Tamil Nadu Farmers’ Plight! Can We Be Silent?
If you say, “Surely we did not know this,” Does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? (Proverbs 24:12)
Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor? Will also cry himself and not be heard. (Proverbs 21:13)
When I read the newspaper I say the news about our Tamil Nadu farmer’s
hunger strike incidence. When I read the entire story, I felt if, at all
possible, I wanted to do some support. I am aware of the data that I had
collected earlier that the fund allocation for agriculture in India, our
government is not in a position to help them. Whatever they will do if at all
never going to help the loss:
 Around 400 farmers already died mainly by suicide.
 Year after year, the farming had dwindled to nil
 Bank loans are taken by farmers gone up approx. 5 times of the loan
received by them due to compound interest.
 Bank officials come to their house and harassing them like anything.
 There is no proper selling rate for the items they have cultivated and
all profits are taken by the middle-men who market theirs produces.
 Wives gave their gold to their husbands to get a gold loan were never
able to get back the gold and this resulted in many divorces among
the farmers.
 Neither Supreme Court nor our government able to persuade
Karnataka government to supply Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu.
When I thought about their plight, one thing came to my mind, i.e., I think,
last month, I come across a Philanthropy Association website and I opted for
to receive their newsletter. I thought why can’t we take to write about the
Tamil Nadu farmers’ desperate condition as it is genuinely and asks support
from this international philanthropist? So, I called one my close friend in our
Church and we both went and met these farmers and their leader. As he was
busy, he asked us to come next day, so we went next day, again he postphoned to the following day. So I went and met him and told him that our
Indian government does not have sufficient fund to give. They spoiled the
farming of India by reducing in every five-year planning, as I have the data
with me in my notebook. He asked my notebook, I told him, I will take
printout from pdf and give. I asked him, please give all the details of your
situation, we will put it on a website and open a separate bank account for
Tamil Nadu farmers fund and write to the US philanthropy association. He
agreed finally though hesitated in the initial. I asked the farmer’s leader Mr.
Aiyakannu (an advocate), will you tell us all your problems so that we will
take videos and photos? And he said OK.
Moreover, if we all are going to be silent in this grave situation of farmers
not only in Tamil Nadu but the whole nation we are going to meet skyrocketing food prices soon. The rich has no worries but many marginalized
people going to suffer and die. Our blind government has no idea whatever
going to happen if they have any iota of an idea about the future they would
not have closed hundreds of meat shops in UP. They simply want to victory
for their ideologies. If we Christians are going to be silent as do the Hindutva
government of India even after seeing the perils of millions of farming
community, I feel we will be guilty and worthy of punishment. We know
that where there is no vision, people will perish!
When I prayed and looked the word of God, I got a lot of encouragement to
do whatever way possible to help this needy. Here are the some Bible verses
giving me the inspiration to go forward, prayerfully and bring their needs
before the God ordained Josephs’ who would handle the famine situation
from their store house.
Bible Verses that Encouraged to Support these Farmers:
Isaiah 51:1-3 “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,
You who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father,
And to Sarah who bore you;
For I called him alone,
And blessed him and increased him.”
3 For the LORD will comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the LORD;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
Isaiah 58:6–10 – Is this, not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
7
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8
Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
9
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you take away the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 If you extend your soul to the hungry
And satisfy the afflicted soul,
Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,
And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
If the Lord Jesus is with us, then we should keep our motto from the
above Bible passage as follows:
 To loose the bonds of wickedness,
 To undo the heavy burdens,
 To let the oppressed go free,
 And that you break every yoke?
 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
 And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
 When you see the naked, that you cover him,
 And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
 And satisfy the afflicted soul,
This small article has been written in support of the Tamil Nadu farmers
who are searching for their farming problems to be solved for many years.
If organization is willing to support them may contact me:
ssssp@proton.me
Kind regards,
John Cyrus