Kanbi - History and Cultural Relations

In the nineteenth century, the Leva Kanbi (one of the two large divisions of the Kanbi) were appointed by the Moguls and Marathas as revenue-collection officers. Some of these Kanbi had attained patidari rights (i.e., ownership of cultivable strips of land, known as pati, that could be sublet for profit). Generally when revenue was being collected, an assessment was charged to a particular village. This assessment was divided according to the lineal divisions of the village, each of which paid a certain proportion of the fee. Senior members of divisions kept some land that was owned jointly by members of the division. The remainder was sublet as pati. Two classes of individuals rented these lands: tenants at will and hereditary tenants. Many of these hereditary tenants also had patidari rights. By the middle of the nineteenth century, some twenty-seven Kanbi villages had attained considerable wealth; of these, fifteen had an aristocracy of large landowners with developing interests in foreign commerce. These were considered to be Patidar; the remainder were considered to be Kanbi. These villages retained their wealth well into the twentieth century; they benefited extensively from British efforts to increase productivity in land yield through cultivation. In addition, twentieth-century foreign trade with east Africa brought an increase in revenue that was invested in land and property development in the Kheda District.