Reforms in Land, Labour and Capital Markets | UGC NET Economics – Notes

Land Reforms in India

Land reform refers to efforts in India to reform land ownership and regulation. Land Reform refers to the government’s redistribution of land from landowners to landless people for agricultural or special purposes.It is a crucial topic in the Economy syllabus for the UPSC Examination.

• Land reform refers to the equitable redistribution of land with the goal of increasing productivity and reducing poverty.
• It refers to the redistribution of land from the few who have it to the many who do not or own far too little of it.
• In the post-independent era, the land reforms were classified as
  • The Abolition of the Intermediaries
  • Tenancy Reforms
  • Fixing Ceilings on Landholdings
  • Consolidation of Landholdings

Land Tenure system during British era

• The Zamindari System or The Permanent Settlement: This system established landlords who were tasked with collecting rent from cultivators.
  • The zamindars were used as go-betweens between the cultivators and the state.
  • In the event that the zamindars failed to meet their obligations, the government could sell their estates to pay their debts.
• The Ryotwari System: The new system proceeded to make a revenue settlement directly with the tenants or cultivators, not permanently, but temporarily, without the need for zamindars to be established.
• The Mahalwari System: Under this system, the entire village was treated as a unit, and the village lands were shared by the village communities.
  • “Primarily, each man cultivates and pays for himself, but he is ultimately responsible for his co-villagers and they for him; they are ultimately bound together by a shared responsibility.”

Need for Land Reforms

• Extreme peasant indebtedness as a result of exorbitant taxation.
• The formation of a class of wealthy individuals who primarily exploited the poor peasantry.
• Peasants were constantly afraid of being evicted.
• Poverty was deeply ingrained in the farmer class.

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).
• 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.

History of Land Reforms

Pre Independence:

• Farmers did not own the land they cultivated under the British Raj; instead, the land was owned by Zamindars, Jagirdars, and other landlords.
• A number of significant issues confronted the government and posed a challenge to independent India.
• The land was concentrated in the hands of a few people, and there were a lot of middlemen who didn’t have a vested interest in self-cultivation.
• It was common practice to lease land.
• Tenancy agreements were expropriative in nature, and tenant exploitation was commonplace.
• Land records were in terrible shape, resulting in a slew of lawsuits.
• The land was fragmented into very small parts for commercial farming, which was one of the problems with agriculture.
• In the form of boundary lands and boundary disputes, it resulted in inefficient use of soil, capital, and labor.

Post Independence:

• Under the chairmanship of J. C. Kumarappan, a committee was formed to investigate the land issue.
• The Kumarappa Committee recommended broad agrarian reforms in its report.
• The Land Reforms of Independent India consisted of four elements:
  • The Abolition of the Intermediaries
  • Tenancy Reforms
  • Fixing Ceilings on Landholdings
  • Consolidation of Landholdings.
• These were implemented in stages due to the need to establish a political will in order for these reforms to be widely accepted.