The possibilities for extension of the minimum support prices to ensure a decentralised procurement system in a diverse range of crops are discussed. How the architecture of this system in partnership with the private sector can be developed and how this could be made market-facing without compromising the primary interests of the farmers is also looked at.
The Supreme Court’s intervention (Rakesh Vaishnav v Union of India 2021) in the ongoing protests and debate over the three controversial “farm laws”1 has been met with a storm of criticism (Hegde 2021; Yamunan 2021).
Class exploitation and caste oppression in rural India have to be put squarely at the centre of any oppositional agenda for redistribution, recognition, and progressive change.
What are the reasons behind farmers’ protests? Using narratives collected from various parts of India, the underlying processes of socio-economic transformations, which have created a dual-identity crisis among farmers, are explained to argue that anxieties have manifested in large-scale protests, producing a new politics around rural–agrarian questions.
