Commune system
Also called: Communes, People's communes · Topic: Comparative Development: India, China and Pakistan · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 8 "Comparative Development Experiences of India and its Neighbours"
Meaning
The commune system was China's system of collective cultivation. Villagers farmed the land together and shared the output. Communes were formed during the Great Leap Forward in 1958, and by that year there were 26,000 communes covering almost the whole farm population. Before the 1978 reforms, they helped share out foodgrains more equally. That fairer food supply was one of the bases China's later human development rested on.
Example
A Chinese village in 1958 stopped farming family by family and became part of a commune. Its members worked the fields together and grain was divided among them. However, management was often poor, and grain was taken away on the basis of inflated output claims. Both problems added to the famine that followed the Great Leap Forward.
Don't confuse with
- Household responsibility system: This came after 1978. It divided commune land into small plots given to households to use, and each household kept its income after paying taxes. Communes were collective farming.
- Township and village enterprises (TVEs): These were industrial firms run by local collectives. Communes were a way of organising farming.