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Khmer peasants and land access in Kompong Thom Province in the 1930s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2012

Mathieu Guérin
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Abstract

Based on Cambodian and French archival records, which include colonial and local administration reports, tax rosters and judicial sources, this paper explores landownership in Cambodia in the 1930s. It shows that, contrary to common belief, land access was already an issue in the 1930s. The study of tax registers of three communes in the province of Kompong Thom presents a Khmer rural society dominated by peasants with average-sized landholdings, but where landless peasants or those with very small holdings also existed. It also stresses that women were able to become efficient farm operators. In addition, this analysis of the different sources available shows that Khmer rural society in Kompong Thom was a form of gerontocracy dominated by men aged over 40.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , October 2012 , pp. 441 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2012

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References

1 Lucos, Fabienne, ‘“Manger le territoire”: pratiques anciennes et actuelles d'accès à la terre au Cambodge’, in Cambodge contemporain, ed. Forest, Alain (Bangkok and Paris: IRASEC and Les Indes savantes, 2008), pp. 419–44Google Scholar. This and all subsequent extended quotes in the text are translated into English from the French.

2 Tichit, Lucien, L'agriculture au Cambodge (Paris: Agence de coopération culturelle et technique, 1981)Google Scholar; Thion, Serge, ‘La question agraire en Indochine’, Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, 54 (June 1973): 31–60Google Scholar; Anne Y. Guillou, ‘The question of land in Cambodia: Perceptions, access, and use since de-collectivization’, in ‘Agriculture in Southeast Asia: An Update’, special issue, Moussons, 9–10 (2006): 299–322Google Scholar; Kiernan, Ben, ‘Introduction’, in Peasants and Politics in Kampuchea, 1942–1981, ed. Kiernan, Ben and Boua, Chanthou (London: Zed Books, 1982), pp. 1–23Google Scholar.

3 Delvert, Jean, Le paysan cambodgien (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1994), p. 500Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., p. 653.

5 Interview in Thnot Chum village, Apr. 2010.

6 Osborne, Milton E., The French presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and response (1859–1905) (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1997), pp. 206–30Google Scholar; Forest, Alain, Le Cambodge et la colonisation française: Histoire d'une colonisation sans heurts (1897–1920) (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1980), pp. 59–116Google Scholar.

7 Sorn Samnang, ‘L’évolution de la société cambodgienne 1919–1939’ (Ph.D. diss., University Paris VII, 1995), pp. 36–56.

8 Florian Brout, who compared criminal police records and Resident reports in the province of Kompong Chhnang between 1936 and 1940, indicated that both series are fairly consistent. Florian Brout, ‘La criminalité au Cambodge (1936–1940)’ (M.A. thesis, University of Caen Basse-Normandie, 2010), pp. 79–80.

9 Circular from Résident Supérieur Silvestre to Residents, 7 Feb. 1933, National Archives of Cambodia (hereafter NAC), rsc 12243.

10 NAC, rsc 14960.

11 Sorn, ‘L’évolution de la société’, pp. 112–13.

12 A thang is a measure of volume: 2.5 thangs of paddy have the same mass as a picul, 60 kg.

13 Sorn, ‘L’évolution de la société’, pp. 121–7.

14 Ibid., p. 135.

15 For Thnot Chum: capitation tax register, 1930; paddy tax register, 1930; and farm land tax register, 1931. For Kompong Svay: capitation tax register, 1933; paddy tax register, 1930 and 1932; and farm land tax register, 1931. For Sakream: capitation tax register, 1933; farm land tax register, 1932; and paddy tax register, 1932; NAC, rsc 12001, 12007, 12020, 12046, 12082, 12106.

16 Due to the spelling of the names written in Uksor Moul (one of the Khmer scripts), and the attendant risk of confusion between letters, the comparison was done manually and not with the help of a computer.

17 NAC, rsc 26620.

18 Fieldwork, Apr. 2010; aerial photos from the Service Géographique de l'Indochine, 1952–53 campaigns, archived at the Institut Géographique National.

19 Mathieu Guérin, ‘L'administration coloniale française face à l'essartage en Indochine’, in ‘Terres de conquêtes, terres de déprise: Enjeux fonciers, agricoles et cynégétiques’, ed. Madeline, Philippe and Moriceau, Jean-Marc, special issue, Enquêtes rurales, 12 (2009): 87–106Google Scholar.

20 NAC, rsc 18454.

21 Ibid.

22 At Chong Daung and Soyong, the land samples chosen by surveyors were drawn from a limited number of plots, with a surface area less than 9 ha. They are, therefore, not representative.

23 Code civil cambodgien, d'après les travaux des commissions instituées par Arrêté des 5 juillet et 3 septembre 1912, 9 avril 1913, 19 juillet 1918 et 29 janvier 1919 (Phnom Penh: Imprimerie royale, 1951).

24 Ibid.

25 NAC, rsc 17217; Forest, Cambodge, pp. 244–53; Guillou, ‘The question of land’, pp. 303–5; Morizon, René, L'immatriculation foncière de la propriété individuelle au Cambodge (Paris: Domat-Montchrestien, 1934), pp. 97–106Google Scholar; Kleinpeter, Roger, Le problème foncier au Cambodge (Paris: Domat-Montchrestien, 1937)Google Scholar.

26 Morizon, L'immatriculation foncière, pp. 137–53.

27 Interview with ta Heng, 82 years old, Thnot Chum, Apr. 2010; NAC, rsc 14960.

28 Judicial sources reveal cases of farmers indicted by the Forestry Services for having cleared land for swidden cultivation. NAC, rsc 10006.

29 The Gini index of the distribution of cultivated rice fields in Thnot Chum is 0.26, close to that of Kompong Svay, 0.25. In Sakream, the distribution of rice fields is significantly less unequal, with a Gini index of 0.17.

30 Sorn, ‘L’évolution de la société’, p. 135.

31 Sum total of men aged over 18 years who paid capitation tax and those men who owned rice fields but who did not pay the capitation tax.

32 This coincides with May Ebihara and Gabrielle Martel's observations in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Svay, Kandal Province, and Lovea, Siem Reap Province. May Mayko Ebihara, ‘Svay, a Khmer Village in Cambodia’ (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, New York, 1968), p. 219; Martel, Gabrielle, Lovéa, village des environs d'Angkor: Aspects démographiques, économiques et sociologiques du monde rural cambodgien dans la province de Siem Réap (Paris: EFEO, 1975), p. 142Google Scholar.

33 For a recent comparison, the special representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia, Peter Leuprecht, stated that the percentage of landless peasants was difficult to determine and cited studies that estimated the number to be between 12 and 15 per cent. Peter Leuprecht, ‘Land concessions for economic purposes in Cambodia: A human rights perspective’ (Phnom Penh: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nov. 2004).

34 Buddhist monks and militiamen, around 10 per cent of the adult male population nationally, were not required to pay capitation taxes, and therefore did not appear in the personal tax registers. They would appear in our sources only if they owned land.

35 River boat registry 1932, NAC, rsc 12198.

36 Code pénal promulgué par ordonnance royale du 25 août 1924, modifié par ordonnance royale du 16 mai 1929 (Phnom Penh: Imprimerie du gouvernement, 1929), p. 78.

37 Ibid., Article 365.

38 None came from Thnot Chum.

39 Kiernan quotes Hou Yuon who emphasised that ‘the crucial problem was whether there would be a buyer or not’. Kiernan and Boua, Peasants and Politics, p. 11.

40 Trimesterial economic report from the Resident of Kompong Thom, 4th trimester 1928, 1st trimester 1931, Archives nationales d'outre-mer (hereafter ANOM) (hereafter ANOM), rsc 417 et 418; monthly reports from the chaufaikhet of Kompong Thom, 1929–1933, NAC, rsc 12242, 12243, 12245.

41 Hou Yuon described comparable mechanisms in 1955, also observed by Martel during her fieldwork in the village of Lovea, Siem Reap, in 1961–62. Hou Yuon, ‘The peasantry of Kampuchea: Colonialism and modernization’, in Peasants and Politics, ed. Kiernan and Boua, pp. 37–8; Martel, Lovéa, pp. 140–2.

42 Carrier, Adeline, ‘Propriété versus possession: L'urbanisation différenciée de Phnom Penh au regard de la réforme foncière (1863–1953)’, Péninsule, 59, 2 (2009): 93–142Google Scholar.

43 Teston, Eugène and Percheron, Maurice, L'Indochine moderne: Encyclopédie administrative, touristique, artistique et économique (Paris: Librairie de France, 1931), p. 895Google Scholar.

44 Delvert, Le paysan cambodgien, p. 501.

45 Tichit, L'agriculture, p. 49.

46 Thus in Trapeang Krasang, in the central provinces, Delvert counted 77 landless peasants, or 10 per cent of peasants. He estimated that there were even more in the southeastern provinces. For Kompong Thom, he cited the examples of khum with large populations of day labourers, sharecropping tenants and tenant farmers. Delvert, Le paysan cambodgien, pp. 544, 579, 620.

47 Correlation rates between both series are 0.87 in Thnot Chum, 0.89 in Kompong Svay and 0.94 in Sakream.

48 Nos. 255, 321, 536 and 455, 1930 personal tax register; nos. 207, 176 and 58, 1930 paddy tax register; nos. 381, 276, 60 and 119; 1931 farm land tax register, Thnot Chum, NAC, rsc 12082, 12001, 12020.

49 Nos. 6, 377 and 554, 1933 personal tax register; nos. 324, 351 and 414, 1930 paddy tax register; nos. 2, 19, farm land tax register, Kompong Svay, NAC, rsc 12001, 12020, 12106.

50 No. 282, 1933 personal tax register; no. 198, 1932 paddy tax register, Sakream, NAC, rsc 12007, 12106.

51 No. 577, 1933 personal tax register; no. 183, 1930 paddy tax register; no. 195, 1932 paddy tax register, Kompong Svay, NAC, rsc 12001, 12007, 12106.

52 Prison warrants nos. 150 and 327, 1933, NAC, rsc 14960.

53 Unfortunately, the sources do not enable a precise identification of sharecropping tenants, tenant farmers and labourers, even if later studies show that the three categories existed. Hou Yuon, ‘The peasantry of Kampuchea’, pp. 29–86; Ebihara, ‘Svay’, p. 220; Delvert, Le paysan cambodgien.

54 Scott, James C., The moral economy of the peasant: Rebellion and subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1976), p. 196Google Scholar.

55 In his 1976 study, James Scott focused on the grip of the state, moneylenders and landlords to explain why and how peasants went into revolt. For the sake of his argument, he considered the power of the colonial state as overwhelming, diminishing the importance of tax evasion and other forms of non-violent resistance. Ibid.

56 See Martel, Lovéa, pp. 208–9.

57 Tax registers for paddy and farm land. It is also possible that widowers remarried more easily than widows. For more information on age differences at marriage, see Népote, Jacques, Parenté et organisation sociale dans le Cambodge moderne et contemporain, quelques aspects et quelques applications du modèle les régissant (Geneva: Olizane and Cedorek, 1992), pp. 135–8Google Scholar.

58 Based on the archives of the Cambodian judicial services and the Annuaire statistique de l'Indochine, ANOM; Personal communication, June 2010.

59 Népote, Parenté et organisation sociale, p. 37.

60 NAC, rsc 12001, 12020, 12007, 12046, 12082, 12083, 12106.

61 Henry, Yves, L’économie agricole de l'Indochine (Hanoi: Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, 1932)Google Scholar, quoted in Kiernan and Boua, Peasants and Politics, pp. 6, 34, 57, 72–4.