On 26 November 2020, a mass general strike was held across India. The strike was organized by 10 trade unions across the country and was supported by the Indian National Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), and other left-wing parties.[1][2][3] An estimated 250 million (25 crore) people took part in the strike,[4][5] which Jacobin estimated as the largest in history.[6] The strike was followed by a march to New Delhi, which arrived there on 30 November with tens of thousands of farmers surrounding Delhi,[7] increasing to hundreds of thousands by 3 December.[8]
The workers' unions presented a list of seven demands:
The trade unions involved included the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC).[1]
Several other organisations were involved in the strike. The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) stated that nearly 30 thousand bank employees were to participate in the strike.[3] The Independent Sectoral Federations and Associations (ISFA) released strike notice to workers of all industries, calling scheme workers, construction workers, beedi workers, domestic workers, agricultural workers, vendors, hawkers, and self-employed people in rural as well as urban India to come onto the streets for chakka jam[3], a demonstration meant to block traffic. According to a statement made by the CPIM, there was "massive participation"[10] by people who did not receive strike notice, such as informal sector workers, students, women, and peasants.[2][11][10] Approximately a quarter of all working-aged people in India participated in the general strike.[10]
The date of the general strike converged with the All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee's own strike calling for newly-enacted anti-farmer agricultural laws to be repealed.[6] The worker's unions and the AIKSCC declared their solidarity with each other in the days leading up to the general strike and the AIKSCC's "Chalo Delhi" (Go to Delhi) mobilization.[1][6][9]
The initial, 24-hour general strike took place all across India. Five states – Kerala, Puducherry, Odisha, Assam and Telangana – were completely shut down.[12] Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh reported 100% strike.[12] Tamil Nadu reported shut-down in 13 of 38 districts, with industrial strike having continued in the remaining districts.[12] In Punjab and Haryana, state transport buses did not leave their depots.[12] The strike saw stoppage of work in banks, financial services, various government services, transport, steel units, port and docks, telecommunication services, plantations, power generating units, coal and other mines, oil and natural gas production units, and millions of other miscellaneous industries.[12]
The strike was followed by the 2020 Indian farmers' protest march to the Indian capital New Delhi. On 30 November, "tens of thousands of farmers and their supporters ... [were] demonstrating at several road junctions".[7] By 3 December, BBC News estimated the number of farmers blocking New Delhi in the hundreds of thousands.[8]
A "photograph of a paramilitary policeman swinging his baton at an elderly Sikh man", Sukhdev Singh, taken by Ravi Choudhury of Press Trust of India (PTI) went viral on online social media. Politicians opposed to the the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used the image to criticise police violence. BJP members claimed that the Sikh farmer had not been hit. Choudhury said that the man had been hit by the policeman. A fact-checking website, Boomlive, interviewed Sukhdev Singh, who stated that he had been hit by two policemen, and been injured in his "forearm, back and calf muscle".[8]