Land reforms in India usually refers to redistribution of land from the rich to the poor. Land reforms is often connected with re-distribution of agricultural land and hence it is related with agrarian reforms too.

Land reforms includes regulation of ownership, operation, leasing, sales, and inheritance of land (indeed, the redistribution of land itself requires legal changes).

In any country, the basis of all economic activity is the land. If we examine the history of India, though there are instances of considering land as a private property by individuals who had control over it, the practice of communities like that of tribals with collective ownership of land stands out. Land like many other gifts of nature, were considered free for all by many communities who didn’t bother fix boundaries for private ownership. But the colonial rule by British saw a dramatic shift in the land ownership pattern of India. Land of many tribal/forest communities were seized by British cultivators and Zamindars, and land tax was widely collected through systems like Zamindari, Ryotwari or Mahalwari.

A rich-minority-landowning class and poor-landless-peasant class became