Field Notes

Dispatches from the farmer protests

25 January 2021
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) celebrates International Human Rights Day, on 10 December, at the Tikri border, where farmer families from Punjab and Haryana are sitting in protest against three recently enacted farm laws. The BKU (EU) avows wider demands than the repeal of the laws, including the release of dissident intellectuals, scholars and activists jailed by the Narendra Modi government.
Randeep Maddoke
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) celebrates International Human Rights Day, on 10 December, at the Tikri border, where farmer families from Punjab and Haryana are sitting in protest against three recently enacted farm laws. The BKU (EU) avows wider demands than the repeal of the laws, including the release of dissident intellectuals, scholars and activists jailed by the Narendra Modi government.
Randeep Maddoke

ON NEW YEAR’S EVE, the wind on the Ghazipur flyover, on National Highway 24, was cold and harsh, and the temperature was creeping towards zero. A quiet stage stood on one side of the flyover. Three historical figures kept watch from larger-than-life posters next to the stage: the farmer leaders Chowdhary Charan Singh and Mahender Singh Tikait, and the socialist freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.

Surrounding them lay their followers: thousands of farmers from western Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, blocking a major road into Delhi to protest farm laws recently enacted by the Narendra Modi government. The layout of their camps—a patchwork of plastic, polyester and tarpaulin tents—mirrored the geography of the places they called home. Farmers from the flat-lands of western Uttar Pradesh spread out on the level ground below the flyover; those from the terai, or foothills, were on the slip roads; and the ones from hilly Uttarakhand perched atop the flyover.

Amandeep Sandhu is the author of Panjab: Journey Through Fault Lines.

Keywords: Farmers' Protest Farm Bills 2020 farm laws 2020 Singhu Bharatiya Kisan Union Samyukt Kisan Morcha All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee
COMMENT