2025/08/01 by Ritika Khatri, Mithilesh Kumar Jha · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #South Asian Studies and Conflicts #South Asian Studies and Diaspora #Indian History and Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1080/17448727.2025.2537545
openalex publication_date 2025/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
The 2020 farmers' movement rallied under the slogan Kisan–Mazdoor Ekta, Zindabad, yet rural Punjab reveals deep fissures between kisans and mazdoors due to divergent socio-economic conditions. Based on the ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2022 in Sangrur villages, this study examines entrenched caste–class divisions, shaping Dalit mazdoors' struggles. The paper identifies three flashpoints fracturing the long-term potential for unity: village common land leases, annual wage rate fixing, and ‘dummy' auctions. The findings show that protest-year solidarity eventually paves the way for the established caste–class hierarchies, limiting collective bargaining and depicting why cross-sectional episodic ‘alliances’ seldom transform agrarian inequalities.