WE have already clarified that the target of socialisation is that form of property which has become a hindrance to social development — the private properly of capitalists, landlords and kulaks. As the Communist Manifesto had proclaimed, the intention was to “do away with a form of property, the necessary condition of whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense majority of society” — and not “the property of the petty artisan and the small peasant.”

In countries like ours, where the land reform is yet to be accomplished, the communists' basic slogan on the peasant front remains “land to the tiller”. Owning their own lands and organising themselves in different types of cooperatives as well as organs of local self governance, which are no longer manipulated by vested interests but sincerely assisted by the state, peasants will combine their traditional wisdom with latest techniques and bring about — for themselves and for society — real prosperity and happiness. Depending on the specific conditions and stage of development, a whole range of forms of ownership and organisation will naturally evolve. These may be : collective ownership by a group of peasant households (say, by those belonging to one village), family ownership or leasehold under “the responsibility system” (where the family is responsible for handing over a contracted amount of the produce to the state at an agreed rate and is free to sell the rest in the market), big state farms and plantations, and so on. Whatever the form, the guiding principle will be to combine the collective and the individual interests, not sacrificing the one for the other.