The Rise and Fall of Agrarian Populism in Post-colonial India: Farmers’ Movements and Electoral Politics at Crossroads

Abstract

This article argues that the ostensibly desirable separation between farmers’ movements and electoral politics is historically produced in post-colonial India, and it suggests that the current conjuncture of authoritarian politics in India demands a rethinking of this separation. It traces how agrarian populism has been practised in post-colonial India across social movements and party politics. In particular, it examines anti-Congress farmer mobilisations and formation of non-Congress state governments in the 1960s–1970s, the rise of Other Backward Caste (OBC) politics and new farmers’ movements in the 1970s–1980s, the mobilisations around liberalisation since the 1990s and mobilisations since 2014, including the farmers’ protest of 2020–2021. Through this long view of agrarian mobilisations in post-colonial India, we contend that apolitical agrarian populism has lost much of its political potency, and farmers have to pursue anti-authoritarian politics that lies at the intersection of progressive political parties and social movements to realise some or all of their demands.