A Padyatra against Hunger and for dignity

March for Land, Dignity and Freedom

Hunger and starvation deaths in the eastern Uttar-Pradesh continue to haunt communities during the last one decade. Every year people are dying of different diseases particularly Malaria, and Japanese Encephalitis (brain fever). While the names have changed the target of these viral diseases remain the same communities.

Government and aid agencies launched campaign to tackle the starvation and hunger prevalent in the region. Many of these districts are under the National Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) yet reports suggests that the scheme is another way of ‘helping’ those who are power groups in the rural set up. They have rarely reached the masses. Many of the NGOs formed community groups to help them yet the food never reached. While it was good that government provide food aid to the dying people yet very few raised the issue that the hunger has raised its ugly head in the country because of the continuous antipathy of the government to the land redistribution programme. Contrary to this, more land was acquired in the name of development without providing enough and satisfactory rehabilitation. The victim of this unsustainable development have been the communities like Dalits, tribals and MBCs.

The numbers of landless communities in poorvanchal is substantial and are severely facing challenge to their livelihood. With more mechanized agri-farming, these agrarian workers are now jobless. Forests are already out of bound for them as forest department consider the poor forest dwellers as encroachers and exploit them. The Kumhars (clay potters) have lost their work to plastics and the fishermen are clueless at the moment as how to increase their income when most of their lakes are under the threat of sale. The migration to cities has increased in the past few years but now even those seems to be blocking the way of the rural poor with not only theocratic fundamentalist parties raising their ugly head against them but also the self styled protectionists of the secular ideas too feel that immigration to the cities is a threat.

Even when people were dying of hunger and starvation, the ‘nationalistic’ forces were doing their work in the villages, but not to help the rural poor get out of the poverty trap but to push them back into the Dark Age. To increase their woes, these forces have pushed people to superstition so that they do not question the injustice done to them.

That manual scavenging is still prevalent in the region reflect the condition of the Swachchakar community in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh. Communities like Mushahars, Bansfors, Swachchkars, Rajbhars, Chamars, Pasis; Chauhans, Nishads, Kumhars are facing severe threat to their livelihood and dignity.

Keeping in view of this, Uttar-Pradesh Land Alliance and Social Development Foundation, Delhi are organizing a Padyatra ( Footmarch) beginning from June 1st, 2007 till June 22nd , 2007. The Padyatra will cover four districts of Poorvanchal. They are Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Deoria and Kushinagar. The Padyatra will start from the Tehsil headquarter of Ghughali, Maharajganj on June 1st. The Padyatra culminate at the Shaheed Smarak in Chauri Chaura on June 22nd, 2007. The Padyatra would cover more than 75 small and big villages and towns including Kushinagar, Ramkola, Padrauna, Kasaya, Fazilnagar, Pathardeva, Nautan, Deoria, Bhatani, Salempur, Laar, Bhagalpur, Barhaj, Rudrapur, Brahmnpur, Tarkulhadevi and Chaurichaura.

Padyatra will have public meetings, social audits and even training programmes related to land and livelihood. Not only this, the Padyatra aims to speak unambiguously against the caste oppression, rituals as well as exploitation in the name of religion, rituals and superstitions.


The Padyatra is named as Land, Dignity and Freedom which clearly indicate that we feel access and control to land and other natural resources is key to dignity and freedom of an individual and community. Today, this freedom is under the threat. The governments have failed in fulfilling their promises to implement the land and agrarian reform resulting in greater social chaos. In India, this situation is more complicated as the exploitation has not just economic dimensions but socio-cultural dimensions. And despite power equations at the political levels, the situation in the ground level has not changed much. That most of these communities who suffer indignities are the Dalits and most backward communities. Tragically, in the broader schemes of things also these communities are on the margins because of their minority status with in their villages and hence even in the broader Dalit-Bahujan framework they remain isolated and excluded.

The Padyatra aim to strengthen the community organizations in the region so that the development agenda is focused on community based. We sincerely feel that the developmental paradigms need to take a new turn and communities need to be targeted in the rural planning otherwise term like ‘rural poor’ in India would always help maintaining the status quo.

While many of our friends suggested against organizing the Padyatra in this scorching heat yet it was felt that it is the best time to understand how the communities we work with face such oppressive heat. Also due to summer vacations, many of you might find some time to join it. We are therefore extending you our invitation to join this Padyatra to understand the reason of hunger, starvation and social oppression in Poorvanchal. We will keep you updated with the movement of Padyatra through our regular mails.


Yours Sincerely,

Vidya Bhushan Rawat, Social Development Foundation, Delhi : Phone 011-65902846,

email : sdfindia@gmail.com

Ram Chandra Prasad, Dr B.R.Ambedkar Gramodyog Sansthan, Deoria
Ram Bhuvan, Jan Kalyan SanshtanChauri Chaura
Rajkapoor Rawat, Convener, UP Land Alliance, Mohammdabad, Ghazipur
D.P.Baudh, Lord Buddha Trust, Kushinagar
Indra Dev Mehra, Deoria
Ramasrey Nishad, Rudrapur, Deoria
Rajendra Sahni, Tal Ratoy Machchua Jan Kalyan Sansthan, Maryadpur, Mau
Sumitra Rajbhar, Dalit Mahila Mukti Manch Maryadpur, Mau
Rajan, from Swachchakar community in Laar
And many others

Defining Moments of Dalit Empowerment in Uttar-Pradesh

Dalits defeats Hindutva with the help of Brahmins: Will it work?


Vidya Bhushan Rawat


It was May 2002 when I was on a Padyatra in Bundelkhand. After nearly 10 days of the yatra, we were in a tribal village of Kols who were threatened by the forest department and police officials every time they tilled their land. The day we reached this tiny village on the track of the mighty Indian Railways, the political wind in Lucknow was changing and news of Mayawati’s assuming charge of Uttar-Pradesh became clear. There was jubilation in the village. The whole night, the Kols, their men and women both, danced and sang in the loudest possible voice. When I asked them whether they do not fear the police now. ‘No’, said an elderly man, ‘now with Mayawati at the helm of affair in Uttar-Pradesh, no body can touch us’.

That was the power of Mayawati that the Dalits and MBCs felt safe and secure in the otherwise adverse administrative environment of Uttar-Pradesh. And soon after Mayawati’s resigned and Mulayam Singh Yadav cobbled a majority with the help of BJP, I got a phone call from a Chamar family in Faizabad district. The landless family had been granted a house under the Indira Awas Yojana. The Kurmis, the powerful landowning backward community and traditionally with high anti dalit feeling, used the change in political power in Lucknow to terrorize the Chamar family and hence the entire community was living in constant fear. Even the women Sarpanch who happened to be a Dalit was assaulted. We went to meet a Minister in Lucknow who was once upon a time very close comrade of Late Kanshi Ram. The minister’s first question to the community was ‘ whether they voted him?’ Though he wrote a letter to the local officer yet the Minister knew it well where the community loyalty were and hence we was not very keen on helping them.

Today, Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party have got a decisive mandate in Uttar-Pradesh. It was one of the fairest polls in Uttar-Pradesh where the voter voted with out any fear. Bahujan Samaj Party got 206 seats out of 402, clear mandate from the voters of Uttar-Pradesh. The pollsters have been predicting that BSP would emerge single largest party and Malayam Singh Yadav and his cronies were thinking that they would still be able to manipulate the things. Uttar-Pradesh’s poll results have proved every body wrong. The thing is that these pollsters wanted BJP to get stronger not because of their love for Hindutva but for their corporate connections. BJP got legitimacy by the media because of its media linkages and strong corporate connections. It was difficult for them to ignore but the voters have proved every one of them widely wrong and one only hope that they would not try to influence the result. It is also proved that these opinion polls may change the heart of upper caste English speaking people, they seldom change the mind and determination of Dalits. Dalits and Muslims have developed their own communal network of understanding and rarely do they depend on media analysis for who to vote particularly in Uttar-Pradesh, which is definitely a better sign of maturity.

It is a Vote against India Shining

In 2004, the National Democratic Alliance lost power because of the ‘India Shining’ campaign. Chandra Babu Naidu lost in Andhra Pradesh, S.M.Krishna lost in Karnatka, Amrinder Singh in Punjab and N D Tiwari in Uttarakhand. Even in Delhi Shiela Dixit led Congress had to face defeat. Mulayam Singh Yadav went to poll with slogan ‘ UP main hai dum, kyonki aparadh yahan hai kam’, a slogan coined by one of the ‘friends’ of Mulayam Singh, Mr Amitabh Bachchan. Bachchan and his advisers felt that they can sale anything. It was shameful that Amitabh Bachchan felt that Uttar-Pradesh was a place worth living because there was no crime here, when hundreds of children went missing in Nithari and kidnapping and ransom became the order of the day. Mr Amar Singh would come and give the journalist the other document about Delhi and other parts of the country. Since Amar Singh and his friends have glamour connections they thought that in this market everything is saleable. Amitabh Bachchan must realize that he is as mortal as any one else and hence should stop playing dirty politics in Uttar-Pradesh as people are simply not impressed with his shrewd manipulations.

It is shameful to call Yadav as son of the farmer when the farmers were facing difficulties. The most fertile land of Dadri was sold at the throw away price to friend Anil Ambani. New malls were being promoted and Amar Singh was providing glamour from Bollywood to Mulayam Singh Yadav. There was no electricity in the villages. Mulyam thought that he would dole out money to the rural folks and they would in turn vote him. He declared unemployment allowance. There was Kanya Vidya Dhan where he gave Rs 20,000/- to every girl who passed intermediate, though the amount never reached the needy people. Mulayam felt that Muslims have no choice except him. Despite the fact that goons have got their freedom and criminals were made ministers, Mulayam and his friends felt that people don’t understand politics. His anti Dalit postures and placating the upper castes at the cost of Dalits were so powerful that those who do not subscribe to Mayawati’s politics of appeasing Brahmins were willing to bet for Mayawati as a better administrator.

Rejection of narrow caste based Parties

Most of the small time political parties in Uttar-Pradesh have been decimated. People like Sone Lal Patel who thought the Kurmis would be behind him lost them. Beni Prasad Varma lost from Ayodhya and in the domain of Dadua, two Brahmin candidate of the BSP won the seat. The Rajbhar party of Om Prakash Yadav too lost. This party used to ask its cadre to remove Dr Ambedkar’s portrait and put Raja Sohail Dev in their houses as if Sohail Dev fought for social justice.

Haji Yaqoob won from Sardhana and he comes from the BSP background. The problem is that all the political fronts that were created in the later stage had one problem. Their sheer anti Chamar posturing. It was felt that since the BSP is a party led by Mayawati, it is automatically dominated by the Chamars hence there is a need for other groups to have similar experiment. Those who do think in these lines forget some important aspect of the Chamar-Jatav experience of BSP. Chamars have been a politically mobile community. It understood the importance of political empowerment, the message of Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Chamar is the only community, which took BSP’s political empowerment as a mission. Not only did they stood rock solid behind Mayawati but also ensured that the networking of communities go beyond their own community. Kanshi Ram had promoted some of the most unrepresented communities in BSP giving him total loyalty from these communities. One need to understand and appreciate that BSP did not just win with just Muslim-Chamar-Brahmin vote. The fact is a large number of other communities particularly the MBCs also voted for the party. While the smaller parties could rarely make their agenda broader. Can any agenda be there on anti Ambedkar platform? Ambedkar is the essential component of any party of India, which claim to work for the Dalits and the marginalized. To equate Sardar Patel (as Sone Pal Patel did), or Suhail Dev in the case of Om Prakash Rajbhar’s Rastriya Vikas Party, with Ambedkar ignoring the great legacy of Baba Saheb and his tireless work for the marginalized. Can we really say that Sardar and Sohail Dev had that much of commitment for the poor. Sone Lal Patel was ready to give ticket to Bablu Srivastava and Abu Salem. Glorifying every one who is not an upper caste would not work and failed. These parties did not have any perception and want to ally with any one who can give them space and legitimacy. Result was that Rajbhar went and broke with Congress while Patel fought with BJP-JDU. The small caste based political parties actually failed to mobiles people. Their focus was too narrow and on their own caste. They did not make proper alliance. The political leaders heading these parties are not less autocratic than Mayawati. There was no effort from their side to reach different caste segments. Many of them felt that just waving hands and organizing public meeting at the eleventh hour would work but BSP’s strength was the work of its ‘missionary’ workers.

Survival of the fittest

Secondly, the upper castes also knew well that their future lies with BSP. That is also the danger whether Mayawati would be able to deal with the problems that the Dalits face in the village. Whether the conflict would be lesser. It is no doubt that in the past the agrarian communities were at the logger heads with the Dalits as their common interest on land and agriculture clash yet it would be absolutely cynical to conclude that Dalits and Brahmins make natural alliance and that their interest clash with shudra communities. One must understand that in UP it is the power conflict and that some of the backward communities might have gained after the Zamindari Abolition and post Mandal some of the politically mobile backward communities came in close cooperation with the Kshatriya communities and might have involved in hitting the Dalits but the condition and isolation of communities like Rajbhars, Nishads, Kashyaps, Nais, Gonds is similar to that of the Dalits. It is also a misgiving that Brahmins are marginalized like Chamars. How can a community which was oppressor and other which was at the receiving end could be put with in a bracket? Second, even during the post mandal era, Brahmins were never marginalized. Those who thought that Narsimha Rao was the last Brahmin prime minister have to eat up their word with Atal Bihari Vajpayee taking over BJP’s command. In fact, one thing that went against Lal Krishna Advani was his being a non-Brahmin otherwise, what is the difference between Advani and Vajpayee? Both great friends and presided over a regime where minorities felt deeply neglected and frightened. Both were equally communal but Vajpayee was always made as if he is different than Advani.

Brahmins will never be marginalized in India as long as India remains confine to brahmanical wisdom and its communities continue to prostrate to inefficient and cruel gods. The Brahmin bureaucracy is high and mighty. Most of the newspapers and magazines have not only Brahmin editors but also reporters and copy editors. The gap between the Brahmins and non-Brahmins is too high to be narrated hence to say that Brahmins have suddenly changed would be reading too much in the verdict.

No doubt the Brahmins have come along with Mayawati after she offered them handsome number of tickets. It is also important to understand that coming along with Mayawati was the only option for them as Hindutva agenda was becoming too futile for every one. More than that, with in the Hindutva, Rajnath Singh and then Yogi Aditya Nath, both Thakurs, allegedly supported the parochial caste interests. Most of the ticket that Aditya Nath got in the BJP went to the Thakurs hence the Brahmins were disgusted. Mulayam Singh Yadav, though, played Brahmin card, yet the community felt he was too close to the Thakurs, a rival community. The upsurge of the Brahmins have come from the fact that during the post Mandal political alliance MAJGR ( Muslim, Ahir, Jat, Gujar and Rajput) actually marginalized the Brahmins. Therefore, Brahmins were in a look for a solid alliance, which could revive their fortune.

To say that this alliance would be easily replicated elsewhere would be too simplistic. Such alliance may not work in UP in future also leave alone in states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Gujarat, Rajasthan or Haryana. UP verdict was a clear vote against Mulayam Singh Yadav and his jungle Raj. Secondly, the vote was too low and only the ‘missionaries’ votes ensured BSP won. The party had meticulously planned its strategies, which resulted in its success.

Secondly, Brahmins never hurt directly. It is the institutionalization of the caste system that we are opposed to and not an individual. Yet, things may not change in UP as long as you are asked to represent your caste. The Brahmins and other upper castes have joined BSP to save their interest and not left their caste philosophy of Hindutva. One only hopes that Mayawati would not compromise with the interest of the Dalits and take strong
action against the cases of violence against the Dalits in the state.

Politicisation is the key to empowerment

I have always held the view that politicization is the key to Dalit empowerment. The NGOs might work to claim the legacy of Ambedkarite movement; it is ironical that it is Uttar-Pradesh and Bihar, which are the guiding destiny of the Dalit movement in India. While funds to support the ‘Dalit movement’ coming in the southern part of India, people claiming to ‘end caste system’ in certain pockets of north India, copies of ‘great work’ being shown to international donor agencies, the fact remain, it is the Dalit of Uttar-Pradesh who has taken it as task of mission. The political empowerment of the Dalits in Uttar-Pradesh is a result out of Ambedkarite understanding. It is the Jatavs and Chamars of Agra who were quick to leave their work and become part of Dr Ambedkar’s movement. It is this Ambedkarite legacy coupled with Buddhist understanding that this community was able to change the fortune of the Dalit movement in India.

BSP is not Dalit movement yet it is the only political party of Ambedkarite legacy. All other political outfits today are unable to understand the vacuum among the political parties. Mayawati remain the only serious contender for that and that is why the Dalits are solidly behind her ignoring her own record of corruption.

Dalits have to forge alliances elsewhere but more than it need committed missionaries to take the movement further. BSP is a political outfit and may have to make many compromises but the movement has to continue to make its presence felt, to pressurize the political class to be careful, to guide even the political forces to take the right path.

Hindutva punctured : UP’s mandate makes us proud

Finally, the electoral mandate in Uttar-Pradesh makes us proud for two things. One that the people have rejected the shining brigade and want the political leaders to concentrate on the basic issues. Second, it will definitely give a boost to those working for the empowerment of Dalits whether they agree or differ with Mayawati’s style of functioning, as this is a real opportunity for her to prove. Thirdly, the total decimation of the Hindutva and its top class leadership. The results in Uttarakhand and Punjab and later in Delhi gave us nightmare of Hindtuva’s uninterrupted march to Delhi. Now, the results in Uttar-Pradesh have sent the Hindutva hardliners to graveyards. Hindutva and its communal agenda can only be defeated by an enlightened Dalit Bahujan confederation along with truly secular rationalists. Those who want to call themselves secular and still promote irrational practices cannot be called secular. A popular icon’s flirtation with rituals and religiosity cannot make him secular, as Mulayam wanted us to believe. Mayawati need to understand that flirtation with Hindutva proved expensive for her in the past. She should remain careful in further approach and deal with such forces ruthlessly. She should not allow Uttar-Pradesh to become an experimenting ground for the thugs of Hindutva whose hate campaign against the Muslims did not work. We all know that how the Hindutva’s gang operated and tried to vitiate the atmosphere in the entire state. The best practice of the upper caste is that if you cannot conquer some one just co-opt him. Mayawati should send out clear message of her priority of good governance and her commitment to social justice. One welcome the victory of over 14% Muslims in UP Assembly from all the parties. This shows that a rainbow coalition in UP of the Dalits, marginalized and minorities is a functioning reality in the villages and those who want to break it for narrow political purposes would bite dust in Uttar-Pradesh.

Though BSP had rarely come out in open against the economic policies or on the issue of reservation, it is important that the party does not compromise on these issues. Already, the courts in India are playing the dirty games of spoiling everything that is meant for social justice. The land reform has been made redundant by continuous litigations in the court. The political participation of the Dalits and marginalized is under the threat and various cases are there against top political leadership.

Significance of power in Lucknow

The assumption of power of the largest state has significance for the Dalits and Marginalised all over the country. Yet, unless great work is done by those in power, they remain mere symbolic. Mayawati has used these symbols to spread her base. Those have been important milestones, now at the fourth term; she need to define her economic and social agenda and must move beyond symbols. Land Reform is long over due and that need to be vigorously implemented apart from that there must be quota for the MBCs. She must implement the Ambedkargaon scheme and bring drastic change in the already crippled educational mess in Uttar-Pradesh. In her earlier stints she did not have majority, now with enough MLAs on her side, she need to build Uttar-Pradesh and turn it to an enlightened Pradesh. The country is waiting this transformation of power in this state, which could turn out a role model state for others, but it depends on how she handles it. Whether she would be able to annoy her newfound allies in the form of Brahmins? How this contradiction is managed will be seen in the coming days. Meanwhile, the struggling masses of Dalits and other marginalized must not remain satisfied with this as their becoming mute would give ample space to political leadership to manipulate. The time of Ambedkarite pressure group has now come. It must work as a link between the aspiration of Dalit masses and the duties of a Dalit political leadership. Today, with the Chief Justice of India at the top judiciary, with a chief of University Grants Commission and with a member in Planning Commission and other number of dignitaries, Dalits Empowerment is here to stay yet a large number of those who are still far away from basic amenities of life, Mayawati’s ascendance brings hope. A hope that she would change the power equations that hurt Dalits and provide social and economic security to all. That Behenjee would reason first before giving any approval to private corporations, builders, mafias who want UP to ‘shine’ at the cost of its poor Dalit Bahujan masses. One is sure that this government will not betray its mandate that people of Uttar-Pradesh has given to it. Let us hope that she will keep these in mind before proceeding to Dadari and other such projects, which were granted out of personal loyalty by the previous government. Let us hope that Mayawati will remain committed to the ideas of her idols like Baba Saheb, Sri Narayanguru, Periyar and Chhatripati Shahuji Maharaj. Hope she would not erect a Ganesha in between to placate the Brahmins. The struggle of the Dalits for dignity and self-respect was based on their right against the brahmanical forces and irrationality of the caste system. One only hopes that this rich legacy would not be lost in the din of ‘empowerment’ in Lucknow.

Indian disconnect in Uganda

Mabira’s resistance to Monopoly of Mehtas in Museveni’s Uganda

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


When I got an opportunity to visit Uganda to attend an international conference, the first thing that came in minds the issue of Indians in Uganda. Coincidently, exactly a week before my departure to Entebbe, Uganda saw worst kind of riots in Kampala in the post Idi Amin era. The news of an Indian killed send shock waves through out the country. The Indian media reported as if the native Ugandans have turned to racism against the ‘poor’ Indians. It failed to report that two Ugandans were killed in rioting. How can a community which has been victim of racism in the past and still facing discrimination in its own country could be termed as racist just because it lost its patience and indulged in rioting? There is a need to understand the issue of blacks, apartheid and Indian domination in the African countries and any analysis based on our ‘nationalistic’ pattern would be bias and unfair.

Uganda is a growing democracy despite army’s control over power. In the streets you can still find big appeals on behalf of the election commission to participate in the political process. Among many FM channels, you will get political discussion going and the president and prime minister being lampooned by the people. It is the growing sign of democracy. However, it is important as what happened to Uganda that the entire country united and condemned and that there is more than what was presented to us.

Issue of Self Respect of Native Ugandans

Idi Amin is not much respected in Uganda. There might be some pockets where he may be adored, probably among the Islamic tribal community but Ugandans have moved far ahead from that narrow idea of Idi Amin, which destroyed their freedom and lampoonised the entire governance process. Commentators called him a government owned by a minority group without any mandate from the people, yet on one count, I found many native Ugandans were appreciative of him. It is clear that Amin’s predecessor Milton Obote-1, had actually created another imperial class in his country. The Indians, particularly Gujaratis who went to Uganda and East Africa as laborers to construct the train track between Kampala and Nairobi and other East African countries by the British, later monopolized the Ugandan business and mercantile sector has now become a bone of contention. Not that Indians do not work hard but more than this, there habit of exclusivity and differentiate on colour. Yes, Indians are highly colour conscious. One they recognize your colour matches their own, then they shift to the caste loyalties. And when I was speaking to Ugandan friends about the Mabira Forest Controversy, many facts came into light.

Deo Sfekitooleko, is a teacher by profession at the University of Makarere, which is one of the largest Universities in East Africa with more than 40,000 students doing various courses. Deo is Chairman of Uganda Humanist Association and very radical humanists who feel that the Christian Evangelical forces are equally a threat to Africa and its secular cultural values. The violence against Indians and Asians worried Deo but he confirms that it was not exactly the case what was being reported. “ The idea behind the demonstration was good as Ugandans were demonstrating against their National Property being given to foreigner and also destruction of a great forest which has enormous value for Uganda.’

Responding to my question whether he felt that there was a similarity of pattern on attack against the Indian and Asians, Deo said that he found some similarity with the Idi Amin’s days but Amin cannot be blamed for everything. The fact of the matter is that Milton Obette-1 has been supporting the Asians particularly the Indians and sidelining the Africans. That was the reason that when Amin’s forces took over Uganda, he became an instant hero as he threw the Asians out of Uganda. But then he went to extreme endangering the progress of Uganda.

There is nothing particular against Asians or Indians, suggest Deo. ‘The problem lie with the Asian culture and values. The do not associate with Africans outside business. They may have a good relationship, employee-employer relationship in business. They may have good business relations with Africans but outside that there has never been an effort to build of social bonding. No interaction with the Africans. No marriages. So, one can say there is a complete cultural barrier with Asians and particularly with Indians who have a caste system and they bring it here also. This life of exclusion which Indians live make it difficult for them to associate with the African community who they consider as inferior. The Europeans and Americans also come here and appreciate our values and culture, mixed up with us. Their men can marry with our women and vice versa. Therefore there is not much against them in the socio-cultural front but Asians have come here as a businessmen and nothing more than the same. They remain confined to monitory gains and are here to earn without any sense of belonging to the country.’

Deo’s outspokenness is not without facts. As I go around the streets of Kamapla, I find lesser Indian. But once in the Old Kampala area, you will find the Muslims habitats, the Bombay Road, The Delhi garden as well as Bombay Garden, basically localities of the Indians. On the left hand side, there is a Gurudwara named as Ramgarhia Gurudwara. My mind swings into action that this must be a Dalit Gurudwara and I decided that I must visit them and find what is cooking inside. At the gate, a native guard stops my Ugandan friends and me. My Ugandan friends skip and allow me to go in.

Condition of the victims of (Kabootarbaji) illegal human trafficking

It is evening time and I can hear the beautiful Sabad-Kirtan inside the Gurudwara. After a short while, I meet a middle-aged woman Raj Pal Kaur who is an Indian immigrant here. I tell her about my motive to understand how Indian feel here and what were their relationships. Raj is very happy that a fellow Indian has come from Delhi and therefore invites me to her house.

Her husbands accompany me to their house in Bombay Garden. The guy is a mechanic in a local company and his inability to converse in Hindi is equally baffling. Her speaks with me in native Punjabi and narrates how the Indians are living here with ‘bhaichara’. Once inside the house, one find two blacks, a very young teenage boy and a girl are doing the household chores. I am told most of the Indians still keep the blacks in their houses as domestic servant.

Inside the house, the story is similar to that of any Punjabi family who aspire to grow up in Canada. Raj kaur and her husband along with a daughter were trapped into ‘dream Canada’ by a travel agent. They were dumped in Uganda. With great difficulty they established themselves and started recovering. Old habits die-hard. Once again another expatriate Punjabi robbed them of whatever they had by alluring them to take to Canada. They end up in paying up over USD 9000/- by selling their household items and Raj’s gold ornaments. For many days, she could not work. Situation turned volatile for them in an entirely alien country. But a remarkable thing about the Punabi woman is her strength of working hard. Raj decided that her husband’s salary was not enough for running their home and paying back the debt.

Raj Kaur today fetch 15 paying guests from India. She takes care of them, provide home cooked food there for an amount of Rs 5,000/- per person. This provides her help her children’s fees in school.

Once inside the house, I am shocked to hear the tales of Indians who are brought by the Kabootarbaji business rampant in Punjab and Haryana. Surjeet Ram, 27, is a graduate from Jullandhar, Punjab. He paid Rs 4,50 lakhs to the travel agent. Who promised him to Italy? Surender's father is an agricultural labour. He is a Dalit Sikh though he does not have long hair. Surendra today is living in a very difficult situation. being helped by a local Sikh woman who herself was victim of Kabootarbaji but now have obtained Ugandan citizenship, this woman Raj Kaur run a paying guest house. Her story is of a great struggle and how Indian cheat. Raj Kaur have two children. her husband is a mechanic who cannot even speak Hindi. I met them at a local Gurudwara in old Kampala when she said that I must narrate her story of how an Indian took away USD 9000 after staying for nearly a month at their place and promising them to take to Paris.

Surjeet Ram's story thought that he was going to Italy but at the end he was asked to take a flight to Entebbe. Since Uganda provide visa on arrival, this has become a heaven for the travel agents to dupe their client, extort huge some of money from the illiterate relatives.

Sudesh Kumar is just a matriculate and is about 22 years of age. He comes from Kurushetra district of Haryana. The travel agent promised him to get a job in Europe.
He also paid nearly four lakh of rupees. He is in equally difficult situation.

Satpal Singh is 45 years of age. He has younger children who are going to schools in Kurushetra. He sold his land and paid Rs 7,50,000 to travel agent. The travel agent promised that they will get a job in Europe but were dumped in Uganda.

It is equally shocking to hear the narratives from these people how their travel agent came to Uganda and stayed for a few days. He got the two guys arrested and extorted another USD 2,500 each for their release. Because of rampant corruption, police extract money from the foreigners.

Now, the travel agent have taken their passports and disappeared. Every one of them is today living in horror. They do not have any travel document today and fear that they might get arrested and no body is there to take care of them except Raj Kaur who herself is facing lot of troubles and had to sold her ornaments and other household itmes just to get Canadian visa.

Gandhi belongs to us in Uganda but abandon Gandhi in Gujarat?

Fifty kilometer from the Kampala city is another beautiful and planned town of Jinja. Jinja is famous for its tourist resorts, planned streets and the ‘source’ of river Nile, Ninja showcased Indian diaspora led by the Gujaratis. A large number of Gujaratis were settled here and build their mansions before Idi Amin asked them to leave Uganda. While the biggest commercial building in Kampala city belongs to ‘Bank of Baroda’, in Jinja you can find big mansions named after the Gujaratis.

At the source of river Nile, I meet Rubina, a native Ugandan, who owns a shop of the handcraft items, and ask her what is her reaction to recent anti Asian riots, which left Indians concerned. She said,’ The people of Uganda are not against Asians or Indian in particular. We are friends but Asians must understand that we cannot allow our forest and environment to be finished by private corporations. It is not a war against Asians but efforts of the private companies to loot the resources of the poor nations. You too have waged a war against imperialism and we have been together in our struggle against imperialism.’

While the success of Indians or in other way round, Indian imperialism in the East African countries, has hurt their relationship with local populace yet it reached the optimizing point, when Mr Madhavan N Mehta, the director of Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited was granted more than 9000 Hectare of Mabira forest for developing another sugar factory. It is no secret that Indians control business in Uganda. While the Indians feel that since they are competent and know to do their work better (a racist propagation of their superiority), the native Ugandans feel that the Indian exploit their wide ranging connections particularly in the big corporations and the World Bank and other institutions. Mehta’s SCOUL was a joint venture with the government and earlier the government partnership was 49% but not it has reduced to a mere 23%. Secondly, newspaper reports continue in Kampala that Mehtas are not even the Ugandan Citizen but British Citizen. According to The Monitor, Kampala, The sugar baron has already pocketed Shs29.7 billion as compensation from government. Sunday Monitor has learnt that in 2002, Mehta demanded to be compensated for losses he had incurred during the regimes of Idi Amin (1971-79) and Milton Obote (1980-85).’

The paper’s report furthers that Mehta and his company has never paid any taxes in Uganda during the past 26 years. The compensation has become a controversial issue with President Yoweri Museveni firmly supporting the industrialization process. This ‘sale off’ triggered strong reaction in entire Uganda. Already president Museveni’s high handedness has created stir among the local population. In the name of development you cannot just shunt people from their inhabitat.

It is strange that Uganda does not have rehabilitation laws. When the people were uprooted from mabira forest under the guise of saving the forest, none of them objected but the same government shamelessly went ahead with providing land to a big corporations, which the Ugandan now feel are betraying their national interests.

Hence the violence against Indian is not because of Mehtas or Madhvanis who have controlled the sugar companies of Uganda but broader nature of Indians. At Jinja, I go to a Gujarati temple. Since it is Sunday therefore not many had turned up in the temple but I meet a young Gujarati who had been working in Uganda for the past three years. Accordingly, he feels that Jinja was a much better and safer place unlike Kampala, which was crowded and tense. There are three Gujarati temples in Jinja, he says. The temple that I visited was of ‘Satya Narayan’. At the temple, we join a discussion about how Gujarati’s are working. The man is proud of Mehtas and says that Gujarati’s build Uganda and now this country is not respecting us. When I ask him as what is the situation and how does he feel here? ‘ These issues are politicized. Look, President Museveni is a nice person and very supportive of investment but politicians do not like this.’ At this, I refer to situation in Gujarat. He says, Gujaratis always lived in brotherhood with Muslims and it is just the politics. Still today, many Gujaratis live together, no question of Hindus or Muslims. The fellow asks me to take photograph of Mahatma Gandhi. I am amused at this. Gandhi has been thoroughly rejected by the Hindus in Gujarat. They feel he is an obstacle in their progress but in Uganda, the same Gujaratis are asking me to remember Gandhi? Why?
We have to understand this psychology of using the popular names. There is a statue of Gandhi at the bank of river Nile. Gandhi is popularized as a person who fought for the rights of the blacks in Africa. Therefore the blacks too feel that Gandhi fought for their battle and is best symbol of fight against imperialism. Gujaratis knows it well and are using the same. Unfortunately, Gandhi’s statue in Black Africa is a conspiracy to disconnect the Africans to the popular anti caste movement in India. Gandhi has become a tool for every one to exploit particularly his native Gujaratis who have abandoned him. It is in the fitness of thing for the Gujaratis to think of how they treat others in their home state. What are the Gujarati industrialists doing? Supporting the Hindutva and its hate monger in Gujarat but at the same point of time want the world to respect their ‘culture’.

Back in Kampala, I am at the house of an Indian and for the first time in 10 days watched Aaj Tak. The woman talks of ‘Sansani’, a programme of crime reporting at the Star News. The 10 PM news at Aaj tak shows horrible footage of a paster being beaten by the goons of the Hindutva in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Acharya Giriraj Kishore is defending the Hindutva action on these things. I ask an Indian. What do you feel when such things happen in our country. “ Oh, its not an issue here, he says. Sikhs and Hindus are always friend.’ But such incident does not make you feel insecure here in Uganda. The Indians do not feel offended with that. It is more shocking. When riots occurred in Uganda, the government became over conscious to defend the Indians but what happen when we see such situation occurs with in our own country.

Land for Investment: While President Museveni confirmed that the struggle against Mabira forest take-over would subsidise. As a human rights activist, I felt proud to have spoken against the take over and expressed my solidarity with the native Ugandan people. Having heard the voices of sanity against this gross exploitation of natural wealth, Indian people would be doing great disservice if they support their crony capitalists. In fact, the governments everywhere should ensure that the corporate houses indulged in hate mongering formula and supporting fundamentalists groups must be kept out. At the time, when Americans are going crazy over war against terror, it is also worth demanding that such corporations which displace people, spread hatred elsewhere or support such campaigns should be barred from every where.
It is better that Mehtas have right now not staked the claim for the Mabira forest after the bloody riots. In case he continue to pursue his family interest, it would be difficult to contain the local resentment. Mehtas have given Ugandan an opportunity to think and unite and if he persist with the more take over; the day would not be far, when other ‘nationalists’ forces might take over Uganda. While the civil society organizations that assembled in Uganda to participate in the Assembly of International Land Coalition wholeheartedly spoke against the degazetting of the Mabira forest for commercial purpose threatening the biodiversity of the green Uganda, it is ironical that intergovernmental bodies desisted from issuing a statement against the government. People have forgotten Idi Amin but nobody can deny that his action to acquire property of the Indians was targeted at the popular sentiments with in the country who were frustrated with Indian domination over all walks of life. Clear enough while the Gujaratis want every one to follow their culture in Gujarat, they refuse to do the same elsewhere. The events of Uganda are a reminder that you cannot take a community for granted. If the Indians have got so much in Uganda, they must also respect local sentiments and be part of it.

And finally my disappointment with the current regime of President Museveni who continued to assure Indians that action would be taken against anti social elements but at the same point of time refused to understand the sentiments behind the protests. The cabinet does seems to lack unanimity on this issue as Agricultural minister told us that the president has no power to sale of a national asset and unless parliament approves it, nothing can be done. Very unfortunately, the government defines land in terms of investment, which is dangerous. Even when Indians do not have a fair record of land reform, yet our constitutional forefathers provided enough tools for poor to get a fair deal. Zamindari Abolition Act, land Ceiling Acts were out come of such concern but it is shocking that the land minister accepted in the conferences that his deputy was a landless person in the area where people have land in the area of over 10 kilometer. There was no system of land reform in Uganda. Idi Amin captured the land and property of the Asians to be distributed among his own cronies. People who thought his nationalism would help them remain clueless. Uganda government can learn a lesson or two from Indian constitution to help its landless population and allow people to access and control its vast natural resources. Uganda remains the ‘pearl of Africa’ and its greenery is enchanting. It must tread carefully with a greater balance with national aspirations, sustainability and development. The government needs investment but it cannot do so at the cost of displacing its people and killing the environment. India is already facing this war of people against the multinational onslaught on their soverignity and Ugandans will do the same. Government should ultimately remain loyal to their people and not to private corporations and international institutions failing which there are dangers of political instability, greater chaos and anarchy, which has already killed thousands in African continent. To attain short term objectives, the government should not lose sight on greater national interests and Mabira forest have become Uganda’s symbol of resistance against the onslaught of the private corporations and their masters in the government, any effort to discount popular sentiment would result in further polarization of communities and create further instability in the region.

Issue of OBC Reservation in India

Mandal will have the Last Laugh


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


A two judges bench headed by Justice Ajit Parsayat has stayed the 27% quota meant for the Other Backward Communities in the higher education. The upper caste Hindus today celebrated Holy and Diwali. After the miserable failure and huge loss of advertisement by the favorite Indian cricket team virtually surrendered to Bangladesh and then to Srilanka, the reactions were similar to that happened to anti Mandal agitation in 1991. If our memories have not faded, we must revisit the events in Eden Gardens, Kolkata when the downtrodden Sri Lanka was inflicting a humiliating defeat and the Bhadralok crowd at Kolkata started throwing paper missiles, and stones at the Srilankan players. I am afraid, if this World Cup were being organized in India, the Indian people would not have allowed Bangladesh to win. That is upper caste nationalism in India. A nationalism, which does not recognize merit but purely create merit on the basis of one’s caste.

The defeat by the under estimated Bangladesh spelled a pall of gloom over the market which has been monopolized by the caste media which had lionized the team without realizing its real strength. India sunk into gloom (it was not a game but the nation was already declared world champions) and defeat clearly put the astrologers also to mat who were predicting super performance from the team. Nevertheless, despite this entire nonsensical attitude, the irrational astrology still is the best medicine that the caste Hindus takes. The doctors also have the same attitude as they have red tilak over their forehead and big temples outside the ICUs in Delhi. Nothing is irrational and unscientific as long as the Hindus believe in it. So Muslims become cruel for they slaughter animals but Hindus become ‘non violent’ when they slaughter goats, buffalos and pigs in the temples to please their Gods and Goddesses.

After days of gloom, the anchors at the TV studios are smiling for a ‘historic’ judgment of Supreme Court. Now, they can discuss things and bring the ‘cheerleaders’ to their studios suggesting that the ‘whole’ ‘nation’ is against reservation. A few doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or as I would like it call All India Institute of Manuwadi Studies have become ‘nation’ imagination. Based on their assumptions, the Supreme Court has stayed the order of the reservation for OBCs in the institutions of higher education, which were always meant for the Brahmins when Manu’s law first defined it. As India moved to secularism and democracy, Manu’s laws became politically though socially they remained as powerful as ever despite 9% growth rate. Understanding that power of democracy means power of number and not just democracy for the people but now it has become ‘of’ the people and ‘by’ the people. With the marginalized groups asserting their number power with more political aggressions, the upper castes were left with no options except to dilute the entire concept of social justice through the judicial process, which remain outside the purview of the quota. Moreover, through privatizing the various government owned corporations and services, the government has already nullified the concept of reservation.

Now, after the formation of Special Economic Zones, the government as well as the courts have hit on the backbones of our farmers. SEZ have been declared legalized while people have been uprooted from their nation. Land Reforms have been made redundant by the continuous protections by the courts. Today, the politicians use the courts for their own purposes. It is due to this ambiguity that the courts have now become the most powerful and uncontrolled institution of the country. A healthy democracy need independent judiciary and committed governance. Nodoubt, the political leadership during the past 20 years have reduced to nothing as more criminals taking lead but the power of the masses is relegated to ‘people’s representatives’. Still, even a bad democracy is better than an unaccountable government or military dictatorship. Ofcourse, this clearly means that it is the political class which will need to run the country and not the courts and the bureaucrats which is increasingly becoming the case in India.

Upper castes elite in Delhi often says that reservation is denying them basic human rights of equality and hence they are leaving for the United States. Let the courts ask them to stay in India if they studies in Indian schools. They cannot go abroad after getting the subsidized education at the premier Indian educational institutions. The youngsters do not know what is happening even outside their house. They would not even ask their parent as why the scavenger who clean their shit and toilet come from one particular community. This elite would not even know that in India there are places where people still clean shit and carry night soil. Yes, they are not interested to know about this.

Shockingly, the judgments in the past few years reflect of the growing trend to keep the middle classes happy. We have judges who speak for Hindutva terming it as a way of life. We have a former Supreme Court Judge who did not implicate a single politician in the anti Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984 and later became a Member of Parliament against all the ethics of impartiality of an institution. Right to Strike was also banned by the Kerala Highcourt, which was appreciated by the media and industries.

The Judges went overboard in terming the quotas as vote bank politics. Question is why not vote bank politics after all what are politicians required to do? Yes, if they are working for their people than the best one is that who does not to take care of their constituencies? It is absurd as former Prime Minister V.P.Singh said about the court order. Parliament passed a bill unanimously and the court’s are terming it as vote bank politics. The Judges further said that politicians should not divide the country on the basis of caste and that in India it has become habitual for people to claim ‘backward’ status. One need to support V.P.Singh’s demand for a referendum and census based on caste.

It is tragic that the record of the courts related to social justice and social reform reflect poverty of ideas and lack of human rights understanding. It is also reflected that the courts are consciously giving judgments on the basis of media campaign. A media, which has been thoroughly unprofessional and highly prejudiced one. Justice Rajendra Sachar had long back stated in a public meeting that the court buckle under public pressure. Unfortunately, there is no backward movement in India, which can take on the upper caste thugs who are destroying India. Except for the forthright stand of DMK, PMK and other political groups representing the OBCs there is no one to raise their voice. They remain loyal shudras providing fodder to Hindutva to kill the Dalits in the villages. It is time for the OBCs to revolt against their self-serving leaders and get a new leadership which can give them new ideas and for whom OBC does not mean a family of their own but the entire community. We need a dynamic leadership which does not sale farmer’s land to corporate houses at the throwaway prices and have a clear vision to help and upgrade the communities. Alas, most of them have nothing except their caste. They remember their people only when they do nothing are defeated in the larger games of manipulation.

Where are the OBC students and their political leaders? Tamilnadu has taken the lead in this direction in a rare gesture of unanimity among the political class. But that unanimity is not visible in the North at the moment. In UP while every OBC caste is struggling to get an identity and a share in power but none of them is raging the issue of reservation in power. The reason behind this is the absence of the cultural movement among the OBCs. Unlike Tamilnadu where Periyar launched self respect movement for the OBCs and Dalits, north Indian OBCs still have not been able to divert their attention from the ritualistic Hindutva. The political ideas of the OBC leadership remained prejudicious and anti Dalits. Dalits is good for them as long as it vote to them but bad if the Dalit take the leadership. OBC leadership in the north must think that as long as they remain loyal soldiers of Hindutva as Ambedkar once said, they can not take on the powerful forces of corporations and religion, who jointly work together to thwart any new effort which challenges the status quo.

It is said that Periyar and his followers had no will to come to north and educate their ‘illiterate’ backward leaders who remain caged in the brahmanical agenda. Similarly, portraying Jyoti Ba Phule, as leaders of Bahujans have not worked as a community called Sainis feels that he was their leader. Kurmis have gone for Sardar Patel and Rajbhars towards Raja Sohail Dev. This is the irony of the entire movement in Uttar-Pradesh has been defeated by the shortsighted caste leaders who have very little to offer to their communities. They only need a power position and manipulating the sentiments of their communities. It is not for nothing that in Uttar-Pradesh, which is going to polls, that all the OBC-Dalit parties are running after the Brahmins and Thakurs. None of them have come out strongly against the current judgment of the Supreme Court. Perhaps, the leadership knows it would be too dangerous to ‘offend’ the Supreme Court because a majority of them are under the scanner of the Supreme Court.

More than the courts, Congress Party’s credentials in remain suspect in this regard. It is clear that with in the party, there is a group of member of Parliaments as well as Ministers who are opposed to quota for OBCs. One even doubt the credentials of H R Bhardwaj, the law minister who was brought back from hibernation for being Sonia loyalist, for his inability to put the government’s case properly in the court. A large number of OBC students who prepared for the IIMs and IITs have been denied human rights due to an intervention from the court, which many clearly term as retrogressive.


During the Mandal agitation and afterwards, it is the Dalits who have been supporting the reservation for the OBCs but OBC students hardly fought their battle. It is time for them to wake up and challenge the myth by the brahmanical media. Yes, I would say it firmly that Indian media remain confined to the sentiments of their fellow caste men who leave India after getting subsidized education from the elite institutions of IITs, IIMs and other institutions. This media does not see the plight of OBCs and MBCs.

It is the fallacy that the reservations have forced the upper castes to leave India. They had left India long before and they were using the services of the elite institutions to benefit their own community since a majority of them cannot afford to compete with the west on a level playing field.

The Indian Express today carried a story of Justice Parsayat quoting from the American Judiciary. The fact of the matter is that American Judicial system worked against the social justice but still it does not come in way of social justice. Secondly, in the United States and elsewhere, it is the minority, which is seeking the rights to be in the governance but in India it ironically the majority of Bahujans-Dalits who are asking to be given the space to govern and participate in the democracy. Prof Dipankar Gupta of the JNU has been in the news recently when he told the United Nations Human Rights Committee, in Geneva that there is no caste system in India and that the Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Vaishyas and Shudras do not have separate identities and they live together with great affection. Gupta has now come out strong in support of Supreme Court Judgment. Of-course, writing for mainstream media would not be that easy if you question the very basis of the Varnadhrama and its notoriety in keeping people subjugated. Dipankar Gupta is happy at the rational judgment of the Supreme Court and so are our friends in the media. The die has been caste and the judgment of the two-judge bench would become difficult for those who are celebrating today.

It may have been unintentional but the crude fact is that after the Supreme Court’s judgment, it is imperative for the government to go for a caste census. The upper caste leaders and bureaucracy has clearly not wanted to go for it, as they know it would be the last nail in their coffin. That the National Sample Survey which remains an organization of the upper elites in India could found 37% the population of the OBCs, and then it is for certain that the OBC population in Indian has grown much beyond what was in 1931. Let the government come out with a specific data on the OBC population and their social status. Just saying that all Yadavas have grown up because there are Mulayam and Lalu, is the travesty of truth. A majority of OBCs consisting MBCs whose social status remain as the Dalits. Ofcourse, these MBCs would always consider themselves higher in the social ladder despite weak economic strength yet they remain socially and educationally backwards.

There are various ways to measure socio economic ostracisation of the marginalized. And it should be done but the intention of the ruling party and those claiming ‘youth for equality’ is not to demolish the caste system but perpetrate it and ensure that their relatives and blood brothers remain safer in the new global world.

It is time not only for referendum but also for a constitutional review. To ensure that Parliament’s supremacy is retained, it is important that the leaders representing the communities have done their homework well. So far, there are very few who can speak with strength of their conviction and challenge. Democracy works on healthy relationship of judiciary with the Executive and legislature. One does not need moral preaching from the judges while exonerating themselves from the public scrutiny. If there is a Lokayukta for the state lagislature, there will have to be same provision for the judges also. And most importantly, why should the judiciary remain outside the ambit of quota and social justice. It is time for all the political parties, jurists, and academic to sit together and decide. The regular humiliation of merit and non-merit must stop. The country cannot remain silent when its majority is being humiliated by those who have no concern for the country and sole interest remain outside the country. Let us decide once for all, the entire issue of reservation. So it is also the time to review our constitution, which can make Parliament Supreme again. The present constitution was drafted by a legend called Ambedkar but his hands were tied with strong upper caste feudal presence in the constituent assembly. Let there be a new committee to look into the problems of the constitution and change it accordingly as numbers do matters in democracy. You cannot allow courts striking everything that is public welfare as against the spirit of the people.

Politicians have a lot to learn from this. No need for taking shelter in Supreme Court for taking potshots at others to score political goals. Introspecting the mistakes will help them realize whether it would the executive or the Supreme Court to run the country as they are doing it today. Their lack of convictions and moral high ground have given ample ammunition to the courts which might be unhealthy for democracy in the longer term as every good measure might be treated as ‘vote bank’ politics which the politicians are no doubt involved in. Time for them to look beyond their personal interest and serve the people.

A Tribute to Bhagat Singh

The Idea of Bhagat Singh


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


On 23rd March 1931 the British government hanged three Indian revolutionaries namely Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. All of them embraced death in an entirely heroic way and therefore became legend for the common Indian masses. None of the youth leaders of India’s independence movement inspired a whole lot of generation as Bhagat Singh. Unfortunately, the ruling elite of the country reduced Bhagat Singh into a ‘terrorist’. The result was that these revolutionaries who were non violent in their thought and process and wanted to change India remain outside the purview of college students, many of them liked Bhagat Singh for being ‘violent’ and Gandhi for being ‘non violent’. However, in the absence of idealism and understanding of Indian situation, revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh are grossly under evaluated and misrepresented.

Therefore, it is important to understand the idea of Bhagat Singh in these hours of communalization where crony capitalist of Indian caste order continue to use God and religion for their nefarious purposes. Religion is the biggest market in India and other south Asian countries. Your religion is important to realize your love for nation. Hence being a Hindu in Pakistan and Bangladesh is a crime as being a Muslim in India or being a Tamil in Sri Lanka. Being a Dalit is a crime everywhere though constitutional provisions in India make it relatively better than its neighbors.

Bhagat Singh wanted a radical change in our system and would not have been satisfied with a mere transfer of power. It is absolutely demeaning when Bhagat Singh is referred as a terrorist and some of the commentators from our neighboring countries made comparison of attack on the Parliament with that on the Lahore Assembly. Our younger generation must know what Bhagat Singh stood for and therefore need to challenge such malicious writings which club a revolutionary with religious fanatics. It would be the travesty of truth if people like Bhagat Singh are bracketed with the religious fundamentalist.


The shocking attack on Indian parliament by the terrorists has been equated with the issue of bombing at the Central Legislative Assembly, Lahore, in 1929, where Bhagat Singh and his colleagues were involved. A question was asked by a Pakistani commentator as why is Bhagat Singh a nationalist and kashmiri Mujahidin as terrorists. After September 11th events the Pakistani ruling elite is under tremendous pressure to curb on the Islamic terrorists operating in Kashmir, which the Pakistanis continue to term as ‘Mujahidin’despite the fact that most of them are not Kashmiris and have sneaked into the valley in the name of Islamic Jihad and are particularly targeting the people who dissent with them. Democracy has been the biggest casualty in the aftermath of the Islamisation process in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It is in the interest of us to know that the Congress particularly Gandhi did very little to save the lives of Bhagat Singh and his friends yet the founder of Pakistan Mohammad Ali Jinnah termed them nationalists and tried to get support for them in Lahore’s political and legal circle. To understand the revolutionary zeal of Bhagat Singh one should study his writings in which he talks of humanity and brotherhood. It is equally important to understand as why Bhagat Singh became an atheist so that those who equate him with terrorism are exposed to his rational views which are not tainted in the garb of religion which the so-called Mujahidins are involved in. Bhagat Singh became an icon of Indian youth fighting against the British Imperialism and was hanged at the young age of 23 years when a large number of our political leaders were either at the primary stages of their career or enjoying their life abroad. Bhagat Singh never justified violence as he could have easily killed numerous political leaders present in the Lahore Assembly including Moti Lal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malviya and Mohammad Ali Jinnah, if he had wanted that. The aim was just to awaken the ruling establishment about India’s long pending freedom. He said: “It is famous that I am a terrorist but I am not that. I am a revolutionary who has certain ideology, defined ideals and a long programme and if people think that after living in for a long period in the jail, there is any change in my ideologies then they are wrong. It is my firm belief that we cannot get any benefit from either bombs or pistols. Throwing bomb is not only dangerous but also harmful. It is required in certain specific conditions. Our main aim is the organization of laborers and farmers.”

Not only was Bhagat Singh against the communal parties and ideas but also his views on caste are equally inspiring. He mocked at India’s caste system and questioned the legitimacy of a system, which make people untouchable on the basis of their birth in a particular caste. He was equally aware of the capitalist class, which was compromising with the British imperial class. And certainly his conviction that this system based on exploitation can not be eliminated with just transfer of power from the British to ‘Indian British’. It needs revolution he said. As far as India was concerned, we can easily correlate the upper caste feudal power forces with that of the capitalist class in India who gained everything from the British occupation in India.

In fact, Bhagat Singh has become more relevant today when the state is abdicating its responsibility and private goons are being legitimized by it in the name of obstacles free capital while ignoring the same demand of the labor. It was this fact, which had disturbed Bhagat Singh and his comrades. April 8th, 1929, the Lahore Assembly was to pass a bill, which could have nullified the rights of the trade unions and labors. And this was the occasion, he felt, best, to convey his anger to those in powers. Bhagat Singh and his friends became immortal, the de-facto voice of the common man, labors and farmers of the country. While the bomb was not really meant to destroy the assembly and kill political leaders as they had made their intentions very clear. They became revolutionaries who inspired an entire nation cutting across caste and communal lines. In fact, it is heartening that Bhagat Singh is still an icon today for the youths all over the country.

On 6th June 1929 Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt said in a statement, ‘ To change the system based on injustice, we need revolution. Is it not a constructed injustice that the labors and producers, despite being the part of mainstream, are victim of exploitation and have been denied basic human rights? Farmers, who produces die of hunger. The weaver who weaves cloths for others cannot do so for his own family and children. Meson, Carpenters, Ironsmiths build huge palaces die living in huts and slums. On the other side, capitalist exploiters, anti social elements, spend crores of rupees on their fashion and enjoyment. Those who enjoy at the cost of hardworking and hungry people should understand that they are sitting on such a volcano which is about to erupt.’

The above statement clearly indicates the direction of Bhagat Singh’s thought. How worried he was about the caste and class structure in India. That he narrated the plight of the Dalits who he called as working classes is a remarkable and unparallel for a young man who was in his early twenties. It is rare for a person of that age to understand the caste prejudices and its dynamics not in terms of social and cultural but economical basis. Bhagat Singh that way was far ahead of his contemporaries. Not only he was worried about the capitalist class sucking the blood of common Indian with the blessing its imperialist masters but he clearly understood the caste dynamics and questioned the very legacy of the brahanical legacy when he wrote his famous essay ‘ The question of untouchable’.

But the powerful forces of the Raj hanged him so that the legitimate voices of the marginalized are silent but it was not to be. Bhagat Singh and his ideas have become doubly relevant in todays world where exploitation is legitimized. When the tribal are dying of hunger, when the farmers are committing suicide and when the Dalits have to face the brunt of assertion, ideas of Bhagat Singh reverberates in the air. Here was a man who unapologetically sacrificed his life for the cause of the people and country. That the country’s ruler’s are today creating ‘ Special Exploitative Zones’, to rebuild the Zamindari system which they proudly claim to have destroyed.

Tragically, while the Bhagat Singh rarely got appreciation by the Congress’s brand of historians who always belittled his contribution by arguing that a few people could not have fought with the might of British empire. The other ruling party which claim to inherit the legacy of Bhagat Singh does not feel shame in slaughtering people fighting for their rights in Nandigram. Is not ironical that the people who shed their lives for the country in the hope of an India where every person would have right over natural resources, where there would be no caste victimization and no oppression of the farmers, today we are witnessing the very antithesis of those ideas championed by Bhagat Singh.

It was the outstanding popularity of Bhagat Singh, his differences with Gandhi and other members of the Congress party, made the Sangh ideologues to assimilate Bhagat Singh as the hero of Hindutva. Like other icons such as Ambedkar who gave an inspiration to millions of oppressed world over to fight against status quo of the Varnashram dharma, they must realize that it is not an easy project for Hindutva, for, both Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh had rejected the Varna system, condemned the Hindu caste order and proudly embraced modernity. Both of them not only rejected but also questioned the so-called ‘glorious’ culture and heritage. Bhagat Singh became a staunch non-believer and remained so till his death even when his family people and colleagues tried to push him to believing God and God’s word at the last moment. That was the strength of his character that he was now cowed down. Ambedkar, for record, questioned and exposed the myths of the Hindu Social Order.

Bhagat Singh knew the dangers of religious fanaticism and capitalists legitimization of religion. Therefore it is ironical that Pakistani elite equated Bhagat Singh and Lahore assembly case with that of attack on Indian Parliament. It is blasphemous to put Bhagat Singh with religiously intolerant Islamic Jehadis or Hindutva fanatics who want to take their respective societies to backwardness and hand them over to priestly class, which had exploited them over the years. One can only laugh at the explanation and analysis of those who make such insinuation. Those who want to cleanse Kashmir or Gujarat from the ethnic minorities must understand that world is a global village and by spreading hatred in the name of religion will not work. Bhagat Singh has become immortal because of his outstanding ideas. His sacrifice for a progressive India where each of us could focus on human development. Where caste discrimination remain a thing of past and where all the ethic, religious, non religious minorities live together in extraordinary brotherhood.

As people continue to fight for their legimate rights which the Indian state has failed to provide them despite a working democracy. The democracy has turned to be a sham democracy as it turned out to be a representative democracy rather than a participatory one, youth of the country, the farmers, the Dalits, the tribal continue to live in utter marginalisation. The Muslims, the second majority of India remains clueless without any effective participation in power structure. The religious fanatics are raising their head. The affirmative actions remains failed because of our sincerity always remained doubtful. The farmers are struggling and getting fired. The country’s invited chaos today gives doubt of ‘ growth rate’. The political class has enjoyed the benefit of freedom and independence. Today, they lord over the state without any accountability. Every sector is infected with the virus of corruption. The caste prejudices have increased and God is completely hijacked by the priestly class while those oppressed are unable to ‘ reject’ the ‘love’ of God and therefore remain exploited. India remains a failed society. It remained a failed society because it was fearful of powerful ideas, as it did not want to debate openly those ideas. Bhagat Singh like Ambedkar and other humanist, rationalists are not just national icons because of their sacrifices or drafting of constitution of India. Yes, much bigger than the said ‘nationalism’ are their ‘ideas’. The ideas which shook the Indian ruling elite as well as the British empire and since their fight was not only against the British regime but also for an equitable society, a society based on modernity and science rejecting caste system, India unfortunately did not embrace their ideas. We went to the same elite class which enjoyed the fruits of power whether political or social and in return got superstition and rituals in the name of culture. Today, the market has ridiculously been using this ‘Indian’ culture for its own purposes therefore completely destroying our thinking capabilities and our sense of responsibility for the nation and other human beings.

Bhagat Singh’s ideas and sacrifice have the strength to bring hope in the lives of millions of struggling masses. Let us salute to this towering icon of our freedom movement for his indomitable spirit. Like Che Guevara, Bhagat Singh will always remain a hope for all those who believe in secular socialist values and reject the caste based hierarchical system. His legacy continue to inspire all of us who are still waiting for a modern India, an India with modern ideas and not what the crony corporate would make us believe. Yes, an India where 2% of the rogues are not smiling and shining at the cost of crying 98% oppressed who have lost their houses, forest, water, and land and whose tears do not reach the India shining media. Therefore, Bhagat Singh and his ideas have become more relevant today for the youths to stand up and challenge an entire system, which has become corrupted, dysfunctional and captive to parochial religious thugs.

Know thyself

Debating discrimination, differences and dissent in our part of the world

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The issue of racial discrimination has been in the news for quite some time. Some Indian pretended that they have been discriminated against in Britain while rarely speaking that India does not have its own house in order. Despite 60 years of independence India has not been able to transformed into a modern state, in terms of freedom, dissent and life of the common men. Though it may be a great satisfaction for some of us that India surrounded by autocratic military dictators still managed to strive the political democracy but instead of basking on the glory of ‘successful democracy’, we need to introspect our persistent failures of social life. If democracy has not reached the last man as envisaged by Gandhi or if social life does not convert into a social democracy as envisaged by Dr Ambedkar, Indians all over the world need to investigate that without empowering common man, India can neither claim a powerful nation nor an intellectual giant which many of the commentators do not stop claiming all the time. Pakistan has the same problem though it is not a democratic state yet its ruler claims a secular army and a working democracy on various occasions. Question is democracy is thwarted by the identity politics and undemocratic caste Panchayats. They are a threat but these caste panchayats are now being modernized in the name of new identity assertion among every one from the non-resident Indians to urban Indians under various shades and names. This assertion reinforces and justifies the age-old traditions in the name of culture. It jump on the bogey of victimization as soon as an elite of its own class face discrimination as in the case of Shilpa Shetty but remain conspicuously silent on the issue of its own contradictions and discriminations. Hence the Indians, Pakistanis and the other South Asians would rarely speak on their own track record of discrimination against ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities in their own country. Oppression of women is always justified in the name of culture and vigorously defended.

A few days ago, I was reading the horrible tale of Mukhtar Mai who faced tyranny of the caste Panchayat called as Jirga in the North West Frontier Province, in Pakistan, which ordered her rape for a crime allegedly committed by her minor brother. Mukhtar Mai has become a legend in her own life times. Fighting against the feudal lords of the notorious North West Frontier Province, Mukhtari Mai showed how the village women in the Indian subcontinent have the courage to challenge the system. That, this system degrades and humiliates the victim is a well- established fact. And based on this principal, the rural women suffer in utter humiliation and indignity. Mukhtar Mai is not alone in such cases. Things are same in India, though a bit sophisticated here. It is important that a woman like Phoolan Devi would not have born if she had not shown the courage to fight against the humiliation. Rather than surrendering to the whims of the local powerful caste groups, these women stood up. Some chose the constitutional path while other decided to avenge it according to their own way. While Bhanwari Bai had to face the humiliation even inside the court where the judge in the Jaipur court released the accused establishing that an upper caste person would rarely rape a woman.

In her wonderful memoirs ‘ In the name of honor’, Mukhtar Mai, now symbolizing as an assertive woman protesting against the man made rules, says,’ police are directly controlled by the upper castes. Policemen act as the fierce guardians of traditions, allied with the tribal authorities. Whatever decision a jirga (caste Panchayat) makes will be accepted and backed up by the police. It is impossible to charge an influential family with a crime if the police consider the matter a village affair, especially if the victim is a woman’.

What Mukhtar Mai is saying reflect the farce in our system. As propagandists of family virtues, we, the South Asian have been at the height of hypocrisy blaming the west for every fault of their own. I am sure one would agree that these feudal values, the Manus law are not the invention of the wild west which our commentators often describe. The recent issue of race relation in Britain where a B grade Bombay film heroine earned huge amount of money, the South Asian communities are being presented as if everything has been imposed upon them and are being victimized. Ofcourse, the same South Asian would not like to be reminded about the growing number of honored killing in UK among the South Asian Communities. Shocking it may sound, but the fact is, that South Asians have more racial contours than their British counterparts. A study in UK showed how the Indians still are confined to their caste identities and how to get marry, every Indian boy come to India to look for an ‘ideal’ ‘ cultured’ and ‘fare’ color girl. Will we tell the world that we are more colours conscious than the British or European? That our boys are deeply intoxicated in the idea of varna and colour and that dogs can enter our temples and urinate over the gods but when the Dalits want to enter there the Gods become angry and their followers on earth goes on rampage.

Human life is not equal in this part of the world. Honored killing are not happening in Britton and Pakistan only but are very much part of our traditions. After all, all our marriages are not meant for the bride and the groom but for the parents of the both. Reputation is the biggest thing in these marriages.

A boy from the Valmiki family is still facing threat to his life for felling love with a girl from a Jaat family. Jaats are the peasant community and their men dominate the Delhi police hence when I visited along with other friends to the Assistant police commissioner some three years back, to provide security to this young boy, the officer said ‘. You see organizations like your should come forward and train the policemen, after all they too are human being and family. How do you expect them to change over night.’ I told the officer: Do you want to justify police negligence in the name of tradition.’ No, he said, but see how the society is changing. The girls move out in the evening without any escorts. How can police resolve every crisis that the society faces? I was aghast at this answer by the police officer that proudly claimed a JNU background. The officer certainly was not interested in telling that the police had failed to protect the victim and that such things should be stopped. I still remember how a younger sister of a girl who was slaughtered by her family and entire village community along with her husband, was happy and said that those who goes against social norms would meet the same fate.

Yes, the South Asian would not like to speak about the horrible culture of moral policing that they have developed without any change. The paradox of this is that they all enjoy best of multiculturalism in Europe and America but are highly paranoid of granting minority rights or space to dissent. For instance, Gujaratis world-over, have enjoyed the hospitality of multiculturalism. United States, United Kingdom and South Africa were their hunting ground. They build up huge empire. And see what is happening their native Gujarat? Most of the Non Resident Gujarati’s are financing the Babas, and the right wing elements. Narendra Modi might call Gujarat a vibrant state but it remains totally out of bound for the non-Gujaratis particularly Muslims and Chrisitians. During a trip to Gujarat last year, I put this question to a friendly Gujarati as why do they not want to keep Muslims in Gujarat. And the cryptic answer that this businessman was that the outsiders are creating problems in Gujarat. Gujarati’s are peace-loving people but it is the Biharis and others who created havoc in the aftermath of Godhara. It is tragic that India’s new vibrant culture is very much in tone with what is happening in Gujarat. There is no freedom in the air. The darkness in the noon is visible in Gujarat. The only thing is that you need to go and see beyond what is visible. The dangerous aspect of this newly immerging India is the growing middle class of upper caste Hindus which clearly want to look exclusive. Hence Dalits, Adivasis and others who are at odd with the current economic social set up feel suffocated and completely isolated. The government at the center is interested to placate this elite class and has launched another India shining campaign without including the poor people.

South Asian therefore needs to speak more vigorously against their own value system. That very few people stood up with both Mukthar Mai and Bhanwari Bai is reflection of our mindset. While Shilpa Shetty has detracted from her statement regarding racial discrimination, it is painful how the British upper caste Hindus and other upper South Asian elite made this a racial issue. Did they ever protest against the merciless treatment meted out to disabled in the Bombay films? How many of South Asian stood up and say that the depiction of the blacks in the Hindi films is most racial in nature. They are laughed. Our fascination for the fair color is well known. A dark skinned woman in India will hardly find a partner of her choice. Women’s skin her biggest ability or disability. Another disability in India is the physical disability, which is visible. One will rarely find a physically disable woman getting married to a ‘normal’ man because such things are not ever thought off. She will find a man in a ‘disabled’ person only. The girls born ‘Mangalik’ would be very difficult to get marry. And see, how our superstar icon Mr Amitabh Bachchan is behaving? One needs to see his discomfiture with a Manglik daughter in law. He goes from one temple to other temple to perform Yjnas and Pujas so that the evil spirit get off from the world queen Aishwarya Rai. More shocking is the fact as alleged in the media that the poor woman was asked to marry the tree to rectify the misfortunate. What these signals. Rather than becoming enlightened and accepting the person as she is or he is, Indian’s or South Asians still think in terms of his birth sign, physical appearance, cast and clans. Can we launch a movement against it or not. How long should we blame that the onslaught of the global powers have destroyed our culture and values.

It is not that people do not oppose it. Yes, those who oppose it live on the margin thoroughly isolated and dejected. But the grave danger comes from those forces who feel great in glorifying these customs. A well-known Gandhian activist has been promoting the idea of the caste panchayats. He would say, how great these Panchayats were in resolving the village problems. But going by the nature of these Panchayats, I a sure every saner person in the world would say demolish and destroy these caste Panchayats. Not only they have been anti people but also almost all of their decisions are against the basic tenets of civilization. Whether it is Jirga which gave decision to rape Mukhtar Mai or some disgruntled Panchayats in western Uttar-Pradesh which asked Imrana, a Muslim woman who was raped by her father in law, to marry him, these caste Panchayats are a blot to civilization and individual freedom and liberty. They promote fanaticism, parochial values and patriarchy. It is important that any glorification of these Panchayats need to be questioned. These Panchayats have authorized the goons to kill lovers, rape women, and exterminate families, which do not follow their dictates. In this hour of identity politics in India, these caste Panchayats are mushrooming very fast. Identity itself is patriarchical in terms and therefore there is very little that a woman can get out of it. That Mukhtar Mai in Pakistan came from a backward Gujar community does not means that this does not happen in that community. Only question is that she was a woman and her community was at the receiving end. The Gujjars in India are no better. Fully coated in the brahmanical stigmas, they do not allow their women to venture out.

Indians need to fight against such atrocious social behavior and practices. Unfortunately, rather than taking a strong action against the same, we are always put on the flimsy ground the issue of racial discrimination. One must question the upper caste Hindus as how many of them mix up with the Scheduled Castes in United States and UK. Not many years ago when I traveled to Bolivia to participate in a conference, a Kenyan friend questioned Gandhi and his intentions in Africa. ‘ You people have always claimed that Gandhi fought for our rights but where was the fight? None of the Indians ever want to share the issues with the blacks in Uganda and other part of the world. The situation is not much different in UK and USA where Indians do not want to be clubbed with Pakistanis.” Shilpa Shetty felt very bad when an in house lady called her Paki. This superiority complex has been injected in our heart and minds from the very beginning and the sooner we understand that the world has changed and going to be more civilized, would be better for us.

As I finish this, the news comes that the parents of the missing Children of Nithari say that the role of Noida Police was very fine in the act. They appreciated the state government and particularly the ruling political party of the state which lodged them in the five star hotels, gave them land and promised every member of the family a government job. I think nothing comes more shocking then this. This culture of considering people, as purchasable commodity is very much in existence in our part of the world. A majority of the missing children were Dalits and the upper castes in nearby localities said that it was not their problem.

British people gave a resounding verdict in favour a failed Indian star but will the South Asian communities be as mature enough to respect dissent, differences with in their own communities. One hope they would do so for the betterment of their own communities and their own country. I would like to finish with a Bangladeshi cab driver in London who was working with a new agency and took me to London Metro station when he said how happy his children were in London and that they do not wish to go back to Dhaka simply when they see violence in the name of culture and tradition. The simple driver had two houses in London and appreciated the multiculturalism in UK. There are other stories as well. While all written above does not mean to exonerate the western power for what they did through their imperialist agendas but then every one of us has this in our blood, it is only who is smarter enough then others. We all have at some point of time exploited the lesser powerful and marginalized communities. Now, in the 21st century, such discrimination and justifications in the name of identity, region, religion and language must be discarded and rejected.

On the death of a seasoned activist

A tribute to M A Khan

Remembering a man who committed his life for the tribal of Sonbhadra


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

He was a mobile Information Centre of Sonbhadra district in eastern part of Uttar-Pradesh, whose work during the past thirty years was utilized by those who do not have time to visit the villages and follow up the stories after they started. M.A.Khan was always cheerful related to his work, his love for the Adivasis and his conviction against the child labour, brought him close touch of the ground reality. His only concern was that ‘agencies outside Sonbhadra were using the ignorance and poverty of the poor people for their own purposes and not with an aim to lift the tribals and end poverty which they can very much do. Once the project was over, these agencies left the tribal for their own good.’ For the past few years, Khan in his every interaction with me displayed his disappointment of how the international donor agencies find their people and agencies in these regions but never found Khan and his Chaupal which had been fairly active in the region.

In a two days human rights consultation in Delhi, when I was informing a friend about Khan and his impeccable credentials for fighting the rights of the common man in Sonbhadra district, a shocking news was revealed by another friend that M.A.Khan passed away, a day before, on 27th of January 2007, in Varanasi. I was dumb and shocked to hear this. Just a fortnight ago, I spoke to him on his mobile when he told me that Doctors have found symptoms of cancer in him and that he wish to be transferred to AIIMS in Delhi. That time, the first thought in my mind was that this news would be wrong and hence I said ‘ Khan Saheb, you will get well soon. AIIMS is not the same as it used to be. If people like you are here who speak for the poor Dalits and marginalized, I do not know whether the doctors who do politics and not the treatment, would treat you well or not.’

M.A.Khan was quintessentially a secular activist with strong left leaning. He was not fit in the glamour world of NGOs where you are fixed in certain style of format and report as per it. Though, his documentation of events, custodial deaths, cases of torture of Adivasis and forest dwellers in Sonbhadra would remain unparallel. At a time, when NGOs masquerading to be human rights organization splash information with the purpose of publicity and not to really help the poor, Khan was refreshingly different with his people centric approach. He would walk down the villages, record the narratives of the victims and finally take them to the related authorities in the district and even file petition in the court. In fact, he had formed a group of lawyers in Sonbhadra who used to take such cases of illegal detentions of the tribal in the name of naxalism.

Born in 1946 in a Zamindar family of Robertsganj, Khan went to Deoband to earn a degree in Fazil and then he completed his masters. He worked very hard during the 1967 famine in the region. In 1968 he joined Communist Party of India and started Pragatisheel Kisan Manch (progressive farmer’s forum). He continued to travel around the villages and help the needy. In 1985 he founded Jan Sewa Kendra to assist the poor of his region.

It was his concern about the growing landless situation in Sonbhadra that he traveled around 500 villages of his district to understand the condition and found that tribal were living in utter misery. Their land being occupied by others and that they did not have two-time meal to eat. He felt that they lacked information regarding their rights. He found that the ignorance of the people was the biggest obstacle in their development and the officers were misusing it. In fact, one of his candid remarks was that despite huge funds flowing to NGOs in Sonbhadra and Varanasi, the condition of the poor and their rights remain the same. He would laugh and say that the NGOs have not come to remove the poverty of the people but their own poverty. ‘Chaupal’, a village initiative to discuss and resolve their problem by the villagers took shape during this period. He would form a team of 8 members in every village who would discuss their issues and carry the information to the central office in Robertsganj. Chaupal worked in 80 villages. Khan Saheb new it very well that it was difficult to run an organization without resources. Often, the big fishes would catch the members of Chaupal for their own purposes. He started getting depressed because of the growing commercialization of the civil society movement where the powerful elite had gathered all the NGOs in the name of ‘poor’. In the region of eastern Uttar-Pradesh where dirty tricks among the NGOs are the best practices, where NGOs are run by powerful connections and castes, Khan remain a grounded man. Very much down trodden who with the help of a few committed lawyers tried to do help the tribal.

Despite hailing from a Zamaindar family, Khan did not have much land and property at the end. He had a small typewriter where he would type reports of malfunctioning of the government department. If a tribal girl or woman would come to him, he would type their application and go along with them to submit it to the relevant authorities. He would nicely take a copy of the same in his file. And this was his regular practice. The habit resulted in one of the best documentation, which was hardly recognized and which remain thoroughly unpaid, that I had ever seen. It was this information, which proved volatile for police once upon a time and his office was burnt and valuable information got lost. Nevertheless, after that, he started working from him home and still had huge piles of files, meticulously maintained in his drawer.

For me he was a great source of information. He would send his well-written reports on issues as important as custodial deaths, National Rural Employment Guarantee programme, land and forest issues to be send to national and international agencies for lobbying. He felt betrayed that his work was not recognized by the international community leave along the donor agencies who have their own criteria for support.

Apart from sending these reports, which Khan was really very committed, the thing, which was very admirable about him, was his concern for the natural resources of the people and how they lost it to big companies and local feudal elements! His stories, many of which remain unpublished would be treasure to learn how the state and its apparatus have sucked the blood of tribal over the year. He had detailed information about how forest department captured the land of the tribal and how the NGOs from outside did not have enough information about it and they flash information and leave the place making the lives of the tribal more vulnerable to exploitation. I had promised to him to get them published in future. In fact, I introduced him to Hum Dalit, a monthly journal, which regularly published his well thought out articles.

I still remember the day when the villagers had come to protest in front of the district collector and all of them showed the food product they had been eating. The district Magistrate did not turn up but send his deputy and several forest officials. Seeing the tribal displaying their food produce the SDM became angry and said ‘ you sale our poverty abroad. You have no business do that. Go back.’ The forest department officers were equally angry and blamed Khan that he was responsible for misguiding them, a charge which Khan openly denied. Khan stood by the people all the time.

Being a local citizen of Sonbhadra, his house was always open for the tribal and Dalits of the region. Women would come to his house, get their work done and go back satisfying. In fact, for many of them, he was their father, who had performed the ‘kanyadaan’ during the marriage.

Once, I asked him why doesn’t he work on the ‘communal issues’. As usual he said ‘ I always feel my heart with the Adivasis of Sonbhadra. I never feel that I am different from them. They have been cheated by the regularly. The government has done very little for them. If they retaliate they are charged with being Naxalites and cases are filed against them.’ In fact one of the work that Khan did was to fight for a young 12 years old boy who was charged under POTA. This is tragic how police behave. Sonbhadra district is notorious for police highhandedness since they are unable to take on the Naxal, they exploit the helpless villagers.

It was therefore not surprising that the man who was arrested many time as well as whose office was burnt by the police in the name of alleged link with naxalites, did not find any favor from the donor agencies in their work for the region.

He would always say that the village needs to connect with international community. The idea of his Chaupal was to flood the authorities with complaints and information about the villages and the people and their problems. He would always ask me that internet and computers should linked to village and they would empower the poor people and reduce their dependency others to write letters for them as well as it will also enable the international community to see things at their own rather then being shown.

M A Khan remains simple all through his life. He was an anguished man that he could not communicate and write in English language and felt that it was the reason why people like him remain outside the net of those who matter. While, not many have had opportunity to hear him internationally, for the thousands of tribal people, he was one of their own, very own father figure, who went out of his way to help them and gave them a sense of dignity and honour. Like a lone man struggling in utterly difficult circumstances, he left a legacy of his work but no second rank leadership since he himself remained penniless till his end, struggling to get resources for his medication. That is the biggest irony of those work in the grassroots that they work for all and at the end they remain aloof from the world. None care to listen their problems and perhaps very few to bother that a committed man is no more. Since nobody care to inquire about each other particularly those come from not powerful families, there remain no news about them. It is tragic and it should end. The best tribute to MA Khan would be to strengthen the ideas that he gave and carry on his message of Chaupal so that the rural poor is saved from the a contemptuous bureaucracy as well as local middlemen who thrive on their ignorance.