Land Ceiling and Consolidation of Land Holdings in India

The land ceiling acts define the size of land that an individual/family can own. In India, by 1961-62, all the state governments have passed the land ceiling acts. But the ceiling limits varied from state to state. To bring uniformity across states, a new land ceiling policy was evolved in 1971. In 1972, national guidelines […]

Tenancy Reforms in India

After passing the Zamindari Abolition Acts, the next major problem was of tenancy regulation. Tenancy reforms aim to regulation of rent, provide security of tenure and conferring ownership to tenants. The tenancy reforms laws provide the provisions for registration of tenants, or giving ownership rights to the former tenants to bring them directly under the […]

Abolition of Zamindari in India

The major objective of land reforms in free India was to abolish intermediaries and to bring changes in the revenue system that would be favourable to cultivators. The process of abolition of Zamindari, Jagirdari, Ryotwari etc. system had started even before the constitution of India came into effect. Position of the intermediaries at the time […]

Changes in Zamindari System from Mughal to British Era

During reigns of Shershah Suri and Akbar, the system was that land revenue was collected directly by the officers of the state and could be paid either in cash or in kind, though cash payments were encouraged. Thus, the peasant called ryot held his land directly  from the crown. But in the eighteenth century, with […]

Critical Analysis of Permanent Settlement of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha

The assessment of the Permanent Settlement of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha should be done in the light of following points. Position of Zamindars The permanent settlement was mainly done to make the amount of land revenue permanent, certain and fixed. The ownership of land had undergone paradigm shift. In Mughal era, Zamindar was not owner of […]