From 2 to 20 October 2006, 350km of the national highway between Gwalior and Delhi, India, were the scene of the Chetawni Yatra, a peaceful demonstration march in which 400 peasants, farm workers and Indian activists from 10 different States participated. The aim of this march, initiated by the Indian non-violent grassroots movement Ekta Parishad, was to demand access to land for millions of Indian peasants. The climax of this mobilization was a day’s sit-in by 1,500 people in the capital, to hand over to the Prime Minister a memorandum presenting the marchers’ demands.

This event, relayed by an Appeal by Réseau-Solidarité [1]] of Peuples Solidaires, marked the start of a national campaign called Janadesh 2007 (meaning, the people’s will). A new march scheduled for October 2007 will bring together 25,000 marchers determined to carry the demands of millions of landless peasants over 350km.

Ekta Parishad

Ekta Parishad, a movement of Ghandian inspiration, has grown over the past 15 years from popular local mobilization in various States of India, into a country-wide movement. Under the impulse of its charismatic leader, Rajagopal, 150,000 members now participate in its action, while the number of people concerned by its activity is estimated at over ten million. Ekta Parishad is present in eight Indian States and is active in over 4,000 villages.

This movement works primarily among small peasant farmers, the Dalits (‘untouchables’) [2] and Adivasis (tribal communities) around two activities:
   it provides support for local community development projects with a view to attaining self-sufficiency and compensating for the inadequacies of government programmes;
   it organizes mobilization to demand access to rights, especially access to land and basic resources.

Ekta Parishad believes that the poorest of the poor can become autonomous only if their individual and collective capacities to develop sustainable economic resources in their communities are organized and strengthened. By ensuring their self-sufficiency, these communities are able to break free of their dependency on hopelessly inadequate welfare systems set up by the authorities. Once they are independent they are in a position to demand that these authorities apply the law.

The Janadesh campaign

Since the 2004 elections the Indian federal government has been promising to apply the existing land reform, but the peasants are still waiting. Ekta Parishad has therefore decided to react. The organization’s favourite mode of action is the padyatra, consisting of a peaceful information and demonstration march inspired by the Ghandian model. From 2 October (the anniversary of Ghandi’s birthday) to 22 October 2007, 25,000 inhabitants of rural areas (landless peasants, farm workers, members of human rights organizations, etc.) from all over India will participate in a 350km march from Gwalior to New Delhi. In the federal capital they will be joined by over 100,000 demonstrators for a sit-in organized in front of the Parliament. The duration of the sit-in will depend on the nature of the commitments made by the government concerning application of the rights of the most underprivileged. Preparations have been under way for nearly two years. Many gatherings have been organized - including the Chetawni yatra in October 2006 - and Rajagopal has met with the Prime Minister several times.

In this struggle for land, women farmers play an important role. In India these women struggle with determination and dignity to retain what in many cases are ancestral lands. Moreover, peasants generally suffer from a lack of consideration in Indian society, although they account for over 70% of the rural population. In 2006 Chetawni yatra’s main demand was access to land. But for the 100 women who participated, the combat was also for recognition of their status. The “Women’s Day and Land Day” organized on 7 October 2006 by 100 women in the march served to open this debate. Ekta Parishad has already shown its logistic and political ability to organize this type of initiative. Almost every year since 1991, it has coordinated marches of this kind with Rajagopal, taking care to anchor them in strong grassroots mobilization and the support of solidarity campaigns at international level. Concrete results have been achieved every time and the non-violent movement has readily become involved in their application.

Ekta Parishad’s marches, through the Appeals of Réseau-Solidarité of Peuples Solidaires:
  Appeal n°218: 3000 kilomètres pour le droit à la terre (February 2000)
  Appeal n°238: Solidarité au kilomètre (August 2001)
  Appeal n°256: Illégaux sur leurs propres terres (January 2003)
  Appeal n°267: La terre d’abord (January 2004)

These different marches have triggered the creation of local joint commissions for land redistribution in the States of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (in central India).

The demands

Ekta Parishad considers that the task forces created by the Indian government consequent to the first marches in the early 2000s for land allocation and distribution, are not effective. Many other problems have remained unsolved, such as application of the Tribal Act passed in 2005 for the recognition of the rights of tribal populations living in forests. Due to pressure from economic lobbies (especially forestry companies), this law has never been put into application. Many peasants find themselves forced into extreme acts and commitments; for instance, the numbers of peasant suicides are multiplying and membership of Naxalite [3] armed movements is growing. Faced with this situation, Ekta Parishad recommends three priority measures:
   the creation of a National Land Authority to settle the claims of the poor and the landless, and to deal with problems of land-related poverty, migrations and violence;
   the creation of ‘fast-track’ courts that can deal with land conflicts rapidly and prevent certain local despots from holding onto land illegally;
   the creation of a ‘one window system’ facilitating access to land for small peasants who currently have to deal with multiple administrative agents. This system has already been proposed by the Indian government - for setting-up multinational firms!

The method: a non-violent march

These millions of Indian citizens refuse aggressive action in response to the violence of the situations they have to endure daily. But far from being passive and silent, they have adopted symbolic and creative acts to promote their cause. The march for rights, Janadesh - meaning “the people’s will” -, will be the highlight. In the Ghandian tradition, millions of outcasts have chosen to act peacefully by informing themselves on their rights and organizing to defend them.

The Ekta Parishad strategy is based above all on the formulation of demands addressed to government authorities. Only when negotiations fail does the organization resort to ‘active non-cooperation’, with actions such as these long marches, called padyatras, throughout the country. The use of such marches as a means of protest and advocacy is a civil disobedience method that is by no means new in India. Initiated in 1930 by Ghandi, the first march was organized to free the Indian population of the salt tax instituted by the British colonial government. This form of peaceful mobilization has since been reused several times in India and elsewhere (e.g. by Martin Luther King in 1963 in the US, the march for equality and against racism in 1983 in France, and the march by the landless in Brazil in 1997).

Mobilization of the North
- A collective of organizations in France and Europe: For several years European organizations (German, British, French, Italian and Swiss) have been working together to support Ekta Parishad and, more generally, landless Indian peasants. They have decided to coordinate their efforts in an informal collective called Ekta Europe (www.ektaparishad.org/europe).
Five organizations in France have mobilized to support the Janadesh 2007 Campaign:
  Peuples Solidaires et son Réseau-Solidarité (www.peuples-solidaires.org)
  Frères des Hommes (www.fdh.org) ;
  Solidarité (www.solidarite.asso.fr)
  le CRIDEV 35 (www.ritimo.org).
  la Confédération Paysanne (www.confederationpaysanne.fr)

The following organizations are members of Ekta Europe: Solidarité, Peuples Solidaires, Frères des Hommes, CRIDEV 35 (France); Action Village India (UK); CESCI (Switzerland); Volens Mercy Home (Belgium); Concern (Ireland); Freunde von Ekta Parishad (Germany); Satyagraha (Italy).

  Consciousness-raising in the general public:

The operation ‘Empreintes des pieds’ (‘Footprints’) : Since the summer of 2006, on the initiative of local groups of Frères des Hommes and then Peuples Solidaires, a symbolic, ludic action has been proposed at local events (festivals, non-profit organizations’ fetes, etc.) to promote awareness of Janadesh. Visitors to these events are given the opportunity to leave their footprint in green paint on a white sheet - the colours of Ekta Parishad - as a sign of solidarity with those participating in the march.

Peasants Struggle Day on 17 April: The international peasant movement Via Campesina instituted 17 April as ‘Peasants Struggle Day’ in homage to the landless Brazilian peasants shot dead in 1996 by soldiers who broke up a peaceful demonstration. On the occasion of 17 April 2007, the Confédération Paysanne, Peuples Solidaires, Frères des Hommes and Solidarité published a joint press communiqué announcing their support for the Janadesh 2007 campaign.

Support marches: In some regions support marches are being prepared: in Switzerland a march from Berne to Geneva is planned for September 2007 to announce the Janadesh campaign in October; in France marches are being organized in Brittany, Touraine and Rhône-Alpes to raise consciousness in the general public and collect funds for the marchers.

The Janadesh Caravan: In August 2007 a caravan decorated in the Ekta Parishad colours, green and white, will travel throughout Brittany, France. It will be present at a number of festivals and will propose activities for the general public, relative to problems of access to land in Brittany and in India. Apart from these festivals, it will propose activities about India to young people in day-care centres and summer camps.

Ekta Parishad scarves and book: Several member organizations of Ekta Europe are selling hand-woven scarves (€10) and a book (€5) on the landless peasants’ struggle in India. These products are available on the Solidarité website. Proceeds will be given to Ekta Parishad for the organization of their march.

  The parliamentary lobby:

To make European parliamentarians aware of Ekta Parishad’s unprecedented initiative, Ekta Europe - with the support of Solidarité -organized meetings between Rajagopal and European MPs, including the vice-president of the European Parliament Gérard Onesta, during the December 2006 parliamentary session in Strasbourg. The members of the European parliament affirmed their support for Ekta Parishad by proposing to write to the Indian Prime Minister and/or to participate in the march. In Brittany, after receiving Rajagopal, the President of the Conseil Général of Ille et Vilaine undertook to participate in the Janadesh campaign for a day.

The question of access to land, in Europe and elsewhere

Janadesh is also an ideal opportunity for raising awareness of the issue of access to land in its full complexity, both in India and close to home, in Europe. The problem of access to land and, more generally, access to property is a reality in both the South and the North. In the South the acquisition of agricultural land and the development of the agri-food business are taking place at the expense of subsistence farming. This is causing a rural exodus, especially of young people towards the slums of large cities. In the North, the choice of a productivist agricultural development model is making it difficult for young people to set up as farmers, and has compromised the maintenance of agricultural jobs and sustainable rural development. In parallel, speculation is amplifying the housing crisis in towns, where the main victims are the poor.

Along with access to water, seeds and credit, and fair prices, access to land is one of the basic requirements for maintaining and developing peasant and family farming.

Youth march in Brittany In the autumn of 2006, young people seeking land to farm on organized a march in Brittany. Their aim was to alert public opinion and political decision-makers as to the difficulties facing farmers, due to the rise in land prices and to political decisions which encourage concentration and the eviction of peasants.

Even though the land issue has a different dimension in Europe and in countries like India or Brazil, the fact remains that it calls into question the same system, the same political choices and consequently the same economic choices since priority is given to the same type of agricultural development.

In France the 1999 law altered the control of structures, theoretically making it more favourable towards the gradual development and strengthening of small farms. However, the rules introduced are not only insufficient, they have also been by-passed locally to the benefit of increasingly large farms. This expansion is strongly encouraged in the context of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of 1992 and the Berlin agreements of 1999 which instituted a system of aid per hectare or per animal. Likewise, the new French agricultural orientation law has departed from the logic of preceding laws, to adapt agriculture to globalization and to the 2003 PAC reform by reorganising the agricultural enterprise model (salaried farmers and export agriculture).

The Confédération Paysanne demands:

  a fairer distribution of land, guaranteed by a real political will to maintain existing farms and the end of enlargement, by means of stricter control of structures for the benefit of small and medium-sized farms, and by the improvement of land advertisement;
  maintenance of the status of tenant farming, based on a conception of the land as a working tool;
  guarantees to ensure the defence of farmers’ rights, as regards their landowners;
  regulation of the land market.

Many proposals have been made to combat these inequalities and encourage alternatives, e.g.
  from local to international, develop contacts and alliances between landless movements, small farmers’ organizations, and organizations of farm and rural workers;
  encourage relations between actors mobilized on access to natural resources (farmland, forests, fishing, water, etc.);
  promote short commercialization channels, associating urban populations and producers, such as the AMAP (Associations pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne) in France.

WRITE !

Ekta Parishad addresses its demands to the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. He has been the main interlocutor at national level during the various campaigns launched by the movement, which have led to several meetings. It is moreover thanks to the Prime Minister that the decision was made to take political measures in favour of ambitious land reform, to help the poor. This is why we suggest you write to him:
  Letter: send the attached post card or download it from the Peuples Solidaires website (www.peuples-solidaires.org) Remember to add your name and address and to sign the letter.
  Fax: 00 91 11 2301 9545
Support message: To give Ekta Parishad an idea of your solidarity, send the organization the support message on the attached post card. (Reaction time: on reception and until 22 October 2007)

Mr Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
South Block, Raisina Hill
New Delhi - 110 011
INDIA

Respected Manmohan Singh,

I am writing to you to draw your attention to the peaceful march that is going to take place this October from Gwalior to Delhi and in which 25,000 people are expected to participate. This event is being organized by Ekta Parishad and a constellation of grassroots organizations that have built a close partnership with many organizations and citizens in Europe over the past decade. I strongly support Ekta Parishad’s demands for the authorities to:
a) set up a National Land Authority to settle the long-term claims of many of the poor and landless;
b) ensure the institution of fast-track courts that will prevent people from holding onto land titles due to the backlog in the court system;
c) open a single-window system of administrating land claims.

I humbly request you to take the necessary measures to implement the demands of landless and indigenous communities and women.

Thanking you in advance for your attention to this letter.

With sincerest regards,

Name: Address: Signature:

Dear friends of Ekta Parishad,

I have been informed of the Janadesh march organized by your organization between 2 and 22 October 2007, to take place on the road between Gwalior and Dehli. I support your action and have sent a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to take the necessary measures to implement land reforms according to your demands.

With warm regards,

Name: Addresse: Signature:

[1] Appeal n°298 by Réseau-Solidarité of Peuples Solidaires, available on the website of Peuples Solidaires: http://www.peuples-solidaires.org/article739.html and Frères des Hommes: [http : www.fdh.org->http : www.fdh.org

[2] In India, the lowest rank in the Hindu social system.

[3] Naxalites: members of the Naxal movement, active in nine states of central India; they seek to organise peasants in order to trigger an agrarian reform by radical means, including violence.