Prior to the reform period the use of chemical fertilizer was nil. Even by 1961 nitrogen consumption was only 0.3 million tons, but in 1967 it was 1.1 million tons and by 1971 is expected to rise to 2.8 million tons. One could hardly assign this technological change to land reform directly. It is possible, however, that the requirements for personal cultivation of many reform measures stimulated a revival of interest in production particularly among

Consumption of fertilizer

the literate, better financed, more highly motivated. continues to outrun domestic production and, although fertilizer is being used at less than its maximum benefit, it is increasing yields. Fertilizer prices are now determined by the market and demand is strong. Land reform may have stimulated the demand for fertilizer but land reform can do little to affect the flow of available to a relatively small

quantities

portion of well-to-do cultivators.

for India.

Irrigation is one of the really important resource-expanding opportunities During the reform period the portion of potential water actually used doubled (17 to 36 percent of utilizable flow). About half of the utilizable water is now being used. Irrigation requires more intensive use of labor and also may expand the extensive boundaries of cultivated area. Major irrigation works are a source of employment during construction as well as later in application to crops. Irrigation increases the employment absorption capacity of an area. Land reform, in the areas where ceilings provisions of tenancy legislation and ceilings regulations were enforced, will support the development and adoption of irrigated land. If land reform increases the security of tenants and small cultivators it will have effect of encouraging investment such as in improved wells and tubesets. Successful irrigation

will require both capital investment and increased production expenditure.

Both require credit for which land is suitable security. The overall effect

of land reform on the access to irrigation water and land to irrigate probably has been positive.

Peasant Participation

The land reforms of India were a dimension of the socialist society envisioned by the intellectual leadership.

Some of the reforms were merely the patrimony of latter-day British rule and in any event strongly influenced by British education. At the national level the land reform program had characteristics of an intellectual exercise. With a set of images of landlords, tenants, wealth distribution, etc., and less than perfect information, the Indian leadership in the Congress party fashioned the general outlines of the reform program. The peasants had not too much to do with its formation or direction. Later, the development of panchayati raj

has provided a mechanism for broader participation although the upper strata

of the village are best represented.

In this sense (in the words of Myrdal 1/)

"the power to elect the representative bodies of government that direct the preparation and execution of plans remain predominantly in the hands of privileged

groups."

In India these "privileged groups" are what Warriner 2/ calls a "squirearchy"-rule by local headmen--in contrast to an "absentee landowner

oligarchy."

1/ Myrdal op. cit. p. 853

2/ Warriner, p. 139.

Rural Society

Because the pattern of land tenure in India was so much a part of the country's social structure, no significant social change could take place without land reform. Perhaps the most important feature of the reform program is the diminution of the role of absentee landownership. Coupled with technologica improvements and a change in national attitudes toward the position of agricultural work (it has risen in status), more of educated, aggressive owners are taking to personal cultivation. Despite the plodding pace of complex institutional reforms, equality of rights of peasants is continually proclaimed,

and successive generations ingest an ideology, if not the facts, of equality ideology

The Fourth Five Year Plan calls for a strong land reform implementation program. The Prime Minister, as late as November 1969, insisted on the urgent need to complete the reform programs rapidly. Agriculture represents a key factor in the success of Indian democracy. Having attained the present le vel of development, India will not politically tolerate widespread famine. The al required institution/ reforms should have been completed by now and new measures in land taxation, land records, land use controls, and urban settlement should be receiving more attention. The most serious shortcoming of land reform in India was failure to get on with it quickly enough.

The existence of a strong, intellectually superior civil service had much to do with the development of the land reform program. By inheriting administrative system of the British raj intact, the civil service and their ministerial counterparts designed reforms in the system most natural to them. Land reform was molded to conform to the governmental structure. It lost some of the

revolutionary character of a reform movement and, most important, the swift

pace of a revolutionary movement.

The pace of land reform in India has been much slower than intended. As indicated in this report and elsewhere the shortcomings in implementation are due to a complex of reasons, not the least of which is the promise of economic

gain in land holding.

The "needs" remaining for the land reform program can be indicated concisely by quoting directly from (1) the report of the 1966 Seminar on Land Reforms sponsored by the Planning Commission 1/ and (2) a letter from the Prime Minister to the State Chief Ministers in August 1969. 2/

From the Land Reforms Seminar (1966):

1. Need to reaffirm "land to the tiller" as the basic principle of land reforms . . . implementation of tenancy reforms has not been sufficiently effective. Large scale subletting of land still goes on in different guise; ingenious devices of voluntary surrenders and oral leases have been discovered.

2.

3.

4.

Need to plug the loopholes or gaps left in the land reform laws
. delays or the failures in implementation of the laws are
quite often due to gaps or loopholes which have been left in
the laws themselves.

Need for better education of the tenants on the benefits of
tenancy laws, or their active role to achieve those benefits,
and training of lower revenue officials . . . . villagers as
well as the lower revenue officials are ignorant about the
provisions of the law enacted by the State from time to time.
An active campaign should be undertaken for the education of
tenants as well as public workers.

Need for more vigorous and systematic efforts for maintaining
land records up-to-date
Reliable land records including

a record of tenancies is an extremely important tool for the

1/ Gov't of India. Planning Commission, Socio-Economic Research Division. Proceedings and Papers of the Seminar on Land Reforms, New Delhi, Feb. 25-26, 1966. pp. 37-41.

2/ Excerpted from letter 789-PMO/69 dated August 18, 1969 reproduced in mimeo report: Gov't of India. Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Cooperation. Chief Minister's Conference on Land Reform: Notes on Agenda. Nov. 1969, Annexure C.