PROBLEMS OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT 53 such segmented approaches fail to provide an integrated view of the social reality. In the following, we shall attempt to understand the problems of rural development as they have emerged in the course of our recent history, mainly in Punjab and Haryana. Colonial Heritage Colonialism may be said to be the root cause of the great disparity between India's villages and towns. The foreign rulers brought about great concentration of wealth, power, education and social status in their hands through centralized administration. Commercialization of agriculture, entry of British capital into extractive industries, unequal exchanges associated with colonial exploitation and trade, command of the British over the Indian financial structure had led to the drain of its valuable resources while at the same time leading to a pauperization of the peasantry and a widening of gulf between cities and villages. Economic exploitation of village India by the British required control over the peasantry, preferably through intermediaries. Hence the British buttressed a class of landlords who acted as their agents, The exploitation of the peasantry by the landlords became the source of "revenue" for the British government, and the foundation of the new agrarian system. The land concentration which emerged and the power structure which was built upon it constituted the background which accounted for the failure of land reforms since independence. Flouting the land reforms, a large number of erstwhile landlords have managed to retain large areas of land as sir, khudkasht or khas. In Punjab and Haryana a major problem had been the exploitation of tenants. Thus it was recommended in the First Five Year Plan that the maximum rent should not exceed one-fourth to one-fifth'of the gross produce, compared with one-third in Punjab and Haryana. It has been noted in the Sixth Plan that Punjab and Haryana have not been able to implement the recommendation through legislative measures.1 Mass eviction of sharecroppers goes on, since they are not covered by the term "tenant" in Punjab and Haryana, as is also the case in some other states. This is an important loophole in the tenancy legislation according to the National Commission on Agriculture.2 The Commission has'also noted that tenancy can be unjustifiably terminated in Punjab and Haryana for reasons such as failure to cultivate in the manner and to the extent customary, or to execute an agreement. Further, there are no provisions for the regulation of surrenders in Punjab and Haryana. The Commission has noted that "surrenders" have become the biggest instrument in the hands of the landowners to deprive tenants of their due protection. The so-called 'volunlary surrenders' are hardly ever voluntary.3 Another major provision, which, according to it, has worked to the detriment of tenants is the law regarding resumption of land by landowners. In Punjab and Haryana, landowners were allowed