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which were so common all over India. It was only in the face of unbearable
onslaughts that the farmers rose up in revolt in several places.
3.1 Movements
differentiated the old social movements from the New Social Movements
based on the discursive character of NSM. Unlike the old Social Movements
which opposed domination through meta-social principles, NSMs are
proposed to challenge domination by a direct call to personal and collective
action based on solidarity. According to him New Social Movements are the
works that society performs on itself, and conflict is ultimately about the
control of historicity, the cultural model that governs social practices and a
struggle over normative models of society. Habermas (1981). A Melucci
(1984) and Laclau and Mouff are the other exponents of NSM theories.8
According to them NSM refers to fundamental shifts in the social structure
and the emergence in post industrial societies of different actors, different
issues and loci of action that are different from the old working class
movements. They are social in nature (not class oriented) and located in the
civil society. Based on this analysis of the various NSM theorist, Scott
(1990) delineates the following characteristics of NSM.9
(a) They are pre-eminently social and cultural in character and then only
political. They transcend class boundaries.
(b) They are located within the civil society. NSMs bypass the state. The
aim is to defend civil society against the encroachment from inner
colonization by the society’s technocratic substructure.
(c) NSMS are concerned with cultural innovation, the creation of new
life styles and a challenge to entrenched values. These NSMS are
characterized by a common societal critique that aims at social
change through the transformation of values, personal identities and
symbols. They do so by the creation of alternative life styles.
Farmers Movements In India 107
Fuentes and Frank (1989), Escobar and Alvarez (1992), Guha (1989),
Omvedt (1993), Wingnaraja (1983), Calman (1992) are some of the theorists
who have discussed the relevance of NSM from a developing country’s
perspective.10
According to Fuents and Frank (1989) these NSMS are popular social
movements and expressions of people’s struggle against exploitation and
oppression and strive for survival and identity in a complex dependent
society.11 In such societies these movements are attempts at and instruments
of democratic self-empowerment of people, and are organized independently
from the state; it’s institution and politics and are a reflection of people’s
search for alternatives. According to Guha the NSMS work at two levels
simultaneously.12 At one they are defensive, seeking to protect civil society
from the tentacles of the centralizing state; at the other, they are assertive,
seeking to change civil society from within and in the process putting
forward a conception of the ‘good life’ somewhat different from that
articulated by any of the established parties .
As A.R. Desai says, ‘the civil and democratic’ rights of the people are
not protected by Constitution.’15 As a result the movements for their protection
have increased. Democracy in India has become a playground for growing
corruption, criminalization, repression and intimidation of large masses of the
people. The role of the state in social transformation has been undermined. As
a result, people have started asserting their rights through various struggles. He
continues: “There is discontent and despair in the air still highly diffuse,
fragmented and unorganized. But there is a growing awareness of rights felt
112 Chapter III
politically and expressed politically and by and large still aimed at the state”.16
Kothari feels that mass mobilization at the grassroots level is both necessary
and desirable.17 Of late the civil society led by Anna Hazare a Gandhian has
been leading a mass protest called ‘India Against Corruption’ which has
attracted the attention of people all over the world.
(a) The farmers movement has passed from the subsistence - oriented
peasantry to the commodity producing farmers. While the earlier
agrarian movements fought for land and better leasing arrangements
against the land lords and the colonial state, the new movements see
the state as the enemy and focus on agricultural prices which are
largely determined by the state.
(b) They profess that they have invented new methods of agitation.
Since 1970s the new farmers movement have become one of the most
important non-parliamentary political forces in India. The main target has
been the state which intervenes in the agrarian economy by supplying
agricultural inputs and regulating the markets. The farmers demands include
lower tax, debt relief, higher procurement prices by the government, greater
subsides on inputs like fertilizers, seeds, electricity, water and pesticides.
They argue that the governmental policies are increasingly favouring
industry as against agriculture. Their central message is symbolized in a
simple but a powerful slogan - ‘Bharat against India’. The former
corresponds to rural society, economy and culture and latter to urban
industrial society. As per Joshi the real contradiction is not between the
village and the town and difference is not between the big and the small
farmers and the landless but between the agrarian society and rest of the
society. The rural people argue that conditions of farmers are deteriorating in
the face of growing prosperity of the urban world. They feel that there is a
need to invest more in agriculture which receives much less attention.
(a) Rural elites who compose land lords, rich commercially oriented
farmers, money lenders and village traders.
(b) Farmers who cultivate their own lands with their own family labour,
occasionally hiring labour during peak agricultural seasons.
(c) Peasants or rural poor with little or no land, agricultural labour, share
cropper and tenant and marginal or small owner farmer. (Peasants
would also include most rural artisans who generally work part time
in agriculture).
association between this lowest ritual status and low economic position has
always provided a basis for their socio-economic marginalization and
political disempowerment. Thus peasants are a socially and economically
marginalized, culturally subjugated and politically disempowered social
group who are attached to land to eke out a subsistence living.
(a) Maliks whose income is derived primarily from property rights in the
soil and whose common interest is to keep the level of rents up while
keeping the wage level down. The Maliks can be sub classified as
follows: (i) Big land lords holding rights over large tracts extending
over several villages; they are absentee owners with absolutely no
interest in land management. (ii) Rich land owners, with considerable
holding, but usually performing no fieldwork for the improvement of
land if necessary.
(b) The Kisans are the working peasants who have a property interest in
the land. They are below the Maliks. (i) Small land owners having
holdings sufficient to support a family who cultivate land with family
labour and who do not either employ outside labour or receive rent.
(ii) Substantial tenants: Tenants holding leases under either big land
lords or either Rich land owner; tenurial rights fairly secure; size of
the holdings usually above the sufficiency level.
(c) Mazdoors: They are earning their livelihood primarily from working
on others land or plots. (i) Poor tenants having tenancy rights but less
secure; holdings too small for family maintenance and income
derived from land often less than that earned by wage labour.
Farmers Movements In India 119
Although these sub categories are nearer to the realities of the Indian
Agrarian Social structure it does not relate the specificity of the internal
differentiation within Indian agrarian social structure. Therefore there is a
need to readjust or regroup this subcategories in a broader and
comprehensive model such as:25
(IV) Poor peasants; land owners with holdings that are not sufficient to
maintain a family, and therefore forced to rent others land.
While using the model of agrarian class in the Indian context some
caution is necessary. First, all the five class situation and their subcategories
are regionally specific.
What is the relative strength of these classes during the period which
we concerned with i.e., 1990-2010. The question is very difficult to answer
on account of these interrelated factors. Census categories such as cultivating
owners, tenant cultivators, agricultural labourers and non- cultivating
owners, have been frequently subjected to redefinition over the years with
the result that the social elements of one category at a census enumeration
have not remained the same at the next census. Similarly, the census
categories and their definition do not match in toto with the five categories in
the above model.
until the very end of the nineteenth century. There were no fewer than 110
known instances of revolts during the last 117 years.
Almost all the national and regional political parties have their Kisan
wings. But so far only the communists and socialist parties had taken the
organization of peasantry seriously. The All India Kisan Sabha before split
was a formidable peasant organization of communist party of India. The non-
communist parties have tried to articulate the agriculturalist interests more
through party apparatus than by their kisan fronts. In some states the peasant
dominated political parties became quite strong. For eg: Kisan Mazdoor
parties organized by Acharya Kripalani and N.G. Ranga in Bombay state and
Charan Sing’s Bharatiya Kranti Dal and to Bharatiya Lok Dal and now Lok
Dal are peasant oriented parties. The Akalidal in Punjab is almost
exclusively a party of farmers.
The movement had its echo in other parts of India involving lot of
bloodshed. It was ruthlessly suppressed by the government. These
movements made their impact in as much as they could draw the attention of
the government and other political parties to farmer’s problem.
126 Chapter III
In August 1969, some of the left parties of India including the CPI,
the SSP and the PSP started a landgrab movement with the objective of
forcibly occupying lands belonging to the big landlords and for distributing
the same amongst the landless tillers. The movement, eventhough, it did not
bring about immediate success could, however, highlight the pitiable
condition of poor landless peasants.
Now for more than a decade the fronts of the Kisan movements are
dominated by non-political organizations. Shetkari Sangathan in
Maharashtra, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) in Karnataka,
Vivasayigal Sangam in Tamil Nadu, Dibati Adhka Raksha Samati in
Haryana, Bharathi Kisan Union of Punjab are the major instances of such
organizations.
peasantry in its favour, and the social and economic demands of the
peasantry, to which it must respond to win their support. As most peasant
organizations are being fostered by political parties political goals of the
sponsoring party constitute a dominant element in the objectives of peasant
movement. Thus the objectives of a peasant movement may be divided into
two broad categories.
also works for the unity of agricultural labourers and small and marginal
farmers.
In India, the rural poor have often been left out of the mainstream of
the development process. Several factors have been identified which
impeded their participation in development. They are lack of motivation,
socio economic constraints, oppressive agrarian structure, inadequacy of
programmes and administrative arrangements and lack of appropriate
institution and organization. In developing countries too much emphasis has
been laid in the past on peasant’s backwardness, apathy, passivity and
resistance to change as dominant factors impeding their participation.
Oppressive agrarian structures have often impeded participation especially of
tenants, share croppers and agricultural labourers. Their dependence on the
rural elites restricts their option to participate. Agrarian reform is thus a basic
condition for participation of the vast number of the rural poor in rural
development. Once the defects in the agrarian structure are removed a major
hurdle to participation in development will be eliminated. Attempts in the
past at agrarian reform, especially at tenancy reform, ceiling and land
redistribution and regulation of wages and conditions of work have not been
very successful due to lack of political will on the parts of elites and the
absence of pressure from below. The rural poor will need a network of their
own organization. However, even a successful programme of agrarian reform
may not automatically lead to participation by the rural poor in development
unless the development programmes are devised in accordance with their
needs. Therefore, planning from below at the grass root level with people’s
participation through their organization is thus essential to the development
of realistic programmes responsive to people’s needs.
130 Chapter III
(a) Function as a lobby for poor peasants and generate pressure from
below for agrarian reforms.
(e) Mobilize the vast human resources potential for improving the living
conditions of the rural poor and total rural development.
(a) Restorative rebellions to drive out the British and restore earlier
rulers and social relations.
(d) Terrorist vengeance with the idea of meting out collective justice.
(2) Secular movements arising from category (1) but rejecting caste
identity and consciousness and appealing to the rationality and
brotherhood of men.
these party linked organizations. It can also be noted that unlike the
communist parties, the BJP does not try to organize agricultural
labourers separately.
(4) Unorganized struggles which have sprung up here and there, on all
kinds of issues, including protest against displacement for
developmental projects or urban expansion.39
The most important issue that paved way for the creation of farmers
movement is religious sentiments. According to Partha Chatterjee peasant
community in Bengal was united by religion.41 There was a consciousness of
communal rights and communal solidarity among the members of the same
religion. The communal mode of power exists where individual or sectional
rights, entitlements and obligations are allocated by the authority of the
entire social collectivity i.e., the community. The very nature of peasant
consciousness, the apparently consistent unification of an entire set of beliefs
about nature and about men in the collective and active mind of peasantary, is
religious. Religion to such a community provides ontology, an epistemology as
well as practical code of ethics, including political ethics. When this community
acts politically, the symbolic meaning of particular acts - their significance –
must be found in religious terms. However, as the mode of production
undergoes changes over a period of time, class differentiation within a
religious community take place undermining communal solidarity.
(a) Deterioration of their economic condition due to price rise, famine etc.
Most of the studies on the peasantry carried out during post and pre-
independence periods assert that at a given point of time when the peasants
revolted, their economic condition was deteriorating.
However, some scholars feel that the relationship between high prices
and some peasant struggles do not have a significant correlation; at best a
relationship between the two can be established in very general terms.
Forced labour (Begar, Veth or Vethi) was widely prevalent in the last
century. It is still prevalent, even now though in different forms. According
to Surana, begar was performed by peasants including the members of upper
castes, for the rulers of Mewar in Rajastan. The agricultural labourers and the
members of the lower caste were compelled to do all kinds of jobs including
supplying water to the ruler’s family, constructing buildings, roads, carrying
dead and wounded soldiers to their destination during and after war.46
The persons doing begar were very often beaten, they were not given
adequate food. Women doing the begar were insulted and molested, there
was no consideration of rough weather and no time limit was fixed for it. The
poor peasants and labourers of Telengana revolted against the begar system.
Farmers Movements In India 137
one of the central issues in the Telengana movement in late forties and
Tebbaga movement in Bengal, the Pardi satyagraha in Gujarat, the Land
Grab Movement, the Naxalite movement, Bhoomi Sena Movement and the
Shramik Sanga Thana Movement in Bombay. The Bhoodan Movement
launched by Vinoba Bhave in early fifties to counter leftist movements, also
focused the issue on the distribution of land.50 It followed a peaceful non-
violent path of acquiring land from those who had more, and distributing it
among the poor cultivators and landless labourers.
The demand for higher wages has been a central issue in the struggle
of farmers in the last as well as this century. Farmers and agricultural
labourers in Travancore, Kerala resorted to strikes as early as 1907,
demanding an increase in wages. And they went on strike several times since
then on the same issue. It was one of the issues in the Telengana uprising
also. The demand for higher wages became sharp in the sixties and seventies
which mobilized agricultural labourers leading to Naxalite movement in
West Bengal, Bihar and Andhra. Agricultural labourers of Gujarat,
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and other states
launched several struggles in the 60s and thereafter demanding a rise in their
wages and implementation of minimum wages. They also revolted against
sexual discrimination, humiliation and sexual violation perpetuated on
women by men and officials of upper castes and classes.
3.4.3.2.2 Participants
oppression are carried out beyond the point of human endurance, there is a
possibility of revolutionary response. The backwardness of the poor peasants
rooted as it is in an objective dependence, is only a relative and not an
absolute condition. In a revolutionary situation, when anti-landlord and anti-
rich peasant sentiment is built up by the militancy of middle peasants, their
morale is raised and they are more ready to respond to a call to action. Their
revolutionary energy is set in motion. The middle peasants on the other hand,
are initially the most militant element of the peasantry and they can be a
powerful ally of the proletarian movement in generating the initial impetus of
the peasant revolution.52
On the basis of his study of Kerala, Robin Jeffry suggests that it is the
middle peasants who are most likely initially to become active participants in
such a movement, though poor peasants may be involved later in villages
where the movement acquires a firm hold.53 It can be found that most of the
leaders of Kisan sabha in Kerala belong to middle peasant category.
But D.N. Dhanagare challenges the argument of Alavi and says that
middle peasants are weaker than other agrarian classes. Their landed interests
are more heterogeneous than those of rich and poor peasants. Besides
historically speaking middle peasants have always been a transitional and
fluid social category.54 According to Aravind Das there was no significant
difference between the middle peasants and the rich peasant in India.55
the direction of rich peasants and small holders.58 After analyzing various
peasant movements in India, Sunil Sen argues that the rich peasants played a
leading role in the abolition of feudal system or they were interested in
improving farming and selling foodgrain and cash crops in the market.59
3.4.3.2.3 Leadership
discontent to further its own political and party ends. The leadership of
Naxalite movement rested with the youth who belonged to the urban
educated middle class. Partha Chatterjee was of opinion that the urban
leadership which was cloaked in a more sophisticated ideology claimed
superior knowledge and status with regard to the manner in which the
movement should be conducted.68 They would insist that the others follow
the direction they gave and assured that the predicted outcome would ensue.
3.4.3.2.4 Organization
The Congress mobilized the peasants and linked some localized peasant
movements. However the Congress discouraged any movement which
sharpened the conflict between landlords and tenants. The reason was that it
was the aim of Congress to form an alliance of all classes of rural society for
the purpose of conducting a united struggle to achieve Swarajya. The
Congress did not allow the poor peasants to participate in direct action
beyond a point so that they remained under the control of rich and middle
peasants.
At the same time, many studies point out that like the Congress, the
leftist parties also obstructed peasant struggles in many parts of the country.
It is a proved fact that though the left parties organized agricultural labourers,
they did not pay much attention to these for strategic reasons. According to
them agricultural labourers do not have the potential to lead the revolutionary
movement.72 As a result, the non-party groups organized agricultural
labourers in different parts of the country and launched their struggles though
these struggles remained localized and led to limited gains.
references.76 Political issues were conveyed to the people through social and
religious symbols which appealed to the tradition-bound masses. Siddiqui
also finds that “the existence of caste helped the peasant movement to
proceed with greater cohesion and speed and that the supposed
irreconcilability between caste and class did not exist in the rural society of
Oudh.77 Ramayana was used by peasant leaders for drawing on religious
symbols for the mobilization of the masses.
about social reality than the colonial ideology. And within the nationalist
ideology the radical nationalist or the Marxist ideology was not merely a
means of detaching the peasants from the conservative nationalist ideology.
It should be noted that the radical nationalist ideology derived its initial
stimulus from a blending of radical liberal thought and classical Marxism.
Indian Marxist ideology was based on an adaptation of classical Marxism to
Indian conditions. Neither the radical nationalist nor the Marxist ideology,
however, could make a fullfledged transition from an intuitive to an
innovative phase.
(b) The rural-urban cleavage in the context of foreign rule and the
critique of conception treating the rural economy as a hinterland of
urban areas.
(d) A synthetic view of rural economic backwardness and the need for
innovation for rural uplift.
(e) The emphasis on the human factor and manpower mobilization for
development.
who had led small-scale movements among the peasants of Kheda and
Champaran and the workers of Ahmedabad with a substantial measure of
success, that the true task confronting nationalism was the fusion of two
distinct political streams; one consisting of the middle classes and the petty
bourgeoisie, and the other drawn from the working classes and the
peasantry.”87 At the very moment Gandhiji recognized the restlessness of the
workers and the peasants he also sensed the social linkages, – the bonds
between the lawyer and his rural clientele or the ties between the sower and
the cultivators or the urban networks of the cultivating class which had
commenced reaching out to the professions. Here lay the raw materials for
mounting a powerful populist movement against the British raj. This task
posed the kind of challenge which brought about a flowering of Gandhiji’s
political genius. Gandhiji had a sensitive appreciation of the unrest that was
affecting the working classes and peasantry. Gandhiji was able to stir the
peasantry and also to organize them against the alien rule; the rural protest
which took shape in the country had to undergo a process of eminent
transformation. Rural protest is the resistance which the peasants offer to the
expropriation of their surplus by their social superiors. The triumph of
Gandhiji lies in the fact he was able to develop into the full significance of
the role of the peasantry more than any other leader in the country. His
immediate objective was the independence of the country, and he found the
strength of peasantry in the fulfillment of the goal before him. Understanding
the importance of peasants in the country, he said that the soul of India lies in
villages and the independence of India would be a dream without the active
involvement of peasants. The Champaran Movement (1917), The Kheda
Satyagraha (1918), Ahmedabad Mill Workers Strike (1918) are the chief
landmarks in Gandhiji’s preparation for a massive but non-violent anti-
Farmers Movements In India 153
imperialist struggle through the length and breadth of the country. The most
important feature of these movements is that these are all connected with
agricultural sector and thereby with peasants. So to a certain extent in the
heart of hearts, Gandhiji was also a peasant leader, not only a nationalist
leader. Nationalist Gandhi was nothing but an evolution of peasant Gandhi.
So it may be said that Gandhiji is the father of peasant movement in India.
The most important point to be noted is that Gandhiji did not completely
alienate the poor sections of the peasantry and the landless.
caste and outcaste. To bring them together within a single organization will
require a high degree of politicization.
This was founded by Luis Tarau. This is the most powerful peasant
movement in Philippines. It is mainly composed of peasants drawn largely
from tenant organizations.
Liberty”. He wanted the land that the huge lacienda owners had snatched
from the peasants to be restored to them.
In Bengal where the revolt took place, the permanent settlement was
introduced in 1793 and this had inaugurated a new arrangement in the pattern
of landholding in the region. Between the Zamindars and direct peasant
producers, there came into being a number of intermediaries such as jotedars.
Farmers Movements In India 157
These jotedars inturn used to sublet their land to the bargardars or share
croppers who cultivated the land and they used to pay a part (one half) of the
produce known as adhiorbhag to the jotedars. The jotedars were not the only
exploiters in the rural economy but there also existed the Mahajans or money
lenders who used to provide credit to the Bargadars. Thus the exploitation of
the Bargadars by the jotedars and the Mahajans was complete.
Though the Bargadars constituted around one fifth and quarter of the
small population, the movement encompassed the entire rural population.
The condition of rural peasants became very much pathetic with the Bengal
Famine of 1943, and it is estimated that 3.5 million peasants perished in the
Great Bengal Famine. The Tebhaga movement began as a movement of the
middle peasants on their own behalf but later on drew on the share
croppers.90 The movement which started in 1946 gathered momentum in the
years since 1945. In 1946 Communist Party provided open support to the
movement and as a result it took a revolutionary turn. The main struggles
were fought during the time of the harvest season when the share croppers
refused to provide the amount of paddy to the jotedars. But the jotedars in
turn got the support of police, the Congress and the Muslim league and
finally the jotedars were successful in suppressing the movement. The
movement eventually collapsed and was officially called off in the summer
of 1947. Though the movement failed, it had important implications for the
entire history of agrarian struggle in India. This movement gave strength and
inspiration for the succeeding peasant uprisings in India and so it can be
called as the ‘Mother of Peasant Movements in India’.
158 Chapter III
The agrarian uprising was launched in the month of April 1967 after
the formation of the new Government in West Bengal in which the CPI (M)
was a major partner.93
The high point of the movement was reached in the month of May.
Forcible occupation of land by the peasants took place and according to
government sources there were around 60 cases of forcible occupation, looting
of rice and paddy and intimidation and assaults.94 The leaders of the
160 Chapter III
The following are the two prominent movements of the rural rich in
contemporary India.
Bhartiya Kisan Union which came into existence in 1980 launched its
first struggle in Maharashtra. It is mainly active in Punjab and WesternUP.
Mahendra Singh Tikait took over as the chief of Bhartiya Kisan Union in
1986. In 1987 BKU emerged as a spontaneous movement against increase in
electricity tariffs imposed by the government. The movement took up
peaceful method of satyagraha against the state policy. Tikait tried to win
over the farmers in Western UP especially those from Jat and Rajput
communities. It became equally popular among Hindus and Muslims. The
farmers rallied behind Tikait and withheld payment of electricity bills for
seven years. Agitations were led against the state. Thus the new exploiter
Farmers Movements In India 163
now was the state and not the landlord. Its agitation was against state policies
and mainly centered around economic issues.95
The organization has its own constitution, symbol, flag and also
fullfledged offices in different areas including Delhi. It fought for ending
zonal restrictions on movement of food grains, lowering electricity rates,
writing off government levies payable by farmers of Punjab for using canal
water. In most of the cases government made concessions. It also aims at
familiarizing farmers with latest farming techniques, equipments, methods,
tries to get adequate compensation from government incase of natural
disaster, inspires farmers to start small scale agro industries and asks the
government to take up the responsibility for selling the produces. It appeals
to farmers to keep away from communal riots and tries to inculcate
brotherhood among them.
The hike in the prices of fertilizers and other inputs and the growing
discrimination of state towards farmers led to widespread discontent among
the farmers of Karnataka. It was at this time that Karnataka Rajya Ryathu
Sangh, a non-political organization emerged in different parts of Karnataka
in 1980. It took up ‘Rasta Roko’ agitation in 1980 and raised demands for
subsidized inputs, remunerative prices and exemption from land revenue. It
believed in class conciliation instead of confrontation and its ideal was social
welfare. Nanjunda Swamy was the most important person connected with the
origin and development of Karnataka Rajya Ryathu Sangh. They are in the
forefront of fighting against the multinational companies like Monsonto
company which try to sell monopoly seeds.
Majority of the political parties of India have got their own peasant
wings. Some peasant organization are active while others are not so.
The stated aims and objectives of the organization are to unite and
organize the peasantry for the betterment of their financial, social, cultural,
educational conditions and cottage industrial activity by making available
stable avenues of livelihood and survival, to make available information and
other related literature in respect of new innovation improvements, etc. The
organization also emphasises the importance and suitability of age old
agricultural techniques and appeals to farmers to combine the same with
modern inventions so as to have ecological security of fertile soil, adequate
water, seeds cattle, plants and biodiversity.
The All India Kisan Sabha was the name of the peasant front of the
undivided communist party of India. It was formed by Swami Sahajanad
Saraswathi in 1936, and it later split into two organizations by the same
name.
The Kisan Sabha Movement was started in Bihar in 1936 under the
leadership of Swami Sahajanad Saraswathi who had formed the Bihar
Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) to mobilize peasant grievances against the
zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights.
In recent years the most important institutional change has been the
mobilization and organization of the farmers from the bottom level. The
removal of the landlords had left a lacuna with regard to land management
and rural credit. If this problem had not been resolved, the land reforms
would not have been successful. A farmer’s movement is an independent
financial association with local management which organizes credit and
marketing and helps with the introduction of new technology. Through land
reforms and its accompanying institutional reforms, the marginal cost of land
has been reduced, and it has facilitated investment in new technology.
With the introduction of New Economic Policy since the 1990’s the
entire world has become a village. As a result, the relevance of the state has
been diminished considerably. Upto the advent of globalization the state had
acted as the redeemer and protector of agriculture and thereby the farmers
too. The farmers need an agency which stand in favour of farmers. Here lies
the relevance and importance of farmers movement during the post-reform
168 Chapter III
period and later there were dominant caste groups in many parts of rural
India. Some of these dominant castes were Jats, Rajputs and Gujars in North
India, patidars, Rajputs and Kanbis in Western India, Naidus and Vellalas in
South India. In many of the peasant movements leadership was provided by
the dominant castes. Mobilization of peasants in rural areas cannot ignore
castes. It seems that during the independence struggle, the nationalist leaders
effectively mobilized the dominant peasant caste in their ‘no tax campaign’
as a part of their strategy of enlisting the support of these peasants for the
nationalist cause. In many peasant movements including the Champaran
movement, movements among tribals such as amongst the Warlis and
Gandim Rampa and farmers movement organized by the Communists,
leadership was provided by upper caste or elite class elements. Marxist
literature has largely contributed to the debate regarding peasant
consciousness According to it consciousness is not something, temporary or
transient. It is a historical consciousness generated by long-term class
exploitation of peasantry.
170 Chapter III
End Notes
2. Raka Ray and Mary Jainsod Katzer Stein, Social Movements in India,
Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2009, P.96.
9. Ibid, P.86.
12. Ramachandran Guha (ed), ‘New Social Movements’, Seminar No. 355, 1999,
P.41.
15. A.R. Desai, Public Prolist and Parliamentary Democracy, Studies in Indian
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