Land reforms since independence

 Introduction :- 

Land reform, a purposive change in the way in which agricultural land is held or owned, the methods of cultivation that are employed, or the relation of agriculture to the rest of the economy. Reforms such as these may be proclaimed by a government, by interested groups, or by revolution.Historically, land reform meant reform of the tenure system or redistribution of the land ownership rights. In recent decades the concept has been broadened in recognition of the strategic role of land and agriculture in development.

Land reform has therefore become synonymous with agrarian reform or a rapid improvement of the agrarian structure, which comprises the land tenure system, the pattern of cultivation and farm organization, the scale of farm operation, the terms of tenancy, and the institutions of rural credit, marketing, and education. It also deals with the state of technology, or with any combination of these factors, as shown by modern reform movements, regardless of the political or ideological orientation of the reformers.

Objectives of Land Reforms:- 

• Political and Social Objectives :- The most common proclaimed objective of land reform is to abolish feudalism, which usually means overthrowing the landlord class and transferring its powers to the reforming elite or its surrogates. If “foreigners” happen to be among the landlord class, the objectives become the defeat of imperialism and the end of foreign exploitation. Another common objective is to free the peasants from subjugation to and dependence on the exploiters and make them active citizens by restoring what assertedly had been taken away from them.All land reforms emphasize the need to improve the peasants’ social conditions and status, to alleviate poverty, and to redistribute income and wealth in their favour. They try to create employment opportunities and education and health services and to redistribute the benefits to the community at large, the younger generation as the main target.
• Economic Objectives :- Economic development has become a major objective of governments and political parties in recent decades. Efforts have been made to encourage agricultural progress by means of agrarian reform in favour of the peasant who does not own his land or whose share of the crop is relatively small, and who therefore has little incentive to invest capital or expend effort to improve the land and raise productivity. Another mechanism has been to encourage labour-intensive cultivation, on the assumption that traditional or feudal landowners often use their land extensively and wastefully.

Need for Land Reforms :- 

• Land reforms serve two purpose: raise productivity and end exploitation of the underprivileged.
• Institutional factors such as existence of feudal relations, insecurity of tenure, high rents, sub-division and fragmentation of land are disincentives for the cultivator to raise production.
• They reduce the capacity of the farmer to save and invest in agriculture. Surplus is siphoned off by the semi-feudal landlords.
• The measures of land reforms such as land ceiling and floor aims to make the best use of a scarce resource like land and generate maximum output.
• Land reforms and technological change are not mutually exclusive. They are complementary in the process of agricultural development.

Scope of Land Reforms :- 

• Abolition of intermediaries.
• Tenancy reforms i.e. rent reforms, security of tenure and ownership of land to the cultivator.
• Setting land ownership ceiling and floors.
• Preventing fragmentation of land and consolidation of holdings.
• Organisation of co-operative farms.

Historical analysis of Land Reforms :- 

Land program in post-Independence India has evolved through different phases. During the Mughal period, before the arrival of the British there were numerous changes in the system of land taxation or revenue. Peasants continued to enjoy customary rights over land they occupied and generally could not be evicted unless they failed to pay the required land revenue (land tax) to the state. The task of collecting land revenue was assigned to a class of agents called zamindars .

When the East India Company (EIC) established in the Seventeenth Century, the agricultural structure underwent fundamental change. The EIC first purchased the right to receive the collected land revenue and later, under the Permanent Settlement introduced in 1793, declared the Zamindars to be proprietors of land in exchange for the payment of land revenue fixed in perpetuity. Zamindars, or those to whom they sold their proprietary rights, typically delegated revenue collection to a series of middlemen. The increasing layers of intermediaries meant that there was considerable increase in rent extracted from the tillers and failure to pay this increased amount resulted in large-scale evictions, widespread disturbance, and declining agricultural production . The British sought to stabilize the situation through legislated tenancy reform.

Land Reforms since Independence :- 

• Abolishment of Intermediaries:- It was widely recognised that the main cause of stagnation in the agriculture economy was to a large extent due to exploitative agrarian relations. The Chief instrument of the exploitation were the intermediaries like Zamindars, patronised and promoted by the British government.
  About 60% of the area under cultivation was under the Zamindari system on the eve of the Independence. The States took the task of abolishing the intermediaries like Zamindars by passing the legislations. The government estimates state that in total during first four Five years Plan, 173 million acres of land was acquired from the intermediaries and two crores tenants were given land to cultivate. Abolition of intermediaries is generally agreed to be one component of land reforms that have been relatively successful. The record in terms of the other components is mixed and varies across states and over time. Landowners naturally resisted the implementation of these reforms by directly using their political clout and also by using various methods of evasion and coercion, which included registering their own land under names of different relatives to bypass the ceiling, and shuffling tenants around different plots of land, so that they would not acquire incumbency rights as stipulated in the tenancy law. The success of land reform has been driven by the political will of specific state administrations, the notable achievers being the left-wing administrations in Kerala and West Bengal.
• Tenancy Reforms :- Tenancy reforms included the following set of measures: Regulation of rent ,Security of tenure,Ownership rights of tenants,Tenants in India are classified into Occupancy Tenants: They enjoy permanent right over land and cannot be evicted easily. Tenants at will: They do not enjoy any right over land and can be evicted by the landlords anytime. Therefore, to protect the tenants at will and subtenants, the tenancy reforms are passed by the various state governments.
• Regulation of Rents:- Under the British Government, the rents charged was highly exploitative with no sound economics behind it. These highly exploitative rents spelt high misery on the tenants and trapped them into vicious circles of debt and poverty. To provide relief to the tenants from exploitative rents, the Indian government after independence passed legislations to regulate the rents (maximum limits on rent was fixed) and to reduce the miseries of the tenants.
• Security of Tenure:- To protect the tenants from arbitrary evictions and to grant them permanent rights over land, legislations had been passed in most states. Legislations passed by the States has three essential aims; Evictions must not take place except in accordance with the provisions of law; Land may be resumed by the owner, if at all, for the “Personal Cultivation” only; In the event of land taken by the owner, the tenant is assured of a prescribed minimum area. However, the vague definitions of Tenants Personal Cultivation and landowner under the law made it difficult to implement the tenancy reforms. The rights of resumptions provided in the law combined with the flaws in the definitions of the personal cultivation rendered all tenancies insecure.
• Ownership Rights of Tenants-: It has been repeatedly emphasised by the government, that the ownership rights of the land should be conferred to the actual cultivator. Accordingly, most states have passed legislations to transfer ownership rights to the tenants. However, the success of the states in conferring the rights to the tenants varied widely. Some states like West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka, has performed exceptionally well in this regard. In West Bengal due to the “Operation Barga” maximum sharecroppers were given ownership of land.
• Land Ceilings:- Land Ceiling on agriculture land means a statutory maximum limit on the quantity of land which an individual may hold. The imposition of the Land ceiling has two main aspects: Ceiling on future acquisitions. Ceilings on existing land holdings.
  By 1961-62, ceiling legislation had been passed in all the States. The levels vary from State to State and are different for food and cash crops. In Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, for example, the ceiling on existing holding is 40 acres and 25 acres. In Punjab, it ranges from 27 acres to 100 acres, in Rajasthan 22 acres to 236 acres and in Madhya Pradesh 25 acres to 75 acres.

In order to bring about uniformity, a new policy was evolved in 1971. The main features were:

• Lowering of ceiling to 28 acres of wetland and 54 acres of unirrigated land.
• Change over to the family rather than the individual as the unit for determining land holdings lowered ceiling for a family of five.
• Fewer exemptions from ceilings.
• Retrospective application of the law for declaring Benami transactions null and void.
• No scope to move the court on the ground of infringement of fundamental rights.

By: Shashank Shekhar