Moral Shocks or Creeping Normalities? An Initial Analysis of The Implications of Farmer Suicides for Agrarian Political Participation in Punjab, India, Uma Fox, UG '26 (407A9E08)
Farmer suicides have become pervasive tragedies within agricultural communities in the north Indian state of Punjab. Reflecting a culmination of economic inequalities and policy failures, the scale of Punjab’s cultivator suicides has led some scholars and activists to view them as a potential rallying cry for political change. Notably, the state’s 2020-2022 Farmers Protests possessed frequent linkages in rhetoric and demands to policies that would mitigate such deaths.
The popularity of this rhetoric raises questions regarding the role of farmer suicides as a motivating factor for political participation. By analyzing the correlation between district suicide rates, the frequency of local Farmers Protests, and voter turnout, I consider how this indicator of agrarian distress may motivate communities to engage politically. By comparing the correlations of districts that are highly and marginally affected by cultivator suicide, I find initial evidence to suggest that these tragedies are potentially correlated with increased civic engagement–to a point. The correlation between these factors is significantly more pronounced in less-affected districts–where these tragedies remain abnormal–than in highly-affected districts, where they are often a daily reality.
Despite the limitations of this initial correlational analysis, my research offers new avenues for considering how social distress motivates political action. Its findings suggest that the routinization of tragedy may dissuade local advocacy, creating an inescapable equilibrium of rampant suffering, political disillusionment, and stagnated policy responses. As Punjab’s suicide epidemic continues, this possibility raises a critical question for the future of Indian politics: If death does not compel action, what will?