Farmers Continue To Protest Indian Government’s Reforms

Pictured above: Farmers Protesting in India. Image courtesy of Ted Eytan.

By Madhavi Rao ’24

Staff Writer

In New Delhi, India’s 72nd Republic Day celebrations were underway, but in another part of the city, a group of farmers protested laws passed by the Indian government in September. This latest protest on Jan. 26 follows two months of peaceful demonstrations against three agricultural bills that have been widely received as harmful. The protest began when farmers on tractors broke away from the established Republic Day parade route and were met with harsh responses from the Delhi police. 

Since the Dilli Chalo (“Let’s go to Delhi”) march in late November, Indian farmers have camped outside the border of the capital city in protest against what have come to be known as the farmer’s bills. These reforms will essentially strip away regulations on farmers’ produce, making them vulnerable to the low competing prices of the free market. The New York Times reported that these laws have been suspended until the government can conduct talks with the farmer unions that are calling for the abolition of these bills. 

On Jan. 26, tens of thousands of the farmers who were camped outside of the Delhi border entered the city to take part in a planned Republic Day parade. According to the Indian publication The Hindu, the farmers were to drive down a predetermined parade route in tractors, as was agreed upon by the joint front of all protesting unions, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha. However, chaos ensued when some of the farmers deviated from these predetermined routes, though it is unclear whether or not this was intentional. Farmers on tractors who were not a part of the official parade broke down barricades at the city border and drove into Delhi as part of a demonstration, reported the BloombergQuint. 

The protests reached a peak when some of the farmers managed to reach Red Fort in the older part of the capital. The police responded strongly against the farmers’ dissent as the farmers were met with lathi, or batons, charges, water cannons and tear gas. The day’s events also led to a ban of internet and mobile services across the city. These violent interactions with the police resulted in the death of one protester, Navreet Singh, reported  CNN. 

In response to Tuesday’s events, Assistant Professor of History Abhilash Medhi expressed his discomfort with the prevalent narrative. “The Delhi Police's reaction to the parade and subsequent reactions within the media appear to fit rather nicely with what Ranajit Guha called ‘the prose of counter-insurgency,’” he explained. “In [this prose], the violence of protesters is used, first, as a ruse for retributive violence and, second, to delegitimize the protesters’ legitimate demands in the public eye. To me, that is the more interesting aspect of what played out [on Tuesday].” 

The blanket farmers union Samyukt Kisan Morcha denounced the protests, stating, “We also condemn and regret the undesirable and unacceptable events that have taken place today and dissociate ourselves from those indulging in such acts,” reported  Al-Jazeera. 

Prakruti Nikam ’22, an Indian student at Mount Holyoke, voiced her frustrations with the Indian media’s portrayal of the farmers’ protests. She said, “It’s very sad to see that the media in India have such polarized opinions since they have been forced to speak a certain way because of the government. They have repeatedly called the farmers’ protest[s] ‘violent’ and that is only to keep the Modi government happy.” 

“The farmers just want to be heard and they are trying to make a living,” Nikam continued. “The Delhi police have a history of violence when it comes to curbing riots and protests,” Nikam concluded, referencing the similar treatment of protesters by the police during the demonstrations against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019.

On Saturday, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi said in a statement to a meeting of legislative assembly leaders that the government’s proposal to suspend the farmer’s laws still stood. He said that the problem would only be resolved through dialogue with the government. As reported by The Hindu, Modi, reiterating a statement made by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, said, “We’ve not reached a consensus but we are giving you [farmers] the offer and you may go and deliberate.” 

In response to Modi, Samyukt Kisan Morcha indicated that they are interested in holding talks with the government, but will stand by their demand that the bills be withdrawn, according to The Times of India. 

“I do expect a change in the way this government negotiates with farmers going forward. I would be surprised to see any overtures before the budget,” Medhi explained, speaking of the central government’s potential decision to provide the country’s farmers with financial grants. “The government might see the budget as a convenient time to make some concessions. Quite how concrete any of those concessions are remains to be seen. Knowing this government and its history with budgets, the overwhelming desire would probably be to hide behind promises and big numbers.”

Farmer Protests in New Delhi

Pictured above: India protest 2020. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

By Aditi Parashar ’22 

Staff Writer

Tens of thousands of farmers from around India made their way to New Delhi 11 days ago, cutting off almost all entry points into the capital, according to The New York Times. The Dilli Chalo (“Let’s go to Delhi”) march is a protest against three agricultural bills passed in September 2020 that aim to make changes to the farming system and threaten the way 146 million farmers in India do business. According to the BBC, the protesters arriving in Delhi were accosted with water cannons, tear gas and violence by many paramilitary and police forces who tried to hold them back. 

The reforms would change key aspects of how produce is sold, priced and stored. The new policies would replace the Mandi system in which the government heavily regulates the prices at which agricultural products can be sold. While the Indian government claims that these reforms are necessary to salvage the agriculture industry, many of those employed by the industry —  40 percent of the workforce — quickly began to protest the changes. 

The government has said that the new regulations will provide opportunities for farmers, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling it a “watershed moment.” He also said that the new laws provide farmers more autonomy to set their own prices as well as to sell directly to private businesses, reported CNN. 

The farmers, however, remain adamant that the new laws are anti-farmer and pro-corporation by subjecting the farmers to the free market from which they have been protected for decades. 

Mewa Singh, one of the many protesters, told The New York Times, “Our land is our mother. It was passed on to us from our parents, who got it from their parents, and now Modi wants to acquire it and give it away to his rich friends.”

According to the Indian Express, the protesters want the government to either repeal their newly passed legislation or guarantee farmers a minimum support price for their crops by passing new legislation. 

The minimum support price is one of the biggest support structures to farming in India. It aims to set a guaranteed minimum price for commodities by farmers no matter the market conditions, which protects the community from fluctuations in price and imperfections in the market.  

Economists as well as agricultural experts have shown support for the farmers’ demand for a minimum assured price mechanism. Devinder Sharma, an independent agricultural expert, told The New York Times, “There is no evidence in the world where the market price has benefited farmers.”

Additionally, farmers believe that the new laws “will open agricultural sale and marketing outside the notified Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis for farmers, remove the barriers to inter-state trade, and provide a framework for electronic trading of agricultural produce,” according to the Indian Express. However, since state governments will be unable to procure market fees outside of the APMC market systems, farmers are afraid that this will end the current system, leaving them at the mercy of corporations that are then free to exploit them and their production capabilities. 

Many critics are apprehensive about how formal contractual obligations will work in the public arena due to the unorganized nature of the agriculture sector. Critics fear that farmers will be locked into contracts out of necessity and face a lack of resources for legal proceedings with major private corporations, found The Hindu. 

“I don’t believe anyone is buying the idea that these bills exist to help the farmers,” Kusha Chopra ’21 said. “The farmers are smart and know that the bills have been passed in Parliament to fill the never-ending greed of our dear prime minister’s friends. To leave an already complicated sector which sees so many suicides due to debt and unemployment at the hands of large corporations and [at the] behest of the free market is openly careless and foolish.”

Since the farmers have arrived in Delhi, there have been a series of talks between them and the government. As of Dec. 9, no resolution has been reached. 

“I think it is extremely sad, not only the way the farmers are having to fight for their livelihood in a country that thrives because of them, but also the way the government and its lapdog media has tried to discredit their hardships and movement,” Shreya Nair ’22, a Mount Holyoke student from India, said. “To call peaceful protesters, who are the reason you have food on your table, terrorists and anti-national on national television has [been] a new low, even for our sell-out media outlets,” Nair added.

The protesting farmers now have huge camps around Delhi’s border and are prepared to stay. They said they will not leave before the government repeals the “black law,” reported the BBC. The protesters say they are “prepared for a long battle — with trolleys full of rice and grains, and pots and pans to cook their own food,” the BBC continued.