The daily material lives and needs of the Punjab people are rooted in the states economy. The picture of a prosperous Punjab that has been presented outside. is false. Certainly, Punjab that has been one of the select targets of great Central investment, and certain sections have benefited greatly; but for the masses of Punjabi people, particularly peasants, this investment and these changes have been a curse.
Distorted Development :
The Green Revolution, introduced in the late 1960s to Punjab Haryana. and a few select areas of other states, brought in its wake changes in agriculture. The Green Revolution consisted of the Government-sponsored spread of certain high yielding varieties—mainly of wheat and paddy. The proportion of wheat under HYVs in 1967.68 was 35 per cent; in 1978-79, 96 per cent. The corresponding figures for rice are 5 and 95 per cent.
These varieties require greater input of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and water. Thus Punjab farmers use 132 kg of chemical fertilisers/hectare as opposed to 32 kg for India as a whole. 80 per cent of Punjab’s net are a sown is irrigated, as compared to just 28 per cent for India as whole. 100 per cent of kJ villages are electrified, while only 56 per cent of all Indian X.ear4 arc. The annual per capita consumption of electricity in agriculture is five times the all India figure In Punjab productivity pre batiste ci wheat increased from 1236 kg to 2432 kg between 19,66-67 To 1976-77.
However. all this did not benefit common people. Only 14 out of the 11 crops grown in Punjab benefited—in particular, rice and wheat. The new crop varieties, the new practices, and the rotations prescribed for them disturbed the earlier pattern whereby the soil’s. organic matter, and therefore its fertility, had been maintained. Now to maintain the same yields, higher and higher amounts of fertiliser had to be used to supplement the loss of fertility. an a study of Ludhiana district, between 1970-71 and 1981-82 the amount of fertiliser per hectare had to be doubled in order to maintain virtually the same yield. Punjab consumed 174,000 tonnes of chemical fertilisers in 1970-71; it consumed 812,000 tonnes in 1981-42) The Green Revolution therefore meant large profits to foreign firms from whom the fertiliser or the fertiliser-plant technology was purchased. A share of profits also went to the traders. For farmers, however, it mounting investments—and debts for poorer ones.
Moreover, the new varieties pose several problems for small farmers. The need for absolute timeliness in agricultural operations is heightened. Small farmers have to hire their tractor and frequently purchase their water from the blazer farmers. As the entire level of investment is hither, a single year in which the crop is lost due to some external factor, including pest or disease, can wipe out a poor peasant. The team found in all the areas is visited that early rains, which damage the crop, had ruined many farmers, The new varieties are also particularly susceptible to pest or disease.
Big farmers, of course, have the capital and access to credit to tide over temporary losses. Big farmers can also take on sales agencies for the various input, or provide equipment on rental. Said Baltic Singh, a poor peasant in Kukranwala ( Amritsar), “Some people think we are well-off. It is only an illusion. Almost every peasant is a defaulter of crop loans. Look at my sandals. The have rubber soles. They burn in the heat, and cause eczema, But I can’t even afford Rs, 100.- for a proper pair because I don’t have a surplus.” When we visited the district of Amritsar, we found that more than 60 per cent of the houses are still mud houses. Such is the reality of the Green Revolution.
Soaring indebtedness of poor peasants :
In this situation. where the costs of inputs keep rising, the amount of inputs required rises faster, and the prices at which the crop is sold does not grow as fast, the profitability of agriculture fell from 25 per cent in 1971 to 6 per cent a decade later. The poor and middle
peasants were driven to take more and more loans. in the first place, small farmers had to take loans during the Green Revolution to pay for inputs or for tractors or other equipment. Almost every farmer is. a member of an agricultural credit society. The loans outstanding from these rose from Rs. 30 1 crore in 1969-70 to Rs. 191.0 crore in 193243, But the overdues rose faster from Rs. 5.4 crore to Rs, 76_7 crore in the same period.
This does not, however, mean that the poor farmer has an easy supply of credit. Actually. it is the big farmers who are cornering the available credit. Studies of Patiala and Gurdaspur indicate that 30-40 per cent of such loans are given to persons who arc in fact ineligible—i,e. who are deemed already to have ample resources. 30-40 per cent of the loans went to lower income sections, who almost universally within one or two years had to dispose of the assets (eg, tractors’ for which they had taken the loans. Of the remaining 20-4D per cent, none had crossed the poverty line. Rich farmers (over lo acres) had 79 per cent of the term finance from the scheduled commercial banks (sum outstanding at end of March, 1981).
Given the uncertaintied of their crops’ peasants are almost bound to default on what ever loans they do get, And when they default, they cannot turn back to the institutional sources to fund their purchase of inputs. On the other hand, they no longer have the option, individually, of switching to the pre-Green Revolution methods- They thus desperately need capital. In their search for it. they turn to the moneylender. Private moneylenders, traders, and landlords supply two-thirds of the cash debt of all indebted rural households. And the Punjab peasant’s debt is higher than the national average.
The rates of credit charged by these private agencies are steep-2 to 4 per cent compound interest per month. For each fresh purchase of inputs. the loan-defaulting peasant must return to these private sources, and his dependence on them grows. The peasant cannot freely market his crop. The Government procures the majority of the crop (though, in the case of paddy, the trader has a larger share). But the private moneylender/trader/big farmer who has supplied the small peasant credit is very much present at the time of such procurement, because frequently the poor peasant’s crop has been mortgaged to him as security for loan.
Losing the land for unemployment:
With increasing capital outlays, risks and debts, and decreasing returns from even a successful crop, the poor peasant is frequently driven to part with his land, either by sale or, more commonly, by leasing it out to a rich farmer for about Rs. 1,200 per acre per Year. In 1971, there were 13.5 lakh holdings in Punjab; a decade later there were 10 Ian holdings. That is, more than three and a half lakh peasant families were no longer working their own plot of land.
Where do these peasants go ? Do they become agricultural labourers ? Or do they become industrial workers ? Neither. There were, in 1981, less than 11 lakhs agricultural labour households in Punjab, but they were drawn almost solely from the Scheduled Castes; the 17.67 lakhs cultivator households were largely /at Sikhs. fats find that it is not worth their while to become either industrial or agricultural labourers, as the wage rates are too low (if they get higher wages as industrial labour, they are willing to, and do, go). For the main part, they keep trying to and some avenue whereby they can earn income – experimenting with poultry, dairy, and so on. Most of all, they remain unemployed and in the village. in the villages the team visited, villagers estimated that upto three-fourths of the youth were largely unemployed. When we asked Major Singh, a young man from Khairdee village in Amritsar district, about communal tension, he tried hard to think of instances. Finally he said, “Write about our unemployment. That is most important—over 35 per cent of us are sitting idle. Write more about our unemployment.” Another youth chipped in that of the 25 college graduates in this village, only 5 were employed. He himself, with an M. A. in Punjabi, was sitting idle .
Meanwhil., the ll lakhs agricultural labour households not only get low wages (a low of Rs 3 in the lean season and peak of, say, Rs 25 in the few days of busy season) ; they are also rendered unemployed by mechanisation. This section is simply net discussed when politicians discuss agricultural problems of Punjab. Any programme of land reform to give them plots of their own is also completely unmentioned. Even today, despite much investment in the Green Revolution and talk of progress in agriculture, the hoary caste system remains a sturdy oppressor and divider of the rural poor. Scheduled (Sesta Sikhs still face intense oppression and social humiliation from landlords: even today their huts are located at a distance away from the main village. And any act of defiance by them meets with a landlord organised social boycott. This social oppression divides the poor peasants and agricultural labourers and underpins the economic control of the rich farmers.
Electoral games over water issue :
One particular controversial issue which has been exploited by Congress and Akali politicians is that of water. Akali politicians say that Sikh peasants arc being discriminated against in the diversion of Punjab’s water to Haryana and Rajasthan. The Haryana Congress-I has propagated that it is the refusal or Punjabi fanners to release their river water that has led to problems for Haryana’s farmers,
An economist who had studied the issue told the team that even if all of Punjab’s water were to go to Haryana it would be insufficient for Haryana; and even if none of it went to any other state, it would be insufficient for Punjab. The agricultural strategies adopted by the Government for these two states demand large quantities of water even where there is scanty rainfall. Thus in the arid Malwa belt, the Green Revolution got farmers to grow paddy, which requires much water. Their groundwater resources (from which tubewells draw their supply) are getting depleted. As many as half of Punjab’s blocks are now “black areas” (where no tubewells can be allowed) and a-fifth more arc “grey areas”, fast turning black.
There are two possible solutions. One fundamental solution is a change in the pattern of crops grown, according to the availability of water and the needs of the farmers. This would require a major reorientation with large-scale institutional assistance, and would also run counter to all the interests which have benefited from the Green Revolution. Another possible and partial solution is the harnessing of Ganges water (which regularly causes divesting floods in UP) for Haryana. In fact, for Haryana this source is nearer than the Sutlej. Besides, it is not being exploited in U.P., which. gets heavy rains. However, the Central Government has suppressed this fact. Instead, Haryana politicians highlight only that all the canals in Haryana are dry because of the obstinacy of Punjabi farmers. Dramatic steps taken by the Centre on Sutlej-Yamurna link canal (for bringing Punjab waters to Haryana) have preceded the last two assembly elections in Haryana.
For their part, the Akali leaders suppress the fact that, before the Green Revolution, Punjab had a vast surplus or water. It is the Green Revolution strategies that have led to the ‘difficulties over water in Punjab. But the Akali leaders have never criticized the Green Revolution itself. Their only claim is that it is Punjab’s, “natural right” to retain these river waters. Thus the allocation of river waters has become convenient arbitrary ground for constantly dividing the people of Punjab and Haryana.
Accumulation of wealth, but no job creation:
As we have seen, the large mass of peasantry are suffering from the new agricultural strategy; but the big farmers, along with the traders and the foreign arms, have thrived. What do those big Farmers do with their new riches? Are these surpluses translated into industrial development, which could provide more and more jobs to absorb the unemployed youth?
No It is interesting to note that while such surpluses have accumulated, very few rich -Tat farmers have attempted to enter manufacturing, There are too many other easy avenues of profits open to them. What little manufacturing industry exists in Punjab is largely in the bands of the urban Hindu trader classes. For the most part, the surpluses of the rich farmers merely accumulate in hank accounts, are spent on consumer goods, or go towards purchase of land in other states—such as in the Feral region of U.P. In addition, those who extend into business tend to become truck owners, cinema owners, labour contractors, private bus owners, coin storage owners, and smugglers. Even those with university degrees in, say, engineering, do so. The experiments of’ the Punjabi rich farmers in setting up manufacturing concerns in Punjab are few and far between. The business they do enter, from cinemas to smuggling, create negligible employment. Many politicians in the Akali Dal and the Congress have such business interests. Ptatap Singh Kairon’s family owned cinema houses; Balwant Singh finance minister in the Barnala cabinet, is a construction contractor; Prakash Singh Bndal has large lands in the Terai region of U.P. in the Gangangar district of Rajasthan; former Chief Minister Darbara Singh’s sons run a hotel in Dhanbad; Jagdev Singh Talwandi is intimately connected with opium smuggling; and so on.
For the youth of Punjab there few ways out of their desperate circumstances. And even the ways out that existed earlier have been, one by one, shut off. Army recruitment of Sikhs has been lowered steadily since 1947. For decades, migration to Canada and the U,K. was another outlet, but since the 1970s, this outlet too has been closed of consequent to the more recent restrictive immigration practices in those countries. As a result, a large number of youth have taken college degrees, only to return, jobless, to the farm,
Another avenue of employment for the youth in the border districts has been to work for the smugglers—carrying goods back and forth across the border. Smuggling has become, over the years, such an organised operation in the border districts of Pun jab, said the editor of the Punjabi CPI daily, that everyone appointed to the border police too has to buy his post, making payments up to the ministerial level. It is widely reported that the senior Superintendents of Police for Amritsar have consistently made large sums off smuggling operations, the team also beard of a notorious DIG Police (Border) who became known as the main smuggler in Punjab. (Incidentally, in 1982, AFDR had investigated the case of a brutal police assault on the small village of Deake in Amritsar district. The ‘villagers there had alleged they were attacked because they did not participate in smuggling activities, and so could not pay the bribes or cuts expected of therm.)
With this pattern of economy, jobs have not arisen such as to keep pace with the growth of unemployment. Workers per latch of population have increased from 862 in 1971 to a mere 1,370 in 1982. Equally importantly, these workers are paid abominably low rates. And, to scotch the resistance of the local Jat Sikh work force against such terms of work, labour from the backward areas of Bihar and U. P. is imported. Perhaps SO per cent of the factory labour comes from these sections. And their conditions of work and life are abominable. In 1979-80, a quarter of the workers got wages less than Rs. 200 a month, and none were above the poverty line. Employment exchanges had around half a latch on their registers in 1959, around 5.3 latch in 1953, and around 7 latch today.
On the one hand, a class of landlords, contractors, traders, smugglers, industrialists and politicians have profited off the present Punjab economy. On the other hand, poor peasants face a future of ever more costly farming with ever lower returns, a cycle of debt which ultimately delivers their land into the control of more powerful rural interests, and the absence of any other reliable source of laconic. Agricultural labour possess no land, and face abysmal wages, un-employment due to mechanized farming, extreme and medieval forms of social humiliation, and landlord terror. Industrial workers also earn starvation wages and are largely unorganized even on demands such as minimum pay. Students find their education useless to get them jobs anywhere, and see the few exits from their present situation closing one by one
Thus the economic problems of the people of Punjab are due to the course of economic development our ruling classes—of all religions—have chosen.
These grave economic conditions necessitated struggle-oriented organisations in order to rally the people on their economic 14 demands, and resolve the fundamental issues at stake. In fact, the e democratic movement of organisations that unite exploited people, not on religious, regional, or caste lines, but on a class basis, is strong in Punjab, and has been so since the turn of the century.
Yet there has been a second trend, aimed at annihilating this democratic challenge: this trend has been one of dividing the common people, so as to make the ruling interests in our society more secure. It is to this second trend that we will now turn our attention. The team is grateful to Bharat Dogra, for making his unpublished note, “Punjab—Grass Root Problems and Solutions” on which the above chapter—is largely based.
