Between Life, Death And Protest: Stories From The Khanauri Border

Fifty-three-year-old Gurmeet Singh, a landless farmer from Punjab’s Mansa district, joined “farmers’ protest 2.0” on February 13, 2024, when Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal gave the call to march to Delhi (Delhi Chalo). He worked as an electrician at the protest site on the Khanauri border, where hundreds of farmers have been camping for nearly a year. “My husband was passionate about Dallewal and loved his cause. He loved the jatthabandi (protest) more than he loved me, so he provided his services for free,” says his wife, Paramjeet Kaur.

On September 25, she received a call informing her of Singh’s death. Struggling with mounting debt and unable to pay his electricity bill, Singh had hung himself from the roof of the trailer attached to his tractor, which he had been using as a makeshift tent. Singh’s family, including his wife and three grown children, earned a living through a garments shop they ran. When the shop fell into debt during Covid-19 and Singh couldn’t find work as a farmhand, his debts piled up. “He owes several private entities a total of around Rs 5-6 lakh,” she says. Now, it is up to her to repay those loans.

Land of Sorrow

Singh is one of the hundreds of farmers who have died by suicide in India and the first of three to do so since the start of protests last year at Khanauri and Shambhu when marching farmers were violently stopped at the borders by the Haryana Police.

Despite being one of the more prosperous agrarian states, Punjab has seen a rise in farmer suicides. A recent study by Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) recorded 9,291 farmer suicides across six districts between 2000 and 2018. The report revealed that 88 per cent of these cases were linked to farm-related debts. “In Mansa district, every pind (village) has a farmer who died by suicide due to debt or farming losses,” says Jagdev Singh, Zila Pradhan, Mansa. Flags bearing Dallewal’s face dot the low-rise houses of Thoothianwali village. Singh blames the government’s “corporate-friendly attitude” for these deaths. “Loans of industrialists are waived, but when it comes to farmers, the government turns a blind eye,” he says.

Dallewal, whose hunger strike at Khanauri has surpassed 50 days, claims he is fighting for farmers like Singh. Young farmer leader Abhimanyu Kohar, from Haryana, who has been coordinating the protest at Khanauri on Dallewal’s behalf, says the only way to prevent more farmer suicides is to accept their demands. “Even the Modi sarkar knows this is true,” he adds.“On December 9, 2021, the Government of India made some commitments to us, but they were not fulfilled. After waiting for over two and a half years, Dallewal and other leaders gave the call for Delhi Chalo on February 13,” Kohar explains.

During clashes that erupted on that day, 21-year-old Shubhkaran Singh was allegedly killed in police firing. “He was shot with a bullet,” claims BKU Ekta (Sidhupur) Moga district president Lovejit Singh. He adds that five farmers lost their eyesight due to pellet gun injuries, 434 were injured and 37 farmers have died during this period while the government continues its flip-flops on promises.

Flip-Flops

In 2012, Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat and Chairman of the Consumer Affairs Committee, wrote to the prime minister, emphasising that merely announcing Minimum Support Price (MSP) was insufficient and called for the introduction of an MSP guarantee. During his 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, Modi promised to implement the C2+50 per cent formula for calculating MSP, which included production costs plus a 50 per cent profit margin, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission. However, after coming to power, the Modi government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2015, stating it could not implement the formula due to budgetary constraints and concerns over market destabilisation.

In 2018, during Dallewal’s hunger strike alongside Anna Hazare, then Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (2014–19) and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis presented a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office. The letter promised the formula would be implemented within three months. Six years later, the promise remains unfulfilled.

In 2020–21, after the farmers’ movement ended following the repeal of the three contentious farm laws, the government gave a written assurance that MSP would be guaranteed for every farmer. That promise, too, remains unmet.

Last December, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Food Processing recommended a legal guarantee on MSP, citing its importance for the well-being of the rural and agrarian economy. “The government is ignoring its own findings,” says Kohar.

In addition to MSP, farmers are demanding pensions for farmers and labourers, a farm debt waiver, the reinstatement of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act and justice for victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

Politics of Protest

One of the challenges of a horizontal protest like the farmers’ movement, led by multiple leaders and factions, is the lack of cohesion among groups. Unlike the 2020–21 protests, the ongoing agitations in Khanauri and Shambhu have not had the full support of the farmers’ community from the beginning. Many members of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) initially avoided protests organised by Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher’s Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), which is leading the agitation at Shambhu. Protesters at Khanauri feel that this lack of unity is weakening their case with the Centre.

“The farmers’ movement consists of multiple strands and perspectives, and individual views, assessments, and analyses may differ. Perhaps other farmer leaders didn’t consider February the right time for a protest,” says Kohar.

These differences between factions became apparent after 2021 when some farmers chose to halt protests while others wanted to continue. A leader from SKM explained that, at the time, the farmers had already been protesting for nearly two years. “We didn’t have the bandwidth to sustain a movement of that scale,” he said. Farmers at Khanauri believe that the political ambitions of several leaders from the 2020–21 movement hindered a united front for demanding an MSP guarantee.

Kohar notes that while the initial phase of the KMM-SKM (non-political) protests failed to garner widespread support, Dallewal’s hunger strike has revived the movement. “With Dallewal’s fast-unto-death, many factions are rejoining the cause,” he says, emphasising that Dallewal and his followers have no interest in electoral politics. “Our goal is to stop farmer suicides.”

On Day 49 of Dallewal’s hunger strike, SKM leaders met farmers at Khanauri to discuss the future of the movement. Another meeting was held on January 18, with a National Council meet planned for January 24-25 to decide the way forward. SKM has urged the Centre to begin talks with the farmers immediately, warning of serious consequences if anything happens to Dallewal.

The strain of sustaining a year-long protest is evident among farmers at Khanauri. Shamsher Singh from Sangrur said living in a trailer has taught them to survive with minimal resources. He grows onions and radishes in a small patch of mud on the highway divider where he camps. “Every contribution matters,” he says.

The sense of community remains strong. Harpal Singh, 28, who has been at the site since February, said he and his companions cook 30 kg of rice daily and use two–three quintals of milk for tea, serving it to protesters for free. Around 60–70 kg of atta is used to make rotis, with ingredients provided by nearby villagers, farmers’ families, unions and social groups. “And this feeds just a few hundred. Over 800 farmers are camped here permanently,” adds Inderjeet Singh, a cook at the site.

The situation has become more complicated with 111 farmers, including elderly leaders, now on an indefinite hunger strike in solidarity with Dallewal. “We must protect these farmers from environmental hazards like hail and winter rains while ensuring medical facilities are on hand,” says Lovejit Singh, who led a group of farmers from Moga. However, many on hunger strike refuse medical help. On January 17, a farmer fasting for two days suffered an epileptic seizure but refused treatment or food.

Women face unique struggles, including a lack of privacy, proper bathrooms and running water. Rajwinder Kaur, 36, from Phidde Kalan village, says women must balance protest responsibilities with caring for their families. “Women from nearby villages take turns going home to cook while others sit in dharna,” she says. Kaur has been living in a trailer for six months, while her husband has been at Khanauri for a year. “It’s hard to manage children and their education this way, but the protest is bigger than us,” she says.

Rakhi Bose at Khanauri border

(This appeared in the print as 'Between life, death and protest')