Rajagopal P. V. is an Indian Gandhian activist, a former Vice Chairman of the New Delhi Gandhi Peace Foundation, as well as the president and founding member of Ekta Parishad. In 1972, Rajagopal started working alongside Gandhian activists J.P. Narayan and Subba Rao to disarm 578 bandits in the Chambal region of India. Thereafter, he stayed away from dealing with direct violence and focused on the people of Adivasis, bonded labourers, and other landless communities affected by poverty and exploitation. From 1989 to 2018, Rajagopal trained thousands of rural young people to serve in villages as trainer-leaders to build up community leadership and popular action. This culminated in many efforts of state and national activism. An example of the latter occurred in 2007 when 25,000 landless poor, mainly Adivasis, took part in a 350 kilometer pilgrimage from Gwalior to Delhi to demand the land reforms that they were promised upon independence. The Union government agreed to the demands made, leading to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act. A second effort of national activism occurred in 2012 when Rajagopal led a march together with 100,000 supporters toward the capital to demand popular control over land and resources to secure the livelihood of laborers lacking control over the means of production. The effort resulted in the signing of a ten point agreement with the Union government. In 2018, Rajagopal, once again, led a protest to nonviolently address working-class issues. This Protest was notably of a larger scale, with Rajagopal managing to mobilize one million people for his cause. For Mohandas Gandhi's 150th birthday in 2019, Rajagopal planned to take his message worldwide as a way to spread peace and nonviolence. Rajagopal is notable for his nonviolent approach to protesting systemic inequality and grievances shared by millions of Indians. His actions contributed to the partial emergence of open dialogue with the government.

Biography

Rajagopal was born in 1948, the fourth of five children, in Thillenkery, a village in the modern-day state of Kerala in southern India. His full name is Rajagopal Puthan Veetil, but he now chooses to use only his first name in public in order to avoid any caste-related stereotyping that might be associated with his full name. Rajagopal's father was an activist fighting for India's independence and therefore was frequently separated from his family. Rajagopal attended the grade school at Seva Mandir, being taught in Malayalam language. The school followed Gandhi's philosophical principles with regard to life and work in a community. He later studied classical Indian dance and music, prior to completing his education at Sevagram, Gandhi's Ashram in Maharashtra, with a degree in agricultural engineering. This is also where Rajagopal learned to speak English. In the early 1970s, he worked in the violence-ridden area of Chambal in Madhya Pradesh to help rehabilitate dacoits. Since 2001, Rajagopal is married to Jill Carr-Harris, a Canadian fellow social activist.

Janadesh 2007

After consolidating a membership of 200,000 people (the majority are women) across six states, Rajagopal began using the Gandhian technique of foot-march or padayatra to galvanize greater support among the poor. With a track record of ten state level foot-marches, he led a national march to Delhi in October 2007. In the march, Janadesh 2007 25,000 people marched 340 kilometers from Gwalior to Delhi and compelled the Government to take action in land reforms and forest rights.

Jan Satyagraha 2012

The Jan Satyagraha 2012 Yatra, which started from Gwalior Oct 2, had intended to reach Delhi on Oct 28 if no agreement was reached with the government. Nearly 35,000 people were part of the protest march. Though the Land Reform Commission has issued its report, the government has not yet accepted it.

Jan Andolan 2018

In October 2018, Rajagopal led a march from Gwalior to Morena with around 25,000 people asking for land rights and tribal rights. Initially the march was planned from Haryana to New Delhi. The march took place in the context of the 2018 Madhya Pradesh Legislative election and some months ahead of 2019 national elections. Political leaders such as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan addressed the marchers in Gwalior before their departure, promising to create a committee to address land rights issues. According to Ekta Parishad, the marchers were not satisfied with the proposals and decided to go ahead with the march. In Morena, leaders from Indian National Congress, the main opposition party addressed the marchers and promised if elected to satisfy their demands. Ekta Parishad indicated that they were satisfied with these commitments and decided to stop marching and not to continue to New Delhi, as initially planned.

Jai Jagat 2020

In 2015, Rajagopal launched, with Ekta Parishad, the extraordinary challenge of Jai Jagat, building upon existing groups, mainly in India and Europe. The core vision of Jai Jagat is to create a space where groups and movements can come together to make change nonviolently and address issues related to justice and peace. The urgency of having such convergence is to change global public opinion to enhance the emergence of an alternative development process that is pro-people, pro-poor and pro-nature. The 2019-2020 Global Peace March (Delhi-Geneva) reached individuals, groups and organizations outside those historical Ekta circles and created a dynamic in many countries. The March had to overcome many hurdles and was suspended halfway in Armenia in March 2020, because of COVID-19. A few marches to Geneva at the end of September 2020 marked the last significant mobilization, at least outside India, under the umbrella of Jai Jagat. Since then, initiatives have been taken, such as the organization of marches or a cartoon exhibition, by local and regional groups.

Land reform through nonviolent action

In the context of the continuing growth of Naxalism in central rural India, Rajagopal's organization of Ekta Parishad with its mobilization of tribal peoples, women and youth as well as its advocacy of land reform, is one of the most successful nonviolent alternatives.

New land reforms, 2014 and conflicts

The Modi government has proposed two major changes in the land acquisition act: Rajagopal accuses Modi of being pro-corporate and claims that it will further aggravate the difference between the rich and poor in the country.

Documentation

Articles: Audio-Visual

Awards

In 2014, he received the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration, an award granted annually by the Indian National Congress party.