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.

Homage To Mahatma Gandhi

Google opened my clotted mind with its logo that paid tribute to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the 140th anniversary of his birth today. Google replaced its first ‘G’ with his picture. I have already written on my Farsi blog and ask my Farsi readers to pay homage to this wise man who devoted his time freeing millions of people in his country. I write these words to honor his wisdom, greatness and as an emancipator of humanity. I write these lines to pay special homage to him when he stood against imperialism and smiled at them while saying these words:

"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions...If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."

Nothing stops Gandhi in his quest for truth ‘Satyagraha’. This is what Gandhi believed so strongly that he prepared to die for it. What a great desire is moved him towards reaching his goal. He didn’t dream this truth but he managed to reach it and ended the injustice and inequality. He believed every human being is born free and should live freely. He took long way from London to South Africa and from South Africa to India, he carried a precious gift and ultimately he gave it to millions of people who were suffering. It was their freedom. Finally this is what Gandhi telling us to do:

I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.