Adivasi land issue never get support untill Janu raised the question of 'pakaram bhoomi'
X'n NGOs and Manorama came with support(which never happnd before)...dalit intellectuals/orgnsations supportd, but critiqued it Your reporting is again incorrect, Ranjith The specific struggle you are referring to was lead by 'Adivasi Dalit Samara Samithi'. It evolved through certain other issue based alliances in Kurichi, Engineering College issue etc. 'Gothra Maha sabha' a new organisational form emerged from that movement. [ from press reports, i understand that it is now split into two groups in connection with the ongoing struggle at Aralam.] Your allegation in fact substantiate instead of questioning my point. You are also saying that Janu's support shows their backtracking .It is true that for the first time Janu became a hero for mainsteam middle class and civil society supported it in an unprecedented manner. Those factors played important role in making it a mass movement. But one shouldn't overlook the struggle waged by different sections among Adivasi community [ or the community formation through that struggle]. Janu says in one of her interviews about a young man saying in one of their meetings " What matters is not how much land we will be given but the fact that WE TOO HAVE AN ORGANISATION " You are simply being oblivious of the self definition of that organisation and their demands. It emerged against the background of repeated "starvation deaths " among Adivasis. They called for immediate [ structural] remedy . They consciously raised the demand for land out of the frame work of the alienated land issue . They demaned five acres of land for all landless Adivasis [ not who" lost "it but who didn't even possess it]. I simply can't understand the logic in accusing that this is asking for 'Pakaram Bhoomi". No, it was not. This NEW demand in no way nullified the alienated land [ both in legal and social domains] issue. Certain Dalit intellectuals who were not part of the movement [ Sanni Kapikkad , Thomas etal were part of the struggling committee, not the support group, and spent months in front of secretate ] came against it in popular media after it won significant victories. Are you suggesting that the Adivasi movement shouldn't raise any new demand in connection with land except for the alienated land? How ridiculous !![ another instance where 'real issue' logic is being deployed in order to show one's lack of sympathy to a particular intervention] You are echoing the arguments of ultra left groups against Janu. Adivasi land issue [ and struggles in connection with it ] have a history. Janu is part of that. Her movement found a breakthrough and you are labelling it as betrayal. Before criticising a specific struggle and their demands we must at least take care to listen to their voice and ensure that we are not misquoting . In Aralam [Kannur] GothrmahaSabha is waging a struggle for more than an year. Hundreds of adivasi families has been occupying the land. Few hundreds of Adivasi families occupied land under CPIM as well . They vacated and left once it was sure that LDF will come into power. Recently when the movement gained momentum, Adivasi Kshema Samithi [ CPIM sponsered group] lead a march into Aralam and tried to provoke tension and conflicts. Minster A. K. Balan claimed that ' we will counter Adivasis with adivasis ". Gothramahasabha took the position that they too should be given land. Will you support this movement? Is it 'pakaram bhoomi' that they are claiming? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
