Land transfer, social change and political stability in the Punjab, 1849-1901
type: CreativeWork
description: Before the advent of the British, over-all political control vested in the Lahore Government. Rural society was dominated by those whose position ultimately derived from this Government, i.e., by assignees of revenue, revenue-farmers, local officials, rural notables and village headmen. The British greatly augmented the power of the State; they brought more peace and order to the country-side; and they relinquished control over the development of rural society by destroying or diminishing the position and influence of those who had exercised that control. A class of peasant-proprietors, entrusted with a limited agricultural surplus and an almost unfettered power to transfer their holdings, was created as the basis for stability and prosperity. Rapid economic development from the eighteen-sixties enormously increased the amount and value of the agricultural surplus. The value of land rose; the credit of the land-owners expanded; they began to borrow freely for agricultural and social purposes; the trading castes and indeed men of capital and enterprise of all classes, became interested in the acquisition of land; and the transfer of land in satisfaction of debts or under the pressure of necessity assumed serious proportions. The expropriation of the land-owners was accelerated by the introduction of a law and civil procedure adapted to the needs of a commercial, competitive, literate and homogeneous society and unsuited to those of an agrarian, customary, illiterate society divided along caste and tribal lines. The law of contract, interest and limitation disturbed the traditional relations between lenders and borrowers and stimulated the demand for the payment of high rates of compound interest. The courts, burdened with work, without administrative experience or rural sympathy, with little power for local enquiry, bound to adjudicate in accordance with written rather than oral evidence, favoured the money-lender rather than the peasant. They did not work efficientl…
abstract: Before the advent of the British, over-all political control vested in the Lahore Government. Rural society was dominated by those whose position ultimately derived from this Government, i.e., by assignees of revenue, revenue-farmers, local officials, rural notables and village headmen. The British greatly augmented the power of the State; they brought more peace and order to the country-side; and they relinquished control over the development of rural society by destroying or diminishing the position and influence of those who had exercised that control. A class of peasant-proprietors, entrusted with a limited agricultural surplus and an almost unfettered power to transfer their holdings, was created as the basis for stability and prosperity. Rapid economic development from the eighteen-sixties enormously increased the amount and value of the agricultural surplus. The value of land rose; the credit of the land-owners expanded; they began to borrow freely for agricultural and social purposes; the trading castes and indeed men of capital and enterprise of all classes, became interested in the acquisition of land; and the transfer of land in satisfaction of debts or under the pressure of necessity assumed serious proportions. The expropriation of the land-owners was accelerated by the introduction of a law and civil procedure adapted to the needs of a commercial, competitive, literate and homogeneous society and unsuited to those of an agrarian, customary, illiterate society divided along caste and tribal lines. The law of contract, interest and limitation disturbed the traditional relations between lenders and borrowers and stimulated the demand for the payment of high rates of compound interest. The courts, burdened with work, without administrative experience or rural sympathy, with little power for local enquiry, bound to adjudicate in accordance with written rather than oral evidence, favoured the money-lender rather than the peasant. They did not work efficientl…
author: Van den Dungen, Petrus Hendrikis Maria
language: en
date published: 1966
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:54:36Z
provider: Australian National University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian National University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/123120