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 Punjab has a unique place in the history of India. As a border State it has had to face numerous aggressions. People here belonged to what might be called a ‘Martial race”. Aggressive in nature and well-built in physique. It was a tradition in most Sikh families to have one son in farming and the other in army. When Lal Bahadur Shastri gave the slogan of “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, he probably had Punjab in mind. Sikhs of Punjab had special links with Maharashtra. Their tenth and the last Guru Gobind Singh lived in Nanded in Maharashtra and is buried there. For Sikhs, therefore, Nanded is a place of pilgrimage. The name Punjab was derived from five rivers that flow through the State – Jhelum, Satlaj, Ravi, Chenab and Beas. Panj means five and ab means water. The ever-flowing rivers over the years brought with their waters a lot of silt which enriched the soil making it very fertile. The land is flat, with almost no hills. It has a massive network of canals and the rich soil produces tons of grains. The State was rightly called the “granary of India”. However, it did not mean that farmers in undivided Punjab did not face problems. Even when the crops were bountiful farmers were generally indebted. The first person to notice this was Sir Chhotu Ram, a leading Jat farmer. He was highly respected in the government quarters. He was the first person from the earlier century who organized the farmers. The organization was called “Ajgar”. He coined that strange name by picking up the first letter of four main farming communities in Punjab; Ahir, Jat, Gujar and Rajput. By expanding that organization further in 1925 he made it into ‘Jamindara Khetibadi Union’. He introduced a bill in the Punjab Assembly the gist of which was: “Despite growing good crops farmers are sinking in loan. Moneylenders are confiscating their land. Therefore, the Government should make a law to prevent moneylenders from attaching and confiscating the farmers’ 196

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage