This introductory chapter examines the roots and dynamics of the massive farmers’ protests in India. This chapter contextualizes the protest within India’s longstanding agrarian crisis, addressing the socio-economic pressures on farmers and the contentious new agricultural laws that sparked widespread dissent. It also explores themes of rural identity, political activism, and the farmers’ collective struggle for rights, offering insights into how the movement became a symbol of resistance and solidarity in contemporary India.
Authors
Christine Moliner, Associate Professor, Jindal School of International Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India.
David Singh, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Summary
This introductory chapter sets out the general framework and approach adopted in this edited collection on the Kisan Andolan (farmers’ protest). After introducing the main issues at stake and providing a short chronology of the movement, we lay out the important questions and problematisations that this volume hopes to address.
The rest of the chapter contextualises the Kisan Andolan in light of three important streams of scholarship: (i) the agrarian question, (ii) transformative dissent and democratic change and (iii) collective mobilisations and religious identities. We nonetheless argue that the existing studies of social movements, in general, have not been engaging sufficiently with intersectional and overlapping approaches.
This collection hopes to fill this gap and overcome the methodological challenge of studying ongoing social movements by adopting an original interdisciplinary approach based on contributions from disciplines as diverse as political economy, sociology, anthropology, history and political science.
Published in: The Indian farmers’ protest of 2020–2021: Agrarian crisis, dissent and identity, Routledge, London
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