With reference to Ryotwari Settlement, consider the following statements: 1) The rent was paid directly by the peasants to the Government. 2) The Government gave Pattas to the Ryots. 3) The lands were surveyed and assessed before being taxed. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

All three statements are correct, so the answer is C. Ryotwari was introduced by Thomas Munro and Alexander Reed in the Madras Presidency and later extended to Bombay and the Deccan. Its defining feature was a direct contract between the state and the individual cultivator (ryot), with no zamindar or intermediary.

• Statement 1 is correct: the ryot paid the assessed revenue straight to the government, and no middleman collected and kept a share.
• Statement 2 is correct: the government issued pattas, documents specifying the holding, its area and the assessed rent, which gave the ryot a recognised right to the land as long as he paid.
• Statement 3 is correct: the land was measured and classified before the assessment was fixed, based on soil quality and expected produce. Taxing first and surveying later would not have been Ryotwari.

Core concept: a direct state-cultivator relationship, contrasted with the Permanent (zamindari) Settlement and the Mahalwari system. Mains angle: periodic revision of high assessments under Ryotwari is often cited as a cause of peasant indebtedness in agrarian distress questions.

Trap: assuming Ryotwari meant a fixed revenue like the Permanent Settlement. Here the assessment was revised periodically after survey.