Poignant tale of survival
Reviewed by
Amarinder Gill

Those Who Did Not Die
by Ranjana Padhi. 
Sage. 
Pages 182. Rs 650.

punjab was the Green Revolution state that emerged as the “Grain Bowl of India”. Its success story was parallel to none. However, the 1990s saw the Green Revolution reach a plateau as the yields declined and experts questioned the traditional rice-wheat cultivation. As the Green Revolution weakened, the farmers emerged as vulnerable and hard hit.

Farmers' suicides are seen as an impact of the Green Revolution and have received a wide coverage, unlike the families and dependents of the victims who have not received much attention. The book gives an insight into the life of these survivors, mostly women trying to fight for survival.

The study has been conducted in the cancer belt of Punjab. The book highlights how gender and class work along with patriarchy to create anomie in society. The fragile concept of masculinity is shattered. Padhi's work is a saga of survival and highlights the invisible work done by the women and how they battle situations when they don on the mantle of the provider.

Using the interview technique, the writer has covered 136 respondents who were the wives, mothers and at times, female relatives of the deceased farmers. Suicides are committed among the landless, marginal and small farmers. There is pathos in each narrative of these women from the Malwa region. Most victims committed suicide by consuming pesticides. The book cites a conglomeration of factors ranging from loan pressure, harassment by loaning agencies, family obligations and drug addiction. Depeasantisation has increased in Punjab, as there is increase in fragmentation in landholdings and landlessness.

Those Who Did Not Die is a detailed study of women who have to negotiate patriarchy and are actively involved in the process of production. Caste places certain taboos on the kind of work done by women. Though the women of other castes enjoy certain freedom, the Jat women have to work only on the family farm. Normally, women do not own any land and even if they do, the decision making lies in the hands of male members. Women are not seen as farmers but as farmers' wives, because cultural conditioning does not allow upper caste women to work outside the family landholdings. Earnings of the survivors are scarce and they have to survive by doing lowly jobs like making cow dung cakes and sweeping. Village life offers only seasonal work like cotton picking, paddy sowing, and construction work. Apart from working on the farm, the women do unpaid housework, care for the children and the elderly.

Padhi writes in detail how in an agrarian society lavish dowries are given and money is borrowed, lands are sold to get many a sister or daughter married. As interest piles up, the borrower is unable to repay and finally suicide is the answer. Cancer is part of life in the Malwa region, as is drug addiction and alcoholism. The family as a unit has disintegrated and there is alienation in agrarian Punjab. In crisis, women have to take on the role of the caregiver. An eye-opener, the book fills the vacuum that exists in charting the life of the survivors of suicide.





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