In 2020, Punjabi farmers marched to Delhi on their tractors and laid siege to the city’s borders for over a year, protesting against three new farm bills that were passed by the central government. Among the bills’ several contentious clauses, farmers were most worried about the withdrawal of a minimum support price (MSP) for farm produce. They were afraid private players would offer low prices in the absence of a regulatory mechanism, pushing many of them out of farming and eventually leading to corporate takeover of agriculture.
Farmers remove police barricades put up on one of the roads that lead to the protest site at Singhu. December 08, 2020.A group of protestors go around shouting slogans from atop their tractor at Singhu. December 08, 2020.Farmers attend a meeting at the protest site in Singhu outside Delhi. December 08, 2020.Protesting farmers in their tractor trollies at Singhu. December 10, 2020.Women farmers take out a march raising slogans at Singhu. December 10, 2020.A film based on the sons of a Sikh Guru is screened at the protest site on the highway at Singhu. December 09, 2020.Farmers record and livestream a song recital by Jasbir Singh Dhillon, 65, who also wrote the lines and set tune to them, about the farming crisis in Punjab. Singhu protest site, December 09, 2020.Farmers attend a morning prayer session at Singhu. December 09, 2020.One of the dozens of langars at the site- a communal kitchen that is an essential part of the Sikh religion, offers free tea and snacks to protestors in the morning. December 09, 2020.A group of protestors who have just arrived from Punjab watch from the top of their bus as it makes its way past tractors at Singhu. December 08, 2020.A farmer rests in his tractor trolley in the evening. December 09, 2020.Farmers under a makeshift tent propped up between tractor trailers at the Tikri protest site. While the farmers protesting at Singhu come from the wealthier Majha and Doaba regions of Punjab, the ones at Tikri come from the infertile Malwa, which also records most of Punjab’s farmer suicides. The farmers here have smaller landholdings, or are even landless. December 14, 2020.A sign warns Godi Media – lapdog media, a reference to the TV channels seen as supporters of the Narendra Modi government. Many journalists from these media houses have dubbed the protesting farmers “terrorists”, a reference to the Khalistani separatist movement that was active in the state in the 80s and early 90s. December 10, 2020.A group of young farmers raise slogans in the night at Singhu. December 08, 2020.Police guard Haryana’s border with Rajasthan in a bid to prevent Rajasthan farmers from marching towards Delhi. December 12, 2020.Banwari Kudi, extreme left, the first farmer from Rajasthan to reach the border with Haryana, sits down in protest as the police stop him from proceeding towards Delhi. December 12, 2020.A protestor makes a speech from the stage at the Ghazipur protest site. December 13, 2020.Police in riot gear on the Delhi-Jaipur highway on the day farmers from Rajasthan announced they were joining the protests and going to block the highway. December 12, 2020.Blistered feet of Raju, a 50-year-old farmer from Karwada in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, which he said was caused by walking long distances during the protests everyday at Ghazipur. December 13, 2020.Pradeep Jha, a 28-year-old Youtuber, does an explainer from the protest site at Ghazipur border, where farmers from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand occupied part of an expressway. December 13, 2020.Protesting farmers take selfies with Punjabi singer Kanwar Garewal at Tikri. The protests have received a great deal of support from singers and artists from the region, and the anger against the Farm Bills is being channelled through music. Ailaan, one of Grewals’s songs that went on to become protest anthems, was later taken down by Youtube, prompting complaints of yielding to pressure from the government. December 14, 2020.Volunteers chop vegetables in preparation for dinner at a langar at Singhu. December 09, 2020.Farmers rest between two tractor trollies on the highway at Singhu. December 08, 2020.Farmers who have just arrived by train from Punjab cross the tracks toward the protest site at Tikri. Every day, a certain number of farmers head back to the village to tend to their fields or for some other work at home, and the same number of people from each village take their place at the protest site. December 16, 2020.Farmers stage a protest on railway tracks for three days at Rampura Phull in Bathinda, Punjab, India, demanding compensation for flood damage to their crops, a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce and loan amnesty. September 30, 2023.
On February 13, 2024, hundreds of farmers set off to lay siege to Delhi’s borders, demanding a legal guarantee for a Minimum Support Price on all farm produce. It was one of the main demands during their protests in Delhi. However, they were stopped at the state’s borders at Shambhu and Khanauri by Haryana police. They stayed put at the borders for over a year before they were forcefully evicted.
Iqbal Singh, 50, from Khemuana in Bathinda at Punjab’s border with Haryana at Khanauri. May 09, 2024.Gurudatta Singh, 58, watches TV inside his tractor trolley at Punjab’s border with Haryana at Khanauri. May 09, 2024.A protesting farmer’s tractor at Punjab’s border with Haryana at Khanauri.May 09, 2024.A farmer’s bed at Punjab’s border with Haryana at Khanauri. May 10, 2024.Barricades put up by Haryana’s police at the state’s border with Punjab at Khanauri. May 10, 2024.The horse of a Nihang warrior Sikh at Punjab’s border with Haryana at Khanauri. May 09, 2024. Kaur Singh, 60, from Lehra Mohabbat in Bathinda at Punjab’s border with Haryana at Khanauri. May 10, 2024.
