India cages - yes, cages - 27,000 peaceful, poor protesters left without land due to corporate globalization

Here is what these poor people have to say:

* "Day-by-day the Sensex goes up but the common people get nothing from this," said Anil Gupta, a march organizer, referring to the Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark index, which closed at a record high Monday. "People here are asking only for the basics. There is no greed. They don't want clothes or electricity, just land so they can feed themselves," he said.

* "I just want a small piece of land so I can grow some vegetables," said the 35-year-old, who like many from India's indigenous tribes goes by one name. "My father died doing this work, I'll die doing this," he said. "Give us some land to farm, nothing else."

* "When the government gives the multinational companies land, where does it come from? That's our land," the 33-year-old [Priya Bishnu] said. "It should be our right to fish the lake and sell the prawns," she said, sitting with other marchers under a sign of independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi.

* "They talk about helping the average man, but the policies are anti-poor," said Gupta, noting that legislation already enacted to provide land rights to the tribes has not been enforced. "But when a multinational needs land, the government organizes everything for them," he said.

-- From the CNN report

Thank you, Mridul, for your analysis. On your final note, you say:

I would go in to say that although the situation needs more improvement, the people of India are absolutely free to challenge the government whenever they feel that their rights are under threat.

They may be free to challenge anything they like, but from what I have read and heard, this does not mean that they will be respected, heard, or treated well. The Nandigram massacre is just one of many examples.

Here is some more critical background on the Indian SEZ's: India's Special Economic Zones bring rags and riches

***

INDIA: Special Economic Zones, Path to Massive Land Grab

***

Here's an article reporting before the launch of the marches & protests: India marchers demand justice for poor, landless and tribal people

and finally, a more in-depth article on the situation, the march and marchers from IPS: RIGHTS-INDIA: Landless Farmers Demand a Piece of the Action

In fact, the past few decades have seen farmers and tribals being edged out of whatever little land they held by relentless development projects. Estimates say that post-independence over 20 million have become classified as 'internally displaced' people.

''In the recent years of economic liberalization, the programme of land distribution among the landless has been badly neglected while hundreds of thousands of acres that belonged to small peasants have been taken away for industries, mining, dams and others projects. Their already meagre share of the land is diminishing. Non-violent struggle for protecting the land rights of the poor cannot be delayed any further,'' said P.V. Rajagopal, the main organiser of the march and chairman of the internationally-known Ekta Parishad movement.

Although Singh's Congress party-led government came to power in 2004 on a promise to give a 'human face to liberalisation,' its policy of giving quick approval to 'Special Economic Zones' across the country has exacerbated a land grab process by the rich and influential.