India, with a population of over 1.3 billion people, is often referred to as the world’s largest democracy. Agriculture is by far the largest sector of livelihoods in India, with 70 percent of its rural households reliant on farming as their main source of income.
For over six months now, a section of this huge bloc of the nation’s population has been protesting in what is being referred to as the ‘Farmers Protests’. The protests have been led by farmers from the Punjab and Haryana regions, the country’s largest agricultural producers.
They are protesting the ‘Farm Bills’, a set of laws passed in September 2020 that farmers say will destroy the small protections they receive from the Indian government.
Farmers say the bills will deregulate crop pricing and eventually get rid of the Minimum Support Price that guarantees them an income by setting a uniform price for crops. They believe the bill will benefit large corporations and, in time, will squeeze out the millions of small-scale farmers in India.
The protestors originally targeted the outskirts of the capital Delhi, where they blocked crucial entry points into the city.
This is a problem for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been in power since 2014. Farmers form a large voting bloc in Indian elections, a voting block that politicians like Modi have traditionally tried to keep on their side.
Modi argues that although the numbers reliant on the sector remain high, the share of agriculture in the nations GDP has dropped from 50% in the 1970s to 15%. He argues that the legislation will benefit farmers by boosting production through private investment.
But some of Modi’s accusations have been more sinister. Under Modi, India has seen a rise in far-right Hindu nationalism. Modi has attempted to use this nationalism, largely centred around anti-Muslim rhetoric, to discredit the Sikh-led protests as ‘anti-nationalist’.
Modi’s tactics have not worked. As the protests have gone on, more farmers have joined from all corners of India. It is an uprising from the largest sector in the world’s largest democracy and it is proving to be Modi’s biggest challenge to date.
— Jonathan Lewis (@lonnyjewis)
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Found this article very informative and interesting
Interesting account, great clarity