Farmer unions have called the deal announced last week a “total surrender” to American agricultural giants, despite assurances from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Waving flags and carrying banners, farmers and trade union members rallied in several cities, with minor scuffles with police reported in a few locations.

According to images shared by organisers, several thousand people took to the streets.

Main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said he stood with the “farmers and with their struggle”.

“Farmers are apprehensive that trade agreements will strike a blow to their livelihood,” he said in a social media post.

Under the terms of the trade deal, India will “eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods” and other food and agricultural products.

The US will apply a reciprocal tariff rate of 18% on goods from India, including textiles and apparel, leather and footwear, plastic and rubber, organic chemicals, and certain machinery.

Modi’s government has sought to allay farmers’ concerns, insisting sensitive agricultural products, dairy and poultry have been kept out of the ambit of the deal.

The agricultural sector helps sustain over 45% of people in India, the world’s most populous nation, making it an influential voting bloc with formidable street power.

But individual farms are small and often unproductive, and successive Indian governments have historically intervened to protect them from foreign competition.

The protests on Thursday revived memories of months of demonstrations in 2020 and 2021, during which farmers blocked New Delhi highways and stormed the capital’s historic Red Fort complex by tractors.

That wave of protest forced the government to roll back laws aimed at reforming the sector.