Official Answer Key & Detailed Solution
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Correct Answer: Option (B) — The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless.
Concept & Option Breakdown
Standard Reference VerifiedOption (b) is correct: The overarching socio-economic objective of land reforms post-independence was abolishing intermediaries (Zamindari system), conferring ownership rights to actual tillers, acquiring surplus ceiling land, and redistributing it to landless agricultural labourers to promote equity.
Option (a) is incorrect because initial ceiling legislation in several states was framed around individual holdings, which was later rationalized to family units.
Option (c) is incorrect as land reforms aimed primarily at food self-sufficiency and subsistence farming rather than cash crop specialization.
Option (d) is incorrect because land ceiling laws provided several exemptions (e.g., tea, coffee, rubber plantations, orchards, and institutional holdings).
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