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By:

Ramesh Patil

19 September 2024 at 9:57:34 am

Beyond the Bailout

Maharashtra’s farm loan and power bill waivers offer immediate relief, but their real test lies in building a more resilient agricultural economy. Agricultural distress is rarely caused by a single factor. For millions of farmers, the crisis is the result of a difficult combination of erratic weather patterns, rising input costs, uncertain markets, mounting debt and inadequate access to affordable credit. In Maharashtra, where agriculture remains the backbone of rural livelihoods, these...

Beyond the Bailout

Maharashtra’s farm loan and power bill waivers offer immediate relief, but their real test lies in building a more resilient agricultural economy. Agricultural distress is rarely caused by a single factor. For millions of farmers, the crisis is the result of a difficult combination of erratic weather patterns, rising input costs, uncertain markets, mounting debt and inadequate access to affordable credit. In Maharashtra, where agriculture remains the backbone of rural livelihoods, these pressures have been particularly acute in regions such as Marathwada, Vidarbha and parts of North Maharashtra. Against this backdrop, the decision of the state government under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to implement the Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Holkar Shetkari Karjmukti Yojana and waive outstanding electricity bills for agricultural pumps represents a significant intervention. While farm loan waivers have often generated debate over their long-term economic implications, they also serve an important purpose when they provide distressed farmers with an opportunity to regain financial stability and return to productive activity. Substantial Relief Under the scheme, crop loans of up to Rs. 2 lakh per farmer will be waived. The initiative is expected to benefit around 56 lakh farmers, covering nearly 65 lakh loan accounts, with the state government taking on a financial burden of approximately Rs. 36,585 crore. At this scale, the decision marks one of the more substantial efforts in Maharashtra’s recent agricultural policy landscape to address rural indebtedness. The immediate impact of such a measure is clear. A farmer burdened by unpaid loans is often unable to access fresh credit from banks, leaving him trapped in a cycle of borrowing and declining productivity. By clearing eligible debts, the waiver can restore creditworthiness, improve access to institutional finance and provide farmers with the confidence to invest in the next crop cycle. However, the significance of the decision should not be viewed merely through the lens of debt relief. The larger challenge before Maharashtra is to ensure that agriculture moves from a cycle of crisis management towards sustained economic viability. The government’s decision to waive outstanding electricity bills for agricultural pumps, estimated at nearly Rs. 48,000 crore, is another major intervention. The move is expected to benefit around 30 lakh farmers. Unpaid power bills have long been a source of financial stress, often affecting irrigation access and increasing uncertainty for cultivators. Reducing this burden can help farmers maintain uninterrupted access to electricity and strengthen agricultural productivity. Yet, the true measure of agricultural policy cannot be limited to waivers alone. Relief can address immediate distress, but resilience requires deeper structural reforms. Maharashtra’s future agricultural success will depend on how effectively it improves irrigation, water conservation, technology adoption, market access and value addition. Unpredictable Monsoon The state’s vulnerability to unpredictable rainfall has become increasingly evident. For farmers in drought-prone regions, sustainable water management is no longer an option but a necessity. Investments in micro-irrigation, farm ponds, watershed development and efficient water utilisation will determine whether agriculture can withstand the uncertainties of climate change. Similarly, modernising the crop insurance system is essential. The use of technology-driven assessments, including satellite monitoring, drone surveys and digital damage assessments, can make compensation faster and more transparent. Farmers need a system that responds quickly when natural calamities destroy months of hard work. Equally important is the need to move beyond traditional farming models. Better storage infrastructure, cold chains, food processing industries and direct market linkages can help farmers capture greater value from their produce. Increasing farm incomes requires not just higher production but also better returns. The encouragement of rural entrepreneurship is another critical component. Young people in villages should see agriculture not merely as subsistence activity but as an opportunity for enterprise — through dairy farming, fisheries, poultry, goat rearing, agri-processing and technology-based farming solutions. Transforming agriculture into a modern industry could provide a new direction to Maharashtra’s rural economy. The loan waiver and electricity bill relief announced by the state government are therefore best viewed as a beginning rather than an end. Their success will depend on effective implementation, transparency, timely delivery of benefits and coordination between government agencies and financial institutions. The larger objective must be to create a farming community that is not dependent on repeated interventions but capable of standing on its own feet. Maharashtra does not merely require debt relief; it requires a financially secure and profitable agricultural sector. The state’s broader development story will remain incomplete unless its farmers are empowered, agriculture becomes sustainable and villages become engines of economic growth. (The writer is a farmer and district Vice-President, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Latur. Views personal.)

Java, Saviour of Indic Indonesia

From Majapahit to Pancasila, Java has repeatedly defended Indonesia’s plural ethos

The last article discussed the conditions, apparently threatening the survival of the Indic thread of Indonesia’s culture, responding to many triggers including a penchant for Arabization of the hitherto localized ‘Indonesian Islam’. Given the size of this wide-spread archipelago called Indonesia, along with the more or less equally well-spread Islamist outlook within the society as well as the polity, the wish for protecting Indonesia’s Indic DNA and thereby guarding its intrinsic plurality and diversity appears to have been pitted against heavy odds.


Although that may be the general situation, a major ray of hope lies indisputably in what is called ‘Javanism’ or the Javanese culture. Java counts as one of the five important islands of Indonesia, standing fifth among them in terms of land size but first in terms of population size. Most importantly, it also stands first in terms of its superior civilizational history. It has the most fertile soil, producing various crops abundantly, which explains the highest population within the archipelago. It carries the reputation of historically hosting the only Indonesian language out of its few hundreds, that produced high literature comparable with classic Sanskrit literature. It also enjoys the reputation of hosting a grand manifestation of arts and architecture of unmatched scale and quality.


Indigenous Empire

Topping it all, it has hosted the strongest ever indigenous empire, called Majapahit, for almost two centuries, that ruled over not only the entire archipelago but also today’s Singapore, parts of Peninsular Malaysia as well as Philippines, and in effect, provided a kind of balance of power in the region vis-à-vis the manoeuvres of the imperial Chinese court. It has also produced a class of aristocrats who formed the backbone of a stable bureaucracy that functioned even during the Dutch colonial rule and who took over the reins post-independence. Thus, the island of Java has indisputably been the cultural capital of the Indonesian archipelago for the last two millennia, which incidentally hosted the political capital of colonial Indonesia from 1619 to 1949, and continues to do so for free Indonesia today. All these facts should leave no doubt in the minds of the readers about the level of importance Java holds within Indonesia.


These all-round prosperous surroundings proved naturally conducive for spawning confident, strong-willed and free-spirited local population who received free exposure to multiple choices in life, who freely chose highly diverse ways of living amongst themselves, which cultural trait came to be identified eventually as ‘Javanism’ among the local populace as well as foreigners.


This Javanism is very core to the identity of being Javanese, which is valued highly by themselves. This free Javanese spirit is the gift of the long-experienced, experimented and embedded history of enmeshed Hindu-Buddhist-localist culture. Aggressive political Islam rose in Java in the mid-15th century, backed by the external power of Sultanate of Malacca, whose sole target was to anyhow pull down the once mighty Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit, which it achieved eventually. But, even after that ‘success of the power of Islam’ and the logically following destruction of the Hindu-Buddhist symbols of the bygone power, the ‘Javanism’ among the masses had managed to remain more or less intact over next few centuries. Evidence of that was found in the ways of the leader of the famous Java War of Independence fought in the 19th century, Prince Dipa-negara; although this Muslim prince with a Hindu name polarized the masses and fought the Dutch avowedly to ‘protect the glory of Islam’, his practice of cave-meditation for seeking ‘power from the heavens’ was unmistakably Hindu, which was unobjectionable then.


Free Spirit

This embedded free spirit and plurality of approach showed even in the mid-20th century when Indonesia became a free country; its leaders, who were majority Javanese, rejected the mounting pressure for declaring Indonesia as an Islamic state, and the top leader, the Javanese and charismatic President Sukarno, brought in the philosophy of ‘Pancasila’ (Sanskrit Pancha-Shila, meaning ‘five principles’) to be adopted by the newly free nation instead. This ‘Javanese intervention’ has decidedly kept Indonesia away from falling to growing Islamist and pan-Islamist ‘struggle’ so far. Even the later presidents of Indonesia post Sukarno have all been Javanese luckily, except one, B.J. Habibie, that too for a short intervening period of around one year. The difference showed – while all the Javanese presidents, all Muslim by religion, largely refused to buckle under the Islamist pressure (except the last ten years out of the total thirty-two of the second President Suharto), Habibie, the close friend and successor of Suharto, is said to have taken a few policy steps which can be viewed as critically important for the subsequent growth of Islamism in Indonesia.


This rising Islamism is hitting right at the heart of the innate pluralism of Indonesia, which is largely a Javanese gift. It has been manifesting in various ways – pressure on women for wearing ‘hijab’; relentless attacks on the state philosophy of ‘Pancasila’; reducing scope for practice of other religions, including restrictions on construction of places of worship; government-enabled migration of Muslim population in non-Muslim majority areas etc. The starkest example was noticed in 2017, when the socio-political campaign against one Basuki Purnama under the allegations of blasphemy of Islam was executed successfully, through legal and extra-legal means. It permanently ousted a popular politician and potential presidential candidate Purnama, Chinese by ethnicity and Christian by faith, thereby wiping out the possibility of non-Muslim competition for the top post for the upcoming general elections in 2029. Encouraging ‘Javanism’ to counter Islamism appears to be the only solution.


(The writer is a Ph.D. researcher in international relations. Views personal.)      


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