Contemporary Farmer’s Movements in India: Hybrid Political Agenda and Modernisation of Protests

Abstract

This study attempts to argue that the farmer’s encirclement of Delhi in 2020–2021 was not merely a sporadic form of protest or agitation as widely argued. Instead, it indicates the emergence of a new form of farmer movement in contemporary India. Formation of a hybrid political agenda is at the core of this movement. Temporally, organisationally and ideologically, this movement has been able to bring agrarian politics to the forefront of Indian politics after a gap of three decades. Temporally, there has been a continuity of protests by farmers since 2017 involving diverse issues which concern the rural economy and society. Organisationally, farmers adopted traditional as well as modern forms of mobilisation. Coming together of farmer unions from various parts of India is also an indicator of the innovative organisational methods. Ideologically, the current movements are an outcome of a hybrid agrarian politics that includes formation of an inclusive agenda, and a participatory form of farmer identity. The three sections of the article deal with each of these indicators.