Rural Reconstruction

Under the Constitution of India, agriculture was a ‘state subject’, that is, each state had to pass laws relating to land reforms individually. Envisioning a New Socio-Economic Order Assam and Bombay had introduced such legislation. West Bengal, where the Permanent Settlement was first introduced, the act was passed only in . Land taken away from the zamindars was distributed among the tenants.

The provincial legislatures also recommended the amount of compensation to be paid to the zamindars. Zamindars in various parts of the country challenged the constitutionality of the zamindari abolition laws in court. The government then passed two amendments to the Constitution, the First Amendment in and the Fourth Amendment in , which pre-empted the right of zamindars to question the takeover of their land or the value of the compensation. Finally, zamindari abolition was completed by , and was possibly the most successful of the land reforms.

About lakh tenants and sharecroppers gained ownership of lakh hectares of land. The total compensation actually paid to the zamindars amounted to ` , lakhs (which amounted to only about one-fourth of the total compensation amount due). In sum, however, the reform only achieved a very small part of the original objective. Many zamindars were able to evict their tenants and take over their land claiming that this land was under their ‘personal cultivation’.

Thus, while the institution of zamindari was dismantled, many landowners continued in possession of vast tracts of land.