In auteur Bimal Roy’s 1953 magnum opus,”Do Bigha Zameen” set in times when the nation was ravaged by serious drought and agricultural crisis, the protagonist Shambu Mahto,played by the legendry Balraj Sahni,owns two bighas(or 2/3rd of an acre) of land in between a large plot of land owned by the local Zamindar who plans to collaborate with a city businessman to set up a mill on his plot,for which he needs the two bighas of the protagonist for that. The zamindar asks Shambu to sell his land in exchange for some money,a job in the mill and waiving away of the debt,he was in, to the zamindar due to a drought for years. Shambu rejects the offer rhetorically asking the Zamindar how can he sell his mother. The zamindar asks him to pay off the debt or face the auction of his land,and the plot thickens with Shambu taking a leaf of faith to Calcutta to earn the money to pay off the debt.
The movie was an absolute masterclass and had many parallels with Vittorio De Sica’s incredibly popular “Bicycle Theives”(1948).
Although the movie also exposed the many malpractices of the local zamindars like forging records to increase the debt and will be remembered forever for showing the plight of the poor in both villages and ities,it also showcased an interesting cultural trend in the Indian rural scene that romanticises agriculture. Shambu could have sold his land which due to drought didn’t use to produce much yield anyways and had just pushed him into debt,and cleared up his debt,got some amount of money and a permanent job at the planned mill which would bring a regular flow of income to feed the family. But he didn’t because for him, agriculture was divine and sacred and the land his mother.
Belonging to a country,where multiple Prime Ministers boast and roar of agricultural past(God knows why) and “Jai Jawan ,jai Kishan”(Coined by once-PM Lal Bahadur Shastri), Indians have romanticised the idea of farming a lot,and this has hindered India’s growth in more ways than one can think. How often you hear someone saying that they will start farming after retirement, or mourning that the farmlands of the cities had to give way for industries and residential areas.
On the eve of Independence,around 85% of the populace was in the agricultural sector workforce,and this has decreased to 30.1% in 2016. With globalisation and the failure of agriculture to feed all mouths of the family,lots of young men from rural India shifted to industries and services.
Years after the tectonic shift started taking place, there are still widespread romantic notions surrounding agriculture. The bourgeois middle class which shapes the opinion of a nation by being vocal worships the farmers and farming in their opinions and consider it as some sort of a divine occupation, at least when it comes to basing their political believes,and hence the situation of farmers in the country become a very important factor to the voters.
Ask yourself? Which Developed nation has 30% of its population pulling the plough and milking the calf? None,and what is needed is a less percentage of people taking agriculture under their command and producing just the right quantity of food grains we can use and also export. After the Green Revolution in Punjab,Haryana and some other states, every year we see tonnes and Quintals of foodgrains going waste as there is moderate demand,but an enormous supply and the prices hitting bottom of the pit.
In recent times,this has led to a rat race with various political parties in the reins of the various states to appease the farmers by waiving off loans adding to crores and crores of money.
The farmers take agricultural loans,sometimes not even for agricultural purposes like for a wedding ceremony,from government banks and after their inability to pay back,they mobilize widespread protests for waiving off of their loans,in which they eventually succeed because they command a massive votebank which no political party can afford to ignore. This wastes lots and lots of tax money which could have been used in a lot more beneficial ways.
Some farmers,in areas with massive flood-relief grants due to being prone to flood, take undue benefits of the policy by cashing on the grant even when the land is not flooded,by proving it flooded on paper by unfair means.
Manu Joseph,in a tweet recently pointed out that in winter,in India,we should change the epithet of the farmers from the “hands who feed us” to the “hands who choke us”,because their stubble-burnng tactic being one of the major causes of incredibly high levels of air pollution in the National Capital Region. Why shouldn’t the government take actions against these? Because they are farmers who are the “annadata” or the “Food-giver”.
A lot of protests plague the nation everytime a government introduces a land acquisition bill in the Assembly when it has farmers facing the axe though they are compensated in both monetary and other ways.
There is no argument that the majority of farmers are poor,but is it not the case that romantiscising agriculture,appeasing the farmers by making short term changes like a loan waiver,and dwelling in old times not trying to change the sectoral composition of population in agriculture.
We are no longer in the ’60s when the food was scarce,and we had to cut away forests and so for arable land. We are progressing,and so must are ways.
Instead of waiving off loans, can’t the government eliminate the middleman from the system which eats a lot of profit? Despite a lot of talk,none of it has been done successfully in most cases. Instead of pandering to populist and unrealistic demands of the farmers, can’t the government thrive for a change?
The society must also try to decrease romantiscising agriculture. No,the farmers shoudn’t get repetetive loan waivers. It isn’t as if the money is godsend,it has serious implications on the fiscal policy of the government. That money could have been used for a canal which could have turned the drought-hit areas of Vidarbha fertile. It could have been used for hospitals,schools and skill development training centres,so that the unemployed youth can get skills that can make him employable and bring a large-scale reform in India bringing crores of young able men to the production process.
Finally ,a post scriptum::No,this isn’t an attempt trying to antagonise farmers. Despite know it to be bad defence, but as a person from Bihar, a state heavily dependent on the agricultural sector,I would put forward that a lot of my family members are farmers and landholders. I have seen and heard about their toil from close quarters. The farmer of India is in legit bad condition,with droughts and other problems, but short-term appeasement goals and romanticiscing agriculture must go.
Nemonia 