Farmers' movement: Historic in many ways

After decades, a farmers' movement has become an active pressure group in the democratic stakes of the republic

In December last year, the Indian farmers returned to their homes victorious after protesting at the borders of the national capital for more than a year the three farm laws passed by the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in 2020. In the coming assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, the recently concluded farmers' movement and the agrarian crisis are the topmost agenda. It won't be wrong to say that after 2014, this is the first time in any Lok Sabha or assembly elections that the agrarian issue has taken the front seat along with issues of unemployment and privatisation.

The movement has become a critical juncture in India's political history. Apart from its grandeur, the movement's aesthetic was unique compared to the traditional farmer-worker-trade union protest aesthetics. It not just captured the attention of the media but also of urban India and youth. Mobile trolley homes, free medical camps, 24-hour langars, libraries at every kilometre, film screenings, musical evenings, open discussion sessions - we believe there was hardly anyone who had witnessed all this in one protest ever before. Many popular singers, folk artists and cultural activists from almost all north Indian states performed at the protest sites in solidarity. At the Dhansa protest site, which was situated at a toll plaza between Jhajjar and Delhi, the active participation of Ragini singers of Haryana helped the protesting farmers to build a live connection with surrounding villagers.

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While sitting on Delhi's borders, we saw many parents bring their children to the protest sites to show the visual landscape of the protest. The movement has significantly raised the social and political consciousness of the masses who became part of the movement either directly or indirectly, imparting considerable strength to the peoples' movements in India.

The farmers' movement forced the protestors to think beyond the demand of repealing the three farm laws and created a space for an inclusive, multi-layered struggle. Akbari, a landless Dalit woman who had walked for 11 days from Bhatinda, Punjab, to the Tikri protest site in solidarity with the movement, once said in an interview with Trolley Times that when the corporates take over the land, her dream of owning land will also be snatched. She still echoes the strong sentiment which puzzled many. The issue of the land grab by the big corporates raised by this movement resonated not only with the farmers but also with Dalits, women and the landless.

Another essential feature of this movement was that this rural India-led movement came to urban India to claim its stake in democracy and won the struggle. This dichotomy of Bharat and India was given by farmer leader Sharad Joshi, who believed that unless the problems of Bharat (rural India) were raised strongly in India (urban areas), we cannot expect any justice for farmers.

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The movement has not just enabled an understanding of the present political situation exposing efforts made by the current government to implement anti-people and pro-corporate policies. It also showed its solidarity with the peoples' movements of the recent past. Staging protests to demand the release of all political prisoners, handing over the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) stages to the student-youth-Dalit organisations, women and gender rights activists, intellectuals and religious minorities on special days were the few steps in that direction. In Punjab, it also coalesced trade unions of small shopkeepers, workers and labour organisations. These groups also stood in solidarity with this movement, making it stronger.

This rural India-led movement was a reckoning force of resistance against the Modi government's wholesale loot and privatisation of national assets. The farmers' movement has dispelled the illusion of the Modi government's invincibility and has stopped the totalitarian regime from pursuing its designs. The movement has successfully captured the imagination of urban India and national media, inscribing its political discourse through its victory. After 2014, whenever we think of social movements, social justice, gender rights, students and youth struggles come to our mind. It has happened after decades that a farmers' movement has emerged as part of the larger theorisation of social movements and has become an active pressure group in the democratic stakes of the republic.

The ways in which farmers have chosen to register their protest were also note-worthy. Creating a positive and hopeful impact on urban life has always been the primary protesting method for farmers, even in the past. Farmer leaders like Mahendra Singh Tikait, Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, MD Nanjundaswamy, N Ranga Reddy and Sharad Joshi had successfully used this method of protest. Seizing the toll plaza was one of the well-known methods of protest being used in the farmers' movement for decades. This time also the decision of the farmer unions to lockdown toll plazas hit where it hurts the most - the corporate monopoly capitalism.

(Shivam Mogha and Navkiran Natt were co-editors with Trolley Times, a newspaper part of the farmers' protest 2020-21)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.

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