India in Transition: Issues of Political Economy in a Plural Society by F Tomasson Jannuzi

Author:F Tomasson Jannuzi [Jannuzi, F Tomasson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Constitutions, Social Policy, Social Science, Political Science, World, Asian, Regional Studies, General
ISBN: 9780367013431
Google: fSbxDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 50737211
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

Agrarian Reforms Thwarted by Ambiguous Commitment

If agrarian reforms have largely failed in India, that failure can best be understood by analysis of the peculiar nature of the national commitment to such reforms. That commitment has deep roots in the past. Among the goals enunciated by the Congress movement prior to independence was that of "comprehensive" agrarian reforms. It was easier then, as now, to reach apparent consensus on the need for such reforms than it was to make explicit the meaning of agrarian reforms to various interest groups within the Congress coalition, and to confirm their relevance either to agricultural development policy or poverty alleviation in the countryside. For some, particularly westernized intellectuals within the movement, the general commitment to agrarian reforms was associated loosely with the development of a socialist India in which the ideals of equality and social justice might be realized. Within the Congress, the most committed to radical reforms, including basic land reforms leading to a redistribution of rights in land in the countryside, were the Congress Socialists, 24 who, prior to independence, included men such as Jaya Prakash Narayan and Rammanohar Lohia. Occupying a position apart from this group, but expressing similar intellectual commitment concerning the need for agrarian reforms, was Jawaharlal Nehru. These proponents of agrarian reforms tended to see them, vaguely, as having symbolic and extended meaning; for them agrarian reforms were to be part of a still nebulous program leading to a restructuring of the Indian economic, social and political systems--and the reduction of the numbers of people living in poverty.

There were others within the Congress whose beliefs were more traditional and conservative, and whose commitment to agrarian reforms was uncertain. Such men as Rajendra Prasad, later to be the first president of the Republic of India, were representative of this segment within the Congress. And it was this segment, more often than not, which held the balance of power within the policy-making echelons of the movement. Even Mahatma Gandhi, whose influence generally bridged the gap between those roughly classified as "radicals" and "conservatives", was clearly ambivalent on the question of agrarian reforms. Though deeply concerned with peasant problems and capable of winning over to the Congress a number of peasant reform movements from about 1920 in Bengal, Bihar, the United Provinces and the Punjab, Gandhi was also intimately associated with the landed elite and the large industrialists who were the principal financiers of the Congress movement. Generously interpreted, the Mahatma's behavior and message emphasized the importance of ensuring that the independence movement embraced all sorts of people, even those having divergent interests. His focus was on ensuring that landlords and industrialists, peasants and workers, would find common cause in the struggle for freedom. His message was the antithesis of class struggle. He preached the importance of mutual forbearance and tolerance. He suggested that peasants and workers, whatever their grievances, should not withhold rent or go on strikes, and that landlords and industrialists, as "trustees' of the assets in their hands, should

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