Land Question and Dalit Rights in India: Experiences from the State of Bihar

The womb of unequal land rights can be traced in the so-called ‘varna’ system. Apart from untouchability, the denial of access to ‘land’ is a historical phenomenon in India. Backwardness, marginalisation and discrimination in every aspect of life are pulverised due to unsecured land rights on one hand, and on the other must be located in the nation’s dismal record on land reforms. After seven decades, the Dalit masses are not highly organised, politicised and capable of fighting for their rights due to collusion among intermediaries. The mainstream development literature tries to understand the changes in land relations through the lens of land reforms alone. Bihar provides an appropriate setting to understand how the bulk of land reform acts and rules could not fulfil the aims of land reforms. Our findings, based on macro-level data compiled from the Government of Bihar (GoB) and the Government of India and micro-level data through case studies, show that the much-acclaimed land reforms have failed to provide land rights to actual tillers or actual beneficiaries. The land reform process in India could not deal with the role of intermediaries due to the ‘new class nexus’. At present, the GoB has adopted a safety valve land reforms policy and is trying to restore the land rights to the Dalits. Such a situation is explained not only through land reforms but also by a set of interlocking historical, social and economic factors, including current initiatives of the State Government. JEL Code: Q15