Khaps in the Making of Farmers’ Protests in Haryana: A Study of Role and Fault Lines

Abstract

The farmers’ movement against the three farm-laws in India often brought together conflicting forces and entities to put up a collective fight to safeguard the peasantry. The protests though mainly located at various border points of the national capital penetrated the immediate local communities over the duration. In the state of Haryana, these protests saw an unlikely participant, the khaps, playing an active role in sustaining the agitation. This article examines the role of khaps from a sociological perspective, discussing the nature, forms and ways of their participation in the protests. The discussion attempts to underline the limitations of their participation and the social fault lines that emerged as a result of it. The research argues that participation of khaps led to a consolidation of assertion of the dominant communities and resulted in restricting the potential and ambit of the movement to forge larger solidarities among the rural masses.