Initiate Political Process in the Tribal Hinterland

Who is afraid of civil society ?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

‘Now, I would like to talk a little about the welfare of the elite, who profess to be concerned about the welfare of the people, who do little but blare it out from the rooftops. The rich build temples, mosques and churches, give donations to charities, and for this, are portrayed as great humanitarians. First they render people homeless and create orphans and then they open orphanage for them. In the name of development, they deprive people of their means of living, throw them out in the streets, force the women into prostitution, then they set up NGOs and campaign for Self Employment and brothel reform Centers. Not much money needs to be spent on this, even a tiny percentage of the millions and billions earned through the rampant loot of forest resources and minerals are sufficient to set up the propaganda machinery. They try to cover up the crimes of constructing the Tehri Dam (Which completely submerged the historic town of Tehri and forty villages, partially submerged 72 villages and affected 100,000 people) and the Narmada project ( which affected tribal areas of three states-Gujarat, Maharastra and Madhya Pradesh), by running a few NGOs and buying space in newspapers and that too at no more cost than expenses incurred on some product publicity.’

(Statement of Maoist Guerrilla Narang quoted dutifully by Satanam in his book ‘ Jangalnama’ published by Penguin India- page 121).

The above statement is not new to those who know the working pattern of political or semi political activists claiming to be sole champion of revolutions in India. Frankly speaking the revolutionaries are highly intolerant to any other view point and since they are not really capable to listen to dissenting voices, the result is in political violence. It happens because people feel they are being victimized. A victim mind is always creates extreme reactions and that is what happening in the forest zone. It is not that the articulations are wrong but in the articulations the issue of how to attain is more important. Emotions are created and amidst chant of rhetoric of a new wonder world, people come and join you. It is equally important that for a poor ideology is not important than survival and when he sees the apparatus of state working virtually against him, the discrimination of being a tribal or feeling of contempt towards him, the hatred grows and rhetoric further fires the passion for sacrifice.

As I write this comes the news of horrible train tragedy in Jhargram, West Bengal in which over 140 innocent people have been killed because of a derailment of Gyaneswhari Express. The Central government has given it to CBI to investigate while the West Bengal government has openly blamed PCPA, Lalgarh, for doing this. The government says civil society and human rights activists are not condemning it and all the time they put ifs and buts. May be they are unable to articulate it in the TV channels or Newspapers articles because of paucity of space and time. And there are so many voices in civil society and not all of them can speak in one voice. How can it be possible when the political parties can not speak in the same voice? Yes, after the recent attacks on trains and buses where innocent human beings are killed, one need to ask the questions to those who claim to speak for the ‘people’ as who has given them right to snatch the life of others. If the state is killing the innocent as they charge, then why they kill innocent. At the end it is the innocent who are being killed. And such killing needs to be condemned unequivocally and unambiguously. Those who do not have words for such killings should be prepared to receive the same news for themselves and their relatives and friends. Thinking about that is painful but then why we keep quiet on such heinous attack and justify it with other things.

Home Minister, P.Chidambarm is suave and articulate. He is the favorite of our English speaking media who think he provide answer to every problem of India particularly that emanate from the forests. They are absolutely sure that Chidambaram would resolve the current crisis and India will grow fast. Why is this that Chidambaram is getting huge support from the English speaking media but unable to garner support from different political parties including his party’s own senior leaders like Digvijay Singh and Ajit Jogi both of them have been important leaders from both Madhya Pradesh and Chhatishgarh.

Actually, the home ministry has little time to evaluate the way police actions are alienating the people. Chidambaram and his ministry seems to be too conscious of criticism in Delhi but not bothered about the sentiments in the tribal hinterlands where a sense of insecurity has gripped in the minds of the people. The pen pushers in Delhi who recommend army, air force and all other forces to flush out ‘Maoist terrorist’ do not know the terrain of the region. Most of the senior police officials have on record spoken against air support including Air Chief and Chief of our armed forces.

The biggest criticism of the government is coming through people like Arundhati Roy who does not need to have an NGO or an organization to air her view. She is famous enough to write and her writings are well marketed by the same corporate who she decries. Similarly, Varvara Rao is an ideologue based in Hyderabad who has been persistently claiming that every actions that ‘revolutionaries’ are taking is a retaliation against police atrocities. There are so many lawyers and academics who have been writing and speaking. Mr BD.Sharma wrote to the President of India about the marginalization of tribal. It is well known fact that Sharma was the first commissioner for Schedule caste and Schedule Tribe and his reports in the commission are path breaking. Justice Rajender Sachar is a former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. This apart there are many academics from Delhi-University, JNU, Jamia Milia and other Universities who do not support government’s initiatives in Chhatisgarh. There are many former bureaucrats who do not agree with the government’s strategies. Then there are Gandhians who are well connected with state apparatus and do not subscribe to Chidambaram and his theories. And all these people do not need an NGO to stand. They are much bigger than NGOs and even some time so called civil society. Then there are organizations like PUCL and PUDR which have their own positions on this unambiguously. They can shout as they do not receive any funds from the government or abroad. That gives them power to shout. Organisations like Asian Human Rights Commission have clearly condemned Maoist Violence while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have track record of condemning not only state violence but also non state actors.

Then there are thousands of smaller organizations being run by people at the grassroots. Most of them are involved in their ‘projected work’. Some work on health, while some on NREGS and a number of them create Self Help Groups. There are Dalit organizations working on particular issues while a numerous organizations working on Land and acquisition issue. The fight of Narmada Bachao Andolan is going on for years and the government must explain to us as how much it respected a completely democratic movement. There is a struggle going on against Posco at Kalinganagar ? It is not being run by the Maoists yet the tribal are being killed and humiliated in their own land. Does the home ministry not realize that people will rebel if they are left with no option except fighting?

Therefore a smart politician like Chidambaram should not have made nuisance remark about the civil society but the fact is that home ministries mandarins are behaving in worst possible way to control the criticism of their failures to tackle the Maoist menace in the country. That the Moists have virtually caught the fancy of tribal is a feeling in the Ministry because the government of India has its dirty track record of suppressing all the people’s movement through their intimidation as well as vicious media propaganda. In fact, in the name of independent media, we have corporate interest groups sitting in the chat rooms and speaking their own interests.

It is the nationalism quintessentially upper caste nationalism that is being played through the news rooms. And the cost is those who disagree with them and do not look like them. The consensus is created through media and some of the warriors find their way in these chat rooms to show that we ‘care’ for the opposite view point, though the likes of Arnab Goswami never even allow them to speak.

Is home ministry so naïve not to understand the criticism? Why is afraid of criticism? Why it is targeting the civil society organizations? Let us examine these questions?

The fact is that the Maoists or for the matter any close door ideological perception never like openness. With open ness they fear that people would get new ideas and may shift their ideological perception. West Bengal under CPM suffered this as any body who would not speak the language of the Marxists would be spied. Gujarat suffered it under the BJP’s Hindutva experiment as any fresh air is considered dangerous. Any ideological dissimilarity is a threat. This is happening in many other parts of South Asia whether it is Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan under Taliban. The Maoist will never want any civil society organization to work in their area. Those who pretend to work there can only do on the mercy of the Maoists and can not have their own freedom of expression because dissent is not allowed in the Maoist brand of democracy. NGOs for them and for many others are imperialist conspiracy to befool the people and defuse their resistance.

In the beginning the Congress party was afraid of them during the emergency when Indira Gandhi actually prohibited us to even express our ideas. So, newspapers just crawled when they were asked to bend, a phrase often used by politicians victimized during the emergency. Democratic opposition to Indira Gandhi grew up in entire country and finally mighty family had to bite dust resulting in the formation of the first non congress government at the center. Unfortunately, it had the same structure and therefore the internal contradictions helped congress come back to power again.

In the post 1980s, India’s issues took different turn. For the first time polity was facing a big challenge. In Punjab and Assam, there was a real challenge to mainstream polity in India. It was not just mainstream politics but to the very fabric of the constitution of India. Earlier we had thought it is just Kashmir and Nagaland which were seeking extra constitutional mandate but now the other states also started questioning.

The reasons were lots. The powerful center which could dismiss the states at their own. The governor’s became the stooge of the home ministry and the non congress governments were being targeted. To finish the Akalis in Punjab, the congress promoted Bhindarwale while to strengthen its base it promoted demographic changes in both Assam and Tripura. While the seculars may not like this but the fact is that the tribal in Tripura today are minority in their own state. How can a community of a state be called a minority?

Today, Shekhar Gupta in the Indian Express calls for the might of Indian state against Maoist Indian terrorist but forget that his own former boss in the Express campaigned to save two alleged killers of Indira Gandhi in the name of human rights. Shourie wrote extensively on Punjab violence and the role of Indian state there. We all know which side of the fence is Arun Shourie today.

It is also true that we can not really compare the private armies and their justification of picking up guns. State has a right to protect its citizens and since its forces are legitimate and accountable they need to follow the rules of the law and procedures. Ofcourse, Maoists are deliberating provoking so that it becomes a fight between them and the state and all the other actors are eliminated in between. The government and political parties must understand it. The issues raised by them are valid and need to be addressed. These issues have been raised by civil society for long and the government only looked it in utter contempt. Even the Courts orders are not being followed; environmental norms are not being followed. So, when you close all democratic process the end product is romanticism of guns and violence. The Maoists also know that the Indian state is a might state and their vision of overthrowing it is a sheer stupidity. But the state of India has given them shelter under tribal pain and agony.

We all know that if the state does not heal the wounds the situation will never change. The wounds in Punab were healed through a political process and hence Punjab is going better. Same thing happened in the north east. We invite Muviah to Nagaland and talk to him. We discuss with Laldenga in Mizoram and later he became chief minister. We are initiating political process in Kashmir. Unfortunately, there seems to be no political process in Chhatisgarh, because the political class thinks that they are ‘elected’ ‘democratically’and have got a political mandate to do anything. Yes, the bureaucrats who have least regard for our political class along with these same corporate who have no respect for rule of law, are preaching us the virtues of this democracy. Kanwal Sibbal, a former Ambassador of India in US, condemned the NGOs for taking money from abroad and selling country’s interest. I am surprised at the stupidity of these remarks of those whose children always study abroad and whose life can not be complete without visiting abroad. Prime Minister and his colleagues have studied abroad. Some of them worked for the world Bank. A large number of our IAS officers are getting huge offers in UN. A number of our subsidized IIAtians and Medical Students are getting lucrative offers abroad. Big companies are getting investment. Newspapers are publishing articles from magazines. TV channels are doing everything to show foreign films, view points and what not.. Then what is this particular about foreign. We never said, Manmohan Singh has lost his ‘Indian ness’ because he studied abroad or the planning commission is not Indian since it is inviting foreign experts.

I am amazed how can this thought come in our mind. If we are open society, we must not be afraid of criticism. If Kanwal Sibbol and others could not be purchased so are others also hence a criticism has to be countered ideologically and not who you are and what is your support base. Ofcouse, all those who speak democratically follow the rule of the law.

If this democratic mandate is used as a bogey to install the corrupt mining companies then the Home Minister will have to think more. The questions are simple. Where are the tribal MPs, their leaders, their Panchayat leaders. Why are we silent on this issue? The government is saying that let the Maoist stop of the violence and it is ready to speak. I go one step forward. Let the government declare its intent clear. I again say, will it stay all the mining deals in the tribal areas. Can it stop immediately all the MOUs in these regions which are responsible for the possible displacement of millions of tribal. Not all tribal are Maoists. Those who do not have land, second time meal, do not have the luxury of ideology. If the tribal today are supporting the Maoist, it is the fear of losing their land. They know once the forest department and other government official comes back to them, they will lose all the land redistributed by the Maoists. Let the government declare that all the tribal who own land and are tilling land will not lose it. All the tribal and other forest dwellers who have land on papers will get it immediately. All the mining companies will be packed from the tribal region. Are we ready to say this? The consensus that the government is talking about is in Delhi and not in tribal land. The land where this battle is being fought need to be reassured Mr Chidambaram. They need to be reassured that they will not lose their land and their access to forest. By making the civil society the number one enemy, you are actually changing the track. In the fight against armed struggles, it is the democratic voices which need to be strengthened in these regions. Unfortunately, the political parties are playing dirty politics and media protecting corporate interest and therefore the best people to be blamed for the whole process is civil society. Let the ruling party puts its house in order and send its leader to all the Zones. Why should the poor CRPF Jawans go to the unknown terrain, a politician must know the terrain... let them ready to sacrifice their life so that people get assured that their leaders cares and have not sold their interest to crony corporate for throw away prices. The failure of the government and political parties should not be put on the civil society.

No society can flourish under the dictatorship of ideologues and those who fancy themselves to be the sole champion of serving the poor. The Maoists, it seems, believe in finality of their document which can not be changed. Mao for them has become a tool like the religious thugs who believe the finality of their religious books and are highly intolerant to the dissenting voice. It is this flexibility and capacity to listen to the dissenting voices which was envisioned in our constitution by Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar, will make us stronger nation. Democracy means justice to the lowest and poorest and not justice in the name of the corporate. People will always pick up guns where the democratic process failed. Democratic processes have failed in Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra West Bengal and North East. In most of the states, the political parties, the governments have openly and in most brazen way, sided with corporate interests forcing the people to jumps in the ideological framework of those who provide instant justice. The answer to them is initiations of political process in decision making. Political process mean not just becoming political parties and play politics but involving people in their issues and getting solution from them and of course, putting a complete moratorium in further mining in those areas. If this democratic process does not help the poorest of the poor as emphasized by Dr Ambedkar in his Constituent Assembly address, then the same people will blow up the structure of democracy we so laboriously built. It is time the government introspect its strategy and ensure that the political parties take up issues, visit those areas, meet people and initiate a debate on it.

M.N.Roy and his idea of Buddhism

M.N. Roy on Brahminical Religion and Buddhism

Vidya Bhushan RAWAT

“Societal violation of human rights is as serious, if not more than, state violation. And, caste divides, and divisiveness and dissension will always stand in the way of India’s progress. If we want India to occupy her rightful place in the comity of nations, we must recognize that the worst forms of human rights violations and infringements of civil liberties are caused by the ‘varnavayvastha’ directly or indirectly,’ say Dr R.M.Pal in his background paper of the seminar. There were a number of intellectuals in per-independent India who waged war on the system referred to here. M.N.Roy was one of them. This paper makes an attempt to analyze his views and philosophy.

The values of human dignity and human rights in India were recognized in ancient India despite the fact that the varna system looked down upon various sects which were considered not only untouchables but un-seeable as well. Right from the time of the Buddha there have been various movements against the cultural violation of human rights. The caste based Hindu society virtually looked down, with utter contempt, upon Dalits, women and working masses. They were relegated to the status of shudras and avarnas whose very sight could pollute a Brahmin, supposed to be the brokers of God.

Buddha was against the caste system. He desanskritised the education system, by preaching ‘pali” language which is voxpopuli of the time. For the first time education was allowed for even the outcastes. ‘Education for all’ was Buddha’s special gift to India. That women were allowed to become nun-monks was an extraordinary achievement in the circumstances and condition prevailing in India at that time. Mahavira was also a progressive intellectual and fought against orthodoxy. In the medieval period, Nanak, Shaikh Farid, Kabir and other Sufis fought against the caste system.

II
Since I am going to deal with M.N.Roy’s views on Buddhism I may refer to Dr Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism. He said: “There are two aspects of conversion, social as well as religious, material as well as spiritual. Whatever may be the aspects or line of thinking it is necessary to understand the beginning, the nature of untouchability and how it is practiced? Without this understanding, you will not be able to realize the real meaning underlying my declaration of conversion. In order to have a clear understanding of untouchability and its practice in real life, I want you to recall stories of the atrocities perpetrated against you. Very few of you might have realized why all this happens. To me it is very necessary, that we understand it.” While deciding to embrace Buddhism, he said: “Three factors are required for the uplift of an individual. They are sympathy, equality and liberty. Can you say by experience that any of these factors exist for you in Hinduism? The Hindus can be ranked among those cruel people whose utterances and acts are two poles apart. They have this Ram on their tongues and a knife under their armpits. They speak like saints and but act like butchers”1. Citing his reason for embracing Buddhism in a broadcast on All India Radio on October 3rd, 1954, he said: “Every man should have a philosophy, for every one must have a standard by which to measure his conduct. Negatively, I reject Hindu social philosophy propounded in the Bhagwatgita based as it is, on the Triguna philosophy of the Sankhya philosophy, which in my judgment is a cruel perversion of the philosophy, which in my judgement is a cruel perversion of the philosophy of Kapila, and which had made the caste system and the system of graded inequality the law of Hindu social life. Positively my social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three words: liberty, equality and fraternity. My philosophy has roots in religion and not in political science. I have derived them from the teachings of my Master, the Buddha”2.

Apropos of Buddhism and fight against harmful theories of Hinduism on the philosophical and ideological plane, one Indian who stand out but who is not widely read, is M.N.Roy. Even a cursory study of Roy and Ambedkar would indicate how close their philosophical postulates are. Born a Brahmin, Roy worked with Lenin and Stalin and occupied the highest positions in the communist hierarchy, the Communist International. Subsequently, he gave up communism, went beyond communism and propounded his philosophy of scientific humanism. Roy was the only Marxist who came down heavily on the Brahminical social order of Sanskritic Hinduism and remained so until the last day of his life. Almost all his writings during the period 1930-36 while he was in jail are devoted to this aspect. Many of these were printed and reprinted during his life time.

One such treatise is Materialism in which Roy explains the rational Indian philosophy of Lokayata, Charvak Darshan and Buddhism. “The spiritual revolt represented by the Indian materialists eventually culminated in the rise of Buddhism which all but liquidated the Vadic natural religion and freed India from Brahminical domination for several hundred years. Internal evidence proves that Vedanta sutras were composed for combating Buddhism. Therefore, they could not be regarded as the direct outcome of the speculative thought recoded in the Upanishads. The composition of earlier Upnishads and Vedanta Sutras must have been separated by several hundred years, during which period the spiritual development of India, was in the direction of materialism, represented by Kanada, Kapila and many others, and of rationalism, represented by the Buddhists and Jains subsequently. The triumph of Buddhism and its supremacy for so many centuries, prove that the metaphysical school of thought, and rationalism. It was only after the defeat of the Buddhist revolution that Vedantist metaphysics and pantheism were revived as the ideology of Brahminical orthodoxy.”3

The idealistic deviation of Buddhist philosophy was caused by its having enlisted the patronage of the upper classes. “In order to refute Brahminical dogma of eternal truth the rebels expounded the doctrines of momentariness of everything. In course of time, the doctrine of temporariness was applied not only to the physical but also to the mental phenomena. When the more civilized Dravidians were subjugated by the pastoral Aryans, the latter imposed upon the former social laws which checked the growth of the trading class and consequently of free thought. As regards the happiness of material possessions, of the beef-eating and soma drinking, the vedic priests were not averse to it. But in order to retain the position of power and privilege they could not let the masses participate in that happiness. Hence the spiritual superiority’ of Indo-Aryan culture”4.

Commending the role of Buddhism towards a just and rationale society Roy writes: “As the composite outcome of all the positive elements in the whole pervious history of Indian thought, Buddhism shook the very foundation of the hoary edifice of Brahminical orthodoxy. It disputed the authority of scriptures, vigorously condemned the sacrificial rites and rituals of the Vedic Natural Religion, it denied the existence even of an impersonal First Cause (the Brahman of the Upnishads_, and it discarded the doctrine of soul. For the first time, there began to develop in India a system of truly philosophical thought, having for its point of departure the atomism of the Nyaya-Vaisheshikha system and rationalist-mechanistic conception of nature contained in the Sankhya system”5.

An original thinker much ahead of his time, Roy was an iconoclast. He writes in his book, Fascism: Its Philosophy, Professions and Practice, while in jail 1930-36: “Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the roots of the philosophy of Fascism can be traced in the divine philosophy of the Gita, according to which all power (bhibhutis) on earth are the powers of God. Thus, philosophically, Fascism has no philosophy. Fascist philosophy is the logical outcome of the spiritualist way of life. The logical connection between the doctrines preached in the Gita and the Fascist neo-Hegelian metaphysical conception of the state, is easily perceived. As a matter of fact, the philosophy of Fascist dictatorship results directly from the modern schools of mysticism and spiritualism which represent reaction against the scientific view of life. Its Indian ancestry can be traced through Schopenhauer whose disciple Nietzsche, was the father of the philosophy of Fascism”6.

Indian establishment intellectuals never thought that the nationalism, even the one preached by Gandhiji, could give rise to fascist forces in the country. What we are witnessing today is fascism in the form of invocation of Hindutva cult and cultural nationalism in our country. If we analyse the events of Babri Masjid demolition and Pokharan nuclear explosions and how the Hindutva forces were dancing in the street as a symbol of Hindu victory, we can see the fascist tendencies of Hindutva forces coming to the fore thus proving Roy correct after so many years.

In his book New Orientation about how fascism will enter India, Roy observes: “Fascism is not a platonic idea like cowhood or treehood or horsehood, for all actual cows or trees or horses to fit in. fascism is a socio-political manifestation of our time and its pattern is determined by the peculiarities of the country in which it grows. In Germany fascism was different from that of Italy and fascism in the East European countries were different from the both. Therefore, we should not have an a priori notion about our enemy. Neither will Subhas Bose return as Indian Mussolini, nor Patel be Hitler of India. To put the point straight: Indian Fascism will be cultural; it will be a cultural reaction. Therefore, violence may not be such a very outstanding feature of Indian fascism… the Indian people can be more easily regimented spiritually because thanks to our cultural tradition they are predisposed that way”7.

Roy’s criticism of Indian nationalism and the nationalist leaders including Gandhiji might be based on his analysis as a Marxist but the fact remains that many Indian leaders were admirers of Hitler and Mussolini. Gandhiji met Mussolini in the 1930s and wrote to Romain Rolland: “Mussolini is an enigma to me. Many of the reforms he has made attract me. He seems to have dome a great deal for the peasantry. Of course the iron glove is there. But allowing that force is the basis of western society, Mussolini’s reforms deserve an impartial study. His care for the poor people, his opposition to over urbanization, his attempt to bring about co-ordination between capital and labour seem to me to demand very careful attention. What strikes me is that behind Mussolini’s ruthlessness is the motive of serving his people. Even behind his bombastic speeches there is a ring of sincerity and burning love for his people. Its also seems to me that the bulk of the Italians like Mussolini’s iron rule.” (Gandhi’s letter to Romain Rolland on Dec 20, 1931, Romain Rolland-Gandhi Correspondence: page 241).8 (It is interesting to note that when Gandhi was praising a fascist dictator, M.N.Roy, sitting in jail, was writing against the philosophy and practice of fascism.)

Roy apprehended that cultural nationalism would be a dangerous thing for India and might be responsible for the rise of a fascist state violating all norms of a civilized society. Today a large number of Hindutvavadi outfits are thriving as cultural nationalists with hardly any opposition from secularists, not even the Royists, who seem to have forgotten the rational and radical message of M.N.Roy. Today, we must understand what actually is this Indian culture, which Roy wanted us to get rid of as this culture gives rise to an unjust hierarchical society” “Spiritual culture has taught the Indian masses to point out the difference in the size of the five fingers of the same hand when their attention is drawn to the social inequity and inequality to which they are subjected. They have taught to accept their position as befitting their merit. They have not only been taught to be reconciled to their hard lot but to look upon the established social order as an expression of divine dispensation. Nietzsche also argued that ‘there being much hard and rought work to be done, some people must be held down in conditions that make them fit for this sort of work’. The entire caste system-that creation of the special genius of India-was inspired by the Aryan spirit of caste when he suggested that ‘masses of Asiatic’ and African barbarians could be imported so that uncivilized world might constantly be at the service of the civilized. Why not? Did not the Aryan Brahmans with the help of their warrior allies, condemn the bulk of the aboriginal population of India to perpetual servitude”9.

Reference may also be made to Roy’s approach to the communal and the Hindu Muslim question, which has continued to be a major source of societal violation of human rights. The only way to solve this problem, according to Roy, was for Hindus to recognize the positive aspects of Islam, and for Muslims to adhere to real Islamic tenets. Roy wrote in the Historical Role of Islam in jail 1930-36: “A critical investigation of the internal as well as external causes of the Muslim conquest of India is of practical value today. It will remove the prejudice that makes the orthodox Hindu look upon his Muslim neighbour as an inferior being. Freed from preconceived ideas, the Hindus will be in a position to appreciate the constructive consequences of Muslim coquets of India. That will enable them to live down the hatred of the conquered for the conquerors. Unless a radical change of attitude is brought about by a sober sense of history, the communal question will never be solved. The Hindus will never be able to look upon the Muslims as integral parts of the Indian nation until they come to appreciate the contribution they made towards the emergence of Indian society out of the chaos caused by the breakdown of the antique civilization. Besides a proper understanding of history derived from a correct understanding of the successful advent of the Muslims in India, will enable us to ascertain and stamp out the deeper causes of our present misfortune”10. “In view of the realistic reading of history, Hindu superciliousness towards the culture and religion of Muslim is absurd. It insults the history and injures the political future of our country. Learning from the Muslims Europe became the leader of modern civilization. Even today her best sons are not ashamed of the past indebtedness. Unfortunately, India could not fully benefit by the heritage of Islamic culture because she did not deserve the distinction. Now in the throes of a belated Renaissance, Indians both Hindus and Muslims could profitably draw inspiration from that memorable chapter of human culture and a proper appreciation of the historical value of that contribution would shock the Hindus out of their arrogant self-satisfaction, and cure the narrow mindedness of the Muslims of our day by bringing them face to face with the true spirit of the faith they profess”11. Else where Roy writes (1948): “Nationalism, heavily tainted by Hindu orthodoxy, bred Muslim communalism. Therefore, the ideal of Hindu-Muslim unity, placed before the country by Gandhiji could not be attained. During his last days he staked his life for restoring communal harmony… communal harmony is not possible in the mediaeval atmosphere of religious orthodoxy and fanaticism.”

Roy waged war against Fascism during the Second World War. He maintained that if the fascists were not defeated, human freedom could not survive and in that eventuality, the question of Indian independence would not arise. India would remain a perpetual slave to fascist powers. It was war between fascism and democracy. So he took a strong stand in favour of full Indian support for British was effort. His main arguments in this regard were: (1) that fascism was the greater evil and all forces should be rallied against it, and (2) that the British would emerge from the war so exhausted militarily and economically that it would have to grant independence to India. Dr Ambedkar joined the Viceroy’s Executive Council as a Member of the Labour Department because he too like Roy and thousands of other Indian intellectuals and leaders wanted that fascism must be defeated.

I may refer to Mr. Arun Shourie’s blasphemous attack on Roy and Ambedkar in his book, Worshipping the False Gods, regarding war efforts in which the Government sanctioned, cleared by the Central Legislature, an amount of Rs 13,000 per moth to Indian Federation of Labour, of which M.N.Roy was General Secretary, for pursuing and organizing anti-fascist activities. Dr Ambedkar as Member, Labour Department disbursed the amount. Roy personally did not receive any amount. His colleagues received the amount. Some of these persons rose to very high positions in free India making immense contribution towards the human rights movement in India and preserving its secular heritage. Mr. V.M.Tarkunde waged war on the rise of fascism in India in was in jail, all anti-fascists fought against the dictatorship of Indira Gandhi. Yet Mr. Arun Shourie, who one of Mr. Tarkunde’s followers in those dark days has now attacked Roy and Ambedkar for aligning themselves with anti-fascist forces which included the British during the second world war. Mr. Arun Shourie, who is today a leading Hindutavavadi intellectual belonging to Sangh Parivar has written the book denouncing Dr Ambedkar, for among other things, fighting the anti-fascist forces and for Shouries’s attack on Roy and Ambedkar is that both of them were philosophically and ideologically opposed to the Brahminical religion; Mr. Arun Shouri, an intellectual leader of the Sangh Parivar, and members of the Sangh Parivar are passionately, emotionally and thoughtlessly attached to the Brahminical religion.

I may quote what Mr V.M. Tarkunde writes in this connection: “Before giving details of this episode, I must explain in short the attitude of M.N.Roy and his colleagues like myself towards the Second World War and its possible impact on India’s struggle for freedom. We were of the view that it was an anti-fascist war, that it was a war, not between fascism and British imperialism, but between fascism and democracy, that if fascism succeeded in the war the result would be that democracy throughout the world would be destroyed and the chances of India acquiring democratic freedom would be wiped out for generations to come, that if on the other hand the war resulted in the defeat of fascism, democracy would be strengthened throughout the world including Great Britain and British imperialism itself would be weekend, that defeat of fascism would thus bring India nearer to the attainment of freedom and that since the defeat of fascism was necessary for our own freedom, we must unconditionally support the Government’s war efforts. We knew that this line of thinking, although quite correct, ran against the anti British sentiments of our people and would be highly unpopular, but the war had created a highly critical situation and we had to tell the people what was in their true interest, however unpalatable the truth may be. We regarded unconditional war support as an essential and vital part of our struggle for freedom. Subsequent history has fully corroborated Roy’s war analysis. I was asked by M.N.Roy in December 1942 whether I could leave my legal practice in Poona and whether I an my wife would become whole time workers of the Radical Democratic Party and the Indian Federation of Labour. I readily agreed and left for Bombay with my wife in January 1943 to do a whole time trade union work. Shortly thereafter Mr. D.R. Pradhan, an I.C.S. officer called me to his office and told me that I would be receiving a cheque of Rs13,000/- every month and that the money was to be utilized for anti-fascist propaganda in the working class in India. I soon received a list of about 50 persons including myself working in different parts of the country who were whole time workers of the Indian Federation of Labour. As far as I remember, the list was given to me by my senior colleague and friend V.B.Karnik (the will known trade union leader). The monthly cheques given to the whole timers varied from Rs 75/- to Rs 150/- per month. Most of the monthly amount was spent in publishing anti-fascist literature and some for traveling expenses. The same system continued when I shifted to Delhi towards the end of 1943. No part of Rs 13,000/- was sent to M.N. Roy who stayed normally at Dehradun. We were, of course, collecting donations for our other expenses from the sympathizers of the Radical Democratic Party and the Indian Federation of Labour. Most of the nearly 50 whole time workers had left their jobs and professions and sacrificed a great deal of work for the pittance which we could afford to give them. I am still deeply moved by the sacrifice they committed during the war period. This is the substance of the grave ‘scandal’ described so vividly by Shri Arun Shourie.

“Mr Jamnadas Mehta (Jamnadas Mehta was an important office bearer of the Indian Federation of Labour to whom Mr. Shourie refers in this book) was not right when he said that Rs 13,000/- per month were not given to the Indian Federation of Labour and that he was not aware of it. I was working in our Delhi office at that time and I found a letter in our record signed by Mr Jamanadas Mehta which showed that he was aware of the grant of Rs. 13,000/- per month from the beginning and approved of the acceptance of the grant. I published a photocopy of the letter in the daily Vanguard which was produced and edited in Delhi by my friend the late Ram Singh. On Dr Ambedkar’s request I sent him a copy of the issue which reproduced Mr. Jamnadas Mehta’s letter. Mr. Jamnadas Mehta never denied his signature.

“Turning to other amount of Rs 13,000/- per month sent by the Government to the manager of the Weekly Independent India, which was then published from Delhi and was edited by M.N. Roy from Dehradun, I know the essential facts of the case because my wife worked as manager of Independent India. The Government of India had sent us a list of persons sot whom complimentary amounted to Rs 13,000/- per month. Independent India was always a non-profit journal. More subscribers did not imply any profit to the journal or to those who produced it. The journal had started much before the war (in April 1937) and continued after the Government subscription terminated. It is still being produced since about 1949 it was called The Radical Humanist and it became a monthly journal from April 1970”12.

Roy believed like Ambedkar that unless the Congress fought for a social revolution there would be no benefit of this so called political freedom. In his manifesto for the RPIWC, (Revolutionary Party of Indian Working Class) Roy expressed his deep resentment over Congress’s political resolution of political freedom. “The Congress failed to develop the popular anti-imperialist forces because its ideal of swaraj, even if this is interpreted as complete independence, does not represent the social revolution which is a historic necessity as the overthrow of imperialism is necessary as a prelude to the long delayed social revolution, (the) political freedom of India will be conquered by the forces making social revolution. The goal of national freedom abstracted from a comprehensive programme of social revolution will never be realizes. The congress has been endeavoring to lead the masses towards this goal of simple political freedom”13.

Emphasizing the need to work for social freedom first, Roy exhorted his followers: “Unless you are ready to carry though the historical necessary social revolution political freedom will never be attained. The oppressed and exploited masses being the forces irreconcilably antagonistic to imperialist domination the struggle for national freedom must coincide with the struggle for the social emancipation of toiling masses. A party that does not consciously stand for the welfare of the masses against the privilege of the upper classes and carry on incessant struggle to promote the welfare, is incapable of leading the movement for the national freedom to victory. The future of the nation as a whole will have precedence over the present fortunate few who constitute a vociferous minority of the nation. No nation can prosper and progress as long as the productive masses constituting its overwhelming majority languish in economic bankruptcy, social stagnation, intellectual backwardness and culture reaction”14. What Roy said long ago characterize the present situation, in all details, in our independent India today.

Roy was among those very few intellectuals who had the courage to disown the Vendanta theory as well as Karma philosophy of the Gita which violate the basic human rights. He studied the Lokayat Darshan of Indian philosophy and many other schools of Indian philosophy such as Charvak, Buddhism, Jainism etc. to put fourth his view points vigorously and in a forthright manner, at a time when people in the Congress party were hell-bent on communalizing the national movement and nationalizing the Hindu festivals. He had the courage to speak out and make himself unpopular.

I will conclude my paper with one more quotation from Roy’s writings. Roy, while narrating an ancient story, writes: “Barahmihir, for example, describes a conversation between two men in a sad plight. One voicing the spirit of revolt, naturally endangered by intolerable oppression says, ‘we are suffering for the ill-doings of our king.’ There upon, the not true; our suffering is the fruit of our own actions of past life.’ The doctrine of Karma, the belief in the transmigration of soul, here stands in its real significance. These doctrines of ‘spiritualist’ philosophy were expounded by the rishis of old with the object of making the masses feel themselves responsible for their misery and thus be reconciled to. The attitude of the second man exonerated the oppressor from all responsibility, and the established social order is guaranteed against the danger of a threating popular revolt”15. Hindutvavadis are today alarmed by the prospect of a revolt, hence some of their “theoreticians” have come down heavily on Ambedkar and his Dalit followers and on M.N. Roy.

Roy’s philosophy is of immense importance today at a time when the fascist forces of Hindutva are intoxicated by the heady wine, cultural nationalism. While Ambedkar, Buddha and Gandhi have become “pratah Smaraniya” for the Sangh Parivar-a clever way to assimilate their ideologies-in actual fact it is to misrepresent their ideologies.

It has been a great loss for the country that intellectual giants like Roy, Periyar and Ambedkar could not come to one platform and lead India towards the much awaited social revolution. It is time those of us who are working for the social revolution, initiate a dialogue among the followers of various revolutionaries for a better understanding of our social movements of the past and need for a common cause in the future, otherwise the political independence of India will have no meaning without realization of human rights of millions of the down trodden-the Dalits including the Adivasis and the Muslim minority, and now the Christian minority and women. (This is a revised version of my paper presented before the Seminar on human rights organized by Indian Social Institute, New Delhi on November 13th and 14th 1998).

1 Ahir D.C., The Legacy of Dr. Ambedkar, 1990, B.R. Publishing Corporation, New Delhi. Page:21-22
2 ibid. chapter ‘Pilgrimage to Buddhism’ Page 154
3 “Materialism” in Selected Works of M.N.Roy, volume IV: 1932-1936, Oxford University Press, 1997,
edited by Sibnarayan Ray, Page 326.
4 Ibid. Page 343
5 ibid. Page 335
6 Fascism: Its Philosophy, Professions and Practice, in Volume IV, Selected Works of M.N. Roy, Page 432-
433
7 New Orientation, by Ajanta Publications, New Delhi, 1981
8 Romain Rolland – Gandhi Correspondence, Publication Divisions, Ministry of Broadcasting, New Delhi, Second Edition, 1990, Page 241.
9 Selected Works of M.N. Roy, Volume IV: 1932-1936, Oxford University Press, 1997, Edited by
Sibnarayan Ray, Chapter Fascism: Page 437
10 ibid under chapter “The Historical Role of Islam”, Page 400
11 ibid Page 401
12 Justice V.M.Tarkunde’s letter to the Editor of Asian Age (taken from Mr. Tarkunde’s personal
correspondence).
13 ibid. Page 215 under chapter “Manifesto of the RPIWC’.
14 ibid. Page 220 under chapter “Manifesto of RPIWC”.
15 ibid. “Crime and Karma”, in selected works of M.N. Roy, Page: 516-517

Ambedkar : an Argumentative Indian

Ambedkar’s idea of a humanist India

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat


When we see the chaos in India and the flirtation of its political class with the fundamentalist forces, Ambedkar and his forthright views are always a reminder to us. The man one side took on Gandhi for his parochial views but on the otherside did not leave the Muslim leagues for instigating hatred. It is a man of Ambedkar’s stature who walks out of meeting with Pope just because he never liked the ambiguity of Pope’s argument. It was the time when Gandhi, and Pope were gods of their respective faith. Who could walk out of the meeting with Pope because he was the biggest man of Christian world? We know how isolated he was when he took on Gandhi, a Mahatma for upper caste Hindus as Ambedkar did not have that many people to defend him that time as he has today when every one try to prove his loyalty to him. Today, when the crisis in our forests zones have escalated and when some of us question the mode of fight, we are often told that there is no option except to pick up guns. The poor will always pick up guns, they say. Revolutions world over happened with guns they say though they do not say while they want this revolution from tribal only, why not uniting all the poor of India.

Well, I would not like to comment upon the revolutions elsewhere but I can definitely talk about the revolution in India which is silent revolution where millions of Dalits are now joining the mainstream of India. They are not just joining jobs but leading their respective political parties, doing business and writing their own stories. The fact is that the problems of Dalits were more acute and racial in nature than the issue of tribals. It is not to put down the tribal issues as nothing but the difference is clear that the Dalits were not fighting against state, they were fighting for their own space as they know if that is not ensured no state would do justice to them.

Ambedkar therefore concentrated on the social system first. It is very difficult to fight against the social order in the height of a campaign for ‘India’s independence’. Many might say that Ambedkar was a constitutionalists and that the Dalits have now forgotten to fight but the fact is that it is not just Ambedkar, but Jyoti Ba Phule, Chatripati Shahuji Maharaj, EV Ramaswamy Naicar and in later Kanshiramji, all believed in political solutions to the issue of Dalit Bahujans. And they mobilized people politically and definitely won their battles. The battle to change a system does not end with one revolution. It is a continuous process. No political leader, Mahatma or any body can claim that he or she would get all that she thought during the life time. The process of change is a continuous process.

The historic legacy of the Dalit Bahujan’s world was the world of freedom of ideas and expression. Ambedkar is central to this theme. He is the center of these ideas of modernity and change. Unlike those who fight against state with guns and weapons and condemn it for all their problems, Ambedkar challenged the non state actors and put the onus on state to implement modern laws that would help not only Dalits and others but respect their right to be an individual.

A supporter of individual’s right, Ambedkar had visualized that if the political constitution does not do justice to his people, they would blow it up some day. Ambedkar’s faith in the ideals of democracy and liberalism were extraordinary. His likes and dislikes were clear. He never like ambiguous answers to his questions. The fact is that after facing so much of discrimination could have easily picked up guns and provided that kind of solution but he did nothing of that short. He had essentially realized the condition of his community and so was fighting for a long battle.

He not only exposed the Hindu myths and its social order but also studied other alternatives. He was an argumentative Indian who was not just well read but well interacted person with his community. He was not just an academic but a leader of the mass movement. Today, it is time to understand why Ambedkar is important for us and revisit his ideals of freedom and democracy.

Many of our friends only remember Ambedkar of 1930s when he was fighting on caste system and articulating his views with Gandhi on caste and shastras. If the Shastras are not according to modern values we must change those texts, said Ambedkar which were virtually Jolted Gandhi and his faith. He could never imagine that somebody could challenge him to this level. That was power of Ambedkar’s love. He agitated for temple entry in famous Kalaram temple of Pune. He was the first one to take up the water issue in Mahad which was one of the biggest mass protests of Dalits.

The biggest change in Ambedkar’s thinking came when he declared that ‘ though I am a born Hindu which was not in my hand but I would not die as a Hindu’. He started studying Buddhism and had many more thoughts in his mind. He did not want to focus on Hindus and their caste system. He had mobilsed community against the caste system and brahmanical domination. He decided that this vast energy has to be channeled for positive purposes.

And that positive idea was the cultural changes that his work started bringing in the communities and areas he visited. In maharastra, women’s were inherent part of his movement. When I spoke to Baby Tai kamble about her involvement, her eyes sparkles about the involvement of women and how culturally they changed and became Buddhists. The Jatavs of Agara were also the ones who were quick to embrace his ideals. Cultural changes are more important before anything and Ambedkar had realized that and that is why his embracing Buddhism was not just a religious effort but providing the masses an alternative philosophy which would bring revolution in their life. The change has worked as today the Buddhists in Maharastra have proved themselves no less than any one in academics, cultures and achievements. They do not need government jobs as they are excelling in every field, in science, music, private sector, entrepreneurships and art.

My friend P.L.Mimroth had an interesting episode to narrate but I do not have any thing to verify this but because it is related to Ambedkar was the person who could have done it. When he was labour minister in Viceroy’s council, the department for PWD and New Delhi’s big builder started courting his son for this. They would call him for party. One day, Yashwant went to Baba Saheb and told him about his this particular builder but Baba Saheb realized that his son was not in the right direction and packed him to Mumbai.

Why it is important to take a lesson from Dr Ambedkar. All his life Ambedkar was very clear about his priorities and his action. He was a man of character. Making money as a lawyer or as a minister could have been easier for him but for him it was important that things should not be clean but also should also be seen as clean. And he never confined himself to the cause with in the community. Widely read as he was, Ambedkar understood the threat of Fascism on India and that is why during his stint as labor minister he not only supported M.N.Roy for his anti war efforts but also brought worked on many legislations for the benefits of the labor in the country.

Today, we jump up to fight if any one among our leaders is found corrupted. We start questioning the motives. We can not defend the indefensible. When he decided to embrace Buddhism, Ambedkar was in a different mode. He came out of the clutches of caste system and chose a different way. Now, once you are in that mode, you chose a new path, a path that leads to liberation. That is why, I firmly believe, Ambedkarism does not come to you automatically. You have to earn it. Ambedkarite perspective of the world is supporting all the social movements for change, for rights of individual, for questioning every religious text and defending the ideals of freedom and justice. You do not inherit Ambedkarism by just being born some where. Despite his ill health, enormous amount of work, the man work tirelessly and started many educational institutions including colleges and libraries. He not only spend time with people fighting their cases free of cost and providing them new ideas but also travelled large part of country to organize them. Ambedkar was in touch with many stalwarts of his time to provide a new alternative to the country. He sponsored a number of students for higher and professional education abroad. And we must understand he had limited capacity financially.

In Delhi people would come to his house in odd hours for consultation and with their grievances. And none went without hearing him. Some would come him to just see how he work. Such was his passion for work that he drafted Hindu Code Bill despite all his ailing health and was ready to draft a Uniform Civil Code with in 24 hours if all the members were ready. We all know how all kind of seculars joined hands in condemning him terming him as Modern Manu in the Parliament. Nehru could not fulfill his promise to get the bill passed and Ambedkar had to resign from cabinet.

We remember Ambedkar for his spirit, for his challenge to the system and for many because he gave us a new constitution. But definitely, he was much bigger than simply the drafter of our constitution. There are many things which he wanted to be part of the constitution but it could not happen. He wanted Land to be Nationalised and redistributed but that could not become part of our constitution. There were lots of constraints on him but he did succeed on many things. At the fag end of his life he demanded for proportionate electorate system to be implemented for the benefits of marginalized communities as they would be able to have their leaders of their choise and not coopted and corrupted leaders.

It is important to see the life cycle of Baba Saheb. Buddhism provided him a new path. And that path was forward looking with new ideals of democracy, freedom and liberty.
One of his endearing thoughts were of Karuna i.e. passion. Knowledge without passion is nothing but arrogance. Knowledge has to be useful to people and not just to your academics. A positive path is to look forward, giving new ideas and new support to the community. Government do not change system, it is people who change it. To fulfill the ideals of Ambedkar, we need to strengthen our links to community and work for it. And more importantly please support those who work in the community. Do not discount those who may not write on the internet but working silently on the ground. The best tribute would be to bring together all the forces of social justice together with the ideals of Dr Ambedkar. The ideals of Ambedkar are valid for all those who fight for human rights and social justice world over.

21st century could be the of the ideals of Dr Ambedkar only when we build up an Ambedkar Samaj where you leave your caste tag behinds and look positively forward with modern solutions to primitive value system. When the forces of revivalism are gaining ground and sympathy through media and political class, when the non state actors such as Khap Panchayats, and religious thugs refuses to accept the domain of our constitution, it is a big challenge to us. And we can not fight against them with just constitutional provisions. We have to shame them with our ideals, with our actions and with our arguments. When each of these religious fanatics want their own Manu Smritis to dominate us and guide our destiny then we have to expose them with involvement of masses as how dangerous these ideals of religious fanatics are? When the issues of gods become more important than human lives and human miseries, we need more like minded people and spread this ideals to more people as how religion and its dominant classes have killed people’s spirit, their ideals and will to work independently. If we confine Ambedkarism to particular set of people and stop spreading it, it will become redundant and ghettoized. Ambedkarism is an idea for all democratic struggle who are fighting for social justice and support equality, liberty and fraternity. Let the tribes of Ambedkarites grow and work for social change and human rights. Let it reach on every nook and corner of the country to develop it as ‘Prabuddha Bharat’, as Baba Saheb had visualized so that people do not pick up guns to counter any hegemony but arguments to demolish historical myths of the ruling elite. It is the right moment in our history and we have to accept the challenge and use Ambedkar’s thought to develop counter culture of democracy, freedom and humanism.

The Tribal Question

The fall out of Dantewada: Need tribal voices for their rights to counter corporate propagandist nationalism?

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat



Home Minister P.Chidambaram has offered to resign after the Dantewada massacre. He saluted the CRPF for their work, the poor cousins of BSF and armed forces. A CRPF recruit start living with tents and end up there only. That the war should always be avoided as it never resolve anything. It hurt the poorest of the poor and it is more masculine in nature. You see both the side of this patriarchical social order, the war create a new set of orphaned children who would never be able to live the same life after their fathers are killed. A whole lot of family is destroyed. In this scenario you only see grieving wives, mothers and daughters. They look completely helpless because our social system remain the same. It is easier to blame state for everything as you become revolutionary for the same but difficult to fight against our own notorious social order which create not only Maoists but all the feudal elements of society which Ambedkar defined as ‘graded inequality’. That most of these CRPF Jawans hails from poor peasantry communities, who serve our nation. They are the first generation of their families to serve in the forces and goes on to follow the order given to them by their command officers.

Hence the news of the killings of 76 Jawans of CRPF in an ambush by the Maoists in Dantewada district of Chhatishgarh naturally angered the entire nation. What is more shocking is the propaganda war unleashed by the media as how can they kill our Jawans without understanding the fact that in the war zones such situation will happen as suggested by Swarnjeet Singh, former DGP police of Andhra Pradesh who is claimed to be successfully curtailed the Naxal violence in his state. Yet, what hurt most is the grim faced anchors in the TV studios of Delhi start preaching the nation about possible action plan. In the olden days, we used to hear the national broadcast from the prime minister or chief ministers on such occasions whenever a crisis confronted the nation by addressing directly to the people on such issues and informing them about government’s policies and programmes. Mrs Indira Gandhi addressed the nation on All India Radio, prior to sending armed forces in Golden Temple in June 1984 while VP Singh spoke to the nation on Lal Krishna Advani’s arrest 1990 while Narsimha Rao promised the nation to rebuild the Babari Masjid after its demolition on December 6th, 1992.

But all that is history. With the mushrooming of hundreds of news channels, nationalism sales apart from sex, scandals, religion, cricket and corporate. Now, the PM does not speak on such incidents. Instead we hear an Arnab Goswami with his poked face and fascist statements about the situation. He says, ‘Today, this country has to decide, which side they are. Whether they are on the side of Indian state or with the Maoists? ‘These Maoists are terrorists, no less than Talibans. They kill people, extort money and have killed our brave Jawans’, he virtually shouted. With the right wing expert sitting on the table, Arnab and every other of his ilk is inviting a few ‘sympathizers’ for their chat show to hound them. The problem is with these so called sympathizers also who have virtually run out of ideas and romanticize an idea which can never be supported in the democratic system. Long ago, I wrote about Nepal that even the worst form of democracy is better than the most efficient autocratic regimes. Secondly when they know that Arnab and company will not allow them to make their point, why should they join in the debates. We all look for our own truth and information. So none of us are going to receive our information from Arnab and thankfully very few would watch him beyond Delhi and other metro- politan cities.

Let us first deal with the issue of Maoist violence and media portrayal. There is no justification of violence but frankly speaking Arnab, there is no justification in deviating the real issue of strategic failure of the CRPF as Mr Swarnjeet Singh, former DGP police Andhra Pradesh said. In the war zones, you can not think that the casualties would be only on the one side. It is bound to happen both the ways. Even Chhatishgarh DGP Mr Vishwa Ranjan pointed that out. We need to see why this desperation by our TV chatters. Do they want to ethnically cleanse the tribal regions so that our companies go there and grab their land? We all know that the Maoists, however stronger they are, can not win a battle against the state as mighty as India. They are actually ruining generation of tribal in this false exercise. India is simply not Nepal or Venezuela and a revolution can not emerge from just Dante Wada. Arundhati Roy often support tribal’s right to pick up guns to defend their sovereignty, making tribal and Maoists as easily interchangeable terms which is unacceptable. More over, we should also ask the question as do the Maoist fight war against this land grab or they want to fight against Indian state which they call as a fake democracy. What kind of democratic structure do they want to give us? We too are saying that our democracy need changes and it is becoming corporatized on American pattern. We do want proportionate representation for Muslims, for dalits, for tribal. We want their representation and not representation in their name which most of these revolutionaries and their ideologues seems to be doing. In 1975 Jaya Prakash Narain had appealed to forces to not to obey the order of the government. That was a democratic call.
In the historic Lahore Convention, Havildar Chandra Singh Garhwali refused to fire on the Congress workers terming them as fighting for the freedom of the nation. But why the Maoists consider the poor police men and tribal working in the government jobs ( pity, how many tribal are there in our governance structure) as state agents.

See the irony, most of the killings by the Maoists are rural poor or Jawans of police force. They join the forces for serving their families. Maoists and their sympathizers call them state agents. Hence the cycle of repression start. In the war zones all become become repressive and the biggest casualty in this is the voices of sanity and freedom. They are hounded by both the governments as well as Maoists do not want the other voices to come in between.

Unfortunately, those who pretend to be leading dissents or speaking for the Maoists too are well connected in the power structure and none dare to speak to them as how did they arrive at a Maoist camps. They have been using the media war to spread their own message to world over. But, I know if a local journalist in Chhattisgarh or Delhi, try to write any story on the Maoists, he or she would be hounded by the police and would face virtual arrest at the moment.

The problem here is that in the entire debate of illegal land grabbing, encroachment of forest by big companies, mining and threat to environment and ecology by state and non state actors have receded into the background as now it has taken an ugly turn between the Maoists and the government. Both of them seem to working on their own long term agendas. The Maoists and their sympathizers are living in their own dream world of a ‘people’s democracy which is even afraid of internet and Google surfing while the government wants to seize the land and distribute to the companies while Maoists are gaining because of government’s complete failure to understand tribal sentiments. How can you expect a tribal to respect our police when the very policemen is a ‘vardi walla gunda’ as remarked by a judge in Allahabad High court long back.

All is not well as there is systematic erosion of tribal rights in India. The Special Economic Zones, the mining companies, the big dams, the hugely built Ashrams, the cowsheds everything is being developed in India’s richest areas of Chhatishgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand which inhabit our poorest population. Is not it an irony that the reporters reporting from these places are adding extra masala to their embedded reporting as how difficult it is for the Jawans to fight the battle in the mosquito ridden area but then did they ever thought of how a tribal might be living in these areas for years. Did we care for them? Fundamentally, we feel that if the government can not improve their livelihood, it has no right to demolish their natural habitat.

But our desi nationalists who would like our jawans, who are sons of the soil, children of our peasants, kisans, die for their brand of nationalism by killing their own tribal people. It is an irony that our media which should have been more balanced in reporting and analyzing things become hysterical and start creating panics. Both the chief of Armed Forces General V.K.Singh and Air Chief Marshal Y.P.Naik have not shown interest in fighting an internal battle where the police forces are more than enough to tackle the situation arising out of the Naxal violence.

Now, the reports are coming in that there is little interaction between police and the local tribal community. How can there be an interaction if there is no governance. If the government servants did not venture into the villages and get their salary without working in the villages, then one can understand the relationship between the tribal and the government servants. How can a government servant who is suppose to help the rural poor treat them worst than their servant be expected to get information from the same people. The Maoists have won the imagination of a number of the tribals whether it is through their violence or whether providing instance justice to many of them, the fact is they have been getting local support. And it is therefore important to create environment where the tribal do not feel betrayed even when this is too late.

Unfortunately, the governments have only helped them as other dissenting voices who believe in democratic struggles are being produced as Maoists. There are movements against land acquisition all over the country. There are voices against illegal land grabbing, against displacement of the people particularly Dalits and tribal, for the forest rights and they are not Maoists yet all of them have been clubbed jointly as notorious human rights activism. Not just the government but mostly these irresponsible TV channels and newspapers have started making these arguments as if human rights have suddenly become the worst word. Yes, we claim our self to be the largest democracy only when this democracy enables the big companies to grab land and do whatever they wish to do. When the democracy gives space to the marginalized, then these non state actors try to bulldoze our voices through their TV channels and news rooms. Have we discussed the issues of tribal rights in our parliament? Why are our tribal leaders silent on all these issues? Where are they hiding? All those social justice wallahs who jump and stall parliament for their bills keep quiet on tribal issues. Have the Dalit, backwards, the minorities, have no voice on this national issue? Why this has become an issue between the upper caste leaders, parties and commentators.

Similarly, our intelligence agencies do not know the ideological stuff and hence every democratic protest for them become a Maoist strategy to gain ground which end up in goofing up the entire things. It is not just the fault of intelligence, when our media term every human rights defender as Maoists, then we can understand their quality of education and understanding of India. In the name of anti Maoist operation, the government should not annihilate an entire tribal population as well as all of us who are talking sanity and raising the issue of violence against forest and tribal.

The only way to curb this menace of violence is to respect democratic voices of dissent and not consider them as anti national. On an emergency measures, the government must declare moratorium on further acquisition of land in forest zones. The forest act must be implemented and land must be redistributed among tribal. The National Commission for Tribal must be reconstituted and given more authority so that it can play an active role in resolving some of the issues relating to tribal.

Hundred years of hierarchical based system was challenged by Dalits through democratic process. Ambedkar’s ideals brought a silent revolution in India, without any guns. Today, Dalits not only actively participate in democracy but also lead in many places. Of course, violence against them exists but then they have succeeded and produced leaders, writers and whole new breed of youngsters who look forward for a bright future challenging the Brahmanical hegemony which is crumbling. Similar situation lies with backward communities whose leadership is emerging despite all shortcomings. It is in this context, we need to look the issue of tribal as why their leadership has not emerged to speak for them. This is a crisis of tribal identity and their voices need to be heard.

Ironically, there is a commonality among those who claim to be working for tribal. It is the absence of tribal voices. You have seen commonality among Congress, BJP and CPM on the women’s reservation bill, all of them were together in saying that all women are same and that there is no issue of Dalit and Muslim women. That they are more than enough to represent them too. Now, you can add CPI Maoists too in the list as none of them have tribal voices at their top level and leadership to Bengal and Chhatishgarh being imported from Telengana region. All of them are claiming to represent tribal interest except for the tribal themselves. Where have the tribal leadership gone? Could this have been possible if the issue of dalits and backwards were concerned ? See how the backward castes and Dalits and Muslims are fighting against the combine onslaught of the brahmanical parties in this democratic structure for their right.

Many governments including that in Australia, New Zealand and Canada offered apology to indigenous people for their marginalization and isolation. That the modern development modules are displacing tribals and the natural resources for the benefit of a few who owned up big companies including big business houses and media companies. An elected government has every right to take control of the areas under its jurisdiction and react to the armed struggle. The only concern that all the civil rights activists feel is the victimization of innocent and the scuttling of the voices of social movements and dissent. In healthy democracy, political, cultural dissent is part of life and need to be respected with counter arguments and not by shunning their voices. Moreover, the government and Mr Chidambaram can well use media to launch their public relation offensive against the Naxals but it need more public relations of its image with tribal population and thankfully, none of them would be watching either Arnab Goswami or Barkha Dutt. Chidambaram would do well to communicate his message to tribal and send his officials to them and win their heart by their good will and a complete moratorium on the further acquisition of land would be a great gesture apart from some more efforts like returning of tribal land and providing new services to them would be the bigger counter offensive than a mere media exercise which simply talk of Maoists and completely ignore the tribal interest and virtually making the Maoists the sole voices of tribal which is unacceptable.

Tribute Jyoti Basu

Remembering Jyoti Basu

Immortalized in death

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Jyoti Basu is no more. After a fortnight of struggle with life he finally succumbed. It is inevitable and none can stop it whether one is a believer or non believer. What is more important is the work that person does and the legacy he leave behind. At the end, it is important what you do. Jyoti Basu lived upto his convictions, a truly Marxist, an atheist and a firm believer in science. He donated his eyes and his body will be used by medical science student for research purposes. What a contrast when you see the cremation of political class and I do not want to say just upper castes but of every religion. Jyoti Basu has debunked all those who feel that India can not be a country of non believers. Even when millions of believers are coming to Kumbha fair and destroying the Ganges, the conviction of Jyoti Basu need to be applauded.

That is why this obituary is being written from a different angle. I have been a critique of left front government in West Bengal and Kerala. Not because it did not work but because I felt it was always a bhadralok representative government and communism was never a matter as what matter more was Bengali Bhadralok identity. The Bengali bhadralok come in street in large number to say Lal Salaam to Jyoti Babu in his last journey, one need to understand that not all of them would like to emulate what Jyoti babu did in his death. Yes, the dark reality is that despite 30 years of left front rule, West Bengal remains one of the most rigid states in India where superstition is perhaps more than any other state and caste consciousness is equally high if not visible in the form of physical violence. No doubt, it is a state where any creative person would love to visit, where we can discuss on Mao to Marx, where the people are conscious of their rights and can take up to the street, but at the same point of time, it is a state where class consciousness is very high. Respect for Jyoti Babu does not come from his being communist but because he belong to their class, a bhadralok class. One can see the tributes in our daily newspapers. Right from capitalist Times of India to Marxist’s faithful The Hindu, the tribute is similar. The moaning is simple because he belongs to a particular class and community. It would not have been the same if he did not belong to an aristocratic family or upper caste bhadralok. We know the ‘capitalist’ newspaper condemning Marx and communists yet they all are moaning on the death of the ‘king of communists’. They condemn CPM in West Bengal but then why they loved Basu. It comes from the caste back ground. Yes, Jyoti Babu was truly tight lipped, British educated Bhadralok and a fair number of our journalists still worship that nature of Indian society. Ofcourse, one can find Jyoti Babu much better than his follower Buddha Dev, who went to woe all the capitalists and did not feel shy of talking to Advani about ‘problems in Madarasas’. After Buddha Dev’s ascendency, left became equal to ‘right’ in that state as Muslims became isolated and Dalits frustrated. The big MNCs got license to loot as left became the biggest supporter of them in a state where people were looking for basic amenities.

However, writing this can not take away the credit of the left front government rule in past thirty years. When I see things favorable for Mamata Benerjee in West Bengal, I start sympathizing left front government. One must appreciate them for being democratic and better than many other parties who needed internal democracy more than CPM. Of course, in democracy we need to change the government and any one party ruling one state is bound to develop fascist tendencies. We are talking about West Bengal in last thirty years, what about Narendra Modi’s Gujarat in 15 years, or Madhya Pradesh or YSR’s Andhra Pradesh where leaders became larger then life. Jyoti Babu actually is a role model in a sense that he was never loud mouthed. He was calm and never started any populist move as many chief ministers do. I wonder, how come a chief minister over such a long period of time, could not be corrupted when one see the change in the life styles of the political leaders who become minister for even one or two years. One just becoming a member of parliament for one or two year or an assembly member for one year, give you license to cheat the nation, it is remarkable that Jyoti Babu remain clean and those who are clean in heart and action can not be goody goody all the time.

Yes, the main challenge to us was the cleanliness of the left front leaders. I have written a lot about the upper caste politics of CPM and their misrule in West Bengal but as far as the individual integrity is concern, none can question them, at least the top leadership of the party. Whether it was Jyoti Babu or Indrajeet Gupta, in personal life they remain thoroughly simple enjoying simple living and high thinking, a slogan completely forgotten by our leaders whether they belong to social justice variety or swadeshi variety. Even today, their leaders are well read in their subject and can take on any one in a TV debate or on the issue of public concern.

The left front government has been in power for last 30 years and a lot go to Jyoti Basu for his able leadership. Though land reform was just in the beginning, the most important part of the change in West Bengal was through Panchayats. One of the most important thing and refreshingly new from any other state was to go to writer’s building and meet any minister without any fuss. In Delhi, UP and Bihar we are habitual of passing through many hurdles apart from meeting overzealous chamchas but Jyoti Babu did not create any of them in his 60 years old political life. It could have been easier for him. He never spoke unnecessarily.

I know during his regime the governance in the state became a party issue. The state administration became a party but that happened after 30 years but have not we seen it in UP, Gujarat and elsewhere how the bureaucrats just crawl to obey the powerful leaders and misguide them.

I have no love for left front’s rule as for me the pains of the Dalits in West Bengal were more important to understand. How can one ignore the inhuman demolition at Belilius Park where over 7000 families were still looking for a dignified rehabilitation? Nothing happened and I do not know whether Basu knew about it. The condition of the the Dalits in West Bengal remain a matter of grave concern apart from the condition of Muslims which CPM always flaunt. One may appreciate that west Bengal did not see the violence in the aftermath of the Babari demolition but if one go through the condition of Muslims in the state, the CPM’s government can not feel proud of its record.

Yet, what has gladdened my heart is Jyoti Babu’s last wish. As a radical humanist, what matter to us is to see the death of superstition and exploitative customs which have been imposed on our birth and deaths by the priestly class. The poor people have to follow this trend even at the cost of being bankrupt but the political class does not care as it has enough money. It wants to validate its religious identity at the end to get the electoral benefit. And if CPM or Jyoti Babu’s family has decided to fulfill his last wish, it is time to celebrate. We hope more and more people will do that in future. Unfortuantely, we have seen double standard in the personal life of our political class. Claiming to die for the masses, we have seen our political class like to be cremated among weeping people and amidst the chant of Vaidik Mantras by aristocratic Brahmins. The Kumbha fair is here and we in north India are habitual of the religious pontiffs preaching us greatness of Ganga Snan and performing religious rituals so that you get Moksha. The cremation of a political leader is again an opportunity for greedy priestly class to pontificate us on greatness of religious virtues for the purpose of spreading their virus. Politicians and their chamchas i.e. followers, use this opportunity to declare their undenying faith in God as well as on priestly class. Most of the politicians in India have succumbed to this as they might have been atheists in their personal lives but their family never let it be so. At the end despite their being atheists of non believers, they family opted for a religious cremation for various political purposes.

And that way, Jyoti Babu has become my role model. The more I think of this, I feel how politicians in India are full of double standards in public life. They earn for family, claim loud things and at the end want to be cremated by the religious pontiffs. Jyoti Babu has created an example. He has proved that a true Marxist remain true to Marxist philosophy of not succumbing to any religious rituals. India is a country where organ donation is difficult and has lot of religious connotations. It is believed that if you contribute your organs to any one, you will have to pass through worst conditions in next birth. The racist brahmanical philosophy has preached us that donating your eyes and body is dangerous. Jyoti Basu has saved environment. He has saved us from priestly pontification. He has put our faith in science. As a humanist, I feel overjoyed with this journey of Jyoti Basu. I might not have faith in the closed CPM minds in West Bengal but I respect his last wish. The wish to promote science and in another way call a grand rebuff to those who believe in theory of creativity and religious jargons. At least, we are saved from this pontification. Organ donation is an important issue and the more people understand about it, the better for our future. In the interest of humanity, we must follow our heart and donate our bodies for the betterment of human life. We will not only save precious wood particularly sandalwood, but also precious Ghee, and other important food items we offer to dead body. In the villages, people offer their income to Brahmins in hope the dead person would get it. If we have to make the brahmanical priestly class redundant, we must follow what Jyoti Babu did, by donating our bodies and shunning the rituals, we are so fond of, in the name of our culture. One hope, our political class will learn a lesson from this that life is meant to serve the people and it end here, there is no point in getting yourself purified by the priestly class which has cheated the people for centuries in the name death and birth. By donating his body for the purpose of science, Jyoti Babu has immortalized himself and has become much larger than his life as a Marxist. It is time our politicians who want to be remembered should worry more about human cause rather then ‘securing a place in heaven’. By donating their organs and bodies for the purpose of human kind they will not only attack the superstition nature of our society but also give lie to a few human beings and more to the research of science which will benefit human kind. At least, the people who suffered during their life time will not suffer in their death. It is time, we must understand the gravity of the situation and promote organ donation. Jyoti Basu has put an example, one hope our political class would be courageous enough to do so and immortalized iself.

The Tribal Question

Sandwiched between the rhetoric of ideologies

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

The last week of December passed at Periyar Thidal in Chennai. It some how stuck to me why the loud mouthed philosophers writing eulogy on Marxism and Maoism in the west, never ever thought of writing something on people like Periyar, Ambedkar and Phule. How have the Indian elite residing abroad forgotten these great icons? Was this conspicuous or an intelligent way of brahmanical crookedness when they speak of ideologies in today’s world.

When Christopher Jefferalot wrote ‘Silent revolution in India’, he understood the changes happening in Indian society. Of course, for the upper elite of Indian intellectuals masquerading as Marxists or Maoists, it was not more than the bourgeoisie game of an identity politics. The whole decade of 1990s was the biggest blow to brahmanical forces in India in the post independent India. The forces of Mandal defeated the forces of Kamandal in the political field but unfortunately there was no periyar, Phule, Ambedkar who could convert this political mobilization as a lethal force for social change which could have dismantled the brahmanical hegemony in India. This resulted in growth of numerous local contradictions which were rarely discussed as the fight was against ‘big enemy’. When you ignore local differences and feel that rather then discussing on them, it is better to keep them under the wrap, a political revolution is found to fail. And the who political change brought by Mandal is there but the leaders are not more then puppets of their brahmanical bosses or following up the same politics of hegemonies of their past masters. Despite their ascendency in power, BJP was mandalised and even the aristocratic Indian left parties had to realize that caste was an important issue in India. The whole decade was a debate on caste issues, the issue of Dalits and Bahujans.

Then came the age when the brahmanical forces started targeting this Dalit Bahujan alliance under a new guise. Now, the backward communities became the biggest villain. Particularly from Tamilnadu, this new thought promoted clandestinely by the Brahmins made Periyar the biggest anti Dalit in the region, undermining and ignoring his whole work against caste system and for women’s liberation. The situation in Uttar-Pradesh also turned like that and Bahujan was converted to Sarvjan for political purpose. One understands this dynamics of politics that the leaders of backward classes in the north remain foot soldiers of Hindutvas. No one can deny this fact today the emergence of shudra leaders in the Sangh Parivar. It will always happen when the secular places will become the den of caste Hindus to preach their ugly sarva-dharma concept, keeping aside the dirty game of caste politics and discrimination against the Dalits. The backwards and the Dalits found it nearly impossible in the party structures of the left and the center of the left and for their politics they will move some where else. The Hindutva protagonists’ used it best for their pusposes. Secularism is not just a few preaching by these elite which is far away from the people but participation in our national life by different nationalities which in India are reflected through caste identities.


At the Periyar Thidal, I found Periyar decrying Gods. How could this succeed in Tamilnadu. Despite all reservations and this article will not have enough space to discuss that, Periyar’s social movement in Tamilnadu worked. It broke the back bone of the cultural values propagated by Brahmins. Yes, the hatred against him grow and still exists as a Tamiln Brahmin today find more happiness living in Delhi then in Chennai. During my return, a university profession from Tamilnadu was proudly expressing her Brahmin lineage and condemning Periyar as an illiterate. ( Periyar was not even a matriculate). When I told her about Periyar’s social movement for women, she simply said that he married to a much younger woman then him. But what is the problem of two adults marrying to each other. It is a private matter and the woman who married should answer to that and no third party has any business to decide what is happiness for her, I told this woman.

The point here is that the Brahmins have never forgiven Periyar for his work of awareness in Tamilnadu. As a freethinker, I do not suffer from any particular ism and for me every great man is open to questions and might have made mistakes. We remember their good work and learn from their mistakes but condemning a man on his caste and looking upon him in utter contempt.

The work of Ambedkar and Periyar provided a new hope of life to all those who were victim of brahmanical hegemony. Not only they, Phule, Sahuji Maharaj, Ayothee Thass, and many other revolutionaries actually felt that dismantling the caste system was the precondition for an enlightened India. Ambedkar visualized it in terms of Prabudha Bharat. Almost all of these ideologues felt the biggest threat to India is through the hegemony of the brahmanical system and hence they worked to uproot it. It was not just political control over the Bahujans but also emotional blackmailing of the oppressed communities through ritualistic jokes in the name of puja-archana.

But social reform was never on the agenda of those who claim to speak on behalf of the Maoists. They can only speak about imperialism and that too of global order. It is shocking that all those who are speaking against the Maoists violence have been turned as ‘state agent’ while those claiming to represent the ‘movement’ champion the cause of the
‘Helpless’ tribal as if they did not fight their battles. Why we ignore historical battles in Jharkhand, Bastar and elsewhere.

Have the tribal become so helpless that they are unable to fight their battle? Is Maoism and tribal identity the same? It is made to believe like that. It is made to believe that it is a battle of social justice. Battle of social justice is much bigger an issue and can not be fought by becoming the messiah of the tribal and importing the upper caste leadership on them.

During the British war, the Hindus were quick to jump on Gandhian Khadi to look better and superior to others. M.N.Roy termed as a fascist tendency. He said that Indian fascism would be quintessentially a cultural onslaught. It may not be violent like what happened in Germany he wrote, but assimilation and annihilation of culture of the oppressed communities. Soon, from Gandhi-ism, the elite jump into the Sangh parivar nationalism. Then the more articulative of them shifted to Marxism who would discuss Vietnam and American hegemony world over but had no time to see what happened in Eastern European countries where freedom to express became an alien term. In the 1970s, it was the socialist leaning of the people which made them feel superior to others. They would talk about ‘taking’ care of the poor and felt that since they do not believe in caste hence caste does not exist. In the battle against emergency all these forces joined hand and gave a new legitimacy to Sangh parivar in the national politics.

In the eighties, civil society groups began to develop and a new agenda of developmental work was put on test. A number of big names ventured into it and therefore many big institutions developed. In the 1990s, the slogan of Kanshi Ram ‘ Jisaki ladai, uski aguwai’ ( the leadership should rest with those who are struggling..) rented in the air. Vote hamara raj tumhara nahee chalega nahee chalega.. our vote, your government will not work will not work). So, most of the deprived sections went their own way ignoring all these ideological calls. For them, the issue of their identity became more important. Most of them felt that they had been systematically denied history by these elite ‘movements’.

1990s was important for mandalisation process. But it was also important for undoing it by Narsimha Rao, in the form of Structual Adjustment programmes of the World Bank. Those frustrated with reservation policies of the government found it relieving to get into the ever growing private sector. The upper castes soon found their way into it. The elite again started glorifying the new term of globalization. The same time, we saw growth of Hindutva’s forces in the Center through their vicious anti Muslim propaganda. We saw massacre of the Muslims happening in Gujarat and nothing happened. Despite all noises at international and national level, no social movement could develop in Gujarat which could threaten the existing regime of hatred there. Narendra Modi grew stronger and stronger despite all efforts to nail him down constitutionally. The law remains meek to those in power.

As the privatization of the national resources continues, a new agenda was sought to be imposed on the country. It is the agenda of the loot of people’s property. It is interesting to see that in this loot, many of the powerful people and their communities are also involved yet no voices. Thousands of hectares of land has gone to local industrialists and no voices of concern. Yes, most of the land movement is visible in the form of anti SEZ protests. The rulers have succeeded in compartmentalizing the land movements. Those fighting for water, forest, land remain stagnant. There are very few who want to remind government of historic duty of redistribution of land. Government does not have land they say. One does not know why such nonsensical argument comes when the Ambanis, Tatas, Jindals, Posco, Vedanta etc have acquired huge track of land. Is redistribution of land not the issue because it belong to mostly Dalits? Is there a general antipathy in the social movements towards this as they fear that among the Dalits, the acceptance of upper caste leadership would be difficult? No, a number of those who are today claiming victim hood have been victimizing the Dalits for years. The ‘poor’ caste farmers were never with the Dalits and were in fact experts in exploiting them. It is this tragedy that the social movement remains isolated among their own communities and those who speak on rhetoric have their field day in emotionalizing the people without carrying it to a logical conclusion. Now, there are new shapes given to the movements. It is called ideology. That it is an ideological war. One does not know what ideology is for people whose resources are snatched away from them. For him the biggest issue is how to get it. So whether a Maoist come for him or a Christian priests or an RSS wallah, all those who can help him get land is a leader. Tribal isolation has become an important milestone for every one to propagate their ideologies at the cost of tribal interests.

It is no denying the fact that Adivasi land is under the target by the government and all should join hand in the battle against illegal land grabbing. They remained isolated for years. Romantics of this isolation say they do not need development. They appreciate their culture. They used to do same with Dalits and backward classes unless they found an Ambedkar and Periyar. None of them actually glorified the age old traditions. The biggest battle against the exploitation has to be demolition of the caste based structure and gender discrimination based in our society. The day brahmanical hegemony breaks, the Dalits, Adivassis, backward communities will question their own leaders who use them as a tool to get into power.

Today, through issues of Adivasi, the same debate is being converted into us verses them. George W Bush when attacked Iraq said you are either with us or with Saddam. In the past one year, the writings on tribal issues have turned like this. You have to be a Maoist sympathizer to look Adivasi friendly otherwise you are a government agent. See the irony of this, these writings are emerging from those who have their own fan following in the government, who gets great honorarium from the same capitalist media they decry, who work in the same universities in India and abroad which are funded by the government and these so-called capitalist governments. So the professors in a university who used to have a tag of being ‘ intellectual’ have now a new tag ‘ leader of the movement’ and their only work is to decry every one else who do not agree with them. And this trend is growing. Former IAS officers, doctors, engineers, lawyers, journalists, all becoming leaders of the movement taking the space of those who have been involved in it for years, who have spend their lives for the cause. The thin line between media activism and activism has disappeared. By one PIL people become movement leaders, by one public meeting or one writing you are turning people into movement leaders. Frustration will grow. My question is not to question all those who are working for people. My question is with those who refuse to accept diverse view points of a problem. It is a new kind of jingoism which is turning the entire debate on a ‘holier than thou’ attitude. The issue of the rights of the tribal and dalits is immense. None deny the issue of people right over their resources, but how the battle has to be fought and won is different. I can only wish if the tribal had their own Kanshi Ram who could have made them emerge as an independent entity and not look for messiahs. Dalits in India salute Kanshiram for this political contribution that he has made them an entity where they can stand at their own in this democratic polity. Tribal need political leaders who can stand at their own and fight their battle at their own and not look for imported messiahs. Once they have this, they will win the democratic battle and their own survival as their political class will not remain unaccountable as it seems today.