Dalit women's issue can not be left to men only

Samvad : Ms Rajni Tilak, Director, Centre for Alternative Dalit media and Dalit right activist

Ms Rajni Tilak, 50, is a Dalit human rights activist, writer, feminist. A fiercely independent woman, she has been a grassroots activist all along, supporting various issues of social and national concern. With her own admission, she says that she was born in a conservative family. She was the first to form a -progressive Student Organization in ITI Shahadara Delhi. Her education was very difficult, as her father never liked the idea of getting her educated beyond 11^th standard. Her Mother however, was a strong votary of her education and she continued and finished her BA Rajni Tilak is now organising Dalit women and is also working with Center for Alternative Dalit Media (CADM). In a conversation with Vidya Bhushan Rawat, she explains why the Dalit movement need to rethink on the issue of women empowerment.

VB: Rajni, could you tell me your back ground. What were the conditions from which we grew up and how you cope with the social inequality? Dalits may be maltreated with the upper caste Hindus but when the family pattern is concern, they follow the same brahmanical feudal tendencies towards their woman. What is your impression about your society?

RT: I was a member of Progressive Dalit Organisation in 1978 and was instrumental in forming a college student union in ITI Shahdara, New Delhi. My father was a traditionalist and did not want me to go to college and hence my education was discontinued from 11^th onward. My mother however, was progressive and allowed me to join technical courses in ITI for stenography and dress designing. I did BA as a private student and started school for Dalit students in slums of Seelampur. Most of our stduents were Dalits and Muslims. We organised the Anganwadi workers in Delhi and made a trade union of theirs. About 4000 Anganwadi workers were demanding for a proper pay scale as they were just being provided with an honorarium for their work, with no social security. Then I was appointed in a government service in Mumbai and later on transferred to Delhi, where I started working with Saheli a women’s right group.

VB: What were your experiences with Saheli. Traditionally, the women’s group in India have rarely questioned the patriarchal structure of society and secondly most of them have been out of touch with the Dalit woman who is the most oppressed as she has to face two stigmas in the society: one being a woman and other of a Dalit. Please comment?

RT: Actually, at Saheli, women’s issues were never meant for the poor women. They were for the high society basically counseling the upper middle classes regarding the marriage, divorce. They would often term that women don’t have caste. they all are oppressed. How could I agree to such a notion? How can u say that the all women are same? The same upper caste women would never allow the dalit women to roam near them.

VB : Rajani, what were your objection to Women’s reservation bill?

RT : You know the first thing they have to realise is the difference between a Dalit women and caste women. After years of struggle for social justice, now members from lower sections of society are making it to Parliament and state assemblies. This is not an old phenomenon but a post 90s situation. Now, the brahmanical forces are apprehensive of this unity and majority of the down trodden in the top decision making body. So, they have come with the argument of women’s reservation. The point is that they are not interested in women’s emancipation. Hindutva cannot emancipate women. Secondly, our problem is that dalit women are not educated and don’t easily come up. If reservation were not made for them, the entire women’s seat would be taken over by the upper caste women. It will again be the brahmanical rule in India through their women. The women from minorities, and other backward classes have the similar problem and hence the government must ensure reservation of seats for them as well.

VB : But Rajni, don’t you think that when a Bhagwati Devi, who is a Mushhar,( a Dalit community in Bihar and UP, who were among the most oppressed, eating rat was their profession), can come to Parliament without any reservation, Dalit and other women can also make it there. Don’t you think that in actual, our political class as a whole doesn’t want women’s reservation as most of them fear to lose their seats of Parliament. Don’t you think that even if reservation is provided for Dalits, OBCs and Minority women, it would be the beti-bahu-biwi brigade who will gain and not the grass root activists like you. How do you confront this issue?

RT: Yes, I agree with this. Women’s situation in the Dalit movement is really bad. It is still in the grip of brahmanical standard, middle class values where women is considered as an object and if you challenge these notion than you are treated as faminist. The problem is that Dalits are borrowing all the rubbish of brahmanism as if our goal is brahmanism. Our problem is that we don’t except that we are exploited in the society. We need more struggles for women’s emancipation. So far we are unable to come out of the brahmanical Sanskaras, which means some women may be economically independent but not independent for decision making. So, we need to reject this Hippocratic value system in the name of culture but unfortunately, these things are coming without any fight and hence it cannot change the system. For changing the system we have to reject the religious code because religion is the root of exploitation of women and at present the women’s who form our political leadership whether Dalits or non Dalits are unable to come out of this patriarchal structure.

VB: Coming to your patriarchal point, let me narrate an often-used phrase among the Dalit intellectuals. ‘Roji-beti’ ka rishta, they would often term whenever they are questioned about a dialogue among various Dalit groups. Don’t you think that as a rationalist dalit activist, such terminology’s which make women as product are contemptuous and must be rejected henceforth?

RT : Yes, ofcourse. I find it strange that while the upper caste women are getting in to love marriages, self arrange system, our society is more and more isolating itself from others. We have our own ghettoes. The same people, who cry loud on this, would find it difficult to digest if their daughter get married outside their caste fold and without family permission. I have seen how many of them tried to stop the marriages of their daughters and relatives if she did it without their prior permission. Dalit males are more rigid in their attitude towards their women.

VB : Don’t you think that we are too much in symbolism than working at the grassroots. I mean to say : many Ambedkarite would ask about your biradari and caste and religion before believing you. Dr Ambedkar was an iconoclast yet the number of his statutes are increasing.. His disciples are satisfied with them only?

RT: Yes, the fact is that these so-called Ambekdarites have lost touch with the masses. When you lose touch with masses, you lose your legitimacy and to legitimise yourself you are in the symbol business. We have seen people criticising Brahmanical religion yet

On the 6^th December and 14^th April worship Babasaheb like any other godly idols. Is it correct? Why to follow the Brahmanical pattern. We need to strengthen our identity and assertion of identity is not in symbols but in ideology. Unfortunately, the ideological part is missing from those who make much hype on symbol still people are fighting at the grassroots and reading literature on Ambedkar and by Ambedkar.

VB: Do you think we need to highlight contribution of other people who fought for Dalit rights and social justice apart from Dr Ambedkar?

RT: Baba Saheb Ambedkar is the root of Dalit identity and we must propagate him to enlighten the Dalit communities yet there is also a dire need to focus on other great Dalit intellectuals and leaders like Jyoti Ba Phule, Savitri Bai Phule, EV Ramaswamy Naicar, Srinarayan Guru and other local heroes who have never been highlighted. And that’s why our National Federation of Dalit Women, we decided to bring more about women Dalit leaders. I wrote a book on Savitri Bai Phule which was very well received as people want to read about the struggles of these people and who else could be the best person to be followed regarding women’s education than Savitri Bai Phule who fought against the upper caste tyranny on Dalit women for educating them.

VB : What are you doing to popularise the Dalit literature ?

RT : We are already doing many thing through CADAM which is Center for Alternative Dalit Media. It was an alternative media to voice the issues of Dalits. We decided to print literature on Dalits intellectuals and leaders and provide them to masses on cheaper rates. Our monthly journal ‘Abheemooknayak’ is already reaching to a large number of Dalit activists and we plan to popularise books through this channel. We want to publish small booklets so that people can easily read them and keep them safe. Big books are costly as well as people don’t read them.

VB : What do you think the impact of Economic Policies on Dalits ? Many Dalit ideologues support economic liberlisation as an instrument, which will liberlise Dalits ?

RT : How can the economic policies help the Dalits ? It has already hit them with shrinking government and public sector? Will the private companies or multinationals go for job reservations for Dalits ? In the villages their traditional occupations are under threat? I don’t understand how people come to conclusion that economic liberlisation will help liberlise dalits ? Today, our economic sovergnity is under threat. The multinationals are coming and they will rule the country through the local ruling elite.

None of them will offer jobs to dalits. The jobs will only be in the fourth class. Another important point to mention is education sector, which is going to be costlier. Where will poor dalits, agricultural labour, landless worker send his children if government schools are closed ? Even the middle classes will find it difficult to work. There is no place for health security. Government hospitals are good for nothing yet they used to provide some satisfactions. Today everything government is considered bad. Today the concept of welfare state is considered to be outdated but can we do justice with dalits without being a welfare state? How can any one supporting the NEP will be a supporter of Dalit cause. Dalits are getting more marginalised in the new pattern of things and we must expose them and oppose them vociferously.

VB: What do you think about the role of International institutions, especially Ambedkarites living abroad? And how could they help the existing dalit movement in India.

RT: So far the International Dalits have never helped the grassroots movements in India. They should institute some fellowships and other financial help to those who have been working for the Dalit cause, so that they don’t depend on others. Let me make it clear that NGOs could be good at education, literacy, developmental work but they cannot make a movement. A movement could only built by the inherent ideological strength of the people. Fortunately Dalits have that ideological strength in the form of Ambedkarite movement, Periyar’s movement in Tamilnadu and that of Jyotiba Phule’s movement in Maharastra. Dalit movement has to be radical in approach and anti brahmanism is the root of dalit movement and dalit ideology.

VB: What about political power for Dalits? Don’t you think without social transformation things are getting worst?

RT: We must be politically conscious but not ambitious. From ambition I don’t mean we should not be ambitious but the internal unity and inner dalit dialogue is getting hampered with various ambitious people in different communities. Their political ambition is the root of all the problems and failure of different communities coming together. Rather than political ambition, if we mobilise people on social basis, I am sure the unity will be stronger than the political unity. Look at 1992 SPBSP combine had attained political unity but social unity was never there and hence it broke with the egos of our political leaders. Dalits issue is not simply with politics and political representation. It is a social battle. a battle of honour and human rights of every dalits so

we have to fight a long term battle. The NGO culture in Dalits need to rejected, as it will be harmful for the movement. NGOs can do good work in different fields but definitely they cannot make a movement. And for the liberation of Dalits we need strong radical anti brahmin movement which should be based on rationality. In the absence of a movement we will not be able to make a pressure on the government.

VB : Finally, Rajni, do you think that time has come now for dalit women to ask for their reservation with in dalit quota?

RT : Yes, it is important that Dalit women be given reservation within Dalit quota otherwise the male chauvinism will kill the dalit movement. It will remain as brahmanic as any body else.. Perhaps more brahmanic then the bramins themselves as we have not allowed our women to come forward. In the absence of women quota, rigidity against women will continue as everybody want to use his quota for his son. It is important that we raise this issue now but the problem is if I raise this question many people will term me a faminist or talking against the interest of Dalits. Is it wrong to talk for the liberation of Dalit women and demand for reservation with in the quota.

VB : Almost 15 years later Mandal II again threatened the very dignity of the Dalits even when they were not at all benefited from it. Interestingly, this time, there was not much protest even from the upper castes. A handful of urban elite led by the uppercaste doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, this time it was a media event. As a person doing much work with the issue of alternative media, what do you think, should, the intellectuals of Dalit movements as well as those of the other marginalized communities do? Where did the upper caste media fault reporting the Mandal events ?

Rajni : Actually whenever people talk of reservation there is a wrong feeling about SCs and STs getting benefited from it. The same thing happened with the anti mandal agitation which had nothing to do with the Dalits, as it was more for the OBCs. Today, reservation is for women also but when the doctors agitated they unnecessarily brought the issue of Dalits as if they were getting benefited from the current sort of reservation. Media showed a bias against the Dalit doctors. When they protested in Patna, it was reported that they attacked the media. Media itself became a party in the entire campaign against the Dalits.

It is not that Dalit did not respond to this. Unfortunately, it is the Dalits only who were visible supporting the reservation issue. The OBCs who were to be benefited from this were seen no where. Where were they ? Perhaps, they did not want to come along with the Dalits. I am shocked that Gujars who fought for separate reservation in Rajasthan asking quota from tribal quota did not join the protest in support of quota at the AIIMS. Perhaps because the Gujars themselves practice untouchability with the Dalits and would never like to stand with them. In this entire exercise women are completely left behind. Dalit/OBC/minority women did not even know whether something was being done for them. None of our leaders talked about it.

VB: Even after the Durban summit, gender issue remains on the margin with in the Dalit movement. Does the issue of gender really threaten the Dalit movement as some of the ‘thinkers’ perceive. What should the movement and its leaders do to change this situation. Do you think that this is an important issue and need priority.

Rajni: This is unfortunate because men feel insecure. It is this fear that women are being pitted against them to thwart the movement is a completely brahmanical idea of patriarchy. How can we allow such brahmanical values dominate our movement. It is important that we allow women to participate in higher level bodies. Allow them to participate in the movements from very beginning and you will never find any shortage of women leaders in the movement.

VB : What do you really think of empowerment ? In Uttar-Pradesh, BSP is in power with Mayawati as chief Minister. The upper castes are happy on the ‘social engineering’ done by bahinji but the fact is that the real losers are the Dalits as their participation has reduced. The assault on them continue without any reduction and Brahmins are enjoying the most glorious moments of their life in UP and its power game. Where are Dalits and dalit women in particular in this entire exercise.

Rajni: Actually what Mayawati is doing is ‘mainstreaming’ the Dalit politics but the problem lies in this ‘mainstreaming’ as it ignore the demands and issues of the Dalit masses and caters the need of the ‘others’. She is doing everything that every other party is doing. There is nothing called social engineering. Congress was doing it earlier. BJP has done it, Samajwadi Party was doing it. However, I can not call Mayawati, a feminist leader in any term as women are rarely the strength of BSP. She has rarely spoken in term of woman, neither does she want to be categorized as woman’s leader only. But that apart, there is no extra effort on her part to give women a chance in her party. That is painful. There are not even one percent women leaders in BSP. A leader can put her vision into the party and people will follow that but unfortunately that has not happened. People feel community empowerment is more important than woman. A woman is never part of our power structure whether in party or in community.

However whatever she ( Mayawati) is doing it is more as politics of tokenism yet despite this for millions of Dalit masses she is a hope. Hope that she would get them justice, a woman who could be prime minister of India and is fighting against every odd. It is dangerous and the biggest damage is being done to Ambedkarite values and ideas. How can there be a politics sitting with the exploiters and casteist people. How can we claim to be legatee of Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule and others if we sit with those whose very ideas are very antithesis of the foundation of Dalit movement. But this is not the end. I am hopeful that people will learn from these experiments and will find new alternatives in future.

VB : In the past one decade we have seen the growth of the Dalit writers. There is talk of ‘ Dalit Sahitya’. Lot of new definitions came up. Particularly in Hindi, a number of women writers are also coming up. What difference you see between the traditional writings by the Dalit activists and new writing emerging from the Dalit women. What is the difference between the perception of the Dalit women with that of the mainstream Dalit writings.

Rajni : Many in the women’s movement today support the rights of the women to ‘use’ their bodies. Now we are using legitimate words like ‘Sex workers’ and fight for their rights. From a Dalit perspective where do you differ. Agreed that women have a right to ‘use’ their bodies but the main question is how many of them are really using it freely and independently. And in the din of all these, are we not forgetting the grave fact that a majority of women brought up in the brothels do not go out of their own choices but are due to trafficking. Most of the Dalit and Advasi girls are not there out of their choice but because of forces operating in the villages, who make money at the cost of the dignity and choices of Dalit and Adivasi women and perhaps that is a clear difference of perception here with that of Dalit women.

Salute to a brave soul who fought for her honor in Orissa

A story for serious follow up and not for big TRPs of the channels.

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

They came in large number with their OB vans, photographers and anchor persons. Much before she could come and join the press, the hall at the Indian Social Institute in Delhi was fully overcrowded. Every body present thought that for that day there was enough ‘news’ to spread the TRPs. I had never seen such a ‘concern’ from the commercial media for the communal violence against the Christians, so it was quite surprising that the popular faces of the TV were there to broadcast live the ‘historic’ press conference.

Yes, I am talking about Sister Meena, an Adivasi nun who was raped by the Hindutva’s thugs in kandhamal district of Orissa On August 24^th. In her statement made to the press

She said, “

On August 24th, around 4:30 pm, hearing the shouting of a large crowd, at the gate of Divyajyoti Pastoral Centre, I ran out through the back door and escaped to the forest along with others. We saw our house going up in flames. Around 8:30 pm we came out of the forest and went to the house of a Hindu gentleman who gave us shelter.

On 25th August, around1:30 pm,the mob entered the room where I was staying in that house, one of them stopped me on my face, caught my hair and pulled me out of the house. Two of them were holding my neck to cut off my head with axe. Others told them to take me out to the road; I saw Fr. Chellan also being taken out and being beaten. The mob consisting of 40–50 men was armed with lathis, axes, spades, crowbars, iron–rods, sickles etc. They took both of us to the main road. Then they led us to the burnt down Janavikas building saying that they were going to throw us into the smouldering fire.

When we reached the Janavikas building, they threw me to the verandah on the way to the dining room which was full of ashes and broken glass pieces. One of them tore my blouse and others my undergarments. Father Chellan protested and they beat him and pulled him out from there. They pulled out my saree and one of the stepped on my right hand and another on my left hand and then a third person raped me on the verandah mentioned above. When it was over, I managed to get up and put my petticoat and saree. Then another young man caught me and took me to a room near the staircase. He opened his pants and was attempting to rape me when they reached there.

I hid myself under the staircase. The crowd was shouting "where is that sister, come let us rape her, at least 100 people should rape." They found me under the staircase and took me out to the road. There I saw Fr. Chellan was kneeling down and the crowd was beating him. They were searching for a rope to tie us both of us together to burn us in fire. Someone suggested to make us parade naked. They made us walk on the road till Nuagoan market which was half a kilometer from there. They made to fold our hands and walk. I was with petticoat and saree as they had already torn away my blouse and undergarments. They tried to strip even there and I resisted and they went on beating me with hands on my cheeks and head and with sticks on my back several times.'

I am not putting the entire text which is already available to various websites where the nun says openly how the police never protected her and it was not even doing its basic duty of filing her FIR. Instead, it discouraged her from doing so. Her horror story moved every one but more than that was her immense courage to come in the forefront against the guilty who are being protected by the inefficient and corrupt state government of Orissa. For the past one year, the Hindutva’s hate campaign against the Christian missionaries in Orissa and other parts of the country have not resulted in anything. Despite the terror the work of these communities in the far flung areas of the country is praise worthy. Despite all the blames of evangelism, the work of the missionaries in the poor communities in India is unparallel. No one can deny the fact that such an enormous amount of work particularly in the health and educational sector in India is much disproportionate to the number of the community in the country, which denied education to large part of the its masses named as Dalit-Bahujans and an educational set up dominated by brahmanical elites of the country.

Orissa’s horror story did not end in frightening the community workers. It is terror in all the forms. From burning the churches, demolishing their holy book, to attacking the social institutions of the community and even when such things fails to dampen the spirit of the community then the final assault. And the final assault is in the form of molestation, rape and indignity heaped upon women and men both. It is beyond shock that such mishaps of history are defended shamelessly on the television channels and widely circulated internet debates.

So, it was refreshing to see a large number of media persons to show their concern when they received an intimation for the press conference of Sister Meena. The timing was accurate at 2 pm. But the entire media was much before the organizers could make it there. The TV Cameras, the photographers, the anchors cum reporters, every one was settling for the final moments. There were cries from behind where the full team of camera persons were ready to ‘shoot’ the minutes details. The still photographers were preparing for the final assault.

Around 2 pm, as Father Dominic Emanuel came and announced modalities of the press conference saying that the sister would read her statement to the press and nothing more and nothing less. He made it clear that no further question would be taken in this regard as the sister was not in a position to speak and also the matter was subjudice.

The journalists, particularly from the electronic media were shocked as they thought of having an ‘exclusive’ interview with sister. They thought that the sister would give them lucid details of the incidents and then they would run it for several days like what they have been doing regarding Arushi murder case or Jessica Lal murder case. They perhaps forgot that a victim of the feudal communal mindset in India need a lot more than just courage to speak to the national media. Even when many of the Sangh Parivar people say that the charges of rapes were false, I do not want to comment on the hired pen-pushers who do not have the courage to come open and accept that something horrible has happened. The sister’s narration moved every one who understands that how a woman mustered courage to speak of her plight to the ‘national’ media. It is time to stand with her and provide her mental support. We all know what happened to kandhamal and that if Hindu Rastra becomes a reality in this country, it would be a Kandhamal kind of rastra. Remember, a Hindu Rastra would be a great calamity for India, warned Ambedkar.

The irony is that some of the Church people from Orissa went and met Mr Lal Krishna Advani, just a few days before nun’s press conference and Advani in turn expressed his ‘gratitude’ to the missionaries as how he studied in Christian schools. He then went on to condemn the incident of rape on the nun and said that there should be dialogue among all the religion. Now, somebody, should have told Advani that this is not a question of dialogue but bringing culprits to the book. Those who initiate such a dialogue with a criminal gang are criminal and have betrayed their very cause. The nun has her original identity as a tribal from Orissa and it is important to understand that she paid a price of her faith. Sangh Parivar’s loyal intellectuals would always like to debate and then justify their positions after each event. If we continue to legitimize them by initiating a dialogue with them we make them representative of non Christians-non Muslim population of India which is highly objectionable. The Muslims and the Christians who initiative such a fake religious dialogue with them must be isolated and boycotted.

Finally, the sister arrived with her face covered with mask escorted by responsible friends like John Dayal and others but see the rush among the photographers. They heckled with each other to take photograph of the nun with different angle. It was just shocking to see how they were just fighting to take per photographs as if it was a photo session with a Bombay beauty queen. There was no understanding that a victim of the fascist onslaught was here to explain her plight. In a civilized society a victim of a such a horrible act would have found enough people from media and civil society speaking on her behalf but the scandalous silence of these sections of the society, added with Sangh Parivar’s assertion that she was lying as if a woman is very happy to say that she was raped, compelled the sister to speak to the media. It is further when the state government and its police which was unable to protect the nun from the humiliation. The state government wanted her to identity the accused in Orissa itself without giving her due protection. It needs not to be elaborated here how Orissa and Kandhamal district in particular have become an area where Christians are being targeted and hounded. And the government’s inaction has further deteriorated the situation with Christians still finding it difficult to return their home. In such a scenario when the media has no time to follow up their own stories, a brave woman speak her plight should have been welcomed. A society where the victim is asked to prove her innocence can not be termed as civilized society and those who claim for it must hang their head in shame. We must admit that we live in one of the most brutal society and the only civilized thing about us is our civilized constitution without being effectively used to protect its citizens who need it.

Many in the crowd said that there was nothing wrong in photographers taking the photos in such a way. It was great that media was present but it should properly think that not everything is meant to strengthen your TRPs. A person’s plight needs to be heard properly. If you need to take photographs to do your ‘professional’ duty, do it with grace, understanding the importance and seriousness of the issue. I know these days the TV cameras are everywhere even when the dead bodies go from the family and the reporters are asking the family people ‘ how are you feeling’. But it is not just media fault. People are also eager to see their faces on TV and print so we see they do ‘speak’ on the camera how ‘great’ their dear one was.

One thing is clear that the friends in support of Sister including CBCI need our solidarity for not making this incident cheap and vulgar. Friends like John Dayal and others handled this issue graciously and did not allow the ‘crazy’ media anything that would be termed a cheap publicity. Secondly, by supporting the sister’s courageous act of speaking to the nation her plight and her conviction to get justice, need to be encouraged. In this country the exploiters, rapists, and all those anti social elements get away with the law because the victims are victimized more than the tormentors. The Christian community has shown their great courage by siding with the sister. Let the media put pressure on the government of Orissa as well as the central government to act on the issue fast and get the sister a justice. Tragically, nothing has happened and the media will wait for another juicy story to which can raise their TRPs and the Hindutva terror would go unabated all over the country and the victims of this terror would rarely find space in our national media unless there is some ‘masala’ in it. One sincerely hope that with this press conference, the media will understand that serious issues need to be tackled seriously and they are not here to get more advertisement and market their channels. Let us see how many of them turn up to cover the issues if the CBCI organize another press conference related to violence against Christians in any part of the country. One hope the editors are listening and will do the needful. One can only hope that such atrocious and tedious process of law will not demoralize her further. Let us salute her spirit to get justice. Let us stand with her in this hour of crisis. Let us hope she get justice so that our faith in the institution of law remains intact.

Politics of identity and Identity of politics in India

India’s nationhood challenged by multiple identities

Politics of Identity is literally the identity of politics in India

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Assam is burning today. Latest reports suggests that over 75 people have been killed and scores of other injured in the 13 bomb blasts that ripped through several districts of the state yesterday ( October 30^th, 2008). The intelligence’s needle of suspicion is on Huji militants and United Liberation Front of Assam ( ULFA). Just a few weeks back, several villages of Muslims were burnt and it looked that Assam might return to the horror stories of February 18, 1983 when in Nellie alone witnessed the worst ever carnage, brutal killings of about 3300 people in just one day.

Assam has been too sensitive to the issue of immigrants and over the past fifty years a huge chunk of Bangla immigrants have infiltrated in the state creating panic of a demographic change in the state. It is not just the Muslim immigrants which the Hindutva organizations often blame, but also the dominance of Bangla speaking people have become a bone of contention in the north east. Last year, the Hindi speaking people from Bihar were targeted in Guwahati and other parts of Assam.

But Assam is not alone in its antipathy towards the immigrants. Maharastra is in the turmoil and the fire is lit by none other than Raj Thackrey and his private limited company ‘ Maharastra Nav Nirman Sena’ or MNS. This time the target is poor taxi drivers, milk sellers, vegetable vendors from Hindi speaking states particularly Bihar and Uttar-Pradesh. The MNS says that these people have over burdened the city of Mumbai and snatched the jobs from the locals. Unfortunately, Raj and his MNS have no complaint against the industries being run by Sindhis, Marwadis, Sikhs, Parsis and Guaratis. It is also interesting that Bombay was actually never really a showcase of Maharastra, as Pune on one side and Nagpur on the other were the true symbol of Maharastra. Every body knows that Maharastra has a big heritage and a pan Indian identity of both the Dalit-Bahujan legacy as well as Hindutva protagonists. In terms of Hindutva, Nagpur became the headquarter of the Sangh and Tilak, Savarkar became the masters of Hindutva in India. But most astonishing part of the Maharastra legacy is the rise of revolt in the form of Ambedkar, Jyoti Ba Phule and Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj. Thanks to rising consciousness among the marginalised these legends are now recognizable faces all over the country.

Language nationalism started from Tamilnadu when Periyar and his self respect volunteers rightfully targeted the imposition of Hindi all over the states where Hindi was just a foreign language. Periyar’s fear was that this Hindisation of Tamilnadu will be a death knell for the Dravidian Tamil culture. There might have been other reasons also for the anti Hindi agitation but there were not many immigrants from the Hindi heartland. The real thing was that Madras, the state capital, had a majority of non Tamil people basically Telugu speaking and they had their own grievances against the dominance Tamil identity. The struggle for Telengana was basically assertion of an identity which looked themselves different from Tamil and the result was the formation of an Andhra State for the Telugu speaking people in 1953.

Similarly, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh were carved out of Punjab to protect the ‘Hindi’ speaking people whose language was not Punjabi. The fact of the matter was that most of them had Punjabi as their mother tongue but they opted for a Hindi state on utterly communal lines. Abohar and Fazilka, the two towns of Haryana became bone of contention in the reorganization of state as Punjab claimed them. Like wise, Kerala became a state for the Malayalam speaking people while Karnataka for Kannada.

Indian people have multiple identities. And the most important one these days were caste identity. A veteran like Editor of Dalit Voice, V.T.Rajshekar says that caste is the most important among these identities as every Indian asserts his/her caste identity more than anything else. Caste surpasses even the religious identities. Interestingly, when the states were reorganized, they thought that the language was unifying force. Definitely not. The interest of the Dalits in Maharastra are very much different than the interest of the upper caste Marathas. In fact, it was the Shiv Sena and its goons that went bloody to oppose the name of Marathwada University in the name of Dr Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar University in the mid eighties. Was Baba Saheb not a Maharastrian ? Was he not educated? But then, the Shiv Sena which claims to champion the Marathi Manoos, does not have these identities as main identity. Identity for them is to gain power and serve the interest of their own goons. Otherwise, why has the Hindutva exposed itself at the micro level when it was championing the cause of the ‘Hindus’ of India? It indicates how the ‘nationalism’ cracks in India and simply identify with your ethnic identities. It is used in the regional context if the person claiming its legacy has his option limited to state. So for Raj Thackerey and other in his family pan Hindutva identity remains unbeneficial and therefore they have started this Marathi-non-Marathi debates.

The politics of India has changed very much in the past 20 years. Hence the regional identities have been replaced by the caste identities. There was a time when the language was big meeting point but in the post Mandalised India, it is the caste which is becoming more uniting factor and hence the usage of this identity is not just the domain of the Dalits and OBCs alone but also the Brahmins. Hence, if you go to interior of Tamilnadu today, where the most oppressed Paraya or Arundhatiar may not know anything about the culture of the north, but definitely feel proud in owning Mayawati as his hailing from his community. Similarly, Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh, Gandhi and Subhash have crossed all the boundaries of region and languages. They are not confined to one language and are worshipped by their own followers.

But it is also true that language can be a strong cultural identity as happened during the time of creation of Bangladesh. Pakistan came into being in the name of Muslim identity and Urdu became its ‘national language’ ignoring the vast majority of Bangla speaking people as well as dominating Punjabi Muslims. When Jinnah went to deliver his first lecture as Governor General of Pakistan in the Dhaka University Campus immediately after the creation of Pakistan and declared that ‘Urdu shall be the national language of Pakistan’, the students pelted stones and threw chappals at him. The issue of Bangla nationalism was so strong that Urdu and Pakistan became its first victims. Unfortunately, it is not just the language identity which made some people superior and other inferior. Reading through the texts of some of Pakistani generals felt that the people of East Bengal were inferior to those of West Pakistan. Clear enough, the caste identities of superior race dominated the consciousness of Pakistan and Urdu a language of the pure remained isolated in the Punjabi dominated Pakistan.

But in the modern politics of identities in India, it is actually either religious or caste identity that is becoming dominating. The Hindi speaking Uttar-Pradesh is being demanded to be partitioned to at least five states of Harit Pradesh, Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand, Avadh and Ruhailkhand. Uttarakhand, Chhatishgarh and Jharkhand were carved out of their mother states because of ‘distinct’ cultural identity. While Chhatishgarh and Jharkhand had a long history of the Adivasi movement for separate state, Uttarakhand state had anti reservation movement as the focal point of their separation from Uttar-Pradesh which was under the domination of Dalit Bahujan identities. Identities are carefully crafted and hence at the one end when Uttar-Pradesh’s political forces combined Dalit-Bahujan to dislodge to the brahmanical hegemony, polity has taken a completely U turn against the same ideological perception and Bahujan has been recreated as Sarvjan. In the Uttarakhand state, issue of plain verses hill became dominant ignoring the basic difference between Kumauon verses Garhwal. In both the assembly elections Uttarakhand’s Brahmins carefully drafted these identities to benefit them. Hence when Congress was in power it made N.D.Tiwari, the chief minister of the state just ignoring the claim of Harish Rawat, who was the president of the party and led it to the victory and when the BJP came to the power, it made B.C.Khanduri, another Brahmin, but this time from Garhwal, in the name of Garhwali sentiments, as chief minister again ignoring the claim of the Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, who has the majority support of M.L.As.

The BJP created the three states out of its own compulsions. It knew well that it was difficult for it to regain power either in Bihar and Uttar-Pradesh, as both the states have been the biggest hurdles in Sangh Parivar’s agenda for spreading the communal venom. Also, both the states have been successfully able to contain the communal virus because of the massive Dalit Bahujan alliance. Ofcourse, this alliance itself has lot of contradictions which are being used and co-opted by the Sangh Parivar yet both UP and Bihar have shown that caste consciousness in broader sense has been able to contain the hegemony of the brahmanical structure, though the ideology is difficult to get defeated because of the cooption of the political class and our antipathy for the values of human dignity and individual’s supremacy. So, in the name of identity, we have seen the rise of the brahmanical forces in these smaller states. All the three newly carved states of Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand are new experimenting ground of Hindutva with tribal, Dalits and OBCs trapped in their various contradictions being used by the brahmanical elites.

While language became the main focus of formation of state but as the new forces of interest are coming in, one hegemony is being challenged by the other one and those who do not have the numbers are the most isolated ones. The problem in the Indian subcontinent is our deep disregard for the minority rights. Experience has shown that the politics of identity is often detrimental for the individuals and minorities unless they have the power to challenge. It has often shown contempt for dissent and often poor people become victim of its ‘ultra-nationalist’ approach. Hence, the slogan of Jai Maharastra is nothing but a signals to those who are not born Marathi that they can not claim the legacy of the state as Marathi nationalism is quintessentially an upper caste Marathi dominance.

At the time when the Dalit-Bahujan consciousness at political level in Maharastra was threatening the status quo, this issue has divided people on language line. Congress used

the growing discontents in the state against the MNS for its own purpose and result would be a compulsion for the north Indians to join forces with Congress to ‘save’ multiculturalism. Already, Muslims are at the receiving end from the Shiv Sena and now this situation has further polarized the society.

Therefore, India needs a state reorganization commission. It need strong secular laws so that narrow chauvinism in the name of identities be dealt with strong hand. Hatred in the name of identity is in fact hidden apartheid where the sole aim of such forces is to maintain the status quo. Demand for separate state like Telengana are quite old but that need to be seen in a different track now. One must not forget that Andhra Pradesh came into being after much struggle in the name of Telugu identity, very similar to Gujarat’s separation from Maharastra. The problem in carving out these states was ignoring the claims of the Muslims and Urdu language. Urdu, a language born in India is slowly dying

Muslims seems to paying a price for the partition of India even after so many years. Every one except the Muslims demand for separate states since others got a right for their ‘legitimate’ demands. The political class in India needs serious thinking and secular law must be implemented because for every parochial demand if we start separate state because all of us do not want any dissent and disagreement will lead to further crisis in India. State can not be created to satisfy demands of a few individuals and their caste fellows. Hence, time has come for government to seriously think over the state reorganization commission and seriously ponder over the issues. A secular India can not allow state hood to fulfill Hindutva’s hidden agenda of brahmanical dominance which is severely under strain after the assertions of the marginalized communities. Any demand for separate state based on communal hatred need to be out rightly rejected. Statehood need to be developed on the rightful demands of the marginalized communities and not to maintain status quo for a few power Hungary politicians and their families.

Secularism at stake : Need to isolate religious rights

Revivalism of religious rights is a challenge to democratic secular constitution

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Immediately after the Delhi bomb blast, the police as usual, claimed to have cracked the case by arresting several people in a raid at Batla House, in the South Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area. Vice Chancellor of Jamia Milia Islamia, Mushir-ul-Hasan, who was seen to be a villain in the community on his forthright comment on the prohibition of ‘ Satanic Verses’, became a hero as soon as he decided that the University would provide all the legal assistance to the alleged terrorists who were student of the University. While ‘seculars’ have applauded the case, the Hindutva affiliates are up in arm against this, terming it unconstitutional as well as appeasement of the Muslims.

I am not entering into this debate on what is right and what is wrong as some people have decided to become judgmental terming one community always wrong while other always feel that it is victimized without introspecting our own self. Prof. Mushirul Hasan recently said in a meeting in Delhi as why should Muslim always be answerable to everything that is happening around them. He was actually saying that why do we expect Muslims only to react when there are bomb blasts or there is a Fatwa. His question was that the debate liberal verses fundamentalist Muslims is a sham and nobody ever think of other communities in the same way. Have we ever talked of a liberal Hindu verses communal one? That question would not arise as the upper caste Hindus are always perceived to be liberal one. Prof Hasan suggests as why should Muslims in India be responsible for whatever happening elsewhere? Ofcourse, Muslims of India are not responsible for whatever is happening in Bangladesh, Pakistan or any other ‘Islamic’ country but definitely they can speak against the treatment that minorities gets in these countries. Let us not speak about ordinary Muslim who is working harder for his survival in this country but why should those who champion the cause of Muslims remain mute to such things. Are we so naïve to say that there is nothing common in South Asia and we remained neutral to things happening in our neighborhood even when majority of us have relations in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan as well as Sri-Lanka. If the things in our neighbors do not affect us then Karunanidhi and entire Tamilnadu should not have felt the jitters because of the conditions of Tamils prevailing in Sri-Lanka.

Now, the debate revolves around the students who were picked up by the police as well as the encounter that was carried out by the Delhi police in Batla House. It is extremely unfortunate that today’s embedded media do not give the other side of the story. This CNNisation of the news and later pontification by the editors on their own story is a bit too much to digest. Much worst is the case when ‘breaking news’ appears and a reporter gets ‘confession’ from the ‘terrorist’. If we accept police confessions as the proof then why the Indian media and agencies are afraid of not accepting the same when an Indian prisoner in Pakistan confessed his hand in bombing.

Unfortunately, we are in the midst of an information war. Whether it is the Islamic sites or the Hindu fascists, every one is speaking to their own converts. And the biggest casualty here is the truth and freedom. Fact of the matter is that in this game of religious war, the common man, the poor and the women are at the receiving end. All talks of reforms are closed down as the main threat is then perceived from outside the community.

It is unfortunate that a legal aid given to a person is considered against the nation. One can disagree on the nature of support but one can not deny right to defense to those ‘alleged terrorists’. Ofcourse, I would hate it if people like Mulayan, Advani and Amar Singh jumps into the fray and sing the chorus. The political degeneration of the country is so much that none is going to believe in the truth. Hence every community should be vary of these power hungry politicians who are selling the country to the private parties, engineering communal and caste riots and then coming with great ideas for a secular idea. Sorry, in the state of affair, the credibility of our political class is so low that it gives strength to fundamentalist forces as they appear better than others. People easily ignore that corruption and dishonesty is not just in financial term but also in the ideological form.

As the elections season approaches we will witness continuous violence against the minorities in the country. Muslims are already in the receiving end and now the Christians are also being targeted systematically. The Hindutva propagandists have planned every thing well in advance and how to describe each of their action which has one agenda in different forms. The Muslims therefore are easily described as ‘terrorists’, suited to each one of us in India after George Bush’s notorious Islamic Fascism and ‘ either with us or our enemy’ statements. Christians, the blue eyed boy of Indian establishment are now at the receiving end. Despite churning out best Brahmins of the Hindutva brand today, the Christians face the dilemma of the political system in India. Surely, evangelism is part of Christianity but definitely there will always be violence on such cases as Hindutva’s targeting Christians is a threat to freedom and liberty of choosing one’s faith. It threaten the Dalits indirectly to be ware of such conversion to either to Christianity or Islam, else you will meet with the same fate.

Yet, Orissa’s violence can undoubtedly be termed as ethnic cleansing of the Christian minorities. That Sangh’s goons are roaming around, preaching hatred and killing people at their will shows how the Navin Patnayak’s administration has failed to protect the hapless Christians who happened to be Dalits. The Sangh parivar and its offshoot organizations have organized their hatred in the tribal dominated areas. From the very beginning the Sangh says that Lakshmananda was not killed by the Maoists despite their claim. Ofcourse, most of those who have been following such violence know that Maoists rarely make such claims and counter claim and in this case their claims are also surprising. Nevertheless, the government of Orissa’s pathetic helplessness reflects a mindset which gives an almost free hand to RSS and its affiliates to do things at their will.

Union Home Minister Shiv Raj Patil and his two colleagues have been miserable for the country. Patil had lost his Latur seat and was awarded the plum ministry for his loyalty to Gandhi family. If he was an efficient man, nobody would have objected to his cooption in the Ministry but he seems to be a Minister for nothing. Such sensitive department can not be left to just personal loyalists as country would have to pay a price for it.

If the home ministry had been strong enough to take action in each of these issues, the Sangh Parivar and its goons could not have got such freedom to assault any one at their will. Patil represent at best the duality of Congress party in dealing with the communal elements. Congress, which actually was a representative body of a majority of diverse Indian communities once upon a time despite its Brahmanical character slid in the decimation after 1980s as Indira Gandhi started using the upper caste Hindu sentiments and the first call was Congress’s role in subsequent elections in Jammu and Kashmir and then operation Blue Star in June 1984, when the government ordered Army assault at the Harmandir Saheb. It mobilized the Hindu population of the country despite the fact that Sikh were completely marginalized. None had bothered to wipe the tears of those Sikh families who became victim of this marginalization.

But the rulers have understood well that by making mockery of law and vilifying one community, you can easily come close to power and therefore there is always a danger in India which is the entry of brahmanical supremacy through various doors. Through, the Hindutva propaganda and vicious violence against minorities, through the congress in action which allow the Hindutva lunatics to carry on their threat to minorities and Congress than proclaiming their sole protector and thirdly, through the state apparatus which has completely been Hinduised in the name of terrorism and goes by the same way as have inherited from the British and finally through secular platform which look different from Congress but a motley group of disgruntled politicians mainly from the upper caste Hindu background, secularism for whom means sitting with an Imam Bukhari or some Holy priests who can cry against the Indian state and the government of the day . Secularism has other vanguards also in India. Whenever these things happen, we see the same faces at one platform swearing in the name of secularism and protecting ‘minorities’. Deve Gowda, the other day, said how much pained he was on the happenings against the minorities. One should have asked him the question if he had thought beyond his son’s interest in Karnataka state, BJP would not have played havoc with them. Yeren Naidu was there who had no words for the Sangh parivar and their activist. Rather, his focus was how Congress had engineered communal riots in Andhra. Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh are now the biggest champion of secularism as Bombay’s king Bal Thackeray has asked for a ban on Samajwadi party and asking Amar Singh to leave India. Amar Singh’s greatest friend and brother Amitabh Bachchan is one of the best friends of the Thackrays so one does not know what kind of ideology they belong to. So far, Indian secularism has always been of pampering communities through bad examples like issue of terrorism, uniform civil code, Shariat and so on. None of them have time to feel that secularism is participation in nation building and socio-cultural political life of the country. And therefore, any one who believes in secularism, must feel convinced that Muslims are one of the most vulnerable communities in India at the moment. A majority of them live in poverty, malnutrition and deep insecurity. There is a hidden biasness against them in the government and even in the secular circles. If the secular parties were so much concern including Mr Mulayam Singh and Deve Gowda, they should have been more worried about the common Muslims and not with the issues of giving certificate who is a terrorist and who is not. Instead, one would have thanked to ensure fair participation of Muslims in our administration, in police and paramilitary forces, in our industries as well as civil services. Alas, our politician would never venture to think as why Muslim participation in our power structure is reducing and that it need redressed. As long as this happen, only the caste Hindus will be the leaders of Muslims in the name of secularism and those Muslims who do not believe in these fundamentalist leaders will either be termed as liberals or terrorists.

India’s basic problem lies in this certification of what is terrorism and what is not. While the Advani and company want every Muslim to be arrested and hanged for the ‘blasphemy’ of challenging the Indian state, the Indian ‘secular’ parties and political activists, seems to have lost faith in the political structure. And in this, the fundamentalist grains the most because those who do not believe in democracy and secular values are actually the biggest beneficiary of the secular state.

The threat to Indian statehood is bigger and vital but the response has been mute and reactionary. Rather than proactive, it is becoming more in the form of symbols and so called unity of all the reactionaries who are outside the brahmancial reactions. So, it is becoming a fight between the Hindu reactionaries and all other reactionaries who do not like them. Can India survive a fight between different reactionaries? Where will be the common person and her interest? All these reactionaries are opposed to basic human rights, whether right to livelihood, right to choice and right to abort. They preach gospels and are against individual freedom and right to question religion.

Yes, these reactionaries only feed each other. They cry against the other except questioning their own misdeeds. The state of India has become a virtual enslave to these religious heads. It would have been greater if the Hindus, Muslims, Dalits, Sikhs, Christians demand for secular laws and secular values san the fundamentalist leaders. The longer the leadership goes to the religious fanatics pretending peace mongers, the more dangerous the entire issue of diversity. These priests actually do not fight a political battle but a battle of religious supremacy. They know the weaknesses of others but not ready to discuss their own issues. They scuttle all kind of reforms with in the communities and therefore this war of various religious identities in India is going to defeat people’s movement for reform. Secular groups must be vary of this and join hand in such a war where a common man can challenge the religious head of the community and even question him.

The other day, a few members of the catholic community met at Advani’s house. Some of them ‘discussed’ the growing tension between different religious and the answer was Advani’s condemnation of the rape of the nun. Are things so simple as our priests think? The goons of Sangh Parivar have been active in Orissa and they need to be tackled administratively by the government but here the Christian priests showing their spine to Advani and he in term is talking a dialogue between different communities. The problem is what is an administrative problem has been made a national problem and an ideological fight on the secular vision is completely been termed as communal problem. The hoodlums of the Hindutva are roaming free, taking course of action which they like and finally the political patronage.

It is important to understand the current crisis in India is self created by the Hindutva protagonists which in turn strengthen the similar forces elsewhere as the religious heads take over as the leader of the community. Now, one should ask the government what is the need to discuss about what happened in Adilabad. A shameful and most atrocious incident happened in Andhra Pradesh when a Muslim family of six was burnt alive by the Hindu militants and nothing happened. It is tragic that the government seems to be sleeping and the incidents just passed as we see so much from the secular gangs about Batla house simply because the things happened in Delhi and you make a good news but why we keep quiet on what happened in Adilabad which should have put all of us to shame and shock.

Many of our friends say that Muslims do not need to speak all the time. Why not? We all need to speak all the time against fundamentalism. Muslims are no exception. If we do not speak the space will be taken over by the fundamentalists gangs who need some enemies to fight with and if there is no enemy they will create one.

After the Batala House incident, a well known TV anchor wrote an article asking Muslims to ponder over as why they need to support terrorists when Jamia Milia teachers decided to speak. In democracy, we all need to be vigilant and if an incident like Batla House can happen in Delhi, you can not imagine what happen in other parts of the country. Indian media as well as activist-politicians are treading dangerous path. Here people are already being declared as terrorists according to their religion and hence none of the media person will dare to call Bajrang Dal a terrorist organization. Advani is a nationalist, so is Thackeray and others but if other do the same; they will be branded and questioned. But the interesting news has just appeared in the Indian Express today when for the first time the mainstream media has reported in its front paged item that behind the Malegaon and other blasts, the police believe the hand of Hindu Jagarn Manch. ( Indian Express, Delhi October 23, 2008). I am sure the next day there will be many ifs and buts and not all Hindus would be declared as ‘terrorists’. Question is why the entire community should be vilified for the act of a few if they happen to be from the community. Indian media and society will have to ponder over this before putting any question.

Normally, these ‘liberal’ Hindus are more dangerous. Often they put question as ‘we accept that every Muslim is not a terrorist but why every terrorist is a Muslim’. This question is often asked to me and my answer is simple. It depends on your definition. You have not called people who can burn a family in Adilabad or Ahemedabad as terrorist. You have not called those who raped the nun and killed her as terrorist. You do not call who start his Rathyatra with a trail of blood behind it, as terrorist. You do not even stop him from becoming a prominent minister. You talk of morality but for others as you have information and media with you.

Yes, we are living in time when each one of us is passive about our own issues and about own communities. We have documents, truths and everything about our communities. We want to sale that victimization mindset. And it is here we are getting nowhere. Those who do not read history will always misinterpret it as we only believe in what our forefathers have told us. That is the beginning of fundamentalism and radicalism in our self. Therefore the Hindu liberal intellect would always say as why no Muslim country is either secular or democratic. It wont understand that in Algeria and Turkey the military had always intervened to stop a democratically elected government in the name of secularism. That the Islamic fundamentalist groups had been winning elections in these countries providing ample fuel to ‘secular’ army to intervene in the interest of the nation. Can we think of such an intervention in India to stop the likes of Narendra Modi in the interest of the country? Why should the same journalists, writer ignore the vital fact that the secular regimes in the middle eastern countries were dictatorial in nature resulting in religious revivalism fully supported by the American regimes to counter the former Soviet regimes.

It is important to understand the issues in wider perspectives and not be judgmental simply because somebody has got a newspaper and a channel in his hand. Media, academics as well as activists in India need lot of introspection. We simply do not speak on issues but are divided on communities line, both simply justifying their own positions. None of them dare to speak and support the dissent with in their own communities. As most of our communities want to listen to only those ideas which they have been conditioned and writers and activist know that and therefore vilify others. The biggest victim of this calumny is free thought and human rights which are perhaps still far cry with in each of these communities. Our state just represents our existing mindset. Why should we pretend that a democratic India is secular India also? The dirt in the name of secularism need to be cleaned first. Those who take shelter in the name of secularism need to believe in its perception and practice otherwise India is heading for a Afghanistan kind of a situation where we all will be speaking for our respective communities and not for those whose rights are violated and dignity challenged. It is a grave challenge and we must think it over. Give a space to common man please do not make the religious thugs an alternative to what is happening among us. A country victim of religious hatred can not look again to the mindsets who have concealed hatred in their heart and pretended smiles on their faces when they meet for a photo session.

Another Nandigram in making

Chengara’s Dalit-Adivasis call to restore their fundamental rights

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Bharathi Sreedharan could not resist taking risk on her life through dense forest as her children suffered in hunger and starvation in the Chengara village which has been unconstitutionally and unethically blocked by the trade union gangs of all the political parties including the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala. Her agonizing face reflected the happenings inside the village as for more than two months; it is completely cut off from rest of the country. No outsider is allowed to venture into the village and no villager is allowed to come out of it. CPM’s goons attack people from the buses once they recognize that they have sympathies with Chengara people. Many families are on the verge of hunger death if in the next few days no arrangement of food supply is done. ‘They want us to get out of the place but we are determined, says Bharathi, we won’t allow them to take over the place. We are ready to face any eventuality’. We are ready to die for the cause of our children’.

Bharathi came hiding to get some ration from her brother. When the road is blocked from all the way, it is possible only through walking around 10 kilometers in the forest to come and reach the office and wait for him to be there at Laha Gopalan’s office who is the leader of ‘ Sadhu Jan Vimochana Samyukta Vedi’, the organization fighting for the land and livelihood rights of the Dalits and Adivasis in Chengara. It is remarkable that people have united in this struggle and are determined to sacrifice their lives for the land. Interestingly, it is for the first time, that Kerala is witnessing an assertive emerging Dalit Adivasi struggle independent of the influence of dominating communities irrespective of religion.

Gopalan hails from a trade union back ground as he worked in Electricity department and now swears by the legacy of both Baba Saheb Ambedkar and Ayyankali, another Dalit revolutionary from Kerala. The semi constructed office in Pattthanamthittha is a place where all the Dalit-Advasis in the Chengara struggle come and stay. According to Laha Gopalan, they ventured into the area some fourteen months back, as it was legally a government land which should have gone to the landless Dalit-Adivasis of Kerala. The government of Kerala was never interested in the land reform and whatever happened in the name of land reform was eyewash. The tragedy is that there are villages where the Dalits do not have land for even cremating their people. The issue of Dalits and tribal has been neglected by the national and state level parties and hence we decided to make our own destiny.

About 10 kilometer away towards Tiruwala lives the big family of Sabu who are five brothers. Each brother has a big family of his own to support. They have no land. Sabu and his wife have small tea shop. The number of children in the family and the small kitchen that they have for their survival tell the story as how the successive Kerala governments failed to give land to the Dalits. ‘ Sabu was happy that Chengara’s vast track could have provided him a source of independent living and some land for agriculture work. He went there with other families. The real assault came from the trade unions this year when people refused to leave their land. ‘ The union felt that they can coerce us to accept their issues but at the moment people are ready to die. They will commit mass suicide if police and other forces are sending to evict them. We are not ready to accept anything less than a decent land package for our children’, say Sabu. He adds that situation is worsening as there is no food, no water and no sanitation in the entire area. Particularly, it is becoming difficult for children and elderly people to stay. Because of the blockade, we can not provide emergency treatment to any of the villagers as vehicles are not allowed and there is every chance of a bloody fight if we come in touch with the trade union people. Children are facing the malnutrition as there is nothing to eat and drink. We can not go to market to buy milk and rice. Moreover, because of no work in the past two months, there is no money to buy anything’.

How come he is here in the village. ‘ Sir, the union people allowed us 5 days leaves during the Onam festivities. We were allowed to move in and out and hence I came here. I have overstayed here and hence it is difficult to go there because of blockade’. I can not speak to my relatives and friends there, I am really worried as if food is not provided to people soon, they will start dying soon. I am concerned about children and elderly people. They are completely cut off from the rest of the world. It is shameful.’

The seize of Chengara went off well until one day the government which was keen to revive its lease to Harrison Plantation decided that the Dalit and Adivasis could only be evicted if they push it through other routs which is ‘right to live’ issue of the 70 odd plantation workers who were working there. The issue is the Chengara’s tea plantation was already defunct years ago and hence to blame the current situation for the crisis is absolutely wrong. Harrison Plantation cannot use these 70 workers as a shield to deny land rights of the people. The tactics they adopted are fascistic in nature as from the August this year, the situation worsened after the plantation trade union and CPM in particular started blockade. Now the parties have not only used the local tea plantation trade unions but people have been invited from other parts of the state also against the landless people. All the ways going to Chengara were blocked by the party men and no material including medical aid was allowed to go into the village. Only allowance given to people was during ONAM festivities when the blockade was lifted for 5 days to let the people celebrate the festival. But after that the blockade has become functional and harsher and it might turn into a bloody war. Now the situation has gone out of hand. People inside the Chengara area have no source of livelihood; there is no supply of food and water. Some Muslim youth organizations of the area wanted to send rice for the families but but never allowed to do so. It is violation of their rights to food and free from hunger. The state government has shamelessly allowed the situation to go out of hand which has given strength to the trade unions.

It is unfortunate that in this war against their Dalits and tribal the organized gang of the trade union is taking action irrespective of ideology. It is a rare combination of how the upper caste communists and the Hindutva people can come together to wipe out the legitimate demands of the Dalits and tribals. The duplicity of the CPM’s idea comes that the same party launch movement for restoration of land in Andhra Pradesh but want to say that all the Dalits and tribals who have now settled in Chengara are encroachers. Perhaps they have forgotten their own slogan of ‘ Jo jameen sarkari hai, woh jameen hamari hai ( the government land is our land. Land struggles historically invoked this slogan. Harrison Plantation Company did not have legal rights to the acquired land. The lease expired long back. The dalits and tribal who did not get benefited under any programme of the government rightfully acquired the land and asked the government to redistribute it to them. How come the communist government of Kerala kept quiet and turned hostile to Dalits who have just extended the slogan what the communist parties have been raising every where else except in the states they have been ruling. Is it because this land struggle is first of its kind being led by the Dalits and have organized both the Dalits and tribal together in the state.

Dalits have been asking the government to allot them land. In 2006 in the Patthanamthitta district after five days struggle in the government land of rubber plantation area, the land was given to the Dalits on the papers only. Many people are still trying to find where there land is which was given to them on papers by the state government. Says, Raghu, one of the members of the Solidarity Committee, ‘we do not want papers, we want land’.

Patthanamthitta is a district about 60 kilometers from Kottayam, the heart of the Syrian Christian, the original brahmanical convert to Christianity. About 40 kilometer from the town is the heart of Ayappa, the Hindu God. The land relations here are different as the dominant community here is the upper caste Christians. What their role is in the entire struggle of the Dalits, I ask Raghu. ‘ Oh, like any other feudal, the Syrian Christians also are not interested in the battle of Dalits. Dalits here have separate churches for them.’ The Solidarity Committee members like Simon John, who is also Chairman of Backward People Development Corporation, Kerala concede that the original Brahmin converts to Christianity have not left their old prejudices in the Church and therefore are not very keen in supporting the movement of the Dalits and tribal in Chengara. Like the CPM cadre, many of them too feel that the Dalits and tribal have ‘encroached’ the government land, though it is another matter that they all forgot that Harrison Plantation has been the biggest encroacher and was overstaying at the place. It is also shocking that Kerala did not have substantial land reform and all talks of a Kerala module in the developmental text books are big farce if one visit the rural areas of Kerala and speak to Dalits and tribals. A lot is written about Kerala model as a state. Recently a friend wrote to me from London about casteless, dowerless society in Kerala. Yes, I said, Kerala’s caste prejudices are hidden underneath like West Bengal since the first thing the communist regime does is to stop the export of information to outside world. More importantly since a large number of writers and authors actually have been sympathetic to the CPM’s policies with upper caste mindset, they do not really expose the Kerala myth. It was not just Bengal, Tatas have huge track of land in Kerala in the name of tea gardens and plantation. One should not forget that great Dalit revolutionary Ayyankali emerged in Kerala to fight for the rights of Dalits. It is not for nothing that both Patthanmthitta and Trivendram represent two different kind of dominations that Kerala has : the Christian domination and the Hindu domination. Both these upper elites interest are against the rights of the Dalits and other marginalized communities. They remain caged to their old prejudiced worldview.

Laha Gopalan is a determined man. He has seen the traumas of the Dalit communities in the villages where they do not even have land for funeral leave alone for education and houses. ‘ The political parties, both at the national and state level have betrayed the cause of the Dalits and tribal,’ he says. ‘ We started our struggle when people failed to get land by any request. We found that there is no land to them and the government wanted to further the lease at the area which was being used by the Dalits and tribal. Our historic struggle started last year as 7000 people captured the area and started living there. One should have expected that the communist parties which have raised the slogans of ‘ jo jameen sarkari hai, wo jameen hamari hai, ( Government land is our land) today are strangely at the other end. There is no hope in the sight as the trade unions are determined to take law in their own hand and kill people with chief minister virtually becoming a ‘Dhritrastra’.

Says Laha Gopalan, ‘ when we started our first struggle the government termed that they were genuine demands. In June 2006 about 5000 families were living in another plantation area when the revenue minister interfered and promised them land. Chief Minister Achutanandan promised about 1 acre land to each family of the landless but nothing happened. Since August 4, 2007, there are over 7000 families and the government has so far neglected their demand. The unions have surrounded the area and are beating people who are showing solidarity. The lives of the solidarity committee members are in deep threat in the area. They are being identified in the buses, taxis and even in the press conferences and targeted.’

‘ Even in the war zones people allow doctors and medical teams to visit the victims but here the goons of CPM and other trade unions have denied that too to the people,’ says Simon John. They are not allowing the food supply in the village. There is a hunger and starvation situation prevailing in the ‘samarbhoomi’ and one person is already dead due to hunger. It is violation of people’s right to life’, add John. ‘ We are deeply disturbed at the turn of events as government and political parties led by the upper castes are not at all bothered about the growing marginalization of the communities says another activist in Patthanamthittha.

Is it not strange and ironical that CPM and other communist parties who have been in the forefront of agitation against any kind of exploitation in the organized sector do not find that the landless people in Chengara are struggling for a genuine cause? The party leaders termed the entire struggle as unwanted and felt that the local goons and land mafias have taken over the Chengara land struggle. Ofcourse, Party’s anti Dalit stand is visible anywhere. One does not blame the top leadership of the party for being anti Dalit as it would be too much to blame but definitely party’s local leaders are not really that radical Dalit supporters as they should have been. CPM for that matter is like any other political party ( we wanted it remained a different political party) whose cadres hail from dominant communities and serve their local interest as we have seen in West Bengal and how the party remained mute to the displacement of about 700 Valmiki families in Belilius Park in Howarah several years back. Today, party’s proud MPs have made use of the entire space for private properties and shops. Ofcourse, the poor Balmikis never got support from any other Bhadralok parties in Bengal and living in Bengal in highly uncivilized and unacceptable conditions near the waste-mountains, on sewerage lines and on the railway tracks. Similar thing happen in Kerala where the Dalits and Adivasis of Chengara have not got support from any other political outfits. That gives strength to fascistic tendencies of the ruling party and their leaders. But the fact is this nationalism of the communist parties is more dangerous. Our problems with the Hindutva fascist is that we know that they are against the people but when the so called leaders of the proliterariat start behaving neo Hindutvavadis then situation need special remedial measures otherwise people’s frustration would explode soon.

Chengara’s land struggle is historical. It shows that people can not really depend on government dole out for land. Political parties in connivance with the defunct industrial houses are keeping people landless. New landlessness is on the rise. Courts are being used as an excuse to evict people. The marginalized have understood this and are ready to fight till end. If the government of Kerala think it is wrong, let it come out in open and say that they oppose people’s movement for land right. The government cannot use trade unions and other goons to threaten people and evict them. Life in Chengara has become miserable and any further delay will turn Chengara into another Nandigram. The situation in Chengara would become more dangerous and bloody if the government does not behave responsibly. All national and international rights bodies should take care of this note that denying people free movement is denying them right to choice and livelihood. Kerala government has failed to protect Chengara’s Dalits and Adivasis right to move free from one place and other. The inhuman blockade has created unprecedented situation where children and elderly people in Chengara are suffering. Any further delay would escalate the crisis and only government of Kerala would be held responsible for this. The government must act fast and negotiate with the struggling masses of Chengara. The trade union blockade is unconstitutional and illegal and must be removed immediately as it violate the fundamental rights of the people living there who are victim of the criminal silence of the government and civil society.

Battleground Kanjhawla : History in the making..

Delhi’s farmers ready for a do or die battle against land Acquisition


By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


Delhi is preparing itself for the Commonwealth games 2010. High rise buildings, glitzy malls, broad roads, world class metro and an industrial hub, Delhi government has gone out of way to attract investors and acquire land for all these purposes. Very few would be aware of the fact is that Delhi is not just a city which was destroyed and built on seven occasions. Delhi is history of India, a city of diversity adds uniqueness to its culture. Amidst all this, Delhi’s villages too have an important role. The fertile land on the banks of Yamuna is now where we have the big concrete structure. Delhi’s urban space was eating the rural life of Delhi. For keeping Delhi’s environment clean and green, the government threw away the industries from the city, prohibited the diesel plying busses and switched the entire public transport to CNG. Unfortunately, the top brass in the government failed to understand that if they want to make Delhi a clean and green city, it can not come at the cost of decimating the villages in and around Delhi. In fact just last year, Delhi high court had asked the government to maintain its rural character where ever possible. When clean and fresh air are need of the hour so that Delhi does not suffocate, why has the authorities decided that villages in Delhi do not need them.

The lush green fields of Kanjhawla and other villages in the northwest districts of Delhi are facing the threat of acquisition for the industrial purposes. That Delhi’s redundant industries should be relocated here has send shock wave among the farming community whose main source of livelihood is agriculture. The DDA notified the area for acquisition in 2005 without ever consulting the local people as if their consent was not required. It is strange that ‘my land is being acquired but I am not even being asked whether I am interested in selling it or not, thundered Kalawati, a farmer woman who is ready to die for the cause of the land their ancestors have given to them. ‘ I am Laxmi Bai and even if our males do not have the courage to fight the battle, I will fight it with other women’, says Kalawati. ‘ We are not interested in your projects. We are farmers. We know farming and these companies are not there to take care of us. Once we get the money, that would be finished in two three years, what will happen after that.’

More than 1400 acre of land is being acquired for this industrialization purposes. The compensation being given was much below the market price. ‘ Market price are much higher than what is being offered to us, said a Bharatiya Kisan Union’s activist, which is spearheading the movement. This government is of the corporate and working with the capitalists. Both the soldiers and farmers, two important communities that serve the nation are unhappy today. Delhi government issued notification for acquisition of 8 villages in August 2005. These 8 villages are: Kanjhawla, Bakauni, Karala, Sultanpur Dabas, Ud Khurd, Tikari kalan, Tikari Khuard, Alipur. According to Mr Bhupendra Singh Rawat, Convenor of Jan Sangharsh Vahini, one of the organizations leading the movement, the Delhi government acquired about 1400 acres of land in Bawana for 392 crore rupees but the main question is how much of money is gone to the farmers, he asks. These authorities masquerading as revenue departments are nothing but middlemen he thunders and adds that the farmers of Delhi will teach the government a lesson.

The farmers have been on peaceful protest since March 19th, 2008. Nothing moved as the movement remained confined to local populace. Jan Sangharsh Vahini and Bhartiya kisan Union joined in the struggle and gave it new direction by linking it to the other broader struggles against land acquisition including anti Special Economic Zones campaigns and the result was a through and planned protest in the area. There were sporadic protests in the forms of Chakka Jams (traffic blockades), sittings on the road but the real protest emerged from the gherao of the Delhi Vidhan Sabha on September 10th, in which about 12 people were injured in police lathicharge and 60 protesters were arrested as they tried to barge into the Vidhan Sabha ( Delhi Assembly).

As the political leadership remained silent and the power hungry bureaucrats hell bent to acquire land considering farmer’s peaceful protest as ‘spontaneous without any organization that would die an unnatural death’, the protesters decided enough is enough and now the time has come to make the final assault on the power structure. On September 11th at 1 pm more than 1,200 farmers along with their families decided to seize the office of the Deputy Commissioner (DC). An equal number of police force was there to protect the DC from being humbled yet the protest remained calm and peaceful. Everyday, activists, academics, journalists, students are coming to the Dharana site and expressing their solidarity with the farmers.


‘The Delhi High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 10,000/- on the state government for its inability to function from the DCs office. ‘This is historical event, says Bhupendra Singh Rawat, who is spearheading the movement along with other farmer organization, ‘that the Dharana is going uninturptted and has entered in the fourth week. That the district collector’s office has become Dalals, middlemen for property dealers and corporate honchos. How can a government which we elect for five years decide about the ancestral property of farmers who are there for more than several centuries. Who has given the government a right to take over the public land and distribute it to the people it want’.

Yesterday, the Delhi government started its much publicized programme of handing over ‘land certificates’ to resettlement colony people. Congress President Sonia Gandhi handed over these certificates but the farmers there created ruckus and the congress party and media blamed them for being BJP’s agent. However, at the moment, the farmers are worried about their own future and not interested in politicking the issue except that Congress party has become highly unpopular among them and it will have to pay a price for its misadventure.

The refreshing point of the entire protest is the participation of women and elderly people. The spirit that they have reflect that they are ready for a do or die battle. Chaudhury Bhim Singh Krantikari, 78 participated in the freedom movement and went to Jail on Gandhi’s call for Do or Die. They are five brothers. He has three sons and two daughters. ‘ How are we going to live without our land which is so fertile. We are farmers and are not interested in selling our mother. I fought for the country against the British but today our politicians and political class has let us down. I never thought that I would see this day when I will have to fight for my own land and sit on Dharana’, says Bhim Singh sipping his Hukka. ‘ I have deep faith in Subhash Chandra Bose and I believe time has come for us to follow his path and teach the exploiters a lesson.’

According to farmers, the current rates are enormously high in the market but the government does not want to share it with them. Moreover, once the shopping malls and industrial area becomes a reality, they would not be able to procure land and build houses for their living in the same area as the market prices would be too high. Says an activist, ‘ Can we really buy house on developed plots once it is sold given the prices that are being offered to us. We need our land back. It is reported that for one acre the market prices exorbitantly beyond reach while government gave just Rs 15 lakh per acre which has now being promised for three time more.

Western Uttar-Pradesh and Haryana have been notorious for suppression of Dalits and women. Farmers living there have more feudal in nature and there have been persistent conflict between various Dalit communities and farmers. Arya Samaj made its dent among the Jaats in this region. Today, the farmers are under the threat and are realizing the importance of realignment with the Dalits and understanding the neo liberal policies of the government which make farmers an unwanted element. Bharatiya Kisan Union of Mahendra Singh Tikait was once upon a time a strong movement but it later on became ‘guardian’ of Jats in their social-cultural programmes and lost its track. Moreover, without an effective alliance, it could not update itself to various threats that farmers are facing all over the country and became an organization confined to sugarcane and fertilizer prices. It became apathetic to demand for land reform and in fact was never ever interested in the issue of the landless agricultural workers. But over the years BKU seems to have learnt a lot and now making alliance with other movements all over the country, which are fighting for farmer’s right. Ofcourse, the Dalits will still have the problem unless the BKU and farmers reach them out. However, that is just a reflection that if this battle has to give signal to India that it is not just a battle of the elitist farmers which refuses to acknowledge the issue of the agricultural workers, then the battle would be difficult to win. Today, the capital and religion are playing lead role in India and further marginalizing the communities. Hence, a complete understanding of current crisis is necessary.

Therefore, women’s participation in the Dharana is a reminder that they are ready to take on, as Kalawati spoke passionately that we will not allow our land to be mortgaged to big companies. We will not accept less than denotification of the entire proceeding otherwise there will only be a blood bath. Initially, many friends were afraid that women’s participation would be dangerous for the unity of the community but that is an entirely defeating argument as most of the women there want to not only participate but even go beyond where their male counterparts have failed. So, the protest has in another way brought more changes in the community where the women were always in Purdah and inside their houses. Today, seeing the crisis before the community, they are ready to die on the street. Hence, the women have won their first battle in the community though one might say it is a long way to go as even coming in the street they are following the tradition with great zeal but the day is not far when they will lead the movement. When the community is in the crisis, it is time that the women folks show their strength. And here we say the fully covered women (from head to toe) were singing powerful song of going to the battle field along with male folks and will now allow their mother to be sold. Such was the passion that they asked every one to not to bend. Some of them were not really happy with their male folks. They are shouting slogan ‘ Jameen hamare aap ki, nahi kisi ke baap ki ( land belong to us and not of any body) and Land is mother for us like country and religion. Their songs run passion when they say that we will let down our male folks in their war against this illegal acquisition. ‘ We will follow them and will not lag behind in any front even if we have to remain hungry and go to Jail, whether there is blood bath or not, we will not allow the government and contractors to take over our land, which is the hard work of our ancestors and given us identity’, says a woman leader in Purdah who did not want to ‘lead’ but was ready to fight her battle with other sisters and male members of the community. We need participation in the power structure said some of them as the entire committee struggling for their rights does not have women members. It seems that elderly folks have now realized that it is important that women be given representation in the committee.

Chaudhury Harish Chandra is leader of 17 Gram Panchayats of his community. He feels that the government wants to grab our land in the name of ‘national interest’. ‘ What is national interest’. Does uprooting farmers from their habitat is national interest. Is inviting the capitalist to loot the poor innocent farmers who feed the country in the national interest?’. ‘ Both the farmers and soldiers who serve the nation are son of the soil and destroying the farming means destruction of not only farmers but soldiers also, says Harish Chandra.

On a visit to nearby Karala, another farmer who served the Indian army in various battles since 1962, 1966, and 1971, now feel betrayed by the government action. This is what we got for serving in the armed forces for the country. This government is neither for the farmers nor for the soldiers. Both are dying because of the illogical policies of the government. Chaudhury said that his green land was being termed as wasteland. ‘ We get three crop a year. Please see how green it is. I have this ‘Bhindi’ vegetable which would fetch me about a lakh rupees. Then we have the guava trees here and rice crop at the moment, how can government and these officials be so insensitive that they are unable to see our crop growing. Should we give this land. When we have not purchased this land which came to us because of the sacrifices of our ancestors what right do we have to sale. And did the government ask us as whether we are interested in selling it or not’.

Chaudhury Harish Chandra is happy with the outcome of Singur. The Singur farmers have shown that despite their poverty they fought consistently and persistently and taught TATA a lesson. We are strong community. We have fought for the country and for our community too. We will not let this battle grow. Nothing more than denotifying the entire old order. We warn the government that we are prepared for any eventuality. We are ready to face the bullets if the government want to answer us with that but we will not allow government to function. We will not allow our land to go to these mercenaries.


According to Bhupendra Rawat, Jan Sangharsh Vahini, the Delhi’s farmer struggle would go a long way to redefine the entire issue of acquisition and rehabilitation. He says let the government first denotify the entire area and then allow the farmers to have a Farmer- private partnership. He adds that with this the farmers will be able to develop industries themselves. The third alternative, according to Rawat is, that the government if it wants to take land must develop the land and give 50% of the land to the farmers and rest 50% allows them to finalise rates with the industries. Government has no business to behave like a middlemen, he argues. He also scoffed of the propaganda of the government that this land is being acquired to give land to urban poor. If government is so concerned about them, let them acquire land from the big farm houses, and posh areas like Greater Kailash, Hauz Khas and Golf Link and build houses for poor there. These farmers are not big farmers and you have no right to uproot them from their history and habitat, question Rawat.

Till date the battle has entered in the 24th day. It is a rare case where the farmers in the capital of the country have seized the office of the commissioner. It is a signal to authorities not to interfere in farmer’s matter. The government of the day understand it if they take action they will face severe reprimand from the people. With general elections round the corner, Congress and any other political party can ill afford to lose farmer’s vote. Yet, the politics and corruption goes hand in hand. And the farmers have smelt it very well that there is huge bungling in the entire affair. The government also knows it well that the Jats is a strong community and will respond in their own language and there might be blood bath in Delhi and elsewhere if the government use force. Already the Delhi police was replaced by the CRPF and RAF perhaps with a feeling that a majority of the police men in Delhi belong to either Jats or Gujjars. The government has seen messing up with Gujjar case in Rajsthan. If they mess up here, the repercussion will be far reaching for the farmers movement in the country. After the defeat of Singur, the governments of the day can ill afford to do so in Delhi. It would be good for the government to heed to the demands of the farmers and return their land. Initially, the farmers seems to have been divided between compensation package but now it look clear that they have understood the plan of the government and more delays has only added fuel to the fire. Now, it is clear that the farmers are not going to accept anything less than denotification of the government order as this is not just a battle for farmers but to save the rural character of Delhi also which these governments are out to destroy. The government must honor court’s earlier verdict to maintain the rural character of Delhi and this acquisition goes against that spirit which government promised in the court. Coming days are crucial for the farming community in India. A battle won in Delhi will revitalize the entire community all over the country and force the government and political parties to think of their stand on economic policies as whether the country can afford to marginalize the farmers further? One can only hope that we will learn from history and will not add to the already lengthy list of hunger and malnourished people all over the country. India can not suffocate on the curse of greedy private corporations bungling people’s land and livelihood. Farmers’ unrest can unleash a new wave of instability in the country which would be very difficult to handle by any government in Delhi.