A tehsildar (Urdu: تحصیلدار, Hindi: तहसीलदार) is revenue administrative officer in Pakistan and India in-charge of obtaining taxation from a tehsil. The term is of imperial Mughal origin made of "tahsil"--an Islamic administrative derived from Arabic, meaning "revenue generating; collection" + "dar", Persian for "holder of a position," together meaning tax collector. The role of tehsildar continued during the period of British Rule and subsequently used by Pakistan and India following their independence from the British. The deputy of a tehsildar is known as a naib tehsildar.
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British rule
During British rule the tehsildar was a stipendiary officer of the government to raise revenue, in the "History of the Colonies of the British Empire: From the Official Records", Robert Montgomery Martin described local government as follows :[1]
| “ | The lowest police officer is the village watcher. There are several in the villages who perform the lower offices. They are under the control of the head of the village: the head of the village is under the control of the Magistrate, who is the collector. | ” |
Pakistan
In Pakistan a Tehsildar is responsible for obtaining revenue from a Tehsil, or Taluka (as called in Sindh), which is then used by the district government. A Tehsil is a sub-division of a District and will have multiple smaller administrative units called 'Mouza' or 'Deh'. Typically a district will contain multiple Tehsils.
While not a gazetted officer, a Tehsildar enjoys a fair amount of authority and respect, especially in the rural areas and is also tasked to forecast the expected seasonal crop yields and classify and map the landuse in the respective Tehsil.
A Tehsildar is also called a 'Mukhtiarkar' in Sindh.
India
A present-day equivalent position in the Indian government would be a District Collector. A District Collector is a Central Indian Government appointee who is in charge of the governance of a district in a state.
District Collectors are officers of the Indian Administrative Service and are the most powerful government officials of the district. They are entrusted the task of handling law and order, revenue collection, taxation, the control of planning permission and the handling of natural and man-made emergencies. A collector was a crucially important colonial officer placed at the district level and entrusted with the responsibility of revenue collection and other civil duties. Teshildar is a Gazetted officer
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