This article was published in The Statesman a couple of weeks after the November violence in Nandigram. As the reader will find out, it was written with a lot of angst, and couldn't escape the Kantian sleight of hand -- the categorical imperative of pure reason subsumed me!
West Bengal is smoothly operating as a ‘state of exception’ – where state repression co-exists with a hogwashed support for civil liberties. The state will kill people, and also selectively allow people to protest against the killings. The repression, however, will not stop. But finally in response bhadroloks and bhadramohilas (gentlemen and gentlewomen) have risen to the occasion. November 14, 2007 has been historic – not because Kolkata saw yet another rally – but for the first time ever it saw a rally which was not organized by a political party, and yet had a turn out that overwhelmed all previous rallies by any political party. The young and the old, and other common people – office goers, housewives, shopkeepers – and intellectuals, all walked together to protest against the brutal acts of state repression that the Buddhadev government carried out in Nandigram. Prior to the rally there has been unprecedented activity on cyberspace – people mail bombing online petitions, meticulously up-to-date blogging of all events that are unfolding in West Bengal, and citizens’ statements urging people to rise in unison against the arbitrary violence carried out by the state. Post the rally several people have blacked out their profile photographs on the social network site Orkut as a mark of dissent. The born-again Bengali Protestor seems to have woken up from his/her slumber of indifference. The Bengali Protestor of contemporary times has finally arrived. Or so I would like to believe.
I am sitting far away in the comfortable confines of a Toronto apartment, getting suitably agitated with the affairs in my home state and feeling frustrated for not being able to be there with my friends and fellow Calcuttans who are organizing – finally, collectively, visibly. I do the same as several others can being so far away – mass mailing petitions to people urging them to sign, and trying to find out what can be done here. First I contact the local South Asian group asking them to circulate petitions; then I find out that there is a Bengali Film Festival happening sometime soon and decide to carry out some signature campaign there. I call up some probashi (immigrant) Bengalis here, but to my utter dismay find out that they are least interested. I see the probashi Bengali still content with organizing massive functions like the North American Bengali Conference – where they spend millions of dollars – and imagine themselves as the sole bearers of Bengali culture – without any connection to the realities back home. Which explains why Sunil Gangopadhyay, despite being openly supportive of the government’s actions in Singur and Nandigram is a regular feature at the conference, and so is Soumitra Chatterjee who walked the state sponsored rally which was organized a day after the public rally in Kolkata. I guess a heightened sense of privilege makes apathy grow on us like poisonous creepers. And it suddenly struck me that this isn’t necessarily true of the probashi ilk only – it’s true of almost all Bengalis like me – educated, English-speaking, moderately moneyed and ostensibly socially concerned.
Where were we when Gujarat 2002 happened? Where was our support for Medha Patkar when she was fasting in front of the Supreme Court demanding rehabilitation for the evicted people of the Narmada Valley? Where were we when farmers kept committing suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra? Where were our protests against the virulently casteist anti-reservationists? Where was our concern when the bar dancers of Bombay were rendered jobless? Where were we when millions were being evicted from Nangla Machi in Delhi? Did we respond when the AFSPA’s reign of terror scarred Manipur? Where is our concern for the rule of law with emergency declared in neighbouring Pakistan? Where was our support for human rights during the recent Junta crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Burma? Where were we when the Kalinganagar massacre happened in Orissa? Do we feel a need to extend solidarity to the Chengara land struggle in Kerala? In response to Nandigram protests were organized all across India – in Mumbai, Chandigargh, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and not necessarily by Bengalis – but where were the Bengalis of Kolkata when all the above happened? It was only Mamata who sometimes took centrestage by perversely paralyzing the state through bandhs (strikes). The people of Kolkata behaved as if nothing was happening elsewhere, oblivious to the fact that our silence was in effect condoning the occurrence of these events, including what has been breeding in our own backyards. We did not talk about the pogrom in Gujarat when it happened, but have started comparing Modi with Buddhadev now! So much so that one of the posters at the rally cried out: “It’s West Bengal. Not Gujarat!” Evil’s caught up with us finally – is that why we need to take notice now?
This doesn’t only go for the Bengali in Kolkata, but also for the Bengali like me who is transnationally wired and is a virtual yet equal participant in this. For instance, a networked community of Bengalis across North America, Europe and India who have created a web space for themselves called ‘Sanhati-Fighting Neo-Liberalism in Bengal’, which an excellent forum for engaging discussion on economic and political issues that mar West Bengal. But Sanhati emerged only when Singur happened – as if that was when history was created. Their website powerfully declares: “We may be the last generation to be able to realistically organize. We may be the first generation to drive back the ‘development’ beast”. This claim tends to valorize their emphatic achievement as the first-of-its-kind, but at the same time does not acknowledge that there has been several before them, who are also their contemporaries, who have been fighting the beast for a long long time. It might have been more modest to make a humble declaration about being inspired by the several young people who left their education/ work to join people’s movements like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, and vowing to build on the foundations they have already laid. This attempt at claiming the first-of-its-kind status emerges out of a typical Bengali ethos: we mark the beginning and end of time – an explanation that is used to highlight the contributions of Tagore to Ray to Ganguly! A similar claim was also made in the announcement circulated to publicize the November 14 rally, where even before the event took place it was declared that it will be ‘historic’. It was like a seductive call to the indifferent Bengali to become a part of history even before it was made. I am reminded of the expression ‘kupomonduk’ (the frog in the well) – it is not the actual location of the Bengali that matters here, but the conscience of ‘blinkered-farsightedness’ that the Bengali suffers from, where ever we are.
It is necessary that I disclaim taking a position of discrediting all that has been happening. After all, I was the one to write to Sanhati asking for guidance about what could be done in Toronto. With the wonderfully archived news reports on their website I put together a press note and statement that I circulated in Canada. Sanhati does also remain my most reliable source for updates on the goings on in Nandigram. I cannot dare discredit any of these initiatives, because I sincerely believe that it is high time that the Bengali made its outrage count, the way it happened on November 14. Earlier, the collective pressure built around the Rizwanur case, and the present public outrage is what needs to be powerfully sustained. And I don’t say that in a patronizing fashion – I say that as someone who claims ownership of this outrage, at least on my own count.
We are not new to protests – but we have tended to respond to injustice only when it occurs in our backyard – that too when we fear that the fire in the backyard can bring down the house. We shouldn’t be responding to Nandigram because it is about saving the face of the ‘rational’ Bengali, but to expose our own faces as participants in perpetuating the present state of affairs in West Bengal. We hailed Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s entry as Chief Minister in November 2000 because he claimed to resurrect West Bengal and set it off on the journey towards industrialization and economic development. It took us seven years to figure out how his plot has gone awry, when right through we gave into this faulty logic of ‘progress’ that got him the votes from us. Some only feebly questioned his arbitrary land allotments in the Salt Lake Township in 2006. We kept consuming what the glitzy malls offered and traveled on the newly built flyovers, never wondering if all of these came at the human cost of evictions.
My support for the mahamichhil (the great rally) is not simply because it finally happened, but because it was when I would like to believe that the Bengali held itself accountable – for things that we now see and things that we chose not to for so long. Sitting so far away I don’t wish to romanticize the mahamichhil – I want to feel that I am part of a collective Bengali society where I can hold myself accountable for being party to the creation of this ‘state of exception’ – for realizing that I am paying a price for my silence. I cannot speak for others, but I would like to believe that the buddhijibis (intellectuals) walking the rally on November 14 also felt that they were paying their price as well.
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Do we feel a need to extend solidarity to the Chengara land struggle in Kerala?
Kerala is a place where you cannot get agriculture labourers because everyone is literate and thinks manual labour is unbecoming. The minimum wages that you have to pay to any manual labourer is Rs. 250/- a day - for 6 hours of what they deem to be ‘work’. The carpenter gets Rs. 300/- to Rs. 500/- a day. A live-in maid comes at not less than Rs. 4500/- plus food and clothes, a month. If you use her for other things, you pay extra. All labourers come to work in motorcycles or scooters.
Kerala is ‘Gulf’ to manual labourers from other states. There is practically no unemployment here after 2000, if you are ready to work. The greediest of young men work in ‘quotation gangs’ that recover money for banks like ICICI, HSBC, HDFC etc, or beat up people for politicians or similar others. They quote in 10000s to lakhs.
Malayali workers including head loaders, and employees including college teachers are, within Kerala, a disgrace to world labour. To them, work is worship of selfish indolence, and exercising of the tongue. Chaathans, created by the great VKN is the best possible presentation of our poor farm labourer.
The Communist parties profess the raising of the living standards of the working class and their leaders. They have thus managed to raise the lifestyles of even coolies or head-loaders to Star levels. Clerks and peons of government departments like Revenue, Registration, and Transport etc earn much more than MNC CEOs, thanks to their unions’ protecting bribe-taking. College lecturers earn at UGC levels without possessing the stipulated qualifications, only because of their Left unions. Secure monthly salary earners are deemed the genuine working class because they pay more and regular Union levies.
Kerala has a population of about 4 % of the country. Projected population for 1st March 2008 is 3, 42, 32,000. We have land of 1.18% of India. The quantum of land 38863 sq. kms or 9 603 00000 cents cannot change.
Of this geographical area, 48% is mountainous or hilly. 12% is the coastal lowlands. The remaining 40% of midlands alone is suitable for human dwelling. That is to say, for 4% percent of the country’s population, only about 0. 45% of its land is available for living and surviving.
In land-starved Kerala, the largest landowners are the government, the Christian plantation owners and the Church. Every time that the CPM has been in power, grabbing of government land by the party workers is usual. The party, however, is now no longer of the poor; it is now a party of contractors, brokers and businesspersons. The CPM thus having moved away from the downtrodden, new forces like the Muslim Solidarity, Catholic Infam and foreign-funded environment organizations moved in to rescue the poor. The Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyukta Vedi (SJVSV) that has started the Chengara land-grab is one such saviour-outfit of dubious origins.
The pressure on land is our greatest weakness. Our earlier planners did not give this matter honest consideration. We should have planned for development without disturbing or destroying the highlands and lowlands. You meddle with mother Earth and you suffer – our planners ignored this old rule.
Institutional support by the Church to encroachments is responsible for the destruction of our hills. Muthanga was the zenith of their achievement under a Catholic ruler. Sex tourism is responsible for the vandalisation of our coasts.
Land belongs to all of us equally. We also have responsibility to it. Calculating on 960300000 cents and 34232000 humans, individual share comes to 28 cents each. Permissible human usage-share is 40% of that total. Thus, each of us has a birthright to only 11 cents of the land area in Kerala. If you allow a further deduction of 30% to man-made infrastructure like roads, public grounds and buildings, other public utilities etc, a Keralite can claim or own to himself only 7 cents or so.
It is against this ground reality that Chengara orphans demand five acres of land suitable for agriculture and Rs.50,000 in cash for each landless family among them [The Hindu 04.06.2008]. The demands are typically Malayali – similar to demanding that you shut your thattu-kada, stop plying your autorikshaw or not take your ill child to the hospital, for ‘their’ Bandh. It is mere bullying. And we would not dare to do it outside Kerala borders.
Meeting the demand would need only about 40000 acres of land.
I heard Laha Gopalan say many times on TV that the Chengara camp has people of all castes, and that it is only an agitation of people who do not have as much land as their birthright [they having only 4 to 10 cents] and the landless. This might mean that it is not an agitation of landless Dalits; or at least, not any longer. Laha Gopalan himself has by his own admission, only one hectare or 247 cents valued at Rs. 24, 70,000/-
In 3 years, 30% of the active population in Kerala would be non-Malayali or immigrant labour. The Chengara model would serve them well. TRESPASS, SQUAT, GRAB! We need not stop with land alone in the Chengara culture.
There are reports that the organisers of the land-grab collect admission fees ranging from Rs.6000/- upwards from the squatters. As per the Vedi’s claims, as many as 24,000 people belonging to 7,282 families are occupying about 14,000 acres of land at the Kumbazha Estate. The number of makeshift huts pitched at the estate will be around 7,800. The money collected might thus come to crores of Rupees, exclusive of financial assistance received from various Agencies.
Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy and similar mega-stars’ going to Chengara to proclaim support was only like Henry Kissinger’s having come to New Delhi in November 2007 on behalf of the NSG corporates, to sort out the Left’s misgivings about the reciprocal arrangements for their agreeing to the Nuclear Deal. Such initiatives need spending.
Harrisons Plantations is a company of the RP Goenka group. It is not a foreign company, as depicted by the activists and the media. From 2005, they have been selling off pieces of the Estates in Kerala to real estate companies. The land was not theirs; and their lease with the owners, the Kerala government, had run out in 2005. However, neither Left nor Right, or activist raised any voice against the fraud. http://www.moneycontrol.com/mccode/news/article/news_article.php?autono=169951
The Harrison’s Kodumon Estate land grab by Laha Gopalan and his group in 2006 and the Chengara land-grab of 2007 might thus have been some trick by some real estate group to force a cheap sale of the land. The huge funds spent in mobilising media and activist support could have come from that group. Alternately, it might have been a trick by RPG themselves to escape from Kerala without paying the rent to the government [they have reportedly not paid it for 20 years] and the employee benefits to the labour. After the lease ran out, RPG had availed a loan of Rs. 100 crores from the ICICI Bank on the security of the Estate, on which they had no rights at that point of time. The land grab might also have been to avert having to repay the Bank.
AK Balan, Kerala’s Minister for SC/STs, has already called Chengara a ‘state-sponsored agitation’. It is like Kerala’s Private Bus operators’ agitating and frequently stopping services to make the public agree in agony to fare-hikes by an eager ministry. In the name of settlement of Chengara orphans, government land elsewhere would soon be allotted. The Estate might also be divided and allotted to different employees’ co-operatives, to benefit all the political parties. On 17.9.2008, Laha Gopalan categorically said on Doordarshan that they would not accept land at Chengara, even if no other land were given.
The rehabilitation initiative would be used more as a ploy to allot land to LDF cadres. Each party would have quotas, as had been with the Plus 2 allotment. Anyone that would pay the leaders would get choice real estate ‘free’. By 2010, the plots thus allotted would be consolidated to build resorts, amusement parks or professional colleges. Either the Party leaders themselves or Comrades like Farris Aboobacker would be the entrepreneurs on the land. Chengara would thus be revealed as a Total4 U, in a few more months.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/India/10242380.html
On 20th September 2008, AK Balan, Kerala’s Minister for SC/STs, announced that beginning October 5th, the government would begin a massive Scheme for allotting land to the landless all over the State. A total of 15000 acres would thus be disposed off. Houses would also be built for the beneficiaries. Chengara squatters would be the first to benefit under the Scheme, he said.
What is to happen to the landless among the middle classes of Kerala, who are unable to have houses of their own because of the inhuman cost of land in Kerala? Would they also have to squat and threaten suicide to have 7 cents for a house each?
Average minimum cost of land in Kerala is Rs.10 lakhs per acre in the rural parts. In places like Kochi, it is around half to one crore a cent. How much of public wealth would be lost when 15000 acres is freely given away to squatters?
The intellectual activists would not answer. Perhaps, their cut is already paid in advance?
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