Indian land problems are the legacy of British rule. The rule ruined the autonomous village economy, made propriety rights on land and caused to develop feudal and zamindari class. After independence, efforts were made to remove the impediments of the agricultural growth. Land reforms were one of those efforts.
Role of Land – Land plays important socio-political-economic roles in India society. There exists a strong relationship between land possession and social status of a person. Landlessness is also an indicator of poverty and lack of political power in rural india. Assured possession and equitable distribution of land is vital for durable peace and prosperity in India.
Objectives of land reforms
- Improve the productivity of agriculture by improving the economic conditions of peasantry and increase its interest to invest in farming.
- To ensure distributive justice and setting up a egalitarian society and eliminate all types of exploitation
- To create a system of peasant proprietorship with the motto of land to the tillers.
- Distribute income among many to boost the demands of consumer goods
First phase of land reforms (1950-65)
Features
- Focus was institutional reforms – Abolition of intermediaries like zamindars and jagirdars (1956)
- imposition of ceilings on land ownership
- Land ownership rights to tenants
- security of tenancy tenures in Ryotwari system
- reduction of rent to just level
- Occupancy rights to the tenants
- Emphasis on community development and cooperatives for credit, marketing, distribution and processing.
Status
- Ceiling Laws and distribution of Land ownership to landless
- All states enacted ceiling laws by the end of 2nd FYP. But varied political, economic and administrative considerations resulted in unevenness of land related policies across the nation.
- Only West Bengal and Kerala succeded in effective implementation of land reforms
- Only 0.5% of land was declared surplus
- Distribution of the land was mere 0.31%
- Success of Land reforms was small as compared to envisaged vision
- Cooperatives
- Suffered huge criticism from peasantry, press etc.
- Benefits to Landless and small farmers remained small
Reasons for the failure of the land reforms
Ceiling Laws
- Land ceiling laws were considered as violation of ‘Right to Property’
- Poor record keeping of land-records and its transactions,
- Legal Lacunae-
- Much higher land ceilings as compared to existing land ownership (more than 70 % land ownership were of 5 hectares or less) led in declaration of small land surplus for distribution
- Individuals and not the family as unit for the imposition of the ceiling laws led to transfer of the land titles to close relatives. Thus, the control of the land remained with the original land owners
- Legislative lacunae favoured the land owners. They succeded in saving their lands through ficitious partitions and transfers.
- Absence of responsibility for successful implementation of land reforms. Collusion between bureaucracy and big landowners played foul.
- the act exempted Specific landuses which were under efficient management and important for the economy. But vagueness in defining the uses made this clause an escape way.
- Many big land owners find escape in cooperative initiative of the government. They succeded in not parting with their land.
- Absence of political will –
- the ruling party at the time have multiple ideologies simultaneously. It resulted in a trade-off between land reforms for the ppor and some protections for the riches.
- Huge time gap (about decade) in announcement(1953), enactment (by 1961) and implementation of the laws give big landowners enough time to manage, sell and transfer land rights to others
- Delays were used to evict the actual tenants from the lands
- Highly illiterate, ignorant and unorganised rural masses. Even after enactment of the law, they could not assert and fight for their rights.
Cooperative initiative
- High default rates of the cooperative credits undermined the initiative. Even well to do farmers defaulted these loans.
- The incentive benefits went largely to those who had control over land, trade and money-lending and thus better posotioned. It further strengthened the hierarchical structure of the villages.
- Poor could not benefit by such incentives as their holdings were small.
Second phase of land reforms (1970-83)
Land reforms just after independence met partial success. Only Kerala and West Bengal could leverage it in distribution of the land titles. The conditions in addition to other factors led to a new series of land reforms.
Reasons for second phase of Land Reforms
- Agrarian crisis in 1966-69 – (reasons are below)
- Agriculture suffered severe droughts.
- Severe food shortage forced india for conditional import of food from America
- Unemployment crisis
- India suffered two wars in early half of the decade resulting in industrial stagnation
- Growing population with these challenges led to mass unemployment.
- The agrarian crisis and defective land reforms led to militant peasant movements such as Naxalbari and Srikakulam. Land grabs were prevalent not only in Kerala and W. Bengal but also in other states.
- Political compulsions – The agrarian unrest forced the politics to tilt leftwards.
- Inputs from States’ review of their earlier policies of land reforms
- Recommendations and guidelines by Central Land Reforms Commission
Features of the policy
- Focus was on technological reforms resulting into Green Revolution
- Increased rationalization for ceilings of land holdings –
- ceilings to depend on fertility and irrigation facilities available
- Unit for land ceiling to be family;
- decrease in actual land ceiling limit
- Time bound enactment and implementation
- Special administrative setup to implement policy
- Removal of loopholes in terms of unreasonable exemptions
- Clarity in policy for Compensation. Land revenues became the basis for the compensation
- Responsibility of implementation lied with states
- Emphasis on accessibility of land to landless
- Favouring the landless while distributing government waste land and surplus land.
Status
- States did not implemented in time bound manner
- Political disturbance during decade of 1970s led to almost neglect of the land reforms
- Later on, the situation continued without much changes. It remained unfinished public policy.
- However, land surplus and its distribution were better in second reforms. Also, the major beneficiaries were SCs and STs.
Effects of the Land Reforms
Impacts on Agriculture
- Land being state object, the reform measures varied widely across the states subject to existing political and economic conditions. There is unevenness in the land policies across the nation.
- Despite little success, it handed over the land ownerships to a large number of people. It also helped in removing the insecurity of tenure among many of them.
- Incrrease in agricultural productivity – Green Revolution, during the second phase of land reforms, led India from a starving country to self sufficient nation to surplus food producer.
Socio-political Change
- Rise of a new class consisting of intermediate castes (namely OBCs). They acquired and wielded more economic and political power. They emerged as strong socio-economic groups in agrarian socities across the nation.
- Decline of erstwhile dominant groups in many parts of the country
- But socio-economic vulnerable groups such as dalits and low class people did not improved with these reforms.
- Failure of land reforms led to emergence of agrarian movements during 1960s and 1970s. Present day Naxal problem also has a root in that failure.
Other Related Information
Operation Barga was launched in West Bengal in 1978 by Left Front government. Its objective was time bound registration of share croppers to ensure their occupancy rights and a crop division of 1:3 between the landowners and the share croppers. It was a great success as the beneficiaries were actively involved into it.
Next compulsory Reading : Green Revolution