Peasant Associations and Power

India had a mature (nearly 50 year) history of cooperation supported

by policies of both Central and State governments.

The Cooperative

Movement had been tempered by the many cultural barriers including caste and class. In general, it can be said to have affected the credit structure more than the non-credit activities such as farming and marketing. Of its role in finance also, the Rural Credit Survey

said that the coop is "insignificant." Furthermore, ". . . the weakest link of all in a chain which is weak at almost all points is the 'primary

cooperative credit society." The credit and better farming societies may have been of some political value but their contribution to the progress

of land reform is doubtful.

Political power directing land reform lay in the Congress party. Since it became the government on Independence, the Congress party is politically most responsible for the shaping of land reform in India. Land reform was an important plank in the Congress platform and in the First and Second Five Year Plans. Independence did not come about solely as

a land revolution although conditions of the peasants were oppressive

and undoubtedly the promises of land reform helped to stabilize the Congress position after Independence.

III. LAND REFORM PROGRAM

Legislation

The bulk of land reform legislation was passed before or during the First (1951-56) and Second (1956-61) Five Year Plans. Land reform legislation in the several states included (1) abolition of intermediaries, (2) tenancy regulation, (3) limitations on size of holdings, and (4) consolidation of holdings and prevention of fragmentation. Some states were prompt

in the passage of legislation, for examples, the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act of 1950. In other states, legislation was somewhat slower

in coming.

Enactments for different purposes and for different areas 1/

extended over many years in most states. Major amendments, for example, Tillers Day Acts in Gujarat and Maharashtra in 1957, so altered the content of original legislation as to comprise new legislation.

The land reform

of India, then, will be the profile of state enactments as they existed about the end of the Second Five Year Plan (circa 1961).

Land Reform has been an important plank in the platform of the Congress party. Although land reform has been politically opposed by various land owner groups from time to time, legislation has been widely passed. Obstacles to land reform have more commonly been in the form of local and individual resistance. In the case of the Bhoodan land gifts movement, land reform has, to some extent, transcended government.

The Reform Institution

Amendments were made in the Indian Constitution to minimize litigation

under various land reform acts. Land reform laws in the Ninth Schedule 1/ Note experience of Gujarat and Maharashtra, supra.

of the Constitution were removed from the purview of the courts so that the reform laws could not be challenged solely on the grounds. of violating the chapter relating to Fundamental Rights.

Basic legislation covering land tenure rights is passed by the Several States. Legislation is reviewed by Central Government's Planning

Commission and approved by the President.

Land reform measures are imple

mented through Revenue Departments with responsibilities divided between

district and sub-district (e.g., taluka) officers. Where volume

of work requires, additional officers (e.g. Tenancy Aval Karkuns) are added.

A system of administrative appeals is usually available before cases are

placed on the dockets of land reform tribunals and finally in the civil court system.

Objectives of Land Reform

The land policy of India as represented in the First Five Year Plan was as follows:

1. Abolition of Intermediaries;

2. Tenancy reforms, e.g., security of tenure to the tenants, provision

of fair rents and a right of purchase for the tenants;

3. Fixation of ceiling on land holding and the distribution of the

surplus land;

4. Improvement of the conditions of the agricultural workers; and

5. Co-operative organization of agriculture with the ultimate objective of cooperative village management.

The abolition of intermediaries was already in process when the First Plan was drawn up. Tenants were to be granted occupancy rights subject to limited resumption by landowners for personal cultivation. Resumptions were to be made within five years. Rents were to be limited generally to one-fourth or one-fifth of the produce. There was recommended an absolute limit on size of holdings subject to State determination of variations on quality. Management of large farms could be taken over by the State if owners were not managing efficiently. Cooperative organization was favored as a means for settling landless workers. Panchayats (village counsels) were to be given a role in (1) improving records of rights,

(2) finding lands for displaced tenants, (3) selection of persons for

alloted lands, and (4) management of village waste lands.

The reform programs of the various States are subjected to periodic review. Two of the more recent of these is reported in "Implementation of Land Reforms: A Review by the Land Reforms Implementation Committee of the National Development Council (August 1966) " and "Chief Ministers Conference on Land Reform: Notes on Agenda (mimeo, November 1969). Implementation

A detailed, State by State, assessment of progress in all major land reforms would require more space than is warranted for the purpose of this report. This report is confined to but a few of the dimensions of basic types of reform measures. This All-India summary will illustrate wide diversity in State legislation and implementation.

mediary

Ownership distribution (inter abolition). Zamindari abolition,

strictly speaking, did not confer ownership but instead removed intermediaries between the occupant and the State. 1/ To the extent that zamindars, taluqdars, etc., functioned as landlords and were compensated for their interests, however, they may be regarded as landowners. Legislation for tenure abolition was enacted early in the reform program with the result that the tenure forms have been almost completely abolished. 2/ The legislation

1/ Warriner seems to make rather much of this point and coupled with other selected facts and evaluation, falls into the pessimist school of Indian affairs. Doreen Warriner. Land Reform in Principle and Practice. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. See esp. p. 161.

2/ All States have passed tenure abolition acts. passed mainly before State reorganization in 1956.

Basic acts were