Farmers, Subalterns, and Activists : Social Politics of Sustainable Agriculture in India

In theory, chemical-free sustainable agriculture not only has ecological benefits, but also social and economic benefits for rural communities. By removing farmers' expenses on chemical inputs, it provides them with greater autonomy and challenges the status quo, where corporations dominate food systems. In practice, however, organisations promoting sustainable agriculture often maintain connections with powerful institutions and individuals, who have vested interests in maintaining the status quo. This book explores this tension within the sustainable farming movement through reference to three detailed case studies of organisations operating in rural India. Cover 1 Farmers, Subalterns, and Activists 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 List of Images 11 Acknowledgements 13 1. Introduction 15 The Promise of Sustainable Agriculture 16 India’s Sustainable Farming Movement: A Brief Overview 20 A Gramscian Approach: Sustainable Agriculture in the Context of Hegemony 23 Case Studies and Methodological Framework 28 Synopsis 36 2. India’s Agrarian Crisis: A Gramscian View 41 Civil Society, Hegemony, and Crises of Authority 42 Hegemony in Rural India 45 Origins of the Green Revolution 48 The Green Revolution in India 52 The aftereffects and decline of the Green Revolution 56 Liberalisation and the Agrarian Crisis 60 Agrarian crisis as ‘crisis of authority’ 63 Conclusion 67 3. Embedded in Power: Potentials and Constraints of Sustainable Agriculture 69 Sustainable Agriculture as a Response to Crisis and Challenge to Hegemony 70 Resources, Political Opportunities, and the Capacity to Mobilise 75 Mobilising in a Challenging Environment 76 Challenges of the rural setting 76 The uneven terrain of Indian civil society 79 The prominence of NGOs 81 Sustainable Agriculture Initiatives within Webs of Power Relations 84 Donor organisations 86 The state 87 Middle-class activist networks 88 Rural elites 91 The rural subaltern 92 Conclusion 93 4. The Kheti Virasat Mission: People’s Movement or Agrarian Populism? 94 Punjab History: From Green Revolution to Crisis 98 KVM Origins: Forging an Identity as a ‘People’s Movement’ 101 How does a Movement Differ? KVM’s Structure and Mode of Engagement 104 The Chiranjivi Gram Abhiyan 109 ‘Our Agricultural Heritage’: Natural Farming and Agrarian Populism 111 A Movement No More? KVM in Transition 118 The challenge of natural farming in Punjab 118 Towards a ‘professional’ approach 120 Conclusion 125 5. The Tamil Nadu Organic Farmers’ Movement: The Limits of Participatory Approaches 128 Regional Context 132 Revathi: A Teacher’s Journey to Ecological Farming 134 The 2004 South Asian Tsunami: Consolidating the Facilitative Strategy 138 Facilitating Community-Based Organisations and Regional Federations 141 The Demonstration Farm 145 Long-term Impact in the Cauvery Delta 147 Conclusion 151 6. The Beej Bachao Andolan: How ‘Grassroots’ is the Grassroots? 153 Regional Context 155 History of Struggle in Garhwal 158 The Chipko Origins of BBA 161 From Tree Hugging to Seed Saving 163 The Philosophy of BBA 168 Impact: Local, National, and International 172 Sustaining a Tradition of Activism 176 Conclusion 178 7. Conclusion 181 Glimpses of Food Sovereignty 182 Within the Fabric of Hegemony 184 Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Rural Development 188 Locating the Counter-Hegemonic in Rural India 192 Bibliography 195 Index 211