In Ambedkar’s framework, landholding is not simply about individual asset-ownership but is constitutive of economic freedom and social dignity. Landholding determines who is recognised as a kisan and their access to village commons. Therefore, its fair distribution opens the doors to an inclusive village “public” and equal citizenship. But landownership without self-respect is undesirable as is evident in Ambedkar’s early legislative interventions for the abolition of Maharwatan land tenures that kept Mahars tied to compulsory village services. Similarly, not many people know of his sustained opposition to land reforms because it reinforced existing land inequality through the creation of peasant proprietors, but without much support to make these smallholdings sustainable. He advocated the nationalization of land and collectivization of agriculture along with modern industrialisation. In the early 1950s, he led and inspired land movements in Maharashtra, as also Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.
Awanish Kumar, ‘Ambedkar and his idea of the caste of land’, Indian Express
