Shetkari Sanghatak

Summary

This twelve-page issue of the Marathi fortnightly Shetkari Sanghatak (Year 9, Issue 17, 6 December 1992) is an ‘Agitation Special Issue No. 2’ (आंदोलन विशेषांक - २), a mobilising number for Sharad Joshi’s Shetkari Sanghatana ahead of a mass action at the Gateway of India / Nhava Sheva, Bombay, planned for 9-12 December 1992. The lead article ‘धर्मक्षेत्र कुरुक्षेत्र — न्हावा शेवा’, signed by Sharad Joshi, casts the coming agitation in Mahabharata terms — the field of battle as a field of dharma — and rallies farmers to march on the Bombay docks against import policy and state control of agricultural trade. The interior pages carry agitation slogans (including ‘Government Hands off Economy’ and ‘भीक नको, घेऊ घामाचे दाम’ — not alms but the price of our sweat), trade-policy argument, and statistical tables on wheat, cotton and onion production and exports marshalling the case that government import and pricing policy has betrayed the Indian farmer. The full-page back cover, ‘बंदर न्हेरू गद्दार गेहूँ रोकेंगे’, announces the Gateway of India action and urges farmers across Maharashtra to converge on Bombay.

Essays

धर्मक्षेत्र कुरुक्षेत्र — न्हावा शेवा

By शरद जोशी

The lead article by Sharad Joshi, ‘धर्मक्षेत्र कुरुक्षेत्र — न्हावा शेवा’, frames the planned 9-12 December 1992 farmers’ agitation at the Gateway of India / Nhava Sheva as a righteous battle, borrowing the Mahabharata image of the battlefield as a field of dharma. Joshi attacks state control of agricultural trade and import policy, argues that the farmer is reduced to begging for fair prices, and calls on farmers across Maharashtra to march on the Bombay docks to block ‘traitor’ imported wheat and assert the movement’s demand for an open market and remunerative prices.

• Frames the Gateway of India / Nhava Sheva agitation (9-12 Dec 1992) as a battle of dharma.
• Attacks state control of agricultural trade and import policy.
• Argues the farmer is forced to beg rather than receive fair prices.
• Calls farmers across Maharashtra to converge on the Bombay docks.
• Signed by Sharad Joshi, the movement’s leader.

लढाईच्या काही घोषणा (आंदोलन घोषणासंग्रह)

A page of agitation slogans (लढाईच्या काही घोषणा) sets out the movement’s rallying cries for the Gateway of India action — in Marathi and Hindi — including calls for the victory of the Shetkari Sanghatana and its women’s wing, rejection of charity in favour of fair prices, and the demand that government keep its hands off the economy.

• Compiles the agitation’s Marathi and Hindi slogans.
• Rejects charity (‘भीक नको’) in favour of the price of farmers’ labour.
• Includes ‘Government Hands off Economy’ and anti-state-control slogans.

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