New farmers' movements in India 9780714641348, 0714641340, 9780714646091, 0714646091

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NEW FARMERS' MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

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NEW FARMERS' MOVEMENTS IN INDIA Edited by

TOM BRASS Preface by T.J. Byres

I~ ~~o~;~~n~~:up LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published in 1995 by FRANK CASS & CO. LTD . Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 1995 Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data New Farmers' Movements in India. (Library of Peasant Studies, ISSN 0306-6150; Vol. 12) I. Brass, Tom II. Series 338.10954 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data New farmers ' movements in India / edited by Tom Brass ; preface by T.l. Byres. p . cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Farmers-India. 2. Agriculture-Economic aspects-India. 3. India-Rural conditions. I. Brass, Tom , 1946HD1537.I4N48 1994 338.1 '0954-dc20 94-31412 CIP ISBN l3: 978-0-714-64609-1 (hbk) ISBN l3 : 978-0-714-64l34-8 (Pbk)

This groups of studies first appeared in a Special Issue on ' New Farmers' Movements in India' of The Journal of Peasant Studies, Vo1.21 , Nos.3 & 4, April/July 1994, published by Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London

For Amanda, and Anna, Ned and Miles William (who was born on the day after this book was finished)

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Contents Preface

T.J. Byres

Introduction: The New Farmers' Movements in India

Tom Brass 3

The Politics of Gender, Nature and Nation in the Discourse of the New Farmers' Movements

Tom Brass 27

The Class Character and Politics of the Farmers' Movement in Maharashtra during the 1980s

D.N. Dhanagare 72

New Farmers' Movements in India as Structural Response and Collective Identity Formation: The Cases of the Shetkari Sanghatana and the BKU

Staffan Lindberg 95

'We Want the Return for Our Sweat': The New Peasant Movement in India and the Formation of a National Agricultural Policy

1

Gail Omvedt

126

Shifting Ground: Hindutva Politics and the Farmers' Movement in Uttar Pradesh

Zoya Hasan

165

The Farmers' Movement and Agrarian Change in the Green Revolution Belt of North-west India

Sucha Singh Gill

195

'Khadi Curtain', 'Weak Capitalism' and 'Operation Ryot': Some Ambiguities in Farmers' Discourse, Karnataka and Maharashtra 1980--93

Muzaffar Assadi

212

The Farmers' Movements: A Critique of Conservative Rural Coalitions Post-Script: Populism, Peasants and Intellectuals, or What's Left of the Future? Abstracts

Jairus Banaji 228 Tom Brass 246 287

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Preface The so-called new farmers' movements in India began in the 1970s, in parts of Tamil Nadu and the Punjab. Certain 'price and related issues' had become the object of lobbying and rural agitation via non-party movements. These movements, it is suggested, involved 'farmers', rather than 'peasants': the former being distinguished, it seems, by significant market involvement, both as commodity producers and as purchasers of inputs. The issues included, crucially, the prices of agricultural productsthe fixing of prOcurement prices being of particular concern; and the demand grew for 'remunerative prices'. The 'other and related' issues encompassed the prices of agricultural inputs, electricity charges, irrigation charges and betterment levies, and the taxation of agriculture, all of which, it was argued, should be lower. Non-repayment and waiving of government loans would also become an issue. These movements grew in the 1970s, and by the late 1970s they had emerged strongly, too, in parts of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh (particularly the west), Karnataka, and Gujarat. They were little in evidence in other states, however. In the 1980s they became a powerful force: employing the distinctive rasta raka and rail raka (blocking of roads and rail), and gavbandi (refusing politicians and bureaucrats entry to villages); and with tens of thousands courting arrest. They peaked in influence and activity in the late 1980s, and have waned since, although a farmers' movement did erupt in Haryana early in 1993. They continue strong in Maharashtra, and retain some presence in western Uttar Pradesh, the Punjab and Haryana. They may well emerge strongly again. That they merit close attention is clear. Already much important work on them has been done in India. This collection is a contribution to the debate on their nature, causes and significance. The so-called 'new issues', pursued via non-party movements and employing new forms of agitation, have been counterpoised against 'the old issues'. These latter, whose encapsulating slogan was 'land to the tiller' and which were the driving force of previous 'peasant movements' , were landlordism, tenancy, rent, and land redistribution; and they were often taken up by the political parties. Of course, peasants had agitated on 'price and related issues', often with considerable success, long before the 1970s, both in the states mentioned and elsewhere. Prices had never previously dominated rural agitation, however, and had never been such a major focus of non-party action. Now they did become dominant.

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NEW FARMERS' MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

Already, then, we have four senses in which a new phenomenon is suggested: agency had passed from 'peasants' to 'farmers'; the central focus of rural agitation had shifted from land to prices; the essential agitational form was a non-party one; and distinctive, novel methods of agitation were employed. All of this is controversial, and that controversy is joined in the pages that follow. During the 1980s there was a fifth, limited, sense in which these movements might be seen as 'new': with a broadening of agenda and ideology, to include the environment and women's issues. This is especially so in Maharashtra. Women's issues seemed, also, to be on the agenda in Karnataka. Certainly, old-style peasant movements had never included such concerns. And by no mean all the 'new farmers' movements' have. But their existence, however limited, has led some to argue that they are part of world-wide 'new social movements' , which embrace a new set of post-material values. Such a categorisation is a matter of considerable dispute, whose flavour may be savoured below. They possess a well-defined ideology, which does vary from region to region, but which, in general, is strongly anti-state (at least the state as presently constituted), is steeped in populist imagery, and has at its core a powerfully stated central tenet of 'urban bias' (the countryside is exploited by the town). The thesis of 'peasant unity' is maintained: whatever divisions exist in rural society are wholly secondary to the exploitation of the whole 'peasantry' by predatory surplus-extracting state. They are, avowedly, non-party movements, which are held to appeal to all cultivators. Cultivators are all now involved in the market. If the movements' demands were met all producers would benefit. Moreover, it is further maintained that agricultural labour, too, would benefit, since the demand for labour would rise and wages could increase too. Theirs is an undifferentiated rural universe. All of this is open to question, and both sides of the debate are represented below. That these 'new farmers' movements' have much in common is obvious. But that they also embody regional specificities, and that they embrace significantly differing positions on some issues (for example, on the liberalisation of international trade, which is favoured by Sharad Joshi, the leader of the movement in Maharashtra and Gujarat, but in none of the other regional movements; or on whether they should 'enter politics' by contesting seats), need also to be stressed. Both the commonality and the diversity/contradiction need careful analysis. This collection is an important part of that scrutiny. It is the most comprehensive and most incisive treatment to have appeared so far. T.J. BYRES

Introduction: The New Farmers' Movements in India TOM BRASS In March 1993 a number of those carrying out research into the new farmers' movements that had emerged in India during the previous decade took part in a workshop in New Delhi to consider some of the more important theoretical and political issues linked to this process. Among the latter was the extent to which these mobilisations were a response to the exigiences of a globalised neo-liberal capitalism, and in particular the effects on peasant farmers of the change from the development decade of the 1960s to the capitalist crisis of the 1990s, with its accompanying cutbacks in wages and social welfare, its intensified capitalist competition, and its resurgent nationalism(s). Central to this discussion was the role of neo-populism as a mobilising ideology, not least because it pointed to similarities with long-standing forms of agrarian discourse and action, and suggested further that in a very real sense an old pattern - with the addition of some new characteristics - was being repeated. l Emerging from the late 1970s onwards, the farmers' movements operate under different names in specific contexts throughout India (see map). The most important of them are: the Shetkari Sanghatana in Maharashtra, led by SharadJoshi; the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), led by M.S. Tikait in Uttar Pradesh, and by Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, Balbir Singh Rajwal and Bhupinder Singh Mann in the Punjab; the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh in Gujarat; the Tamil Nadu Agriculturalists' Association (Tamilaga Vyavasavavigal Sangham or TVS) in Tamil Nadu, led by Narayanaswamy Naidu; and the Karnataka State Farmers' Association (Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha or KRRS) in Karnataka, led by M.D. Nanjundaswamy. As all the contributions to this collection testify, it is impossible to ignore or underestimate the powerful effect the farmers' movements have had on local, regional and national politics in India throughout the past decade. Their impact extends from demonstrations, blocking the food transportation system, denying officials access to Tom Brass is at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ.

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NEW FARMERS' MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

villages, refusing to pay outstanding bills (tax arrears, electricity dues, bank loans), and withholding crops from local markets (which results in price rises), to an important role in the overthrow of Rajiv Gandhi's Congress government in the 1989 elections. 2 The contributions to this volume include general considerations of background issues (Brass, Banaji) and also case studies of the more important of the farmers' movements: the Shetkari Sanghatana in Maharashtra (Dhanagare, Omvedt, Lindberg), the BKU in Punjab (Gill) and Uttar Pradesh (Hasan, Lindberg, Gill), the Raitha Sangha in Karnataka (Assadi), the BKS in Gujarat (Banaji) and - to a lesser extentthe TVS in Tamil Nadu (Lindberg). From the outset emphasis was placed on the fact that significant differences existed between the farmers' movements from each area, due in part to regional economic and cultural variations. The most obvious divergence is on the issue of economic liberalisation, supported by Shetkari Sanghatana but opposed by the BKU in UP and the KRRS in Karnataka. The difference between BKU in UP and Punjab on the one hand, and the Shetkari Sanghatana in Maharashtra on the other, is attributed by Lindberg to the presence in the former of a favourable ecology compared with poor soils and a lack of water in the latter context. Contrasting attitudes towards gender issues are also regionally specific: thus the farmers' movement in Maharashtra adopts a progressive stance on women's issues, whereas the BKU in UP adheres to traditional patriarchal values. Indeed, gender issues are presented by Shetkari Sanghatana and the KRRS as evidence of their progressiveness but, according to Gill, the BKU in Punjab has been unable to secure support from women. Generally speaking, the workshop agenda sought to cover any or all of the issues connected with or arising from the new farmers' movements. These included the following four general themes: whether or not such movements are in fact 'new', the national/international economic background to these mobilisations, the class composition of the new farmers' movements, and the kind of mobilising ideology used by them.

THE 'NEWNESS' OF THE FARMERS' MOVEMENTS

The first theme adressed questions of definition. What are the new farmers' movements, and are they new? Are there parallels with other forms of (urban) mobilisation elsewhere in the world during the 1980s which come under the general rubric of 'new social movements'? For very different reasons, and drawing very different conclusions, Lindberg,

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