CARE land and conflict seminar 18 th March 2013

1. CARE land and conflict seminar18th March 2013 Sunil Bastian

2. Preliminary remarks - conflict • Conflicts are an inherent characteristic of society • Conflict-violence and structural reasons • Analysing structures – social relations/institutions/hegemonic ideology • Ruling elite plays the dominant role in producing and reproducing these structures • They are maintained in struggle and conflict • Power and politics central to the analysis • Peaceful transformation of structures for the benefit of the marginalised • What do you mean by ‘peaceful’?

3. Preliminary remarks - land • Land is not only a resource • Controlling land/territory is a key aspect of state formation • Land is a source of identity • Land plays a role in human security

4. Sri Lankan conflict • Structure of the state • Identity of the state • Public policies • Relations between identity groups in society • All these three levels interact • Escalation into an armed conflict • Post-war and not post-conflict Sri Lanka • At present need to focus on structural reasons

5. A. State formation and land policyState formation and control of land by a centralised state • Beginnings of the modern state • Colebrook-Cameron reforms, incorporation of the Kandyankingdom • Spatial reorganisation – administrative and political (notion of territorial electorates) • The discourse of a unitary state • Links with Sinhala Buddhist nationalism

6. National question, centralised state and land policy • Demand for federalism, challenge to the unitary state • Land settlement policies, change in demographic patterns in the East and shift in political power • Bandaranaike/Chelvanayagam Pact • Senanayake/Chelvanayagam Pact • Land and conflicts in this context • 13th amendment/devolution of power over state land • Post-war situation/military control in the North/land issues

7. B. Capitalism and land policyCapital and land policies – first wave of globalisation • Waste Land Ordinance • Formalising modern private property concept in the whole island • Balance comes under the state • Notion of ‘encroachment’ • Colonial capitalism/export agriculture/land policy • Diversity in export agriculture/demand for land • 1975 land reform • Privatisation from 1992 • Land on lease

8. Capital, neoliberalism – second wave of globalisation • From 1977 land policy began to take into account demands of capital • Recent emphasis on developing land markets • Consolidating private property rights on LDO land • Land titling/discourse of individual property rights • Post-war demand for land from capital • Demand for urban land (exploitation by dispossession) • What will happen to land in the North/East

9. C. ‘Protecting’ a peasantry in the context of capitalism and land policy • 1927 Land Commission/Land Development Ordinance • D.S. Senanayake/Sinhala nationalism • Land settlement programmes • Regularising ‘encroachments’/village expansion • 1958 Paddy Lands Act • 1972 Land Reforms? • Class formation in rural areas • Markets and small holder peasantry