Rameshwar's IAS

Initiation of Land Reforms Policy in India

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Since India's independence from the British, the topic of land reforms has been a major topic of government policy discussions. Due to the prevailing agrarian conditions, the nation's peasants strongly supported the independence movement and the Congress Party's "Land to the Tiller" policy. During British rule, the agrarian structure developed with a rich historical background. King Todar Mal's land-revenue system during Akbar's reign can be traced as the possible beginning of systematic land management efforts. The measurement, classification, and fixation of rent were the primary components of this method. The state's right to land produce and its status as the sole owner of the land were confirmed by land revenues collected by the various pre-British regimes. The British government accepted the existence of non-cultivating intermediaries as a model. According to Dust, 1947, the political hold that these parasitic intermediaries had on the nation was maintained by using their existence as an economic tool to extract high revenues. As a result, the agrarian structure at the time of independence was characterized by rent-seeking intermediaries, different regional land revenue and ownership systems, a high density of tenant farmers, many of whom had insecure tenancies, and exploitative production relationships. The issue of land was assigned to a Committee immediately following independence, with the late senior Congress leader Shri J. C. Kumarappa as chairman. In its report, the Kumarappa Committee called for extensive agrarian reform measures. Legislative efforts to address the issues identified by the Kumarappa Committee dominated India's land policy in the decades immediately following independence. Many pieces of legislation were passed, but few of them were actually put into effect.

The policymakers were confronted by a number of significant issues such as:

1. A lot of land was in the hands of a few people, and there were a lot of middlemen who didn't care about growing their own food. The practice of leasing land was common.

2. Tenant exploitation was widespread, and the tenancy contracts were expropriative in nature.

3. Numerous lawsuits were brought about because the land records were in such poor condition. It is ironic that the Supreme Court of India stated in 1989 that revenue records are not legal title documents. This is a bad reflection on the country's land records.

India's land policy has been shaped against this backdrop. While legislation to reform land remained active, land policies in more recent decades have focused more on land development and administration than on land reform. Since India's independence, the land reforms policy in India has gone through four distinct phases.

1. Land reforms included three major initiatives in the first and longest phase, which lasted from 1950 to 1972: the elimination of intermediaries, the modification of tenancies, and the redistribution of land through the use of land ceilings. Tenancy reform and land ceilings were less successful, but the elimination of intermediaries was relatively successful.

2. During the second phase, which lasted from 1972 to 1985, the focus shifted to cultivating uncultivated land.

3. Through Watershed Development, Drought-Prone Area Development (DPAP), and Desert-Area Development Programs (DADP), the third phase (from 1985 to 1995) increased focus on water and soil conservation. In order to focus on wasteland and degraded land, a central government Wasteland Development Agency was established. The final year of this phase saw some of the land policy continue.

4. The fourth and current policy phase, which began in 1995, focuses on debates about whether or not land legislation needs to be continued, as well as efforts to improve land revenue administration and, specifically, record clarity. One of India's significant land policy initiatives that have fundamentally altered the entire approach to development is land reform.

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