With reference to land reforms in independent India,which one of the following statements is correct?

1. A

   The ceiling laws were aimed at family holdings and not individual holdings.

   (a) Ceiling laws aimed at family holdings and not individual holdings. States used both family and individual as the ceiling unit; the statement is too absolute, so it is not the key.

2. B

   The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless.

   (b) The major aim of land reforms was providing agricultural land to all the landless. Abolition of intermediaries, tenancy reform, ceilings and redistribution were all pointed at putting land into the hands of the tiller and the landless. That stated aim is the official key.

3. C

   It resulted in cultivation of cash crops as a predominant form of cultivation.

   (c) Cultivation of cash crops as the predominant form. Land reforms did not recast Indian agriculture into cash-crop predominance; foodgrain tenancy and subsistence holdings remained central, so this result-claim is not the key.

4. D

   Land reforms permitted no exemptions to the ceiling limits.

   (d) No exemptions to ceiling limits. Plantations, orchards, cooperative farms and other categories were commonly exempted, so a no-exemption claim is not the key.

Summary. Official key is (b). Independent India’s land-reform package — zamindari abolition, tenancy security, ceilings and redistribution — was framed as land to the tiller and to the landless. Ceiling statutes were not uniformly family-only, and they carried exemptions, so (a) and (d) overstate the law. Cash-crop predominance was not the designed outcome of those reforms. Honour the stored letter (b).