Agrarian Reform:

Introduction:
 Agrarian Reform is very significant for the economy of any country because more than
half of the population is employed in the agricultural sector. Agriculture is the main source of
livelihood especially for the developing countries. Reforms are important because they protect
the rights of the farmers.

Meaning:
 Agrarian means cultivated land or cultivation of land, unrest means disagreements or
fighting between different group of people.
 Prof. H.V. Nagesh pointed out that agrarian unrest includes various type of struggle, in
that struggle farmer agitation is more fundamental. “Peasant revolutions are normally full-
fledge struggles and they are intended to bring about changes which are not just agriculture
but more fundamental.
 Agrarian reform means rectification of the whole agriculture system. Government
redistribute the agriculture land among the farmer. This measure focus on securing the right of
the farmer.

Definition of Agrarian:

 Reform Agrarian Reform could be defined as the rectification of the whole system of
agriculture. It is normally done by the government where they redistribute the agricultural land
among the farmers of the country.
 The agrarian reform is concerned with the relation between production and distribution
of land among the farmers. It also concerns the processing of the raw materials that are
produced by farming the land from the respective industries. T
 here can be different types of agrarian reform measures like credit measures,
integration of land and training of the farmers. The measures also focus on securing the rights
of the farmers, the rights of the peasants working on leased land and aiding them in availing
loans from private sectors.
 The government must also offer support services to the farmers which complement the
other measures. They also run campaigns to increase the camaraderie level between the
farmers.

Agrarian Structure:
 Agrarian structure refers to the class structure of agriculture society. Many scholars
such as S. Bhargava, D.R. Gadgil and other stated in their study, that agrarian class exist in
pre-independent India. The agrarian class structure is classified by many authors, some are:
Kotovsky 1964 classified agrarian class into four class.
 They are, land owners, rich peasants, landless peasants, agriculture labor. Ram
Krishna Mukherjee classified into three classes landowners they are supervisory farmer, self-
sufficient peasants they are share coppers, and agriculture labor. And some of them classified
by land holding and work bases they are agrarian proletarians, uneconomic holder of land in
large, and few artisans and self-employed.
 But throne rejected this classification, because one man belongs to all classes
simultaneously.

Daniel Thorners classified this class into three social categories namely Malik’s, Kisans,
Mazdoors. Malik’s are called as landlords, kisans are working peasants and mazdoors are
laborers.

Agrarian Reform in India

Agrarian Reform in India had been adopted to reallocate the agricultural resources among all
the people directly connected with agriculture. After independence, the Government of India
started the process of building equity in rural population and improvement of the employment
rate and productivity. So for this reason the Government had started agrarian reform.

Reasons Behind Agrarian reform:

 Since India had been under several rulers for a long time, i.e right from the beginning of
the middle age, that's why it's rural economic policies kept changing.
 The main focus of those policies was to earn more money by exploiting the poor
farmers.
 In the British period the scenario had not changed much. The British Government
introduced the "Zamindari" system where the the authority of land had been captured by some
big and rich landowners called Zamindar. Moreover they created an intermediate class to
collect tax easily.
 This class had no direct relationship with agriculture or land. Those Zamindars could
acquire land from the British Government almost free of cost. So the economic security of the
poor peasants lost completely. After independence, the Government's main focus was to remove

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those intermediate classes and secure a proper land management system. Since India is a large
country, the redistribution process was a big challenge for the Government.

Objectives:
According to agrarian reform land was declared as a property of State Government. So agrarian
reform varied from state to state. But the main objectives of agrarian reform in India were:
 Setting proper land management, • Abolition of Intermediaries • Preventing
fragmentation of lands,
 Tenancy reform. The land policies of different states faced several controversies. In
some state the reform measures were biased in favour of th big land owners who could wield
their political influence. However, agrarian reform in India had set a healthy socio-economic
structure in the rural areas.

International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development

 This international conference was held in Brazil from 7-10 March in 2006.
 The representatives of ninety two countries were present in the conference.
 The most significant topic of discussion in the conference was the revival of the rural
communities and the reformation of various policies pertaining to agriculture.
 This initiative was taken primarily with the object of reducing the rate of poverty in
various developing countries

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS ON AGRARIAN REFORM LEGISLATION

The programme of land reforms was one of the major considerations in the schemes of social
and economic restructuring of Indian society. The constitution provides fundamental rights
(Part-Ill) and Directive Principals of state policy (Part-IV). The programme of agrarian reform
was formulated to implement the directive of securing social and economic justice to those who
worked on land.

The constitution of India has included the Land reform in State subjects. The Entry 18 of the
State List is related to land and rights over the land. The state governments are given the
power to enact laws over matters related to land.

The Entry 20 in the concurrent list also mandates the Central Government to fulfil its role in
Social and Economic Planning. The Planning Commission was established for suggestion of
measures for land reforms in the country. The specific articles of the constitution that pertain
to land reforms are as follows:

 Article 23 under fundamental rights abolished Begar or forced unpaid labour in India.
 Article 38 contains the directive to the state that “State shall strive to promote the
welfare of people by securing and promoting as effectively as possible.
 A social order in which justice, social, economic and political shall reform the
institution of national life. And that it shall in particular, strive to minimize the inequalities in
income”
 Article 39 says that “the state shall direct it policies towards securing the ownership
and control of material resources of the community and distributed them as best to sub serve
the common good and at the same time ensuring the operation of the economic system not
resulting in the concentration of wealth and means of productions to the common detriment”.
 Article 48 directed the state to organize agriculture and animal husbandry on modern-
scientific lines.

In the pursuance of these directives the land reforms laws aims at breaking the concentration
of ownership of land by a few big land lords. The other articles are Articles 14, 19 (1) (f) and 31
and these are important as to the land reforms legislations.

 Articles 14 “provide the state shall not deny to any person equality before law and equal
protection of laws”.
 Article 19 which guarantees to all citizens a number of freedoms, including in clauses (i)
(f) the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property which has been deleted by the by forty
fourth amendment Act 1978).
 Article 31 guaranteed right to property and contained six clauses of which clauses (4)
and (6) were particularly designed to protect land reforms legislations.

Article 31 as originally enacted was in the following terms:

(1) No person shall be deprived of his property saved by authority of law.

(2) No property movable or immovable, including any interest in, or in any company owning
and commercial or industrial undertaking, shall be taken possession of or acquired for public
purposes under any law authorizing the taking of such possession or such acquisition unless
the law provides, for compensation for the property taken possession of acquired and either
fixes the amount of the compensation or specified the principles on which and the manner in
which, the compensation is to be determined and given.

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(3) No such law as is referred to in clause (2) made by the legislation of a state shall have effect
unless such law having been reserved for the consideration of the president has received his
assent.

(4) If any bill pending at the commencement of the constitution in the legislature of the state
has after it has been passed by such legislature been reserved for the consideration of the
president and has received his assent then, with standing anything in this constitution the law
so assented to shall not be called in question in any court on the ground that it contravene the
provisions of clauses (2).

(5) Nothing in clause (2) shall affect (a) the provisions to any existing law other than a law to
which the provisions of clauses

(6) Apply or (b) the provision of any law which the state may hereafter make:

(i) For the propose of imposing or leaving any tax or penalty

(ii) For promoting public health or prevention of danger to life. In pursuance if any agreement
entered into between the Dominion of Indian and the Government of any other country or
otherwise with respect to property declared by law to be evacuee property.

(6) Any law of a state enacted not more than eighteen months before the commencement of this
constitution may within three months from such commencement be submitted to the president
for his certification and thereupon, if the president by public notification so certifies it shall not
be called in question in any court on the ground that it contravened the provisions of clause (2)
of this article or has contravened the provisions of such sections (2) of the section 299 of the
Government of India Act, 1935. The provisions made in clauses (4) and (6) provide inadequate
to protect the land reforms laws.

Case Laws:

In Karimbil v. State of Kerala[3] the Supreme Court made it clear that the definition of the
term estate was not satisfactory. The provision in Article 31 A (1) (a) is not adequate to protect
all measures of land reforms and further amendment of the provision called for. Hence, the
Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act, 1964 by which the definition of estate was further
explained to include any land held under Ryotwari settlement. Any land held or let for the
purpose of agriculture or for purposes any ancillary thereto, including waste land, forest land,
land for posture or sites of buildings and other structure occupied cultivators of land
agricultural labourers and village artisans.

Conclusion:
After many struggles for agriculture by peasant to develop agriculture they formed a reform,
but it is not working well and if it is also slow only. And many commissions formed but there is
no solution. Government give many offers to peasant, but it is not reaching them because of
inefficient politician, many of them are not knowing what is happening, were should consul
about the scheme. There is a scheme known as tatkal in that free current for farmers is given if
they buy motors under the scheme worth more than two lakhs. Another big for peasant is bank
loan and climate change. Many farmers made a trust in weather. Failure of rain dragged the
farmers to avail loan for heavy interest. Exorbitant interest leads to farmers suicide. The
struggle is not ended even now the peasant are struggling to meet both the ends. Ahimsa
violence is not working now, no public support, no government support they are facing many
problems. Every time when we sit before plate of meal, lets think about the manufactures of
food grains and move forward to empower them for the better future.