With reference to land reforms in independent India, which one of the following statements is correct?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless.
Land reforms after 1947 sought equity: abolish intermediaries, make the tiller the owner, and cap holdings so that surplus land could go to the landless. That redistributive aim is option (b); the other three statements are factually wrong.
- ✓ (b) The reforms aimed to give ownership to those who actually tilled the land and to cut the concentration of land in a few hands, with ceiling-surplus land meant for the landless and rural poor.
- ✗ (a) A ceiling fixes the maximum land a person may own; it was applied to individuals as well as to families (many states later used the family as the unit), so 'not individual holdings' is wrong.
- ✗ (d) State ceiling Acts carried exemptions; the Tamil Nadu Act, for instance, exempted existing plantations and certain orchards and gardens.
Remember · Land reform pillars: abolition of intermediaries, tenancy reform, land ceilings (with state-wise exemptions such as plantations) and redistribution of surplus land to the landless.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 Indian Economic Development, Ch 2 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- NCERT Class 11 · Indian Economic Development, Chapter 2 “Land ceiling was another policy to promote equity in the agricultural sector. This means fixing the maximum size of land which could be owned by an individual. The purpose of land ceiling was to reduce the concentration of land ownership in a few hands.”
- Land Reforms — Commissionerate of Land Reforms, Government of Tamil Nadu ↗ “all plantations in existence on the date of the commencement of the Act provided that such plantations shall be exempted only so long as they continue to be plantations.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2019, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·