A Necessity for an Emerging Economy
Many people are not aware that a reform of land tenure is one of the steps in the economic policy of many countries to facilitate industrialization and promote agricultural growth. The problem with this is that it can lead to increased conflict between production and ownership rights. Yet, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made reforming the country’s outdated laws by going back to medieval-era customs a top priority for his government.

In May, he set up a five-member panel to recommend changes to the Hindu Succession Act, which is based on customary law and governs inheritance in India’s Hindu majority. The panel was created following the Bombay High Court’s decision that women could inherit ancestral property under the act. India has also rolled out land reform bills to facilitate transparency in transactions of agricultural land.
Under the tradition of a joint family system, or joint Hindu family system, one may wonder how land ownership and succession in India is regulated. This system has prevailed for centuries without outside interference or control. Joint families consists of males typically brothers and their wives who have to share property.
The main purpose of this system was to safeguard women’s rights to the property, in a country where the widow has been traditionally stigmatized and often impoverished by the death of her man.Land Reforms usually refers to redistribution of Land from rich to poor. Land reforms include Regulation of Ownership, Operation, Leasing, sale and Inheritance of Land. 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.

Land reform is the major step of government to assist people living under adverse conditions. It is basically redistribution of land from those who have excess of land to those who do not possess with the objective of increasing the income and bargaining power of the rural poor. The purpose of land reform is to help weaker section of society and do justice in land distribution.
Land reform is the major step of government to assist people living under adverse conditions. It is basically redistribution of land from those who have excess of land to those who do not possess with the objective of increasing the income and bargaining power of the rural poor. The purpose of land reform is to help weaker section of society and do justice in land distribution.

The Indian Government was committed to land reforms and to ensure distributive justice as was promised during the freedom struggle. Consequently, laws were passed by all the State Governments during the Fifties with the avowed aim of abolishing landlordism, distributing land through imposition of ceilings, protection of tenants and consolidation of land- holdings.

Government land policies are implemented to make more rational use of the scarce land resources by affecting conditions of holdings, imposing ceilings and grounds on holdings so that cultivation can be done in the most economical manner.

Objectives of Land Reforms

From the beginning, land distribution has been a part of India’s state policy.
The abolition of the Zamindari system was perhaps the most revolutionary land policy of independent India (feudal landholding practices).

ZAMINDARI SYSTEM

Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement in 1793. Under this system, a class of landlords called Zamindars was created whose responsibility it was to pay a fixed rent to the government for the lands they owned. They gave out parcels of land to farmers who became their tenants. Their title to the land was hereditary. What was intended as a system beneficial for all parties concerned soon turned out to be exploitative? The State was only concerned with maximising revenue with minimum effort. The Zamindar too wanted maximum rent from his tenants irrespective of the land’s true potential. He could increase his own wealth by extracting most out of his farmer tenants since his due to the State was fixed. In addition, several layers of intermediaries were created between the Zamindar and the tenants adding to the burden. The landless farmers and labourers suffered greatly in poverty. Also, this led to the creation of a group of rich Indians whose loyalty lay largely with the British. As you can see the Permanent Settlement gave rise to the Zamindari system of tenancy in Bengal and soon was adopted in other regions.

RYOTWARI SYSTEM

Under this system, the proprietor of land gave the rent and taxes directly to the government in the absence of any middlemen. This started in Madras and was later adopted in Bombay as well.

MAHALWARI SYSTEM

This system was introduced by William Bentinck’s government under which landlords were responsible for the payment of revenue to the State. These landlords or Zamindars had a whole village or a group of villages under their control. The Mahalwari system prevailed in UP, the North Western Province, Punjab and parts of Central India.

India’s land reform policy had two specific goals:
The first is to remove any impediments to increasing agricultural production that arise from the agrarian structure that has been passed down from generation to generation.
The second goal, which is closely related to the first, is to “eliminate all elements of exploitation and social injustice from the agrarian system.
To provide security to the soil tiller, and to ensure equality of status and opportunity to all sections of the rural population.

Objectives of land reforms:

• Redistribution of land across society so that land is not held in the hands of a few people.
• Land ceiling to disburse surplus land amongst small and marginal farmers.
• Removal of rural poverty.
• Abolition of intermediaries.
• Tenancy reforms.
• Increasing agricultural productivity.
• Consolidation of land holdings and prevention of land fragmentation.
• Developing cooperative farming.
• To ensure social equality through economic parity.
• Tribal protection by ensuring their traditional land is not taken over by outsiders.
• Land reforms were also for non-agricultural purposes like development and manufacturing.