Objectives

• Socio-Economic Development
• Social Justice
• Increasing agricultural productivity
• Improving the standard of living

Colonial Legacy

• Extraction of Surplus from Peasantry
• Transfer of Surplus from India to Britain
• Creation of Rentier landlord class instead of class of rich peasants

Features of Indian Agriculture during Colonial Rule

• Colonial State made a very high tax demand on agriculture . Eg : Permanent Settlement, Ryotwari System
• Growth of Landlordism and rack renting .
• In addition to the rent, landlords resorted to illegal exactions (bonded labour, begar etc) . Hence, land owners preffered to give their land on tenancy instead of going for capitalistic mode of agriculture
• Hence, petty commodity production with traditional technology rather than large scale modern capitalist farming was the typical production pattern in colonial India .

At the time of Independence, Indian Agriculture due to long term stagnation was facing food shortages and famine conditions. Hence, multi-pronged approach was the need of the hour. Eg (based on recommendations of Kumarappa Committee , 1949 & Nagpur resolution, 1959)

• Abolition of Zamindari
• Land ceiling
• Distribution of surplus land via cooperatives
• Prevention of fragmentation of land holdings to make force labour illegal
• Remunerative prices for agriculture produce

Questions : To what extent land reforms were able to alter the socio-political fabric of rural India ?

Abolition of Zamindari

• It was the first provision to be launched
• To ensure Judicial implementation of Zamindari abolition ,  Government of India passsed First Amendment Act

Issues wrt Zamindari Abolition Act’s implementation

• Absence of adequate land records
• Resentment by the Zamindars
• Zamindars allowed to retain land which were declared to be under their personal cultivation. It was followed by large scale eviction of less secure small tenants.
• Land is in State List , only the formulation of Policy was in hands of Union while implementation was in hands of state. Eg : In J&K , it was success because presence of Sheikh Abdullah
• Filing petitions in the Judicial courts
• Zamindars – Revenue Officials nexus

However, out of all the land reforms , abolition of Zamindari met with the maximum success .  Despite resistance by the landlords , the process was completed in democratic manner because Zamindar as a class became socially isolated during National Movement.

Outcome

• Emergence of Dominant Caste (Superior Tenants who got land in lieu of Zamindari abolition)
• Rise of Rural Middle Class
• Agricultural productivity got enhanced
• Common villagers got access to common village resources which was earlier under control of Zamindars

Tenancy Reforms

There were three aspects regarding Tenancy Reforms

• Security of Tenure to tenants who have cultivated a piece of land continuously for a fixed number of years.
• Reduction of rents paid by Tenants to a fair level
• Tenant’s Right to acquire ownership of land subjected to certain restrictions

There were two fold purpose of the tenancy reforms

• To improve the condition of tenants
• To maintain the balance between the interest of the owner and tenant

As a result , Right of Resumption for the purpose of self cultivation was introduced. However, this provision led to large scale eviction of tenants.

Failure

• Right of Voluntary Surrender was also given to the tenants . However, it was misused and led to largescale eviction
• Issue of Farm Servant
• Issue of Conversion to Share-Croppers : Sharecropper were not given protection under Tenancy Legislation as they didn’t pay a rent in cash but a fixed produce as rent.

Operation Barga

• To address the concerns of Sharecroppers , Operation Barga was launched in 1977 in  West Bengal. The objective was time bound registration of Share croppers so as to ensure permanent occupancy and hereditary rights and the crop division in the ratio 1:3
• Issues with Operation Barga
  • Lack of Political Will
  • Ethically indefensible in context of Landlords with very small land holdings
  • Due to skewed land-man ratio , landlords often rotated leased land among two or more sharecroppers . Hence, registering all of them was economically unviable

Limitation of Tenancy Reforms

• Security of Tenure to all the tenants met with only limited success
• Adverse  man-land ratio led to high rents
• In most of the states where Green Revolution was success , rent was as high as 70% due to increase in land value.
• Ownership Rights of Tenants were partially achieved
• • • • Right to Resumption by land owners
      • Legal or illegal eviction
      • Voluntry surrender
      • Shift to Oral or Concealled Tenancy

According to Daniel Thorner, despite the loopholes Land Reforms succeeded in creation of progressive cultivators making investment and improvement in productivity

Land Ceiling

• Objective : making Land distribution more equitable

• During the First Five Year Plan, the government accepted the Kumarappa Committee Report, which recommended the ceiling of 3 times the Size of Economic Land Holding but stated that exact upper limit would be fixed by respective states and redistribute the surplus land among the landless

• However due to improper implementation , it was declared in 1959 that the ceiling should be fixed by all the states and the surplus land should be vested to Panchayats and managed through Cooperatives consisting of Landless Labourers.

Lacunae in Land Ceiling

• The ceilings fixed by the states  were very high
• Ceilings were imposed on the individuals and not on the family households
• Large number of exemptions were given by many states to promote capitalist farming
• Exemption to the lands held by Cooperatives was also misused by transferring lands to bogus Cooperatives
• Long delays in the implementation of ceiling provisions defeated the purpose as it led to Benami Transfers .

It didn’t meet success but the laws definitely discouraged concentration of land ownership beyond ceiling levels

Bhoodan and Gramdan Movement

• It was an attempt at land reform through a movement and not by Government Legislation.
• Vinoba Bhave organised the Sarvodaya Samaj to take up the task of Social Transformation.
• It  was based on idea that each family should give 1/6th of their land by accepting poor member as part of their family.
• Although it wasn’t a political movement but it had the support of many mainstream politicians .
• It started from Telegana and later spread to North India . However post 1956, the movement lost it’s momentum and the substantial part of land given was either unfit for cultivation or was under litigation.
• Meanwhile , the movement took a new form of that of a Gramdan which was based on premise that land belongs to God and it is equally and collectively owned . The movement started in Orissa and was successful in villages where class differentiation was yet not emerged and there was little if any disparity in the ownership of land

Positives

• It popularised the idea that land is a gift of nature and belongs to all
• It was a voluntary movement
• It created atmosphere for political propaganda and agitation for redistribution of land and development of Cooperatives

UPSC Question : Critically discuss the objectives of Bhoodan and Gramdan movement started by Vinoba Bhave and their success.