India A Conversation With Farmers of The KRRS by Ashlesha Khadse and Niloshree Bhattacharya
India A Conversation With Farmers of The KRRS by Ashlesha Khadse and Niloshree Bhattacharya
India A Conversation With Farmers of The KRRS by Ashlesha Khadse and Niloshree Bhattacharya
One key actor in the global peasant revolt is India's Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha
(KRRS), the Karnataka State Farmers’ Association, from the south Indian state of
Karnataka. This farmers movement is struggling for food and people’s sovereignty
both locally and globally. Although an agrarian movement, KRRS goes beyond farmers
issues and aims for broad social change at various levels of society. Autonomy, justice,
peace and dignity are fundamental tenets of its vision. KRRS has inspired movements
in India and around the world to take direct action against multinational companies
by creating solidarity and collective action through people's movements.
While our movement is deeply rooted in local struggles we have also been pivotal in
forming and leading not only national level networks like the Indian Coordination
Committee of Farmers Movements, but also international networks such as the global
peasants movement La Via Campesina and the Peoples' Global Action Against Free
Trade and the WTO. We believe that solidarity between people must be built
throughout the world to confront unjust economic globalization.
KRRS condemns unjust social practices. How does this translate into action?
Since its beginning, our movement has aimed for progressive cultural change. We
have always denounced the caste system, promoting its eradication as a necessary
step towards social justice in India. We have members from indigenous communities
and lower castes. An example of the cultural change we promote is the organization of
“simple, self-respect weddings” as an alternative to the expensive and extravagant
weddings on which peasants usually spend a fortune because of social pressure, often
going into debt. We have conducted many intercaste marriages, shunning the
presence of upper caste priests and expensive religious ceremonies. We have also
challenged patriarchal structures, organizing a protest against the Miss Universe
Pageant and demanding equal representation for women in governance, for instance.
On the one hand KRRS is strongly committed to Gandhian principles, but on the
other it is famous all over world for attacking genetically modified crops or
ransacking the head office of the agribusiness giant Cargill. How does this fit
together?
We have a strong commitment to non-violence. This is understood as violence against
living beings (except GMO crops), not against inanimate objects. We engage in
confrontational politics against unfair socioeconomic systems through nonviolent
methods such as civil disobedience and direct actions that challenge unjust laws.
Can you give examples and explain the context in which these actions took place?
In the early 1990s, close to one thousand farmers occupied and ransacked the head
office of the global agribusiness giant Cargill Seeds Company in Bangalore, making a
bonfire of the equipment and documents. We also dismantled Cargill’s seed unit with
iron bars in one of the districts of Karnataka. During the action, we gave notice to
multinational seed companies to “Quit India”, echoing Gandhi's Quit India Movement
In 1996, we destroyed the first Indian outlet of the global junk food chain Kentucky
Fried Chicken (KFC) in Bangalore. Fast food chains like KFC consume a lot of resources
to produce unhealthy food for the urban elite. The incident sent shivers down the
spine of multinational companies in Bangalore, provoking the then chief minister to
publicly re-affirm his government’s commitment to foreign investors. We feel that the
entire paradigm of neo-liberal globalization led by multinational companies must be
resisted and that people’s autonomy and the autonomy of peoples must be
constructed on the ground through the development of people alternatives.
We also launched massive actions against Monsanto, such as the 1998 global call to
action “Operation Cremation Monsanto”. We knew that stopping biotechnology in
India was of little use if it continued to be developed in other parts of the world, so we
called on social movements around the world to engage in direct actions against
companies like Pioneer, Novartis and Monsanto, by burning their GM fields and
squatting on or destroying their offices. We warned not only companies but also
investors in these companies. In Karnataka and other Indian states our farmers burnt
many illegal GM field trials under the eyes of the media, as a direct action. Other
movements around the world answered the call, and farmers and peasants in France
and Indonesia, for example, also destroyed GM crops.
In 2011, some of our farmers uprooted Dupont’s illegal GM rice field trials that were
being held without prior intimation to the farmers or the state government in
Dodballapur, Karnataka. Recently we also mobilized against land grabs and disrupted
the Karnataka government’s Global Sustainable Agribusiness summits, which aim to
dole out tax breaks, subsidies, and land to agribusiness.
KRRS mobilized very early against the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), the precursor of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Why?
In the Dunkel Draft, GATT recommended the patenting of seeds by multinational
companies. We fully oppose this. We launched a massive protest with north India's
Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) at the Red Fort in New Delhi. 200,000 farmers made it to
Delhi despite efforts by the government to prevent protests. As there were limited
arrangements for shelter and food, the farmers slept outside in the cold and cooked on
the streets. They attended the rally at which they burnt the Dunkel Draft, protested
against the patenting of life by corporations, and cheered in favour of the right of
farmers to save seed.
Our farmers have also been teaching their techniques to farmers from other parts of
the world. In November 2011 KRRS and La Via Campesina organised an exchange visit
by Asian farmers from more than ten countries to Karnataka’s natural farms, to
encourage and inculcate direct farmer-to-farmer exchange of farming methods.
Another initiative was direct farmer to consumer marketing, with shops at village level
called Namdu, which means “ours” in the Kannada language. Through these stores
farmers can sell their products directly to local consumers, avoiding middlemen. An
intensification of such marketing efforts is a major part of our future agenda.
During the actions KRRS members can be seen wearing green shawls. If you travel
through Karnataka you also see farmers wearing them here and there in day to day
activities. What is their meaning?
The green shawls are the symbol of our resistance, every day. We wear them as part of
our daily attire and also at every action to reaffirm with pride our commitment to this
struggle. It is our symbol of peasanthood, self-respect and honour, best reflected in
our hymn:
Ashlesha Khadse has been the South Asia regional staff for La Via Campesina since 2009,
Niloshree Bhattacharya is a PHD student with the university of Hyderabad.
i
Beeja Satyagraha implies seed sovereignty. The Salt Satyagraha or the Dandi March, protesting against
the British salt monopoly, was held under the leadership of Gandhi that triggered the civil disobedience movement.
The Beeja Satyagraha was carried out in the same fashion in 1993.