Farmers' morcha at Delhi borders

Who: Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, with Sikh farmers prominent among them, led by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a coalition of farmers' unions whose size is counted differently by date: The Quint named 30 farmers' organisations as the driving force on 30 November 2020, Al Jazeera called the SKM a coalition of more than 40 unions on 29 November 2021, and The Wire counted 32 Punjab unions in it in December 2021. They faced the Narendra Modi government and its three farm laws of September 2020.

What: Farmers had blocked railway tracks and highways in the weeks after Parliament passed the laws. In November 2020 thousands began a march to New Delhi. They were stopped before they could enter the capital, and camped at three sites on its edge. Down To Earth dates the sit-ins at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur to 26 November 2020. The farmers stayed through bone-chilling cold, record rains, smog, heat and a Covid surge, and Al Jazeera described the movement as largely peaceful. On 26 January 2021 some marchers broke through barricades and reached the Red Fort, and one protester was killed in the clashes.

On 19 November 2021 Modi announced the repeal of the laws, in an address that coincided with the Sikh festival of Guru Nanak's Gurpurab. Parliament passed the repeal bill on 29 November. After the Centre sent a final letter on 9 December 2021, the SKM suspended the morcha and said the sites would be vacated on 11 December.

Where: The Delhi borders at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur.

Why it mattered: Al Jazeera called the protest one of the biggest challenges to Modi's government since 2014. The government had yielded little for a year. Its reversal came ahead of elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, both home to large numbers of farmers, and farmers' leaders called the repeal a victory won by unity.

The cost was heavy. The SKM counted about 715 deaths, a figure that includes the Lakhimpur Kheri killings, and calls the dead shaheed (martyrs). Al Jazeera reported that the government said it had no record of farmers' deaths, and that a Punjabi University study found almost all of the dead were landless or small farmers owning less than 3 acres.

The Centre's letter of 9 December promised a committee on the minimum support price, the withdrawal of cases against protesters, and compensation for the families, which the Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab governments approved in principle. The SKM warned it could resume the protest if the promises were broken.