Indian farmers in no mood to forgive despite Modi's U-turn on reforms

Saurabh Sharma
Fri, November 19, 2021

MOHRANIYA, India, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have caved in https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-modi-repeal-controversial-farm-laws-2021-11-19 to farmers' demands that he scraps laws they say threaten their livelihoods.

But reaction to the shock U-turn in India's rural north, where Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces key elections next year, has been less than positive, a worrying sign for a leader seeking to maintain his grip on national politics.

In the village of Mohraniya, some 500 km by road east of the capital New Delhi and located in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, farmer Guru Sevak Singh said that he and others like him lost faith in Modi and his party.

"Today Prime Minister Modi realised that he was committing blunder, but it took him a year to recognise this and only because he now knows farmers will not vote for his party ever again," said Singh.

For the young farmer, the matter is deeply personal.

Singh's 19-year-old brother Guruvinder was killed in October https://www.reuters.com/world/india/son-india-govt-minister-arrested-accused-killing-farmers-2021-10-10 when a car ploughed into a crowd protesting against the farm legislation, one of eight people who died in a spate of violence related to the farmers' uprising.

Thousands of agricultural workers have protested outside the capital New Delhi and beyond for more than a year, shrugging off the pandemic to disrupt traffic and pile pressure on Modi and the BJP who say the new laws were key to modernising the sector.

"Today I can announce that my brother is a martyr," Singh told Reuters, weeping as he held a picture of his dead brother.

"My brother is among those brave farmers who sacrificed their lives to prove that the government was implementing laws to destroy the agrarian economy," he added.

Around him were several police officers, who Singh said were provided after his brother and three others were killed by the car. Ashish Mishra, son of junior home minister Ajay, is in police custody in relation to the incident.

Ajay Mishra Teni said at the time that his son was not at the site and that a car driven by "our driver" had lost control and hit the farmers after "miscreants" pelted it with stones and attacked it with sticks and swords.

'HOW CAN WE FORGET?'

In 2020, Modi's government passed three farm laws in a bid to overhaul the agriculture sector that employs about 60% of India's workforce but is deeply inefficient, in debt and prone to pricing wars.

Angry farmers took to the streets, saying the reforms put their jobs at risk and handed control over crops and prices to private corporations.

The resulting protest movement became one of the country's biggest and most protracted.

Leaders of six farmer unions who spearheaded the movement in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab states said they would not forgive a government that labelled protesting farmers as terrorists and anti-nationals.

"Farmers were beaten with sticks, rods and detained for demanding legitimate rights ... farmers were mowed down by a speeding car belonging to a minister's family ... tell me how can we forget it all?" said Sudhakar Rai, a senior member of a farmers' union in Uttar Pradesh.

Rai said at least 170 farmers were killed during anti-farm law protests across the country. There are no official data to verify his claims.

A senior BJP member who declined to be named said the decision to repeal the laws was taken by Modi after he consulted a top farmers' association affiliated to his party.

The politician, who was at the meeting when the party agreed to back down, said those present conceded the BJP had failed to communicate the benefits of the new laws clearly enough.

Leaders of the opposition and some analysts said Modi's move was linked to state elections next year in Uttar Pradesh - which accounts for more parliamentary seats than any other state - and Punjab.

"What cannot be achieved by democratic protests can be achieved by the fear of impending elections!" wrote P. Chidambaram, a senior figure in the opposition Congress party, on Twitter.

But farmers like Singh warned that the government could pay a price for its treatment of farmers.

"We are the backbone of the country and Modi has today accepted that his policies were against farmers," said Singh. "I lost my brother in this mess and no one can bring him back."

 (Additional reporting and writing by Rupam Jain in Mumbai; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

'Victory of Global Significance': Modi to Repeal Laws That Sparked Year-Long Farmers' Revolt

"After a year of strikes—and having faced brutal repression that claimed some 700 lives—India's farmers are victorious in their struggle."

Various student unions took to the streets of Kolkata, India on November 19, 2021 to celebrate and congratulate the farmers on the retraction of farm laws against which they have been protesting for a year. (Photo: Debarchan Chatterjee/NurPhoto via Getty Images)


KENNY STANCIL

November 19, 2021

Workers' rights activists around the globe rejoiced on Friday after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his government will repeal three corporate-friendly agricultural laws that the nation's farmers have steadfastly resisted for more than a year.

"We will wait for the day when the farm laws are repealed in Parliament."

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a coalition of over 40 farmers' unions that led the protests, called the development a "historic victory" for those "who struggled resolutely, unitedly, continuously, and peacefully for one year so far in the historic farmers' struggle," India Today reported, citing a statement from SKM.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement to repeal three farm laws is a welcome step in the right direction," said SKM, though the organized labor coalition did not commit to ending its mobilization. "SKM hopes that the government of India will go the full length to fulfill all the legitimate demands of protesting farmers, including statutory legislation to guarantee a remunerative MSP [Minimum Support Price]."

Rakesh Tikait, a leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, welcomed Modi's announcement but said that "we will wait for the day when the farm laws are repealed in Parliament," where the winter session starts on November 29. He added that in addition to the MSP demand, "the government should talk to farmers on other issues."

Modi's announcement—and the sustained resistance of India's farmers—were celebrated by progressives worldwide.

Al Jazeera reported that Modi's "sudden concession comes ahead of elections early next year in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, and two other northern states with large rural populations." Opposition parties attributed the prime minister's move to sinking poll numbers, characterizing it as part of an effort to appeal to voters who support or sympathize with the nation's struggling farmers.

According to CNN, "Farmers are the biggest voting bloc in the country, and the agricultural sector sustains about 58% of India's 1.3 billion citizens. Angering farmers could see Modi lose a sizable number of votes."

"The repeal of the three farm laws... is a major political victory for India's peasant movement."

As India Today noted, "Hundreds of farmers have been camping at three places on the Delhi border since November 2020, demanding the repeal of the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020."

For over a year, CNN reported, "Indian farmers have fought the three laws, which they said leave them open to exploitation by large corporations and could destroy their livelihoods."

Al Jazeera explained that "the legislation the farmers object to," passed last September, "deregulates the sector, allowing farmers to sell produce to buyers beyond government-regulated wholesale markets, where growers are assured of a minimum price."

Modi's cabinet said the laws are "aimed at giving farmers the freedom to sell directly to institutional buyers such as big trading houses, large retailers, and food processors," Reuters reported. While Modi claimed the legislation "will 'unshackle' millions of farmers and help them get better prices," opposition parties said that "farmers' bargaining power will be diminished."

Small farmers expressed alarm about the legislation, saying that "the changes make them vulnerable to competition from big business, and that they could eventually lose price support for staples such as wheat and rice," Al Jazeera reported.

Beginning last September, farmers from regions of India that are major producers of wheat and rice blocked railway tracks, which was followed by larger, nationwide protests, including some that used trucks, tractors, and combine harvesters to block highways leading to New Dehli, the nation's capital.


Indian Farmers Continue Historic Protests After 250 Million People Rise Up Against Modi's Neoliberal Policies
Brett Wilkins

By last December, "protests spread across India, as farm organizations call[ed] for a nationwide strike after inconclusive talks with the government," Reuters reported, adding that demonstrations also took place throughout the Sikh diaspora.

In January, "India's Supreme Court order[ed] an indefinite stay on the implementation of the new agricultural laws, saying it wanted to protect farmers and would hear their objections," the news outlet noted.

Over the course of several months, which included a brutal winter and a devastating Covid-19 surge, farmers continued to agitate for full repeal of the three laws. Repression from Modi's right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party resulted in hundreds of deaths.

At the largest rally to date, more than half a million farmers gathered in Uttar Pradesh on September 5, roughly 10 weeks before Modi announced that he will repeal the laws.

In response to Modi's decision on Friday, "farmers at [the] protest sites of Ghazipur, Tikri, and Singhu borders celebrated by bursting crackers, distributing sweets, and welcoming the [government's] move," India Today reported.

The Transnational Institute praised "the resilience, courage, and determination of India's farmers who succeeded in overturning the pernicious farm laws," calling it "the power of movements."

That sentiment was shared by numerous other observers.

"The repeal of the three farm laws—unconstitutional, with no demonstrable benefits, and aimed to expand corporate control over agriculture—is a major political victory for India's peasant movement," said R. Ramakumar, an economics professor in the School of Development Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. "Their resolute struggle has shown and amplified the power of dissent in our democracy."

Priyamvada Gopal, a professor of postcolonial studies at the University of Cambridge, placed the overturning of Modi's unpopular reforms in a broader context, arguing that "the victory of farmers in North India is not a local matter."

"This is a victory of global significance," she added. "Immense class and oppressed caste solidarity, fierce determination, [and] deep courage defeated the combine of chauvinist authoritarianism and corporate greed—our common enemy."

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India's farmers are revolting against Modi's government

President Donald J. Trump joins Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in conversation during their visit to the home of Mohandas Gandhi Monday, Feb. 24, 2020, in Ahmedabad, India. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Sonali Kolhatkar and Independent Media Institute December 19, 2020

India's farmers are revolting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in a mass movement that has drawn international attention. The world's largest democracy is witnessing a collective groundswell of protest as hundreds of thousands of farmers, largely from the states of Punjab and Haryana, have laid siege to the outskirts of the capital of New Delhi, determined to occupy the edges of the city until Modi reverses unpopular new laws that they say are anti-farmer.

About half of India's workers depend on the agricultural industry, and the government has long had in place regulations to protect farmworkers, acting as a middleman between farmers and buyers of their produce. Now those protections have been upended. In September 2020, Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pushed three deregulatory bills through Parliament amid chaos and even some opposition from within his own party.

Amandeep Sandhu, author of Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines, has been closely following the farmers' protests. In an interview, he explained to me that the first of the three bills scrapped the Essential Commodities Act, a 1955 law that stabilized food prices by preventing traders from hoarding supplies. According to Sandhu, "now traders can stockpile as much food as they want and can play the markets as they wish." Two-thirds of India's population of 1.3 billion rely on subsidized food rations, which Sandhu says are now endangered.

Another of the deregulatory laws would leave farmers to negotiate directly with buyers without government intervention to set basic minimum prices. Although this theoretically could result in farmers being able to demand higher prices, during years when there is a surplus of crops and subsequent plummeting prices, farmers could be financially destroyed. In short, the new laws are designed to subject hundreds of millions of poor farmers to the whims and demands of the market.

Modi's third controversial law centers on contract farming and enables corporate buyers to directly hire small farmers to produce specific crops. But Sandhu explained that it also protects corporations from liabilities. "If a small farmer has entered into a contract with a corporation and the corporation reneges on the contract, the farmer cannot go to court."00:00

Even before these new laws were put in place, India's farmers were being pushed to the brink. Millions are in debt as banks refuse to lend to the cash-strapped workers, driving them to illegal lenders that charge exorbitant interest rates. Farmer suicides in India have been on the rise, exacerbated by the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic this year.

According to Sandhu, "for many decades farmers have been protesting against the 'green revolution' model of agriculture," which emphasizes an increase in productivity above all else including farmer livelihoods. Writing for CNN.com, Simran Jeet Singh and Gunisha Kaur explained, "Just as some medications are tested on humans of developing countries before being accepted in developed nations, the Green Revolution was an agricultural experiment tested out on the fields of Punjab."

In further unleashing market forces on farmers through his new laws, Modi may have gone too far. "These very farmers are the BJP's core constituency," said Sandhu. "These are the ones who got the government elected in the first place."

Offering a stark contrast with struggling farmers are wealthy Indian elites who have seen their riches multiply each year. A 2018 report found that the wealth of the richest 831 Indians amounted to a quarter of India's gross domestic product. Chief among them is Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, who has launched dozens of new businesses in the agricultural sector in just the last few months. India's second wealthiest person is Gautam Adani, and both men are considered close political allies of Modi. Protesting farmers say Modi's controversial farm bills were written to benefit the likes of Ambani and Adani. Earlier in the protests, farmers burned effigies of the prime minister and his billionaire buddies.

Modi has claimed that deregulation will bring wealth and prosperity to farmers and that objections to the laws are purely political. Because most of India's left-wing parties and prominent political figures from the opposition Congress Party have expressed support for farmers, the BJP-led government claims that farmers are being misled into believing the laws are bad for their bottom line. But one farmer from Punjab told Al Jazeera, "There is no politics in it, we feel the laws are going to benefit corporates and not poor farmers like us."

Modi has implored the farmers occupying the edges of Delhi to go home, claiming that the new laws are written to benefit them and are a "gift." He has offered to amend the laws as a compromise, but the farmers are standing firm, saying nothing less than a complete repeal of the laws will be satisfactory. India's former economic adviser Kaushik Basu agrees with them. Basu, who also served as chief economist of the World Bank and is currently a professor of economics at Cornell University, said the bills were "flawed" and "detrimental to farmers." He explained, "Our agriculture regulation needs change but the new laws will end up serving corporate interests more than farmers."

The new laws impact farmers' control over what to grow, whom to sell to, what prices they can rely on, and whether or not their crops will have buyers—all presented in the form of an unsolicited "gift" from a government that for years has ignored their plight. It's no wonder they are rebelling.

Solidarity with Indian farmers is high across the nation. In late November, nearly a dozen trade unions launched a massive general strike, bringing the nation to a standstill for a day. More than 250 million people are estimated to have participated, making it the world's largest protest in history. The farmers called for a second strike a week later and remain on the outskirts of New Delhi, blocking five major highways and saying they aren't leaving anytime soon. Sandhu shared that "farmers from Punjab and Haryana came with rations of their own for six months to one year and are willing to stick it out. The farmers who are coming from longer distances will be fed by those who are already there."

Indian agriculture affects the rest of the world, with a large percentage of the global spice market originating from Indian farms. Exported staples such as rice and milk and even cotton used by the apparel industry could be impacted by the new laws.

Diaspora Indians are now speaking out. Thousands of Indian origin residents of Britain rallied in London, declaring, "We stand with farmers of Punjab." Canadian Indians protested in various cities, with many saying they still had family who farmed in India. In California—home to a large population of Punjabi Indian Americans, many of whom are farmers themselves—a massive car rally in Silicon Valley called attention to the farmers' demands. And in Seattle, Councilmember Kshama Sawant of the Socialist Alternative Party sponsored a resolution to express solidarity with Indian farmers.

For now, a stalemate remains with the government and farmers facing off against one another, refusing to back down. Sawant had perhaps the most eloquent framing of what's at stake, saying, "Indian farmers are facing the same exploitation by the billionaire class that farmers and workers are facing worldwide."

Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of "Rising Up With Sonali," a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. She is a writing fellow for the Economy for All project at the Independent Media Institute.

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

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India’s Farmers’ Movement Helped Thwart Narendra Modi

AN INTERVIEW WITH AMRA RAM

Narendra Modi’s plan to win an electoral supermajority ended in failure this month. A communist leader of India’s farmers’ movement explains how their struggle contributed to Modi’s biggest setback since taking power.

Farmers shout slogans against Indian prime minister Narendra Modi during a protest to demand minimum crop prices on the outskirts of Gurdaspur, India, on May 24, 2024. (Narinder Nanu / AFP via Getty Images)

INTERVIEW BYSHINZANI JAIN

JACOBIN
06.25.2024

The results of India’s national elections, declared on June 4, were humbling for the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Narendra Modi. The BJP, which had been boasting that it could win four hundred or more seats, instead saw its seat share drop from 303 in 2019 to 240 this year and was obliged to form a coalition to remain in power.

The election outcome was significantly influenced by the farmers’ movement, which forced the BJP-led government to suspend its proposed farm laws in 2021. That movement resumed its activity on the eve of the election. The BJP vote declined in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, where the farmers’ movement has been active.

Amra Ram is a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (the CPI[M]) who was elected to the Indian parliament this year for the Sikar constituency in Rajasthan as part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc. He is also a leader of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS, or All India Farmers’ Union), the peasant wing of the CPI(M). He spoke to us about the ongoing impact of the farmers’ movement on Indian politics.
SHINZANI JAIN

Please tell us about your life and political journey in Rajasthan.

AMRA RAM

As a student at Shri Kalyan Government College in Sikar, I worked with the students’ organizations mobilizing on student issues. The Shri Kalyan Government College was the biggest university in Rajasthan, and I was the president of the students’ union there. Then, I was twice elected as the sarpanch (president) of the gram panchayat (village council) in Mundwara in Rajasthan.

After this, I served as a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) four times. In 1993, 1998, and 2003, I was elected from the Dhod constituency of the Rajasthan Assembly. In 2008, I was elected as an MLA for the fourth time from the Danta Ramgarh constituency of the Rajasthan Assembly.The political impact of the farmers’ movement has been felt strongly in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab, the regions where we saw massive participation and support.

As an MLA, I consistently raised the issues of the farmers, students, farm laborers, workers, and the common people of Rajasthan in the state legislative assembly. When the government ignored our demands, we raised the same issues through movements on the streets. Whether it was the issue of electricity bills, the agitation to demand water supply for irrigation during 2004–05 in which eight farmers were martyred, or the farmers’ agitation during 2017–18, when the government was forced to implement a waiver of the farmers’ loans, we raised these issues in the state legislative assembly as well as on the streets.

I was also involved with the farmers’ movement during 2020–21 against the three farm laws in which the farmers struggled for more than a year. Finally, the Modi government was forced to withdraw the three farm laws. On December 9, 2021, the government assured us that it would enact a law to make minimum support price (MSP) a legal guarantee. However, even to this day, this has not been done.

This farmers’ movement during 2020–21 was historic. The political impact of the movement has been felt strongly in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab, the regions where we saw massive participation and support.

During the 2014 and 2019 general assembly elections in Rajasthan, all twenty-five seats were won by the NDA coalition led by the BJP. Out of these seats, the opposition won eleven this time. The Sikar constituency, from which I have been elected, is one of these eleven seats.

In Haryana, the opposition has won five out of ten seats. In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP), which was part of the INDIA coalition, has won thirty-seven seats. This has been a massive setback for the BJP. After they made lofty claims of winning over four hundred seats, they have just managed to win 240.
SHINZANI JAIN

Could you give us the background of the farmers’ movement during 2020–21?
AMRA RAM

There have been many instances in different parts of the country where the farmers have faced a government backlash for protesting. However, the farmers’ movement started becoming big after farmers were shot in the Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh in 2018.The farmers’ movement started becoming big after farmers were shot in the Mandsaur district in Madhya Pradesh in 2018.

In this agitation, the farmers were raising the issue of low prices for their garlic crops. While the cost of cultivation for the crop was Rs. 100 per kg and the labor employed to cultivate the crop was extraneous, no one was ready to even buy the crops for Rs. 5 per kg. When the farmers demanded fair and remunerative prices for their crops, the BJP government led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan responded to them with bullets, and six farmers were martyred.

Following this attack, farmers from across the ideological divide from across the country were mobilized by the AIKS to come together in their struggle. A combined movement was built around the issues of prices, land acquisition, and opposition to the government’s three farm laws.

The Indian government attempted to break the movement in different ways. It tried to present the movement as communal, and even labeled the agitating farmers as “Naxalites,” “Maoists,” “hired goons,” or accused them of being “supported by China and Pakistan.” But the farmers persevered and continued to follow the calls of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) [a collective front of farmers’ unions] throughout the country.

The AIKS, which was a national organization, mobilized farmers on the national scale. Finally, the farmers defeated the dictatorial government, and it was forced to withdraw the black laws. However, the written guarantee that the government gave us in December 2021 has still not been implemented.

When the NDA government came to power in 2014, it declared at more than four hundred farmers’ meetings that the farmers would receive MSP, that two crore [twenty million] jobs would be created for young people, and that within one hundred days, all Indians would get lakhs [hundreds of thousands] of rupees in their bank accounts as money from foreign accounts would be brought back to India. Instead of fulfilling these promises, it did the exact opposite. Through these elections, the youth and the farmers have given a response to the government.
SHINZANI JAIN

Could you please explain to us the nature and extent of the agricultural crisis in the country?
AMRA RAM

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, India adopted the policies of liberalization and privatization inspired by US imperialism. Following this turn toward liberalization and opening up of markets, all the production and procurement of agricultural inputs used by the farmers — seeds, manure, pesticides, insecticides, diesel — was allotted to agribusinesses and multinational corporations. This has been done not only in India but across the world.The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund wanted the agricultural sector to be dominated by large agri-corporations.

As a result of these policies, the farmers continued to become indebted. Drowning in debt, they started committing suicide in huge numbers. The youth of the country became unemployed, and businesses were destroyed. The liberalization model also promoted agricultural imports and the prices offered to the farmers declined. Large corporations and agribusinesses prospered, and the farmers fell into a cycle of indebtedness.

The increasing prices of agricultural produce affected farmers across the country, whether they were cultivating food grains, vegetables, fruits, or cash crops like cashews and raisins. The cost of cultivating all kinds of crops increased sharply, and the farmers were not even earning enough to cover the costs they incurred. The farmers had no option but to protest.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund wanted farmers to be ousted from agriculture. They wanted the agricultural sector to be dominated by large agri-corporations, with farmers becoming wage laborers for these corporations. As a result of these policies of liberalization and privatization, farmers are agitating across the world, not only in India, but in European countries as well.
SHINZANI JAIN

How did the farmers’ movement appeal to the people from other sectors and the urban population?
AMRA RAM

The farm laws were not only detrimental to the agricultural sector and the people employed within it. The idea behind these laws was to allow the hoarding of agricultural produce so as to rob not only the farmers but also the people as a whole. The movement was also against the plunder of big corporations like Adani and Ambani and against the toll mafia run by giants such as the Reliance Group. For a whole year, tolls were waived, and the common man benefitted from this struggle.Even before the enactment of the farm laws, the situation of the farmers was desperate, as they were not getting remunerative prices.

Even before the enactment of the farm laws, the situation of the farmers was desperate, as they were not getting remunerative prices. Imagine the situation of the people after the implementation of laws allowing for the hoarding of food grains and other essential crops even at the time of an emergency. Naturally, this would impact not only the farmers but also the workers of the country.

This movement was fought not only by the farmers but also by Indian workers. Ultimately, the movement took shape as a “people’s movement,” and the result was that the dictator heading the government, who never listened to anybody before, had to bow his head before the unity of this movement.
SHINZANI JAIN

What have we learned about the impact of people’s movements on electoral outcomes from this movement?
AMRA RAM

We saw that all the farmers’ groups with different flags, ideologies, and leaders came together to fight. In addition, the communist and secular forces that fought the elections separately in 2014 and 2019 fought together this time and brought the BJP down to 240 seats from 303 seats last time.

In India, even to this day, the majority of voters are within the agricultural sector, whether as farmers or as rural wage laborers. The majority of voters have now understood that behind their troubles is the government led by the BJP. Wherever there is a mass movement, we see that electoral outcomes are affected by it.From now on, any government will hesitate before messing with the farmers of the country.

This time, we have seen that those who were claiming they would win 370 or even more than four hundred seats have not even managed to win 270. I believe that this blow to the BJP, despite all of its undemocratic efforts at meddling with free and fair elections, is a people’s mandate against its laws.

We understand that the opposition has still not been able to form a government. But the number of opposition-held seats has doubled. The Indian National Congress has increased its number of seats to one hundred, nearly twice as many as before, while the SP from Uttar Pradesh, which is the biggest state with the largest number of constituencies, has gone from five to thirty-seven seats. From now on, any government will hesitate before messing with the farmers of the country.
SHINZANI JAIN

What are the long-term goals of the farmers’ movement? What issues will you raise in the parliament and beyond?
AMRA RAM

Before the general elections were declared, farmers from Punjab started marching toward Delhi. However, stringent measures were taken to stop them from proceeding beyond the Haryana border. Despite the barriers, the farmers did not retreat. They were back again to fight for their demands.

The government did not fulfil the promises made to the farmers in December 2021. The 2020 Electricity Bill, which was one of the contentious issues during the farmers’ protests, has been passed in the form of this year’s Electricity (Amendment) Act. Under the new law, the contract for electricity generation and distribution will be granted to large corporations. This means that electricity will now be available only to the rich and not the poor of this country.

The future course for this movement is not only for the farmers to raise their issues in the parliament, but to continue their struggle on the streets. Even in December 2021, the movement was merely paused on account of the promises made by the government. In February 2024, the farmers resumed the movement, and a big rally was held at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi.

The farmers from Punjab are still protesting at the Punjab-Haryana border. Over the last year, the government tried its best to break this coalition of farmers’ groups. However, it failed miserably. As long as the farmers and peasants of the country are in crisis, the movement will not end. They will try to break us, and perhaps they will be successful in winning over one or two farm leaders, but they will not be able to break the unity of the farmers.

This is the first time in my life that I have witnessed such unity among the farmers and the workers of the country. Previously, the farmers asked us why they should be concerned about workers’ issues and vice versa. This is the first time that farmers and workers have understood that these policies will only be overturned if they fight together.

Not only the farmers and workers but even the youth of the country are fighting together now. We will continue to struggle and strengthen the movement, not only in India but also across the world, until we succeed in bringing about structural change.

CONTRIBUTORS

Amra Ram is a leader of the All India Kisan Sabha who was elected to India’s parliament for the Sikar constituency in Rajasthan as a candidate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Shinzani Jain is a researcher and author. She is currently pursuing a PhD in regional and urban planning studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

India's farmers are right to protest against agricultural reforms


The massive campaign organized by India’s farmers against laws to deregulate the agricultural sector has entered its ninth week. The government in New Delhi, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has tried to negotiate a compromise. But its attempts to placate the farmers have thus far failed.

© AP Photo/Altaf Qadri Proponents of the new laws claim they will help India's agricultural sector, but small, rural farmers fear losing their livelihoods.

The strength of the mobilization has now compelled the government to suspend the laws for 18 months and form a new committee including representatives of the government and the farmers to address their grievances.

The farmers’ leaders insist that the laws must be completely repealed. Reportedly, more than 50 of their members have died, taking their lives in desperation or succumbing to illness during the cold winter nights. The thousands of farmers encircling the capital insist they will remain until their demands are met.

They are right to protest.

The agricultural sector only contributes about 15 per cent of national income, yet more than half of India’s workers depend on it for their livelihood. The vast majority are small farmers, sharecroppers and landless laborers who struggle to stay afloat on precarious wages, shrinking plots and the vagaries of the monsoon.

The costs of production continue to rise. Growing indebtedness, either to informal moneylenders or formal banks, has tragically compelled thousands to take their lives over the past two decades. Inadequate public investment in roads, irrigation and cold storage and poor credit facilities have severely constrained the productivity of Indian agriculture. Systematic reform is long overdue

.

© (AP Photo/Bikas Das) A protest march in Kolkata in support of farmers. Protests in support of the farmers have taken place across India.

Last week, the Supreme Court of India stayed the implementation of the agricultural reforms, appointing an expert committee to find a solution. Yet its members support the laws, leading the farmers’ representatives to dismiss them as pro-government mediators.

The court has damaged its already weakened credibility by failing to articulate plausible constitutional grounds for its sudden and arbitrary involvement. High judicial intervention has inflamed the situation, rather than ending it.
Why the farmers revolted

Advocates of the three landmark reforms passed by the Indian parliament last September claim they will expand the choice farmers have. They argue that allowing large corporations to dominate the sector will spur land consolidation, investment in mechanization and generate economies of scale that will enhance productivity.

Instead of selling their crops to the government at a minimum support price in local state-regulated markets, farmers can now sell their harvest via contracts to a much wider range of private actors in a national market. As a result, farmers’ incomes will rise and food prices will decline.

.

© (AP Photo/Bikas Das) Many farmers fear the new laws will jeopardise their livelihoods.

Yet, consider the fine print of these laws and the larger economic realities facing small farmers in India. The vast national marketplace in the making will only be available to those who can afford to get their produce across state borders.

The majority of farmers will still have to sell their crops locally. There is also a very real risk that agricultural deregulation will lead to farmers being paid less than the minimum support price. That has already happened in some Indian states where similar reforms were tried.

The new laws also expose small farmers by removing the courts from resolving disputes that are likely to take place. India’s legal system is infamously backlogged, but compelling small farmers to seek redress through local administrative processes leaves them vulnerable to the influence large corporations. Massive power asymmetries will encourage corporate oligarchies.

Canada has traditionally pushed for greater deregulation of Indian agriculture at the World Trade Organization. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s remarks a few weeks ago defending the farmers’ right to protest peacefully drew a sharp rebuke from New Delhi. It also led commentators in Canada to criticize the prime minister for placating a political constituency at the expense of national economic interest.

But what may be in Canada’s national interest could easily come at the expense of millions of small farmers, sharecroppers and landless workers, who are right to fear being forced off the land to face harsh economic insecurity.

Reinvigorating democracy

When he was first elected in 2014, Prime Minister Modi famously promised to create 10 million good jobs in construction, manufacturing and infrastructure every year to absorb India’s growing labour force.

Yet aggregate economic growth has significantly declined during his tenure. Private investment has stagnated while unemployment has risen. Hence, tens of millions of migrants continue to travel to the cities in different seasons to work in the informal sector, returning to their villages to sow and harvest various crops to make ends meet.

© (AP Photo/Manish Swarup) A farmer participates in a protest on a highway at the Delhi-Haryana state border in New Delhi, Dec. 3, 2020.

Historically, India has struggled to replicate the expansion of labour-intensive industrialization that enabled the economic transformation of North America, Western Europe and East Asia. The greater capital intensity of production in our 21st-century economies makes it harder than ever.

All of this was known before the government introduced these laws through an executive order over the summer while India struggled to contain the pandemic. Rather than consult farmers’ unions and state-level governments, the BJP government transformed the executive order into legislation in September. It then rammed the legislation through parliament via a voice vote, refusing opposition demands for the laws to be sent to parliamentary committee for further scrutiny.

The high-handed passage of these laws was characteristic of the BJP, whose deeply majoritarian ideology has sought to undermine the legitimacy of opposition, status of minorities and separation of powers in the world’s largest democracy. The dramatic political mobilization of India’s farmers, whose legitimate concerns were never heard, provided a desperately needed check.

Highly organized and strategically encamped at key entry points surrounding New Delhi, the farmers’ protest movement is the most powerful India has witnessed in decades. It is forcing the BJP government to relearn the art of democracy.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sanjay Ruparelia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The uprising of India’s farmers: The significance and history behind the worldwide protests

By Taz Dhaliwal Global News

CANADA
Posted December 12, 2020 
Updated December 13, 2020 

As a standoff between tens of thousands of protesting farmers and the Indian government continues to intensify over new legislation farmers claim will threaten their livelihoods, Taz Dhaliwal takes a look at the factors that led to the demonstrations which have garnered international attention.

Farmers in India continue to stand their ground at border points in the country.

A standoff between the Indian government and tens of thousands of farmers — who are peacefully protesting against three farming reform bills — continues to grow near Delhi.

The #DelhiChalo peaceful protests have sparked others to take place across India and other countries, with many Punjabi and Sikh farmers leading the charge on the ground locally and abroad to raise awareness about the issue.

On Sept. 20, the bills were passed into law by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“What we see in India is an incredibly powerful dominant party, like we’ve not seen since the 1970s, and a prime minister who looms large over the political landscape,” said Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky democracy chair and associate professor of politics at Ryerson University.

Ruparelia said the protests, which have essentially unfolded as a farmer’s movement, are truly “remarkable.”

The Indian government has argued the changes will give farmers more freedom, but farmers argue the new legislation will drive down their products’ prices with no safeguards to protect them against corporate takeovers and exploitation, further devastating their livelihoods.

READ MORE: Here’s why farmers in India are protesting and why Canadians are concerned

“The political side is that this government has been very autocratic in the way in which it has pushed through big reforms,” Ruparelia said.

“I should say on the agricultural side, the reforms they put through in September, there were a lot of economists and others who thought there had to be some reforms in the agricultural system, whether these are designed properly or not, is the question,” Ruparelia said.

Sixty per cent of India’s workforce is employed in the agriculture sector, but the industry only represents about 15 per cent of India’s GDP, with a majority being small scale farmers.

The concern behind the protests

Many protestors by the Delhi border points are from the states of Punjab and Haryana, which are considered India’s bread basket.
 
Although, the peaceful demonstrations turned violent when the government used military tactics to clamp down on the dissent being expressed by frustrated farmers.

Protestors have been met with water cannons on some of the coldest winter days Delhi has experienced, along with tear gas, concrete barricades, and some were even beaten with batons. Many of the farmers are also seniors.

Despite the agitation from the government, farmers remain strong in their resolve to see the bills repealed in order to protect their future.

Khalsa Aid International is a non-governmental organization that has been providing protestors with shelter, clothing, food, water, first-aid kits, hygiene products, and even fire-extinguishers at the encampment site by the Delhi border. Volunteers are stationed at three different areas.

“So our team has actually been working with the India team for several months. The protests themselves started in Punjab after these kind of three controversial bills were passed in September,” Khalsa Aid Canada national director Jatinder Singh said.

The organization said it’s deeply troubled by what its volunteers have witnessed as protestors endure the implementation of brute force by the Indian government.

“For us, it was very difficult to see the families, the elderly farmers being subjected to the water canon and tear gas,” Singh said.

“You know people often say India’s this vibrant democracy, but the only thing really vibrating were the tear gas canisters, that were being thrown at these peaceful protestors.”

Singh said he hopes the negotiation talks between the dozens of farmer’s unions and the Indian government will result in an outcome allowing farmers to be able to sustain their livelihoods.

The largest protest in human history is going on in India and we the world cannot afford to be silent.

Let’s raise our voices against violence and support equal human rights for all.#HumanRightsDay #FarmerProtests 🌾 pic.twitter.com/CMkecWa9QQ

— Khalsa Aid Canada (@khalsaaidca) December 10, 2020

He also said Khalsa Aid is not currently fundraising for the farmers, despite receiving some voluntary monetary donations from people. Singh said the donations they already received will go towards helping protestors with their humanitarian needs.

Singh said the farmers have made it clear they do not want funds to be raised for them, instead they ask that people continue to show solidarity by raising their voice and concerns over the bills.

The World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO), which promotes and protects the interests of Sikhs in Canada and around the world and advocates for the protection of human rights for all, has also expressed concern over the troubling treatment of protestors as they try to practice their democratic right to peacefully protest.

“I was particularly worried and terrified for my own family members. We actually have an uncle who’s part of a union and he’s out there,” said Harman Kandola, Alberta vice-president with the World Sikh Organization.

Kandola said this concern is due to the Indian government having a history of violence against Sikhs and other minorities in the country.

“So it’s unsurprising in some elements where there is use of violence when you’re talking about peaceful protestors,” Kandola said.

He says the protestors are simply asking to be heard, and based on his conversations with people on the ground in Delhi, many feel disenfranchised due to the barriers that have been put in their way when they tried marching to their own country’s capitol, making them feel like outsiders.

Kandola said with so much of the Indian diaspora that exists throughout North America coming from Punjab, those individuals are genuinely concerned about the well-being of their family and friends in India.


“So, when we see these farmers we see our brothers, our sisters, our family members, we see our forefathers,” Kandola explained.
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“For so many of us, our families tilled the land in India. They were farmers, that is our background, and so it’s hard to disconnect from that. You’re always connected to that spirit,” he said.

READ MORE: ‘We feel hopeless’: Indo-Canadian Punjabis fear for families in Indian farmers’ protests

The anti-farm bills being protested

The first, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, will allow farmers to deal directly with corporations and private buyers.

The bills allow farmers to sell their produce outside government-controlled agricultural markets called ‘Mandi’s’, which ensured prices wouldn’t get too high.

The bill may also mark an end to a decades-old system guaranteeing minimum support prices for staple crops called an MSP.

The second law, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, deals with pricing. The bill will push farmers, corporations and private buyers to negotiate contracts. However, several farmers have voiced their concerns over not having the bargaining power to negotiate with corporate giants.

The bill also curtails farmers’ ability to challenge contract disputes in court.

And the third, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, seeks the “modernization” of India’s food supply chain by reducing stockpiling, removing commodities like “cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, onion and potatoes” from the current list of essential commodities.

It also aims to “drive up investment in cold storages” and give farmers the “freedom to produce, hold, move, distribute and supply” their products.

However experts have noted since most of India’s farmers are small-scale farmers, they wouldn’t have the ability to compete with corporations when it comes to stockpiling and producing on a large scale, giving rich investors an unfair advantage and an opportunity to manipulate market prices.

“With the entry of the corporate private players into this agricultural procurement and agricultural production, what they see is that they will have complete control over how much they produce and how much they’ll pay back the producers,” 

said Chinnaiah Jangam, associate professor, History of modern South Asia

 Carleton University.

Jangam goes on to say it is important to note the legitimate fear many farmers have of losing their ancestral lands to corporations, due to not being able to compete on the same level.

In some cases where debt has gotten unbearable, farmers have had to give up their lands when they’re unable to pay back their loans.

An additional concern is that these bills were passed without stakeholders being consulted or deliberation from the opposition.

“What has agitated a lot of opposition in India is precisely the fact the government rammed through these bills, these momentous bills, essentially liberalizing agriculture without any deliberation in parliament,” Ruparelia explained.

“The opposition requested these bills go to parliamentary committee for further scrutiny, the government disallowed it.”

India’s agricultural history

Although, crisis in the agriculture sector in India is nothing new as the industry has been suffering for decades.

The face of agriculture changed significantly in the 1960s, when India went through the green revolution, under then prime minister Indira Gandhi, who implemented the growth of high-yielding wheat and rice crops to address famine in the country.

The revolution marked the beginning of industrializing the agriculture sector, and introducing new methods of fertilization and the use of pesticides, and some farmers felt they had been exploited in order to produce these high-yielding crops for the government.

“One line of critique was that it lead to growing inequalities and disparities in the Indian countryside between richer farmers with large farm holding assets and a vast surplus of agricultural labour,” Ruparelia said.

Post-Green Revolution, the production of wheat and rice doubled because of initiatives put forth by the government, and the production of crops such as indigenous rice varieties and millets declined.

This then lead to the loss of distinct indigenous crops from cultivation and even caused extinction.

Fast forward to the 1990s when corporate genetically modified seeds were introduced to increase even higher yields.

Ever since then, farmers have been taking huge loans to pay for irrigation, fertilization and pesticides, but in instances where they saw no return on their investments, some die by suicide in large numbers, when they feel trapped in a cycle of debt.

More than 300,000 farmers have taken their own lives in India over the last two decades.

Suicide, along with substance abuse and the mental health of farmers have been additional ongoing concerns in the Indian agriculture sector.

History professor Jangam said in a historical sense, farmers symbolized a lot of dignity and self respect, but he said these reforms, and the decades leading up to them, have placed many in unaffordable debt, stripping them of fair prices for the crops they labour over.

Jangam goes on to speak of a time when farmers where more self-reliant, were able to take more pride in their work and weren’t on the brink of being at the mercy of corporations.

“They are the most self-respecting people, because they don’t have to work for anyone, they can just live on their land,” he said.

“This system has robbed their dignity.”

And now these protests may just be the farmers way of saying ‘enough is enough,’ as many see this most recent legislation as the straw that broke the camels back.

READ MORE: Music motivates mounting movement in India as farmers reject govt proposals

The unwavering farmer’s protests represent a symbolic fight towards salvaging their depleting livelihoods.

-With files from Global News’ Emerald Bensadoun
© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

India: Farmers launch nationwide strike over new laws

Farmer unions in India have called for a general strike over new agricultural laws that are aimed at liberalizing the industry. The nationwide shutdown comes a day before talks with the government.


Indian farmers called for a one-day nationwide strike on Tuesday after days of blockading New Delhi in a bid to force the government to repeal its new market-friendly farm laws.

Tuesday's strike, called Bharat Bandh, will see tens of thousands of farmers blocking key roads and rail lines across the country for several hours, affecting transport services and offices.

They have received support from railway workers, truck drivers and other unions, who will be joining them in the strike.

The farmers have emphasized that the strike will be a peaceful protest, and they will ensure that emergency services such as ambulances and fire brigades aren't affected.

"Our protest is peaceful, and we'll continue that way. Bharat Bandh is a symbolic protest to register our opposition. It is to show that we don't support some of the policies of the government," farmers' union leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters.

Read more: India farmers threaten Delhi blockade in protest of Modi's agriculture reforms

The strike comes after five rounds of talks between farmers' unions and the government failed. The sixth round of talks is scheduled for Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of farmers have camped near the border of New Delhi since November 27 to protest the new laws, blocking most of the entry points to the national capital.

The farmers have said they will not return home until the laws are repealed.

The Indian government issued an advisory to all states and union territories to boost security. Thousands of extra police personnel have been deployed in Delhi and neighboring states where farmers have been protesting for nearly two weeks.

VIDEO India: Farmers demand repeal of agricultural market reforms

What are the laws they are protesting?

In September, India's parliament passed three controversial agriculture bills aimed at liberalizing the country's farm sector. They were subsequently signed into law, sparking farmers' protests across the country.

The government argued that the new laws will give freedom to farmers to sell their produce outside regulated markets and enter into contracts with buyers at a pre-agreed price.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) insists that the laws will fetch better prices and free farmers from traditional middlemen who dominate the trade. The government hopes that its new policy will double farmers' income by 2022.

Farmers' associations say the legislation does not guarantee the acquisition of farm produce through state-run organizations that guarantee a minimum support price (MSP), thus leaving them at the mercy of corporations that are now expected to enter the country's troubled farming sector.

"We are fighting for our rights. We won't rest until we reach the capital and force the government to abolish these black laws,'' said Majhinder Singh Dhaliwal, a farmers' leader.

Opposition parties and even some allies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have called the laws anti-farmer and pro-corporation and called on the government to accept the farmers' demand to roll them back.

Protesters from the Left Front political party blocked railways in Kolkata

Domestic and international support for farmers

More than 15 opposition parties and many non-BJP-ruled state governments have backed the strikes. The government has accused Congress, the main opposition party, of opportunism.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Congress supported privatizing the agricultural sector but is now opposing it to gain favor with the farmers, an influential voting group.

The farmers have also received support internationally. Several US lawmakers have voiced their support for the ongoing protests.

"I stand in solidarity with the Punjabi farmers in India protesting for their livelihoods and protection from misguided, manipulative government regulations," Congressman Doug LaMalfa said on Monday.

"Punjabi farmers must be allowed to protest peacefully against their government without fear of violence," the Republican said in a tweet.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also reiterated his support of Indian farmers last week.

Trudeau released a Twitter video calling the police crackdown on the farmer protests "concerning" and saying they should be allowed to stage peaceful protests.

"Canada will always stand up for the right of peaceful protests anywhere around the world. And we are pleased to see moves towards de-escalation and dialogue," he told reporters in Ottawa.



INDIAN FARMERS CONTINUE PROTEST AGAINST NEW DELHI
Talks inconclusive
Farmers from the northern state of Punjab sit in protest at the border between Delhi and Haryana amid an ongoing deadlock with the national government.
PHOTOS 12345678

India’s farmers launch nationwide shutdown against new agricultural reform laws

Farmers have vowed to block major roads and rail lines across the country and have been given support by railway workers, truck drivers and teachers

They want laws they say will force produce prices down to be repealed, but which the government insist are necessary for agriculture’s long-term future


Agence France-Presse in New Delhi
Published:  8 Dec, 2020

Indian farmers threaten weeks of protests as talks with government continue

Indian farmers who have been blockading New Delhi on Tuesday launched a one-day, nationwide general strike to push their demands for the government to repeal reform laws opening up trade in agricultural produce.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been camped on the outskirts of the capital since November 27 

in protest at the laws in what has become one of the biggest challenges to the Hindu nationalist government since it won a second landslide election in 2019.

Farmers have vowed to block major roads and rail lines across the country for several hours and have been given support by railway workers, truck drivers, teachers and other unions.

Farmers react after police tried to stop them from entering New Delhi to protest against new farm laws on Monday. Photo: EPA

Authorities have put thousands of extra police on the streets in Delhi and boosted security in the rest of the country in a bid to head off any trouble.

Five rounds of talks have failed to narrow differences between farmers and ministers. The growing numbers of farmers and their supporters camped outside the capital say they will not go home until the laws are repealed.

The laws will allow farmers to sell their produce on the open market – including to supermarket chains – instead of being forced to sell through state-run organisations that guarantee a minimum price.

Farmers carry crops after harvesting a field on the outskirts of Kolkata earlier this month. The government insists reforms are necessary to give Indian agriculture a long-term future. Photo: AFP

Farmers say the industry will be taken over by major firms who will force prices down. The government insists the changes are necessary to give agriculture – still the backbone of the Indian economy – a long-term future.

The protests have already caused price rises for fruit and vegetables in Delhi because supplies are restricted.

Rakesh Tikait, a protest leader, said that people should not travel during the shutdown and all stores should close.

Thousands of Indian farmers protest against market reforms as government talks fail to ease anger

Balbir Singh Rajewal, another leader, said: “We want nothing less than a withdrawal of the new farm laws.”

The main opposition Congress party and about 15 other political groupings are backing the protest but the government has accused them of opportunism, rejecting measures that they had called for when in power.

The farmers are strongest in the north of the country, but even the government in the southern state of Karnataka suspended online school lessons for the day to show support.

Indian farmers vs Modi: protesters ‘ready to die’ in winter of discontent
4 Dec 2020


Top athletes including wrestler Kartar Singh, who won gold medals at the Asian Games in 1978 and 1986, said they would return national awards in protest at the laws.

Singh alongside hockey player Gurmail Singh – gold medallist at the 1980 Moscow Olympics – and former women’s hockey captain Rajbir Kaur tried to march on the presidential palace on Monday to hand back awards but were stopped by police.

A new round of talks on the disputed laws are to be held on Wednesday.

Farmers shout slogans next to a police barricade amid foggy condition during a nationwide general strike to protest against the recent agricultural reforms at the Delhi-Haryana state border in Singhu on December 8, 2020. (AFP)

India's protesting farmers set sights on key state election

Farmers vow to campaign against ruling party in 

next year’s state election in Uttar Pradesh

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Salimah Shivji · CBC News · Posted: Sep 20, 2021 

People shout slogans during a grand village council meeting as part of a farmers' protest against farm laws in Muzaffarnagar in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, on Sept. 5, 2021. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

The mission for the group of Indian farmers sitting in a makeshift tent at a protest camp near the Indian capital of New Delhi is crystal clear.

The farmers are huddled to reinvigorate their months-long fight against controversial new farming laws passed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government last year. 

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party is "running scared and on the defensive," said Jasbir Kaur Natt, a member of the Tikri border action committee that plans local protests.

"We have decided that we will hurt the BJP and defeat them" at the polls in next year's state election in Uttar Pradesh, she said.

Kaur Natt is convinced of this after two events this month that have galvanized the farmers' protests following a lull in demonstrations while India was battling a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring. 

Jasbir Kaur Natt, centre, discusses the next steps with fellow members of the Tikri action committee, which plans future protests. She calls a recent farmers’ rally a 'shot in the arm' for the protest against India’s new farming laws. (Salimah Shivji/CBC)

The first was a massive gathering that organizers called the largest since the protest movement began last November, which saw tens of thousands of farmers rally in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. 

The predominantly agricultural state is India's most populous and has a state assembly election set for early next year — a fact that hasn't escaped the farmers, who are preparing for a battle. The state is controlled by the BJP.

"We'll intensify our protest by going to every single city and town of Uttar Pradesh to convey the message that Modi's government is anti-farmer," one of the more prominent union leaders, Rakesh Tikait, told the crowd gathered at Muzaffarnagar on Sept. 5. 

Farm leaders are also calling for a countrywide strike on Sept. 27, to draw more attention to their protest against the new laws.

A farmer sits on a tractor as he attends a grand village council meeting in Muzaffarnagar on Sept. 5, 2021. Farmers are an important voting bloc in the country, with slightly less than 60 per cent of Indians dependent on the agricultural sector to earn a living. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

For nearly 10 months, India's farmers have been fighting three new laws passed without consultation last year. The farmers say the laws will destroy livelihoods and leave smaller farmers vulnerable to being squeezed out by large corporations. 

The Indian government insists farmers will be better off under the new legislation, which loosens rules around how they can sell their goods. The government has also pledged to improve incomes, but farmers want the laws repealed. 

The sustained protests have created a tricky situation for the Modi government. Farmers are an important voting bloc in the country, with slightly less than 60 per cent of Indians dependent on the agricultural sector to earn a living. 

Demonstrations entrenched

Numerous rounds of talks between government officials and agricultural union leaders have failed to break the impasse and the demonstrations are now entrenched, with quasi-permanent protest camps still located at three locations that ring the Delhi national capital region They first materialized in late November 2020. 

The camps are a "well-oiled system," said Dalwinder Singh, a farmer from Haryana state who has been living at one of the sites for 10 months, only leaving occasionally to tend to his crops.

He sees it as his duty to stay at the site to promote the farmers' wider goal: to keep attention on the issue and pressure on the Indian government.

WATCH | India's farmers say they won't back down until new farming laws are repealed: 

India farmer’s have ramped up their protests after nearly a year, saying they won’t back down until new farming laws are repealed. They’re hoping to influence elections early next year in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state. 2:16

Singh was also at the second protest that has injected new energy into the farmers' movement this month: a sit-in that lasted several days outside a government office in Karnal, in Haryana state. 

The city was the site of a protest in August that turned violent, with police officers charging at protesters with their batons. Ten people were injured, but anger against the authorities intensified when a video went viral in which a government official is heard telling police officers to "smash the heads" of protesting farmers.   

"The fight for Karnal was very important," Singh told CBC News. "We had to prove a point." 

The farmers got what they wanted: an inquiry will look into what happened and the bureaucrat seen in the video has been placed on leave until the investigation's report is released.  

"We got justice," Singh said. "It's obviously given us a big boost." 

'A major factor'

For agricultural policy analyst Indra Shekhar Singh, what happened in Karnal is a "litmus test" of the potential the farmers have to disrupt local politics because of how quickly the state government gave in to the farmers' demands. 

With five months to go until the state election in Uttar Pradesh, he believes the farmers have both the time and the will to sway voters.

Farmers listen to union leaders speaking at the Tikri camp, near the border with India’s capital New Delhi, on Sept. 12, 2021. They’ve been camping in protest against the country’s controversial new farming laws since late November 2020. (Salimah Shivji/CBC)

"For the first time, farmers will be a major factor and a major pressure group in the elections in Uttar Pradesh," said Shekhar Singh, a commentator formerly with the National Seed Association of India. 

"There is a very high probability that the BJP will face a strong resistance." 

The resistance is building at the Tikri protest camp, where Kaur Natt couldn't keep the smile off her face as she looked back on the last few weeks. 

'A shot in the arm'

"The Muzaffarnagar [rally] was a shot in the arm," she said. 

"It is going to be 10 months since we have been sitting here," she said, while adding quickly that the farmers have the time and patience to keep at it. "One thing is clear: we will not budge until these laws are repealed." 

‘This is my life now,” says 90-year-old Mahender Sangar, who has been living at the Tikri protest site for five months in a small tent with nine others. (Salimah Shivji/CBC)

That same determination is what keeps 90-year old Mahender Sangar going. He now spends his days living in a tent with nine other people. 

• India's farmers' protests mark 100 days — here's what's happening now

• CBC EXPLAINS
  What's behind the farmers' protests that are blocking highways in India

"This is my life now," he told CBC. "You can't afford to insult the farmers the way this government has, so I've decided to make this my home until we win this fight."