India
Millions Protest Dispossession of Small Farmers
- J. Singh -
Farmers' protest in
Punjab, September 2020.
Farmers in many parts of
India have mounted the barricades against the
policy of the central
government to pauperize them, force them into
debt, evict them from
their lands, drive them to commit suicide and hand
their lands to the
big corporations. "Haryana and Punjab are
boiling," reported a news
channel. In Haryana, the state unleashed its
terror on the farmers who
were demonstrating against the policies of the
central government.
In Punjab farmers stopped trains, sat on the
tracks and held
demonstrations to highlight their miserable
conditions due to debt. It
is a deliberate policy of the ruling elite and
their state to force
farmers to leave their lands by increasing the
prices of their inputs
and reducing the prices of their produce. Farmers
in Punjab are
indebted to the tune of Rs.88,000 crores
(CDN$15.844 billion). There is
no way they can pay this debt, which is why the
farmers are demanding
that the central state be thrown out of Punjab and
to regain control of
their land, water, grain, forests and other
resources. More and more
people are realizing that the central state is a
cause of their
misery.
All the governments in Punjab, no
matter which party, have long since become tools
of the central state,
which only serves the narrow private interests
represented by Adani,
Ambani, Tata, Birla and others. Farmers are also
organizing to stop the
bank employees in the villages from putting
notices of default on the
farmers' houses. Youth and students are joining
farmers in their
struggles for a better life. They are going from
village to village
discussing the problems that plague the farmers.
Punjabis
living abroad are also participating in these
struggles. For instance
they are asking those farmers who have less than
five acres of land and
have defaulted on their loan payments to send them
their information
and they will help them temporarily, to which
thousands of farmers have
responded. They are also pointing out to them that
the long-term
solution will only come when they throw off the
yoke of the central
state on Punjab and renew the social relations.
They are also pointing
out to farmers in other states that this is their
future as well if
they don't overthrow the rule of the ruling elite
and their central
state.
Once again the battle between Delhi and
Punjab is heating up. Just as in the past when
farmers and the
marginalized people rose up against Akbar,
Aurangzeb and the British,
Punjabis have been rising up against new
Aurangzebs in Delhi since 1947.
Naga leaders, who have been negotiating with the
Modi
government, are insisting on their own flag and
constitution. Nagas
have been fighting the colonial state since 1826
when they were
occupied by the British and have refused to give
up their sovereignty
since 1947 as well. Since then the colonial Indian
state has continued
to bomb them from the air, burn their villages and
churches, and
unleash state terror. They have refused to
surrender in spite of army
occupation and severe repression.
The monsoon
session of the Indian parliament began with the
government repeating
outright lies about the pandemic. It said that it
has no data on how
many migrant labourers died or how many doctors
also died fighting
COVID-19. It said that millions of young workers
left for their
villages due to "fake news" about lock down. As
usual, this talk shop
of the ruling elite is not going to address any
concerns of the people.
This is the central feature of liberal democracy.
In their talk shop,
the ruling elite joust with each other and lie to
the people. On the
day parliament opened, millions of workers took to
the streets and
declared September 17 National Unemployment Day,
while the government
celebrated Prime Minister Modi's birthday.
In many
parts of India a movement called Gram Sabha Adhikar
Jagrukta Abhiyan
(Village Empowerment Awareness Campaign) is going
on quietly at a
village level. People are discussing very
substantive issues such as:
"What is our vision for our village? How can we
bring it into being?
What are the hurdles in realizing this vision?"
Ordinary women, men and
children are discussing these important issues and
discussing
strategies, tactics and mechanisms to realize
their vision. This work
is inspiring because it sets down the building
blocks of renewal and
renovation.
Protest against farm
bills passed by central government, September 14,
2020.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 39 - October
17, 2020
Article Link:
India: Millions Protest Dispossession of Small Farmers - J. Singh
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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