bastar today

Jhansi ki Rani

2011-02-10T10:33:00.001-08:00

झांसी की रानी लक्ष्मीबाई का यह एकमात्र फोटो है, जिसे कोलकाता में रहने वाले अंग्रेज फोटोग्राफर जॉनस्टोन एंड हॉटमैन द्वारा 1850 में ही खींचा गया था। यह फोटो अहमदाबाद निवासी चित्रकार अमित अंबालाल के संग्रह में मौजूद है।

Courtesy:www.satyarthved.blogspot.comThe only photo of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, which living in C

alcutta in 1850 by the British photographer Ahugoman Jonstone and was pulled. This photo Ahmedabad resident artist A

SAVE THE JARAWAS

2010-06-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

Andaman Island tours 'flout Indian law'

'Human safaris' threaten the future of the Jarawa tribe in the Andaman Islands.

Jarawa girls in clothes given to them by outsiders Photo: © Survival International

A campaign group has given warning that tours to see the Jarawa people in the Andaman Islands are threatening the survival of the indigenous tribe, which has inhabited parts of the islands for thousands of years.

Survival International, which campaigns on behalf of tribal groups throughout the world, claims that at least eight local travel companies are continuing to offer what it describes as "human safaris".

Trips to see the Jarawa are banned under Indian law because of the risk of spreading disease among the tribe, whose 300 remaining members have little immunity to common illnesses.

There are regulations in place that prevent outsiders from interacting with or taking photographs of the Jarawa. However, Survival International claims that local operators are flouting these rules. Some package trips are advertised as "geological tours", but feature excursions to the Jarawa reserve in their itineraries.

ASHRAM OR CAMP????

2010-02-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

Welcome to village Bhatpal, dist Narayanpur, Bastar. A village where the school which was functioning perfectly ,is now taken over by the forces engaged in anti naxal operations. The school ashram building now houses the forces and the children are shifted into tents, thus rendering them susceptible to all possible lurking dangers of the war ridden land. Are'nt the men in uniform trained to fight all dangers and fight them ? rather than hiding in a school building ? It is rather sad that the people deputed to protect the public has rendered them helpless.. with the fast approaching examinations how will the children cope?? Is education a basic right ,only on papers of the diplomats? Is the safety of children ,the youth of tomorrow, a concern only in cities and only for the rich? Is the blood of the tribal children less red??????????????

AN INSULT TO OUR TRICOLOUR

2009-10-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

In the city of Raipur, the capital of Chattisgarh, at one of the most prominent 'chowk', the Bhagat Singh Chowk one can see the statue of Bharat Mata riding four lions.Very well. The glaring mistake is the Ashok Chakra ,the most important National symbol is missing from the flag.

Really surprising it hasnt been noticed, or worse still , noticed and forgotten.The Chief Ministers and other VIP residences are just a stones throw away....

Even the watchful opposition has failed to bring it to the notice of the media??

Who is to blame for this grave mistake??

WELCOME BAN ON SMOKING

2008-10-02T03:32:00.000-07:00

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is ready to implement the ban on smoking at public places in India from October 2onwards. The ministry issued the notification for the ban under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution), Act 2003.

At first glance, it’s very clear that the law will make the smokers incapable of smoking anywhere they like. But the question is whether this law will prove more effective as compared to the previous law or not? Central Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss had said that according to the GSR 417(E) declaration of May 30, 2008, the new law, which is going to be implemented from October 2, 2008, is a renewal of the old one. That means the old was not much effective in controlling ‘public smokers’. Then what will be the end result of the new one?

The law imposes strict ban on the smoking at public places like auditoriums, hospitals, health centers, parks, hotels, pubs, government offices, courts, educational institutions, libraries, roads, shopping centers, malls, theaters, stadiums, bus stops, railway stations, coffee houses, bars, airport lounges etc. This time the law is quite hard and anyone caught smoking in public places or private organisations will be fined Rs 200, which may rise to Rs 1,000. Persons in a position of responsibility in institutions shall be authorised to impose and collect the fine against the violation of section 4. The law will also allow any individual to detain people found smoking in public places and take them to a magistrate. So if you find anyone smoking in the bus stop you can make him lose Rs 200. But states like Bihar and Maharashtra have expressed their inability to implement the ban. Now, if a state is unable to implement the law then what can a mere citizen do? Only one or two will raise their voice. So a special squad to find law breakers is necessary. Otherwise, the law would be like the closed circuit cameras placed in public places of Delhi, which were found ‘switched off’ at the time of serial blasts.

The best advantage of the new law is that, from October 2 onwards, common people would be unable to light a cigarette outside their houses. If one wants to smoke, he/she should go to a hotel or an airport having ‘smoking zones’. But, for a long time in most of the hotels and public/private offices there has been a ‘No Smoking’ board. Then who would be ready to make ‘smoking zones’ (except some profit making bars, hotels etc having regular ‘smoking’ clients) as now the law gives them power to say “leave the cigar.” If anyone is found smoking inside companies or offices included in the ‘ban’ list, the penalty should be paid by the owners/mangers/supervisors of concerned organisations. Also, in public places, no one should be allowed to provide ashtrays, match boxes, lighters or anything, which smokers can use.

Central Health minister had said that in the last ten months in England around 45,000 people have quit smoking and he expects something like this to happen in India soon. But the population of smokers and social situation existent in India is quite different as compared to England. So there should be a strict enforcement of the new law. Cigarettes contribute 85 per cent to the total excise revenues collected from the tobacco industry, amounting to Rs 8,500 crores. So the question is whether Ramadoss is ready to cut these profits, given that more than twice that amount, is spent by the citizens of India to cure the diseases caused by tobacco every year. There is no dearth of laws in India. Most of the laws are helpful but fail due to slack implementation. Let’s hope that the new law, which is coming into effect from Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary proves effective for the better health of the nation.

Source:merinews.com

TOWARDS DISASTER

2008-09-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

Film shows how man made problem turned the direction of river leading to

Inter-state conflict and how Industrial pollution and big dams has increased

problems by disturbing basin ecology and violating the reparian rights. Shot in

Bastar region and western Rajnandgaon of Chhattisgarh.

Watch :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P6hYdIitys

A FRIEND OF THE TRIBALS....REMEMBERING VERRIER ELWIN

2008-08-29T03:39:00.000-07:00

Verrier Elwin, one of the most interesting Englishmen to have worked in India this century, came to his adopted country when he was only 25. A few years later, he moved to a tribal village in the heart of India. He lived most of the rest of his life among the tribals of India, whom he loved and worked for, and about whom he wrote beautifully, intensely and extensively.

His friend, W.G. Archer, who was in the Indian Civil Service before becoming a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, had asked about Elwin: "What makes a man change his nationality, abjure civilization, and, in the upshot, become a blend of Schweitzer in Africa and Gauguin in Tahiti?" That question cannot be answered, but it prompts curiosity about his life.

Elwin was born the son of an Anglican bishop. He graduated from Merton College, Oxford, with a first in English literature and won a scholarship to support his degree, which the family tradition directed to be in theology. A doctorate in divinity had prepared him to be ordained as a priest, but his associations and interests had turned Elwin, while at Oxford, into a mild Indophile, with his heart turned wistfully towards Tagore and Gandhi. At a Students' Christian Movement meeting, which Elwin had attended at Stanwick, he met J.C. Winslow, who had come back from India to recruit young men for his Christian mission. Winslow, a product of Eton and Balliol, had gone to India to spread the gospel, and was so awed by the astonishing richness of Hindu spiritual and cultural heritage and ideas that he thought that Jesus could "take all those elements that were of permanent value and bring them to a richer completion".

Elwin was already looking eastwards and was easily seduced into joining Winslow's Christa Seva Sangha, which drew its inspiration from the traditional ashram ideal of the Hindus, as reinterpreted and actualised by Gandhi's ashram at Sabarmati, a centre of abstinent and religious life, dedicated to the service of the poor.

After a view years of living in the tradition of service to the church and in compliance with the Gandhian ascetic ideals, Elwin felt impelled to break all links with his past. He decided to work among the lively, sensuous, forest-dwelling tribals - materially the poorest of the poor in India, but blessed with a capacity to endure much and enjoy life fully.

They were rich in their capacity to love, in their sensitivity to beauty, in their delightful songs and dances, and in their ability to make fine, strong and beautiful things.

Elwin had not planned on anything other than being of service to these people when he and his lifelong volunteer colleague, Shamrao Hivale, moved to a Gond tribal village in Central India to have their own ashram. The events that followed - shifting their base deeper into the forests, establishing a home for lepers there, doing research work among the tribals as a friend and helper, practicing a "philanthropology" that brought with it a need to defend the tribals against all external aggressions, cultural or economic,and writing volumes about them - appear, with the benefit of hindsight, to be Elwin's unfolding destiny, as were his becoming an Indian citizen, receiving one of the country's highest honours, and becoming a friend and advisor to Jawaharlal Nehru.

Elwin had begun his work in India as a very unusual Christian missionary with Gandhian leanings, unacceptable both to the British Raj and to his own church in India. He soon became disenchanted with the pretentious aspects of Indian spirituality and with Gandhian puritanism and self-righteousness. India's "primitive" tribals won his heart, eventually; and he gave his brilliant mind and devoted his enormous energies, towards helping them, writing about them and defending their rights and their waysof life.

His beginnings were those of an earnest, somewhat uncertain and self-doubting but deeply religious man, and, although he later rejected all formal religions, he never could choose any other than a selfless, dedicated way of life. But the roles he took on were always nonconformist. Consequently, he had to fight powerful opposition and persecution from organized, conventional people all his life.

Although Elwin was able, in his lifetime, to have some influence on India's policies towards its tribal peoples, one fears that, with time, much of what he lived and stood for is in danger of being ignored, misunderstood or forgotten.

Courtesy: Sunil Janah on Guhas book

This great man was born on 29th August......remembering him on his birth anniversary

THE JASWANTGARH WAR MEMORIAL

2008-08-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

For any soldier of the Indian Army ,the famous memorial of 1962 war between India and China at Jaswantgarh stands taller than even the 14000 ft high Sela Pass along the steep, serpentine mountainous road to monastery town at Tawang in western Arunachal Pradesh.

It is not because of the altitude of its location but for the inspiration it gives to Indian soldiers guarding the frontier with China.

A journey towards the picturesque Tawang through pristine hills of Arunachal Pradesh can't be complete without a stopover at Jaswantgarh Memorial that stands testimony to an Indian soldier's unparallel bravery.

And for Indian Army jawans and officials, it is a must-visit site to pay obeisance to Rifleman Jaswant Singh, Maha Vir Chakra, of 4 Garhwal Rifle, who laid down his life resisting the Chinese Army's march for about 72 hours along with two other soldiers during the 1962 war.

Singh was then captured and hanged at the same place where the memorial now stands, by Chinese invaders. The memorial is about 14 km away from Sela Pass.

It is more of a temple than a war memorial for Indian Army soldiers. The Army has put a section of its soldiers at round the clock duty at Jaswantgarh to look after the memorial which is located about 500 kilometers away from Guwahati, the gateway to the Northeast in Assam.

The temple-like Jaswantgarh memorial has a garlanded bronze bust of Jaswant Singh who is referred as Baba by soldiers, a portrait of the war hero and his belongings including the Army uniform, cap, watch, and belt. The earthen lamp before the portrait of Jaswant Singh burns round the clock.

For his six caretakers from 19 Garhwal Corps of Indian Army, Baba Jaswant Singh, MVC, still exists. They serve Baba bed tea at 0430 hrs, breakfast at 0900 hrs and dinner at 1900 hrs, oblivious of the reality that that the war hero is no more alive.

They make his bed for him, polish his shoes and deliver the mail sent by his admirers. They even clear the mails the next morning after 'he has gone through them'. They change his bed sheets every Tuesday.

These soldiers not only serve Baba. They reneder yeoman service for travelers along the hazardous portion of mountain terrain. Besides coming to rescue of travelers in trouble, they run a snack store where they serve tea, coffee and delicious samosas and pakoras to refresh the tired tourists, charging a nominal price that goes to upkeep of the war memorial.

The Indian Army sentinels at Jaswantgarh complain about the lack of electricity at the war memorial. It is lit up only for two hours in the evening through a diesel generator. They also fear that the roadside portion of the memorial is under severe threat from landslide.

One of the three historic bunkers at Jaswantgarh has already been damaged due to landslide while another one is in imminent danger unless something is done urgently to save it.

For the heroic effort of Rifleman Jaswant Singh, of the 4 Garhwal Rifle was awarded battle honour Nuranang, the only battle honour awarded to any Army unit in the Sino-Indian war of 1962.

Source:The Hitavada

HABITAT OF THE JERDON'S COURSER SAVED

2008-08-20T21:22:00.001-07:00

The only known habitat of one of the world's rarest birds has been saved from destruction. Thanks to a compromise between environmentalists, villagers and the Andhra Pradesh government, the 400km Telugu Ganga Canal, which will stretch from Srisailam in central Andhra to Chennai, will be diverted around the only remaining habitat of the Jerdon's courser, a striking, nocturnal bird, the size of a lapwing and found only in one region of Andhra Pradesh. At the urging of the Bombay Natural History Society, an NGO, the state irrigation ministry has agreed to reroute the canal. The government has agreed to add 3,000 acres of adjoining land to the courser's sanctuary. Thrilled by the development, Dr Panchapakesan Jeganathan, a scientist at BNHS who has been fighting the battle for the courser's habitat for the last eight years, said, "This bird is more threatened than the tiger. Now, there is a very good chance that it will survive."

Source: The Times of India

PAINTINGS OF TRIBALS ON TOILET WALLS

2008-08-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

One often sees pictures and figures of tribal men and women adorning gardens, homes,hotels govt. offices in Chattisgarh.Ever heard of them depicted on walls of toilets.?? In Raipur you get to see them . The walls of the Sulabh Toilet complex in Tikrapara , Raipur has paintings of the Bastar tribals, the Bison horn madias decorating them. Is it the idea of the artist who painted these walls or of some intellectual?What I fail to understand is why tribals in such a filthy place?? Why not the face of some political goon or a corrupt neta? Looks like Bastar is the hot topic today..be it govt. websites, text books, politicians speeches or lastly even toilet walls!
I'm sure hundreds of people have used these toilets till date.Why hasn't somebody raised a voice? A particular Indian community in London protested because symbols associated with their community were printed on a restaurant menu card.They protested so vehemently that the cards were withdrawn immediately with an apology. If it can happen in a foreign land why not here..and we have all the reason ..Toilets are no place to depict tribal culture and dance!

INDEPENDENCE...

2008-08-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Today being Independence Day one can see many children excitedly waving the Tricolour on the way to their schools for the Flag hoisting.What a perfect scene, the youth of tomorrow enjoying their independence and freedom.

On the other hand you would probably even see the other picture of tomorrows youth.Children scavenging the rubbish bins, for some scrap to sell and satisfy their hunger.

These scenes prompt me to think , are we really free???

What does Freedom really mean?Is it just freedom from slavery to a foreign nation?

We have hungry children dwelling on streets, the girl child being killed even before she is born, brides burnt for dowry, wives assaulted by husbands, tribals dying due to political power games, corruption, the common man struggling to have his voice heard......................

Freedom is a farce.

We are still slaves, to ourselves ,to our greed and to all the evils prevalent in our society and system.

SALUTE TO A HERO

2008-08-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

Khudiram Bose was a freedom fighter, who was one of the youngest revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. He was born on 3rd December 1889. Trailokyanath Basu, his father was a Tahsildar of the town and mother Lakshmipriya Devi was a religious lady. His birth place was Bahuvaini in Medinipur district, West Bengal. Khudiram Bose was influenced by the notion of karma in the Bhagvad Gita , and was involved in revolutionary activities to free mother India from the clutches of British rule.

Dissatisfied with the British policy of the partition of Bengal in 1905, he joined Jugantar - the party of revolutionary activists. At the tender age of sixteen, Bose left bombs near police stations and made government officials his victims. On the charges of carrying out a series of bomb attacks he was arrested. In Muzzafarpur, Bihar,on 30th April, 1908 Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki planned to assasinate the Chief Presidency Magistrate Kingsford.

The magistrate was known for his blatant judgements against the freedom fighters. They waited for Kingsford's carriage to come in front of the gate of European Club and blew up a carriage which was not carrying Kingsford. As a result of this unfortunate incident two innocent British ladies - Mrs.Kennedy and her daughter were killed. Both the revolutionaries fled the crime scene.

Later Prafulla committed suicide and Khudiram was arrested. On the charges of bomb attacks carried out by Khudiram Bose, he was sentenced to death at the age of 19.He was hanged to death on 11 August 1908.

Source:mapsof india.com

TRIBALS..........HOW HAPPINESS ELUDES THEM...

2008-08-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

"How to marry a tribal and get trees," was the headline of a Bhopal based story that appeared in the Indian Express of January 23, 1997. Based on a secret document by the Bastar collector, Mr Rajgopal Naidu, to the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, the report showed how large tracts of forest land in Madhya Pradesh were being denuded by bureaucrats and forest mafia who were exploiting the tribals in the area.

Indigenous forest dwellers have malik makbuja or tribal ownership rights over forest trees. So government officials, timber traders and politicians, working closely, found various ways of grabbing trees or even whole forests for themselves.

One method was to marry tribal girls, get written permission from them to chop trees and clear vast tracks of jungle. Subsequently, many of these girls were abandoned.

"There are innumerable tribal women in Bastar who have technically more than a million rupees in their bank accounts and yet they live below the poverty line," said the Express correspondent.

The report pointed to the active involvement of Mr Naidu's senior and the Commissioner of the Division. Land belonging to scheduled castes and tribes can only be sold to those belonging to the same groups. But a revenue inspector had bought forestland in which there were trees worth Rs 7.5 million in the name of his wife. Since he was from the Revenue Department, he made a fresh map in which the land was not shown as tribal land, and chopped down the trees. An inquiry was ordered, but the Commissioner gave him the go-ahead while the case was pending in the lower courts.

The story was sensational not only because it highlighted the dubious manner in which large tracts of invaluable teak and sal forests were being cut illegally; it also revealed the large-scale exploitation of illiterate and poor tribals and scheduled castes by the upper crust of society. Three NGOs working for rights of tribals and forest dwellers took up the case and it was brought to the Supreme Court. The corrupt Commissioner was transferred, two Revenue Department officials dismissed from service and another suspended.

A week later, Mr Naidu too was transferred, but he finally received recognition for his courage in exposing the links between people in the government and the timber mafia. The honest government officials, some committed NGOs and the media had worked collectively to expose the corrupt system and the devious manner in which the tribals were being exploited.

Tribals, the indigenous people or forest dwellers, as well as the Dalits or scheduled castes, continue to be second class citizens in India. This is despite the government's efforts to eradicate the centuries of discrimination against them by reserving a quota of government jobs and seats in educational institutes.

There are 636 scheduled tribes, each with their own distinct culture and customs, constituting a population of more than 80 million and accounting for over eight per cent of the Indian population. Some of these tribes are primitive, and have remained isolated from any form of development.

Four of the tribes who live in the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, south east of the Indian mainland, are on the verge of extinction. The Great Andamanese, the Jarawa, Onge and Sentinelese have lived and flourished in these islands for 20,000 years. About 150 years ago, they had an estimated population between them of at least 5,000. Today, the population of the four communities is not more than 500, though the total population of the islands is about 4 lakhs.

The population of the Onge is down to a hundred, the Great Andamanese just 30. And a trunk road cuts through the Jarawa forest homes, bringing in development that is proving disastrous for the tribe.

As people from the mainland harvest the exquisite timber of the islands, the tribal communities are being systematically alienated from their forests and their land. The migrants from the mainland brought with them infections and diseases to which a large number of tribals have succumbed. The debate on whether these indigenous people should be brought into the national mainstream or allowed to stay in their primitive state continues.

Tribals living in other parts of the country, most of them in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Bihar and Gujarat, are not being driven to extinction like the tribes of the Andamans but they are being pushed out of their shrinking forest homes. Large numbers have been displaced because of dam construction and other development projects in forest areas.

One of the major objections of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada movement) to the construction of a series of dams on the Narmada River is that thousands of tribals would be displaced in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The number of people displaced increases with the height of the dam.

Agitation against the dam has been going on for about 15 years, and it is because of the efforts of tribal activists like Medha Patkar that land-for-land compensation was agreed to by the Central Government. However, the Madhya Pradesh chief minister has gone on record to say that his state does not have sufficient land to give the 41,450 families who will be displaced in Madhya Pradesh alone.

The case has been fought through the courts and finally the Supreme Court of India has permitted the height of the dam to be raised.

The forested tribal hinterlands are also the areas where there is a rich reserve of minerals. According to the fifth schedule of the Constitution, tribal land cannot be leased out to non-tribals or to private companies for mining and industrial operations, but with the government's thrust on economic development, there is constant pressure to mine the homes of the tribals. But movements like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Jan Vikas Andolan and NGOs like Ekta Parishad and the National Committee for Protection of Natural Resources maintain a check on government and private sector greed.

Yet it would be unfair to say the government has not made efforts for development of tribals. Special provisions have been made in the Indian Constitution for the protection and development of scheduled tribes. Promotion of educational and economic interests, protection from social injustice and exploitation are enshrined in various articles of tribal laws. Tribal land cannot be bought or sold except by the tribals. There is a National Commission at the centre to protect the interests of the scheduled tribes and since 1997, 100 residential schools for tribals have been set up. To encourage education of tribal girls, hostels have been established. Under the government's five-year plans they are being constantly renovated or expanded.

Tribal crafts and their traditional weaves are being propagated in a big way. A special shop in the heart of New Delhi sells exclusive tribal crafts. With the help of trained designers, tribal weaves and handmade fabrics are being promoted.

But the ground reality is that money and status continue to elude them. Literacy levels of the tribals are still very low - for men about 29 per cent and for women 18 per cent. Tribals work as cultivators and agricultural labour and according to the reports of the Planning Commission, 52 per cent of the rural and 41 per cent of the urban tribal population lives below poverty-line. That means they earn less than Rs 11,000 in a year, barely US $28. Some of the tribals in the poorer regions of Orissa still survive on roots and berries. Because of poor health facilities in the tribal pockets in which they live, malaria is a major killer.

There is a 7.5 per cent reservation in jobs for the tribals, but only 3.5 per cent of the posts have been filled. Tribals are missing in the higher echelons of administration. Fifty-two years after Independence, the tribals continue to be marginalised, which is why in October 1999, a full-fledged Ministry for Tribal Affairs was established at the Centre.

Tribal representation in Parliament is sizeable - 41 members in the Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha - but they have remained largely voiceless. Though reservation for SC and ST was initially meant to last 10 years, it was extended decade after decade because there has been poor implementation of the various laws and measures for their educational, social and economic advancement.

Since the early nineties, a group of tribal rights activists has come together under the leadership of the well known writer, Mahashweta Devi, to fight for the rights of some 60 million denotified tribals who are treated as criminals. They are routinely picked up by the police for questioning and beaten up. Many of them die in police custody.

This traditional bias against these tribes, a legacy of British rule, persists despite more than 50 years of government efforts to bring all tribals and other backward communities to parity with the more privileged members of society.

In 1871, the British passed the Criminal Tribes Act. It notified about 150 tribes as "criminal" and gave the police wide powers to deal with members of these tribes. They could restrict their movements and insist they report at police stations regularly. Independent India repealed the Act in 1952. That is why they are called denotified tribes (DNTs).

That term is rarely used, however. They are nearly always referred to as criminals. And it is this view, more than anything else, that defines the ways the DNTs live today, says Dilip D'Souza, who studied and wrote extensively on denotified tribes under a fellowship awarded to him by the National Foundation for India.

Some 150 years ago, a large number of these tribal communities were nomadic. They were considered useful, honourable people by settled societies with whom they came into contact. Many of them were petty traders who used to carry their wares on the backs of their cattle and sold or bartered goods, which ranged from honey, grain and rice to herbal medicines, in the villages through which they passed. Most nomadic people were also craftsmen, making and selling baskets, mats, brooms or earthen utensils.

But the media has been particularly insensitive to the plight of these tribals who continue to be treated and referred to as criminals. "Haryana to flush out criminal tribes" was the headline in the Indian Express of February 27, 1999, followed by "Bansilal orders crackdown on criminal tribes." The Tribune News Service on September 9, 1999, reported "48 Pardhi robbers from Guna held." The Express News Service of November 6, 1999, reported "Stone age robbers: Pardhis know no mercy."

Dr Meena Radhakrishnan, a social anthropologist at the Nehru Memorial Museum, says the spectre of the so-called criminal tribes has begun to haunt the middle class readers of newspapers in Delhi. There has been a marked increase in news stories which claim that a gruesome murder of an elderly couple was committed by a group of Sansis who robbed them of all their valuables. Or that a woman living alone was brutally done to death in the dead of night by a group of Pardhis. Television programmes on the tribes put fear in the minds of viewers, and the words "criminal tribes" have become synonymous with criminality of a mindless, violent kind. Radhakrishnan says the terror being fanned in the public mind has led to lynching of hapless Sansis or Pardhis, with no protest from others.

Most members of these tribes live in dismal conditions - often on the outskirts of a city - and are extremely poor. Even the educated members of these communities, who form the first generation of office goers or professionals, are looked upon suspiciously and insulted.

In 1998, after two custodial deaths of members of these tribes, Budhan Saber of Purulia District of West Bengal and Pinky Hari Kale of Satara District of Maharashtra, activists filed writ petitions in the Kolkota and Mumbai high courts respectively. They also informed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) about the two deaths. Their efforts resulted in compensation being awarded to the families. The NHRC directed compensation be paid for the death of Kale and the Kolkota high court awarded compensation to the widow of Budhan Saber.

"While compensation is welcome and may act as a deterrent, the really revealing thing about these cases is what they say about attitudes towards DNTs," says Dilip D'Souza.

In February 2000, the NHRC recommended repeal of the Habitual Offenders Act, which had virtually replaced the Criminal Tribes Act after Independence. The Habitual Offenders Act has terrorised the tribes, for under its purview members of their communities are summarily picked up whenever there is unexplained crime.

Dr G N Devy, the secretary for the Denotified and Nomadic Tribes Rights Action Group, who is documenting tribal literature, says "None of the brave fights of the tribals against the British has ever been treated as part of the national struggle for freedom. From the Bihar uprising of 1778 to Lakshman Naik's revolt in Orissa in 1942, the tribals of India repeatedly rebelled against the British in the North East, Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. In fact, the British had to accede to the demands of the Bhils and the Naiks after their revolt in 1809 and 1838."

Source:Press and People

2008-07-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

India should take action against state-backed vigilantes active in the central state of Chhattisgarh, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

India should take action against state-backed vigilantes active in the central state of Chhattisgarh, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.Since 2005, security forces and members of the Salwa Judum militia group have killed and raped villagers, HRW says.

Salwa Judum was launched in 2005 to fight the Maoist rebels in the area.HRW also says the Maoists have kidnapped and executed civilians and targeted people suspected of supporting Salwa Judum.About 6,000 people have been killed in violence linked to the Maoist rebels in India over the past 20 years.Eyewitness accountsChhattisgarh officials deny supporting Salwa Judum and describe it as a "spontaneous citizen's anti-Maoist movement".

"Human Rights Watch has found that since mid-2005 government security forces and members of the Salwa Judum attacked villages, killed and raped villagers, and burned down huts to force people into government camps," a new report released by HRW in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state, says.

The group says it has collected more than 50 eyewitness accounts of attacks involving government security forces in 18 different villages in Dantewada and Bijapur districts in Chhattisgarh."Judum and police came to our village... They beat the village official and the priest. They beat others also," the report quotes a villager who fled his village in Dantewada district as saying."The people who came to our village had bows and arrows, sticks, and the police had rifles. From our village they also raped a 20-year-old woman. They raped her and left her in the village itself," he said."At the same time," the report says, "the Naxalites (Maoists) have carried out bombings, and have abducted, beaten, and executed civilians, particularly those suspected of supporting the Salwa Judum."

Human Rights Watch called on the Naxalites "to immediately end all attacks against civilians and allow camp residents to return to their home villages".The report says the violence has displaced tens of thousands of people who are stranded in government camps in Chhattisgarh or in the forestlands of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state."The Chhattisgarh government denies supporting Salwa Judum, but dozens of eyewitnesses have described police participating in violent Salwa Judum raids on villages - killing, looting, and burning their hamlets," the report quotes Jo Becker, a member of the Human Rights Watch research team, as saying.DisplacedThe report - titled "Being neutral is our biggest crime" - is based on four weeks of ground research in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh in late 2007 and early 2008."The conflict has given rise to one of the largest internal displacement crises in India - at least 100,000 people have resettled in camps in southern Chhattisgarh or fled to neighbouring states, principally Andhra Pradesh," according to the report."Thousands of families have lost their land, homes, and livelihoods, and now survive in crowded and decrepit camps with little assistance," it says."Chhattisgarh officials should help restore the lives of those who wish to return to their homes, and improve conditions for those who fear returning."The report says both the Maoists and the police have also recruited and used children in the conflict."While the Chhattisgarh police have acknowledged this as an error, the government is yet to devise a scheme for... rehabilitating them," the report says

.Chhattisgarh police chief Vishwa Ranjan said the government would respond to the report after studying it.Maoist fighters, who are waging a violent battle in almost half of India's 29 states, have been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the single biggest threat to India's security.The rebels are active in states across east and central India.They focus on areas where people are poor but there is great mineral wealth.The rebels say they represent the rights of landless farmhands and tribal communities.

Source:commondreams.blogspot.com

DISPLACING TRIBALS

2008-07-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

It is evident that the wildlife conservation paradigm in India has failed to consider those affected in the process.

For those living in the submergence area of the proposed Indira Sagar Project (Polavaram Dam project) in Andhra Pradesh, the writing appears to be clearly on the wall. To be executed at a cost of nearly Rs 13,000 crore, the project will submerge more than one lakh acres of agricultural land and the lives and livelihood of nearly two lakh people in about 290 settlements and villages. In line with history and earlier experience, nearly half the people to be impacted are scheduled tribes. Another 17.5 per cent are scheduled castes and nearly 15 per cent are from the backward classes.

The issue of the Polavaram dam clearly has multiple implications and significance. One that stands out starkly is the ongoing acrimonious debate over the Scheduled Tribes and other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act that was recently passed and now stands challenged in the courts by ‘conservation organisations’ and ex forest officers on grounds that its implementation will be the final nail in the coffin of the India’s remaining forests.For those living in the submergence area of the proposed Indira Sagar Project (Polavaram Dam project) in Andhra Pradesh, the writing appears to be clearly on the wall. To be executed at a cost of nearly Rs 13,000 crore, the project will submerge more than one lakh acres of agricultural land and the lives and livelihood of nearly two lakh people in about 290 settlements and villages. In line with history and earlier experience, nearly half the people to be impacted are scheduled tribes. Another 17.5 per cent are scheduled castes and nearly 15 per cent are from the backward classes.

The issue of the Polavaram dam clearly has multiple implications and significance. One that stands out starkly is the ongoing acrimonious debate over the Scheduled Tribes and other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act that was recently passed and now stands challenged in the courts by ‘conservation organisations’ and ex forest officers on grounds that its implementation will be the final nail in the coffin of the India’s remaining forests.

The case of the Polavaram Dam only reinforces that reality. The specific issue in this context is of the forest land to be submerged by the dam - this is about 37 sq km of reserved forest land and another 17 sq km inside the Papikonda Wildlife Sanctuary that is itself spread over 590 sq km in the West Godavari, East Godavari and Khamman districts of Andhra Pradesh. The matter has been before the Supreme Court for a while and one of the important submissions to the court in the matter is the November 2006 report of the court’s own Central Empowered Committee (CEC). It can only be a considered powerful reinforcement of the conflicts and contradictions that have come to underline wildlife conservation in the country.

Among the conditions suggested by the CEC for the final approvals to be granted to the dam is that nearly 500 sq km of forests adjoining the Papikonda Wildlife Sanctuary be added to the sanctuary and this then be declared a national park. According to India’s Wildlife Protection Act no one is allowed to live inside a national park and all traditional rights and livelihood dependencies on the forests are completely extinguished. The contradictions are painfully evident. Additional displacement is being created as a condition to ensure that the main displacement will take place in the first instance. “The state (government) has also agreed in principle,” the CEC report says,” for the relocation of the isolated villages falling within the sanctuary and notifying the sanctuary as a national park. This notification would be a pre-condition to any clearance to use/divert sanctuary land.”

While there is no respite for the two lakh-odd people who will be directly displaced because of submergence caused by the dam, an additional category of displacement is being created in the name of wildlife conservation, a “conservation offset,” and the justification, ironically, is that this will create a well preserved water catchment for the region. It is well known that Polavaram is not an exception. A slew of such projects are being proposed, pushed and approved across the length and breadth of the country. In Orissa, for instance, thickly forested hills, sacred to the local tribals and rich in diverse species of wildlife, are being handed over for mining; in the south a huge ‘scientific’ project with an investment of a few hundred crores might come up amidst prime tiger habitat and in the North East, huge dams are slated to submerge pristine forests in a region that is seismically very volatile.
The conservation debate in India has often slipped (even dragged) into being a tribal versus tiger one. The blame for the destruction of India’s forests and the decimation of its wildlife has willy-nilly and repeatedly been placed at the door of the tribal.

What’s happening with the Polavaram Dam project in Andhra Pradesh, in Niyamgiri (and other parts) in Orissa, in the Mudumalai forests of Tamil Nadu, in the thickly forested river valleys on North East India and in numerous such situations elsewhere will hopefully provide us a window into a slightly different reality.

Source: cgnet.in

LIFE WITH SALWA JUDUM......

2008-07-19T04:42:00.000-07:00

A photo essay on the plight of tribals in Chhattisgarh because of the conflict between militia and the Naxalites

Harikrishna Katragadda, Mint

New Delhi On a cloudy evening, Madkam Kose prepares to leave Durla village in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. She wants to head back with her family to the nearby Dornapal relief camp, her home for the past three years. "There is nothing to do in the camps during the day," she says. "We just come back to our gutted house during the day and pick mahua flowers in the forest."

Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh is a hotbed for Maoist insurgency. Decades of government neglect and oppression by the forest officials gave Maoists entry into villages and a swelling cadre of angry tribals.

To counter the Maoist influence, a government-backed militia—Salwa Judum—was let loose on the tribals in Dandakaranya forests of Chhattisgarh. Waves of forced migration followed when tribals were forced into relief camps, guarded by security forces and paramilitary groups. Nearly 150,000 tribals have been displaced since 2005, when the conflict began. Some fled to relative safety in nearby Andhra Pradesh, while those who resisted were abducted, tortured, raped and killed.

This week, the non-profit Human Rights Watch, an international agency that has been monitoring events in the region, released a report highlighting the failure of governance, and social and economic lapses as the root cause of the Naxal problem. The report documented the violence and abuse of local communities in Chhattisgarh by both Salwa Judum and the Maoists, and recommended that the Salwa Judum be disbanded.

source:cgnet.in

A NEW STRATEGY TO HANDLE THE BASTAR WEBSITE ISSUE

2008-07-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

The Adivasi Sangharsh Morcha has called for a rally and peaceful demonstration in front of the Bastar Collector's office, to protest against the approach of the Govt. towards the Bastar website issue.The demonstration is to be held on the 17th of july as announced by the Adivasi Morcha co- ordinatior Shanti Salam.If the State govt.continues its ignore policy, they would be forced to intensify their protests by rallies on 21st in every block of Bastar division and a bandh on 28th july.

Not to be silenced by this, the enquiry committee set up by the govt. , headed by B.L.Thakur has played its trump card. They have called for all the people who had filed an objection regarding the website with adequate proof on the same day i.e. 17th of July 2008 to Raipur , at the collectorate room no 149 at 12:00 noon.A very intelligent move by the beaureaucracy to stall the demonstration and break the protest movement.

Why else would one call for a meeting in Raipur ? Why should the complainants present evidence ?Isnt it the duty of the enquiry committee to delve deep into the issue and gather 'evidence' and 'proof' for themselves?

Since time immemorial, every tribal uprising or demonstration has been crushed ruthlessly by the ruling class, the Koi Revolution(1859), The Muria Insurrection(1876), The Great Bhumkal(1910) to name a few.

Now ,this ploy by the so called 'enquiry committee'..

This shows how threatened they feel by the warriors of Bastar......May their tribe increase

ANOTHER BLUNDER...THIS TIME BY HITAVADA REPORTER!

2008-07-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

The July 11th 2008 edition of the Hitavada carried an article on the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Parishad lambasting the State govt. over their passive approach to the 'gotul' issue., where very objectionable matter was on a govt. run website.

The reporter covering the issue has now given rise to a new controversy by referring to the gotul as 'a wedding custom popular in the tribal community'. The least one could have done was ensured proper information about a sensitive issue as this before reporting about it.

TRIBALS TARGETTED AGAIN....NOW IN TAMIL NADU

2008-07-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

Tribe faces eviction for failing to stop forest fire
Kanis Have Forfeited Right To Stay: Forest Dept New Delhi: If one day you ‘fail’ to help the fire service in dousing a fire in your neighbourhood or do not assist the police in catching a dangerous culprit, should you be turfed out of your house in order to be taught a lesson?

The Tamil Nadu forest department seems to believe so. It feels they have the legal power to eject irresponsible citizens from forestlands, even if this were not so easy in cities.

Underlying the move by the forest department to target the scheduled tribe, Kani, on the grounds that its members were lax in preventing a forest fire seems more an attempt to displace them from the forests in violation of the recently operationalised Forest Rights Act than anything else.

In an astonishing notice sent to Kanis of Kalakad Mundunthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) the forest department has claimed the schedule tribe forest dwellers have forfeited their right to stay in the forests as they allegedly did not help the department officials in preventing a forest fire that they are ‘required to do’ under the Tamil Nadu Forest Act. The notice, sent by the deputy director of the tiger reserve, also blames them for not providing any ‘useful information’. In the notice, in Tamil, the forest department has said: “Only those who respect the law and assist the Forest Department are eligible to live and obtain rights in the forest”

. The deputy director of KMTR, C Bhadrasamy, told TOI, “We were short of staff when the fire occurred but they did not come to help se we sent them the notice.” The Kani, now a scheduled tribe, were forcefully brought to the forests under the colonial rule starting in 1910 to run their and the then zamindar’s plantations. Some of these Kani now live in four hamlets in the heart of what in 1962 was declared a tiger reserve and eke a living out of the forest.

But, today Kani are politically more conscious and connected. They sent a reply to the deputy director accusing him of mala fide intent. They pointed out that Act did not apply in the region because it was a tiger reserve. They alleged that the official had criminally threatened them before sending the notice and that the notice had been sent to the entire Kani community and this, together with other Acts, violated the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

But hinting at the underlying motives, they pointed out that rouble began when they protested against declaring the reserve as a critical tiger habitat (which would allow the government to relocate them) under the Wildlife Protection Act, in violation of the laws and by ignoring the recently passed Forest Rights Act, that would gives them legitimate rights in the forests they have lived in now for decades.

Curiously, the deputy director wrote back to them warning that their letter was in English so he presumed the ‘tribals’ didn’t even know what they had written. He warned that if they accepted they were aware of what they had written, he would take action against them for using ‘bad language’ against him

. Talking to TOI, the official presented an odd defense for his action, “They have problems with the non-implementation of the Forest Rights Act by the Tamil Nadu government, but they are targeting me, so I wrote to them this second letter.”

SOURCE: THE TIMES OF INDIA

HOMAGE TO A GREAT MAN

2008-07-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

More than a week has elapsed since the 'birthday' of Bastar 's last king,Pravir Chandra Bhanjdeo and nobody has remembered him. Born on June 25, 1929 he was truly an' adivasi God'.With due respect to Rani Durgavati , her balidaan diwas was celebrated all over.Did anybody recall the sacrifice made by Pravir chandra Bhanjdeo? What makes him very important even today is the concern he had for his praja, the adivasis who are a tormented lot today.Exploited by local businessmen, torn apart by political games like the salwa judum, hunger, poverty ,disease, land grabbing by big industrial giants and finally a great slap on the face by the govt. websites which call them wild and animal like, drunkards and sex maniacs! They have nowhere to go. My homage to a great ruler, who if there today could have changed the entire fate of Bastar!

2008-07-03T00:13:00.000-07:00

As a rule hands of clocks all over the world show movements from left to right ,but an exception to the rule is the Gondwana clock.Probably the only one of its kind in the world, this clock moves from right to left.Manufactured by the Gondwana samaj in Bilaspur it has its own explanation.

The farmer while ploughing moves from right to left,even during offerings to agni the offerings are rotated from right towards left.Normally when asked to run around in circles we tend to move from right to left.With all this in mind and according to the gond culture the clock rotates in opposite direction to the other clocks.

The elders in the community claim that initially all clocks moved this way, but the Englishmen changed the original directions.

source: chattisgarh daily

2008-07-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

The Mawasi Korku tribes of the satpura ranges follow a culture very similar to the madias of bastar.The korkus are also a part of the vast group of the gonds.It is also said that the whole of central india and neighbouring orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra pradesh were all Gondwana landTtherefore the tribals of all these regions share a very similar culture and tradition.

The tribals in Bastar erect memory pillars to honour the departed souls.The Korkus also believe that within ten years of death if a memory pillar,, is not made then the soul of hte deceased does not attain peace.

A plank of wood of mango tree or a stone is shaped into a large tablet and it is inscribed with the name, family name of the deceased.It is also decorated with pictures of elements of nature like sun, moon, birds etc. The entire family then arrange for a celebration , where mahua flows freely,festive food is prepared, music and dance go on till late evening. The tablet is then placed in the sacred place where lot of other families have placed their pillars too.One such sacred place exists in Pachmari where these memorials can be seen.....where they pray for the peace of their ancestors to Gond Baba.A warning sign there also warns tourists against touching any of these sacred items....as one can be affected adversely bu it.

The lure of city life prompts these tribals to live a different life , but death often brings one back to reality!

2008-06-18T23:25:00.000-07:00

Land. Water. Minerals. Guns. They are all connected. In India’s heartland, after the last metalled road has turned into a dirt track, there are villages where people have not seen tap water and electricity. They have never met a doctor or gone to school. They live in the middle of dense forests, sharing space with dangerous animals. They live on fertile land, but there is never enough food in their stomachs. Hunger they are familiar with and now they are simmering with anger. They realise that they were never given a chance to live with dignity.

They are India’s original inhabitants - the indigenous people we call the tribals. Now, they are caught in a deadly crossfire between the rebels who claim that they are waging a war on their behalf and the State that says it’s trying to protect them from the Maoists’ mindless violence.

Not sure whom to believe, the tribals are confused. And they wonder why there hasn’t been any change in their lives for such a long time.

In Chhattisgarh, the state with the highest tribal population in the country, even basic civic amenities like roads, health centres and education facilities are lacking. Even the areas in the grip of violence are beyond the reach of the police forces. The wells here are dry. The land is parched. The roads are dusty. The people are famished.

It’s the same story in Jharkhand. Even after seven years of its creation, more than 80% of the tribal villages in Jharkhand are without roads, electricity, potable water and health centres.

There is no irrigation facility in more than 90% of the state. No wonder when the Maoists walk into a village and talk of revolution, people listen to them. No wonder when people hear about the mining companies coming and taking away their mineral wealth, they are enraged.

They want their land back. They want their forests intact. And they don’t want others to exploit their minerals. When they see everything slipping away from their hands, they turn to guns.

Source:The Times of India

Silicosis silently killing hundreds in MP villages

2008-06-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

BADHGHYAR (DHAR, MP): Kailash’s wife is dead. His elder brother is dead. His two sisters are dead too. "Woh charon shaant ho gaye hain (they are all dead)," he says, rather impassively. In his mid-twenties, the resident of Badhghyar village in Kukshi block of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh knows he is next.

Kailash is dying of the same disease as his family members — silicosis. It is incurable. He too worked with them in the Gujarat quartz crushing factories and breathed in silica dust that now covers the inside of his lungs, slowly choking him. He has watched most of his family die. He doesn’t require the doctors to tell him about his painful but short life ahead.

His body has already shrivelled up and his muscles have melted. A skeleton of his previous self, he finds it demeaning but lets his mother bathe him. His lungs blocked, breathless and short of oxygen for his blood, self-esteem is the last of his worries as his body refuses to build new cells while the older ones die. Eventually his system will collapse.

He is one of the hundreds of Bhil and Bhilala tribals in Jhabua and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh waiting to die. In a survey conducted in 2007 by a group of doctors in 21 villages of Jhabua, 158 people were found dead of silicosis. "266 others, who have been exposed to silica dust and are sick, will also eventually die," the doctors noted.

All of them had gone across the border to work in the quartz crushing units of Gujarat as unregistered daily wagers. In these factories, quartz stones are first broken by hammer into smaller ones, then crushed and powdered to be used to make glass. Large quantities of dust is generated in the process that the labourers inhale as they breathe deep due to the physically heavy workload involved.

"Initially, the crushing units hired tribals from Gujarat, but when deaths began to hit the tribal region there, the contractors came to Madhya Pradesh in early 2000. Young men and women, jobless in the summers, began to go across the border for what sounded an attractive proposition — Rs 50-60 as daily wages for three to four of the worst months of the year," says Magan, a member of the Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangathan, a local NGO which helped the doctors carry out the extensive survey.

But when they returned from work, many died with similar symptoms. The Sangathan has filed a case in the Supreme Court. The local administration and the state government have been mostly unsympathetic to the villagers. The National Human Rights Commission is also hearing silicosis cases from across the country. "The disease may not be curable but it is preventable. The factories should be held responsible for exposing the labourers to silica dust," says Magan.

Munni, a Rordha resident in her mid-30s, has seen 13 members in her extended family die over two years. In all, 28 people have died of silicosis in her village. Those left take care of the orphans and the old. Unable to cope, they find novel ways of resigning to death all around.

"Greed is killing my daughter and others," says Anita’s mother, a resident of Badhghyar. Anita, in her teens, along with Kailash is one of the two surviving from the 14 that went together to work in Gujarat for that extra Rs 10 a day.

Source: THE TIMES OF INDIA

POLEPALLY 13.......................DISSENT AGAINST SEZ

2008-06-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

13 cultivators contested polls to demonstrate their resentment at acquisition of their land by the government

C R Sukumar

Hyderabad: Mala Jangilamma is happy.

The 62-year-old and 12 other farmers who contested the recently held Jadcherla assembly by-elections lost so badly that they forfeited their security deposits. So, why is she so happy?

Jangilamma, Etti Peda Pentaiah, Depalli Yadaiah, Bandapalli Jangamma, Kanduru Mogulaiah, Kanduru Jangaiah and others lost the meagre land they owned — two to eight acres each — to make way for a special economic zone, or SEZ. “Victory or defeat was not the issue. I am elated we could draw the attention of people across the state to our struggle against the SEZ,” says Jangilamma.

Earthy demands: Mala Jangilamma, who contested the elections, was one among the 350 families that have demanded their lands back.

The Andhra Pradesh government acquired 7.3 acres she owned in Polepally in Mahbubnagar district, which is part of the Jadcherla assembly constituency, to build an SEZ.

Jangilamma now works as a construction worker for Rs120 a day on the the same land where Hetero Drugs Ltd, a Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm is building a factory.

The farmers say the government has short-changed them, and want their land back. They say they got between Rs18,000 and Rs50,000 for an acre for land that is available in the market for about Rs20 lakh per acre.

The government acquired close to 1,000 acres from about 350 families, who were marginal and small farmers belonging to Dalit, backward and tribal communities. Since their protests fell on deaf ears, 13 of them decided to contest the polls under the banner of Polepally SEZ Vyathireka Ikya Sanghatana (Alliance against Polepally SEZ, or PSVIS), to draw attention to their battle against what they say is a grave injustice.

“We did not receive even half of the compensation that the government announced. Officials at every level from the village to the district took commissions (bribes), and we ended up with paltry amounts,” says Depalli Yadaiah, whose family lost five acres. Yadaiah now works as a mason at construction sites.

“We used to cultivate dry crops such as maize, wheat, pulses and oilseeds in our one acre of land. For other essentials, we used to do labour occasionally,” says Etti Lingaiah, another farmer whose family lost four acres of land. “Since we don’t have land anymore, we now are compelled to work as labourers throughout the year.”

Why field 13, when just one representative would have sufficed?

“We had, in fact, initially thought we will field 150 farmers, but we couldn’t collect the Rs7.5 lakh required for security deposits,” says Madhu Kagula, social activist and convenor of PSVIS, arguing that they knew they could not defeat the candidates of established political parties, and this was their way of registering protest.

“Ever since we announced our decision to contest the elections, leaders of key political parties threatened us. Even election commission officials harassed us by slapping notices on us for not submitting the details of our poll expenditure,” says Etti Srinivasulu, another of the 13.

While political party candidates said they spend a couple of lakhs each to campaign for the elections, the farmers say they collectively spent Rs1.58 lakh that includes the aggregate security deposit of Rs65,000. “We are now left with loans of around Rs78,500,” says Kagula.

In 2003, a government led by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had acquired the land in Polepally through the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corp. (APIIC) for industrialization, but it was during the tenure of a Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) legislator that a Congress party-led state government allocated the land to an SEZ. The farmers are, thus, against all these parties.

They demand that the state hand back their land. “We are willing to give back whatever compensation we received,” said Etti Peda Pentaiah.

Currently, construction works have been taken up in around 100 acres of the 1,000 acres the government has acquired for the SEZ.

“We want the government to give back the balance 900 acres to the farmers and extend better compensation package to them,” says Kagula. “Let APIIC pay to farmers the difference between the cost of acquisition of land from farmers and the cost at which the land was sold to the companies in the SEZ,” he added.

The Jadcherla assembly seat fell vacant after 17 MLAs and four MPs of TRS resigned, saying the ensuring by-elections would be a referendum on their demand for a separate Telengana state in northern Andhra Pradesh.

The sitting TRS MLA lost the polls by a margin of more than 24,000 votes, coming third after Erra Shankar of the TDP, who lost by 2,106 votes. Mallu Ravi of the Congress party won the seat.

Jangilamma polled 1,771 votes, or 3.92% of what Ravi polled. The 13 farmers collectively secured 8,600 votes.

source:TELANGANA UTSAV

NOW A HUMAN ZOO.............................

2008-06-11T06:27:00.000-07:00

BANGKOK: Thai provincial officials have allowed a new "human zoo" featuring "long-necked" or "giraffe" women to open in Sattahip near Bangkok despite mounting international criticism of the exploitative tourism practice, media reports said on Monday. The residents are part of an ethnic group whose women wear brass rings around their necks as status symbols and for beauty enhancements. They are called the Padung or long-necked Karen in Thailand, but they consider those terms denigrating and call themselves Kayan. Seven Kayan villages are already marketed as tourist attractions in Thailand's northern provinces of Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai, where there is a sizeable population of Kayan, some of whom are refugees from neighbouring Myanmar. But for the first time, a new "village" of Kayans was recently opened in Sattahip in Chonburi province, 100 km south-east of Bangkok and a few kilometres from Pattaya beach resort, the Daily XPress newspaper said. It charges an entrance fee of 25 baht for Thai visitors and 250 baht for foreigners, the newspaper said. Sattahip district chief Narong Thirachantarangkoon brushed off accusations that he had allowed the establishment of a "human zoo" in his district. "I don't think so because the Karen are willingly living here," he said. "This is better than staying in their home region and starving." The rings worn by the Kayan women can weigh 10 kg or more, and over the years, the weight pushes down their collar bones and shoulders, making their necks appear longer and giving the women their nicknames of "long-necked" women. The women, who had originally come to Thailand as refugees, were reportedly lured to a border camp where Thai businessmen created a village to serve as a tourist attraction, or "human zoo". courtesy:the Times Of India
It is indeed very shameful that the Thai govt. has resorted to such gimmicks..It is very harmful to the self respect to these beautiful people..Imagine people paying to see you and peeking at you like you were a curio.Little wonder then , that the tribals all over the world are letting go of their customs and traditions and adopting the pseudo- culture of the so called ' civilised society'.

CHANGES .....ARE UNWELCOME SOMETIMES

2008-05-17T23:50:00.000-07:00

Time heals, time also changes, not just people but places too.Change is inevitable but unwelcome sometimes too.Time and change have affected not just tribal Bastar but large cities like Bangalore too...and for the worse.In the process of these events it is always the local people who are affected, be it Bastar or Bangalore.
A recent visit to Bangalore brought back old memories of a friendly city.A city which is known for its hospitality towards outsiders.Ironically, probably this is what has led to the ruin of its original culture....The masala dosa and the idli vada joints have given way to numerous north indian' chat' and the 'paratha points'.Buttermilk and coconut sellers now have resorted to selling 'baraf golas' and 'nimbu paani'.Except for a few old well known eateries like goos old MTR and others have been able to withstand the change!Others have resorted to catering to the 'uttar bharatiya 'palate.
Talk to an auto driver or a shop keeper in Kannada and almost always you will hear a reply in Hindi, it took me a while to reconcile to the fact that Bangalore is being or has been tken over by the 'north indian 'wave.Who is to blame???The outsiders who are ruling the economy and therefor the city or the locals who have failed to uphold their traditions and language and have given in to the wave and foolishly consider it superior.
They come ,they stay and probably conquer the culture too.Above all they consider the locals inferior.....Its sad that the city has offered them so much and all they do is call anybody living below the Vindhyas a 'Madrasi"!

MORE GOOF UPS ON THE GOVT. WEB SITE

2008-04-26T23:19:00.000-07:00

Just check out the following link
http://www.tourismofchhattisgarh.com/bastar-tribes-of-chhattisgarh/bisonhorn-maria.html
It says that marriages between blood relatives and even brothers and sisters are common.
The person who has compiled this has evidently no knowledge whatsoever of the Gond culture.The Koyatoor are divided into 750 gotras or families and marriages within the Gotras are strictly forbidden so where does the question of marriage between blood relatives arise?

What does one achieve by projecting such falsehood to the outside world? Providing untrue info about probably one of the worlds oldest cultures, on a govt. maintained website only speaks volumes about the callous attitude of the people in power towards its people..

WATCH YOUR WORDS..

2008-04-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday i.e. the 15th of April 2008, a leading Hindi daily of Chattisgarh, छत्तीसगढ़" carried a news item whose headlines read' थोक में आधा दर्जन' and no the writer was not referring to some

vegetable or fruits but to six children

born to a lady,Sunila Devi in Bihar.

What is shameful is ,this was the same

newspaper that lunged at Mr.Ajay Chandrakar when he made the offending

statement regarding children not being produced by the Govt. How different is this

headline from Mr.Chandarakar's comment?

It is said that childbirth is a second life for a woman.In the writers enthusiasm to

popularise the news item of a lady giving birth to six girls at one time, the very

essence of motherhood has been mocked at by publishing such an offending

headline.What does the writer mean by saying that the lady has given birth

'थोक में'? Is this the phrase to be used while referring to babies, who are yet to

understand the ways of this wicked world?

Now ,whom do we demand an apology from?Why is it so difficult to value

another humans sentiment? At the cost of selling hot stories, the humane side of

the media seems to be lost.

OFFICIAL ERRORS...GET FACTS RIGHT

2008-04-04T02:01:00.000-07:00

Read through this to know what incorrect things people have to say about the

life and people of Bastar....

'The Gonds tribals of Bastar have their own 'Ghotul' system in which the un

married young mature boys and girls live together in seperately made huts and

copulate.During this time they enjoy themselves by participating in dancing ,

music , local story telling etc in a drunken mood. Inspite of these they gets

knowledge of different social activities.The members can get out of the ghotuls

to marry.This Ghotul system is mostly found among the Muria Gonds tribes and

the origin of this system is related with their goddess 'Lingopan'. '

This is an excerpt from the 'official' website of Bastar www.bastar.nic.in. It gives

a totally false picture of the centuries old social institution of 'Ghotul". Why do

people fail to realise that the Ghotul was a social institution where the young

learnt about their cultures and traditions and not just a system that allowed

free 'sexual relations' as the author of the website claims...

'Youngsters interacting in a drunken mood'....does it mean that drinking was a

prerequisite to interact in the Ghotul??? Another blaring mistake is the mention

of Lingopen as a Godess....Lingopen is a GOD of dance and music and the

presiding diety of the Ghotul.

Further the website also mentions that the Madias drink like animals from the

water.....Is this the picture being given to outsiders to promote tourism??

Time to wake up and do the cleaning act..Of wrong thoughts and of course the

website.

I think members of the community should demand an apology..for publishing

demeaning remarks and incorrect information ,thus hurting the sentiments of

the community involved

2008-03-03T22:44:00.000-08:00

Loss of opportunity: Chenchu children whiling away their time instead of going to a school meant for them near Nagarjunasagar in Guntur district.
ETHIPOTHALA (Guntur dt.) :
Even while schools in other places face perennial scarcity of funds and poor infrastructure with classrooms filled to the brim, it is the other way round in the land of the primitive tribal group Chenchus.
To say there are more well-constructed ashram schools with staff quarters than the number of Chenchu children going into them is an understatement if takes their headcount in classrooms.
The upper primary residential school managed by the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) Srisailam, for the Chenchus here, is a typical example. The sanctioned strength of the school is 400 and the fund flow and staffing pattern is in tune with it. But the attendance on Tuesday was 180 and the number of Chenchus stood at a mere 39 spread across classes I to VII. No class had more than five Chenchus. Others who made up for "lack of strength" included advanced tribals like Lambadas and a few Dalits.
Same is the case in B.K.V. Palem residential primary school near Nagarjuna Sagar dam. Of the 44, only 20 attended on Tuesday and the Chenchus accounted for only four. The scene repeated in the schools at neighbouring Murikimalla, BMC Colony, Peddmanthanala in Prakasam district.
Like most other benefits that do not reach them, it is clear that the schools meant for a primitive tribal group fighting disease and deprivation are used and abused by others. No effort is made to counsel and motivate Chenchu parents. Headmasters and teachers in charge of this task play the blame game. "We persuade but they do not come," was the refrain of the teachers.
A sinister design looks apparent. Cement concrete residential school buildings are constructed without any homework, as every new project brings a lot of money that could be shared in terms of percentages. Once built, more funds come their way for the upkeep of buildings, food, uniforms and books for Chenchu children. So, wonderful buildings abound but there are not many Chenchus. The trick is simple ? blame the Chenchus' so-called disinclination to study, admit others in their place and fudge the attendance registers.
"Much like the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) method used for big infrastructure projects, a system is in operation here. Buildings come up where there are no Chenchus. Where there are Chenchus there are no schools. And where there are schools there are no teachers. There is a mismatch and it serves the purpose of officials out to make money in the name of Chenchus. A thorough re-assessment is required," says Sambasiva Rao of Banjara Development Society, a NGO working among Chenchus.

Source:K.Venkateshwarulu, the Hindu

HERE TOO.............

2008-03-03T03:48:00.000-08:00

A recent visit to Bastar and the shrine of Maa Danteshwari made me realise that faith knows no boundaries and so do money making schemes....
After paying obeisance at the shrine, a walk to the Bhairao Baba temple about half kilometre made me see reality.Just before the bridge is a small room, now converted into a 'mandir'.

So, what is different?

A young girl sings hymns of hare krishna ,walking in a trance like state around a tulsi brindavan.The moment she spots an audience she ushers them inside saying 'an akhand jyoti and paath ' programme is on.

What makes the whole thing appear fake is...the pujari in question was earlier a bus conductor and he even ran a dhaba later. A very popular figure....for the wrong reasons..

Two years ago he had only a shed here at the mandir premises. He now has acquired cows and lots of innocent audience.How is it that such a wrong person has turned into a pujari? Or should we give him the benefit of doubt and assume that he has had a spiritual awakening?

Is this a way to slowly gain control of the land there, or to earn money?????Or to impose the Hidutva factor in an otherwise tribal dominated area.I only hope the ancient traditions of the temple are preserved and not gradually influenced and changed under the spell of this con man.

Then I witnessed something that made me optimistic...there were around eight goats tied to trees just opposite the make shift temple ,all being readied for sacrifice by villagers........

So, tradition prevailed......but for how long?

At a shrine where even the royals accepted the traditions of the Koyas.....
how did this
man in question acquire land there? And how is he imposing a clearly alien tradition and'pratha' there?

Are the people of the Adivasi samaj in slumber?Where are the netas who so proudly call themselves tribals?...
Looks like Salwa Judum is keeping them occupied.....

YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOU WERE...........

2007-12-12T03:33:00.000-08:00

Ashok Mitra after 14th November, 2007

By Ashok Mitra. Translated from Bengali by Debarshi Das, Sanhati.

Till death I would remain guilty to my conscience if I keep mum about the happenings of the last two weeks in West Bengal over Nandigram. One gets torn by pain too. Those against whom I am speaking have been my comrades at some time. The party whose leadership they are adorning has been the centre of my dreams and works for last sixty years.

Let me start with the governor. Those who remember Anantaprasad Sharma or Rajeshwar would readily admit that it’s a great fortune for this state and the State Government that they have someone as gentle, well-mannered, sympathetic, modest, erudite as Gopal Krishna Gandhi as the governor of the state. Let me also add he had consented to the post because of the interest shown by the central leadership of the ruling party. What has been his grave fault that the ruling party is so determined to declare even him as its enemy? Through a travesty of truth it is being said that governor has termed the return of those who were forced flee Nandigram to take shelter in Khejuri as illegitimate and unpardonable. He has not done so. He has condemned, in no uncertain terms, the way in which they have been brought back. By now the machination that went on behind the return is known to the world. The government had had enough scope to rehabilitate these devastated people in their own homes through political mediation or administrative arrangements during the last eleven months. The attempts through unilateral threatening, police action, indiscriminate firing had a tragic end. But there were still many avenues left to be explored. The government could have announced compensation for the family of dead and injured immediately after the idiotic incident of firing. Promises could have been made to take action against the police officers and personnel involved in the crime. Days passed, and the government did nothing. Announcement was made in the fashion of Vijay Tendulkar’s play’s title, “Shantata, court chalu ahe.” The senior most political leader of the state and the country had to take the initiative to call up Mamata Banerjee, sit and discuss with her a few conditions for resolution. The government was intimated of them. It did not proceed on them. On the initiative of the senior leader of Forward Bloc, Ashok Ghosh, an all-party meeting was convened. That also got stalled due to indirect pressure from the ruling party. In the meanwhile, as was inevitable, opposition parties started using the unstable situation of Nandigram to their own advantage. The flame of tension was kept burning by a variety of organisations of different colour and class. The discontented whining one hears from the ruling party over this has no rationale whatsoever. The responsibility of unspoken suffering of those who spent eleven months as homeless rests squarely upon the shoulders of the government.

It is better to look further into the past. Nandigram was not after all the first blood. Singur episode had happened before that. The Left Front Government does not like nationalised industries. They want to set up private industries in the state. Hence there are promises to acquire land on behalf of the national, international capitalists. That land would supposedly be used by capitalists to set up industries. Since there was declaration of industrialisation in the election manifesto, and since they have won 235 seats, it was readily assumed that there was no need for preparations. All of a sudden peasants were told: leave the land, the masters would set up industries here. If it had learned minimum lessons from the protests, clashes and the blood letting of Singur, the government would have been more careful in Nandigram. But that was not to be. It remained as arrogant as ever. Even the top leaders of the ruling party have been saying there was no existence of the opposition parties in Nandigram. The government itself provided them with the opportunity to grow. The loyal followers of the ruling party declared revolt and those who were not with them were driven out. The onus of this rests on the government as well.

For eleven months complete silence and inactivity were carefully maintained, no political or administrative alternative was explored. And suddenly a new plot was hatched. As has been repeatedly admitted by the home secretary, the police was instructed to remain inactive. Mercenaries were collected from across the state. Workers of the ruling party encircled Nandigram from all directions. Birds, bees, flies, journalists none was given the permission to penetrate the blockade. And then the light brigade of the ruling party charged in, beat the wayward militants of Nandigram to a pulp and into submission. Those who had fled returned. However the moment of their return saw a parallel and opposite incident. Houses were torched anew, those who were inside Nandigram were butchered in a massive celebration of revenge. Presently, the Nandigram sky is reverberating by the scream of the recent batch of refugees.
The governor must have been informed of the developments by the secretaries. Much concerned, he must have appealed to the honchos of the ministry to keep peace. But to no effect. The rampage is going on as we speak. And so is the blood bath. The governor has made a public statement condemning the incident. I don’t know if what he said, how he said it falls within the framework of the constitution. Those who have not forgotten the framework of humanism, however, will not have two minds about it.

The problem does not involve Singur and Nandigram alone. It is much more deep and serious. The repetition of mistakes has become a habit. Just consider this for a minute. It has only been a year and a half since the Left Front has won a massive mandate; and what examples of arrogance and stupidity during this brief span! Come what may, we shall have control over every nook and corner of the state. The cricket board will get its chief elected to our dictates. If our candidate loses we would say, “evil power has won, we will chase him out.” Not only the ordinary people, economic thinkers have offered diverse views over land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram. These different opinion holders are nothing but bookworms, what do they know about running a government! Consequently prominent economist and party comrade of the stature of Prabhat Patnaik is hounded. We are an all-knowing government: from cricket, poetry, theatre, films to the magic of land acquisition – we know everything. Neither should anyone lecture us on the pros and cons of the nuclear deal, for we have won 235 seats. Jyoti Basu won more seats in 1987; he was not heard to mouth such hubris.
Not only hubris, add ineptitude to it. Decades have passed shouting hoarse about universal education, and still West Bengal is behind so many states. Money is flowing in from the centre for employment generation schemes, there is zero administrative initiative, the hungry and the unemployed go hungry and unemployed. The centre has arrangement for wheat and rice; these are not even lifted so that they could be sent to the middle and lower class through the ration system. There are uncountable errors and omissions in the list of people living below the poverty line. The shortcomings in the state over empowering the minorities have been detailed in the Sachar Committee report.

Take the incident surrounding the death of Rizwanur Rahman. If the police chief of Kolkata along with his cohorts were removed the very evening in which he let his social philosophy known at a press conference and if the investigation were handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation, public rage would not have assumed such ominous proportions. Instead we witnessed an extraordinary serial exhibition of a strange paralysis. Examples go on mounting.

Three decades ago when the Left Front government took the oath of office it was not to sit at Writers’ building and indulge in empty talks. But to be one with the people, listening to it and after realising the advice of the people with due humility to design government programmes to implement it. Improvisation of the Panchayat system was precisely for this purpose. Yet all this have somehow become stagnant. Though panchayats are elected democratically they are in a sorry state today. The little money that reaches them is not properly utilised, plenty of it disappears into dark tunnels.
It is not possible therefore to avoid the unpleasant truth anymore. One can borrow S. D. Burman’s song to describe what the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was in this state a few decades ago, “you are not what you were.” 90% of its members have joined after 1977, 70% after 1991. They do not know the history of sacrifices of the party. To them ideological commitment to revolution and socialism is simply a fading folktale. As the new ideology is development, many of them are associated with the party in the search for personal development. They have come to take, not to give. They are learning different tricks so as to appropriate various privileges by aligning with the governing party. One efficient way to bag privileges is to flatter the masters. The party has turned into a wide open field of flatterers and court jesters. Moreover, there has been a rising dominance of ‘anti-socials’. For different reasons, every political party has to lend patronage to ‘anti-socials’, they remain in the background and are called into duty at urgent times. In the seventies these anti-socials had reached the top rung of Congress party.

I fear same fate is awaiting the communist party.
Many of the old people, long time and still party members, who have been through numerous sacrifices and are idealists, are a disheartened, disillusioned lot today. But any organised protest will face party disciplinary action, what will be their support in the twilight of life if the party throws them out?
I feel sorry for Mr. Jyoti Basu. Of the four ministerial colleagues who took the oath as members of the first Left Front government with him on 21st June, 1977, only I am still alive. His current state of an imprisoned Shah Jahan saddens the heart deeply. State leadership does not heed the little advice he tries to offer from time to time. If his talks are a tad uncomfortable for the party they are not published in the party organs. Every Friday after the meeting of the party secretaries he comes down stairs and is made to say different things; what he says today may completely be the opposite of what he had said the last time.

But my real concern lies elsewhere. Mamata Banerjee is the safest insurance for the current ruling party. Urban, rural masses may have become discontented with the Left Front, but whenever they imagine Mamata Banerjee’s ascent to power, the sheer terror of that possibility has made them vote for the Left Front. But if it comes to a situation that the hubris and ineptitude of leaders of the Left Front government frustrate them so much that they begin to think there is no difference really, it’s all tweedledum and tweedledee, that will be a real disaster. For notice the behaviour, patronage, programme, mode of action, speech of Mamata Banerjee – she personifies fascism. My ardent appeal to the central leadership of the party which I still love to think to be mine, please think it over, you shiver at the terror of Maoism, will that shivering compel you to throw West Bengal into the gutter of fascism?

The original article appeared in The Anandabazaar Patrika

LETTER TO CONSERVATIONISTS CHALLENGING FR ACT

2007-10-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

CAMPAIGN FOR SURVIVAL AND DIGNITY
National Convenor: Pradip Prabhu, 3, Yezdeh Behram, Kati, Malyan, Dahanu Rd. 401602.
Delhi Contact: SRUTI, Q-1 Hauz Khas Enclave, New Delhi 110 016. Ph: 9968293978, 26569023.
forestcampaign@ gmail.com

SECOND OPEN LETTER TO BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, WILDLIFE PROTECTION SOCIETY OF INDIA, CONSERVATION ACTION TRUST AND WILDLIFE FIRST

Dear Friends,
This is our second open letter to you. We had first written to you in January regarding your petition in the Supreme Court challenging the "tiger amendment" to the Wildlife Act last year; your response to that letter is still awaited. It appears you have since filed an affidavit in that case challenging the 2006 Forest Rights Act, which your Advocate Mr. Raj Panjwani referred to in court. Despite your refusal to provide us with a copy of that affidavit, we recently managed to examine it.

We are hence writing this second open letter. Now as then, we write to protest the fact that your 'legal' arguments actually are an attempt to use law to cloak a deeply elitist, repressive and authoritarian model of "conservation" that has caused immense harm both to forest dwellers and to conservation itself. In particular, we wanted to raise certain issues with you:

In your petition you make the remarkable claim that "if co-existence [between humans and wild animals] was feasible, wild animals, ages ago, would have been domesticated just as horses, dogs and pigs."

You also claimed that coexistence is a "myth, based on utopian visions, deriving its sustenance from folklore." In January we had pointed out that this position runs counter to that adopted by the world's largest conservation organisations, in addition to contradicting history, ecological science and common sense. Since then, you have not clarified this position at all. Can we then assume that your approach continues to be based on such notions?

Your affidavit attacks the Forest Rights Act on several grounds. First is that the sections that empower the the community to also protect forests amount to "transferring control and management of the country's natural heritage to the gram sabha / individuals.

" The law is very clear that this power in no way detracts or derogates from the powers of the existing authorities; it is a power in addition to that of the Forest Department. Indeed, this section one of the most pro-conservation elements of the law, for it is communities who have fought most fiercely against practically every environmentally destructive project, against every open cast mine, dam, or polluting industrial estate. You are no doubt aware that internationally, "community conserved areas" are seen as a priority area of work for conservation organisations such as the IUCN, with even India's Wildlife Protection Act providing for their recognition. Yet your position would imply that the forest authorities should have the sole power to protect forests and wildlife.

Are your organisations in favour of truly open, people-based conservation, as it is understood internationally? Or in favour of a closed system where a handful of forest officials decide everything, the system under which five lakh hectares of forest have been destroyed in the last five years alone?
Second, you say that this law will "infringe upon the rights of non-beneficiaries to natural heritage / ecology" by destroying forests.

The Forest Rights Act is not a land distribution measure that will wipe out forests. It is intended to address the failure to record people's rights during the process of declaring government 'forests', many of which often are not forests at all. To this day 82% of Madhya Pradesh's forest blocks have not been surveyed, and 60% of India's national parks have not completed the recording of rights. Millions of people have lost their lands and their livelihoods during this seizure of resources by the British Empire and post-Independence governments. Till today they live under extreme oppression, facing daily harassment, violence and extortion. The Tiger Task Force called it "a completely illegal and unconstitutional land acquisition programme"; the then Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commissioner, in his 29th report, said the "criminalisation of the entire communities in the tribal areas is the darkest blot on the liberal tradition of our country."

How can addressing this enormous injustice inherently be a violation of the right to natural heritage? You may not agree with this Act's methods or approach; but by repeatedly denying that there is an issue of rights, you imply that "conservation" can only work by violating the rights of millions of people. If this is your position ? and we hope that it is not - your notion of 'conservation' is both untenable in principle and doomed in practice. It is worth noting that the IUCN once again takes a position completely contrary to yours when describing their work: "Indigenous peoples, landless workers, small producers, mobile communities, low-income consumers, and all others who are dependent on natural resources, but without property rights over them, will hopefully acquire some form of rights entitling them to an equitable participation in managing those resources and benefiting from them."

Moreover, if natural heritage is indeed a concern, one would expect that you would enthusiastically support communities in their struggle against the Polavaram dam, against Vedanta's mines in Orissa, or against Coca Cola in Plachimada. One would expect you to condemn the dilution of the Environmental Impact Assessment notification, the draft new mining policy, or the moves to privatize forests and take away community lands for timber plantations. The communities fighting these projects and policies are truly fighting for their natural heritage ? not as a legal abstraction but as a lived reality. Yet on all these issues, all we hear from your organisations is a deafening silence.

We can only conclude from this that, as in January, you are simply uninterested in the real issues at stake. Far easier to condemn forest dwellers than to resist corporate interests. Far easier to sentence communities to inhuman oppression than to demand both conservation and justice. Far easier, at the end of the day, to join with power than to fight it.

Conservation has not succeeded and can never succeed if it is based on an authoritarian, repressive model inherited from an Empire. We have no doubt that you believe in conservation. The question is: do you believe in democracy?

Campaign for Survival and Dignity

THE REAL FACE OF BASTAR DUSSERA .2007

2007-10-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

The Bastar Dussera that attracts hundreds of tourists from all over was this year celebrated with 'borrowed' funds.It is a shame, that for a government that otherwise claims to promote tourism and culture failed to provide funds on time for this important event.

Dussera in Bastar is celebrated in respect of Danteshwari Mai, the presiding diety.A sum of about 20 lakh is sanctioned evry year for this festival.. which the Dussera committee spends on goats for sacrifice, food items, grocery, crackers, liquour and other requirements.This year too these items were obtained , but on credit.....Apparently not a single rupee has reached the committee from the Govt. as a result of which they had to make do with the Collector's funds.

The Manjhis will leave for their villages on 27 th, by which time they hope to get their stipulated allowance of 6000rs. Even the goats worth one and half lakh ruppees that were sacrificed during the Dussera period were bought on a credit of 50,000rs!!!

The Muriya Durbar that is supposedly a connection between the villagers and the state has also become a platform for netas now..Only four Manjhis out of 70 got to speak for 13 minutes in the allotted 3hrs, where rest of the time was hogged by our politicians....A very shameful state of affairs!

Considered as a state festival, was this their best ?

source: dainik bhaskar

THE ADIVASIS

2007-10-23T23:09:00.000-07:00

A History of Discrimination, Conflict, and Resistance

-- By C.R. Bijoy, Core Committee of the All India Coordinating Forum of Adivasis/Indigenous Peoples

The 67.7 million people belonging to "Scheduled Tribes" in India are generally considered to be 'Adivasis', literally meaning 'indigenous people' or 'original inhabitants', though the term 'Scheduled Tribes' (STs) is not coterminous with the term 'Adivasis'. Scheduled Tribes is an administrative term used for purposes of 'administering' certain specific constitutional privileges, protection and benefits for specific sections of peoples considered historically disadvantaged and 'backward'.

However, this administrative term does not exactly match all the peoples called 'Adivasis'. Out of the 5653 distinct communities in India, 635 are considered to be 'tribes' or 'Adivasis'. In comparison, one finds that the estimated number of STs varies from 250 to 593.

For practical purposes, the United Nations and multilateral agencies generally consider the STs as 'indigenous peoples'. With the ST population making up 8.08% (as of 1991) of the total population of India, it is the nation with the highest concentration of 'indigenous peoples' in the world!

The Constitution of India, which came into existence on 26 January 1950, prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth (Article 15) and it provides the right to equality (Article 14), to freedom of religion (Articles 25-28) and to culture and education (Articles 29-30). STs are supposedly addressed by as many as 209 Articles and 2 special schedules of the Constitution - Articles and special schedules which are protective and paternalistic.

Article 341 and 342 provides for classification of Scheduled Castes (the untouchable lower castes) and STs, while Articles 330, 332 and 334 provides for reservation of seats in Parliament and Assemblies. For purposes of specific focus on the development of STs, the government has adopted a package of programmes, which is administered in specific geographical areas with considerable ST population, and it covers 69% of the tribal population.
Despite this, and after the largest "modern democracy" of the world has existed for more than half a century, the struggles for survival of Adivasis - for livelihood and existence as peoples - have today intensified and spread as never before in history.

Over centuries, the Adivasis have evolved an intricate convivial-custodial mode of living. Adivasis belong to their territories, which are the essence of their existence; the abode of the spirits and their dead and the source of their science, technology, way of life, their religion and culture.

Back in history, the Adivasis were in effect self-governing 'first nations'. In general and in most parts of the pre-colonial period, they were notionally part of the 'unknown frontier' of the respective states where the rule of the reign in fact did not extend, and the Adivasis governed themselves outside of the influence of the particular ruler.

The introduction of the alien concept of private property began with the Permanent Settlement of the British in 1793 and the establishment of the "Zamindari" system that conferred control over vast territories, including Adivasi territories, to designated feudal lords for the purpose of revenue collection by the British. This drastically commenced the forced restructuring of the relationship of Adivasis to their territories as well as the power relationship between Adivasis and 'others'. The predominant external caste-based religion sanctioned and practiced a rigid and highly discriminatory hierarchical ordering with a strong cultural mooring.

This became the natural basis for the altered perception of Adivasis by the 'others' in determining the social, and hence, the economic and political space in the emerging larger society that is the Indian diaspora. Relegating the Adivasis to the lowest rung in the social ladder was but natural and formed the basis of social and political decision making by the largely upper caste controlled mainstream. The ancient Indian scriptures, scripted by the upper castes, also further provided legitimacy to this.

The subjugated peoples have been relegated to low status and isolated, instead of either being eliminated or absorbed. Entry of Europeans and subsequent colonisation of Asia transformed the relationship between the mainstream communities and tribal communities of this region. Introduction of capitalism, private property and the creation of a countrywide market broke the traditional economy based on use value and hereditary professions.
All tribal communities are not alike. They are products of different historical and social conditions. They belong to four different language families, and several different racial stocks and religious moulds. They have kept themselves apart from feudal states and brahminical hierarchies for thousands of years.
In the Indian epics such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas (folklores) there are many references to interactions and wars between the forest or hill tribes and the Hindus.

Eminent historians who have done detailed research on the epic Ramayana (200 B.C to 500 B.C) have concluded that 'Lanka', the kingdom of the demonic king Ravana and 'Kishkinda', the homeland of the Vanaras (depicted as monkeys) were places situated south of Chitrakuta hill and north of Narmada river in middle India. Accordingly, Ravana and his demons were an aboriginal tribe, most probably the Gond, and the Vanaras, like Hanuman in the epic, belonged to the Savara and Korku tribes whose descendants still inhabit the central Indian forest belt. Even today, the Gond holds Ravana, the villain of Ramayana, in high esteem as a chief. Rama, the hero of Ramayana, is also known for slaughtering the Rakshasas (demons) in the forests!

The epic of Mahabharata refers to the death of Krishna at the hands of a Bhil Jaratha. In the ancient scriptures, considered to be sacred by the upper castes, various terms are used depicting Adivasis as almost non-humans. The epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Puranas, Samhitas and other so-called 'sacred books' refer to Adivasis as Rakshasa (demons), Vanara (monkeys), Jambuvan (boar men), Naga (serpents), Bhusundi Kaka (crow), Garuda (King of Eagles) etc. In medieval India, they were called derogatorily as Kolla, Villa, Kirata, Nishada, and those who surrendered or were subjugated were termed as Dasa (slave) and those who refused to accept the bondage of slavery were termed as Dasyu (a hostile robber).

Ekalavya, one of their archers was so skillful that the hero of the Aryans, Arjuna, could not stand before him. But they assaulted him, cutting his thumb and destroying his ability to fight - and then fashioned a story in which he accepted Drona as his Guru and surrendered his thumb as an offering to the master! The renowned writer Maheshwata Devi points out that Adivasis predated Hinduism and Aryanism, that Siva was not an Aryan god and that in the 8th century, the tribal forest goddess or harvest goddess was absorbed and adapted as Siva's wife. Goddess Kali, the goddess of hunters, has definitely had a tribal origin.

History of the Adivasis
Little is known about the relationship between the Adivasis and non-Adivasi communities during the Hindu and Muslim rules. There are stray references to wars and alliances between the Rajput kings and tribal chieftains in middle India and in the North-East between the Ahom Kings of Brahmaputra valley and the hill Nagas. They are considered to be ati-sudra meaning lower than the untouchable castes. Even today, the upper caste people refer to these peoples as jangli, a derogatory term meaning "those who are like wild animals" - uncivilised or sub-humans.

The Adivasis have few food taboos, rather fluid cultural practices and minimal occupational specialization, while on the other hand, the mainstream population of the plains have extensive food taboos, more rigid cultural practices and considerable caste-based occupational specialisation. In the Hindu caste system, the Adivasis have no place. The so-called mainstream society of India has evolved as an agglomeration of thousands of small-scale social groups whose identities within the larger society are preserved by not allowing them to marry outside their social groups.

The subjugated groups became castes forced to perform less desirable menial jobs like sweeping, cleaning of excreta, removal of dead bodies, leather works etc - the untouchables. Some of the earliest small-scale societies dependent on hunting and gathering, and traditional agriculture seem to have remained outside this process of agglomeration. These are the Adivasis of present day. Their autonomous existence outside the mainstream led to the preservation of their socio-religious and cultural practices, most of them retaining also their distinctive languages. Widow burning, enslavement, occupational differentiation, hierarchical social ordering etc are generally not there. Though there were trade between the Adivasis and the mainstream society, any form of social intercourse was discouraged. Caste India did not consciously attempt to draw them into the orbit of caste society.

But in the process of economic, cultural and ecological change, Adivasis have attached themselves to caste groups in a peripheral manner, and the process of de-tribalisation is a continuous one. Many of the Hindu communities have absorbed the cultural practices of the Adivasis. Although Hinduism could be seen as one unifying thread running through the country as a whole, it is not homogenous but in reality a conglomeration of centuries old traditions and shaped by several religious and social traditions which are more cultural in their essence (and including elements of Adivasi socio-religious culture).

Adivasis at the lowest rung of the ladder
Adivasis are not, as a general rule, regarded as unclean by caste Hindus in the same way as Dalits are. But they continue to face prejudice (as lesser humans), they are socially distanced and often face violence from society. They are at the lowest point in every socioeconomic indicator. Today the majority of the population regards them as primitive and aims at decimating them as peoples or at best integrating them with the mainstream at the lowest rung in the ladder. This is especially so with the rise of the fascist Hindutva forces.

None of the brave Adivasi fights against the British have been treated as part of the "national" struggle for independence. From the Malpahariya uprising in 1772 to Lakshman Naik's revolt in Orissa in 1942, the Adivasis repeatedly rebelled against the British in the north-eastern, eastern and central Indian belt. In many of the rebellions, the Adivasis could not be subdued, but terminated the struggle only because the British acceded to their immediate demands, as in the case of the Bhil revolt of 1809 and the Naik revolt of 1838 in Gujarat. Heroes like Birsa Munda, Kanhu Santhal, Khazya Naik, Tantya Bhil, Lakshman Naik, Kuvar Vasava, Rupa Naik, Thamal Dora, Ambul Reddi, Thalakkal Chandu etc are remembered in the songs and stories of the Adivasis but ignored in the official text books.

The British Crown's dominions in India consisted of four political arrangements:

the Presidency Areas where the Crown was supreme,
the Residency Areas where the British Crown was present through the Resident and the Ruler of the realm was subservient to the Crown,
the Agency (Tribal) areas where the Agent governed in the name of the Crown but left the local self-governing institutions untouched and
the Excluded Areas (north-east) where the representatives of the Crown were a figure head.

After the transfer of power, the rulers of the Residency Areas signed the "Deed of Accession" on behalf of the ruled on exchange they were offered privy purse. No deed was however signed with most of the independent Adivasi states. They were assumed to have joined the Union. The government rode rough shod on independent Adivasi nations and they were merged with the Indian Union. This happened even by means of state violence as in the case of Adivasi uprising in the Nizam's State of Hyderabad and Nagalim.

While this aspect did not enter the consciousness of the Adivasis at large in the central part of India where they were preoccupied with their own survival, the picture was different in the north-east because of the historic and material conditions. Historically the north-east was never a part of mainland India. The colonial incorporation of north-east took place much later than the rest of the Indian subcontinent. While Assam ruled by the Ahoms came under the control of British in 1826, neighbouring Bengal was annexed in 1765. Garo Hills were annexed in 1873, Naga Hills in 1879 and Mizoram under the Chin-Lushai Expeditions in 1881-90. Consequently, the struggles for self-determination took various forms as independence to greater autonomy.

A process of marginalization today, the total forest cover in India is reported to be 765.21 thousand sq. kms. of which 71% are Adivasi areas. Of these 416.52 and 223.30 thousand sq. kms. are categorised as reserved and protected forests respectively. About 23% of these are further declared as Wild Life Sanctuaries and National Parks which alone has displaced some half a million Adivasis. By the process of colonisation of the forests that began formally with the Forest Act of 1864 and finally the Indian Forest Act of 1927, the rights of Adivasis were reduced to mere privileges conferred by the state.

This was in acknowledgement of their dependence on the forests for survival and it was politically forced upon the rulers by the glorious struggles that the Adivasis waged persistently against the British. The Forest Policy of 1952, the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 and the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 downgraded these privileges of the peoples to concessions of the state in the post-colonial period.

With globalisation, there are now further attempts to change these paternalistic concessions to being excluded as indicated by the draft "Conservation of Forests and Natural Ecosystems Act" that is to replace the forest act and the amendments proposed to the Land Acquisition Act and Schedule V of the constitution. In 1991, 23.03% of STs were literate as against 42.83% among the general population. The Government's Eighth Plan document mentions that nearly 52% of STs live below the poverty line as against 30% of the general population.

In a study on Kerala, a state considered to be unique for having developed a more egalitarian society with a high quality of life index comparable to that of only the 'developed' countries, paradoxically shows that for STs the below poverty line population was 64.5% while for Scheduled Castes it was 47% and others 41%. About 95% of Adivasis live in rural areas, less than 10% are itinerant hunter-gatherers but more than half depend upon forest produce. Very commonly, police, forest guards and officials bully and intimidate Adivasis and large numbers are routinely arrested and jailed, often for petty offences.
Only a few Adivasi communities which are forest dwellers have not been displaced and continue to live in forests, away from the mainstream development activities, such as in parts of Bastar in Madhya Pradesh, Koraput, Phulbani and Mayurbanj in Orissa and of Andaman Islands.

Thousands of Korku children below the age of six died in the 1990s due to malnutrition and starvation in the Melghat Tiger Reserve of Maharashtra due to the denial of access to their life sustaining resource base. Adivasis of Kalahandi-Bolangir in Orissa and of Palamu in south Bihar have reported severe food shortage. According to the Central Planning Committee of the Government of India, nearly 41 districts with significant Adivasi populations are prone to deaths due to starvation, which are not normally reported as such.
Invasion of Adivasi territories The "Land Acquisition Act" of 1894 concretised the supremacy of the sovereign to allow for total colonisation of any territory in the name of 'public interest' which in most cases are not community notions of common good. This is so especially for the Adivasis. The colonial juristic concept of res nullius (that which has not been conferred by the sovereign belongs to the sovereign) and terra nullius (land that belongs to none) bulldozed traditional political and social entities beginning the wanton destruction of traditional forms of self-governance.

The invasion of Adivasi territories, which for the most part commenced during the colonial period, intensified in the post-colonial period. Most of the Adivasi territories were claimed by the state. Over 10 million Adivasis have been displaced to make way for development projects such as dams, mining, industries, roads, protected areas etc. Though most of the dams (over 3000) are located in Adivasi areas, only 19.9% (1980-81) of Adivasi land holdings are irrigated as compared to 45.9% of all holdings of the general population. India produces as many as 52 principal, 3 fuel, 11 metallic, 38 non-metallic and a number of minor minerals.

Of these 45 major minerals (coal, iron ore, magnetite, manganese, bauxite, graphite, limestone, dolomite, uranium etc) are found in Adivasi areas contributing some 56% of the national total mineral earnings in terms of value. Of the 4,175 working mines reported by the Indian Bureau of Mines in 1991-92, approximately 3500 could be assumed to be in Adivasi areas. Income to the government from forests rose from Rs.5.6 million in 1869-70 to more than Rs.13 billions in the 1970s. The bulk of the nation's productive wealth lay in the Adivasi territories. Yet the Adivasi has been driven out, marginalised and robbed of dignity by the very process of 'national development'.

The systematic opening up of Adivasi territories, the development projects and the 'tribal development projects' make them conducive for waves of immigrants. In the rich mineral belt of Jharkhand, the Adivasi population has dropped from around 60% in 1911 to 27.67% in 1991. These developments have in turn driven out vast numbers of Adivasis to eke out a living in the urban areas and in far-flung places in slums. According to a rough estimate, there are more than 40,000 tribal domestic working women in Delhi alone! In some places, development induced migration of Adivasis to other Adivasi areas has also led to fierce conflicts as between the Santhali and the Bodo in Assam.

Internal colonialism Constitutional privileges and welfare measures benefit only a small minority of the Adivasis. These privileges and welfare measures are denied to the majority of the Adivasis and they are appropriated by more powerful groups in the caste order. The steep increase of STs in Maharashtra in real terms by 148% in the two decades since 1971 is mainly due to questionable inclusion, for political gains, of a number of economically advanced groups among the backwards in the list of STs.

The increase in numbers, while it distorts the demographic picture, has more disastrous effects. The real tribes are irretrievably pushed down in the 'access or claim ladder' with these new entrants cornering the lion's share of both resources and opportunities for education, social and economic advancement.
Despite the Bonded Labour Abolition Act of 1976, Adivasis still form a substantial percentage of bonded labour in the country.

Despite positive political, institutional and financial commitment to tribal development, there is presently a large scale displacement and biological decline of Adivasi communities, a growing loss of genetic and cultural diversity and destruction of a rich resource base leading to rising trends of shrinking forests, crumbling fisheries, increasing unemployment, hunger and conflicts. The Adivasis have preserved 90% of the country's bio-cultural diversity protecting the polyvalent, precolonial, biodiversity friendly Indian identity from bio-cultural pathogens. Excessive and indiscriminate demands of the urban market have reduced Adivasis to raw material collectors and providers.

It is a cruel joke that people who can produce some of India's most exquisite handicrafts, who can distinguish hundreds of species of plants and animals, who can survive off the forests, the lands and the streams sustainably with no need to go to the market to buy food, are labeled as 'unskilled'. Equally critical are the paths of resistance that many Adivasi areas are displaying: Koel Karo, Bodh Ghat, Inchampalli, Bhopalpatnam, Rathong Chu ... big dams that were proposed by the enlightened planners and which were halted by the mass movements.

Such a situation has risen because of the discriminatory and predatory approach of the mainstream society on Adivasis and their territories. The moral legitimacy for the process of internal colonisation of Adivasi territories and the deliberate disregard and violations of constitutional protection of STs has its basis in the culturally ingrained hierarchical caste social order and consciousness that pervades the entire politico-administrative and judicial system. This pervasive mindset is also a historical construct that got reinforced during colonial and post-colonial India.

The term 'Criminal Tribe' was concocted by the British rulers and entered into the public vocabulary through the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 under which a list of some 150 communities including Adivasis, were mischievously declared as (naturally) 'criminal'. Though this shameful act itself was repealed in 1952, the specter of the so-called 'criminal tribes' continue to haunt these 'denotified tribes' - the Sansi, Pardhi, Kanjar, Gujjar, Bawaria, Banjara and others. They are considered as the first natural suspects of all petty and sundry crimes except that they are now hauled up under the Habitual Offenders Act that replaced the British Act! Stereotyping of numerous communities has reinforced past discriminatory attitudes of the dominant mainstream in an institutionalised form.

There is a whole history of legislation, both during the pre-independence as well as post-independence period, which was supposed to protect the rights of the Adivasis. As early as 1879, the "Bombay Province Land Revenue Code" prohibited transfer of land from a tribal to a non-tribal without the permission of the authorities. The 1908 "Chotanagpur Tenancy Act" in Bihar, the 1949 "Santhal Pargana Tenancy (Supplementary) Act", the 1969 "Bihar Scheduled Areas Regulations", the 1955 "Rajasthan Tenancy Act" as amended in 1956, the 1959 "MPLP Code of Madhya Pradesh", the 1959 "Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation" and amendment of 1970, the 1960 "Tripura Land Revenue Regulation Act", the 1970 "Assam Land and Revenue Act", the 1975 "Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction of Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated Lands) Act" etc. are state legislations to protect Adivasi land rights.
In Andhra for example, enquiries on land transfer violations were made in 57,150 cases involving 245,581 acres of land, but only about 28% of lands were restored despite persistent militant struggles. While in the case of Kerala, out of a total claim for 9909.4522 hectares made by 8754 applicants, only 5.5% of the claims have been restored. And this is happening in spite of favourable judicial orders - orders which the state governments are circumventing by attempting to dismantle the very protective legislation itself.

The callous and casual manner with which mainstream India approaches the fulfillment of the constitutional obligations with reference to the tribes, and the persistent attempts by the politico-administrative system to subvert the constitution by deliberate acts of omission and commission, and the enormous judicial tolerance towards this speak volumes on the discriminatory approach that permeates the society with regard to the legal rights of the Adivasis.

Race, religion and language
The absence of neat classifications of Adivasis as a homogenous social-cultural category and the intensely fluid nature of non-Adivasis are evident in the insuperable difficulty in arriving at a clear anthropological definition of a tribal in India, be it in terms of ethnicity, race, language, social forms or modes of livelihood.

The major waves of ingress into India divide the tribal communities into Veddids, similar to the Australian aborigines, and the Paleamongoloid Austro-Asiatic from the north-east. The third were the Greco-Indians who spread across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Pakistan from Central Asia. The fourth is the Negrito group of the Andaman Islands - the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese who flourished in these parts for some 20,000 years but who could well become extinct soon. The Great Andamanese have been wiped out as a viable community with about only 30 persons alive as are the Onges who are less than a 100.

In the mid-Indian region, the Gond who number over 5 million, are the descendants of the dark skinned Kolarian or Dravidian tribes and speak dialects of Austric language family as are the Santhal who number 4 million. The Negrito and Austroloid people belong to the Mundari family of Munda, Santhal, Ho, Ashur, Kharia, Paniya, Saora etc. The Dravidian groups include the Gond, Oraon, Khond, Malto, Bhil, Mina, Garasia, Pradhan etc. and speak Austric or Dravidian family of languages. The Gujjar and Bakarwal descend from the Greco Indians and are interrelated with the Gujjar of Gujarat and the tribes settled around Gujranwala in Pakistan.

There are some 200 indigenous peoples in the north-east. The Boro, Khasi, Jantia, Naga, Garo and Tripiri belong to the Mongoloid stock like the Naga, Mikir, Apatani, Boro, Khasi, Garo, Kuki, Karbi etc. and speak languages of the Tibeto-Burman language groups and the Mon Khmer. The Adi, Aka, Apatani, Dafla, Gallong, Khamti, Monpa, Nocte, Sherdukpen, Singpho, Tangsa, Wancho etc of Arunachal Pradesh and the Garo of Meghalaya are of Tibeto-Burman stock while the Khasi of Meghalaya belong to the Mon Khmer group. In the southern region, the Malayali, Irula, Paniya, Adiya, Sholaga, Kurumba etc belong to the proto-Australoid racial stock speaking dialects of the Dravidian family.

The Census of India 1991 records 63 different denominations as "other" of over 5.7 million people of which most are Adivasi religions. Though the Constitution recognises them as a distinct cultural group, yet when it comes to religion those who do not identify as Christians, Muslims or Buddhists are compelled to register themselves as Hindus. Hindus and Christians have interacted with Adivasis to civilize them, which has been defined as sanscritisation and westernisation. However, as reflected during the 1981 census it is significant that about 5% of the Adivasis registered their religion by the names of their respective tribes or the names adopted by them. In 1991 the corresponding figure rose to about 10% indicating the rising consciousness and assertion of identity!

Though Article 350A of the Constitution requires primary education to be imparted in mother tongue, in general this has not been imparted except in areas where the Adivasis have been assertive. NCERT, the state owned premier education research centre has not shown any interest. With the neglect of Adivasi languages, the State and the dominant social order aspire to culturally and socially emasculate the Adivasis subdued by the dominant cultures. The Anthropological Survey of India reported a loss of more than two-thirds of the spoken languages, most of them tribal.

Fragmentation Some of the ST peoples of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, W. Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram have their counterparts across the border in China (including Tibet), Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The political aspirations of these trans-border tribes who find themselves living in different countries as a result of artificial demarcation of boundaries by erstwhile colonial rulers continue to be ignored despite the spread and proliferation of militancy, especially in the north east, making it into a conflict zone.

The Adivasi territories have been divided amongst the states formed on the basis of primarily the languages of the mainstream caste society, ignoring the validity of applying the same principle of language for the Adivasis in the formation of states. Jharkhand has been divided amongst Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa though the Bihar part of Jharkhand has now become a separate state after decades of struggle. The Gond region has been divided amongst Orissa, Andhra, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Similarly the Bhil region has been divided amongst Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

In the north-east, for example, the Naga in addition are divided into Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Further administrative sub-divisions within the states into districts, talukas and panchayats have been organised in such a way that the tribal concentration is broken up which furthers their marginalisation both physically and politically.

The 1874 "Scheduled District Act", the 1919 "Government of India Act" and later the "Government of India Act" of 1935 classified the hill areas as excluded and partially excluded areas where the provincial legislature had no jurisdiction. These formed the basis for the Article 244 under which two separate schedules viz. the V Schedule and the VI Schedule were incorporated for provision of a certain degree of self-governance in designated tribal majority areas. However, in effect this remained a non-starter. However, the recent legislation of the Panchayat Raj (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996 has raised hope of a radical redefinition of self-governance.

By not applying the same yard stick and norms for Adivasis as for the upper caste dominated mainstream, by not genuinely recognizing the Adivasis' traditional self-governing systems and by not being serious about devolving autonomy, the Indian State and society indicates a racist and imperialist attitude.
The call for a socially homogenous country, particularly in the Hindi Hindu paradigm have suppressed tribal languages, defiled cultures and destroyed civilisations.

The creation of a unified albeit centralised polity and the extension of the formal system of governance have emasculated the self-governing institutions of the Adivasis and with it their internal cohesiveness.

The struggle for the future, the conceptual vocabulary used to understand the place of Adivasis in the modern world has been constructed on the feudal, colonial and imperialistic notions which combines traditional and historical constructs with the modern construct based on notions of linear scientific and technological progress.

Historically the Adivasis, as explained earlier, are at best perceived as sub-humans to be kept in isolation, or as 'primitives' living in remote and backward regions who should be "civilized". None of them have a rational basis. Consequently, the official and popular perception of Adivasis is merely that of isolation in forest, tribal dialect, animism, primitive occupation, carnivorous diet, naked or semi-naked, nomadic habits, love, drink and dance. Contrast this with the self-perception of Adivasis as casteless, classless and egalitarian in nature, community-based economic systems, symbiotic with nature, democratic according to the demands of the times, accommodative history and people-oriented art and literature.

The significance of their sustainable subsistence economy in the midst of a profit oriented economy is not recognised in the political discourse, and the negative stereotyping of the sustainable subsistence economy of Adivasi societies is based on the wrong premise that the production of surplus is more progressive than the process of social reproduction in co-existence with nature.

The source of the conflicts arises from these unresolved contradictions. With globalisation, the hitherto expropriation of rights as an outcome of development has developed into expropriation of rights as a precondition for development. In response, the struggles for the rights of the Adivasis have moved towards the struggles for power and a redefinition of the contours of state, governance and progress.

Source:pucl.org

NEED FOR 6TH SCHEDULE.....

2007-10-19T04:37:00.000-07:00

Undivided Bastar is larger in geographical area then Kerala State. Primitive
culture art, tradition and Adivasi life style has the power to destroy
imperialism. The best scholars in the world are doing research on how the
tribals lead to happy and lengthy life even in the absence of material
comforts. The study on their genes are also going on.

Under article 244 of the Indian constitution scheduled areas were
established under fifth schedule where all the administrative and executive
power will be in the hands of native people. Today they are fighting for
their rights through the reservations provided to them by the constitution.
They had their own culture and customs. According to that culture for them
their society is the highest.

Today in Bastar Bhoomkal Manjhi Govt. system is going on by Manjhi Sarkar,
Pargana, Manjhis, Chalkis, Permad, Gyata, Pujaris and Barelas according to
their primitive tradition. Even Mughal emperors also respected them. But the
suppressive and exploitative policies of the Britishers led Bhoomkal Manjhi
Govt. to revolt. This freedom movement was led by Amarvir Gundadhar. This
movement affected the whole Bastar State.

The leader of the Bhhomkal Manjhi Govt. Amarvir Gundadhar shouted the slogan
– "We want Adivasi Muriya Raj". This Bhoomkal movement was known as
Bhoomkal blood revolution. In 1911 British Govt. declared Bastar as
independent state before the leadership of martyr Gundadhar.

The puja is performed of Rajarao Bhatta Rao on Raoghat hills. There is a
huge temple of Purwatraj and Maoli Mata, Danteshwari's fair is organized
every year.

Raoghat is also called as Raodongri, there are many herbal plants on this
hill including huge forest cover. This hill is the soul of human being as
it has the valuable stones and NTFP like Mahua, Sal seed, Tori etc.

In that case mining on this hill is against the primitive culture of the
tribes. In the month June 2007 huge crowd of tribe demonstrated campaign
against the mining of Raoghat hill. The Raoghat hill is the natural place of
workship, where all human beings live in harmony. In today's modern age also
life is not possible without forest. In the 1990-91 census of trees by
forest department, there were 7.1 thousand million trees on Raoghat. So
destroying this forest in also against public interest. Bastar is a tribal
dominated area. So the MNCs under the pressure of world market are looting
the natural resources in the name of industrialization. There are Vaishnav
Devi temple and Bamleshwari temple on this hill. Both these (Shaktipeeths)
powerful holy place are centre of belief of Bastar. But the centre of
worship and beliefs of tribes has no place in the thinking of capitalism.

Some people are trying to suppress tribal people and remove them from their
native places in the name of development. Tribal culture is at the verge of
destruction, so this is the need of the hour to implement sixth schedule in
tribal area.

Ratneshwar Nath

2007-10-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

SANYAL'S OPEN LETTER TO GANDHIJI*

[It was published in Young India (Ahmedabad), dated February 12, 1925, and reproduced by M.N. Gupta in his book. They Lived Dangerously, PPH, New Delhi, 1969.]

I THINK IT IS MY DUTY TO REMIND YOU OF THE promise you made some time back that you would retire from the political field at the time when the revolutionaries will once more emerge from their silence and enter into the Indian political arena. The experiment with the non-violent non-cooperation movement is now over. You wanted one complete year for your experiment, but the experiment lasted at least four complete years, if not five, and still do you mean to say that the experiment was not tired long enough?

You are one of the greatest of personalities in the present age and under your direct guidance and inspiration, your programme was actually taken up, for some reason or other, by the best men in the land. Thousands young men, the flower of the youth of our country, embraced your cult with all the enthusiasm they could gather. Practically the whole nation responded to your call. We can safely say that the response was phenomenal if not miraculous. What more could you want? Sacrifice and sincerity on the part of your followers were not wanting; the most selfish of professional men gave up their professions, young men of the country renounced all their worldly prospects and joined the forces under your banner hundreds of families were rendered destitute for want of pecuniary income. Money was not wanting. You wanted one crore of rupees and you got more than you wanted. In fact I shall perhaps be not far from the truth if I say that the response to your call was more than you yourself expected. I venture to say that India followed your lead to the best of her ability, and this I think can hardly be denied, and still do you mean to say that the experiment was not tried far enough?

In fact, your programme failed for no fault of the Indians. You have only a programme to the country, but you could not lead the nation to a victorious end. To say that non-violent non-cooperation failed because the people were not sufficiently non-violent is to argue like a lawyer and not like a prophet. The people could not be more non-violent than they were during the last few years. I would like to say that they were non-violent to a degree which smelt of cowardice. You would perhaps say that it was not this non-violence, the non-violence of the cowards, that you wanted. But your programme did not contain that item which could transform cowards into heroes or which could detect and ultimately reject the cowards from the bands of heroes. This was no fault of the people. And to say that the majority of non-cooperators was cowards and not heroes, is to shirk responsibilities. To say this is rather tocommit an outrage on the manliness of the nation. Indians are not cowards. Their heroism can always be compared with that of the best heroes of the world. To deny this is to deny history. When I speak of Indians’ heroism I mean not only the heroism which sparkled in the annals of the glorious past, but I include the heroism that is manifesting itself in the present, because India is still not dead.
What India wants is a true leader, a leader like Guru Gobind Singh or Guru Ramdas and Shivaji. India wants a Krishana who can give a worthy ideal, to be followed not by India alone, but buy all humanity, by all the members of this humanity with diverse temperaments and capacities.

Non-violent non-cooperation movement failed not because there was sporadic outburst of suppressed feelings here and there but because the movement was lacking in a worthy ideal. The ideal that you preached was not in keeping with Indian culture and traditions. It savoured of imitation. Your philosophy of non-violence, at least the philosophy that you gave to the people for their acceptance, was a philosophy arising out of despair. It was not the spirit of kshama of the Indian rishis, it was not the spirit of ahimsa of the great Indian yogins. It was an imperfect physical mixture of Tolstoyism and Buddhism and not a chemical mixture of East and West. You adopted the western method of congresses and conferences and tried to persuade the whole nation to accept the spirit of ahimsa, irrespective of desh, kal and patra like like Tolstoy, but which was a matter of individual sadhana with the Indians. And above all, you were and are still vague as regards India’s ultimate political goal. This is miserable. Your idea of independence is not in consistence with Indian ideals. India stands for Sarvan paravasham dukkham sarvamatmavasham sukham and for the ideal that individual existence is solely for the purpose of humanity and through humanity serving god, jagathitaya cha krishnaya cha. The non-violence that India preaches is not non-violence for the sake of non-violence, but non-violence for the good of humanity, and when this good for humanity will demand violence and bloodshed, India will not hesitate to shed blood just in the same way as a surgical operation necessitates the shedding of blood. To an ideal Indian, violence or non-violence has the same significance, provided they ultimately do good to humanity. Vinashay cha duskkritama was not spoken in vain.

To my mind, therefore, the ideal that you gave to the nation or the programme of action that you laid before it, is neither consistent with Indian culture nor practicable as a political programme.

It is simply inconceivable and incomprehensible to think that you still dare to entertain the slightest hope that England can be just and generous out of her free will-this England ‘which believes in Jallianwalabagh massacres as a legitimate means of self-defence’, this England which tried the O’Dwyer-Nair case and gave Judgement in favour of barbarism. If you have an iota af faith left in you in the good sense of the British government, then according to you where is the necessity of any programme at all? If there is any necessity of any movement in order to bring the British government to their senses, then why speak of the honesty and good intentions of the British government? It seems that the prophet in you is gone and you are once more a lawyer defending a weak case; or perhaps you are always an exponent – a mighty exponent – of half-truths only. A sovereign independent Indian Republic in alliance or in federation with the other independent nations of the earth is one thing, and self-governing India within this imperialistic British empire is perfectly another thing. Your sentiment of remaining within the British empire reminds one of the many Himalayan miscalculations, that you have compromised a worthy ideal with the present needs of a false expediency, and this is the reason that you have failed to capture the imagination of the youths of the country-youths who could dare and who are still daring to go against your wishes although they unhesitatingly recognise you as one of the greatest of personalities of the modern age. These are the Indian revolutionaries. They have now decided to remain silent no more and therefore they request you to retire from the political field, or else to direct the political movement in a way so that it may be a help and not a hindrance to the revolutionary movement. They suspended their activities so long simply to comply to your request direct and indirect, and they went further. They actually helped you in the carrying out of your programme to the best of their abilities. But now the experiment is over and therefore the revolutionaries are free from their promise, or, as a matter of fact, they promised to remain silent only for a year and no more.

Further, I would like to point out that you have misjudged the revolutionaries in many respects when you blamed them in your recent presidential address in the 39th Congress. You said that the revolutionaries are retarding India’s progress. I do not know what you mean by this word ‘progress’. If you mean political progress, then can you deny that every political progress that India has already made, however little that might be, has been made chiefly by the sacrifices and the efforts of the revolutionary party? Can you deny that the Bengal partition was annulled through the effort of the Bengal revolutionaries? Can you doubt that the Morley-Minto reform was the outcome of the Indian revolutionary movement which was mainly though not wholly instrumental in bringing about the Montford reform? I shall not be very much surprised if you will answer these queries in the affirmative but I can assure you that the British government realises the potentiality of this movement. Even the late Mr. Montague expressed to an Indian of position and rank that he took the trouble of coming to India and risked his life simply due to the activities of the young Indian revolutionaries.

If you mean that these reforms are no index to true progress, then I would venture to say that this revolutionary movement has achieved no mean progress in the moral advancement of India. Indians were miserably afraid of death and this revolutionary arty once more made the Indians realise the grandeur and the beauty that lie in dying for a noble cause. The revolutionaries have once again demos-trated that death has a certain charm and is not always a dreadful thing. To die for one’s own beliefs and convictions, to die in the consciousness that by so dying one is serving God and the nation, to accept death or to risk one’s life when there is every probability of death, for a cause which one honestly believes to be just and legitimate – is this no moral progress?

You have said to the revolutionaries, “You may not care for your own lives, but you dare not disregard those of your countrymen who have no desire to die a martyr’s death.” But the revolutionaries are at a sad loss to understand the meaning of this sentence. Do you mean to say that the revolutionaries are responsible for the death of 70 men who were condemned in the Chauri Chaura trial? Do you mean to say that the revolutionaries are responsible for the bombing and killing of innocent people at Jallianwalabagh and Gujranwalla? Did the revolutionaries, during their struggle for the last twenty years, in the past or in the present, ever ask the starving millions to take part in the revolutionary struggle? The revolutionaries have perhaps a better knowledge of the mass psychology than most of the present leaders. And this was the reason that they never wanted to deal with the masses until they become sure of their own strength. They always believed that the masses of northern India were ready for any emergency and they were also right in thinking that the masses of northern India are a dense matter of high explosive, dangerous to be handled carelessly. It was you and your lieutenants who misjudged the sentiments of the masses and dragged them into the satyagraha movement people who were groaning under a thousand oppressions from within and without, where the lightning of anger lay unperceived, and you had to pay the penalty for it. But, Can you given any instance where the revolutionaries dragged unwilling souls into valley of death?

Lastly, I would like to say something about the remarks you have made in connection with the strength of the British empire.
You have said to the revolutionaries, “Those whom you seek to depose, are better armed and infinitely better organised than you are.” But it is not shameful that a handful of Englishmen are able to rule India, not by the free consent of the Indian people but by the force of the sward? And if the English can be well-armed and well-organised, why cannot the Indian be better armed and better organised still-Indians who are saturated with the high principles of spirituality? Indians are men in the same sense as the Englishmen are. Then, what on earth makes the Indians so helpless as to think that they can never be better organised than their English masters? By what argument and logic of fact can you disprove the possibilities in which the revolutionaries have immense faith? And the spirit of non-violence that arises out of this sense of helplessness and despair can never be the non-violence of the strong, the non-violence of the Indian rishis. This is tamas, pure and simple.
Excise me Mahatmaji, if I am severe in criticising your philosophy and principles. You have criticised the revolutionaries most unsympathetically and even you went so far as to describe them ass the enemies of the country, simply because they differ from your views and methods. You preach tolerance but you have been violently intolerant in your criticism of the revolutionaries. The revolutionaries have risked their everything to serve their motherland, and if you cannot help them, at least be not intolerant towards them.

www.shahidbhagatsingh.org

THE PEOPLES MOVEMENT IN KASHIPUR

2007-10-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

1. The place and the movement

Kashipur is a sub-division in the Rayagada district of (south) Orissa. According to the recent Census, the Jhodia and Kandho tribes and the Panos (untouchables or dalits) constitute a large majority of the population. Topographically the region can be divided into two distinct parts, 1 - the ghats or the mountains, 2 - the valley and the lower plains. Beginning with the colonial administrator-anthropologists, most historians and others writing on this part of our country have repeatedly stated that, over centuries of history, these people have been gradually pushed towards the infertile/less-fertile mountain lands by the Hindu caste peasants of the valleys or plains below.

They now survive on dongar (mountain slope) cultivation and collecting minor forest produce of various kinds, including seasonal fruits for a part of the year. That does not suffice. Another part of the year, they survive on the gruel of mango-kernel collected during the summer. Death due to starvation, malnutrition, and malaria is not uncommon.

The history of the people here has been a history of oppression by ‘social superiors’ and ‘outsiders’. And this history has continued since the days of their settlement and civilisation. During the nationalist movement the nationalists used the resentment of the ‘tribals’ against the forest contractors, liquor-vendors and sahukars for their own nationalist agenda without ever trying to understand them and their problems. Thus despite the romantic Verrier Elwin, the philanthropic Thakkar Bapa, the social and economic condition of the ‘tribals’ did not change meaningfully. In ‘independent’ India too they still toil hard for food. Wherever they work, the benefits of those works have never been theirs. There has been no provision for their education or health-care. They do not enjoy electricity nor have a supply of safe drinking water, yet at every general election their votes are sought by self-seeking politicians and they do cast votes, valid votes. Instead, the history of independent India has further increased their woes. One only has to take a look at the demographical details of the industrial cities of Bhilai (where Shankar Guha-Niyogi was shot dead while he was asleep) and Tatanagar. The ‘tribal’ people are the servants, ill-paid wage labourers, half-fed rickshaw pullers, TB patients, consumers of spurious and cheap liquor, and beggars, slum-dwellers in their own land. What a change?

Today, the people of Kashipur, are trying to stop the repetition of this history. Since 1993, they are engaged in a relentless battle to convert Kashipur into another Bhilai. It was in 1993 that the then government of Orissa entered into an understanding with a few trans-national companies/industrial houses, to start the mining of bauxite in the region with a design to set up plants for extraction of alumina and exporting the alumina for their production of aluminium. UAIL (Utkal Aluminium International Limited) was a consortium of Tata, Norsk-Hydro, Hindal Co. and Alcan. Now only Hindal Co. and Alcan are part of the consortium. UAIL is supposed to have its mines at Baphlimali. Similarly L&T will have its mines at Sijumali, Sterlite India Limited will have mines at Niyamgiri and Aditya Birla’s Hindal Co. will have another independent unit by mining at Kodingamali hills. All these units together are meant to affect about 2700 families of nearly 200 villages.

As the survey work started in the region the people started asking questions as to what is going to be done there (Independent India does not think them fit for providing information). Once they learnt what is going to happen, they resisted, initially by putting road blockades so that ‘experts’ cannot enter the region with their gadgets and creating difficulty in the survey process by snatching survey instruments. As the police tried to help the MNC officials by arresting some of the villagers, the people gheraoed police stations and got their friends released. Such protests, without physically harming anybody went on for a few years. And gradually, people of the place and activists from other peoples’ movements in Orissa joined hands and organised themselves. The companies got alarmed and recruited lumpens to physically attack a few of the protestors and activists. And with police connivance, the company thugs succeeded in beating up people. This did not deter the spirit of the people and the movement as it grew in strength.

The forces representing the private profiteers and their local minions fired on a peaceful gathering of protestors, on 16 December 2000, murdering three villagers at Maikanch. After this two of the trans-national companies withdrew from the project consortium. The judicial enquiry held to probe the incident of firing and killing tried to sanitise the entire attempt by suggesting, beyond its brief, ‘industrialisation in the region was necessary’.

After all these events, however, from October 2004, the Government of Orissa has again, rather aggressively tried to help the trans-national companies. It has set up police posts at almost every village, deployed the Indian Reserve Force, CRPF, Orissa Reserve Force to browbeat the villagers to subordination. Arbitrary arrests and the registering of false cases have become the order of the day. Since January 2005, till June 2005 around 30 arrests have been done which include many women and a boy who is 12 years old.

2. Aluminium and its beneficiary

The mining and production of alumina will exhaust the entire bauxite in the region in 23 years, which was formed in 650 lakh years of earth’s life. This region (namely eight districts of western Orissa province in India) is the largest bauxite deposit of the entire world (13% of world’s bauxite deposits being here). The bauxite deposits at this place are close to the surface of the earth; therefore, it is relatively economical to mine bauxite here. Beside, the alumina content in the bauxite in this region is about 45-48%. After mining of bauxite, here at Kashipur and other places in Orissa, alumina will be extracted from the bauxite and alumina will be exported to the western world for the production of aluminium. The final product will not be made here.

The production will pollute the environment of the entire region, particularly contaminating its water. Mining, which will level mountains, will dry up the perennial mountain streams, which supply drinking water to a large number of people, towards whom the government seems to have no responsibility. The processing of alumina from bauxite leaves a huge amount of toxic waste and chemicals, known as the ‘red mud’. The red mud contains fluoride compounds, and wherever it is dumped, it contaminates the underground water sources of the place. Bauxite mining all over the world has destroyed forest covers. It is clearly at the cost of the lives and livelihood of the marginalised section of the society, namely the small peasants, that the aluminium industry grows. So who benefits in this project of ‘development’? Aluminium is used for utensils, food-wrapping, electric wire etc. but most of the aluminium produced is used in the building of air-craft, defence research and missile-making etc. It is mostly used in the western world. And how many pages of history must we flip through to find its answer?

The mining leases given to the various aluminium companies violate the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India. UAIL particularly, we have information, is working on the project without the mandatory environmental clearance. The area where the lease has been given falls under the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. The Supreme Court of India in the case, Samatha vs State of AP, 1997, categorically held that transfer of land by any means including lease by the government to a non-tribal is not permissible under the Fifth Schedule. But the government of Orissa maintains that this judgment is not applicable in Orissa and has been transferring the land of the tribals around Kashipur to industries.

Even the PESA Act (1996) states that before any land acquisition, particularly in the scheduled areas, it is imperative to consult gram sabhas (Village Councils) and involve them in decision-making. The state initially refused to consult the gram sabhas and started land acquisition from the people. Lately gram sabhas were conducted to fulfill legal requirements, those were exercises flouting all norms and obtaining consent through force. A striking example of this is that of D. Karal, where the village was cordoned off and the gram sabha meeting was conducted in the intimidating presence of heavily armed police and district officials who had been openly campaigning for the setting up of the industrial units. People were prevented from speaking at the meeting; the minutes and decisions recorded were not read out to the villagers, and the people present were asked to sign on blank papers.

3. Fear of further subordination

During the last few visits of some of us here in Delhi to Kashipur (particularly the villages Kucheipadar, Bagrijhola, Barigaon, Maikanch) and the interaction we had with the people there the following fears were expressed, which were based on the historical reality of industrial expansion and further marginalisation of poor people. The people of Kashipur have fear of the new order that industrialisation will usher in. It has been discussed over and over again in various contexts that the people of such project areas are sure to lose their land or means of their livelihood. This question or fear is supposed to have been addressed in what is called the ‘Rehabilitation Package’. The Supreme Court of India in one of its judgments on such rehabilitation packages has suggested that ‘land for land’ can be the only solution in such cases. But is there sufficient land, of an equivalent quality, for compensating the loss? The answer can never be in the affirmative. The rehabilitation package contains many more provisions as housing with educational and primary health-care facilities. But that does not seem to allay the fears of the people there.

The question is, if the rehabilitation’ (whatever that means) is done properly will the people of Kashipur willingly and merrily leave their hamlets/settlements, land and not oppose the setting up of the aluminium plants and mining facilities? The answer is a NO. Then why do the people insist on not leaving their land and village? The answer lies in the following dialogue with a friend in Barigaon village of Kashipur.

Mr. Bulka is an elderly person, passed his sixtieth birthday, a respected leader of not only his village but also of the entire movement against industrialisation (recently when he was released from jail, he was taken in a procession on the shoulders of the young men to his village). He said, ‘the government and the company are speaking of providing us with jobs in lieu of our land. But can they do that? The government is a bigger organisation than the (Aluminium) Company. When the government has not been able to provide jobs for all the educated people in the province, when there are so many unemployed youth, how can the Company provide jobs for all of us, the displaced people? And why do they expect us to believe in this false promise?’ He went on, ‘The Company, if at all, will give some jobs to some young men only, that too with a small pay – as coolies – they won’t employ us as babus (white collar jobs). What will happen to the old men and women (who in their kind of society are also engaged in productive labour/agriculture)? And those who will be employed will be subjected to the supervision and abuses of a superior official. We work in our land according to our own rhythm; there is nobody to look over our shoulders. But in the Company there will always be somebody to direct you. Therefore we do not need any jobs and we will fight to protect our village and the land till the end.’

Unmistakably, there was a refusal to surrender to the new forms of subordination that the people of Kashipur will be subjected to. They do not want to remain as less or uneducated people who can only be manual labourers. They do not want to be subjected to the industrial time discipline. They do not want to be under the constant gaze of a superior officer.

Mr. Bulka, who takes sufficient pride in his own society and culture added, ‘When the Company (industry) will come, all will be gone. The village, the land, the forest, the mountain streams, even the wild life. It is because of us that the wild life is still there. The bears and deer eat our corn and maize. If there will be no forest and agriculture, how will they survive? We use the forest for timber, leaves and fruits and kept it alive for our purposes.’ This was a claim which was not untrue. We witnessed ‘machans’ in their agricultural lands, which attested that there is still wild life around to destroy their crops, for the protection of which they have erected the ‘machans’.

Expressing his resentment against the urban-oriented rehabilitation residential complexes created at a nearby industrial town, namely Damanjodi, Mr. Bulka said, ‘The houses are not worthy of living. Those are small and narrow. You cannot plant a lanka or a mango tree in the yard. It is so small that your friends cannot assemble there.’ To our interjection that those are pucca (concrete) houses, he responded, ‘yes those are pucca houses, but it is not like our village. There is no room for our young boys and girls to dance. We cannot grow our food, as there would be no land. There will be no streams for us to use its water. We have to pay for everything such as water, food. We even have to pay for the funeral of our near and dear ones.’

A market-oriented existence, where everything is mediated through money and cash is not a very tempting proposal for them. This is because they will always be, in such a system, at the receiving end, as they are genuinely afraid, they will never have sufficient cash to be comfortable in that situation.

Thus they are fighting for freedom and dignity, none of which can be ensured in the industrialisation or the concomitant ‘rehabilitation’.

Source:Debarpita Manjit, revol. democracy

POSCO Destroys Rural Families of Jagatsinghpur

2007-10-02T05:11:00.000-07:00

Special Economic Zones or SEZs as they are called in India are part and parcel of the New Economic Policy elaborated by the World Bank and imitated by their Indian agents. Since the early nineties the mainstream political parties of India are following the dictates of the imperialist powers and their anti-people puppet institutions e.g. the World Bank (WB) and the International Monitory Fund (IMF). As if these two were not sufficient to destroy the poverty-ridden third world, in 1995 another organisation: the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was added to destroy completely the local industry and agriculture of the third world. Look, how the people in Asia, Africa and Latin America are suffering in their millions in the hands of international corporate fascism!

The aim of the New Economic policy is to dismantle the public sector institutions built-up brick by brick during the last 6 decades with a lot of public wealth so that a colony of British Empire could face the challenges of poverty and destruction due to the ‘partition’ willfully imposed by the British rulers. It is wrong to say that the western educated Indian rulers wanted to build up the post-partition Indian economy where the role of private capital would be minimum or zero. Rather, on the specific requests of Indian trading private capital, public sector organisations were created to serve the long term interests of these private traders of yesteryear and till today that is the philosophy of Indian public sector (PSU). Indian private capital till today is not interested in long term investment in infrastructure and capital goods industry. Their only target was to trade or work as commission agents. Many of present day stalwarts of industry and commerce in India started work as ‘managing agents’ and earned huge amounts of surpluses by corrupt, fraudulent and illegal means. In all businesses where these stalwarts entered, the only philosophy of business was to earn quick profits at the cost of the national interest. In foreign trade, invoices were made fake fictitiously, foreign exchange earned were kept abroad, in preparation for the annual accounts required for Company Law and Income Tax Law, everything was manipulated, and corruption everywhere was the order of the day. MNCs like Hindustan Lever, Imperial Tobacco, Siemens, and Philips etc. were also making quick bucks and putting pressure on the political system to allow more and more MNCs to come to India so that imperialists would enjoy the same freedom to exploit India’s one billion population as the East India Company enjoyed from 1757 to 1858 and the British Raj till 1947.

After the death of Mao Zedong the Chinese Communist Party adopted the age old ‘capitalist’ path resulting in huge investments of MNCs from the rest of the world. Today Chinese goods are on the shelves of almost all the retail trading houses of the world. The phenomenal growth of China both in economic expansion and in military might frighten the imperialists. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headed by the US wants to create a buffer between China and them. On their advice, the Indian ruling class decided to follow the same Chinese route of economic activity, of course, without nuclear war power. The slogan was, ‘liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation’ (LPG). The Indian ruling class on the advice of their foreign masters handed over the future of more than a billion population to organised international criminal corporate houses without developing any type of checks and balances as is normal in the developed world. China has one party rule and they are very strict in enforcing the rules on their business houses. In US laws are meant to help unrestricted working of the corporate sector, but they can’t go beyond the four walls of law. Enron, for example in recent history, was doing a roaring business throughout the globe but once detected of ‘window dressing’ or fraud, the entire structure was crushed. Both Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Lakshmi Mittal faced all sorts of hurdles before they could acquire those steel companies in the EU. No one can imagine that can happen in India, though Indian stalwarts like Pandit Nehru promised to hang them on a ‘lamp post’ if they indulged in corruption, adulteration and cheating the nation. Thus the in Indian context everything is allowed provided one knows whom to approach! On the international ‘corruption index’ India is in a ‘respectable’ high position, but on the ‘human development index’ India’s placement is in the 125th or 127th among the 180 odd countries. This is in short the real lesson from the long story of ‘9 to 10 percent growth or development’ of this subcontinent during the last six decades.

II
In our school textbooks during colonial days we read that ‘Indian agriculture depends on the monsoon’, and today after 60 long years of so-called ‘independence’ day in day out all the media show the progress of monsoon since the first week of June every year. Why is the monsoon is so important to-day? What happened to the crores of rupees spent on big dams and irrigation projects? Where are those contractors, politicians and engineers who cheated this country? Around 700 million people are still in the villages of India whose only occupation is agriculture. Most of the holdings are either small or marginal. Big size holders of land are very small in number. The increasing cost of cultivation, uncertain market conditions and high rate of interest for private loans are causing widespread bankruptcy among increasing number of cultivating families. ‘Farmers’ deaths’ are no longer news; one may get international awards by highlighting the total failure of Indian agriculture. It is happening every day in different parts of the country. Even ‘once upon a time very rich Punjabi farmers’ are committing suicide because they can’t pay their debts. Farmers in Vidarbha in Maharashtra are selling their human organs to pay off debt, in Punjab one finds advertisements that this or that village is ‘on sale’. Even then the Indian representatives in World Economic Forum meetings is increasing year after year! From the face of these representatives of Indian destitutes there is hardly any expression that they at all think of this country and its billion populations.

Who is responsible for this sorry state of affairs? We were told that ‘green revolution’ and ‘white revolution’ were achieved in India. But in recent times our internal production of cereals, lentils, cooking oils and so on are short in supply and India is forced to import them at any price, because the internal price of these commodities of these day to day requirements are sky high. In the same manner milk and milk products are imported by MNCs and distributed in the country. We read everyday discussions on ‘food security’, minimum calories etc.etc. but who is going to implement it in a World Bank dictated ‘market economy’. Food, clothing and shelter are meant for those who have purchasing power, but how many Indians earn one US $ a day for 365 days in a year. One US $ gets now Rs 40 ( in future it will fall further) and the official urban minimum wage is double or treble of this figure in many urban centres in India. One kilogramme of flour costs around Rs. 20 and it is impossible for a family of 5 or 6 members to live on Rs 40 per day income. The villages of India are destroyed by the well planned economic policies followed by the mainstream political parties: both the UPA supported by the ‘left’and the NDA. The recent birth of the UNPA, as a form of another cartel in the political bazaar of India deserves observation, as AIDMK and others betrayed in recent Presidential election!

The present economic situation in rural India is the result of a well thought-out strategy of the imperialist powers. Both the US and the EU have to maintain their agricultural sector with a huge subsidy and they want a greater market share in the developing countries. That is why the WTO forced India to withdraw all import duties on agricultural commodities but refused to withdraw their own subsidies and flatly denied to reduce import restrictions on agricultural commodities from the third world countries. Result is, as an example, Indian cotton growers can not compete with imported subsidised cotton from US and when they run in huge debt they are forced to commit suicide. ‘Genetically modified (GM)’ crops grow in huge quantity and developed countries want market in the developing countries. These GM crops are dangerous for man and beast. We don’t know whether India is importing any GM crop and in what quantity. But they are selling GM seeds manipulating politicians. Even the judiciary is party to this anti-people conspiracy of the MNCs. Our policy makers willingly never allowed either private or public investments in agriculture, though around two-third of our workers are directly dependent on agriculture. This is the largest private sector in India, a family of 5 or 6 are directly engaged in his or her tiny farm during the crop season New economic reform measures of Government of India want to utilise the golden opportunity of man made agricultural bankruptcy to throw out millions of this country from this occupation! What is the alternative for these hapless people?

III
Relatively backward states like Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa are rich in minerals and water resources. Tribals are the significant population in these states. Where tribals live below the surface of their huts and cultivating land there is huge reserve of iron ore, manganese, coal, bauxite etc. etc. – costly mineral resources of the country in huge quantity. Both Indian Corporates and MNCs are flocking in large numbers to these three states and negotiating with the local corrupt politicians of the state governments to get ownership rights of these mineral resources. Every one wants to acquire ‘captive mines’, so that they can make this country empty of minerals within no time. They want to start factories to process these minerals into finished products and /or export raw minerals to foreign countries. Paradeep port on Orissa coast was developed by Japan long ago to export iron ore. Now China is the largest buyer of iron ore from India though they have their own huge reserve of ore. They have stopped export of their own iron ore. There is no ‘national’ mineral policy of the Government of India in general and on iron ore in particular. It is decided ad hoc, based on who will earn what amount. Exhaustible minerals like coal, iron ore and others are not exported when the country like India needs it for its mere survival. The centre is committed to export, it has nothing to do with ‘national interest’. In the recent Corus takeover negotiations of the Tatas, the Government of India is reported to have assured the Tatas of cheaper iron ore from India. The same assurances were probably given to NRI businessman Mr. Mittal. Everyone wants exclusive ownership of captive mines from where they can withdraw as much as they want at the minimum price to be decided by the politicians irrespective of price escalation in the world market. This is practiced only in India, nowhere else in the world. This is only one example how corporate loot is openly allowed by the new economic policy dictated by the WB, IMF and WTO.

IV
The same thing has happened with POSCO (Pohang Steel Company Ltd.) of South Korea. This is a big steel producer in the world and it has steel plants in many countries. On June 22, 2005 POSCO and Government of Orissa entered into an agreement that this foreign company will invest around $12 billion (now around Rs 48000 crores and it may go down further in future with appreciation of Rupee) and produce around 12 million tones of steel per annum. They will use around 600 million tons of iron ore and export around 400 million tons of good quality ore through a captive port to be developed near the existing Paradeep port. The project will get water from the Mahanadi barrage at Jobra and Naraj in Cuttack. As there is no surplus water available, who will suffer when Posco starts withdrawing water. Why do not they use the sea water after processing? Centre has given the green signal to the Project as an SEZ and therefore, it is entitled to all the concessions of an SEZ. The project requires a land area of 4004 acres in three panchayats: Gadakujang, Dhinkia and Nuagaon in the district of Jagatsinghpur. They will require more land for developing infrastructure. The government claims that 471 families will be affected and many of them have already accepted compensation! However, in their meetings those who protest against acquisition claim attendance of more than 20,000 people of around 4000 families. Why is the Orissa government not telling the truth? Whom they are afraid of?

Why is FDI in steel making required in 2007? Don’t we have enough Indian producers of steel; both in the Private and Public sector. Is it that our steel makers don’t have enough funds for investment? Some of them are migrating to distant lands to produce steel. During the last one year two big steel companies were sold out outside India because the owners failed to run it profitably. One was purchased by Mr Mittal, an NRI and the other was acquired by Mr Tata. One of the main reasons why they were sold is because cost of iron ore is getting costlier day by day. China produces huge quantities of steel, it has its own iron ore reserves, but imports from rest of the world, including India, a huge quantity of iron ore every year. It refuses to export its own ore. Indian rulers have decided recently to allow export of more and more good quality ore to foreign countries, depriving the future generations of this precious mineral. Will the people of India accept such an anti national policy of the Centre? This is another form of state terrorism.

V
Regarding Posco project, there is no scope of transferring 4000 acres of fertile agricultural land for a steel factory. People of these three panchayats have refused to allow either government representatives or the salaried staff of the Korean company to enter into their villages, as was done in Nandigram in West Bengal or Kalinganagar in Orissa. The local economy is a thriving, labour-intensive one based on agriculture and fishing. Apart from paddy, coconut etc., cash crops like betel (pan), cashew, supari and kewra are produced in huge quantities and sold throughout the country. Its betel leaves fetch huge profit during the Diwali festival from north and west India. Many families of this area can give employment to the staff of Posco against their vague promise of ‘one member of each affected family’ and that too temporary unskilled job with no minimum wage law as it is a SEZ project (no law of the land is enforceable in the SEZ area). How stupid is this? The government claims that out of 4000 acres of land given to Posco, 3566 acres is forest land and belongs to the government. We hope Naveen Patnaik, chief minister, and his team of NDA government in Orissa knows that forest land belongs to those who live in forest and no government can throw them out as they used to do in the past before the Forest Law was passed last year. Even the Ministry of Forest and Environment cannot help Naveen babu though it is well known throughout the country as anti people, anti forest and anti environment. It is worth reminding our friends in Orissa and in Delhi, the forest that we find along the coast line of Orissa is a must in this area as the area is prone to frequent cyclone and storm. Have we forgotten the Tsunami and Indian coastal people! Are they not still suffering! Will Koreans allow their company to endanger the life of lakhs of coastal people of Orissa to earn some pennies as profit?

The group of ministers appointed by the Prime Minister’s Office to go into SEZ policy after the Nandigram massacre in March 2007 recommended that SEZs should not be set up in areas of cultivable land, then how Posco was recognised for SEZ by Mr. Kamal Nath ?. Why are not state governments instructed by the PMO to do a land survey before they enter into a Memorandum of Understanding? This happened with Tata as he was to be given some ‘gift of land at Singur’ in West Bengal by CPI (M). Singur has the best cultivable land in West Bengal producing more than one crop each year. Paradeep port has sufficient capacity so why is an additional port being built by its side by Posco which will endanger the fishing industry and the life of thousands of rare turtles ? Is the central ministry of shipping, road transport and highways sleeping on the entire issue? Regarding the resettlement of the affected families in the Project area, where is the promised law of settlement of SEZ-affected people and in the absence of that how is the Orissa government allowed to approach individual landholders. Why is not Posco advised to approach individual land owners, instead of using the colonial 1894 Act. Mr Chief Minister of Orissa should sit down with his counter part in Karnataka, because both of them are running NDA governments and ask the latter about land acquisition for industrialisation. The Karnataka government wants industrialists to directly approach landowners and the government has no role in the matter.

This project will establish captive iron ore mines, why? Let them purchase iron ore from the Indian market or elsewhere and carry on their steel production. In China this company is not given any captive mines. Let them pay the increasing price of iron ore prevalent in the international market during the next 30 years. In the same manner both Tatas and Mittals are assured by their benefactors to allocate ‘captive mines’ in Orissa and Jharkhand. How long such anti- people, anti- national policies will be pursued by the governments?
Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce, friend and philosopher of the SEZ in India is reported in the press that he is angry with the Reserve Bank of India and Ministry of Finance for denying various concessions that he wants to give to the industrialists within the SEZs. In a market economy, which his Prime Minister advocates, competition is the catchword and the government has no role to play as was the case before the Economic Reform started in 1991. Why should the people in the SEZs not pay the market rate of interest as was decided by the RBI? Why does he want real estate companies to be exempted in SEZ areas? Why should not they pay all the taxes as millions of ordinary citizens pay as per the Finance Act? Initially we were told that China’s growth is due to excellent export performance. They have 5 Special Economic Zones for exclusive export. Now the Indian Commerce Ministry clarifies that units established within SEZ may not export, but they will enjoy all the concessions and privileges. Do we have any rule of law in this country? If the UPA Govt. supported by ‘left’ feels that both Indian and foreign corporate houses are to be enriched at the cost of national interests, let us debate it first in the country then implement it. Both the UPA and the ‘left’ combine and the NDA are bankrupt political combines, their main interest is to give all bureaucratic protection to the corporates to mercilessly loot the country’s natural resources and thereby keep the vast majority of the population deprived permanently of food, clothing and shelter. These poor homeless people demanded land for shelter from the Andhra Pradesh government but got bullets in return. The same story happened in Nandigram, a state ruled by the ‘left’. Will Kamal Nath and Co. restrain themselves from the ruthless destruction of millions of cultivating families, otherwise they will be left with no other alternative than to resist all attempts of the government to make them paupers and destitutes. Indians are adamant in achieving their demand to survive in their land of origin. No forces of earth can deprive their inherent ‘right to life and livelihood’.
source:revolutionary democracy

BHAGAT SINGH: ABIDING RELEVANCE

2007-10-02T04:43:00.000-07:00

The year 2007 has a remarkable bearing on India’s historic struggle for freedom. It marks the 250th anniversary of the battle of Plassey; the 150th anniversary of 1857; the 60th anniversary of 1947; and the birth centenary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

Through the course of this year, many aspects of the life and work of Bhagat Singh have been written about. While Bhagat Singh continues to remain an icon for modern-day Indian youth, the fact that needs to be underlined is that he and his associates acquired the status of living legends even in their brief life time. This is confirmed by the fact that the British clandestinely advanced the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev fearing a public outrage. In an unprecedented manner, these legendary heroes of the Indian freedom movement were hanged until death at dusk on March 23, 1931 instead of the 24th morning. The British tried to surreptitiously dispose the bodies at Hussainwallah on the banks of the Sutlej.

In the few years of his active political life, being just over 23 years of age, when the British executed him, Bhagat Singh, along with his associates had radicalised the freedom struggle. The Delhi bomb case (“to make the deaf hear”) and the murder of British officer Saunders to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai due to the severe lathicharge in the anti-Simon Commission protests brought on to the agenda of the freedom struggle, a militancy hitherto unknown.

HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES

A brief recollection of the historical circumstances of that period is important to understand this and the consequent abiding relevance of Bhagat Singh to contemporary India. All these revolutionaries enthusiastically participated in the non-cooperation movement launched by the Congress under Gandhiji’s leadership in August 1920. However, when Gandhiji withdrew this movement in February 1922 following the attack on the police station in Chauri Chaura calling it a “Himalayan blunder”, the disappointment and the consequent frustration was rampant among the youth. Some historians believe that this withdrawal forced the unspent energy of the masses into fratricidal channels. The spurt in the number of communal riots is often cited as evidence. It is precisely in this period that alternatives to the Congress were being sought. The fledgling Communist Party formed in 1920 brought together the various communist groups across the country at a convention in 1925 at Kanpur. The same year, the RSS was founded in Nagpur. It was in the course of these tumultuous years that three distinct visions on what ought to be the character of independent India emerged.

The Congress, in response to these developments, defined its vision of independent India as being a secular democratic republic. The communists articulated their vision as one that will consolidate the secular democratic republic by transforming the political independence gained by the country into the true economic independence of all its people, i.e., socialism.

The third vision in complete contradistinction to the above two sought to define the character of independent India on the basis of the religious denomination of its people. This had a twin expression. The RSS advocating its fascistic vision of a rabidly intolerant “Hindu Rashtra” and the Muslim League seeking the partition of the country to establish an Islamic republic. The ideological battle amongst these three visions, in fact, continues till date and the present-day political developments can be properly understood only within these parameters. In this battle, Bhagat Singh was closest to the communist vision and, in fact, independently moved towards communist ideological foundations. Bhagat Singh was not a lone hero but part of a remarkable group of revolutionaries. It was at Bhagat Singh’s intervention, at a secret meeting that took place in Ferozeshah Kotla at Delhi on September 8, 1928, that the Hindustan Republican Association was rechristened as the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. Socialism was now accepted both as a goal and the ideological foundation of their activities. Though Chandrashekhar Azad could not attend the meeting being underground following the famous Kakori incident in August 1925 and the hanging of his associates Ram Prasad Bismal, Ashfaqullah, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh in November 1927, he had given his prior approval to the decisions taken at this meeting.

CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN INDIA

While many today seek to appropriate the legacy of Bhagat Singh and his associates, if a proper justice of their contribution to the evolution of modern independent India is to be done, then that must be based on Bhagat Singh’s own writings. For a youth barely in his twenties, Bhagat Singh, in his times, was fairly well-read. His diaries released by the National Archives on the 50th anniversary of his martyrdom revealed the vast range of contemporary writers that he read. Though Bollywood has now made his reading of Lenin famous, in his diaries, extensive quotations from various writers are there, including the famous concluding lines of the poet, Percy Byshee Shelley’s magnum opus, “The mask of anarchy”:

“Rise like lions after slumber

In unanquishable number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you

Ye are many – they are few.”

Everyday, during their trial, Bhagat Singh and B. K. Dutta used to enter the courts shouting the slogan “Inquilab Zindabad”. When the court questioned them on the meaning of this slogan, they submitted written statement which says: “I, Bhagat Singh, was asked in the lower court as to what we meant by the word `Revolution’. In answer to that question, I would say that Revolution does not necessarily involve a sanguinary strife, nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. By Revolution we mean that the present order of things which is based on manifest injustice must change.

“This is our ideal and with this ideology for our inspiration we have given a fair and loud enough warning.

“Revolution is the inalienable right of mankind. Freedom is the imprescriptible birth right of all. The labourer is the real sustainer of society. The sovereignty of the people is the ultimate destiny of the workers.” Thus, the slogan `Inquilab Zindabad’ was immortalised during our freedom struggle.

UNSHAKEABLE CONVICTION

There are various elements of Bhagat Singh’s life that have contributed to his immortal legend, heroism, sacrifice, the political clarity and the ability to catch the imagination of the people. The Hindi film industry has now converted this legend into an icon. During the first few years of this century, at least six films have been made on this revolutionary. The last in this series being the very creative effort, Rang De Basanti. The title of the film comes from the immortal song which Bhagat Singh and his associates supposedly sang as they were marching to the gallows. Though the film was come under severe criticism for its alleged projection of nihilism, the essential thrust is being missed. In actual life, many individuals may associate passionately with a political project due to various reasons and under varied circumstances. The moot question, however, is, when it comes to the crunch, whether these individuals stand up to their political convictions, or, not. This is the acid test. The protagonists in this film (including one who vacillates) embrace a sure death out of conviction and not being pushed into that position by circumstances. The option to opt out was always there. But, they choose not to do so.

This is exactly what Bhagat Singh and his associates did. They marched to death with a smile. When the hangman offers him to pray before death, he says, “I have neither fear of death nor belief in God”. In terms of political belief, while firmly abjuring “the cult of the bomb and the pistol”, as Bhagat Singh himself notes, they chose to throw the bomb at the Delhi assembly and murder Saunders with pistol under the firm belief that these actions would galvanise the youth to seek freedom.

Contrast this, with those political commentators who in the wake of team India’s historic win of the twenty-20 cricket world cup have sought to suggest that new India’s icons are far removed from the traditions of anti-imperialism that galvanised earlier generations of Indian youth. They need to note that popular Hindi cinema is, by far, the most reliable barometer of popular Indian opinion and sentiment. During the first six years of this decade, as stated above, six mainstream successful films have been released on Bhagat Singh! This is the reaction of the overwhelmingly youthful population of India.

However, in their effort to erase the impact of the finest traditions and legacy of revolutionary struggles that shaped the contours of modern independent India, these pundits of liberalisation spare no opportunity or effort to facilitate the transformation of modern India into a subordinate ally of world imperialism today. The ongoing national debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal and the grave implications it has on India’s sovereignty and independent foreign policy is, indeed, taking place in this very birth centenary year of Bhagat Singh.

The recollection of Bhagat Singh’s legacy, thus, is of contemporary relevance in today’s continuing battle between the three visions that we spoke of above and more importantly to safeguard and strengthen India’s economic sovereignty and, thus, its pride of place in the international comity of nations.

Source:Sitaram Yechury :Cpim.

Dalit students battle prejudice and violence

2007-09-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

Times of India

Siddarth Varadarajan

NEW DELHI: Vikram Ram, a Dalit student at the UniversityCollege of Medical Sciences (UCMS) in east Delhi, got a rudeshock when he sat down for his first meal at the hostel mess.``Bloody Shaddu'', he was told fiercely by a group of upper castestudents (using an abusive term for Scheduled Castes), ``youcannot eat with us''. Hurt and bewildered, he made his way to therow of tables where the Dalit students normally sit.

According to the Dalit students, even the hostel has de factobeen ghettoised, with most of them on two floors. When RakeshKumar, an SC student, was assigned a room elsewhere, aneighbour said: ``We will not let you stay here, Shaddu. Yourkind of person cleans our toilets.'' Faced with the prospect ofconstant harassment, he asked to be shifted.

When this reporter asked some upper caste boys at UCMSabout the term `Shaddu', they denied the word was ever used,except during arguments. After some prodding, one student,Anand Bakshi, said: ``It is only a pet name.''As for separate dining and living areas, the upper caste studentsthis reporter spoke to say there is no such policy. ``If at all theyeat and live together'', said Sudhir Kathuria, ``it is because theylike sticking to their own community''.

Today, Vikram, Rakesh and several other Dalit students are ondharna. After years of discrimination, they say they have hadenough. The last straw was the violent attack on them by someupper caste students on February 22. UCMS authorities insist itwas a run-of-the-mill fight between students but the fact is severalDalits were badly beaten. The hostel PA system was used to asall `general category' students to assemble.

The turban of DrJaswant Singh, a gentle, small-built Dalit, was pulled off and hewas punched and kicked. Another Dalit intern, Balwinder Bhatti,hid himself but the mob ransacked his room.When this reporter went to talk to the Dalit students, they weresuspicious. It was only gradually that their complaints poured out.Stubbornly, reluctantly. More than anything, it is the perceiveddiscrimination from the faculty that rankles. A tall, intensetwenty-something, Vikram had topped his school and had neverbefore experienced casteism. ``My parents say `thoda seh lo;but become a doctor at any cost','' he said, wistfully twisting hisstethoscope this way and that.The son of a driver, Vikram hasn't graduated despite being atUCMS for eight years. Like many SC students, he has frequentlybeen made to repeat exams.

If the intake of reserved students is22, only four graduate on time.``We study as hard as anyone else but it is the faculty's casteismwhich is holding us back,'' said a Dalit student. Ram Das, a finalyear student, had just appeared in an exam. ``The first questionthe examiner asked was `Are you a bania?'.

When I said no, hesaid `Then what? Are you from reserved category? What is yourcaste?'.``If an exam begins like this'', said Ram, ``we get demoralised,nervous. How are we supposed to cope?''

(The names of the students have been changed.)

TATA TARGETS TANZANIA.....

2007-09-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

TATA chemicals is drawing flak from conservation groups and environmentalists in Africa over its plan to set up a soda ash factory in collaboration with the Govt. of Tanzania.
It is feared that this project(for which a MoU has been signed) may drive the worlds rarest bird (Phoenicopterus) to extinction.

TATA -after disrupting the peace of Singur, Bastar and Munnar has now widened its zone of destruction to overseas-Tanzania....

The plant is proposed to be set up on the shores of Lake Natron in North Tanzania at its border with Kenya, will mine soda from the lake to prepare soda ash (Calcium Carbonate).Conservationists claim that this will disturb the lake's chemical composition and fragile ecosystem that is protected as "Ramsar Site" since 2001.

Thi project may also create a rift between tanzania and its neighbouring country, Kenya.Kenya is vehemently resisting the project saying that tanzania prevented it from Building a dam on river Swaso Nyiro, the main freshwater source for the salty lake, in 1990.Tanzania had raised concerns about the dam's impact on the lake's ecosystem.

Uganda and Ethiopia also oppose the move, arguing that the project will ruin the Flamingo tourism industry in the entire region.

It will also disrupt the region's indegenous Masai tribe that freely travel over Kenya-Tanzania border in search of Pastures for their livestock.

According to the terms of the agreement ,the plant will be operational by 2010.The soda ash facility will also generate associated units producing glass, soap and detergent- leading to more air and water pollution.Such a project is not viable on a sensitive ecosystem like Lake Natron.It's impact on biodiversity, community livelihoods, natural resources and tourism in Eastern African region will be adverse and long term.

It will also pump out about 530 cubic mts. of brine out of the lake every hour.Water is a critical resource for local Masai community whose lifestyle centres on their livestock that is their primary food source. In 15 hours the plant will consume water to meet needs of approx. 40,000 heads of livestock.Influx of people once the plant begins ,will create more pressure on natural resources.

Is it a mere coincidence that TATA is targetting tribal areas, forests, sensitive ecosystems and the poor man's land?First in India and now overseas....

Is It because the poor man has no voice?At the cost of wiping out natural vegetation and the habitat of animals and humans alike, a project will take birth-to ruin, to destroy, to denude the earth of its natural glory.

Source:Down to Earth

Salwa Judum & tale of 644 deserted villages

2007-09-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

Tribals in 644 deserted villages in Chhattisgarh don't exist, at least on paper. These villages don't have citizens and hence there is no National RuralEmployment Guarantee scheme for them or any health services or cheap rations.

These villages, located in the state's Dantewada district, have been allegedlyevacuated by the government-backed private army Salwa Judum. All villagers are supposed to be "well settled" now in 20 relief camps.But testimonials by tribals from the district and also footage from a filmmade for Channel 4 of the BBC prove otherwise. People still live in thesedeserted villages, where almost all houses have been burnt by the invading SalwaJudum mob armies. They hide in the jungles most of the day and come back now andthen.

Tribals question the government figure of 50,000 people lodged in 20 reliefcamps. Are they the whole population of 644 villages, asks Lingoo Markam, a wardpanchayat member from Balood panchayat of Dantewada block."If the entire population of the 1,354 villages in the district is seven lakh,how can 644 villages have only 50,000 residents," he asks, adding that nearlytwo lakh people are on the run.

Many are hiding in the forests, while many have fled to neighbouring AndhraPradesh.Manish Kunjam, a former Communist Party of India legislator from Dantewada,agrees that half the tribals in the villages attacked by Salwa Judum have fledto Andhra Pradesh. He says that he organised a rally in Cherla in Andhra Pradeshin which tribals who had fled from Dantewada were present in thousands. Theywere demanding an end to Salwa Judum terror.

The BBC film Unreported World shows a few families taking shelter in the onlysurviving house in a village. One of the tribal had his back mawed by a bear. Hewas in pain. The villagers come and look after him in that house saying that allthe other houses have been burnt. They could not go to a doctor, as they wouldbe caught by the Salwa Judum and killed on the way.Shubrangshu Kumar, who assisted in the making of the film, says that the crewhad no means to reach the deserted villages as they could be caught by the SalwaJudum. So they walked three days taking the jungle route, assisted by two tribal boys from the village they met in a Raipur hostel.What do people in these deserted villages eat? Do they cultivate their lands?Chomuru had left Salwa Judum a few days after he was forced to join it. He says about his own village of Bechapal, which was raided and officially evacuated:"We survive on the burnt rice left in the village. We spend our time in theforests and eat whatever is available there."Himanshu Kumar, activist of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram in Dantewada, says thatthe tribal areas are now split into three.

There are 644 villages, which havebeen evacuated while the remaining 600-odd villages are being targeted forevacuation. This is the enemy zone as far as Salwa Judum is concerned. Theirgoal is to capture these and burn the houses.The third zone is the Naxal-dominated areas where, of course, no one enters.So, in all the three zones, health, education and employment generation is nil.Worse still, people can't move in and out for fear of being killed.

Chattisgarh Home Minister Ramvichar Netam agrees: "The representatives of thegovernment cannot go to the villages following Naxal threats. The rebels havedestroyed the schools, government buildings and are terrorising the teachers anddoctors. How can the government provide relief when Naxals are not allowing us to enter?"He added that even the roads had been damaged to cut off the villages.

Netam acknowledged the fact that all the 644 villages are not deserted. Thereare many villages which house 20 to 30 families.According to Dantewada collector K R Pisda, not a single village is completelydeserted.Only those who fear Naxals have taken shelter in the camps, while the othersare still staying in the villages.

The 644 villages are not the ones that are abandoned. These are the villages where the Salwa Judum campaign has reached,Pisda clarifies."Most of the villagers, who had earlier fled, have returned to the villages andthose who have gone to the neighbouring states are part of the tradition as theygo there every year for work," Pisda explained.

Himanshu Kumar, however, contested this: "If the villages are not abandoned,then why the government has shifted schools to the camps and pulled out otherfacilities?

"Dharmo Rakshati RakshataIf you protect Dharma, Dharma will in turn protect you

Source:cgnet.in

JUST SEVEN WILD BUFFALOES LEFT....

2007-09-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

By Sanjeeb Baruah, Raipur, Sep 18: Chhattisgarh's state animal, thewild buffalo, is on its last legs. Only seven of the animals areregistered in the official records, and authorities are now thinkingof implementing drastic conservation measures.

The Udanti and Indravati wildlife sanctuaries in the state are theonly places in central India where genetically 'pure' wild buffaloes(bos bubalis) are to be found.Though some wild buffaloes are also found in Assam, Arunachal Pradeshand Meghalaya, it is not known how 'pure' they are genetically.

Wild buffaloes have become rare across India due to crossbreeding withdomestic buffaloes.Incidentally, despite the wild buffalo being the state animal, there are no previous records about its population figures. The first censuswas carried out this year.

Another sanctuary in Chhattisgarh known to have been home to the animals was Pamed, but there are no wild buffaloes left there."The matter is very serious. We have to start something soon," saidR.N. Mishra, principal chief conservator of forests.The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) is to submit a report to thegovernment on the conservation measures being taken up."WTI has lined up a number of activities. These will be sent to thegovernment for approval. The forest department will initiate the work once it is approved," Rahul Kaul of WTI told IANS.Of the seven wild buffaloes in Udanti, only one is female."We need to take urgent steps to protect them since they are in verysmall numbers and may quickly become extinct," warned Prabal Sarkar ofWTI.He pointed out that population studies were never conducted at theforests in Indravati due to fear of attacks by Maoists. So it is notknown if there are any wild buffaloes there, but officials say thepossibility is highly unlikely."We brought the female buffalo and her calf to an enclosure inside theUdanti forests since we are planning to involve her in a captivebreeding programme after the calf stops drinking milk," said Mishra,the project supervisor."Each (conservation) activity will have a different timeline; somewill be completed early, while some over a longer period," Kaul added."Cattle grazing, encroachments, loss of natural water sources andfrequent forest fires have affected the habitat, leading to theirdecline," Mishra said.

"Hunting for meat by the locals has alsolowered their population."A state wildlife advisory board meeting was held last week and a plan to conserve wild buffaloes was discussed. The state forest minister,officials and conservation organisations attended the meet.Measures high on the agenda are: conduct a genetic study of wildbuffaloes, restrict domestic buffaloes in the sanctuaries, getadditional manpower to undertake conservation, and study the conditionof the animal's habitat.

Praveen Manikpuri

Congress and BJP Bhai-Bhai.....

2007-09-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

A jobless BJP,RSS,VHP and other Hindu-Fundamentalist groups have been given a non-issue like Ram-Setu by Congress on a platter to again disturb the peace of the country similar to what happend at the time of Aayodhya incident....

SALWA JUDUM: INDIA"S BIGGEST FARCE

2007-09-09T23:20:00.000-07:00

SALWA JUDUM: UNREPORTED INDIA’S HIDDEN WAR

By Mr. Madhu ChandraHuman Rights Activist

Have you heard about Salwa Judum - India’s hidden war in tribal dominatedarea of central Indian state Chhattisgarh? I am sorry! I haven’t until Iattended at a People’s Convention at Hindi Bhavan, New Delhi organized by Campaign for Peace and Justice in Chhattisgarh (CPJC)!

Sociologists, activists and scholars have condemned Salwa Judum as Statemachinery’s license to its people to kill its own people in the name ofcounterfeit encountering Red Corridors.Can you believe it happens in central part of this vast country, known andproud of being world’s largest democratic nation!

Indian Medias of both printand electronic are known of their capability to unearth but it seems they arenaïve on India’s hidden war against tribal communities of Chhattisgarh thatmakes India’s hidden war still hidden from nation’s eyes and ears.

CNN IBN in 2006 March warned the nation provoking the Home Ministry byexposing the Red Corridor of Naxals (Maoists) in tribal dominated areas ofBihar, West Bengal, Jharkhan, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

A documentary film “India’s Hidden War” produced by reporter Sandra Jordan and Director James Brabazon was screened and left its images of deep wound and violation against the innocent tribal communities of Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh who used to live peacefully in their own world.Sandra and James traveled deep into the Indian jungle to expose how India’saspirations for a superpower economy are resulting in an increasingly bloody civil war. Government funded militias are battling red guerrillas of Naxal forcontrol of India’s mineral resources. Hundreds of thousands of tribal villagersare caught in the crossfire between Red Corridors and Salwa Judum.

(Picture:Salwa Judum Camp)Salwa Judum in Gondi term means a peace campaign merged by capitalists,traders, land owners and elites to fight against Naxalites from mid 2005, oftensupported by state machineries, state police forces and politicians. Ever sinceSalwa Judum merged, the lives of people, particularly Dantewada district ofChhattisgarh, where 90% of its habitants are tribal communities, becameturmoil.

According to CPJC, the leaders of Salwa Judum have empowered sections oftribal communities with bows and arrows, swords, axes and arms, marched fromvillage to villages to ethnic cleanse from Naxalites. Villagers who refuse tojoin Salwa Judum have been treated as members or pro-Naxalites.

Tribalvillagers are forced to relief camps run by Salwa Judum and those who refusedwere severely beaten even murdered by Salwa Judum activist with support statepolice forces and Naga Regiments.

[1]Salwa Judum leadership composes from top political leaders of BharatiyaJanata Party and Congress. They appoint the Camp leaders, mostly fromnon-tribal communities. Under political leaders and non-tribal camp leaders,recruits the hot blood youngsters with indoctrinations of hate campaign intoState Police Officers, who are trained and paid by Government machineries tojoin hands with ordinary innocent tribal villagers to loot, burn and rape inthe name of retaliating Naxalites.

Salwa Judum, Naxalites and Security Forces have killed over 500 lives eversince the merge of Salwa Judum in Dantewada district alone. Violation againstwomen includes the gang rap, custodial rape, mutilation of private parts,murder, continuous sexual abuse in villages, police stations and even so calledrelief camp of Salwa Judum.

The lowest 70,000 to maximum 100,000 Villagers are forced to internal displacement and migration to neighboring states of Orissa, Jharkhan and AndhraPradesh, who there suffer pathetic life situations.Government of Chhattisgarh has setup 20 Salwa Judum camps in Dantewada district where it is reported to have 47,500 villagers taken shelter.

The fact-finding team of CPJC reports that most of the relief camps face acute shortage of food, water and amenities. People are forced to live in extremely unsanitary conditions and did not allow tribal villagers to return back homes.In some of the relief camps, Government is trying to convert into permanentvillages of which many villagers are worried that their villages and cultivation lands with rich mineral resources would be one day turn into the clutches of capitalists, traders and elites to convert into mineral factories.

Challenging the constitution validity of Salwa Judum, the Supreme Court ofIndia issued notice to Chhattisgarh government in May 2007 to stop Salwa Judumcommitting atrocities in the pretext of countering the Naxalite movement andurged to order impartial enquiry into atrocities committed by this group.

[2]The state machinery’s crime against its own people has been desperately kepthidden to the nation and world. The victims testified in People’s Conventionthat state machineries intentionally didn’t allow Medias to come and report onIndia’s hidden war of Salwa Judum.Deep in India’s central jungle, weaker section of India’s tribal societieswho already suffered socio-economic and educational backwardness, remainsunheard of their man made and state sponsored crime on humanity.

The People’s Convention demands from Chhattisgarh Government

1. Disband and disarm Salwa Judum immediately.

2. Stop appointing Special Police Officers

.3. Stop Recruiting children and adolescents below 18 years of age.

4. Allow tribal communities to return to their villages.

5. Government to rebuild burnt and broken homes.

6. Stop harassment and allow free access to journalists, civil societyorganization, and medical camp and education workers.

7. Repeal the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005

8. Create a conductive atmosphere for dialogue to find politicalresolution to political issues.

9. Stop arrest, detention and false implication of Human RightsActivists, Social Workers etc. and release all such persons.

The People’s Convention demands from Government of India1. Stop aiding and abetting Salwa Judum in the name of promoting “localresistance groups.”

2. Institute a high level independent enquiry into all acts ofviolence-rape, arson, loot, murder and disappearances by Salwa Judum andparamilitary forces and initiate criminal proceedings.

3. Recognize the right to live and dignities of internally displacepeople living outside Chhattisgarh and ensure their safety.

4. Create a conductive atmosphere for dialogue to find politicalresolution to political issues.

People’s Convention demands from Naxalite

1. Stop all forms of violence

2. Create a conductive atmosphere for dialogue to find politicalresolution to political issues.

3. Stop recruiting children and adolescents below 18 years of age

4. Allow safe return of villagers to their home including Salwa Judumsupporters.

images courtesy: http://cpjc.wordpress.com/tag/photographs/
source:cgnet.in

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE POLICE CHIEF

2007-09-07T22:30:00.000-07:00

विश्वरंजन जी को खुला पत्र
आदरणीय विश्वरंजन जी,

पिछले हफ्तों इस अखबार में कई किश्तों में छपा आपका लम्बा साक्षात्कार पढा । यह पढकर अच्छा लगा कि आप स्वयं उदाहरण प्रस्तुत कर पुलिस बल में सुधार लाना चाहते हैं । आपकी नक्सलवाद के बारे में समझ के बारे में पढकर और भी अच्छा लगा ।
इन्हीं सब कारणों से आज मैं यह पत्र लिखने का साहस कर पा रहा हूं जिसमें मैं छत्तीसगढ पुलिस से अपने कुछ अनुभवों के बारे में लिखना चाहूंगा ।
सबसे पहले जब मैं दंतेवाडा गया तो बीबीसी की हमारी टीम छत्तीसगढ आर्म्ड फोर्सेज़ के साथ कुछ समय बिताना चाहती थी । जॉन लोंगकुमेर जी उस समय बस्तर में पुलिस के प्रमुख थे । उन्होंने भांसी थाने में हमारे लिए एक विशेष दस्ता भेजा जिसका नेतृत्व एक डीएसपी कर रहे थे । उनमें से अधिकतर जवान मिज़ोरम के वारेंगटे के जंगल वारफेयर कॉलेज से प्रशिक्षित थे ।

उस दल में दिलीप नाम का एक लडका था, वह आदिवासी था । उसने मुझसे कहा “ये जो सामने पहाड देख रहे हो, ये सब नक्सलियों से भरे हैं । मुझे 7 साल का अनुभव है जब भी हम वहां जाते हैं पक्का उनसे मुकाबला होता है”।

मैंने पूछा “तुम्हारी उम्र कितनी है” । उसने बताया 21 । और तुम पुलिस में कब से काम कर रहे हो ? “पिछले 7 साल से” ।

ये कैसे हो सकता है? मुझे ताज्जुब हुआ । मैंने साथ चल रहे डीएसपी से पूछा तो उन्होंने कहा “दिलीप सही कह रहा है । छत्तीसगढ पुलिस में बाल पुलिस भर्ती करने का विशेष प्रावधान है” ।

मैंने कहा जो पुलिस कर्मचारी मारे जाते हैं उनके नाबालिग बेटे- बेटियों को पुलिस में भर्ती किया जाता है । इस कानून के बारे में तो मुझे पता है पर दिलीप के पिता तो पुलिस में नहीं थे ।

अपनी शूटिंग खत्म करने के बाद जब मैंने दिलीप से बात करना शुरु किया तो उसकी कहानी और भी रोचक थी ।

उसने बताया जब वह कक्षा पांचवीं में पढता था तब नक्सली उसे अपने साथ ले गये थे।
“मैं उनके साथ ही रहने लगा । मैं उन्हीं के साथ घूमता था, उनकी नाट्य मंडली में नाचता था । पर उनके साथ कुछ साल रहते समय मैंने देखा कि ये लोग पैसे को लेकर आपस में एक दूसरे को मारते हैं, आदिवासी लडकियों का बलात्कार करते हैं, मुझे उन से घिन हो गई । फिर एक दिन मैंने पुलिस में सरेण्डर कर दिया । पहले मुझे थोडे दिन बाल कारागृह में रखा गया उसके बाद से पिछले 7 साल से मैं पुलिस के विशेष नक्सल विरोधी दस्ते में काम करता हूं”!
वापस लौटकर मुझे कोई कानून नहीं मिला जिसकी डीएसपी साहब बात कर रहे थे ।

उसके बाद सरगुजा के सामरी थाने में मेरी धीरज जायसवाल से मुलाकात हुई । उसने बताया “मेरा पुलिस से कोई संबंध नहीं है पर मैं सामरी पुलिस थाने का प्रमुख हूं । मुझे पुलिस से कोई तनख्वाह नहीं मिलती, एसपी साहब जो उचित समझते हैं दे देते हैं और
यद्यपि मैं सबको अपनी उम्र 22 साल बताता हूं पर मेरी उम्र 18 है और मैं पिछले एक साल से इस थाने का प्रमुख हूं” ।

दिलीप की तरह वह भी पहले नक्सलियों के साथ था और अब उनसे घृणा करता है । “जब मैंने सरेण्डर किया तब मुझे पहले बाल बन्दी गृह में रखा गया पर थोडे दिन बाद से मैं नक्सलियों के खिलाफ होने वाले स्पेशल ऑपरेशन में शामिल होने लगा” ।
इन बच्चों की तरह आजकल छत्तीसगढ पुलिस ने बस्तर की आम जनता को नक्सलियों के खिलाफ युद्ध में झोंका हुआ है ।

मुझे यह पढकर आश्चर्य हुआ जो आप साक्षात्कार में कई बार कहते हैं “आप सलवा जुडुम की तरह का कोई भी उदाहरण दुनिया में मुझे दिखा दीजिये” ।

आप टीवी खोलिये बीबीसी पर रोज़ आपको सूडान की सिविल मिलिशिया जंजावीद की कोई ने कोई खबर मिल जाएगी जिसने दार्फूर में कहर बरपाया हुआ है । सूडान की सरकार भी इस बात से इंकार करती है कि जंजावीद के पीछे उनका कोई योगदान है।

पिच्हले एक महीने का अखबार उठाकर देखें तो संयुक्त राष्ट्र की विशेष अदालत ने सिएरा लिओन की सिविल मिलिशिया कामाजोर के 5 नेताओं को उन्ही सब अपराधों का दोषी पाकर उम्र कैद दिया है जिस तरह के आरोप आज सलवा जुडुम पर लग रहे हैं ।

याद करने बैठें तो पडोस के इंडोनेशिया के महीदी, कांगो के निंजास और पेरु के रोंडेरोस मिलिशिया के नाम तो तुरत याद आते हैं । वेनेज़ुएला में तो सिविल मिलिशिया में 20 लाख लोगों के शामिल होने का दावा किया जा रहा है । मेरे मित्र याद दिलाते हैं कि रवांडा के मायी मायी और कोलंबिया के रैचर्स को क्यों भूल जाते हो।

यद्यपि कोई भी दो घटनाएं बिल्कुल एक जैसी तो नहीं होतीं पर मुझे मैक्सिको की भी याद आती है जहां सरकार ने आदिवासियों को मारने के लिये कमांडेंट मार्कोस के नेतृत्व में शहरी लोगों की मिलिशिया बनाई थी । सेना सडकों की सुरक्षा करती थी और सलवा जुडुम की ही तरह मिलिशिया जंगल के अंदर जाकर गांव के गांव जलाती थी ।
सलवा जुडुम की ही तरह सिएरा लिओन में भी कुछ लोग कामाजोर को आदर्शवादी लडाकू मानते हैं । पर संयुक्त राष्ट्र की विशेष अदालत ने अपने फैसले में पिछले ही महीने कहा कि मानव अधिकारों के जघन्य हनन के अपराधियों को सज़ा तो मिलनी ही चाहिये चाहे उन्होंने वे अपराध किसी भी आदर्श के लिये किए हों ।
हां एक खास फर्क सलवा जुडुम और इन उदाहरणों में नज़र आता है वह यह कि बाकी सारे प्रयोग गैर लोकतंत्र वाले देशों में हुआ और इनमें से अधिकतर देशों में प्रेस आज़ाद नहीं था । और एक खास समानता कि इन सारी जगहों पर बस्तर की ही तरह जंगल और खनिज की बहुलता है ।

हर जगह यह बताया गया कि सिविल मिलिशिया को शुरु करना तो आसान है लेकिन बाद में उस पर काबू रखना मुश्किल होता है और वे अक्सर उस समस्या से भी बडी समस्या साबित होते हैं जिनसे लडने के लिये उन्हे खडा किया जाता है ।

जहां तक मुझे समझ में आया साक्षात्कार में आप यह कहना चाह रहे हैं कि नक्सलियों को सलवा जुडुम से तगडी चुनौती मिली है । आप कहते हैं कि नक्सली नेताओं ने कहा है कि सलवा जुडुम के कारण उनके 500 से अधिक लोग मारे गए हैं ।

पर उन्हीं नक्सली नेताओं ने यह बयान भी दिया है कि सलवा जुडुम के कारण पिछले दो सालों में इतने लोग उनके साथ जुडे हैं जितने पिछले 20 सालों में नहीं जुडे थे ।
हमारी समझ है कि जिन 644 गांवों के लोग सलवा जुडुम में “शामिल” हुए हैं उनकी आबादी लगभग 3.5 लाख है और सरकारी आंकडों के अनुसार यदि 50 ह्ज़ार लोग भी कैम्प में हैं तो इन दो सालों में बाकी 3 लाख लोग नक्सलियों के और करीब जाने को मज़बूर हुए हैं ।

मैं आंतरिक युद्ध विषय पर विशेषज्ञ नहीं हूं पर मुझ जैसे पत्रकारों को भी पता है कि सलवा जुडुम जैसे प्रयोगों को मिलिट्री की भाषा में स्ट्रैटेजिक हैमलेटिंग कहते हैं और ऐसे प्रयोग वियतनाम, मलेशिया, पेरु सहित भारत के उत्तर पूर्व में भी किए जा चुके हैं, भारी असफलता के साथ ।

इसके बाद अब छत्तीसगढ पुलिस “4 कट स्ट्रैटेजी” की तरफ बढ रही है । इस रणनीति के तहत यह निश्चित किया जाता है कि गुरिल्ला को 4 चीज़ें : भोजन, धन, भर्ती के लिये नए लोग और सूचना की सप्लाई काट दी जाए । पडोसी बर्मा की सेना इसी रणनीति का उपयोग करती है ।

पर यदि आप सलवा जुडुम के शुरु होने के सरकारी कारणों पर नज़र डालें तो आप पाएंगे कि कहा जाता रहा है कि नक्सलियों ने तेंदू पत्ता तोडने पर रोक लगाई इसलिये लोगों ने सलवा जुडुम शुरु किया । और अगर अखबारों में छप रही खबरें सही हैं तो छत्तीसगढ में भी नई रणनीति के तहत अब तेंदूपत्ता व्यापार का सरकारीकरण कर उसी तरह की कोशिश की जा रही है ।

80 और 90 के दशक में तेंदूपत्ता व्यापारी नक्सलियों के धन के मुख्य स्रोत हुआ करते थे । पर अब जब बस्तर का “विकास” हो गया है और नक्सलियों को करोडों में चन्दा देने वाले लोग मौजूद हैं तब हज़ार रू का चन्दा रोकने से उनका क्या बिगडेगा समझ में नहीं आता ।
छत्तीसगढ पुलिस लगातार ऐसी नीतियों पर चलती नज़र आती है जिससे नक्सली को कोई नुकसान हो या न हो पर लोगों की तकलीफें ज़रूर बढी है । अपने दुश्मनों की तादाद बढाते चलना कौन सी रणनीति का हिस्सा है समझ में नहीं आया ।
आशा है आपके नेतृत्व में ये नीतियां बदलेंगी ।

आपका
शुभ्रांशु चौधरी
shu@cgnet.in

THE MAN WHO MOVED A MOUNTAIN.

2007-09-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

Every morning for 22 long years, a frail diminutive man, clad in a loincloth would trudge two kilometres to a hillock of solid rock and chip away at it with a hammer and chisel.

Dasrath Manjhi was building a memorial to his wife Phaguni Devi.A poor man's Taj.Not for its esthetics but for its symbolising human power and spirit of endurance.

Dasrath eked out a living as a farm hand, toiling in the fields of local landlords on bare subsistance.One day,in the early 60's ,his wife Phaguni fell ill and Dasrath set off with her to the nearest hospital .She died on the way.If only there was no hillock blocking the road to the town,Dasraths wife would have made it to the hospital in time, and perhaps survived.

The villagers of Gelaur,in Bihar had to take a circuitous route and travel 19km. to Wazirganj, the nearest district town. It was because of the massive 360ft. long, 25ft. high and 30 ft. wide rock that came in the way of the shortest possible route between the village and the town.

Dasrath decided to alter the topography with a chisel and hammer to cut through the rock.After 22 yrs. of hard work he finished in mid 80's.The mountain had yeilded to man!

The Nitish ministry has promised to make a pucca road to connect the village with Wazirganj town, and a hospital in Gelaur itself.

The recognition that had been denied to Dasrath during his lifetime came after his death.After his death few days ago,the govt. brought his body to Gaya.Dasrath was given a state funeral in presence of dignitaries.

Dasrath Manjhi is remembered by everyone in his village as 'Dasrath Baba'.In caste ridden Bihar he would have never qualified for this title in normal circumstances, which only a Brahmin is entitled to.Dasrath was a Musahar, a caste which traditionally ranks among the lowest of the low.Musahars derive their caste name from thier unusual occupation- they dig through rat holes after harvest, and search for grains stored byt he bandicoots.(moos in local lingo) under the ground.When there is not enough grain they are known to hunt and eat bandicoots to keep hunger at bay.

This modest and selfless man is a fable for our times.An apt sobriquet for him as they know him in Gelaur, "The man who moved a mountain"

Source: Outlook dated 3 sep

WITHDRAW POLAVARAM DAM PROJECT:SAVE THE HABITAT OF THE KOYAS

2007-09-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

Lokayan Bulletin 11:5, 1995 (pp 82 -86)
APPEAL
To Withdraw Polavaram Dam
We, the people of eight villages of Motu Tehsil (Malkangiri district, Orissa), Konta Tehsil (Bastar district, Madhya Pradesh) and Chintur Mandal (Khammam district, Andhra Pradesh), are writing this letter to, the Chief Secretary/ Chief Minister of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh.

We are Koitor (Koya, a scheduled tribe) people living on the banks of the Godavari and its tributaries - Sileru and Sabari. We have come to know that the AP government is planning to build a large dam across the Godavari river at Polavaram, and that the governments of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have given consent to it. We have also learnt that the AP government is giving utmost importance to this project and that it is awaiting clearances from the Central Water Commission, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Ministry of Welfare, etc.

We are highly displeased that the three state governments have been pursuing this project in secrecy from us - a project that threatens to take away our lands, homes, trees, places of worship and to disintegrate our society.

We also believe that the AP government is trying to get all the clearances on the basis of false information. The information it is giving about displacement, the loss of assets, flora & fauna, and the opinion of the people in the submergence area are false. The project authorities are claiming the submergence of 250 settlements in three states. Actually, around 365 settlements would be affected. A recent study by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, made for the AP Irrigation Department, identified 276 settlements coming under submergence in AP alone. The claims of the benefits of the project are also shifting - first, it was primarily to irrigate lands in East & West Godavari districts which are relatively well irrigated, and now the AP government says that it is mainly for power generation.

We, the people of the region that is going to be submerged by the Polavaram project declare that we are not in favour of this dam and that we have never given our consent to it. We do not approve of this project for the following reasons:
1. The project which threatens to submerge about 350 settlements at 150 ft contour would disturb and destroy our habitat and our collective identity and life as Koya people. It would displace about two lakh people out of which the tribal population is around 1,25,000.

2. We, the Koya people, have been already affected adversely by several projects in the past. We have been subjected to severe pressures on our resources as well as dislocation by Dandakaranya Rehabilitation Project (Bangladeshi refugees), Machkund, Balimela project, Sileru Hydro - Electric project, etc. Any displacement or pressure on our habitat and resources would result in the disintegration of our tribe leading to the decimation of our culture and its people.

3. Our habitat is not a wasteland of poramboke as claimed by the Polavaram project authorities. We are not poor and primitive. We are being condemned to backwardness. We are peasants and we grow Jonna (sorghum), Makka jonna (maize), rice, mirch, tobacco, dal etc, of several varieties. We grow a variety of crops with bio-fertilisers and rain water. The crops we grow are not only free from poisonous chemicals, but also give good yields. We do not wish to allow the loss of livelihood and fertile lands.

4. We are people of the forest and nature. Forests are the abode of sacred spirits. They are the source and part of our economy- our daily food, agriculture, livestock, housing, implements; our belief system and worship; our song and dance; and our life world.
Our practices, lifestyles and beliefs protect nature and are shaped by it. We have festivals for the produce of all plants - Chikkudu pandum, Pacha pandum, Ippa pandum, Bhoomi pandum. We consume vegetables, cereals, pulses, mohua and several other things only after conserving the same for the next season.
We do not like to lose our life dependent on nature for one based on and dictated by money.

5. We do not approve of the project also because it has violated our right to decide how we like to live. Projects that affect life and the future of our children and the tribe as a whole cannot be decided by anybody other than us. That some governments attempt to do so is a violation of our fundamental right and we reject such acts.

6. We also declare that it is highly improper for any government to keep this project a secret from the people it affects and not to take our opinion and consent. It is not ethical, moral, and constitutional. This is more so in the light of: 1. The Draft National Policy on Rehabilitation of Displaced Persons as a Consequence of Land Acquisition prepared by the Ministry of Rural Development and submitted to the Cabinet, and, 2. The Dilip Sing Bhuria Commission (constituted by the Government of India) on draft legislation for tribals areas harmonising the provisions of the 5, 6, 11 and 12 Schedules of the Constitution. Both suggest a participatory and democratic mode of decision making about any project on the basis of full knowledge of the project.

7. Our settlements are on the banks of the Godavari and its tributaries. We do not have water for irrigation. We do not have safe drinking water supply. Many of our villages do not have electrification. Our children do not have schools to get primary education. Schools, if there are, do not function. Many of the irrigation schemes proposed for our lands have not been taken up at all. Those taken up have not been completed (i.e., Potteru canal, lift irrigation schemes in Motu & Konta areas, etc.)
We request the State Governments to provide us with basic amenities of safe drinking water, roads, health facilities, lift irrigation for our fields without further delay.

8. We request the State Governments and other bodies related to the developmental activities in our region and/ or Polavaram project to consider our appeal favourably and help us preserve our culture, identity, collective life and help us prosper without displacement.
1. Mrs. Sode Bayamma, Sarpanch, Motu, Malkangiri Dt., Orissa

This Appeal vas drafted and approved on March 18, 1995 at a regional meeting held at Motu village, Malkangiri district. It was translated by Bharath Bhushan.
For further details of the campaign against displacement and the Polavaram Dam, contact:
R Shanta Rao, Chatti, Chintur Mandal, Khamman-507126; M. Bharath Bhushan, Kranthi Dhamam, Rahmath Nagar, Hyderabad – 500045

2007-09-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

The forests of India are a critical resource for the subsistence of rural peoples throughout the country, but especially in hill and mountain areas, both because of their direct provision of food, fuel and fodder and because of their role in stabilising soil and water resources.

As these forests have been increasingly felled for commerce and industry, Indian villagers have sought to protect their livelihoods through the Gandhian method of satyagraha non-violent resistence. In the 1970s and 1980s this resistance to the destruction of forests spread throughout India and became organised and known as the Chipko Movement.

The first Chipko action took place spontaneously in April 1973 and over the next five years spread to many districts of the Himalaya in Uttar Pradesh. The name of the movement comes from a word meaning 'embrace': the villagers hug the trees, saving them by interposing their bodies between them and the contractors' axes. The Chipko protests in Uttar Pradesh achieved a major victory in 1980 with a 15-year ban on green felling in the Himalayan forests of that state by order of India's then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

Since then the movement has spread to Himachal Pradesh in the North, Kamataka in the South, Rajasthan in the West, Bihar in the East and to the Vindhyas in Central India. In addition to the 15-year ban in Uttar Pradesh, the movement has stopped clear felling in the Western Ghats and the Vindhyas and generated pressure for a natural resource policy which is more sensitive to people's needs and ecological requirements.

The Chipko Movement is the result of hundreds of decentralised and locally autonomous initiatives. Its leaders and activists are primarily village women, acting to save their means of subsistence and their communities. Men are involved too, however, and some of these have given wider leadership to the movement. Prominent Chipko figures include: Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist and philosopher, whose appeal to Mrs. Gandhi results in the green-felling ban and whose 5,000 kilometre trans-Himalaya footmarch in 1981-83 was crucial in spreading the Chipko message. Bahuguna coined the Chipko slogan: 'ecology is permanent economy'.

Chandi Prasad Bhatt, one of the earliest Chipko activists, who fostered locally-based industries based on the conservation and sustainable use of forest wealth for local benefit.
Dhoom Singh Negi, who, with Bachni Devi and many village women, first saved trees by hugging them in the 'Chipko embrace'. They coined the slogan: 'What do the forests bear? soil, water and pure air'.

Ghanasyam Raturi, the Chipko poet, whose songs echo throughout the Himalaya of Uttar Pradesh.
Indu Tikekar, a doctor of philosophy, whose spiritual discourses throughout India on the ancient Sanskrit scriptures and on comparative religion have stressed the unity and oneness of life and put the Chipko Movement in this context.

A feature published by the United Nations Environment Programme reported the Chipko Movement thus: 'In effect the Chipko people are working a socio-economic revolution by winning control of their forest resources from the hands of a distant bureaucracy which is concerned with selling the forest for making urban-oriented products.'

"The solution of present-day problems lie in the re-establishment of a harmonious relationship between man and nature. To keep this relationship permanent we will have to digest the definition of real development: development is synonymous with culture. When we sublimate nature in a way that we achieve peace, happiness, prosperity and, ultimately, fulfilment along with satisfying our basic needs, we march towards culture." Sunderlal Bahuguna

source:www.iisd.org

The Chipko movement began as a modest but a powerful effort to save our nature..The rate at which felling of trees for so called 'development'is progressing, there is an increasing need for reinforcing the chipko movement in the cities and in the fast disappearing mustical forests of Bastar.

WHY THE BISHNOIS CAN'T FORGIVE SALMAN..

2007-08-31T23:08:00.000-07:00

The Bishnoi's of Bagda ki Dhani, a group of few dozen homes about 30km. from Jodhpur have neither forgotten nor are willing to forgive the Bollywood stars involved in the alleged killing of two blackbucks.

The term Bishnoi ,originates from the 29 tenets( bish meaning 20 and noi meaning 9) that the community follows. Protecting wildlife and trees are two such tenets.They protect deer, bulls, peacocks, blackbucks and other animals.

Back in the 18th century, 363 Bishnois were martyred trying to stop felling of trees in Khejarli village.This love for nature and wildlife should be emulated by all and inculcated during childhood..A greener and healthier earth will then be a reality!

source:The Times of India

CHATTISGARH: BABE IN ARMS

2007-08-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

The rifle cocked a bit to the left, the boy peered into the car. His face was puffy, hair wiry and dull brown a sure sign of malnutrition. He barked at me, demanding to know where I was coming from. He walked with a faint swagger in ill fitting fatigues, surveying me and my camera-person, as we looked on confused.Confrontations with security personnel is fairly routine for journalists reporting in Bastar in Chhattisgarh but this was the first time I had encountered a child soldier among the security personnel.

It was November, 2006.We were in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh's bleeding heart, to see how well the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) was functioning in the midst of conflict and it was clear that the situation had worsened considerably in the last couple of years.In village after village, we found burnt remnants of homes, empty shells of primary healthcare centres - polio slogans fading. Anganwadis were abandoned, walls charred, grains spilt and trodden on.Families had been driven away to government camps in the name of security by members of the government backed anti-Naxal force, Salwa Judum, which controls four blocks of Dantewada. We found notices nailed to trees warning villagers not to return or else face severe consequences.

At the checkpost, I found it hard to strike up a conversation looking down the barrel of a gun. But I wanted to know how the boy soldier was carrying firearms. In the interiors, I knew the government had set up Village Defence Committees but none of them had guns.Fortunately, intrigued by the camera, the teenager let down some of his guard. He told us that he had been hired as a Special Police Officer (SPO) by the Salwa Judum to monitor the movements of adivasis and vehicles. He confirmed there were many like him. His own brother was posted at the Errabore relief camp.So far, it was fairly well known that Maoists recruited children as sangam members to work as informants or simply as porters, ferrying necessities to their hideouts. But now it was clear that the Chhattisgarh government wasn't shying away from using children either.

Chief Minister Raman Singh says he wants to stamp out every vestige of Naxalism from the state. Ironically, the job has been entrusted to these young boys with adult faces. At every roadblock, they clutch rifles bigger than them and stare defiantly at those who pass by.In a region that is slowly turning into the bloodiest battleground in India's recent history, these child soldiers are the government's first line of defence against Maoists.And the price they pay is steep. When Naxals attack police posts, it is usually these young, semi-trained SPOs who get shot as we saw in Rani Bodli, a small outpost in Bijapur, where 55 security personnel were killed in a midnight attack, 39 were SPOs.But other than a head count, the police gave out little information. What they forgot to mention was those who died were mostly minors, who were dead drunk and unable to fire a single bullet because they were frightened out of their wits.And with good reason. Picture this. The Rani Bodli post is a small school building with no lights that stands in a rough clearing, surrounded on all sides by dense forest. Sandbags offer the only protection from guerilla attacks which Maoists mount.The 303 rifles that the government has kindly provided the SPOs with, don't always work. All their lives they have watched their fathers and brothers use bows and arrows or axes to hunt. With the Naxalite problem escalating, rifles have been thrust into hands unused to steel.On most days though, the guns come handy. In a world defined by exploitation, guns provide a new identity synonymous with power. Finally, there's an opportunity to assert even if it mostly against their own kin. Unfortunately, it's just another form of enslavement from which there is no escape.Losing lives apart, the community too is splitting up into shards. Brother has turned against brother - every family must choose either join Salwa Judum or else get branded as Maoists.

There is no space for negotiation.A father who refused to allow his teenage son to take up the gun was burnt to death before his son. The boy is an SPO today but who knows why? Fear drives most decisions in Dantewada these days.A British journalist who visited Dantewada compares it to Darfur (Sudan). The devastation may be of the same scale but for me, there is a crucial difference. Sudan has caught international attention while Dantewada is nobody's baby.Curiously, the central government, which is helping the state fight Naxalism with funds and manpower ... has so far maintained a stony silence on this issue.But the question is, where surveillance helicopters and armoured vehicles, supercops and trained paramilitary forces have failed to control Maoist violence, arming adolescents cannot make much sense.

courtesy:www.nai-sehar.blogspot.com

CEMENT GIANT MORTGAGES INDIAN LAND TO FOREIGNERS

2007-07-26T23:14:00.000-07:00

Shillong, Meghalaya: Lafarge, the world’s largest cement manufacturer, has mortgaged to Bangladesh banks land it was given in Meghalaya to set up a $225 million limestone plant.

Nongtrai, a Khasi tribal village near the India-Bangladesh border, leased 100 hectares of community forest to Lafarge to extract limestone. Village headman Binlinda Lyngdoh says the village allowed the company into its forest because it wanted economic development. That faith may have been broken though.

A CNN-IBN report has proved that Lafarge got permission to enter the forest based on a misleading environment impact assessment report, which was describes the plant site as rocky and barren.
The company has also told the Supreme Court that its plant is on a wasteland—a claim challenged by the Environment and Forests Ministry. B N Jha, Chief Conservator of Forests with the Ministry, insists the company’s mining site is on a forest and not on a wasteland. “If you ask me this area has one of the richest forests—no topsoil, thick canopy cover—and even a layman can see that this is a forest and not wasteland,” says Jha.

Local activists allege that Lafarge has mortgaged to seven banks, including two in Bangladesh, the 100 acres forestland it got from Nongtrai villagers on lease. The Bangladeshi banks are called Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh and Arab Bangla Bank. They have mortgaged the land to a bank in Bangladesh. Tomorrow, if they cannot pay the loans does it mean Bangladesh can take over the land in India?” asks human rights activist Dino Dinpep.

The company, in an e-mailed statement to CNN-IBN, said it had the Reserve Bank of India and the Meghalaya Government’s approval to mortgage the land. But does that mean if Lafarge defaults on its bank loans then will land under India's sovereign control be transferred to Bangladesh?

People in Meghalaya are debating if Lafarge is bringing them economic development or taking away their land and mortgaging it to banks in Bangladesh

THE SOLDIER'S MEMORIAL

2007-07-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

When you go home, tell them of us and say..
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.......

These lines are probably the most moving words ever scripted in memory of soldiers.Engraved on the Kohima war memorial in Nagaland,it marks the Battle of Kohima on
31-5-44 ie. 63yrs. ago when the Japanese tried to invade India. They failed at Kohima and the war saw death of more than 18000 British and Indian soldiers.Kohima was the Last stop of the Japanese army's march to Delhi.

In thousands of epitaphs all over the world the famous lines, known as the Kohima prayer are repeated.The words are attributed to John Maxwell Edmunds(1875-1958) an English classicist, who put them together among a collection of 12 epitaphs for World War I. According to British officials the words were used for the Kohima Memorial as a suggestion by Major John Etty Leat the GSOII of 2nd division.
On the occassion of Vijay Diwas, symbolic of our victory at Kargil..a salute to all our war heroes..known and unknown.

SHAHEED BHAGAT SINGH.....

2007-07-25T01:57:00.000-07:00

By, Cm.Ajay Ghosh
( Cm. Ajay Ghosh was one of close comrade and was co-accused in the Lahore conspiracy case )
(1909-1962)
( This was first Published in 1945)

Few cases in this country have attracted such attention as the Lahore conspiracy case of 1929-30. From the day bombs exploded in the Central Assembly till the time curtain was rung down with the execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev, the floodlight of public attention was focussed on the case, on the prisoners, on the countless struggles they waged for the cause of political prisoners and for the principles they cherished. Bhagat Singh and his comrades became the heroes of many legends - some of them were true, some were fond creations of the popular mind. Songs and poems about them could be heard wherever one went.
Who were these people that overnight became so popular? What was it they stood for? Why did they evoke such sympathy and admiration? These questions I shall try to answer in the following pages.

I believe it was sometime in 1923 that I met Bhagat Singh for the first time. A young boy of about my age - I was fifteen at that time - he was introduced to me by B.K. Dutt in Cawnpore. Tall and thin, rather shabbily dressed, very quiet, he seemed a typical village lad racking smartness and self-confidence. I did not think very highly of him at that time and told Dutt so when he was gone.
A few days later I saw him again. We had a long talk. Those were days when we used to dream boyish dreams of revolution. It seemed round the comer -a question of a few years at most. Bhagat Singh did not seem so confident about it. I have forgotten his words but I remember his speaking about the torpor and apathy that prevailed in the land, the difficulty in rousing the people, the heavy odds against us. My first impressions about him seemed confirmed.
Our talks drifted to past attempts at revolution and a change came over Bhagat Singh as he spoke of the martyrs of 1915-16 and especially of Sardar Kartar Singh, the central figure of the first Lahore conspiracy case. Neither of us had met Kartar Singh. He had already been hanged when we were yet kids but we knew how he, then a mere youth of 18 and a comrade of Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna, Baba Rur Singh and Prithvi Singh Azad, had become the undisputed leader of the Ghadr Party. He came to India in 1915-16 with the aim of organising armed revolt against British rule. A fearless fighter and a superb organiser, Kartar Singh was a man admired even by his enemies. I literally worshipped him and to hear one talk inspiringly of my hero was a great pleasure. I began to feel a liking for Bhagat Singh. Before he left Cawnpore we were close friends though I never ceased to make fun of what appeared to me his pessimistic outlook.

Kakori Arrests and After

In 1925 like a bolt from the blue came the Kakori arrests most of our leaders were in prison within a few weeks. More round-ups followed: searches and arrests, harassment of suspects became the order of the day. but what really shattered my dreams was the effect of these arrests. Men who had professed sympathy with our
cause would now avoid us. Boys who had talked now began to leave the gymnasium we had started in Cawnpore for physical culture and as a recruiting centre. The whole province was in the grip of panic.
In January 1926, I went to Allahabad to join the university. We tried to rebuild the party out of the shattered remnants of the Kakori round-ups. It was an uphill task. Revolution, it seemed now, was far, very far off.
This sense of frustration, which prevailed in the ranks of the revolutionary minded youth of that period and inevitably drew them towards terrorism was the outcome of the general political situation then prevailing. Following the failure of the great mass movement of 1921-22, the Congress had split into two factions—no-changers and pro-changers-and now the Swaraj Party with Gandhiji's blessing held the field. Of political activities outside the legislatures there were none, mass meetings were rarely held and scantily attended. Stillness hung over the land, the stillness of a stagnant pool.
Prolonged discussions took place in our ranks about what to do to break this stagnant calm. Socialist literature was trickling in, the triumph of the November revolution, the consolidation of the socialist regime in Russia and more than anything else, the aid given by the Soviet Union to Asian countries like Turkey and China against imperialist powers attracted us towards the new socialist state and towards the ideas and principles it embodied.
Simultaneously another phenomenon whose significance we could only vaguely grasp then was being witnessed in our own country. At a time when the whole country seemed quiet and sunk in the morass of apathy the great strike of the Bombay workers led by the Gimi Kamgar Union, strike struggles in Calcutta and Cawanpore, were attracting universal attention.
Terrorism, armed action against the enemies of the people, we were convinced, was indispensable to rouse the nation. But, clearly, terrorism by itself could not lead to freedom. In what channels and by what means was the mass movement unleashed by terror to be directed, what sort of government would replace British rule? These questions, vaguely formulated were beginning to be asked in our ranks.
Bhagat Singh was in the meantime active in the Punjab. He and his comrades had formed the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, a militant youth organisation which was to propagate socialist ideas, preach the necessity of direct action against British rule and serve as a recruiting centre for the Terrorist Party. The Sabha became tremendously popular in the years that followed and played a leading part in the radicalisation of the youth of the Punjab.
Bhagat Singh also worked for some time on the editorial staff of the Kirti - a socialist journal edited by Sohan Singh Josh.
One day in 1928, I was surprised when a young man walked into my room and greeted me. It was Bhagat Singh but not the Bhagat Singh that I had met two years before. Tall and magnificently proportioned, with a keen, intelligent face and gleaming eyes, he looked a different man altogether. And as he talked I realised that he had grown non-merely in years.
He was now, together with Chandra Shekhar Azad - the sole remaining absconder of the Kakori conspiracy case, the leader of our party. He explained to me the changes that had been made in our program and organisational structure.
We were henceforth the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association with a socialist state in India as our avowed objective. Also the party had been reorganised with a central committee and with provincial and district committees under it. All decisions were to be taken in these committees, majority decisions were to be binding on all.
As for the most important question, however, the question in what manner the fight for freedom and socialism was to be waged, armed action by individuals and groups was to remain our immediate task. Nothing else, we held, could smash constitutionalist illusions, nothing else could free the country from the grip in which it was held. When the stagnant calm was broken by a series of hammer blows delivered by us at selected points and on suitable occasions, against the most hated officials of the government, and mass movement unleashed, we would link ourselves with that movement act as its armed detachment and give it a socialist direction.
Our very contribution towards ensuring the success of the movement would ensure that free India became socialist India. All those who met Bhagat Singh then and afterwards have testified to his remarkable intelligence and to the powerful impression he made when talking. Not that he was a brilliant speaker, but he spoke with such force, passion and earnestness that one could not help being impressed. We talked the whole night and as we went out for a stroll when the first streaks of red were appearing in the grey sky, it seemed to me that a new era was dawning for our party. We knew what we wanted and we knew how to reach our goal.
Such was our socialism in those days. We had lost faith in the existing national leadership, its constitutionalism, its slogan of boring from within disgusted us. And we looked upon ourselves as men who by their example would create the basis for the rise of a new leadership. Socialism for us was an ideal, the principle to guide us to rebuild society after the capture of power.

The First Blow

The visit of the Simon Commission in 1928 was the occasion for countrywide strikes and demonstrations. The Bombay workers came out in a gigantic one-day protest strike. "Simon go back" was the slogan that rose from the seething sea of humanity wherever the commission went. Such scenes had not been witnessed since the non-cooperation days.
A wave of indignation swept over the country when news came that at Lahore the protest demonstration had been broken up by the police and Lala Lajpat Rai, who was leading the procession, had himself been seriously injured. A few weeks afterwards he died. The country was plunged in mourning.
Even more than sorrow the common feeling was one of hatred and anger and also of frustration. Here in broad day light in full view of tens of thousands, an aged and universally respected leader had been done to death and nothing could be done to meet out justice to the cowardly perpetrators of the crime.
Our party decided to strike a blow. In November 1928 Saunders, the assistant superintendent of police, the man who had led the lathi charge, was shot dead in front of the police headquarters in Lahore. Well-timed and daringly executed, it was an action that was acclaimed by the public with joy. The first of the blows by means of which we expected to stir the country had been struck.

Bombs in the Assembly

Things seemed to be moving apace. At its Calcutta session in December 1928 the Congress resolved to unfurl the banner of independence if dominion status was not conceded within a year. Torpor that had hung over the land like a black cloud for years was slowly lifting. Youth Leagues were springing up everywhere, another gigantic strike was impending in Bombay.
We felt a big fight was ahead, an upheaval like that which had convulsed the country in 1921-22. We were feverishly busy preparing to play our part in it -collecting arms and money, training our cadres in the use of arms. Jatin Das was brought from Calcutta to teach us how to make bombs.
In April 1929, streamer headlines announced the arrest of communist and trade union leaders all over the country P.C. Joshi then a student in the Allahabad University and a Youth League Leader, was arrested his arrest being followed by a huge protest demonstration of students.
Bhagat Singh and some others among us had already met a number of communist leaders. We felt sympathetic towards them and at one time even contemplated some sort of a working alliance with them - communists to organise the masses and conduct the mass movement, we of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association to act as its armed section. But when we learned that communists considered armed action by individuals to be harmful to the movement, we dropped the idea. While we did not look upon communists as revolutionists - revolution for us meant primarily armed action - we felt one with them in many respects: in their hatred for imperialism, in their opposition to constitutionalism and insistence on direct action, in their striving for socialism.
And so the countrywide arrests of communists were felt by us to be a matter of vital concern for the revolutionary movement. It was imperialist attack against a cause, which was our own, against a movement which had our love and sympathy. We resolved to protest not merely against the arrests but against the whole imperialist policy of fostering the growth of constitutionalist illusions on the one hand and unleashing terror against the people on the other.
A few days later bombs exploded on the official benches in the Central Assembly just after the Trades Dispute Bill - a measure directed against the working class movement-had been passed. Bhagat Singh and Dutt were arrested on the spot.
In a ringing statement that revealed the powerful pen that Bhagat Singh wielded they admitted their responsibility and explained what had led them to it. They were sentenced to transportation for life.
Soon followed the accidental discovery of our bomb factory in Lahore and the arrests of Sukhdev, Kishori Lal and others. Jai Gopal confessed, then Hansraj Vohra, and the result was more round-ups, more confessions and within a few weeks most of our active workers and leaders of Bihar, United Provinces and the Punjab were in the hands of; the police. Others went underground. My arrest came just when I was preparing to go underground.
It all seemed over, our dreams and our hopes. More depressing than anything else was the shocking fact that, unable to stand police torture, no less than seven, two of them members of our central committee had turned approvers.

The Trial Begins

In July 1929 we were produced in court - 13 of us - and there we met Bhagat Singh and Dutt again. No longer was he the Bhagat Singh of the magnificent physique whose strength had been a byword in our party. A shadow of his former self, weak and emaciated, he was carried into the court on a stretcher.
For months he and Dutt had been tortured by the police and now they were on hunger strike demanding human treatment for all political prisoners. Our eyes filled with tears as we greeted them.
Though sentenced already to transportation for life Bhagat Singh and Dutt were our co-accused in the new case that now began - the Lahore conspiracy case of 1929. For three days we paid no attention to the proceedings but held prolonged discussion which Bhagat Singh, though so weak that he had to recline in an easy chair all the time, took the leading part.
The first thing, he emphasised, was the need to get rid of the idea that all was over. Ours was not to be a defence in the legal sense of the word. While every effort must be made to save those who could be saved, the case as a whole was to be conducted with a definite political purpose. Revolutionary use was to be made of the trial, of every opportunity to expose the sham justice of the British government and to demonstrate the unconquerable will of revolutionists. Not merely by our statements when the time came but even more by our actions inside the court and prisons we were to fight for the cause of all political prisoners hurl defiance at the government and show the contempt we had for its courts and its police. Thus we were to continue the work we had begun outside the work of rousing our people by our actions.
These talks had a galvanising effect on us. As a first step we resolved to join the hunger strike that Bhagat Singh and Dutt had already had already begun. Our central demand was the placing of all political prisoners in a single class, better diet for them, newspapers and reading material and writing facilities.

The Hunger Strike

Thus began the great Lahore conspiracy case hunger strike that continued for 63 days resulting in the self-immolation of Jatin Das and stirring the country to its very depths.
In the beginning the government and the jail authorities did not take the strike seriously. They believed it would peter out in a few days and this belief on their part was strengthened when two of the prisoners gave up the strike after a few days. Some of us were none too confident either and I for one wondered how long it would be possible for me to remain without food. All of us had undergone hardships before physical conflict with the police now did not frighten us, but the prospect of starving ourselves for days, weeks and even months - this was a chilling prospect indeed.
For ten days nothing big happened. Hunger grew and with it physical weakness. Some had to take to bed after a week and, as the trial continued, it was a' real strain for them to sit in the courtroom. But our first terror had gone. Hunger strike did not seem such a hard job after all. But we did not know that the real fight was yet to come.
After ten days forcible^ feeding was started. We were all in separate cells at that time. Accompanied by a number of tough and strong nambardars (convict overseers) the doctors came to each cell, the hunger striker was thrown on a mattress, a rubber tube was forcibly pushed into his nostril and the milk poured into it.
Violent resistance was offered by everyone but with little effect at first. It almost seemed as if they had already beaten us.
In the night on the thirteenth day of the strike news reached me in my cell that Jatin Dass was in a bad state and had been removed to the jail hospital. At first I could not make out what had happened for Das had appeared quite fit only a few hours ago. Then the man who had brought the news - he was a subordinate jail official - hesitatingly told me that something had gone wrong during forcible feeding and Das was now lying unconscious.
This was shocking news indeed. I like most others amongst us, had never met Das before my arrest. But during the few days that we had come to know him in prison he had won everyone's affection. Though quiet and unassuming, he had a keen sense of humour and a fund of stories and anecdotes, which he used to narrate to us and make everyone laugh.
I called the jailor and by bullying him got the permission to visit the jail hospital.
Das was lying there on a cot, unconscious, with doctors attending on him. They feared he might die that very night. He recovered but developed pneumonia and that weakened him so much - he refused all medicines and nourishment – that forcible feeding was now out of question.
From now on the strike became grim and determined. Das was followed by Shiv Varma and others. Soon the hospital was full. Court proceedings were now adjourned.
It was a veritable race for death that now began. Who would be the first to die - this became the subject of competition.
Many were the methods we devised to defeat the doctors. Kishori swallowed red pepper and boiling water to cause sore throat so that the passage of the tube led to such coughing that it had to be taken out lest he might die of suffocation. I swallowed flies immediately after forced feeding to induce vomiting. These devices came to be known to the doctors and guards were kept on us.
Determined to break us the jail officials removed all water from our cells and placed milk instead in the pitchers. This was the worst ordeal imaginable. After a day thirst grew unbearably. I would drag myself towards the pitcher, hoping every time to find water but drew back at the sight of milk. It was maddening. If the man who had hit upon this device had been there before me, I would have killed him.
Outside the guard sat - watching every movement -mute, impassive.
I could not trust myself much longer. I knew that a few hours more and I was bound to give way and drink the milk. My throat was parched, my tongue swollen.
I called the guard. As he stood outside the barred door I asked him to get me a few drops of water at least. His reply was: "I cannot do it. I have no permission".
Fury took possession of me. I snatched the pitcher and hurled at against the door, breaking it to pieces, spilling the milk on the guard. He recoiled back in horror. He thought I had gone mad. He was not far from right.
The same torture was being undergone by Kishori and others who were then in cells. And everyone, as I leamt later, had done the same thing -broke their pitchers before their guards.
The jailor gave away. Water was brought to our cells. I drank and drank. Then I fell sick and vomitted out every drop.
In the meantime sympathetic hunger strikes were taking place wherever there were political prisoners. A powerful mass movement had grown to back our demands. Mass meetings and demonstrations were taking place in every part of the country.
The Meerut conspiracy case prisoners went on hunger strike after a few days. The news was flashed across the seas. It created a stir in England. World attention was now focused on conditions in Indian prisons.
Several times during the hunger strike Bhagat Singh came to our jail on the plea of consultation but really to meet us and know how we were faring. Though himself weak and emaciated he would sit by the side of Das and other comrades and cheer them up. His very presence infused new life in us and we looked forward eagerly to these visits.
At last when Jatin Das was on the point of death and the conditions of Shiv and others were very serious, the government yielded. A committee with a non-official majority was appointed to recommend changes in jail rules. The committee met us in prison, assured us that most of our demands would be conceded and on the basis of its assurances we resolved to end the strike.
Jatin Das was now beyond any hope of recovery. He could no longer talk or even hear. Victory, so it seemed at that time, had been won but the man who had more than anyone else contributed towards it was not to live to share its fruits.
There he lay, with all of us sitting round him, and a lump rose in my throat. As he passed away and I lifted my head, I saw tears even in the eyes of hardened jail officials. When his body was borne out of the jail gate, to be hauled over to the huge crowd that was waiting outside, Hamilton Harding, superintendent of police Lahore, bared his head, bowing in reverence before the man whom all the might of the British empire had failed to defeat.
The promise made by the government on the basis of which we abandoned the strike were not kept forcing»,us to resort to two more hunger strikes and even afterwards the new rules were interpreted in such manner as to exclude the vast majority of political prisoners from any benefit. But public attention was focussed on the terrible conditions prevailing in the jails-conditions far worse than today. The sham pretensions of the government stood exposed.
One event during the hunger strike moved us deeply. Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna, the founder of the Ghadr Party and a hero of the Lahore conspiracy case of 1915-16, who was then in the Lahore central jail, joined the strike; he had already served 14 years in the Andamans and in Indian prisons and was about to be released. We were informed by the superintendent that if he persisted, he would lose his remissions and would have to remain in prison much longer. Moreover, Babaji was old and in ill health, 14 years of hell had shattered his body and the hunger strike might end disastrously for him.
In vain, however, Bhagat Singh saw Babaji and pleaded with him - he was in tears when he reported the interview to us - to desist. Babaji continued the strike as long as we did. He lost a good part of his remissions and had to remain in jail for a year more.

The Man and His Ideas.

Bhagat Singh had none of the characteristics of the traditional terrorist leader. We had differences amongst us on many occasions, several of the meetings we held were stormy and more than once Bhagat Singh had to follow a course of action with which he did not agree. Impetuous and strong willed, he lacked the coolness and imperturbability of Azad and would at times fret and fume and lash at those who seemed to vacillate. But only seldom did he give offence and whenever he did so he felt mortified and begged forgiveness with such candour and sincerity that one could not bear any grudge against him. Of affectionate nature, tender towards ailing comrades, frank and open hearted, with no trace of pettiness in his make-up, he was a man who claimed the love of all who were even acquainted with him.
Always passionately fond of studying Bhagat Singh spent most of his time in prison reading socialist literature. Perhaps the first among us to be drawn towards socialist ideas, he was an avowed atheist and had none of the religious beliefs of earlier terrorists. It would be an exaggeration to say that he became a Marxist, but more and more as a result of his studies, of discussions which we held frequently and under the impact of events outside - stirring events took place while we were in prison: the Sholapur uprising, the Peshwar upheaval, the heroic stand of Garhwali soldiers led by Chandra Singh - he began to stress the need for armed action only in coordination with and as an integral part of the mass movement, subordinated to its needs and requirements.
Studies in prison deepened the love that we already cherished for the Soviety Union and on the occasion of the 1930 anniversary of the November revolution, we sent greetings to the Soviet Union, hailing its victories and pledging support to the Soviet State against all enemies.

Ex-Parte Justice

Throughout the trial we strove to carry out the policy we had chalked out in the very beginning, the policy of propaganda by action. The success of that policy and the tremendous publicity that our case received made the government furious. Every opportunity was seized to break us. We were equally determined never to give into humiliating orders, never to bow before the court and the police. And the result was frequent struggles, physical clashes with the police, prolonged adjournments.
The effect of each of these was better exposure of the government more publicity and more popular sympathy for us.
After nine months of trial before the magistrate and long before even a small number of prosecution witnesses had been examined, the proceedings were abruptly ended and "in view of the emergency" that had arisen threatening "peace and tranquillity" a special ordinance was promulgated by the viceroy to try us known as the Lahore conspiracy case ordinance of 1930, its provisions were of an unheard of character. We were to be tried before a special tribunal that could, if it deemed it necessary, dispense with our presence. There need be no lawyers, no defence witnesses, no accused in the court. Any sentence, including the sentence of death, could be passed by the tribunal. And to crown it all, against its judgement there was no right of appeal. Never had any government calling itself civilised adopted such measures.
What the government intended, above all, was to defeat our policy of using the trial for revolutionary propaganda. Another thing, it seemed, was worrying them. Mr. Frane, the only police official present at the spot when assistant superintendent Saunders was killed, had failed to identify Bhagat Singh. Due to the tremendous popular enthusiasm that the case had evoked, a number of key witnesses had turned hostile, more were likely to follow suit and two of the approvers had retracted their confessions.
The whole case was in danger of ending in a fiasco if ordinary legal procedure were followed and ordinary legal facilities allowed us.
Before the trial had proceeded in the court of the special tribunal for a fortnight the expected clash came. Orders were passed by the president of the tribunal to handcuff us for raising slogans when entering the court. On our pointing out that this had never been objected to in the magistrate's court or even in the High Court where we had been taken once the police were ordered to use force.
There, in the presence of lawyers and visitors, scores of policemen armed with lathis and batons pounced upon us. This was the order they had been waiting for. We fought back with bare firsts but the odds against us were too heavy. Blows rained on our chests, on our,.arms. Thrown on the ground we were kicked and beaten with lathis. We were removed from the court by force, bloodstained and severely injured. The injuries were so serious that several comrades could not move for days together.
We demanded withdrawal of the order and assurance that such things would not be repeated. This was not forthcoming. Justice Agha Haider, the only Indian member of the tribunal, was so moved by the scene he had witnessed that he issued a statement that he had been no party to the order to handcuff us and to use force. A few days later the tribunal was reconstituted. His name was missing from the reconstituted tribunal.
And so the trial proceeded, without defense lawyers, without defense witness, before a court from which the one judge whose sense of justice would into permit illegal beating-ups and who therefore might take an independent stand on the question of sentences also had been removed. What the judgment would be was a foregone conclusion.

In October 1930, after a farcical trial lasting five months, the judgment was announced. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death, seven to transportation for life, others to long terms of imprisonment. I was among those acquitted because the only evidence against me was that of two approvers, the third approver who had deposed against me having retracted his confession. As the jail gates closed behind me and I stood on the street outside, I felt like a man who had deserted his comrades.
What Bhagat Singh had come to mean to our countrymen I realised only when I was out. "Bhagat Singh Zindabadh" was the slogan that rent the air' wherever a meeting was held. "Inquilab Zindab" -the slogan he had been the first to raise-had replaced "Bande Mataram" as the slogan of the national movement. His name was on lips of the millions, his image in every young man's heart. My chest swelled with pride as I thought of my long association with such a man.
Hopes there were still of saving Bhagat Singh and his comrades. Everyone expected that the release of the Lahore case prisoners or at least the commutation of their death sentences would be one of the terms of any agreement between the Congress and the government. That expectation was belied. We had been guilty of violence and so while the congress leaders desired to save Bhagat Singh that could not be made one of the conditions of the Gandhi-Irwin pact.
In April 1931, just on the eve of the Karachi session of the Congress, the death sentences were carried out. Bhagat Singh was barely 24 at that time.
I was then on my way to Karachi. Men who heard the news wept like children. As for me I was too stunned even to think.
Like a meteor, Bhagat Singh appeared in the political sky for a brief period. Before he passed away, he had become the cynosure of millions of eyes and the symbol of the spirit and aspirations of a new India, dauntless in the face of death, determined to smash imperialist rule and raise on its ruins the edifice of a free people's state in this great land of ours.

source:

http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/

THE DEMON IN GREEN

2007-07-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

(Mukhtiar Mai-Gang Rape Victim)

She lies in a trance, not knowing if it's night or day..
Just yesterday,her life was full of laughter,
She returned from the fields with a song on her lips,
With the fragrance of the soil about her.
The sun had just spilt its orange hue all over,
The birds too returning to their nests, just as she
Secure, safe and at peace in her little home she wanted to be.
But, the lurking danger she could'nt forsee.
A demon in green,out to hunt, to destroy, to hurt,
He laid his claws on her.
Her bronze body quivering with fear..."you ought to protect,she said"
He laughed, the wretched creature, he plundered her,
left her tattered,her world now devoid of joys.
Her world now was BLACK, the colour of agony, of pain, of shame.
Father was wrong, she told herself.
When in fear, ask the uniformed Sahebs for help,he'd said.
They are always here, our land they protect
For us they camp here.
How was he to know..
That Green was not just the colour of the paddy just sown,
or the colour of their lush green forests,
But Green was also the colour of malice, of greed , of lust
And of the wretched man's uniform!

WHERE ARE THE TIGERS????

2007-07-16T23:28:00.000-07:00

This is the story of the conflict between the people of two small adivasi or tribal villages, which led to several violent confrontations in 2005. The two villages were Dhain and Dhobh Jhirna, in Hoshangabad district in the state of Madhya Pradesh (MP). The former were trying to evict the latter from the lands they had been tilling for some years on the edges of the Pachmarhi-Bori Tiger sanctuary. This would read like any other inter-village conflict over land. The only difference in this case was that the entire conflict was instigated and presided over by the forest department of the government of MP. Dhain is one of the fifty odd villages that lie deep within the sanctuary and the government has decided to relocate them outside the sanctuary, so that the tigers may have an undisturbed habitat. The people of Dhain were allotted lands at the edge of the sanctuary technically part of forest lands. Accordingly the forests were cleared and new hutments built. However some of the lands earmarked for the people from Dhain, had already been under cultivation. These were being tilled by some of the people of a neighbouring village Dobh Jhirna. They did not have title to those lands but had been illegally cultivating them for over a decade. The two villages were also at loggerheads over pastures for their animals as the forests cut down had been the pasture for Dobh people. Now instead of amicably sorting out the matters between the two villages the forest department sought to pit the new settlers against the old settlers and instigate a violent conflict between them. In this they were helped by the district authorities including the local police.
On hearing of the conflict a local socialist organisation of Adivasi peasants, Kisan Adivasi Sanghatan reached the place and had extensive discussions with the villagers, pointing out the need to maintain peace among the two villages and understanding the underlying factors. Several hundred villagers marched to the district collector’s office demanding action against the police and forest officials and an amicable settlement of conflict between the villages. Subsequently it was decided to place all the issues in perspective before all the villages threatened with relocation and galvanise them into action. A village to village contact programme was initiated just before the onset of monsoons. It was pointed out to the villagers that what happened at Dobh was a pattern that was repeated ad nauseum in all such cases of relocation. The government just did not have the land to relocate people and most of the so-called free land was already under occupation of marginal peasants who have toiled on those lands and as such cannot be made to give up their rights. Under such conditions the government sought to pit the villagers against each other. The villagers were persuaded not to agree to relocation from their existing sites and anyway they were being offered far inferior land in exchange. The villagers pointed out that the forest officials visited them repeatedly threatening them with dire consequences if they did not shift to new sites. They were told that even if they continued to stay they will be alone as all the other villages would have shifted, they will not be allowed to use forest roads, or have access to pasturage, or wood or other minor forest produce essential to their survival. The villagers were surprised at such measures as they knew for certain that there were no tigers in the forests around and that the forest officials had concocted pugmarks to cook data regarding a nonexistent tiger population. It was obvious that the forest officials had done this to garner the international grants for tiger conservation!
Thus a nascent movement of resistance is shaping up among the villages located inside the sanctuary area. The main problem before them is their lack of contact or communication with the outside world. They live in inaccessible forests and all approaches to their villages are monitored by the forest department. The Kisan Adivasi Sanghatan which has taken up their case has a weak organisational structure and will find it difficult to rise up to the challenge of organising these distant village people. Its earlier successful project of ensuring fishing rights in the Tawa reservoir to a cooperative of tribal fishworkers displaced by the dam, is now under threat as the forest department has ruled that the reservoir is within the sanctuary and as such no fishing could be allowed as per sanctuary laws. It is a matter of deep concern if the organisation can tackle the two issues together given its meagre resources.. The Indian state has been asserting its ownership and control of tribal lands so as to garner international investments, whether for mines, dams or for various projects for conservation of forests. The conservation of tropical forests has become essential for international capital, in view of the global environmental crises being precipitated by the unbridled emission of toxins and burning of fossil fuels by its industries. These forests have also proved to be the inexhaustible genetic assets from which to draw upon for the bio and genetic engineering industries, and as such have become too valuable to be left in the control of the local communities. Over the last century and quarter the state has sought to gradually tighten its hold over the forests and their assets. The control has reached unprecedented dimensions during the last two decades even as the tribal people have begun asserting their rights. The rapid depletion of the tiger population despite the growing control of the Indian state over the forests has in effect questioned the very legitimacy of its claim to protect the forests. It is increasingly becoming clear that neither the trees, nor the genetic resources including the animals are safe under the sole protectorate of the Indian state. In fact it is now amply established that it is the forest department which has been responsible for the decimation of the forest resources in its charge. The disappearance of the tiger standing at the apex of the forest ecosystem not only symbolises this process but has also set the alarm bells tolling.
Hunting tigers, traditionally regarded as the masters of the forests, symbolised valour and the claim to rule. What was a major feat in the pre firearm days became a wanton pastime in the colonial period. The tigers were hunted down mercilessly by the colonial and feudal rulers and their lackeys who wanted to emulate their masters. There was also an unprecedented intervention in the tiger habitat, deforestation and decimation of lesser animals. Over the last few decades tiger shikar is out of fashion with the elites. Yet tigers are being killed in large numbers to cater to a growing international market for tiger skins, bones etc. During the last few years illegal tiger poaching has been on the increase. This has been accompanied by shrinking and degradation of the tiger habitat.
Any government report on the matter will tell us that the principal reason for this shrinking and degradation of the tiger habitat is the growing demographic pressure on forests. In other words the forest dwellers and those eking out a living on the margins of the forests are being accused of encroaching on the forests and disturbing the delicate ecological balance. Even while we investigate this problem of demographic pressure we should remember that the principal exploiter of Indian forests is the Indian state which earns crores of rupees annually from the sale of forest produce. This is in addition to the amount earned illegally by the functionaries of the forest department and politicians associated with illegal felling trade of forest produce. Hence to place the problem at the door of the starving tribal household is to divert from the issue.
Nevertheless we need to address the problem of marginal peasants and tribal people encroaching upon the forests which promises to blow into a major confrontation. The secular demographic upswing has not been accompanied by any radical redistribution of lands of landlords in the region or by any generation of alternative employment in the forms of industries. This has forced the marginal farmers not only to increase dependence upon minor forest produce and animal herding but also to encroach on forest lands to cultivate some lands. They have put in decades of toil and now are threatened with eviction on the plea that they have no title to the lands.
On the other hand the government is also trying to resettle the project affected villages cheaply, by forcing them to settle on disputed lands on the edges of the forests. Instead of buying them land equivalent to the ones they would be losing at appropriate costs or acquiring them from the landlords of the region the government is trying to get the poor tribal peasants to subsidise the cost of tiger conservation.
The fact remains that despite all these sacrifices demanded of the tribal people tigers continue to vanish and schemes are being drawn up to protect non-existent tiger.

2007-07-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

On June 5, the PURIFICATION HUNT or Salwa Judum completed two years.It has pitted the people versus the police.This so called purification campaign headed by Mr.Mahendra Karma.The members of Salwa Judum are on a spree of destruction, terrorising people, burning down villages and driving away peasants.What has the Salwa Judum really achieved in the past two years?..Lots...
More than 500 adivasis murdered by the Salwa Judum and CRPF
644 villages and still counting, burnt out of existance.
Around 45958 people dumped into dreary 27 camps.
Property worth millions looted.
Sexual atrocities against hundreds of women by the Salwa Judum activists, the paramilitary forces and the police.
No weekly markets in many villages, thereby people can neither buy nor sell essential items.
Schools in over dozen villages turned into camps.
Payments at checkposts controlled by the Salwa Judum activists.
Violation of civil and democratic rights of the people.
Cultural life is affected too.Ghotuls have disappeared, NO collective celebration of festivals.
Collection of forest produce is affected, as the people fear going deep into the jungles
In short Salwa Judum has ruined the political, social and economic lives of the locals.
Mr. Shivraj Patil proudly announced that 33000 strong para military forces are deployed in Chattisgarh.CG police between 10000 to 40000 and SPO's numbering around 5000.A total of 80000 armed personnel are deployed.But are they able to bring positive results? peace?
Why has the Salwa Judum become so important for the ruling class?
Earlier the adivasi landlords and tribal chieftains dominated the villages.Gradually non adivasis migrated to this area and grabbed vast areas of adivasi land by unfair means, violating all laws that are supposed to protect adivasi lands.These outsiders even dominated the institutions of local power like Panchayati Raj etc.
The adivasis toiled sweat and blood and the landlords savoured the fruits of labour.Gradually the Maoists started organising the people against the exploitative practices.The people backed by the Maoists initiated the slogan of 'land to the tiller'.Thousands of acres of land was occupied while fighting against the state.They seized land from the landlords and distributed amongst the peasants, especially the landless and the poor.This land reform started to weaken the very foundations, based on which the feudal exploiters were able to dominate the adivasi society economically, socially and politically.The feudal oppressors lost their authority over the adivasi areas due to the revolutionary movement.The people who lost their authority started and are continuing the Salwa Judum campaign in a desperate bid to regain lost power.The central and State Govt. launched a false propaganda that the Salwa Judum was a mass movement of the adivasis who wished to drive out the naxalites.They managed to convince a section of the population.
Dandakaranya area is rich in mineral resources.In Dantewada district alone there are an estimated 700 million tonnes of iron ore deposits.Dandakaranya has about 18% of the country's total iron ore deposits.Apart from this graphite ores, limestone in Bijapur and Uranium deposits are plenty.There is no dearth of Water resourses for hydel projects too.Due to this MNC's and other plunderers attracted.The State govt. has signed MOU's of 134 billion$ with them.For these devious schemes to see the light of the day the revolutionary movement has to be uprooted, this is precisely why the Salwa Judum was launched and supported by the ruling class.
The only positive outcome of the Salwa Judum is, it has brought the inherent potential of people in waging a war of resistance to light, thus unmasking the genocidal nature of SALWA JUDUM the PURIFICATION HUNT.

SPARE A MOMENT FOR YOUR PLANET.......

2007-07-01T23:23:00.000-07:00

Ice plays an important role in our environment in form of glaciers, ice caps on mountains, sea ice and snow.Snow reflects the suns heat and thus helps cool the earth.
Snow free earth absorbs heat.As ice disappears, earth retains more of the suns heat.The earth warms up thus causing more melting of ice.A viscious cycle is born..and adds to global warming.
Our planet is getting hotter.This is evident in the Arctic where the average temperature has risen twice as compared to rest of the world in the past few decades.
Depletion of sea ice causes devastation to the flora and fauna adapted to the Arctic temperatures and in addition to the people dependent on them.The Arctic has become the final dumping ground for wastes from the industrial world brought by the sea and currents.Melting ice will have a global impact too.A rise in temperature is leading to decreasing snow in the Himalayas,this will in turn affect the freshwater systems via revers thus affecting plants ,animals and humans dependant on this water.
Melting sea ice will cause the sea level to rise, posing a danger to people living in low lying areas and coastal areas, focing them to move out and further disturb the atmosphere.
This issue demands immediate attention of the public and policy makers.Environmental protection is the need of the hour.
Make a small but significant step...SAY NO TO PLASTIC

SUITABLE MERGER??

2007-06-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

People are venting their anger over land acquisition in various places.

Tribals and peasants demonstrating against so called "development' projects , ranging from roads to swank factories in SEZ's.The Government puzzled over why the people are resenting projects that are intended for their development..The truth being ,the development is really of the business class and the land mafia!

Here the sentiment of resistance is tapped by the militancy to bring about violent responses.

Earlier non violent protests drew public attention.Now the agitations aim at procuring higher compensation packages, not just money but total packages as offered in Singur to the displaced.

Land acquisitions have helped the scattered Left groups to unite and support the farmers.A kind of symbiotic situation exists.The Left gaining support and in turn the farmer's gaining a support base.

Displacement therefore is binding the tribals and peasants to the Left and to the societies action groups.The common factor being protection from exploitation and the common enemy- the State!

Will an alliance between the Left and the social action groups bring about results? Will an intermingling of volatile responses and peaceful ideologies culminate in the 'ideal solution' that we all are looking for???

30 YEARS LATER, A TRIBAL TRIUMPH

2007-06-10T01:58:00.000-07:00

For most people in Jharkhand, the Koel Karo project has been a familiar name since the last three decades.The project was initiated by the then Bihar government in 1973 with the objective of harnessing the Koel and Karo rivers to produce hydroelectric pwer.In 1980, the National hydroelectric corporation(NHPC) was given the task of building dams on the two rivers.Since the announcement of the project it was vehemently opposed by the tribals in Gumla, Ranchi and Singhbhum districts of Jharkhand.They felt the project would submerge a large part of their agricultural land and a number of religious places, especially forest groves calles sarnas that have from ancient times, been considered sacred by the tribals.
Official assessment of the projects scope showed the number showed the number of villages affected to be 42. This was revised to 112.Tribal leaders however claimed that 256 villages would come under the projects submergence area.Also 50,000 acres of forest area and 40,000 acres of agricultural land would be affected besides 300 sarnas,175 churches and 120 mandirs.
Although the govt. offered to resettle the affected villages, the tribals insisted on a total resettlement package. The Koel Karo Jan Sanghatan (formed by the tribals to oppose the project) demanded for resettlement, provided it was total ,social, environmental, religious factors would be considered.They proposed that 2 villages be resettled as a model.If the people were satisfied they would go ahead with the resettlement.However the govt. decided to go ahead with the project.Police were despatched to the area in 1985,. The tribals boycotted the police personnel.They were not allowed to set up their camps and no daily provisions were sold to them..making their daily existance difficult.The project died down.In 1995, PV Narasimha Rao, the then Prime Minister decided to lay the foundation stone.More than 30,000 people mostly tribals agitated.Police opened fire and 8 people were killed. The stone laying was postponed.The Jan Sanghatan then resolved not to hold any more talks for resellement. the Sanghatan thrives from the 16,000 families, most of whom contribute 100rs. a year for the cause.
In 2005, the govt. scrapped the project.But the Sanghatan vows to spread awareness till the project is officially announced as closed in the gazette.They share their experiences with the Narmada bachao andolan and Singur...
source: The Times of India.
If it happpened in Jharkhand,Bastar is not far away...............

A BOLD STATEMENT

2007-06-02T07:13:00.000-07:00

A statement from villagers across the Indravati.As reported the villagers are not being allowed to cross the river since 2yrs.Though the govt. claims otherwise, the state has stopped going to these villages after the start of Salwa Judum.Most of them hve shifted to the camps..The villlagers still living there have made the statement..Will somebody wake up and listen, or are they destined to live in exile in their own land?????

Reproduced from:www.cgnet.in

The Present 'Maharaja'

2007-05-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

The present 'Maharaja' of Bastar, Shri.Kamal Chandra Bhanjdeo giving a public audience...He is presently pursuing higher studies overseas.Will he put his newfound knowledge to use, for the betterment of his people?It is something we should wait and watch out for! He has a legacy to uphold, being the descendant of an imposing personality like Pravir Chandra Bhanjdeo....

CIVIL LIBERTIES..THE STANDING JOKE!

2007-05-29T03:32:00.000-07:00

Police at your doorstep- shocked??? dont be. All because you accessed a website of the CPI(M) or the LeT, or because you rubbed the police the wrong way in your eagerness to investigate encounter killings.These are considered evidences of you being ' anti national'.Binayak Sen of Raipur, Arun Ferreira of Mumbai and Geelani of Delhi met the same fate.
To support the cops are laws like POTA, Armed Forces Special Powers Act or Special Public Security Act, Unlawful activities Prevention Act etc. These are Acts under which held the accused needs to prove himself innocent rather than the prosecution proving him guilty.,Article 19 thus being reduced to a joke.After half a century plus of democracy we still need a clear definition of our political rights!
CSPSA2006: defines an unlawful activity as an act that has a tendency to pose an obstacle to the maintainance of administration of law and order or 'encourages' disobedience of established law or institutions set by the law.
Such a law renders the media and even the citizen who wants to show his objection about mass politics, helpless!!!!

TATA TEA IN "SOUP"!

2007-05-28T03:01:00.000-07:00

After Singur and Bastar ,TATA now has to face the wrath in Kerala...Tata Tea now faces allegations of usurping about 50,000 acres of an ecologically fragile area in Munnar,Kerala.They are now pitched against the CM, Achutanandan himself.Sources say that notices to give up 1200 acres of land have already been issued and the land recovery will begin by next week..

It is Tata tea chief, RM Krishna Kumar versus Achutanandan the CM now....

source:The Times Of India

TIME TO TURN HUMANE.......

2007-05-28T02:29:00.000-07:00

There's a thin line that seperates a crime fighting hero fom a villian with a licence to kill and it takes no time for the hero to turn into a gun toting cop who considers the slain bodies as achievements and term them as encounters.
They kill,with a vengence..But what sets them apart from other criminals is their uniform and their licenced weapons..They are not punished but rewarded with promotions and perks!"MEN MAKE COUNTERFEIT MONEY.IN MANY MORE CASES MONEY MAKES COUNTERFEIT MEN"!
The infamous Sohrabuddin Sheikh case highlights the Encounter phenomenon and has drawn enough public flak.
Why do the encounters almost always occur only late in the night or the early hours?The scene invariably deserted and a policeman rarely injured?When evidence is hard to produce ,encounters save the day for these uniformed criminals.are they turning inhuman??Sohrabuddin,Nandigram, Surguja, innumerable instances in Bastar, Andhra Pradesh,all in the name of combating terrorism. Lathi charges, violent blows, physical torture, modesty outraged and custody deaths..where is the end??
Are they pledged to eliminate crime or the criminal himself??Police atrocities are rising by the day..NHRC only investigates only the very few cases that are reported.Where does the poor man turn to, for justice??
Its time the police wake up and polish their humane sides along with the guns they weild...Empathy is the need of the day.
' ONE CANNOT ALWAYS BE A HERO,BUT ONE CAN ALWAYS BE A MAN'- Goethe

THE CLOUD THAT OVERWHELMED THE BRITISH.....

2007-05-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

Prior to the mutiny in 1857,Chapatis...the staple diet of majority of north indians and generally all Indians now- were circulated in alarming numbers all over the country.A man would run up to a village and hand over a chapati, the size of a man's palm to the headman , telling him to make 5 more and circulate it with instructions to do the same.Thus the chain continued.People initially believed that it contained messages.But, the more probable explaination was that it was an indigeneous code to show one's support for the movement.It was something the common man could easily identify with and propagate.
Just like the Bhumkal in Bastar in 1910 , where branchess of the mango tree and lumps of earth were circulated.
The spirit of freedom picked up in the 1850's which led Lord Canning to remark in 1855,"We must not forget that in the sky of of India,serene as it is, a small cloud may arise at first no bigger than a man's hand, but which growing bigger and bigger, may at last threaten to overwhelm us with ruin."
Source:The Times Of India.
Salute to the mutineers who had the courage to tread where no man had! And may a similar cloud hover over the skies of Bastar soon..