About the Actant
© Abhijit Pal
Abhijit Pal studied visual communication at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India and photography at Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany and has been a fellow of the Angkor Photo Residency under Philip Blenkinsop. Abhijit’s interests lie in social documentary, which are executed and presented in a mixed media format. At the Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa (2018), and in Jimei x Arles Photography Festival, China (2019), he exhibited a project related to tourism along the Berlin Wall. He was the recipient of the Nat Geo Moment Award in 2010. He has done editorial work and participated in exhibitions in India and abroad. Abhijit currently lives and works in New Delhi, and teaches photography in various institutes in India.
© Abhijit Pal
In March 2018, fifty thousand farmers – a huge sea of red and white – marched for seven days and six nights, covering 180 kilometers from Nashik to Mumbai to demand better living conditions. The Forest Rights Act of 2006 had not been implemented in 2018 and many farmers had been allocated forestland for subsistence farming, but no proper land titles had been given to them. Many incidents took place on the way: school students were writing board exams, urban residents distributed biscuits to the farmers and who can forget images of the blisters on the soles of the feet of the marchers. Two years after the march, what do the people who experienced it first hand, those who walked the walk, reminisce about the incidents?