TABI DARI, lit. subordination or obedience, was a system of non-proprietary but permanent and hereditary land tenure during Sikh rule in the Punjab. The holders of tabiari maurusi or occupancy tenants. It was prevalent in villages that formed part of permanent jagirs such as dharmarth or charity, madad-i-maam or reward grants, and in pattidan holdings. Grantees of such jagirs, who were called muafidars, enjoyed, in addition to a specified part or whole of the revenue income of their lands, some additional rights over their tenants. Tenants were broadly categorized into muzarian maurusi (hereditary occupancy tenants) and muzarian mustaqil were further categorized into asami-i-qadim, coming down from old times, purana mustaqil, who started cultivating around 1810, and mustaqil jadid, who had newly acquired hereditary occupancy rights. The third category covered abadkaran, lit. cultivators of virgin lands, banjar-sh-shigafah, lit. breakers of wastelands, and those who made permanent improvements in their holdings, like sinking a well, raising embankments, and digging channels for irrigation. Under the tabidan system, the occupancy tenants differed from peasant proprietors in that, in addition to land revenue due to the government, they had to make certain additional payments and render occasional service to the landlords. The additional dues most common were called malikana or proprietorship tax (malik, in Punjabi, means proprietor), ranging from 1½ to 25% of the land revenue. However, they could not be dispossessed of their holdings except in exceptional cases, when a proprietor required the land for his own use. Even the non-cultivating residents had permanent occupancy rights over the land on which they had built their houses. The right was inheritable but not transferable.
References :
1. Banga, Indu, Agrarian System of the Sikhs. Delhi, 1978
