The rejection of Vedanta’s application for permission to mine in Niyamgiri, Orissa, is being hailed as a step forward and a change in the country’s policy discourse. It is indeed all that; but it is crucial to understand why.
The project’s main problem was that it violated the Forest Rights Act’s provisions requiring “recognition of habitat and community forest rights” and the consent of the gram sabha prior to taking forest land. This sounds like technical legalisms. But the basic point is that, under the law, the Dongria Kondhs have the power to protect and manage their forests and lands. Simple, but unprecedented; it has never happened before.
Contrary to much of the media coverage, this is not a reflection of the Environment Ministry or the forest bureaucracy suddenly becoming “pro-tribal”. Even as Vedanta stands rejected, many other equally illegal projects are going ahead; most recently, the Polavaram dam, which will affect literally hundreds of times more people, was given final forest clearance in total violation of the Forest Rights Act. Polavaram will also affect members of the so-called “Primitive Tribal Groups”, who were the centrepiece of the Environment Minister’s statement on Vedanta. Meanwhile, more than 15,000 hectares of forest land have been illegally given in principle or final diversion clearance in MP and Chhattisgarh alone since 2006. Meanwhile, the Ministry is promoting programmes that themselves do not respect democratic control and involve large-scale land grabbing.
So, then, why did it happen? Electoral compulsions of the Congress party, say some. Targeting of opposition-ruled States, howls the BJD. The Sonia touch, says the business media. All of which are truisms, but they miss the real point. Every ingredient of the Vedanta decision – the public sympathy; the Forest Rights Act itself; the govenment’s sudden sensitivity to adivasi issues; and, most importantly, the resistance of the Dongaria Kondh people – was a reflection of people’s struggles, in the area and elsewhere. Vedanta was not rejected because Rahul Gandhi or Jairam Ramesh decided on a strategy in their head. It was rejected because, steeped in betrayal, illegality and mercenary brutality, the state machinery and the ruling party was forced by its own need for people’s support to, just once, comply with the mandate of democracy and justice.
And this is the real victory of this decision. On its own letterhead, in its own words, a Central government agency has come out and said: we should not take resources without the consent of the people. We should not grab lands and minerals without respecting people’s collective mandates. Of course they are continuing to do so, as rapaciously as before. But they have exposed themselves, and shown through their own words that they no longer have even the fig leaf of law to hide their robbery. And they have in the process opened a new space; for now their future robberies will be counterposed, in law as in reality, against the decisions of people’s assemblies, a small step towards a real democratic collectivity and real social control over resources. Thus does the battle for democracy grow.
When the Forest Rights Act was passed, we described it as “a victory and a betrayal.” So too is the Vedanta decision – a victory for the heroic struggle of the Dongaria Kondhs and for the spirit of democracy; and a betrayal, because the government will not comply with its own words. The struggle goes on.
After the porno sites, the biggest spammer on our website is the pro-Tata forces. It is very interesting to note that the Tatas have engaged spammers to attack sites like us. These agents have been targetting especially those pages where people’s struggle in Kalinga Nagar is mentioned. The usual way is to put the same comments on all these pages. If you remove them, those comments will come up within a few hours under the name of some other spamming agent (with proper email id). Earlier we thought this is a bonafide act from a pro-Tata person, so in the name of fairness we were inclined to keep these comments at least on one page. But later on we found that it is really a nuisance as same comments would come up again on different pages. For couple of months we tried removing these comments. However, now we think it is high time such low-key web war by the corporates like desperate Tatas should be exposed. You can see some of the comments here:
Tribal uprisings in Orissa were the first of organized assaults on the British, against the Hindu Kings, as well as on the Brahmin supremacists. The indigenous were united against oppression way before the Sepoy Mutiny took shape. They had no loyalty towards the kings and unlike the Paikas and Sepoys, they had no interest in releasing the royal families from British domains. In fact, the tribals shone in their capacity to challenge the Rajas as much as they expressed disdain towards British agents.
Therefore, when the native Kings of Khurda, Kanika and Kujang made a confederation to oppose the British invasion, the tribal agitators knew the kings had no motives other than to safeguard their royal privileges. Although Khurda Movement is usually declared as the first mass movement against the British following hanging of Jayakrishna Rajguru who has been eulogized profusely, its anti-imperialistic nature is highly suspect. Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar and his chief associate Krushna Chandra Bhramarbar Ray have been equally immortalized in history for their involvement in the anti-British movement. But the true champions of the organized revolt upon which the royal clan depended for survival were the forgotten tribal masses of rebels.
Khurda Movement did not start with Bakshi Jagabandhu, it started with 400 Kandhs in Banpur who came from the neighboring territory of Ghumsar. For seven years the movement lasted with the help of fellow tribals – the Kandhs, Savaras and Panas of Banpur, Nayagarh, Boudh and Daspalla. It was not the loyalists of the royal families, but their dissenting and oppressed subjects who took to arms and fought the British which indirectly benefited the needs of the local kings of the time. But the tribals never gave in to the manipulative designs of the kings either, thus constituting an independent stream in Orissa’s freedom movement, inviting wrath from the mainstream historians.
A. Das in “Life of Surendra Sai” (1963) decries the tribal revolts in Sambalpur. While glorifying Surendra Sai as a freedom fighter, the actual heroes of the revolt – the indigenous masses – have been portrayed as nothing less than crazy looters. Tribal uprisings have been compared with “the tyranny and lootings carried on by the Burgees of the Maratha days.” Surendra Sai, despite being a rebel claimant to the guddee of Sambalpur, was solely interested in the throne. To eulogize him as the charismatic anti-British hero while attacking the Gonds upon whose abilities he rode high, would be to use history as a paternalistic tool. And yet, for years into historical research, this is exactly what has been done. Surendra Sai has become a hero, while the tribal uprisings have been denounced as daylight robberies.
Ramnarayan Mishra in his paper, sponsored by Indian Council of Historical Research (1980), writes about Sambalpur following tribal uprising, “Life and properties were quite unsafe, the ryots could not raise their crops in their lands and as soon as they were ripe, they were looted and removed from the fields by these bands of robbers. There were day-light robberies and dacoity; the economic and social life of the people were completely paralyzed…Even now the days are remembered with alarm as the memories have come down from generations to generations. The atrocities of minor nature were the looting of cakes, which were being prepared by the housewife a certain evening, and the looting of all the belongings of the bride when she was on a procession to her father-in-law’s house for marriage….”
It is astounding to notice how the historians have continually felt sympathies with the landlords and the propertied class of Orissa. Mishra recalled the days with alarm when the tribal rose in revolt against the Brahmins in Sambalpur. Little did he pause to imagine the days from the lens of those that were forced to revolt. Much of the histories about Orissa still continue to be produced from the ruling class elitist visions of the past, part of the reason why the true history of peoples’ struggles is yet to be documented in totality.
Andrew Fraser in “Among Indian Rajah and Ryot” (1912) describes the Kalahandi revolution as though it were the responsibility of the Kandhs to forgive the Koltas. “The wretched prisoners fell at the feet of the leading Khonds and begged them to spare their lives; but they were told that none of the men among them would be spared,” he writes.
L.S.S. O’Malley in “Modern India and the East: A Study of the Interaction of their Civilization” laments the passage of the British interventions. Ramnarayan Mishra agrees with the old British thesis and writes, “The old ceremonies called the Mariah sacrifice which had been put down with great difficulty by the British officers some years before was revived. The sacrifice involved killing captives and hacking off pieces of their flesh which they buried in the fields as an offering to the earth goddess which would ensure their fertility.”
What O’Malley and subsequently, Mishra have omitted out of their deconstructions is that Mariah sacrifice was not merely about human captives. The tribal resistance was not nonviolent in nature, principally because it was always part of a defensive reaction, as opposed to the oppressors’ tactics which were premeditated murders. It is presumptuous to assume that the historically oppressed and dispossessed tribal population of Orissa show solidarity with the ruling class hooligans of Rajput and British origin who were profiting from the lands of the indigenous by imposing bonded labor terms upon them.
Therefore, even as ruling class histories suggest Orissa lost her independence after death of the last Hindu King Mukunda Harichandan, the tribals never really thought so. Contrary to mainstream belief that Muslim rule in Orissa was oppressive, there was no recorded revolt by the tribals against the Muslim rule.
Prasanna Kumar Mishra in “Political Unrest in Orissa in the 19th Century” (1983) writes, “The people of Orissa lost their independence from the sixteenth century, but could not fully express their dissatisfaction against the aliens throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Only when a foreign trading company began to rule through exploitation and oppressed them socio psychologically, the people woke up from their slumber and began to raise their voice against this foreign rule.”
What is crucial here is the fact that the first organized mass rebellions were organized by the tribal people of Orissa. They were organized against the British as well as against the Hindu (of Rajput origin) rulers of Orissa. Both the anti-British and anti-royal movements were part of the larger national struggle that were to arrive following the footsteps of the Orissan tribal revolutions.
In this context, it is important to observe the Mariah sacrifices. Dismissing them as mere tribal superstitions bordering on criminality is also a dismissal of their roles in the national freedom movements orchestrated by the oppressed subjects against the ruling classes. The human “sacrifices” had elements of not just violence as a last resort, but also of targeted violence with a distinct class character that eliminated landlords, dewans, British agents and associates of royal families. The British were afraid of the tribal movements precisely because of the violent nature of their resistance. It was an economic war justly organized by the majority oppressed against their minority oppressors. Not some religious abstractions, as later historians tend to stress.
Ramnarayan Mishra dismisses the tribal movement as nothing other than a selfish pursuit to guard their traditional interests, that had no bearing upon the freedom movement against the British. He writes, “The resistance movement (against the British) in the States was a middle class movement sponsored by the people of coastal areas and it had nothing to do with tribal solidarity.”
P. Mukherjee in “History of Orissa” (1954) writes that the reason behind tribal uprisings in Orissa was their apprehensions that alien rule intended to “assess their lands, punish their leaders for the religious rites performed by them.”
H. K. Mahtab in “History of the Freedom Movement in Orissa (1957) writes, “The Khond risings in Baudh, Ghumsar and Khandmal during the years 1846-1848 were just temporary show of disaffection and resentment of the Khonds at the governmental interference in their religious rites.”
Not only have the tribal contributions been grossly overlooked, and their participations have been looked down upon as anarchical, even many false heroes have been recreated in the process to overshadow the real ones. Fakir Mohan Senapati is one such historical character who has been eulogized at the expense of Dharanidhar Naik. Collective celebration of Fakir Mohan as a literary champion has also necessitated the destruction of his challenger, the other literary genius in Dharanidhar. Dharanidhar was duped not only because Fakir Mohan was a state agent interested to earn loyalty points from his beloved king who was otherwise an oppressive ruler, but also because Naik belonged to a lower caste not worthy of literary celebration. Likewise, British agent Superintendent Ravenshaw who organized military tactics to capture Dharanidhar remains immortalized to this day, whereas his roles in suppressing the tribal uprisings have been held with esteem.
It is again astounding as to how an entire state can celebrate the act of immoral trickery on part of the oppressive ruling class to capture a tribal hero. And yet, every primary school student in Orissa is taught precisely this. Capture of Dharanidhar is almost a climax in Oriya nationalism, whereas nothing could be farther from the truth. And when Dharanidhar emerged more popular after his imprisonment in the hands of Fakir Mohan, the upper caste upholders of Brahminical education started portraying the tribal revolutionary into a universal saint. Pandit Nilakantha Das and Pandit Gopabandhu Das subsequently claimed to have learnt from Dharanidhar, the saint, about life’s essences. Apparently, Dharanidhar gave them an apt philosophical lesson, “First try to be a true human being, and then only free the country.”
Ironically, the last of the tribal revolutionaries in the pre-1947 era, Laxmana Naik is celebrated today as the foremost tribal leader. It is so understood because Laxmana Naik led the movement which for the first time collaborated with the mainstream Congress strategies. Naik was beyond doubt one of the bravest and most courageous of leaders to have emerged anywhere. But he was only a successor to a long history of indigenous revolts in Orissa that witnessed countless distinguished tribal leaders like Dora Bisoi, Chakra Bisoi, Sadhu Jani, Nabaghana Kahnar, Bira Kahnar, Ratna Naik, Dharanidhar Naik, Nirmal Munda among others.
And more importantly, these leaders found their subsistence not through royal scriptures or British mentions of honor, or national awards by the independent republic, but through innumerable masses of people who supported them throughout their long and historic struggles against land-grabbers – both foreign and domestic. Their historic struggles ever so radical, fundamentally unforgiving towards their oppressors.
And no matter how much the lousy, corrupt, and incompetent administrations of this day work overtime to ignore the vision of the indigenous for a socially just world of equality and prosperity, of ecological respect and communitarian solidarity, the courageous blood of the tribal ancestors still boils in the veins of their successors. And through the movements today once again against the oppressive ruling elites stationed in Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, Washington DC, London, Kolkata and Seoul – the blood shows.
The blood narrates Orissa’s history as the history of tribal uprisings against socio-economic injustice. And that, her future, too, shall be shaped by the mandates of the dispossessed, not by the whims of the oligarchs.
Freedom will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear….
I do not need freedom when I’m dead
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread
– Langston Hughes
Using brute police force to silence indigenous peoples’ mass uprising in Orissa is not just an act of sheer cowardice and criminality; it is a decision founded upon gross ignorance of the unique stream of struggles which characterize the class war in the land that has witnessed more organized revolutions than enforced reforms.
Orissan tribal uprising has a definitive historical pattern. It is not exclusive to the current state of unrest. The administrations – both Union and the State – deliberately fail to acknowledge the peoples’ organized movements as thus. It is not a Maoist prerogative to envision the path of violent resistance among the oppressed in Orissa. Quite the contrary, actually – it is the continuation of radical dissent among the peoples of Orissa that has generated a certain Maoist character within the struggle.
The indigenous in Orissa have never retired from their relentless rebellions against the land-grabbers. They have violently challenged the zamindars, formed alliances against the kings, conspired to overthrow the British, and have demonstrated ample courage in battling caste supremacism. Tribal resistance movements in Orissa have consistently targeted foreign interventions via expropriation of their lands that threaten to result in economic distress.
Prof J. H. Hutton (quoted in G.S. Ghurye’s “The Scheduled Tribes”, 1961) observes, “All these rebellions were defensive movements: they were the last resort of tribesmen driven to despair by the encroachments of outsiders on their land or economic resources. As such they could have all been avoided had the authorities recognized the aboriginals’ grievances and taken steps to remedy them out… but before the pressure on the tribesmen had made an outbreak unavoidable. Indeed anyone with first hand experience of conditions in the backward areas must be surprised, not by the occurrence of risings, but by the infrequency of violent reactions on the part of the aboriginals to the loss of their ancestral lands and to their economic enslavement.”
Ghumsar Risings
One of the first organized revolts by the indigenous, known as Ghumsar risings, during early 19th century, illustrates how the people have cried for freedom from invaders, both local and global. Ghumsar, a small estate in Ganjam district was ruled by the Bhanja dynasty. Owing to default in revenue payment to the Empire, the British intervened in the affairs of Ghumsar and its ruler Srikar Bhanja was deposed in 1800 CE. When the British took control of Ghumsar after overthrowing Srikar’s son Dhananjaya, it was Dora Bisoi, a leader of the Kandhs (who was awarded the title of Birabar Patra) who won the support of the common people as well as Kandh chiefs to decide on the fate of Ghumsar. Since a Kandh leader could not be allowed to rule, Bisoi brought a 12-yr old girl and substituted Dhananjaya’s son of that age with her and ruled the estate on her behalf. Dora Bisoi was the leader of the masses and this was the reason why the Collector of Ganjam failed to arrest him for over three years.
Administrative officers did their best to harass Bisoi and finally, he escaped to Torabadi at Soroda. The Kandhs then garnered support of the Savaras in this movement against the British and the royals. In the meantime, Srikar Bhanja was again placed on the throne, but he failed to manage the affairs properly upon which his son Dhananjaya was reinstalled on the condition that he paid the dues to the British. British force under Sir Henry Taylor finally occupied Ghumsar in 1834.
Dora Bisoi, the leader of the anti-Bhanja rebellion now led a revolt against the British which claimed lives of several British soldiers and burnt down British camps. British Government appointed a special officer George Russell to capture Dora. Rebel leaders including Kollada, Galeri, and Durgaprasad lent support to Dora in their collective fight against the British, while they found shelter in the mountains of Daspalla and Nayagarh.
Special Commissioner Russell unleashed one of the greatest assaults upon a resisting people that changed the character of India’s freedom movement. The British offered an unprecedented Rs 5,000 as a reward to anyone who could capture Dora. Many rebel leaders were captured and hanged, but Dora escaped first to Patna before escaping to Angul. It was there that the Raja of Angul handed him over to the British and received the reward. Dora Bisoi died tortured in a state prison of Madras. But his ability to lead and create many rebel leaders in Orissa continued to inspire. Great Oriya patriot and nephew of Dora Bisoi, Chakradhar Bisoi took his place and Ganjam’s destinies were reshaped after what the people demanded, not what was imposed from above.
In Banpur, the Kandhs alongwith another low caste people Panas organized their struggle under the leaderships of Krutibas Patasahani, Sadhu Jani and Dunai Jani. Kandhs of Baudh also joined the movement and were united by leaders such as Nabaghana Kahnar, Bira Kahnar, and Madhab Kanhar. The Kandhs remained united in struggle for social justice and economic improvements against both the British and their Rajas. All efforts by the British to divide and rule over the tribals drastically failed.
Mariah Revolt
Elsewhere in India, people used to heed to their Kings as mediators between them and the British. Not so in Orissa. When the British could not accept their defeat in the hands of the Bisois and people of Ganjam, they used the Kandh practice of Mariah sacrifice as a moral justification to attack the indigenous. Chakra Bisoi flat refused to negotiate and the British brought the King of Baudh to intervene. Chakra Bisoi and his comrades not only defied the Baudh King, they burnt down the camp of the British agent and forced the Raja to be sent back with them.
Chakradhar successfully organized the Kandhs in the territories of Angul, Ghumsar, Boudh, Patna, Kalahandi and Paralakhemundi. He also led the Savaras in Paralakhemundi, the peasants in Nayagarh, as well as the Kandhs of Ranpur and Daspalla.
In 1846, right after rainy season, British officer Macpherson marched into Kandhamal to recover his prestige. His troops managed to burn down some houses of the Kandhs. But the Kandhs organized to strike back and plundered in every direction, making the revolt more widespread than before. Orissa’s tribal revolt against the royal thrones as well as British officers became such a matter of concern that the Madras unit of British Government sent a whole army under the command of General Dyee to control the situation. Government of Bengal cooperated with General Dyee to put an end to indigenous revolts.
Tribal leader Nabaghan Kahnar of Baudh and Chakra Bisoi harassed the British no end. Rani of Sonepur, Raja of Angul and Raja of Baudh tried their best to apprehend them and a reward of Rs 3,000 was declared this time. Failing in all their efforts to suppress tribal resistance, Raja of Baudh had to cede Kandhamal to the British.
Governments – both British and the feudal – tried all measures, including arresting Rendon Majhi, head of Borikiya Kandhs of Kalahandi on charges of performing human sacrifices. Most warrior class among the Kandhs, the Kutiya Kandhs joined the larger tribal movements and demanded the release of Majhi. Zamindar of Madanpur was removed when he failed to act against the rising violent rebellions. In the meantime, Chakra Bisoi escaped to Ganjam and joined with the Saoras to rise in rebellion under leadership of Radhakrushna Dandasena. The British ruthlessly attacked and burnt down scores of villages and hanged Dandasena.
Many rebel leaders were hanged and eliminated by the British forces. But this never stopped the march of the revolts. When the Baudha Raja in collaboration with the British oppressed the downtrodden in his state, a new leader Narayan Maliah led the Kandhs to lead yet another violent rebellion.
Bhuinya Risings
In 1868, the Bhuinya revolts determined the shape of things to come in Keonjhar. The newly appointed King Dhanurjaya was not recognized by the Bhuinyas. Tired of being brutalized by the royal family, tribal leader Ratna Naik led a popular agitation against the king. The Dewan of Keonjhar Nanda Dhal took help of officer Ravenshaw, the Superintendent of the Tributary Mahals. But the Bhuinyas did not remain silent for long. They rose in revolt, captured Nanda Dhal and Raja’s other associates, and plundered Keonjhargada, the kingdom.
The Bhuinyas found support from the Juangs and the Kols. The Deputy Commissioner of Singhbhum marched to Keonjhar and demanded that the indigenous groups return the captives. The Bhuinyas refused to cooperate and the Deputy Hayes requisitioned for another contingent of army from Singhbhum. Equipped with bows, arrows and swords, the Bhuinyas bravely confronted the British armies but had to finally surrender. Ratna Naik was captured by the Paiks of Pallahara on August 15, 1868 and brought to Cuttack. Paiks who were agents of the British helped arrest several hundreds of tribal revolutionaries. In a show trial, seven were sentenced to death, 27 were transported for life and 149 revolutionaries were imprisoned. Ratna Naik and three of his comrades were hanged in Cuttack.
Dharani Meli
Minor in age, but a boy of immense moral courage, Dharanidhar Naik of Bhuinya tribe was well educated for his age. The Raja of Keonjhar even appreciated his talents. But when he attempted to educate the fellow Bhuinyas, it did not sit well with the king. Dharanidhar, his brother and friends did not bury the lessons of their education. They organized the bonded labor class of Keonjhar against the King and demanded that they be paid for their work.
This infuriated the King of Keonjhar who had fancied that his tribal subjects were forever deemed to remain as slaves. Dharanidhar, even at such young age, did not submit to various temptations as offered by the King, and went ahead to foster a spirit of resistance among the oppressed indigenous peoples. Many of them then joined Dharanidhar in submitting a petition to the Superintendent of Tributary Mahals. The Superintendent obviously did not act upon the petition and the Raja arrested the petitioners.
Dharanidhar then went on to organize the people to revolt against the Raja. This shocked the ruling class. Dharanidhar led the people inside the palace and looted the palace and distributed the ill-gotten wealth among the people. The King of Keonjhar fled to Anandapur and sent his Assistant Dewan Fakirmohan Senapati to control the situation. Superintendent Ravenshaw also helped the King by sending a detachment of British force to Keonjhar.
Fakirmohan resorted to ugly tricks against the tribal leader. He assured Dharanidhar that the British police was there to help the tribal people. Dharanidhar on good faith appeared before the police officer, but little did he know that Fakirmohan was acting on behalf of the King and the British to punish the poor people who demanded their rights to dignity of life. Dharanidhar and his comrades were arrested and sent to years of rigorous imprisonment by the royal-feudal-bureaucratic-British nexus.
Sambalpur Revolution
Not only were the Adivasis exploited economically, they were also culturally forced to submit to higher-caste whims. The tribal deities were Hinduised and the indigenous were compelled to show allegiance to the protectors of their new Gods. In the guise of developing personal relationships between the rulers and the ruled, the indigenous peoples were routinely recruited to fight on behalf of the ruling class.
Sambalpur was a classic instance of cultural exploitation during the Sepoy Mutiny. Surendra Sai, a claimant to the guddee of Sambalpur used the Gond and Binjhal tribal chiefs to wage a war against the British Government because the British opposed Sai’s demands. The Gonds of course cooperated in resisting the British, but they also figured out that they were being manipulated by the ambitious ruling class hierarchies.
Sambalpur and adjoining areas were inhabited by the Gonds and the Binjhal tribes who enjoyed autonomy in governance, economic and political. When the king of Sambalpur died without a son, the British Government let his widow Rani Mohan Kumari to succeed him. The patriarchal upper-caste mindset prevalent in the kingdom could not allow a woman to govern the state. The biggest opponent happened to be Surendra Sai, a royal descendant from the Chauhan Raja of Sambalpur, who himself aspired to the throne.
Under the prevailing tensions, the British removed the Rani and replaced her with Narayan Singh who was also from the royal family. The Gonds agitated against Narayan Singh who was appeasing the higher castes by creating 37 Maufi tenures. The Gonds made remarkable progress in Sambalpur. They shook the foundation of royal families which were ambitious in their designs and atrocious in their actions against the dispossessed indigenous.
The Gonds brought Sambalpur to a standstill and organized mass movements to teach a lesson to the Brahmins and the royal family collaborators. In a historic episode now described as “Gond Maru”, the Gonds attacked higher caste people, burnt down their ill-gotten wealth and killed the caste supremacists who were encouraged by the royal families. King of Sambalpur entrusted a Brahmin talukdar of 96 villages with the task of putting down the tribal agitation. The Adivasis rose in revolt against the prescript and killed several Brahmin landlords. The British Government directly intervened to suppress the uprising, but considerably failed to.
Kalahandi Uprising
Kalahandi revolt was a direct result of economic exploitation of the Kandhs by the Koltas, a class of prosperous agriculturists from Western Orissa. Kandhs had been the pioneering agronomists in Kalahandi for generations, and yet, the Koltas, with financial and military backing of the kings expanded their reach. The Rajas supported the Koltas under the pretext of receiving higher rents, and the Koltas stopped at nothing to exploit the Kandhs, resulting in an agrarian revolt by the latter.
In May 1878, the Kandhs organized a meeting in Balwaspur where they decided to defend themselves against the Koltas. The British Superintendent of the State intervened to stop the Kandhs agitation. The Kandhs resolved to attack whoever came on their way. Several Koltas were killed and many more taken captives by the Kandhs in a mass agitation movement.
The British, acting on behalf of the wealthy, sent additional forces from Raipur, Ganjam and Sambalpur to suppress the Kandhs agitation. Ten Kandh leaders were hanged. Although “peace” was restored, the Koltas were afraid of committing any more atrocities upon the Kandhs in the region.
Gangpur Revolt
Attacks on the tribal sovereignty in Orissa continued from both the British regime and the rulers of the princely states. In 1897, several tribal village chiefs were forcibly replaced by the royal ruling class. In Gangpur, the Raja installed the aristocratic oligarchy of Sambalpur in charge of the tribal population.
The indigenous peoples led by Madri Kalo organized a mass agitation movement against Agharia and the rich elites. The Raja sought help from the British to suppress the tribal agitation, but open revolt by the oppressed remained difficult to counter. Many poor people were captured on charges of committing dacoities, but the class/caste war in Gangpur continued without a pause. In 1938, Gangpur witnessed a serious agrarian discontent when Mundas were forced to pay higher rents. The Munda uprising led by Nirmal Munda demanding exemption from payment of land revenues to the colonialists resulted in British intervention causing the Simko firing which killed 41 tribal rebels.
Revolution Never Ends
Orissa’s indigenous never ceased their strikes against the oppressors. Countless revolts – varying in scale – resulted from the organized dissent. This is the nature of struggle that the poorest section of Orissa have engaged in since centuries. It is unlikely that they shall abandon their freedom movement now, simply because the seat of power has been transferred from the white-skinned elites to the brown-skinned ones.
And just as the indigenous organizers were correct in their assessment of human values in the past, it is more likely that keeping in view the status quo of power dynamics in independent India, their dissent towards the power this time around, too, is indicative of appropriate impatience towards prevailing rampant social injustice.
The morning of 12 May 2010, the Chief Minister of Orissa Naveen Patnaik decided to tell a big fat brutal lie with the hope that it comes true merely by saying it. Was he echoing somebody from World History?
If laws are meant to protect the people, then the only thing illegal in India must be the Government.
Only a morally bankrupt, democratically inept and humanistically regressive group of parasites can sustain corruptible power through twisted legal clauses organically designed to crush collective aspirations.
It is only logical that a group of vandals in active collaborations with their masters stationed abroad get united to use the name of a country to misappropriate authorities, subjugate millions of informed as well as ignorant people, and repress dissent as though indifferent silence on part of the people were a virtue, enforced cowardice a boon and act of their withdrawal from organized solidarity movement a progress.
Only a perniciously evil group of power-wielders can fantasize about their achievements through stamping out the radical roots deeply embedded within the humanity. Using the shield of a country and the notions of sovereign indivisibility can the ruling class throttle the dissent of its subjects.
MacMohan Singh regime’s control over the Republic of India and Naveen Patnaik’s monopoly over Orissa’s fortunes are instances of despotic tendencies masquerading as democratic setups. When fraudulent acquisitions of natural resources are forbidden even by laws of nature, then governments such as the above are instituted to play debased brokers. And when proscribed negotiations over what is entitled to the indigenous are maneuvered for private profits, legal injunctions are recreated by the State powers to arrogate the land, and assault the people.
Recent interventions by the Government of India to clamp down on the democratic rights of the dispossessed by prescribing 10 years imprisonment for any person who supports whoever the ruling classes feel free to declare as terrorists, is an incursion into a historical territory that must serve as a warning to the rulers and as a weapon for the ruled.
Indian government’s frontal assaults on a freethinking people’s ability to challenge administrative and police atrocities in their own lands is not of recent origin. Throughout its history, Indian subcontinent has been subjected to arbitrary rules by opportunistic royalists, colonialists and democrats. And all throughout, the majority of people have suffered immensely, dispossessed for the most part as they had been rendered.
The biggest sufferers of organized State assaults have been the indigenous. From the days of the Aryan invaders, to the trickery of the British traders, to electoral victories of the domestic capitalist class in cohort with Western imperialistic powers – the idea of India has triumphed at the expense of the Indians.
The indigenous tillers and cultivators, the forest dwellers, the river worshippers, the upholders of matriarchy, the huge majority of Indian population have been constantly harassed by their feudal lords – of various colors and races. And yet, never have the poorest section of the society suffered silently. Through rebellions and revolutions, through armed struggles and insurgencies, they have fought back against the perpetrators.
The peasants and the factory workers of India, the landless and the dispossessed of the biggest so-called democracy in the world, those that are the refugees in their own lands, who cultivate and yet never benefit, who withstand the worst natural calamities and yet commit suicides to avoid corporate banking penalties, those that consider their children as their only treasures and yet have to put them up on sale so the children can survive the bureaucratic assaults, those that tend to the forests and the rivers only to witness them being snatched away by the agents of the government at the behest of multinational firms – these are the people who have always known that they shall lose the battles against the mammoth militia, sponsored by unaudited parliamentary budgets. And yet, these are the people, the working poor that constitute the unfortunate majority of Indians, who have never given up in their resolution to fight the power.
They fight the power braving the scorching sun, bringing along bows and arrows, organizing in hand-weaved red flags, lining up to raise their voices, dry and hungry, with babies in arms, soiled towels to wipe away the sweats off the forehead. They miss several meals, several more working days in protesting against the encroachment of their lands. The lands that are their own, are the only thing they call their own. Without their lands, they are landless in settlements and statistics in slums. Just as India’s sovereignty is supreme with the states and union territories intact and untouched by foreign powers, their sovereignty is equally a matter of pride and dignity. After all, they are the majority Indians.
They are the Indians that weakened the feudal structures, fought the exploitative kings, organized the movements against the British, and finally led India to a new awakening in 1947. And yet, the majority Indians are the unfree Indians. Little did they know that the concept of freedom is not universally applicable. That, equality and liberty do not distribute as democratically as the electoral promises of the free Indians.
The free Indians are different species altogether, forever exulting in their personal achievements, in career growths and televised glories. The free Indians are forever expanding their ambitions and territorial profit schemes. The free Indians are represented by political parties that actually work for them to set up engineering colleges and international airports. The free Indians read newspapers and watch television channels that reward the industrialists, update dinner minutes between Singh and Obama, immortalize Ratan Tata, interviews Anil Agarwal and manufactures opinion polls among urban youths that reestablishes the credibilities of Naveen Patnaik.
The free Indians are the ones for whom the country exists, the law and order system exists, the educational infrastructure exists, the collaborative business model exists. Even the official political parties – right, left and centrists – exist. The conversation about the country is an exclusive conversation among the free Indians.
During one such exclusive conversation among the free Indians, it has been decided that the long standing demands of indigenous peoples in Orissa and elsewhere should no more be ignored. Breaking all conventions in the past, it has now been decided that the demands of the poorest sections be heard. In fact, the demands be recorded well. Not only their demands, but also of those people who extend any amount of overt or covert support to them. For once, the free India has decided in favor of listening to the captive people, so that, for once and for all, they can all be forcibly silenced. 10 years or fine, or both – for all people who express solidarity with the majority Indians. At long last, the majority Indians are going to be recorded.
For most people, the corporate houses are faces of terror because it is they that expand their profiteering bases without consideration towards the inhabitants, especially the poor and destitute class. But the Indian government finds it otherwise. It paints the victims as the terrorists. And those that support the victims then are branded as sympathizers of terrorism.
History repeats itself. In India’s history, several times over. As in the past, the illusions of permanent freedom are once again fading away. For, one can use a transient administrative machinery to cowardly assassinate the revolutionaries, but no one can ever eliminate the historical inevitabilities of revolutions.
Arrest us all, if you must. Every person that cries in despair at the state of subjugation that is called India today, is guilty of supporting the victims in the class war waged against the expansionist politico-corporate nexus. Perhaps those of you that enjoy the power corridors and make way for the billionaires to spread their empires are enjoying the freedom of trickled down bribes. However, for the rest of us, our freedom is not conditional upon the success of the ruling class structures and your economic masters.
Our freedom is not about piecemeal compensations as agreed upon by corporate giants of South Korea, Japan and the United States. Our freedom is not open to half-hearted round table negotiations. We are yet to attain the freedom we have been dying for since generations. And we are yet to give up the hope that one day, we shall collectively inhabit the planet, without submitting any portion thereof to any greedy private capitalistic interests, irrespective of geographical territories.
You can call us unacceptable names, attribute us with political stigmas, categorize us into one way or the other for your divisive ruling habits. But the working people of the world demand immediate withdrawal of profiteering interests from common lands. From Orissa to Chiapas, we are united by our belief in formation of a world, devoid of imperialistic intents. And this collective conviction for human freedom is not up for demise within next 10 years, or anytime thereafter.
Part 1: Some footage of the police firing at Chandia village on 12 May 2010 that caused the death of Lakhman Jamuda, aged 55, and an active member of Bisthapan Birodhi Janmanch.
Part 2: Nephew of Lakhsman Jamuda, who was killed in the firing on 12 May 2010, speaks about the mysterious disappearance of the dead body.
APPEAL FROM Abhay Sahu, POSCO PRATIRODH SANGRAM SAMITI (PPSS)
Dear Friends,
Our sincere and heart-felt thanks to you all for your continuous supports and cooperations to the people in struggles for the protection of their lands and livelihoods from the clutches of the South Korean eagle POSCO. Now, on behalf of the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), I am writing this letter with a special request.
As you know, in protest of the joint conspiracy by the Manmohan Singh Government at Delhi, Naveen Government at Bhubaneswar and South Korean President, we, the people of Dhinkia Charidesh have been continuing our day-and- night peaceful Dharna (Sit-in) at Balitutha since last 107th days began from 26th January 2010 mid-night. Everyday thousands of women, men, children from families of peasants, fisher-folks, landless labourers, dalits are participating in the sit-in. Sadly enough, views of affected people did not create any sense of responsibility among the governments supposed to represent people of India. Moreover, they have been showing extra-ordinary favours to the corporates such as POSCO, Vedanta and TATA.
On the last Republic Day, both Manomohan Singh and Naveen Patnaik governments had assured to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in a special meet at Delhi that the state government will expedite works ‘to hand over lands to POSCO’. Throwing behind all protocols related to Republic Day celebrations in Orissa, a frustrated CM rushed to Delhi to prove his allegiance to SK President. PM, CM along UPA Chairperson had a meeting with him. They did not hesitate to sell the ‘dignity’ of people’s India to a private company on the same day of India’s pride.
Utter failure to displace the people by any means has made the desperate Orissa Government blood-thirsty. On 12th May 2010, the Orissa Police killed a person at Kalinga Nagar, where they had massacred 14 persons on 2nd Jan 2006. They are going to use the same murderous tricks at Dhinkia Charidesh to dissuade people from their resistance. On 11th May they sent, twenty five platoons of heavily armed police force have arrived and have already taken position around Balitutha and Dhinkia Charidesh to attack, the unarmed peasants, fisher-folks, landless daily labourers, dalits, other backward classes, women, men, children those who continuing their peaceful resistance movements the lands and livelihoods. With a well-crafted evil design, they have also brought 3 Magistrates with the police and sent 5 ambulances to nearby Kujanga Hospital. Almost all the schools at nearby villages have been forcibly occupied by the Police force in spite of the opposition by the villagers.
At this decisive juncture, PPSS decides to face the reality and calls to observe Mass Resistance Week from 15-21 May 2010 at Balitutha and affected villages. People in thousand numbers will gather there to express their support and solidarity to the struggling villagers. In this context, we would like to call people’s movements, political parties, trade unions, human rights organizations, solidarity groups, activists, supporters, sympathizers from various corners of the country to participate in the Resistance.
We are glad enough to invite you to make it possible to join the Resistance Week. You may, please, come to Balitutha and Dhinkia Charidesh on or before 15th and leave after 21st May 2010. We would also request you to bring your own fooding, tents and banner with you. Those who cannot physically be present may organise protests or send letters, faxes or phone calls of protest to the addresses below. Your smallest support will be our greatest inspiration.
Shri Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister’s Office,
Room number 152, South Block, New Delhi, Fax: + 91 11 2301 6857
Shri Shivraj Patil, Union Minister of Home Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs,
104-107 North Block, New Delhi 110 001 India, Fax: +91 11 2309 2979.
Chief Justice of India, Supreme Court,Tilak Marg, New Delhi -1,
Fax: +91 11 233 83792, Email: supremecourt@nic.in
Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission of India,
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 110 001, Tel: +91 11 230 74448,\
Fax: +91 11 2334 0016, Email: chairnhrc@nic.in
Mr. T. Theethan, IAS, The Joint Secretary, National Commission for SC,
5th Floor, ‘B’ Wing, Lok Nayak Bhavan, Khan Market, New Delhi 110103,
India. Email: jointsecretary-ncsc@nic.in
Gangula Tadingi, a poor adivasi man, aged about 40, died on 12th April 2010 in judicial custody, reportedly of Tuberculosis. He was an under trial prisoner kept in Koraput District Jail. Tadingi was one of the 133 people arrested in connection with the alleged attack by the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha on Narayanpatna Police Station on 20th November 2009 in which two adivasi people were killed and many more injured in police firing. On the incident of police firing, the PUCL Bhubaneswar had written to the State Human Rights Commission making an appeal for an investigation into the incident. There has been no response from the Commission on this even after six months.
When the news of Tadingi’s death was reported in a section of local media one of the PUCL members from Bhubaneswar unit visited Koraput during 16th-17th April 2010 to find out the circumstances leading to this death in custody. The following report is based on the member’s interviews with the jail authorities i.e., the Superintendent of Jail, the Jail Doctor, the District Collector and the Superintendent of Police Koraput, Dr.Niranjan Das, the TB specialist at the District Hospital Koraput, Mr.Nihar Ranjan Pattanaik and Mr.Gupteswar Panigrahi, lawyers for the deceased Tangidi as well as for other arrested people of Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha and one NGO activist who visited the victim’s village and met his family members. An interview with some of the jail inmates was refused by the jail authorities citing ‘security’ concern.
Version of Sri Brahmananda Sahu, Superintendent of Jail: Gangula Tadingi was admitted into the jail on 17.12.09. To his knowledge he had no health problem at the time of entry. He was detected having TB two months ago, treated by the jail doctor in the jail hospital till 7th April when he was shifted to the District hospital as his condition worsened. He died on 12th April. His family was not informed of his illness and only when he died a message was sent home. On asking why Tadingi’s family was not informed of his illness, even after he was admitted in the district hospital, the Jail Superintendent said he had tried. He said he had sent the message to the Narayanapatna Police Station and the PS did not convey the message to the family.
Tadingi’s family was sent for after he died and after doing the post-mortem the body was handed over to his wife. The body was buried in Koraput itself as the district administration could not provide a vehicle to transport the body to Tadingi’s village.
Tadingi was last produced in the Court on 19.2.10. On asking why he was not produced in the court for nearly two months, when he should have been produced once in every 15 days, the Superintendent said that the jail authorities could do nothing about it, because, for security reasons, unless adequate police force was provided the under trial prisoners couldn’t be taken to the Court.
Version of Dr.L.D.Nayak, the Jail Doctor: At the time of entry into the jail, Gangula Tadingi had reported body ache and was given medicines for that. He had told the doctor that the police had badly beaten him up before he was brought to the jail. When asked whether this matter was recorded in the register the doctor said that it wasn’t as ‘there was no external injury marks’. According to the jail doctor Tadingi was continuously complaining of fever and stomach ache and was diagnosed having Pulmonary Tuberculosis in January 2010. Since then he was treated in the jail hospital till 7th April when he was shifted to the District Hospital . On asking whether Tadingi was kept in a separate room or along with other patients in the same room the doctor said that he was kept in a separate room. When asked why did Tadingi die when TB is curable and when he was saying that he was satisfied with the treatment and the diet provided to him the doctor replied by saying ‘it would be known only from the post-mortem report’. When asked whether he suspected anything which could have been caused by the police beating he replied, ‘possibility of an internal injury can not be ruled out’. The doctor also told that Tadingi was not the only one who had complained of police beating – many people arrested in connection with Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha had complained of the same.
When asked how many TB patients are there in the jail presently the doctor said there is one more TB patient but there might be more also since not all inmates (above 500 people are kept in the jail) are being examined for TB. When asked why aren’t they being examined, he said that unless somebody comes of with symptoms they don’t examine. And, “Tribal people, being illiterate and unaware of the symptoms, would not complain of any illness unless it becomes serious”.
Version of Dr.Niranjan Das, TB Specialist of Koraput District Hospital: Gangula Tadingi was admitted in the District Hospital 7th April, 2010 . His treatment was alright. Then how did he die when TB is curable? “That will be known from the post mortem report”, was his reply. The doctor then mentioned that on 10th April he had recommended the jail authorities to shift Tadingi to the MKCG Medical College Hospital , Berhampur for further diagnosis. But the jail authorities did not shift him. He also developed jaundice and died on 12th April.
Meeting with Rajesh P.Patil, District Collector, Koraput:
The district collector told that he had sent his interim report to the NHRC on the death of Gangula Tadingi within twenty-four hours of the incident. The final report would be sent once the post mortem report is available. When asked for a copy of this report he said, “I can’t give it like that. You apply it through RTI”. When asked whether he found any negligence on the part of the jail authorities in the treatment of Tadingi, he said he didn’t. When asked if there was no negligence in the treatment then how did he die, his reply was, “We have to wait for the post-mortem report”.
On the question of not producing Tadingi in the Court, thereby not giving an under-trial prisoner the opportunity to inform the court whether he was getting proper treatment or not, the collector said that that job is looked after by the court and the jail authorities and the district administration has nothing to do with it. The district administration, on its part, is trying to release on bail most of the under-trial prisoners in Narayanpatna case. They have appointed a nodal officer to look into this.
Did he visit the jail regularly in his role as a member of the District Jail Committee to look into the health and hygienic conditions in the jail and did he know of the illness of Tadingi and enquire into the treatment he was getting? Does he know whether TB patients are kept in separate room/ward or allowed to be kept with other patients? To these questions the collector replied that he visited the jail as a member of the Jail Committee, found the jail conditions alright but did not know of the illness of Tadingi. He said he didn’t know whether TB patients were kept separately from other patients or not.
When asked how the District administration could be so insensitive as not to provide any help to Tadingi’s family to take the body to his village, he said, “Who said that we didn’t help. We had arranged for a vehicle but the driver was not willing to go. You know the situation in Narayanpatna. I was informed about the case at the last moment. We have sanctioned an amount of Rs.10000/- from the family benefit scheme”.
When asked, why is that a civil liberty organization denied access to the jail inmates and, when we are denied access, how can we believe that everything is alright inside the jail walls, he said, “It is for security reasons. There are Maoists in the jail. So there are restrictions in meeting. But if the Superintendent of Police allows you to meet I have no objection”.
Meeting with Shri Anup Sahu, Superintendent of Police, Koraput
On asking why the Narayanpatna police did not communicate the message sent by the jail authorities to the family of Ganguly Tadingi, the SP said, “It’s not easy. I, myself, haven’t been able to communicate with my own people in Narayanpatna police station for the last three days. Roads are being cut off so often. What do you expect in such situation?”
“It is not our responsibility to see whether the under-trial prisoners are produced in the court or not. It is for the court and the jail authorities to see to it”, was the response when told about what the jail authorities were saying about the non-cooperation of the police in production of under-trial prisoners in court.
Meeting with the Lawyers defending Gangula Tadingi:
“Not producing Gangula Tadingi in the court for nearly two months is not an exception; rather it is the norm. There is no doubt that the jail authorities and the police take a casual attitude of their duty to produce the under-trial prisoners at every adjournment. Citing security reasons is only a plea.
“Tadingi was not given proper diet, required for a TB patient, in the jail. He was not kept in a separate room in the jail hospital. He was kept in the same room along with other patients. Other inmates of the jail have reported these facts. We got to know of Tadingi’s illness only when he was shifted to the District Hospital .
“After the death of Gangula Tadingi, all inmates skipped one meal as a mark of solidarity but some of the inmates sat on a hunger strike demanding suspension of the Jail superintendent and the jail welfare officer, compensation for his family. They had other demands as well, such as regular production of the under-trial prisoners in the Court, withdrawal of cases against people associated with Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha and to stop operation green hunt etc. During the hunger strike the jail authorities were reluctant even to allow the lawyers to meet their clients even though it was reported that their conditions were serious.”
Discussion with an NGO activist who visited the village of Gangula Tadingi and met the family members:
Gangula Tadingi was a poor agricultural labourer. He was one of those adivasis who supposedly ‘surrendered’ before the police after the Narayanpatna police firing incident. He was asked by the police to report at the police station once in every week and Gangula had reported twice. When he went to report for the third time on the third week he was arrested. Tadingi’s wife reported that he didn’t have any health problem before the arrest. She was not informed by the jail authorities that her husband was ill and that he had TB. Even when she reached the Hospital Morgue, after getting news of Tadingi’s death, she was not told how he died. The police did not make any arrangement to carry the dead body to their village. The police only offered some money but didn’t help to arrange for a vehicle. Since they didn’t know anybody in Koraput who could help in arranging a vehicle they left it to the police to do whatever it wanted to with the dead body. The family members have heard that the government would give them an amount of Rs.10000/- but are yet to receive it. The family has a job card under NREGS but not a single entry has been made in it. Tadingi’s wife, Kamala Tadingi is in poor health herself and since her husband’s arrest has been struggling to feed herself and her three minor children.
Observations and Demands:
1. The death of under-trial prisoner Gangula Tadingi is unnatural and unfortunate. It is a violation of right to life of the victim.
2. The victim was not produced in the Court, neither physically nor through video linkage, within 15 days interval, which is a mandatory provision under Code of Criminal Procedure and a statutory right of an under-trial prisoner. It has been observed that the other under-trial prisoners of the same jail, associated with Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha, are also not produced in the Court at regular interval.
3. The visits of District Collector and other members of the District jail Committee to prisons to look into the health and hygiene conditions, medical and other facilities appear to be ritual visits. It does not seem to satisfy the objective of the visit of the team to look into the jail conditions in general and the rights of the under-trial prisoners in particular.
4. The family of the victim is in a distressed condition which has been deprived of its sole earning member.
5. Different reports have been collected regarding whether the victim, a TB patient, was kept separately or along with other patients in the jail hospital. It may be recalled that according to one sample study by the NHRC nearly seventy-nine percent of deaths in judicial custody (other than those attributed to custodial violence) were as a result of infection of Tuberculosis.]
6. The district administration did not make necessary arrangements to transport the dead body of Gangula Tadingi from Koraput to his native village for cremation as per the tradition of the community. It is a clear violation of human right of the victim’s family.
7. Not allowing the civil liberty organizations, in the name of security, to interact with any of the jail inmates does not appear to be prima facie valid. It raises the suspicion that the rights of the under-trial prisoners/convicts, and specifically, the basic rights of the inmates relating to health, hygiene and medical facilities are not properly protected.
Considering all the above circumstances with regard to the death of Gangula Tadinga in judicial custody, and the larger issue of the rights of prisoners, we demand that:
1. An independent inquiry, preferably a judicial one, be instituted to look into all aspects that led to the custodial death of Gangula Tadingi and officials responsible be punished accordingly;
2. The family of Ganguly Tadingi must be adequately compensated for the family lost its sole earning member;
3. The mandatory provision as laid down under section 167 (2) (b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure be scrupulously implemented to ensure the production of under-trial prisoners in the Court once in every 15 days. And there should be proper communication between each prisoner and the concerned Magistrate in every case; and
4. All inmates of the jail should be medically examined to ensure early detection of any serious ailment and proper medical attention be provided accordingly.
Released to the Press by Pramodini Pradhan, Convenor, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Bhubaneswar on 22nd April, 2010
Adding to its criminal assault on the tribals of Kalinganagar on January 2, 2006 and continuous encirclement of the area since then killing, maiming and framing the people in false cases, the Naveen Pattnaik’s armed police along with hired armed goons of TATA have launched a serious armed attack on the tribals of Kalinganagar from 30th morning. Since morning firing by the police has injured over a dozen, four of them seriously. This criminal armed assault has been launched to force the tribals to hand over their land to TATA.
The assault has been coming for days. 26 platoons of Orissa State Armed Police (OSAP) and 2 platoons of the special Operations Group (SOG) had been added to the already massive police deployment in the area. According to press reports, seven Magistrates and 35 Police inspectors had been deployed in the area. Obviously they did not come with any peaceful intent.
Since the past few months, under the general cover of Chidambaram’s ‘war’ against people’s movements, the Maven Patina Govt., under TATA’s tutelage, had again stepped up the attack on Kalinganagar. The affected villages have been effectively cordoned off for months, neither anganwadis, PDS shops nor dispensaries are functioning.
The assault on Kalinganagar tribals is to be viewed in the context of Naveen Pattnaik Govt. signing a large number of MOUs with foreign and Indian corporates for exploitation of mineral resources of Orissa. Police barracks are being constructed in Jagatsinghpur to be used against anti-POSCO protesters. Despite severe violations by Vedanta even admitted by Govt. panel, the Orissa Govt. is extending all help to them. Naveen Pattnaik Govt. is using the might of state to displace the tribals. The direction being taken by this Govt. for Orissa is disastrous for the people of Orissa and their long term interests.
The Kalinganagar tribals have been opposing this long drawn assault on their ancestral lands. To express solidarity with them, to condemn this brutal, heinous assault on them and to demand of Naveen Pattnaik Govt. that all forces be immediately withdrawn from Kalinganagar and the TATA Project be scrapped immediately, please assemble at Jantar Mantar on 1st April (Orissa Day) at 12 noon. We appeal to all revolutionary and democratic organizations and individuals to unitedly raise their voice against the trampling of democratic rights of tribal people. A memorandum signed by all who oppose this brutal attack and stand in solidarity with the fighting people of Kalinganagar will also be submitted to Orissa Govt.
On the 28th of March, while the district magistrate of Jajpur was talking to the protestors of Kalinga Nagar who have been opposing the establishment of a plant by Tata Steel since 2006, the Superintendent of Police declared that “protestors will not be spared”! The Government of Orissa has continuously been attempting to protect its ‘clean image’ while at the same time taking ahead its brutal agenda of pandering to the capitalist interests. The day after the talks, i.e. on the 29th of March, 2010, the construction started and the day after, i.e., today on the 30th, twenty four platoons of police encircled the villages that were protesting and started firing rubber bullets. This was followed by the entry of the troops into the village and their evacuation. Houses in the villages were burnt and cattle and food destroyed. This was followed by firing of real bullets in which Member Kanuriya, a local inhabitant got injuries. About twenty people had fatal wounds. The alternative media that is present there is also being harassed so that news from the region doesn’t go out. And then there is the mainstream media, the State’s strongest Ideological ally that has shown in news channels that the police fired back because of the violence of the agitators present there. It is a completely planned out attack against the people of Kalinga Nagar with no hidden ambitions.
This is the moment of suppressing of the democratic part of the movement and the State is successful in brutally suppressing it. What fate democratic dissent has under the brutal rule of capital is evident from this moment of the movement. There is no other alternative for the movement to survive other than getting militarized which the State is forcing it to be. Then, of course, there is the Operation Green Hunt to deal with it after it has been militarized.
No matter what the State does, its brutalities shall ultimately dissolve into the idea of “development” that capital has constructed for itself as a notion to be imposed on the people and coerced into them via its Ideological Apparatuses. It is high time the people deconstruct this notion of development and question the nepotism of this “developmental” process. The ruling party of Orissa, the BJD, has as its sole weapon, this notion of “development” that it has been utilizing in continuing its rule with all its brutalities. The task here is to discern the notion and unmask the State exposing its true demonic face.
Yesterday (25 March) the Collector of Jajpur district assured Dabar Kalundia, a tribal leader of Bisthapan Birodhi Jan Manch (BBJM) that he would come to Baligotha village on 28 March for a meeting with the dissenting villagers and find a solution to the prevailing conflict. But within a day the Collector has broken his word as today about 24 platoons of armed policemen have been deployed in Kalinga Nagar to suppress the democratic & non-violent movement of the BBJM. It is feared that there will be bloodshed at a larger scale than 2 Jan 06 when 14 tribal men, women & children were killed in a police shootout. The villagers fear the police will attack tomorrow morning.
For more than 3 months now the resistance villages of Kalinga Nagar have been besieged by police forces who have randomly arrested dozens of villagers who stepped out of their village. People have been framed under false charges. There has been repeated midnight attacks by policemen and Tata goons to annihilate key activists of the BBJM. Hired assassins have also tried to eliminate the tribal leaders of the movement and one such attempt caused the death of Amin Banara of Baligotha village. Recently large number of police forces had been deployed on the pretext of building a road through the villages. Every attempt of the police and administration to quell the dissent of the people has been countered in democratic and non-violent ways by the BBJM.
The BBJM has clarified several times that it is not a Maoist backed organisation and does not want violence. The BBJM has made it clear that it will not accept displacement and mindless industrialisation that is already causing massive pollution in the area leading to widespread disease, crop failure, air, water & sound pollution. The Collector also agreed to the meeting only after the BBJM wrote several letters to him demanding that their concerns be addressed first as the Collector had been announcing in some meetings in the area that the Common Corridor Road would be built at any cost.
Surprisingly the print and electronic media have so far ignored developments in Kalinganagar which itself is a threat to democracy. Mainstream political parties also have reached a consensus with the ruling party which creates concerns among all citizens who understand the implications of mobilization of armed police in kalinganagar villages resisting Tata induced displacement.
We demand that the Govt should stop acting like a hired mercenary of Tata Steel company and withdraw all police forces from the area immediately. If there is any bloodshed the sole responsibility will lie on the Govt. The Govt should also give up the Common Corridor Road project as it will be built on fertile farm land and the community land of the tribals. The Govt should respect the sacrifice of the 14 tribals killed by the police and scrap the Tata project immediately. There should be no further displacement & dispossession of tribal people from their land. The Govt should immediately start working towards restoring peace in the area by assuring the tribals that there will be no attacks on them by the police or Tata goons. A medical team should be sent to the villages immediately as people have not been able to visit doctors for days in fear of arrest.
We appeal to all concerned citizens, progressive groups & media persons to raise their voice against the Fascist tendencies of the Govt and express solidarity with the tribals of Kalinga Nagar.
Prafulla Samnatara, Lok Shakti Abhijan
Lingaraj, Samajbadi Jan Parishad
Radhakant Sethi, CPI-ML Liberation
Prashanta Paikrai, PPSS
Bhalachandra Sadangi, CPI-ML New Democracy
Lingaraj Azad, NSS
This is the most repressive period in the history of Orissa.
Troops have been deployed in Koraput regions for the enforcement of Operation Greenhunt. The State Government of Orissa has asked for more troops to the Central Government so that it can deal wit the “left-extremists”. Already, in the preparatory phase of this repressive period, the State Government has been arresting leaders of several movements calling them ‘Maoists’. The intentions of the State Government can be seen clearly if one engages critically with what it has been doing of late. Abhay Sahoo and Biswajit Ray of POSCO movement were arrested with false cases in their names. There has been no militant incident in the POSCO movement in spite of the torturous attitude of the Police and pro-POSCO goons in the region. The CM has declared, with no respect for democratic voices, that the “POSCO-problem” will be solved by April 10, situations will be POSCO-favouring. One can judge what effect this statement shall have on the people that have been resisting the POSCO project. If they resist it with arms, there is the always available “Maoist” tag, if they don’t, things are easy – in the former case there is Operation Greenhunt to deal with the movement and in the later case, the police and the local goons shall suffice.
Recently in Narayanpatna of Koraput, a completely democratic mass movement was crushed with murders and arrests in the name of dealing with Maoists. K. Singana and Andrew Nachika of Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh were murdered, Gananath Patra was arrested as a threat to national security and Tapan Mishra was arrested being branded as a Maoist. The same movement still continues in other regions of Koraput like Bandhugaon, etc and Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh leads them too. Now troops are being deployed in the regions to deal with Maoists. In Narayanpatna one incident of ousting landlords and liquor traders started the whole series of repressive steps that the State took resulting in the brutal crushing of the movement. The State’s killing machine only needs alibi to kill without which its normal repression is sufficient to crush any movement. The movements of this region have no way out. If they don’t take to arms, landlords and local militia shall crush them; if they do, Operation Greenhunt shall gun them down. The movements shall conclude in the State’s desired form of conclusion with the restoration of the status quo.
Bhubaneshwar, the State’s capital, lacks the basic organization of intellectuals and activists who can raise voices on behalf of the oppressed in the villages and the media is drunk with hegemonic liquor and stands with complete indifference and apathy to the movements.
The movements against Vedanta, the Niyamgiri movement – all are skeptical of what fate they are destined to face under the present circumstances. Troops upon troops are being employed in the regions of movements to “deal” with them. The basic problem from the perspective of the movements is that they have not been able to go beyond territorial limitations and have not generalized their movements to create an inter-movemental political space that could challenge the State at the same time taking the movements ahead.
On the first of 1st of April, at 11a.m., POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, is organizing a protest mobilization at Balitiuth near Badabanda Station, Jagatsinghpur. All sympathisers of the POSCO movement are requested to be present. The POSCO Pritirodh Sangram Samiti is looking forward to solidarity from other movements, intellectuals and activists.
We express our concern on the police raid of the house of Sri Dandapani Mohapatra, a writer and journalist. On 11th March 2010, while Sri Mohapatra was away in some meeting, violating all procedures, the police raided his house for nearly six hours ransacking all his belongings and not even allowing his ailing wife and children to take their food. The police had not given a copy of any search warrant to his family members, nor stated any reason for the raid. As per Sri Mohapatra the police took away a number of old journals such as Ghadaghadi, Inquilab and Marga O Chinta – none of which is proscribed by the government – without giving a seizure list, which is mandatory. In a democratic set up of government to possess such materials is within the purview of freedom of thought and expression. Strangely, the police have taken the signatures of Sri Mohaptra’s son and that of the local Sarpanch on a number of plain sheets of paper. We learnt from Sri Mohapatra that after raiding the house, the SDPO Chhatrapur had threatened him on the same day in the evening asking him to come to the Police station by 15th of March or face the dire consequences. It is ascertained from Sri Mohaptra that no criminal case is pending against him under any allegation. This is outright police highhandedness and gross misuse of power.
After talking to Sri Mohapatra and on perusal of some of his writings we have reasons to believe that the only intention of the police in raiding the house of Sri Mohapatra could be to suppress his dissent opinion – which he has been expressing through his writings continuously for the last many years – simply by terrorizing. It needs to be noted that Sri Dandapani Mohapatra is the General Secretary of Dakhshina Odisha Sahitya Sammelani, a literary organization of south Orissa, and has been associated with writing and publishing for a long time. He was publishing a satirical magazine called Ghadaghadi between 1984 to 1990. He has published a few books of his poems. Currently, he has been writing for a weekly tabloid called ‘Sahanamela’.
It is a matter of concern that the police, without following the due process of law, have disclosed to a section of media that the raid was undertaken due to suspected Maoist links.
We condemn the police action as it violates the fundamental rights of personal liberty as well as freedom of speech and expression. The police highhandedness is not only directed against the expression of dissent of Sri Mahapatra, it also gives a red signal to all such persons who express their dissent fearlessly. We urge upon the government to stop this undemocratic practice in general and to conduct a high level inquiry into the incident. We also appeal to all the freedom loving people to condemn such undemocratic activities.
Pramodini Pradhan, Convenor, PUCL –Bhubaneswar Biswapriya Kanungo, Advocate and Human Rights Activist
