zamindar

or ze·min·dar

[ zuh-meen-dahr ]

noun

1. (in British India) a landlord required to pay a land tax to the government.
2. (in Mogul India) a collector of farm revenue, who paid a fixed sum on the district assigned to him.

zamindar

/ zəmiːnˈdɑː /

noun

1. (in India) the owner of an agricultural estate

Word History and Origins

Origin of zamindar¹

1675–85; < Hindi < Persian zamīndār landholder, equivalent to zamīn earth, land + -dār holding, holder

Word History and Origins

Origin of zamindar¹

via Hindi from Persian: landholder, from zamīn land + -dār holder

Example Sentences

In India’s past, agrarian crisis and extreme indebtedness led to riots and demonstrations against zamindar landlords who controlled rural wealth.

From Salon

Partition, as books in recent years by Yasmin Khan and Vazira Zamindar have shown, was a different process depending on which part of it you were caught up in.

From The Guardian

The theory eventually circulated that Boori Ma had once worked as hired help for a prosperous zamindar back east, and was therefore capable of exaggerating her past at such elaborate lengths and heights.

From Literature

Vazira Zamindar’s excellent recent study, “The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia,” opens with an account of Ghulam Ali, a Muslim from Lucknow, a city in central North India, who specialized in making artificial limbs.

From The New Yorker

An Oxford avatar of the old zamindar mentality—a landlord forcing his attentions on women who depended on him for their livelihood.

From Literature