The Kisan Andolan or the Indian farmers' protest of 2020-2021 is one of the longest and biggest (and victorious) social movements in the history of independent India. This book adopts a multidisciplinary approach to contextualise the movement in the long run. It engages with the historical, social and religious roots of the Andolan, examining what makes it so unique and transformative for Indian polity. It explores the (dis)continuities with previous resistance and contestation movements in India and globally, and debates the role so far of regional, religious and class-caste-gender identities. Through interviews, the volume also gives a specific voice and platform to grassroots activists and farmers from the movement.

Part of the Social Movements and Transformative Dissent series, the book will appeal to scholars, activists and a wider audience interested in social movements and dissent politics in India and the Global South. It will also be of interest to students of economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, government, agrarian studies, Sikh and Punjab studies, politics, international relations and diaspora studies.

About the Author

Christine Moliner is a social anthropologist and an associate professor at O.P. Jindal Global University (India). Her research and publications have focused on the Sikh Diaspora in Europe, the link between the agrarian crisis and international mobility from Punjab, Sikh minority status and Sikh responses to Hindu majoritarianism both in India and in the West.

David Singh is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). His research interests focus on land politics, resource extraction and green energy infrastructures, the making of citizenship and nations from a political ecology and critical agrarian studies perspective. David's Ph.D. dissertation discussed the issue of mediation and caste power in fixing large-scale wind power projects, the reconfiguration of space by identity politics and Hindu nationalism and the emergence of diverse resistance practices. David Singh has published in Contemporary South Asia, Journal of Political Ecology and Journal of Contemporary Asia.

Reviews

'Perhaps we shall never fully understand what happened in those heady days of 2020-21, when hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers assembled in Delhi, set up some of the most vibrant protest sites India had ever seen, and eventually forced the Modi government to repeal its corporate-sponsored farm laws. This insightful collection of essays and testimonies sheds new light on these events from different angles. It is an invaluable retrospective on one of the most inspiring social movements of our time.'

Jean Dreze, visiting Professor at the Department of Economics, Ranchi University

'This impressive collection offers the most comprehensive analysis to date of India's historic farmer protests. Bringing together leading scholars of rural India and drawing productively on the tradition of agrarian political economy, it provides not only a thorough documentation of the movement but insightful analyses of its causes and consequences. A must-read not only for students of rural India but for all those interested in the neoliberalisation of agriculture and agrarian social movements.'

Michael Levien, Professor, Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University

'This edited volume does not only tell a story that had to be registered, but also deciphers the farmers' protest movement of 2020-21 by exploring all its facettes, including its sociological dimensions in terms of class, caste, religion and gender. Comprehensive and analytical, it is bound to become the reference book on one of the most massive - and still understudied - act of ideological and social resistance to the rise of agro-business in today's India.'

Christophe Jaffrelot, Professor, Sciences Po Paris and King's College London

'A rich, kaleidoscopic overview of one of the most significant protest movements in India in recent memory. This thought-provoking volume provides important insights, from aspects of the actual struggle with its diverse means and actors, to underlying trajectories and wider consequences of the mobilisation against the farm laws.'

Jens Lerche, Emeritus Professor, SOAS London

Book Information
ISBN 9781032848099
Author Christine Moliner
Format Paperback
Page Count 246
Imprint Routledge India
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd