Then there is that scene in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus where the people (not the “mob”, thank you), cut through the self-serving rant of the General (who, having gone against his own realm, seeks to rehabilitate himself with grand oratory) with a terse “get on with it.”
Postures do have an expiry date, after all, and a time comes when the theatrics of artful dissembling comes to be seen for what it is – theatrics unconnected to reality, and a strategy of deflection merely, however skilful.
This may indeed be the moment when the emperor is hard put to find an adequate set of clothes.
Having fooled many for much of the time, the simple peasant face, much like that of the “naked, new born babe” in Macbeth, a symbol of the power of innocence that may neither be beguiled nor threatened by mainforce, stares him in the eye with a disarming directness of truth. Unimpressed by the sophistry thrown at him, he has gathered to say “get on with it” and do us the simple needful in black and white.
And do please understand that we are more than wise to the content and meaning of the laws you have chosen to impose on us without our wanting, and, indeed, we also understand what lies between the lines: de-regulation of farm transactions, no recourse to government support, no recourse to the legal system, only to officers loyal to the regime, the eventual dispossession of the small farmer and his transmutation into cheap daily wager at the mercy of the corporate.
As to the great benefits of contract farming, just go read professor Sukhpal Singh of IIM Ahmedabad from the business-savvy state of your own Gujarat.
Women plant rice saplings at a paddy field in a village in Nagaon district, in the northeastern state of Assam, India, July 3, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Anuwar Hazarika
Suddenly, but with astute insight, the already bent back of the farmer recognises the last straw with the state holding one end and the crony the other. And all the goodwill he bestowed on the emperor through the many previous episodes of loyal trust – demonitisation, which decimated the informal economy, causing loss of livelihood for millions while helping the fatcats to turn their ill-gotten lucre into clean, white wealth, rising costs of inputs; GST which broke the retailer’s back; brutal culture pogroms, aimed at putting the minorities in the dog-house; peremptory lockdown which consigned millions of migrant workers to unthinkable misery, hollow bravados against foreign “enemies,” who continue to fire away and occupy territory, the animus vented on protesters against other deleterious laws – that goodwill collapses in a loss of faith that renders charisma an ineffective and rusted tool.
On the other side, the powers-that-be are askance at the magnitude of the resistance. Where is the “Good Samaritan” who was sent to the court to have the women of Shaheen Bagh evicted? Or any suo motu annoyance from the honourable justices at the unprecedented siege laid to the capital? Not in sight yet – something that may suggest how public protests too are, after all, weighed in the scale of canny realpolitik.
Imagine that the celebrated Dadi of the Shaheen Bagh protests against an unconscionable violation of the soul of the constitution was on her way to join the protesting farmers, only to be stopped on the pretext of COVID-19. Yet, what an irony that among the protesters at the borders of Indraprastha fresh Shaheen Baghs are already mushrooming as dour women arrive to join their male counterparts in the good fight against yet another ill-conceived legislation.
There are things that the farmers too have yet to learn. Maybe they should have been at Shaheen Bagh too.
Also Read: Farm Protests Reflect India’s Worst Failing: A Broken Farmer-State Contract
Cutting across regions, castes, political allegiances, the farmer – from the smallest holder to the proto-kulak, along with legions of the pauperised labouring who live off the land in subordinate capacities – come calling to the capital from north, west, east, and south, to reclaim their lives from the grasping palm of the “free-market” which they know not to be “free” but a captive handmaiden of the one percent whose wealth is matchedby 70% of the nation’s poorest.
They disregard the foolish averments of the lesser minions of the power structure, and seek a simple writ from the emperor certifying the right of two-thirds of the people that make up India to an assured return for their back-breaking toil which feeds the nation, and who for now are the only ones who swell the gross national product while other fancy sectors of the economy collapse.
They point out that the richest country in the world shores up the life of the farmer with hefty subsidies. They know that a regime of enlightened regulations remain in place in countries like Germany and other European nations in order to keep the land and its produce safe from the marauding unconcern of the corporate both for the grower of food and for the consumer in general.
They also know that the young who keep vigil on the borders are their sons and daughters, not the scions of the predatory one percent who only sloganise about national security to keep inconvenient issues at bay.
A moment comes when Bonapartist swagger fails public trust. When the hoi polloi begin to demand answers to questions and accountability from authority, no longer mesmerised by the charisma of the emperor.
That moment may indeed have come.
Farmers’ union leaders speak at the Singhu press conference. Photo: By arrangement
Will the government yield to the voter?
It remains to be seen whether or not an elected government will jettison its cavalier certitude in its ability to hoodwink, and yield to the voter rather than continue to keep company with the handful whose commitment to democracy and economic justice remains secondary to the scale of their assets.
It also remains to be seen whether the legions who have risen from the soil, braving the extremes of weather, and the exigencies of survival, will hold on to their resolve, or be beaten back by the brute force of the state through attrition and muscle.
In the meanwhile, if atmanirbharta is anywhere in evidence, it is on the borders of Indraprastha where “we the people” demonstrate a self-reliant preparedness unimaginable to the metropolitan in the best of times. From food supplies, to medicines, to cooking accoutrement, and ingenious ways of warding off the bitter cold, they are dependent on no one, regardless of the heartening offers of help they are now receiving from those who live nearby.
Indeed, with that sort of spine, any just order ought to reward their odyssey.
Also Read: Farmers’ Protest: Despite Rightwing Propaganda, ‘Khalistani’ Angle Finds Little Traction
It is to be much hoped that their current experience will encourage the farmers to be seen and heard much more forthrightly when other sections of the populace, all equal citizens of the republic without regard to social or religious identity, are at the receiving end of a repressive and discriminatory regime.
Clearly, a reckoning is here. Those committed to democracy with equity and the right to peaceful protest must hope that hubris will give way to reason and justice, and the tiller of the soil will have her dignity and a decent livelihood restored and reinforced.
Badri Raina has taught at Delhi University.