Inquilab: A Decade of Protest by Swara Bhasker

Author:Swara Bhasker [Bhasker, Swara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Civil Rights
ISBN: 9789353579708
Google: sOf1DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2020-10-19T18:30:00+00:00

8

HOW MUCH OF OUR HUMANITY HAS BEEN LOST?

In March 2018, India witnessed a protest, the likes of which the country had never seen before. Thousands of farmers began their ‘Long March’ from Nasik to Mumbai on 6 March. Old and young, women and men, farmers walked nearly 200 kilometres in scorching heat to the financial capital of the country. Many of them wore torn chappals, and some were even barefoot. They wore red caps and carried red flags in their hands. When they finally arrived in Mumbai, their bruised, bandaged and bleeding feet spoke of their poverty and desperation.

It was a watershed moment in the agricultural history of India. The rally was organized by the Maharashtra unit of the All India Kisan Sabha, the Communist Party of India’s farmers’ wing. The farmers had made this excruciating walk hoping their voices would be heard by the government. They were demanding immediate relief in view of the drought-like situation; they were demanding land rights, minimum support price for crops, better water resources, a crop insurance scheme, and implementation of recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission report that made several recommendations to reduce agrarian distress.

Rural India had been in great distress for some time. Land acquisition and deaths had led to many farmer suicides. On 12 March, the farmers finally arrived in Mumbai. They had decided to rest in the city that night before continuing to march towards the Vidhan Sabha the next morning. But they got to know that a tenth-standard board examination had been scheduled for that day. Realizing that if they disturbed traffic the next day, the children of the city would be put to trouble, the farmers decided to march through the night to get to Vidhan Sabha before dawn. It was indeed a most civil protest by some of the most distressed people in the country.

But politics was not far behind. Allegations started flying thick and fast of a political conspiracy behind the march. But the Devendra Fadnavis-led state government did give the farmers an assurance that all their demands would be met. As a result, the farmers even cancelled their initial plan to gherao the Vidhan Sabha building. Their victory was short-lived and the promises proved to be empty. The farmers undertook the same march again the following year, in 2019, once more getting very little in return.

The restraint and dignity with which the farmers conducted their march warmed the hearts of many.

Veteran journalist and founder of People’s Archive of Rural India, P. Sainath explained the shocking facts behind the dire state of agriculture in the country in a lecture he gave at the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala on 23 June 2019.¹

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