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India’s land in the hands of a few
A new paper by the World Inequality Lab shows that the richest 10 per cent of rural households own 44 per cent of India's total land. Furthermore, recent legislative changes in Gujarat have reignited the debate over ownership in areas considered sensitive to communal tensions, raising fears of further social exclusion.
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New Delhi (AsiaNews) – India's land is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small elite, while nearly half of the rural population remains landless, this according to a recent study by the World Inequality Lab, highlighting the importance of the debate over who owns land and who is being progressively excluded from it.
On 25 March, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, which is controlled by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), amended the Disturbed Areas Act, a law that regulates the sale of properties in areas sensitive to communal tensions.
The amendments give district officials the power to take possession of properties located in areas classified as "specified”, i.e. potentially problematic. According to the government, the law is meant to prevent "involuntary" property transfers, but many argue that this legislation will ultimately further ghettoise minorities, particularly Muslims.
In September, a 15-year-old girl took her own life after her family's purchase of a house sparked months of harassment, violence, and intimidation. Neighbours had threatened the family with legal action under the Disturbed Areas Act, implying that their purchase could be invalidated.
If Gujarat is the scene of legislative battles, the WIL study, titled Land Inequality in India: Nature, History, and Markets, offers a nationwide view based on data from 270,000 villages.
The findings indicate that the richest 10 per cent of rural households own 44 per cent of India's total land area; the richest 1 per cent alone controls 18 per cent; conversely, 46 per cent of rural households own no land at all. In some extreme cases, in some villages, a single large landowner owns over 50 per cent of the local land.
The working paper identifies four main factors fuelling this imbalance. The first is the fertile land paradox. In regions with regular irrigation and a stable climate, increased productivity makes land more valuable, pushing wealthier owners to accumulate more and more of it.
Land inequality rose by nearly one percentage point in villages within government "command areas" or irrigation schemes, as large landowners disproportionately accumulate benefits while small farmers are squeezed out.
The second factor is the legacy of the colonial era. Regions formerly under the "zamindar" system show inequality levels that are 3-4 percentage points higher than other areas. The system was coopted by the British, with tax collection assigned to landowners acting as intermediaries, strengthening their power over farmers. Conversely, former princely states governed by local rulers tend to have lower inequality and fewer landless families.
The third factor concerns the "market trap”. Modernisation is not always a balancing factor. Villages near cities, major highways, or railway stations show higher inequality. With improved infrastructure, land prices skyrocket, making it a lucrative target for those already in possession of large amounts of capital.
Finally, social and caste hierarchies play a role. Regions with larger Scheduled Castes communities, i.e. disadvantaged groups officially recognised by the Indian government, show higher levels of inequality, due primarily to a historical exclusion from access to land.
Such concentration not only harms the economy, but also collective well-being. The study found that the provision of public goods is deficient in villages dominated by a single large landowner (owning more than 30 per cent of the land). A village dominated by a single landowner, for example, is 10 per cent less likely to have a government-run primary school.
This suggests that, while a certain level of local elites can sometimes lobby for state resources, a single dominant landowner (often absentee) has less of a stake in the village's collective well-being.
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