Farmers Movement Archive

Next to knock your socks off are – our young guns!

Amritsar, January 25Whether creating Punjabi version of popular revolution song ‘Bella Ciao’ or rendition of ‘Jugni’, the farmers’ movement has been getting support in form of protest art aplenty. Hosting an afternoon of music and art form in their support, students from city expressed their solidarity through theatre, poetry and a photo exhibition.‘Students for farmers’ was led by Harpeet Singh, a literature scholar from GNDU. With presence of senior artistes from city, including Arvinder Chamak, Gurinder Makana and Dr SS Bahl, the event was dedicated to give a platform to youth, to document the movement through their sensibilities.‘Jugni’, a genre of narrative used in Punjabi folk written by Dr SS Bahl, which is dedicated to farmers, began the proceedings of the day. Over 200 students, most of them upcoming poets, writers and artistes, attended the event. “The youth of Punjab, until now, was being portrayed through a narrative that only talked about drug abuse and foreign dreams. But this movement has unveiled a parallel picture, where the young have led the movement through knowledge and awareness. Through our event, we wanted to extend an opportunity by giving platform to young voices of creative dissent,” said Harpreet Singh.Among several performances were plays like ‘Kisan Kaun Ne’ that talked about how the three farm laws will impact traditional farming. Supnandan, sufi singer, recited a poem of resilience that the entire farmer movement has been about. A photo exhibition by artist Gurinder Makana, who went to Singhu border to capture the movement through his lens, was also put up at the event.Noted journalist and activist P Sainath, sent a special message to the ‘students for farmers’ event on behalf of ‘nation for farmers’, a nationwide umbrella forum that supports the movement. In his message, he said that students have turned out to be the most significant pillar of support for mass movements since 2018.

The Tribune

2021-01-26