Abstract
High levels of farmer suicides and persistent agrarian and rural distress under neoliberalism have been widely debated in India. Farmer suicides are an extreme manifestation of rural distress. The primary focus of the book is on the politics of agrarian distress. Politics is conceptualised broadly as a ‘social activity’ that ‘creates, destroys and recreates social spaces of inclusion and exclusion’ (p. 13). While explaining the reasons behind farmer suicides, the author questions the dominant narratives that focus primarily on indebtedness and brings in prestige, perceived social status, self-worth, isolation and crisis of the male identity as associated factors. The thrust is to move beyond the economic causes to address distress as part of broader social and political changes.
The analysis is based on an eclectic mix of different methodologies, including primary field research. The author approaches the question of rural distress from five different vantage points: a crisis of the self (Chapter 2), loss of common spaces (Chapter 3), increasing politicisation of rural social life (Chapter 4), rural development policies and state intervention (Chapter 5), the economic crisis associated with indebtedness, minimum support prices, and rural incomes (Chapter 6). Finally, he presents an analysis of the ‘new’ farmer movements in India as a response to the crisis (Chapter 7).
Dilapidation of the rural here refers to a gradual disappearance of village as a socio-cultural and spatial entity. . . and a gradual collapse of the linkages between village as a community, family as a unit and farmer as an individual. (p. 5)
With the changing social life in rural India, the individual has lost a sense of belonging and feels isolated. ‘The story of suicides is of those who are unable to handle this change and disappearance’ (p. 5). A crisis of identity rather than economic reasons figures prominently in the explanations of farmer suicides in the book. However, once the economy is conceptualised as embedded in society and polity, the social-psychological and economic factors may be seen as complementary rather than competing explanations of the phenomena.
The author relates the individual’s identity crisis to a process of loss of ‘common spaces’ in rural India. The decay, destruction, transformation and reconstruction of these spaces, the author argues, is central to the dislocation and vulnerabilities of the ‘individual’. However, this collective, shared collective space is not homogeneous – there are important intra-village, inter-village, and inter-regional differences in the roles, functions and significance of such spaces. Such spaces were also the site for exclusion and isolation, mirroring the diverse inequalities characterising rural society. The author argues that despite the fragmented nature of this shared space, it provided meaning to the lives and identities of a section of the rural population – typically, the males belonging to the ‘intermediate caste-classes’. The destruction, re-imagination, commercialisation and institutionalisation of such common spaces took away something vital from rural social life – ‘rural informalities’. Politics is another dimension of public engagement in rural India. New political forces and social spaces have emerged. There is an increasing assertiveness of Dalits and other marginalised groups. And yet, there is a growing fractionalisation along party lines that results in withdrawal of some from collective social life. The increasing dependence of people on party-based networks has also affected the collective social life of the villages.
The author questions the centrality of ‘indebtedness’ as a cause behind farmer suicides. Indebtedness is intertwined with changes in rural incomes, changing consumption patterns and, more importantly, changes in the culture of consumption. The author refers to several associated factors – the changing economics of marriages and other social events, the constant pressure on rural families to display urban tastes and connections, and the rising costs of private education to argue that economic distress is more about income-expenditure gaps rather than absolute levels of income. This economic stress also explains the increased sensitivity towards the minimum support price and other forms of state interventions, such as reservations in jobs in rural agrarian politics. Against this backdrop, the ‘new’ farmers movement demanding repeal of three laws allowing greater corporate participation in agricultural markets ‘reflects a desire among the rural youth to reimagine the rural in newer ways’ (p. 179).
The book provides a rich narrative of rural India’s economic and social transformation. Some of the generalisations offered by the author based on field insights could be questioned. Building his arguments against the often-discussed economic determinants, the author, at times, seems to have overlooked the interconnections between the increasing capitalist transformation of rural economies and the sense of alienation that it creates. The book is a welcome addition to the literature on the agrarian crisis in India.