The Kisan Andolan or the Indian farmers’ protest of 2020–2021 is one of the longest and biggest (and victorious) social movements in the history of independent India. This book adopts a multidisciplinary approach to contextualise the movement in the long run. It engages with the historical, social and religious roots of the Andolan, examining what makes it so unique and transformative for Indian polity. It explores the (dis)continuities with previous resistance and contestation movements in India and globally, and debates the role so far of regional, religious and class-caste-gender identities. Through interviews, the volume also gives a specific voice and platform to grassroots activists and farmers from the movement.
Part of the Social Movements and Transformative Dissent series, the book will appeal to scholars, activists and a wider audience interested in social movements and dissent politics in India and the Global South. It will also be of interest to students of economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, government, agrarian studies, Sikh and Punjab studies, politics, international relations and diaspora studies.
Author(s): Christine Moliner (editor), David Singh (editor)
Series: Social Movements and Transformative Dissent
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge India
Year: 2024
Language: English
Pages: 245
Cover
Endorsement
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
Glossary
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
PART I: The Agrarian Question and the Farmers’ Movement in Neoliberal Times
2. Farming Laws: BJP’s Strategic Vision of Strengthening Agrobusiness Capitalism and Hindu Nationalism
3. India’s Farmers’ Movement and the ‘Agrarian Questions’: Authoritarian Populism versus Agrarian Populism
4. The Kisan Andolan and India’s Rollover Neoliberalism
PART II: Agrarian Capitalism in Punjab
5. Sikhi Idiom and the Making of the Punjabi Farmers’ Movement of 2020–2021
6. The Political Economy of the Farmers’ Protest: Emerging Perspectives from the Field
7. Punjab’s Mandis, Agrarian life and the Farmers’ Protest
PART III: The Farmers’ Protest and Intersectionality: Caste, Class and Gender
8. The Farmers’ Movement and New Agrarian Politics in Northern India (2020–2021)
9. When Women Farmers Protest Patriarchy and Capitalism
10. Bodily Strategies in the Kisan Andolan
PART IV: Identity and Radical Politics in the Kisan Andolan
11. Kisan Andolan Dee Vaar (‘The Ballad of the Farmers’ Movement’): Poetics of Resistance in the Kisan Morcha
12. The Indian Farmers’ Protest, 2020–2021: Historical Antecedents of Contradictory Ideologies and New Alliances
13. ‘It Is Baba Nanak Who Is Running this Protest’: The Role of Sikhi in the Indian Farmers’ Protest
PART V: From the Ground: Voices, Testimonies and Interviews
14. The Protest: A Battle of Media Narratives
15. Voices from the Andolan: Interviews with Union Leaders and Activists
16. The Importance of Organising: Interview with Nodeep Kaur
17. The Dalit Perspective: Interview with Lachhman Singh Sewewala
18. Learning from the Legacy of the Farmers’ Movement
Index
