Civil Resistance in India and Brazil

7/29/2019 Civil Resistance in India and Brazil

1/13

Civil Resistance and

the Struggle for Land:

Experiences in India & Brazil

Kurt Schock

Associate Professor of Sociology & Global Affairs

Rutgers University, Newark


2/13

responses to land dispossession & inequality:

in contrast to everyday forms of resistance, civil resistance movements are

organized and overtchallenges

in contrast to violent rebellion, civil resistance movements rely onmethods ofnonviolent action; they are not interested in capturing state

power

in contrast to patronage relationships with political parties, civil resistance

movements are autonomous from parties; they mobilize pressure fromoutside routine political channels


3/13

padyatra (or padayatra): foot march

yatra campaign: may involve other forms of transportation in addition to

foot marches


4/13


5/13

Table 1. Major Statewide Yatra Campaigns

State of Campaign Date

Madhya Pradesh 10 December to 18 June, 2000

Bihar 11 September to 11 October, 2001

Madhya Pradesh 14 April to 2 May, 2002

Chattisgarh 30 January to 25 February, 2003

Madhya Pradesh 11 September to 2 October, 2003

Orissa 30 January to 24 February, 2004

Chhattisgarh 16 May to 5 June, 2005


6/13

Table 2. Major National Yatra Campaigns

National Yatra Campaigns Place Dates

Janadesh Satyagraha Gwalior to Delhi 2 October to 28 October, 2007

Jan Samwaad Yatra 24 states 2 October 2011 to 1 October 2012

Jan Satyagraha Gwalior to Delhi 2 October to 28 October 2012


7/13


8/13

land occupations

on land that is arable but not in productive use

on land where there is a dispute over the legality of the ownership


9/13


10/13

Figure 1. Land Occupations by Year, 1987-2010

67 71 80

50

77 81 89119

146

398

463

599 586

393

194 184

391

496

437

384 364

252

290

180

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

Year


11/13

Table 3. Similarities: Ekta Parishad & the MST

1. Target structural violence: land dispossession and inequality

2. Political Context high-capacity democracy

3. Strategynonviolent action to promote change through institutionalchannels

4a. Basis of Power sustained mass mobilization

4b. Basis of Power territorialization

4c. Basis of Power upward scale shift


12/13

Table 4. Differences: Ekta Parishad & the MST

Ekta Parishad MST

1 Base landless, small farmers,

indigenous peoples

landless; formerly

landless who won land

2 Mobilizing Structures rural Gandhian social

welfare organizations

base communities of the

Catholic Church

3 Ideology Gandhism; sarvodaya liberation theology;

Marxism

4 Defining Method of Action padyatra / yatra land occupation

5 Class of Nonviolent Action protest & persuasion nonviolent intervention

6 Mechanism of Change conversion >

accommodation

accommodation >

nonviolent coercion

7 Type of Movement principled radical reform pragmatic radical reform


13/13

Documents

Civil Resistance in India and Brazil