Property rights and social uses of land in Portuguese India: the Province of the North (1534-1739)

Abstract

This paper examines the regulation of land rights in Bassein and Daman during the 200 years these territories were under Portuguese rule. Based on primary and secondary sources, I argue that local elites played a significant role in shaping the prazos system, a topic yet insufficiently explored by the literature. The first section outlines the pre-existent land tenure system, which was largely based on the iqtāʿ, a wide-spread institution in the Islamic world. The second section examines the setting up of the prazos do Norte system which combined elements from the iqtāʿ, the legal framework of emphyteusis and the long-established practice of granting crown's assets. The third section focuses on the adaptations this legal regime underwent as a result of its ‘social appropriation' by colonial elites and the responses of state power.