RESTRICTIONS ON THE ALIENATION OF LANDS. 205 



would thus be opened to the money-lender who belongs to an agri- 

 cultural tribe buying up land in a village where he would come in 

 as an outsider. At the same time, we recognize the force of the 

 objection which has been taken that if free transfers are limited 

 too strictly to within the same tribe, the market, in the case of 

 some small tribes, will be undesirably narrowed. We propose there- 

 fore to meet this objection by empowering the Local Government, 

 with the sanction of the Government of India, to group together, 

 when thought advisable, small and what may be called cognate 

 tribes in the same district or in a group of districts, and to 

 allow permanent alienation without restriction within such groups. 



As regards permanent alienations, therefore, the scheme of the 

 Bill, as amended by the Select Committee, now stands thus ; 



' Any member of a non-agricultural tribe may, without sanction, 

 make a permanent alienation of land to any person, except in respect 

 of any land which he acquires hereafter as an 'agriculturist' 

 from a member of an agricultural tribe. In this one case he will 

 only be able to alienate, except with the sanction of the Revenue- 

 officer, to another 'agriculturist? in the same village or to a member 

 of some agricultural tribe/ 



'A member of an agricultural tribe may, without sanction, make 

 a permanent alienation of land to a member of the same agricultural 

 tribe, or, in certain cases, to a member of any other agricultural 

 tribe included in the same group as his own tribe in the same 

 district, or, if so notified, in a group of districts. In all 

 other cases, every permanent alienation of land by a member 

 of an agricultural tribe will require the sanction of the Revenue- 

 officer.' 



We have revised the definition of 'agriculturist' so as to 



enable the Local Government, in cases where the first regular 



' & 



settlement has been made within the past thirty years, to go back 

 to the record of some previous settlement ; we have amplified 

 the definition of 'land' ; we have included 'exchanges' in, but 

 excluded gifts or bequests for religious or charitable purposes 

 from, the definition of 'permanent alienation' ; we have made clear 

 that the right of unrestricted purchase allowed to an 'agriculturist' 

 as such can only be exercised in the actual village or villages 

 in which he has acquired such status ; and we have also 



