47. The stain removed

The ever growing number of ryots coming to make their statements increased the planters' wrath, and they moved heaven and earth to put an end to my inquiry. But Sir Edward Gait, the Lieutenant Governor, asked me to see him, expressed his willingness to appoint an inquiry and invited me to be a member of the Committee. The Committee voted in favour of the ryots, and recommended that the planters should refund a portion of the exactions made by them which the Committee had found to be unlawful, and that the tinkathia system should be abolished by law.

The tinkathia system which had been in existence for about a century was thus abolished, and with it the planters' raj came to an end.