Evolution of Land Policies in Sri Lanka

Land was the primary source of income of ancient people in Sri Lanka. It provided the major part of the population with their sustenance and the government with the major part of its revenue. King was the owner of whole land system in the country. He was the Bhupathi the lord of the land and symbolized the state. Part of the land was reserved for his own use, the village or reserved being known as gabadagam (village of royal store house). He also set apart some villages for the maintenance of temples or other places of worship, these were called viharagam or devalagam. 

Some cultivable lands were allotted to royal officials in return for service (Rajakariya) to the state. These lands were known as nindagam and consisted with mud land and high lands. All other cultivable lands in the village were divided into shares (pangus) consisting with both low and high lands. The holder of pangu the pangukaraya cultivated his share of the village and enjoyed the whole its produce. The peasant cultivator held directly from the king and continued to hold his pangu so long as he rendered his service to the king. 

The prosperity of the Polonnaru kingdom was destroyed due to the foreign invasions. Therefore, kingdom was shifted to various places in the country and finally established in the up country (Kandy). The civilians continued both rice and chena cultivation in up country and managed the lands by serving king. The appearance of the Portuguese led to a revolution in the landownership of the Sinhalese kingdom. They acquired so many villages in the country by purchase or as gifts. Portuguese authorities imposed some policies and rules regarding lands in Sri Lanka for the benefits of their settlers. 

An accurate list of lands in Ceylon was created with invasion of the Dutch rulers. They were known as "Land Tombos". These tombos contained a description of the lands and gardens in each village in Dutch territory. It was the Dutch who really gave the final touch to legally identified property concept in Ceylon with the introduction of the Roman Dutch Law. This introduced Landraad method. The main objective of the land administration under this law was profitable trade. 
The peasant agriculture in Ceylon was defeated with the invasion of British rulers due to establishment of plantation sector. A large extent of lands were passed into the hands of British people to cultivate coffee, tea, rubber and coconut

Paddy cultivation was declined and paid low attention on subsistence farming. A great amount of lands were acquired with the implication of Crown Land Encroachment Ordinance No 12 in year 1840. Under this ordinance, all the forest land, unused and uncultivated lands were owned by the British Crown. Again in 1897, the Waste Land Ordinance No 1 was imposed to acquire more lands and finally those were sold to the planters with low prices. Through this acts all villagers including farmers became helpless. 

During this period Sri Lankan public had to undergo several crises including arising plantation sector in wet zone, deterioration of irrigation system in dry zone, migration of population to the South Western part of the island, negligence of paddy cultivation and food shortage after first world war. Due to these reasons a Land Commission was established in 1927. The commission recommended that peasant settlement be made by giving title to land between Crown and chenas in the Kandyan provinces. 

With the constitution of Donoughmore in 1931, the ministry of Agriculture and Lands was established and Mr. D.S. Senanayaka became as the minister. The Department of Agriculture, Irrigation, Survey, Forestry, Land settlement, the Land Commissioners Department and Land Development Department were also established under the constitution and controlled by the ministry of  Agriculture and Lands. This was tried to settle the peasant farmers in the Dry zone of country. 

In 1935, Land Development Ordinance was passed with the purpose of providing relief to the landless people in the country. It was able to introduce a land policy which protect the land possession and confirm it. According to this, the lands which alienated by the government were not able to sell anybody and mortgage could be done only with the permission of relevant authority. This ordinance enabled village expansion programs and major settlement schemes. 

State Land Ordinance No 8 of 1947 provided the terms for the grant and disposition of crown lands. This facilitated the management and control of such lands and the foreshore and the regulation and use of water bodies. This ordinance provided the legal basis for government to allocate land for non-farm activities in the Mahaweli development areas, and to provide long-terms leases of land to private enterprises.

Paddy Land Act was passed in 1953. This was an act to regulate the letting of paddy lands in order to ensure greater security of tenure to the tenants of such lands. And the act also facilitated to empower the proper authority to take possession and cause the cultivation of any such lands which are not cultivated.

The first Land Reform Law was introduced in 1972. This completely changed the land ownership pattern overnight. The United Front Government fixed a ceiling of 50 acres and got back lands from private proprietors. Then the lands were alienated for different uses such as, for agricultural development, animal husbandry, cooperative or collective farming, persons for residential house construction, utilization of public purposes and any state corporation. The second stage of Land Reform was launched in 1975, as Land Reform (Amendment) Law No 39. All the estate lands belonging to public companies were nationalized  under this law. With the nationalization of the public company estates 415,508 acres of the best cultivated properties in this country came under the government control. Later these lands were distributed among people for different purposes.

The Registration of Title Act No. 21 was passed by Parliament in 1998. This new system conferred to make provision for the investigation and registration of title to a land parcel. The government guaranteed on the title to land and provided a cadastral survey plan with each title registered. 

The above policies have undergone some amendment according to the various government that came into power. Current national land policy is based on  land & people, agriculture & food security and land & nature. The main focus of national land policy is rational utilization of lands as a resource, in the national interest, in order to ensure food security, a high quality of life, equity and ecological sustainability.

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