Towards Food Sovereignty: Dismantling the Capitalist Brahminic-Patriarchal Food Farming Regime

The article says that the three farm laws passed by the Indian government in September 2020 aimed to allow ‘free’ market and private sector-controlled corporations to solve the problems of the agricultural sector. These laws were opposed by farmers, especially those in the northern states – Haryana, Punjab, and western Uttar Pradesh. These are the same states where, post India’s independence, the green revolution started, and efforts to establish ‘capitalist agrarian economies’ were undertaken to achieve food self-sufficiency.

Addressing caste, class and gender dynamics in land ownership, the article notes that 60-85 per cent of Dalit households, which comprise 20 per cent of India’s population, are landless agricultural labourers. This is one of the many signs of caste-based oppression in Indian society.

Another way in which casteism manifests in India is in the division of land holdings. The author cites a 2021 monograph titled ‘The Land Question in Contemporary Rural India’ to note that 83 per cent of all land is owned by the top 20 per cent of the households representing the dominant caste groups despite small and marginal farmers belonging to Other Backward Classes making up 86 per cent of all Indian farmers.

The article further states that 80 per cent of the food in India is produced by women labourers from historically marginalised, and oppressed communities like Dalits, Adivasis, Other Backward Classes, and religious minorities. Despite this, only 11 per cent of the total agricultural land in rural areas is owned by a mere 14 per cent of women, most of them from dominant castes.

Brahminical supremacist ideology is also changing food systems in India, the article states. Vegetarianism which is the caste identity of the dominant castes, is presented as a ‘homogenous’ culture of India. It describes stigmatisation of meat, mainly beef which is a part of the eating habits of 1 in every 13th Indian, as a “State backed practice of untouchability.”

Millets, which formed the main part of the everyday diet of many Dalits, Adivasis, and Bahujans were labelled as ‘coarse foods of the poor’ by Brahminical capitalism and were replaced by white rice which was considered good food. However, today the same millets are commodified as ‘super health food’ and priced highly making them accessible only to the elites.

The author presents the history of the Indian agricultural market and shows that liberalising trade by allowing imports of subsidised foods from the global north, entry of private players in supply chains, direct purchase from farmers, contract farming, e-trade, removing protection to small size food processing firms, and allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment in agribusiness have had two negative effects. First, the dependency on high-cost input technology to increase agricultural productivity volatile commodity prices in the open markets have pushed farmers into massive debt. Second, farmers are growing the majority of their produce for sale in the market, and purchase most of the food required for personal consumption.

Presenting solutions for achieving social justice in the food system, the article calls for ‘redistributive agrarian land reforms’ under which land is given to farmers from marginal communities. It also voices the need of local governance of the food markets in a decentralised manner with collective dialogue, cooperation, and knowledge sharing among local farmers.

Focus and Factoids by Ananya Prabhughate.