It was one movement that galvanised all of Punjab. From farmers, farmhands and commission agents to women and the youth, it breached the divides of caste, class, age and gender. Their collective angst was given a voice by the music brigade of the state, with pop stars competing with rappers and folk musicians to send a message to ‘Dilliye’. Titled Three Shades of Green: Privatisation, Pollution and Protest, the book recaps the year-long battle for repealing the kaale kanoon, as the now defunct farm laws were called in Punjab. Food, writes Dr Pramod Kumar, the lead author, is not a technical issue, but a socio-political one. The three Acts, he says, may have made agriculture more efficient but they would have marginalised the farmers. “In other words, agriculture might flourish but the agriculturists would perish.’’ As evident from the title, the book is divided into three parts, written by each of its three authors. Part 1 by Dr Pramod Kumar, a long-time political observer of the state, provides a historical overview of the politics of agrarian protests. The farmers' protest of 2020-2021, he says, acquired a much larger space because for the first time in the history of the state it was supported by the state government and all the political parties other than the Bharatiya Janata Party. “The extent of the anti-Centre anger was almost similar to what it was at the time of the Emergency in the 1970s.” The book explains the economics behind his unity – only 6 percent of the farmers in the country receive the benefits of guaranteed minimum support price for wheat and paddy, and a whopping 84 percent of them are in Punjab. The book is punctuated with insights such as, “Punjab represents a peculiar development paradox. Punjabis are the most globalized but Punjab’s economy is the least globalized.” At another point, Dr Pramod Kumar points out the root of Punjab’s misery — diminishing returns in agriculture, drug addiction, female foeticide and farmer suicide — to its low per capita spend on the social sector. Besides providing a historical context of farm protests in the state down the ages, the first chapter is a mine of data. Did you know that Punjab’s education expenditure fell from 23 percent in the early 1980s to 16 percent in 2012-13. The cost of education in the state is also higher than in others, Kumar points out. At another place, he slams policy prescriptions such as reducing the subsidies to farmers by pointing out how “it is not only a survival need of the poor but also to keep food-producing farmers globally competitive.” The farmer subsidy in India, he cites, is USD 282 (as in 2018) as compared to USD 61,286 in the US and USD 8588 in the European Union. “Punjab farmers,” he writes, “are getting less than 5 percent of their income from subsidies to maintain highly commercialised and high-productive farming.” The second chapter attempts to elaborate on the determinants of the protest, its place in the history of peasant protests in the state, the role of farm unions and opinions of those for and against the farm laws. The concluding chapter by Kumool Abbi offers a comprehensive collection and translation of nearly every song written during the protest. It serves as a testament to the passion that fueled this movement. According to Abbi, these songs not only inspired the struggle, but also shed light on its various phases and the underlying issues that prompted the protest. The chapter covers a wide range of songs, spanning classics like Jatt Di Joon Buri by Babbu Mann, which became an anthem for the protesters, to a multitude of newly composed pieces addressing Delhi with a mix of warnings, as seen in Bandook, and responses to derogatory name-calling, such as Attwaadi Kisan and Attwadi Dasde. It also acknowledges the significant role played by women, who turned out in unprecedented numbers at the Delhi borders. For those who find themselves perplexed by the movement, the book offers numerous insights. However, it also admits that the debate regarding solutions to the Punjab agrarian distress remains open.
