As legal battles go, they can rarely have appeared more unequal. Before the end of this month, a court in the southern Indian state of Kerala is expected to deliver a judgment on whether tribal villagers from the bottom of the social hierarchy have the right to deny water to the world's most powerful commercial brand - Coca-Cola.
The judgment will mark the latest skirmish in an increasingly bitter dispute between the company and several rural communities in India who accuse it of parching and polluting their villages - charges Coke rejects. As the protests have developed, farmers and anti-globalisation activists have united to launch a modern-day 'Quit India' campaign against the soft drinks giant, appropriating the name of Mahatma Gandhi's 1942 call for immediate independence from British rule.
Coke's great rival, Pepsi, has been heavily criticised too, but has failed to arouse the same anger.
A decision in favour of the villagers would be a major blow to the multinational. While Coke says it will appeal such a verdict, the largest and most technologically advanced Coke plant in India - a US$25 million investment that has only been operating since 2001 - could be closed for good.
Such a ruling would provide a major boost to a movement seeking, it says, to empower India's most vulnerable people in the face of corporate culture.
'These companies don't operate as honest players but are destroying our social fabric,' says leading environmental campaigner Vandana Shiva. 'If the Kerala court supports [the villagers'] fight for justice, that fight will be replicated across India. The subversion of basic rights, like those over water, by big companies will be stalled.'