Why did Holt Mackenzie devise the Mahalwari system in the North-Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency?
In the Mahalwari system, a village or a group of villages had to pay revenues to the British. While touring different parts of the North Western Provinces of the Bengal Presidency, Holt Mackenzie realised that villages in these parts were an important and a strong social institution which guided and governed the norms of society. He believed that such a system needed to be preserved, and hence, he introduced the Mahalwari system in the North Western Provinces of Bengal Presidency.