An existential threat to Indian farmers

Farmers protest at the Delhi Singhu border in Delhi, India. Getty images

These ongoing protests of Indian Punjab farmers are just implications of what a far-right Hindu nationalist government would offer to its people. In an effort to reboot the economy, the government has passed laws that constitute dispossession and control over agricultural lands to which farmers have a special relationship. These bills, introduced and passed by parliament last year and then signed into law, are tailored to benefit only giant corporations while lacking any sustainable, ecological, social, or economic integrity. 

What these laws would basically do is replace the market, run and protected by committees of traders and landowners, with a free market where farmers will have neither control over the circulation of their products nor over market prices. In the long run, this would result in farmers being self-indentured to billionaires sitting in Delhi who buy stocks in the US. 

And there is always IMF as a hegemonic force from outside that offers its prescriptions. It is always there to advocate and support any offense a government commits against its citizens. It not only co-opts neoliberal elites for enforcing their ideals but also crafts and promotes hegemonic norms, especially in developing countries, where they are left with no choice but unconditional surrender.

The worst part of these laws is that they do not offer any future for farmers who may eventually lose control of their lands. Right now, millions of people work on farms. What will happen to them when their farms are taken by corporations? They will be replaced by a reduced workforce that’s also cheap, and that is what big corporations always do; otherwise, they can’t make surplus profit. At a time when India's unemployment is at its highest rate, what opportunities will be available to these farmers who have no skills other than farming? There is not much prospect that these laws would do anything positive but harm and exploit the lands whose farmers’ livelihood depends upon.