Permanent Settlement, Ryatwari and Mahalwari system were the new revenue systems introduced by the British. Their brief description is given below :

1. Permanent Settlement: It was a type of land settlement. It was introduced by Lord Cornwallis in Bengal in!793 A.D. Later on it was also introduced in Bihar, Orissa, Benaras and Northern India. According to this system, zamindars were made the owners of the land. Government fixed the land revenue given by them. They deposited the fixed amount in government treasury. But they collected tax from the farmers according to their wish. If any zamindar was unable to pay the land revenue then government used to sell some part of his land to compensate the amount of fixed revenue.

2. Ryatwari System: Thomas Munro was appointed as the Governor of Madras in 1820 A.D. He made a new system of land which was known as the Ryatwari system. It was introduced in Madras and Bombay. Government decided to take land revenue from those people who themselves used to till the land. So all the middlemen between government and farmers were removed. This system was much better than the Permanent Settlement. Farmers were made owners of their land. Their revenue was fixed which was 40% to 55% of the total produce. It lead t* increase in income of the government.

Some defects were also there in this system. This system reduced the community feeling among the people of the village. Importance of Pancbayats was reduced. Except this government started to exploit the farmers. Farmers were forced to take loans from moneylenders by mortgaging their lands to them.

3. Mahalwari System: It was introduced to remove the shortcomings of the Ryatwari system. It was introduced in U.P., Punjab and some parts of Central India. The main feature of this system was that land was neither associated with any zamindar and nor with any farmer. This system was actually taking place with whole community of the village. Whole of the community was responsible to pay land revenue. It was determined in community that what a farmer has to pay. If any farmer was unable to give his share then it was taken from the community of village.

This system was known as the best system because features of both the earlier systems were there in it. The only drawback which was there in it was that people had to pay a lot of tax.