NEW DELHI - Several hundred small shop owners, trade unions and activists rallied in India's capital Thursday to protest a push by Wal-Mart and other foreign megastores into India's retail market.

Protesters shouted and burned effigies representing Wal-Mart and its local partner, Bharti Enterprises.

The rally underscored growing tensions in India as the country's economic boom moves beyond high-technology and other big businesses that employ relatively few people and begins to transform parts of the economy that provide a livelihood for hundreds of millions of people.

Since the start of the year, there have been spasms of violence by farmers angry over land lost to big industrial projects. A communist insurgency has taken root in southern and eastern India.

Organizers at Thursday's protest said it was time that the country's estimated 12 million mom-and-pop shops were heard and promised more rallies.

Dhamendra Kumar of India FDI Watch, a group that's lobbying against the big stores, promised a long campaign.

"Corporate retail is going to crush the spirit of this country," he said.

The protesters' slogan, "Quit Retail," is a play on Mohandas Gandhi's "Quit India" slogan, a theme of the independence movement when the nation shucked British rule 60 years ago this month.

New malls and megastores have been welcomed by much of the nation's burgeoning middle class, yet there are early indications of resistance against chains like Wal-Mart and similar domestic companies.

"My business is going down. I can't offer discounts the big shops offer. Why is the government not protecting us? We are not fit for other jobs if we lose our businesses," said Alok Prakash, who owns a small general store in Mumbai's busy Dadar market.

The protests against new retailers remain mostly unorganized. Prakash had not heard of a daylong strike called for city stores.

Other shop owners in Mumbai said they would only close if their competition did as well -- and that wasn't happening.

"Why will I close when the next shop is open? All my business will go to him. A strike makes sense only if all participate," said Prem Patel, who sells grains and other provisions in Mahim, a suburb of Mumbai.

On Monday, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, signed a deal with Bharti Enterprises to jointly build wholesale outlets that will buy goods from farmers and small manufacturers and sell to retailers.

Critics say it is a backdoor attempt by Wal-Mart to gain entry to the Indian retail market, which remains off-limits to foreign competition.

With its 1.1 billion people and growing middle class, India has vast potential for big retailers. Wal-Mart is not the only foreign chain seeking to tap a market estimated to be worth more than $250 billion and growing at a rate of 20 percent a year.

Global retailers like Carrefour SA of France, Tesco PlC of Britain and Metro AG of Germany have lobbied the Indian government to liberalize rules protecting the retail market.

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