Left is equal to Right in West Bengal

Lesson from Nandigram’s heroic land struggle


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Nandigram is burning and the Neros of the left front governments are watching it with great patience. Those who are up in arms against any displacement elsewhere remain mute spectators at the butchering of people in this ‘war zone’, as the governor of the state Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi mentioned in his statement. CPM and its leadership were prompt in condemning the governor for his remark as unconstitutional. If governor’s remark is out of the touch of Bengal’s reality then how can one justify the ‘call’ for ‘recapture’ of land by the top leadership of CPM?

The fact is that this unprecedented crisis needed a strong response. It is rare for a governor or that too of the stature of Gopal Krishna Gandhi to speak out openly against the state government. It clearly reflects his mind and pain on what the state is witnessing in Nandigram. A governor should not keep quiet if the state government that operates under him violates basic principals of governance. Whether it is Gujarat or Bengal, state can not withdraw itself from the governance asking people to take the law in their own hands, as CPM and its chief minister continue to chant. It is not only shocking for a party to defend the illegal act of their cadre to recapture the land. Why was government silent on this for such a long and why were the central forces being kept at the mercy of the party cadre. A party can not be asked to take over the role of the governance. Bengal’s government is using the same language which very unfortunately Rajiv Gandhi spoke in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination and later on Narendra Modi, in Gujarat after the Godhara fire. A chief minister is expected to act and provide protection to the people and not to teach lesson to those who faulted or disagreed.

West Bengal is passing through a big crisis. It is the test of its patience with a government which actually is the symbol of brahmanical supremacy and tyranny in the name of Marxism. Now, that supremacy is also being challenged by another woman Mamata Bannerjee, who herself has no clean record despite claiming to lead all the people’s movement. In fact, any one supporting her should first ask her the question what her stand is on land reform and secondly how long would she flirt with the Hindutva forces in Delhi. But it looks as if all the opposition forces are uniting in their battle against the CPM. However, ground realities are different and mere media attention might not change
The situation except that the hallo of good governance and Panchayati Raj and much-touted land reforms the left stand exposed in front of the world.

Whether the government go or not, is not the answer. Nandigram has silver lining on the one side and duplicity of Bengal’s Bhadralok politics on the other. Let us discuss about the silver lining. Despite all our condemnation, one thing that needed to be expressed here is the spirit of the people of Nandigram, which defies all convention so far. The governments of the day, whether in Bengal or elsewhere are shamelessly pursuing the agenda of acquiring people’s land for the SEZ, big dams and big companies, without rehabilitating them. Those in power know that the people’s struggle start for a few months and fizzles out. And that has given them the reason to pursue with their dangerous policies of land acquisition. Hence the question is really not about the face of CPM or not. The question is that there is a broader agreement in the mainstream ‘national’ parties and regional parties for ‘reform’. They have gone far beyond people’s aspirations and the result is that these movement will shake the nation and find space somewhere else which might not be democratic.

Unfortunately, many of their friends thought the Marxists as the only party committed to ‘land reform’. But Buddha dev had other ideas. He had to attract the middle class Bengalies who felt betrayed of 30 years of left rule without any industrialization. Disturbed over the ‘loss’ of ‘face’ of Kolkata and Bengal as an ‘industrial hub’, Buddha government went over board to attract ‘investment’. The selection of the company from Indonesia was equally important to understand. Despite its track record, the Marxist would want us to believe that contract given to this ‘Indonesian’ firm is according to secular and anti-imperialist belief of the left front. This, at a time when the Muslims and Dalits are regularly at the receiving end in West Bengal. The disturbing question is why particular area of Nandigram or Singur or why 19000 hectare of land was required. Many report charge Party MP Laxman Seth, a man who is heading Haldia Petrochemicals, as allegedly instigating the land grabbing in the area. All this was done to promote ‘industrialisation’ of Bengal. And in this battle to dislocate people and invite industries to suck the blood of the people, the government got wholehearted support from the ‘national’ media. Like Gujarat where Narender Modi’s corrupt practices and criminal past as a chief minister is easily ignored by the equally corrupt corporatised media where corporate interest are bigger than the people’s interest, all in the name of development, Buddha Dev Bhattacharya also became a star of the media even when a large number of his party persons were not in demand there.

CPM and its allies have been opposing Congress party’s new economic policies. They have participated in numerous programmes, condemned Narendra Modi and rightly so, they organized massive demonstration against WTO and yet when their own state is concern, they remain mute. They do not even want a discussion leave along allowing people to visit Nandigram.

It is clear that the proposed SEZ would displace thousands of people particularly the rural poor. In the case of Nandigram and Singur, these would automatically the poor Muslims and Dalits, who unfortunately are not the vote bank of the CPM. A party like CPM whose chief minister spoke the language of Lal Krishna Advani when he was home minister of India, on the issue of Madrasas and his stand on so-called Bangla Refugees, Buddh Dev and his party thought it is good to create an SEZ some where else which does not affect the Bangla upper caste or CPM’s supporter’s zone. After all, why should they annoy their own supporter who would get the benefit of Tata’s promised Rs One lakh car and jobs in Salim’s company? It would not be the Muslims and Dalits who would get job in these companies. This opinion maker Bhadralok had charged the CPM in the past with insensitivity towards its own issues and condition of stagnation in West Bengal in past three decade’s left front rule. Left front has to come clean on the issue of Dalits and Muslims in Bengal. Where are their land reforms? Where is Dalit and Muslim representation in their government jobs, police and elsewhere? Well, the bhadralok make us believe that they don’t believe in caste system and therefore there is no need for reservation. Of course, it can not deny the fact that the scavenging community in Bengal is worst hit by its manipulations apart from the Muslims. The condition of Dalits in Bengal is a matter of grave concern. Scavenging is still prevalent though CPM dominated cadre and intellectuals would not allow outsiders to expose this bitter truth of Bengal. Even loyalists like N Ram and his ‘ The Hindu’ did not think twice before giving Bengal clean chit on issues of scavenging and now on Nandigram, the most ‘secular’ newspaper in India has turned brahmanical. Of course, those reading ‘The Hindu’ in the South know it well that it serves the brahmanical interest under the guise of secularism. The other loyalist for Buddha Dev at the moment is Goenka’s Indian Express, voice of India’s corrupt middle classes supporting an irresponsible privatization. Express has been supporting every effort of the government that displaces people and support Industries.

But suddenly with huge turn around, the other dominating media houses could not ignore the public pressure and started condemning CPM. Their own friends started deserting them. This resulted in media scrutiny and blame game. Embarrassed, the party banned media and activists from going to Nandigram. And look who was the first visitor after CRPF reached Nandigram. It was Lal Krishna Advani and his Hindutva team, that visited Nandigram.

It is rare for a communist chief minister to be complimented by the Hindutva Hridaya Samrat. When Lal Krishna Advani was home minister, he lauded Buddha’s effort to fight against ‘Bangla’ ‘infiltration. Buddha was also complimented for his remarks against Madrasas. Therefore, Bengal CPM reflects a domination of the Bhadralok and their political view point. The Bengali middle class has already been communalized long back and one can find these reflections in Durga Puja celebrations also.

The problem of Nandigram is wider. Why was such a place chosen. Is it because the area has a sizeable Dalit and Muslim presence? In Bengal so far the issue of Dalits have not got any support from any political outfits. As far as Muslims are concern, Bengal is the only state where we find starvation deaths among the Muslim community in Midnapur and Jalangir. The Bhadralok dominated CPM’s leadership might have thought this would go unresisted. Yet, they proved wrong. The brave people of Nandigram and Singur have actually rendered a great service to strengthen movement for land rights all over the country. Governments, corporations who are working to suck the blood of the people must also understand that their theory that after initial reactions people forget things, have proved absolutely wrong in Nandigram. The way way the people have fought their right to dignity and land will go in the history of India as one of the most sustained response to an effort of the government to occupy their land.

Question is not whether the government is shifting SEZ elsewhere or not. The question is how come the forces of the left are silent on growing discontent in their home territory. Why should the government allow a political party to have a field day, to kill the opponent and ‘capture’ the land? Prakash Karat says that there is nothing wrong for the supporter of the CPM to ‘recapture’ their land, which was hijacked by Trinmul Congress workers. These political statements should not be taken on a serious note except for the fact that they are not meant to introspect. Prakash Karath’s biggest blunder was to say that Maoists have joined the movement. It seems he realized it late that there are radical left groups who are uniting in Singur and Nandigram. But Karat’s worry is not Mamata Banerjee but these left groups who can teach CPM and their goon a lesson in their own language. CPM has never bothered about the opposition in Bengal which is mute and Bhadrlok dominated like the CPM. It is worried about the reorganization of the radical left forces in the state. Therefore, it does not surprise us when Karat in his press conference in Delhi, charge the ‘Maoists’ from Jharkhand for spreading violence in Bengal. Mr Karat knows well that the National Security Advisor has already stated this that the red corridors are increasing.

But more than that, the question again comes to the forefront of those in power. Nandigram has shown that people will resist any attempt to dislocate them in the name of development. Whether it is Khammam in Andhra Pradesh or Kalinganagar in Orissa, the war cries of the people should not be termed as ‘revivalism’ of Naxal movement in India. It is not therefore co-incidence that Naxalbari movement in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal was butchered in the same way as we have been witnessing in Nandigram. The only difference was that time it was state police which caused enormous death in the village of Naxalbari while today it seems the police remain mute when the CPM’s cadre started their ‘gharwapasi’, very similar like the offensive return of the tribals and Dalits by the Hindutva brigade in Chhatishgarh and Gujarat.

Secretary General Prakash Karat also asked people not to equate the Nandigram incident with that of Godhara. But comparison will always be made as long as those who kills come from the same class and communities and those who suffer too hails from the same. In Gujarat the Muslims were butchered by a powerful state dominated by the Hindu upper caste, in Delhi it was the Sikhs who were killed by the same state and in Nandigram, it is again the Muslims and Dalits who are at the receiving end. I can understand the problem of those writing about ‘poor’ being killed in Bengal because none of them really want that Buddha Dev be declared new avatar of Hindutva. But so far all indications suggest CPM’s common agenda seems to be soft Hindutva in Bengal by targeting the poor through its land mafia and Muslims in the name of Bangla refugees and growing Madrasas. CPM has lost an opportunity to lead people’s movement in India which is now uniting to fight against privatization of public resources and highly tainted liberlisation and globalisation where corporations would call the shot and people would get the shot if they oppose the diktat of the status quoists. Nandigram has shown that people will not wait for a Messiahs to come to rescue them, they will unite and fight endlessly against oppression and exploitation. The battle for honor and dignity has just begun now.

Land Reforms in India

Janadesh for a National Land Policy

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


Thousands of tribal and Dalits who started their march under the banner of Ekta Parishad, from Gwalior on October 2nd, 2007, were not allowed to step out of the Ramlila grounds in Delhi. It was unfortunate that the government did not allow them to vent their voice at the parliament house, the Panchayat of our democracy. Minister for Rural Development, who has been well respected for some of his ministry’s project came to the meeting to announce that the prime minister has agreed to a number of the demands raised by Ekta Parishad and has decided to form a committee under his chairmanship. Those of us who have been observing this government’s policies know well that to get rid of a people politicians easily promise something for instant release which they later on forget. Ekta Parishad had demanded special courts for land settlement, which is actually very important given the fact that most of the land related cases in India have ended up in court cases. The second demand was implementation of the forest act, which is on the process and will definitely be challenged by the environmental lobby in the Supreme Court. Land is a state subject and hence it is difficult for the government at the center to promise anything. At the moment when the central government look meek while the state government and its bosses there are becoming more powerful, one will have to see the real agenda of the government and its promises. How will the central government convince the state government on the land redistribution agenda?

One need not to be an expert here to explain that the current phase of instability and violence in India is land related. The government of India knows well that deaths, by the Naxal violence in India is much higher than the so-called terrorist violence. Over 130 districts in India, mainly Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Tamilnadu, Uttar-Pradesh, and Maharastra are under the Naxal influence. Naxal violence in two tribal states of India, Chhatishgarh and Jharkhand is unabated and growing day by day. Now, they are targeting the police and paramilitary forces. Just two days back, the son of former chief minister was shot dead in Jharkhand. Such violence will not stop unless the government introspect what is wrong with its policies.

The alienation of tribal and Dalits from their land is the biggest challenge that India face today and the government should understand it in right spirit. Not only the new economic regime where Special Economic Zones ( SEZ) have been created all over India has been exploitative of the nature but also our own indigenous caste system, which considered the Dalits and tribals racially inferior. So the battle of land in India is two fold. One external where you have the powerful corporations, multinational companies, big private companies in India and the internal forces of the upper caste elite which has hijacked every sector including the civil society and intellectual space. It is here the trouble start with the land movement. Some time, the issue of local exploitation of Dalits and tribal is relegated to backstage as the upper caste leadership in the movement only presents the politically correct external aggression. Hence SEZ and other colonization is an easy trap for all those who ignore the caste prejudices and violence on the Dalits and tribal.

For the government, both things come handy. At the moment they continue to invite big corporations to enter Indian forest and have no rehabilitation policy. In the mad rush for investment we have killed tribal habitat without really providing any alternative for their livelihood. The central government is expecting more than 300000 crore’s investments from SEZ. It says that it will create nearly 3-4 million new jobs. So far the government has notified about 133 SEZ and it expect 229 more soon. So far more than 48,000 hectares of land has been acquired for the SEZ. The government claim that about Rs 43,133 crore’s investment has already come been received and over 35,000 people have got jobs. One does not know how many people lost their livelihood and how many of these jobs went to the Dalits, tribal and other marginalized communities. Government’s SEZ policy has openly been criticized by IMF an institutions which all our neo-liberal governments look for guidance. Now, the violence is still a part of life in Nandigram (west Bengal) and Kalinganagar tribal have not forgotten the sacrifice of their fellow brothers and sisters when they opposed the Tata plant in the area. Struggle of the Narmada displaced tribal is still going. One must not feel amused at the government’s response to form another commission given the nature of our political parties to announce louder things before the elections. Madhya Pradesh government has on record said in the Supreme Court that there is no land available, which could be given to the displaced people. Now, if Madhya Pradesh, which is one of the biggest states of India and where a fairly large number of land is vacant, says that it has no land to be given to tribal, what would be the condition of other states. How will states of Uttar-Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Orrissa and Rajsathan going to act on this where thousands of acres of land has been occupied by the powerful caste forces.

Two years back, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointed a committee headed by noted economist Arjun Sen Gupta to look into condition of work and promotion of livelihoods in unorganized sector. The committee submitted it’s finding on July 7th, 2007. Some of the findings of the commission are actually a stricture against the government’s own neo liberal policies. It says ‘, as on January 2005, the total employment in the Indian economy was 457 millions, of which the unorganized sector accounted for 395 million, or 86% of the total workers. Of the 395 million unorganized sector workers, agriculture accounted for 253 million and the rest 142 million are in non-agricultural sector. The commission has estimated the total number of unorganized/informal workers at 423 million, of which 395 millions are in unorganized sector and 28 millions in the organized sector.’

Shockingly, the more bare factors of India shining comes in point number 7 of the report which says,’ over the decades while the percentage of the population below the poverty line has come down, in 2004-2005, 77% people, totaling 836 million, had an income less than twice the official poverty line or below Rs 20 per day per capita. These are the poor and vulnerable segment of the Indian population. About 79% of the unorganized workers, 88% of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes, 80% of the OBCs and 84% of the Muslims belong to this category of the poor and vulnerable. Contrary to the trend in the number of people below the official poverty line, the number of people in this segment has steadily increased over the years.’

Recently, I had an opportunity to see a document of European Union-India bilateral trade. I was shocked to see one of the findings that National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ( NREGS) which ensures 100 days employment to rural poor, as an alternative to land redistribution. That would be a great mistake, if such anti poverty programmes were considered as a replacement to land reforms, which have historic roots world over. Just Six months back when I walked through several district of Uttar-Pradesh, nearly 400 kilometer for Land, Dignity and Freedom, the issue of special courts for land was one major issue demanded by the people. Other point came was the NREGS is not an alternative to land reform as it has failed to reach the people and also does not ensure employment to them. Thirdly, it was also pointed out that most of the communities who are dying of hunger are actually landless and fourth important point was that root cause of atrocities on the Dalits was their struggle for land rights. But today the Minister Mr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh’s answer in the Ramlila ground reflected this mindset in the government, which want to convince us that if there is NREGS, we should not demand for the land rights of the people. The argument the government make is that land holding is now reducing, family growing and we must not press it further to a condition of impossibility. That is a dangerous argument and can not bring peace in the country.

The activists for land rights are the victims of state oppression. Last month, two women land right activists were arrested by the Uttar-Pradesh police for ‘inciting’ the tribal under the charges of NSA, though these charges were later withdrawn. Increasingly, the governments have failed to respond to the question of land alienation of the Dalits and tribal and the voices of dissent are being scuttled through various means, by cooption or coercion. Nandigram, Kalinganagar, Khammam etc reminds us that people will not sit silently and will not even wait for NGOs to guide them. They will pick up their own issues and fight with the state if land issue is not resolved. Ironically, Chhatishgarh government arrested Dr Binayak Sen, a very respected human rights activists on the charges of helping the Naxal. Dr Binayak Sen’s problem was that he was raising the issue of human rights violation of tribal who were victims of police atrocities. So, we can understand how the governments in different states of India are treating the activists fighting for land rights and how are protest for land rights are being seen. This attitude needs change.

Often the government has maintained that land is state subject and their hands are tied. However, it reflects the mindset of those in power. Land Ceiling act has never been implemented properly. The Zamindari Abolition Acts have so many loopholes that it became virtually redundant in state like Uttar-Pradesh. There has been no land reform in Bihar. The situation in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh is alarming. Karnataka, Andhra, Tamilnadu, Kerala are already opening up themselves for the big companies. States like Orrisa, Chattishgarh and Jharkhand have gone ahead with wooing the investment without taking care of the vast tribal population. The result is now growing resentment against the government policies duly exploited by the Maoists and Naxalites.

The Arjun Sen Gupta committee clearly mentioned that the current economic policies of liberlisation and globalisation have not helped the poor. It has specifically mentioned government’s policy on SEZ, rehabilitation due to dams, urban planning by displacing millions of urban slum dwellers as some of the areas of concern.

Over 1.31 crore people are landless as per the government owns figures from the Ministry of Rural Development. These families as per the information, do not have even land for their own habitation. Most of the people who construct their houses or clusters are basically living on either the communal land or at the mercy of the other. The Uttar-Pradesh’s government recently passed a notification that all the Dalits who have possession of any communal land till May 13 2007, will be given legal entitlement for that land. The problem is how many Dalits have possession of the village communal land? Hence such announcement from the government look nice on papers but do very little to alter the situation at the grassroots.

Apart from the impact of displacement and land acquisition, which are policies, based issues,
One of the major hindrance in the land distribution of the land is the non existence of the
implementation of Land Ceiling Laws. We all know most of the biggest farmers politicians of
India has huge land, which they cannot acquire but which is benami. Those of us who have
been in the land rights movement for last 15-20 years have seen how even the Supreme
Court’s order are mis-interpreted and misused by the governments and it’s implementing
authorities with close association of the rural power elite. Hence the Dalits and tribals who
are victim of India’s racist caste structure have no chance of getting land unless land ceiling
act is implemented. This is because many states are now stating that there is no land
remained for redistribution. Most of the access land is in the hands of powerful farmers
Communities, which are politically very mobile and physically violent. It would be difficult to
seize land from Jaats, Gujjars, Rajputs, Bhoomihars, Bramins, Kurmis, Reddy’s, Thewars,
Marathas and Yadavas. These are the powerful communities in different parts of India. We have seen these racial prejudices of Indian political class in Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar district where 1164 hectare of the ceiling land was not redistributed to Dalits but wrongly went to immigrants Sikhs from Punjab who paid hefty sum of bribe to local powerful bureaucrats and political leaders. Nobody has power and courage to take on the powerful people who have huge farmhouses in Tarai region and who have kept the tribal as bonded in their own land. The governments definitely have no spine to seize that land.

Since the major drive to redistribute land under ceiling legislation; from about 1972-73 government estimates indicate that about 26 lakh hectares has been appropriated for redistribution from their erstwhile owners. Of this 8 lakh hectares is still undistributed due to on-going litigation and has not been given to landless beneficiaries. The government has signalled its intention to establish fast-track courts to deal with such cases and has indicated that it will specifically expedite the distribution of these 8 lakh hectares. These data are also doubtful. One more important factor is the Bhudan land. Most of the land acquired under Bhudan never reached the rural poor. We found that people have taken back their land after several years. A large number of lands were acquired by NGOs, big CBOs as well as for Ashrams, Gowshalas (cowherd). One need to remind the government that India would be the only country where land can be had in the name of religious book. There is no ceiling on farmland, land for temples, mosques or Gurudwaras; therefore people have used this strategy to evade land-ceiling laws. The NGOs, social movements do not speak on these politically incorrect things as it exposes their own deeds. There is need to take a hard stand on these issues as we continue to hear from government and authorities that there is little land. There is lot pretence as where is land? One does not understand why the government is unable to establish fast track courts for the land disputes particularly where the land ceiling act has been evaded and challenged.

Interestingly, according to government’s own figures; there is more than 50 laky hectares of
Public owned land that can be redistributed. This land can be delivered to landless
households; with an aim to distribute at least 0.5 hectares to each landless household. While
the government recognises that this may not be enough to turn landless households into
Surplus producers of food grains or other crops, it does believe that it will deliver some
Security and improve the social position and bargaining power of the landless in the
countryside. With the government already promised to give the tribal 5-hectare of land from
the forest, there is an increasing pressure to give the land to Dalits also. Problem with the
current regime is that it want to promise even moon to every one even when that might not be
possible. It is unable to offend the local ruling elites in the villages. It does not want to
capture land from the power elite. It does not want to offend the business, as it want to see its
sensex zooming. It wants to clean the Delhi streets for the common wealth games. It wants to
enjoy everything and therefore when the issue of Dalits and tribal are concern, it just
promises more so that people go home satisfactorily. It also want to tell the people before the
next election that the land redistribution is on its agenda.

If this government can not impose ceiling laws, how is it going to seize land from the
Possession of the powerful rural elite? What will it do? Good, Prime minister has decided to
head the commission for Land Reform, which India persistently sidetracked. Every time,
there was demand for land redistribution, the government would always say, it is a state
Subject. However whenever issue of land acquisition came, government did not hesitate in
doing so on an urgent basis. Land Ceiling has virtually been abolished. Central government
was keen to amend Land Acquisition Act to help the big companies acquire huge track of
land. In state like Andhra Pradesh, government both the current regime and previous one of
Chandra Babu Naidu went overboard to side track the historic Samata Judgment of the
Supreme Court, which clearly stated that the forestland in the agency areas of the tribal could
not be given for mining to multinational corporations without the permission of the local
tribal Panchayats. The government’s have always handled the issue with out any sensitivity.

Today, India is at war with its own people. Thousands of people have died in the land related
Violence and the government want to inform us that this is a law and order issue. Sorry, Mr
Prime Minister, if the onslaught on the livelihood of the dalits, tribal and other marginalized
continues, I am afraid, the forces of the war will win. Hope the prime minister and his
cabinet will keep their promise to millions of people of the country that there government
is serious on the issue of land redistribution and most important of these would be implement ceiling laws effectively without any prejudices and biases and disallow land in the name of religious trusts, Gaushalas. Let them also face-ceiling laws.

Land Rights in India are broader issue, not only region and community wise but also perception wise. Earlier it was mainly an issue raised by the left groups, later the Dalit and tribal organizations had it on their agenda. It is important to understand that no one organization can claim to represent India and its vast masses. It would be suicidal for the government to develop a coterie in the name of land rights. It need to open the debate on a broader level and run this debate throughout the country, otherwise, the issues would remain the same and nothing concrete could be achieved. At the moment, thanks to Ekta Parishad’s March the land agenda seems to have hit the media headline. Hopefully, they will not forget it later. One is sure that government too will be willing to broaden its debate and involve multiple players working on the land rights in different parts of the country so that diverse views could be debated before arriving at any decision.

In Conversation with Mr Bhagwan Das

‘It is good to break and bad to continue with a tradition that has subjugated the Dalits’

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


Mr Bhagwan Das is one of the most reputed scholar on Ambedkarism and the issue of Human Rights of Scheduled Castes. Widely traveled, Mr Bhagwan Das has spoken at various national & international platforms on the conditions of Dalits in India and what is the best way of their emancipation. In freewheeling conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat, he speak of the state of Dalit movement as well as political parties in India.

Please tell us about your childhood? Being son of a sweeper, what hurdles and obstacles you faced with and how did your father react to them.

My childhood was different. My father came from well off family. After the death of his father, differences occurred in the family and he came to live near Simla. He was not educated, as he could not go to school. My father worked as a sweeper in the post office. He had a house of his own and saved money regularly. He loved reading and had deep interest in Ayurveda. He took special care to educate my sister and me. A Maulvi was kept to teach us. So it was different unlike other untouchable families of time where education was not considered important. He was financially well off and spend most of the time with his books.

In my native village untouchability was practiced in turning on the taps. The barbar did not cut my hair; we could not enter a temple. We had to ask Hindu boys to give us water whenever we had to drink it but since my family was well off, we did not face any difficulty in this regard.

How did you come in touch with Dr Ambedkar?

Dr Ambedkar, then a labor minister visited Simla. I had read about Ambedkar particularly reading Urdu newspapers. He was our harbinger of Hope. We did not anything about him except all anti Ambedkar campaign in Congress papers was the same as in Hindu papers. The only exception I found Ambedkar in Hindi newspapers was Kranti by Sant Ram BA.of Jaat Paat Todak Mandal.

I went to meet him for the first time as I waited for him for three hours because I was first a boy, all the people holding important position came and went away, At 7 pm I was taken inside his house. He looked at my face. I did not go to ask for anything from him but he said ‘ What do you want?’ “ I do not want anything, as I was already employed, I said. I told him about my family and about my applications. In 15 days, I got a letter of appointment. This time my boss was a Muslim. It was surprising that I found that most of the Muslims were terribly against me. Some of the Hindus were very helpful and progressive. Some of them were South Indian Brahmins and I found them quite progressive but Matlab Hussain, my immediate boss, had some complaint against me as I was overburdened with my work. I used to work till 7.30 pm. Everybody tried to exploit me. I left that job and joined Indian Air Force. I did not want to join army but navy appealed to me.

I was again selected for further training to UK but I had to deposit Rs 5000/- which I could not do that and left Air Force in 1946 and went back to my family in Simla. There I was working with Scheduled Caste Federation and I came across very progressive people belonging to the communist parties, and one very progressive in the party was Kameshwar pandit. There we read a lot of Marxist literature and also learnt about Chinese experiment. I read about Mao Se Tung but who appealed to me was Le Su Tse.

We used to hold study circle meeting. I was staying at Seva Nagar, in Delhi. It was a peon’s house where I stayed for two years, as I could not afford a better one. Then I shifted to Lodi Colony with a friend who was an ex communist. He was thrown out of the party. He had been a whole timer. He was very fond of reading, not just Marxist literature but general reading. Later, I was allotted house in Sarojini Nagar.

Here, I came in touch with Mr Shiv Dayal Singh Chaursia, a backward caste person and a few others who were working with him in the movement. I used to spend out time in Gandhi Peace Library. Chaurasia wrote a note of dissent in the backward classes commission. He took me to show the note of dissent, which was actually drafted by me to Dr Ambedkar. Dr Ambedkar did not have a high opinion about that note. He asked to keep the note for his comment but started putting questions about me. He had forgotten that he had met me earlier. I spoke most of the time in English and offered to work for him. It was three days in a week to which he agreed. Some times, he wanted to information/abstract about certain books for which I used to go to Library. But after the work was over, I used to sit with Dr Ambedkar for 10 minutes and put my questions.

What would you discuss with Dr Ambedkar? What would he say to the issue of such as conversion as he was promoting a particular idea of embracing Buddhism? What actually was your position on it? Why should not we convert to any other faith of our choice? Unfortunately, caste system goes along with you even after conversion? What choices do we have to save us from the oppression and exploitation of caste system?

One of the questions was on Buddhism as he was always asking us to embrace Buddhism. I asked that I could not enter a Buddha Vihar. How do you say Buddhism is better than any other religion? I have been to Burma, seen Tibetan Buddhism but have not come anything worthwhile. Study is different but as long as social practice is concern, I do not find anything different in it.” Ambedkar replied, ‘all you said might be right whether I studied Buddhism or not. Now onwards it would not happen again. Since I studied a lot books on Buddhism and since I studied books on religion particularly Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikkhism, Kadianis etc, but Marxism and Buddhism attracted me the most. About Sikhism, I have a very poor opinion. I came close to them because I was teaching two children belonging to them. One of the students father was a doctor, who used to invite me to Gurudwara. I used to go there. Then there was one festival on which they had a langer (community meal) in the Gurudwara. One man asked the doctor; ‘you are making us eat with the Churas and Chamars.’ It was a shocking experience for me in the Gurudwara. After it I studied Sikhism and found that they had 10 Gurus, all belonging to the Khatri caste, none married outside their own parental castes and the fourth guru included teaching of Ravidas, Kabir and others in the Guru Granth Sahib but in practice Sikhism is no different from Hinduism. If a convert comes from Carpenter community, he is a Ramgarhia, if is he a convert from scavenger then he is a Majhabi, if he is a convert from liquor seller then is an Ahaluwalia. Where is the caste system gone? If goes from the front door and comes back from windows. They never started a movement to condemn caste system. After that incident, I never went to a Gurudwara.

I was still critical of Buddhism but felt that if untouchable continue to follow the religion they have been following then there was no chance of their ever unifying. If Hinduism is preaching untouchability against their castes, these castes themselves practice untouchabiliity among themselves. Now for instance, if you go to a Chamar, he looks down upon sweeper and if you go to a sweeper, especially in north India to those who calls themselves as Balmikis, they will never do anything with Helas, doms and Mehtar. Because Valmiki movement started in 1930s and mainly started by Arya Samajis because they were converting to Christianity. One person Tetar was asking the Christians to convert them but the upper caste priests were not ready to convert them for the fear of losing the other people from the church.

Upper castes converted to Christianity after 1857. There were Muslims, Hindus who became Christians when the missionaries started converting the untouchables. They too had started going to church but the Holy Communion was a problem. The upper castes started their prayer meeting in the morning and the untouchables were told to conduct their church meetings in the afternoon. So Kashmir gate church had two services, one in the morning and other in the evening for untouchables.

I also found that people who were converting to Buddhism was just for the namesake. It is unique to India that even after leaving your religion and embracing the other religion they stick to their castes. You cannot get rid of your caste. Unfortunately, a majority of those converted to embrace Buddhism were Mahars hence Mangs were looked down upon by the Mahars as they did not bothered about Chambhars.

What were your impressions about Baba Saheb Ambedkar when you first met him.

My father used to talk proudly about him. The thing which impressed me very much when I first met him was his love for learning and second his character which was immaculately clean, his worst enemies could not charge him on this front and third his commitment to the cause of untouchables. But when I was working with him in the labor ministry, I found his involvement in developing this country. He sent six Scheduled Castes to UK who later held important positions in the central ministry. Besides the SCs, he was interested in the industrialization of the country after the British left.


A lot has been written about Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism. Many Dalit intellectuals interpreted it as his anti Marx philosophy. Where does Ambedkar Stand on Marx?

He was not anti Marxist but against dogmatic people because the books written by Dange and other upper caste elite Marxists did not appeal to him. But he studied Marxism seriously and also the labor movement of UK. He was much interested in modernizing India and that is why he introduced this thing when he was labor minister. If you go to his writings in parliament, it has inclination for progressive and modern thinking and that is a common link between Nehru and Ambedkar and which writers have not highlighted, as they have not done independent research. They had much respect for each other. Ambedkar was not a great admirer of Nehru when he joined the government but when he had opportunity to interact with Nehru he opinion was very much different.

What is your reaction to the state of Dalit Movement today? There are so many republican parties as well as different caste based organizations. Then there is political philosophy of BAMSEF and BSP. What do you think is the future?

When Ambedkar entered the field he started Independent Labor Party and in that he not only had untouchable leaders but leaders from other communities such as upper castes who joined the movement and the party. In 1940 he felt that it was not enough so he formed Scheduled Castes Federation and it was exclusively for the untouchables of India. After India’s independence he felt that SCF was meaningless hence he started Republican Party of India and it was not a party exclusively for the SC people. He wanted to broaden the base and take up the economic cause for advancement of India but people who took over the leadership of RPI did not understand him and did not want to follow him. They wanted RPI for caste mobilization and hence it split on caste lines. Today there are so many wings of RPI that you do not even know.

You have been critical of BAMSEF? What were the basic differences that you found with them?

BAMSEF is not a political party. It says it is backward, SC and minority employees’ federation. If it is an employee federation than it is not a political party. BAMSEF was actually started by some people in Poona. They say we are trying to raise the consciousness of the people but how can a party, which has no political ideology and progrmme do that. But even today, strictly speaking it is not a political party. It is still utter confusion and now it has got spilt into three. And each speaking its own language and frankly speaking dominated by Chamar community in certain areas. In some areas of Vidarbha, it is dominated by the Mahars. It does not have an all India appeal because to organize SCs is not an easy job because they are divided into more than 800 castes. And there are castes and sub castes. Cast rivalry in there. Chamars are divided into more than 60 castes while Sweepers are divided into 12 castes. Valmikis are dominating the sweeper community but they cannot carry Dhanuks, Hellas, Doms and others with them.

So Dalit movement became a movement of a few enlightened castes. When I started Ambedkar Mission movement, I asked in writing that one member of the family must marry outside his/her parental caste. That is the only way to show that you work against casteism. In my case, I have relationship with 67 communities including Malas, Dhanuks etc. If you do not do it and then what is the use of saying that you want to break it?

What has conversion changed for the Dalits? One great Dalit cultural icon blamed conversion for taking away the revolutionary spirit from the community.

It is good to break and bad to continue in the tradition that has subjugated you. It is also important to understand whether it take away the revolutionary spirit or not. It is lack of understanding. Look at this way, if you continue to divide on caste lines you can never become a strong force. All Shudra castes are divided. And atishudras are hopelessly divided because of reservation as it gave opportunities only those which one enlightened made use of reservation and not others. In western UP, it was Jatavs who were the business and lay out number of educated people actually monopolized the jobs. What about others? In case they continue to remain in their communities/cast and not broaden their base, there is no hope. Second, here you are strengthening Hinduism, a religion which has exploited you because in ceremonies such as marriages, cremations, festivals, Mundans, you are following them and strengthening it. You are not strengthening yourself. In case the Dalit embrace other religion what will happen? They embraced Christianity but maintain caste. They embrace Islam and maintain caste because Islamic society is divided into three main castes Ashraf, Ajlaf and Afjals. Ashrafs are Shaikhs, Syed, Mughals and Pathans who came with invaders and they looked down upon people who converted here who were Ajlaf. And the third category people were the working class people; the lower castes and untouchables who converted to Islam were termed as Afjals. Today Butchers ( Khatiq) converted and claim that he is a Quraishi because they came from outside. Julaha is an untouchable caste but after conversion he claims himself as Ansari who came from Ansar. This fact remains despite all claims that Muslim society remains divided into three castes and there is no inter marriages. Christianity, Islam and Sikhism have failed because they were sticking to the originality of religion, presence of God and a book, which was allegedly created by God.

If people continue to be divided on caste line then what is the future? Religion is nominal or little value for the people. They stick to it mostly for political reasons, not because it gives them identity and history but majority of people who are forced into different religions, they only use it for marriages and burial. Nothing wrong with it. Dr Ambedkar thought, we need a revolutionary change and for that religion has to be changed. It needs to be on reason, compassion and brotherhood. He studied Buddhism and as Lord Buddha said towards the end of his life that there is no place for God. He wanted happiness of the people too. Unfortunately, the leaders of Buddhism were not able to carry that message. They maintained caste and at the same time call themselves as Buddhist.

What is the status of Dalit movement today?

Unfortunately, the movement never reached the agrarian communities. Dr Ambedkar chalked out a programme to reach 70% of our population, which lives in villages and was treated by the dominant communities very badly. If it is Marathas, Kunbis in Maharastra, it is Jaats and Gujjars in UP. He thought that Bengal is different. IN Bengal land went to Dalits because of reforms. Unfortunately, the leadership of the movement came from the urban areas. Educated, semi educated people took over the leadership of the movement. The movement did not go beyond that. Some people tried to educate people in the villages but working in the villages is very different, because society there is horizontally and vertically divided and land holding community is the worst enemy. What Ambedkar did was that he gave a call to the people to migrate to the cities. So the people who could not face situation in the rural areas migrated to urban areas but then the situation differs in every state.

In southern states the situation is slightly better in the sense because land was owned by the Brahmins and they have been thrown out in South but in the North India the land was not owned by the Brahmins but by the other people. They are the middle communities and became Hinduised. The village movement of landless people has not been initiated by RPI. They had it in their programme but it was never promoted because most of the leaders came from cities who were interested in winning reserve seats and used poor people for winning elections only.

Scavenger remains the lowest among the Dalits. How do you describe their condition today? What are the impediments in their development?

It is not a community itself. It is divided into 12-14 castes. But in South the division is not that bad. In Andhra Madigas who are basically Chamars but 7 castes among them work as scavengers hence the division is not that strict and harsh as in North India. Most of them are employed under the municipality, cantonment boar, and station staff offices. They have long traditions of people exploiting them and promoted as Jamadars in their department. Inspite of the fact that it is a lowly paid occupation, people pay bribe to get jobs even in Delhi you have to pay bribe to get job under MCD.

Unfortunately, efforts have not been made to unite the sweepers. Why? Because you took up the cause of one particular area and you choose a leader from these quarters. Others are working as private quarters in Mohallas under the bridge system. In this system you work under several masters, get left over food, old cloths, food on marriage or any other festivals so it is not but several local masters.

If they unite for economical weakness, they do not remain so for long. That is why the sweepers and scavengers even today remains to be one of the poorest and backward communities. One reason is leadership, second is economic and third is your locality. And this job does not need hard work. It is definitely a dirty work and looked down upon by every body. These factors resulted in many problems, like drinking and wasteful expenditure. Hindusiation has weakened them as they imitate. Efforts have not been made by different people and leaders to unite different castes and make them acquainted with the programmes of the government. Even the commissions have not been able to do that. Educationally, they are backwards because drop out rate is very high. Efforts have not been made to spread education in these classes.

I have been associated with the movement from the age of 16. I have also been associated with labor movement. Unfortunately ambitious political people take benefit of ignorance and backwardness of these people. Right kind of people are now training the Dalits and giving leadership but unfortunately ‘illterate’ people with little knowledge are long in the way and I think there is hardly any organization free from these accusations- Congress, BJP and others.

I am happy with the new youngs writing about the movements. When I meet them in conferences and seminars, I feel there is hope, though it is not easy. The population of right thinking people is taking an upward trend. Could you ever imagine that the sweeper of Punjab would hold mass conversion for Buddhism. New trends are coming up. New kind of leadership is coming. Unfortunately they do not have the mean to support them.


Political Power is the Master Key

Well, there was time when Baba Saheb Ambedkar said that. When you speak to different kind of audience’s particularly political leaders, it makes sense. But you will also have to get rid of the weakness with in the society. He also said promotion of education. What is being done on that side? It is wrong to say that he laid emphasis on political power. Political power with out right kind of ideology means nothing. I think people are misquoting Ambedkar that political power is the master key. He might have been speaking at Scheduled Caste Federation and with political leaders. But why we not talk about his other work. It is not enough.


Globalization has banged on our door. There are movements against it in various parts of India. Many of our friends have written positively on it suggesting that it would benefit the Dalits. Your take on it.

This government would have different complexion, if we had the 10% people in the civil services. Now with the judgment of the Supreme Courts they are going to suffer more. in the years to come. This globalization does not get attraction by the weaker section, at the moment. But then if in the globalization, the international movement on the issue of Dalits is properly handled, then even here in globalization they can have a share, if it is correctly done. Globalization has a political model and an economic model and it leads to empowerment but behind these ideas are people who want to solve their problems, find the market, create new market and create new classes. In western countries people are trying to create consciousness and awareness in the down trodden communities to develop leadership.


Dr Ambedkar was a truly humanist leader of our time but it look different castes have made him look like as if he was a caste leader. How do you describe Ambedkar?

He was a rationalist in thinking with the interest of SCs in mind. He never considered British to be the friend. But he got an opportunity because British wanted to expand the elected council but they elected other progressive people also. I think he was the most capable and learned person among his contemporaries. He had economic programmes which he could implement through Ministry of labor which was considered as orphan Ministry and through that he tried to promote industrialization of India and tried to create a class of the technically trained people. No body had done that earlier.

Price of Dalit Assertion is Killing

Who Killed Chakrasen ? The UP Administration must answer the cries of a grieving mother of a Dalit youth Chakrasen in Uddaihdih village of Pratapgarh district


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat



Pratapgarh district of Uttar-Pradesh is basically known for the notoriety of Raja Bhaiya and his supporters. In her last avatar as chief minister of Uttar-Pradesh, Mayawati put Raja of Kunda under the Prevention of Terrorists and Atrocities Act (POTA), which was later withdrawn by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav who made Raja Bhaiya as a great Thakur icon of Uttar-Pradesh. However, caste politics and violence in Uttar-Pradesh these days are being played at a different way. With growing Brahmin clout, the upper castes are using the micro caste identities to serve their own interest. Caste games in Uttar-Pradesh have become so powerful that the Dalits are at the receiving end. It is not because of Mayawati or BSP’s government that things are happening. The fact of the matter is that we expect two much from this system which has betrayed the rural poor and used their identities for their own purposes. Caste segregation is actually unable to digest the idea of pluralism and putting them easily in the hands of those who we can simply call middlemen. That is why despite Dalits being assertive vis a vis other communities remain helpless in front of their own leadership. The case of the brutal murder of Chakrasen was an eye opener how our state function and how those upper caste leaders who have joined BSP have not shed their caste identities and prejudices.

When the issue of serving their caste interest comes, they prefer their caste and not the ideology of their party. And why should they leave their caste identities when it is benefiting a few while exploiting the others. So far Chakrasen’s murder mystery remain unresolved in the police and administrative textbooks but his family and the villagers continue to receive threatening messages from the powerful Brahmins of Udaiyadih.

How a bright scholar student was termed as thief

Chakrasen, 22, belonging to Chamar community of Dalits, was selected for B.Tech courses in Moti Lal Nehru Regional Engineering College (MLNR), Allahabad. Eldest among his other brothers, Chakrasen’s family was virtually landless. His father Babban died of illness in 1992. The three brothers, Chakrsen, Agnisen (pursuing B.Sc) and Shaktisen (pursing High School) became the responsibility of their grandfather Shiv Murthi alias Sadal who retired from a factory in Kanpur 1999. The saved money helped him to educate all the three brothers who were his life. Shiv Murthi did not have any one in the family and hence his life revolved around his grand children. After retirement the family shifted to this village of Udaihdih in Patti block of Pratapgarh district. This village is about 6 kilometer away from Prithviganj town. Sadal runs a Public Distribution Shop in his house, which according to villagers were given to him because of the failure of Santosh Mishra, a Brahmin. Since then the Mishras were particularly upset with the family and were regularly threatening them of dire consequences. According to Sadal, quota was not the main issue as they themselves left it and on the request of the villagers, Sadal was given the shop. The fact as Sadal suggest is that they wanted their share of 50-kilogram rice every month from the quota shop for free. Since Sadal, an honest man, refused to do it, they started humiliating him and planned to eliminate him. A proud grand father was running the Public Distribution Shop without any fear but there were problems being created by the Brahmins. Chakrsen was aware of it and was helping his grandfather to continue with this. He would help his grandfather, whenever, he was in town. Chakrasen was a better student who could understand and speak English. His sincerity and honesty was never in doubt. In fact a few of his upper caste friends who do not want to concede this fact in open now, actually admitted the fact that this entire case of his being a thief is fabricated.

Trap Game

According to Sadal, in the night of July 31st-August 1st, some of the villagers came to their house at Bhadervah village and asked Chakrsen to accompany them. He went along with them and never returned. Later in the morning, a local vender of newspaper informed the family about Chakrasen being caught at Sudemahu village, about two kilometers away from Bhadrewah village. Sadal and younger brother Shaktisen went to find out about Chakrasen to Sudemahu’s Pasi tola. They were horrified to find that Chakrsen was tied in a thick rope and was being dragged and beaten up by the people. He was simply lying on the ground. There were no cloths at his body, not even his underwear. As Sadal reached near his grandson he named several people who were responsible for this act. They were Santosh Mishra and Akash Dubey. As he was naming people, they were threatened. In fact some of them tried to kill Shaktisen also since he was standing near his brother. They were asked to leave the place. Village Pradhan Raj Mani Vishwkarma informed the police officer Babuchand at 4.30 in the morning but none of them reached the place. A local police constable Pradeep Mishra, who the villagers charge used to stay with the accused and was posted here, too was informed but he too did not turn up. The police became active only once it came to know around 6.15 in the morning that Chakrasen was dead.

Yet, nothing factually happened. There was a check post outside the village, on the road and the policemen would never think of interacting with the Dalit families. Frustrated on the administration’s continuous chanting of Chakrasen as being a thief, the villagers of Bhadervah hoisted black flag on August 15th. ‘What is this freedom’, said a misty eyes Sadal, terming lack of police action and continuous threat to his family. ‘ I am more worried about my two other grandsons. We live in fear and can not go out and the government is doing nothing. The administration sits silently blaming my son as a thief. It is shocking that the accused are roaming free while we are living on constant fear’, said Sadal.

One day before our visit on 16th of September, the Brahmins united again the came to threaten the Dalit families to remain in their limit otherwise they would meet with the same fate as Chakrasen. His younger brother Agnisen is a terrified man today and even refusing to meet us. ‘ People come and go but our condition is worsening. The Brahmins are threatening us daily and police is not taking any action. Today, they came and see the irony; the police have arrested some of our people. Sadal is worried about the safety of his grand children. The police check post is on the road and they have good relations with the Brahmins. The state government seems to be unaware of the fact as the local police are still working on the theme of theft.

Story at Sudemahu Pasi Tola

Sudemahu is nearly two kilometer from the house of Chakrasen in village Bhaderva. We went straight to Pasi families in front of whose house Chakrasen was caught and killed. Two women Gujarati and Rajkumari were standing in front of their house. We informed them our motives to them and asked them as what had happened that night of August 1st.
Rajkumari accused that Chakrasen tried to snatch her earring in the night around 2 am. It rained heavily that night and there was water clogging around the locality. Chakrasen was not wearing anything, his underwear was worn over his head as he approached her and tried to drag her when she made a noise. Amidst all this chaos her husband Babu Chand got up and ran to catch the thief. Chakrasen stumbled after a while and fell on the ground only to be caught by Babu Chand and others.

According to Rajkumari, Chakrasen was a thief and has attacked at least 8 villages that night before finally coming to her village. A mobile was also recovered from him. He was a ‘dirty man’ she said. He came with bad intention was the reference made by the two women. Soon, the entire area had got wind of the incident and people started coming in and he was tied in a rope. ‘ We requested people not to beat him but they did not leave him. Every one was beating him mercilessly. Things were not in our hand’. The rope in which Charasen was allegedly tied has not been taken as an important witness material by the police and it was lying in their house. When we insisted that the family of Chakrasen is not blaming the Pasis for the murder but to the Brahmins, the two women were very clear. It were not the Brahmins who killed him, they said. It was the general public who killed him. But did he come to steal something from their home? Why would he come to steal from your house? What was there to steal? Why in the mid night when every body else remain in the home. Why would any body go to steal something without wearing anything? Nobody is killed such merciless way for stealing things?


The Medical Report

When the news of lynching of Chakrsen reached the Dalit village of Udaiyadih and Bhaderva, people came out in large number. The police officers tried to calm them down but the villagers knew that the police have already been supportive of the murderers. The BSP MLA, a Brahmin called Rama Shiromani Shukla was of no help to the people. As the news of Dalit protest traveled across the districts and people sat on the street with the dead body of Chakrasen, determined to take the body to Lucknow for medical check up, the administration swung into action. ‘They wanted to force us dispose off the body, said Sadal. We have not cremated him but buried him so that in case the police need any further investigations, the body would be made available, as we want the culprits to be hanged, said Sadal, whose misty eyes along with that of his daughter in laws cries make every one in the village cry for justice. It is a shame that a bright student was ‘made’ thief and murdered in a public view and the police have not been able to do justice.

The dead body was taken for postmortem to district hospital. Post mortem was conducted at 3.50 pm on August 1st, 2008 which says ‘, eyes closed swelling present surrounding both eyes. Cause of death due to strangulation, wrote Dr Santosh Tripathi. It means that the report and rumors spread by the upper castes and the administration that Chakrasen died of mob lynching are not true. Of course, he was beaten mercilessly but the fact that the post mortem report suggest death due strangulation is a matter which police must look into and investigate.

The two accused were roaming free. Santosh Mishra and Akash Dubey and their well-wishers including the BSP's Brahmin MLA had the power to deny people a right to even the protest.

Local opinion about Chakrasen comes according to their castes

While all the villagers of Udaihadih blamed the Brahmins for the murder of Chakrasen and felt threatened now, as police remain mute, the women and young people we spoke in Sudemahu openly said that Chakrasen was a thief. The women did not have a high opinion of him. Similarly, speaking to journalists, pradhans and other upper castes, it looks they share the same opinion of his being a thief. Some people indicated another angle to it, which was ‘love affair’. There were two girls in the Pasi family who Chakrasen knew’ said a local Brahmin. ‘ How can anybody would tolerate a person eyeing to one’s mothers and sisters, indicating that there might have been an affair for which Chakrasen was punished so mercilessly. As we came out of the Pasi bastee, I asked this question to many youngsters of the village, tell me was he a thief? The village boys had dubious answers but one man who brought tears in our eyes was Chhote Lal Yadav, a former village Pradhan of the area. I simply asked him, please tell me about this boy Chakrasen? Chotte Lal Yadav had nothing to do with the boy. He did not even know and at the time when the social relations of Chamars and Yadavas remain at the lowest, Chhote Lal Yadav’s word have soothing affect. Tears rolled from his eyes when he said
‘this boy can not be a thief. He can not be a thief.’ He was murdered though he said that he came to know about the incident pretty late. It is these kinds of voices that give us hope in the otherwise caste republics of Uttar-Pradesh, which has virtually forgotten to appreciate your honesty and innocence if you do not belong to similar caste groups.

Administrative goof ups

Police are still investigating the case as if Chakrasen was a thief. There are certain very disturbing questions which the police need to answer and respond. Why has it not taken into the custody, the rope in which Chakrasen was tied? It is still lying at the house of the Pasis. Secondly, whether it was an act of theft or love affair, what gives people moral authority to kill a person of another village? Why police did not act when it was reported to them as early as 4 am in the morning. What was the conspiracy when the local police constable Mishra who knew this but did not followed it up? What is the conspiracy as Chakrasen’s family and others in the village openly and with confident charge the Brahmins (Mishras) for the murder of Chakrasen while the Pasi women deny their hand. Will police check this relationship between the various accused. One of the accused was absconding at the house of BSP MLA Rama Shiromani Shukla when the police arrested him from Shukla’s house, informed Shaktisen. The Dalits have no faith in him. It was shocking how this MLA went to Dalit bastee when the people were adamant on taking the dead body of Chakrasen to Lucknow, placed Rs five hundred ( Rs 500/-) on the dead body asking the people to close the case as it would not help them and that the law would take its own course. What course the law is taking Mr Shukla? Sadal and his grand children Shaktisen and Aginsen are now being threatened by the Brahmins. They came attacking in the village and the police did nothing. Instead, the police arrested some of the villagers. Shakti Sen informs how he is continuously under the threat in the school he goes where the children of Mishra also study. These children threaten him with the same consequences as his brother.

Investigate impartially

There are various points for police to not only understand but also investigate and the most important should be who killed Chakrasen. The police can not keep hiding under the pretext of mob violence when Chakrasen was grandson of a PDS shop owner in a village, which was just 2 kilometer away. We all know how the relations in the villages are and that it would be highly unlikely if people do not know to a person who was living with in two kilometer.

Secondly, Chakrasen was not dead when his grand father and brother met him. He was allowed to die in four hours period when the police failed to intervene. Whether it was deliberate need to be investigated.

Third, the police theory of Chakrasen being a thief is absolutely fabricated and false. Was Chakrasen a proclaimed thief? Was there any record of crime in his name? He was student of Allahabad University and was there any bad entry of him in the University? What would a boy from a city university go to steal from the families of virtually landless people, in this case, the Pasis ?

Fourth point, does any one come in the village in the midnight with out wearing underwear or why would any thief wear underwear over his head as being suggested by the Pasi women? If he had bad intentions (which was actually the intention of the woman we interviewed) than why he came in mid night? Was he caught with some one else?

Fifth point, it might be the possibility that the Brahmins caught hold of him outside his village in the night thrashed him, forced him to run and take shelter in the village of Pasis. He might have entered the village to save his humiliation when he was caught as a ‘thief’. There are many things which each of the villagers are hiding. Police need to investigate this relationship between different accused. The two which it has arrested from the pasi families and the two Brahmin accused which Chakrasen’s family is accusing openly.

Sixth, Investigate the entire issue as why the threats are continuously being made to Shaktisen and others? Why the Brahmin goons came and attack the village of the Dalits on 15th September in the broad day light.

Seventh, that Chakrasen did not died of mob lynching but because of strangulation as per medical report. Did police lift the fingerprints of the accused?

Eighth, how many accused have been arrested so far? What is done to save the family of Sadal.

Conclusions: It seems that Chakrsen was murdered in a very calculated way. If the Brahmins are directly involved then they would face SC-ST atrocities act but if they are in the back, it make things easier for them to push one dalit community against the other. So Pasis and Chamars are at the loggerhead and the Brahmins are enjoying their meal. By getting the Pasis into the act and making it a case of theft or love affair, the villagers are still ignoring the thing as who killed Chakrasen. This is the crude reality of the Indian village system that while every witness to all the gory act of butchering of an innocent boy, none of them dare to come forward. By taking a moral high ground on the issue of relationship, these villagers forget that they have violated law of the land. One thing is clear, he was murdered and police did not act. Another thing is certain that he was the first year student of B.Tech and no doubt a bright young boy. Third thing was also clear that he and his siblings are educated and their grandfather is running a PDS shop successfully which the local Brahmins could not.

The government of Uttar-Pradesh must hand over this case to Central Bureau of Investigation and suspend the police officers for dereliction of duty which allowed the murder of a young boy. Uttar-Pradesh government has given Rs 70,000/- to the grieving family of Chakrasen. It is equally shameful for the government authorities to measure the life of a bright young student in such a meager amount. The police are trying to shelter the criminals as one of the accused was actually arrested from the house of local BSP MLA, the family alleged. The role of police, the political leader must be investigated. The mystery of this killing can easily be unearthed by the police if it works impartially. At the moment, the impartiality of the Uttar-Pradesh police is in question. They are working ‘unbiased’ as with each accused i.e. Brahmin arrest, they are equally arresting the Dalits also. Already, poor Pasis are arrested as accused while the Mishras and Dubeys are roaming free, threatening the family of Shiv Murthy. In the 75th year of Poona Pact, we remember Baba Saheb’s warning of what kind of leadership will we elect on the upper caste Hindu votes. UP’s case is an eye opener. BSP can not shed its ideology for the sake of ‘Sarva Samaj’. UP need a Bahujan Samaj government which can protect them and honour constitutional provisions, promulgate SC-ST act in the cases of violence against Dalits. Sarvjan Samaj can not be bigger than the Bahujan Samaj. One hope the government will act and save the people from further frustration.

Land After Thirty Years of Entitlement

Story of Land Reclamation of Dalits in village Rupchandrapur district Jaunpur Uttar-Pradesh

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Mutuna’s face was expressionless even after the greatest event of her life when she entered her field of one acre for the first time after 1976 when her husband Furtidin was given land entitlement by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. She never knew about the place as since then they tried to occupy their land but the powerful neighbors wont allow them to map. In fact, Mutuna’s issue reflect the dilemma of India’s farmers movement which not only remained caged in tainted caste structure of the powerful upper castes but highly violent also. On August 11th August, 2007 when I witnessed the whole thing, many memories of the past reminded me how the land issue would always remain violent and volatile as it affect the local power equations, unite the oppressed and give them dignity and self respect. It also shows how the powerful communities try to circumvent and subvert the due process of law by delaying and disturbing the entire process.

Ramchandra, eldest son of Furtidin informed me how the local powerful people are still creating hurdle. On the first ay when the land was being measured, I personally asked the women to take control over the land immediately as they would be trapped in saying ‘come tomorrow’. Do not wait for another day, I said to them. But the question was that the local Yadava (a powerful farming community of northern India) family which has illegally grabbed that land had maze crop over the land. Now, there was tension in the area as the Dalit families wanted to occupy the land immediately while the Yadava was taking shelter under the maze crop. Immediately, all decided that Yadava must get away with this. The Dalit women asked Yadava family to collect his maze crop or face its destruction. It was an amazing site to see when a powerful exploitative family cutting their crop and behind them were Dalit women leveling the land and making the boundary wall of their portion. It was a great show of how things change if the administration is with you. When the Lekhpals and others in the village were mapping the land, there was deliberate taunting by the upper caste Hindus and the powerful people. Virtually abusing to provoke the Dalits, they would claim that the Dalits are lazy, as they never aspired to get land. ‘ We have tilled this land, made this concrete to a workable land, said a local Thakur. But when the land at the Yadava family’s backyard was being measured, the issues, which often comes was that right now there was a maze crop and it would not be good to destroy the crop. This time, the Dalits knew it very well that such pretensions of the powerful people in the village in front of the officials results in further complicating the issue.

Ramchandra, migrated to bigger town as a labour has now decided to remain the village and cultivate his land. “ I am very happy to look after my land as my two other brothers would remain in cities to earn for themselves but I will help my family and my mother.’

This story is being written over a period of one month. The gap was deliberate. Having worked in deeply crisis driven condition, I know how the official switch their loyalty and the poor has to run from pillar to post for every small thing. Once the initial work was done and the official gone, we all know, power elite will start creating the same hurdle. After all, how many times, we will come and monitor the situation. But this time around, the villagers were determined come what may and their strength were doubled by some of the outstanding workers of Bharatiya Jan Seva Ashram, Badlapur. Ms Renu, the fire brand women leader of the Ashram actually faced some of the toughest questions of her life right from the officials to rural power folks but she remained un-relented. In those trying time, her determination yielded result and now people’s control over their land is complete, of course, there are certain problematic areas for which the community, the individuals have decided to go to the court.

Rupchandrapur village, which falls under Badlapur block of district Jaunpur in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh witnessed this historic land acquisition. This village is dominated by the Thakurs, the upper caste Hindus claiming to hail from Kshatriya i.e. warrior clan. It also reflect how ‘efficient’ our administrative system is which despite legal validity and by its own standard, it does not follow rules of the law. In 1976, the then prime minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi went for a massive sterilization programme and one of her issues was to give land entitlement to not only Dalits and Muslims but also to those who opt for the sterilization process thus adopting government’s family planning programme.

74 people were given land entitlement in 1976 and the land was to be distributed through the village communal land, which is called Gram Panchayat land. These days normally land is illegally occupied by the powerful communities in the villages. Soon, the government fell in 1979 owing to massive protest against Indira Gandhi and the issue of entitlements of the poor Dalits remained unresolved. The new power equations were used by the powerful communities in their favour by forcing the officials not to visit again and provoked them to cancel the measurement under some pretext or other. Every time, an effort was made and equally resisted by the power elite of the village. Every time the Dalits asked for their land, there was complete lack of sensitivity on part of the officials who would give plenty of arguments regarding the status of their land. Government came and go and the situation at the ground remained unaltered.

One of the important factors of Dalit empowerment in India is democracy. Democracy is essentially a number game and the Dalits and other marginalized communities have understood that their number make majority and hence all of them have become politically very mobile and articulate at least in Uttar-Pradesh. In May 2007 the state saw a shift in power and a Dalit woman Maywati became the chief Minister of the state for the record fourth time.

A change in the government in Lucknow has a lot of meaning for Dalits, particularly those women and wage workers who have been denied dignity and human rights. With a Dalit woman at the thrown of Uttar-Pradesh, a new wave of energy entered into the communities. Bhartiya Jan Seva Ashram, Badlapur realized this important change and went for an all out offensive on the issue of possession being given to those who were allotted land. It approached the district authorities and asked them to take action to provide land allotment soon. In fact, this is one of the strategies used by the International land Coalition’s partners here and essentially part of SDF/UPLA’s land literacy programme to do village mapping, find vacant land and count the rural landless of that area and do issue based advocacy. We have found from our own experiences that issue based advocacy is far better than a generalized form of advocacy which has all ingredients of ‘political manipulations and heavy dose of ideologies’ and very less for the individuals who suffer from incapacities and victim hood.

We have suggested on many occasions that the organizations must have primary data of the targeted village such as the total number of people, land status, status of landless and homeless people with particularly reference of the communities such as Dalits and tribals. The Community Empowerment Facility ( CEF) programme of BJSA came handy for the same and a team of organization visited the village several time to assess the ground situation and the status of land both in term of illegal gratification as well as community wise landlessness. Once they finished their paper work, it was difficult for the authorities to deny them right as the land was already allotted to 74 Dalit families nearly 31 years back. Government machinery often makes use of the ignorance of the village people. By ignorance they mean that villagers are not ‘techno savvy and do not have relevant documents. Officials are very particular about data and documents which the poor villagers do not have.

I was fortunate enough to witness this historical event when people really got land in their hand. A team of 10 land revenue officials ( Lekhpals), Revenue officer, Sub Disctrict Magistrate ( SDM) went to the village and promised the people that the land would be handed over to them. The local power community was also equally vehement in opposing but differences started coming to the fore. The head of the village Mr Shiv Naraian Singh came out openly with the Dalits and said that he would do everything to get these people land. Shiv Narian was elected Sarpanch with a large number of Dalit votes. The opposition was powerful. They questioned the motives of people getting land. A local politician who could not win a single election actually tried every attempt to thwart the land redistribution effort. Upper castes always wanted to get the Patta cancelled. There were several efforts made to redistribute the land but every time the powerful people in the village created some short of issues which ultimately restricted the authorities to go further on this issue.


Ram Bali is father of 9 children. I acre was allotted to him in 1976. Every time they went to the officers, nothing happened. There were efforts made in the past thrice to measure the land but was met with stiff resistance. The upper castes and particularly one powerful family which had controlled the entire area actually planted trees in the hope that after such a thing happen they would have unquestioned control over the land. When the pressure from the Dalits became tremendous the upper castes resorted to blackmailing. This land is now gone to the forest department. We have planted trees and we will not allow you to uproot these trees. So one can understand the kind of pulls and pressures happens in the village when the land is actually handed over the rural poor. Rambali is a happy man that finally he has got justice and that his family would be able to eat his two-time meal. We are ready to work harder to make the land workable.

Mutuna, wife of late Furtidin whose one acre land was actually being tilled by a Yadava family was satisfied that finally she has got her land. She has three sons and now she hope that the land would be sufficient enough to keep the family going.

Temmal got allotment for one acre. Every time efforts were made to give control of land to them these people try to create obstacles. They would abuse us and would not allow us to have safe passage. They have control over the work. We do not even get work under the NREGA programme.

Village Sarpanch Shiv Narian Singh, though is a upper caste Thakur yet seems to reconcile with working for the rights of the Dalits. He says’, The allotment were made in 1976 but the government officials are very careless. A total 51 bighas of land was allotted that time but the powerful people of the village are still trying to occupy that land. We want to give the small ponds and other such land to landless people but problems are being created.

The village Lekhpal who actually is the villain in most of the cases says that so far 48 people have been given possession. The lekhpal also speaks like the upper castes that the Dalits normally do not take of possession saying that the land is a barren and useless land. But he threatens that if the Dalits do not take the possession of land this time, he would be forced to dismiss their entitlement.

Dulari Devi has 5 children. She ahs been waiting for this day to come as the upper caste Hindus do not allow her to reach her land. Land is bad in shape. Lot of weed has surrounded it and it would need tremendous will power to make the land working. But the positive side is that the Dalits are now doing work in their land, weeding out the trees and the grass, leveling the land. It will take time but definitely with the enthusiasm, it will not take much effort.

Ram Charan is very happy to get the land after 30 years. He plan to sow Arahar, Tori, and other vegetables.

Sangeeta says that she is a ‘Dalit’ and landless. She has six other male members as partner in her father in laws land. It is just one 10th of a bighead very miniscule piece of land. She is not very happy with that. The food situation at her house is understandably very bad.

Munni Lal has two sons and one daughter. Nearly 30 years later he is now taking control of a very bad land which has thorny bushes and lengthy weed. He knows it well that to refuse taking control of an otherwise waste land would mean giving the upper castes a chance to condemn them as if they do not want it. He says, “ My allotment letter gives me one acre of land which is to be distributed among the two brothers but we only got 50 decimal. It will take nearly take a month to level the land and make it workable’.

Chandrabhan, a Dalit youth working with Bhartiya Jan Seva Ashram is another happy person today. Born in a landless family, he and his brothers were not even allowed to pass through the area. While he got one acre of land yet again the power people have made mess of the land laws. He has got one fourth of his allotted land as the person who had illegally grabbed the land has manipulated things with revenue officials and done lot of changes in the land map. ‘ We will fight against this and go to the court to rectify it. They do not have anything to save their face after full support from BJSA and the administration and still they wanted to delay the process after many ifs and buts’. Chandrabhan has a sense of relief, as he is leveling his land and cutting the unwanted bush and weeding them out.

A Dalit woman Sukraji bi is very happy. I feel powerful today she says. ‘ We will work harder now and definitely grow on our land rather than working at some body else’s land.
When I ask her about the caste equations and untouchability in the village she says ‘ the upper castes now know that they can not get in untouchability directly as they would penalized but they do. When they want our votes in elections, they would come here, sit on our charpoys ( cots) and eat with us but once that is over, they refuse to sit with us and do not allow us the same at their place. She is happy that the women will change as a woman and that too from her own community is now heading the State’. How does she feel seeing a Dalit woman with her head high rules the state, I ask. “ yes, we are proud that Bahinji ( elder sister, referred to chief minister Mayawati) is a very strong woman. Her elevation to power will definitely help Dalits and women to get their honour and pride.’

While there is absolute truth in Sukraji’s statement as here too in Rupchandrapur, it is women like Renu who made it possible that the land is transferred to the Dalits. She along with other women activists ensures that the officials do not play foul under some pretext or others which she had been facing. Some time, the illegal land grabber who was a local leader said that the land is now under forest department as he has planted Babul trees while on other occasion he made other pretensions. Some time it was provocations and abuses while other time threatening them with dire consequences. All this failed under the determined women’s group of Bharatiya Jan Seva Ashram. They now plan to speak to district authorities to grant some funds under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to the Dalits of Rupchandrapur to level their land and make it cultivable.
The change in power equations have shown their first result though in a small way in Rupchandrapur where the 74 Dalits are now enjoying their land, though with much difficulty of crude exploitative social system which remain shameless even in these times of democracy yet it shows that officials if work persistently and honestly can really do the needful for the power. It is hard to believe that they would change over night but strong signals from the power structure can change their attitude towards rural poor. Another important point for the rural poor is to grab the opportunity of whatever comes in their hand and continue their fight for the rest as snatching land from the hands of then power elite is very difficult as they have not only administration and political leadership with them but also make use of laws. It is advisable to continue our fight and make use of whatever comes in our hand to make our way to the land we have waited for so long. Land is not only matter of laws but a matter of attitude of the law makers and law implementing agencies and sooner they learn it the better it would be for the people. Rupchandrapur is a great lesson for us in this regard.

Intimidating Peace

Muslims in Gujarat: Victims of a conspiring State


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


Nafisa Bi lost her eyesight three years back after three of her sons were arrested under the notorious Prevention of Atrocities & Terrorist Act (POTA) after the Sabarmati Express, was burnt by the miscreants in Godhara railway station in February 2002. Today, Nafisa, 60 is completely blinded in her isolated home, which used to have a bakery. There are 11 such families living in Rehmat Nagar area of Godhara who have lost everything after their male members were arrested and kept in prison. Charges have not been framed yet, said Rehana Bi whose husband Shabir Hussein was a conductor in a private bus and was randomly arrested along with other ‘conspirators’ for their alleged role in the incident. The meager earning were not enough to sustain their family of four. Her younger daughter Shamim Bano was not born yet and has not seen her father so far. Rehana does not have any other members to support and is earning her livelihood through domesticated work at the houses of nearby Muslim locality of Boharas. “ I go at 8 in the morning and return at 12 pm. They give me the left over food, which I eat and bring for my children. In cash, I just get Rs 250/-. My husband was getting Rs 1,200/- as monthly salary. How can my family survive in a meager Rs 250/-, she asks. No body comes here to ask us about our problems. A few social work organizations were here for some year but now they too have left leaving us in lurch. We have no clue about when our people will be released from the jail, despite the fact that we are informed that Supreme Court has ordered them bail, she explains.

Gujarat has witnessed systematic isolation of the Muslims in the past 10 years. Their movements are traced and livelihood shattered. It is very difficult for them to get even the work in the Hindu households. Even if the community wants to restart its life forgetting the past, there is no certainty whether the product that they make would sale in the market or not. Efforts were made by many NGOs, which failed because of the un written economic blockade by the powerful group of the Hindutva brigade. In fact, the tribal and Dalits face the same wrath in the village if they ally with any likeminded organizations which talks of their identity and rights.

The pain of Nafisa bi needs to be understood in terms of the ailing Gujarati society and the crisis Muslim women face in Gujarat. With most of the male members gone behind the bar, these women today face the uphill task of reviving their lives in a deeply polarized and hostile atmosphere. Rehmat Nagar area reflects the mood of the state government and their zeal to isolate Muslim further. There is no activity in the area, which is completely cut off from the main high way. No link road and if it rains then perhaps it would become nearly impossible for these women to go to earn. Most of the women are surviving on the alms which their employer give them apart from a salary of Rs 250/- per family per month.

Activists come and promise that our people would be released soon as the Supreme Court has ordered, said Rehana Bi. But Nafisa Bi seems to be resigned to her fate. ‘It is more than three years that I saw my sons. Now even if they come, I would not be able to see them.’ Neighbors inform that Nafisa weeps all the time. Her husband divorced her long back without caring their children. Fortunately, her sons were hardworking and earned their livelihood well to take care of her. Today, she is thoroughly dejected at the plight of her sons who she alleges were beaten up mercilessly in the police lock up. Her son Shabir Anwar Ansari have three sons and one daughter while Alauddin, the other son got married the same year. The locality is about 5 kilometers away from the railway station where the Sabarmati Express’s coach were burnt. ‘ The police came in the evening with their face covered and asked the male members to accompany them to their bosses office’, say Rehana. She further added that there were no women police personnel when they came. They were all men showering the choices abuse on us.

Fakharuddin Yusuf was a Bus driver. He was arrested as soon as he returned from his trip. He was put in Sabarmati jail where he died one year later. He was beaten up mercilessly in the police lock up. Obviously, the Gujarat police whose track record is worst while tackling with the minorities cannot escape the blame. Many young children who were born after their father was arrested often ask their mothers when would their father return.

The police and administration has become so nasty that it does not even allow the
detainees to meet their ailing parents even when they were waiting for a peaceful death. Rehana’s mother in law died weeping and crying to see her son who could not come to see her before her death. Payroll was granted to Rehana’s husband three days later after his mother was cremated. Mother and son did not see each other for three years says Rehana wiping her moisted eyes. When the Gujarat police come here they do not bring any women constables and on our defiance we are beaten up. She was arrested for one day. Rehana is outspoken when I ask about who burnt the train. “ we did not know about the burning of train before the police came and started arresting the people. They informed that all the male members would be required to go to SP sahib but once they were put in the police vehicles they never returned and families only came to know about the whereabouts of their male members about three months later when they started writing to them.

‘ I too was arrested but they released me the very next day but my father was kept up in the lock up for six days’, she says. Her moist eyes narrate the innocence inside her ‘, we do not burn even the dead, why would we burnt people alive?’

A total of nearly 100 families are charged under POTA in Godhara. The eleven families whose male wards have been arrested immediately after the train was burnt hail from this locality of Rehmat Nagar which is located on right hand side of the Godhara-Badodara high way. There is no connectivity road to this locality and one has to take off from the vehicle to reach here. The narrow muddy lane is the only way for you to reach the place. None of the man in the area has any work. In fact, they do not get any work outside. Tragedy is that Nafisa and like her many women’s pains and agonies are compounded with the fact that with in their own community they have lot of resistance. When there is no work, man have no work to do and mere domesticated work in nearby locality of the Bohras cannot make them survive. It is ironical that many of the women are being pushed in the flash trade since there is virtually a crisis of survival. Immediately after the riots, many NGOs started working among the victims but two-three years after the incident when they are faced with a hostile state administration which is hell bent on keeping the Muslims in particular and minorities in general out of the mainstream, organizations winded up their charity work. Of course, some of them are still working creating awareness in an otherwise thoroughly communalized atmosphere of Gujarat.

The Modi government kept quiet and even the press has not been able to follow up all the cases. How long the select few would come every day to expose a government, which has been corrupted at every level. The water in Rehmat Nagar area is totally contaminated, as there are factories in the area, which release chemical waste every day and therefore have turned the ground water totally undrinkable. The families go to fetch water from high way, nearly half a kilometer away from the area. Most of the families, which lived here before February 27th, 2002, have now left for other areas leaving 11 of the families here in complete isolation.

Rehana’s mother in law died. When she was on bed, her husband applied for a payroll but was denied. He came to see his mother three days after her death. That is the tragedy of the entire incident. Says Rehana,’ Narendra Modi is not a married man. Had he been married and had some children, he would have been sensitive to the issues of family, pain of a mother or anguish of a wife or cry of the children who miss their father. How would he explain to a mother who died crying without seeing her son?

In the global war on terror, it is very clear that it is the educated elite, which is now becoming a tool in the hands of the deeply religious fanatics. Poor were actually never were part of it. They might be looked down upon as ‘fundamentalists’ but never as ‘terrorists’. In this age when war are psychological as well as more so on modern techniques, a look at the profile of 11 POTA victims would tell how government was hell bent on making the innocent as terrorists.

Shabbir Hussain was bus conductor with a happily married life with children has been arrested. Shabbir Anwar Ansari and Alauddin Ansari were brothers with their families. Both were with their mother and running a bakery shop. Sadiq Khan Sultan Khan was a painter. Shamsher Khan is brother of Sadiq Khan. Yusuf Khan used to make bamboo Pinjara while Feroj Khan was working with Yasin Habib in a hotel. Feroj Khan was working in a steal company and Jabir Binyamin was working with a dairy. Fakhruddin Yusuf was working as a driver and was not even in the town. He returned in the evening only. The work profile of all these people may not suggest whether they had time to conspire against people. He has six daughters and 2 sons. Now all of them have left this place, as there was no security of life and livelihood for them. Jabir’s wife Jainab informs how her two children miss their father. Daughter Saima Bano 4 and son Shehjad 5 have not got their fathers live as he is in jail. In fact Saima was born after her father was in jail.

Jabir’s brother Ramjani was a rikshawpullar with a school. He was arrested from school where he was taking school children. Ramjani has six children with the eldest daughter Naseem Bano aged 12 and the youngest son Sarfaraj aged 5. Another brother Habib is also arrested. He has two children Shamir and Ferhan. The families are virtually living in despair and starvation. All the women are working as domestic servants in the relatively middle class Muslim households and get a maximum of Rs 250/- added with left over food. Irony is that the children are looked after at home by the neighbors or elders like Nafisa bi and other elderly women who cannot work. Some of the children go to a nearby school but majority of them dropped out.

Now Gujarat will face elections and the government of Narendra Modi has started divising methods, which can create communal wage. Dalits are being charged in false cases. Inter caste and inter religious marriages are being blown out of proportion. The state administration is thoroughly Hinduised. Even inside the booking windows of the railway stations one can find the pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, which is against our secular ethics. Cases are not registered for Muslims. Take the case of Jatun Bibi whose house was burnt by the rioters in village Mirapuri which is about 13 kilometer from Godhara. They have a total of 12 acres of land in the family of six yet even 5 years after the riots Jatun can not go back to her village. She now stays in the slums of Rehmat Nagar on a rented house along with her husband. Jatun Bibi filed a case against Sarpanch and won at the session court. The case was challenged in the high court where she lost. She does not even know about the case and files. It was never challenged later. Her husband says that they will never go back to the village as the village Sarpanch and his goons would kill them. Today, Jatun Bibi lives on rent in a small one-room house at Rehmat Nagar. She pays Rs 200/- per month as rent. Her husband is a labour. She used to own a Kirana shop in the village. Both husband and wife worked on the shop and had a big house for them along with others in the family. The three relatives (brothers and sisters) lived together but now they are not ready to return. Her husband expresses his fears that if they return to village, the Sarpanch would kill them. Police does not help in these matters. In fact, a BJP MLA has been supporting the sarpanch.

Jatun Bibi lost her mother in the childhood. She has four sisters and one brother. The one brother, according to her, has turned out to be an anti social element who would not share his parental property with the sisters. Tragically, Jatun Bibi has no sources to challenge the high court order. One does not know what her lawyers are doing at the moment. The condition of rule of law in Gujarat is that Muslims do not come out in open; you have to prove to them that you really care for their issues. Such things may shock people outside Gujarat but this unjust peace in Gujarat must be opposed. Peace building groups are roaming around but how can there be peace in Gujarat if the second majority of Gujarat lives in abject poverty, isolation and complete fear. Can such peace be supported which prohibit people to speak against injustice?

It is not that only Muslims are being targeted in Gujarat. The Dalits and tribals are used against the Muslims and are intimidated if they do not cooperate. Recently, a tribal leader of a social movement who was fighting for the forest rights of the tribals was barred from entering into four districts by the administration. The wife of a well respected Muslim doctor in Godhara was disturbed so much in the aftermath of Godhara that she shifted from Gujarat along with her children as safety of the children was paramount to her.

Gujarat is on the verge of history today. Gujarati’s enjoyed the fruits of globalisation. People greeted them everywhere from Africa to America and England where they went for their business and succeeded. Today, the same Gujarati’s particularly the Non-resident Indian variety are conspicuously silent on the functioning of the governance, which want to weed the fellow Gujarati Muslims out from the state. Often, Gujarati’s use Mahatma Gandhi and his message of social reconciliation for their own benefits abroad particularly in Africa, it is time, they realize that Bapu’s dream of reconciliation hold true for their own state also. In the so-called war against terror we should not forget that it also call for a just government. It also calls for justice against those who are terrorists but not Muslims. They too are terrorists who kill innocent people, rape their women and publicly support killing and humiliation of human being who happens to be Muslims. War against terror should not only be against the terrorists who happen to be Muslims but all those also who kill Muslim selectively. If this so-called war has to be won against the evil designs of all those then those in power or those who wish to come to power must show their resolve in providing governance and protecting all those who are citizens of state. One hope our governments in the Center and states listen to those cries of the victims of the mass killing in Mumbai after the demolition of Babari Masjid or those killed in Hashimpura, Bhagalpur, Kanpur and elsewhere. Not only war against terror, we will need to define genocide in present day term and its linkages to fundamentalist ideologies supported by the state. All those ideological dictators need to be brought to book for abetting the riots, supporting the killing or threatening them with dire consequences. Unfortunately, deeply prejudiced mindset cannot change. Gujarat needs a strong civil society as well as a strong rainbow coalition of the Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Christians and OBCs to tackle fascist onslaught on people’s right and livelihood. The real target of the saffron forces in Gujarat is actually not Muslims but Dalits and Adivasis as we only talks of Gujarat issue in terms of Muslims but not in terms of socio political issues, which have threatened the very basis of this government. Adivasis are threatened from their livelihood as Modi goes abroad inviting big industrialists to suck the blood of poor Adivasis and Dalits. All Dalits and Adivasis who are trying to assert are boycotted and pitched against Muslims and Christians. Public land in Gujarat is being given to private companies and nothing has been done to eliminate poverty. The only thing Gujarat has these days is rabid Hinduisation or I would simply say, brahminsation process. It is sickening to see such ritualistic symbols present in everyday life from posters in railway stations to Panchayat Bhavans, you will find not one or two Gods but large number of Godmen. Nowhere, in India such naked neglect of the secular laws of the country. Why should railways allow a picture of Hanuman in its reservation counters or why should the schools and Panchayat buildings have Asha Ram Bapu or Murari Bapu. If you love so much your Gods please do allow the other gods also. And definitely, then will have to put a Mao and a Marx also to satisfy the nonbelievers. This hypocrisy must be challenged. Gujarat is communalized very systematically and the disease is spreading like a virus.

The answer lies in strong ties of real Gujaratis who do not have golden plates in their homes or who do not have NRIs in their family. Yes, Gujarat could be saved by a strong people’s movement involving every segment of the marginalized sections of our society including Muslims and all those victims of Narendra Modi’s rabid anti Dalit, anti tribal and anti farmer policies. It is also time to take these religious lunatics head on otherwise they will deny every one a right to live with dignity and freedom to express.