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http://www.tehelka.com/story_main28.asp?filename=Cr310307Shadow_lines.asp
ENGAGED CIRCLE
M.GEETHANANDAN SHADOW LINES THE DALIT VOICE
CLASS STRUGGLE ISN'T ENOUGH
M Geethanandan is the face of a resurgent adivasi-dalit identity in Kerala
and the architect of a number of recent dalit and adivasi struggles to
regain control of lost land and water resources. Describing both adivasis
and dalits as the worst affected of an exploitative social system, he is
of the view that the two communities need a combined initiative to fight
attempts to keep them as separate entities with nothing in common.
Naorem Ashish
Born in Thayyil in Kannur district in 1954, Geethanandan is a Marine
Sciences ma. Though he worked with the Accountant General's office in
Thiruvananthapuram for two decades, he found his Marxist thinking in
constant contradiction with the grim realities he faced as a dalit in the
Communist heartlands of Kannur. When Naxalbari's 'spring thunder' found
echoes in the minds of young radicals in Kerala, Geethanandan found it
more acceptable than the CPM doublespeak. Saying goodbye to the ag's
office, he became part of the Marxist-Leninist movement in Kerala, then
led by K. Venu and KN Ramachandran. He shifted base to Thrissur, where he
floated unions for workers in the unorganised sector.
"The trade union activities in Thrissur made me a dalit activist. The
people I worked with were extremely poor dalits. Their problems required a
caste-based approach rather than a class-based one because the
discrimination against them was mainly caste-based. The Left never had any
satisfactory answer to caste-based problems,'' he says. The dismantling of
the Soviet Bloc also eroded his faith in Communism. His association with
dalit movements grew, particularly after a protest at Kurichi in Kottayam
against the Kerala State Electricity Board for not changing the course of
a high tension line over a dalit colony.
When it came to dalits, neither the mainstream nor the fringe Left ever
had an answer to caste-based problems In 1996, he met adivasi leader CK
Janu and formed a camaraderie that resulted in many landmark adivasi-dalit
agitations. It was the 48-day-long stir for food, land and housing in
Thiruvananthapuram, about five years ago, that made Kerala take note of
his organising capacity as the tribals forced the then AK Antony
government to accept their demands. Later, Geethanandan was active in the
Muthanga tribal agitation in which more than 2,000 adivasis occupied a
barren portion of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary after a
government-ordered crackdown on agitating tribals killed one and left
several others maimed. He has 12 CBI cases against him as a result of his
role in the stir.
Geethanandan is now the general secretary of the Rashtriya Mahasabha, a
political platform of dalits and tribals. He is also the only non-tribal
member of CK Janu's Adivasi Gothra Mahasabha.
"In Kerala, there are more landless dalits than adivasis. I have to
assemble them on a political platform, not a communal one to fight for
their rights,'' he says.
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Anivar Aravind
Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA)
Peringavu.P.O
Thrissur-680018
India
Ph. +91 9446545336
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