Indian farmers cut off as activists warn of pre-election blackouts

Farmers hold placards and shout slogans during a protest against India's central government to demand minimum crop prices in Amritsar on March 5, 2024. — AFP

SHAMBHU, India: They have been beaten with canes, doused in tear gas and blocked by concrete barricades and metal spikes but the thousands of farmers trying to march to India's capital to demand higher crop prices also face an invisible barrier – digital blackouts.

As their caravan of tractors and trucks moved from the northern state of Punjab towards New Delhi in February, the farmers found their phones going dead as state authorities imposed temporary Internet shutdowns.