for their personal benefit. Under this head may be
classified what are known as

(1) Adhyanam : for the service of reciting vedas in pagodas:

(2) Bharati; for the service of reading Mahabarata in pagodas;

(3) Battavritti: for the subsistence of Brahmins

(4) Panchangam: for the service of a calendar Brahmin;

(5) Puranams: for the service of reading puranams in pagodas;

(6) vedavritti: for reciting vedas and teaching them to Brahmins;

(7) Agraharam grant is a grant of a village or part thereof made to a community of Brahmins;
(8) Dharmasanam is similar to agraharam on payment of a fixed favourable rent.

(9) Srotriyam is a grant in favour of a particular Brahmin family;

(10) Kairat is a term applied originally to inams held for personal benefit by Mohammedans
and lateraly to those held by persons other than Brahmins. (1) Jagir-The tenure of jagir is
chiefly Moghul in origin. By jagir is meant a grant of revenue of a district for political or
military services. Such grants were made also to the relations of the Ruler for subsistence or
maintenance. Apart from these, the were number of personal grants prevalent earlier.

2. SERVICE GRANTS: The service grants came into existence on account of the custom of
the Country to remunerate services rendered by servants, public and private by assignments
of land or land revenue, and this system was specially adapted to a country where the revenue
was payable kind. Such assignments varied according to the nature of the services to be
rendered. They may be divided into four classes (a) grants for private or personal services (b)
grants for public services (c) grants in favour of village servants and (d) grants for religious
and charitable service

(a) Private or personal service grants:

They are grants by which service, private or personal were reserved to the grantor of

(a) Amaram grant.

(b) Doratanam
(c) Jivitham

(d) Kattupadi grant

(e) Mukhasa Kasavargam are personal grants

(b) Grants for public services or purposes of public utility:

In these grants the community or a portion of it, get benefit of it. These are called
Dharmadayam inams. Under this head falls a great variety of inams embracing those held for
the support of chattrams, water pandals, village schools, ponds, flower gardens, topes and so
forth. The most important of this class are what are called Dasabandham inam, means ten in
hundred, implying thereby deduction of one- tenth of the revenue. It is a grant of land or land
revenue given as compensation for the construction of a tank, well or channel. Anaikaran,
Kulamkaval, Patti, urani, vayakkal etc. are other kinds of public service inams.

(c) Grants in favour of village servants:

An Indian village was a corporation with the complement of servants necessary for an
agricultural population who were paid by assignments of land or land revenue or a proportion
of the produce called marahs, russoms or swatantarams. This inam is granted in favour of
village officers like the karnam, munsif and village artisans such as carpenter, blacksmith,
barber, washerman, potter etc.

(d) Grants in favour of religious or Charitable objects:

Religious grants comprise not only grants made in favour of temples and other institutions
such as mutts but also those made in favour of the servants employed therein as remuneration
for the performance of the various services connected therewith and are denoted by the term
Devadayam. In many temples special endowment for a certain specific service or religious
charity are provided for, which are known as Kattalais. Money allowances have also been
made by previous governments in favour of temples and mosques for their maintenance,
which are known as tasdik or mohini allowances. Grants in favour of religious and charitable
objects were always made in perpetuity and temporary grants in their favour have never been
made.
ABOLITION OF INAMS

In pursuance of avowed policy to abolish all kinds of intermediaries, the Government

decided to abolish the whole inam villages left out in earlier Acts and passed the Tamil Nadu
Inam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1963.

This Act is similar in structure to that of the earlier Act of 1948 in setting out the provisions
providing machineries etc. In the same year, the Act called The Tamil Nadu Leaseholds
(Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1963 was passed for the termination of certain
lease holds granted by the Government (99 years lease in some cases and some permanently).
The Tamil Nadu Minor Inams (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1963 was
enacted for the abolition of the minor inams with effect from 1st July 1963 and the
introduction of Ryotwari settlements in the lands. It provides for grant of patta for the
occupants of both melwaram and minor inams and iru waram minor inams while the
melwaramdar who does not get patta, is given compensation.