Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and parts of

India India, officially the Republic of India, 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 by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, 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 just underneath a ''

pargana Pargana or parganah, also spelt pergunnah, equivalent to Mohallah as a subunit of Subah (Suba), was a type of former administrative division in the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal and British Colonial empire ...

'' or

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

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 precisely 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 A cadastre or cadaster ( ) is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represente ...

maintained in the land revenue record and, except in

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

, 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, turf, hundi 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