RESTRICTIONS ON THE ALIENATION OF LANDS. 199 



more so, at any rate, than is desirable in their own interests. Take for 

 instance, the case of the occupancy tenants of Upper India. Alike 

 in the Punjab, the North- Western Provinces, Oudh and the Central 

 Provinces, the occupancy tenant is very materially restricted in his 

 powers of alienation ; still it is a well known fact that this class of 

 agriculturists, as a body, is prosperous, and can obtain accommodation 

 from money-lenders on much the same terms as small-proprietors. 

 The fact is that the money-lender must continue to exercise his pro- 

 fession, and the agricultural community must, under the rural 

 conditions of this country, continue to constitute his principal 

 clientele. The money-lender plays a most useful, and even necessary, 

 part in the social economy of village life, and no one wishes to 

 eliminate him or to place unreasonable restrictions upon his transac- 

 tions. If our proposed scheme is made of general application, he will 

 have to adapt himself to the new conditions, and will be easily able 

 to do so. If, on the other hand, the scheme is applied only to selected 

 and scattered areas, the money-lender will clearly be master of the 

 situation as regards such localities. 



Such is the plan which the Government of India put forward 

 with the object of checking the transfer of land from the agricultural 

 classes in the Punjab. It certainly goes further in imposing direct 

 restrictions on alienations than has hitherto been attempted in other 

 parts of India, but the circumstances of the Province with which we are 

 dealing are quite special, and I trust that I have shown, although I 

 fear at tedious length, that our scheme is the outcome of very careful 

 investigation and deliberation. 



After all, it must be borne in mind that we are aimino- at 



& 



reverting to some extent to a state of things which prevailed in the 

 Punjab before it came under British rule. It is an arguable question 

 whether the right of free transfer of land was recognised under Native 

 rule, or whether it is what has been called the ' fatal gift ' of the 

 British Government ; but, in any case, the question is for practical 

 purposes one of mere academic interest, for it is an undisputed fact 

 that in former times the exercise of the right of transfer, at all 

 events in favour of money-lenders or other out-siders, even allowing 

 that such right did exist in theory, was for several reasons exceedingly 

 rare, and we know that even in these days in most Native States 

 alinations of land are either absolutely prohibited or largely restricted. 

 We know, too, that in the Punjab the custom of transferring- land 



