Thousands of farmers marched into Delhi leading to clashes with police who used tear gas and water cannons on them after they smashed through barricades at the border. A two-hour standoff led to police eventually permitting demonstrators access to continue marching toward India’s capital, New Delhi.

Police escorted protesters to a official protest site, which has since been hotly debated as the demonstrators believe they should be able to protest at a site of their choosing, and the leaders of the farmer unions are currently choosing among three new locations. The number of demonstrators is growing, two farmer unions reported on Friday that they expected 50,000 protestors will reach the Delhi border from Haryana. In response, government forces have set up drones to surveil the Delhi-Haryana border region. Darshan Pal, who is the Punjab president of the Krantikari Kisan Union and a member of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, told Al Jazeera that 300,000 farmers from the state of Punjab have marched on Delhi. The farmers have indicated that they are prepared for a protracted protest, for instance, they have brought large quantities of food with them and the BBC reports that “they say they’re ready for a long battle.”

For the last two months, farmers in India have been protesting reforms that were implemented by the government in an effort to make it easier for farmers to sell their crop to private buyers in hopes that it would stimulate private sector investments. However, farmers believe that this will dismantle the protections which create an assured procurement of their produce at the current minimum support price (MSP). Farmers fear that they will eventually be at the mercy of large corporations and will have to compete openly on the competitive global market. Elizabeth Puranam, an Al Jazeera journalist, explained the importance of the debate surrounding the new laws by pointing to the long history of indebtedness associated with farming in India, and the fact that half of India, 650,000,000 individuals, work in the agricultural sector. The National Crime Records Bureau in India reports that almost 300,000 famers have committed suicide since 1995, with the highest year on record in 2014 with over 18,000 suicides. Some critics charge that the government manipulates the statistics, arguing that the true figures are much higher. Often the reason for taking their own life is because of an inability to pay back loans taken from banks and landlords.

India has a strong tradition of protest. For example, Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress led a campaign of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest that helped India gain Independence in 1947, providing a model for future social movements worldwide. Between 2014 and 2018, there were more than 13,000 farmer protests. There were around 600 protests in 2014 and over 4800 in 2016, and only about 2000 in 2018. While the issues at hand varied, they generally relate to the level of government assistance afforded to the farmers. Recently, farmers have taken to blocking roads as a visible sign of their anger.

The Indian economy is reeling from almost 24% decline in the second quarter of this year with the informal economy, which employs 90% of India, suffering the most. Arun Kumar, a professor at the Institute of Social Sciences in New Delhi reports that it could take nearly three years for India’s economy to recover. With more than nine million Covid-19 cases and over 135,000 deaths, this is a critical time for those in precarious employment positions, especially those who feel their livelihood threatened. Whether the fracas at the Delhi border will escalate into further violence remains to be seen. What is clear is that both sides have a lot on the table and India could be in for a long protest.