A tehsildar (Urdu: تحصیلدار, Hindi: तहसीलदार) is a revenue administrative officer in India and Pakistan 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" and "dar", Persian for "holder of a position", together meaning tax collector. The role of tehsildar continued during the period of British Rule and was subsequently used by Pakistan and India following their independence from the British. The deputy of a tehsildar is known as a naib tehsildar.
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:
In India an official position is existing with this same title. Tahsildar(Group A) and Naib Tahsildar (Group B) are gazetted officer also known as Assistant collector & Executive Magistrate (Class II).Both holds court related to land, Tax and revenue matter with a position which has a lot of authority, power and respect. Tahsildar and Naib Tahsildar are directly appointed from State Administrative/Civil Services (Group A and B, Revenue dept) (i.e. PCS in Utter Pradesh, HPAS in Himachal Pradesh, RAS in Rajsthan, MCS in Mizoram and BAS in Bihar or as equivalent cadre in other states of India)or promoted staff from lower state cadre by Internal official/staff examination. In modern India a State is divided into various districts. The district's senior most civil servant is the District Collector, who could be a promoted officer from the State Administrative/Civil Services (Group A, General administration dept) or most likely an IAS officer. These districts are further sub divided into Revenue Sub Divisions (South India), Sub Division (North India and North East India) or Prant (in west India), under an officer designated as Sub divisional Magistrate (S.D.M.), Deputy Collector, Revenue Divisional Officer (R.D.O.), Prant Dandadhikari or Executive Magistrate Class I (in exceptional cases) who could be a appointed from the state administrative/civil Services (Group A, General administration dept) or most likely an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) Trainee/Probationary officer. These sub divisions are divided into various Tehsils or Talukas orAnchal . Tahsildar is also known as Anchal Adhikari or Circle Officer(civil) in some states of India. The Teshils and Talukas are under an officer designated as Tehsildar. The Tehsils/Taluks are further divided into Villages, under a Village officer. This hierarchy is mainly used for undertaking the regular administrative activities, including identification and collection of revenue (from land) etc. A separate hierarchy exists for the law enforcement in a district.
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