Mrunal Land Ceiling in India: Features, Benefits, Limitations Notes4UPSChttp://mrunal.org/2013/10/land-reforms-land-ceiling-meaning-pro-anti-...

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Posted ByMrunalOn 31/10/2013 @ 2:28 pm In polity | 29 Comments

Prologue
What is Land Ceiling?
Why Ceiling on Land holdings?
Land Ceiling in India
Land Ceilings: Benefits/Advantages/Positive Points
With political Will
Production increased
Employment increased
Naxal reduced
Social Justice
Growth of New political parties
Land Ceiling: Pro and Anti arguments
Mock Questions

So far we’ve seen

How the British had difficulty learning the land Revenue

Three land tenure system of the system of Desi Nawabs. So, they came up with
British: Their features, implications. Permanent settlement, Ryotwari and Mahalwari
systems.
Peasant struggles for land reforms in But the British tenure systems caused much pain and
British Raj: causes and anguish among Indian peasants and led to numerous
consequences. revolts.
Land reforms, Before independence:
After the Provincial elections of 1937, Congress
by Congress governments in
ministries took measures to protect tenant farmers. But
Provinces, their benefits and
by and large shied away from zamindari abolition.
limitations.
After freedom, State Governments enacted Zamindari
Land reforms, After independence:
Abolition Acts. As a result erstwhile (superior) tenants
Abolition of Zamindari, Reasons,
became virtual owners of their land. =>This is First
Impact, Obstacles, Limitations.
tool of Land reform.
Now comes the new problem:

After abolition of Zamindari, the (superior) tenant farmers became virtual owners of the land.
They owned tens and hundreds of acres of land. While other (inferior tenants/sharecroppers
/landless laborers) owned nothing.

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Many Zamindars themselves kept lot of land in pretext of ‘personal cultivation’.

Therefore, State governments enacted land ceiling acts. E.g.an individual farmer cannot own
land beyond say 10 acres. Thus, if a farmer owned 12 acres, government would take away
12-10=2 acres of surplus land from him, and “distribute” it to some landless laborers. This is
Second tool of Land reform.

before going further let’s again recap the players in a tenancy system

It means fixing maximum size of land holding that an individual/family can own.
Land over and above the ceiling limit, called surplus land.
if the individual/family owns more land than the ceiling limit, the surplus land is taken away
(with or without paying compensation to original owner)
This surplus land is
distributed among small farmers, tenants, landless labourers or
handed over to village panchayat or
Given to cooperative farming societies.

Because DPSP Art.38 seeks to minimize the inequalities of income, status, facilities and
opportunities. Land ceiling minimize inequality in the land ownership and thus reduces
inequality of income.
Because DPSP Art.39 wants to ensure that the operation of economic system does not result
in the concentration of wealth. In a village, land=wealth, hence land ceiling is necessary to
prevent concentration of wealth in the hands of few.
Because DPSP Art.39 wants to give right to adequate means of livelihood for all citizens.
Land ceiling (and subsequent land redistribution) provides self-employment opportunities to
landless agricultural laborers.
If there is no land ceiling, rich farmers will buy all the land of entire village and tehsil. But
since they cannot cultivate all the land by themselves- they’ll ‘lease’ it to small farmers
(tenants). Small farmer (tenant) doesn’t have any ‘motivation’ to work harder because he
doesn’t own the land and he has to give 30-50-70% of the produce to that rich farmer, as
“rent”= exploitation.
So, After abolishing Zamindari, IF State Governments had not implemented Land ceiling, then
rich farmers/superior tenants would have become the new de-facto/virtual Zamindars of
Modern India.
Although, economists who believe in free market / capitalism, donot like land ceiling. We’ll see
their anti-land ceiling arguments at the end of this article. But for the moment, let’s continue
with the assumption that land ceiling is beneficial.

Like I said in the middle of the article- the economists believing in free market / capitalism-
they don’t like land ceiling. So let’s hear their arguments

Anti-Land Ceiling Pro Land Ceiling

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Land ceiling should be abolished. even

Agricultural income= exempted from income tax.
corporate sector should be allowed to buy
So, if land ceilings are removed, the rich people
agri. land.
will rush to buy farm land.
This will enable the enterprising farmer to
Thus land prices will soar. A new ‘intermediary’
enlarge his holding by buying or leasing
group of Agri.land mafia will emerge.
lands of small farmers.
But millions of small and marginal farmers will be
Although landlessness will increase but
pushed off their land.
these small farmers could find employment
Hence, the time is not yet ripe to bring forth such
in agri. and allied sector as a result of
drastic reforms (of removing land ceilings).
capitalist mode of production.
Capitalist mode of agriculture=>more
surplus income=> invested back into the Capitalist mode of agriculture uses more
agriculture=economic growth. machines, less laborers=>unemployment
if corporate sector is allowed to enter in increased.
agriculture=> Agri. exports will Yes, Economic growth will be achieved but at the
increase=>more foreign exchange cost of unemployment and subsequent fall in
incoming=>Current Account deficit gone, human development.
rupee will strengthen.
large farms tend to prefer monoculture (single
crop), because they can be easily managed with
small farms are not productive because heavy machinery. = more susceptible to pest
they hinder mechanised farming attacks, not good from soil fertility point of view.
Small farmers have limited capital to invest Small farmers usually have mixed crops
in improving agro. Production. (intercropping), they combine and rotate crops
and livestock, with manure => soil fertility
improves.
Land ceiling and distribution => poverty
and disguised unemployment continues.
Villagers should be kept self-employed, even if on
Some people need to be shifted from
small and marginal farms.
agricultural sector to manufacturing/service
This fits with Gandhian ideas of village republics.
sector. There is no need to give land to
each and every landless person.

States with political will in favour of land ceiling=showed great progress. Example

Jammu and Kashmir, Land ceiling laws fully implemented and by the middle of 1955 about
230,000 acres of surplus land had been handed over to tenants and landless labourers, that
too without having to pay any compensation.
West Bengal had less than 3% of total cultivate land in India. Yet more than 25% of the total
surplus land that was distributed throughout India, belonged to WB.

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Earlier large tracts of wasteland belonging to big zamindars/farmers remain uncultivated. Now
this given to landless laborers= increases area under cultivation=food security.
More Production: Equal distribution of land will encourage intensive cultivation resulting in
increased agricultural production.
Some Farm management studies conducted in India testified that small farms yielded more
production per hectare. It is so because family members themselves cultivate small farms.
Even one hectare of land is also an economic holding these days on account of improvement
in agricultural technique. Hence, small size of holding due to ceiling will not have any adverse
effect on agricultural production.
Atleast some of the Land owners shifted to direct ‘efficient’ farming in order to get ‘exemption’
from land ceiling.
Landless laborer= gets employment only during sowing and
harvesting season but now he given land ownership = he is 24/7
self-employed farmer.
Even if he did not get land, still other farmers got land=> more
demand for agri.labourers= wage bargaining power increased.
In other words, land ceiling increased employment opportunities.
With reduction in inequality among the villagers, possibility of
class struggle will be minimised.
They will live with perfect peace and harmony and not join
Maoists/Naxals movements any longer. (atleast in theory)
In a rural economy, whoever controls land, controls the power.
Land ceiling Reduced this power inequality among villagers.
Promoted spirit of cooperation among villagers. Will help develop
cooperative farming later on (atleast in theory).

1959: N.G. Ranga, C. Rajagopalachari and Minoon Masani setup the Swatantra party.
Because they were against land ceiling, compulsory cooperativization, nationalization of
private industries etc. policies of Congress government.
1967Charan Singh formed BKD
1974BKD+ Swatantra Party + other parties merged=>BLD
BLD was major component of Janta Government under the great Morarji Desai who
1977
defeated Indira Gandhi.
Thus, in a way land ceiling helped destroying Congress monopoly / One party rule in Indian
politics.
In the next articles, we’ll the two phases of Land Ceiling laws in India.

Mock Questions
Land ceiling is more of an impediment than a catalyst for economic growth. Comment
Evaluate the significance of Land ceiling as a measure of land reforms.
The positive impacts of Land ceiling did not trickle down below the middle rung of peasantry.
Comment.
Define Land ceiling. Why was it necessary to enact land ceiling acts in post-independent

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India?
[Land Reform] is a long topic, I’ve split it into several parts. Therefore, to get comprehensive
list of all articles, visit Mrunal.org/Polity.

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