Meet Sunanda Jayaram, The Messiah Of Farmers In Karnataka

Sunanda Jayaram is a Vokkaliga and a prominent farmer activist from Mysuru. An activist for 35 years, she is also the President of the Women’s Wing of Karnataka State Farmers’ Association.

Since 1980 —when Gundu Rao was the chief minister of the state till now, with Siddaramaiah at the helm— Jayaram, along with other women leaders from the group, has taken part in multiple protests regarding farmers’ rights. They protested against the opening of multinational companies coming from outside and the trend of privatisation.

In one instance in 2012, nearly 200 farmers, led by Jayaram, slept on the tracks at Gejjalagere between Maddur and Channapatna, in protest over the release of Cauvery waters to Tamil Nadu. She had to be physically taken away from the tracks but that didn’t deter her determination to fight for her rights.

Now in her late 50s, Jayaram is still seen on the streets, sporting a green shawl —a signature move by farmers in the states— with her wrist up in the air and slogans of ‘we want justice’. She asks why only men are considered farmers when it’s the women who do the back-breaking work to feed their families.

In late 2023, Jayaram led a protest in Mandya against the Supreme Court verdict upholding the Cauvery Water Management Authority’s (CWMA) directions of releasing 5,000 cusecs to Tamil Nadu. But Jayaram makes it clear that their community doesn’t believe in the notion of communal divide and treating some people as ‘untouchables’.

Ahead of the Karnataka Assembly Elections last year, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attempted to woo the Vokkaliga community with a slew of development and infrastructure projects, as well as by setting a polarising narrative, Jayaram had reiterated that the sentiment of farmers would override the BJP’s attempts to appease the community. “We think broad-mindedly. We love and respect everyone,” she had told this reporter earlier.