Sir Chhotu Ram was a prominent politician in British India’s Punjab Province, an ideologue of the peasants of pre-Independent India.He championed the interest of oppressed peasants of the Indian Sub-continent and tried to create a non-sectarian peasant group consciousness.He formed the Unionist Party (Zamindara League) in 1923, which was a cross-communal alliance of Hindu Jats and Muslim agriculturists.He was awarded the title of ‘Rao Bahadur’ and was accorded knighthood in 1937.He popularly came to be known as Deen Bandhu.

Sir Chhotu Ram Political activities :

• The Congress boycotted the 1920 elections, while Chhotu Ram got elected on a Zamindara Party ticket.
• His coalition party won the general elections of 1936 and formed a coalition government with himself becoming Revenue Minister.
• Chhotu Ram helped in the British Army recruitment effort for the First World War, and was instrumental in the recruitment of 22,144 from Rohtak area.
• He again backed a massive recruitment drive of the British during the Second World War.

Notable Agricultural Reforms :

• As a member of the pre-Partition Punjab Legislative Council, his first major achievement was the passage of the Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Act, 1929, which remains a landmark social legislation till date.
• The exploitation of the peasantry by moneylenders was brought to an end with a series of measures, starting with the Punjab Regulation of Accounts Act, 1930.
• It was followed by the Punjab Debtors Protection Act of 1936 and the Punjab Relief of Indebtedness Act, 1943.
• It became mandatory for moneylenders to register themselves, without which they could not advance loans or prosecute farmers.
• All land attached and sold after June 8, 1901, and mortgaged for 37 years, was restored to its owners. Farmers were required only to give an application on plain paper to the district collector.
• If any moneylender had recovered twice the loan amount, the farmer was given his land back.
• Reconciliation boards were set up; confiscation of milch cattle, oxen, camels and carts or means of earning was barred.
• The Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act was passed in 1939, popularly called the Mandi Act which provided for the constitution of market committees in notified areas, and helped free the farmer from exploitation.
• A consolidation of land holdings was undertaken after passing the Consolidations Holding Act, 1936, amended in 1945.
• He also made a lot of efforts to bring water to the thirsty field of the Punjab especially the South-Eastern areas. In his efforts to make the agriculturist self-dependent, Sir Chhotu Ram gave practical safe to the Kharif Canals Extension Scheme-1940. It is the fact that the two non-perennial canals were dug in his time; one for Rohtak and one for Hisar district in 1941-42.
• He also signed on the Haveli Project which completed in 1939. A division was also instituted during 1943-44 for finding irrigation possibilities in the western part of the province. As a result of Sir Chhotu Ram’s effort in the field of irrigation, a raise in irrigation facilities was observed.
• By 1944, he also had obtained clearance from the Rural of Bilaspur and the Government of Sindh for bundh irrigation in Gurgaon district and a new scheme of tubewell irregation though it could not be materialized in his life time.
• Sir Chhotu Ram also worked on Bakhra Dam Project which was the most ambitious and remarkable project of his life. He had signed on the file of approval of this project on 08 Jan. 1945, one day before his death.
• Not only were all these laws passed; Chhotu Ram also ensured their implementation.

Conclusion :

• Sir Chhotu Ram was a true advocate of trodden people. He got many legislations passed to bring the change in the life of the trodden people of urban as well as rural areas. He also emphasized to establish education institution and he was known true champion of female education.He also revealed the motto of Unionist Party as to establish socialism.
• Actually Sir Chhotu Ram was in favour of socio-economic change of the rural masses. It was his political saga city that enabled him to regard a difficult period of transitions in agriculture reforms with the help of British Government. As a result of his efforts land revenue was reduced to a maximum of 25 percent of the previous settlement.
• He also opposed the evil of untouchability and he himself participated in many community meals arranged by untouchables. Thus, he brought a radical change in the society and he used modern idioms for the socio-economic and political uplift of the trodden people. That is why; Sir Chhotu Ram is also known as a social reformer as well as political reformer of British era in India.