Metropolitan University , Sylhet

Assignment on: Historical development of transfer of property from

ancient to Bangladesh period .

Submitted to
Mitu Akter
Senior lecturer
Depertment of Law and Justice

Submitted by
Minhazul abedin
ID: 192-113-009
Batch: 42nd
Course title : Transfer of property
Submission date: 07-07-2020
 
 
Introduction:
The history of human race has always been revolved around war, enmity and conflict, the fundamental reason behind
all those course of action was land. Even now at present situation in our civilized society many crime and conflict
occurs for the very same reason. The Law Minister, Anisul Huq (2017) who is also a criminal lawyer identifies land
as an important reason behind the criminal cases in Bangladesh, he said “
there are two reasons behind criminal cases –  one is land, and the other is women”.
 Among all the other resources a man consumes, land is considered most vital and sustainable because of its unique
features. From the ancient agrarian society to modern industrial society, land has always been a prominent foundation
for production of services/commodity. One of the crucial attributes of land is, every nation is recognized by its
territorial sovereignty, Bangladesh is no exception to that. The present land administration system of Bangladesh is a
complex system (Hasan,I, 2017), and underwent many reforms, those reforms not only reflects the defects of
contemporary land law but also the incompetency of it, let alone the ownership pattern.
 
Importance of Land reform
Land reform is a legislative procedure, by the government or state. It is usually responsible for changing many
relevant aspects of land, such as;
•Transfer of land as property,
•inheritance law,
•rights over land,
•tenure of land,
•lease of land,
•limitation of land ownership,
•occupied,
•in possession,
•usage of land,
•nature of land etc
Those changes can bring adjustment to the process of handle crucial situation and Make a pathway for further
development of society. In simple words, Land reform is essential for good governance of land administration,
because of following criteria
Abolish old/ineffective law: Land reform can abolish old inappropriate land laws. As the time is constantly
changing and the need and demand of people, some law can prove ineffective to meet the present need, so land
reform can abolish them.
Adopt new adjustment: Land reform can bring new adjustment to existing law for more benefits, simultaneous
adjustment of law , makes a law effective.
New land law: Land reform can make new land law, as society is continuously changing, and becoming a
complex social system. Entire new land law may seem necessity.
 
Determining measurement standard: Land reform can determine standard of measurement, for land, which
may prove beneficiary by accurate measurement style, thus providing exact information.
Advocacy: Land reform can provide advocacy for future changes of land laws, which help us to be one step ahead
of time.
Individual land limit: Land reform can determine the limit of individual ownership over land, which ensure
social equality and strengthen the government.
Large level acquisition: By Land reform, a government can acquire land on mass level. This proves effective
and beneficiary for urgent situation, like war or refugee crisis.
Historical Evolution of Land Ownership
The evolution of land ownership of Bangladesh is as much complex as its history of independence. Bangladesh is a
 
riverine country in south Asian region. It became independent twice, First from British rule in 1947 under part of the
Partition of India,(Siddiqui,K,2014) and second from Pakistani rule in 1971(William,s,2009). The present scenario of
land ownership system in Bangladesh has evolved many times to reach on this stage that evolution happened on 4
ages, from Ancient Hindu age to independent Bengal period. All the evolution is given below in descriptive manner:
Ancient Hindu period: From the inception of time till the last of Ancient Hindu period, land was considered as
the favor from the Creator and there was no entitled owner of it, people used land abundantly. But the right over any
land was established by following the ancient law harvesting. In ancient Hindu period, anyone who wants to use a
land, he had to cut the bushes, or trees, and make a clear area of it, in some extent harvest crops in it
(Bandhopadhay,R,1993). Whoever did that he owned the land and could transfer the property afterwards. In that time
farmers were given permanent land for agricultural purpose. The village was considered as the main liable entity for
land management and distribution. Many families of same village jointly and cooperatively used land together. The
king was considered as the absolute owner of land and he collected revenue by direct royal employee, there were no
Jamindars or middle man at that time (zsodhaka.gov.bd).
Ancient Muslim period : The ancient Muslim period in this Indian sub continent changed the former land
management system which was governed by village committee. Especially during the Delhi Sultanate, which lasted
from 1205-1526 (Schimmel, A ,1980). The very first land survey was conducted under the rule of Sekander Shah,
using an instruments called Sekandari gauge for measurement The king Sekander declared revenue of land as one
forth of total produced crops. Later in Sher Shah Rule the personal land ownership by clearing forest was dissolved,
and replaced by king ownership, the famous method of using land like “patta” and “kabuliyat” was
invented. Patta was a sophisticated institution under which a zamindar work as a revenue collector of the kingdom,
and used to issue a letter on behalf of the kingdom offering a bloc of land to a raiyat under certain terms and
conditions was given. The concerned raiyat would give a kabuliyat or consent if he accepted the offer. The conditions
and terms of patta included the boundary of land, quality and quantity of land, lease tenure, rate of lease, and medium
of payment of lease. A peasant holding a patta and giving a kabuliyat, in turn, was known as pattadari raiyat. To
collect rent from the pattadars, there was a class of official called patwari (banglapedia).
 
Afterwards, during the kingship of Akbar, the revenue was increased to one third of harvested crops for land
ownership.
British Period: The British period was divided into 5 fragments, in which several reforms influenced the
land ownership system of the Bengal or present Bangladesh. The inception of all those reforms started from the year
of 1765, when East India Company bought revenue collection system from King Shah Alam by giving 26 lac tk per
year.(Meena, K,2015) All the reforms are given below with chronological order.
Five Years land settlement Act: Quinquennial Settlement or five-year land settlement act(1772-1777) replaced
the Zamindari System for collecting land revenue. In the year of 1772, Governor General Warren Hastings
introduced the Quin-Quennial settlement or Five year settlement act, according to which the right of collection of land
revenue was given to the highest bidder for five years on contract basis. It was introduced with a hope to increase
revenue collection and regularity of collecting revenue. The traditional zamindars, which were stripped of
responsibilities from collecting revenue, were compensated by an allowance of ten percent annually of the collected
revenue. The process of collection of revenue was done by European agents, which is now known as District
Collector. To ensure the revenue collection process, a council, consists of 3 members named revenue council was
formed, and to convey their work a council committee of circuit consists of 5 members was established, the members
used a tent in Zilla sadar to collect revenue, which later named as Circuit House. The operation of the Quinquennial
Settlement revealed that great many farmers failed to pay revenue due to sheer over-speculation. Many of them even
ran away to avert arrest and confinement.
 
One Year land settlement act:
 The one year land settlement act came in consideration of British raj because of the failure of five year land
settlement act. Warren Hastings was subjected to severe criticism by superior officers and Raj for his first revenue
policy. As reported the first revenue policy which is named as five years settlement act, failed because of long tenure
of revenue collection, so the British raj reformed the land settlement act as One year land settlement act in 1777, under
which, land was given to highest bidder for one-three years tenure for collecting revenue. But that act failed too, the
bidders collected revenue and ran from the locality just before the tenure expires (gktoday.in).
 
Bengali period:
 
After the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent severing nation, many responsibilities fall on the shoulder of
the government, among them drafting constitution (Ahmad,2017) and complete construction of parliament building
was crucial.(archive.org). All the reforms, that influenced the land ownership system, are given below:
State Acquisition and Tenancy (Third Amendment) Order:In the year of 1972 a third amendment was
incurred to the State Acquisition and Tenancy order. The exemption of rent up to 25 bighas was done away with later
by introduction in Land Development Tax in place of rent and ceases payable by all tenants irrespective to the size of
their land holding (cf: Land Development Tax Ordinance, 1976). The exemption from paying rent for lands upto 25
bighas has been reintroduced after 1991. Surprisingly the amendment in 1972 did not have any provision for the
sharecroppers (Mohiuddin, T, 2008).
Land Reform Ordinance 1984:
 It was an Ordinance to reform the law relating to land tenure, land holding and land transfer with a view to
maximizing production and ensuring a better relationship between land owners and bargadars.
In this ordinance, section (a) “bargadar” means a perso
n who under the system generally known as adhi, barga or bhag cultivates the land of another person on condition of
delivering a share of produce of such land to that person; section (b) “barga contract” means the
contract under which any land is cultivated by a person as a bargadar; and section (c) “barga land”means
any land under cultivation of any person as a bargadar, in addition to that (f) “malik” means a
person or an organisation, body or authority holding agricultural land; (g) “owner” in
relation to a barga land, means the person from whom the bargadar gets the land for cultivation under a barga
contract; (h) “personal cultivation” means cultivation by a person of his own land or barga land on
his own account- (chapter 1.LRO-84). And (1) No malik who or whose family owns more than sixty standard bighas
of agricultural land shall acquire any new agricultural land by transfer, inheritance, gift or any other means. (2) A
malik who or whose family owns less than sixty standard bighas of agricultural land may acquire new agricultural
land by any means, but such new land, together with the agricultural land owned by him, shall not exceed sixty
standard bighas. (Chapter 4,LRO-84).

Conclusion and Recommendation:

The Present Land administration System of Bangladesh is a complex process, which evolved from the British
colonial regime and Pakistan period. The acts and rules, Land related institutions performs today, largely came from
the predecessor British and Pakistan land management system. Now there is no denying that both British and
Pakistan made those rules to dominate us and exploit our resources, while creating inequality among us for their
benefit. At present when we are trying to achieve the title of middle income country, it is highly inappropriate to
exercise
such discriminative land related laws. If the laws aren’t reformed quickly to meet the demand, it
will surely slow down the development process. So the authority must consider the situation and take necessary steps
as soon as possible .