zamindar

zamindar

English

Alternative forms

• zemindar
• zumeendar, Zumeendar

Etymology

Borrowed from Urdu زمیندار‎ (zamīndār).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /zəˈmiːndɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /zəˈmiːndɑːɹ/, /ˈzæmɪndɑːɹ/

Noun

zamindar (plural zamindars)

1. (South Asia, historical) An Indian landowner who collected local taxes and paid them to the British government.
   • 1861, Henry Mayhew et al., London Labour and the London Poor, London: C. Griffin, Volume 4, p. 120,

     In Bengal there were […] many female zemindars, or village revenue administrators, who were, however, subject to the influence, but not to the authority, of the male members of their family.

   • 1997, Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things, New York: Random House, Chapter 2, p. 63,

     An Oxford avatar of the old zamindar mentality―a landlord forcing his attentions on women who depended on him for their livelihood.

   • 2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin 2014, p. 6:

     Indian princes, zamindars and industrialists engaged him as their counsel and paid him whatever he asked for as fees.

   • 2008, Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, Penguin 2015, p. 39:

     Thus it happened that the approach of the Ibis was witnessed by Raja Neel Rattan Halder, the zemindar of Raskhali, who was on board the palatial barge with his eight-year-old son and a sizeable retune of attendants.

   • 2017, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin 2017, p. 402:

     The power of the zamindars, who were mainly Brahmin or Rajput, was challenged in a series of peasant movements between 1919 and 1921, when Charan Singh was in his late teens.

Derived terms

• zamindari
• zemindarate

Further reading

• zamindar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia