How Karnataka's Farmers Successfully Challenged a Draconian Land Acquisition Process

The Wire

16-07-2025

Submitting to a prolonged peaceful protest, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on July 15 rescinded the 2022 land acquisition notification to 13 villages near the Bengaluru international airport.
His final decision asserts the rights of farmers to their 1,777 acres of land, which the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) had sought to acquire for the construction of an aeropark and allied industries. Since April 2022, farmers in the 13 villages in the Chanrayapatna-Devanahalli area had agitated peacefully against this notification. They held a 'relay satyagraha' continuously for nearly 1,200 days.
Forming a group called the Land Acquisition Resistance Committee, farmers had asserted their right to live on their land and to earn their living as farmers. A fertile red-soil tract, farmers grow not only the staple crop of ragi (finger millet) there but also a variety of vegetables and fruits. Some are also horticulturists. Dairy farms and pockets of sericulture combine to make for stable and sustainable livelihoods with youth accessing the booming metropolis for a variety of non-farm jobs.
Observing how land acquisition in the vicinity over the past years has rendered farmers bereft of meaningful livelihoods and lives, the Chanrayapatna-Devanahalli farmers questioned the need to uproot them from their ancestral land. Farmers questioned the KIADB's land acquisition process and plans – especially the process of notifying the acquisition when most of the farmers did not want to relinquish their land. The Land Acquisition Act 2013 stipulated that authorities would need the consent of a minimum of 80% of residents to issue such a notification. Farmers also held several meetings with local political representatives and with government agencies and held fast to their beliefs despite the high-handedness of the authorities and often, law enforcement.
While campaigning during the 2023 assembly elections, Siddaramaiah, then in the opposition, had assured the farmers that the notification would be withdrawn. A final notification to acquire land in three villages, however, arrived after Siddaramaiah assumed power. This saw an intensification of the struggle and several civil society organisations under the umbrella of 'Samyukta Horata Karnataka' lent support to the farmers' protest.
An all-India protest
When a large gathering – 'Devanahalli Chalo' – at Chanrayapatna on June 25 was violently disrupted by the police, the farmers and the supporters moved to the Freedom Park in Bengaluru and began protests there. On July 4, a meeting between the farmers and their representatives with the chief minister and government representatives ended with Siddaramaiah assuring them that a final decision would be taken on July 15.
Representatives from Samyukt Kisan Morcha had joined the protesting farmers. Its senior leader Darshan Pal noted that this protest would be supported by the SKM and all its branches across India, making it an 'all-India struggle'. Multilingual film actor Prakash Raj lent support. Public letters were written by scholars and writers, calling for the need for balanced regional and industrial economic policies. On the eve of the final decision, a 'Grama Sankalpa Samavesha' was held in Chanraypatna where farmers vowed to continue their agitation and their bhoomi satyagraha – or land non-violence movement – if the government did not withdraw the notification.
In a picture similar to the culmination of the Nandigram-Singur movement against land acquisition in Bengal and the prolonged protests led by farmers near Delhi, this protest has shown how, despite the relegation of agriculture, land, and rural issues to the periphery of national planning and interests, it is farmers who are rising up to counter the alarming deceleration in the culture, structure and institutions of our democracy. The Chanraypatna-Devanahalli movement will go down in history as one such example of farmers' resilience and courage against the depredations of a political system that speaks only the language of neo-liberalism. Yet, given the context and precedents of such movements, it may be wise to be cautious and to raise the flag against potential distortions and manipulative politics.
Cause for caution
While Nandigram-Singur led to the fall of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and to the rise of Trinamool Congress as the ruling party, the processes of democracy and farmers' rights, and a culture of consultative planning have not been assured in Bengal. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha and other farmers' bodies stood and won against the draconian and undemocratic processes of foisting corporate interests in agriculture over that of farmers interests. Yet, despite conceding defeat, the BJP has continued a policy of corporatisation of agriculture by stealth and none of the concerns of farmers for remunerative prices, continued state support, and adequate allocation of funds have been attended to.
In all these cases, land and agriculture have been key issues and the failure of politicians and representatives to resolve them signal how the rights of a majority continue to be marginalised. In sum, a failure to consider, articulate and deploy alternatives for rural India – alternatives that go beyond the standard parameters of productivity, growth and the inevitable transition to urban-industrial areas and lives are missing. Farmers and rural citizens themselves need to consider and demand these new alternatives that can assure them a life and livelihood that can be led with dignity and democracy.
Siddaramaiah's note in conceding to the farmers' demands also shows the possibility of how land can still be made into part of the speculative economy that rules not only corporate interests but also that of our elected representatives. Although he called for a complete withdrawal of the acquisition notification, he went on to note that farmers who want to can sell their land at lucrative prices, and that the government will acquire such land as 'for economic development, [the government will] need land to establish industries."
"It is the government's duty to facilitate this while also respecting the rights of landowners," he said.
Although the chief minister conceded that the protests were part of the democratic process, his qualifying remarks indicated the failure of the government to seriously consider alternative policies that balance regional growth, rural-urban linkages, and provide a level playing ground for all citizens. The hegemony of the now global capitalist economy that strides on the uneven grounds of a largely rural-agrarian society make land the centrepiece of a chequered political-economy. Protests and struggles by farmers come at huge costs to farmers themselves. And each protest tells us that it is the resilience and strength of farmers that make possible these glimmers of hope of retaining our democracy.
A.R. Vasavi is a social anthropologist based in Karnataka.