← HCS syllabus
HCS (Haryana)Stage 2: Main Written Examination
Land Reforms in India
What the official syllabus says
General Studies III (Main Written Examination, Paper V):
- Land reforms in India.
Topics in detail
Land tenure before Independence
- Permanent Settlement (zamindari, 1793) in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa
- Ryotwari settlement in Madras and Bombay: revenue settled directly with the cultivator
- Mahalwari settlement in the North-Western Provinces and Punjab: revenue settled with the village community
- Intermediaries, rack-renting, insecure tenancy and indebtedness
- Peasant movements and the demand for land to the tiller
Components of land reform after Independence
- Abolition of intermediaries (zamindari abolition laws of the early 1950s)
- Tenancy reform: regulation of rent, security of tenure, ownership rights for tenants
- Land ceiling laws and redistribution of surplus land
- Consolidation of holdings
- Compilation and updating of land records
Constitution and courts
- Right to property: from a fundamental right to a constitutional right under Article 300A (Forty-fourth Amendment, 1978)
- Ninth Schedule and Articles 31A and 31B (First Amendment, 1951) to protect land laws; Article 31C (Twenty-fifth Amendment, 1971)
- Judicial review of Ninth Schedule laws and the basic structure doctrine
Voluntary and other approaches
- Bhoodan and Gramdan movements of Vinoba Bhave (from 1951)
- Operation Barga in West Bengal; land reform in Kerala
- Land rights of Scheduled Tribes: Forest Rights Act, 2006; PESA, 1996; restrictions on transfer of tribal land
- Women's land rights and the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005
Assessment
- Successes: end of intermediaries, rise of owner-cultivators
- Shortfalls: benami transfers, concealed tenancy, small area redistributed, poor records
- Effects on productivity, equity and rural power structures
Present-day land issues
- Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme; conclusive titling
- SVAMITVA (2020): drone survey of village residential land
- Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act (2016) and legalised leasing
- Land acquisition: the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013
- Land pooling, land banks for industry and conversion of farm land
- Fragmentation of holdings and its effect on farm viability
Land reform in Haryana (in brief)
- Laws inherited from Punjab: the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act, 1953, and the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948
- The Haryana Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1972
- Village common land (shamlat deh) under the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961
- More on the State's land records and lal dora mapping: Haryana: Agriculture, Water and Animal Husbandry
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1793 | Permanent Settlement in Bengal (zamindari) |
| 1951 | First Amendment: Ninth Schedule; Bhoodan movement begins |
| 1950s to 1970s | Zamindari abolition, tenancy and ceiling laws in the States |
| 1978 | Forty-fourth Amendment: property becomes a constitutional right (Article 300A) |
| 2005 | Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act: daughters get equal rights in agricultural land |
| 2006 | Forest Rights Act |
| 2013 | Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act |
| 2016 | Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act |
| 2020 | SVAMITVA scheme |
Overlaps
- General Studies I: agrarian structure under British rule and peasant movements.
- General Studies II: the Constitution's provisions on property and the Ninth Schedule.