Pathways to Peace and Justice Exhibition Guide 2024
Ekta Parishad - Walks Through the Ages
One of our most featured solidarity partners in this exhibition are Ekta Parishad (a name which loosely translates as United Forum). They are a phenomenal grassroots movement of over 250,000 people who campaign for the land rights of those who do not own the land they live on. Famous across India for marching for thousands of miles continuously, the determination and solidarity of Ekta Parishad is the stuff of legend. Throughout this exhibition we’ve included images from their marches taken by our staff and volunteers over the last two decades. Each picture relates to a particular protest, a struggle and ultimately social change. Millions of steps over the decades have echoed across the pathway to peace and justice. Below is a brief timeline of their most recent movements.
Land Rights Movement (1984-2000)
Struggle: Trained c.5,000 young village people. A land related survey, People’s Movements, petitions, legal proceedings, huge rallies, foot march, stretched over thousands of kilometres
Peaceful talks: Negotiated for land rights with local and State administration. c. 20,000 landless poor received land rights
Creation: Occupied lands used for individual and collective farming.
Land Rights Foot March in Bihar (2001)
Struggle: Walked 1,000Km across South Bihar and mobilised thousands of homeless and landless poor.
Peaceful talks: Negotiated to set up a Land Commission to address unresolved land questions and propose measures for the allotment of land to the landless and homeless poor. Homestead land distributed to 18,000 homeless poor within a year.
Creation: People who received the land rights were united. Rejuvenation of traditional irrigation systems: thousands of people benefitted. Some small landholders were formed Vegetable Grower Cooperatives.
Land Rights Campaign in Chhattisgarh (2003)
Struggle: Covered 2,000Km; mobilised tribal community against anti-tribal Forest Laws and Policies. Spoke out against massive acquisition of farm and forest land.
Peaceful talks: Negotiated to set up a Task Force on Land Reforms. Allotment of land to 6,000 tribal families in Kawardha district. High level order issued for consideration of consent of indigenous people before any land acquisition.
Creation: Forest Produce Cooperatives in 50+ villages to strengthen the means of alternative livelihood.
Land Rights Campaign in Odisha (2004-05)
Struggle: Covered 2,500Km and mobilised thousands of landless and homeless poor across Odisha. Successfully linked the various movements into one united action which was supported by 100+ land rights organisations. Peaceful talks: Negotiated for a Task Force on Land Reforms. Later ‘Mo Jami Mo Deha’ (My Land My Home) policy adopted by State government resulted in allotment of land to nearly 100,000 homeless poor.
Creation: Nearly 400+ villages adopted s Grain Banks. Water conservation structures and Forest Produce Cooperatives in 50 villages.
Land Rights Foot March in Madhya Pradesh (1999-2000)
Struggle: 3,500Km walk through 8,000 villages, mobilised thousands of landless poor. Supplemented by Joto Jito Andolan (Land Occupation Movement) and Janmbhumi Wapsi Andolan (Back to Native Land Movement) to disobey the anti-poor land and forest laws. Peaceful talks: Negotiated to set up a Task Force on Land Reform, with a clear focus of allotment of land to indigenous people and other landless poor. EP members given equal representation in State and District Level Task Forces. 340,000 landless poor received land rights entitlement.
Creation: Successful village level Food Grain and Seed Bank in over 10,000 villages.
Jan Samwad Yatra (2011-12)
Struggle: Mobilised nearly a million people by covering 80,000Kms in 24 States of India
Peaceful talks: Built an alliance of 2,000+ land rights organisations and movements for one larger decisive action Jan Satyagraha (2012).
Creation: Archive of success stories of land rights movements and its impact on rural economy.
Jan Satyagrah (2012)
Struggle: Historical mobilisation of 100,000 landless and homeless poor for Land Reform. This mass action was led by 12,000 grassroots leaders, fully trained in non-violent actions.
Janadesh (2007)
Struggle: Historical foot march of 25,000 landless and homeless poor covered 350Km from Gwalior to Delhi. Set an example of non-violent direct action in a mass campaign. 500+ social organisations came together for the first time.
Peaceful talks: Negotiated for the declaration and implementation of Forest Rights Act. This extended to the constitution of National Land Reforms Council. Nearly 100,000 indigenous people received land rights within the operational area of Ekta Parishad.
Creation: Nearly 5,000 landholders adopted organic and low-cost farming in various States. They also engaged in Grain and Seed Banks. Several cooperatives established, to strengthen local economy.
Women Farmer Rights Campaign and
Jan Andolan (2018)
Struggle: A mass mobilisation of 25,000 landless and homeless poor for Land Guarantee Policy and Legislation. Spoken for the rights of Women Farmers and Land Holders.
Peaceful talks: Negotiated with Central Government and also with Government of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for land reform and distribution of land to the landless poor.
Peaceful talks: Agreement on 10 point agenda for Land Reforms, which includes set up of National Task Force on Land Reforms. A detailed circular was issued to 17 States of India for the allotment of land to the landless and homeless poor and to do land reform.
Creation: Nearly 50,000 landless and homeless poor received land entitlement through various State actions – and decided to adopt organic and low cost agriculture.
What’s Next?
In 2019, Ekta Parishad Launched the formidable Jai Jagat 2020, their longest ever march. Loosely translated as ‘Victory for the Planet’, the campaign is built around four essential pillars: the eradication of poverty, elimination of social exclusion, amelioration of the climate crisis, and bringing an end to violent conflicts.
Launched on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th Birthday (October 2nd, 2019), the plan was to walk from India to Switzerland in a yearlong footmarch! Over a formidable 10,151 kilometres, marchers would have traversed 10 countries, meeting with activists, UN representatives and leaders from across the world.
Unfortunately, the movement only got as far as Armenia (no small feat!) before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in April 2020. Rather than put anyone’s lives at risk, Ekta Parishad put the march on hold, and transformed the campaign into a 10-year movement.
The campaign is very much alive and kicking, and you can find out more here:
Climate
Change comes from the grassroots, metaphorically, but also in a very literal sense. You may have noticed some picturesque agricultural scenes throughout this exhibition. For those in rural India, to grow food from the land is essential, for their own nourishment and for income from selling to their community.
Many have supported themselves directly from the land for generations. Yet this way of life is threatened across the country by commercial interests, tourism and climate change (see our Village Matters newspaper for more info about the work of our amazing partners around Chilika Lake.) Pictures 1, 2 and 6 have all been taken by climate resilience activists around Chilika Lake, Odisha.
Communities across India are hitting back against climate displacement through innovative water-saving techniques and tree planting. Pictures 4 and 5 show ASSEFA’s work planting tree nurseries to mitigate climate change and replenish the Earth. 1.
3. 4. 5. 6. 2.
From the Archives
Action Village India has been around since 1988 (though we were called Friends of Assefa back then!) Our office is a small, oftentimes cluttered space above the Hackney Cypriot Association. And that’s exactly how we like it, to keep costs down and make sure we’re sending every penny we can to our partners in India!
However, it does mean that every now and then we discover a small piece of history which takes us back through the decades. Preparing this year’s exhibition, we discovered a small slide-deck in a drawer, with a few dates and details written on permenant marker.
Our new trustee Arvind brought in his old slide projector, and we projected the slides onto the wall of the office! Then our wonderful exhibitions intern Luli took high-quality photos of the projection in darkness, and printed them out on rough paper.
1. The picture of the labourer has the caption ‘Ploughing Maikudi Village’. It comes as part of the same slide deck as number 1 so we believe it was also taken in 1984 by Giovanni Ermiglia or Gabriella Rambaldi. Whilst we know Giovanni from reputation, Gabriella is something of an enigma! If you know her, please get in touch, we’d love to share the full slide deck with her!
2. The photo of the labourers is captioned ‘Digging a Well In An ASSEFA Village’. It has the address of one Gabriella Rambaldi written on it. The photo itself appears to be taken by Giovanni Ermiglia, an Italian non-violent activist who co founded ASSEFA. He died in 2004, and we believe this photo was taken in 1984. To read a little more about his life and the founding of ASSEFA, scan the QR code.
3 and 4. The photo of the mother and daughter (3) is dated from 1988. We have few photos which appear to be from the same ASSEFA village. Another photo (4) appears to have been taken at the same time is the one of Sri Loganathan, ASSEFA’s other co-founder.
5. A newspaper clipping about Ekta Parishad’s ‘Jan Satyagrah’ (March for Justice) in 2012. We’ve brought the movement’s flag back into action for this exhibit, having given it a rest to recover from its 350km walk!
Exhibition Compiled by Luli Fukukawa (Intern at Action Village India) 1. 2. 4. 3. 5.
