RAS question
The Rajasthan Land Reforms and Resumption of Jagirs Act was enacted to:
Correct answer: (A) Abolish the jagirdari system and redistribute land.
The Rajasthan Land Reforms and Resumption of Jagirs Act, 1952 was enacted to abolish the jagirdari system by resuming jagir lands and enabling agrarian land reform.
Explanation
The Act fits squarely within post-Independence agrarian reform in Rajasthan. Its stated purpose was to provide for the resumption of jagir lands and other land-reform measures, not to preserve the old jagirdari order. The policy outcome was that the jagirdari system was abolished and land redistribution to tillers was facilitated. The Act’s own provisions support that direction: it made jagir lands subject to government processes, recognised khatedari rights in jagir lands, empowered the Government to notify dates for resumption, and stated that resumed jagir lands would stand resumed to the Government. Therefore, option A captures both parts of the measure: abolition of jagirdari and redistribution-oriented land reform.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Creating new jagirs would preserve or expand the very institution that the Act targeted through resumption of jagir lands and land reform.
- (C) The Act dealt with agrarian relations in jagir lands, not the political creation of princely states.
- (D) Increasing jagirdars' powers is opposite to an Act under which jagir lands could be resumed and jagirdars' rights in those lands could cease.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan's post-Independence land reforms, especially the abolition of intermediaries in land tenure. It recurs in RAS because jagirdari abolition links Rajasthan's economy, society, and administrative consolidation after integration.