In India, the Persistence By Farmers Pays Off
NEW DELHI — Om Prakash relied on relatives and neighbors to tend his wheat and vegetable fields. He ate food donated by sympathizers at home and abroad. When he felt feverish, he turned to volunteer medical workers huddled, like him, near a noisy overpass.
Now, his year away from his farm and his family has finally paid off. Mr. Prakash was one of thousands of farmers in India who used their organizational skills, support network and persistence to force one of the country’s most powerful leaders into a rare retreat. On November 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said lawmakers would repeal new agricultural laws that the protesting farmers feared would destroy their way of life.
Their victory showed how a group could successfully challenge a government more accustomed to squelching dissent than reckoning with it.
“It’s the power, it’s the force, it’s the struggle, it’s the sacrifice of more than
700 farmers on these borders which have compelled Mr. Modi to come down to repeal these laws,” said Darshant Pal Singh, one of nine farm protest leaders.
The farmers, who camped out on the outskirts of India’s capital, New Delhi, for a year, endured a
vicious Covid-19 second wave that roared through the city earlier this year. The movement also experienced two violent episodes that led to the deaths of protesters.
But the farmers’ insistence on pressing their campaign, their support from a global network of allies and the nonviolent nature of the protests proved to be keys to their success, their backers say.
The effort is not over. The farmers have vowed to continue their protests until the government guarantees a minimum price for nearly two dozen crops. The government has said it will form a committee to consider the matter.
Mr. Modi’s laws were aimed at bringing more private money into the struggling agriculture sector, but farmers feared they would be left vulnerable to corporate giants. The protest movement started in Punjab, home to a large community of Sikhs and some of the country’s richest farmland. The protest leaders leaned on both to organize and finance their demonstrations. Financial aid, particularly from Sikh temples and organizations outside India, has been critical to the movement’s staying power.
Organizers leaned heavily on the
Punjabi Sikh diaspora. Big charities like Khalsa Aid International, a British relief group, raised money for the protesters. Smaller ones, like the Midland Langar Seva Society, also based in Britain, chipped in too. Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, and Rihanna, the pop singer, spoke in solidarity.
Mr. Prakash, who lives off his pension from 20 years in the Indian Air Force, does not need the farm to survive. Instead, holding on to the nearly three hectares he and his siblings inherited from their parents ensures they can maintain a middle-class life. He said that the family farm had supported his ambitions, and that he wanted the same for his children.
“To save our motherland,” Mr. Prakash said, “we can stay here another two years.”