Over 2020-21, farmer protests in India turned into a movement provoked by the passage of farm laws designed to dismantle regulation of agricultural trade, provide a legal framework for contract farming arrangements, and facilitate corporate entry into agricultural production and trade. C.P. Chandrasekhar explains that despite intense farmer opposition, the government held out for almost a year after the movement began before withdrawing the laws. Chandrasekhar describes the factors underlying this stand-off by tracing the post-Independence evolution of agricultural and food policy and examining the political economy context of the positions adopted by the farmers and the government.