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Land Ownership and Economic Prospects of Malayan Peasants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Robert Ho
Robert Ho
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, The Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Box 4, P.O., Canberra, A.C.T. 2600, Australia.
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Extract

In Malaya, as in many underdeveloped nations, problems of the peasantry form a source of continual anxiety. One of the most intractable of these was described by the Malayan Government as ‘the unsatisfactory situation [of] overcrowding on the land and the frustration of ambitions to acquire land.’ How this situation has come about is the initial concern of this paper, which explores the historical record of agricultural development and land ownership in one area of western Malaya. By tracing changes that have taken place since 1890, it is hoped to demonstrate how and at what rates limited resources of land have become partitioned among increasing numbers of people, a process that, being the very antithesis of development, has been termed ‘agricultural involution’ by Geertz. The information is then supplemented with modern records from other areas to show typical features of ownership in the Malayan peasant sector of today. The findings suggest how traditional Malay society has responded to modern economic pressures, and may generate practical methods for dealing with some of the problems facing development planners today.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , January 1970 , pp. 83 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

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