ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the historical roots of land concentration. It provides an analysis of the changes in the pattern of land distribution, including the processes shaping these developments. The chapter describes the implications of the growing inequality in landholding for access to land for the landless and the land-poor. Nation-wide land and livestock surveys conducted at periodic intervals from the mid-1950s onwards have generated a vast amount of data for assessing the pattern of and trends in the distribution of land. The National Sample Survey Land and Livestock Surveys are an important data source on the size distribution of ownership holdings, and are available for every 10 years from 1961–62. The distributional changes noted for the country as a whole and across the states could be due to the net effect of transfer of land that has taken place through partition of households, distribution of land by the state through land reform measures, and the market process.
