From Denmark to Japan, foreigners march with Indian poor

Sarah Hallas Moller, a 27-year-old student of English Literature from Denmark, had a completely different picture of India before she rubbed shoulders with the mass of impoverished landless farmers and tribals.

"The image of India I carried has shattered completely," Moller told IANS, standing among the tens of thousands of poor men and women from the countryside gathered at the sprawling Ramlila ground here.

"I had imagined it to be an advanced nation churning out loads of professionals. However, my experience proved completely different," added the University of Copenhagen student.

Dressed in a beige cotton salwar kurta, Moller explained why.

"Denmark also has a peasantry population but they are not denied their basic right to live, in comparison to India. Farmers face a lot of poverty here, and they have to struggle to live."

Moller was one among some 70 foreigners, from countries ranging from Japan and Kazakhstan in Asia to France, Denmark and Belgium in Europe, who marched with an estimated 25,000 poorest of the poor demanding that the government provide them the very basic necessities of life - land, water, electricity and employment.

While some foreigners walked all the 322 km from Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh to New Delhi starting Oct 2, others joined the protestors for short distances. They shared the simple food cooked by the organisers along the way.

And what they saw in village after village has shocked the young foreign brigade, which included students, Buddhist monks, activists and a sprinkling of journalists.

Stephane Pierre, 21, a student of Agronomy at The National Engineering School of Agronomy of Toulouse in France, was another marcher.

Pierre told IANS: "In our country, four percent of the people are involved in agriculture and people do turn their backs on them. But here about 80 percent of the people depend on agriculture. If 45 percent are landless, it is impossible for them to live. The problem is so much graver!"

"It is the dark side of the economic boom as the gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider," said Pierre, who is associated with the NGO, Solidarity, and was in India to conduct a survey on land reforms.

Most foreign participants - including those who were invited by friends in the Ekta Parishad, the organisers - said protests such as these held the key to a better future as they were based on Mahatma Gandhi's ideology of non-violence.

Dressed in a yellow and white shirt, Yuichi Kanoshita, a 23-year-old Buddhist monk from Japan, said: "It is a cause for justice. A peaceful tomorrow is based on such non-violent protests."

Another Buddhist monk who is from Kazakhstan but did not reveal his name said the Indian tribals who have lost their land to the demands of industry must get their due.

"I am here because I believe in Buddhism and peaceful existence," he said, speaking in broken English.

Gautier Felix, a 22-year-old student of agronomy also from France, was fascinated by the different attires of the marchers - who hailed from a total of 18 Indian states.

"It is interesting to see people decked in their traditional attires, dancing and singing folk songs even in such difficult times," said Felix, who joined the march three days ago.

"Gandhi has been the source of inspiration for these people and I am sure it will motivate future generations the world over," he added.

Capucine Henry, a young French journalist who is making a 52-minute film on the march, is shocked by the poverty she saw in the villages.

"Compared to China, India is poorer," she said. "What we see here is the result of the economic policies. The poor are getting poorer, the rich richer."

Indo-Asian News Service