Land Question in Bihar

Madhubani in Bihar was the cradle of the land movement built up by the Communist Party of India. Today both the communists and the former socialists have given up on the land reform agenda and have embraced the social justice/caste agenda. Is it any surprise then that the state government has chosen to neglect the recommendations of the Bandyopadhyay Commission on land reforms?

Way back in 1973 (2 June), Mainstream published an article by D Bandyopadhyay on agrarian tensions in two Bihar districts: Madhubani and Muzaffarpur. The article was a summary outcome of a study for the Land Reforms Division, Planning Commission and the Working Group on Land Reforms, National Commission on Agriculture chaired by the veteran communist parliamentarian Z A Ahmed. Again, in 2006 (23 December), in the same periodical, the same author invoked Madhubani as part of his study as the chairman of the Land Reforms Commission, whose report has been gathering dust ever since it was submitted to the Government of Bihar in April 2008.¹