Context
Kisan Diwas or National Farmers’ Day is celebrated across the nation on December 23 to commemorate the birth anniversary of the fifth Prime Minister of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh.
- In 2001, the government of India declared December 23, the day Chaudhary Charan Singh was born, to be celebrated as National Farmers’ Day and for all the right reasons.
About Chaudhary Charan Singh
- Chaudhary Charan Singh played an important role in raising issues of the small and marginal farmers.
- In the 1950s, he drafted and ensured the passage of revolutionary land reform laws.
- In 1959, he first opposed the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘socialistic and collectivist land politics.’
- In 1967, he defected the Congress and became the first non-Congress Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
- Charan Singh served twice as chief minister of India’s biggest agrarian state, Uttar Pradesh, where he played a major role in shaping land reforms. He was behind several major farmer-forward Bills, including the:
- the Land Utilisation Bill of 1939
- the Debt Redemption Bill in 1939
- While serving as agriculture minister in 1952, he led UP in its efforts to abolish the zamindari system. In fact, he went on to draft the UP Zamindari and Land Reforms Bill himself.
- On 23 December, 1978, he founded the Kisan Trust — a non-political, non-profit making body — with the aim of educating India’s rural masses against injustice, and fostering solidarity among them.
- Chaudhary Charan Singh breathed his last on January 14, 1980.
- A memorial dedicated to him was built at Raj Ghat and is called ‘Kisan Ghat.’
