Every Year National Farmers Day is celebrated on December 23. It was decided by the government of India to celebrate Farmers Day in 2001.
Every year India celebrates National Farmers Day on December 23 to mark former Prime Minister of India Chaudhary Charan Singh’s birth anniversary. The government organises many programs and debates, seminars on agriculture on this day.
National Farmers Day is celebrated every year especially in those states which are actively engaged in farming such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh among others. Chaudhary Charan Singh was also known as a farmer’s leader.
National Farmers Day
Every Year National Farmers Day is celebrated on December 23. It was decided by the government of India to celebrate Farmers Day in 2001. It is believed that ‘Zamindari Abolition Bill-1952’ was passed due to Chaudhary Charan Singh’s hard work.
About Chaudhary Charan Singh
Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) served as the 5th Prime Minister of India between 28 July 1979 and 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the ‘champion of India’s peasants.’
Charan Singh was born on 23 December 1902 in a rural peasant Jat family of village Noorpur, District Hapur (Erstwhile District Meerut), Uttar Pradesh (Erstwhile United Provinces of Agra and Oudh). Charan Singh entered politics as part of the Independence Movement motivated by Mohandas Gandhi. He was active from 1931 in the Ghaziabad District Arya Samaj as well as the Meerut District Indian National Congress for which he was jailed twice by the British. Before independence, as a member of Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces elected in 1937, he took a deep interest in the laws that were detrimental to the village economy and he slowly built his ideological and practical stand against the exploitation of tillers of the land by landlords. Between 1952 and 1967, he was one of “three principal leaders in Congress state politics.”
He became particularly notable in Uttar Pradesh from the 1950s for drafting and ensuring the passage of what were then the most revolutionary land reform laws in any state in India under the tutelage of the then Chief Minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant; first as Parliamentary Secretary and then as Revenue Minister responsible for Land Reforms. He became visible on the national stage from 1959 when he publicly opposed the unquestioned leader and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s socialistic and collectivist land policies in the Nagpur Congress Session. Though his position in the faction-ridden UP Congress was weakened, this was a point when the middle peasant communities across castes in North India began looking up to him as their spokesperson and later as their unquestioned leader.
Singh stood for tight government spending, enforced consequences for corrupt officers, and advocated a “firm hand in dealing with the demands of government employees for increased wages and dearness allowances.” It is also worth noting that within the factional UP Congress, his ability to articulate his clear policies and values made him stand out from his colleagues. Following this period, Charan Singh defected from the Congress on 1 April 1967, joined the opposition party, and became the first non-Congress chief minister of UP.
This was a period when non-Congress governments were a strong force in India from 1967–1971.
Since his death, many who knew Singh have ensured his life and work are remembered positively. These perceptions enforce the notion that he was of a “higher category of leaders” in the areas of “intellect, personal integrity, and coherence of his economic and social thought.” His association with causes dear to farming communities in India caused his memorial in New Delhi to be named Kisan Ghat (in Hindi, Kisan is the word for farmer).
His birthday on 23 December is celebrated as Kisan Diwas (Farmers Day) in India. A commemorative postage stamp was issued by the government of India on the third death anniversary (29 May 1990) of Charan Singh.
