What Does Sharad Joshi Think of A Liberal India
Sharad Joshi is a popular name in the history of Indian Liberalism who mobilized a mass farmer movement in India that demanded free-market agricultural policies.
India heavily relies on Western culture and practices Westernised ideas. The urban English-educated middle-class citizens rely on the imported ideas of the West. The late Sharad Joshi, who was one of the eminent personalities who stood for the farmers in the Western province of Maharashtra, has resented this caricature of India. His mindset reflected the farmer movement that he led in the 1980s and 1970s, which strongly gave out the message of Indian democracy’s potential as a fertile ground that can be a breeding place of liberal ideas and for the creation of liberal India.
Sharad Joshi’s Early Years
Born into a middle-class bureaucrat family and holding a master’s degree in economics, Joshi was an unlikely leader for Maharashtrian farmers. He had prestigious jobs as a college lecturer, Indian Postal Service official, and with the Berne-based Universal Postal Union. In 1975, he left his international civil servant job to become a farmer in India. After a failed farming experiment, he identified government policy as the root cause of farmers' poverty. This led him to embrace anti-statism and form Shetkari Sanghatana in 1979, a farmers' organization that became a key player in the New Farmers’ Movements in India.
His Liberal Views
Sharad Joshi’s organization whole heartedly embraced liberal modernity as the organisation wanted to promote its views not only in policy advocacy but also in Society.
Sharad Joshi’s Organization, Shetkari Sanghatana, did not popularise idyllic Gandhian rural democracy and certainly didn’t glorify it as a spiritually enhanced domain. The organization vehemently fought for the farmers and their freedom in the agrarian sector of Indian society. He actively worked for promotion of liberal India by fighting for the rights of the farmers and his thoughts reflected on the Gandhian policies to make for a Liberal India
Conclusion
Sharad Joshi’s views on Liberalism are reflected in the farmer’s movement that he led in the 1980s, which percolated to the different sections of the society and gave the message of freedom and liberal views.
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