<P> A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an aristocrat . The term means "land owner" in Persian . Typically hereditary, zamindars held enormous tracts of land and control over their peasants, from whom they reserved the right to collect tax on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes . Their families carried titular suffixes of lordship, such as Babu, Sri, Rai, Pillai, Rao, Chaudhuri, Khan, Sardar, Malik, Thakur, Wadero, Reddy, Thevar and Naidu . In the 19th and 20th centuries, with the advent of British imperialism, many wealthy and influential zamindars were bestowed with princely and royal titles such as Maharaja (Great King), Raja (King) and Nawab . </P> <P> During the Mughal Empire, zamindars belonged to the nobility and formed the ruling class . Emperor Akbar granted them mansabs and their ancestral domains were treated as jagirs . Under British colonial rule in India, the permanent settlement consolidated what became known as the zamindari system . The British rewarded supportive zamindars by recognizing them as princes . Many of the region's princely states were pre-colonial zamindar holdings elevated to a greater protocol . However, the British also reduced the land holdings of many pre-colonial aristocrats, demoting their status to a zamindar from previously higher ranks of nobility . </P> <P> The system was abolished during land reforms in East Bengal (Bangladesh) in 1950, India in 1951 and West Pakistan in 1959 . </P>

What was the role of the zamindars in mughal administration