Operation Barga, the showpiece land-reform package of the Left Front government in West Bengal, was projected as the culmination of the failed Tebhaga movement of the 1940s. But just as in the Tebhaga movement, Operation Barga has left untouched the question of the future of the recorded bargadars and of giving 'land to the tiller'. The author provides a historical perspective of the attempts at land reform in Bengal.
