The Indian Farmers' Protest of 2020-2021

The Kisan Andolan or the Indian farmers' protest of 2020-2021 is one of the longest and biggest (and victorious) social movements in the history of independent India. This book adopts a multidisciplinary approach to contextualise the movement in the long run. It engages with the historical, social and religious roots of the Andolan, examining what makes it so unique and transformative for Indian polity. It explores the (dis)continuities with previous resistance and contestation movements in India and globally, and debates the role so far of regional, religious and class-caste-gender identities. Through interviews, the volume also gives a specific voice and platform to grassroots activists and farmers from the movement. Part of the Social Movements and Transformative Dissent series, the book will appeal to scholars, activists and a wider audience interested in social movements and dissent politics in India and the Global South. It will also be of interest to students of economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, government, agrarian studies, Sikh and Punjab studies, politics, international relations and diaspora studies.

Christine Moliner is a social anthropologist and an associate professor at O.P. Jindal Global University (India). Her research and publications have focused on the Sikh Diaspora in Europe, the link between the agrarian crisis and international mobility from Punjab, Sikh minority status and Sikh responses to Hindu majoritarianism both in India and in the West. David Singh is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). His research interests focus on land politics, resource extraction and green energy infrastructures, the making of citizenship and nations from a political ecology and critical agrarian studies perspective. David's Ph.D. dissertation discussed the issue of mediation and caste power in fixing large-scale wind power projects, the reconfiguration of space by identity politics and Hindu nationalism and the emergence of diverse resistance practices. David Singh has published in Contemporary South Asia, Journal of Political Ecology and Journal of Contemporary Asia.

Chapter 1. Introduction Part I. The Agrarian Question and the Farmers' Movement in Neoliberal Times Chapter 2. Farming Laws: BJP's Strategic Vision of Strengthening Agro-business Capitalism and Hindu Nationalism Chapter 3. India's Farmers' Movement and the 'Agrarian Questions': Authoritarian Populism versus Agrarian Populism Chapter 4. The Kisan Andolan and India's Roll-Over Neoliberalism Part II. Agrarian Capitalism in Punjab Chapter 5. Sikhi Idiom and the Making of the Punjabi Farmers' Movement of 2020-2021 Chapter 6. The Political Economy of the Farmers' Protest: Emerging Perspectives from the Field Chapter 7. Punjab's Mandis, Agrarian Life and the Farmers' Protest Part III. The Farmers' Protest and Intersectionality: Caste, Class, and Gender Chapter 8. The Farmers' Movement and New Agrarian Politics in Northern India (2020-2021) Chapter 9. When Women Farmers Protest Patriarchy and Capitalism Chapter 10. Bodily Strategies in the Kisan Andolan Part IV: Identity and Radical Politics in the Kisan Andolan Chapter 11. Kisan Andolan Dee Vaar (The Ballad of the Farmers' Movement): Poetics of Resistance in the Kisan Morcha Chapter 12. The Indian Farmers' Protest, 2020-2021: Historical Antecedents of Contradictory Ideologies and New Alliances Chapter 13. 'It is Baba Nanak Who Is Running This Protest': The Role of Sikhi in the Kisan Andolan Part V. From the Ground: Voices, Testimonies and Interviews Chapter 14. The Protest: A Battle of Media Narratives Chapter 15. Voices from the Andolan: Interviews with Union Leaders and Activists Chapter 16. The Importance of Organising: Interview with Nodeep Kaur Chapter 17. The Dalit Perspective: Interview with Lachhman Singh Sewewala Chapter 18. Learning from the Legacy of the Farmers' Movement