The Religious Factor in the Farmers Bills Protests in India: A Sikh Voice
12/28/2020Thierry Valle
India is witnessing the largest protests in the 21st century. Activist Premi Singh offers his passionate version of what is happening.
by Thierry Valle
Something huge is happening in India. The protest against the laws known as the Farmers Bills, mostly (but not exclusively) by Sikhs from Punjab, is becoming the largest mass protest movement of the 21st century on a worldwide scale, with more than 25 million protesters. While the farmers are fighting for their land, many Sikhs believe a religious element is involved, with a deliberate attempt to dilute and deny their identity, as part of a Hindu nationalist broader policy to “Hinduize” India.
The Sikhs’ voice on the protests is not heard often in the West. I interviewed Premi Singh, an outspoken and well-known Sikh activist based in Europe. His is, obviously, the Sikh version of the story, told in a passionate and often emotional voice. His opinions are not necessarily the magazine’s, but I believe they deserve to be heard.
Can you shortly introduce yourself?
My name is Premi Singh, I am a Sikh community representative, educator in Sikh affairs, and an activist on human rights. I have represented Sikhs, liberal Hindus, and other communities’ concerns and issues regarding human rights violations at the United Nations in Geneva. I have also spoken about and raised issues faced by many refugees and asylum seekers, regarding their deportation and immigration matters. I have also stood against and raised my voice against the brutality of unjustifiable wars. Apart from delegation duties and citizens diplomacy, I and my team actively support homeless communities across Europe via our work with various Sikh Gurdwaras (Sikh places of worship), and different active collaboration with charities like the British Red Cross, Khalsa Aid, and many other European charities.
Can you explain your concerns about the protests of the Sikh farmers currently taking place in India? And how is what may look as a purely economic problem connected to religion?
I will try to explain the farmers’ peaceful protest, and how it is linked with Sikhs and Panjabi [the preferred Sikh spelling is “Panjab” rather than “Punjab”] farmers in particular, and how it will have a serious impact on their livelihood. I want to discuss what I believe to be the main aim of far-right Hindu nationalist groups, and the current BJP government, which mostly consists of members of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a volunteer far-right Hindu nationalist organization). This is a group that the current prime minister of India, PM Modi is an active member of.
My concern is how the fundamental right to go to court on contractual disputes, under article 6 and 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), has been taken away from the farmers. This is to throw the small farmers to the “market” (a word hiding a deliberately created monopoly by large Hindu-owned corporations), and remove all protections as well as the small subsidies that enable these small farmers to survive. The majority of them are already under debts, and the new bills are pushing them further towards bankruptcy. This may result in them losing their lands, homes, and all livelihoods. These will later be purchased by the aforementioned large corporations, some of them owned by far-right Hindu nationalists, either by forced purchases or through opportunistic land grabbing. This is a process that is designed by India’s central government to gain control of historical Panjab land and territories, and achieve political control over Panjab. I see it as a systematic process to wipe out Panjab and its Sikh identity, pushing Sikh farmers to migrate to other countries
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