The Unheard Cry of the Tenant Farmer — He Who Tills the Soil Has No Existence on Paper!
N. Singh · ·7 min read
Translated from the original Hindi · मूल हिंदी लेख पढ़ें
A deeply bitter and chilling reality of the agrarian landscape in Indian villages is that nearly 35 to 40 per cent of the country’s total agricultural area is tilled by farmers who do not own even a single inch of land of their own!
They are known by different names across various states—in some places as ‘bataidar’ (tenant farmer/sharecropper), in others as ‘adhiya’ (half-share cultivator), elsewhere as ‘kashtkar’ (tenant cultivator), and in some parts as ‘sharecropper’.
Just look at the daily routine of this bataidar farmer’s life:
- The land belongs to some wealthy gentleman, a government officer settled in the city, or a powerful landlord who has left the village to live in the air-conditioned flats of Lucknow, Delhi, or Patna.
- That owner enters into an unwritten (oral) agreement with the bataidar stipulating that all expenses for fertiliser, seeds, ploughing, and irrigation will be borne by the bataidar, and once the crop ripens, he must deliver half or one-third of the harvest right to the owner’s doorstep free of cost!
- If floods strike, a drought occurs, or hailstorms hit—the owner loses nothing; the entire brunt of the loss falls squarely on the head of that unfortunate bataidar.
Yet, the most painful and sickening twist in this tale comes when the government’s ‘farmer welfare schemes’ come into play!
Into whose bank account do the ₹6,000 of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi go? Into the account of the landowner sitting in the city! Who receives the insurance compensation when crops are destroyed? The landowner! Who gets cheap KCC (Kisan Credit Card) loans from the bank? The landowner!
And as for the bataidar farmer who stayed awake night after night, irrigating the crop with the blood of his chest—even his harvest is not procured in the government mandi (wholesale agricultural market) because he does not possess the khatauni (record of land rights) papers of the land!
N. Singh asks in Chapter 4 of his seminal book ‘Ujadti Kheti, Ujadte Gaon’ (Devastated Agriculture, Ruined Villages): In this country, is a ‘farmer’ merely the name on a piece of land document, or that human of flesh and bone who tears open the chest of the earth to grow foodgrain?
Oral Tenancy: The Farmer Invisible in the Eyes of the Law
After Independence, sharecropping was declared illegal under the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act (UPZA & LR Act) and land legislations in other states. The intention of the law was ‘Land to the Tiller’.
However, in practice, the exact opposite happened:
- A Complete Ban on Written Agreements: Landowners harbour the fear that if they enter into any written agreement with the bataidar, the tenant will stake a legal claim to ownership of the land. Therefore, all transactions take place strictly orally and in cash.
- Total Deprivation of Institutional Credit: Because he possesses no government document, not a single public sector bank will advance even a single rupee of loan to the bataidar. Out of sheer helplessness, he is forced to borrow from village moneylenders at exorbitant annual interest rates of 36% to 60%.
- Identity Theft Even in Suicide Statistics: When a bataidar, trapped in the quagmire of debt, consumes poison, the police and administration outright refuse to recognise his death as a ‘farmer suicide’! They write in their report that “there was no agricultural land registered in the name of the deceased; hence, this is not a farmer suicide!” That is to say, while alive he was not acknowledged as a farmer, and even in death, his martyrdom was stolen from him!
The Paper Owner of the Land versus the Actual Tenant Farmer
| Basis of Comparison | Paper Owner (Absentee Landlord Sitting in the City) | Actual Bataidar Farmer (The Hardworking Proletariat) |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Labour | Zero; has never stepped into the sun, dust, or mud | Round-the-clock bone-breaking labour; irrigating fields all night in freezing cold |
| Input Risk | Zero; simply handing over land and collecting half the harvest sitting at home | 100% of the expenditure on fertiliser, seeds, diesel, pesticides, and harvesting |
| Government Benefits | Receives PM-Kisan, solar pumps, seed subsidies, and bank loans | Lacks even the right to register on the portals of government schemes |
| Status in Crisis | Extracts his fixed share from the bataidar even during a drought | Face starvation and suicide along with family as soon as drought or hailstorms strike |
A Bitter Truth from the Book: N. Singh’s Heart-Rending Depiction
The author, N. Singh, writes in Chapter 4 of his book ‘Ujadti Kheti, Ujadte Gaon’:
“The cruellest and most unspoken secret of Indian agriculture is that the one who owns the farmland never ploughs the field; and the one who sheds his sweat and blood in the field day and night does not have even his name recorded in the government revenue records. The bataidar farmer is the most ill-fated citizen of this country. He pours out his very blood like water to quench the thirst of the soil, but when the time comes to sell the harvest, the arhtiya (commission agent) demands of him: bring your khatauni! In a country whose granaries are filled with the sweat of crores of such invisible tenant farmers, the fact that not even a single day’s discussion takes place in Parliament on the rights of bataidars is the greatest callousness of our democracy!”
— N. Singh (Ujadti Kheti, Ujadte Gaon, pages 118–119)
The author further questions the revenue system:
“Our revenue codes even today rest upon the British-era patwari (village revenue accountant) system. The patwari records only what the influential landlord wants. Until the bataidar is granted legal recognition, Indian agriculture can never emerge from crisis.”
— (Ujadti Kheti, Ujadte Gaon, page 124)
Four Legal Steps to Deliver Justice to Tenant Farmers
- Nationalisation of the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Model: On the lines of Andhra Pradesh’s ‘Licensed Cultivators Act’, every bataidar should be issued a ‘Loan & Crop Eligibility Card’ without touching land ownership rights, enabling him to secure loans and crop insurance directly from banks.
- Crop Loss Compensation Directly to the Tiller: Satellite and GPS mapping should be utilised to record who actually sowed the field in that season; all disaster compensation must be deposited directly into the bank account of the actual cultivator.
- Crop Procurement in Government Mandis Without Khatauni: The bataidar must have the legal right to sell his harvest at MSP directly at government procurement centres based on verification by the gram pradhan (village head) or agricultural officer.
- Model Lease Agreement (NITI Aayog Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act): The Model Land Leasing Act drafted by NITI Aayog should be implemented immediately across all states so that the fear of losing land is dispelled from the minds of landowners, enabling them to enter into written contracts.
A Thought-Provoking Question (The Message of the Book)
Should the farmer who puts his very life on the line to feed the entire nation not have even the right to be called a ‘farmer’ in the history of independent India?
To understand this greatest unresolved anguish of Indian agriculture, the cruel reality of sharecropping, and the road to agrarian reforms, this fourth chapter of N. Singh’s acclaimed book ‘Ujadti Kheti, Ujadte Gaon’ ought to be read by every conscientious human being.
The cruellest and most unspoken secret of Indian agriculture is that the one who owns the farmland never ploughs the field; and the one who sheds his sweat and blood in the field day and night does not have even his name recorded in the government revenue records.