LAND REFORMS

What are Land Reforms?
Land Reforms refer to the redistribution of Lands from the rich class to the poor class. It includes operations, leasing, regulations of ownership, sales, and the inheritance of Land since Land redistribution requires legal changes.

In an agrarian economy like India with massive inequalities of wealth and income, great scarcity and an unequal distribution of land, coupled with a large mass of people living below the poverty line, there are strong economic and political arguments for land reforms.Due to all these compelling reasons, Land reforms had received top priority by the governments at the time of independence. The Constitution of India left the adoption and implementation of the land reforms to the state governments. This has led to a lot of variations in the implementation of land reforms across states.

The pattern of agriculture is always irregular in India. In the pre-independence era, tenants, peasants, and small farmers suffered a lot due to the revenue systems of Mahalwari, Zamindari, ryotwari. One of the major reasons was the unequal distribution of land. Landholdings were concentrated in few hands. The majority of farmers were being exploited. The struggle of class between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was not a new thing. After independence, it was pivotal and need of an hour to focus upon land distribution checks. Especially, it was the rural population that was facing the maximum hindrance in socio-economic development.India under the British Raj had witnessed a lot of such atrocious regulations that exploited the poor and helpless in many aspects. Among them, land ownership contributed significantly to preventing the socio-economic growth of the backward population.The government of independent India came up with acts and laws to establish equal rights and ownership of land, which now constitutes a crucial episode of India’s economy. In the following lesson, you will come across a detailed discourse on land reforms in India after independence and their importance.
The instruments that are visualized for social justice are known as Land Reforms. Land Reforms refer to the redistribution of Lands from the rich class to the poor class. It includes operations, leasing, regulations of ownership, sales, and the inheritance of Land since Land redistribution requires legal changes.
After independence in 1947, an inadequate agricultural output was apparent. In order to fix this situation, the Indian government took measures to alter existing regulations for a better outcome.

These acts formed agrarian reforms in India after independence.
he Land Reforms in post-independent India had various components:
• Abolition of Intermediaries: The first step taken by the Indian government under land reforms post-independence was passing the Zamindari Abolition Act. The abolition of the zamindari system was done that removed the layer of intermediaries who used to stand between the state and the cultivators. In many areas, superior rights were taken away from the zamindars and weakened their economic and political power.
The primary reason of a backward agrarian economy was the presence of intermediate entities like, jagirdars and zamindar who primarily focussed on collecting sky-rocketing rents catering to their personal benefits, without paying attention to the disposition of farms and farmers. Abolition of such intermediaries not only improved conditions of farmers by establishing their direct connection with the government but also improved agricultural production.

• Regulation of Rents
This was in direct response to the unimaginably high rents which were charged by intermediaries during British rule, which resulted in a never-ending cycle of poverty and misery for tenants. Indian government implemented these regulations to protect farmers and labourers from exploitation by placing a maximum limit on the rent that could be charged for land.

• Tenancy Reform: The tenancy Reform led to the introduction of regulation of rent, providing security tenure, and conferring ownership to the tenants. In the pre-independence period, the rent which was paid by the tenants was exorbitant producing 35% to 75% of gross throughout the country. The primary attempt of the Reform was either to regulate rents and give some security to the tenants or outlaw tenancy altogether.
Legislations were passed in all states of the country to grant tenants with permanent ownership of lands and protection from unlawful evictions on expiry of the lease. This law protects tenants from having to vacate a property immediately after their tenure is over unless ordered by law. Even in that case, ownership can be regained by tenants with the excuse of personal cultivation.

• Ceilings on Landholdings- This Reform referred to the legal stipulation of maximum size after which no farm household or farmer can hold any Land. By the year 1961-62 the government of all states passed the Land ceiling acts and in order to bring uniformity across states, a totally new ceiling policy was evolved in 1971. This law was enacted to prevent the concentration of land ownership in a few hands. It placed an optimum limit on the total measure of land which an individual or a family can hold. Along with fixation of land ceilings, this rule enables the government to take ownership of the additional or extra amount of land, which in turn, is given to minor tillers or farmers with no land. With the help of these Reforms, the states were able to identify and take possession of Lands exceeding the ceiling limits from the households and redistribute them to the Landless families.

• Consolidation on Land Holdings- The term consolidation referred to the redistribution or reorganization of the fragmented Lands into one single plot. The trend of the fragmentation of Land increased because of the growing population and fewer work opportunities and this fragmentation made the personal supervision and the irrigation management tasks very difficult. Therefore, the act of Landholdings consolidation was introduced which states that if there are few plots of Lands of a farmer then those Lands were consolidated in one bigger piece which was done by the process of exchanging or purchasing.

A major problem of the agrarian structure of India is land fragmentation, which hinders large-scale farming and production. This problem was solved with this regulation which permitted farmers to consolidate minor fragments of land owned by them into a singular piece of land. This enabled tenants to carry out agricultural operations in a larger field, which could be done by exchanging land or purchasing additional pieces.