Bhoodan movement started by Vinoba Bhave to persuade large landowners to surrender their surplus land voluntarily attracted much public attention, But the end results were disappointing, since the land thus surrendered was usually unproductive land.

1) The objectives of this socialist pattern of development were: the reduction of inequalities, elimination of exploitation, and prevention of concentration of wealth.
2) Social justice meant that all citizens would have an equal opportunity to education and employment.
3) This essentially entailed the active participation of the state in the process of development.

Thus, the new government of India was faced with the mammoth task of developing the economy, improving conditions in agriculture, widening the manufacturing sector, increasing employment and reducing poverty.

1) Agriculture was overcrowded, and the per capita income from agriculture was very low.
2) The industry sector only accounted for 13% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1950.
3) The Indian offices of major foreign companies were involved only in marketing and sales, and not in manufacturing.
4) The industrial sector had grown in the decades before Independence, but it was still quite small.
5) Engineering units produced machinery for cotton spinning and weaving, paper, chemicals, sugar, jute and cement. However, the sector was relatively small and did not offer significant employment opportunities.

1) Part of the problem lay in the expansion of the public sector into non-strategic areas like tourism, hotels, consumer goods and so on. Services which depended on interactions with consumers were doing badly because of bad staff attitude.
2) Decisions on location were made for political rather than efficiency considerations.
3) Delays in construction resulted in cost overrun, so that the units were overcapitalized.
4) Administrative prices were not always economical.
5) Public sector units were also overstaffed, though the technology of heavy industries did not require so many workers. This increased the operating cost of the units, Inefficiency in management, all are the major factors which contributed to the poor performance of the Public sector enterprises.

The backwardness of agriculture could be attributed to two factors: institutional and technological.
(i) Institutional factors refer to the social and economic relations that prevailed, particularly between the land-owning classes and the cultivating classes. 
(ii) Technological factors relate to use of better seeds, improved methods of cultivation, use of chemical fertilizers, use of machinery like tractors and harvester combines, and provision of irrigation.

1) The purpose was to provide rural households with assets which would improve their economic position, so that they would be able to come out of poverty.
2) These could be improvements to the land, supply of cows or goats for dairying or help to set up small shops or other trade-related businesses.
3) The capital cost of the assets provided was covered by subsidies and loans varied based on economic situation of the family receiving assistance.
4) The functioning and the effects of IRDP were assessed by many economists as well as government bodies.
5) The ultimate conclusion was that the programme did not really deliver on the benefits that were intended,
6) The programme was restructured in 1999 as a programme to promote self-employment of the rural poor.

Tenancy reform legislation was aimed at achieving three ends:
(i) to regulate the rent;
(ii) to secure the rights of the tenant;
(iii) to confer ownership rights on the tenants by expropriating the land of the landowners.

1) India followed the example of the USSR in planning for development through five year plans. The Planning Commission was set up in 1950 to formulate plans for developing the economy.
2) Each Plan assesses the performance of the economy and the resources available for future development.
3) Targets are set in accordance with the priorities of the government. Resources are allocated to various sectors, like agriculture, industry, power, social sectors and technology, and a growth target is also set for the economy as a whole.
4) One of the primary objectives of planning was to build a self-sufficient economy.
5) The First Five Year Plan covered the period 1951-56. Till now there have been twelve Five Year Plans in addition to three one year plans between 1966 and 1969.
6) Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017) was the last plan. In 2015, the Planning Commission was wound up and replaced by the Niti Ayog
7) The First Plan (1951-56) focused on developing agriculture, especially increasing agricultural production. The allocation for Agriculture and Irrigation accounted for 31% of the total outlay.
8) After this, the emphasis shifted to industry, and the share of agriculture in total outlay hovered between 20 and 24%. By the Eleventh Plan it had come down to less than 20%.
9) The Second Plan (1956-61), commonly referred to as the Mahalanobis Plan, stressed the development of heavy industry for achieving economic growth.
10) The share of industry in Plan outlay was only 6% in the First Plan, and increased to about 24% after the Second Plan. But the share has been declining since the Sixth Plan, perhaps because the major investments in the public sector had been completed.
11) The allocation for power development was very low in the first four plans and this created a huge shortage of power in the country.
12) The first two Plans had set fairly modest targets of growth at about 4%, which economists described as the "Hindu rate of growth". These growth rates were achieved so that the first two Plans were considered to have been successful.

Under the Constitution of India, agriculture was a 'state subject', that is, each state had to pass laws relating to land reforms individually.
Thus, while the basic form of land reforms was common among all the states, there was no uniformity in the specific terms of land reform legislation among the states.
Abolition of Zamindari was part of the manifesto of the Indian National Congress Party even before Independence.
1) The government passed two amendments to the Constitution for abolition of zamindari system,
2) The First Amendment in 1951 and the Fourth Amendment in 1955, which removed the 'right to property' from the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution and preempted the right of zamindars to question the expropriation of their land or the value of the compensation.
3) Finally, zamindari abolition was completed by 1956, and was possibly the most successful of the land reforms. About 30 lakh tenants and sharecroppers gained ownership of 62 lakh hectares of land. The total compensation actually paid to the zamindars amounted to Rs.16,420 lakhs
4) In sum, however, the reform only achieved a very small part of the original objective.
5) Many zamindars were able to evict their tenants and take over their land claiming that this land was under their 'personal cultivation'.
6) Thus, while the institution of zamindari was dismantled, many landowners continued in possession of vast tracts of land.
(b) Tenancy reform - Most large landowners in India tended to belong to the upper castes - Brahmin and non-Brahmin.
1) It was common for them to lease out the land to tenants. Usually these tenancy arrangements continued for long periods of time.
2) The rents received by the landowners generally amounted to about 50% or more of the produce from the land, which was very high.
3) Tenancy was a customary practice and agreements were rarely recorded.
4) Tenancy reform legislation was passed in the states regulating the rent at one-fourth to one third of the produce. But this could never be implemented successfully. The agricultural sector had a surplus of labour whereas land was a resource in short supply.
5) Price controls did not work in a situation when the demand exceeded the supply. All that happened was that rent rates were pushed under the table without any official record.
6) Tenancy agreements were made orally, and were recorded. The tenant thus always had to live with the uncertainty that their land could be resumed by the landlord any time.
7) When tenancy reform laws were announced many landowners claimed to have taken back their land for 'personal cultivation' and that tenants were only being employed as labour to work the land.
8) Tenancy reform was bound to be ineffectual in the absence of a comprehensive and enforceable land ceiling programme.
(c) Land Ceiling:
1) Laws were passed after the 1950s to enforce Land ceiling it.
2) Until 1972, there was a ceiling on the extent of land that a 'landholder' could own.
3)  After 1972, the unit was changed to a 'family'. This meant that the landowners could claim that each member of the family owned a part of the land which would be much less than the prescribed limit under the ceiling.
4) Deciding the extent of land under land ceiling was a complex exercise, since land was not of uniform quality.
5) Distinctions had to be made between irrigated and unirrigated dry land, single crop and double crop producing land.
6)  As all these issues were being debated in the policy forums, the landowners had plenty of time to manipulate the land records and create fictitious and fraudulent partition ot the land among relatives or trusts.
7) Further, many categories of land were not subject to ceilings. These included orchards, horticultural land, grazing land, land belonging to religious and charitable trusts, and sugarcane plantations.
8) These exemptions were also used to evade the land ceiling acts.
9) But the end results were disappointing, since the land thus surrendered was usually. unproductive land.

Under the Constitution of India, agriculture was a 'state subject', that is, each state had to pass laws relating to land reforms individually.
(a) Zamindari Abolition:
Zamindar - the class of landowners designated during British rule as the intermediaries who collected rent from peasants cultivating their land and paid that land revenue to the government under a Permanent Settlement.
1) Abolition of Zamindari was part of the manifesto of the Indian National Congress Party even before Independence.
2) Most provinces in India had enacted laws abolishing the zamindari system.
3) Land was taken away from the zamindars were distributed among the tenants.
4) The provincial legislatures also recommended the amount of compensation to be paid to the zamindars.
5) zamindars in various parts of the country challenged the zamindari abolition laws in court.
6) The government then passed two amendments to the Constitution, which removed the 'right to property' from the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution and preempted the right of zamindars, to question the expropriation of their land or the value of the compensation.
7) Finally, zamindari abolition was completed by 1956, and was possibly the most successful of the land reforms.
8) In sum, however, the reform only achieved a very small part of the original objective. Thus, while the institution of zamindari was dismantled, many landowners continued in possession of vast tracts of land,
(b) Tenancy Reform:
Tenancy refers to an arrangement under which land was taken on lease from landowners by cultivators under specific terms.
1) Nearly half of the total cultivated land in India was under tenancy.
2) Not all tenants were landless peasants. Many small landowners, Some richer landowners also took additional land for cultivation on lease.
3) The rents received by the landowners generally amounted to about 50% or more of the produce from the land, which was very high.
4) Tenants could also be evicted at short notice, and tenants therefore always lived under some uncertainty,
Tenancy reform legislation was aimed at achieving three ends:
(i) to regulate the rent;
(ii) to secure the rights of the tenant;
(iii) to confer ownership rights on the tenants by expropriating the land of the land owners.
1) Legislation was passed in the states regulating the rent at one-fourth to one third of the produce. But this could never be implemented successfully.
2) The two Communist states, Kerala and West Bengal, were able to push through land reforms with greater success.
3)  In West Bengal, the programme to confer tenancy rights was called Operation Barga. This was quite successful, but the Communist government was criticized severely for giving official sanction to tenancy.
(c) Land Ceiling.
1) Land ceiling refers to the maximum amount of land that could be legally owned by individuals. Laws were passed after the 1950s to enforce it. In Tamilnadu it was implemented first in 1961.
2) Until 1972, there was a ceiling on the extent of land that a 'landholder' could own. After 1972, the unit was changed to a 'family'.
3) This meant that the landowners could claim that each member of the family owned a part of the land which would be much less than the prescribed limit under the ceiling.
4) Ultimately, only about 65 lakh hectares of land was taken over as surplus land. This was distributed to about 55 lakh tenants-an average of a little over 1 hectare per tenant.
5) Clearly, with their political power the dominant castes who were the big landowners managed to dilute and vitiate the entire legislation.
6) Efforts like Bhoodan started by Vinoba Bhave to persuade large landowners to surrender their surplus land voluntarily attracted much public attention.
7) But the end results were disappointing, since the land thus surrendered was usually unproductive land.
(d) Overall Appraisal:
1) Land reform legislation has overall not been a great success.
2) In economic terms, the dream of an agricultural sector prospering under peasant cultivators with secure, ownership rights has remained just that - a dream.
3) When agriculture has grown due to technological progress, a more efficient land market is 1 seen to be operating which is more conducive for long term growth.
4) In terms of social justice, the abolition of the semi-feudal system of zamindari has been effective.
5) The land reform measures have also made the peasants more politically aware of their rights and empowered them.