What were the major land reforms initiated by the government of India? Why some of these land reforms became unsuccessful in India?

Land reform is the serious programmed which is initiated by the government of India to abolish the landlord system in India. Perhaps the most important and successful of these was the abolition of the colonial system of zamindari. This bold act not only released land from the clutches of a class that had little interest in agriculture, but it also reduced the capacity of the landlords to control politics. Attempts at consolidation of land – bringing small pieces of land together in one place so that the farm size could become viable for agriculture – were also fairly successful.

But the other two mechanisms of land reforms were unsuccessful.Though the laws were made to put an upper limit or ‘ceiling' to how much agricultural land one person could own, people with excess land managed to evade the law. Similarly, the tenants who worked on someone else's land were given superior legal security against expulsion, but this provision was rarely implemented. This provision was rarely successful in some of the states and unsuccessful in some other states.

Some of these reforms were unsuccessful because it was not easy to turn these well-meaning policies on agriculture into authentic and effective action. This could happen only if the rural, landless poor were mobilized. But the landowners were very powerful and wielded substantial political influence. Therefore, many proposals for land reforms were either not translated into laws, or, when made into laws, they remained only on paper. This shows that economic policy is part of the actual political situation in society. It also shows that in spite of the good wishes of some top leaders, the leading social groups would always effectively control policymaking and implementation.