Land Reforms in India And Kerala 1

Table of Contents
Land Reforms in India and Kerala ................................................................................................................. 2
0.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2
0.1.1 Emergence of Tenants ..................................................................................................................... 2
0.1.2 Variations in Tenency:...................................................................................................................... 2
0.1.3 Other Unspecified Tenants .............................................................................................................. 2
0.1.4 Land reforms & Land Distribution.................................................................................................... 3
0.1.5 Historical review of Land Reforms in India: ..................................................................................... 3
0.1.6 The main objectives of the Land Reforms ....................................................................................... 4
0.1.7 Tenancy Systems of Land ................................................................................................................. 5
0.1.7.1 Ryotwari .................................................................................................................................... 6
0.1.7.2. Mahalwari ................................................................................................................................ 6
0.1.7.3. Jamindari .................................................................................................................................. 6
0.1.7.4. Jagirdari .................................................................................................................................... 6
0.1.8 Impact of Land Reform in India........................................................................................................ 7
0.1.8.1 Abolition of Jamindars and Jagirdars: ....................................................................................... 7
0.1.8.2. Land Ceiling: ............................................................................................................................. 7
0.1.8.3. Land Possession and Social Power: .......................................................................................... 8
0.1.9 Land Reforms in Kerala ........................................................................................................................ 8
0.1.9.1 Main Objectives of Land Reforms in Kerala .................................................................................. 9
0.1.9.2 Impact of Land Reforms in Kerala ................................................................................................. 9
0.1.9.3 Trajectory of Land Reforms in Kerala............................................................................................ 9
0.1.9.3.1 Reform Intended: ................................................................................................................. 10
0.1.10 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 11
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 11
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 2

Land Reforms in India and Kerala

0.1 Introduction
Land reform refers to efforts to reform the ownership and regulations of land. Land is
precious for any country and used by people for productivity and as a source of food, for place to
live, for wood, for place to work. In India, before colonial rule the land used to be in the hands of
the community as a whole. However during the British Raj, this was changed. Lord Carnwallies
had introduced Permanent Land Settlement for Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1793. According to
this the tax farmers appointed by the British rulers was converted as various Land Lords. Under
this rule they had to pay fixed commission to East India Company. Thus these intermediaries
were formed and called as Jagirdar / Jamindar.

0.1.1 Emergence of Tenants

Following the Land Settlement Act, 1793, the farmers purchase lands from the Land
Lords and hire it for their agricultural use. These people who hired the land were called tenants.

0.1.2 Variations in Tenency:

Cash Tenents: They pay a fixed tax for the use and occupy of the land.

Share - cash Tenants: They pay part of their rent in cash and other part as share of the
crop.

Crop - share Tenants: They pay a share of crops only.

Croppers: They pay crop of the share. But they were not independent and work under the
landlord.

0.1.3 Other Unspecified Tenants

Land Lord – Tenant Relationships

Land lord – Tenant

Landlord – Agricultural Labour

 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 3

0.1.4 Land reforms & Land Distribution

In India, there was a practice of land holdings from historic times and it was distributed
in a highly unequal manner and have always been used as a source of social power. To get secure
access to land for the poor and landless, policies of land reform were implemented to benefit
poorer section of society since independence. After that a number of land reforms have been
done by the government such as abolition of 'Zamindari' or middlemen as revenue collectors,
imposing ceiling on landholdings and awarding of the surplus land's rights to landless, and
tenancy reforms (Mearns, 1998). Land reform is described as redistribution of land from the rich
to the poor. More broadly, it comprises of regulation of ownership, operation, leasing, sales, and
inheritance of land (indeed, the redistribution of land itself requires legal changes). In an
agricultural economy such as India with great dearth, and an unequal distribution, of land,
coupled with a large mass of the rural population below the poverty line, there are enthralling
financial and political opinions for land reform. Purpose of land reforms is efficient use of scarce
land resource, redistributing agricultural land in favour of the less privileged class in general &
cultivating class in particular.

0.1.5 Historical review of Land Reforms in India:

Land program in post-Independence India has evolved through different phases. During
the Mughal period, before the arrival of the British there were numerous changes in the system
of land taxation or revenue. Peasants continued to enjoy customary rights over land they
occupied and generally could not be evicted unless they failed to pay the required land revenue
(land tax) to the state. The task of collecting land revenue was assigned to a class of agents called
zamindars (Bhaumik, 1993).

When the East India Company (EIC) established in the Seventeenth Century, the
agricultural structure underwent fundamental change. The EIC first purchased the right to
receive the collected land revenue and later, under the Permanent Settlement introduced in 1793,
declared the Zamindars to be proprietors of land in exchange for the payment of land revenue
fixed in perpetuity. Zamindars, or those to whom they sold their proprietary rights, typically
delegated revenue collection to a series of middlemen. The increasing layers of intermediaries
meant that there was considerable increase in rent extracted from the tillers and failure to pay this
increased amount resulted in large-scale evictions, widespread disturbance, and declining
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 4

agricultural production (Bhaumik, 1993). The British sought to stabilize the situation through
legislated tenancy reform.

The Bengal Rent Act of 1859 placed restrictions on the power of landlords' to increase
rent or evict tenants. However, the Act only protected fixed-rent tenants and did not protect
bargadars or agricultural labourers. But it only protected those fixed-rent tenants who could
prove they had cultivated the land for 12 consecutive years. Constant cultivation was difficult to
prove due to poor records and the Act resulted in an increase in evictions by Zamindars to
prevent tenants from possessing land for the required time period. The 1885 Bengal Tenancy Act
also sought to protect long-standing tenants, and was similarly ineffective. During this period,
another form of landholder emerged in Bengal. The Jotedars were a rich class of peasants who
reclaimed and gained control of large quantities of uncultivated forests and wetlands outside the
territory governed by the Permanent Settlement (Bhaumik, 1993). The Jotedars refined some of
this land through the direct supervision of hired labour or servants. Nevertheless, the bulk of the
Jotedars' land, like much of the land in Bengal, was cultivated by Bargadars.

Rural tensions over the dilemma of Bargadars were common in the decades prior to and
after Independence. In the 1940s, the Tebhaga movement called for a smaller crop share payment
and also created the slogan, “He who tills the land, owns the land.” The movement is given credit
for shaping post-Independence land reform legislation in West Bengal (Datta, 1988). At the time
of Independence, this matter was of great significance. In the decades following independence
India passed a significant body of land reform legislation. The 1949 Constitution left the
adoption and implementation of land and tenancy reforms to state governments. This led to a lot
of dissimilarity in the implementation of these reforms across states and over time. After India
Independence, the government took major step to eradicate the systems of Jamindaris and
Jagirdari, to remove intermediaries between state and peasant. This was the first legislature taken
by almost all the states called as Abolition of Jamindari / Jagirdari systems Act.

0.1.6 The main objectives of the Land Reforms

The main objectives of the land reforms are the following:

 To make redistribution of Land to make a socialistic pattern of society. Such an effort

will reduce the inequalities in ownership of land.
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 5

 To ensure land ceiling and take away the surplus land to be distributed among the small
and marginal farmers.
 To legitimize tenancy with the ceiling limit.
 To register all the tenancy with the village Panchayats.
 To establish relation between tenancy and ceiling.
 To remove rural poverty.
 Proliferating socialist development to lessen social inequality
 Empowerment of women in the traditionally male driven society.
 To increase productivity of agriculture.
 To see that everyone can have a right on a piece of land.
 Protection of tribal by not allowing outsiders to take their land.

Land reform legislation in India is categorized in to four main sections that include abolition
of intermediaries who were rent collectors under the pre-Independence land revenue system,
tenancy regulation that attempts to improve the contractual terms faced by tenants, including
crop shares and security of tenure, a ceiling on landholdings with a view to redistributing surplus
land to the landless and lastly, attempts to consolidate disparate landholdings.

Abolition of intermediaries is generally established to be effective land reforms that has been
relatively successful. The record in terms of the other components is mixed and varies across
states and over time. Landowners naturally resisted the implementation of these reforms by
directly using their political influence and also by using various methods of evasion and
coercion, which included registering their own land under names of different relatives to bypass
the ceiling, and shuffling tenants around different plots of land, so that they would not acquire
incumbency rights as stipulated in the tenancy law. The success of land reform was driven by the
political will of particular state administrations, the prominent achievers being the left-wing
administrations in Kerala and West Bengal.

0.1.7 Tenancy Systems of Land

At the time of independence, there existed many types of proprietary land tenures in the
country.
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 6

0.1.7.1 Ryotwari
It was started in Madras since 1772 and was later extended to other states. Under this
system, the responsibility of paying land revenue to the Government was of the cultivator
himself and there was no intermediary between him and the state. The Ryot had full right
regarding sale, transfer and leasing of land and could not be evicted from the land as long as he
pays the land revenue. But the settlement of land revenue under Ryotwari system was done on
temporary basis and was periodic after 20, 30 or 40 years. It was extended to Bombay
Presidency.

0.1.7.2. Mahalwari
This system was initiated by William Bentinck in Agra and Oudh and was later extended
to Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. Under this system, the village communities held the village
lands commonly and it was joint responsibility of these communities to make payments of the
land revenue. The land ownership is held as joint ownership with the village body. The land can
be cultivated by tenants who can pay cash / kind / share.

0.1.7.3. Jamindari
Lord Cornwallis gave birth to Zamindari system in India. He introduced this system for
the first time in 1793 in West Bengal and was later adopted in other states as well. Under this
system, the land was held by a person who was responsible for the payment of land revenue.
They could obtain the land mostly free of charge from the government during the British rule and
it is called estate. Landlords never cultivated the land they owned and rented them out to the
cultivators. The amount of land revenue may either be fixed once one for all when it was called
permanent settlement or settlement with regard to land revenue may only be temporary and may,
therefore, be revised after every 30-40 years, as the practice may be. The Zamindari system is
known as absentee landlordism. Under this system the whole village was under one landlord.
The persons interested can work in the Jamindar's land as tenant / labourer based on the
agreement with the jamindar. The jamindari system was known to be more exploitive, as the
jaminder used to fix / hike the prices of land according to his desire.

0.1.7.4. Jagirdari
It is similar to Jamindari system. The jagirdar is powered to control the unproductive
masses of village by engaging them in agricultural activities. Because land is controlled by state
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 7

in India and the relationship between production and land tenure varies from state to state, the
national policy recommendations resulted in differing tenancy reform laws in each state.

Tenancy is completely banned in some states but completely free in others. Punjab and
Haryana have not forbidden tenancy whereas Karnataka has a near complete ban on tenancy.
Some states have discussed ownership rights on tenant cultivators except for sharecroppers,
whereas West Bengal chose to provide owner-like rights only to the sharecroppers. Tenancy
reforms may have indirect effects in the form of reduced tenancy shares if poorly implemented.
Most tenancy reform laws also contained provisions concerning the ability of tenants to
surrender the land back to the landlord voluntarily. These provisions were used by landlords to
wane the impact of the laws. In most states the surrender of land falls under the jurisdiction of
the revenue authorities.

0.1.8 Impact of Land Reform in India

Following were the outcomes of Land Reforms in India:

0.1.8.1 Abolition of Jamindars and Jagirdars:

The powerful Jamindars and Jagirdars have become inexistent. The abolition of
intermediaries has stopped exploitation. Transfer of land to peasants from intermediaries has
reduced disparities. The new proprietorship has given scope for innovation in Land Reforms.
The ex-jagirdars and ex-Jamindars have engaged themselves actively in other work thus
contributing for National Growth. The abolishment of these systems has increased to the new
land owners thus adding revenue to the state governments.

0.1.8.2. Land Ceiling:

Land is a source of Income in rural India land and it provides employment opportunities.
Therefore it is important for the marginal farmers, agricultural labourers, and small farmers. The
concept 'ceiling on land holdings' denotes to the legally stipulated maximum size beyond which
no individual farmer or farm household can hold any land. The objective of such ceiling is to
promote economic growth with social justice. Land Ceiling should be imposed on all kinds of
lands such as Fallow, Uncultivable, irrigated and Cultivable land. All the mentioned are inclusive
of ceiling Act. The ceiling act varies from state to state on ceiling on two crops a year land.
However in most of the places the ceiling is 18 Acres.
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 8

0.1.8.3. Land Possession and Social Power:

It is observed that the land is not only the source of production but also for generating
power in the community. In the Indian system, the land is often transferred from one generation
to another generation. However all this lack the documentation of possession of land. In this
framework, the government had made it mandatory to register all tenancy arrangements.

0.1.9 Land Reforms in Kerala

The Land Reforms Ordinance was a law in the state of Kerala by K. R. Gowri Amma
minister in the first EMS government.

The EMS government was the first communist state government popularly elected to power in
India, in the southern state of Kerala. Soon after taking its oath of office, the government
introduced the controversial Land Reforms Ordinance, which was later made into an act. This,
along with an Education Bill, raised a massive uproar from the landlord classes. The popular
slogan for the radical socialists was “the land for tillers”, which sent shockwaves through the
landlord classes in the country. The ordinance set an absolute ceiling on the amount of land a
family could own. The tenants and hut dwellers received a claim in the excess land, on which
they had worked for centuries under the feudal system. In addition, the law ensured fixity of
tenure and protection from eviction. These ground-breaking measures caused the premature
death of the state government, as the central government, under Jawaharlal Nehru, used article
356 to dismiss it, alleging the breakdown of law and order. The land reforms in Kerala imparted
drastic changes to the political, economic and social outlook.

Different types of feudal relations existed in Travancore-Cochin and Malabar at the time
of the formation of the state. The landless farmers and those who were evicted from their land
wanted to get their grievances redressed. The clamour for changes gathered strength. The
government which came to power in 1957 introduced the Land Reforms Bill in the Legislative
Assembly. The Agrarian Relations Bill introduced in 1958 was passed with minor amendments.
The legislature passed subsequent land reform bills in 1960, 1963, and 1964. But the historical
land reform act, Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1969 by C. Achutha Menon
government which put an end to the feudal system and ensured the rights of the tenants on land,
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 9

came into force on 1 January 1970. However, cash crop plantations had been exempted from its
purview. There have been many amendments to the act since, the latest having been in 2012.

0.1.9.1 Main Objectives of Land Reforms in Kerala

 To bestow on tenants ownership of a minimum of ten cents of land
 To end the old feudal relations by legitimising the right of real peasants to own the land
they cultivate
 To introduce land ceiling and distribute excess land among the landless agricultural
labourers
 To abolish exploitation and inequalities in the agrarian sector
 To ensure the consistent progress and transformation of society
 To achieve economic development and modernisation
 To end the era of feudalism

0.1.9.2 Impact of Land Reforms in Kerala

 Leasing of land became unlawful.
 The Jenmis who lived by collecting lease became extinct.
 The lease holders were given ownership of the land.
 A few big farmers who had cultivated on the leased lands also became owners of that
land.
 Land owners sold their excess land.
 Hundreds of thousands of people got dwelling places of their own.
 The labour market was enlarged as former serfs entered it.

0.1.9.3 Trajectory of Land Reforms in Kerala

The land reforms ordinance– tenants received a claim in the excessive land on which they
had worked for centuries under the feudal system and also ensured fixing of tenure and
protection from eviction. Exemptions-- plantations, trust properties, and commercial crops like
rubber, coffee, tea.

Implemented in 1970 (V. S. Achutanandan) in a diluted form as the Kerala Land

Reforms Amendment Act which reduced the nukmber of loopholes and expanded the Act in
favour of small holders, poor tenants and hutment dwellers
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 10

More than one lakh acres of land was declared as surplus land by enforcing the ceiling
provision and this land was distributed among the agricultural labourers in rural areas

It also set a cap on absolute holdings and the excess was to be distributed to those who
did not hold land previously. The system of ‘rice land’ tenancy was abolished.

Kudikidappukaran was given importance, and allowed land user to compensate land
owners by paying only 25% of market value. Land occupants on the other hand had to pay only
50% of the total value in 12 instalments, and the government took care of the balance 50%

0.1.9.3.1 Reform Intended:

 Poor to get land
 Increase family income
 Acquire ownership right of the farmstead where they had been living on for a long time
 Act also included social security schemes for workers in the agricultural sector

Kerala Agricultural Workers Act, 1974: ‘security of employment, fixation of working hours,
payment of reasonable rates of wages, fair settlement of disputes of the agricultural worker and
provident fund for agricultural workers’ . Other acts include Kanam Tenancy (abolition) Act,
Pattazhi Devaswom Land Act, Assignment of Forest Lands Act etc.

 Unfortunately with passage of time the acts have been interpreted and implemented in
ways that has shocked the government.
 Area under paddy cultivation rose to 8.8 lakh hectares in 1974-75, but in recent figures of
2011-2012, the area under paddy shrunk to 2.08 lakh hectares.
 More disturbingly, the share of agriculture in employment declined from over 60% in the
70’s to 29.5% in 2009-2010
 To deal with this it is proposed that the land reform act be amended to provide legal
sanctity to a cultivator to farm on another individual’s land on the basis of an agreement.
 Titled Kerala agricultural land licensing act, it will allow a person willing to lease out
land for cultivation, by entering into an agreement that conforms to provisions of the Act
as well as that of Paddy and Wetlands Act and Kerala Land use Order
 Land Reforms in India And Kerala 11

0.1.10 Conclusion
Land reform is the major step of government to assist people living under adverse
conditions. It is basically redistribution of land from those who have excess of land to those who
do not possess with the objective of increasing the income and bargaining power of the rural
poor. The purpose of land reform is to help weaker section of society and do justice in land
distribution. Government land policies are implemented to make more rational use of the scarce
land resources by affecting conditions of holdings, imposing ceilings and grounds on holdings so
that cultivation can be done in the most economical manner. The various ministries in Kerala
initiated land reforms concentrating mainly on three points – fixation of ceilings, fixity of tenure
to the tenant and fair rents.

Bibliography

P.C. Joshi, Land Reforms in India (New Delhi, 1975).

V.K. Puri & S. K. Mishra, Indian Economy, (Mumbai, 2016).

https://kerala.gov.in/land-reforms

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233444716_Land_Reforms_and_Peaceful_Change_in_Kerala

Staff Reporter (Feb 18, 2008). “Land Reforms Act no longer relevant, says Industries Secretary”.
http://www.thehindu.com. The Hindu. External link in |website= (help)

“Land reforms reshaped state: Prof P K Michael Tharakan”. www.deccanchronicle.com.

Kiran, K P Sai (Nov 4, 2012). “KLR Act amendment could grave situation for result fragment of
estatesplantation sector”. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com. The Times of India. External link in

“Why did a slump follow land reforms in Kerala?”. South Asia Economic Journal. Mar 2012.

https://frontline.thehindu.com/static/html/fl1904/19040810.htm