Taxing Times: Coffee in Nineteenth-century Mysore and Coorg

Abstract

The taxation of coffee in Mysore and Coorg went through three phases during the course of the nineteenth century. Waram tax (1799–1800) of equal sharing of the crop was succeeded by halat (1838) excise duty on the produce exported out of the taluks. Land tax was introduced in Coorg in 1864 and in Mysore in 1881. Coffee was cultivated on high forested hill slopes—in jungles, gardens, backyards, sacred groves and on inam lands. Local tradition, topography of coffee lands, pre-colonial assessment systems and colonialism impacted taxation. The varied sites of coffee cultivation and the long gestation period of the coffee tree influenced imposition of the three taxes. The waram phase was associated with revenue farming (1822–1837) and monopoly over coffee trade. The British administration encouraged the establishment of European plantations. Halat induced expansion of acreage and smuggling of coffee with revenue loss to the state. Increasing demand and competition led to a scarcity of suitable lands. Natives dominated coffee acreage and production in Mysore and preferred halat. Lands were granted with a variable halat and could be resumed if no coffee was planted. European planters wanted a fixed land tax for secure proprietary rights over their estates. A colonial discourse was created on ‘slovenly’ native coffee cultivation, juxtaposed to superior European plantation methods—thereby pressing for acreage assessment of coffee lands. It was introduced in Coorg, which was part of British India. Acreage tax was introduced after almost two decades of European demand in Mysore: a native Indian state. The state, however, did not give full proprietary rights over lands to the planters.