Shetkari Sanghatak

Summary

This eight-page issue of the Marathi fortnightly Shetkari Sanghatak (Year 12, Issue 15, 28 December 1995), the organ of Sharad Joshi’s Shetkari Sanghatana, is dominated by the verbatim text of a long Sharad Joshi speech, ‘केवळ स्वातंत्र्यासाठी’ (Only for freedom), delivered on 12 December 1995 at Narkhed in Nagpur district on a commemoration day (smriti-din). Reflecting in the aftermath of an election setback, Joshi insists the movement’s purpose was never power but freedom — economic freedom for the farmer and the right to set prices and dispose of one’s own produce and land in an open market — and rebuts critics who read the electoral defeat as a verdict against that cause. A signed column by Dr. Manavendra Kachole, ‘अर्थशास्त्रात काय शिकवतात?’, questions what academic economics teaches farmers’ children, and a short ‘पळून कसे चालेल?’ note invokes Rajaji on facing rather than fleeing hardship. The back pages report the successful conclusion of a hunger strike and announce a Shetkari Mahila Aghadi (women’s wing) gathering at Akola on 11-12 January 1996, signed by Indira Bhanudas Patil.

Essays

केवळ स्वातंत्र्यासाठी…

By शरद जोशी

The lead piece is the transcribed text of Sharad Joshi’s speech ‘केवळ स्वातंत्र्यासाठी’, given at Narkhed (Nagpur district) on 12 December 1995. Speaking after an electoral reverse, Joshi argues that the Shetkari Sanghatana never sought office or power but freedom — above all the farmer’s economic liberty to set the price of his produce and land and to trade in an open market free of state and cooperative monopoly. He answers those who interpret the defeat as a rejection of the movement, reaffirms that the struggle is for liberty itself rather than electoral victory, and ranges across the movement’s record in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and beyond.

• Verbatim text of a Sharad Joshi speech delivered 12 December 1995 at Narkhed, Nagpur district.
• Argues the movement’s aim is freedom, not power or electoral office.
• Centers economic liberty: the farmer’s right to set prices and trade in an open market.
• Rebuts readings of the election defeat as a verdict against the cause.
• Delivered on a commemoration day (smriti-din) and reflects on the movement’s wider record.

अर्थशास्त्रात काय शिकवतात?

By डॉ. मानवेंद्र काचोळे

A signed column by Dr. Manavendra Kachole, ‘अर्थशास्त्रात काय शिकवतात?’ (What do they teach in economics?), criticizes the academic economics taught to the children of farmers and Sanghatana workers as disconnected from agrarian reality, and calls for an economics curriculum that reflects farmers’ lived conditions. It appears alongside a short ‘पळून कसे चालेल?’ note that quotes Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari) on the futility of running from hardship.

• Criticizes academic economics as disconnected from agrarian reality.
• Calls for curricula grounded in farmers’ lived conditions.
• Signed by Dr. Manavendra Kachole; runs beside a note quoting Rajaji.

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