Indian Farmers’ Organizations and State Elections
Lessons for the Left in the USA
In September 2000, the government of India enacted three pro-corporation laws. Protest began in the state of Punjab, where farmers occupied symbols of corporate power, such as toll plazas, Reliance gas stations, and shopping centers. For more than a year, hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers protested in three encampments on the borders of New Delhi. Under pressure from the sustained protest, Indian Prime Minister Narandra Modi on November 19, 2021, announced the repeal of the laws, which were formally repealed by the Parliament on December 1, 2021.
Elections for assemblies are being held in five states, including Punjab, which is the heart of the Indian farmers’ movement. Some farmers’ unions in Punjab are fielding candidates in the assembly elections, but the state’s largest farmers’ union, Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugarahan), is not nominating or supporting a candidate in the Punjab assembly election.
The Geopolitical Economy Research Group sponsored on January…