Land reforms refer to various reforms in regulations regarding land ownership and property rights for the benefit of the community as a whole. The main objective of the land reforms is to do away with the existing inequalities in the system of landholding and to increase agricultural productivity.
Significance of Land Reforms in India
- Particularly in an economy built on feudal and semi-feudal production linkages, land reforms have been important social transformational tools.
- In addition to boosting agricultural output, the primary goal of the land reform initiative is to create the egalitarian social structure that is envisioned by the Indian Constitution.
- As a result, issues related to land and land reform are at the forefront of the nation’s political and economic agenda.
- In order for India to compete in the global market, this also establishes a strong platform for variable growth. Fundamentally a political and economic issue, land reform policies are typically the outcome of a people’s movement.
Land reforms before independence:
- Rent Act of 1859: The Bengal Rent Act of 1859 was the first legislative attempt at defining tenants’ rights and protecting them against frequent enhancement of rent and arbitrary ejectment. The law applied to all provinces included in the Bengal presidency.
- Tenancy and Rent Act, 1885: The Famine Commission (1880) noted that the Rent Acts failed to bring noteworthy improvement in the economic condition of tenants. Bengal witnessed large-scale agrarian conflicts and anti-Zamindar riots during the years 1872-76. Thus the Tenancy and Rent Acts were passed in Bengal in 1885, with a view to conferring occupancy rights upon ryots who were in continuous possession of land for 12 years.
- Subsequent tenancy acts: Similar to 1885 Bengal’s tenancy act, the Bihar Tenancy Act of 1885 and Orissa Tenancy Act of 1914 granted occupancy rights to tenants. The Agra Tenancy Act 1926 granted a statutory life tenancy to everyone formerly classified as tenant-at-will. The C.P. Act abolished ‘Begar’ while the Bombay Act of 1938 specified the grounds on which tenants could be ejected. It also allowed compensation for improvements made.
Objective of Land Reforms
- Abolition of Intermediaries:
- It was to be done so that ownership of land can be clearly identified with management and operation of land. The owner himself should operate and manage the land.
- Although the intention was to eliminate middlemen between the tiller and the state, the legal enactments actually equated middlemen with zamindars, leaving a class of rent receivers and absentee landlords protected by ryotwari.
- The success of intermediaries in obtaining significant compensation for abolition was impressive. It should be noted that communist countries removed it unjustly.
