The appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to observe the Kumbh related rituals in more of a symbolic way to avoid crowding and protect public health in times of an escalating pandemic had the desired impact on at least some groups of holy men and they agreed to leave the site of the great religious celebration at an early date.[Read More...]
Days have passed into weeks and weeks into months , but the farmers’ dharna (protest sit-in) at important points on Delhi border has continued. Winter gave way to spring and spring has yielded space to summer. The winter (rabi) crop which the farmers planted before coming for the dharna has been already harvested in most villages. On April 24 farmers[Read More...]
As a development and environmental economist with interest in India and the Punjab, I have been writing and speaking on India’s three farming laws enacted in September 2020. As a part of enriching my research on the subject, I wrote to the British Prime Minister (who is from the Conservative Party), the two Members of Parliament from Oxford (Oxford West[Read More...]
The Modi Government is worried that if it is forced to withdraw the farm bills under pressure of the farmers’ movement, it may inspire people’s struggles against other elements of neoliberalism imposed on India by the World Bank – such as cut in education and health subsidies. It is now 47 days since the farmers began their epic struggle on[Read More...]
On every front or sphere Punjab continues to simmer spark of resistance or crystallisation of democratic forces at a boiling point .This gives the fulcrum to the historic farmer’s resistance on the Delhi border, providing the very fuel. Countless rallies and programmes are staged confronting the neo-fascist economic policies of Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party and the corporates it[Read More...]
Written by Rahul Singh Rana and Sandeep Pandey The Farmers’ protests are into their fourth month now. These protests started with people from Punjab and Haryana breaking barricades and heading towards the Indian capital. As expected, these protesting farmers were met with force at several places. Undeterred by the challenging circumstances, the farmers were able to reach at the borders[Read More...]
More than half of rural households in India are landless, or almost so. This deprives them of the most obvious asset needed for sustainable livelihoods and food security in villages–farmland. After agriculture the next most important source of rural livelihood in India is dairy farming but here too the household with farmland has free access to crop residues which is[Read More...]
Sir, Your article “Why Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath Remains the Most Memorable Saga of Displaced Farmers and Migrating Workers” that appeared in Countecurrents on April 8, 2021, presented us a scope to visualise the current distress of the farming communities, the peasants, workers, who are getting dispossessed, dislodged, against the backdrop of the novel John Steinbeck wrote. ‘The Grapes of[Read More...]
The important phase of the farmers’ movement in India starting with the dharna (sit-in) at Delhi borders in the last week of November has crossed over 130 days at the time of writing. There is as yet no immediate indication of a negotiated settlement, or of the movement withdrawing. So this is proving to be quite a prolonged movement which[Read More...]
The youth must support the farmers’ movement! The fight against the farm bills is also a struggle to save several crore jobs!! The farmers agitation completed one month on December 26, 2020. Despite the biting cold, the resolve of the farmers shows no signs of weakening; on the contrary, their movement continues to strengthen as the days go by. More[Read More...]
