Question

Explain the difference between Peasant and New Farmer's Movements.

Hint:

Compare who led each movement (poor peasants vs land owning farmers) and what they were fighting for.

Answer 1

Step 1: Describe the peasant movements.
Peasant movements were mostly pre-independence and early post-independence struggles, led largely by poor and landless peasants against landlords, high rent, forced labour, and unfair land revenue demanded by the colonial or feudal system.

Step 2: Describe the new farmer's movements.
New farmer's movements arose later, mainly from the 1970s and 1980s onward, and were led largely by relatively better off, land owning farmers demanding fair prices for their crops, lower input costs, loan waivers, and better government policy support, using organised protests and farmer unions.

Step 3: State the key differences.
Peasant movements were about survival and freedom from an exploitative landlord system, while new farmer's movements are about better terms of trade for an already land owning farming class within the market economy, so the class of people leading them and their main demands are quite different.

Final Answer:
Peasant movements fought landlord exploitation for poor cultivators, while new farmer's movements demand fair market terms for land owning farmers.