With reference to land reforms in independent India
With reference to land reforms in independent India, which one of the following statements is correct?
- The ceiling laws were aimed at family holdings and not individual holdings.
- The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless.
- It resulted in cultivation of cash crops as a predominant form of cultivation.
- Land reforms permitted no exemptions to the ceiling limits.
Answer
Major weakness of Land ceiling laws was that they were aimed at individual holdings. It allowed many zamindars to transfer land notionally to their relatives and thus escape the ceiling. The reason for land reforms was providing land to all landless people (redistribution) because landlessness was considered as one major reason of poverty and exploitation.
Cultivation of cash crops require much more inputs than mere availability of holdings. Cash crops, during British time, were induced by force while in post-independence, major transformation for cash crops has happened where capital, market access, technology and irrigation are available. After the second Plan, a large numbers of exemptions kicked in for certain categories of land - tea/rubber plantations, orchards, dairying and others to promote certain kind of capitalist expansion in place of absentee landlordism.
The correct option is B.