From land reform to guaranteeing title to land (secure property rights) in India

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates how the adoption of neoliberal economic policies by the Indian state in recent decades has made a deeper impact on land policy. The earlier redistributive policy agenda of land reforms is now giving way to policies that facilitate the growth of land market and secure property rights. This is evident in the implementation of two important central sponsored schemes – the National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP) and Jawaharlal National Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM) – in which it is clearly envisaged that the state would promote secure property rights regime (by guaranteeing land title) that effectively means giving a go by to existing presumptive nature of ownership of land. Such policy shifts – from redistributive agenda of land reform to land management; from presumptive nature of land ownership to secure property rights – certainly mark a historic reorientation of land policy as the land issues in India symbolise an age-old legacy of socio-economic disparity and asymmetric social and economic power relations. Ironically, this policy shift, as is argued in the chapter, has bypassed critical public debates and engagements even though the exclusive and individualist idea of property rights under the ‘secure property rights regime’ overlooks the interests of secondary interest holders, that is, tenants, tribal communities, the landless, and so on. In this context, this study assumes immense academic as well as policy significance for it not only deals with the original ‘redistributive’ ideas of land reforms but also critically analyses new policy regimes around ownership to land and brings to fore its various implications for the stakeholders.