India farmers battle gov’t attack against price supports
https://themilitant.com/2020/12/26/india-farmers-battle-govt-attack-against-price-supports/
BY ROY LANDERSEN
Vol. 85/No. 1
January 4, 2021
Hundreds of thousands of protesting farmers in India remain in a
standoff with the government over new laws introduced by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi that would lift state controls on the pricing and
marketing of their crops. Since the end of November, they’ve set up
large, sprawling camp cities and blocked half a dozen highways leading
into New Delhi, the capital.
The protesters are mainly from the northern farming states of Punjab,
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The farmers, many of whom are Sikhs, include
a large number of older people and growing numbers of women. They are
defiant even as a bitter cold winter has caused some deaths in the
encampments. Talks between farmer and government representatives remain
stalemated.
“The new laws will end the minimum price farmers get for their crops and
turn the farms over to the big corporations to make profits,” Lakhwinder
Singh Kang told a Militant Labor Forum in Montreal Dec. 19. He and
several others in the audience were active in solidarity protests Dec. 6
and 12.
The Modi government has offered to concede and keep some state price
supports for now. But the protesting farmers “want the government to
withdraw the laws completely,” Singh said.
Manufacturing and other industry has rapidly expanded in recent years,
but more than half of India’s 1.3 billion people remain on the land.
While a small minority are wealthy capitalist farmers using wage labor
and machinery on larger, more productive acreage, the bulk of India’s
146 million farms are only a few acres. These farmers rely on family
labor and many are weighed down by debts.
Modi said Dec. 18 that he was “humbly ready to talk on every issue.” But
he also said sweeping changes are needed to dismantle the decades-old
system of state-backed floor prices for grains like wheat and rice as
well as government crop or loan insurance. They “cannot be delayed any
longer,” he said.
More exploitation of farmers, workers
The new laws are backed by the country’s billionaire ruling families.
Corporate buyers will be able to dictate terms, driving down prices for
farm produce and taking over debt-laden small farms. Big companies such
as Walmart and India’s Reliance Industries will be able to buy directly,
and reduce small landowners to contract farming, increasing their
dependency and exploitation.
This is the opposite of a land reform that would make land available to
the landless workers and peasants — more than 144 million at last count.
In the previous decade the number of landholdings decreased from 127
million to 118 million, as small farms were gobbled up by larger
landholders.
And millions of rural toilers will be driven off the land and drawn into
India’s expanding industrial production, swelling the ranks of the
working class.
Solidarity grows among the rural poor
Earlier this year the Modi government imposed the anti-Muslim
Citizenship Amendment Act, which makes religion the criterion by which
immigrants can gain citizenship. Deadly rioting by chauvinist Hindu
gangs targeting Muslims erupted. The Indian rulers hope to use the
religious divisions and restrictions on Muslims to increase profits and
weaken the working class.
Sectarian rivalry and violence is a historical legacy of British
colonial rule, which used religious and caste divisions to retain power.
These policies have been perpetuated by India’s capitalist rulers.
Against this, the secular traditions of the Indian independence movement
are being reinforced by growing solidarity among India’s rural poor.
A headline in the Feb. 26 India Times read, “As Delhi Burns, Gurdwaras
Offer Help & Give Shelter to Muslim Families Fleeing Violence.”
Gurdwaras are Sikh places of worship as well as community centers. Mixed
community patrols were formed in Delhi to prevent attacks on the homes
of Muslims.
In Seelampur, Dalits — derogatorily called untouchables — sheltered
their Muslim neighbors. Dalits are the poorest, most exploited and
ostracized layer under India’s caste system, which was legally abolished
in 1950 but its discriminatory legacy still persists.
“The new laws will force Kisaans [farmers] to lose their land,” Gurmail
Singh told the Militant at a Dec. 19 rally in Philadelphia. Solidarity
demonstrations continue to be held by Indian immigrants in dozens of
cities across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
“We’re here to show our support,” Singh said, for the protests against
“the Modi dictatorship” and for “uniting all of India’s farmers — those
who are Hindu, Muslim and others.”
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Carl Sagan “Why do we put up with it? Do we like to be criticized? No,
no scientist enjoys it. Every scientist feels a proprietary affection
for his or her ideas and findings. Even so, you don’t reply to critics,
Wait a minute; this is a really good idea; I’m very fond of it; it’s
done you no harm; please leave it alone. Instead, the hard but just rule
is that if the ideas don’t work, you must throw them away.” ― Carl
Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
