Another chapter in long tradition of struggles

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Punjab has a 100-year-old history of peasant struggles. In continuity of the past tradition, the current farmers’ agitation has added another glorious chapter to the history.

The farmers’ struggle dates back to 1907 with the Pagri Sambhal Jatta movement against the Punjab Land Alienation Act, 1900; the Punjab Land Colonisation Act, 1906; and the Doab Bari Act. Mridula Mukherjee, a historian known for seminal work on Punjab’s peasant movements, recounts in her book ‘Peasants in India’s Non-Violent Revolution’ how the agitation of 1907 demonstrated to the government the potential of agrarian grievances becoming major issues. The colonial government had to repeal three laws.

The farmers’ movements continued after Independence. “Punjab has seen several rounds of mass mobilisation of farmers in the post-Independence period. Each had its own distinct characteristics. Mass mobilisations

of farmers have always been in response to specific issues and left a distinct mark on the rural society,” says economist Prof Sucha Singh Gill.

The first major struggle after Independence was PEPSU tenants’ struggle in Bathinda, Sangrur and Patiala led by Lal Party during 1948-52. This struggle ended with landless becoming landowners in 1952. It was followed by Anti-Better Levy struggle which was launched by Communist Party of India during Partap Singh Kairon’s regime against tax imposed on farmers for using irrigation water from Bhakra-Nangal Dam.

After that an agitation for higher prices for wheat and paddy led by Bhartiya Kisan Union. This struggle spanning between 1978 and 84 made several old organisations irrelevant.

But the current struggle, Sucha Singh Gill says was much different than the past ones. “Earlier struggles were largely for sectional demands. This has pushed boundaries in every aspect and was not Punjab specific. The way it inspired every section, from women to writers, intellectuals and laboures, it truly reclaimed the lost republic,” he says.

Defining stirs

1907: Pagri Sambhal Jatta movement against Colonial-era laws.

1948-52: PEPSU Tenants’ Struggle led by Lal Party for land to tillers

1958-59: Anti-Betterment Levy agitation against costs of irrigation

1978-84: The agitation was for higher procurement prices for crops

2015: Struggle for adequate compensation for the pest-hit cotton