In September 2020, India’s Parliament passed three farm reform bills that the government claimed would radically change the way in which agriculture was practiced in the country. Yet, just over twelve months later, the same government announced its intention to repeal those laws—a major concession to large-scale, dogged protests launched by farmers in northern India. 

The repeal of the farm reform laws, hailed by many observers as a short-term victory for struggling farmers, has also raised complex questions about the future of agriculture in a rapidly urbanizing India. To consider some of these questions, Milan is joined on the podcast this week by Harish Damodaran. Harish is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi, where he is enjoying a sabbatical from his day job as national rural affairs and agriculture editor at The Indian Express. 

Harish and Milan talk about the state of Indian agriculture, the motivations behind the farm reform laws, and the complex reasons the government eventually withdrew them. Plus, the two discuss the next stage of farmers’ demands and what this setback does to the larger push for agrarian reform.

1. Harish Damodaran, “In burying farm laws, Govt may have held off demand for right to MSP,” Indian Express, November 20, 2021. 
2. Harish Damodaran, “Farm Bills 2020: Actual text vs perception,” Indian Express, September 21, 2020.
3. Mukulika Banerjee, “The Rural Roots of Citizenship and Democracy in India,” Grand Tamasha, November 9, 2021.
4. Yamini Aiyar and Mekhala Krishnamurthy, “The farm laws: Why this is not a 1991 moment,” Hindustan Times, November 26, 2021.