Whose Land is it Anyway:

[Essay by Souvik Roy Chowdhury (FVC PG 18) for SLA II, December 2018]

Rani was running trying to keep pace with what was left of her small community of villagers,
returning to see the remnants of their former village burnt through the dreaded cleansing activity
carried out by the state appointed makeshift special police officers. She is eight years old and has
lost her father in the fire that was set to her village a month back, her mother has been taken away
in the chaos and she has been living in hiding in care of the 82 year old village headman - Sukhi.
On reaching the village at dawn, lost in the black ashes that paint the scene she is disillusioned
and drops to the ground losing consciousness - as the constant ringing at the back of her head
from the wailing of her fellow community members becomes too much to handle for her frail little
body.

Rani is an adivasi - meaning the original settlers, hailing from the forested area in the Bastar
District of Chattisgarh. The forested areas in Central India covering parts from states of mainly
Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra are part of the Red
Corridor - regions of active unrest and prone to Naxalite disturbances. So much so the
Manmohan Singh government acknowledged in 2010 that Naxalism is the single greatest internal
threat to India’s security. But this spread of this ultra left wing extremism and their gaining
popularity signals a lot at how the government itself has failed in protecting rights of its citizens
and implementing safe living through proper law and order. If the villagers in these remote
forested areas would have been happy with their state of affairs collectively, then the Maoists
couldn’t have influenced them at such an ever increasing level of popularity.

In 1997 Outlook India held a survey across the country taking into consideration all strata of the
society, at least that is what they claim, to the question: “Would India remain united across all
states 50 years hence” - 43% of people said yes, 34% said no and rest were unsure. [1] So the
nationalism that is being sold to us might be that it is not being accepted at face value if we
consider the whole of the population. People might be seeing through the farce of the prime-time
“debates” in news channel these days which gain more TRP than Saas-Bahu serials of the past.
Something is greatly going wrong in the interiors which is going totally unreported in the Arnab
Goswami led jingoistic journalism that has become the fodder for pop culture today. As Raj Kamal
Jha famously said in an awards ceremony for journalists: “Its not that good journalism has ceased
to exist in India, but just that bad journalism is making too much noise.”

Adivasis or tribal communities everywhere in India have always constituted a distinct society quite
alienated from the civilised day to day people we deal with on the streets. Their ideals and
priorities are very much beyond the common man’s understanding, who goes through his adult
life running around in a 9-5 job trying hard to make ends meet to provide to the materialistic
aspirations of his and his family’s. They have developed indigenously folklores passed on orally
and through dance forms in their very own different languages, the houses, their religion, their
food, their liquor, their attire and way of life in general is distinctly different from what we city folks
have been exposed to. Goes without saying that upholding such traditions are of foremost
importance for these tribals. And their land and surroundings for them is of utmost importance
since all their songs, gods, food and folklores have developed around them - the sound of the
birds, the stream, the wind and rain through the thick trees are sounds that they are used to and
that is what makes them what they are.

As a result the Indian Government recognising their sentiments passed special amendments to
the Constitution to understand them better. PESA Act of 1996 - Provisions of Panchayat
(Extension to the Scheduled Areas) was passed and brought in effect at least in theory from 1997
for the 8.6% tribals (according to 2011 census) i.e. more than 10 million. Bhils are 37.7% makes
up most of it, then Gond 35.6%. Bhils inhabit mostly MP, Gujarat, Rajasthan and so on and also in
Sindh province of Pakistan. Gonds mostly in MP, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and so on. The
governance here is through Panchayats, which are mostly applicable to Fifth Schedule Area at
present they are spread across 10 such states in India.



Scheduled areas run on a 3 tier system of Panchayat administration, like most other small
villages:

i. Village Panchayat (Head - Pradhan)

ii. Block Panchayat (a few villages make up block; Head - Pramukh)

iii. Zilla Parishad (one in a district; Head: District Collector). 


Governor appoints State Election Commission which conducts the Panchayat and Municipality
Elections. 73rd Amendment 1992 implemented in 1993: Like in the Centre to oversee the conduct
of the Panchayat and Municipality there is appointed a State Finance Commission which will
distribute the taxes and oversee monetary dispenses.

Salient objectives of the Act:

i. To extend Part IX of constitution relating to panchayats to scheduled areas with some

modifications;

ii. To provide self rule to the bulk of the tribal population;

iii. To have village governance with participatory democracy and to make the Gram Sabha the
nucleus of all activities;

iv. To evolve a suitable administrative framework consistent with traditional practises;

v. To safeguard and to preserve traditions and customs of tribal communities;

vi. To empower panchayats at the appropriate levels with specific powers conducive to tribal
requirements;

vii. To prevent panchayats at the highest levels with specific powers conducive to tribal
requirements. 


To use development funds Panchayat must take permission of Gram Sabha before main decisions
and implementations Gram Sabha and Panchayat have to be consulted before before land
acquisition for development projects or before resettling or rehabilitating locals. Panchayat
decides ownership of minor forest produce. They have the power to prevent alienation of land and
restore unlawfully alienated land. They can exercise control over money lending to STs.

But the government in its bid to address security issues implemented the CSPSA (Chattisgarh
Special Public Security Act) which among other things made it illegal for any person to ‘assist or
participate in any manner in the unlawful activities of left wing extremist organisations or through
any medium or means’; as a result of this many questionable random arrests have been exercised
by the police. Moreover in June 2005 Salwa Judum (clustered refugee housing of evicted tribal
villagers from their homes) were organised just when Tata and Essar Groups were in dire
requirement of land to extend sites for their captive iron ore mining plants and on paper public
hearings were held to get Gram Sabha consent in accordance with PESA. But:

The villages under the leadership of Dantewada Adivasi Mahasabha and Sangharsh Samiti, Dhurli
said that the police forced them to sign NOCs at gunpoint grilling them on one-on-one sessions
after all of them had declined to sign collectively. [2]

After these forceful evictions the government could now easily avoid PESA regulations of land
acquisition where the Gram Sabha should be consulted before such activities. The businessman
said he sniffed opportunity at times of conflict when competition was low: his company had
acquired some 100 hectares in different villages in small lots and under different names to
circumvent the laws requiring federal clearance for diversion of forest land. [2]

Moving on into Jharkhand and a social activist and independent news reporter Amit Topno from
Khunti district was murdered two weeks back because he was raising uncomfortable questions
and had gathered a following in the village tribal committees specially after his reports on the
Pathalgadi movement, featuring in the popular YouTube channel Video Volunteers, which is slowly
becoming a well recognised mass movement in the interiors. [3]

Pathalgadi movement is basically the tribals getting together to uphold the PESA provisions to
bring the Gram Sabha in forefront of decision making for scheduled areas and stop the
government through its various channels misuse their power and bend rules to carry out
assistance work in setting up multinational corporate offices, mines and big dam projects. Goes
without saying these companies play a huge role to finance election campaigns and grant
personal favours to political leaders who in turn are indebted to ensure their business benefits.
Corruption runs in all levels of bureaucracy and middlemen not to mention the coal mafias and
even the self-righteous Naxals.

Armed with bow and arrows and slings called ‘gulel’ they raise slogans and make proclamations.
“We are the Bharat Sarkar. We do not recognise the Central or State governments or the
President, Prime Minister or Governor. Our Gram Sabha is the real constitutional body. We will not
allow anyone to enter our areas without our permission. We will not be exploited anymore,” they
say in unison. [4]

All the above facts and points say the government in its overall race to be recognised as a global
power, to show an ever increasing rate of GDP is exhausting its physical and human resources at
a rate that it is not being able to handle. Building mines and dams that are depleting resources at
an alarming rate all to be exported at cheap rates to first world countries who have already
depleted their resources, all contributes to a very nimble balance that will overturn itself any day.
Even if human rights violations at a deep internal level can be overlooked through bribes,
ignorance and non reporting in mass media, the environment will eventually ask for some
unavoidable answers for some currently out of syllabus questions.

[1611 words]

References:

[1] - Sudeep Chakraverty - Red Sun

[2] - Nandini Sundar - The Burning Forest

[3] - https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/indigenous-journalist-who-
covered-pathalgadi-movement-killed-in-jharkhand-118122600071_1.html

[4] - https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/the-pathalgadi-rebellion/
article23530998.ece