 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Due to the ancient land relations and taxation and regulation under theBritish Raj, at the time of independence, India inherited a semi-feudal agrarian system, with ownership of land concentrated in the hands of a few individual landlords. Since independence, there has been voluntary and state initiated/mediated land reforms in several states. The most notable and successful example of land reforms are in the states ofWest Bengal andKerala. The Land Reforms Ordinance was a law in the state of Kerala,India byK. R. Gowri Amma minister in thefirst EMS government.[1]
The EMS government was the firstcommunist state government popularly elected to power in India, in the southern state of Kerala. Soon after taking its oath of office in 1957, the government introduced the controversial Land Reforms Ordinance, which was later made into an act. This, along with anEducation Bill, raised a massive uproar from the landlord classes. The popular slogan for the radical socialists was "the land for tillers", which sent shock-waves through the landlord classes in the country. The ordinance set an absolute ceiling on the amount of land a family could own. The tenants and hut dwellers received a claim in the excess land, on which they had worked for centuries under the feudal system. In addition, the law ensuredfixity of tenure and protection from eviction.[2]These ground-breaking measures caused the premature death of the state government, as the central government, underJawaharlal Nehru, usedarticle 356 to dismiss it, alleging the breakdown of law and order. The land reforms in Kerala imparted drastic changes to the political, economic and social outlook.[citation needed]Different types offeudal relations existed inTravancore-Cochin andMalabar at the time of the formation of the state. The landless farmers and those who were evicted from their land wanted to get their grievances redressed. The clamour for changes gathered strength. The government which came to power in 1957 introduced the Land Reforms Bill in theLegislative Assembly. The Agrarian Relations Bill introduced in 1958 was passed with minor amendments. The legislature passed subsequent land reform bills in 1960, 1963, and 1964. But the historical land reform act, Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1969 byC. Achutha Menon government which put an end to the feudal system and ensured the rights of the tenants on land, came into force on 1 January 1970. However, cash crop plantations had been exempted from its purview. There have been many amendments to the act since, the latest having been in 2012.[3]
