SHIFTING GROUND - HINDU-TVA POLITICS AND THE FARMERS - MOVEMENT IN UTTAR-PRADESH

Politics in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh has been transformed by t he emergence of a powerful farmers' movement with strong support among the prosperous peasantry. Studies of farmers' movement have placed a different emphasis on the importance of class and caste factors, as we ll as drawn attention to the important role of the middle peasants in agrarian mobilisation. This study attempts to situate the nature of an d shifts in the farmers' movement in the context of agrarian transitio n and political change in UP. A central paradox is that although the m ovement was dominated by and reflected the economic interests of surpl us producing farmers, its principal mobilising ideology and strategy d uring the campaigns was non-economic. It was embedded in existing cast e and religious cleavages. For this reason, the movement was soon over taken by the sway of Hindutva politics in western UP. Two particular f actors, the intensification of caste and communal politics, are consid ered in explaining the rise and decline of the movement. It is argued hat the fortunes of the farmers' movement are crucially influenced by larger social forces which are reshaping political processes in north India. This aspect has been neglected in most of the analyses of the f armers' movements.