The Farmers Revolt in India

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

After a landslide re-election in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s control over India seemed impossible to challenge. But a yearlong farmers’ protest against agricultural overhauls has done just that, forcing the Indian prime minister to back down. How did the protesters succeed? Guest: Emily Schmall, a South Asia correspondent for The New York Times.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro.
0:03.9	This is Adelaide.
0:05.4	Today, the Prime Minister of India has emerged as a popular fearsome and unbending leader,
0:18.3	whose power seemed impossible to challenge.
0:22.5	I spoke with my colleague Emily Schmal about how a group of farmers finally forced him
0:29.1	to back down.
0:33.2	It's Wednesday, November 24th.
0:40.0	Emily, tell us about these protests that have been going on for so long now in India.
0:47.0	So back in June 2020, when India was still under the first coronavirus lockdown, the
0:56.0	government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced quietly these three laws that were
1:03.0	meant to dramatically reform agriculture in India.
1:08.5	Prime Minister Modi has been in power now for seven years, and he won this landslide
1:14.3	re-election in 2019 and commands a huge majority in parliament.
1:20.0	So there wasn't any doubt that this bill would make it through, but the thing is not many
1:25.4	people were paying attention.
1:27.6	The farmers were, however, and they watched as Mr. Modi's party ushered these laws through
1:35.5	parliament in a matter of just days in September 2020, and immediately they started protesting.
1:42.7	And why?
1:44.7	What will these laws do?
1:45.7	So the thing to understand about India is that agriculture in India is the biggest employer
1:51.6	by far.
1:52.6	In fact, it employs about 60% of the population.
	...

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