Based on a book chapter recently published, this presentation will focus on the role played by religion as a force of social change in the contemporary world, discussing how Sikhi has been a major source of inspiration and a tool of mobilisation during the Kisan Andolan (the Indian farmers protest of 2020-21). Sikh ethos has indeed provided potent values and heroic figures drawn from past struggles as well as religious institutions and practices, such as langar, that have been instrumental in sustaining the over-one-year-long struggle.
Based on interviews conducted at two of the protest sites at Delhi borders, my research provides an insight into the broad array of religious resources that were mobilised during the largest and longest rural struggle of post-colonial India, and their uneasy alliance with other ideologies, particularly the secular left, dominant among the farmers unions.