State and Farmers : An Enquiry into the Political Economy of Cost and Prices in Agricultural Crop Production in India

Abstract

Neo-liberal policies in India has manifested in progressive decline of state support to agriculture in the form of input subsidies, price support, public funded research and extension, and opening up of agricultural output markets to global price competition. While farmers‘ suicides and agrarian distress in India are discussed widely in literature, the question of policy response from the government has been unexplored. For past few years, various parts of India witnessed the demand for higher MSP for which a common consensus is built amongst conglomeration of around 200 farmer organizations to hold large mobilizations and protests of the peasantry. However, the State and central governments have largely been apathetic to these demands. It is in this backdrop that this study tries to analyze the recent peasant mobilizations in different parts of the country, assess their demands in the light of empirical evidence, and understand the class and identity dimensions of these mobilizations. The crisis over cost C2 is a real one, across states for both crops. The author reflects upon spatial differentiation and the inherent bias in the farm price policy, given the heterogeneous class and caste realities in rural India. This study tries to argue that the sections of farmers who have been most affected by neoliberal policies are the small and medium peasantry, while large farmers have often been able to take advantage of neo-liberal policies and opening up of opportunities within and outside agriculture. The advocacy of these demands on a common platform is strategic caste-class alliances to unite the peasantry. In these mass mobilizations, the political and caste affiliations of the constituent groups have been underplayed and a broader unity among the peasantry - 'kisan ekta' has been portrayed. The move from identity resistance politics towards bargaining for material aspects like Land has been displayed by the Dalit struggles. The author is critical about this being a new development in the upcoming trend of farmer movements, though the scope for broad inclusion of all sections would require a further issue based unity, as the trend suggests, along with fundamental changes in the policy scenario to address the problem.