From public contributions for the cause to political support, several parallels exist between the ongoing protests by farmers at Delhi’s borders and the peasant movements of the first half of the 20th century in Punjab, said historian Mridula Mukherjee.
Delivering the Professor S.C. Mishra Memorial Lecture organised by the Indian History Congress Prof. Mukherjee spoke on the “legacy of heroic non-violent resistance” in Punjab’s farmer protests.
From ‘Pagri Sambhal Jatta’ movement in 1907, peasant struggles in Punjab were always linked with political parties. However, today, the farmers protesting against the recently-passed agriculture reform Acts have tried to distance themselves from political parties, Prof Mukherjee said in the online address.
Referring to this, she said: “Success of a movement, whether or not it is a movement of peasants heavily depends on what kind of support you can garner from other sections of society, from broader political forces, from political parties. Which is why today the government is so keen to say political parties should not be seen in this, as if there is something wrong about movements being connected to political parties or political parties coming to play a role. Somehow even the peasant movements themselves are wary of this because they fear that this will be used against them.”
But, she added, the history of peasant struggles showed that political parties were involved.
In another parallel, the ongoing protest sites at Singhu and Tikri borders of Delhi, where large groups of farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been camped for a month, have seen individuals and groups donating everything from blankets to food to massage chairs.
Prof. Mukherjee, a retired Jawaharlal Nehru University professor, said the traditional pattern from pre-Independence of political workers going house-to-house to collect grains and other things for langars before any big event has continued. She said the groups of protesters travelling through villages would not carry food, but would rather be supported by the community on the way.
“This is the pattern you are seeing today on a bigger scale. We are so unfamiliar that is seems odd. It is part of the living tradition,” Prof. Mukherjee told The Hindu.
