{"id":1722,"date":"2020-12-04T14:26:14","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T14:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=1722"},"modified":"2021-01-19T14:21:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T14:21:34","slug":"the-biggest-strike-in-history-indian-farmers-in-revolt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=1722","title":{"rendered":"The biggest strike in history: Indian farmers in revolt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 42 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

250\nmillion unionised workers in India went on strike last week to protest a\npackage of sweeping neoliberal reforms brought in by conservative prime\nminister Narendra Modi. Spearheaded by farmers and workers, flanked by\nstudents, feminists and other civil society groups, the world\u2019s largest\ndemocracy was shut down for two days as protestors blocked access to India\u2019s\nurban centres. Further action is planned. What sparked this wave of action and\nwhat does this tell us about the state of Indian society?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week we witnessed the largest organised strike in human history, 3.3% of the world\u2019s population answered the call of the multiple worker\u2019s and farmer\u2019s movements to refute a set of reforms rammed through by PM Modi that seek to enshrine core values of unrestricted free-market competition into India\u2019s agricultural sector. The laws enacted by parliament<\/a> aim to cut out the so-called \u201cmiddle-men\u201d, the people responsible for moving products from the farmer to the wholesaler, and on to international markets. The reforms seek to allow Indian farmers to set their own prices for their products and sell directly to potential bulk buyers including Walmart. The problem with such reforms lies in the erosion of set prices that have protected India\u2019s most economically vulnerable farmers from the fluctuation of market prices, a particularly poignant point considering the COVID-19-shaped tornado that is ravaging global markets. Farmers also claim that the main beneficiaries will be the monolithic corporations on the receiving end of their products, their financial firepower ensuring their control over the relationship between farmer and markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\nneoliberal reforms are to be expected from India\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata\nParty (BJP). Elected in 2014 with a convincing mandate, Modi\u2019s Hindu\nnationalist ideology has spent the past six years aligning India with a largely\nliberal economic policy that prioritises economic growth, adherence to patterns\nof globalisation and a uniform civil code<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngrievances in Indian society run far deeper than these agricultural reforms.\nIndia\u2019s economic growth has been exponential for decades now, but this emerging\neconomy with a booming population has fallen prey to oligarchs and gargantuan\ncorporations that hoard the benefits of India\u2019s ascension from poverty. Inequality\nin India is stark and is rapidly rising, akin to a trend replicated\nacross the world<\/a>,\nthe pandemic has seen these inequalities increase. The fortunes of India\u2019s two\nrichest men, Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani\u2019s have increased by 200% and\n25%<\/a>\nrespectively since the beginning of the pandemic, whilst the economy of India\nhas contracted by 10%. The argument for their diligence and smart thinking is\nlaughable, their monetary explosion can be put down to opportunism and\nexploitation, with lucrative government contracts being placed in the hands of\nthese oligarchs. Nepotism is eroding the social fabric of India, but the Indian\npeople are responding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These recent reforms take on a much different hue to the past actions of the BJP, they reek of opportunism, \u201cNever let a good crisis go to waste\u201d has been the mantra<\/a> for the avaricious liberal down the years, and these reforms are no different. Modi\u2019s perception of a weakened and disorganised worker\u2019s movement, stifled by the pandemic, which is proliferating disastrously throughout India<\/a>, has proved misguided. Undeterred by the pandemic, Indian workers and farmers have refused to allow these reforms to go unchallenged. The sheer scale of the strikes has forced the Indian government into talks with unions and civil society groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nimages of farmers throwing barricades off of\nbridges<\/a> and\nof elderly protestors being\nstruck with water cannons<\/a> during the North Indian winter are powerful images of\nresistance to neoliberal policies that erode the solidarity and cohesion of\ncommunities. The lure of competition and the supposed \u201cliberation\u201d from the\nconfines of set prices may seem appealing, yet for agricultural workers in\ndeveloping states, this liberation can spell ruin for the majority that get\nleft behind by the ruling economic class that exploit them. The economic\npolicies that \u201cworked\u201d for the West are being exported to the emerging markets\nto lubricate the wheels of the globalised, resource-guzzling economy.\nNeo-colonialism is rearing its ugly head, and such a practice cannot be expected\nto be in the best interests of those in India who place community at the\nforefront of its social conscience, of which liberalism erodes, as we have seen\nin our own societies in the West.<\/p>\n

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250 million unionised workers in India went on strike last week to protest a package of sweeping neoliberal reforms brought in by conservative <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}