Social Implications of Changes in Agriculture in Hambantota District

Abstract

In December 1953, the Government Agent for Hambantota reported on the working of the Paddy Lands Act of that year:

Two propaganda meetings for the purpose of seeking the co-operation of landowners and a peculiar creature which exists only in the Hambantota District known as ‘gambārayas’… held at Tissa and Ambalantota. Both meetings were rather stormy and have only served to accentuate the gulf between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’… (Monthly Reports, 1953)

The ‘peculiar creature’ of this report is still at the heart of the distinctive agrarian social structure of Hambantota District. The report implies that the gambrayas and landowners stand opposed to measures intended to improve the lot of the ‘have-nots’. Twenty years later the problems of social and economic change in Hambantota still hinge around the status of the gamābrayas. However, to a long series of legislative attacks directed at their power — such as the Paddy Lands Acts of 1953 and 1958 — have recently been added certain consequences of agricultural development. This chapter will be concerned mainly with these consequences, but it is necessary also to give some account of the impact of recent political developments, and first, to outline the social history of the District.