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Madras Agriculturists Relief Act eases peasant debt

· Chennai

Madras Agriculturists Relief Act eases peasant debt
India Post, Government of India, GODL-India · Wikimedia Commons

A law to reduce the debts of indebted farmers in the Madras Presidency was brought in by the Rajagopalachari ministry.

C. Rajagopalachari's Congress ministry introduced the Madras Agriculturists Relief Act in March 1938 to lighten the debt load carried by the province's peasants. Under it, both the debts and the interest that agriculturists owed could be scaled down. When its validity was contested, the Madras High Court upheld the law in 1939. For years afterwards the courts used it to reduce decrees.

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