Shola cottage industry in West Bengal: Local history and future prospects
The following article provides a look at shola artists and shola industry in general. The orginal Bengali articles were written by Sanjay Ghosh for Manthan Samayiki, and has been translated by Koel Das, Sanhati. Shola is a naturally occurring substance which has been used traditionally by people for making flowers and other artworks. Unlike petroleum-based thermocol which degrades in water thus polluting marine-life, shola products are less polluting and environmentally stable. There is a rising demand for shola artwork, and more and more villages are engaging in this cottage industry, which is in danger of being lost partly due to Government inaction.
Debates on Lalgarh: Sujato Bhadra, Kishenji, Amit Bhattacharya
A part of the Lalgarh page at Sanhati
An Open Letter to the Maoists - Sujato Bhadra, civil rights activist from West Bengal
Response from Jangal Mahal - Kishenji
Violence and Non-violence - Amit Bhattacharyya, Professor of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
Reflections on the changing face of the gram samaj: A montage from a post-Aila Sunderbans
By Amitava Chaudhuri. Translated by Siddhartha Mitra, Sanhati.
The author speaks extensively to Sunderban locals in the aftermath of Aila, finding a world where growing awareness of rights and volatility coexists with age-old faith in myths and invincibility. Old-timers reflect on the changing face of the village society or gram samaj, which was ruthlessly interventionist and coercive in feudal times, only to be replaced by a calculating politics of populism, patronage, and pilferage in modern times. The author concludes that in an age of global warming with impending disasters, an inhospitable environment like the Sunderbans where there is no infrastructure to speak of needs vibrant social networks to survive.
Workers’ Struggle at Paharpur Cooling Towers
The following translation is an account of the workers’ struggle at Paharpur Cooling Towers factory (company tagline: An ISO 9001 company), located along Diamond Harbour Road, Kolkata, West Bengal. The original Bengali article was written by Partha Koyal spanning three visits - it has been translated by Koel Das, Sanhati.
Healthcare issues in Lalgarh: 40 kg weight at full-term pregnancy
July 10 2009. A part of the Lalgarh page.
Kantapahari health center. A young mother wraps her baby in a bit of cloth and looks around for a shadow from the glare of the sun. The baby cries out a few times.
She has come from a long way off, having walked around two hours to bring her baby to the health center. The baby is three months old, but looks smaller. Thin hands and legs, big head, bulging eyes – malnourishment all over.
The unknown Binayak Sens of The House of Dreams
July 10 2009. A part of the Lalgarh page.
The aim was to kindle an interest in education amongst children in remote, left-behind corners of the Jangalmahal, West Bengal. The result was a boarding school with a difference.
Children studied there free of tuition, taken care of the entire day by a group of local youths. Driven by the belief that through education and awareness the plight of local people could be bettered, these young men named their tiny school Swapnapuri – The House of Dreams. The local administration too extended its hands in support of this venture.
The dislocation of 15 million fishworkers and environmental degradation: an introduction to ongoing changes in Coastal Zone Regulations
By Suvarup Saha, Sanhati. Open for comments.
Coastal Zone Regulations in India are currently being changed and manipulated. It is necessary to examine these changes closely and understand the political and economic currents that motivate them. The 8200 km long coastline of India provides livelihood to 15 million people and is one of the richest environments in the world - changes and amendments in protective regulations thus have widespread effects, effects which are being swept under the carpet by political parties, from the right to the parliamentary Left. This is an introduction to the issue.
Tales from the Gorkha region: crimes, oppression, and the fading memory of Baburam Dewan
By Siddhartha Mitra, Sanhati. Translated from ShramikShakti, June 2008
“Son, do not feel ashamed about my death; instead, feel proud of it, because this self-sacrifice of mine is for the greater good of the 6000 workers of the Chongtong tea-estate. We are still able to provide ourselves with two meals a day; but the thought of the frightening situation of the others in the tea-garden is making me unbearably anxious
– these were the words the Baburam Dewan wrote to his son in a letter just before he took his own life.
What is the state of workers in the new industrial zones of Tamil Nadu?
This conversation with a worker from Tamil Nadu, appeared in Shramik Istahar, May 2008. It has been translated by Koel Das, Sanhati.
I was conversing with Sudhakarda. Sudhakar Raut, originally from Orissa, used to work in a reputed private engineering factory in West Bengal. He lost his job after being victimized in a lock-out while fighting against the injustice of the factory owner. I met him a couple of days back when he talked about his experiences over the last one year.
CPIM state conference, January 2008
On the first day of the CPI-M’s four-day-long state conference on January 14 2008, the party’s top leadership tried to grapple with the self-contradictions in its ideological and tactical positions that have come to the fore in recent times.
Rape and its proof – And that’s how life is
An op-ed by Jagori Bandyopadhyay in Anandabazar Patrika, December 13, 2007. Translated by Suvarup Saha, Sanhati.
We need proof. The government does not take any action until there is sufficient evidence to prove the crime. This is how it should be; this is how it is. Plain words. Plain, yet not so simple. The government will act once it has enough evidence to justify its action. Very good. But the journey from accusations to establishment of crime in the eyes of the law is not a trivial process. Can the Government shrug off its responsibility in ensuring that this process, the journey itself, is executed in a free, fair and lawful manner? These thoughts occurred to me as I was listening to the charges and counter-charges that accompanied the accusations of mass rapes in Nandigram.
Land Acquisition Bill and the Panchayet: things to expect and fear. A case study on Salboni
By Debarshi Das, Sanhati
When the government is not in the scene does the acquisition process become hostage to unwilling, ignorant peasants and scheming speculators? Do the entire paraphernalia of political parties, bureaucracy and other institutions simply sit by and let the invisible hand of market decide what goes where? On 11th January, 2007 at a Kolkata five star hotel Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was spouting Shakespeare and Tagore . He had just concluded a deal handing over 4300 acres of government land at Salboni to the Jindal group to set up a steel factory. Jindal group was supposed to acquire a further 500 acres of land directly from the landholders. How did it go? What has been the role of the Panchayat, both as a mediating agency between the industrialist and peasants and as a collective bargaining body of villagers?
A Few Desperate and Concerned Questions
By Ashok Mitra. Translated by Debarshi Das, Sanhati
This article appeared on 18th April, 2007 in the Anandabazar Patrika
We know the history of the last fifteen years very well. National output had had a tremendous rise, capitalists have built mountains out of profits, but employment has not risen. The little rise there was, was in the public sector. In private sector employment has in fact gone down. On what basis therefore is the party leadership claiming that unemployment problems would be mitigated if West Bengal is handed over to domestic and foreign capitalists?
Durga Puja as Protest : Small Traders in West Bengal
By Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri
The four days of Durga Puja signify carnival time in West Bengal. On the main Saptami Puja day, Thursday the 18th of October, a few of us witnessed a tiny act of defiance by the small traders of Nonachandanpukur Bazaar, in Barrackpore, within the area loosely called Greater Calcutta.
How are you Chandmani, after the ‘Change’?
An Eyewitness Report on the present state of Chandmani Tea Estate by Samik Chakraborty
Translated by Suvarup Saha, Sanhati
Do you recall the ‘Chandmani’ saga? It was the year 2003. We were introduced to new jargon by our ‘proletarian’ Left Front government – Satellite Township. A modern township in close proximity to a big city. This project of usurping the land of Chandmani Tea Estate to build a lavish township in the outskirts of Siliguri (in the northern part of West Bengal) and the events that followed soon exposed the true identity of the LF once more. An echo of the recent euphoria of ‘industrialization-development’ that is now centered around ‘Singur-Nandigram’ and the corresponding ‘inevitability’ of forceful land acquisition can in fact be heard four years back in history when Chandmani was ‘CHANGED’.
National Tanneries from Birth to Dissolution - Chronicles of a pro-industrialization, pro-workers government
By Subhendu Dasgupta. Translated by Debarshi Das, Sanhati
1905: Birth of National Tanneries.
1950s: Peak performance of the Tanneries. Its products get global recognition.
1969: Shoe manufacturing division is founded. At that time except Bata, no other shoe manufacturing unit existed in East India.
1970s: Company starts to sicken.
Ranihati - an SEZ silently in the making
By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati (based on a report by Sushanta Bose and Pradip Roy, Shramikshakti, August 2007)
The West Bengal government plans to establish a special economic zone (SEZ) in the Ranihati area of Howrah district. Hindustan Foundries, belonging to the Hyderabad-based Ramoji International corporation is going to be the developer of this SEZ. The government plans to bring the small foundries located in the Dasnagar-Tikiapara area of Howrah into this “foundry park”. Recently, the union government has also given its go-ahead. As a result, around 1000 acres of agricultural land is being acquired for setting up this SEZ, a major part of which is fertile land bearing two crops per year. Various machinations of acquiring the land from the farmers are going on. Reportedly, already 50% of the land has already changed hands from the farmers.
What Amartya Sen said and what he did not
By Anirban Chattopadhyay. Translated by Debarshi Das, Sanhati
Amartya Sen has made his views on industrialisation in West Bengal known. To him, industrialisation is necessary for the development of the state, it is the only way for income growth. How will industrialisation come about, where will it be located – most of these issues will depend on market, on the requirements of those who are going to invest. For example, investors may like to have their industries set up near Kolkata. To facilitate this some farm land may have to be sacrificed. Otherwise industrialisation will itself get hampered, which would imply a lost opportunity for the people of the state. It even means loss for the farmers. Too many people are dependent on land, resulting in a constraint on their earnings. As long as these additional people are not moved away from farming by means of industrialisation, their lot will not improve.
Buddha gets pat from World Bank (April 7, The Telegraph)
The World Bank today expressed satisfaction over steps taken by the Bengal government for economic reforms and attracting investment and indicated it would pump in more funds for a string of projects in the state.
Emerging from a meeting with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the World Bank director in charge of south-east Asia, Sadiq Ahmed, said the state government was trying its best to woo investors and good work was being done towards reforms.
“We are of the opinion that the state government has taken positive steps towards comprehensive economic growth of Bengal and is trying its best to bring in new investment and carry out reforms properly,” said Ahmed.
The World Bank director said the state government had also taken measures for poverty alleviation. “The government has also taken positive steps in its budget to reduce fiscal deficit and had increased revenue by 20 per cent from VAT,” said Ahmed.
A three-member World Bank team led by Ahmed today reviewed the ongoing World Bank-funded projects in Bengal in the fields of technical education, panchayat and rural development.
The Bengal government has proposed to the World Bank to provide funds for projects in the health, municipal affairs and urban development sectors. Today’s meeting also discussed the proposed projects. Among others present at the meeting were finance minister Asim Dasgupta and chief secretary A.K. Deb.
“We held discussions on how to increase assistance to the state in the fields of health, education and municipal sectors. We also discussed ongoing
projects,” said Ahmed.
Ahmed said the government had adhered to guidelines set for the ongoing projects. “So, we think there will not be any problems to sanction funds for future projects.”
However, he added that while drawing up projects for World Bank funds, the state government should emphasise on basic services to common people.
Santa Claus visits the Tatas
By Ashok Mitra (The Telegraph, March 30)
The uproar over Nandigram — and Singur — in West Bengal will not die away soon. Competitive democracy has its own laws; those opposed to the party ruling in the state will try to squeeze the maximum advantage from the discomfiture it has brought upon itself.
Speculation continues on the riddle as to why, despite repeated assurances to the contrary, the state administration fell back on a colonial-type police offensive to re-assert its authority in Nandigram. The underlying reason, informed sources suggest, was a strong message from the Salim group, who were promised vast stretches of land in the area for their chemical hub project; they might move away elsewhere, the message said, if the land was not handed over to them within the next few weeks. That set the panic bell ringing; the sequel has been horrifying.
A Million Nandigrams
By Sunita Narain
We were standing between a massive mine and a stunning water reservoir. Local activists were explaining to me how this iron ore mine was located in the catchment of the Salaulim water reservoir, the only water source for south Goa.
Suddenly, as I clicked with my camera, we were surrounded by a jeepload of men. They said they were from the mine management and wanted us off the property. We explained that we had come on a public path and that there were no signs to indicate that we were trespassing. But they were not in a mood to listen. They snatched the keys of our jeep, picked up stones to hit us and got abusive. Before things got totally out of hand, we decided to leave.
