Buddhism arose in India and yet every 30 minutes a farmer in India commits suicide; does Buddha have something against farmers?

Farming in India is very hard work,. The crops are dependent on the arrival of the monsoons. When the monsoons don’t come, drought occurs. The stree of farming in India is what leads to the suicides.

True, but this doesn’t answer the question related to Buddhism in India and is this their fate and karma?

@gr8teful Why put it on the Buddha? My point was that religion and karma have nothing to do with it. Many farmers are not even Buddhist; they are Hindus.

As @marinelife has said, very few Indians are Buddhist these days. According to the 2001 census, 80.5% are Hindus and only 0.8% are Buddhists. I’d guess this issue has little to do with religion or karma.

Interesting I didn’t know that. Buddhism arose in India but very few Indians are Buddhists now.Religions rarely change in a Country once established.I wonder why?

India has an awful lot of people. Perhaps the rate of farmer suicide is comparable to that in other countries. Perhaps belief or lack of belief in Buddha has nothing to do with suicide. Do you have any reason, whatsoever, to believe there is a connection? Is there anything in the literature? Any evidence at all? Or is this something you just invented in your head?

Non sequitur, non sequitur, non sequitur.

As to why there aren’t many Buddhists in India, you have to realize that the nature of Buddhism, especially in its original form, made it quite vulnerable to political forces. The monks were concentrated in monastic communities that were dependent on support by the secular community and the indulgence of the secular authorities. They were forbidden by their vows to till the land, touch money, or own more than the bare necessities. They couldn’t take up arms in defense. They could only survive in a favorable political and social environment.

India went through many periods when the secular climate turned very much against the Buddhists, not least of which were the invasions of the White Huns and the Mongols. During those hard times, India was almost entirely emptied of Buddhists, who took refuge in the Himalayas and other neighboring areas that were more supportive. The current %0.8 actually represents a modern increase in the Buddhist population.

More to the point of the question, though, there is no Buddha who decides the fate of this one or that one. The entire import of the teaching of karma is that it is one’s own actions that condition how one experiences reality.

I wonder if these farmers cows shudder when a buddah pulls on their udder.

Check out talks and writings by Arundhati Roy. She has done great work exposing the culpability of transnational corporations in exploiting rural farmers in India, including the forced introduction of genetically modified seeds that make numerous farmers indebted to biotech firms like Monsanto, thus never being able to make a profit. This, combined with soil loss and the self-sustaining dependency cycle created when petro-chemical fertilizers and insecticides are used, is what has caused the strings of suicides.

Just because one comes from a Buddhist country does not mean they do not experience human suffering or are immune to the human condition.

It’s possible the farmer believed his karmic fate was in suicide, or, he was simply a “victim” of stress, depression and mental illness, much like anyone that commits suicide.

It’s a misconception to think that someone from a particular spiritual faith is immune to the pitfalls of humanity.

There are structural factors that have to do with inequality as well as the caste system in India which result in this kind of suicide. It is not about Buddha.

Their reasons for suicide are financial. They take out loans with really nasty terms from banks to help sustain their farms, then you get guys like Monsanto claiming to do a favor for them and selling them GM seeds for equally unfavorable terms, and they wind up so deep in debt that they think suicide is the only way out.

This has little to do with Buddhism. Buddhism has always been a minority religion in India and a contentious one because it challenged the status quo of things like the caste system. Suffering is a universal reality, caused by our own desires which can be deepend or lessened by our own actions. We are not punished for our Karma, but by it. Much like how it isn’t God who punishes you for touching a hot stove, it’s the action of touching a hot stove that burns your hand.

In this case, the farmer’s suffering is caused by the unskillful karma and greed of those who would exploit the poor.

Well, I’m studying this now. Buddhism isn’t a major religion in anymore and Hinduism tends to favor the upper classes such as that nirvana can’t be reached until you become rich. But also, I don’t think it’s just India. Everywhere, farmers are having probloms. With the world economy the way it is, they can’t pay back debts and if they have a small farm, they won’t be able to sell as many crops to get some income.