The 1971 Test

How a crop record from 1971 became the gatekeeper of land rights, and why it still haunts farmers in Jammu & Kashmir today.

- Mohammad Amin Mir

In the story of land in Jammu & Kashmir, a single harvest still holds the key. It’s not about what you grow today or even how long you've tilled the soil. It all comes down to what’s written in the record books for the Kharief season of 1971.

For farmers across the valley, this entry is not just a line on paper. It decides who owns the land and who doesn’t.

The 1976 Agrarian Reforms Act promised a revolution. It broke the centuries-old grip of landlords by giving ownership rights to the people who actually worked the land. But this promise came with one strict condition: the farmer’s name had to appear in the Girdawari, the seasonal crop inspection record, for Kharief 1971. No other entry would do.

It’s a detail that still stings. For many farmers, this record is missing. Sometimes the Patwari didn’t visit. Sometimes landlords blocked names from being written. Sometimes it was just clerical neglect. Yet the law has rarely allowed room for these stories.

The Agrarian Reforms Act did not offer half-measures. Section 4 made it clear: the land would automatically transfer to the tenant without needing the landowner’s approval. But this life-changing shift rested on one small proof: the Girdawari of Kharief 1971.

Why that season? The government chose it carefully. It was a moment before the political upheavals of the mid-70s, before records could be tampered with. It was supposed to be a clean, untouchable benchmark.

But it also became a gate that shut many farmers out.