60 BRITISH INDIA - AGRICU1,TURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



set up against the further intrusion into these communities of the most 

 dangerous element of disintegration, the small trader and moneylender. 

 For the protection of the family holding the village custormar>^ law, now 

 better understood, remained intact. One branch of that law, which has 

 been twisted out of its original shape, the Government decided to re- 

 fashion. Pre-emption had been robbed by two old judgements of the Chief 

 Court of most of its meaning. Usufructuar>' mortgages of the type al- 

 read}' described were far more common than sales, and in practice in a great 

 many cases involved the permanent disappropriation of the peasant mort- 

 gager. But the Court held that the right of pre-emption did not apply 

 to such mortgages, except where the village record of rights expressly pro- 

 vided othcj-wise. It also decided that a proprietor by purchase, though a 

 stranger to the original village brotherhood, had as good a right as any 

 agnate cosharer to claim pre-emption. Thus the custom which was in- 

 tended to keep the stranger out was twisted in such a wa}' as to make it 

 easy for him to extend his possession once he had gained a footing. The 

 same limitation of the right to sales and the same extension of it as regards 

 the persons who might exercise it were unfortunately embodied in laws 

 passed in 1872 and 1878. There was indeed a clause saving custom, but 

 the tribal codes of custom subsequently drawn disposed of the subject by 

 saying that it was regulated by law. When the Chief Court of the province 

 realized that the old decisions were wrong it sought for evidence of the 

 real custom in the old village records of rights. At last in 1905 a new Act 

 was passed which as regards sales brought the law into conformity with 

 custom, giving the right of pre-emption to the heirs of the vendor. Even 

 in the case of a joint holding a cosharer not related to the vendor was gi- 

 ven no right unless the agnate cosharers declined to take advantage of 

 their prior title. It must be admitted that many judicial officers regard 

 pre-emption in its practical working as pernicious. 



The Ivand Alienation Act has succeeded in its object. It has stopped 

 the disappropriation of the Panjab peasant b^^the monejdender, and it has 

 not lowered the credit of the farmer to any undesirable extent. Indeed 

 the value of land has continued to rise, and the revenue or rent charged by 

 the State is not on the average more than one per cent of the selling price. 

 Government action no longer aids and abets the disintegration of the family 

 holding and the communal village communit3^ Probably little more can 

 be done. The old order will never return in its entirety, and perhaps in the 

 changed surroundings of toda^' it is undesirable that it should. Whether 

 the communal village spirit, which has decaj-ed so rapidh', will revive, is 

 doubtful, and it must always be remembered that it was only strong at any 

 time in part of the province. Proposals have been made to revive village 

 councils by giving them power to deal with petty civil and criminal cases. 

 It is uncertain whether any such revival would have permanent popularity 

 or success. It seems more likely that, if common village life renews itself, 

 its resurrection will be the indirect result of the growing movement of 

 agricultural co-operation, which has been such a striking feature of the re- 

 cent historj"^ of the Panjab. 



