The question to ask is: when did this farmer, otherwise known for his tenacity, give up hope altogether? More important, what drove him to the wall? The insensitivity of the political class, complicated commerce, uncertain weather or an oppressive banking system that actually resembles the old moneylender? Today, the farmer is totally enslaved by institutions which were actually created to give him relief and help him prosper. Now even the sight of the bank or its employees sends a shiver down his spine. Earlier, the political structure in the village offered him protection. Today that structure threatens his existence.

The community character of agriculture ended a long time ago, even before market forces and Sharad Joshi, the celebrated peasant leader, impacted the peasantry. In the ’70s, the peasant was liberated from the clutches of the moneylenders, thanks to nationalisation of banks and the 20-point programme. But some time in the ’90s, he found himself chained by the very cooperative banks created and promoted for him and even by him. These banks rapidly became political power centres in rural Maharashtra. Along with sugar cooperatives and the local political class, they formed a cartel of sorts in western Maharashtra. There was, however, no such cartelisation in Vidarbha, which has seen the most acute spate of suicides.

In the first phase, the Congress political system was strengthened by the process of cartelisation. The Congress could consolidate its political power thanks only to this leader-chairman-panel nexus. The leader was a minister, the chairman headed a sugar factory or cooperative bank (or both) and the panel (in the sugar factory or in the bank) acted as henchmen, who controlled everything — local politics as well as institutions. At the apex of the cooperative banks was the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank. Whoever controlled this bank controlled politics and also the agricultural economy of the state. But essentially this overall control was in the hands of the sugar and bank barons of western Maharashtra.

... contd.