Raghunath, a 60-year-old farmer, surveys his two-acre farm in Bundelkhand with some concern. After four consecutive years of drought, the weather cooperated this year. Right after Diwali, he sowed the Rabi or winter crop of wheat, which now stands about two feet tall. On seeds, fertilizers, diesel for his water pump, he spent Rs 15,000. Then, on November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the highest-denomination notes were cancelled. Raghunath says that farmers like him were crushed.
