Waste Lands Ordinance

The Waste Lands Ordinance No.1 of 1897 also known as the Waste Lands Ordinance was an ordinance by the British Colonial Government of Ceylon to consolidate and reinforce the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1840 that introduced crown lands. The Waste Lands Ordinance defined any land classified as “forest, waste, unoccupied, or uncultivated” as crown land, unless proven otherwise. This provision effectively expropriated communal resources such as village commons and chena fields, leading up to the Kandyan Uprising of 1848.[1][2][3][4] Under the new law, Government Agent and after 1903, officials from the Land Settlement Department were granted authority to adjudicate claims to waste lands.[5][6][7][8][9][10] It was repealed by the Land Settlement Ordinance of 1931.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Meyer, Eric (May 1992). "High Land Appropriation in the Plantation Areas of Sri Lanka during the British Period". Modern Asian Studies. 26 (2). Cambridge University Press: 321–361. doi:10.1017/S0026749X0000980X.
  2. ^ Gunasekara, Vagisha (2020). "Turning points in Sri Lanka's Land Policy: MCC and its predecessors". LST Working Paper.
  3. ^ Berugoda, S. (1980). "Some Aspects of Records Pertaining to Land Ownership in Sri Lanka from 1800 A.d. Onwards". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Sri Lanka Branch. 25: 122–135. ISSN 2312-7732. JSTOR 23730783.
  4. ^ "British-inspired land laws that deprived Kandyans of their right to land". www.ft.lk. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
  5. ^ "Land Settlement".
  6. ^ "Ceylon Waste Lands Ordinance. (Hansard, 17 July 1899)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
  7. ^ "The Ceylon Survey Department" (PDF). survey.gov.lk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2025-04-13. Retrieved 2025-09-30.
  8. ^ Samaraweera, Vijaya (1977-07-01). "Land as "Patrimony": Nationalist Response to Immigrant Labour Demands for Land in the Early Twentieth Century Sri Lanka". The Indian Economic and Social History Review. 14 (3): 341–362. doi:10.1177/001946467701400303. ISSN 0019-4646.
  9. ^ "Misrule in Ceylon". 1899-01-01. JSTOR 60238328. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ "Affairs in Ceylon". Aborigines Protection Society (Great Britain). 1899-01-01. JSTOR 60228168. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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