Lalgarh Movement – Mass uprising of tribal people in West Bengal at Sanhati

Lalgarh Movement – Mass uprising of tribal people in West Bengal

December 26, 2008

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Nov 13, 2008: Background of the movement

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati.

The events that have been happening during the last one week in the adivasi (tribal) belt of West Midnapur district in West Bengal are so unprecedented that the authorities do not know how to respond to them, and the media doesn’t understand their significance.

Even the political parties and civil society are at a loss trying to come to terms with what is happening. What had started off as protests against police brutalities in Lalgarh have turned into a full scale uprising against state oppression and dispossession. Nothing like this has been witnessed in West Bengal in living memory.

The entire chain of events started after the 2nd November land mine explosion targeting the convoy of West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and union steel and mines minister Ram Vilas Paswan as they were returning from the inauguration of the Jindal Steel Works special economic zone (SEZ) in Salboni in West Midnapore district.

Around 5000 acres of land have been acquired for this project, of which 4500 acres have been handed over by the government and 500 acres have been purchased directly by Jindal from landowners. Reportedly, a large portion of this land was vested with the government for distribution amongst landless tribals as part of the land reforms program and also included tracts of forests. Moreover, although the land was originally acquired for a “usual” steel plant, last September Jindal got SEZ status for the project, with active help from the state government, which dispensed with the requirement for following most regulations for building and running the plant, including crucial requirements such as doing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The government was, and is, not bothered about the setting up of an SEZ having a polluting steel plant in the middle of a forested area, dispossessing tribals from their land and endangering their means of survival. Understandably, there were major grievances amongst the tribals against this, although the mainstream media had constantly portrayed a very rosy picture of the entire project.

The land mine explosion was blamed as usual on the Maoist insurgents allegedly active for a long time in Salboni and the adjacent Lalgarh area. According to press reports, the Maoist movement is active in twelve police station areas in the three adjoining districts of West Midnapur, Bankura and Purulia. Three junior-level policemen were suspended and show-cause notices were served on a few senior officers for negligence of duty.

Usually, the police harass and arrest tribal villagers after every Maoist attack; this time in order to hide their own failure in providing security to its political masters, and to save their skin from the wrath of the government, the police went on a rampage in the tribal villages. Having no clue about the real perpetrators of the land mine explosion, they started beating up and arresting people indiscriminately. Among the first to be arrested were three teenage students, Aben Murmu, Gautam Patra and Buddhadeb Patra, who were returning from a village festival during the night. They were charged with sundry charges including waging war against the state, conspiracy, attempt to murder, using dangerous weapons and obstructing justice. Then during the day on 4th November, an armed police party arrested Dipak Pratihar of Kantapahari village while he was buying medicine from a chemist’s shop in Lalgarh for his pregnant wife Lakshmi. In the process the police brutally beat up Lakshmi and threw her to the ground. She had to be subsequently hospitalized. Ten people were arrested during the police raids and beaten up, including a retired teacher Khsamananda Mahato and a civil contractor Shamsher Alam from Chotopeliya village, who was visiting the area for a day for some construction work. Although these two people were subsequently released, as the police could not formulate any charges against them, the rest were kept in police custody.

The police and CRPF, led by the officer in charge of Lalgarh police station, Sandeep Sinha Roy and the superintendent of police of West Midnapore district, Rajesh Singh, unleashed a reign of terror in 35 villages encompassing the entire tribal belt of Lalgarh. In raids throughout the night of November 6th, women were brutally kicked and beaten up with lathis and butts of guns. Among the injured, Chitamani Murmu, one of whose eyes was hit by a gun butt, and Panamani Hansda, who was kicked on her chest and suffered multiple fractures, had to hospitalized. Chitamani’s lost her eye because of the injury. Eight other women were badly wounded. These police brutalities soon reached a point where the adivasis had no other option but to rise up in revolt.

The adivasis of India are one of the most oppressed and downtrodden groups of people in the country. Police oppression is nothing new to the Santhal adivasis of the Bankura-Purulia-Midnapore area. But the unprecedented atrocities inflicted by the police in the past week, especially the wanton attack on women, wore out their patience. On the night of 6th November they assembled near the Lalgarh police station and surrounded it, effectively cutting it off, and the policemen inside, who had been rampaging in villages the previous night but had now locked themselves inside the police station, did not dare to venture out. Electricity to the police station was disconnected and all the lights were broken.

What began as rumblings of protest took the shape of a spontaneous mass uprising the next day. On 7th November, when the ruling CPI(Marxist) was “observing” the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution throughout West Bengal, ten thousand Santhal men and women, armed with traditional weapons, came out and obstructed the roads leading to Lalgarh, disconnecting it from Midnapur and Bankura. Roads were dug up and tree trunks were placed on the road to obstruct the entry of police vehicles, in the same way as it had been done in Nandigram.

The police jeep and the CPI(M) motorcycle have long been symbols of oppression and terror for villagers throughout West Bengal, so this digging up of roads, besides actually inhibiting the movements of these agents of oppression, have become a symbol of defiance and liberation. Towards the night of 7th November, the people also disconnected telephone and electricity lines, virtually converting a vast area into a liberated zone. The apex social organization of the Santhals, the Bharat Jakat Majhi Madwa Juan Gaonta took up the leadership of the struggle, although the leader of the organization, the “Disham Majhi” Nityananda Hembram has himself admitted that the organization has no control over the movement; rather the movement is controlling the organization.

Smaller organizations of the tribals, such as the Kherwal Jumit Gaonta, that have been playing active roles in the struggle have openly called for armed resistance, stating that there is no other way for the survival of the adivasis.

The demands of the adivasis were so “earthy” and original that the administration did not know how to respond. The demands were that the superintendent of police Rajesh Singh should publicly apologize by holding his ears and doing sit-ups, a traditional way of punishing errant youngsters, the guilty policemen should crawl on the streets of the villages where they had tortured people, rubbing their noses on the ground, again another traditional way of humiliating wrongdoers, and Rs 200,000 compensation for the injured and assaulted. The demands were marked by the total reliance of the adivasis on their traditional systems of dispensing justice, and not looking up to the formal judicial process which they have realized is by nature weighted against the poor and marginalized. Although these demands have since been modified to an unconditional oral apology from the police superintendent and punishment for the policemen involved in the raids, the administration has arrogantly refused to accept these demands, although they have said that the demand of compensation can be considered.

However, the adivasis have been in no mood to accept this “offer” and the upsurge has spread over an even wider area encompassing Dahijuri, Binpur, Jhargram and Bandowan.

The administration has virtually disappeared from these areas. On 10th November, adivasis led by the tribal social organizations set up new roadblocks in the Dahijuri area. When the police lathicharged the assembled people and arrested some of the leaders of the Gaontas, the situation turned explosive. The tribals surrounded the police officials present and a crowd of few thousand adivasis, armed with bows and arrows, axes and daggers, and led by women wielding broomsticks, chased the police for four kilometers along the road leading to Jhargram. The police were forced to retreat from the area and release all the leaders of the social organizations they had arrested.

The movement has been continually intensifying during the past week and spreading over a larger area.

The slogans emanating from the movement have also been changing and now the adivasis are demanding that the dispossession of tribals from their land, forests and water in the name of development and industrialization has to stop. The struggle against state oppression is turning into a bigger struggle against dispossession and marginalization.

The state has been helpless in front of this upsurge and has been trying to “negotiate” with the tribals. But what has been frustrating their efforts is the essentially democratic nature of this upsurge. Although the administration has been holding multiple all-party meetings with the dominant political parties, CPI(M), Trinamool Congress, Congress and the Jharkhand Party, the leaders of these parties have openly admitted to their inability to exert any influence on the adivasis.

The adivasis are not letting any political leaders access to the movement, including tribal leaders like Chunibala Hansda, the Jharkhand Party (Naren faction) MLA from Binpur. They are demanding that any negotiations be carried out in the open rather than behind closed doors. Even traditional leaders like the “Disham Majhi” Nityananda Hembram and other “majhis” are having to talk directly with the adivasis before talking to the administration. Villagers of the ten villages in Lalgarh have formed ten village committees with one coordinating committee to negotiate with the administration. This democratic nature of the upsurge have frustrated all attempts by the administration to “control” the movement till now, and have forced the political parties like the local Trinamool Congress to come out in support, although the state leadership of the party is strangely silent about it.

The state and the CPI(M) have not dared to respond with overt violence yet, although there are news that a motorbike-borne militia is being assembled nearby by Sushanta Ghosh, the notorious CPI(M) minister and Dipak Sarkar, the CPI(M) district secretary. The state has been forced to accede to the bail of the three teenage students arrested by the police and have also send Sandeep Sinha Roy, the notorious O.C of Lalgarh police station, on extended leave. There are also reports that, being unable to quell the resistance, the state government has requested the central government to send paramilitary forces to help in their efforts.

What we are witnessing in the tribal belt of West Bengal is of historical moment. A long oppressed people have risen up and are daring to confront their oppressors and question the logic of “development” that destroys their lives and livelihoods. It is interesting to observe that the nature of confrontation with the state, exceptional in scale and intensity, seems to be inspired by the popular resistance at Nandigram - thereby, providing some sort of continuity to the possibilty of an emerging people’s struggles against state repression.

The West Bengal government has been alleging that the movement is being organized and led by the Maoists, and that the Lalgarh area has become a “liberated zone” for them. These are common ploys used by the CPI(M), the government and its sympathisers to brand and delegitimize popular movements. The mainstream media, a faithful ally of the state in such matters, has been repeating the same allegations and lamenting that such acts, which are being dubbed anarchic in nature, has resulted in the breakdown of civil authority. In this manner, attempts are being made to dissociate the urban civil society and intelligentsia from the movement, who have not yet been able to formulate a response to the upsurge. Moreover, using such rhetoric, the state is perhaps also trying to legitimize whatever steps it wishes to adopt in overcoming the resistance.

It is quite expected that radical political forces would have been active among the adivasis as the latter have been the most downtrodden people in India and it is their land and resources which is being handed over for corporate plunder. However the presence and participation of the Maoists or similar forces in no way delegitimizes this seemingly spontaneous, and democratic, expression of people’s anger. This is amply expressed by what Arati Murmu, a woman who had been assaulted by the police, and who had gone to block the Lalgarh police station had to say:

“Whenever there is a Maoist attack the police raid our villages and torture our women and children. For how long will we suffer this oppression by the police? All of us are Maoists, let the police arrest us. Today we have come out.”

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Nov 14: Movement spreads to Midnapur, Jhargram cut off

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

Yesterday the movement spread to Jhargram town in one direction and crossed over from the Jhargram subdivision, where the movement has been continuing for the past week, to the Midnapore sub division. Jhargram town has been disconnected from the rest of the state. On the other hand, roads have been dug up 4 km away from Midnapore town. Yesterday, leaders of the Bharat Majhi Madwa, Prabir Murmu and Munshiram Murmu, had been talking to the administration and at the end of the day they said that the movement would be withdrawn from Jhargram. But as soon as they went back to the protesters, the latter declined to withdraw the movement. Munshiram Murmu was reportedly roughed up by the protesters. As a result, they made a volte face and declared that the movement will continue.

The Bharat Majhi Madwa has again stated that they have no control over the movement. Yesterday, to complement the traditional show of force by the santhal villagers, the Santhal Students’ Association took out a motorbike rally in Jhargram town. Also, the latest news say that the centre has declined to send the CRPF because of the impending assembly election in 4 states.

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Nov 15, 2008: Some reports from mainstream media

Report from The Telegraph

A new team of tribals from Lalgarh told district authorities today that the government would have to pay a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to each villager injured in police raids and searches should be stopped from 5pm to 6am.

The delegation of the Pulishi Santrash Birodhi Jonosadharoner Committee (panel to protest police atrocities) was led by its secretary, Sidhu Soren. The committee was formed last night after villagers accused the Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa, a group of elders negotiating with the officials till now, of “betraying the tribal cause”.

The panel put forward a list of 11 demands. The elders had wanted compensation earlier, but the amount was specified today. They had asked night raids to be stopped, too, but had not spoken of the time.

The police suspect the new committee has the backing of Maoists. Additional district magistrate (general) R.A. Israel, however, refused comment on the matter.

“Today, we did not come to work out a solution. We submitted our demands. They told us they would not be able to fulfil some of them. The SP will have to go to Dalilpur and announce the decision in front of villagers,” Soren said.

“We will discuss administration’s views with the villagers tomorrow and then decide our next course of action.”

Israel, who spoke to the team of 10 tribals, ruled out the possibility of the SP going to Dalilpur, which falls in the Lalgarh police station area, because of security reasons.

The committee repeated two earlier demands that the officials have rejected. One, that the district police chief should squat and apologise holding his ears. Second, that policemen should crawl from Dalilpur to Chhotopelia.

Israel added that “releasing those who were arrested with arms in connection with the (November 2) blast is not possible”. “We have asked them (the committee) to file a written complaint against those policemen whom they are accusing (of atrocities). A probe will be conducted.

“We have assured them (the committee) that the policemen in the camps set up in schools and hospitals will be removed once peace is restored. The administration will bear the cost of treatment of those injured in the November 5 raids.”

Today, the roadblock in Dahijuri was lifted, but Jhargram town remained cut off from the rest of the state because the damaged roads had not been repaired.

In Calcutta, home secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti said night raids would stop, but did not specify the time. “We have decided there will be no night raids. But the road digging will not be tolerated indefinitely.”

Lalgarh on boil, consensus elusive

Report from The Statesman

The state government is apprehensive of a clash between the blockaders and the those adversely affected by their stir in and around Lalgarh, Mr Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti, state home secretary said at Writers’ Buildings today. Locals are frustrated as supply of food and fuel like kerosene have been affected following the blockade in the wake of the arrest of some people after the Salbani blast.

The state government is yet to chalk out a strong action to remove the blockade and is looking forward to resolve the crisis through talks with the agitators, Mr Chakrabarti said. The decision regarding the ongoing agitation would be communicated to the government after the agitators representatives hold talks with their elders, the government representatives were told after the meeting today. He also said that demands for the release of those guilty in the blast case would not be conceded. Neither would the police camps be withdrawn nor the demand of some of the senior police officials apologising in public would be considered by the state government, he added.

Also a probe will be initiated regarding police excesses during the raids following the blast, he said. If charges against them is proved, strict action will be taken. No specific allegations about huts being ransacked have been received by the district administration, he said. Mr Chakrabarti however regretted that the consensus on certain issues which had been reached through yesterday’s talks could not be implemented after trouble broke out in the ranks of the agitators.

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Nov 15: Spins of the corporate media, and the true story of Chotopeliya village

By Partho Sarathi Ray

It is interesting to see how the reporting on the movement is being done by newspapers like Telegraph and Statesman and the television channels. Everybody is out to prove that the Maoists are controlling the movement. And they are using the 11-point demand by the movement as a sure proof of Maoist control. For example, the TV channels are directly saying that the adivasis have demanded that all Maoists arrested over the last 10 years be released.

See what Shyamsundar Roy, a responsible journalist, is writing in The Statesman: “This stalemate has given rise to several questions like, who governs the area? ~ the civil administration or the indigenous people under the banner of the Sara Bharat Jakat Majhi-Madowa Juran Gaounta, an adivasi organisation, run by the Maoists behind the curtain. The charter of demands placed by the organisation leaders at least indicate so. They have demanded that all cases filed against the “innocent” natives of the area between 1998 and 2008 be withdrawn and the tortured families be duly compensated with unconditional release of the detained people, including those in 2 November blast case. These happen to be the same cases which the Maoists have been clamouring over the years.”

A copy of the actual demands, as shown on TV, tells a slightly but importantly different tale. It clearly states “1998 theke 2008 abdhi maobadi sandehe mithya mamlay jarano manushder mukti dite hobe” - “People arrested in false cases under suspicion of being Maoists, from 1998 to 2008, have to be released”. Now, it is natural for the adivasis to demand this, all adivasis arrested after every Maoist attack have been charged with waging war against the state, so they have to write “Maobadi sandehe” or “on suspicion of being Maoists”. This is being twisted as the adivasis demanding all “Maoists” should be released.

There is also a demand that the hated practice of police tahaldari (police vigils) during the night in villages should stop, but the home secretary has refused it.

In this context, it is interesting to revisit the incident at Chotopeliya village which had triggered the movement. It is interesting because it tells us a lot about the values of the santhals.

It seems that when the police was raiding Chotopeliya village, they found that this person called Shamsher Alam was staying for the night in the house of one person. He usually visited the village twice a year to recruit agricultural workers during the harvest season for his and others’ farmlands. When the police tried to arrest him for being a Maoist, the village women came out and protested saying that all of them knew him as he visited regularly and he was their guest. When the retired school teacher Kshamananda Mahato vouched for him the police also arrested him. Then they attacked the village women. The severely injured are from this village. This news spread around and triggered the revolt.

This illustrates how the traditions of protecting a guest, a non-adivasi and a Muslim, are still so important and powerful among the tribals. Both Shamsher Alam and Mahato were subsequently released after nothing could be found against them.

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Nov 16: Peoples Committee Against Police Oppression formed, uprising spreads near Garbeta

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

The upsurge of adivasis is continuing unabated and is also spreading to newer areas. Although, after discussions between the Bharat Jakat Majhi Madwa Juan Gaonta and the administration, the siege of Jhargram town has been partially lifted. The blockade on the road connecting Jhargram and Dahijuri was lifted on 14th November but the Bharat Jakat Majhi Madwa could not convince the protesters to lift the blockades of the other roads connecting Jhargram. However, on 15th November efforts to lift the blockade on the other roads leading to Jhargram, mainly the Jhargram Lodhashuli state highway 9, which connects Jhargram to Bombay Road, have begun and it is being expected that the movement will lift the blockade of Jhargram town.

However, the movement has continued to spread to adjoining areas and reached Belpahari on one side and is approaching Garbeta, a stronghold of the ruling CPI(M), on the other. The grassroots adivasis organizations at the forefront of the protests, such as Jumit Gaonta, ESECA, Kurmi Chatra Sangram Committee etc. have come together to form the Peoples’ Committee Against Police Oppression (pulishi atyachar-er birudhhe janasadharan- er committee). Thus the leadership of the movement has passed on from the traditional elders of the adivasis to a younger generation. This mass organization is now leading the struggle and Santhal students belonging to this organization are moving from house to house telling people of the 11-point charter of demands that has been put forward.

These demands include the longstanding demands of the adivasis to stop night-time police raids in villages, removal of police and CRPF camps from the villages, release of all adivasis arrested since 1998 on the suspicion of being Maoists and charged with false cases of waging war against the state, punishment of the policemen guilty of the latest atrocities and Rs 200,000 compensation for the people injured in the brutal police attacks. The administration have flatly refused to consider the demands for removing police camps and for releasing the adivasis falsely implicated of being Maoists. The leaders of the peoples’ committee, Sidhu Soren and Singray Kisku, have said that the movement will continue till the demands are met.

On 15th November, a few thousand adivasi and non-adivasi people demonstrated in the Tamajuri area of Belpahari and cut off the road between Belpahari and Jhargram. This has disconnected the Jhargram subdivision from Bandowan in Purulia and Bnakura district. On the other hand, roads have been dug up and tree trunks have been piled up in Humgarh area under Garbeta police station and in Bulanpur near Goaltore. This is in the stronghold of the notorious CPI(M) minister Sushanta Ghosh, and there has been no opposition to the CPI(M) in this area for the past ten years. However, currently the CPI(M) cadres seem to have disappeared, although the district secretary of the CPI(M), Dipak Sarkar, have been holding meetings in villages in the Salboni area, exhorting CPI(M) supporters to get out into the streets.

The bandh called by SUCI in Jhargram on Saturday was successful. The Jharkhand Disham Party has called a bandh on Sunday in the three adivasi-dominated villages of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore. The CPI(M) state secretary, Biman Bose, has tried to give a new twist to the movement, claiming that its a separatist movement designed to separate the adivasi-dominated areas from West Bengal and include them in the neighbouring Jharkahnd state. This is a blatant attempt to stoke regionalism among the non-adivasi people and deligitimize the movement. Mamata Banerjee, for the first time, has expressed oral support for the movement from a stage in Singur, although her party has done nothing in its support. And five out of the seven arrested people who were still in police custody were given bail on 14th November as the police and the CID could not produce a case diary against them even ten days after their arrest. The judge has show-caused the CID officer Purnashib Mukhopadhyay. The polce are at a loss how to build false cases against these people whom they had arrested after rampaging through the adivasi villages.

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Nov 18: Uprising spreads, supported by migrant adivasis; CPIM stokes Bengali regionalist sentiments

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

The revolt of the adivasis reached the tenth day yesterday and is still continuing unabated.

Newer areas have come under the ambit of the movement and newer forces have joined it. Besides Lalgarh, the movement has now spread to Binpur, Jhargram, Jamboni, Salboni, Belpahari, Garbeta and Gopiballavpur. On Monday, the movement has spread to the last two blocks of the Jhargram sub-division, Nayagram and Sankrail. Nayagram block has been disconnected by piling tree trunks on the roads in Dhankamra and Barpat. Dhankhori, Gajashimul, Mudakati and Kungarda areas of Sankrail block have also been blockaded. On the other hand, all connections to police stations and camps in the Belpahari block of Jhargram sub-division has been cut off. A group of around 500 armed adivasis blockaded the Neguriya police camp near Chakadoba in Belpahari. The local shopkeepers and traders have declared that they would not supply anything to the policemen in the camps.

CPIM leaders hide out, many tribal members join movement

Motorcycle rallys consisting of upto 100 motorcycles are being conducted by the students affiliated to the Peoples’s Committee against Police Repression. This is also to build confidence against the notorious motor cycle-borne militia which the ruling CPI(M) is supposedly assembling. However, all local CPI(M) leaders have been shifted to police camps for their safety. The secretary of the Belpahari local committee Hariram Singh, the secretary of the Silda local committee and Anil Mahato, the secretary of the Banspahari local committee have all been staying in the local police camps to protect themselves from public anger.

On the other hand a large number of CPI(M) members and supporters, mostly from its youth wing, the DYFI, have joined the protests. DYFI members Lakshman Murmu, Rath Hansda, Jolly Murmu etc. proclaimed that they were Santhals before they were CPI(M) members. Therefore they had joined the movement. They were participating in a blockade of the national highway near Changuyal in Kharagpur. The bandh called by the Jhargram Disham party on Sunday also evoked a good response in the three adivasi-dominated districts of Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia. Train tracks were blocked in various places.

Migrant adivasi workers in other districts come out in support

Interestingly, the bandh had also evoked a good response in the agricultural belt of Burdwan district in Memari. No one expected it to happen as it is not an adivasi area and it is a stronghold of the CPI(M). It turns out that the bandh call was enforced in the area by the large number of migrant adivasi agricultural workers who work in different parts of the state during the agricultural season and who had joined the bandh call in solidarity with the struggle of the people in the tribal areas. The CPI(M) and the administration are terrified about the implications of this as these migrant adivasi workers are present in quite large numbers in different parts of the state, including North Bengal.

Administration brings forward “secessionist” charge, mainstream media rejects popular nature

The CPI(M) state secretary, Biman Bose, is trying to stoke the regionalist sentiments of the Bengalis by alleging that the uprising is a seccesionist movement designed to separate the tribal-dominated villages from West Bengal and join them with the neighbouring state of Jharkhand. He has accused the Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren and his party, the JMM, of being behind the protest. These allegations have been criticized even by the Jharkhand CPI(M).

The administration and some television channels have become desperate to “prove” that the Maoists are behind the upsurge. They have now focused on a statement by Kanchan, the West Bengal state secretary of the CPI(Maoist) which has sixteen demands on stopping police atrocities on the adivasis and calling on the chief minister to apologize publicly for the assaults on adivasi women.

These media outlets are trying to conflate these sixteen demands with the eleven demands made by the peoples’ committee against police repression, suggesting that the Maoists are behind the committee. On Monday, the committee held a public meeting of 8 to 10 thousand people from 150 villages in Kantapahari. These sort of novel assemblies are being convened to decide the course of the movement in a democratic manner. On the other hand, representatives from the Bharat Jakat Majhi Madowa, Jaowan Gaonta, Santhali writers association, ASECA and the Santhali engineering students forum met the district magistrate and the police superintendent on Monday, and after a prolonged meeting declared that the blockade would be withdrawn from all areas except Lalgarh. It is to be seen in the coming days if this can be enforced, as the traditional organizations do not seem to exercise much control over the agitation.

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Nov 19: Mass meetings in Belpahari and Chakadoba; movement spreads despite negotiations

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

The declaration by Nityananda Hembram, the “disham majhi” of the Bharat Jakat Majhi Madowa of withdrawing the agitation from all areas except Lalgrah does not seem to have had much effect. This declaration was made after a meeting between representatives of various adivasi organizations and the district administration, represented by the district magistrate and the police superintendent. However, the adivasi protesters are in no mood to agree to the withdrawal of the movement before their demands are met.

Yesterday, there have been mass meetings in Belpahari and Chakadoba, attended by thousands of people. The leaders of the peoples’ committee in Belpahari, Manik Mandi and Shankar Tudu, stated that the agitation in Belpahari would not be withdrawn unless people in Lalgarh, the area most affected by the police atrocities, agree to it. The adivasis in Belpahari have been laying siege to the police camps in Kakrajhor, Churimara, Burijor, Neguriya, Khattadhari and Jamtalchara.

Based on the declaration by some adivasi organizations to withdraw the movement, the administration have gone ahead in clearing up the roadblocks on state highway 9 and national highway 6 connecting Jhargram. Although tree trunks placed on the roads were cleared away from Kalabani, Dahijuri ad Lodhashuli on Tuesday, the protesters again established the roadblocks in Dahijuri and Kalabani in the early hours of Wednesday. Also, Sasankasekhar Maity, the deputy magistrate of Jhargram sub-division, had been blockaded in Bhanraru area of Binpur since Tuesday night. He had cleared up the roadblocks in Kalabani and Dahijuri and then proceeded to Binpur to clear up the roadblocks there, when large numbers of adivasi women laid siege to his convoy. Later, the deputy magistrate and his cohorts were forced to abandon their vehicles and leave on foot, with the adivasis continuing to block their vehicles.

Bureaucrats attempt negotiations with adivasi organisation

Meanwhile, a number of senior level bureaucrats and police officials have gone to Midnapore town and started discussions with the same adivasi organizations who seem to have lost control over the adivasi masses. These officials include the home secretary, the director general of police, the additional director general (intelligence), secretary of the Western region development authority and the inspector general of police (western range).

However, it does not look like that these negotiations would yield any results, as one of the main demands of the adivasi protesters is that all discussions should be held in the villages and in the presence of people.

A team from the democratic rights organization, APDR, has finally reached Lalgarh.

The Trinamul Congress

On the other hand, the main opposition party, the Trinamool Congress have finally woken up to the situation and have started an indefinite dharna at the Midnapore district collectorate after a visit by the opposition leader Mamata Banerjee. They are demanding that the demands of the adivasis should be met. However, all activities of the Trinamool Congress is restricted to Midnapore town as their leaders do not have any access to the adivasi masses spearheading the protests.

Attempts to shield police

According to reports, lot of turmoil is going on in the police ranks too, with everyone trying to lay the blame on someone else. There are unconfirmed reports that the additional police superintendent of North 24 Parganas district, Sisir Das, who was in charge of the Lalgarh area, has submitted his resignation to the Midnapore police superintendent in a novel manner, by SMS!

It has also come out that the medical report of the eleven women assaulted by the police in Chotopeliya village, the incident that triggered the revolt, nowhere mentions that their injuries were inflicted by the police. It seems to be a ploy to shield the police, just as had been done in numerous medical reports of the victims of police atrocities in Nandigram.

CPI(M) hits back in Garbeta, notorious minister Sushanta Ghosh prescribes “correct medicine”

The CPI(M) has tried to hit back at the adivasis in Garbeta, one of their strongholds where the movement had spread in recent days. After the public statement of the notorious CPI(M) minsiter from Garbeta, Sushanta Ghosh, about the “corrrect medicine (dawai)” for the adivasi revolt, CPI(M) cadres attacked the protesters in Garbeta and looted 30 cycles, 2 motor cycles and 12 thousand rupees. As a result, the movement has added two more demands to the original 11 demands, return of these looted items and compensation for the people injured in this attack.

Looking forward: democratisation of local Panchayati systems?

It is not clear what the long term effects of the movement will be, but an encouraging sign has been the establishment of the ten member peoples’ committees in about 150 adivasi villages. The adivasi people are all expressing hopes that these committees would become permanent and would act as more representative, and responsive, alternatives to the panchayats, which are all dominated by the established parties, mainly the CPI(M), and have never repsonded to the grievances and demands of the adivasis.

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Nov 19: Violence in Bankura; venue of negotiations under contention - Mainstream media reports

The Statesman

Three zonal CPI-M leaders were struck by arrow in the troubled areas of Sarenga in Bankura late this evening. The leaders were on their way back home to Sarulia after attending a party meeting. The leaders ~ Mr Ranjit Hembram, former panchayat samiti sabhapati and two other zonal leaders, Mr Ramu Duley and Mr Tulu Hembram ~ were accompanying a police contingent to Nakhrapahari where the tribal organisations of Bankura had obstructed the Bankura-Midnapore state highway placing tree trunks on the road. The leaders were rushed to Sarenga block primary health centre and the condition of two were stated to be critical. The tribals staged a demonstration in Mejia brandishing weapons for hours. Bharat Jakat Majhi Marawa, a tribal outfit, started the agitation in the south Bankura villages today to protest against alleged police atrocities meted out on the tribals in neighbouring area of Lalgarh.

At around 10 a.m. a crowd of about 2,000 villagers armed with bows, arrows, axe and spears brought out four separate rallies from Khoer Pahari, Nekra Pahari, Tanti Danga and Karbhanga. They started shouting slogans against the police and blocked roads connecting Chandrakona in West Midnapore with Sarenga, Bankura. A large contingent of police led by the ASP, Bankura Mr Sishram Jhajharia reached the spot but could not do anything apprehending retaliation if an attempt was made to forcibly disperse the agitators. The blockade was cleared after 3 p.m. from Nekra Pahari and Tanti Danga but the villagers refused to clear the road in Khoer Pahari and Karbhanga. The tribals also sent deputation to the Mejia BDO to submit a charter of their demands. Around 2,000 villagers from nine tribal villages in Mejia brought out a rally causing a traffic snarl on the busy NH-60 around 11 a.m. They gheraoed the BDO, Mr Avik Das, for an hour.

Nov 22: Venue for negotiations under contention

The Indian Express

With both the Government and the tribal leadership sticking to their respective stands, the Lalgarh-Salboni stalemate continues in the West Midnapore district. While tribal leaders want to sit with the district administration at Dalilpur Chowk, the state wants the meeting to be held at the Circuit House in the district.

The tribal leaders have welcomed Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s decision to visit the area, but they warned of consequences if it turned out to be a ploy to push in CPM cadres to the region. At a public meeting in Baruipur, North 24 Parganas, Bhattacharjee said he would visit Salboni. He blamed the Maoists for the current situation.

Talking to The Indian Express over phone, Chatradhar Mahato, leader of the newly-formed Policer Attachar Birodhi Committee (committee to fight police atrocities), said: “We will not go to the Circuit House for a meeting with the district administration. If they honestly want to resolve the crisis, they should come to Dalilpur Chowk in Lalgarh. We do not understand why government officials cannot come to us?”

Chatradhar added: “If our CM wants to meet us with genuine intention, he is welcome. But if they try break our unity, things will go wrong. The Nandigram situation deteriorated after he (the CM) visited the area.”

The state government, however, said it would hold the talks only at the Circuit House. “These are government norms. Official meetings are always held in official buildings,” said Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarti. Left Front chairman Biman Bose supported the government’s stand.

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Nov 23: Pictures from interior of Lalgarh.

There was an assembly of around 10,000 people in Dalilpur chowk where the district magistrate was invited to come for discussions. But they didn’t dare to come, saying that discussions should be held “in an administrative building, not in an open field”. Background of the movement and exact charter of demands from the tribals.

1. Adivasi women 2. Placards on one of the roadblocks 3. Communal kitchen

4. A young rebel 5. The assembly of women 6. The charter of demands at the meeting

7. A placard declaring the roadblocks 8. The 13 demands 9. The women rebels

10. The resolute women 11. The resolute men

12. Posters threatening to convene a “sarjam gira” the highest assembly of adivasis in India, the last one of which was called during the Santhal rebellion led by Sidu-Kanhu in 1856

13. The adivasis are fighting for dignity letting their harvested crops lie unattended in the fields

14. The women are at the forefront of the movement

15. The rebels with their traditional weapons and drums (dhamsa-madal)

16. Chatradhar Mahato, a leader of the peoples’ committee speaking at the meeting

17. Khsamananda Mahato, the retired school teacher who was arrested and tortured, speaks

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Nov 23: The Charter of Demands, as circulated by the Peoples Committee Against Police Oppression

The following is a verbatim copy of the 13 point demand made by the Adivasi agitators consolidated under the banner of “Pulishi Santras Birodhi Janasadharoner Committee” (Peoples Committee Against Police Oppression). Source: Poster in Lalgarh.

Translated by Suvarup Saha, Sanhati.

1.The Superintendent of police has to say sorry holding his ears. He must say “From today I shall stop arresting and victimizing common people, particularly, the women.”

2.The guilty police officers who had physically assaulted women in the Chhotopeliya village on 5th November, 4:30 am will have to come rubbing their noses all the way from Dalilpur chawk to Chhotopeliya village.

3.The women who have been injured by the police brutality have to be compensated by 2 lakh rupees each.

4.All the people arrested in the name of hatching the Shalboni conspiracy have to be released.

5.All the false cases and charge sheets registered against people framed as Maoists in west Medinipur, from 1998 to 2008 have to be withdrawn.

6.Rampant arresting of ordinary people without warrant, at any place and time, must be stopped.

7. Para-military camps, like those situated in Kalaimuri, Dharampur, Ramgarh phanri must be rmoved.

8.The allegation that Shashadhar Mahato has planned the shalboni blasts while he was actually in Bansbed village, has to be withdrawn.

9.All attacks on the peoples’ clubs and ‘gaonta’s spread all over West Bengal must be stopped.

10.Police vigilance inside villages from 5pm till 6am has to be stopped.

11.Police camps should not be set up arbitrarily in schools, hospitals or panchayat offices. All such existing camps have to be removed.

12.Attack on the protesters at Humgarh by the CPI(M) needs to be stopped. 30 cycles, 2 motorcycles, 12,000 rupees in cash and two bank pass books that were looted in the attack on 15th November on the NH60 between Moyrakata and Raskundu must be returned. Mohan Tudu, who was injured in the attack must be provided medical treatment and provided compensation of 2 lakhs.

13.If the armed CPIM militia attacks the adivasis or the common people then the administration will be held responsible for this and administration will have to provide compensation.

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Nov 25: We talk of patricipatory democracy, Lalgarh is practising it

By Sumit Chowdhury

This is a report based on the findings of a team of concerned citizens from Kolkata who returned yesterday after a two-day stay in Lalgarh villages. Sumit Chowdhury, a member of the team, made the following points.

The movement is led by the Pulishi Atyacharer Biruddhe Janaganer Committee (Peoples Committee Against Police Oppression), a non-party body. It has a secretary, Sidhu Soren, a 26-year old graduate, and a spokesperson Chhatradhar Mahato. Committees are coming up in villages covering a region of 3-4 blocks, but there is no higher-lower committee structure. Many committees are led by women. All major decisions are taken at large gatherings. The last such meeting at Dalilpur was attended by 10-12,000 people from 158 villages. Apart from the 13 point charter of demands of the committee, the posters covering the walls of mud huts in the villages are all hand-written and signed “Janagan”, “Janasadharan”.

The people name the CPM, the Jharkhand parties, the Congress, the TMC, and the Maoists, and say that they will not allow any political party to call their shots. Young CPM, Jharkhand and TMC supporters repeat this. The Majhi Marowa and similar so-called umbrella organisations co-operating with the state government carry no influence in the villages and people like Dr Nityananda Hembrom (Disham Majhi) are completely discredited. This is an area where Maoist sympathies run high (Chhatradhar is the brother of the Maoist leader Sasadhar who is immensely popular) but there is no sign of any overt role of the Maoists in guiding the movement, let alone the state government and CPM’s apocalyptic vision of Maoist cadre led by Kisanjee(from Andhra!), Sasadhar and Kanchan (WB state secretary) prancing about.

If anything, there is a lack of co-ordination between the committees, which is somewhat intentional because decisions are sought to be taken only from meetings open to all. Lalgarh has heard of similar happenings in neighbouring Belpahari, and Sarenga in the neighbouring district of Bankura, but a living connexion is yet to be established.

We talk of patricipatory democracy, Lalgarh is practising it. Go and see while it lasts.

The demands are all against oppression by the police and the CPM. Some 1500 people, including many women, have been arrested over the last 10 years, tortured (including stringing up upside down and beating up), released and re-arrested, villages raided at night-time with attendant molestation of women, CPM cadres, always guiding the police, and now overtly active in the periphery, attacking a procession near Garhbeta town and seizing motor-cycles and cash.

The immediate spree of police torture followed the attack on the Chief Minister’s convoy on 2nd November. Now, the highlights. On the 4th, the pregnant wife of Dipak Pratihar was beaten up as, of course. Pratihar himself, who was subsequently arrested. On the night of Nov 6th the policemraided Chhotopelia and beat up people in their beds. Chitamani Murmu lost an eye even after treatment at Kolkata, Panamani Hansda had to be hospitalised, 7 other women were severely injured. Three schoolboys returning at night from a jatra show were arrested as Maoists.

The demands include release of/withdrawal of cases against all arrested people from the area on charges of Maoist activity since 1998 , punishment (including crawling from Dalilipur to Chhotopelia, rubbing noses in the dust (nake khat) of all policemen guilty of beating people and torture, public apology by police and administrative officers responsible for the raids accompanied by sit-ups while holding ears, removal of police camps, ban on night-time raids, arrests only after informing the headman (Majhi), compensation of Rs 2 lakhs to each injured persons. The administration has refused to consider any demands except the ones related to compensation and night-time raids.

The three teenage students were allowed bail and the notorious OC of Lalgarh PS sent on leave.

Completely alienated from the masses, the officials are afraid of meeting the people for discussing the demands anywhere in Lalgarh and want meetings at Jhargram town or Medinipur town. The CPM have put forward a story of land mines. The committee on the other hand says even the CM is welcome — let him come and see if there are mines, but the meetings must be held at Lalgarh because the concerned people must all be present. It is their charter of demands and only they can modify it, the committee cannot.

The CPM is preparing motor cycle squads in line with their re-capture of Nandigram.

The state government is trying to prepare public opinion for an onslaught, waving the red herring of purported demands for autonomy of three jangalmahal districts and even for their inclusion in Jharkhand. The fact is no such demand has been made.

The people of Lalgarh are fully engaged by the present . What is their perspective for the future : They oppose the ongoing policy of development — it is an attack on their rights over their land, forests, and water. Development means their displacement to make way for corporates, whether factory, resort or mall. So, they say they don’t need development and are quite content to pursue their culture and way of life, witness, the blockade causes them only minor disturbance..

The committee emphasises the peaceful nature of the movement. They say the people want peace. On being asked what will happen if armed police and /or CPM squads enter forcibly and unleash violence, they reply, “The people will then decide“.

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Nov 26: Agitation spreads to Birbhum - The Statesman

The Lalgarh tribal agitation is showing signs of spilling over to other parts of the state as hundreds of tribals today took out a rally in Gazol town demanding basic amenities and protesting against police excesses in their villages. Demonstrating in front of the Gazol rural hospital, the protesters, calling themselves ‘Citizens’ Forum’, demanded suspension of the doctor-in-charge in connection with a child’s death last week. The tribals alleged that negligence on the part of the doctors led to the child’s death.
Tribal people from Jharkhand will be attending the meeting convened by the newly formed tribal organisation ‘Birbhum Adibasi Unnayan Gaonta’ (BAUG) in Suri tomorrow. Tribals will demonstrate in front of DM’s office in protest against the alleged police excesses in Lalgarh and press for their demands to develop their villages. “Tribal people in different villages of Jharkhand have assured us that they will also be a part of our movement without any political colour,” said Mr Rabin Soren, secretary of BAUG.

Birbhum tribals float apolitical group

A day after the district CPI-M leadership convinced Forward Bloc leaders to put off the agitation launched by the latter’s tribal wing, Birbhum Zilla Agragami Adibasi Tafsili Jati Unnayan Samity (BZAATJUS), tribal people in the district are assembling under a new banner ~ ‘Birbhum Adibasi Unnayan Gaonta’ (BAUG) ~ from Wednesday.

The leadership of the newly-formed tribal organisation has decided to demonstrate in front of the Birbhum DM’s office on Wednesday against the alleged police excesses in Lalgarh and would demand thorough development in the district’s tribal villages.
“On Wednesday tribal people from 30 villages of Rajnagar, Khoirasole and Mohammed Bazaar block area will gather in Suri to agitate against the undeveloped condition of their villages and the police excesses in Lalgarh. We have alerted the tribals that they may fall prey to different political manoeuvrings in this critical situation. We shall start a continuous movement in which the tribals will participate spontaneously without any political banner,” said Mr Rabin Soren, secretary, BAUG.

Last week, BZAATJUS had called for a prolonged movement from 28 November. Last evening, the CPI-M had convinced the FB leaders to put off the movement till 1 December ensuring that the Left Front remained united.

After this decision, the tribals organised themselves under a new banner to launch their movement demanding development and protesting against police torture in Lalgarh. However, the BZAATJUS leadership has threatened that if the police did not release Ajit Murmu, who was allegedly detained illegally in a rape case, by 1 December and the district administration did not undertake development work, they would start their movement from 2 December.

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Nov 30: Novel methods of participatory democracy and gender equality in Lalgarh; tribals elsewhere stand up; development issues resonate

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

At the beginning of the third week of the adivasi revolt, the movement is now approaching Midnapore town, the district headquarters of West Midnapore district. Road blocks are now in place just 5 km from Midnapore town. In the Chilgoda area of Midnapore Sadar block, four thousand adivasi women and men assembled with traditional weapons and started marching towards Midnapore town to the music of their traditional drums. Trees were cut down and laid on the state highway at different places at Chandra, Beliya, Depada and Bagerpukur. On the other hand roads have also been blocked at Pidrakuli and Patharkumkum near Pidakata, which connects Salboni with Lalgarh. There has been tension in Chandra area as the ruling CPI(M) organized a meeting where they declared that the movement would not be allowed to reach Midnapore town. However, the CPI(M) workers didn’t show much enthusiasm to remove the roadblocks, in spite of exhortations by their leaders.

The movement achieved a victory on 27th November when the administration accepted their demand and removed the police camp at Ramgarh outpost near Lalgarh. This camp was located at Rani Mokshadasundari Vidyalaya, the only girls school in the area and jawans from STRACO, the special force to combat the Maoist insurgency, had been located there. The location of this police camp in a girls’ school had understandably been a source of major discontent in the area.

Even last week, students were giving their “test” examinations, the final examinations before their boards, in a room adjacent to a room occupied by the jawans. The entire tribal belt had been filled up with grafitti calling for a boycott of the police. On 26th November, around 10-12 thousand protesters assembled infront of the camp and gave a deputation to the camp-incharge to remove the camp and threatened an intensification of the movement if their demand was not met. The administration finally caved in to their demand and the protesters removed the roadblocks to allow the police convoy to pass. Even the non-adivasi population of Lalgarh expressed their happiness on the removal of this source of disturbance from the school that their daughters attend.

Parallely, the agitation has now spread and gained intensity in Bankura and Birbhum, the two contiguous adivasi-populated districts. Road connections in the entire Bankura district have been severed because of roadblocks in the Khatra subdivision. Roadblocks have been erected in Moina, Golakpur and Bankathi area of Khatra subdivision and on the Baruipur-Bankura road at Bagijota, effectively cutting of Bankura town form the rest of the district. The Sarenga forest area has also been cut off. In Dhabani, the local CPI(M) has been accused of looting the food from a communal kitchen being run by the adivasi protesters. Besides this, the movement has been intensified in the Debra-Gopiballavpur area, which was a famous flashpoint of the 1970’s Naxalbari movement. Around 10 km of road between Debra and Madotola has been blocked.

In the adjoining Birbhum district, the ruling Left Front had been in a major discomfiture ever since the Birbhum Zilla Agragami Adibasi Tafsili Jati Unnayan Samity, the tribal front of the Forward Block, a constituent of the Left Front, had declared their intention to join the struggle. When the CPI(M) could finally convince the Forward Block not to join the struggle, the tribals formed a new organization, the Birbhum Adivasi Unnayan Gaonta, that launched an agitation in Birbhum district. Adivasis from villages in the Khoirasole, Rajnagar and Mohammadbajar blocks assembled in Suri, the district town, demanding development measures in their villages and in support of the Lalgarh movement. They have threatened to launch a full scale agitation from 2nd December.

Jhargram town in West Midnapore is still in the throes of the upsurge. There was a march of adivasi people in Jhargram town on 29th November evening. Around four thousand people, armed with their traditional weapons, marched through the streets and distributed leaflets containing the 13 demands of the Lalgarh movement. Municipal elections, which are to be held in Jhargram, are now in a state of uncertaintly. A two day general strike, called by the Jharkhand Party (Aditya group), was also evoking a good response in the tribal dominated areas of Birbhum, Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore districts.

Interestingly, the revolt in Lalgarh is instilling confidence in the adivasi people even in areas far from the adivasi-dominated districts to rise up against oppression and exploitation. An instance of this was seen in Nataberia of Bagda area, near Bongaon of North 24 Parganas district. On 28th November, Panu Sardar, and elderly adivasi from Malipota village had gone to the Nataberia police outpost to enquire about the case of his son Dipankar, who had been murdered six months ago. The policemen present in the outpost did not pay any heed to his entreaties, instead they ordered him to get them tea from an adjoining tea stall. When the old man protested, they beat him up brutally. When Panu Sardar returned to his village and narrated this incident, a few hunderd adivasi people from his village, all enthused by the events in Lalgah, accompanied him back to the police camp. They broke thorugh the gate of the camp and destroyed the place. Finally, a large police contingent under the Bongaon SDPO arrived to get the situation “under control”. Something like this would have been unthinkable even a few days ago.

Issues of development (or the absence of it) and democracy are coming up as recurrent themes in the ongoing movement. Although the immediate trigger for the movement has been the police atrocities, the adivasis are very much conscious about the basic issues of lack of development which are at the core of their grievances. They even recognize that the state terror, which they have been subjected to from the colonial times, is the “shock therapy” used to subdue them in order to dispossess them of their resources, their water, forests and land (which contains important minerals), which are required by big capital. They are saying that they are fighting for their right to these resources, with which their lives are intimately connected, and for their right to live in dignity. They are demanding the development measures which are totally lacking in the adivasis areas, health services, schools free of police camps, food through the public distribution system, jobs for their educated youth. Hence their fight is for “dignity and development”. Recently, when an adivasi was confronted with the question that their road blocks were hampering the supply of rations in the area through the public distribution system, he sardonically observed that the roadblocks did not matter because even in absence of the roadblocks they never received their rations. So, the roadblocks would continue till their demands are met.

The other important phenomenon is the development of novel forms of participatory democracy that is taking place. As a part of the movement, 10 member committees have been formed in every village, each having 5 men and 5 women members. Two persons, a man and a woman, from every village committee is part of the central co-ordinating committee. These committees are not only taking and ratifying every decision of the movement, they are now deciding about development issues in the villages too. They are inviting, and challenging, the administration to come and negotiate with them in their own villages, making high officials sit on the ground on hand woven-mats together with them, instead of the previous practice of officials sitting on chairs and the people sitting on the ground around them. We have to see how these new centres of democratic power evolve and function in the days to come and how they deal with the administration and the panchayats, which are the centres of established power in the villages.

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Dec 2: Lalgarh: nature of the movement, facets of impoverishment, bid for power, and the future

By Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri

An uprising is sweeping the jangal mahal of West Bengal, almost all the tribes inhabiting the forests and their outliers in the districts of Paschim Medinipur and Bankura have arisen against rampant police oppression in the name of fighting Maoists.

The heart of the uprising is in the Lalgarh and Belpahari blocks with a total population between a quarter of a million and a third. The total tribal population of 160 thousand is up in arms. Nobody has seen a people’s uprising on this scale since the anti-colonial movements in the nineteen forties.

Trees have been felled and roads cut to build barricades. Lalgarh (the police oppression here on women triggered the discontent simmering over indiscriminate arrests and physical torture) is completely barricaded. While the CPI(M) has swept into attacks on the people demonstrating outside the forests, the left is mostly silent apart from some general statements. Even the usually vocal sections of civil society have shown a response much below the level expected for the case of such an unprecedented upheaval. This is perhaps an unfortunate response to the known influence of the Maoists in Lalgarh and some other parts of the jangal mahal, although the Maoists themselves have up to now made no overt attempt to dictate to what is still definitely a people’s movement from the grass roots up.

Statistics of impoverishment of the region

The blocks of Binpur I and II (Lalgarh and Belpahari) have a SC+ST population 54.6% and 57.5% of the total. For all of West Bengal, the proportion is half of this, 28.5%. The blocks are inhabited by many poor people, the proportion of BPL families are 40% and 37%, the all-West Bengal value for this index being 27%. The figures explain why the movement is so persistent and courageous, and why it could start as a movement mainly of the Santal, and go on to acquire a base among all the jana-jati ( the main committee has a Mahato as President and a Santal as the General Secretary). However, the movement must take special care to encompass the poor non-janajati “diku”, how will it fight the state without the active participation of more than 40% of the people? The Jhargram (town) municipal success of the CPI(M) is a pointer in this respect.

Proportionately more people are workers here in these blocks. Workers are 49% of the population in Belpahari but only 37% in all of West Bengal.

The proportion of cultivated area to geographical area is 58% in Lalgarh, 5.5 percentage points behind the West Bengal value of 63.5%. The proportion of cultivators and agricultural labourers among all workers is 44% in West Bengal and 32% in Belpahari. The figures suggest that agricultural activity is less than average here. This is supported by a marked decrease in the proportion of agricultural labourers to cultivators –1.3 ( that is almost 1 1/2 times) in all– West Bengal, and 0.76 (that is a 3/4 part) in Belpahari. There being little industry in Belpahari the figures means that many workers are involved in irregular and casual work, without security and continuity. Small and marginal farmers constitute 75% of all households in Lalgarh and 57% in Belpahari, the latter, however, being 92% of all cultivators and agricultural labourers (in all- West Bengal small and marginal farmers are 91.4% of all farmers).

The picture is that of a poor, industrious people, with a majority of tribal communities, dependent on a not too flourishing small peasant agriculture and casual employment.

The movement: a commentary on the State’s poverty alleviation programs and a bid for partial power

The people’s movement in Lalgarh raises a number of pertinent points.

1. The blockade emphasises the point that the poverty alleviation programmes are a huge hoax in such interior villages inhabited by the poor, because it is clear that the great majority of people in Lalgarh do not care if communications with the government are cut off, rather they rest in peace. They have said so explicitly. Ration cards are hard to get by, foodstuff allotted as rations is sold off and the holder is informed that there is no material to be distributed. Every one has collected a job card for the 100 days’ work for all, under the NREGS, but till now, in the current year, only 12 days work has been organised, on an average.

Yes, Chief Minister, they are definitely hostile to “Development”, because, as they say, the first thing that will happen is that they would be displaced and forest land cleared for establishing the factories. On the contrary, they want to preserve the forest and the water from the depredations of development so that they can continue with their way of life and their definitive culture.

Economists can call them physiocrats or Luddites or plain bucolic idiots. But they are going to protect their forests, lands and water, displaying today their resolve symbolically with tangi and teer-karh.

Politicians, you have two choices. You can try to force your medicine of jobless industrialisation down unwilling throats — but Singur and Nandigram have taken the blinkers off their eyes, all over India they will resist you. The other choice is to confer with them and learn through dialogue what they mean by development and how you can help them bring it about themselves, a development for the people, by the people. The party which does this (without issuing commands to follow this or that dictat) will win their hearts.

2. For the people to organise their own development they need power. The movement in Lalgarh is also an assertion of local political power with the village committee as its organ (5+5 representation for men and women). As yet, it is not a bid for total power, it is not asking the state to abdicate. It is a bid for partial power, demanding consultative rights over law and order implementation: the police must take their permission. Once again the state can recognise the reality of their power and agree to this curtailment of its central authority (which is not really a curtailment but a more even distribution, after all the people are sovereign!), or it can force a confrontation which will teach the people to think of total power as the only guarantee of peace. What the people have tasted in Lalgarh is the reality of their power, and it speaks volumes for their wisdom that they have desisted from testing it in confrontation provoked from their side. But they will never forget this power and if it is forcibly taken away from them they will strive not only to regain it but expand it to the utmost. Once again the party which recognises and respects (without usurping) their power will win their minds.

Looking forward

There are two possible scenarios which can emerge.

In one, the state agrees to a reallocation of local power with a recognition of the village committee as a local power centre. The people use the committees to fight for their rights and interests, on the one hand, within the panchayets (especially within reactivated Gram Sansads and Gram Panchayets), extracting from the state 100 days work for all to start with, the work being productive and locally necessary for agriculture, (local) industry or every day life, and, on the other hand, against predatory “development” and oppression by the organs of state power, thereby amplifying the scope and power of local autonomy in continual struggle with the state.

In the other scenario, the state refuses political space to the people’s committees and resorts to violent repression. The people will fight back and we might see an escalation to helicopters and army action, backed by “salwa judum” gangs comprising activists of the major ruling party, leading in all possibility, given the presence of Maoists, to guerrilla resistance on the part of the people. Such a conflagration will not remain localised and the plains of Bengal will not be insulated from happenings inside the forests of jangal mahal. Some might argue that the first scenario will also end in the same fashion. In fact, which scenario rules and with what consequence is entirely dependent on the flexibility of the state’s response to the just movement of the people. Much more hangs in the balance than the loss of face from “nake khat” and “owtth bose”.

In the mean-time the left and civil society must make up their minds as to whether they want to become irrelevant to the progress of this great people’s movement.

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Dec 4: Ominous developments: impending two-pronged attack of the police and the CPI(M)

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

In the past two days the West Bengal government has closed down two more police camps in Lalgarh, bowing down to one of the basic demands of the people. These two schools, Ramakrishna boys’ high school and Saradamoni girls’ high school, both run by the Ramakrishna Mission, were the biggest schools in the area. The long-standing presence of the police camps in the schools had been a major source of discontent and indignity for the local people.

When the peoples’ committee against police repression found that their repeated demands on removal of these camps were not being heeded by the district administration, they took up a new strategy of non-violent direct action. Thousands of adivasi people would surround the camp and give a deputation to the camp-incharge to vacate the camp, simultaneously giving a call for a social boycott of the police. This first worked in Kantapahari where the police abandoned the Ramgarh camp, and then it also suceeded in closing down the two camps in Lalgarh. This might be a small victory for the adivasi revolt, but a huge boost to their confidence and dignity.

The past two days have also seen an ominous development, cadres of the ruling CPI(M) are playing an increasingly belligerent role in trying to resist the adivasi upsurge. The CPI(M) had been lying low since the beginning of the movement, completely taken by surprise by the intensity of the revolt. However, just as the police administration has been retreating in the face of the movement, the CPI(M) is increasingly taking upon itself the role of executors of state terror.

The first clashes between CPI(M) cadres and the protesters has already taken place in Garbeta. In the Goaltore police station area of Garbeta, a stronghold of the CPI(M), a roadblock erected by the adivasis had been dismantled by CPI(M) cadres. This made the situation very tense as thousands of adivasi protesters assembled in a meeting and marched to the Kadra forest area where they blocked the road by destroying a culvert. Road blocks were again erected in Nohari, Jeerapara, Dashinija and Pingbani areas.

There is continued tension in the area as it the stronghold of the CPI(M) minister Sushanta Ghosh.

Similar events have been taking place in Bankura district too. On 1st November, the Khatra-Simlapal road in Bankura had been blockaded at twelve points by the placing of tree trunks on the road. Thereafter, hundreds of CPI(M) cadres descended on the road to remove the roadblocks.

Amiya Patra, the Bankura district secretary of the CPI(M) claimed that it was the “common people” who are fed up with the blockades and have taken the initiative to remove the roadblocks. He also claimed that the adivasi protesters are hands-in-glove with the timber mafia, whom they are helping by cutting down trees for them to smuggle out of the area! He also expressed his incredulity at the protesters’ demands for development measures, observing that in past the adivasis used to agitate for food and drinking water, now they were demanding an university. Apparently, for this CPI(M) leader, the setting up of an university is an unearthly demand on the part of the tribal people.

The tension in Bankura escalated as the CPI(M) cadres advanced towards the Sarenga forest, a stronghold of the adivasi movement. However, sensing the mood, and hearing that the adivasis were stationing archers on the forest tracks, the CPI(M) supporters abandoned their march at Bikrampur before entering the Sarenga forest. The leader of the peoples’ committee against police repression, Chatradhar Mahato, has declared that the adivasis will resist if the CPI(M) tries to launch attacks on their movement. Most of the adivasis think that it is a calculated move in which the police are abandoning the camps and the CPI(M) is trying to move in. The police will use the resultant clashes as an excuse to move back in force and crush the movement.

Already, a CPI(M) party office in Belatikuri village in Lalgarh has been burnt down by angry adivasi protesters in retaliation to the attempts of the CPI(M) to remove road blocks at Belatikuri and Bhagabandh. Five of the protesters had been beaten up by the CPI(M) cadres when they had tried to resist the CPI(M) cadres’ attempts to remove the roadblocks.

Two members of the Jharkhand Desham Party, Sunil Hembram and Nimai Tudu, who had been going to attend a meeting of the adivasis in Dalanpur in Bankura have also been brutally beaten up by CPI(M) cadres and have had to be hospitalized. The situation is tense in the entire adivasi area, as the people are getting ready to resist the two-pronged attacks of the police and the CPI(M).

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Dec 7: Lalgarh blockade stopped

The Statesman

The month-long Adivasi agitation under the banner of the Police Santras Birodhi Public Committee (PSBPC) at Lalgarh, Jhargram, Belpahari, Binpur and adjoining blocks of Midnapore West was called off this evening with the district administration conceding 10 of their 12 demands.

Emerging after a meeting for almost five hours with Mr RA Isreal, additional district magistrate, at Lalgarh police station around 6.30 p.m., PSBPC leaders Mr Lalmohan Murmu and Mr Chatradhar Mahato removed tree trunks to clear the Lalgarh-Jhargram road.
The agitators, however, had agreed to back down from their rigid stand of holding their conciliatory meeting at Dalilchowk More, an interior place in Lalgarh where the SP was required to apologise publicly for the atrocities allegedly committed by the police during the 5 November crackdown after the 2 November landmine blast that targeted the CM.

The administration agreed to consider the criminal cases filed against the Adivasis and other indigenous people for their alleged Maoist links since 1998, particularly in cases where charge sheets have not been submitted.

The administration also said an inquiry committee had been set up to probe the atrocities committed by the police and CPI-M cadres as well.

The committee, headed by the principal secretary of the backward class welfare department, will begin meeting on 15 December. After the committee report is submitted, the PSBPC demand for Rs 2 lakh compensation to each of the affected people will be considered by the government.

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Dec 14: Lalgarh: probing the scale-down of the revolt and the need of the hour

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati

The blockades in Lalgarh ended last week. After 32 days of an unprecedented and heroic resistance, the barricades were lifted after a marathon discussion between the representatives of the peoples’ committee against police repression and the admininstration, at the Lalgarh police station. But what led upto this climbdown by the peoples’ committee? And what is the condition on the ground at Lalgarh and the adjoining areas?

The situation on the ground is that the entire junglemahal (the tribal areas) is seething with anger. The adivasis have gone back to their homes, but numerous spontaneous outbreaks of public anger are taking place. On the other hand, the ruling CPI(M), together with other reactionary parties such as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, have floated a number of purportedly adivasi organizations such as Ganapratirodh committee (peoples’ resistance committee) and Adivasi o An-adivasi aikya committee (adivasi and non-adivasi unity committee) which are playing one section of the adivasis against the other.

Members of these committees, in the name of hunting down Maoists, are attacking adivasis, especially those who have played leading roles in the upsurge. We can just hope that the situation doesn’t degenerate into a civil war-like condition. The administration, in a carrot-and-stick policy, and really unnerved by the intensity of the feelings expressed by the adivasis, have announced a slew of development measures for the area, many of them rehashings of promises made long ago and never kept. And the peoples’ committee against police repression has threatened to relaunch the movement from 14th December.

What led up to this situation? Ever since the beginning of the revolt on 5th November, the government and the CPI(M), taken aback by the intensity and rapid spread of the uprising, had been lying low playing a waiting game to see how long the movement could be sustained, and how public opinion would shape up in support of the movement.

To their immense pleasure, for an entire month while the movement was at its height, the “civil society” in Kolkata, did not stir. Besides some feeble attempts at “building” public opinion by organizing marches (one of which, held by a human rights group, was attended by less than hundred people and which left Chatradhar Mahato, a leader of the peoples’ committee who had come from Lalgarh to address it, totally dejected) and localized propaganda campaigns, the “intellectuals” in Kolkata did nothing.

Why this happened would have to be a subject of further analysis. The “intellectuals” in Kolkata kept up a lively debate about whether the movement was spontaneous or controlled by political parties, whether it had a mass character or was remote-controlled by the Maoists, but did little else. The opposition political parties like the Trinamool Congress and the Congress also kept aloof, as they realized that they had little to gain from the adivasi upsurge. The government was relieved to see that there would be no mass display of popular solidarity with the movement in Lalgarh, as had happened in the case of Nandigram and Singur.

Then came the elections for the municipality of Jhargram, the headquarters of the Jhargram sub-division, which had been a flashpoint for the movement, and had been blockaded and cut-off for days. Jhargram, although situated in the adivasi belt, is mostly populated with middle class bengalis. The ruling Left Front, led by the CPI(M) won handsomely in the Jhargram municipal elections, which gave confidence to the CPI(M) to hit back.

The CPI(M) used the “logic of the legislature”, using the electoral victory as a show of support for its stance, to undermine the adivasi revolt. It is no wonder that the CPI(M) retaliation started from in and around Jhargram. Then came the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, which riveted the attention of the nation, and pushed news of Lalgarh from the front pages to the insides of newspapers. The CPI(M) was waiting for such an opportunity when public attention would be diverted (remember that the attack on Nandigram happened during a Diwali celebration), and immediately floated the above-mentioned organizations, which in the name of establishing unity between the adivasis and the non-adivasis, started clearing the roadblocks.

The adivasis resisted for a few days, re-erecting roadblocks and confronting the CPI(M) cadres, but the leaders of the peoples’ committee against police oppression possibly thought that they could not sustain the movement in the face of this assault
and in the absence of support from the urban population. So, they came to the negotiation table, and met the additional district magistrate R K Israel in the Lalgarh police station.

They also cited the apology made by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the chief minister, in the West Bengal legislative assembly the previous day during a discussion on the police atrocities on the adivasi women, as a factor that brought them to the negotiation table. After the discussion they declared that the blockades would be removed and in return the administration had accepted their demands. The demands about the S.P having to hold his ears and the police having to rub their noses on the ground had been removed. Instead the S.P would go to Dalilpur and apologize to the people. The administration would take measures to implement the other demands. The peoples’ committee also said that they weren’t withdrawing the movement but were keeping it on hold till the 14th of December, after which the movement will start again if their demands are not met.

What has transpired over the next few days clearly showed what was to be expected, when a movement goes on the backfoot, but the people are radicalized. On 7th December night itself, barely a few hours after the blockades were removed, a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) party raided Chotopeliya village, the site of the original atrocities, supposedly to look for Maoists.

They were besieged by hundreds of villagers and were only freed after intervention by peoples’ committee leaders and reportedly after the officer of the CRPF had to hold his ears and apologize. After that the police stopped entering the adivasi areas; instead a slew of minor government officials started visiting the areas, apparently to assuage the feelings of the adivasis and launch development measures. This included the BDO, the public distribution system officer, the BLRO, the additional DM etc. The BDO, in a public meeting in Dalilpurchowk, actually conceded that the police was wrong in inflicting the atrocities on the adivasis.

Together with this, the DM, Narayanswarup Nigam, declared a number of development measures, including the rejuvenation of the Western region development council, which had long been the fiefdom of the CPI(M) minister Sushanta Ghosh. Also, leaders of a number of political parties, most prominently the Congress, started visiting the adivasis in order to express their sympathies but in reality to create a support base there taking advantage of the fluid situation.

Parallel to these “carrots” from the administration, the CPI(M) sponsored organizations continued to wield the stick. A number of skirmishes have taken place in the past few days. There was a major attack by CPI(M) cadres in the Moupal area of Salboni. A large group of armed CPI(M) supporters (although the marchers didn’t carry the party flag, a number of CPI(M) Salboni zonal committee members could be identified in the group) took out a march from Bhadutala which then attacked houses of adivasis in the Moupal area.

The so-called ganapratirodh committee have launched a number of attacks in the Belpahari area where adivasis are being accused of being Maoist supporters and driven out of their homes. The Maoists have also apparently launched a retaliatory attack, murdering Sudhir Mandi, a leader of the ganapratirodh committee in the Chakadoba area, who was a member of the Jharkhand janamukti morcha. However, Babu Bose, the leader of the Jharkhand janamukti morcha, has said that it is uncertain that the Maoists have committed the murder because anyone could have taken advantage of the unstable situation to settle scores. The scheme of violence and retaliatory violence can soon spiral out of control in the entire area.

Yesterday, there have been further ominous developments. Going against the terms of the understanding between the peoples’ committee and the administration, the police and the CRPF returned to the Ramgarh police camp. The police and paramilitary forces had been forced to vacate the camp during the revolt and the camp was locked. However, possibly regaining confidence after seeing the situation for the past few days, the police returned to the camp and broke down the lock and re-entered the camp.

The discontent among the adivasis against this betrayal is again rising.

Apparently it was a decision taken by the police superintendent, against the wishes of the district magistrate. The S.P has said that the police and Straco anti-Maoist forces would be returning to the vacated camps in Kaima, Kalaimuri, Pirakata, Belatikari, Nachipur, Churimara and Jamtalagara. Also, the deadline given by the leaders of the peoples’ committee to the administration to
implement the decisions of their meeting expired yesterday, and the peoples’ committee is meeting today to decide on the next course of action. The need of the hour is a massive expression of solidarity to the adivasi people in different parts of the state, especially in Kolkata, so that public opinion can be built against these moves of the administration.

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Police back in Lalgarh, so are protests

Dec 19, 2008. The Statesman

Tribals in Lalgarh are planning to launch a large-scale protest against redeployment of police in the camps set up in the area. They claim that this move is in violation of the agreement they had with the district administration.

On Thursday, thousands of tribals demonstrated in front of a police camp at Kalaimuri village after police were redeployed.

Chattradhar Mahato, a tribal leader from Lalgarh, alleged that the district administration had deployed police at the eight camps to harass villagers or book them in connection with false cases.

“This is despite agreeing to withdraw the camps during a discussion between tribal leaders and the administration at the Lalgarh police station on December 7,” Mahato said.

He added that the setting up of a police camp at Lalgrah school had affected the studies of the students of classes V and VI, as no classes are being held for the last two months. Police should be withdrawn from the school and the health centre in the interest of the villagers, said Mahato.

The district administration, on the other hand, said that it had not made any commitment to the tribals on the issue of permanently withdrawing the police camps from there.

Denying the charges, ADM of West Midnapore A R Israel said the district administration had promised during its discussions with the tribals that police camps would not be set up in schools and health centres on a permanent basis.

The setting up of a police camp in Lalgarh or at the health centre was a temporary move, keeping in mind the present situation.

Israel said that the present situation in Lalgarh is ‘more or less normal’.

The district administration has started development programmes in the rural areas with the full cooperation of the tribals, said Israel.

12 Responses to “Lalgarh Movement – Mass uprising of tribal people in West Bengal”

jyoti Says:
November 14th, 2008 at 1:51 am
It is very sad that the most deprived population which is the highest tribal population in the world has to under go such a humiliation. For how long one persevers. One has to blow up one day and which is what has happened this time at Jhargram. The Gorkhaland movement, Kamtapuri in the north are also the result of Communist’s undue treatment of the people and area at large. If communist has to survive they have to change in their modus operandi. They cannot fool the peple all the time.
This atrocities on tribals has to be publisised vigorously so that other tribal communities are made aware of their rights and state’s and its machinery’s unruly behavior.
Long live Tribal movement. It should continue.
ranjit sur Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
This effort of informing the world is nice. I appreciate. Thank you, partha.
kasturi Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Many thanks to Partho for such a nice reportage of the truly amazing peoples’ uprising at Laalgrah!
a gorkha Says:
November 26th, 2008 at 11:40 am
this is what happens when the ruling government politicizes all the departments. the half-life of pocket voting!
Premangsu Says:
November 28th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Uprising in Lagarh may give a new direction to the people’s movement in whole of India. Singur stood up in protest, Nandigram took the lessons of Singur to a higher stage by resisiting the attepmt of displacement. Lalagarh lerned bo from both Singur and Nandigram and masses there are campaigning in support of such demands that are cahallenging the conventional concept of politics and democracy. Long live Lalgarh.

Premangsu
Sayan Says:
November 30th, 2008 at 5:08 am
A outstanding effort by parthoda,these reports and pictures from the ground are helping us in a great extent…
Garda Ghista Says:
December 4th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Why isn’t this uprising being covered in the mainstream media and why aren’t more reporters going to Lagarh? The people need to understand that it is now the tribals of Lagarh who are the present-day heroes and heroines of India. We need to salute their heroism at every opportunity.
uttam Bhattacharya Says:
December 5th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Thanks for the detailed information. Hope , the report will help to organise public openion.
badrinath Says:
December 6th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Interesting news coverage. Removing road blocks is now “state terror”, while burning down a party office in “retaliation” is “democratic struggle”. Doesnt’ the writer apply common sense when he uses these rubbish terms?
Shamik Sarkar Says:
December 9th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Commnets on lalgarh movement :
1) The village named Chotopelia of Kantapahari witnessed a spontaneous mass uprising against Police atrocities, when people tried to prevent police from taking away a civil contractor in the late hours of 4th nov. night. The main point against which inhabitants of surrounding villages also joined them en masse is the brutal beating of village womenfolk by police forces which was unprecedented.
2) Villagers cut the trees on adjacent pakka roads in order to “let others konow that something terrible has been happening here”. They approached police more than once, but police even refused to talk, apparently escaped inside, closing the main entrances of Lalgarh PS. Villagers left with no other option but demanding that now the police must come to Dalilpur Chawk in order to talk with the villagers, otherwise they wouldn’t lift the barricades. Meanwhile, a couple of written charter of demands were published. a committee was established as the organisation of the movement. Initial hand written posters by the villagers contained “jonogon” or “jonosadharon” as pressline.
3) the news of beating of womenfolk by police caused anger in adjacent blocks. Different Jharkhandi groups led the anger into the action of cutting trees and blocking pakka roads. The largest of the lot, Aditya group called for a mass meeting in Jhargram, on 14th November, Saturday. The posters listed three demands, roughly they are the following: a) cessation of W Medinipur, Bankura, Purulia from WB and join with Jharkhand. b) Immediate construction of an intermediate development council comprising these three districts. c) stoppage of police atrocities against adivasis. CPM took the opportunity and started campaigning that the movement was aimed at cessation of these districts. They centered on this campaign for impending election at Jhargram municipality, and subsequently won with a near sweeping majority despite opposition grand-alliance. However, it is important to note that the mass meeting of Jhargram “couldn’t be held”, as “supporters couldn’t come up due to barricades”.
4) The villagers in chhotopelia distanced themselves with political parties, starting from well known ‘maoist’ sympathisers to parliamentary outfits. They were angry with the media as they (media) were aligning the movement with different political thoughts (in different media).
5) The people of the villages were involved in the movement sacrificing a couple of their own interests: a) They were afraid of going in Jungles which they do for collecting Shalpata, one of the means of their livelihood, when the movement is on; b) They were unable to go for Namal (working as agri-labour at other parts of the state) as barricades hampered transportation.
6) The movement in the adjacent blocks (chhotopelia is in Kantapahari block) couldn’t get a mass character. The action of cutting trees and staging a road block with those trees appeared as a sign of intensity of the movement but this was not the case also. Rather that particular action was used as a shortcut method for portraying villagers’ fury. the action was rather easier with much greater impact. To be more precise, an important weapon of mass movement was grossly misused in the adjacent blocks. CPIM, initially clueless about everything, took that opportunity, organized people in a similar apparently apolitical banner, started offensive against the barricades in adjacent blocks. A number of barricades were cleared without any resistance.
7) Most of the villagers in chhotopelia and adjacent were unaware of the Shalboni SEZ, thus couldn’t opine for or against the ‘developement’.
8. According to the villagers, Chotopelia has got 85-90 families, of which 6-7 were non-adivasi Mahato. Most of the families (”90 percent”) have their own land (small). part of the village is deprived of electricity.
P S Ray Says:
December 10th, 2008 at 1:37 am
I do not agree that the movement didn’t have mass
character in other places besides Lalgarh. It should be understood that political parties, including Jharkhand party factions, participated in the movement because they came under immense pressure from the adivasis in these areas, who wanted to do something in solidarity with their brethren in Lalgarh, as they could
identify with their experiences of state repression. And the political parties didn’t hide their banners because they took it as a strategy, they were rather forced to as the adivasis expressed their mistrust of all political parties.
It is easy to transpose this cause and effect. The blockades have been removed as the movement increasingly came under attack from the CPI(M) and the fronts (adivasi o an-adivasi aikya parishad, ganapratirodh parishad etc.) that it
spawned. And the CPI(M) could muster this courage, after lying low for a month, because of us “intellectuals” in Calcutta, who have been busy
trying to find the hand of this or that political party in the movement, but have not been able to organize a single rally in support of the movement. History will not forgive us for this. The CPI(M) waited for something to distract public attention and the Mumbai attacks provided the opportunity. The counter-attacks by the CPI(M) began in the days that the news from the jungalmahal was relegated to the inside of the
newspapers by news of the Mumbai attacks. I guess we can only sympathise with victims, as in the case of Singur and Nandigram, but we try to look for “hidden hands” and “hidden banners” when the people are on the march. And it doesn’t mean that when the villagers are unaware of the Salboni SEZ, or other big “development” projects, they do not have any opinion about development per se. It depends on the way the question is put to them, and how one interprets the response. They are acutely aware, and vocal, about development issues such as health services, schools, roads, pds, NREGA, land distribution etc. It is up to the questioner how s/he ties it up with the macroeconomic picture.
soumya Says:
December 12th, 2008 at 12:51 am
this year’s sanhati ratna award goes to Partho Ray.

Fighting neoliberalism in Bengal

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Lalgarh Movement – Mass uprising of tribal people in West Bengal

12 Responses to “Lalgarh Movement – Mass uprising of tribal people in West Bengal”

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