Land Reforms in Pre-Independence India

1. Land and Real Estate Laws
Land Reforms in Pre-Independence India
Submitted By:-
Dhruv Jain

2. Land
 Land is considered as an important element of life and is highly
valued in most of the world. Land is useful to man in many
ways as a source of food, for place to live, for wood, for place
to work etc.,
 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 has changed.

3.  Lord Carnwallies has introduced Permanent Land Settlement
for Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in 1793. According to this, the
tax farmers appointed by the british rulers will be converted
as various Land Lords.
 Under this rule they have to pay fixed commission to East
India Company. Thus these intermediary are formed, called as
Jagirdars and Jamindar.

4. Land Reforms in India
 Land reforms refers to an institutional measure directed towards
altering the existing pattern of ownership, tenancy and
management of land.
 It entails “a redistribution of the rights of ownership and/or use of
land away from large landowners and in favour of cultivators
with very limited or no landholdings.”

5. Objectives of land reforms
i. Restructuring of agrarian relations to achieve an egalitarian
structure
ii. Elimination of exploitation in land relations
iii. Actualization of the goal of “land to the tiller”
iv. Improvement of socio-economic conditions of the rural poor
by widening their land base
v. Increasing agricultural production and productivity
vi. Facilitating land-based development of rural poor
vii. Infusion of a great measure of equality in local institutions

6. Reasons for enactment of land laws by
Britishers
1. The Bengal Rent Act of 1859
• This Act 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.

7. Reasons for enactment of 2nd Act by
Britishers
2. The 1885 Bengal Tenancy Act
• This 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.
• 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.

8.  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.
 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.

9. 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 are called Tenants.

10. Tenancy Systems
At the time of independence, these existed many types of
proprietary land tenure in the country.
1. Ryotwari System
2. Mahalwari System
3. Jamindari System
4. Jagirdari System

11. 1. Ryotwari System
 Introduced by Thomas Munro in 1820.
 Major areas of introduction include Madras, Bombay and parts of Assam.
 In Ryotwari System the ownership rights were handed over to the peasants.
British Government collected taxes directly from the peasants.
 This existed in Madras since 1772 later extended to Bombay Presidency.
 Under this system., every registered holder of the land is considered as
proprietor.
 The responsibility of paying land revenue directly to the government was
of cultivator himself and there is no intermediary between him and the
state.
 They had liberty to sell / lease / gift the property to any one and could not
be evicted from the land as long as he pays the land revenue.
 The settlement under this system was done on temporary basis.

12. 2. Mahalwari System
 Mahalwari system was introduced in 1833 during the period of Lord
William Bentick.
 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.
 It was introduced in Central Province, North-West Frontier, Agra,
Punjab, Gangetic Valley, etc of British India.
 The Mahalwari system had many provisions of both the Zamindari
System and Ryotwari System.
 In this system, the land was divided into Mahals. Each Mahal
comprises one or more villages.
 Ownership rights were vested with the peasants.
 The villages committee was held responsible for collection of the
taxes.

13. 3. Zamindari System
 Zamindari / Jamindari System was introduced by Lord
Cornwallis in 1793 through Permanent Settlement Act.
 It was introduced in provinces of Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and
Varanasi.
 Also known as Permanent Settlement System.
 Zamindars were recognized as owner of the lands. And they
were given the rights to collect the rent from the peasants.
 Under this system the whole village was under one landlord.
The persons interested can work in the jamindars 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 when ever they
wished to do so.

14. 4. Jagirdari System
 Almost as similar as Jamindari system. The jagirdar is
powered to control the unproductive masses of village by
engaging them in agrarian activities.
 As the land was controlled by states in india and the
relationship between production and land tenure varies
from state to state, national policy recommendation
resulted in differing tenancy reform laws in each state.

15. Thank You