3 Review(s)

"In the 1950s there was the first wave of agrarian reforms attempted by all the States of new India by enacting laws relating to abolitions of Estates and Zamindaries which were intended to remove all intermediaries between the cultivator of the land and the State. The second wave of reforms during the 1960s was the enactment of laws in the States of India in which the right and title of the tenants and raiyats are to be made permanent and secure. During the 1970s besides unprecedented political turmoil in India, the third wave of agrarian reforms came in form of the ceiling on landholdings and distribution of surplus land to the landless. This book deals with the above third wave of land reforms giving the performance data of Governments of States and Centre with author’s observation by field visits and from the findings of research institutes. The book is a part of the author’s doctoral research thesis on the implementation of the ceiling on land holdings in the country. The findings of the inquiry discover a scenario in the political economy of India which is startling and the country’s socio-economic picture remains so even today. Among the most valuable aspects of the thesis is the fact that Mr. Chaulia, as a Government Officer, can make sense of much of the ceiling legislation, as well as the bureaucratic processes set to implement them. He is able to draw out their significance in ways that dissertations and accounts that I have read by sophisticated but inexperienced academics do not do. The discussion, for example, of the family definitions in the Orissa and Andhra legislation, is very lucid and enlightening.” Susanne Hoeber Rudolph Professor, Political Science University of Chicago Director, South Asia Centre"