Why Archaic Terms Still Rule India's Real Estate

I was in a linguistic tizzy when I was recently told to find out the meaning of the term inteqal in property transaction parlance. To the best of my knowledge, I knew the Urdu word meant death. To be on a safer side, I cross-checked with a couple of my friends to confirm if the word did not mean anything remotely related to a property transaction. And I was right, the terms mutation and inteqal are used in the same breath in north India because mutation (change in ownership) happens upon the death of a person.

I also used to wonder about the use of the term benami. A Persian term, benami means something with no name. But, in India a benami property is the one which is bought by one person using another person as a proxy to park unaccounted money. Then there are terms like dakhil-kharij (the process of property mutation), jamabandi & khatauni (both mean land records) and pagadi (while the literal meaning of the term is headgear it assumes the meaning of security deposit in property transactions) which are still prevalent in the system. Without clearly understanding the significance of these terms, it is hard to digest these baffling terms of land laws.

It is worth mentioning here that land laws in India were largely introduced during the times of the Mughals, and nothing much has been done to modernise them in recent times. Urdu, Arabic and Persian terms that were used back then are still in vogue. For instance, if you are buying a property in Karnataka, you must be aware of the Khata system there. Similarly, if you are buying a property in Uttar Pradesh, dakhil-kharij is the word you must know well. You should also know about jamabandi when buying a property in Haryana and Punjab. Now, do you want a copy of the sale deed in Bihar? Ask for a nakal (copy in Urdu).

It's safer to arm yourself with a thorough knowledge of property's Urdu-Persian vocabulary before buying a property. Shockingly, they do not necessarily mean what you might have learnt through conversations.