Making sense of agrarian distress and peasant struggles in Punjab

ABSTRACT

This paper situates peasant struggles in a larger context to unravel the consequences of the accumulated agrarian distress in Punjab. The Punjab peasantry has a rich legacy of resistance against the injustice of the statecraft. The all-inclusive character of the present peasant movement, to engage people across castes, classes, creeds, gender, regions, religions and ethnicity is an outcome of this legacy. Beyond these features, the significance of the movement also lies in the understanding of the protesting people about the importance of land, food sovereignty and the responsibility of the democratic state to ensure food security for the marginalized.

KEYWORDS:

• peasant movement
• Punjab
• neoliberalism
• agrarian distress

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We are aware of the difference between the term peasant and farmer. However, for the purpose of this paper we are using both interchangeably. Moreover, while the analysis in this paper is from a peasant perspective, the issues of agricultural labourers are assumed to be inclusive in the discussion.

2 Samyukt is also spelled as Sanyukt.

3 It does not mean that there was no resistance by the peasantry since 2014. In 2018, some 35,000 farmers gathered in protest in Delhi against the neoliberal policies and mounting agrarian distress.

4 In 1991 World Bank prepared a Country Economic Memorandum (in two volumes), the volume II titled Agriculture- Challenges and Opportunities is a neoliberal policy document to introduce the comprehensive policy changes in the agriculture sector. Since 1991 to till date (including three farm laws) it is part of that programme.

5 The commitment of the Indian state to maintain the fiscal deficit around 3 per cent of GDP has come at the cost of reduced social expenditures and public sector rural investment in infrastructure.

6 The enactment of Citizen amendment act/ National Population Register in 2019, scrap of 370 and 35A in 2019, the time-to-time public statements by the leaders of BJP against the minorities etc.

7 It is well evident from the fact that, in 2019, the estimated expenditure of BJP on the elections to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies was Rs. 55,000 crores (estimated to be Rs. 30,000 crores in 2014). BJP alone accounted for 45–50 per cent of total expenditure by all political parties and candidates. For detail see, Singh (2020a).

8 Under the pressure of the people's movement, Harsimrat Kaur Badal had resigned from the cabinet ministry of the BJP government and subsequently on 27 September 2020 Shiromani Akali Dal broke away from the BJP led NDA.

9 From 24th November 2020 to 29th July 2021, 733 farmers lost their lives during the farmers’ protest. The data is available at https://humancostoffarmersprotest.blogspot.com/2020/12/list-of-deaths-in-farmers-protest-at.html. However, the government of India has claimed that it does not have any data about deaths of farmers in the protests.