Amir Malik

large_01-P_20210104_160502-AM-Shoes_speaks_humanity_at_Singhu_Border.jpg

medium_01-P_20210104_160502-AM-Shoes_speaks_humanity_at_Singhu_Border.jpg

small_01-P_20210104_160502-AM-Shoes_speaks_humanity_at_Singhu_Border.jpg

thumbnail_01-P_20210104_160502-AM-Shoes_speaks_humanity_at_Singhu_Border.jpg

01-P_20210104_160502-AM-Shoes_speaks_humanity_at_Singhu_Border.jpg

A chill winter wind is blowing. Rain has turned the dust on the road into mud. Water has accumulated in some stretches of a narrow passage that opens up to the protest site at Singhu. People cannot avoid walking through the wet patches – and their shoes and sandals get wrapped in mud. As they cross the stage of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the collective of different farmers’ unions at the Singhu protest site on the Haryana-Delhi border, they find some relief. About a 100 metres ahead, Jaswinder Singh Saini and Prakash Kaur are at their service, cleaning and polishing shoes. “The day we were blessed with our child in 1986, I decided to dedicate myself to humanity,” says Jaswinder, 62, a businessman who exports handicraft items.  So for nearly 35 years, the couple gas been going to gurudwaras to serve, particularly bv cleaning the shoes of worshippers. Their four-member family, now living in Delhi, owns 20 acres of land in Naraingarh in Haryana’s Ambala district. Speaking of their decades as dedicated sewadars (volunteers for service at gurudwaras or community events), Jaswinder says, “My wife, my partner, has served way more than what one could imagine.” As he speaks, Prakash, who is in her 50s, continues brushing a pair of shoes.

Their helping hands are among countless forms of free sewa – service to humanity – on offer at the gates of Delhi. These are now services in solidarity too, from the farmers themselves and from other volunteers like the Sainis. At Singhu and other protest sites around Delhi, lakhs of cultivators are protesting against the three farm laws first passed as ordinances on June 5, 2020, then introduced as farm bills in Parliament on September 14, and then hastened into Acts by the 20th of that month. The three laws are the <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/library/resource/the-farmers-empowerment-and-protection-agreement-on-price-assurance-and-farm-services-act-2020/">Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020</a>, the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ruralindiaonline.org/library/resource/the-farmers-produce-trade-and-commerce-promotion-and-facilitation-act-2020/&amp;sa=D&amp;ust=1611419467798000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2_Gg_Jbt0x8pcq67EewPrc">Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020</a> and the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ruralindiaonline.org/library/resource/the-essential-commodities-amendment-act-2020/&amp;sa=D&amp;ust=1611419467796000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3IYZVTiEApWmXW3r-urcqk">Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020</a>. The farmers see this legislation as devastating for their livelihoods by expanding the space for large corporate to exercise even greater power over farming. They also undermine the main forms of support to the cultivator, including the minimum support price (MSP), the agricultural produce marketing committees (APMCs), state procurement and more. The laws have also been criticised as affecting every Indian as they <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/and-you-thought-its-only-about-farmers/&amp;sa=D&amp;ust=1611419467800000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3KPdBvuf2EV81wnSFcevic">disable the right to legal recourse</a> of all citizens, undermining Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The anger over these laws has seen the protesting farmers camping at the gates of the capital city for two months now. And they have shown an astonishing capacity for self-regulation, rejecting state offers of help – and feed and look after themselves in one of the coldest periods in recent years. At such a time, the many forms of sewa here are invaluable.

“Everyone is serving people with something or the other – langars, medical care, tents, raincoats and more. We are serving them with what we have been doing for more than three decades and know best,” says Jaswinder. “I am a daughter of farmers. I cannot see them in pain,” says Prakash, whose parents’ family is from Kurukshetra in Haryana. “I polish their shoes.” “I cannot usually sit for one hour straight,” adds Jaswinder, who suffers from chronic back pain. “But once we come here, I clean shoes for six hours and feel no pain while doing so.” Jaswinder keeps asking people passing by to give him their shoes, some of them are initially hesitant and shy – “O , give the pair here. They will shine. O, give them to me!” He calls out to an elderly farmer who is undecided: “Babaji, lao ji lao, koi gal nahi ji [Babaji, bring them to me, there is no problem at all].” The elderly gentleman leaves with his shoes well-polished and shining. “You are a human being, I am a human being, too. Why wear dirty shoes?” Jaswinder asks other passers-by. When, convinced, they take off their shoes and hand them over, Jaswinder and Prakash exchange a smile at this small success. A few farmers also join them in offering this sewa.  There are also at Sinhgu two young men and other elderly people from Punjab who too are cleaning shoes as their symbolic offering of solidarity.

Jaswinder, who sees himself as both a businessman and a farmer, says, “With moves such as demonetisation, GST [the Goods and Services Tax] and giveaways to big business, the government has proved that it only cares for large corporate houses. “Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and others fled the country as fugitives and now three laws are framed for the Ambanis and Adanis to take over our lives,” he adds. “The government does not care for humanity. We farmers, we do care.”   “After we die, does our money go with us to the final destination? No. Only deeds travel. Hence sewa,” says Prakash. “And Guru Gobind Singh taught us that if any atrocity is being committed against anyone, we should resist that. If we are wronged, we should fight against it. The farmers’ protest is a fight against oppression.” While the shoes are being cleaned, those who have deposited them there stand on flattened-out cardboard cartons which protect their feet from the mud. While returning each pair of polished shoes to its owner, Jaswinder and Prakash bow their heads in respect.

These are the times that try people's soles

سنگھو بارڈر پر خدمت کی مثال قائم کرتا بزرگ جوڑا

सिंघु बॉर्डर: किसानों की सेवा करके एकजुटता की मिसाल क़ायम करता एक बुज़ुर्ग जोड़ा

ആളുകളുടെ പാദങ്ങളെ പരീക്ഷിക്കുന്നതാണീ കാലം

ਇਹ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦੇ ਬੂਟਾਂ ਦੇ ਤਲੇ ਨਹੀਂ ਰੂਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਛੂਹਣ ਦਾ ਸਮਾਂ ਹੈ

“আর কিছু নহে, চরণের ধূলি এক কণা”

மக்களின் உள்ளங்கால்களை சோதிக்கும் காலம் இது

ಇದು ಜನರ ಆತ್ಮಗಳನ್ನು ಮುಟ್ಟುವ ಸಮಯ

ଲୋକଙ୍କ ପାଦ ପାଇଁ ପରୀକ୍ଷାର ସମୟ

લોકોના પગના તળિયા માપી લે એવો સમય છે

Sonipat

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

All our content is, and will forever be free to consume. If you enjoy our work, you can support us by becoming a volunteer or by donating to help fund our work.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

These are the times that try people's soles

Unmindful of the dust, dirt and occasional rain, Jaswinder Singh Saini and Prakash Kaur, a couple from Delhi, perform sewa at Singhu – cleaning the dirty, muddied shoes of the farmers

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit