120 



MALAY LAND TENURE, 



It is not to be expected that among the Malays the system 

 of alienation, or the effect of a transfer, should quite corres- 

 pond with any European system, and it is necessary to be cau- 

 tious in supposing that when land in a Malay State is said to 

 have been bought or sold, the transaction has been similar to 

 the purchase or sale of land in British territory, either in the 

 mode in which it has been conducted, or in its practical opera- 

 tion. Crawfurd, it will have been noticed, says that the Sun- 

 danese cultivator is allowed to alienate his land c< by suffer- 

 ance •/' and Marsden points out that the usufruct is all that a 

 Malay has and all that he can dispose of. 



When Captain Low, in describing land tenure in Kedah, 

 says that land granted by the Raja " could not be alienated " * 

 it must not be supposed that the right of occupancy could not 

 in general be the subject of a bargain there. Captain Low 

 quotes extracts from the Undang-Undang Kedah (Laws of 

 Kedah) in which occur the two following sections : — 



" When a garden is to be sold, the trees are to be estimated 

 " at \ of a dollar each and the amount will be the price of the 

 « land." 



" What the Raja has given no one can take away, nor can 

 " any one sell land so given without the Raja's concurrence." f 



The first of these rules exar.tly coincides with what Marsden 

 describes, as regards the interest in the land which passes by 

 sale in Sumatra, and with Raffles' estimate of what the Sun- 

 danese peasant has a right to expect on the surrender of his 



" the right of cultivating particular portions of the earth is rather a privi- 

 " lege than a property — a privilege first of the whole people, then of a parti - 

 " cular tribe or a particular village community, and finally of particular 

 " individual of the community." Sir George Campbell on Indian Land 

 " Tenures fCobden Club Papers). 



* See supra, p. 79. 



f "Powerful as the Zaminddr became in managing the land, in grasping and 

 " in ousting-, he had no power (in Beng-al before 1793) of alienating his 

 " estate ; he could not raise money on it by mortgage, nor sell the whole or 

 " any part of it. This clearly appears from a proclamation issued on 1st 

 " August, 1786 ; the illegal practice of 'alienating revenue lands ' is complained 

 " of ; ' the gentlemen appointed to superintend ' the various districts are 

 "invited zealously to prevent the 'commission of the offence;' and the Zu- 

 " miuddr, Chauclhari, Taluqddr, or other land-holder who disobeys, is threatened 

 "with dispossession from his lands." Land Revenue and Land Tenures of 

 India. — Baden-Powell, p. 221. 



