Azamgarh, India – Cradling her toddler in a single arm, Arti Sharma adjusts her saree with one other as she picks up the placard that claims: “Zameen nahi denge, jaan bhi nahi denge [We will neither give our land nor our lives].”

It’s a placard her husband Deepak Sharma had made, days earlier than he succumbed to a coronary heart assault at 31.

Oblivious to the fact, the toddler tries to wipe his mom’s tears as she marches to Khiria Bagh in Uttar Pradesh state’s Azamgarh district, the place a protest towards the acquisition of land for enlargement of an airport has been happening for months.

Arti clutches the placard near her chest. “It retains our wrestle heat along with his reminiscences,” she tells Al Jazeera.

Tens of 1000’s of individuals residing in eight villages of Azamgarh name their protest a “combat for survival” and it seems like one. On January 26, as India celebrated its 74th Republic Day which marks the adoption of its structure in 1950, a whole bunch of villagers had been protesting at Khiria Bagh park.

A 90-year-old man, his frail legs shivering with chilly, held a small tricolour – the nationwide flag – in his hand as he declared, “We are going to combat until our final breath. We gained’t transfer till they bring about the bulldozer and run it over us.”

There was an air of desperation on the park. A person in his 30s dragged his wheelchair with a tricolour tied to its deal with. A girl held a placard as she ran barefoot on the damp mud. A handful of cash clunk to the partitions of the rusty tin field meant to gather donations for the protest – meagre financial savings from meals skipped to feed the motion.

Youngsters had skipped faculty, girls left their chores half-done, each day wage employees who had not earned for months, farmers compelled to postpone weeding of their crops – all stood beneath the ocean of tricolours waving over their heads, protesting towards the land acquisition for the proposed worldwide airport at Azamgarh.

‘Which caste are you from?’

In 2004, an airstrip was constructed on this jap district of Uttar Pradesh. It was not used till November 2018 when state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath introduced its enlargement and constructing of a world airport beneath an bold scheme aimed toward upgrading India’s underserved air routes.

A price range of practically $2.4m was allotted the next 12 months for the proposed airport. In line with the statements by Vishal Bharadwaj, the district Justice of the Peace of Azamgarh, about 270 hectares (670 acres) of land had been meant to be acquired from eight villages – Gadanpur, Hichchanpatti, Jigna Karmanpur, Jamua Hariram, Jamua Jolha, Hasanpur, Kadipur Harikesh, Jehra Pipri, Manduri, and Baldev Manduri – for the venture.

Of the residents going through displacement as a result of venture, an amazing 90 % belong to the Dalit and Different Backward Castes (OBCs) communities with a mean household of 5 incomes lower than $1,200 yearly. Dalits, the previous “untouchables”, and OBCs fall on the backside of India’s complicated caste hierarchy and have been traditionally marginalised.

The world can also be the basin of the Tamsa River and is understood for its numerous crops, together with mangoes, high-quality pulses, jackfruit, potato and pigeon peas.

India’s Land Acquisition Act, 2013 recommends a social affect evaluation earlier than any land is acquired by the federal government. After the native authorities’s approval of the venture, a notification relating to the acquisition is printed within the official gazette and in at the least two native newspapers.

The elected members of native village councils are then notified of the proposed acquisition, and at the least 60 days are given to folks to lift their objections. After the bodily survey of the land, claims relating to the acquisition are addressed and a report is submitted to the federal government.

However the Azamgarh administration bypassed all these procedures on October 12 final 12 months as district officers, accompanied by armed police, barged into one of many villages with none prior discover to the village head, activist Rajiv Yadav of native NGO Rihai Manch instructed Al Jazeera.

Since then, the realm has been on a boil.

Sunita Bharti, a 22-year-old resident of Jamua Hariram village protesting at Khiria Bagh, recalled the horror.

“They claimed they’d come to verify the standard of crops. Once I requested why they’d introduced chains and measuring tapes, the subdivisional Justice of the Peace shouted at me: ‘Which caste are you from?’”

Bharti, the one particular person within the eight villages to have reached post-graduation, mentioned she stood her floor.

“I mentioned ‘I’m a chamaar, sir’,” she recalled, referring to a social group inside Dalits, who’re often known as Jatavs.

“To this, he replied, ‘Being a chamaar, you have got the audacity to speak to me?’ I used to be dragged into the police van, threatened and abused. I wish to remind him right now that it was a Dalit who gave India its structure.”

India’s first regulation minister, Bhimrao Ambedkar, who was born a Dalit however transformed to Buddhism in his final days in protest towards the caste system, is hailed because the architect of the nation’s structure.

‘Blatant abuse of energy’

Kismatti, 46, from Jigna Karmanpur village, mentioned the villagers had been crushed by the police once they protested towards the measuring of their land.

“They fractured the hand of a 65-year-old and broke the legs of one other man. 4 pradhans [village heads] had been picked up and falsely charged with consumption of medication,” she alleged.

Vikas, a highschool pupil from Hasanpur, mentioned he had a message for the district Justice of the Peace. “You could have learn the structure. If you happen to had actually believed in it, you wouldn’t have achieved this to us.”

“The district Justice of the Peace says the survey was achieved by way of drones and official land information. That is fully illegal,” activist Yadav instructed Al Jazeera.

District Justice of the Peace Bharadwaj denied the allegations, calling them “concocted”.

“Individuals are placing all these allegations with none proof. It’s one thing they could have now give you. The survey was performed solely to learn the way a lot, whose and what kind of land is required as per the grasp plan of the airport authority,” he instructed Al Jazeera.

“We now have made it very clear that nobody’s land or property might be taken with out their consent. There isn’t a want for folks to agitate.”

The protests in Azamgarh noticed a few of India’s distinguished activists, together with farmer chief Rakesh Tikait, anti-big dam crusader Medha Patkar and Ramon Magsaysay awardee Sandeep Pandey, extending their help.

“That is vinash [destruction] within the identify of vikas [development]. It’s a blatant abuse of energy by the federal government which is attempting to grab away the land of poor farmers,” Patkar instructed Al Jazeera.

“Regardless of two-three worldwide airports being near Azamgarh, this venture is being compelled upon the folks … Why this sudden want for a world airport?” she requested.

Azamgarh is about 260km (160 miles) from Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow and practically 800km (500 miles) from the nationwide capital of New Delhi.

Yadav mentioned activist Pandey was detained on December 24 throughout a march from Varanasi, a non secular metropolis within the state, to Azamgarh.

“Once we had been getting back from Varanasi, my brother and I obtained right down to drink water close to the Cholapur station. Some folks in civil uniform attacked us, snatched our mobiles and dragged us right into a numberless white Tata Sumo automobile. They had been shouting, ‘The place is your pistol? Who funds you?’” he mentioned.

“On the way in which, the abductors had been receiving a name by the identify ‘SSP Azamgarh’. We later obtained to know that they had been from the Particular Activity Pressure, Crime Department. I used to be dropped at Kandhrapur police station late at night time,” he added.

On February 2, two activists belonging to the Purvanchal Farmers Union had been attacked by goons who pointed a gun at them. “They mentioned, ‘You’re farm leaders. We are going to kill you,’” the activists mentioned.

Up to now, three rounds of talks with the administration have remained inconclusive. Additionally, the police haven’t registered any report towards the attackers.

‘We might be compelled to beg’

In a speech on November 22, native parliamentarian Dinesh Lal Yadav “Nirahua”, belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP), mentioned the folks of Azamgarh “have misplaced their minds”.

“There are solely 3 ways to take care of them: fracture their knees, jail them or kill them,” he allegedly mentioned.

Arti recalled her husband Deepak listening to the speech and struggling to regulate his anxiousness over the lack of his land. “He used to say in the event that they take our land, the place will we go? We might be compelled to beg,” she mentioned.

Devi (identify modified), Deepak’s neighbour, added: “When he went to sleep, he felt immense chest ache. He couldn’t transfer his limbs. We rushed him to the hospital however misplaced him on the way in which.”

“At this time, the household depends on Deepak’s father’s meagre pension of 1,000 rupees [$12]. All they’ve is 2.5 biswa [0.07748 acres] of land. If the federal government snatches it, all of them will die of hunger.”

Residents say at the least 20 folks from the eight villages, together with seven girls, have succumbed to the shock and ache of dropping their land and livelihoods since October.

“We are going to die in the event that they snatch our land. Then why not die combating for it? We’re farmers. Land is our old flame. They’re demanding that we, the poorest of the poor, sacrifice our land. How dare they?” Devi mentioned.

Because the nightfall fell at Khiria Bagh, Bharti, the postgraduate pupil, was seen portray one other placard that learn: “Naari shakti aayi hai, nayi roshni laayi hai [The woman power is here, it has brought a new light].”

“Since I’m on the forefront of the protest, my mom worries about my marriage,” she mentioned. “I don’t care about marriage. I’ve to save lots of my land, my rights and most significantly, my folks.”