Non-violent agitation, so remarkably pioneered by Mahatma Gandhi, has long lost its edge and in today’s India only Nandigram and Singur jolt the establishment out of its self-induced stupor.

However, in a marked departure from ‘if you want the government to hear your voice, pick up the gun' discourse, a few thousand farmers from the land of Gandhi have forced the government to listen to them through peaceful protests.

The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), heeding to the pleas of this band of fearless farmers from Mahuva tehsil in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, who have been protesting against the state government’s allocation of 268 hectares of land for a cement factory, has issued a show-cause notice to the Nirma group asking why the environment clearance (EC) for the project should not be revoked.

The protestors received another shot in the arm on March 18 when the supreme court, after hearing their special leave petition, ordered Nirma to stop the work pending fresh environmental study.

Farmers from over 12 villages of Mahuva have been agitating against the cement plant for the last two years. They have pointed out that 222 hectares out of the 268 hectares allotted by the state government to the company cover a water body which is crucial to the flourishing agriculture in the region, and the cement factory would destroy their farming, besides causing irreparable damage to the environment.

I was at the nerve-centre of the protests a year back and I could sense the steely but stoic determination of farmers. However, what was also palpable on the ground was the precipice the hopelessness and helplessness of the farmers, who had made several petitions to the Gujarat government and carried out a number of protests marches, had reached and they could have easily turned to violent agitation.

Slogans like ‘Jaan denge zamin nahin,’ rent the air in village after village.

Bharatbhai Shiyal, the inspiring sarpanch of Dugheri village, said the villagers could turn violent at one call of their leader, the local BJP MLA Kanubhai Kalsaria, the man who has rebelled against his own chief minister.

So would he let the struggle take a bloody turn? That was my obvious question when I met Kalsaria at his house in Mahuva. “Of course not,” he replied unwaveringly, “This is the land of the Mahatma and we all draw inspiration from him. If he could chase out the British with a non-violent struggle, we sure can do the same to Nirma. We will carry on with our peaceful demonstration till the powers that be are forced to listen to us.”

And he did carry on stoically, inspiring his followers and infusing and injecting hope in them whenever they slumped into despair. His dogged persistence paid off when the MoEF issued the show-cause notice and the supreme court went a step further asking Nirma to stop work.

Speaking from Mahuva on phone, he sounded confident the allocation of land would finally be cancelled. “It’s a huge victory for us. However, we will continue with the peaceful agitation until the land allotment is cancelled,” he said.

The MoEF show-cause notice and the supreme court direction are indeed a huge victory for a number of similar non-violent agitations in several pockets of Gujarat and other parts of the country. If non-violence can save one reservoir, it can surely save lot many more reservoirs and forests and much else.