Karnataka land reforms 2020: what is in it for Dalits?

ABSTRACT

In order to understand how Dalits stand to be impacted by the 2020 Amendment to the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961 as caste remains invisible in the legislation, the amendment is examined in the context of post-independence land reforms, and the implications of the legislation on Dalits in rural south India are studied. The research draws on 2013–15 survey data from three villages to show that Dalits are predominantly landless, lack access to agricultural tenancy but form an overwhelming majority of agricultural labour in rural Karnataka. The impacts of the amendments on the livelihoods of Dalits must be considered. The structural transformation envisaged by the state through such a land reform should enable a reduction in inequality rather than promoting exclusionary growth.

摘要

2020年卡纳塔克邦土地改革: 达利特人将面临什么? Area Development and Policy. 为了解达利特人是如何受到 《1961 年卡纳塔克邦土地改革法案》 2020 年修正案的影响，因种姓在立法中仍然不可见，本文在独立后土地改革的背景下审查了该修正案，并研究了该立法对于印度南部农村达利特人的影响。本文借鉴了2013–15年三个村庄的调查数据，研究表明，达利特人主要是没有土地的，无法获得农业租赁，但却在卡纳塔克邦农村占农业劳动力的绝大多数，因此，必须要考虑修正案对达利特人生计的影响。国家设想的通过这种土地改革结构转型应该能够减少不平等， 而不是促进排他性增长。

Resumen

Reformas agrarias de Karnataka en 2020: ¿Qué significa para los dalit? Area Development and Policy. Con el objetivo de comprender en qué medida se verán afectados los dalit por la Enmienda de 2020 a la Ley de reformas agrarias de Karnataka de 1961, puesto que las castas permanecen invisibles en la legislación, en este estudio analizamos esta enmienda en el contexto de las reformas agrarias tras la independencia, y estudiamos qué repercusiones tendrá tal legislación en los dalit que viven en las zonas rurales al sur de la India. El estudio se basa en datos de encuestas realizadas entre 2013 y 2015 en tres pueblos y demuestra que la mayoría de los dalit no tienen tierras ni acceso a arrendamientos agrícolas pero constituyen una abrumadora mayoría dedicada a trabajos agrícolas en la zona rural de Karnataka. También se debería considerar cómo repercutirán las enmiendas en los medios de vida de los dalit. La transformación estructural prevista por el Estado a través de esta reforma agraria debería permitir reducir las desigualdades en vez de fomentar el crecimiento excluyente.

Аннотация

Земельные реформы Карнатаки 2020: что это значит для далитов? Area Development and Policy. Чтобы понять, как на далитов повлияет Поправка 2020 года к Закону о земельных реформах штата Карнатака 1961 года, поскольку каста остается невидимой в законодательстве, поправка рассматривается в контексте земельных реформ после обретения независимости и изучаются последствия законодательства для далитов в сельских районах южной Индии. Исследование опирается на данные опроса 2013-15 годов в трех деревнях, чтобы показать, что далиты преимущественно безземельны, не имеют доступа к аренде сельскохозяйственной недвижимости, но составляют подавляющее большинство сельскохозяйственной рабочей силы в сельской местности Карнатаки. Необходимо учитывать влияние поправок на средства к существованию далитов. Структурные преобразования, предусмотренные государством посредством такой земельной реформы, должны способствовать сокращению неравенства, а не способствовать росту за счет исключения.

KEYWORDS:

• land reforms
• Karnataka
• Dalits
• caste
• India

关键词:

• 土地改革
• 卡纳塔克邦
• 达利特人
• 种姓
• 印度

palabras clave:

• reformas agrarias
• Karnataka
• dalit
• casta
• India

Ключевые слова:

• земельные реформы
• Карнатака
• далиты; каста
• Индия

Acknowledgements

Iyer thanks the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, for the doctoral fellowship that supported the primary data collection for this work. The authors would like to thank Shoibal Chakravarty, Swathi Shivanand, Chetan Choithani, Vinay Sreenivasa and Suraj Gogoi for extensive comments on the article. We are grateful to the reviewers and the editors of the journal for their substantive comments that improved the article. We are responsible for any errors that remain.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The village names are anonymized.

2. Lingayats are a dominant caste in Karnataka, in terms of landownership, numerical and political dominance. Dominant caste denotes numerical, economic, ritual and political dominance (Srinivas, 1959).

3. These figures must be adjusted for inflation as well as the exponential increases in land prices to show that the increase in the income limit facilitated the purchase of agricultural land by resource-rich agriculturists. (e.g., https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/great-rural-land-rush-3-to-100-fold-rise-in-farm-land-prices-may-not-bode-well/articleshow/25607513.cms?from=mdr, accessed on 30 September 2022.)

4. The Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands Act, 1978 aimed to protect the lands granted by the government to SC/ST households under various schemes. In practice, it has been diluted by judgements of the Supreme Court that impose arbitrary timelines for reclaiming land granted under this Act when the Act itself sets no such limit. (e.g., https://indiankanoon.org/doc/112442753/, accessed on 30 September 2022.) This has prevented SC/ST households who have lost their land in wrongful sales from reclaiming their land, rendering them landless. Further, the Karnataka High court recently decided that land that has been converted to non-agricultural purposes would not fall under the purview of the PTCL Act (e.g., https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2021/jul/25/land-given-to-sc-sts-ceases-to-be-granted-property-if-diverted-karnataka-hc-2334998.html, accessed on 3 December 2021). This results in coercion from real estate magnates to divert lands granted to SC/ST households for non-agricultural purposes, leading to sales of granted land at less than market prices (Upadhya & Rathod, 2021, p. 31).

5. A high incidence of landlessness among Dalit households is seen across village studies in Karnataka. The three villages studied as part of the Project on Agrarian Relations in India showed that 31.4% of Dalit households were landless in Alabujanahalli, Mandya district, 24.1% in Siresandra, Kolar district, and 54.3% in Zhapur, Gulbarga district (Swaminathan & Das, 2017).

6. Among the cases of successful assignment of land to the tenant with the 1974 amendment in Bandegaon, no Dalit gained land, and, in one case, a Dalit lost an acre to a dominant caste Lingayat farmer due to the practice of reverse tenancy.

7. See https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/insight/karnataka-land-reforms-gamble-could-upend-the-rural-economy-879854.html for pending cases under section 79 A, B and C in various districts.

8. See https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/insight/land-reforms-ordinance-previous-experiences-fuel-farmers-resistance-879853.html.

9. See https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/karnataka-farmland-registration-up-67-after-reforms/articleshow/84084154.cms.