President, Ekta Parishad
A Gandhian activist, Rajagopal is former the Vice Chairman of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi, and the president and founding member of Ekta Parishad.
After consolidating a membership of 200,000 people (with women as the majority ) across six states, Rajagopal used the Gandhian technique of foot-march to galvanize greater support among the poor. With a track record of ten state level foot-marches, he led a national march to Delhi in October 2007. In the march, known as Janadesh 2007, 25,000 people marched 340 kilometers from Gwalior to Delhi and compelled the government to take action on land reform and forest rights.
In the context of the continuing growth of Naxalism in central rural India, Rajagopal’s organization Ekta Parishad – with its mobilization of tribal peoples, women and youth as well as its advocacy of Land Reform – is one of the most successful nonviolent alternatives.
Several films have been made of Rajagopal’s work and the effort to establish international solidarity of the poor around land reform issues. In 2014, he received the Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration, an award granted annually by the Indian National Congress party.
