India has witnessed enormous agrarian transformation in the post-independence period. This has occurred due to the policies introduced by the state, which included land reforms, community development programmes, Green Revolution and several welfare schemes. As a result of the agrarian transformation a set of new classes and have emerged in rural society, while old groups or classes have either disappeared or have got transformed. The agrarian transformation has affected politics in India to a significant extent.

The Kulaks

• Land reforms, especially the Zamindari abolition and Green Revolution had enormous impact on the agrarian transformation. On the one hand these accelerated the agriculture growth; on the other, entire pattern of the relations in agriculture underwent transformation. The latter was reflected in the rise of a class of economically and politically powerful groups in several parts of India. They came to be popularly known as Kulaks or rich farmers.
• L.H. Rudolph and Sussan Rudolph categoried them as “bullock capitalists”. These groups emerged to control the political affairs in several states, and from the 1990s they have become influential in the national politic as well. In terms of the caste composition, they belonged to the intermediary castes like Jats, Yadavs, Lodhs, Gujars, Kurmie, etc., in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan; Marathas in Maharastra; Lingayats and Vokaliggas in Karnataka; and Reddies and Kammas in Andhra Pradesh. They have been identified as the OBCs in the states inhabited by them.
• Having become the owners of land following the Zamindari abolition, they benefited from the modern technologies and inputs through Green Revolution. The land reforms made them the most powerful groups in the agrarian society in many regions of the country. The emergence also resulted in the decline of the erstwhile dominant groups. The developments, however, did not benefit the socially and economically vulnerable groups – dalits and the lower backward classes. The welfare measures like the poverty alleviation programmes, etc. have been mainly the populist measures.
• Besides, these have been hampered by large scale corruption. Nevertheless, due to the spread of education, awareness and impart of the ideas of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and mass media, there has been the assertion of dalits in certain including the rural areas states like Uttar Pradesh. The emergence of the Bahujan Samaj Party is an indication of this. Kulaks or rich farmers have made their presence felt through their political parties and nonpolitical organisations. The first example of such attempt was foundation of the Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD) by Charan Singh. In the late 1970s and 1980s – the organisation like the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) in North India, Shetkari Sangathan in Maharastra and Karnataka Ryat Sangha in Karnataka played important role in articulating the interests of Kulaks.

The Small Farmers and Landless Labourers

• In the 1960s and 1970s large part of the country witnessed the emergence of the movement of the small farmers and landless labour. This movement started from Naxalbari in West Bengal and very soon spread to different parts of country like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa till the end of the 60s. In 1970 a land grab movement of the landless led by the Socialist Party and the Communist Party of India was witnessed in Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Although these movements could not achieve much yet they succeeded in attracting the attention of the countrymen towards agrarian question.
• The Left front government introduced land reforms in West Bengal during its tenure. This ensured the security to the tenants and land to the tiller. In 1970 while addressing Chief Ministers conference on land reforms the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi held that the cause of discontent in the countryside was the failure of the land reforms to meet the expectation of the people in the countryside. Reduction in ceiling limits was the main proposal discussed in this conference. Most of the Chief Ministers rejected this proposal. Then this matter was referred to the Central Land Reforms Committee. This committee made quite a few recommendations in 1971.
• The 1972 Chief Ministers’ conference approved some national guidelines for reforms in India. The national guidelines made a departure from the history of ceiling legislation in India. It reduced the ceiling limits on all categories of lands. Family, not individual was taken as unit for the purpose of ceiling. Preference was to be given to landless labourers, particularly belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in distribution of surplus lands. The compensation this time was much below the market price. The landowners again went to court and indulged in other deceitful methods to undermine the ceiling laws. Nevertheless, in the 1970s the ceiling legislation moderately succeeded in its objective of collecting and distributing surplus land. Another good thing was that the major-beneficiaries of the ceiling laws this time were the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
• In certain parts of country, the agrarian transformation has resulted in the increased participation of dalits in politics.