How does a problem become part of the Policy Agenda? Looking through the lens of Land Policy in India.
Agendas are lists of things that institutions, media, and the public are discussing and possibly acting on. The agenda, therefore, represents all the public problems considered to be priorities. In the arena of public policy, ‘ agenda setting’ is the first building block of a particular policy. Thomas Birkland defined agenda setting as “ The process by which problems and alternative solutions gain or lose public and elite attention.” A problem is a matter or situation that is alarming in a way and needs to be dealt with. A problem must have one or more possible solutions. A policy is basically the solution to a particular problem. However, there are alternative solutions, and only one solution can be adopted as policy. So, there is fierce competition. E.E. Schattschneider said that
“ the definition of alternatives is the supreme instrument of power.”
In the agenda-setting process, different interest groups come up with different solutions, and the power structure between groups determines which agenda will be taken or whose interests will not be taken into consideration. Here the mass or the elites or both play an essential role in determining which alternating solution will gain the government’s attention and become part of the agenda. The policy agenda, then, is the set of issues being seriously and actively considered by political decision-makers at any given time.
How did the problem of land become part of the policy agenda after Independence in India?
Land policy in India has been an essential topic of government policy discussions since Independence. The land was always an integral part of Indian culture and society. Being an agrarian society, it is a symbol of identity and social status. However, from the medieval era to colonial rule, rulers always exploited land as a revenue source and did not prioritize rights and welfare. So, after Independence, the newly elected government took this issue forward and formulated land policy based on the idea of reform and redistribution. How, then, did this issue become a national government priority, and how did it provoke a significant policy response? To answer these questions, we divide the events that led to policy agenda setting into Kingdon’s three streams (problem, politics, and policy) and analyze the role of policy entrepreneurs and other influences.
Problem Stream
A goal of economic development and social justice, combined with the peculiarities of Indian agriculture, led the government to undertake a comprehensive land reforms program.
Immediately after Independence, a committee, under the Chairmanship of the late Shri J. C. Kumarappa (a senior Congress leader), was appointed to investigate the problem of land. However, this report served as a focusing event, emphasizing the need to formulate a drastic land reform policy to address the agrarian crisis.
Another focusing event that did influence the land reform policy in some places was the Bhoodaan Movement in 1951, led by Vinoba Bhave. An attempt was made to convince wealthy landowners to give away a portion of their property to landless people. The central and certain state governments supported the movement; thus, gaining elite support.
In India, the Directive Principles of State Policy of the constitution play a vital role in the problem identification process. Article 39 of the Constitution of India deals with the redistribution of land and land reform.
Taken together, these two events defined the lack of a robust land policy for social welfare as a significant issue (in the problem stream) that needed to be addressed by the government.
Politics Stream
In the political stream, the congress party, being a principal architect of India’s Independence and the dominant party in electoral politics, took a socialist approach to address the problems of the newly born nation. In a socialist model, land, as a means of production bound to be distributed equitably.
The Congress party promised ‘land to the tiller’ even before the Independence. The political changes happened after the Independence, thus bringing in a new government committed to the nation’s welfare and development.
Policy Stream
In the policy stream in land reforms, a series of substantive developments enabled the program to be introduced and adopted. The Permanent Settlement of 1793 created a class of superior proprietors, and they violated the unwritten, age-old rights of tenants in their land. Historically, intermediaries were created to administer land revenue and maintain political control by successive rulers, but their numbers continued to expand. The large patches of land held by them were left to tenants at exorbitantly high rents. Tenant cultivators were thus disincentives to develop their land, resulting in lower production. Therefore, the Colonial Government, in its interest to manage the country efficiently, did not alter the land-revenue system in any substantial way but promoted the class of non-cultivating intermediaries. In short, the inequality created by the Zamindari and Ryotwari systems and the problems of tenancy rights and land records were crucial elements in the policy stream that enabled the development of a viable policy option that addressed many shortcomings that had plagued the earlier land policy structure.
Policy Entrepreneurs
The main problem faced by the government when formulating the land reforms was that the large percentage of parliamentarians and administrative officers belonged to the dominant feudal families. So, the land reforms were against their interest. However, the policy entrepreneurs, namely prime minister Nehru, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, J.C Kumarappa, and others, played their part in bringing the problem of land into the policy agenda. It was the Charisma and popularity of Nehru that made him a successful policy entrepreneur. The ideas of Gandhi about the rural economy and agrarian structure influenced the policy path through Vinoba Bhave, a true disciple of him.
Each of these individuals played a key role at different stages of the process of placing land reforms on the government’s policy agenda and assuring its adoption. These actors ensured that the conflict of interest between different elite groups did not prohibit social welfare by shifting the ‘mobilisation of bias’ towards the land policy issue.
Other Factors
Land reform has been seen as a powerful tool of asset redistribution policy for poverty alleviation, enhancing production efficiency through tenant efficiency and small-farm efficiency, agricultural growth, and agricultural capital formation and food security. The land was seen as a key to development. Bringing more land under cultivation, managing wastelands was also critical to the problem of land that led to its acceptance in the policy agenda. As land is a state subject, various local issues played a part in local agenda-setting in different states.
In sum, Kingdon’s three-stream model is constructive in analyzing the emergence and adoption of land reforms as an essential policy agenda in independent India.
Originally published at opcept.blogspot.com on January 28, 2022.
