Massive farmers’ protests from September 2020 onward have captured hearts and minds across India in a manner no political party or establishment figure could. For the ruling BJP party, the simplest way to end a movement is to garner division. First, the government asked with suspicion “why are only farmers from Punjab and Haryana protesting?” and India’s farmers and laborers met this provocation with a nationwide Bharat Bandh, with protests in every state. On Republic Day, as Punjabi farmers circled Delhi with their tractors, 25,000 farmers in Bangalore led a parallel demonstration. Next, the government smeared protesters as mere “Khalistanis” serving only a Sikh agenda. Activists on the ground were quick to disseminate photographs, videos, and statements that accurately portray the protest’s cross-religious solidarity that the right wing insists is impossible. Protesters start their day with paath, havan, and namaz, and Punjabi Hindu and Muslim farmers speak of laying down their lives alongside their Sikh brothers and sisters. The strategy of invoking the extremist Khalistan bogeyman has a dark history, mass mobilization by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) between 1978 and 1984 suffered irreversibly from the violent anti-Sikh pogroms of the Congress Party. Protests in 1984 against rising farmer debt were portrayed as a destabilizing force in the larger “Punjab problem.”
The government continues to smear protesters by claiming Pakistani “infiltration.” The notion that India’s farmers are not acting of their own agency is laughable but begs an important point. The “Punjab problem” is fundamentally a response to the failures of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and the environmental degradation that has squeezed farmers since. This pain is felt on both sides of the border, spanning the entirety of the land of five waters and beyond. Pakistani farmers have organized on a grassroots level to call attention to the depletion of the Indus river flows and disruptions to commodity markets that have bankrupted farmers. Farmers have led 700 rallies in the last five years in Punjab and Sindh alone. Pakistani Singer Ali Bakhsh recorded the sounds of solidarity across the border with the song “Putt Jattan De” dedicated to the kisaan andolan in India. The caste label of “jatt” being equated with all tillers of the land needs to be read critically, but the cross-border solidarity is powerful nonetheless.
The Green Revolution’s capital-intensive industrial agriculture marked by high fertilizer doses and irrigation subsidies backed by the United States promised to usher in prosperity yet only benefitted few well-endowed actors, the three contested farm bills of 2020 threaten to consolidate wealth in the hands of a few. The BJP rushed these bills through parliament in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, without a full vote count from the opposition, and have attempted to bypass state laws that stand in the way of this Centre-led framework. The three acts relax regulation on trade and commerce and promote electronic trading, established contract farming between farmers and buyers before crop production, and allows for expanded reach for the Centre to stockpile essential commodities. Several concerning elements that are difficult for the untrained eye to spot lie within the folds of this legislation. Farmers and laborers note that the act promotes agricultural sale beyond the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) but prohibits the government from collecting fees from these sales, signaling government willingness to get rid of the state-regulated Mandi system altogether. Furthermore, the acts formulate a new trade environment where corporations buy directly from farmers but simultaneously move dispute settlement out of civil courts, giving farmers little leverage to file grievances against powerful corporations. Just as the United States heralded the Green Revolution in India, State Department officials have declared that the farm acts are promising reforms that will bring efficiency and prosperity to Indian farming.
The stakes for firm protection for farmers’ livelihoods are at an all-time high, as India faces at least 10,000 recorded farmer suicides per year, with three or four per day in Punjab alone. The kisaan andolan in Delhi has demonstrated grave suffering as well. At least ten farmers have publicly committed suicide along the Delhi-Haryana border and over 120 protesters have died from the extreme cold and likely covid-19 cases. On Republic Day, right-wing violence against farmers escalated, several protesters ended up hospitalized and at least one young man from Punjab was killed. Despite the pain these deaths bring, and apathy from the central government after eleven rounds of talks, the atmosphere of Delhi’s protests retains joy and solidarity. The tent cities built by NGOs and activists to shelter farmers have featured free pizza, foot massagers, laundry services, phone charging stations, impromptu schools for street children, and vibrant music.
Taboos left untouched even by progressive causes in India are taken head on by protesters and their allies. Menstrual hygiene products are made freely available, disabled individuals living on the streets are fed each day by langar, and in Bangalore the food distributed to the Republic Day tractor rally was cooked by trans and hijra organizations. In Delhi, women and Dalit laborers are seizing every chance to be heard. Landless laborers are speaking up for both the movement and their oppression at the hands of land-owning caste privileged jatts. The slogan “kisaan mazdoor ekta zindabad” is no longer being uttered uncritically. Meanwhile, as the government claims women are “kept” as mere tokens in the protest, tens of thousands of women have taken the streets of Delhi. They lead in every aspect, from preparing food, driving their tractors, fact-checking fake news attempts, and dictating the impacts of neoliberal agricultural reforms on women’s economic status. One woman interviewed at the border laughed at accusations of being a “kept woman,” saying, “men ride in my tractor every day, would you say I am keeping them?”
The outcome of the protests remains unknown as the government refuses to meet the demands for a total repeal of the farm acts. Nevertheless, this movement sparks unity and solidarity that should be celebrated across the subcontinent and globe.
The writer is a graduate student who researches urban social movements in South Asia and their global impact
The government continues to smear protesters by claiming Pakistani “infiltration.” The notion that India’s farmers are not acting of their own agency is laughable but begs an important point. The “Punjab problem” is fundamentally a response to the failures of the Green Revolution of the 1960s and the environmental degradation that has squeezed farmers since. This pain is felt on both sides of the border, spanning the entirety of the land of five waters and beyond. Pakistani farmers have organized on a grassroots level to call attention to the depletion of the Indus river flows and disruptions to commodity markets that have bankrupted farmers. Farmers have led 700 rallies in the last five years in Punjab and Sindh alone. Pakistani Singer Ali Bakhsh recorded the sounds of solidarity across the border with the song “Putt Jattan De” dedicated to the kisaan andolan in India. The caste label of “jatt” being equated with all tillers of the land needs to be read critically, but the cross-border solidarity is powerful nonetheless.
The Green Revolution’s capital-intensive industrial agriculture marked by high fertilizer doses and irrigation subsidies backed by the United States promised to usher in prosperity yet only benefitted few well-endowed actors, the three contested farm bills of 2020 threaten to consolidate wealth in the hands of a few. The BJP rushed these bills through parliament in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, without a full vote count from the opposition, and have attempted to bypass state laws that stand in the way of this Centre-led framework. The three acts relax regulation on trade and commerce and promote electronic trading, established contract farming between farmers and buyers before crop production, and allows for expanded reach for the Centre to stockpile essential commodities. Several concerning elements that are difficult for the untrained eye to spot lie within the folds of this legislation. Farmers and laborers note that the act promotes agricultural sale beyond the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) but prohibits the government from collecting fees from these sales, signaling government willingness to get rid of the state-regulated Mandi system altogether. Furthermore, the acts formulate a new trade environment where corporations buy directly from farmers but simultaneously move dispute settlement out of civil courts, giving farmers little leverage to file grievances against powerful corporations. Just as the United States heralded the Green Revolution in India, State Department officials have declared that the farm acts are promising reforms that will bring efficiency and prosperity to Indian farming.
At least 10 farmers have publicly committed suicide along the Delhi-Haryana border and over 120 protesters have died from the extreme cold and likely covid-19 cases
The stakes for firm protection for farmers’ livelihoods are at an all-time high, as India faces at least 10,000 recorded farmer suicides per year, with three or four per day in Punjab alone. The kisaan andolan in Delhi has demonstrated grave suffering as well. At least ten farmers have publicly committed suicide along the Delhi-Haryana border and over 120 protesters have died from the extreme cold and likely covid-19 cases. On Republic Day, right-wing violence against farmers escalated, several protesters ended up hospitalized and at least one young man from Punjab was killed. Despite the pain these deaths bring, and apathy from the central government after eleven rounds of talks, the atmosphere of Delhi’s protests retains joy and solidarity. The tent cities built by NGOs and activists to shelter farmers have featured free pizza, foot massagers, laundry services, phone charging stations, impromptu schools for street children, and vibrant music.
Taboos left untouched even by progressive causes in India are taken head on by protesters and their allies. Menstrual hygiene products are made freely available, disabled individuals living on the streets are fed each day by langar, and in Bangalore the food distributed to the Republic Day tractor rally was cooked by trans and hijra organizations. In Delhi, women and Dalit laborers are seizing every chance to be heard. Landless laborers are speaking up for both the movement and their oppression at the hands of land-owning caste privileged jatts. The slogan “kisaan mazdoor ekta zindabad” is no longer being uttered uncritically. Meanwhile, as the government claims women are “kept” as mere tokens in the protest, tens of thousands of women have taken the streets of Delhi. They lead in every aspect, from preparing food, driving their tractors, fact-checking fake news attempts, and dictating the impacts of neoliberal agricultural reforms on women’s economic status. One woman interviewed at the border laughed at accusations of being a “kept woman,” saying, “men ride in my tractor every day, would you say I am keeping them?”
The outcome of the protests remains unknown as the government refuses to meet the demands for a total repeal of the farm acts. Nevertheless, this movement sparks unity and solidarity that should be celebrated across the subcontinent and globe.
The writer is a graduate student who researches urban social movements in South Asia and their global impact