March 30, 2021
On day 125 of the #FarmersProtests I wish to share this video with you. This is from the long-standing gherao by the Jamhoori Kisan Union of the Adani Dry Port, near Ludhiana, in Panjab. It is an interview in Hindi with Prof Surinder Kaur, 29 minutes, by K Santosh from Workers Unity.
Yes, it is about role of women and women’s participation in the protests but there is something more. I met Prof Surinder Kaur at Singhu and aunty invited me home with the lure of ‘stuffed Makki ki roti’. We know how hard it is make a simple makki ki roti and stuffed makki ki roti is as wondrous as food can get.
Yet, even more fascinating is how I see her daughter and my friend Sangeet Toor function – besides writing for The Wire and The Caravan and Trolley Times, now bringing out the women’s newspaper from the protest sites Karti Dharti.
I realise what makes some of us activists. As another friend remarked, a lot of us are shaped by family, by family values. If the family, the parents, have been actively political, then it runs in the blood. Surinder aunty’s family has been political for decades.
I know this is a long interview but do listen to one of the most comprehensive views on the women’s role in protests. I loved it that aunty mentions another friend Harinder Bindu, Gen Sec, BKU Ekta Ugrahan who is dedicated to the fight her father Megh Raj Bhagtuana was fighting and Jasbir Kaur Natt aunty from Panjab Kisan Union, another friend Navkiran Natt’s mother. The Natts are another family where politics runs in the blood.
Since Panjab has forever been a land of resistance, there are many such families in Panjab. For all of us, middle-class, the clarity in this interview teaches us a lot. Do listen here.
PS: Since the interview is open air, the audio is better over earphones.