The Politics of Land Law

• The land question is a politically emotive yet constitutionally forgotten issue in Bangladesh.
• In this seminal work, the author examines the major land laws of Bangladesh and presents a thorough story of land law politics as a central thrust to the colonial and post-colonial enterprise.
• The author shows how the land enactments in a developing post-colonial jurisdiction like Bangladesh have gone towards the disadvantage of the peasants and suggests what further role the law can play in addressing their poverty.
• After the 1947 Partition, the abolition of the zamindary system (landlordism) offered an opportunity to carry out radical redistributive land reform in Bengal.
• So was the case with post-independence settings after 1971. Unfortunately, both opportunities went astray. The Bangladeshi land laws are complex, vague and dominated by politics.
• The land law regime has structural loopholes and ideological drawbacks, which are enough to make reform attempts dysfunctional.