<P> The Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900 was a piece of legislation introduced by the British Raj with the aim of limiting the transfer of land ownership in Punjab Province . It created a an" agricultural tribes" category, the membership of which was almost compulsory to buy or sell land . </P> <P> The advent of British rule in India had led to a trend whereby ownership rights to land were increasingly concentrated in the hands of urban moneylenders and other commercial communities among the Hindu population . They were assigned the property previously held by poor peasants, who either sold or mortgaged for the short - term benefit derived from the increasing values of land caused by improved agricultural methods, irrigation and communications . Such transfers were enforceable under law but, in British eyes, potentially damaging to their colonial administration because they might ultimately result in a disaffected rural peasant population . British law was effectively supporting the growth of a class of people--the new owners--that might prove detrimental to its own purpose . In addition, historian Kenneth Jones says that the transfers were contrary to British sentiments: "Not only did this development threaten the stability and peace of the Punjab, it also struck at the British self - image of benevolent and paternalistic protectors of the lowly peasant". </P>

When was the punjab land alienation act passed