What does chout mean?
Chout is a historical term for an exaction or levy, most famously the one-quarter share of land revenue that the Marathas demanded from states outside their direct control during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The word derives from the Hindi and Marathi 'chauth', meaning 'fourth', so the amount was built into the very name of the demand. Paying chout did not signal submission or alliance; it was essentially protection money, collected under implicit threat of Maratha military raids if a ruler refused. Because of this, the term carries strong connotations of coercion and extortion, and in broader use it came to describe any similar forced payment extracted by a dominant power. Today chout survives mainly in historical scholarship and writing about pre-colonial India, where it helps explain the fiscal pressures and power dynamics that shaped the declining Mughal empire. For readers, it is a compact window into how taxation and intimidation were intertwined in early modern South Asian politics.
nounA historical levy or exaction, especially the one-quarter share of revenue demanded by the Marathas from territories outside their direct rule during the Mughal era.
- A one-quarter revenue levy exacted by the Marathas from non-Maratha territories in 17th–18th century India
- More generally, any coercive exaction or protection-style payment made under pressure
"The neighbouring state paid chout each year rather than face another Maratha raid."
"Under the treaty, the raja agreed to pay chout on all revenues collected in the disputed province."
"Locals complained that bandits along the pass collected what amounted to a private chout from every caravan."
Rarely pluralized; the word usually appears as an uncountable mass noun referring to the practice or payment collectively.
"Different provinces owed different rates of chout depending on their treaties with the Marathas."
Chout literally meant 'a quarter' — the Marathas taxed rival states exactly 25% of their revenue, and refusing could mean war.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chout
Chout entered English through colonial-era contact with India, adapted from Hindi and Marathi 'chauth', meaning 'a fourth'. The term refers directly to the quarter-share of revenue the Marathas claimed from territories beyond their own administration, a practice prominent from the late 1600s onward. The underlying root is ultimately the Indo-European word for 'four', making chout a distant cousin of English words like 'quarter' and 'quartet'. It remains a specialist historical term rather than part of everyday vocabulary.
How chout is actually used
Chout is now almost entirely historical, encountered in writing about Mughal and Maratha India. It carries a connotation of coercion — the payment was less a negotiated tax than protection money backed by the threat of raids.
Easily confused with chout
A chute is a sloping channel for conveying things downward (pronounced /ʃuːt/), whereas chout is a historical Indian revenue levy.