Chandigarh Morcha
🐈With the formation of the Punjab Khetibari Zimindara Union (KZU) in 1972, and later its transformation into the Punjab unit of BKU in 1980, a major shift occurred in the nature and politics of the farmers’ movement in Punjab. Till the mid-1970s, all farmer struggles were waged under the active leadership of the communists, primarily the CPI but with significant backing and participation of Ghadri Babas. But with the founding of the KZU (later the BKU), the centre of gravity of Punjab farmers’ union politics shifted to affluent farmer leaders with no communist backgrounds, who successfully entrenched themselves in panchayats, block samities, and co-operative institutions, and even a cursory glance at the various issues taken up by the Punjab BKU, reveals that it has represented primarily the wishes of this particular sub-demographic (for details see: Gill and Singhal 1984: 1729).
🗹The BKU leadership has since its inception been monopolised by rich farmers, but even small and marginal farmers joined it – though it was agnostic, or at best lukewarm to their interests – for the reason of clan kinship. “With the resources of the rich farmers, particularly tractor-trollies and participation of the poor peasants”, argued Gill and Singhal, “the union is able to demonstrate its strength at various levels” (Gill and Singhal 1984: 1729). The current unity between the farmers and agricultural labourers witnessed at Delhi borders, with the sharing of common facilities, particularly the trollies modified into mobile rooms, is reminiscent of the 1984 Chandigarh agitation.
💮The first major kisan agitation launched by BKU started on January 20, 1983 with the non-payment of electricity bills. After a year-long mobilisation, the union planned dharnas in front of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) offices, and had announced a gherao of the Punjab Governor at Chandigarh in January 1984.
𒐪In parallel to the union’s preparation for a massive farmers’ agitation on the burning issue of electricity bills, the CPI and CPI(M) led Kisan Sabhas, along with the Kisan wing of the Akali Dal, were leading a peasant struggle in the Malwa cotton belt for compensation for the previous season’s damaged cotton crop. Thus the BKU and Communist-led Kisan Sabhas were concurrently involved in two different, but equally important, farming issues.
🍃After the successful conclusion of the Kisan Sabhas’ agitation for the damaged cotton crop’s compensation and their subsequent entry into the agitation for non-payment of electricity bills led by the BKU, the latter began a gherao of the Punjab Raj Bhavan (Governor’s residence) on March 12, 1984 (Gill and Singhal 1984: 1729-30).
Comparing the Chandigarh morcha of 1984 with the ongoing farmers’ protest at the borders of Delhi, one can identify several similarities that are helpful in contextualising the genesis and the operation of the agitation for the withdrawal of the three 2020 central agriculture laws. A large number of peasants – between 30,000 and 40,000 – responding to the call of the union to gherao the Governor’s residence in Chandigarh, the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, had camped on the adjacent lush green lawns of the golf course for a week (Thukral, April 15, 1984; cf Gill and Singhal 1984: 1730; and Shiva 1991: 183). Farmers camped with their own provisions, set up langar 🥂(community kitchen), built thatched huts on areas adjacent to the Raj Bhawan, which came to be known as ‘Kisan Nagar’, and farmers of nearby villages of both Patiala and Ropar districts regularly supplied milk and vegetables (Gill and Singhal 1984: 1730). Also akin to the current farmers’ protest at Delhi, farmers from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra participated in batches in the Chandigarh morcha, which continued till March 18, 1984 when it was successfully concluded after an agreement between the union and the representatives of the Punjab government (Gill and Singhal 1984: 1729-30).
The gherao remained peaceful during its entire one week duration. Though during the beginning of the arrival of farmers, the residents of nearby sectors were wary but were won over by the thoroughly peaceful conduct of the gherao. Gobind Thukral, who covered the protest for India Today, reported:
﷽The wife of a senior civil servant, who had kept her children indoors the first two days of the blockade, said: “With Punjab’s violence as backdrop, one expected that they would set the city on fire. But one could envy their informal manners and friendly nature. We shall certainly miss them.” (Thukral, April 15, 1984).
🐼Similarly, scores of local residents, organisations and establishments at the borders of Delhi volunteered their services to the protesting farmers in various ways – opening their homes, allowing access to their washrooms, providing local water supply sources, and arranging ‘langar seva’ (Sunny, December 02, 2020). In yet another parallel between these two farmer agitations, which are separated by more than 37 years, is that no political party was/is allowed to participate and neither are they allowed to enter farmers’ villages.
Farmers’ unions hostility to political parties’ participation in the protests at the Delhi borders and elsewhere, and their entry to villages, has primarily to do with the non-party political character of the majority of the BKU organisations. During its Chandigarh morcha for the gherao of Raj Bhawan, BKU declined not only the help offered by many Congress 🅺(I) and Akali Dal leaders, and also that of Devi Lal, a major Jat leader and Janata Party leader from Haryana (Gill and Singhal 1984: 1730). However, the Punjab Kisan Sabhas, in total contrast to the various Punjab units of the BKU, were overtly political in their orientation since they were effectively the kisan front organisations of the
🌠CPI and CPI(M), thus causing the BKU to view these Kisan Sabhas as stalking horses for these communist movements (Gill and Singhal 1984: 1729). This difference between the BKU and the Kisan Sabhas was further accentuated by a stark difference between their respective membership support bases, with the BKU largely supported by affluent farmers and the latter supported predominantly by poor peasantry and landless agricultural labourers (Gill and Singhal 1984: 1732).
🌜To their great credit, the collective leadership of the ongoing farmers’ protests has been able to build an impressively cohesive unity between farmers of all economic strata and landless agricultural labourers, creating a formidable coalition of forces. Responding to a question about ideological differences among the various farmers’ unions participating in the current protest at Delhi borders, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, President BKU (EU) said, “... despite ideological difference, we were able to come together with a common minimum program” (Singh, January 7, 2021).
(Excerpted with permission from 'Pagrhi Sambhāl Lehar to Samyukt Kisan Morcha: A Century of Punjab Kisan Struggle 1907-2021' by Ronki Ram, publisher Unistar Books; with permission from the author.)
