THE RHETORIC OF INDIAN FARMERS’ PROTEST: HISTORY, MEDIA REPRESENTATION, AND PROTEST NARRATIVE

Author

Basanti Timalsina, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow

Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Campus Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric, Theory and Culture (PhD)

Administrative Home Department

Department of Humanities

Advisor 1

Stefka Hristova

Committee Member 1

James Hammond

Committee Member 2

Rich Canevez

Committee Member 3

Jonathan Robins

Abstract

The use of social media in protests and activism has had a significant impact on organizing, collaborating, and communicating with the public in global protest events such as the Arab Spring, the Black Lives Matter movement, the Occupy movement, and many others. The public access and the adaptability afforded by the design of social media enable the repurposing of the platform based on need and make its use for connecting to the public and sharing information more pervasive. In this dissertation, I examine the active, purposeful, and consistent use of media tools and symbolic protest strategies and their roles and impacts in the representation of the Indian farmers’ protest movement of 2020-2021. While the farmers’ protest first began locally with the purpose of repealing the three farm bills that the protesting farmers considered anti-farmer, the movement later transformed into a General Strike and garnered wider national and international attention.

In India, the agriculture industry has long been the backbone of the economy. Among the population involved in the farming sector, 82% are considered “small and marginal” farmers who rely on agriculture as their source of livelihood (FAO[1]). The farming communities, including those dependent on agriculture for livelihood as well as those involved in agricultural businesses, were directly impacted by the introduction of the farm bills. As a result, the farming communities formed alliances to resist the government’s move. Farmer unions from across the country united in this resistance and played a significant role in highlighting the role of farmers within the national economy, recalling the contributions of past farm leaders and farmer unions, and promoting the narrative of farmer identity. I connect my discussion to Indian agricultural history and argue that the allied community of subaltern farmers and farmer unions served as a strong force in working toward promoting the narratives of farmer identity and union history. The study engages in online pro-government mainstream and social media content analysis, establishing connections between the representations of farmer identity, protest mobilization, and leadership roles, which offers a subaltern activist perspective on the theorization of protest. I argue that media strategies for the representation of activist-led alternative and counter-narratives were made effective through historical referencing, memory work, and narrative integrations. Further, the involvement and support of ‘organic intellectuals’ (Gramsci, 1971), together with the utilization of negotiation strategy by farm leaders, served as a powerfully combined agentive force for the sustenance and success of the protest movement.

[1] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Recommended Citation

Timalsina, Basanti, "THE RHETORIC OF INDIAN FARMERS’ PROTEST: HISTORY, MEDIA REPRESENTATION, AND PROTEST NARRATIVE", Campus Access Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2024.

https://doi.org/10.37099/mtu.dc.etdr/1777