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Indian farmers struggle for dignified existence is new model for peaceful resistance

 


 

Farmers struggle rooted in Punjabi psyche  creates  new model of resistance for toiling masses

 

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

For the toiling masses across the globe resisting exploitative models of corporate development dictated by the theory of free markets, November 26 would go down in history as the defining moment. It was on this day in 2020 that the farmers from Punjab took a long leap and in the process, has created history by  making India’s all-powerful Iron Man Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce the repeal of the three controversial farm laws that would have opened the doors of the farm sector to the corporate sharks.

It is the model that empowers the people to confront the brute power of the state through perseverance and resilience.

And a salient dimension of this model is the empowerment of women whose participation in this long fight is historic. Women from rural areas of Punjab and Haryana have never been seen joining the menfolk at such a massive level in any of the earlier struggles. This dimension is also going to have its impact on the political dynamics of the region. Punjab in particular has a history of both peaceful and radical struggles over the decades including in the pre-partition period.



On this defining day on November 26, 2020, the defining moment was the one when the farmers from the younger generation decided spontaneously to challenge the might of the Indian state at the Ghaggar river bridge joining/dividing Punjab and Haryana at one point along the long border that was created in 1966. It was a decisive jump that broke all barriers and barricades and the protesters then stopped only at the gates of Delhi, the Capital.

These were the youth who had been maligned as druggists for some time.

It may be mentioned here that the program was to sit on dharna at the point where stopped by the security forces to block the farmers march to Delhi where the protest was to be staged only for two days for which permission was denied. The Punjab farmers at Shambhu border were joined by their counterparts from Haryana and that constituted the main push. That day calls for separate analysis. It was perhaps for the first time that the government in Haryana dug up the hoighways and placed big boulders to stop the farmers march.

It is the driving force behind this struggle that would be the subject of deeper study.

At one level, one has to go back to history in Punjab where the Sikh religion came up as a religion of resistance. The Sikhs fought for survival for a long time before the Sikh Empire appeared on the globe with Maharaja Ranjit Singh as the leader, the way for which had earlier been paved by Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.



Punjab has continued to struggle over the years and these struggles have turned out to be cyclical, to this day. It was this psyche that has developed over time that was one of the major driving force in mobilising the peasantry across the country against what was perceived to be the threat to their very existance. They fought and won. But this is the beginning. It is a long fight for dignified living against exploitative models.

 This is the unique struggle that is characterised by  multiplicity of leadership with 32 farmers organisations having joined hands under the banner of Samyukt Kisan Morcha with BKU (Ugrahan) joining the struggle along with some others as independent entities but abiding by the joint decisions. This is the struggle that has also demonstrated the success of the collective leadership model. Normally, such struggles are fought under monolithic command.

And this is the struggle that has frustrated the designs to sabotage it from within too.

The collective leadership would decide upon the next path and next step of struggle and they are the people tempered by the situation and experience who can decide the best. Perhaps it is the collective leadership that has kept this struggle on the right path.

This struggle should now come up with an alternative model of pro-people development.

It has already demonstrated to the world how to peacefully resist oppressive and exploitative policies through mass actions.

 

 

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