Political Economy and Social Movements: Indian Farmers Protests 2020-21

Nayeemudeen Syed Ibrahim

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

The main body of the thesis starts in section 2.1, opening with the Conceptualization of Social movements, discussing various criteria that define a social movement while analysing these criteria in the Indian farmer’s protests. This is followed by studying the various types of Social Movements, then the various life stages of social movements while simultaneously identifying these stages in the Farmer’s protests. In the Political economy section 2.2, we will use the Ideas of political economy to understand the farmers movement. After this in section 2.3 we will analyse the history of Indian agriculture and agricultural policy. Section 2.4 will delve into the farmers protests of more recent years, between 2015 and 2018. Section 2.5 will explain the government’s reasoning behind the laws and finally section 2.6 will look into the societal, political and economical background of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh leading up to the protests. Section 3, the practical part contains the summary of interviews taken in order to understand the demands of farmers and understanding what wrongdoings they accuse of the government. In the conclusion, we will discuss the main aims of the thesis: 1)Understand the evolution of Indian agriculture in the region 2)Understand the economic consequences of Indian agricultural policy 3)Understand the evolution of farmer's identity, politics and movements 4)Understand the political context through which the 3 laws were passed. 5)Find the material interests of the participants of the protests 6)Find the material interests of the participants of the protests 7)Find out what the farmers see in the future of Indian agriculture

Keywords

Political Economy, Agriculture, India, Social Movements, Protests, Agricultural Policy, Caste, Class, Politics, Reform, Agrarian Crisis, Crops, Laws, Minimum Support Prices

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 19. 3. 2023

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 24. 5. 2023
• Supervisor: Daniel Rosenhaft Swain, Ph.D. MA
• Reader: Václav Bubeníček, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Economics and Management

Bachelor programme:
Economics and Management