Durkheimian Theory and Farmer Suicides in India

When we take a close gander at the works of the prominent sociologist Emile Durkheim, we
will find that most of his works are based on two broader sociological themes. First theme is
that he gives more importance to the social factors over the individual characteristics and the
second and the most important idea is that society can be studied scientifically. Because both
of these themes continue to be controversial, Durkheim and his studies are still relevant. He
believed that education must be on the lines of scientific reasoning so that it will equip the
students to understand their life better. He published several works on sociology and most of
his works relied on empirical analysis. Suicide (1897) was one such book published by
Durkheim where the study was purely based on scientific method and empirical data available
from various government censuses and statistics.
Durkheim chose to study the phenomenon of suicide because it is relatively common across
various societies and the amount of data available for study is huge. However, the most
important reason behind this attempt was to establish the relevance of Sociology. The act of
suicide is generally considered to be something very private and personal. Durkheim believed
that if he succeeds in explaining such a seemingly individualistic act like suicide with the help
of Sociology, it would be comparatively easy to extend Sociologys realm to processes that are
much more readily considered as open to sociological analysis and interpretation. According
to Durkheim, suicide was not actually an act done intentionally, but an act done advisedly,
meaning the action will result in his/her death with death may or may not being his/her ultimate
goal. Though Durkheim believed that social causes played a greater role in motivating people
to commit suicide, he also pointed out two extra-social causes that can influence a person on
taking such decision. First extra-social cause is the inner psychological inclination of the
individual towards the idea of suicide which may vary from person to person. Second cause is
the nature of external physical environment like climate or nature which will indirectly have
the same effect.
Durkheim also divided the kinds of suicides broadly into three categories based on the social
setups that influence the suicide. In other words, these kinds differ from each other based on
the nature of motive behind the suicide. The first kind is the Anomic suicide. This kind of
suicide is due to the breakdown of social equilibrium. It happens due to a social situation which
has cropped up suddenly. Such social situations create a condition in which the individual finds
himself unable to adapt to the changed environment. Suicide of a person who suddenly
becomes bankrupt or a bright student who fails in the college exams unexpectedly are all
examples of anomic suicides. Altruistic suicide is the suicide committed by an individual when
the connection between the individual and the group or the society is too strong and it is this
strong bond which motivates the individual to commit suicide. A terrorist who kills himself as
a suicide bomber is a typical example for the altruistic kind of suicide. He kills himself due to
his strong bond with his organization and its ideology. Egoistic suicide is the third kind of
suicide where the individual commits suicide due to the feeling that they are detached from the
society. People are integrated into the society through family ties, relationships and emotional
bonds. Once a person loses this crucial integration with society, it will lead him to a state of
isolation and alienation. Suicides of the elderly people, particularly the people who go through
the empty nest syndrome, can be cited as an example of egoistic syndrome. The fourth kind of
suicide as defined by Durkheim is the Fatalistic suicide. It is the suicide committed by an
individual due to the over regulation of the society or group of which the individual is a part.
Recent rise in the suicides of soldiers of Indian army, suicides of housemaids and servants who
works for long hours under extreme situations are all examples of fatalistic suicides. Though
these are the four broader categories used to explain suicides, it must be noted that suicides are
not always of a single form. In several cases, a suicide can be put under two or more categories
from the four mentioned above.
Durkheimian Theory and Farmer Suicides in India

India is largely an agrarian society with around 60% of its population working in the primary
or the agricultural sector. Most of them find their livelihood by depending directly or indirectly
on the agrarian econom. Though 60% of the population is engaged in agricultural activities,
the contribution of agriculture to GDP is just 14.6%. This gap between human input and
economic output shows how inefficient is our administrative system and throws light over the
poor performance of policy makers in transferring such a large share of human effort and
resource into economic benefit. In other words, though 60% of human capital of the country is
used for agricultural activities, only one-fourth of it is transferred to the economy.

There are several reasons why a farmer commits suicide. First reason is the sudden
developments in the pre-planned agricultural activities. This includes unexpected changes in
monsoon patterns, changes in government policies, lack of proper public distribution system
(PDS) etc. As a result, the farmers, who are supposed to feed the population, find it difficult to
feed and support their families. In 2003, a study was conducted regarding the psychological
state of farmers who tried and failed to commit suicide. Most of them responded to the survey
team that they felt alienated and helpless after the continuous crop failures. The government
officials, according to the farmers, didnt show any interest in listening to the problems of
farmers. In many cases, farmers felt like they are becoming a liability to the entire family.
Another reason pointed out by the study was that most of the farmers felt insecure to be a part
of society that largely neglected the problems of those who produced the essential commodity
for the survival of the human beings.

In his classical study of suicide, Durkheim points out that a suicide is the result of social factors
which pushes the individual to think about suicide in order to fade away from the society which
doesnt appreciate or support the group which kills the starvation of the society. Durkheim
mentions four kinds of suicides in his work and clearly states that a suicide can be any of these
four in nature or a mixture of two or more kinds.

Using the findings of Emile Durkheim and applying them to the context of farmer suicides in
India, we can say that most of the suicides of farmers comes under two categories of suicides
as defined by Durkheim; anomic and egoistic. As mentioned in the introduction, Anomic
suicide is the kind of suicide committed by an individual when a sudden, unexpected event
takes place in the life of the individual. In our given case, most of the farmers committed
suicides due to the unexpected events; the unexpected event of crop failure due to some natural
disasters or the unsupportive response from the part of bureaucracy and government who are
obliged to protect and safeguard the agrarian community, who forms the back bone of the
society.

The reason why we must categorize these suicides also under the egoistic suicides is that
farmers kill themselves due to the isolation and alienation that they feel after a crisis. According
to Durkheim, the egoistic suicides are committed due to the alienation of the individual from
the rest of the society. Alienation includes the breakage of social ties, isolation from other
individuals, weakening of the social bonds etc. As mentioned before, a farmer, who has lost
everything, will find himself as a loser and thinks that he is no more an asset to the society or
his family. This emotion is largely due to the response of the society towards the farmer. Elderly
people commit suicide because they feel loneliness and consider themselves as good for
nothing. Such suicides of old people are often cited as an example of egoistic suicides.
Similarly, the farmer suicides also exhibit the nature of egoistic suicide as their action of killing
themselves is largely due to the response that they receive from the society they live.