Panel 15: The Difficult Problem of Land Reform Friday, April 21 st (1:00-2:00pm)

Panel 15: The Difficult Problem of Land Reform

Friday, April 21st (1:00-2:00pm)

13th Symposium onDevelopment and Social Transformation

The Necessity for Sustainable Land Reform in Cambodia

Konstantin Dubrovsky

Panel 15: The Difficult Problem of Land Reform

13th Symposium onDevelopment and Social Transformation

Land Tenure Reform In CambodiaKonstantin Dubrovsky

Current Land UseSource: Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction

Current Land UseSource: World Bank, 2006 Agriculture sector is predominant employer in the country.GDP By Sectoragriculture: 35%industry: 30%services: 35%

Historic PerspectivePre-French (Pre-1863)French Colonial Period (1863-1953)Independent Period (1953-1975) Khmer Rouge (1975-1979)Peoples Republic of Kampuchea Vietnamese Administration (1979-1989)1992 Land Law2002 Land Law

Currently80% of land is still without titlesRural poor are uneducatedUnclear demarcationsPublic & PrivateSteady Progress towards reform.

CurrentlyIFI SupportAsian Development Bank TAWB Assistance LoansGTZCGBilateral SupportCivil Society InvolvementGovernment driven reform

END

Investigating Failure of Agrarian Reform in Rural Bihar

Smita Yadav

Panel 15: The Difficult Problem of Land Reform

13th Symposium onDevelopment and Social Transformation

Investigating Historical And Contemporary Problems Of Land Reforms In Bihar

Smita Yadav

Friday, April 21 2006.

In rural Bihar, despite radical land reforms after independence in 1947 based on land distribution, the traditional social structures embedded in agrarian relations like caste structure, kinships and patron-client relations, did not change.

These relations got reinvented every time there was a formal agrarian reform or land reform introduced.

The social structures remained unchanged and continue to be so even as agricultural reforms demand a free market system and a land to the tiller policy.

Hence the land reforms have failed.

Nehru, the first prime minister of India, assumed that institutional changes in rural areas with the introduction of land reforms would lead to social changes that would alter the relationship between different strata of agriculturalists and incentive for land reform and tenancy reform would give to the poor to increase output.

Bihar in comparison to other states in India

West Bengal and Kerala are the two states where land reforms as underlined by the Indian government after independence, were relatively more successful than other states in India. The factors are:

Communist governments(allowed unionization of the landless and peasants thus giving them political mobilization)

Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are the other states that did not have communist governments but still showed better response to land reforms are.

However, these states were not as strongly controlled and influenced by the British empire even as they continued to show social structures similar to Bihar.

Besides, social reforms prior and during the colonization like Arya Samaj Movement had eroded caste identities This is also one of the reasons for successful land reforms in these states, except Maharashtra, where most of the lower castes had got converted to warrior class/caste.

So, in rural Bihar, we have to understand problems of land reforms within two main factors that are unique to Bihar:Historical and Colonial Context of landholdingsPostcolonial Context of Radical Agrarian reforms.

Historical reasonsColonial Context:Bihar, was part of the Bengal Presidency under colonial rule. Most of the region was categorized under Zamindari System (Landlordism) one of the types of land revenue collection by the British.

The British introduced Permanent Settlement in 1793, as part of their indirect rule, in Bihar and other areas in North India. This was made with the zamindars (landlords) with the understanding that the revenue due to the company would be fixed in cash, in perpetuity (Jannuzi, 1974).

Thus, prior to the postcolonial reforms, there had already grown intricate stratified system of relationships of people to land both during the Mughal and British period of rule in India.

Postcolonial Context:

Under radical land reforms, the Bihar Zamindar Abolition Act of 1947 was amended and reintroduced by the Bihar Land Reform Act of 1950.

This was essentially the Land to the Tiller act or the Raiyatwari Act, where only people who cultivated the land, will hold the land and directly pay their revenue to the state government.Essentially, this abolished the intermediary system of revenue collection.

Postcolonial Radical reforms:

Zamindari Abolition Act of 1947

Bihar Panchayat Act-1959 (A model of self-governance of a village)

Green Revolution Mid 60s

However, this was resented by larger land holders and zamindars who did not want to loose their control of the land to the small cultivators and landless peasants, arguing that they have been the traditional land owners and managers since the British and Mughal time.

The Bihar Panchayat Act 1959

Rural Affairs to be managed by the Village Council (the Panchayat). An idea of self-governance and decentralization. However, in Bihar, the dominant castes misused this institution of decentralization by hijacking the state resources for implementing agrarian reforms.

Green Revolution 1967-68 to 1977-1978This new capital intensive agricultural strength of mid-sixties not only displaced a large number of agricultural laborers and small tenants, as they were becoming redundant, but also force the small farmers to sell their lands to the rich ones.

A new breed of farmers, e.g doctors, lawyers, businessmen, retired military and civil servants emerged, who with their unaccounted money looked towards farming as a source of high supplementary income free from any tax burdens.

[- Prasad (Landejinsky, The Statesman , Sept 11 and 12, 1970) 2002]

Summing up the effects of radical land and agrarian reforms on agrarian relationships in Rural BiharContinued sub-division and fragmentation of holdings alongwith changing nature of market (Prasad 2002), but stagnant social structures.

Growing feeling of relative deprivation of the peasants (often the lower caste groups or tribals) in relation to the landed elites (often the upper castes and class) who not only own lands, but also control and influence the market. Increasing isolation and frustration of peasants who still do not have any land. One time they have land and other time they dont.

This frustration and anger resulted into creation of naxalites and other peasant groups using violence as their mean for social justice.

The landed elites respond by creating their own security force or Senas to protect their assets and suppress the landless from raising any voice of their exploitation and often resulting in mass killings of poor peasants.

Further deteriorating agrarian relations between the landed elites and the landless.

Studies have also pointed out that often the state machinery of law and order too is indirectly involved in not interfering to change the social problems of agrarian relations and infact, if they do interfere, would side with the landed elites to protect their own interests.

In Conclusion:

In rural Bihar, Agrarian relations are rigidly stratified.

Middlemen and intermediaries still exist even and land to the tiller policy is just a rhetoric.

Slavery and exploitation in the form of bonded labor still continues. Landholdings and ownerships exists only for the landed elites.

Lack of political mobilization of the rural and landless peasants.

Democratic institutions like Panchayat Raj Institutes, have failed. Other options for man-land relationships should be sought.

Before addressing land reforms, social reforms should be dealt with both at policy level and social level.

Radical reforms based on democratization and decentralization should be closely monitored and regulated by the government and in addition to empowerment.

Panel 15: The Difficult Problem of Land Reform

Friday, April 21st (2:10-3:10pm)13th Symposium onDevelopment and Social Transformation

Konstantin DubrovskyThe Necessity for Sustainable Land Reform in Cambodia

Smita YadavInvestigating Failure of Agrarian Reform in Rural Bihar