http://www.blog.insightyv.com/ Chengara / Varkala : Beware of the Dalit<http://blog.insightyv.com/?p=827>
By *Sudeep K.S.* *Chengara*. More than two years back, over 5000 families of landless Dalits, Adivasis and others started this protest on 4th August 2007 claiming 6000 acres of land that was illegally kept by a plantation company in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala. Around 20,000 people from different parts of the region moved to this area, with tents with poles and plastic sheets. [image: Photo by Ajilal] Photo by Ajilal The media as well as the government completey ignored this non-violent occupation for almost an year. The trade unions — left and right alike — threatened those people by *abducting women*<http://sudeepsdiary.blogspot.com/2008/08/attacking-women-easiest-way-to-kill.html>, blocking all access to outside world. It was also labeled Maoist and the demands were written off as “revolutionary jingoism”. The people did not give up, nor did they turn violent. Outside the mainstream media the struggle slowly gained support. Even the middle class who were initially outright angry at the `unrealistic demand’ for land and housing reluctantly started accepting the fact that there are sections of society that were denied basic land rights. The opposition parties and media also were forced to talk about this struggle. The ruling CPM and their trade unions continued with the threats. The chief minister called the occupants thieves. The court also intervened and ordered that the people be driven out of this illegal occupation. However, the Government finally had to give in. Earlier this month on October 5 2009 there was a settlement formula announced. The plan included giving land to 1432 of the families, and some financial help to build houses. One acre of land for landless Adivasi families (5 or 6 of them), 50 cents for Dalit families and 25 cents for others. Execution of this plan is supposed to happen over next three months. Laha Gopalan, who led the struggle, said the formula was a farce but they will accept this ‘pittance’ offered to them and they are calling off the struggle for now. Does this mark a victory or a defeat, what are the questions that remain unanswered, we will come to that later. * * * Now, cut to *Varkala*. A town near Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala. About a week before the Chengara settlement, a man was murdered while on his morning walk. The next day police claimed that they had information a Dalit outfit was behind this murder. Not just that, the outfit did it so that the people get to know about them, they added. Predictably, life became hell for Dalits soon. Dalit youth were picked up by the police and harassed, branded as DHRM sympathisers. Apparently there were offers that if one joined Shiv Sena, one could escape this harassment. The Municipal chairman claimed that the outfit’s aim was to destroy the left. (It was interesting to see both the mainstream left and the extreme right finding a common enemy in the Dalit.) Malayalam newspapers and television channels dished out terror stories ranging from how ‘peaceful existence has become impossible for the common people’ to ‘how poor Dalit youth gets misled’. The court rejected precautionary bail pleas of Dalit organization leaders, claiming there was a threat to normal life in the state. Ajith Kumar, a Dalit Musician, shared his angst in a blog: “*The situation constructed by the media and police have forced the dalits in the pubic sphere – individuals and organizations – to take uncomfortable positions to prove one is a good dalit and not a bad dalit. Some dalit organizations have suddenly condemned the activities of DHRM, to prove perhaps that they are ‘good dalits’ and thus escaping this new stigma. What is interesting is that most of the dalit organizations always had to face the allegations of foreign funds or naxal connection, but hen new organizations emerge the old ones are spared and the new ones are branded as more `dangerous’..*” [http://thefishpond.in/ajithkumar/2009/good-dalitbad-dalit/] Meanwhile, *Madhyamam* (Malayalam), *India Today* and *Tehelka* dared to carry articles that went againt the ‘mass wisdom’. Their reporters who visited Varkala got to see a DHRM that was completely different from the terror outfit we were all familiar with by then. About the reforms they brought about in the Dalit community and about the acceptance they had locally. [See references below]. Even later, veteran journalist B R P Bhaskar and team that went to Varkala came up with many more stories of atrocities — both by the police and by the Shiv Sena. Localites who spoke to the fact finding team were apparently harassed by the police. * * * Chengara had raised some important questions. The most evident one was about the sections who were left out from the land reforms that happened in Kerala. That question is only partially answered with this settlement, even if it gets implemented. It is only a small fraction of that excluded population, and even for them, the few cents of land or a hundred thousand rupees do not fulfil their demand for a dignified life. Another question was about the huge amount of land that is illegally occupied by private plantations, many years after their lease expired. The government does not want to address this question at all, and it got only more complex with the trade unions teaming up with the plantation owners. Even as it opens up a lot more questions than it answers, I think Chengara land struggle is a landmark struggle in Kerala’s history and it is a sign of things to come. One important thing about this struggle was that it was not led by established left parties in the state. Nor by the Maoists, as the Government and CPM wanted people to believe. CPM is known to have extreme intolerance to any struggle that is not led by them, and it was evident in their approach to the struggle. They said it was foreign funded, they said it was a Maoist uprising, and the CM had called them thieves. After all this, when it reached a settlement finally, it showed that if people decide to fight for their rights, it cannot be ignored for a long time. It also says that the Kerala society is not ‘dead’, as the middle class and some intellectuals want to believe. (They are happy that way, but they shed a lot of tears for the ‘good old’ revolutionary days). The sections of the society who were betrayed by the revolutions are only coming alive. And it disturbs our peaceful lives in many ways. That is why we were all desparate to contain the ‘Dalit Killer’. That is why the ‘bourgeois’ media and the Police and the CPM and the Judiciary are all on the same side when it comes to the ’safety and security’ of the middle class even as they hardly agree on anything else (consider the Paul George murder case where the media rejected the police version of the story claiming it was a CPM version). One section of supposedly progressive intellectuals took a line that the media should stop the Dalit bashing reciting baseless stories planted by Police but — *that is a big but* — we should be aware of the ‘growing militant tendencies’ among Dalits in Kerala. I really don’t know what they mean, since the Dalit movements in Kerala have been characterized by non-violent struggles. These ‘intellectuals’ echo the official CPM voice in their apologetic lament that the Dalits are led by ‘armchair’ Maoists. I know that is the only way they have known Dalits — as people who could be used by others, including CPM and the Maoists — for their short-term political gains. No wonder that they can not come to terms with the fact that those days are over, at least in Kerala. The message that the police and the media gives is that ‘beware of the Dalit extremist’. The message that comes out clear in this whole episode, even as they try their best to hide it, is that ‘beware of the Dalit, as they are not your slaves any more’. They are increasingly becoming aware of their rights that we have robbed of them for generations. Don’t be under the impression that you can kill it by calling them terrorists. ——- Some references: Chengara Land Struggle in Kerala<http://www.thesouthasian.org/archives/2007/chengara_land_struggle_in_kera.html>(The South Asian / Dec 2007) Two Dalit leaders of Kerala speaking about the struggle<http://insightyv.com/?p=266>(Insight Magazine / July 2009) A film on Chengara by C Sharatchandran<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuGM6txIRWo> A Vicious Manifesto<http://thefishpond.in/sanjeev/2009/a-vicious-manifesto/>(S Sanjeev / Fishpond, Oct 2009) Ab Aap Police Station se Samachar Suniye<http://kafila.org/2009/09/27/3387/>(Nivedita Menon / Kafila, Oct 2009) (And now, the news read from the Police Station) Ambedkar’s Lost Boys?<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=Ne241009ambedkars_lost.asp>(Ajit Sahi / Tehelka, Oct 2009) What has made DHRM possible?<http://www.jocalling.com/2009/10/what-made-dhrm-possible/>(Jo, on his blog, he quotes from the India Today report, Oct 2009) B R P Bhaskar writes after visiting Varkala, on his Malayalam blog<http://malayalamvaayana.blogspot.com/2009/10/blog-post_19.html>(Oct 2009). [Image courtesy: Ajilal's photoblog Nirangalil Sepia<http://ajilal.blogspot.com/2008/08/changara-boosamarm.html> ] -- " The so called caste-hindus are bitterly opposed to the depressed class using a public tank not because they really believe that the water will be thereby spoiled or will evaporate but because they are afraid of losing their superiority of caste and of equality being established between the former and the latter. We are resorting to this satyagraha not becasue we believe that the water of this particular tank has any exceptional qualities, but to establish our natural rights as citizens and human beings." - Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Mahad Satyagraha Conference, December 25th , 1927 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
