1. [land reforms] tenancy reform, tenancy protection acts in india, features, benefits, obstacles,...

11/3/13 Mrunal » [Land Reforms] Tenancy Reform, Tenancy protection Acts in India, features, benefits, obstacles, limitations, impact, evaluation » Print

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[Land Reforms] Tenancy Reform, Tenancy protection Actsin India, features, benefits, obstacles, limitations, impact,evaluation

1. Prologue

2. Land Reform Tool #3: Tenancy Reforms

1. Element1: Landowner’s right to lease

2. Element2: Landowner’s right to Personal Cultivation

3. Element3: Tenant’s right against eviction & high rent

4. Element4: Tenant’s right to surrender

5. Element5: Tenant’s Right to ownership

6. Misc. rights to Tenants

3. Tenancy Reforms: Obstacles/Limitations

1. #1: Women did not benefit

2. #2: SC/ST did not benefit

3. #3: Green Revolution=land grabbing

4. #4: Personal Cultivation

4. Tenancy Reforms: Benefits

1. #1: Rise of New Politics

2. #2: Social Justice

3. #3: More investment

5. Land Reforms: Overall Negative

1. Jurisdiction

2. Outdated Land records

3. Problem in North East

4. Lack of budgetary $upport

5. Bureaucratic apathy

6. Lack of Votebank

7. Powerless Panchyat

8. Lack of Civil Society/NGO action

9. The Naxal Angle:

10. Appu

6. Land reforms: Overall Positive

7. Mock Questions

Prologue

1. Three land How the British had difficulty learningthe land Revenue system of Desi Nawabs.

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tenure system of

the British: Their

features,

implications.

So, they came up with Permanentsettlement (Zamindari), Ryotwari andMahalwari systems.

2. Peasant struggles

for land reforms

in British Raj:

causes and

consequences.

But the British tenure systems causedmuch pain and anguish among Indianpeasants and led to numerous revolts.

3. Land reforms,

Before

independence: by

Congress

governments in

Provinces, their

benefits and

limitations.

After the Provincial elections of 1937,Congress ministries took measures toprotect tenant farmers. But by and largethey shied away from zamindari abolition.

4. Land reforms,

After

independence:

Abolition of

Zamindari,

Reasons, Impact,

Obstacles,

Limitations.

After freedom, State Governmentsenacted Zamindari Abolition Acts. As aresult erstwhile (superior) tenantsbecame virtual owners of their land.=>This is First tool of Land reform.

5. Ceiling on Land

holdings:

Reasons, Impact,

Obstacles,

Limitations,

Achievements

After abolition of Zamindari, the(superior) tenant farmers becamevirtual owners of the land. Theyowned tens and hundreds of acresof land. While other peasantsowned hardly any land.So, State governments enacted landceiling acts and distributed surplusland to poors and landless. This issecond tool of Land reforms.

Now comes the third tool of land reforms:

http://mrunal.org/2013/10/land-reforms-british-land-tenure-system-features-consequences-of-permanent-settlement-ryotwari-mahalwari.html

http://mrunal.org/2013/10/land-reforms-peasant-struggles-for-land-reforms-during-british-raj.html

http://mrunal.org/2013/10/land-reforms-role-of-indian-congress-in-land-reforms-during-the-british-raj-gandhis-views-on-land-reforms-all-india-kisan-sabha.html

http://mrunal.org/2013/10/land-reforms-post-independence-abolition-of-zamindari-reasons-impact-obstacles-limitations-first-amendment.html

http://mrunal.org/2013/10/land-reforms-ceiling-on-land-holdings-reasons-impact-obstacles-limitations-achievements.html



Land Reform Tool #3: Tenancy Reforms

Various State governments have passed the laws to protectthe land owners and (superior+inferior) tenants.Collectively these are called tenancy reform acts.Such tenancy reform acts, usually have five elements: twofor land owners + three for tenantsbut first, let’s once again check the players in a tenancysystem, to get a better grip over this tenure/tenancy reformacts:

TheState

1. enforces tenancy contracts2. Maintains law and order.

Earns revenue for doing 1+2

Owner

The owner: the guy who owns landThey pay Revenue to the State.Rich farmers, Zamindars etc. ownhundreds of acres of land. Can’tcultivate it on their own.Similarly minors, disabled, widows,soldiers, fishermen may also own landbut they can’t cultivate for one reasonor another.So these people ‘lease’ their land toother farmers (tenants).

Superiortenants

They cultivate on land leased from the^owner.These are hereditary tenants. Meaningthey cultivate same land generationafter generation.They pay rent to the owner.They have almost the same rights as theowners.They can sell, mortgage or rent out theland.They cannot be evicted against theirwill.

Other names: tenants at will,



InferiorTenants

subordinate tenants, temporary tenants,subtenants.They till the land leased from othertenants/owners.They pay rent to the owners/superiortenants.They have limited rights over the land.They cannot sell or mortgage the land.They can be evicted easily.

Sharecroppers

Sharecroppers= cultivate otherperson’s land (Owner,Superior/inferior tenant)They get share from the produce, andremaining goes to the tenant/owner.The equipment and inputs items may beprovided owner/tenantThey have no rights whatsoever on theland.They cannot sell, rent or mortgage theland.Can be evicted easily.

Landlesslaborers

1. They get paid in cash or kind by theowners (or tenants)

2. Sometimes work under begari/bondedlabour.

Tenacy reform acts by and large protect only superior and inferiortenant. Sharecroppers/Laborers get nothing. Anyways, let’s checkthe salient features of such Acts in various states:



Element1: Landowner’s right to lease

You own land, but you don’t have thetime/money/mood/intention to cultivate by yourself. So youlease it to another farmer and extract ‘rent’ from him (=25-30-40-60-75% of the produce).This Land leasing, again leads to system of Intermediaries(middlemen who don’t cultivate) and exploitation of tenants(farmers who actually cultivate).Therefore, in an egalitarian/socialist/communist society:Agri.land leasing=undesirable.But what is the land owner is a defense personnel, widow,minor, student or physically disabled person – they cannotcultivate land by themselves.Hence, leasing is permitted in such exceptional categoriesof land owners.

Let’s check some examples

TenancyReformAct in

Provisions (may be outdated)

Andhra

Two types of leasing are practiced.

In the Andhra region: leasing is permittedIn Telengana region: large landholdingscannot be leased, but small holdings can beleased

http://www.flickr.com/photos/97816112@N02/10621349314/



AssamLand can be leased in future

But sub-leasing forbidden. (meaning tenant cannotlease the land further to third party)

Bihar

In Future, agri.land cannot be leased exceptwhen owner is a person with disabilities.Sub-leasing forbidden in any casesub-lessee does not acquire the right ofoccupancy of the land.

GujaratLeasing is prohibited except for Defensepersonnel.

Haryana Leasing permitted.

HimachalAgri land cannot be leased. Except when landowneris a minor or unmarried or a widow or divorcee ordisabled or defense personnel.

KarnatakaAgri.Land cannot be leased except when landowneris seaman or soldier.

MadhyaPradesh

No ban on future lease, but all the past leases havebeen abolished- to remove the nuisance ofZamindar/Jagirdar in Malwa, Gwalior, Indore andVindhya Pradesh

Orissa Doesn’t allow leasing or sub leasing of land

Rajasthan

yes, owner can lease the land to Tenant (5 years)

Tenant can further lease the land to sub-tenant (1year)

UttarPradesh

Agri. cannot be leased. Except when landowners arewidows, unmarried women, military persons,students and disabled persons.

WestBengal

Leasing is prohibited, but share-cropping is allowedwith some restrictions.

Element2: Landowner’s right to PersonalCultivation

As we saw in Element#1: Many states permit agri.landleasing (at least when landowner is a soldiers, widows,minor, physically disabled).But what if landowner himself wants resume cultivation lateron? e.g. soldier comes back to village after retirement, orthe minor student becomes an adult, or the widow gets



remarried.Therefore laws permit the landowner to takeback the landfrom the tenant, IF he (landowner) wants to resume personalcultivation. let’s check:

State Law

Can Landowner takeback land from Tenant,for personalcultivation?

AndhraYes but not more than75% of the leased land.

Bihar50% of landholding or5 acre, whichever isless

Bengal50% of landholding or2.5 acre, whichever isless

Kerala, Orissa, Gujarat, HimachalPradesh, Maharashtra, Karnatakaand Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Tripura

Yes but not more than50% of the leased land.

Uttar PradeshNo, landowners cannottake back land forpersonal cultivation

So far we saw two elements that protect the rights of landownerviz (1) right to lease and (2) right to personal cultivation. Nowlet’s check the rights of tenants.

Element3: Tenant’s right against eviction & highrent

If landowner can evict the tenant according to his whims-fancies=>this system leads to exploitation.Hence there should be fixed term and fixed rent.Meaning as long as the teant is within that xyz years leaselimit and keeps paying that xyz amount of rent, you(landowner) cannot evict him.

Tenure security

Insecurity of tenure is a big hurdle in the improvement ofagriculture. Tenant pays little attention to the soilimprovement, digging of well or tube-well and constructionof embankment etc. This negatively affects agroproductivity.



Security of tenure is must for social justice as well.Hence, Most state made laws to provide at least 5 yearstenure security.(meaning once you lease your agri-land, you cannot take itback within 5 years- except for personal cultivation as wesaw in element #2. but even there, you can only take back~50% of land for personal cultivation.) Anyways, let’scheck with examples:

AssamLandowner cannot evacuate tenant, IF that tenanthas been tilling the land for 3 years or more.

ManipurA tenant could not be removed from a minimumarea of 1.2 acres of the land, until he is given analternative land.

Orissa

tenants who is lawfully cultivating any land cannotbe removed.

Fixed tenure for half of the area held by Tenant

Rajasthan

yes, to both tenants and sub-tenants are giventerm security: (5 years and 1 yearrespectively)But tenant can be removed from the land if hefails to pay rent for two years or more OR ifhe transfers holdings to third party withoutpermission OR damages the land.

Tamilnadu

Landowner cannot evict the tenant except

1. If he wants to resume personal cultivation.2. tenant is not paying rent

WestBengal

tenant and Sharecroppers (bargadars) cannot beevicted, except

They stop cultivating land.They lease the same land to third party.They refuse to give share/rent to the owner

Rent Security

During British Raj, there was no law to protect farmersagainst high rents. The Zamindar/ landowner used todetermine rent according to their discretion. Often, rent



would be ~50-70% of the total produce.Result? Tenant farmer has hardly any surplus incomeleft=>can’t buy hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides,machinery, in short he cannot invest in agri.improvement.Therefore, after freedom, most state government passedlaws to fix maximum rent in the range of 25-33% of theproduce.

statemaximum rent that anowner can charge fromtenant

Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu andAndhra Pradesh (coastal areas)

33-40% of the grossagri.produce

remaining states 20-25%

Additionally, if a tenant cannot pay rent on time, the landlordcannot approach court to get his cattle, farm-tools and standingcrops. (In other words, tenant given protection against attachmenteven if he defaults on rent payment.)

Limitation: Although states had fixed Maximum rent in 20-50%range, but in most cases, the tenants had to pay rent in the range of50-70%- especially in the areas with high productivity under greenrevolution. Corrupt District officials failed to enforce the rentlimits.

6th Five year plan suggested the state governments to pass laws tobring down rents to ensure rents are not above 33% of theproduce.

Operation Barga

by Leftist government in West BengalIn the late 70s. Provided followingregistration of Sharecroppers (known as Bargadar)Fixed rent: 25% of the produce. Meaning landowner

(Jotedar) can only get 25% or 1/4th of the produce. While

Sharecropper (Bargadar) gets 75% or 3/4th of the produce.gave security of tenure: permanent and heritable

Element4: Tenant’s right to surrender

Ok so far, tenant is given term-security (you cannot evicthim before xyz years) and rent security (you cannot chargebeyond xyz% of the produce).



But what if tenant himself wants to stop farming on that land.For example,

a. he bought his own land at a different place, orb. his son gets a decent job in the city and asks him to

relocate orc. He joins politics and becomes a telecom/coal minister

to mint truckload of cash.Therefore, most state laws also allow the tenant tovoluntarily surrender the land back to the original owner.Challenge: Sometimes landowner might usebullying/coercion/gun-power to make tenant signstamppapers declaring his surrender.Solution: Some states also have ‘verification’ procedure.e.g. in Andhra, after Tenant surrenders the land to owner, theTehsildar will verify whether surrender was genuine or not.But then again- thinking in Bollywood terms: evilLandowner might kidnap Tenant’s family and order him notto complaint to Tehsildar.

4th Five year plan recommended: the Land Voluntarilysurrendered by a tenant =>should goto state government andthen state government should allot it to eligible poors. Butvery few states implemented this recommendation

So far we’ve learned

1. Owner’s right to lease2. Owner’s right to personal cultivation3. tenant’s right against eviction4. tenant’s right to surrender

Now to the fifth and final element under Land Tenancy reformacts:

Element5: Tenant’s Right to ownership

Many state laws permit tenant to acquire the land IF he pays 10-20-50times the annual rent to the landowner. Let’s check:

States that permitted tenantsto acquire land after payingmoney to original landlord

Bombay (nowMahrashtra+Gujarat), UttarPradesh, Madhya Pradesh,Hyderabad, Mysore and Delhi

States that permitted tenantsto acquire land withoutpaying money to originallandlord

Assam, West Bengal, Bihar,Orissa, Bhopal and VindhyaPradesh



States reduced rent of thetenants without giving themownership rights

Andhra, Madras, Rajasthan,Saurashtra, Madhya Bharat,Hyderabad (jagir areas) andAjmer

Let’s check some specific provisions of Tenant’s right toacquire/purchase land

AndhraTenant can buy after paying 8 times the annualrent.

Bihar

If Tenant cultivated the land continuouslyfor 12 years, can acquire right ofoccupancy from the landownerswithout paying money to originallandlord.Limitation: Many small farmers had beentilling land on ‘oral agreements’, did nothave paper records to prove 12 years.

Gujarat

Tenant has right to buy land, if he had been tillingcontinuously for 1 year. But he has to pay toowner. In 1975, Gujarat ~0.8 out of 1.3 milliontenants got ownership rights after paying to theirrespective land owners. (=more than 50% oftenants benefit)

MadhyaPradesh

Yes, if tenant pays 15 times the annual rent tothe owner.

Maharashtra

Tenant has right to purchase land withinone year of the commencement oftenancy.in 1975, ~1.1 out of ~2.6 million tenantsacquired ownership rights. (=less than50%)Challenge: Many tenants could not affordthe large sum of money to purchase theland.

Manipuryes, if tenant pays 30 times the annual rent toowner

OrissaYes, if tenant pays 10 times the annual rent tothe owner.

Government Abolished intermediaries but did



Tamilnadu not facilitate tenants to purchase land from thelandlord.

Limitation of Right to ownership:

In above examples, we saw how ~50% of tenants in Gujarat andMaharahstra, got ownership rights after paying to landowner. Butwhy didn’t every tenant bought land from his land owner? Because:

1. State laws already gave rent reduction + permanentoccupancy rights= these superior tenants were for allpractical purposes virtual owners.

2. Hence there was hardly any motivation to try and acquire fullownership.

3. Besides to get full ownership=> need capital (money) andlegal complications.

Misc. rights to Tenants

Some states also made laws for:

1. Compensation for tenant, if he made permanentimprovements to the land such as, digging of well, plantingof trees, construction of farm house, embankment, etc.

2. During natural disaster/flood/drought etc. if governmentremits land-revenue to the landlord, the latter too will haveto remit rent to the cultivator.

3. Landlord cannot receive gift from the tenant and cannot asktenant to provide him free services. (In other words, Begariremoved, Art.23)

Tenancy Reforms: Obstacles/Limitations

1. Land reform delayed, is land reform denied: Theinordinate delays in law making=>Landowners evictedpotential beneficiaries (tenants) before the law came intoforce.

2. Underground: These laws pushed tenancy to underground =in concealed form, through oral agreements withoutanything on paper. The tenants were now called ‘farmservants’ though they continued to work in exactly the samestatus.

3. Oral: Most tenancy agreements were oral and informal,hence tenants could not prove anything in court to asserttheir rights.

4. Creamy Layer: Didn’t provide security to tenure to all



tenants. Only the upper stratum of the farmers – who had theknowledge and means to fight court cases, benefited fromthese laws.

5. Sharecroppers did not benefit: In many state laws,Sharecroppers don’t enjoy same rights as a tenant.Therefore, landowners converted tenants into sharecroppers.

#1: Women did not benefit

Women in India have traditionally been deprived of propertyrights and their property rights still meet with strong socialopposition.During the heydays of land redistribution (60-80s) – maleswere given the “patta” (document showing ownership rightover land). But their wives got nothing.

Result? Women have been working in farmland without anytitle/paper documents. It leads to following negative consequences

1. Women cannot get loan/credit, subsidy on irrigation-fertilizer-seeds etc.

2. Women become destitute in case of desertion, divorce, orwidowhood. In North India, widows often found working asagricultural laborers on the farms of their well-off brothersor brothers-in-law.

3. Women have no bargaining power@household decision making@labour market for wages.

This is new form of Zamindari exploitation because farmoperation (by female) is divorced from farm ownership (byfemale). Thus, tenancy reforms/land reforms have failed to bringgender equity in rural areas.

#2: SC/ST did not benefit

Recall the hierarchy of players in a tenancy system:landowner=>superior tenant =>inferiortenant=>sharecropper=>landless laborers.Major beneficiaries of land reform laws = superior tenant,who mostly fall in OBC category.But impact of land reform measures on Scheduled Castesand Scheduled Tribes were not significant.Landowners- large, medium, small or marginal- allvehemently resisters tenancy reforms. No political partycould dare to lose their vote bank. Hence Tenancy reforms



didn’t trickle down.The rural strata at the bottom of land-ownership and castehierarchy, continued to be exploited by the old and newelite.

In other words, tenancy reforms merely replaced the old elite(upper caste) with new elite (Backward castes). But have nottrickled down below that.

#3: Green Revolution=land grabbing

The Green Revolution made agriculture profitable, thus ledto role reversal among tenancy players.Before=: big farmers would lease land to small farmers.After=: big farmers would take land from small/marginalfarmers on lease, and they’ll cultivate with hybrid seeds,machines, fertilizers etc. (doubt: but why would smallfarmer lease his land? Because he lacks the ‘capital’ to buyall those hybrid seeds n fertilizer- hence for a small farmer,it is less risky and more profitable to lease land to bigfarmer).But, eventually many of these big (tenant) farmers grabbedthe land using loopholes in tenancy laws.In other words, rich farmers using big capital and moderntechnology, have converted agriculture into a capitalistmode of production. In such cases tenancy laws have harmedthe small and marginal farmers => Green revolution hasbeen detrimental to land reforms.

#4: Personal Cultivation

Most State Acts allow landowners to takeback land fromtenant for ‘personal cultivation’.On paper the term ‘personal cultivation’ looked reasonable,but when applied in the field, was confusing and subject tomultiple interpretations.Does personal cultivation mean he himself has to plough thefield? or can he hire a landless labourer for ploughing andirrigation? ….. Concept was vaguely defined, there were nodefinite answers in the various state laws.Thus, ex-zamindars/landowners evicted the tenants from theland claiming that they (owner) intended to cultivate the landpersonally. In Punjab alone, more than 500,000 tenantswere evicted in pretext of Personal cultivation.

Some more negative points stem from bureaucratic apathy



(explained in later part of this article). Anyways, enough ofnegativity, let’s check some positive points:

Tenancy Reforms: Benefits

#1: Rise of New Politics

After freedom but before landreforms (50-60s)

After land reforms (60-70-80s)

The political processdominated by the “clientpatron model.”In this model, the rural elite(upper caste) wouldpersuade or force the lowercaste villagers to vote fortheir (upper caste) leader.Hence political partiesmainly focused on pleasingthose rural elite. And didnot care much forSC/ST/OBC

Paved the way for therise of new politicalforces in the country.Particularly SuperiorTenants / BullockCapitalists / middleShudra castes(=Yadav, Jat andAhir)Tenancyreforms+Greenrevolution= gave themmoney power andfreedom to assertthemselves politically.First they became apressure group, later apolitical groupNo government couldafford to ignore theirdemands forsubsidized electricity,fertilizer, irrigationetc.

Thus we can say,

1. Land reforms helped new classes/castes to gain politicalpower directly/indirectly.

2. The participation of the backward classes deepened Indiandemocracy.

3. Indian democracy became more inclusive.4. Political system became more competitive and complex.

#2: Social Justice



Before land reforms after

Upper castes owned most ofthe land In Village.While the lower castes livedas tenants and agriculturelabourers.This Landlessness andinsecure tenancies forced themajority of the ruralpopulation to be dependenton the upper caste=>oftenlead to exploitation.

These laws gave thelower castes thesecurity of tenureover farmland+landceiling+zamindariabolition+Panchayati Rajreforms.Result:Influence/dominationof upper castedeclined in villagepower structureThus, Constitution’spromise of givingjustice — social,political andeconomic, became areality.

#3: More investment

In the ryotwari areas of Bombay state (MH+Guj), ~50% ofthe tenants became landowners- including inferior tenants.Even in former zamindari areas such as West Bengal, nearlyhalf the sharecroppers got occupancy rights under OperationBarga.Now the tenants and sharecroppers who got occupancyrights=> they had the motivation of becoming progressivefarmers, use high yielding variety, invest more capital etc.

So far, we learned three ‘major’ land reforms measures in postindependent India

1. Zamindari abolition2. land ceiling3. tenure reforms

Let’s check their overall impact: negative+positive.

Land Reforms: Overall Negative



Jurisdiction

‘Land’ is a State subject under the Constitution=> differentStates have evolved differently in the field of landmanagement.The Union can play only a limited role to play in this regard.At most they can frame policy, release funds –butimplementation rests in the hands of State Government.Some states have moved quickly by passing necessarylegislations, while other states have adopted a slower andpiecemeal approach in this regard.Consequently there are considerable variations in the resultsachieved by different states.Even in the same state- different regions show different rateof progress.

UN report says: “In India there seems to be great inequality indifferent states regarding the land reforms.…these land reformsare not implemented in the true spirit.”

Outdated Land records

In Ryotwari areas (Bombay State, Madras State and Assam)

Before independence, the government directly collectedland revenue from farmer. So, district officials kept up todate land records for purpose of assessment and collectionof land Revenue.Village Accountant (VA) had to update the entries everyyear.The superiors in the hierarchy closely supervised the workof the VA.The records showed who owned the different plots of land inthe village, the area and boundaries of each plot, whocultivated it, what crops were grown and how much waspayable to the government as land revenue.But after independence, this system fell into disarray.

Permanent settlement areas & Princely states: There was nopractice of the annual updating of records.

But after independence, state government did not pay attention toland records.

Gradually In most States, villages and field maps, records ofrights and land measurement records have become obsolete.



Tenancy reforms can only be implemented if there is properwritten records of tenancies and land ownership. This wasnot always available because most of the time land leased onoral agreement- nothing on paper.

Outdated land records = land disputes, land grabbing, court cases,landowners evade ceilings=> Land reform remains #EPICFAIL

Problem in North East

The system of land records and land administration areentirely different in the hilly and tribal tracts of north-eastern States.In some of these areas, there was no legislation regardingland and land related matters.Therefore, accurate land records do not exist.Jhuming or shifting cultivation is practiced. There is norecord of the area or the boundaries of plots allotted toindividuals. (+ the nuisance of illegal Bangladeshi Migrantfarmers)

Lack of budgetary $upport

Cost of collecting land revenue (paperwork, staff-salary,electricity etc.)= higher than the actual cash received underland revenue. Therefore, many states don’t even bothercollecting land Revenue.Land revenue administration falls under “non-plan”expenditure = doesn’t get much budgetary allocation.As a result, administration suffers because department won’thire many officers/employees, won’t bother building newoffices, buying new photocopiers, GPS survey devices,jeeps etc.In many places, Village accountants don’t have a separateoffice. Lack of photocopiers, computers= land records notmaintained properly.Many Tahsildars didn’t have telephones* and jeeps. So theywere out of touch from day-to-day bribery andmismanagement by patwari @village level. (*we are talkingabout 50-90s era, when India had more toilets than mobilephones)Result? Land records are outdated => land disputes, landgrabbing and frequent litigations in courts. Poor peoplesuffer.

Bureaucratic apathy



officers livein cities

Today, many patwaris, village officers,Mandal officers, revenue inspectors etc.have settled in small towns/cities withtheir families. They sign files from home,run office through phone and rarely visitthe villages.They write inquire reports without doingspot inspections in village.Villagers have to visit town to get theirproblem resolved=costly affair.Land mafia and rich farmers get thingsdone by paying bribes.WB: In West Bengal there are no VillageAccountants. The Circle Inspector is thefunctionary of the Land AdministrationDepartment at the lowest level. Peoplehave to go to his office for variouspurposes.

bogustraining

Revenue officers are trained better incourt procedures than in dispute-resolution in a humane manner.Hence they give more emphasis on formrather than content, on letter rather thanspirit.They rely on documents, stamp papers,affidavits but don’t bother to make fieldvisit, talk with people to find the groundreality.

Changedfocus

Today, District officers (namely DM & SDM)mainly focused on

Conversion of Agri-land into industriallandSEZ/industrialization related matterlaw and order maintenanceHow to chow down money fromMNREGA, IAY etc. (or prevent it)

Hence, land reform programs=low priority forsenior officers @District level. They tend toignore the Tehsildar/Patwari’sinefficiency/corruption.



Tarikh peTarik

Because of above reasons: a villager cannot getproblem solved through village/tehsil levelofficer. He has to approach the court. But

1. Majority of revenue courts continue tofunction in English language, but villagersdon’t know English.

2. Revenue Courts already choked withthousands of cases related to land. Poorlitigant cannot afford making trips andhiring lawyers

Result? In most cases poor litigant willcompromise with the land mafia/rich farmer/ex-zamindar or just stop pursuing the matter.

nocoordination

Many state departments keep their own land-database e.g. Agriculture, drinking water,irrigation, animal husbandry, forest etc. Butthere is no linkage amongst these different database.

In short, land reform= low priority for state government. All thenew initiatives (Computerization of records, Forest rights Acthave come from Union.)

Lack of Votebank

(From 50-90s)

Target audience for land reforms= tenants, landlessagricultural labourers, SC/ST. But they were largelyunorganized (Except WB and Kerala). They were unable tobring required pressure on the government for speedyimplementation of the land reforms.For political workers at grassroots are indifferent to landreforms because it was easy to sway the ignorant voters ondesired political line according to religion and caste. TheIgnorance, poverty, illiteracy and inegalitarian system hasfavoured such petty politics.Therefore land reform was more of a rhetoric rather thanreal agenda of governments.

Powerless Panchyat



Panchayats don’t have sufficient revenue sources of theirown.Money flow: Centrally sponsored schemes (named after youknow who)=>DRDA+Line deparments @Stategovernment=>Panchayat.Result? Panchayats are too weak to do anything about landreforms. + The proxy influence of rural elites stonewall anyland reform initiatives.

Lack of Civil Society/NGO action

In the noteworthy movements by civil society/NGO for landreforms= Bhoodan/Gramdan, land satyagraha etc. But all thesethings happened before 90s. Today civil society/NGOs very vocalabout transparency, anti-corruption, anti-rape laws, nuclearprojects, mining rights etc. but land reforms hardly get anyattention. Why?

1. It is easy to get national-international awards/funding,media-recognition, political attention in these new topics.

2. Just like “secularism”, the “land distribution” also has lostits original meaning. So, if an NGO talks too much aboutland redistribution- he might be labelled as naxal-sympethizer.

3. In land reform sector: (1) computerization of landrecords=done by district administration and (2) for forestrights act=>done through gram Sabha. So Jholachhap NGOsdon’t see opportunities for getting governmentprojects/funds to mint ca$h, unlike in the schemes for underHIV/child-labour/education/SHG type activities.

The Naxal Angle:

The present Left wing extremism (LWE) has roots at two places:

West Bengal (1967) @Naxalbari

Andhra (1949) @Telengana and @Srikakulam.

At that time, main cause of these movement = exploitation byzamindar/landlords/forest contractors. But In the heydays of naxalmovement, focus of the state governments shifted fromagrarian/land reforms to law and order preservation. As a result:

1. Many villagers remained landless.2. Rise of upper caste militia/private armies like Ranvir Sena,

Kunwar Sena etc.



3. Within village, Lack of growth in non-agricultural sector.4. Tribal land alienation by mining mafia.

All these factors further helped the Maoists to recruit morecadres from villages. District officials don’t goto Maoist affectedareas, look @all villagers with suspicion etc.etc.etc. Ultimately,land reform cannot be carried out.

Thus, Left wing extremism (LWE) and Lack of Land Reform(LLR) have formed a vicious cycle.

Appu

Task Force on Agrarian Relations set up by the PlanningCommission headed by P. S. Appu. (1972 )Made followingobservations

1. Lack of political will=no tangible progress2. The decentralization of power to the rural sector was seen

by the politicians as a threat to their national prominence.3. The erstwhile superior tenants belonging mostly to the upper

and middle castes have benefittd.4. (but) A majority of the agricultural laborers =politically

unorganized=could not benefit from the land reformmeasures.

5. Land reform Acts were poorly drafting= many loopholes andlitigations.

6. Land records were outdated, most states didnot botherupdating.

7. Five year plans only gave lip service for land reforms butdidn’t allot significant funds.

8. Land reform has practically disappeared from the agenda ofmost political parties. but This is an inevitable consequenceof the far reaching changes that have taken place in socialand economic fields;

Land reforms: Overall Positive

1. abolished exploitative the land tenure systems prevalent inagrarian society

2. Distributed the surplus land among the landless and theweaker sections of the society.

3. Provided security of tenure i.e. the tenants are assured thatthey can cultivate the land for long time period.

4. In some cases tenants even given ownership rights.5. fixed rent in the range of 25-33%



6. Without use of violence.7. The cumulative effect of abolition of zamindari, tenancy

legislation and ceiling legislation= motivated the cultivatorsto invest and improve agricultural practices.

8. Even though these land reforms were met with limitedsuccess, they made a significant positive impact on povertyremoval.

9. Land reforms+ Sanskritization + democratization +Panchayati Raj= lower castes have become more organizedand assertive about their rights.

10. In areas where land reform has not been implemented, theinequalities have persisted, caste oppression is most acuteand have generally experienced low socio-economicdevelopment. (In other words where Land reforms wereproperly implemented- inequality is less, caste oppressionis less and socio-economic Development is better).

11. Historically unique effort at transformation of agrarianrelations within a democratic framework.

12. Brought fundamental changes in the agrarian economy, ruralsocial structure, and rural power structure. Moved Indiasociety towards the egalitarian society.

13. Increased democratization of Indian polity and reduction ininfluence of the dominant sections of the society. Counter-argument: Impact was not so significant like China/USSR.

To sum up, Land reforms are a major instruments of socialtransformation in a backward economy based on feudal and semi-feudal productive relationships. But in India, they met with limitedsuccess mainly because of the political and bureaucratic apathy.

Mock Questions

12/15 marks

1. Analyze the role of tenancy reform laws as a measure ofland reforms.

2. Write a note on the measures taken by states to providesecurity of tenure to farmers.

3. Land reforms in early decades after independence, havefailed to bring gender equity in rural power structure.Elaborate.

4. Critically examine the Green revolution as a reason for non-inclusive growth in rural India.

5. The blame for partial success of land reforms squarely fallson the local bureaucracy. Comment.



6. Only the upper stratum of the peasants have benefited fromthe land reforms. For the Landless, land reform remains an‘unfinished business’.

7. Evaluate the impact of Land reforms measures by the stategovernments in the early decades after independence.

8. Discuss, in brief, the contributions of land reforms in ruraldevelopment.

9. Critically examine the impact of land reforms on Indianeconomy and society.

10. Critically examine the impact of social, economic andpolitical power structure on land reforms in rural India.

URL to article: http://mrunal.org/2013/11/land-reforms-tenancy-reform-tenancy-protection-acts-in-india-features-benefits-obstacles-limitations-impact-evaluation.html

Posted By Mrunal On 02/11/2013 @ 12:18 In the category polity

1. [land reforms] tenancy reform, tenancy protection acts in india, features, benefits, obstacles,...

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