On a cold November day in 2021, Indian farmers, led by those from Punjab and Haryana, achieved a historic victory when the BJP government withdrew three farm laws seen as favouring agrobusinesses that it had rushed through Parliament in 2020. However, three years after that victory for farmers’ organisations, the government has released what it calls the National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing. “In content, it is not materially different from two of the three farm laws the government was forced to withdraw,” writes Pritam Singh, Professor Emeritus at Oxford Brookes Business School, for Outlook.
In February 2024, farmers in Punjab gathered to protest again over what they said are unkept promises by the government over minimum support prices for crops, but their march to Delhi was stopped. The farmers, who were earlier ensconced on the Singhu border abutting Delhi, are now camping at Khanauri and Shambhu borders touching Haryana, prevented from marching to Delhi.
Shubhkaran Singh, a farmer from Bathinda district who was killed during a clash with police on February 21, 2024 during the march from Khanauri, had initially become the face of the agitation. Now, Jagjit Singh Dallewal stands as the new leader of the movement. Dallewal's fast entered the 56th day on January 20, 2025. In solidarity with Dallewal, 111 farmers have also started a hunger strike.
Outlook’s next issue Don’t Let This Farmer Die is about the state and the farmers and the fate of the protest. This issue looks at the history of peasant protests in Punjab and the politics of such protests.
The issue includes ground reports from farmers’ protest sites, the internal divisions among Punjab’s farmers, the lives of women protesting at Shambhu border, and more.
It also features the demands of farmers across the country. Farmers in different parts of the country have different problems and are not looking for the same set of solutions: Farmers in south India do not have a significant interest in the question of legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP); farmers in Bihar and Jharkhand are hit by poor systems and extreme weather events; and Maharashtra’s farmers have distanced themselves from the protest at Punjab-Haryana border, as they do not subscribe to the idea of legal guarantee for MSP.
Read more in Outlook's latest issue.
