The strike took place following months of protest from Indian farmers, a response to three farm acts passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. According to protesters, the farm acts would leave small farmers, the vast majority, at the mercy of large corporations. Poor farmers were already desperate before the laws were passed - in 2019 alone, 10,281 agricultural workers committed suicide.
Dozens of farm unions began organizing protests demanding the repeal of these laws. After failing to get the support of their respective state governments, the farmers decided to pressure the Central Government by marching to Delhi en masse.
The farmers arrived at Delhi on November 25th, 2020 and were met by police, who employed the use of tear gas and water cannons, dug up roads, and used layers of barricades and sand barriers to try and stop their march.
On November 26th, 250 million workers from all over the country initiated a general strike in solidarity with the farmer's struggle. According to Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, trade unions issued a twelve-point charter of demands which included "the reversal of the anti-worker, anti-farmer laws pushed by the government in September, the reversal of the privatisation of major government enterprises, and immediate [Covid] relief for the population".
Farmer protests continued for more than a year, featuring mass marches, clashes with police, and many failed negotiations between farmers' unions and the government. Rakesh Tikait, a leader with Bharatiya Kisan Union (English: Indian Farmers' Union) stated in October 2021 that approximately 750 participants have died in the protest.
Among the dead was a Senior Superintendent of Police in the city of Sonepat, who committed suicide, saying he could not bear the pain of the farmers. His suicide note read "Bullets fired from the guns kill only those whom they strike. The bullet of injustice, however, kills many with a single stroke... It is humiliating to suffer injustice."
In a televised address on November 19th, 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that his government would repeal the three acts in the upcoming winter parliamentary session in December. The national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, Rakesh Tikait, stated the protests would only cease once the laws were repealed.
The film actor Deep Sidhu also joined the protests, and was quoted as having told a police officer the following: "Ye inquilab hai. This is a revolution. If you take away farmers' land, then what do they have left? Only debt."
We Are Grass. We Grow on Everything: The Forty-Ninth Newsletter (2020).
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pretty much been a dead year for writing new long-form projects...thought I'd found the next thing a couple of times but each ended up a false start. how do I brainstorm finding ideas that actually speak to me? I hate writing just for outputs sake and writing when I don't have anything to say, but I also hate being creatively inactive. is a bit of a catch 22.
What type of writing do you do? Fiction or nonfiction?
Fiction! Screenwriting specifically, though I've dabbled in short stories (...that I never finished because I didn't like them very much lol)
Nice!
Hmm... A few questions:
You don't need to answer all these for me (or for you!). And don't be too specific in case someone can dox you from your answers.
I'll have some follow up questions depending on your answers. I'm not a screenwriter but I may be able to be a little helpful.
So yeah basically, when I say an idea that speaks to me, I guess I want an idea that I see as a good vehicle for themes and/or characters that are meaningful to me, often pertaining to ideas and concepts that weigh on me in real life. E.g. I've written about separateness & isolation vs. togetherness/oneness with the other, about the feeling of living in late empire, various works which tackled how the larger structures of capitalism infect our personal psychologies and relationships (family bonds, romantic bonds, etc). I'm less concerned with finding a "hooky" premise and moreso see premise as a means to an end (that end being theme and character). As far as structure goes, I loosely follow a typical cinematic three act structure, partly because it's generally what's expected of you in the industry, but also because in truth it's actually a fairly flexible framework if you're not too dogmatic about the nitty gritty details.
As far as structure for how to find new ideas, though...I've really got nothing lol. One previous work was pretty directly inspired by a preexisting tv show (but then very much grew into its own thing), another came to me while I was high on an edible and synthesized a bunch of different things I'd been thinking about, and the most recent one started with a setting/sense of place. It's really an all over the place process. I've intentionally sat down and hammered out premises before, and while some of them had me thinking "yeah I could see someone making this into a good movie," none really excited me unfortunately. I'm decent about keeping a writing habit once I have a project going (I don't write everyday, but tend to work on it a few times a week) but when I'm between things I'm really pretty adrift.
I can't share specific premises because of doxx risk like you said (my works are searchable under my pen name), but I will add as a related aside that I've been incredibly sloppy about personal details on chapo chat the last year or so lol. Sometimes opsec on here feels like a lost cause. May have to reset with a new username at some point...