Land reform refers to efforts in India to reform land ownership and regulation. Land Reform refers to the government''s redistribution of land from landowners to landless people for agricultural or special purposes.

Success of land reforms

• The most successful of all reforms were the abolition of intermediaries like zamindars.
• There are enough studies to indicate that the quantum of absentee ownership in the 70s was much less serious than in the 50s. Absentee ownership had reduced much more in un-irrigated areas, than in irrigated areas. The transfer of land under the fore-warning impact of the tenancy and ceiling legislation to the resident cultivators was on a much larger scale in dry areas.
• The greed of the big landowners was kept in check.
• Collapse of the feudal structure.
• It led to an increase in the landless labour, as former tenants were driven out.
• Rich peasants preferred to avoid wage related disputes with the new labour and thus preferred more mechanization.
• Tenancy reforms were most successful in Kerala and West Bengal. In the late 1960s a massive program of conferment of titles to lands, to hutment dwellers and tenants were highly beneficial. Operation Barga: In West Bengal Operation Barga was launched in 1978 with the objective of achieving the registration of sharecroppers and provide them permanent occupancy and heritable rights and a crop division of 1:3 between landowner and sharecropper.
• Cooperatives and community development programs were started.

However, there are many reasons for the failure of land reforms in India which include the following: -

Reasons for Failure of Land Reforms

Poor Land Records

• The major obstacle to the failure of land reforms is the lack of concurrent evaluation and reliable (current) records.
• The reporting system is unstable and unreliable after 45 years of land changes.
• There hasn''t been a regular, organized evaluation of development. There are no efforts being made to conduct thorough contemporaneous reviews.
• With purposeful malice aforethought, incorrect records are maintained. As a result, it is impossible to pinpoint obstacles to the implementation of land reform.

Lack of Financial Support

• Another obstacle standing in the way of land reform is a lack of financial backing.
• The Five Year Plans did not provide any funding specifically for financing land reform.
• Many states refused to include even the cost of such necessary items as the creation of surveys and records in their budgetary plans.
• Therefore, the poor results of its implementation are mostly attributable to the lack of proper fiscal assistance in whatever manner.

Lack of Integrated Approach

• The absence of an integrated approach, such as the elimination of intermediary tenures, tenancy reforms, holdings ceilings, etc., was another factor in India''s failed land reforms.
• The programs are not properly coordinated. It means that programs for land reform have been seen as separate from the primary initiatives for economic development.

Improper Implementation

• In almost all states, the revenue administration is in charge of implementing land reforms into action.
• On the other side, maintaining public order, collecting land taxes, and other regulatory duties were given top attention.
• Land reforms do not receive the needed attention as a result.

Legal Hurdles

• Land reform implementation in the nation is also hampered by legal issues and limitations.
• The Task Force has made it clear that "whatever small prospect of success there may have been, has entirely vanished due to the gaps in the laws and protracted litigation."
• The land reform laws had numerous flaws; some were intentional loopholes, while others were the result of poor drafting.

Lack of Pressure from Below

• Except in a few scattered and isolated areas, basically all over the country, the poor peasants and agricultural laborers are passive, unorganized, and non-cooperative.
• The primary issue is that those who benefit from land reforms do not belong to a uniform social or economic class.
• Given these facts, it is understandable why there hasn''t been much downward pressure for the proper implementation of land reforms.

Lack of Political Will

• The Task Force believed that the effective enactment of progressive land reform measures and their implementation was hindered by a lack of political will.
• Effective political support, direction, and control are necessary for efficient implementation.
• The problem of political will is vividly evidenced by the wide gaps between policy and legislation and between law and implementation.
• It is a well-known reality that the lack of political stems from the country''s democratic political power structure.

Indifferent Attitude of the Administration

• The revenue administration is solely responsible for implementing any land reform initiatives in each state.
• But it is a sad condition of affairs because the administrative staff''s attitude and even their behavior are quite apathetic.
• In addition, landlords have a lot of power over village officials like Patwaries, Karamcharies, Karnams, Symbols, etc.
• In actuality, they have shown to be uncooperative.

Excessive advance publicity and delays in enacting land laws

• The leaders of the ruling party have given much advance publicity to the proposed land reforms after independence.
• Again, the time it takes for a bill to become an Act has been unusually long in many states.
• This has allowed landowners to make the necessary adjustments in order to avoid various provisions of land reform legislation.

Loose definition of the term "personal cultivation"

• Under the definition, one could resume personal cultivation while sitting 200 miles away.
• The Zamindars have been given permission to cultivate large areas of land.
• Again, the laws have provided for numerous exemptions, such as land awarded for gallantry, land under orchards, tea estates, well-managed farms, and so on.

Nature of the laws

• The majority of the laws granting tenants ownership rights are optional. Tenants must petition the government for ownership rights. They will not be delivered automatically.
• Many tenants are afraid to approach the law courts for this purpose because they are afraid of their landlords.

Malafide land transfer

• To avoid the laws governing land ceilings, Zamindars have engaged in large-scale land transfers to family members or kinsmen.

Lack of social consciousness among tenants

• The importance of tenant social consciousness has been emphasised as a factor responsible for the successful implementation of land reforms.
• Small farmers and landless people were not only disorganised, but they were also often unaware of legal and constitutional processes.

State governments have sided with the big farmers

• State governments, which control land operations, have sided with the big farmers. Small farmers'' interests have been severely harmed.

Bureaucratic corruption

• Land reforms provide a golden opportunity for the Patwari and other Revenue Department functionaries to make money.
• Again, in many cases, high-ranking officials are landlords.
• Furthermore, lands acquired to be distributed among landless farmers are cheaply acquired by politicians and bureaucrats.

Surplus land is fallow and uncultivable land

• Surplus land owners manipulate land data so that the excess land in their possession is usually barren and uncultivable.
• Such surplus land provides no benefit to landless peasants.

Absence of records

• The lack of records regarding land ownership and possession, as well as actual cultivators, makes it difficult to properly identify the beneficiaries of land reforms.

Inconsistency in land reform laws

• Land reform laws are not consistent across India. They differ depending on the state. This also explains why land reform measures are moving slowly.

Emergence of new agricultural technology

• Adoption of the new seed-cum-fertilizer technology requires ample resources and dynamic entrepreneurship.
• Only large farmers can meet these requirements.

Land reforms must be properly implemented for them to succeed. It takes a government with strong political will and a bureaucracy with the dedication to achieve the desired objectives. In order to overcome the obstacles, the poor should be inspired through education and persuasion and the rich should be coerced to cooperate.