Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and parts of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

a mouza or mauza (also mouja) is a type of administrative district, corresponding to a specific land area within which there may be one or more settlements. Before the 20th century, the term referred to a revenue collection unit is a '' pargana'' or

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive rev ...

district. The mauza system in the Indian Subcontinent is similar to the manorial system in Europe. The head of a mauza is styled as Mustajir, Pradhan or Mulraiyat, equivalent to Lord of the Manor in the manorial system. As populations increased and villages became more common and developed, the concept of the mouza declined in importance. Today it has become mostly

synonymous A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

with the ''gram'' or village. Most voter lists, for example, now use the names of villages rather than mouzas. In contemporary Pakistan, a mouza is defined as "a territorial unit with a separate name, definite boundaries, and area precisely measured and divided into plots/khasras/survey numbers." Each mouza has a cadastral map maintained in the land revenue record and, except in

Sindh Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

, each one has a Hadabast Number. A mouza may be either a compact or a scattered unit, and there may be one or more settlements (aka abadis, bastis, dhoks, goths, tola, etc.) in the mouza's territory. A mouza may also be unpopulated. In Sindh, a mouza is known as a deh.

References

{{reflist Former subdivisions of Bangladesh Subdivisions of Pakistan Types of administrative division Human habitats

See also

References