Distinctive Features of Agrarian Structure in India

  What are the distinctive features of agrarian structure in India. Define ownership holding and operational holding in India?

Answer

•      The main characteristics of the agrarian structure which independent India inherited were:

            a) absentee land ownership;

            b) exploitation of tenants through high rents and insecurity of             tenure;

            c) unequal distribution of land;

            d) tiny and fragmented holdings; and

            e) lack of adequate institutional finance to agriculture.

•      Ownership holding is defined as the area of land which a person or a family owns. The problem was of subdivision and fragmentation.

•      When a holding is held in several scattered plots, it is called a ‘fragmented holding’ and the process creating such holdings is termed ‘fragmentation’.

Operational Holding = Ownership Holding — Land Leased out + Land Leased in)