Who among the following was/were associated with the introduction of Ryotwari Settlement in India during the British rule? 1. Lord Cornwallis 2. Alexander Read 3. Thomas Munro Select the correct answer using the code given below:

The correct answer is C (2 and 3 only). Ryotwari settlement was a system where the state assessed land revenue directly with the individual cultivator (ryot), with no zamindar in between.

• Statement 1 (Cornwallis) is wrong. Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement in Bengal in 1793, which fixed revenue permanently and made zamindars the landowners.
• Statement 2 (Alexander Read) is right. Read, an official in the Madras region, pioneered the system in the Baramahal district around 1792, and it is usually treated as the starting point.
• Statement 3 (Thomas Munro) is right. Munro extended and systematised ryotwari across much of the Madras Presidency in the 1820s, when he was Governor.

The core concept is the difference between the three British revenue systems: Permanent (zamindari), Ryotwari, and Mahalwari. For Mains, ryotwari's fixed, often high assessment is linked to rural indebtedness and agrarian distress, including the Deccan riots of 1875, which is a good thread for GS-III and modern agrarian history.

Trap: Aspirants often treat Munro as the sole originator because he is the more famous name, or they attach Cornwallis to every British land revenue system. Remember that Cornwallis belongs to the Permanent Settlement.