malikana
Malikana is a historical South Asian term for a payment made to a malik — a landlord or proprietor — in recognition of their ownership rights over land or property.
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Malikana is a historical South Asian term for a payment made to a malik — a landlord or proprietor — in recognition of their ownership rights over land or property. Under the complex land tenure systems of Mughal and British colonial India, various payments and dues were owed to different levels of the landowning hierarchy, and malikana was one such recognized fee. The term appears frequently in historical, legal, and administrative texts dealing with pre-independence Indian land reform and property law.
The tenant farmers paid their malikana to the zamindar at the end of the harvest season, as had been the custom for decades.
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(India) A payment made to a malik or landlord.
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- malguzar58%
From Urdu 'mal' (goods, revenue) + 'guzar' (one who pays or passes), an Anglo-Indian colonial term for a village landlord responsible for paying land revenue to the British administration. The malguzar system was prominent in Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh); the role was abolished after Indian independence.
- mukata57%
(India, historical) A kind of tithe, consisting of the proprietorship of one seventh of all the produce of a parish or district.
- muchalka57%
(India) A written obligation or bond.
- muchalka57%
An Anglo-Indian term for a written bond, pledge, or formal written obligation — essentially a signed document in which someone commits to a specific course of action or promises to fulfill certain conditions. Used historically in British India across legal and administrative contexts, a muchalka was a serious formal commitment, not just a casual promise. The term reflects the blend of British colonial administration and Indian linguistic tradition that shaped Anglo-Indian vocabulary.