Punjab Land Alienation Act 1900
Topic: Colonial Economy: Land Revenue, Drain, Deindustrialisation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Punjab Land Alienation Act was passed in 1900. It stopped members of notified "agricultural tribes" from selling or mortgaging their land to non-agricultural groups, such as moneylenders and traders. (A mortgage means pledging land as security for a loan.) The British feared that peasant land was passing to moneylenders through debt. That could anger the rural population, which was also a major source of army recruits. The Act shows how rural debt pushed the colonial state to step in.
Example
After 1900, a Punjab moneylender who was not from a notified agricultural tribe could no longer take a debtor's land permanently in place of an unpaid loan.
Don't confuse with
- Limitation Law of 1859: this only limited loan bonds to three years. It did nothing to stop land from passing to moneylenders.
Related concepts
- David Ricardo
- Ricardian theory of rent
- Rentier
- Bombay Deccan
- Thomas Munro
- Ryotwari system
- Temporary settlement
- Mahalwari system
- Malguzar
- Deccan famine of 1832-34