Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

Chapter 167  Land Distribution And Elites Scheming

Back in Lingapura, The calling from the civil servant continued until Kabir's name was called. Kabir, along with his two sons, made their way near the civil servant. The civil servant was surprised that three people showed up so he warily said, "I only asked for Kabir. Who are these two? Let them go. I will not break the rules and allocate extra land for you. Don't make a mistake and lose the allocation that has already been allocated to you." He warned with a stern expression, as he was already experienced in this affair, having encountered such situations in other villages. Fortunately, he was also assigned with five soldiers. As the soldiers had just fought in a war, they still had a bloody aura on them, deterring anyone challenging the rule of land allocation.

Kabir quickly realized that he had been misunderstood. Looking at the soldiers who came forward to apprehend them, he grew panicked as he explained quickly, waving his hands, "Sir, sir, no, please. You have misunderstood. I have no opinion on how the land is distributed. I just wanted to ask if my sons were also allocated land, as they also participated in road construction."

Upon hearing this, the civil servant finally became clear of the trio's intention, and the soldiers stopped, returning to their positions.

The civil servant looked through the merit list and asked, "What are the names?"

"Sir, these are my sons. Their names are Abhay Singh and Aryan Singh. They both participated in road construction under me. It was the construction site 1325 with the construction groups 36 and 37."

The civil servant, looking through the ledger, confirmed that their names were present. "Oh, there it is. So, Mr. Kabir, do you want to combine the land allocated to the three of you into a single plot? With this, the land will become the common property of you three."

"Yes, please, sir. That would be very helpful," Kabir said, thinking it was a good idea.

The civil servant, nodding his head, calculated the total land to be allocated, adding the three people's land. But when he saw the land that had been allocated, he was quite surprised and said, "The Singh family is allocated with 35 acres of land."

Hearing the allocation, the people were in an uproar again.

"Why was their land so much?"

"Aren't they three in good health? Who died in their family to get so much land?"

"Yes, yes, this is not fair."

"Even if someone died, according to my calculation, the total should only be 20 acres of land. Why is it 35?"

"They must have done something suspicious."

"..."

"..."

Such comments permeated the crowd as all eyes were on the three men and the civil servant, who was already turning the pages to find out the reason the Singh family got so much land allocated.

But as he looked at the details, his doubt turned into a hint of reverence. 'No wonder he knows the site and group number,' he thought.

"There is no mistake in the land allocation. 35 acres are allocated to the Singh family because both sons, Abhay Singh and Aryan Singh, worked as team leaders for construction groups 36 and 37. Due to their exceptional contribution, they were awarded 10 acres of land each."

The murmurs lessened, but still, there were a few questioning voices.

"Isn't it still only 25 acres? Where did the additional 10 acres come from?"

"Yes, yes. We are also familiar with how the road management of the construction works."

"..."

"..."

The civil servant got a headache as these people would not let him continue. "Shut up!" he yelled, silencing the crowd.

"Again, there is no mistake in the land allocation. Kabir Singh here was able to become one of the managers of construction site 1325, managing 40 different construction groups. Hence, due to his excellent service, he was granted 15 acres of land."

Now they all shut up, as when they were in the construction group even their group leaders were intimidating, not to mention a manager from the construction site.

As the issue was settled, Kabir received the token and the location of their family's new plot of land. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

However, when looking at the map hung beside the civil servant, he was surprised. 'Wasn't this the same plot of land that the zamindar had?' He became nervous, as he did not want to offend the local zamindar. Seeing his worry, the civil servant guessed his thoughts and comforted him, "Do not worry; this land is guaranteed by His Majesty, the Emperor Vijay Devaraya himself. You don't have to worry; no one will bother you about the rights to this land."

Hearing the comforting words, Kabir calmed down and left with his sons. But still, to be sure, he went on the route which would intersect with the zamindar's house. As he got close to the zamindar's house, he was surprised to see that the zamindar had left his house in a hurry, and his house was guarded by soldiers. Looking at the Zamindar's face, he seemed to be livid with anger.

That evening in a town called Dhule, many elites in the society had gathered together. These elites consisted of higher-caste people and rich landlord families.

The zamindar from Singapura also arrived with the same livid face and started to rant. "This bastard civil servant took away my land by force, claiming that I collect an exorbitant amount of grain from the proceeds. How dare he say that! I only collect 90% of the proceeds. Don't I still leave 10% for those untouchables? I am already kinder than those blood-sucking Mughal dogs who only left 5% of the proceeds."

"Hey man, why are you scolding that civil servant? All these laws are made by that young emperor. It is all his fault."

"God damn it."

A person among them interjected with a different view, "But isn't the land confiscated only a little of your property? If I remember correctly, you encircled upward of 75 acres of land. Even with your land confiscated, you are still left with at least 40 acres of land, which is still tax-free until the next year."

"Hey, what do you know? Until now, people followed whatever I said because they were dependent on me. Unfortunately, that won't be the case anymore. We had no idea land would be distributed like this. If we had known, we would have sent our children to secure some land for our families. Now, only the untouchables participated in the construction, and they acquired a significant amount of land left behind by the Mughal elites. With land in their possession, who will they listen to now? Can you bear it? The untouchables, who were living under your feet just a few days ago, suddenly don't need you and could even be your equals."

"How do you think this is acceptable?"

"Yes, yes, what he said was correct."

"We are the higher-caste people. We are the knowledgeable, brave, and talented people. How can that boy emperor take the side of those filthy untouchables?"

"Who knows, maybe he was born from one too."

"..."

"..."

Such discussions continued as the scolding of Vijay grew increasingly vulgar until the discussion was brought back to the topic when a person asked.

"So what can we do?"

"Should we start causing trouble for the civil servants?"

"No, that won't work. Although we can take down those five soldiers with them, what will happen after that? I can imagine us being hunted down by the military after that."

Silence ensued in the room.

"Why don't we incite the people into starting riots, in the name of freedom?"

 "Idiot! The last time someone tried that on a large scale, they were all killed. Do you think you've lived enough and are seeking death? Also, after the land has been allocated, the untouchables have unwavering support for the Empire. Who do you think outnumbers the other, us or the untouchables?"

"Sigh."

There was a collective sigh again from the room.

When they did not know what the solution was, a famous landlord around the town brought in a mysterious person clothed in black into the room.

In the doubtful eyes of everyone, he replied, "Maybe I can help you all out."

Back to Hampi.

The suspicious activities quickly reached Vijay's attention, though the reports were vague and failed to identify the responsible party. Despite the lack of concrete information, Vijay couldn't help but speculate that it might be the work of Mohammed the 5th. The passing of the land distribution bill had stirred dissatisfaction among the elites in the newly acquired territories of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. While their interests were indeed affected, it wasn't to the extent of sparking a rebellion against the empire.

However, what irked them more was the newfound financial independence of the lower caste people. This aspect left them fuming. Initially, Vijay wasn't overly concerned, considering only a minority of elites participated in meetings across the new territories, and the rest were relatively rational. His worry escalated when he sensed a mysterious force attempting to connect these minority elites in various towns and cities. This was alarming not because of the elites themselves – Vijay wasn't afraid of them – but due to the shadow group orchestrating these connections.

Vijay's concern was heightened because this shadow organization posed a potential threat if timed correctly. What troubled him more was the realization that it might be affiliated with the Mughal Empire. The absence of this organization in Sri Lanka eliminated the Europeans as potential culprits. With these considerations, Vijay went into contemplation, preparing to observe how events would unfold and planning to respond accordingly.

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