Land reforms have failed in the eradication of rural poverty. Comment.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 land reform = chief instrument of redistributive justice → charge of failure holds, but cause is implementation, not design
Route 2 four pillars: intermediary abolition + tenancy + ceilings + surplus redistribution → failure real, lies in political will, not the idea
zamindari abolition: ~20 mn became owners → but gain stops at the top (Rudolph & Rudolph: marginal tenants/labourers left out) → tenancy reform: oral tenancies went underground → ceiling laws: high ceilings, benami, exemptions, litigation → surplus never reaches landless → Kohli: state lacked capacity to confront propertied classes
Kerala & West Bengal: strong political movements → redistribution reached the poor (Varshney); Bardhan: reforms can cut poverty + raise productivity when implemented
Route 1 failure real but partial → of the will to enforce, not of the idea
Route 2 where political will existed, land reform did dent rural poverty → the gap is one of implementation
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
