ABSTRACT
Agrarian crises, farmer unrest, and state repression are perennial to Punjab. Ever since the annexation of Punjab in 1849, people of this border state have constantly struggled against one or other legal injunction passed by their governments at different intervals. From 1907 until the recently enacted three farm laws, an unfortunate truism is that government injections were never meant primarily, if at all, for the benefit of farmers. While on the one hand, farmers are eulogized as anndata of the nation, who toil to produce grain, on the other hand, they are forced to fight their own state and even central governments for their legitimate rights. The central concern of this chapter is to historically contextualize the 2020–2021 farmers’ struggle, to demonstrate that this movement had striking parallels with, and possibly even provide a mirror image of various earlier agrarian agitations fought by their forefathers against attempts to erode their land rights and livelihoods. The chapter concludes with critical reflections on the larger agrarian crisis of the last few decades and solutions to which remain largely unaddressed.
