After India became independent, Nehru and his policy advisors embarked on a
programme of planned development that focused on agrarian reform as well as
industrialisation. The policymakers were responding to the dismal agricultural
situation in India at that time. This was marked by low productivity, dependence
on imported food grains, and the intense poverty of a large section of the rural population.
The Land Ceiling Acts were introduced by the Nehru government, how was it defeated?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
According to these acts, the state is supposed to identify and take
possession of surplus land (above the ceiling limit) held by each household,
and redistribute it to landless families and households in other specified
categories, such as SCs and STs. But in most of the states these acts proved to
be toothless. There were many loopholes and other strategies through which
most landowners were able to escape from having their surplus land taken over
by the state. While some very large estates were broken up, in most cases
landowners managed to divide the land among relatives and others, including
servants, in so-called ‘benami transfers’ – which allowed them to keep control
over the land (in fact if not in name). In some places, some rich farmers actually
divorced their wives (but continued to live with them) in order to avoid the
provisions of the Land Ceiling Act, which allowed a separate share for unmarried
women but not for wives.