[channikhabra]

> (very legitimate) resentment felt toward businessmen, farmers and politicians by salaried Indians

Resentment toward farmers? You gotta be kidding me. I agree with the argument that most of the illegitimate wealth get invested in India in one way or other and most of it might not be present in Swiss banks and several other things from the article, but above comment shows the author has no idea how Indian society is operating internally. I have lived both in village and in the city, I've seen salaried city/village people having many opinions/feelings for "farmers" but resentment was not one of them.

[prateek_mir]

Seriously ? depending on the location, farmers may very well be the most wealthy group of people (Thanks to the real estate boom and the highly inflated land prices)

the article makes the mistake in generalizing the case, you should not do the same.

[xerophtye]

I think he meant the Feudal lords of the agricultural lands and not the actual labour who work on farms

[ortuna]

I think the author maybe talking about those groups not paying taxes, while the salaried have to.

[ragsagar]

I don't think anyone in India thinks farmers are given any unfair advantage. Actually all part of society is screaming to provide help to these people who still dare to farm instead of selling of their lands to real estate mafia even after all the stories of farmer suicides [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_suicides_in_India

[discardorama]

That may well be; but historically, farms were the perfect vehicle to launder ill-gotten wealth. You claim (on paper, and certified by greasing some palms) that your farm's output was $X*2, when in fact it was $X. Suddenly, the extra $X of money is counted as "agricultural income" and tax free (AFAIK).

[xmonkee]

He is, and yet the GP is right there is zero resentment middle class people feel towards farmers. I think what most people feel is a mix of gratitude and pity.