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Bharatiya Kisan Union
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bharatiya Kisan Union (Indian
Farmers' Union) is a non-partisan farmer's
representative organisation in India.
It was founded by Chaudhary
Charan Singh from
the Punjab
Khetibari Union (Punjab Farming
Union) which became its Punjab branch.[1] The
western Uttar Pradesh branch of the union was
founded in 17 October 1986 by Mahendra
Singh Tikait.[2] The
union is affiliated to the All India Kisan
Sangharsh Coordination Committee and Via
Campesina.[3] The
national headquarters of the union is located
in Sisauli, Uttar
Pradesh.[4] It
has presence in the states of
Uttar Pradesh, Haryana,[5] Punjab,[6] Uttarakhand,[7] Himachal
Pradesh, Gujarat,[8] Madhya
Pradesh,[9] Chhattisgarh,[10] Rajasthan,[11] Karnataka,[12] Tamil
Nadu and Maharashtra.[13][1]
History[edit]
The foundation of the Bharatiya Kisan Union
(BKU) began with the formation of the Punjab
Khetibari Zamindari Union (later renamed Punjab
Khetibari Union) in May 1972 with the merger
of 11 peasants group in Chandigarh.[14]
In 1978, the PKU was transformed into the BKU
with the intention of creating a national forum
for farmers with association to the Bharatiya
Lok Dal of the Janata
Party (Secular),
but it failed to provide a substantial
mobilization of farmers initially.[15]
In
12 December 1980, an "All-India Kisan Sammelan"
was organised which saw the unification of the Kisan
Sangarsh Samiti (Haryana), Raytu Sangha (Karnataka)
and Vyavasayigal Sangham (Tamil Nadu)
under the ambit of the BKU.
In 1982, the union underwent a brief split under
the designation of BKU (N) led by Narayanasamy
Naidu and BKU (M) led by Bhupendra Singh Mann.
The organisation was however reunited by the
intervention of Sharad
Anantrao Joshi under
a federal structure
with autonomous state
units.[16][17]
It was reorganised in 17 October 1986 by Mahendra
Singh Tikait with its headquarters
in Sisauli in
western Uttar
Pradesh as
a non-partisan organisation contrary to its
previous association with the former Prime
Minister, Charan
Singh.[15]
During the 1980s, it emerged through a number of
agitations which began with the rising wave of people's
movements since
the Bihar
Movement following Indira
Gandhi's Emergency.[18][19] The
Bharatiya Kisan Union attained popularity by
leading the "Meerut siege" in January–February
1988 which was a 25-day long dharna (picketing)
around the commissioner's
office in Meerut that
witnessed the gathering of hundreds of thousands
of farmers from around the area into the city.[20]
Later, in the same year, the BKU under the
leadership of Mahendra
Singh Tikait lead the "Boat Club
Rally" which witnessed a mass gathering of
800,000 farmers from western Uttar Pradesh
and other parts of the country into the
boat club lawns of the upscale
neighborhood between
Udyog Bhavan and Krishi Bhavan in New
Delhi.[21]
The crowd of protesting farmers who arrived with
tractors and bullock carts stretched for
3 km from India
Gate to Vijay
Chowk.[22]
Their demands were that of the implementation of
measures such as control over prices of sugarcane, loan
waivers to
farmers and lowering of water and
power tariffs during
the early stages of the process of economic
liberalisation in India.[23][24] The
BKU achieved relative success in acquiring
several concessions during this time period.[25][26] . |
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