FARMERS PROTEST, TRACTOR RALLY ON SUNDAY

One of the largest peaceful protests in modern history is going on right now in India. Now in its seventh week, tens of thousands of farmers have left their villages and homes to protest farm laws recently passed by the Indian government.

During the height of the international pandemic, the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, passed three farm laws designed to open up the country’s agricultural sector to private investment. This move would require the small farmers of India, who on average own less than 5 acres, to sell directly to corporations instead of to the government marketplace that guarantees a minimum support price for certain crops. The farmers believe these laws will ultimately drive down crop prices and ruin their livelihoods.

These fears are what led these farmers, who are predominantly from the north Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, to take their tractors and trolleys and march over 200 miles to India’s capital city of Delhi at the end of November. Since then, they have made makeshift camps across the roads and highways leading into Delhi. The farmers have vowed to peacefully protest until the Indian government repeals all of the laws.

Last week, it was reported that Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is now one the largest owners of farmland in the United States. A tech billionaire owns the most farmland in the United States — that’s a concerning thought to me. It also brings up the question: Are U.S. small farmers going to see themselves in the same position as the small farmers in India one day in the future? Will billionaires, corporations and big agribusiness be setting crop prices and determining how to farm our sacred land in the future?

As the daughter and granddaughter of Indian farmers who immigrated to the states in the early ’70s and now farm in Kern County, this protest is very dear to me and much of the Indian diaspora living in the United States. To show our solidarity and support of the Indian farmers and all farmers, we are planning a march of tractors, trucks and cars at 1 p.m. Sunday, meeting at East Panama Lane and Fairfax Road.

— Mona K. Gill, Bakersfield