Political economy of agrarian distress
Authors: Suri, K. C.
Produced by: Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), India (2006)
This paper examines the structural and economic changes of the political domain over the past
five decades to see how the changed nature of politics and policy priorities have exacerbated
agrarian distress in various Indian states, characterised by a rise in farmers' suicides.
The author attributes the agrarian distress in India to:
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a disjuncture between farmers' interests and the preferential interests of the political
representatives in public works, trade and business
marginalisation of farmers and their concerns in politics
a failure to organise the heterogeneous class of farmers across caste, faction and
political lines
the financial constrain on peasants to enter politics
the control of the union government on policies relating to imports and exports and trade
tariffs.
The author notes that it is only in recent years that most political parties have begun to speak of
farmers' distress after hundreds of farmers committed suicide. This is apparent with the inclusion
of agriculture and related issues in the NDA Union Budget 2003-2004, the 'Grameen Vikas' as
part of the 2004 Indian National Congress election manifesto, and the promised 'New Deal' for
rural India by the newly elected prime minister. In spite of this, the author argues that the political
leadership, bureaucrats and think thanks have neither stakes in agriculture nor empathy for the
suffering farmers. Unless political leaders are faces with the threat of loss of power, they do not
act. At the same time, farmers to not have the means to lobby the powerful and to launch a
nation- wide struggle.
The author calls for a change in the strategies of economic development, to mechanisms that
would ensure remunerative prices to agricultural produce, willingness of the political executive to
use tariffs to support Indian farmers, and an end of corruption, illegal amassment of wealth by the
political class and to the disjuncture between the interests of the people and people's
representatives. If these issues are not addressed, the author hypothesises that farmers will
either have to abandon agriculture or rebel against governments; 'or else the spate of suicides
continues to haunt the country'.
Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC22428