Land Reforms in India Flashcards
Introduction
Land reforms constitutes the most important package of measures for the economic development of agricultural tenants. Land reforms refers to the redistribution of land from rich to poor. Land reforms include regulation of ownership, operation, leasing and sale, and inheritance of land.
In an agrarian economy like India, with massive inequalities in income and wealth, great scarcity and unequal distribution of land, coupled with a large mass of people living below poverty line, there are strong economic and political arguments for land reforms.
Arguments in favour of land reforms
- Equity and equality: In a land scarce country with a significant section of rural population living below poverty line, a case ensuring that everyone has access to some minimum amount of land seems compelling.
- Small farms tend to be more productive than large farms.
- Owner-cultivated plots of land tend to be more productive than those under sharecropping tenancy.
Objectives of Land Reforms
The objectives of implementing land reforms in India are as follows:
- Redistribution of land across society so that land is not held in the hands of few.
- Land ceiling to disburse land among small and marginal farmers.
- Removal of poverty
- Proliferating socialist development to lessen social inequalities.
- Developing cooperative farming
- Tribal protection by ensuring that their traditional land is not taken over by outsiders.
- Abolition of intermediaries
- Tenancy reforms
- Consolidation of land holdings and prevention of land fragmentation
- Land reforms were also for non-agricultural purposes like development and manufacturing.
Measures of Land Reforms
The Britishers in India were not at all keen in adopting progressive land reforms measures for rural farmers. This gave the Zamindars and the big landlords a golden opportunity to exploit the rural poor to a great extent
It was only after independence that serious efforts were made to introduce land reforms measures. They are as follows:
1. Abolition of Intermediaries
2. Tenancy Reforms
3. Ceiling on Land holdings
4. Consolidation of holdings
5. Cooperative farming
Abolition of Intermediaries
In India, before the colonial rule, land used to be in the hands of the community as a whole. However, this changed during the British rule.
Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Land Settlement in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, in 1793. According to this, a farmer appointed by the British was a landlord. Under this rule, they had to pay a fixed commission to the East India Company. Thus, these intermediaries were formed and called Zamindars. Small farmers, tenants and farm hands paid tax to Zamindar and Zamindar to British Government. The Zamindar’s exploited these people by collecting huge taxes from them.
It was widely recognized that the main cause of stagnation in agriculture economy was due to these exploitative agrarian relations. Around 60% of the land under cultivation was under the Zamindari system. The state governments took the task of abolishing these intermediaries by passing legislations.
The government estimates state that during the first four Five Year Plans, 173 million acres of land was acquired from the intermediaries and 2 crore tenants were given land for cultivation.
The abolition of intermediaries had both advantages and disadvantages
Advantages of Abolition of Intermediaries
- As a result of abolition of intermediaries, about 2 crore tenants came into direct contact with the state making them owners of the land.
- The abolition of intermediaries has led to the end of the parasitic class. More land has been brought into government possession for distribution among landless farmers.
- A considerable area of cultivable wasteland and private forest belonging to intermediaries has been vested in the State.
Disadvantages of Abolition of Intermediaries
- The abolition of intermediaries has resulted in a heavy burden on the state exchequer. The intermediaries have been given compensation amounting to Rs. 670 crore in cash and in bonds.
- It has led to a large scale eviction. Large scale eviction, in turn, has given rise to several problems - social, economic, administrative and legal.
- Instead of abolition of official landlords, absentee landlords, as a class, have emerged. Hence, the claim of the official documents pertaining to the abolition of intermediaries has no logical foundation. The truth is that it has only changed its garb.
Tenancy Reforms
Tenants in India can be classified into two-
1. Permanent or Occupancy Tenants- They enjoy permanent rights over the land and cannot be evicted easily.
2 Tenants-at-will- They do not enjoy any rights over the land and can be evicted by the landlord anytime.
Therefore, to protect the tenants-at-will and subtenants, tenancy reforms have been passed by the various state governments.
Tenancy reforms include the following set of measures-
1. Security of tenure
2. Regulation of rent
3. Right to ownership
Security of Tenure
Sir Arthur Young rightly observed “Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock and he will turn it into a garden: give him nine years lease on a garden and he converts it into a desert.” This remark pithily sums up the need for providing security of tenure. Security of tenure creates an interest among the cultivators to improve their land. Further, it helps in attainment of two basic objectives of land reforms namely increase in productivity and promotion of social justice.
Essential Features of Security of Tenure
To protect the tenants from ejectment and to grant them permanent rights on lands, laws have been enacted in most states. They have three essential features:
1. Tenants cannot be evicted without any reason. They can only be evicted in accordance with law.
2. Land can be resumed by the landlord only on the ground of personal cultivation. But the landlord can only resume land up to maximum limit.
3. The landlord should leave some area to the tenant for his own cultivation. The tenant, in no case, should be made landless.
However, the tenancy legislations in India are not uniform throughout the country. Each state has its own legislations.
Regulation of rent
In pre-independent India, rents were high. Fifty per cent of the produce was paid as rent. In some areas, the rent was as high as seventy per cent.
So, at the beginning of the First Five Year Plan, the Central Government insisted on the regulation of rent by the State Governments. It was laid down that the rent to be paid to the land should not be more than 20 to 25 per cent.
Accordingly, the State Governments passed tenancy legislations regulating rent. The main objective of this Acts was to make rent fair and reasonable. However, the maximum rent is differs from state to state. The rates also vary within states because of the difference in the fertility of land.
Right to Ownership
So far as right to ownership is concerned, the tenants have been declared as the owners of the land they cultivate. They have to pay compensation to the owner. The compensation should not exceed the level of fair rent.
In some states, provisions have been made allowing the tenant to purchase the leased land on payment of a price to the landlord. If any dispute arises between the tenant and the landlord over the payment of the price, this may be referred to a land tribunal. The tribunal will decided the price to be paid by the tenant to the landlord.
Ceiling on Land Holdings
Land ceiling on agricultural land means the statutory maximum limit on the quantity of land which an individual may hold. Land ceiling has two aspects:
1. The fixation of ceiling limit
2. The acquisition of surplus land and its distribution among small farmers and landless workers.
The imposition of ceiling on agricultural holdings is pre-eminently a redistributive measure.
The most compelling case of land ceiling arises from the absolute and permanent shortage of land in relation to the population dependent on it, the limited prospect of transfer of population to non-agricultural occupation and the need to step up the production along with increase in employment.
Small farms provide more employment opportunities. They require less capital than large farms. Small farms can be made into large farms through cooperative efforts so as to have scale economies.
It is socially unjust for a small number of people to have a large part of land. It is against justice, equality and prosperity of the majority of people.
It is socially justifiable to impose ceiling on land and distribute it to the actual users of land, making the tenants as owners.
Important Provisions of Ceiling Laws
The important provisions of ceiling legislations constitute:
1. Unit of Application
Family has been accepted as the unit of application for ceiling. The family is defined as a unit consisting of a husband, wife and children.
2. Upper limit for holding
For lands which have assured supply of water, and where at least two crops are raised, the upper limit is fixed to 10 to 18 acres, depending on the productivity of the land.
In areas where there is irrigation provision for only one crop, the ceiling is fixed at 27 acres. However, for remaining types of land, the ceiling limit is fixed at 54 acres.
Consolidation of Holdings
Consolidation of holdings means bringing together the various small plots of land of a farmer scattered all over the village as one compact block, either through purchase or exchange of land with others. This measure was adopted to solve the problem of land fragmentation. The land consolidation program required the granting of one consolidated land to the farmer, which is equal to the land holdings in different scatters under the farmer’s possession. It simply means that instead of holding multiple small lands in different places, the farmer will be given a single big piece of land.
