MA Semester III (2019-2021)
PG Department of Geography, Patna University
Paper- CC13, Unit-I
Niharika Narayan
Assistant Professor (Guest)
Post-Independence Land Reforms in India
Introduction- Land reform usually refers to redistribution of land from the rich to the poor.
More broadly, it includes regulation of ownership, operation, leasing, sales, and inheritance of
land (indeed, the redistribution of land itself requires legal changes). In an agrarian economy like
India with great scarcity, and an unequal distribution, of land, coupled with a large mass of the
rural population below the poverty line, there are compelling economic and political arguments
for land reform. Not surprisingly, it received top priority on the policy agenda at the time of
Independence. In the decades following independence India passed a significant body of land
reform legislation. The 1949 Constitution left the adoption and implementation of land and
tenancy reforms to state governments. This led to a lot of variation in the implementation of
these reforms across states and over time, a fact that has been utilized in empirical studies trying
to understand the causes and effects of land reform.
Out of these the major objectives post-independence were abolition of intermediaries,
regulation of tenancy, land ceiling, consolidation of fragmented holdings.
In India, the abolition of intermediaries who existed under the various British systems has largely
been successful. The other objectives have yielded mixed results and vary across states and
overtime periods. Land reforms come under the State List and so, the success of land reforms
varies from state to state. The most comprehensive and successful reforms took place in the
communist strongholds of Kerala and West Bengal. Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar
saw inter-community clashes as a result of land reforms.
India has seen four ‘experiments’ since independence to redistribute the landholdings. They are:
1. Reforms from ‘above’, i.e., through legislation.
2. Reforms from above from the government coupled with peasant mobilisation; like in
Kerala and West Bengal where land was seized and redistributed; and also to improve the
conditions of peasants.
3. Naxalite movement and also the ‘land grab’ movement.
4. Reforms from ‘below’ through voluntary donations by landlords and peaceful
processions by farmers like the Bhoodan movement and the Gram Dan.
Zamindari Abolition Acts
Initially, when these acts were passed in various states, they were challenged in the courts as
being against the right to property enshrined in the Indian Constitution. So, amendments were
passed in the Parliament to legalise the abolition of landlordism. By 1956, Zamindari abolition
acts were passed in many states. As a result of this, about 30 lakh tenants and share-croppers
acquired ownership rights over a total of 62 lakh acres of land all over the country.
Land Ceilings Act
Land ceiling refers to fixing a cap on the size of landholding a family or individual can own. Any
surplus land is distributed among landless people like tenants, farmers, or agricultural labourers.
Tenancy reforms
This focused on three areas:
1. Rent regulation
2. Tenure security
3. Conferring ownership to tenants
Land policy formulation through the planning period (Five Year Plans)
Plan Chief Issue Policy Thrust
Period
First Plan Increase area under cultivation. Increase land under cultivation. Rights
1951 – Community Development networks to tenants to cultivate land. Abolition
56 to take care of village commons. of intermediaries.
Second Agriculture mostly dependent on Soil conservation. First phase of land
Plan rains alone. Low land productivity. reform implementation. Irrigation
1956 – development.
61
Third Food security concern. Cultivable Intensive area development programme
Plan wasteland to be cultivated. adopted for selected districts. Soil
1961 – Including all regions into growth. surveys.
66
Fourth Food security concern. Minimum Irrigation and soil conservation in
Plan dietary requirements to be met. dryland regions. Technological
1969 – Incentives for cultivating food changes. Second phase of land reforms
74 crops. Technical efficiency. with land ceiling acts and consolidation
of holding.
Fifth Problems of degradation. Drought- Drought-prone area development.
Plan prone areas. Desert area development programmes.
1974 – Soil conservation. Dry farming.
79
Sixth Underutilization of land resources. Land and water management
Plan Drought-prone areas. programme under drought-prone area
1980 – programme in select areas.
85
Seventh Soil erosion. Land degradation. Soil and water conservation.
Plan Deforestation. Degradation of Prevention of land degradation.
1985 – forest lands. Wastelands Development programmes.
90
Eighth Dryland and rain-fed areas needing Watershed approach. Soil conservation
Plan attention. Degradation of land is combined with watershed programmes.
1992 – irrigated command areas. Agro-climatic regional planning
97 approach incorporated.
Ninth Land degradation. Integrating Bringing underutilized land under
Plan Watershed Development cultivation. Management of
1997 – Programme across various wastelands. Maintenance of village
2002 components. Gap between commons. Decentralized land
potentials and actual crop yields management system. Panchayati Raj
need to be bridged. Need for a institutions to manage the village lands.
long-term policy document. Rethinking on land legislation.
Outcomes of Land Reforms
Abolition of middlemen like landlords
The powerful class of Zamindars and Jagirdars cease to exist. This reduced the exploitation of
peasants who now became owners of the land they tilled. This move was vehemently opposed by
the Zamindars who employed many means to evade the law. They registered their own land
under their relatives’ names. They also shuffled tenants around different plots of land so that they
wouldn’t acquire incumbency rights.
Land ceiling
With a cap on the size of landholding, an individual/family could hold equitable distribution of
land was possible to an extent. With only landlord abolition and no land ceiling, the land reforms
would not have been at least partially successful. Land ceiling ensured that the rich farmers or
higher tenants did not become the new avatar Zamindars.
Land possession
Land is a source of not just economic income but also social standing. Land reforms made it
mandatory to have records of holdings, which was not the case previously. It is also compulsory
to register all tenancy arrangements.
Increased productivity
More land came under cultivation and since tillers themselves became the landowners,
productivity increased.
Land reforms were largely successful in the states of West Bengal and Kerala because of the
political will of the left-wing governments to implement them efficiently. There was a sort of
revolution in these places in terms of landholding patterns and ownership, and also the condition
of peasants. The backing slogan was ‘land to the tiller’. In Jammu and Kashmir also, there was
partial success in the redistribution of land to landless labourers.
Drawbacks of land reforms
There are still many small and marginal farmers in India who pray to the clutches of
moneylenders and continue to remain indebted.
Rural poverty still exists.
Land ceiling varies from state to state.
Many plantations were exempt from land ceiling act.
Many people own huge tracts of land under ‘benami’ names.
Land reforms also include agrarian reforms which deal with measures to improve the
productivity of land, especially agricultural land. This includes the Green Revolution.
To fix the various loopholes in the land reforms, in the late 60s and early 70s, the
recommendations of the Central Land Reforms Committee were implemented.
The ceiling was lowered according to the crop pattern. It was brought to 54 acres for
inferior dry land.
For purposes of law, the family of five was made one unit.
Land distribution was given priority, particularly to the landless peasants, SC and ST
communities.
The government was responsible for the acquisition of land which it did under the Land
Acquisition Act of 1894. This law, being archaic and inadequate to address farmers’ concerns
was replaced by the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013. In 2015, the government proposed a few
amendments to the law and introduced the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in land
Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill of 2015, which came into effect
as an ordinance.
