Abstract
Agrarian change in the peasant economy of a paddy producing village in the Southern dry zone of Sri Lanka: The Gambaraya system in transition
Highlights
F.) One hena cult~vatorpaid a nommal fee of Rs.10 for the annual p e r i ~f~or~ct~ ~ l t ~ v a t iwohni,ch he obta~iledfro111 the government, Others have enloyc?d the possession of'their hciru land for a long time witho~ltp,ermits, or hawng 'inl~erltedo' r ' p ~ rchas ~tdhe' land from ~ t psrevious occupant, considered and the laud their own
elsewhere in the country,21h a s taken the same direction of growth in the peasant
While the traditional exploitative land tenure system in paddy dominated by land agents or t h e ganl hara
Summary
Since the decline of t h e dry zone based civilization around the 13Ihcentury, until the late 19"' century, the area known as present day Hambantota district remained desolate and deserted with small peasant settlements few andfar between.l With t h e beginning of t h e restoration of ancient irrigation works in the district by the British in the latter part of the 19th century, large tracts of land under these schemes became available for the cultivation of paddy, in a region sparsely populated by a poverty stricken peasantry. Dias and Wickremanayake (1977)have documented in somewhat detail, factors leading to t h e evolution of t h e gambaraya system in the post-colonial period into a more comprehensive institution with an overwhelming influence on the peasant economy in the district, which far exceededtheir original role of managing agents of paddy lands for absentee landlords. A few absentee landlords from outside the district owned the entire extent ofland in the village managed by ganabara.yas while tenants with no tenancy rights cultivated the land for a share of the crop. The other two major features of the land tenure system, the absentee landlordism and share tenancy have continued into the post-colonial period, in the latter case with certain modifications beneficial to t h e tenants These changes were accompanied by a significant development in the paddy economy. The operation of these factors a r e analyzed below
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