Published in 1947 when Charan Singh was a Member of the Indian National Congress’ Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Committee (ZALRC) in Uttar Pradesh, Abolition of Zamindari: Two Alternatives details Singh’s case and method for ending landlordism. He was, in fact, to become the principal architect of the ending of zamindari in Uttar Pradesh as Minister of Revenue in the 1950s.

Singh deploys his considerable knowledge of the land tenure system, the psyche of the Indian peasant and literature from across the world to identify alternatives for the removal of zamindari available to India. He proposes a solution from the bottom up, positing the self-cultivating small peasant and decentralized village industry as the cornerstone of an economic policy uniquely suited to the problems of the nascent Indian nation.

Singh’s vision, based on the primacy of peasant owner-cultivators, is organically opposed to the Marxist model as practiced then in Soviet Russia and popular in intellectual and political circles in India of the time. His commitment to a democratic Indian future is absolute, and in search for an equitable society he recommends radical land reforms and a restructuring of Indian agriculture based on intensive utilization of land, coupled with an emphasis on small-scale machinery augmenting labour, employing millions in the process.