Explain the origin, consolidation and the role of zamindars in the villages. Were they an exploitative class

The origin, consolidation and the role of the zamindars:

(i)    Contemporary documents give an impression that conquest may have been the source of the origin of some zamindaris. The dispossession of weaker people by a powerful military chieftain was quite often a way of expanding a zamindari. It is, however, unlikely.

(ii)    More important were the slow processes of zamindari consolidation, which are also documented in sources. These involved colonisation of new lands, by transfer of rights, by order of the state and by purchase.

(iii)    A combination of factors also allowed the consolidation of clan-or lineage- based zamindaris. For example, the Rajputs and Jats adopted these strategies to consolidate their control over vast swathes of territory in northern India.
Generally zamindars are painted as an exploitative class.

(i)    The zamindars held extensive personal lands termed milkiyat, meaning property. Milkiyat lands were cultivated for the private use of zamindars, often with the help of hired or servile labour.

(ii)    Zamindars also derived their power from the fact that they could often collect revenue on behalf of the state, a service for which they were compensated financially.

(iii)    Zamindars spearheaded the colonization of agricultural land, and helped in settling cultivators by providing them with the means of cultivation, including cash loans.