On 26 January 2021, the annual Republic Day celebrations in India’s capital city of New Delhi were overshadowed by events linked to ongoing anti-government protests by Indian farmers. On that day, tractor convoys of protesting farmers stormed perimeter police barricades, scaled the walls of the ramparts, and then occupied the historic Red Fort complex in a symbolic gesture of defiance against the Indian government over three recently enacted market-friendly “Farm Bills”. One protester was killed when his tractor overturned, while more than eighty police officers were injured in the resulting fracas.
The farmers’ protests began in the outskirts of New Delhi in November 2020, following the hastily rushed-through passage in September of the three bills by voice vote in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament. The bills in question, to give them their full and somewhat wordy titles, are the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, and the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act. These bills aim to “liberate” India’s agricultural sector through deregulation of the pricing, sale and storage of agricultural produce.
To understand the significance of the protests, it is important to acknowledge the importance of agriculture to India’s economy. Around 58 per cent of India’s 1.3 billion people depend for their livelihood on agriculture, which accounts for between 17 to 18 percent of India’s GDP. But all is not well in India’s agricultural sector. Depletion of the groundwater available for irrigation has reduced the area of land under cultivation, while the size of the average landholding has continued to shrink. Over 80 per cent of India’s so-called “small and marginal farmers” thus currently farm plots of land that are two hectares in size or under. The problems of falling farm size are frequently compounded by a low and climate-dependent productivity of crops per land area.
India’s farmers have benefited from the generosity of the government, in the form of input subsidies (on seeds, fertilisers, electricity, and farm equipment), guaranteed procurement of produce, and tax breaks. Following India’s independence, the Gandhi-Nehru legacy created a noble and romanticised image of the farmer, firmly placed at the heart of India’s economy. This image was later reinforced by the famous 1965 “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” (Hail, the Soldier; Hail, the Farmer) slogan of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. Despite the lip service of successive government to the supposed glories of agriculture, it appears that the plight of Indian farmers may have actually steadily worsened over time, as shown by falling wages, poor living conditions, financial distress, indebtedness, and an increased suicide rate among their ranks.
The plight of the striking farmers is a reflection of the state of India’s agricultural economy. Farmers have hitherto been protected from the effects of fluctuations, often seasonal, in crop output and from volatile crop prices. The farming community has indeed come to rely heavily on government bailouts. Crops, such as rice and wheat, and an increasing range of pulses are accordingly purchased by the government at guaranteed “Minimum Support Prices” at APMC (agricultural produce market committee) mandis, or markets, and then distributed at subsidised prices under the price deficiency support scheme.
The proposed Farm Bills are an attempt to introduce the principles of the free market into the agricultural sector. This will enable the entry of large agri-business ventures (processors, packers, large retailers, exporters and other “value chain participants”) into a newly liberalised agricultural market. But many farmers fear that an inevitable drop in prices of agricultural produce caused by deregulation will put them out of business, even though the government contends that the free market will actually give farmers an opportunity to command higher prices for their produce. There is a precedent for the farmers’ worries. Changes in the deregulated agricultural sector in Western economies have already led to alterations in the scale of farming, as small farms have been swallowed up by larger farms that then feed into large-scale processing facilities, in a victory of corporate interests over those of self-sufficient independent farms.
While there is no an undeniable need for reform in India’s agricultural sector, it appears that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP government may have acted too hastily, in the midst of a pandemic, and without full engagement with farmers’ leaders and unions. A misreading of the prevailing mood within the farming community has thus wrongfooted the government and unleashed a protest of major proportions, with a well-organised farmers’ movement demanding unconditional repeal of the government’s proposed bills. A failure of compromise on the part of both parties has produced an unsavoury law and order situation, and some concession on both sides will be necessary to end the ongoing stalemate.
Ashis Banerjee