- Prologue
- Bhoodan Movement (Donation of Land)
- Gramdan (Donation of the Entire Village)
- Pardi Satyagraha, Gujarat, 50s
- Mock Questions
Prologue
- So far we’ve seen: British Tenure system, peasant revolts and three main land reforms after independence viz. (1) Zamindari Abolition (2) Land ceiling (3) Tenancy protection Acts.
- In this article, we’ll check some people’s/NGO/Civil society movements for land reforms in India. Their achievements/limitations. by the Naxalbari related matter ignored here. You’ll find neat coverage ot it under September competition under internal security folder click me
- In the next article we’ll come back to government actions: cooperative farming, consolidation of land holdings and computerization of records.
Bhoodan Movement (Donation of Land)
1951 | First Bhoodan in village Pochampalli, Nalgonda District, Andhra (the hotbed of Telengana movement)By local Zamindar V. Ramchandra Reddy to Vinoba Bhave. |
1953 | Jayaprakash Narayan withdrew from active politics to join the Bhoodan movement |
Bhoodan movement had two components:
- Collect land as gift from zamindars and rich farmers.
- Redistribute that gifted/donated land among the landless farmers.
Bhoodan: Mechanism/procedure/features
- (Hierarchy) Vinoba: Sarvodaya Samaj=> Pradesh Bhoodan Committees in each region=> local committees and individual social workers @grassroot.
- He and his followers were to do padayatra (walk on foot from village to village). Persuade the larger landowners to donate at least one-sixth of their lands.
- Target= 50 million acres. (~1/6 of total cultivable land in India)
- When a Zamindar/rich farmer gifts/donates a land, the Bhoodan worker would prepare a deed.
- These Deeds forwarded to Vinoba Bhave @Sevagram for signature.
- Bhoodan Worker took help of Gram Panchayat, PAtwari (village accountant) to survey the beneficiaries and land fertility.
- First preference given to landless agricultural laborers, then to farmers with insufficient land.
- A date was fixed, entire village gathered and the beneficiary family was given land.
- Those who receive the donation are asked to sign a printed application requesting for land, after which they are presented with certificates of having received land.
- No fees charged from the beneficiary.
- Beneficiary was expected to cultivate the land for atleast 10 years. He should start within three years of the receipt of land.
- These Rules/procedures were relaxed by taking local conditions, cultures in account.
Many state governments made legislation to facilitate donation and distribution of Bhoodan land. Example: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, U.P., Delhi and Himachal Pradesh.
Subsequently, the movement was widened into Gramdan. States again passed special legislation for management of Gramdan villages.
Bhoodan: Positive
- In the initial years the movement achieved a considerable degree of success, especially in North India- UP, Bihar.
- By 1956: receiving over 4 million acres of land as donation.
- By 1957: ~4.5 million acres.
- The movement was popularised in the belief that land is a gift of nature and it belonged to all.
- The donors of land are not given any compensation. This movement helped to reduce the gap in haves and have-nots in rural areas.
- This movement was un-official. The landlords were under no compulsion to donate their land, it was a voluntary movement. One of the very few attempts after independence to bring about land reform through a movement
- Promoted the Gandhian the idea of trusteeship or that all land belonged to God.
- Communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad
- the Bhoodan and Gramdan movement stimulated political and other activity by the peasant masses
- has created a favourable atmosphere for political propaganda and agitation
- for redistribution of the land
- for abolition of private ownership of land
- for the development of agricultural producers’ cooperatives.
Bhoodan: Obstacles, Limitations, Problems
Slow progress |
|
Bribes | village leaders, or allotting authorities, demanded money from the poor for recommending their names for allotment. As a result, many underserving villagers also got land e.g those already having land/ those involved in trade-commerce. |
Greed | Bhoodan movement created land hunger among landless.Some of them applied multiple times in the name of wives, children etc. to get more and more free land. |
Donating bogus land | big landlords donated those land which were unfit for cultivation (or under court litigation). Such donations served no real purpose. |
Disputed land |
|
Politicization |
|
Bribes |
|
Support |
|
bureaucratic apathy |
|
Fragmentation |
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Marxist Criticism |
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Missed the bigger picture |
|
- All these loopholes, slowly and steadily, made the movement dysfunctional.
- 1999: Bihar government dissolved the State Bhoodan Committee for its inability to distribute even half the Bhoodan land available over the past thirty-eight years.
- Thus, Vinoba’s lofty ideal remained more as a philosophy and was never realized fully.
Gramdan (Donation of the Entire Village)
First Gramdan | 1952: by the village of Mongroth in U.P.1955: Orissa, Koratpur district. |
At a later phase, this progamme was extended to other states in Bihar, Maharashtra, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Gramdan: Concept/Principles
- Gramdan may be defined as an experiment in collective village living.
- Original idea comes from Gandhi’s reply to Jamnalal Bajaj: “it is far better for a hundred families in a village to cultivate their land collectively and divide the income therefrom than to divide the land any how into a hundred portions”.
- Vinoba Bhave popularized ^this concept of Gandhi.
Gramdan Mechanism
The villagers have to sign a declaration saying, “We are vesting the ownership of all our land to the “Gram Sabha” of the village.
- This Gram Sabha/ Village council will unanimously nominate ten to fifteen persons who will form an executive Committee.
- This executive Committee will be responsible for the day-to-day administration of the village.
- The decisions of the Committee will be ratified by the Council.
In other words, Gramdan=A Gram Sabha like institution collectively owned and managed entire land/farms of the villagers.
Gramdan: Benefits
- In an ideal gramdan village, there will be no landowners, and no absentee landlords.
- The labourers will give all their earnings to the village community, which will then distribute it according to needs.
- Thus, gramdan acts as the ideal unit for putting the principles in the practice, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”.
By 1960 | Approx.Gramdan Villages |
Orissa | 1900+ |
MH | 600 |
Kerala | 550 |
Andhra | 480+ |
Madras | 250 |
Gramdan movement was considered superior to the Bhoodan movement because:
BHOODAN | GRAMDAN |
land fragmentation, inefficient cultivation, distribution of poverty, decline in marketable surplus , donation of uncultivable land, legal and other difficulties of redistribution, etc. | Nope |
Nope | Economies of scale |
Benefits only the person who gets the land | Sarvodaya of entire village. Everyone benefits. |
Nope |
|
Limitation of Gramdan? Gramdan was successful mainly in villages where class differentiation had not yet emerged and there was little if any disparity in ownership of land or other property. E.g. Tribal villages. But didn’t find cooperation from other villages in the plains or villages near urban centers.
Pardi Satyagraha, Gujarat, 50s
WHO |
|
WHEN | 1953-1967 |
Why?
- 75% of the agro land was owned by 100 big landlords.
- These landlords were not interested in farming. They kept the land as such- so grass automatically grew and sold profitably in Bombay fodder trade.
- Local tribals would get labour work in such ‘fodder-farms’ for only 1-2 months during harvesting. They remained jobless and starving for remaining months. While the landlords made decent profit with almost none investment or efforts.
OBJECTIVES/FEATURES/ACTION:
- Redistribution of land was not on their agenda. (Themselves declared it)
- Satyagrahi would enter in the private land and start tilling to grow foodcrops and court arrest.
- Tribals to boycott grass cutting work. even outside labour would not be allowed do the work. Picketing. As a result, the grass dried up at many places.
- With time, movement found support from public and political parties
- Bhoodan and Gramdan movements also started but failed thanks to poor response from landlords.
Result? Almost #EPICFAIL because:
- 1960, Gujarat created out of Bombay state. New state government made some promises=>Iswarbhai and other Satyagrahi joined the Congress party. Hence momentum/pressure was lost.
- 1965: War between India Pakistan. The CM (Balwant Rai Mehta) died in plane crash. New CM (Hitendra Desai) did not show much interest in fulfilling promises made by previous CM.
- Landlords went to Gujarat Highcourt court. Although HC rejected their plea, but state government did not show any urgency to implement the agreements.
- 1966: Ishwarbhai Desai decide to quit congress and launch a new Satyagraha, but he died. And others were unable to provide effective leadership/direction to the movement.
- 1967: A new agreement between the government, the landlords and the Satyagrahis. But the implementation carried out at a snail’s pace.
Mock Questions
12/15m
- Critically examine the philosophy, the concept and the working of Bhoodan and Gramdan movements in India.
- It is far better for a hundred families in a village to cultivate their land collectively and divide the income therefrom than to divide the land any how into a hundred portions. Comment.
- Write a note on the Lacunae in Bhoodan and Gramdan Movements.
- Bhoodan was an experiment in Gandhian idea of trusteeship. Comment.
- Evaluate the impact of Bhoodan and Gramdan movements as measures of land reforms. In what way Gramdan was superior to Bhoodan movement?
- Discuss the significant movements initiated by people for land reforms in India after independence.
- critically evaluate non-governmental initiatives in the area of land reform
Sir please tell my cgl teir 1 2013 marks my roll no is 2201158469. I didn’t crack the tier 1 but I want to know how much marks I got? My I’d is geetr33@yahoo.com
Geetanjali. Your score is 78.
only 35 marks.. sorry
Mrunal bhai , My best wishes for a Happy New Year to you and your ever increasing list of subscribers.
thanks to evry one for their contribution to oct. monthly writing competition. your information is verily helpful. thank you.
apart from land reforms welfare what are the
others area where such movements can be initiated ?
I m from Nagpur but my center is hyderabad…
Anyone taking mains exam in hyderabad???
Where’s ur center…..
happy new year sir…
very nice article
thank you
May u Live Long:
I have been following your blog for two years now and it’s a fact that topics covered on your blog r much better in comprehensiveness and contemporaneous than those of coachings and books in the market .Besides ,your writing skills and presentation is so lucid and attractive.Thanks a lot for ur endeavour.Hope u will continue with your benevolent work…
No more articles till new year???
can’t we me mention abt naxalbari mvt here ?? as it ws initially started to initiate land reforms??? please tell I m comfused
yes you can. More details: internal security folder under this google drive link
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0DPgaYAtDgmQUNCLXgtYzR6VUU/edit?usp=sharing&pli=1
hieeee…….. i read ur crrent affairs notes… for p.0. there was a word spelled majoori …….. wat was that??
the word means majduri(labour
)
Sir plzzz publish some more articles on ethics???? All these articles are really beneficial for us.. reAlly thanx
sir, thanks for providing such materials to aspirants. but sir, how to organise your posts for revision just before exams. kindly help, as taking print of all posts is a tedious and costly job.
anyone having center at rohini sec 23 … would like to share cab from karol bagh?
Hi Mrunal !! Can I find archieve of all/ most of your articles at one place in PDF form ?
thank u sir….
happy new year sir :)
Mrunal bhai,
Accept my humble pranams for this article. Solid 10 marks attempted thanks to this piece. :)
dear sir ,
i am not able to download current affairs material 2012 from this site for international relations topic !! can u give me a fresh link?
If our land is not donated upto date in gramdani village then gram sabha occupy my land please guide me and what is the rule with copy of rule please send in my e mail address I will thanks to you.
RESPECTED SIR / MAM I HAVE COMPLETED MY POST GRADUATION (M.A.) FROM ALLAHABAD UNIVERSITY .
SO I WANT TO STUDY FOR CIVIL SUPERVISES .
PLZ SUSSES ME FOR USEFUL BOOK .
THANK