“No, it is not only Jats, OBCs are also a part of the movement,” Manoj Kumar said, with enough force to make his tone defensive. “All kisan...
“No, it is not only Jats, OBCs are also a part of the movement,” Manoj Kumar said, with enough force to make his tone defensive. “All kisans in Haryana are involved. It has nothing to do with caste,” said Kumar, a 33-year old farmer from Barota, a village in Sonipat, Haryana.
In September, the Modi government passed three laws to allow large corporations a much bigger role in Indian agriculture. The laws commit to making sweeping changes, which some parse as “reform” but others characterise as financially ruinous for the farmer.
The laws have set off massive protests, with farmers mobilising around Delhi city with such force that the Modi government has built fearsome physical barriers on the capital’s borders, even calling in the Border Security Force which patrols India’s borders with other countries.
At first glance, Modi’s insistence that the laws must stay looks odd given the scale of this protest, which appears to have engulfed most of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
In Haryana, for instance, the internet has been suspended in many districts for the past four days.
But travelling through three districts, Scroll.in found deep divisions within the state riding on the back of India’s oldest social cleavage: caste. Farmers like Manoj Kumar who belong to the...
