Impact of Three Farm Laws (2020) on the Current Agrarian Structure: A Case Study of Five Villages

Pages: 167-174
Gurmangeet Kaur Pandey (Department of BA Programme, Miranda House, Delhi University, Delhi)

Indian Agrarian structure mainly comprises three classes namely, farmers (kisaan), middlemen (Arthiyas), and laborers (mazdur). Three farm laws were passed in September 2020, and it was stated by various experts that these farm laws would impact the current agrarian structure and this would introduce the big corporations into the agricultural sector, eliminate the middlemen from the structure, introduce private mandis besides the state controlled APMC mandi and make the farmers (who are the owners of the soil ) the tillers on their own land due to the introduction of contract farming. It was also alleged that these farm laws favor capitalists who are now eyeing the agricultural sector. This led to the historical kisaan Andolan with farmers of Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh playing a major role in the Andolan. This study aims to understand the potential impact of three farm laws on the current agrarian structure using the case study method. Structured interviews were conducted in five villages of Punjab and Haryana (the states from which played a major role in Andolan) across different castes like Sikh Jatts in Punjab and; Sainis, Rodes, Jatts in Haryana. Interviews of laborers were also conducted which included laborers from different castes like Baazigars, Dhanuk, Kevat, Yadavs, Kamat (only Baazigars were from Punjab others were migrant laborers). Middlemen were also interviewed. All three classes were interviewed as a remarkable unity was seen among the three classes during the Andolan. It was found that a sense of trust ran across the three classes and almost all of them were fearful that private players (big corporations) would enter the agricultural sector and the whole well-organized agrarian structure would collapse and the entry of private mandis will destroy the state-controlled mandis. This study also aims to understand why big corporations are eyeing the agricultural sector and what kind of profits they will be able to extract from the agricultural sector.