Land reforms

Story hook

On 18 April 1951, a frail 56-year-old in white khadi walks into Pochampally village, Telangana, and confronts a landlord. Vinoba Bhave has begun the Bhoodan movement. By the end of that day, Rama Chandra Reddy has surrendered 100 acres. Over the next thirteen years, Bhave walks 80,000 km on foot. By 1969, 47 lakh acres of land are gifted under Bhoodan-Gramdan. Of that, only 24 lakh acres were ever distributed — the rest tangled in litigation and dispute.

Four decades earlier, on 18 May 1955 in West Bengal, the Operation Barga (1978-87) committee under Benoy Choudhary registers 15 lakh bargadars (sharecroppers) giving them legal protection from eviction and right to two-thirds of the crop. Twenty kilometres south of Burdwan, a Communist Party youth wing leader sketches the difference: Bhoodan was charity; Barga is rights.

In 2020, the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP) comes online. By 2025, 89% of land parcels are digitised under the Bhu-Aadhaar / ULPIN scheme — a 14-character unique identifier for every plot. Land reform's three generations: abolition → ceiling → digital titling. Each one harder than the last.

Why this matters for UPSC

GS-III and GS-I both touch land reforms. The unit covers Zamindari abolition (1948-60), tenancy reforms, ceiling laws, consolidation of holdings, Bhoodan-Gramdan, Operation Barga, and digital titling (DILRMP / ULPIN / SVAMITVA). Prelims has tested ULPIN (2023), Operation Barga (2018), Bhoodan founder (2015), Land Ceiling (2010). Mains regularly asks for an evaluation of land reforms 1947-90.