As India celebrates Makar Sankranti on January 14, different parts of the country are indulged in the festive fervour, with people in the north-east hogging on delicacies to celebrate Bihu, to South Indians savouring sweets served on Pongal as India celebrates the farming festival or the festival of harvest.
Celebrated with different names and traditions in different states, Makar Sankranti is all about worshipping the sun and the legend of Hindu mythology related to Sankranti. For an agriculture-dependent country like India, it means the end of cold, unyielding winters. It is a special time for the farmers as it marks the harvest season.
However, this year the festival was dampened by the intense protests by the farmers of north India, thousands of farmers who have marched to Delhi from Punjab, Haryana & Uttar Pradesh, to express their outrage against the three farm laws introduced by the centre in the 2020 farm bill.
The farmer community in North India has been protesting on Delhi borders against the three laws, which they call as contentious. On one hand political leaders of the country took to social media to send their wishes as they celebrate the farming festival. On the other hand they were unable to rectify the grievances of our ‘annadata’.
The agitating farmers who have made tractor trolleys their makeshift homes, experienced 2021’s Lohri and Makar Sankranti celebrations not in their fields but on the grounds of the protesting sites without the festive fervour that the joy of harvesting their crops brings.
While the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the three farm laws, farmers are still now backing down from their agitation, as they want the Centre to repeal the laws which they term as anti-farmer.