{"id":112460,"date":"2021-03-08T16:38:59","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T23:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=112460"},"modified":"2021-03-08T16:38:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T23:38:59","slug":"the-general-election-of-1956-part-4f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/03\/08\/the-general-election-of-1956-part-4f\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1956 Part 4F"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Philip Gunawardena is best\nremembered for the Paddy Lands Act of\n1958<\/strong>. The main objective of this Act was to provide security of tenure of a\npermanent and heritable nature and regulate the rents paid by tenants. However\nits implementation was flawed owing to administrative deficiencies, observed\nNimal Sanderatne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Paddy Lands Bill was\npassed in 1953 under the UNP. It was a limited attempt at tenancy reform and\nwas focused on Hambantota and Batticaloa alone. Under this Bill, tenant and\nowner should sign an agreement, valid for 5 years. Philip found that in\nHambantota, only two such agreements had been signed.  Landlords avoided written leases. Without\nclear tenancy agreements, the benefit was for the money lender, said Philip.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip brought a revised Paddy\nLands Bill before Parliament. It was\nentirely designed and implemented by Philip. It was a\ncomprehensive Bill dealing with the whole question of tenancy, security of\ntenure, rights of landlords and tenants. It was to ensure long term security\nfor the tenant and limited very strictly the rights of the land lord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nnew act gave the ande goviya tenure without a time limit.  The number of tenant farmers affected were\naround 300,000. Philip said the Bill\nwould also free the tenant from his traditional servitude to the landlord. The\ntenant\u2019s children had to work in the landlord\u2019s house as servants, often\nwithout pay. Due to pressure from SLFP\nthe bill did not include Colonization schemes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip introduced his Paddy Lands\nBill in 1957.  Meegama said that this\nBill was perhaps the most important Bill presented in Parliament since 1947. This Bill will benefit the Kandyan peasantry\nmore than any other worker. The Kandyan peasant is the most down trodden, said\nPhilip. Philip spoke in both Sinhala and English on\nthe Paddy Lands Bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paddy Lands\nBill was passed on Dec 19, 1957, with 61 for and 7 against. The Paddy Lands Act\nprovided permanent security to the thousands of tenant farmers, who\nformed about 51 % of the cultivators. The Act also regulated the rents payable\nby the tenant to   the land owner. The\nAct said that the landlord share was to be limited to a fourth of the crop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lands\nwere to be administered by a cultivation committee elected by the landlord and cultivator\nin the proportion of  3\/4th<\/sup> to\nbe of cultivators. The power of the landlords was reduced by weighting these Committees\nheavily in favour of the actual cultivators. The Act  also created a new Agrarian Services\nDepartment , to ensure its implementation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first\nrole of the Cultivation Committees was to help in the implementation of the\ntenancy provisions of the Act (Sections 8-19). The Committees were also\nauthorized to act as intermediaries between landlord and tenant in the\ncollection of rents, etc., thus reducing the personal hold of landlords over\ntheir tenants. This would also bolster confidence of the tenant-cultivators to\nactively claim their rights under the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, the\nCultivation Committees were given important development functions, with powers\nfor the advancement of paddy cultivation in their areas. They were given access\nto technical advice in the form of Agricultural Extension Officers and Village\nCultivation Officers, who were made ex-officio members of the Committees, but\nwith a right only to speak but not to vote at their meetings. It was hoped that\nwith such technical advice emanating from within, and adopted by the\nCommittees, would enable both paddy production and water-management to be\ngreatly improved by the farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A third major\ninnovatory function of the Cultivation Committees was in respect of\n(irrigation) water management, with the Committees taking over the functions of\nthe Irrigation Headmen (Vel Vidanes) at field level. These functions, among\nothers, included enforcement of rules relating to cultivation dates, clearing\nof channels, fencing, etc, as well as improving water management  said Chandra Arulpragasam..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was provision in the Paddy Lands Act to\nconfer powers to the cultivation committees to make mandatory decisions for\nbetter cultivation practices in order to enable maximum production, added Garvin\n, but this section was not activated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chandra\nArulpragasam observed that the Act was \nan important innovation. For the first time in  South and South East Asia, legal powers in\nthe implementation of tenurial reforms and the management of irrigation and\ncultivation at field levels were given to an elected body. The idea that an\nelected body of semi-educated farmers could take over functions from the\ngovernment bureaucracy was revolutionary at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rent\npayable on a particular field was fixed as one-fourth share of the harvest. Only\nthe cultivator would know how much that harvest was. The Act recognized that\nsuch questions could only be answered at field level by farmer groups. This was\nat least 40 years ahead of its time, concluded Chandra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were a lot of objections to\nthe Bill, including tremendous\nopposition from the SLFP in the MEP, especially CP de Silva. The landlords were up in arms. The paddy owners objected strongly. Nothing should be done\nto disturb to the ancient  hallowed\npractices, they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crippling amendments were made to\nthe Bill. Philip said he had wanted to implement the Paddy Lands Act in the\nentire island within three years, but under pressure from landed interests and\ncapitalist interests, he had to make it five years. The number of landlords in\nthe Cultivation Committee was increased to 25%. They could refuse to\nattend.  They did and the committees\ncould not function. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was euphoria among the\ntenant-cultivators and agricultural workers when the Act was passed, heightened\nby their participation in the formation of the Cultivation Committees, which\nthey felt would support them against arbitrary eviction and higher rents. Nanda Wanasundera recalls, there was one\ntenant on the paddy land in Peradeniya, owned by her mother, who insisted she\nmust get three fourths with Mother getting only one fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin\nKarunaratne  said,  I\nintroduced the Paddy Lands Act in the Matara District and was ably assisted by\na band of  able Divisional Officers. We held publicity meetings everywhere\nwhere we whipped up the enthusiasm of the people through oratory.  All of\nus  followed the Hon Minister\u2019s prowess in oratory, without the\nfire.  When landlords evicted cultivators we held inquiries and prosecuted\nthe landlords.  With the management of paddy cultivation in the hands of\nthe cultivators we were on the path to advanced management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But things\ndid not work out that way. The landlords got the Cultivation Committees\ndeclared legally invalid.  The\nCultivation Committees were legally invalidated soon after their formation. Since\nthe law and relevant regulations stipulated that all Cultivation Committees\nshall have twelve members, the refusal by landlords to elect their\nrepresentatives would render most of the Committees invalid anyway, observed\nChandra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with\nthis situation on the ground one year later, we took the position (with the\nagreement of the Attorney-General) that if the landlords failed to elect their\nthree representatives, the cultivators could elect the full twelve members of\nthe Committee, since they (the cultivators) were entitled to elect a number\nnot less than three-fourths\u201d of the Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The landlords then consulted Mr. H. V. Perera,\nthe highest legal luminary in the country. He argued  in Appeal Court that since the landlords were\nto elect a number   but had elected\nnought representatives. Nought is not a number. The Cultivation Committees were\ntherefore  not legally constituted. On\nthis abstruse mathematical argument, the Court decided that the Cultivation\nCommittees were not legally constituted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All past and\nfuture actions of such Committees were also declared null and void. This ruling\nencouraged the landlords to boycott the Cultivation Committee elections all\nover the country, thus rendering them legally invalid and their actions legally\nvoid, said Chandra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultivation\nCommittees  collapsed in the year\nfollowing their legal invalidation. This collapse caused great demoralization\namong the cultivators, since they had gained great socio-psychological support\nfrom the Committees in standing up for their rights. With their collapse, many\ntenants surrendered their rights, accepting their plight as hidden tenants\u201d\nwith no rights under the law. There was chaos in the paddy fields too, since\nthere was no agency left to ensure that the fields were fenced or the water\nissued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since these\nCommittees had by law taken over important irrigation and cultivation functions\n(the vel vidanes having been abolished) their invalidation led to a breakdown\nin the common arrangements for cultivation and irrigation, thus causing\ncomplete chaos in the field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nDepartment of Agrarian Services organized rounds of field-level meetings,\ntrying to encourage the Cultivation Committees to hold fast, promising that\nlegal amendments would soon be forthcoming to remedy their legal incapacity.\nBut these amendments came too late. They were passed only after the landlords\nhad already evicted their tenants, and only after the Cultivation Committees\nhad been seen to have failed in their cultivation and irrigation duties, thus\nlosing the confidence of the farmers themselves, concluded Chandra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chandra Arulpragasam had more to say. In early\n1958, I was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the Agrarian Services Department,\nin charge of implementing the Paddy Lands Act of 1958. In setting out to draft\nthe Administrative Regulations under the Act, I came across a number of\nstructural, legal and operational considerations, which probably had not been\nforeseen by its authors. This was probably the first time that it was being\nlooked at by an administrator with field experience \u2013 and the first time that\nit was being looked at by someone who was new to the Paddy Lands Act and to its\nthinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlegal  provisions of the Act  were likely to be challenged and its\nimplementation obstructed. This made it necessary to examine its provisions\nfrom an adversarial point of view \u2013 which revealed many legal and\nadministrative vulnerabilities. Also, there were new problems of implementation.\nFor example, the Act safeguarded tenants, but there were no records of tenants\nor of landlords. New records of land ownership, tenancy, etc. would have to be\ncreated from scratch before implementation could even begin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nCommissioner of Agrarian Services happened to be abroad for three weeks. Thus,\nnot only was I was the Acting Head of a Class I, Grade 1 Department at the age\nof 28 years, but I also needed policy-level help, because this was hitherto\nunchartered territory in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 So I asked for an appointment with the\nMinister of Agriculture, Mr. Phillip Gunawardene, the author of the Act, whom I\nhad never met before. The Minister was charming, affable and even fatherly,\nover a cup of tea and cakes in Parliament. Getting down to business, I brought\nto his notice the number of legal difficulties and some of the administrative\nproblems that needed his guidance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nadministrative terms, it was clear that there had to be two separate elections:\none for the owners to elect their members, and one for the actual cultivators\nto elect theirs. This required that separate electoral lists be prepared for\nthe owners and separate ones for the cultivators. Given the predictable\nopposition from the landlords, every name on every electoral list was liable to\nbe challenged, while the elections themselves could be disputed in law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was so\nintent on my presentation of the potential legal problems of the Cultivation\nCommittees that I failed to notice that he had tossed his spectacles on the\ntable, which was a sign (I was told later) that he was losing his patience \u2013\nand his temper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I was only half way through my list when he\nsuddenly banged his fist on the table with a loud noise, stopping me abruptly.\nYoung man\u201d he exclaimed: Have you come across these difficulties in the field\n\u2013 or are they in your head?\u201d When I pointed weakly to my head, Go and work\u201d,\nhe thundered! And when you come across these problems, then you come to me!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I scooped up\nmy files and scooted .This was the first and last time that I saw Mr. Phillip\nGunawardene. Within a few months, every one of the legal and administrative\nproblems that I had raised with the Minister had  come to pass, said Chandra. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Act needed certain changes. 50\namendments had been prepared.  Philip\npointed out that the necessary amendments to the Act were ready when he was\nasked to resign. But they were not introduced and many tenants were evicted\nfrom their lands. They blamed it on Philip, observed Meegama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The enforcement of the Act\ndepended on its proper administration. But Philip could administer the Paddy\nLands Bill for only one year. Philip\nwas pushed out of the Cabinet, to be succeeded as Minister of Agriculture by\nMr. C. P. de Silva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

C.P de Silva  was opposed to the Act, He decided to let it\nfester in its own legal difficulties so as to discredit it countrywide. He was\nnot prepared to push through the amendments which had been prepared,  and  which were badly needed to plug the legal\nloopholes, nor was he prepared to \npublicly repeal the act, since it was popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPaddy Lands Act, even without amendments could have been successfully\nimplemented under a supportive minister and dedicated officers in the Agrarian\nService Department, said Meegama.  ( Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Philip Gunawardena is best remembered for the Paddy Lands Act of 1958. The main objective of this Act was to provide security of tenure of a permanent and heritable nature and regulate the rents paid by tenants. However its implementation was flawed owing to administrative deficiencies, observed Nimal Sanderatne. The first Paddy Lands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}