to whome it belongs?

It is story of the time Bharat was becoming colony of British empire. British found there was no proper tax system (Or they could not understand). So they thought of settling the tax collection system. In one of the region, they appointed one of the officials, who had got training in Indian language. That officer selected a village to start with but could not find any record about the village. So he thought of visiting the village. On the outskirt of the village he thought of taking taking rest before venturing the village. he saw a cowherd boy looking after cows in an open field, nearby. Officer thought that he can start collecting information from there itself. He called the boy nearer. With little hesitation boy came nearer.
What id your name?
"Mohan Gopal"
"Whose cows are these?” asked the officer.
"Mine" the answer was short and visibly soaked in fear.
"Tell me, exactly, how many are there?" there were many and Officer thought he can have some fun
"I don’t know how many in total but I can tell you detail. 5 are calf and 18 milking ones and 3 are pregnant and and 4 old ones non milking and and and...." boy was busy with his fingers while telling these numbers. it appeared that he had some thing to say. but officer did not have time to go through the detail.
Ok leave it, i understood. Don’t you know how many are there? How can you take care of them.
“Sahib! I know all of them individually and they too know me. What is there in counting. I am there to take care of them and they are here to take care of me. May be what you say has merit. May be when I grow up I will learn. My father knows counting.”
Officer was not in mood f knowing whole genealogy of the boy so he thought of coming to his topic of interest. "whose land is this?"
"Now this is my land"
"what do yo mean by NOW?"
"It means till noon."
"And after that?"
"it will belong to our neighbour."
"i understand. you both use this land"
"yes"
"but land belongs to whome?"
"i told you it belongs to me now."
officer thought it was waste of time to talk to that lad as he was not ready to understand his simple converstaion. he thanked for the information and jockeyed his horse. Boy was also left amazing that why this well educated man could not understand this simple matter.
he came to a village pond. It was busy with people. He saw a washer man who was lying down, probably after long hours of work, near the cloths which were drying. Seeing the officer approaching he got up and went to him with folded hands.
How many ponds are there in the village?
"Sahib, Three."
"Whose is this?"
"Sahib! mine. Other two belong to my brothers. Of course you can see sometimes he also comes here for washing. There was some dispute in past about the ponds but now for last five years it is almost setteled. Only once in while ladies fight and then we also get involved but you don’t see it quite often. Even the village headman will also support my point…” looked like the explanation was not going to end.
"Ok."
Looking at the dress he was putting on, it did not appear that he could own such a big pond. But then officer was not in mood to go down in detail. He took down his name and did a short calculation.
"You must pay Rs fifty annually. I don’t see you have paid tax anytime. With fine of Rs two hundred you must pay two hundres and fifty within a month."
That was enough to chage the track of speech the washer was running on. His voice became meak. "I don’t know what you are taking about the tax. I don’t even earn Rs ten a month how will I pay this amount?"
"Don’t fool me. This pond must have fish."
"Yes, they are there, but we don’t involve in fishing only my son sometimes lays his fishing rod and that is only for sometimes. I am washer man and I don’t even know details. Fishing is taken care by the fisherman. Look! he is standing there talking with three men. The one with bare body. “ when he turn at the officer he found that officer had moved to see that fisherman. Washer man could not understand why he was questioned. He followed the officer to know the happening at the place of fisher man.
"Yyou do fishing here?"
"Yes"
"Is this your pond?"
"yes"
"Then you must pay tax for it. and before you start telling some story let me tell you, it is Rs two hundred and fifty."
"every one gets fish from here. After distributing to every concerned person what is left with me in harldly little. I cannot pay this much amount. We don’t even earn that much."
"Then leave it. I know this pond will make thousands annually."
Officer was visibly angry. There was some commotion and people were gathering around.
He retracted from there. An elderly man could not grasp what what was happening so he stepped in.
"What happened, why are you all disturbing sahib?"
"Sahib will not allow anybody to use this pond." That was the complain of the fisher man by that time washer man also joined the gathering and he too nodded in conform the statement.
"Why sahib. Why will you seal my pond?" the old man looked sensible and calm. So officer thought that it was good to talk to him
"Is this your pond? Then you must pay tax."
"Sahib, I take only clay from this pond for making pots. How much do you want me to pay tax for clay?"
"Ok, I understood. You are a potter."
"Yes sahib and really speaking this is not my pond I belong to this pond. This washer man can use that for washing. And this fisher man can only use for fishing. So this pond has all of us. We maintain the pond an pond maintains us."
Now it was getting tougher for the officer. He had come for tax collection and not for the discourse.
Sahib village head man is not in village now he has gone to his in-laws village and if you wish you can come back after ten days and he can explain everything to you. but if you want, I along with someother elderly men of the village can come together to discuss the matter.
Don’t talk of all these to me I don’t have time for your stories. Is there anyone who deals with money here.
“Yes! Laksmipati can understand your matter.” It was again the old man who had replied. But the feeling of every person was evident on their faces. They did not like this person by name Lakshimipati.
he came out of the scene leaving people to discuss it further.
He led his horse directly in the direction mentioned. He stopped infront of a house, which was big compared to other houses. Laksmipati mainly involved in lending money on interest to the people. Officer met and told him that aimed to collect Rs thousand from this village. In turn he could get his commission.
Everything was worked out so that both were happy. The tax collection was given to him and with that he became the village tax collector. He promised to send a surveyor to fix the ownership of land in village which could help him in tax collection, which made the smile of rich man bigger.
It was evening when the officer was returning to his abode. He passed the same field, which he had passed in morning. He understood there were more number of cows and they were not the same cows even the boy, looking after them, was different. He did not want to create more confusion for himself. He saw a huge banyan tree there noticed a small group.
He enquired about the proceeding. One of the person told that Mallu Raja is gifting this village to his son-in law.
“This village belongs to him?” he started thinking about what he had talked with the rich person had any relevancy. Was he fooled by the rich person?
“Yes! Actually three other villages also belong to him. only he can offer the fire for the dead people of these villages. But he loves his daughter too much and so after her marriage he thought of gifting but his son has some reservation and the matter is being sorted out.”
“Crazy people!” The officer moved ahead.
He understood the village needed organization. And he will provide it to them.
After five years officer again went to village
He saw cows and on the same land but they were fewer in number. He called the man looking after it. he asked whose cow was this.
“Sahib! it belongs to lakhipati.”
He understood who this person is. He came to know that land and even the ponds belonged to him. He saw people had generally gone down in health. People were not seen relaxing but rather busy in work. Field were growing more of cash crops. People were saluting him from every corner.
He directly went to the house of Laksmipati. His house has grown taller. He inspected the record. Every land was assigned to some person. It seemed everything was not fine maximum of the land had Lakkshmipati as owner . But money was regularly going in coffer of the empire. Laksmipati wanted him to send some armed people to protect the land and to maintain law and order. And assurance regarding that was given. While departing he was given some precious gifts.
When returning in evening he saw few people who bent low for him.
“Father, who is this person” may be that was the child’s voice, which rose from behind. He was keen to know his identity in eyes of the person, who would give answer. Without looking back, he waited for the answer.
“He is the owner of all the land you can see.” was a low voiced answer. He could not understand when he became the owner of the land. He moved ahead.
He could not find out what happened to Mallu raja, who had gifted this village.