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UPSC Optional 2025Question 15SociologyRural and Agrarian Transformation in India150 words

"The transfer of land from cultivating to the non-cultivating owners is bringing about transformation in Indian society." Justify your answer by giving suitable illustrations. (Answer in 150 words)

Model answer & approach

- "The transfer of land from cultivating to the non-cultivating owners is bringing about transformation in Indian society." Justify your answer by giving suitable illustrations. (Answer in 150 words)
Introduction
Land is passing from those who till it to owners who do not, remaking rural society.
Body
1. What the shift consists of: Distress sale under debt, purchase by urban buyers and companies, acquisition for industry and real estate, and reverse tenancy, in which small owners lease to larger operators; the cultivator stays on as tenant or wage worker.
2. The transformations it brings: Ownership separates from cultivation. Because tenancy law penalises recorded leasing the arrangement goes oral, and the tenant gets no institutional credit or compensation. Around Gurugram and Bengaluru farmland becomes plots and a one-time gain replaces a livelihood. Adivasi and Dalit holdings go first, despite the Fifth Schedule and PESA, and the displaced move into the urban informal sector.
3. Which parts of society it reaches: Hardest hit are tenants, labourers and tribal cultivators; the gain accrues to owners who never farm.
Conclusion
The transfer converts cultivators into a landless workforce and land into an asset held for gain.
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