THE SOCIAL BLOG

For starters, I don’t intend to be prophetic in my evaluation of the recently concluded Gujjar Community-Rajasthan Government wrangle. However, I cannot help but observe, quite candidly, that the whole situation serves as a dark episode in the history of civil liberty movements in this country. The reasons for such analysis are not too far to seek.

For a moment, let us relive the influence of caste in shaping the political, cultural and even geographical history of India; caste as an index continues to affect our public policy, be it through coalition governments or affirmative action, and hence is a critical determinant of the upward/downward mobility that the Indian citizen attains in life. Central and State Governments, have throughout the course of post-Independent India, engaged in active programmes that seek to mitigate the wrongs of historical discrimination meted out to various castes. One may indeed argue that the whole gamut of events has only recently, acquired a political twang. Caste-based violence still continues to be a haunting reality in rural India, with incidents of isolated and systematic torture frequently surfacing in the news.

Taking such grim reality as the backdrop to this article, it is important that we understand the repercussions of granting ’special, backward community’ or ‘ST’ status to Gujjars. Not because the additive 5% would increase the ever-burgeoning basket of reservations in the quota system, but because the 5% so granted was the direct and immediate consequence of untoward and violent rebellion against the State. Of course, the million-dollar question is always going to be whether the Govt. was right in granting such privileged status to the community? Nonetheless, the finer aspect of the issue still remains: Was the Govt. right in acquiescing to the violent methods of the Gujjars in granting reservation? The next logical question would then be: Is not the Govt. setting a bad precedent, effectively indicating that ends can be achieved through such caste-based violence? The answer, unfortunately, is a loud and thumping Yes.

(To be continued.)

My good friend Rahul Narayanan wrote on his Gtalk tagline;

We do not protect our civil liberties by sacrificing them

I asked him whether he wrote this in a particular context and he asked me to google ‘David Davis’. I found out that David Davis is a former British MP who resigned after the new legislation to extend the detention of suspects without charge from 28 to 42 days was passed by a narrow vote.

In a little reading that I’ve done on the issue, I’ve started liking David Davis. If there is no political motive behind this, then I gotta say that this man has some character.

Ally Fogg from the Guardian has written an interesting piece on this issue. Readers may read it here.

Day 3 (8th June’08 )

Rains last night had led us to alter our plans and we made move for a village called Potenaar. It was a nine km trek to jangli thana which took us about an hour and forty five minutes to cover.

On our way we were stopped by a patrolling squad of SPOs who asked us where we were going. By now this had become normal since we were on our way to naxalite territory from Salwa Judum’s. Fortunately we had informed the police and the NHRC card seemed to have worked. People here have become very vary and cautious of the NHRC after newspaper reports of the issue reaching the Supreme Court et. al.

The testimonies at Potenaar were the most horrifying to hear and document till now. First the Naga battalion came and killed people , raped women and burnt their houses. Then the Salwa Judum took them at gun point to the camp. The camp description they gave seems a lot like a nazi concentration camp. In all they were given food only once in the two years that they spent there. They didn’t have much to money to but food so they were like scavengers hunting for it. The Salwa Judum; at one documented instance took eight of their women to the bridge by the jungle and raped them. One of these girls was 13 years old then and I still cannot get her face out of my head.

These instances are only of one pada of the seven in the village and there were as many as 20 villages in the camp at Jangli.

You start wondering where this is the notion of Governmentality and human dignity that one yearns and talks about. Life is so different here than what we experience in Hyderabad, Mumbai or Delhi. It is a full fledged war out here that shows no signs of ending.

When we go to the villages, the people are so open about the deaths and other gruesome crimes committed against them that you wonder as to how it all seems so normal to them. Perhaps its because they’ve been witnessing it for over three years now. The Salwa Judum and SPOs have instilled a lot of fear in the minds of the tribals. In a place called Matwada where the people were planning to leave the camp for their village; at around 3 a.m. they were pulled out fo their houses and beaten up with their hands tied. After that there were taken to the nearby handpump and forcefully drink water. At around 8 a.m., knives were pulled out and their eyes were pierced and finally they were killed with boulders squashing their heads.

I’m not recounting most of the testimonies as one is more horrifying than the other and would bring back memories that I dont want to keep. Above was merely an instance of the gravity of the situation out there.

Things are really bad out here and I know that I’m really lucky to survive. I don’t know how Ill be able to tell my friends as to what’s happening out here. I don’t know if they’d even make an effort to understand what I’ve seen and the shit going on around. There are no atheists in fox holes they say and every time I see an armed person stopping me i forget being an atheist.

Day 2 (7th June’0

Nandini and I went on motorcycles to this palce called Pulondi today. On out way we crossed strict and clear salwa judum territory with sign boards of “Salwa Judum Zindabad” all over.
We cross that area and a few camps. From then on we faced road blocks with bridges being broken and trees all over. Thankfully the rumours we heard about the roads being mined were’nt true.

- So after a two hour ride we finally reached Pulondi village; where as soon as the people saw us they started running away. A minutes later on they came and surrounded us with bows and arrows. Actually, the salwa judum, SPOs and the CRPF had conducted a lot of raids here; killed people and looted their food stocks. They thought we were one of them.
Now this village was a pure naxalite village but we didn’t get to see any ‘dasta’ or ’sangam’ members. It too some time for Nandini and I to explain to them who we were and why we were here. Once they started feeling a little secure, they let down their bows and started telling their stories. Most of these were horrifying and scary to hear. For instance; one ‘Hemla Pande’ was shot while she was pregnant. It was not that she was running away or anything; but she was in her house when the forces came in and shot her. Her husband who witnessed the whole incident told us about it.
In another incident, the forces came and killed more then 10 people while the village was having a meeting. None of them was armed or anything.

Pulondi is in Bhairamgarh block (Mirtur thana) and has a population of about 600 people.

- One boy called Lachu new hindi as he went to school before it was destroyed by the forces. Very diligently he had maintained a diary of the dates of the raids by the forces and the losses that had occurred to the village. He even maintained a list as to who had lost what in the last two years.
I was amazed at the vision and disposition (a new word that Sridevi taught me) of that kid and as a small token I gifted that boy a pen. I then realised that I was running out of gifts to give the kids so on the way back I bought a lot of toffees to give next time. I should be safe by then.

I spent the past eight days with a group of independent reseach scholars and students in the jungles of dantewada, Chattisgarh. Our idea was to visit the conflict zones and study the large scale human rights violations committed by the Salwa Judum, document them and present these testimonies to the National Human Rights Commission that was to visit Dantewada town on the 10th of June. This visit has turned out to be an eye-opener for me. Ive made good friends, understood that the idea of government in India is crap and that rights dont matter to the babus anymore.

The Team included;

1) Prof. Nandini Sundar, Prof of sociology, Delhi School of Economics

2) Sridevi Panikkar, Lawyer

3) Praveen Mote, Independent researcher

4) Pratyush Chandra, Independent scholar ( )

5) Kamal Nayan, Ph.d. Student in Tribal studies

6) Vikas Kumar, Preeti and Ranjay Kumar from Delhi Univ.

7) Sanchita Bakshi, TISS Mumbai

self (Aditya Swarup) from NALSAR Univ of Law, Hyderabad

The daily reports of the trip would be published in subsequent posts.