Touted as the 'single largest protest' in human history' [1] , the anti-farm laws protests took place at the borders of the Indian national capital of New Delhi from November 2020 to September 2021 [2], organised by coalition of over 40 farmer from across the country.
Problems and Purpose
In the case of the anti-farm laws protest, the key site of democratic innovation was social movement and the model primarily was of protest camps. Social movements have long been part and parcel of a democracy where citizens claim space and hold the government accountable, attempting to make a change in the functioning of some aspect of the democracy. The Indian anti-farm laws protest are a great example of ‘new social movements’ that “experimented with new democratic practices based on principles of horizontality, decentralization, direct participation, consensus decision-making” [4].
The primary aim of the social movement was to pressurise the government to repeal the farm laws in their entirety. According to the organisers and spokespersons of the movement, the three agricultural bills would have deregulated crop prices and devastated their earnings, while benefiting the big private corporate houses [5]. Thus, in June 2020 when the government of India enacted the three legislations concerning agriculture, farmer unions of the northwestern state of Punjab, where primary occupation is agriculture, called for local protests in different cities and villages of the state, beginning with a tractor march or procession of tractors on July 20, 2020 [6], before it started amassing the large numbers of participants at the sit-in protest sites outside of the national capital in November 2020, which will be discussed in the following sections.
Even though the protests of 2020-21 against the farm laws was the first of its kind in terms of the numbers and the duration of sustenance, there had been several instances in the past of civilian-led, voluntary and decentralised forms of social movements in India against certain proposed laws [7], along with a history of mass mobilisation of farmer unions to the national capital from other parts of the country [8]. The anti-farm laws protests of 2020-21 have been one of the largest, longest and most unified and peaceful protests that India has seen in recent times [9].
Background History and Context
India is a country where agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for a major section of the population [10], and contributes 20.2 per cent of the Gross Value Added (GVA) share (2020-21) in the total economy [11]. Of the 458 million strong labour force population in India, 43 per cent is employed in agriculture, as per a 2019 official data [12]. The Indian government in its Agriculture census of 2015-16 noted that in the amongst these as many as 100,251 were marginal operational holding farmers, 25,809 were small land farmers, 13,993 were medium operational land holders, 5,561 small-medium farmers, and only 838 were large landowners [13].
Since the early 1990s a deep agrarian crisis has continued to shroud the livelihoods of small and marginal landholders, resulting in an ever increasing ‘epidemic’ of farmer suicides in the country [14]. The primary causes of the crisis are:
- Deepening debt from creditors to smallholders
- Inadequate compensation for input costs
- Non-viable farm sizes
- Non-availability of assured water supply for irrigation
- Increasing fuel prices
- Inadequate payment for produce
- Decreasing government investment in agriculture sector [15]
Over the years, several government have attempted to reform the agriculture sector by linking it to private corporate sector [16]. With a similar agenda, the current government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party introduced the three contentious farm bills in June 2020 amidst a pandemic. The three laws promulgated by the Cabinet by way of ordinance were:
a) The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020: The bill read “...seeks to provide for the creation of an ecosystem where the farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice relating to sale and purchase of farmers' produce which facilitates remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels to promote efficient, transparent and barrier-free inter-State and intra-State trade and commerce of farmers' produce outside physical premises of markets or deemed markets notified under various State agricultural produce market legislations; to provide a facilitative framework for electronic trading and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto” [17]
b) The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020: “…seeks to provide for a national framework on farming agreements that protects and empowers farmers to engage with agri-business firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters or large retailers for farm services and sale of future farming produce at a mutually agreed remunerative price framework in a fair and transparent manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto” [18]
c) Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020: “The bill provides a mechanism for the regulation of agricultural foodstuffs, namely cereals, pulses, oilseeds, edible oils, potato, and supplies under extraordinary circumstances, which include extraordinary price rise, war, famine, and natural calamity of a severe nature” [19].
Reading the fineprint of these bills, farmers in Punjab expressed their concern and found them unacceptable, concluding that the bills would privatise the agriculture sector and benefit big corporates. To establish their resistance against the promulgation and register their protest, the farmers in Punjab after meeting with 10 different farm unions decided to stage protests and block highways in the state through a “tractor rally” and “gherao” (literally encircle) the houses of MPs and MLAs in the state [20]. However, despite the continued local protests, the bills were passed on the floor of the Indian Parliament on September 20, 2020, “without a deliberative and consultative process, in a blatantly undemocratic fashion through a voice vote instead of a recorded vote process” [21]. The passage of agriculture bills in the Parliament was also a violation of federal principles, since agriculture is a state/provincial subject under the Indian Constitution [22]. This move by the Indian government further escalated the protests on a national level.
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
The gradual escalation of the protests to the national level only began from the state of Punjab, due to its major reliance on the agrarian sector as a means of livelihood. The protests first began on local individual levels in villages of Punjab organised by the local farmer unions. After the passage of the bills in the Parliament in September, the farmer unions under an umbrella of “Sangharsh Committee” comprising representatives of 32 unions [23] called for voluntarily getting arrested during September 8 to September 13 to fill up the jails, or “Jail Bharo Andolan”, followed by sit-ins on railway lines across the state from 14 to 24 September. They also called for a general strike across Punjab, a Punjab Bandh (lit. close down Punjab), on the 25th of September 2020” [24].
Along with Punjab, farm and labour unions of neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh lent their support to the movement, and it caught the attention of national media. A big role in attracting support and mobilisation of the young and old alike, as well as gaining the attention of the Sikh diaspora in Canada, Australia and the UK in particular was that of Punjabi singers and artistes, who had started to compose songs narrating the ordeal of the farming community in the country [25]. Another way of mass mobilisation was through word of mouth, particularly in villages where women played a crucial role, knocking on doors of each house and explaining the consequences and repercussions of the Farm laws.
Aytaç and Stokes (2020) in their article explain this phenomenon, “Social movements that successfully construct a causal framework that casts grievances as a form of injustice, especially an injustice purposely carried out by an identifiable agent, are more likely to see angry people pouring into streets” [26]. This method yielded results in case of the anti-farm laws protest when over a 100 farmer and labour unions extended support to the “Delhi Chalo” (lit. Let’s go to Delhi) call by the Sangharsh Committee after two failed negotiation attempts by the central government. The participating unions under the coordination of bodies such as
Samyukt Kisan Morcha, which became the main representative body of the protests, and the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee consisted of
- Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU Uttar Pradesh), led by Rakesh Tikait
- Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU Rajewal), led by Balbir Singh Rajewal
- Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan, Sidhupur, Rajewal, Chaduni, Dakaunda)
- Kisan Swaraj Sangathan
- Jai Kisan Andolan
- All India Kisan Sabha
- Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha
- National Alliance for People's Movements
- Lok Sangharsh Morcha
- All India Kisan Khet Majdoor Sangathan
- Kissan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee
- Rashtriya Kisan Majdoor Sangathan
- All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha
- Krantikari Kisan Union
- ASHA-Kisan Swaraj
- Lok Sangharsh Morcha
- All India Kisan Mahasabha
- Punjab Kisan Union
- Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana
- Sangtin Kisan Mazdoor Sanghatan
- Jamhoori Kisan Sabha
- Kisan Sangharsh Samiti
- Terai Kisan Sabha
- Transport bodies like the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) [27]
The march however culminated at three major highways around the national capital which became the main sites of protest camps for over a year- Singhu border, Tikri border and Ghazipur border. Thousands of farmers set up camps at the borders surrounding the national capital, blocking major highways to mount pressure on the central government due to police barricading at the inroads of Delhi.
The funding to sustain a mass social movement of this magnitude came from the participants themselves, making it an open for all, voluntary and grassroot level movement. Villagers of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh ensured a steady inflow of resources through contribution of fixed sums of money, based on the village’s landholding [28]. Several villages also contributed in kind, by bringing in water, beddings, tents, fuel, etc. Apart from this, NGOs like the Khalsa Aid, Sikh temple (Gurudwara) management committees, like the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC) and Delhi Gurdwara Management Committee (DGMC) provided langar or free food from community kitchen rooted in the Sikh tradition at the protest sites [29]. Furthermore, the Sikh and Punjabi diaspora across the globe mobilised donations towards the protest sites.
Methods and Tools Used
Method: Deliberative assemblies: participants coming together to discuss next course of action to sustain the momentum of the movement, and recalibrate demands; Sit-in protests (Dharna); Encirclement (Gherao): of government representatives to demand accountability in a peaceful manner; Traffic and rail obstruction (Raasta-Rail roko); Demonstration; Counterlegislation where state governments led by the opposition Congress tabled bills counter to counter the Central agricultural legislation [30].
Tools: Social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp; Standardised toolkit; Independent news media portals; Focus groups; Public meetings; Protest camps
Social media platforms, especially Twitter played a central role in garnering global attention and support in the face of state action against peaceful protestors at the sites, including police batoning and water canons and illegal arrests of activists and journalists. Social media platforms were helpful in various ways including real-time disinformation fact-checking, keeping the Indian diaspora informed and also gaining the attention of international activists, celebrities and politicians across the globe.
It further strengthened the activism through a standardised toolkit that was shared by Greta Thunberg among several others on Twitter. A toolkit is a document with knowledge and facts that helps a campaigner create tweet storms. Toolkits are standard operating procedures and are commonly made for mass agitations, and is a legitimate plan to carry out peaceful protests [31]. The digital arm of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, called the Kisan Ekta Morcha, consisting of its five-members, tech savvy farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan handled the promotions and digital campaigns on the official social media pages of the protest, records videos, devising hashtags, taking photographs and streaming press conferences. They tweeted slogans and videos in thousands every day [32].
A unique aspect of these protests was the mobilisation of masses irrespective of age and language brackets, which meant that the new technologies could not be used as the only ways of information and communication. Therefore, vernacular texts were used to educate the masses and unify the movement, while also effectively communicating agendas in small focus groups. Youth activists in small towns and villages also took turns every ten days to go on a door-to-door campaign to inform the participants of the updates on protest sites.
To keep the environment at the protest sites dynamic, several activities and service hubs including libraries, massage tents, marketplaces and even makeshift schools were set up by the participants and NGOs.
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
The agitation amassed a gathering of atleast 35 million protesters (unofficial data) [33] together at three protest sites at the national capital’s border through a period of ten days in January 2021, making it one of the largest, longest and biggest self-sustained, voluntary, non-violent protests in modern Indian history.
Several international organisations [34] and world leaders took note of the state brutality against dissenters and unjustified arrests of pro-agitation independent journalists, and called on the Modi government to stop the atrocities. The protests also gained unprecedented solidarity across the world, especially in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and the USA, where Sikh and Punjabi diaspora staged demonstrations outside Indian embassies.
The protests also saw as many as 702 fatalities during the period of over one year, as per data provided by the SKM, representative body of the farm unions [35], however the government has so far refused to acknowledge the numbers, also refusing any compensation to their families.
On 12 January 2021, the Supreme Court of India responding to a petition filed by the farmers’ bodies, stayed the implementation of the farm laws and appointed a committee to look into farmer grievances related to the farm laws [36]. Finally, on 19 November 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, announced the complete rollback and repeal of the farm laws in the winter session of the Parliament in December 2021 [37].
Analysis and Lessons Learned
Since the success of the year-long resistance, experts have highlighted one of the most important aspects of the movement that enabled the bridging of historic class, caste and gender divisions in the Indian society [38]. The success of the civilians-led, decentralised and horizontal structure of protest is proof enough to counter the theory that movements without a top-down leadership often fail. The anti-farm laws protests also established that deliberative participatory ways of governance are essential for a smooth implementation of policies and that stakeholders need to be consulted before introducing a law.
Historically, protests and demonstrations have brought tidal changes in the governance of a country. Aytaç & Stokes (2020) in their article point out that the less tightly organised movements of the people often begin with very specific complaints, but grow to have a broader meaning and to embrace broader demands. This especially stands true in the case of the Indian anti-farm laws protests of 2020-21. Not only did the farm unions take back their right to livelihood through the protests, they have also challenged the neoliberal leanings driving the policy formulation for one of the most essential and one of the biggest sectors of economy of India. Moreover, the challenge of fine print over the legal recourse facilities in the farm bill protected the rights of all citizens.
However, even as the protests traversed some of the major challenges in the country, one of the biggest shortcomings of the protests was the mobilisation of women and largely male-driven social movement. Even though the protests saw a record number of women participating in the protests, the internalised misogyny of the Indian society also proved to be a big hindrance for women activists and protestors in this case to exercise their right safely.
See Also
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References
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[34] Author’s interview with an anonymous representative of the movement
[35] IANS (2021) “SKM sends list of 702 farmers who died during protest,” Deccan Herald, 4 December. Available at: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/skm-sends-list-of-702-farmers-who-died-during-protest-1057558.html
[36] Sinha, B. (2021) SC stays implementation of farm laws “until further orders”, sets up panel to end deadlock, ThePrint. Available at: https://theprint.in/judiciary/sc-stays-implementation-of-farm-laws-until-further-orders-sets-up-panel-to-end-deadlock/583983/
[37] The farm laws repeal bill, 2021, PRS Legislative Research. Available at: https://prsindia.org/billtrack/the-farm-laws-repeal-bill-2021
[38] Talukdar R. 2021, India: What can we learn from the farmers’ protest?, Greenleft Organisation, https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/india-what-we-can-learn-farmers-protests
Notes
Image By Randeep Maddoke; [email protected] - Provided by eMail from Randeep Maddoke, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=97336812