Protests in India: what we can learn about movements against capitalism

My family comes from a rural, coastal village in Karnataka, India. With heavy monsoons and flourishing agriculture, farmers make up the majority of people. Similarly, in Northern Indian states like Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, spices and crops are grown and imported across the world. Farming is a staple in these states but often a difficult job. In addition to facing disasters and economic stress, the government has been implementing changes for the farmers.

In late September, Prime Minister Modi passed a series of bills, sometimes referred to as the “farmers bills”, that would allow farmers to directly sell to corporations and eliminate their minimum guaranteed prices. On the surface, the bills can be illustrated as a way to increase the farmers’ autonomy. But in short, they open the floodgates to the free market and promote capitalistic policies that harm the farmers.
For the past couple of months, farmers from all across India, but largely led by Punjabi Sikhs, are protesting against Modi’s bills. Protesters from neighboring states have traveled to New Delhi to take their demands to the capital where they wait for negotiations. But even smaller protests, like ones from Karnataka, are met with restrictions. Police brutality, tear gas, and roadblocks have been placed to deter the protesters but they haven’t come empty-handed — two months-worth of food and supplies and the community’s support are in their back pocket.
Despite the farmers’ protest becoming the largest grassroots protest to occur in history, it’s receiving minimal media attention. As journalist Barkha Dutt summarizes, the protests have grown outside of a political and partisan issue.

“What started as farmers protesting an economic law has now become something much larger. It has touched off debates about many other issues: culture, identity, federalism, democracy and dissent. The mass mobilization of farmers…has been one of the most sustained citizen-driven protest movements against the all-powerful Bharatiya Janata Party” (Dutt 2020).

The BJP, the conservative Hindu-nationalist party currently controlling India, drafted these bills intending to benefit corporations and the wealthy. In many states, farmers had the ability to sell to privately owned businesses but could still access the minimum guaranteed prices, formally called the Mandi system. These prices, set by the government, gave the farmers assurance that if they could not sell their produce elsewhere, the government would buy it. If you’re looking for a comparison, think minimum wage. But the bills forced farmers to sell to corporations and private players at far lower prices than what is typical, lacking other options without the minimum guaranteed prices provided. This takes away farmers’ security and safety nets during increasingly hard times. In addition to the coronavirus, the rates of farmers committing suicide have heightened since the 90s with an average of 28 suicide occurring daily because of difficulty farming.
The farm bills have already warned of the dangers of market-free capitalism. As corporations are given the opportunity to exploit farmers and maximize profits, it’s evident where the government and Modi’s priorities lie. The protests have caused mass mobilization exposing the problems in these capitalistic policies: when the majority of the agricultural sector — small farmers making up 80% — are affected, the few that benefit can not be excused for such acts. Author Naomi Klein had foreshadowed how capitalism can take advantage of disasters occurring, like the current pandemic.

“In her 2007 book ‘The Shock Doctrine,’ [she] proposed the concept of ‘disaster capitalism’ in reference to the tendency of governments to ram through free market policies in the wake of major crisis, whether natural disasters or acts of terrorism. In this case, the crisis is a compound one — food and water security and deepening economic inequality in India are issues that have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic” (Hunt 2020).

Indian farmers are not the only ones hurt by the changes — producing roughly 68% of the world’s spices, other countries feel the impact of farmers protesting. But most significantly, is the message protesters are sending the government.
The unfortunate truth is that bills and acts like these are not unique to India. We often inspect capitalism and how to dismantle it from a euro-centric perspective but it’s a system that is practiced and embraced everywhere. In the United States, the protests can inspire conversation about the way farmers, minimum-wage workers, immigrants, and essential workers are treated. There is a clear flaw in our country when we dismiss the people needing better living and working conditions as a minority, while an ocean away, upwards of 250 million people continue to challenge unjust bills. Protest signs in New Delhi were reminders of the people’s sovereignty: don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Amelia Pinto, for LA Youth Climate Activism @la.yca