«Andremo via di qui vincitori o morti». Militanza contadina indiana e l’occupazione a Delhi. Utilizzo di pratiche religiose e istituzioni tradizionali nel processo di costruzione di una identità collettiva e una militanza sacra.

This research focuses on farmers’ protest which started in November 2020 in Delhi against three laws, introduced by the Indian government, that aim to liberalise the agricultural market. Given the historical divisions related to caste, religion and class that characterise the Indian society and the peasant movements of the past, the current transversal alliance that has distinguished the protest is something new and unusual. In order to understand how this happened, we analysed the collective actions and forms of mobilisation implemented by two peasant communities at the forefront of the protest: the Sikhs and the Jats. The use of traditional Panchayat meetings, Sikhism practices such as seva and a shared idiom such as bhaichara were the cultural elements utilized during the protest and they have characterised the form of their militancy: a ‘Sacred activism’ that can find place in the ‘realm’ of social movements bringing inspiring results, as witnessed by the success of the Indian peasant protest.