- Prologue
- What is Land Ceiling?
- Why Ceiling on Land holdings?
- Land Ceiling in India
- Land Ceilings: Benefits/Advantages/Positive Points
- Land Ceiling: Pro and Anti arguments
- Mock Questions
Prologue
So far we’ve seen
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How the British had difficulty learning the land Revenue system of Desi Nawabs. So, they came up with Permanent settlement, Ryotwari and Mahalwari systems. |
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But the British tenure systems caused much pain and anguish among Indian peasants and led to numerous revolts. |
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After the Provincial elections of 1937, Congress ministries took measures to protect tenant farmers. But by and large shied away from zamindari abolition. |
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After freedom, State Governments enacted Zamindari Abolition Acts. As a result erstwhile (superior) tenants became virtual owners of their land. =>This is First 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.
- 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
What is Ceiling on Land Holdings?
- 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.
Why Ceiling on Land holdings?
- 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.
Land Ceiling: Pro and Anti arguments
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 Ceilings: Benefits/Advantages/Positive Points
With political Will
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.
Production increased
- 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.
Growth of New political parties
- 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.
1967 | Charan Singh formed BKD |
1974 | BKD+ Swatantra Party + other parties merged=>BLD |
1977 | BLD was major component of Janta Government under the great Morarji Desai who 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 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.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::)))) Nice bro
In India it is only the farmer who has a restriction on the size of land that he can hold a builder can have as much land that he wants, an industrialist can have as much as he wants but not a farmer. I have heard that Infosysis having 800 acres of campus, reliance is having 1600 acres of mango farm in jamnagar but there is a ceiling on land that a farmer can hold. he can not practice economies of scale. why does Infosysis need so much land it can be operated from a huge building like Petronas tower and if reliance is being allowed such a large orchard why not a farmer.
if socialist fundas are to be applied so that every one should have land then give ESOPS to every worker in the industry (if every tenant has a right to land then worker should have ownership in the industry)
well if enterprise is being promoted every where then why not in agriculture if tperson doning any other profession is not being told not to scale up his operations then why farmers are being restricted from scaling up the operations.
i want to know under which section a company can purchase hundreds or thousand acres land…reply me the on my mail
reliance and other big industries boost the economy more than agriculture
I am Agreed with Preventive’s answer, in todays technology era government can keep track on each and every transaction then why not let the rich people become more and more rich so that government can fetch huge taxes from them and just keep money transferring to poor people? Poor people will be happy with even small amount of money, then even money get transferred to rich people by mistake those will be less for them and rich people numbers will be reduced and poor peoples numbers will be increased. proportional calculation simple………. and one more thing this is massive confusing acts and rules becoming life more difficult to who don’t have knowledge about it.
superb!!!!!!! Kamal ke chij ho aap….Lakh Lakh Dhanyavadd.
mast……….. sir ji, thank u
sir it would be better to concentrate on some other topics for mains 2013(esp. current) than to go into so much details on a single topic.thanks
CSM Admit cards out…(not yet on upsc.gov.in)
step 1: Go to http://upscadmitcard.nic.in
step 2: click on “INDIAN ECONOMIC/STATISTICAL SERVICE EXAMINATION” admit card
step 3:in sddress bar you get “http://upscadmitcard.nic.in/IESDefault.aspx” change it to “http://upscadmitcard.nic.in/CSMDefault.aspx” by editing IESDefault to CSMDefault
Note: if you directly copy paste this link it wont work…dont know why
thank you very much sir
Great post. Thanks for doing such a great work and share it.
તમે પણ પહેલા IAS આપેલી છે?
Keep it up.
gr88 sirji….
Sir Your article very easy to understand I am a regular visitor of your site for a year. Now I am going to request one thing plz consider this, I ve great difficulties in Geography in few chpters –
Geo11_8_Composition and Structure of Atmosphere
Geo11_9_Solar Radiation, Heat Balance and Temperature
Geo11_10_Atmospheric Circulation and Weather Systems
Geo11_10_Atmospheric Circulation and Weather Systems
Geo11_12_World Climate and Climate Change
class6 Geo earth and solar system
Geo11_2_The Origin and Evolution of the Earth
WATER (OCEANS)
Geo11_14_Movements of Ocean Water
Just for GS pre purpose only . It is a very humble request to provide a easy articles so that we can understand who don’t have Optional subject Geography
your article is very easy to understand,thanks sir
Hi sir,
what is bitcoin ? Explain in your terms sir.
sir,thanks alot for your material on history.please let me know the old editions of ncert history books
very lucid way of writing…thanxxa lot..
Dear Sir
Pl provide information on the following points:-
1. circumstances/reasons under -which law- land purchase by golder forest was declares surplus and taken over by State Govt. of Punjab, UK etc.
Dear Sir
Pl provide information on the following points:-
1. circumstances/reasons under -which law- land purchase by golden forest was declared surplus and taken over by State Govt. of Punjab, UK etc. 2. Whether land purchase by Mr. Robert Vadera in any state exceed ceiling limit.
What is present maximum ceiling limit of land in UP and whether these rules are still applicable in Uttrakhand.
12.5acres. yes.
Below given qts was asked in police sub inspector preliminary exam 2014 conducted by Maharashtra PSC :-
Ceiling on Land Holdings Act was applied in two stages.
(1) Upto 1961 and after 1962 (2) Upto 1971 and after 1972
(3) Upto 1972 and after 1972 (4) Upto 1982 and after 1982
After reading your article….. my answer option 3…
I want to know how much time limitation period freedom to sell away my ceiling land & what is G.O no. In Andhra Pradesh.
about srno17
There is no limit on any cooperative society owning land. Progressive farmers can make society to practise economy of scale. Also, a rich farmer can sell 10 acres of poor land and buy more expensive farm.
This act has restricted the Indian tendency of hoarding and that’s why it pinches us so much.
how much land an Agro Company can purchase and hold…what is the section
Does a person who gave his land to ceiling has any right to sell or acquire that land again
Does a person has any hold on the surplus land.can he sell or transfer or claim the surplus land.pl mention the section in favour of my query
Does a person has any hold on the surplus land taken over under ceiling.can he sell or transfer or claim the surplus land .pl mention the section in favour of my query
Sir. It is said by my Dad that since our ancestors were craftmen by profession, they lost their whole land of some acres because of this land reform act. Then full family suffered a lot by losing everything n living in rental cottages. The story still continuinig but somehow we could manage to survive ourselves. But d stuggle for food n butter itself is running Sir, is there any chance to regain our ancestors property back ?
Dear Sir,
Your articles on different topics as well as on different issues are very lucrative for we people esp.for those whom are preparing for various competative exams.So ,thanks for such a priceless effort .
how does land ceiling provide in India?
The main problems faced by farmers in India are:
Fragmentation of land holdings by successive inheritance
Primitive methods of farming
Dependence on monsoon and natural fertility of soil
Exploitation by local money lenders and middlemen
Lack of insurance against natural calamities
The technological and institutional changes initiated in India to improve the condition of farmers include:
The land reforms initiated in the first five-year plan aimed to:
abolish zamindari and
consolidate land holdings. The consolidation of land holdings involved combining adjacent small fields into single large farms and encouraging individual land owners to do cooperative farming.
You can get more info on this https://www.nextgurukul.in/wiki/concept/CBSE/X/Geography/Technological-and-Institutional-Reforms.htm
If someone possesed more land against the ceiling act and then he sold extra land what will be happiness if the state know ?