{"id":1719,"date":"2024-03-29T13:46:13","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T08:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/?p=1719"},"modified":"2024-04-03T07:14:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T01:44:48","slug":"q-with-reference-to-land-reforms-in-independent-india-which-one-of-the-following-statements-is-correct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/upsc\/q-with-reference-to-land-reforms-in-independent-india-which-one-of-the-following-statements-is-correct","title":{"rendered":"Q.With reference to land reforms in independent India, which one of the following statements is correct?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"mcq wp-block-list\">\n<li>The ceiling laws were aimed at family holdings and not individual holdings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It resulted in cultivation of cash crops as a predominant form of cultivation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Land reforms permitted no exemptions to the ceiling limits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Answer: (b) The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"notes\">Notes:<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The unit of application of ceiling differs from State to State. In&nbsp;<strong>Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, it is on the basis of an \u2018land holder\u2019, whereas in the other States it is one the basis of a \u2018family\u2019.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In order to bring about uniformity, a new policy was evolved in 1971 which changed unit of application of ceiling to family rather than the individual for land holdings lowered ceiling for a family of five. Fewer exemptions from ceilings where also given for economic delopment and public welfare.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After Independence,<strong>&nbsp;the immediate goal of the Government was to increase foodgrains production by switching over from cash crops to food crops<\/strong>, therefore, Land reforms were not focussed on cash crops and hence it did not lead to cash crops being predominant form of cultivation. Also,&nbsp;<strong>the Land reforms in Haryana and Punjab were the reason for introducing Green Revolution. It focussed more on food crops production&nbsp;<\/strong>as predominant form of cultivation and not cash crops.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Land Reforms in India-aimed at the redistribution of ownership holdings and reorganising operational holdings from the view point of optimum utilisation of land. It has also aimed at providing security of tenure, fixation of rents and conferment of ownership.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"land-reforms-in-india\">Land Reforms in India:<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Pre Independence<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Under the&nbsp;<strong>British Raj<\/strong>, the farmers did not have the ownership of the lands they cultivated, the landlordship of the land lied with the Zamindars, Jagirdars etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Several important issues<\/strong>\u00a0confronted the government and stood as a challenge in front of independent India.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Land was concentrated in the hands of a few and there was a proliferation of intermediaries who had no vested interest in self-cultivation.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Leasing out land was a common practice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The tenancy contracts were expropriative in nature and tenant exploitation was almost everywhere.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Land records were in extremely bad shape giving rise to a mass of litigation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One problem of agriculture was that the land was fragmented into very small parts l for commercial farming.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It resulted in inefficient use of soil, capital, and labour in the form of boundary lands and boundary disputes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Post Independence<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Since its independence in 1947, there has been voluntary and state-initiated\/mediated land reforms in several states with&nbsp;<strong>dual objective of efficient use of land and ensuring social justice<\/strong>. The most notable and successful example of land reforms are in the states of&nbsp;<strong>West Bengal and Kerala<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A committee, under the Chairmanship of J. C. Kumarappan was appointed to look into the problem of land. The Kumarappa Committee\u2019s report recommended comprehensive agrarian reform measures.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Land Reforms of the independent India had four components:\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Abolition of the Intermediaries<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tenancy Reforms<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fixing Ceilings on Landholdings<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consolidation of Landholdings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These were taken in phases because of the need to establish a political will for their wider acceptance of these reforms.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Other than these state-sponsored attempts of reforming land ownership and control, there was another attempt to bring changes in the regime which achieved limited success; famously known as&nbsp;<strong>Bhoodan movement<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Abolition of the Intermediaries<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Abolition of the zamindari system:<\/strong>&nbsp;The first important legislation was the abolition of the zamindari system, which removed the layer of intermediaries who stood between the cultivators and the state.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The reform was relatively the most effective than the other reforms, for in most areas it succeeded in taking away the superior rights of the zamindars over the land and weakening their economic and political power.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The reform was made to strengthen the actual landholders, the cultivators.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Advantages:<\/strong>\u00a0The abolition of intermediaries made almost 2 crore tenants the owners of the land they cultivated.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The abolition of intermediaries has led to the end of a parasite class. More lands have been brought to government possession for distribution to landless farmers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A considerable area of cultivable waste land and private forests belonging to the intermediaries has been vested in the State.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The legal abolition brought the cultivators in direct contact with the government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Disadvantages:<\/strong>\u00a0However, zamindari abolition did not wipe out landlordism or the tenancy or sharecropping systems, which continued in many areas. It only removed the top layer of landlords in the multi-layered agrarian structure.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It has led to large-scale eviction. Large-scale eviction, in turn, has given rise to several problems \u2013 social, economic, administrative and legal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Issues:<\/strong>\u00a0While the states of J&#038;K and West Bengal legalised the abolition, in other states, intermediaries were allowed to retain possession of lands under their personal cultivation without limit being set.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Besides, in some states, the law applied only to tenant interests like sairati mahals etc. and not to agricultural holdings.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Therefore, many large intermediaries continued to exist even after the formal abolition of zamindari.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It led to large-scale eviction which in turn gave rise to several socio-economic and administrative problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tenancy Reforms<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>After passing the Zamindari Abolition Acts, the next major problem was of tenancy regulation.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The rent paid by the tenants during the pre-independence period was exorbitant; between 35% and 75% of gross produce throughout India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tenancy reforms introduced to\u00a0<strong>regulate rent, provide security of tenure<\/strong>\u00a0and<strong>&nbsp;confer ownership to tenants.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>With the enactment of legislation (early 1950s) for regulating the rent payable by the cultivators, fair rent was fixed at 20% to 25% of the gross produce level in all the states except Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and some parts of Andhra Pradesh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The reform attempted either to outlaw tenancy altogether or to regulate rents to give some security to the tenants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In West Bengal and Kerala, there was a radical restructuring of the agrarian structure that gave land rights to the tenants.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Issues:<\/strong>\u00a0In most of the states, these laws were never implemented very effectively. Despite repeated emphasis in the plan documents, some states could not pass legislation to confer rights of ownership to tenants.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Few states in India have completely abolished tenancy while others states have given clearly spelt out rights to recognized tenants and sharecroppers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Although the reforms reduced the areas under tenancy, they led to only a small percentage of tenants acquiring ownership rights.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ceilings on Landholdings<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The third major category of land reform laws were the<strong>&nbsp;Land Ceiling Acts.<\/strong>&nbsp;In simpler terms, the ceilings on landholdings referred to&nbsp;<strong>legally stipulating the maximum size<\/strong>&nbsp;beyond which&nbsp;<strong>no individual farmer or farm household could hold any land.&nbsp;<\/strong>The imposition of such a ceiling was to deter the concentration of land in the hands of a few.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In 1942 the&nbsp;<strong>Kumarappan Committee<\/strong>&nbsp;recommended the maximum size of lands a landlord can retain. It was three times the economic holding i.e. sufficient livelihood for a family.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>By 1961-62, all the state governments had passed the land ceiling acts. But the ceiling limits varied from state to state. To bring uniformity across states, a new land ceiling policy was evolved in 1971.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 1972, national guidelines were issued with&nbsp;<strong>ceiling limits<\/strong>&nbsp;varying from region to region, depending on the kind of land, its productivity, and other such factors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It was 10-18 acres for best land, 18-27 acres for second class land and for the rest with 27-54 acres of land with a slightly higher limit in the hill and desert areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>With the help of these reforms, the state was supposed to identify and take possession of surplus land (above the ceiling limit) held by each household, and redistribute it to landless families and households in other specified categories, such as SCs and STs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Issues:<\/strong>\u00a0In most of the states these acts proved to be toothless. There were many loopholes and other strategies through which most landowners were able to escape from having their surplus land taken over by the state.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While some very large estates were broken up, in most cases landowners managed to divide the land among relatives and others, including servants, in so-called<strong>&nbsp;\u2018benami transfers\u2019 \u2013<\/strong>&nbsp;which allowed them to keep control over the land.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In some places, some rich farmers actually divorced their wives (but continued to live with them) in order to avoid the provisions of the Land Ceiling Act, which allowed a separate share for unmarried women but not for wives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Consolidation of Landholdings<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Consolidation<\/strong>\u00a0referred to reorganization\/redistribution of fragmented lands into one plot.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The growing population and less work opportunities in non- agricultural sectors, increased pressure on the land, leading to an increasing trend of fragmentation of the landholdings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This fragmentation of land made the irrigation management tasks and personal supervision of the land plots very difficult.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This led to the introduction of landholdings consolidation.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Under this act, If a farmer had a few plots of land in the village, those lands were consolidated into one bigger piece of land which was done by either purchasing or exchanging the land.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Almost all states except Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and parts of Andhra Pradesh enacted laws for consolidation of Holdings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In Punjab and Haryana, there was compulsory consolidation of the lands, whereas in other states law provided for consolidation on voluntary basis; if the majority of the landowners agreed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Advantages:<\/strong>\u00a0It prevented the endless subdivision and fragmentation of land Holdings.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It saved the time and labour of the farmers spent in irrigating and cultivating lands at different places.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The reform also brought down the cost of cultivation and reduced litigation among farmers as well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Result:<\/strong>\u00a0Due to lack of adequate political and administrative support the progress made in terms of consolidation of holding was not very satisfactory except in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh where the task of consolidation was accomplished.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>However, in these states there was a need for re-consolidation due to subsequent fragmentation of land under the population pressure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Need of re-consolidation:<\/strong>&nbsp;The average holding size in 1970-71 was 2.28 hectares (Ha), which has come down to 1.08 Ha in 2015-16.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While Nagaland has the largest average farm size, Punjab and Haryana rank second and third in the list respectively.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The holdings are much smaller in densely populated states like Bihar, West Bengal and Kerala.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The multiple subdivisions across generations have reduced even the sub divisions to a very small size.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Land-Reforms-in-India-620x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Land Reforms in India\" class=\"wp-image-48921\" style=\"width:517px;height:auto\" title=\"Upsc prelims research: indian economy 2019 1\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Answer: (b) The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless. Notes: Land Reforms in India: Pre Independence: Post Independence:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[38],"years":[54],"class_list":["post-1719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upsc","category-prelims","tag-indian-economy","years-54"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"UPSC"},{"value":3,"label":"Prelims"}],"post_tag":[{"value":38,"label":"Indian Economy"}],"years":[{"value":54,"label":"2019"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"LotusArise","author_link":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/author\/team-lotusarise"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"UPSC","slug":"upsc","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1269,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":1269,"category_description":"","cat_name":"UPSC","category_nicename":"upsc","category_parent":0},{"term_id":3,"name":"Prelims","slug":"prelims","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":1,"count":1251,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":1251,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Prelims","category_nicename":"prelims","category_parent":1}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":38,"name":"Indian Economy","slug":"indian-economy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":38,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":225,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1719"},{"taxonomy":"years","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lotusarise.com\/qna\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/years?post=1719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}