UPSC Prelims 2019 · GS Paper I

Question 2: Economy and Social Development

With reference to land reforms in independent India, which one of the following statements is correct?

aThe ceiling laws were aimed at family holdings and not individual holdings.

bThe major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless.

cIt resulted in cultivation of cash crops as a predominant form of cultivation.

dLand reforms permitted no exemptions to the ceiling limits.

AnswerUPSC’s answer is (b).

Land reforms after Independence aimed at ending intermediaries (zamindari abolition), securing tenants and redistributing surplus land above a ceiling to the landless, so the central aim was land for those who had none. Ceiling laws began with individual holdings and later moved towards the family as the unit, but that was a design choice, not the main aim. Reforms did not make cash crops the predominant form of cultivation, and ceiling laws carried exemptions, for example for plantations. Remember the aim: end landlordism, give land to the landless.

Why each option is right or wrong

(a) Ceiling laws first targeted individual holdings and later the family; this is not the main aim of land reforms.
(b) Correct: giving agricultural land to the landless, with intermediaries removed, was the central aim.
(c) Land reforms did not make cash-crop cultivation the predominant form of farming.
(d) Wrong: ceiling laws allowed exemptions, such as for certain plantations.

Answer: UPSC’s key. Explanation: written by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.

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Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2019, General Studies Paper I, Series A. The paper on upsc.gov.in.