Farmer leader Sharad Joshi dies in Pune

Farmer leader and Shetkari Sanghatana founder Sharad Joshi, who left his imprint on agrarian economics and politics by espousing an alternative economic paradigm which held that lack of remuneration in dry-land farming lay at the roots of poverty, passed away in Pune on Saturday morning.

He is survived by daughters Shreya Shahane and Dr Gauri Joshi, who are based abroad.

Joshi (81) propounded theories like 'Bharat vs India' – based on the economic and cultural divide between the exploited, agrarian majority and the privileged minority – and the need for agri loan waivers and remunerative pricing for farm produce, which found their way into mainstream political lexicon.

"When we gheraoed the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh with farmers from Punjab in 1984, we saw a former class-one official like Sharad Joshi sleep on the road on a newspaper," recalled former four-term SBP MLA from Rajura in Chandrapur Wamanrao Chatap, adding, "He taught us what devotion to a cause meant."

He also sought to amalgamate the farmers' cause with that of women's empowerment and organised a massive rally of women farmers and farm labourers in Nashik in 1986 attracting about two lakh women. He, however, happened to be the only RS member who opposed the women's reservation bill when it came up in Rajya Sabha as he was of the view that the reservation would not lead to the emancipation and empowerment of women.

The liberal farmers' movement launched by Sharad Joshi and its political arm, Swatantra Bharat Paksha (SBP), broke from Marxist, socialist and Nehruvian thought and promoted a doctrine based on greater economic and technological freedom for farmers, including access to markets and technologies. Joshi demanded that the state reduce its overarching influence across personal and economic lives of individuals.

An Indian Postal Service official, Joshi left his lucrative career at the Universal Postal Union in Switzerland and came to India to farm and understand the problems in agriculture. The former lecturer in economics then purchased 23.5 acres of rain-fed land at Chakan near Pune and began farming in 1977.

He launched himself in the farmers' movement when prices of onion in the Chakan market plunged during the Janata Party regime. Soon, he was sought by farmers from across Maharashtra and led movements seeking remunerative pricing for sugarcane, tobacco, milk, rice, onion and cotton with associates Prahlad Karad Patil and Madhavrao Khanderao More. The Sanghatana was formed in 1979 and received support from farmers despite some Maratha politicians using Joshi's Brahmin origins to run him down.

His combination of agitations, coupled with easy interpretation of complex economic theories, ensured that the Sanghatana's rural activists with their trademark red badges on their chest could argue with the erudition of experts.

Joshi, a self-confessed devotee of free-market economist Adam Smith and his magnum opus Wealth of Nations and Theory of Modern Sentiments, pointed out that the farmer was the only producer incapable of deciding the price of his produce.

Joshi and his associates were among the first to support the Dunkel draft and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) due to its economic freedoms. He pitched himself as the political-ideological successor of the right-of-centre Swantantra Party led by C Rajgopalachari and Minoo Masani and also invoked Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, the legend of benevolent agrarian king Baliraja and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, as a king of farmers.

However, despite getting five MLAs elected to the Maharashtra assembly in 1990, Joshi failed to make a mark in electoral politics, leading to a sentiment among his followers that farmers joined them seeking a rise in prices but deserted them for established parties on lines of caste and religion.

Joshi, called Shetkaryanche panchapran (life force of farmers) by his supporters, was defeated in the 1995 assembly polls from Hinganghat (Wardha) and Biloli (Nanded) and the Lok Sabha elections from Nanded (1996).

Joshi allied with the BJP, a party he had once denounced as communal, and was a Rajya Sabha MP from 2004 to 2010, and served on as many 16 parliamentary committees during the tenure.

"He gave a new economic paradigm to agriculture and proved that farmers were poor not because of their ways of farming but due to government policies," said associate Dr Giridhar Patil, adding that his agitations had led to prices being hiked and stifling rules being relaxed.

Former four-term SBP MLA from Rajura in Chandrapur Wamanrao Chatap noted that Joshi's biggest contributions included his effort to create pan-India solidarity among farmers through agitations — from Nipani in Karnataka to Punjab and Haryana. He was part of a coordination committee of like-minded farmer organisations.

Joshi launched the Shetkari Mahila Aghadi and the Lakshmi Mukti Abhiyaan, influenced by which lakhs of farmers included the names of their wives in land records. It also agitated for closing liquor shops. A prolific writer in English, Marathi and Hindi, Joshi was known for his command over languages, such as Sanskrit and French.

"Unfortunately, his dream of seeing farmers of this country being freed from debt remains unfulfilled. As his foot soldiers, we have to work towards this," said Chatap.