Farmers in India have taken to the streets to protest against three ‘market- friendly’ bills that are likely to change the future of how India’s farmers carry on business. Passed as recently as September 2020, the bills effectively make the farmers subject to free-market forces for the first time. This could of course entail significant benefits for them and the economy at large but the removal of historical protections, combined with hitherto unprecedented competition may ultimately render those benefits potentially unattainable at best and irrelevant at worst.
Months of protest Farmers from the nearby states of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting against the laws for nearly two months. The situation escalated last week when tens of thousands of protestors marched to New Delhi, arriving on tractors and by foot where they blocked roads and set up makeshift camps according to protest leaders. The protestors clashed with the police on the outskirts who have put up barriers, dug up roads, and responded with violence to prevent protestors from coming into the city centre to hold sit-ins. A photograph of a paramilitary policeman swinging his baton at an elderly Sikh man has been described as the ‘defining image’ of the demonstration. The image went viral on social media, shared by tens of thousands of people on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Captured by photojournalist Ravi Choudahry, the image has come to represent the brute force used by the police against protestors.
"Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” - (translation: “Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer”, a slogan coined by former Indian PM Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1965 during the India-Pakistan war to stress the importance of soldiers and farmers in nation building)
Other powerful images have flooded news outlets showing seas of protestors marching and waving banners, all serving as a reminder of the
collective spirit of India's farmers who continue to assert their importance in India’s agricultural sector. India is the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and groundnuts, as well as the second-largest fruit and vegetable producer, accounting for 10.9% and 8.6% of the world fruit and vegetable production, respectively. Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 58% of India’s 1.3 billion population, meaning farmers are the biggest voter block in the country. This massive voter base has been used by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win over farmers in the 2014 election when they promised to boost the country’s agriculture sector with a target of doubling the income of farmers by 2022.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have continued to insist they are supporting farmers with these new laws, calling it a ‘watershed moment’ for India’s agriculture sector, while others have likened it to a ‘death warrant’.
What are the laws?
Taken together, the reforms will allow farmers to bypass government- regulated markets (mandis) and sell produce directly to private buyers. Most farmers in India currently sell the majority of their produce at mandis, with the help from middlemen at assured floor prices. Farmers are now able to enter into contracts with private companies and sell their produce across state borders without being taxed for those sales. The new laws give farmers the option to sell outside of this ‘mandi-system’, which Modi says will give farmers the freedom to set their own prices and sell directly to private businesses. The laws have been met with backlash from farmers who fear the laws will leave them susceptible to exploitation by big corporates who may drive prices down and jeopardise their livelihoods. Farmers have been able to rely on the minimum support price (MSP), which is the assured price the government pays for certain crops. This provides long-term certainty and allows for investments to be made for the next crop cycle- but the new laws do not guarantee any minimum price. Instead, they loosen rules around sale, pricing, and storage of farm
produce which-from their perspective- leaves them vulnerable to the ravages of open market prices.
What does this mean for farmers? On one hand, these laws allow a greater play of market forces in agriculture and free farmers from the restraints of middlemen who effectively run wholesale markets. The market-oriented reforms also give farmers the opportunity to receive better prices in the private market, which according to Modi will ‘liberate’ farmers from the middlemen who benefit most from mandis.
"Giving the freedom to the farmer to sell outside the mandi system, to whoever, is a welcome step, in unshackling the farmer," - Economist Ajit Ranade, BBC
On the other hand, farmers like Gurnam Singh Churani and Multan Singh Rana worry that farmers like themselves will face a substantial loss if private buyers take advantage of farmers’ lack of options to sell if mandis cease to exist.
"We will lose our lands, we will lose our income if you let big business decide prices and buy crops. We don't trust big business.” - Gurnam Singh Charuni, one of the main leaders of the agitation, told BBC
The genuine fear of a lack of bargaining power when negotiating with larger companies lies at the heart of the condemnation of the laws, and the growing uncertainty of how it will play out in reality has amplified farmers’ anxieties.
"First, farmers will feel attracted towards these private players, who will offer a better price for the produce. The government mandis will pack up meanwhile and after a few years, these players will start exploiting the farmers. That's what we fear," - Multan Singh Rana, a farmer in the northern state of Punjab, told BBC
The government has since engaged in talks with farmers, and the Centre has made it clear that there will be amendments to the provisions which were met with objection. Despite the consensus to strengthen mandis in order to create a level-playing field with private markets, protestors remain firm in their demand for the complete withdrawal of the law. The protest sites have since turned into camps, with entire families cooking and sleeping in the open.
International responses Speaking virtually to members of the Indian community in Canada to mark the 551st birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, Justin Trudeau expressed his solidarity with the protestors in India. He called the images of the clashes with police ‘concerning’ and said that ‘Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest’. In addition to the Canadian Prime Minister's support, thousands of people in Toronto showed their solidarity through peaceful protest last weekend. Protestors were seen holding signs and flags, while vehicles drove by honking their horns in solidarity with the farmers in India.
Solidarity for the farmers has extended to England, where thousands of people protested in central London outside the Indian High Commission, waving flags and chanting. The demonstration, largely made up of British Sikhs, involved waving placards reading ‘Justice for Farmers’ and ‘Modi is worse than COVID’. The protest came after a group of 36 British MPs led by British Sikh Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi had written to UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, asking him to make representations to his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, about the impact on British Punjabis affected by the protests. During a questions session in the House of Commons, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi asked Prime Minister Boris Johnsons' stance on the farmers’ protest in India. The Labour MP asked Johnson if he would convey to the Indian Prime Minister “our heartfelt anxieties, our hopes for a speedy resolution to the current deadlock and does he agree that everyone has a fundamental right to peaceful protest,”
Johnson responded by addressing a completely unrelated matter, saying “Our view is that of course we have serious concerns about what is happening between India and Pakistan, but these are pre-eminently matters for those two governments to settle and I know that he appreciates that point,”
Although Johnson’s response was bewildering to say the very least, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi’s drive to keep the protests in the news in Britain is significant for those affected by the protests as well for those part of the wider Indian diaspora.
Despite the fact that the laws are unlikely to be fully repealed, rebuilding trust with farmers is key for agricultural reform in India and electorally for the government. Unlike other anti-government campaigns against the revoking of Kashmir’s special status or the anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Modi government has departed from its usual practise of not engaging with opposition and has shown a greater willingness to listen to demonstrators. The amendment of the bills proves that farmers’ legitimate fears are being heard, and the task of reforming agriculture can be achieved through a renewed politics of trust.
You can stay up to date with the protests by following news outlets such as The Indian Express, and the Hindustan Times. * *Infographics circling social media may not give a full overview of what is happening nor are they updated, so following news outlets based in India is a better, and more helpful alternative to follow the protests.
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