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M.R.D.E.-003
LAND REFORMS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
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Long Answer Questions

Attempt any One of the following:
Q. 2. Critically examine the initiatives of non-governmental organisations in the field of land reforms
in India.
Ans. Land for the Tillers Freedom (LAFTI), Tamil Nadu
LAFTI is an organization that is carrying forward the Bhoodan Movement Mission. LAFTI was also conceived
in the east Thanjavur where the landlessness and resultant unrest was high and about 42 people were burnt to death
in a dispute in Kilavenmari village in 1968.
Major Objectives of LAFTI
Following are some of the major objectives of LAFTI:
Securing the land and distributing it among the landless through democratic means and establishing a new
social order.
A non-violent solution for the problem of the landless.
Negotiating between the land and the landless and solving the issues in a non-violent manner.
Lastly, organizing the people against the illegal holdings and locating the loopholes in Land Legislation.
Some activities that were undertaken by LAFTI to meet the objectives were undertaken such as negotiation
between LAFTI and Government Banks and LAFTI and Resource Mobilization and highlight loopholes in the Land
Ceiling Act.
Negotiation between LAFTI and Government Banks and the Government: The problem of paying
the cost of the land was solved by LAFTI by negotiating with the local level Banks. Also LAFTI appealed to the
government and got the stamp duty and the registration fees waived and got a subsidy. These efforts proved to be
fruitful and 500 acres of land was distributed to 500 landless families. LAFTI also negotiated with the landowners and

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with lot of effort was successful in convincing the government to agree to the transfer of land to the poor.
LAFTI was successful in getting the rate of interest reduced to 4% as a relief for the poor and also appealed to
the donor agencies to bear the burden of interest till the full loan of the land was repaid by the beneficiaries.
Another obstacle faced by LAFTI was the questioning of the Reserve Bank of India about the validity and the
utility of the land transfer project. To the objection by the bank, LAFTI answered by saying that land transfer is not
mere transfer of individual ownership but is a process of mutual sharing between the haves and the have nots.
LAFTI and Resource Mobilization: The LAFTI land bank scheme started by LAFTI involved 10000
landless families in which these 10000 families will deposit Re 1 per day or Rs 10 per week or Rs 500 per year for 5
years. Also LAFTI planned to transfer 500 acres of land per year to the landless families.
Highlight Loopholes in the Land Ceiling Act: LAFTI has recommended the government about enacting
all the laws that are necessary to plug all the loopholes and recover the expected 60 million acres under the Land
Ceiling Act. Also LAFTI petitioned the President of India in which the weaknesses in the ordinance were pointed and
also following suggestions were made:
Devising the methods and the means to identify the benamidars to distinguish among the benamidars below the
poverty line and confer the ownership to the ones below the poverty line and taking away the surplus and
fallow land and distributing to the landless.
The exemption clause for groves/orchads called thopu in Tamil. LAFTI advocated the removal of exemption
cause for Thopu so that the land can be distributed to the landless poor.
Another aspect was the transfer of land in the name of religious and public trusts. LAFTI pleads that the trust
in the name of schools, hospitals and Dharamshalas be taken over by the government for redistribution.
This experiment by LAFTI can be experimented in other states also where the land mis-distribution is the cause
of social inequality and unrest. The programme by LAFTI can be adopted by other states and may become a
nationwide movement that established a non-violent, people-oriented strategy towards solving the land problem.
Bhu-Adhikar Abhiyan – A Case Study of Ekta Parishad in Madhya Pradesh
In 1984, an NGO was registered in Madhya Pradesh, Ekta Parishad. This NGO has been a broad based people’s
movement for their own empowerment. It has been able to mobilize the underpriviledged people like tribal, dalits and
other backward communities. The movements of the NGO are based on principles of Samvad Sangarhash, Rachna.
The aim of the NGO is to appreciate the crucial importance of mass struggle for radical changes in social
structure. It also highlights the significant problems like gender discrimination, corruption, etc. The major struggle of
the NGO is against the state machinery and the landlords and the mafia and other power groups that are enjoying and
allowing uninhibited plunder on natural resources. The objectives of the NGO in forming the people’s movement are
as follows:
Opposing the policy of inviting tenders from the private companies.
Scraping the afforestation programme funded by the World Bank.
Regularizing and settling the land problems and giving pattas to the occupant cultivators.
Securing the right to the traditional land of the cultivators.
Enforcing joint ownership of husband and wife on the property.
Re-evaluation of the criteria set by the government that involved settlement of the forest land.
Resolving the problems of the settlement of revenue land.
Resolving other land related problems.
The two major problems found by Ekta Parishad after conducting the survey are as follows:

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 Settling the problems of non-occupants patta-holders and illegal occupancy.
Illegal selling of the land belonging to the adivasis.
Then Ekta Parishad organized a Bhu-Adhikar rally in 1996. The NGO believed that land problem is the crux
of all the problem because control over land and forest was important for the livelihood of the people. Many
organizations participated in the rally. Also Ekta Parishad called a convention of Adivasis heads of villages in
Bhopal to protest against the World Bank sponsored Mega project. The key principle behind the project was
stress on people’s participation. A memorandum was submitted after the project that demanded resolution of the
land problems to scraping of the forestry project. Till today the NGO is fighting with the government and other
power groups for providing land rights for the survival and livelihood of the adivasis and the dalits in Madhya
Pradesh.
Medium Answer Questions
Attempt any Two of the following:
Q. 1. What do you understand by land reforms? Describe important approaches used to study land
reforms.
Ans. Land Reforms: Concepts and Meaning: We will try to understand the meaning and scope of land
reforms followed by a study of approaches to land reform.
Definition of Land Reform
The definition of land reform is the breaking up of large pieces of agricultural land to be given to small farmers.
An example of land reform is the Lancaster House Agreement in Zimbabwe. Land reform is defined as the re-
distribution of property or rights in land for the benefit of the landless, tenants and farm labourers. The Warriner, 1969
reduces land reform to its simplest element. United Nations in 1951 floated a concept known as land reforms.
Important features of land reform programme are discussed below:
Mainly the elimination of the traditional economic-political exploitative power structure in rural society.
Re-distribution of surplus agricultural land which would lead to more extensive utilization
Adoption of innovative technology and thereby increasing production and productivity.
The motivation of the peasants for work and readiness to invest in agriculture.
Agrarian reform is a word derived from the Cold War period which is related with the ‘radical movements’
whereas land reform, involves improvements towards land tenure and various institutions related to agriculture.
Thus, land reform pertains to the restructuring of tenure. The concept of land reform has varied over time
according to the range of functions which land itself has performed: as a factor of production, a store of value and
wealth, a status symbol, or a source of social and political influence. Land value reflects its relative scarcity, which in
a market economy usually depends on the ratio between the area of usable land and the size of that area’s population.
As the per capita land area declines, the relative value of land rises, and land becomes increasingly a source of
conflict among economic and social groups within the community.
Approaches to Land Reform
Following are the approaches of the Land Reforms which can be studied under the following heads:
Asia and the Middle East: ‘Land for the Tiller’ In the years after World War II land re-distribution to poor and
landless peasants was initiated by the communist Viet Minh insurgents in areas which they controlled. Reforms
which are taken in East Asia have been comprehensive which create a class if independent property owned peasants
and alleviating poverty and the landless farmers. In the country like Japan the reform were by US occupation forces.

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On the other hand, in Korea it was carries by the threat the communist segment in the society. After the partition of
the country into two parts, North Vietnam and South Vietnam the communist land reform (1953-1956) re-distributed
land to more than 2 million poor peasants, but at a cost of thousands, possibly tens of thousands of lives and
contributed to the exodus of up to 1 million people from the North to the South in 1954 and 1955. Reforms in India and
Middle East have been on the same pattern.
Latin America: Re-distribution of Estates
Unlike Europe and Asia, where there has been a broad tradition of small-farm ownership in Latin America. Land
in Bolivia was unequally distributed – 92% of the cultivable land was held by large estates – until the Bolivian national
revolution of 1952. Then, the MNR government abolished forced peasantry labour and established a program of
expropriation and distribution of the rural property of the traditional landlords to the Indian peasants. In 1934, President
Lázaro Cárdenas passed the 1934 Agrarian Code and accelerated the pace of land reform. He helped redistribute
45,000,000 acres (180,000 km2) of land, 4,000,000 acres (16,000 km2) of which were expropriated from American
owned agricultural property. This caused conflict between Mexico and the United States. Agrarian reform had come
close to extinction in the early 1930s.
In Chile, attempts at land reform began under the government of Jorge Alessandri in 1960, were accelerated
during the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva (1964-1970), and reached its climax during the 1970-1973 presidency
of Salvador Allende. In Mexico, One of the aims of the reform government was to develop the economy by
returning to productive cultivation the underutilized lands of the Church and the municipal communities (Indian
commons), which required the distribution of these lands to small owners.
Africa: Re-distribution of White-owned Land
Land reforms in African countries have been concerned with correcting the imbalance of agricultural land ownership
by the minority white settler population. Namibia’s colonial past had resulted in a situation where about 20% of the
population (mostly white settlers) owned about 75 per cent of all the land. In 1990, shortly after Namibia got its
independence. Its first president Sam Nujoma initiated a plan for land reform, in which land would be re-distributed
from whites to blacks, legislation passed in September 1994, with a compulsory, compensated approach. By 1979,
when Zimbabwe gained independence, 46.5% of the country’s arable land was owned by around 6,000 commercial
farmers, and white farmers, who made up less than 1% of the population, owned 70% of the best farming land.
About 50% of the agricultural land in both Namibia nad Zimbabwe, and over 80% in South Africa and the transfer
of power to the native majority.
De-collectivization in the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
The Emancipation reform of 1861, effected during the reign of Alexander II of Russia, abolished serfdom throughout
Russia. More than 23 million people received their liberty. Serfs were granted the full rights of free citizens, gaining
the rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property and to own a business. For instance, the decision
to restore the rights of former owners have been universal in the Czech Republic, Hungry, Romania and Bulgaria The
Manifesto prescribed that peasants would be able to buy the land from the landlords.
Interventions in Land Reform
There are four main types of interventions in land reform:
Land Tenure Reform: Land tenure is the relationship, whether legally or customarily defined, among people, as
individuals or groups, with respect to land. Land tenure is an institution, i.e., rules invented by societies to regulate
behaviour. Rules of tenure define how property rights to land are to be allocated within societies. They define how
access is granted to rights to use, control, and transfer land, as well as associated responsibilities and restraints. In

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simple terms, land tenure systems determine who can use what resources for how long, and under what conditions.
External Inducements: The market-based incentives which are offered by government for social and economic
causes some of them includes, the distribution of public lands; state expenditure on land reclamation and subsequent
allotment as private property; state sponsored credits with the help of cooperatives; support to various health and
educational institutions.
External Controls: These are related with the law on property rights. For example: under-utilization, ownership
by absentee landlords and or foreigners, nationalization and collectivization; restitution; re-distribution policies involving
expropriation of land on grounds of excessive size. On the other hand, gradual re-distribution policies operate through
death duties.
Confirmation of Title: This helps in securing the land titles to those who have already had claim. It lays the
foundations for land reform towards the complete development.
Dimensions of Land Reform
The dimensions of land reform can be studied under two major categories.
(a) Re-distributional Land Reform: Land reform meant reform of the tenure system or re-distribution of the
land ownership rights. The re-distributional land reform aims to minimize accumulation of land holding with a particular
group or social institution. Land reform has therefore become synonymous with agrarian reform or a rapid improvement
of the agrarian structure, which comprises the land tenure system, the pattern of cultivation and farm organization, the
scale of farm operation, the terms of tenancy, and the institutions of rural credit, marketing and education.
(b) Institutional Land Reform: Land reform refers to all those institutional changes aiming at the redistribution
of operational land holdings in favour of the less privileged classes from the view point of optimum utilization of land.
It focuses on the various areas of institutional support to land reform, identifying several important areas of assistance.
Scope of Land Reform
The scope of land reforms, therefore, includes: (a) abolition of intermediaries, (b) tenancy reforms, i.e., regulation
of rent, security of tenure for tenants and conferment of ownership on them; (c) ceiling on land holdings and distribution
of surplus land to landless agricultural labourers and small farmers; (d) agrarian re-organisation including consolidation
of holdings and prevention of sub-division and frag-mentation; (e) organisation of co-operative farms; and
(f) improvement in the system of record keeping.
Q. 3. Explain the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions in social development.
Ans. Role fo Panchayati Raj Institutions in Social Development: While recognizing the need to bring about
land reforms in the country, the Constitution of India provided under Article 39 that: (i) The ownership and control of
the material resources of the country should be so distributed as best to serve the common good; and (ii) The
operation of the economic system should not result in a concentration of wealth or a means to production to the
common detriment.
The Constitution of India also made land a state (provincial) subject. So, only state (provincial) legislatures have
the power to enact and implement land-reform laws. However, the central government played a significant advisory
and financial role in land policy based on its constitutional role in social and economic planning (a role held concurrently
with the states). The Government of India established a National Planning Commission immediately after Independence
to fulfil this role of social and economic planning.
The Planning Commission has prepared a series of Five-Year Plans since 1951. Land policy has been one of the
important components incorporated in all the plans. The policy statements are sometimes quite explicit in the plan
documents, but are more often implicitly stated. An overview of changes in the land policy as reflected through the

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various plan documents. Land reform policy was spelt out in the First Five-Year Plan. The plan aimed to reduce
disparities in income and wealth, to eliminate exploitation and to provide security to tenants, as well as to achieve
social transformation through equality of status and an opportunity for different sections of the population to participate
in development initiatives. Gram Sabha has been given ‘watchdog’ powers and responsibilities by the Panchayati Raj
Acts in most States to supervise and monitor the functioning of Panchayat elected representatives and government
functionaries, and examine the annual statement of accounts and audit reports. These are implied powers indirectly
empowering Gram Sabhas to carry out social audits in addition to other functions. Members of the Gram Sabha and
the village panchayat, intermediate panchayat and district panchayat through their representatives, can raise issues of
social concern and public interest and demand an explanation.
Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996
Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 or PESA is a law enacted by the Government of India to
cover the “Scheduled areas”. At present (2013) nine state have fifth schedule areas. These are: Andhra Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
The Act given the following powers to gram sabha:
Developmental plans approval
Control of mineral lease
Selection of beneficiaries under various programmes
Ownership of minor forest produces
Management of minor water bodies
Managing the village markets
Control of money lending to scheduled castes
Powers, Authority and Responsibilities of Panchayats: The provisions of this Constitution, the Legislature
of a State may, by law, endow the Panchayats with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them
to function as institutions of self-government and such law may contain provisions for the devolution of powers and
responsibilities upon Panchayats at the appropriate level, subject to such conditions as may be specified therein, with
respect to:
(a) The preparation of plans for economic development and social justice;
(b) The implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrusted to them
including those in relation to the matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule.
Short Answer Questions
Write short notes on any Five of the following:
Q. 1. Agrarian Structure in Pre-British India
Ans. Agrarian Structure in Pre-British India: Land policy in India has been a major topic of government
policy discussions since the time prior to Independence from British rule. Under the various pre-British regimes, land
revenues collected by the state confirmed its right to land produces, and that it was the sole owner of the land. British
rulers took a clue from this system and allowed the existence of no cultivating intermediaries. The existence of these
parasitic intermediaries served as an economic instrument to extract high revenues as well as sustaining the political
hold on the country. Thus, at the time of Independence the agrarian structure was characterized by parasitic, rent-
seeking intermediaries, different land revenue and ownership systems across regions, small numbers of land-holders
holding a large share of the land, a high density of tenant cultivators, many of whom had insecure tenancy, and
exploitative production relations.

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 In Hindu rulers period the land resided to the village community and was never respected as the property of the
King. The king or his intermediaries claimed only a part of the produce of the land. The claim was met by the village
committee as a representative of the village community. The state had merely a right to a share that was always paid
in kind. The Muslim rulers had accepted the same tenure and tax systems with some adjustments.
Economic Features: The tremendous increase in the proportion of agricultural workers was the result of a
great social and economic transformation that went on in India during the 19th and the 20th centuries. An important
change which took place during the nineteenth century was in the organization of village communities. The agrarian
society of India, before British Rule, was founded on the integrated units of cultivation and handicrafts. Groups of
cultivators and artisans, supplementing each other’s needs, lived together in substantially self-sufficient village
communities. The cultivators and the artisans lived together for centuries on the basis of traditional arrangements
regulating the exchange of the cultivators’ products and the artisans’ services. Each cultivator carried on the cultivation
of his farm with the assistance of his family. In such a society, there was no room for the existence of an independent
and distinct class of agricultural labourers whose main source of livelihood was work on the land of others for which
they received wages in kind or cash.
Social Features: Prior to the British annexation India had been surmounted lots of times. But this annexation
had led to a reversal in political regime. Earlier the Indian agrarian structure was anxious, annexation not afflicted it.
The pre-British Indian society was described by subordination of the particular to the caste, the family and the village
panchayats. Rigour caste system almost with the implacable forces of natural law stubborn the activity of its members
of the village community. Since castes were based on genetic, occupation also became genetic. Pre-colonial period
can be enhanced at its perfect in terms of O’Malley in India in the agrarian structure.
“The chief social institutions remained in their integrity, were not individualist but collectivist. The unit wasn’t
individual but the family which organized the relations of its members. The interrelations of various families were
governed by the village community and the caste, the former of which was a collection of families organized for the
objective of communal self government, while the latter was an aggregation of families united by rules as to marriage,
diet, occupation and intercourse with the rest of community but not sectarian like the village community. This, in
further to commercialization, led to the proletarianisation of some needy peasants and concentration of land with few
inventive affluent peasants who later on employed the landless on their farms. Thus, downturn of domestic industries
and the distingeration of the peasantry led to the transformation of the social basis of the agrarian society in India.
New classes appeared on the scene: the moneylenders and rich peasants on the one hand, pauperized peasants and
agricultural labourers on the other. The relations of their members were governed not by secular but by Hindu laws
and customary regulations.”
Q. 2. Pattern of Ownership Holding after Independence
Ans. Peasant Movements under Gandhi’s Leadership: Champaran agrarian struggle was the first movement
that Mahatma Gandhi led after he returned from South Africa. Champaran was place in North Bihar where the
European planters took a lead in growing indigo.
Regional leaders like: Rajendra Prasad, A.N. Sinha, Braj Kishore Prasad, J.B. Kripalani and Rajkumar Shukla
were already leading the agitation against the planters. Gandhi come to Champaran in the district and was served an
order to leave the district which he disobeyed.
Peasants formed a major share of Indian population. But they were ignorant about the nationwide anti-imperialist
struggle organized by the Congress. Thus, even though Congress organized a nation-wide struggle it remained a

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struggle of a minority against the British Raj. Even though the rural population was not much interested in the ongoing
political movement they were not inert. They were involved in their own struggles against their immediate lords.
The nationalist movement led by the Congress had in its early phase an elaborate agrarian programme, but could
not provide an appropriate ‘philosophy’ for a broad-based peasant movement. The Congress agrarian programme
was mostly confined to a critical analysis of the British land revenue administration in India.
The recommendation was accepted by the Government. The planters were asked to return twenty five per cent
of the illegal dues they had seized from the cultivators.
But the efforts were only partially successful and by May 1918 only three volunters remained. Another area
Gandhi intervened was in Kheda district of Gujarat where most of the peasants belonging to Kanbi-Patildar caste,
were engaged on producing food grains, cotton and tobacco. In 1917-18 the crops failed and simultaneously there
was a price rise of essential commodities. The peasants appealed to the government for remission of land revenue,
but it was ignored by the government.
Gandhi and Vithalbai Patel were took up the peasant cause which was genuine and just. The Gujarat Sabha led
by Gandhi was joined by other leaders like Vallabhbhai Patel, Indulal Yagnik and others. The practice of tinkathia was
ended and soon after the European planters left the area. This was the first victory for Gandhi and his methods in
India. Gandhi wanted to continue the work in Champaran and he appointed a group of fifteen volunteers to carry on
the constructive work.
Further it convinced him and others of the suitability of his methods of using Satyagraha and civil disobedience.
His followers are Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel and others.
Q. 4. Sanyasi Revolt
Ans. In the Sanyasi rebellion, the Sanyasis or Fakirs including the Hindu and Muslim ascetics stood up against the
oppressive tax collection post Bengal famine of 1770. The British had got the Diwani rights of Bengal, Bihar and
Orissa in 1765. Till that time, the Zamindars used to oblige these Fakirs when they visited the holy places. Once
British started collecting taxes, the Fakirs were not given any alms/money and numerous restrictions were placed on
them, as the British took them as looters. The result was that these Sanyasis started raiding the government treasuries.
They were suppressed and this suppression included massacre of 150 Fakirs in 1771.
The Hindu Naga and Giri armed Sanyasis once formed a part of the armies of the Nawabs of Awadh and Bengal,
and also of the Maratha and Rajput chiefs. The immediate cause of the rebellion was the restrictions, imposed on the
pilgrims visiting the holy places. The Sanyasis raided the English factories and collected contributions from the towns,
leading to a series of conflicts between the large bands of Sanyasis and the British forces. After nearly half-a-century
long strife, the Sanyasi Uprising ended in the second quarter of the 19th century. The Sanyasi-Faqir resistance had
some commons features. Both groups of mendicants lived on alms provided by their followers.
Q. 5. Land Ceiling
Ans. Land Ceiling: An absolute limit should be set which an individual may hold was the principle for ceiling on
the landholdings. The powers were given to the states to adopt a limit on the landholdings that depended upon their
agrarian history. Also another suggestion was that there should be a census of landholdings, so that the government
has relevant data to exercise ceiling o landholdings. Another suggestion was that the land should be classified into two
different groups such as land under cultivation of Tenants-at-will and land under direct control and management of the
owners. The tenants should become the owners of the land which they cultivate and the land of the second category
or the land under the direct management of owners should be divided into two groups as follows:
The first group consisted of the land which on break up will lead to the fall in the production.

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 The second group was the land which does not meet the criteria mentioned above. This group was to be taken
over by the states and given for the cultivation to the agricultural workers.
Some steps were suggested in the Second Five Year Plan towards ceiling on the land holdings. The
recommendations includes that the ceiling should be applied to owned land under personal cultivation including the
land under permanent rights and heritable rights. Another suggestion was that the ceiling should be applied to the
whole area of the farmer and the family. The suggestion made in the plan was that the ceiling should be three times
of the family holdings of the land. The State Government had to decide on the area which comprises of the family
holdings that was dependent upon the conditions in the region, type and class of the soil and level of irrigation and
other factors. Another suggestion was that the ceiling may not be necessary at that stage in areas where cultivation
wasteland is available but where the sufficient number of cultivators is not available for cultivation. Some categories
that were exempted from the ceiling included tea, coffee and rubber plantations, orchards of compact area, farms
engaged in cattle breeding, dairying, etc.
Given below is the summary of some of the important areas of land reforms considered by the nine Five Year
Plans during 1951-2002:
Table: Land Reforms Issues Deliberated by Five Year Plans
Five Year Plan Issues of Land Reforms Plan Actions
First (1951-56) 1. Increase in Cultivation Area (a) Land reforms to be interlinked with
2. Large land holdings of uncultivated lands cultivation and effective use of land by
abolishing intermediaries and permanent
right and inheritable rights to tenants
Second (1956-61) 1. Productivity of agricultural land is poor (a) Soil Conservation
2. Importance of irrigated agriculture (b) Implementation of land reforms
measures
Third (1961-66) 1. Food Security for the masses (a) Launch of Area Development
Programmes
2. Wasteland under irrigation and cultivation (b) Soil Surveys and Conservations
(c) Integrated Land Development Policy
Fourth (1969-74) 1. Food Security (a) Irrigation and soil conservation; dry lands
2. Emphasis on food crops and enhanced and wastelands
capacity of land use to ensure food security (b) High crop yield
3. Large land holdings and less allocations (c) Land reforms with land ceiling acts and
of lands consolidation of land holdings
Fifth (1974-79) 1. Poor land Management (a) Drought-prone and Desert Area
Development Programme to be launched
2. Increase in drought prone and (b) Emphasis on soil conservation and dry
affected areas farming
Sixth (1980-85) 1. Inffective utilization of land (a) Effective and efficient land and water
2. Linking of green revolution with effective management programmes in drought
cultivation prone areas

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 Five Year Plan Issues of Land Reforms Plan Actions

Seventh (1985-90) Soil erosion, land degradation, deforestation (a) Emphasis on Soil and Water Conservation
(b) Launch of wasteland development
programmes
(c) Effective land management programmes
Eighth (1992-97) 1. People’s participation in land management (a) Greater importance to watershed
at the local level approach and its linkage with soil
conservation.
2. Degradation of land.

Ninth (1997-2002) 1. Land Degradation (a) Cultivation of underutilized and

wastelands
2. Integration of watershed programmes with (b) Importance of Panchayati Raj Institutions
other schemes in land management at the village level
3. Increasing gap between potential crop yield (c) Effective land legislation acts.
and actual yield.
Q. 6. Permanent Settlement
Ans. Permanent Settlement: It was concluded in 1793, by the Company administration headed by Charles,
Earl Cornwallis. It formed one part of a larger body of legislation enacted known as the Cornwallis Code. Earlier
zamindars in Bengal, Bihar and Odisha had been functionaries who held the right to collect revenue on behalf of the
Mughal emperor and his representative or diwan in Bengal. The diwan supervised the zamindars to ensure that they
were neither lax nor overly stringent. When the East India Company was awarded the diwani or overlordship of
Bengal by the empire following the Battle of Buxar in 1764, it found itself short of trained administrators, especially
those familiar with local custom and law. As a result, landholders were unsupervised or they reported to corrupt and
indolent officials. The result was that revenues were extracted without regard for future income or local welfare.
Following the devastating famine of 1770, which was partially caused by this short-sightedness, Company officials
in Calcutta better understood the importance of oversight of revenue officials. They failed to consider the question of
incentivisation; hence Warren Hastings, then governor-general, introduced a system of five-yearly inspections and
temporary tax farmers.
Many of those appointed as tax farmers absconded with as much revenue as they could during the time period
between inspections. Parliament took note of the disastrous consequences of the system, and in 1784 British Prime
Minister William Pitt the Younger directed the Calcutta administration to alter it immediately. In 1786, Charles Cornwallis
was sent out to India to reform the company’s practices.
By the Permanent Settlement Act of 1793, the Zamindars power of keeping the armed forces were taken back
and they remained just the tax collectors of the land. The power of Zamindars were considerably weakened as they
were not allowed to hold any court as it was brought under the supervision of Collector appointed by the company.
British officials believed that investing in the land would improve the economy. They did not want to take direct
control of local administration in villages because of several reasons.They did not want to annoy those people who
had traditionally enjoyed power and prestige in the village. In order to keep powerful people happy and to collect
better revenue, Lord Cornwallis introduced the Permanent Settlement. As per permanent system, rajas and taluqdars
were recognized as zamindars.

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