Consumption Dreams, Rural Deaths: Sociological Reflections on Farmers Suicides in India

Situating within the broader context of socio-economic transformations led by liberalization, the present paper explores the epidemic of suicide among farming communities in India from a sociological lens. While general discussion on farmer suicides primarily emphasise on lack of yield or production led indebtedness as the cause of farmers suicide , this paper aims to understand this issue from the perspective of consumption led economic transformations in the context of India post liberalisation. Drawing on existing literature , the study contends that indebtedness is not merely an economic phenomenon but a symptom of societal pathology which has been intensified liberalization process. The liberal economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, followed by the influx of global consumer culture has disrupted traditional agrarian life and widened the gap between aspirations and achievable realities, particularly for the marginal farmers who struggle to hold on to their produce every year amidst seasonal variations. It concludes that the suicides of Indian farmers must be understood as a tragic consequence of anomic living conditions led by the contradictions of a market-driven economy.