Land reforms include regulation of ownership, operation, leasing, sales & inheritance of land. In an agrarian economy like India where there is both scarcity and an unequal distribution of land, coupled with a large mass of rural population reeling with abject poverty, there is a compelling political and economic argument for land reforms. It has received top priority on the policy agenda since the time of independence. In the subsequent decades since the independence India has passed a substantial amount of land reforms legislations. The basic logic for land reforms in a country like India is equity. In a land scarce country with a sizable section of rural population surviving below poverty line , the case for ensuring that everyone has access to a minimum amount of land seems compelling. The basic objective of land reform measures is to enhance the productivity of land by improving the economic conditions of farmers and tenants so that they may have the interest to invest in and improve agriculture, to ensure distributive justice, to create an egalitarian society by eliminating all forms of exploitation, to create a system of peasant proprietorship with the motto of land to the tiller and to transfer the incomes of the few too many so that the demand for consumer goods would be created.
In this paper we have chronologically divided land systems and changes across periods. These include:.
- Land tenure system in pre Mughal period .
- Land tenure system in Mughal period.
- Land tenure system in British era.
- Land tenure system post Independence.
History of Land Reforms and Laws in Pre-Independence Era.
We discuss the land tenure and land revenue system's that were in place and how land reforms have taken shape.
Very little is known about the land tenure system in pre Mughal period and the argument is confined to largely two options: the state or the peasant ownership. Most of the Scholars agree that during this period, the peasant enjoyed the permanent and inheritable occupancy rights and had the right to use till the land was cultivated.
