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Unit 2: Major Segments of Indian Society

agricultural land may occur except to those who are now tillers and who propose to till the land Notes
with their own hands, or (iii) to take away forthwith the rights in the land of non-tiller landowners
and compensation be provided to them or providing them re-habilitation grants to take up other
occupations. But the programme of abolishing proprietary rights was not easy to implement.

Bhoodan Movement
With the disappointing progress of legislative land reform, Acharya Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan
(land-gift) movement offered a promising way forward. The focus was on improving the position
of the landless. Assuming that there were 50 million landless peasants in India, Vinobaji set
himself the task of collecting land-gifts of 50 million acres so that one acre could be given to each
landless peasant. He called upon the landowners to give to the Bhoodan movement one-sixth of
their holdings. Since roughly 300 million acres were under cultivation in 1951 in India, the gifts
would have totalled up to the required 50 million acres. These gifts were then to be distributed to
the landless under the guidance of Bhoodan workers. The movement got off to a good start as
within three years (1952 to 1954) more than 3 million acres of land were received as Bhoodan.
However, the movement soon slowed down. It was found that much of the land donated was
rocky, barren or otherwise agriculturally poor or was under dispute in litigation. Further,
distribution of land created more problems. Out of a total of 3.75 million acres of land received by
May 1955, about 0.2 million acres (or 5%) could be redistributed. The district and taluk leaders
were far from enthusiastic. They associated themselves with the Bhoodan only to enlarge or
strengthen their following. Vinobaji resisted these efforts. The appeal was to the rich and landed
peasants who opposed all types of land reform in their vested interests. Thus, like ceilings, Bhoodan
also failed.
The Green Revolution
The green revolution which aimed at increase in agricultural productivity, was brought about in
1966. The introduction of high-yielding varieties of wheat, rice, maize, millet, etc., benefited the
larger landholder more than the small landholder. This was because it required a reliable supply
of water, costly fertiliser, high quality of seed, and pesticides, and use of machinery. These could
be afforded only by the richer farmers. According to P.C. Joshi (1974:33) in Punjab, Haryana and
some other regions, the trend that emerged was that small landowners rented their land to big
farmers who needed a larger landspread to use their machinery profitably. On the one hand, this
enriched the larger landholder, on the other hand, it increased the number of landless labourers
most of whom are low caste and untouchables.
Before independence, though about 70 per cent of the rural population was engaged in agriculture
yet agricultural production was so low that we were dependent on foreign countries for our food
supply. The low agricultural production was the result of British policy of collecting land revenue,
lack of use of modern technology in agriculture, lack of credit facilities to small owners of land,
exploitation of small cultivators by zamindars and jagirdars, and lack of interest on the part of
cultivators to accept new models of cropping. The result of the British policy of land revenue was
that many cultivators who were unable to pay taxes had either to sell or mortgage their land or
turn for help to money lenders. Because of this, the proportion of landless and land labourers
increased from 13 per cent of the rural population in 1891 to 38 per cent in 1951 (Patel, 1952).
When population of the country in the early 1950s was growing at the rate of 0.67 per cent, the
agricultural output was growing at the rate of 0.5 per cent. The land reforms introduced after
independence further led to the concentration of land in the hands of the larger landowners. The
principle of land reform was ‘land to the tiller’. The large landowners, anticipating this type of
legislation, had got evicted long-term tenants prior to the enactment of legislation. Many tenants
had voluntarily given up their land rights to the owners out of fear. Thereafter, the large land-owner
rented out his land to short-term or seasonal tenants, or cultivated it himself with the help of
casual labour. By 1953-54, the upper 10 per cent of landowners owned more than half of the land,
47 per cent owned less than 1 acre per household, and 23 per cent were landless. The agricultural
production which was growing at the rate of 3 per cent per year in 1951-52 increased to 6 per cent
in 1994-95, 10 per cent in 1996-97, but decreased to 6 per cent in 1998-99 (India Today, March 8,

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