Indian farmers ride caravan of tractors into capital ahead of Republic Day

FILE PHOTO: Rally to protest against the newly passed farm bills, on a highway on the outskirts of New Delhi


By Manoj Kumar
Mon., January 25, 2021

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Caravans of tractors clogged a key highway in northern India on Monday as tens of thousands of farmers protesting against agriculture reforms streamed into the capital ahead of Republic Day, and police said they were prepared to deal with the crowds.

India marks its founding as a republic on Tuesday with a military parade in the historic city centre, but the farmers, who are demanding a rollback of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's deregulation effort, plan their own peaceful show of strength.

Delhi's police said protesters have been told to use three main routes for the tractor procession, which had been agreed upon after six days of discussion with farmer leaders.

But there are lingering concerns that "anti-national people" may seek to foment trouble during the demonstration, Delhi Police Commissioner S.N. Shrivastava told reporters.

"We are aware of all this and we are taking whatever action is required," Shrivastava said, "I have trust that everything will go on peacefully."

On National Highway 44, loudspeakers blared anti-government songs as the lengthy procession of vehicles rolled down, fuelled by dozens of community kitchens that handed out hot meals and beverages in the winter cold.

"We will teach Modi a lesson that he will never forget," said one of the protesters, from the district of Ludhiana in Punjab, who drove his own tractor. The 35-year-old, who cultivates 10 acres (4 hectares), asked not to be identified.

Farmers mainly drawn from the breadbasket states of Punjab and adjoining Haryana have blockaded approaches into New Delhi for about two months to protest against three new farm laws they say will hurt their livelihoods and help big companies.

Their unions are pushing for repeal of the laws, after rejecting a government proposal to suspend the measures it says will usher in much-needed steps to boost farmer incomes.

Several rounds of talks with Modi's government have made little headway, and protesters now aim to up the ante with the procession set to follow Tuesday's military parade.

Top leaders and military officials attend the annual high-security parade to mark the day India's constitution took effect in 1950.

A farmers' group exhorted its members to refrain from violence in detailed instructions issued for Tuesday's event.

"Remember, our aim is not to conquer Delhi, but to win over the hearts of the people of this county," it said.

In the western state of Maharashtra, thousands of farmers were also on the move, flocking to a flag-hoisting ceremony on Tuesday in the heart of Mumbai, India's financial capital.

"We are here to support farmers in Delhi, to highlight that farmers across the country are against the farm laws," said Ashok Dhawale, a state protest leader.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Additional reporting by Rajendra Jadav in Mumbai and Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Clarence Fernandez and Bernadette Baum)

Angry Indian farmers prepare for massive Republic Day rally

SHEIKH SAALIQ
Mon., January 25, 2021

NEW DELHI (AP) — Thousands of tractors lined up on the outskirts of New Delhi on Monday, ready to swarm the Indian capital in a protest against new agriculture reform laws that have triggered a growing farmer rebellion that has rattled the government.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been blocking key highways connecting New Delhi with the country’s north for almost two months demanding a complete withdrawal of the laws. They plan to parade through the capital in a massive tractor rally on Tuesday, when India celebrates Republic Day.

The government “thought they would easily implement these laws and only a small amount of farmers would protest against it. But they had no idea that the entire country would come and occupy the borders of the capital," said Shailendra Choudhary, a farmer who traveled from Bijnor, a town in central Uttar Pradesh state.

Farmers say the legislation passed by Parliament last September will lead to the cartelization and commercialization of agriculture, make farmers vulnerable to corporate greed and devastate their earnings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government insists the laws will benefit farmers and boost production through private investment.

Representatives of the government and farmers have failed to make progress in repeated negotiations over the farmers’ core demand that the laws be scrapped. The government has refused, but says it could make some amendments and suspend implementation of the legislation for 18 months.

Farmers insist they will settle for nothing less than a complete repeal.

A coalition of farmers’ unions urged participants to refrain from violence in Tuesday's tractor protest.

“Remember, our aim is not to conquer Delhi, but to win over the hearts of the people of this county,” Samyukta Kisan Morcha, or United Farmers’ Front, said in a statement.

Many of the protesting farmers are from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, two of India’s largest agricultural areas. But the protests on the capital's outskirts — the biggest in years — have resonated with people elsewhere in the country.

In southwestern Maharashtra state, thousands of farmers joined a sit-in at a sports ground in Mumbai on Monday.

“I am opposed to these black laws introduced by Modi. They will spell doom for the farming community," said K. Prakash, a farmer who joined the sit-in with his family.

A day before, farmers in Maharashtra paraded on tractors and cars while waving flags of farmer unions and shouting slogans against Modi. Some rode in bullock carts or walked on foot for miles (kilometers).

Modi has tried to allay farmers’ fears about the legislation while dismissing their concerns. Some leaders of his party have called the farmers “anti-national,” a label often given to those who criticize Modi or his policies. Modi has repeatedly accused opposition parties of agitating the farmers by spreading rumors.

Farmers have long been seen as the heart and soul of India, and agriculture supports more than half of the country’s 1.4 billion people. But their economic clout has diminished over the last three decades. Once accounting for a third of India’s gross domestic product, farmers now account for only 15% of the country’s $2.9 trillion economy.

More than half of farmers are in debt, with 20,638 killing themselves in 2018 and 2019, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. Many factors are believed to contribute to the suicides, including poor crop yields, expensive farm chemicals and usurious money lenders.

___

Rafiq Maqbool in Mumbai and Rishabh R. Jain in New Delhi contributed to this report.


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India Farmer Protests
Indian farmers sit on their tractors after arriving at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for Tuesday's tractor rally in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Thousands of farmers gathered on the borders of Delhi for a massive tractor rally on Tuesday against the three contentious farm laws when India will celebrate its Republic day with a military and cultural parade. The two-month-old old blockade of highways connecting the capital with the country's north continues as the talks have remained deadlocked with the government refusing to scrap the new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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India Farmer Protests
Indian farmers sit on their tractors after arriving at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for Tuesday's tractor rally in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Thousands of farmers gathered on the borders of Delhi for a massive tractor rally on Tuesday against the three contentious farm laws when India will celebrate its Republic day with a military and cultural parade. The two-month-old old blockade of highways connecting the capital with the country's north continues as the talks have remained deadlocked with the government refusing to scrap the new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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India Farmer Protests
Indian farmers sit near their tractor after arriving at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for Tuesday's tractor rally in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Thousands of farmers gathered on the borders of Delhi for a massive tractor rally on Tuesday against the three contentious farm laws when India will celebrate its Republic day with a military and cultural parade. The two-month-old old blockade of highways connecting the capital with the country's north continues as the talks have remained deadlocked with the government refusing to scrap the new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)



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India Farmer Protests
Indian farmers sit on their tractors after arriving at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for Tuesday's tractor rally in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Thousands of farmers gathered on the borders of Delhi for a massive tractor rally on Tuesday against the three contentious farm laws when India will celebrate its Republic day with a military and cultural parade. The two-month-old old blockade of highways connecting the capital with the country's north continues as the talks have remained deadlocked with the government refusing to scrap the new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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India Farmer Protests
An Indian farmer erects the Indian flag after arriving at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for Tuesday's tractor rally in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Thousands of farmers gathered on the borders of Delhi for a massive tractor rally on Tuesday against the three contentious farm laws when India will celebrate its Republic day with a military and cultural parade. The two-month-old old blockade of highways connecting the capital with the country's north continues as the talks have remained deadlocked with the government refusing to scrap the new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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India Farmer Protests
Indian farmers rest after arriving at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for Tuesday's tractor rally in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Thousands of farmers gathered on the borders of Delhi for a massive tractor rally on Tuesday against the three contentious farm laws when India will celebrate its Republic day with a military and cultural parade. The two-month-old old blockade of highways connecting the capital with the country's north continues as the talks have remained deadlocked with the government refusing to scrap the new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)



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India Farmer Protests
Indian farmers sit on their tractors after arriving at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for Tuesday's tractor rally in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Thousands of farmers gathered on the borders of Delhi for a massive tractor rally on Tuesday against the three contentious farm laws when India will celebrate its Republic day with a military and cultural parade. The two-month-old old blockade of highways connecting the capital with the country's north continues as the talks have remained deadlocked with the government refusing to scrap the new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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India Farmer Protests
Indian farmers sit on their tractors after arriving at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border for Tuesday's tractor rally in New Delhi, India, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Thousands of farmers gathered on the borders of Delhi for a massive tractor rally on Tuesday against the three contentious farm laws when India will celebrate its Republic day with a military and cultural parade. The two-month-old old blockade of highways connecting the capital with the country's north continues as the talks have remained deadlocked with the government refusing to scrap the new agricultural reform laws which the farmers say will benefit large corporations. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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

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© (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.

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© (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
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