intermediaries who worked under feudal lords (Zamindari) to collect rent for the British were reputed to allow a larger share of the surplus from the land to be extracted from tenants. Most states had passed legislation to abolish intermediaries prior to . The third category of land reform acts concerned efforts to implement ceilings on land holdings, with a view to redistributing surplus land to the landless. Finally, the reform acts which attempted to allow consolidation of disparate land- ( holdings.
Though these reforms and in particular the latter were justified partly in terms of achieving efficiency in agriculture, it is clear from the acts themselves and from the political manifestos supporting the acts that the main impetus driving the first three reforms was poverty reduction. Land Reforms since Independence The peculiarities of Indian agriculture, combined with the declared desire to bring about economic development as well as social justice led the govt., in the post-Independence period, to under- take a comprehensive programme of land reforms. In short these reforms aimed at Abolition of Zamindars and intermediaries (middle men) Bringing land celing Protoection of tenants, tillers and labourers Cooperation among farming community (a) Abolition of Intermediaries One of the first aims of the agrarian reforms was to eliminate the middlemen such as the Zamindars and Jagirdars so as to bring the cultivator into direct relationship with the govt. The work of Zamindari abolition was comparatively easy in the temporarily settled areas such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh where adequate records and administrative machinery existed.
(b) Land ceiling In order to achieve equality in possession and utilization of land, legislations were passed in all states imposing ceiling on existing land holdings as well as on future acquisition of land. However, provisions relating to level, transfers, and exemptions differed considerably from state to state. In Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Manipur, there was one uniform ceiling limit irrespective of the class of land, ceiling being fixed at acres, ¾ acres and