[Extracts from the proceedings of the Punjab Council dated the 

 25th October, 1906.'] 



PUNJAB ALIENATION or LAND ACT AMENDMENT BILL, 1906. 



THE HON'BLE MR. GORDON said : 



The Punjab Land Alienation Act which has now been in force 

 since 1900 was the outcome of long years of discussion. Although 

 it had come to be clearly recognised that something must be done to 

 arrest the process of transfer of land from the agricultural population, 

 there was still plenty of room for difference of opinion as to the way 

 in which this object was to be attained. Even -the keenest supporters 

 of the present Act, and those who were responsible for it, might well 

 be inclined to entertain doubts as to the precise effects of what was 

 f ally recognised to be a legislative experiment of a rather revolu- 

 tionary character. There was nothing which could give any certain 

 indication of what those effects were likely to be. 



Looking back on six years of practical working of the Act, I 

 think we may safely say that it has been a success beyond the expecta- 

 tions of its most ardent supporters. That is a subject, however, on 

 which it is unnecessary for me now to enlarge. The point on which 

 perhaps the most serious apprehension was felt was that the Act, 

 instead of conferring a 1 benefit on the class for whose protection it 

 was meant, would cause serious inconvenience to them by the con- 

 traction of credit. It was feared that the money-lending class would 

 not continue, under the altered conditions, to make the necessary 

 advances to the zamindars, and that the latter would not be able to 

 get along without the assistance of this nature on which they had 

 so long depended. We now know that this apprehension has not 

 been justified in practical experience. Unlimited credit has undoubt- 

 edly been contracted, the village money-lender is not perhaps now 

 so keen on pressing a loan on the reluctant zamindar, and the latter 

 may find it more difficult to obtain the necessary funds for reckless 

 expenditure. But there is nothing whatever to show that, as a result 

 of the Act, the zamindar has been hampered in his business and in his 

 1 daily life by the difficulty of getting ready money when he requires 

 it. Looking at the working of the Act in this direction, it may be 



