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VOL. 1 ISSUE 3 January - February 2009|Rs. 15

d s a
e t
s h l d
o d t o
l o u n
, b e
s t h
E DITORIAL
s t T: he ongoing attacks on Gaza Stripe by Israel, the country which is

s
known to have bypassed the largest number of International

l a e
laws, killing thousands of innocent civilians, including children;
also paint to the embarrasing fact that US support for Israel had never declined

b ik
– be it Bush, the terminator or be it Barack Obama, the first black President of
White House. Thus colour of the skin does not decide the class of an
individual. Any black, brown or white being the US President doesnot alter the

b r
character of US imperialism. It has been repeated by noted that the ruling
classes had adopted newer tacties, created newer mirages but only to keep

m s t L alg
political dissidence at bay.
The real question however, is not concerned with racial descendance or

o
B or a
governance, but to put an end the already withering imperialist fabric. In this
connection, we should once again ponder over the economic depression of

rh
the present day, its causes and the people who caused it. Even before the

f
globalization of world economy, several economic depressions were recurrent
in almost every decade since 1970s. It should be understood that it is in the

O rr Morichjhapi:– interest of capitalism and expansion of market economy further, that


imperialist hegemons fight wars, engage in conspiracies, double-dealing and
annihilate peace and security of the entire world – after all terror, massacre and

t e destruction are but synonymous to capitalison. Thus the only way to end the
worldwide exploitation of the masses is to fight a war along the lines of class-

The cover of
struggle through which socialism will replace capitalism.
If we look at India in the present context we find the ascendance of
60 Years of Palestinian Freedom
|6
Movement and the Current Carnage
Mayawati, as the representative of lower castes, quite interesting.
Simultaneously, our attention is drawn to the increasing number of
indegenous people, tribals, dalits and scheduled casts, who are being displaced

darkness as a consequence of major development projects. A survey conducted by


Walter Fernandes re-affirms this fact that the MNCs search for hitherto
unuseal raw materials or natural resources have led to maximum displacement
of the poorest sections. Consequently the discontent among these
marginalized people is steadily rising. The states of to day have adjusted racial,

Palestinian Freedom
caste and ethnic divisions, in such a manner, into its own structure that the
Lalgarh –Through the
|3 Eyes of an Outsider
people remain divided on one hand and the leaders like Mayawati (the socalled
“chamar ki beti”) serve the purpose of safety-valve. Hence Obama and
Mayawati are two sides of the same coin.
With reference to the Malegaon incident, it may be pointed out that

nd the Current Carnage


whenever popular demands crane for jobs and food, battle-drums are heard
along the frontiers. Even US imperialism has projected ‘War On Terror’ to

h e chain the frankenstein if had once created. It deliberately portrays


propagation of extremist Islamist ideology as a threat to global security. This is

t
echoed by the new US ally and partner in South Asia. The Indian Government
too holds Pakistan responsible as the breeding-ground of crossborder

dha Gandhi |2 is & n


terrorism. Pakistan, who has lost its relevence to USA, as a frontline state, in
the post soviet era, also has strained relations with India.
Present Financial Crisis & the
|14

Given the well-known fact that USA derives a substantial amount of its

s o
economic and military might from arms trade, it is self-evident as to who will

i
impending Great Depression

r ss i
be benefitted if there are war preparations at Indo-Pak border.
The investigation findings of Malegaon blasts reveal that the plan had

C
Morichjhapi:

Remembering a beautiful life been plotled by Hindu fundamentalist groups. Recollecting the burring down
|11
The cover of

l e
Reichstag, one easily understands that the ‘politics of blasts’ is propagated by
-Anuradha Gandhi

r
the state itself. On one hand the enactment of unlawful Activities Premention

a
darkness

i
(Amendment) Act, 2008 limits our right to information; while on the other,

n p|31
Of Bomb blasts, bloodsheds and
c |21 De
terror strikes: the untold tales
both governmental and private media houses clamour for war to teach
Pakistan a lesson. Against this backdrop, every democratic minded person
should come forth and resist in the interest of general masses and their own

i n a t
Tibet : Part II

a
survival.

F r e
g G
in
VOL.31January
VOL. 1 ISSUE ISSUE -2February
August-2009
September 2008
124%. Some homeowners used the increased property value experienced
in the to refinance their homes with lower interest rates and take out against
the added value to use the funds for consumer spending. U.S. household debt
Present Financial Crisis & the as a percentage of income rose to 130% during 2007, versus 100% earlier in
the decade. Americans spent $800 billion per year more than they earned.
impending Great Depression Household debt grew from $680 billion in 1974 to $14 trillion in 2008, with
Abhijnan Sarkar the total doubling since 2001. During 2008, the average U.S. household
owned 13 credit cards, and 40 percent of them carried a balance, up from 6
After the crash of all the five major investment banks in the USA in percent in 1970.
September, as we go to the press the newspapers reported on November 23 Speculation in real estate was a contributing factor. During 2006, 22% of
that the US’s largest banks, Citicorp, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Not homes purchased (1.65 million units) were for investment purposes, with an
only that, it is also reported that the three major car companies of the US, additional 14% (1.07 million units) purchased as vacation homes. During
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, too are on the brink of collapse. These 2005, these figures were 28% and 12%, respectively. In other words, nearly
companies and banks have been the very pillars of the American economy 40% of home purchases (record levels) were not primary residences.
and financial system. Simultaneously this month all the major economies of The crisis began with the bursting of the and high default rates on "" and
the world have reported negative growth in the last two quarters (i.e. a six (ARM i.e interest rates dependent on the market), beginning in
approximately 2005–2006. Government policies for several years prior to the
moth period). Europe, Japan, US and Russia are already in recession. Stock crisis encouraged higher risk lending practices. Further, an increase in loan
markets continue to crash throughout the world and what began with the incentives such as easy initial terms and a long-term trend of rising housing
bursting of the US housing bubble is turning into a global economic and prices had encouraged borrowers to assume difficult mortgages in the belief
financial disaster of the type not seen since the Great Depression of 1929. they would be able to quickly refinance at more favorable terms. However,
Never before in the last 80 years have there been a crisis of such magnitude. once interest rates began to rise and housing prices started to drop moderately
On the last occasion it took a World War to pull the economies out of the in 2006–2007 in many parts of the U.S., refinancing became more difficult.
crisis and the death of over 2 crore people. This time what will this much and (seizure of properties by the banks) activity increased dramatically as
glamourised capitalist system gift to the people of the world? easy initial terms expired, home prices failed to go up as anticipated, and
ARM rates reset higher. accelerated in the United States in late 2006 and
During the last such crisis even a country like the US witnessed hunger triggered a . During 2007, nearly 1.3 million U.S. housing properties were
marches in the 1930s and we witnessed the rise of the monsters, Hitler and subject to foreclosure activity, up 79% from 2006.
Mussolini and the fascist terror. At that time there was a Soviet State which The value of all outstanding USA mortgages, owed by households to
helped the world people to fight back the horrors associated with that crisis of purchase residences, was US$9.9 trillion as of yearend 2006, and US$10.6
capitalism; today we do not have even that. trillion as of midyear 2008. As of August 2008, 9.2% of all mortgages
According to a report “Global systemic crisis Alert” which toured outstanding were either in default or in foreclosure. 936,439 USA residences
the world in February 2006, says “that we are now resolutely stepping into an completed foreclosure between August 2007 and October 2008. In other
era with no historical precedent. Our researchers insisted on that many times words about one million people lost their houses in those 15 months
in the last two years: any comparison with the previous crises of our modern To understand the spiraling affect of the housing crisis we must
economy would be fallacious. It is neither a remake of the 1929 crisis, nor a understand that these housing mortgages were repackaged as financial
repetition of the 1970s oil crises or 1987 stock market crisis. It is truly a instruments and sold as derivatives to other banking and insurance companies
global systemic crisis, that is to say a crisis affecting the entire planet and around the world. Financial products called (MBS), which derive their value
from mortgage payments and housing prices, had enabled financial
questioning the very foundations of the international system upon which the institutions and investors around the world to invest in the U.S. housing
world was organised in the last decades.” According to the LUGANO market. Major banks and financial institutions had borrowed and invested
Report, a secret research document on ‘the future of the global heavily in MBS and reported losses of approximately US$435 billion as of 17
economy and the free-market system’, commissioned by the July 2008.
major global powers and written by an anonymous ‘working The resulting securities are called (MBS) and (CDO). Most American
mortgages are now held by mortgage pools, the generic term for MBS and
group’, the only way to save Western Civilization with the CDOs. Of the $10.6 trillion of USA residential mortgages outstanding as of
oncoming crisis, is by a drastic reduction of the population – in midyear 2008, $6.6 trillion were held by mortgage pools, and $3.4 trillion by
other words, mass extermination and genocide!!! traditional depository institutions.
Though this may be an excessively alarming reaction, it was, defacto, the Investors in MBS and CDOs can insure against credit risk by buying
solution after the Great Depression with World War II taking a huge toll, on a (CDS). As mortgage defaults rose, the likelihood that the issuers of CDS
scale never witnessed before. The reality is that the bourgeois establishment would have to pay their counterparties increased. This created uncertainty
across the system, as investors wondered if CDS issuers would honor their
has no solution and with the US being at the very epicenter of the impending commitments. It is estimated that the losses in the swaps market is over $ 50
implosion, the tremors will be worldwide and no country or individual will trillion.
remain unaffected. Those tied to the US economy, like India, will be the most Effects on global stock markets due to the crisis have been dramatic.
seriously affected. Conveniently, the Black ‘hero’ Obama, will be turned into Between 1 January and 11 October 2008, owners of stocks in U.S.
the villain, pin-pointed as the cause for the impending catastrophe. corporations had suffered about $8 trillion in losses, as their holdings
Let us first look at the dynamics of the crisis in the US which was declined in value from $20 trillion to $12 trillion. Losses in other countries
triggered by the burst of the housing bubble and the sub-prime crisis. Then we have averaged about 40%. Losses in the stock markets and housing value
will come to its impact worldwide and finally the political repercussions and declines place further downward pressure on consumer spending, a key
the possible way out. economic engine entity can seize the home in a process called foreclosere .
Financial Institutions from around the world have recognized subprime-
related losses and exceeding U.S. $501 billion as of August 2008. Profits at
Present crisis in the USA & World the 8,533 U.S. banks insured by the declined from $35.2 billion to $646
The subprime mortgage crisis is an ongoing triggered by a significant million (89%) during the fourth quarter of 2007 versus the prior year, due to
decline in housing prices and related payment defaults and foreclosures (i.e soaring loan defaults and provisions for loan losses. It was the worst bank and
seizure of properties by banks) in the . This caused a ripple effect across the thrift quarterly performance since 1990. For all of 2007, these banks earned
approximately $100 billion, down 31% from a record profit of $145 billion in
financial markets and global banking systems, as investments related to 2006. Profits declined from $35.6 billion to $19.3 billion during the first
housing prices declined significantly in value, placing the health of key quarter of 2008 versus the prior year, a decline of 46%.
financial institutions and government-sponsored enterprises at risk. Funds
Already till September 2008 saw 81 corporations in the US file for
available for personal and business spending (i.e., ) declined as financial bankruptcy with the Lehman Bros being the largest in US history. In July
institutions tightened lending practices. The crisis, which has roots in the 2008 itself the US witnessed the ninth biggest bankruptcy with the failure of
closing years of the 20th century but has become more apparent throughout IndyMac Bank (asset value of $ 32 billion), the largest mortgage lender in the
2007 and 2008, has passed through various stages exposing pervasive US. In early September the government sponsored mortgage agencies
weaknesses in the global financial system. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (created in 1970), which had and outstanding of
Subprime mortgages are loans give for purchase of property without any $ 5 trillion in MBS (mortgage backed securities), were the first to go bankrupt
security of the purchaser. Such loans which were a mere 5% ($ 35 billion) in and were nationalized by the government. In late September the US’s eighth
1994 reached a massive 20% ($ 600 billion) by 2006. largest bank, Washington Mutual (asset value of $ 307 billion), went bankrupt
and was bought over by J.P.Morgan chase for a song. In mid October yet
This demand helped fuel housing price increases and consumer another major US bank, Wachovia Bank (founded in 1879), the largest in the
spending. Between 1997 and 2006, American home prices increased by United States, went bust and was bought up by Wells Fargo.
Contd. to page 17
2
VOL. 1 ISSUE 3 January - February 2009
Baul (folk) songs in Katapahari some 2 miles away. They were picked up
Lalgarh –Through the Eyes of an without any questioning. “They never asked us a word, they just asked us to
Outsider step into the van. We had no choice,” remembered one of the students. In the
police station as their names and fathers names were listed down, the police
Koustav De learnt that one boy had his father working in the army, he was released at once.
It was through him the village came to know of the whereabouts of the other
(A group of concerned citizen visited Lalgarh at the time of upsurge boys. The headmaster of Katapahari High School was detailed on grounds of
against the police atrocities. This article is based on the experience of their being a Maoist conspirator and hatching plans with his students. The police
observation) were working towards putting forth a good,
dramatic and flawless lie that the press would
Lalgarh was an obscure place in West readily endorse. Further detention and torture
Midnapore district of West Bengal (India), continued throughout the night. These incidents
before November 2008, it was just another triggered the mass protests but are by no means
place, 42 kilo meters from the Midnapore the sole reason behind it. These were just the
railway station. But it is not just a place sparks to the gunpowder.
anymore. It is the centre of the movement for The list of deprivation and oppression
the demands of an entire section of population towards the adivasis is a never ending one and
who constitute almost 10% of India. Lalgarh is the government and the police took it for granted
now an icon for the defiance of the adivasi that these simple rustic peace loving people had
(tribal/indigenous population) toward their almost learnt to live with it. The police were too
history of discrimination and oppression. confident that their detentions would go
The Shalbani land mine explosion on 2nd unchallenged as always especially when the
November 2008, which was targeted at the adivasis of Lalgarh has no backing of
Chief Minister’s convoy returning from the mainstream parties. Remarkably but not
proposed site of Jindal Steel Plant, resulted in surprisingly police never found it necessary to
hyper activity of the police who had to carry out investigations in the villages
immediately prove their proactive nature by identifying the culprits, rather a surrounding the spot of the incident, not even those peasants were questioned
scapegoat. As always they decided to choose some easy targets, commoners from whose fields the kilometer long wire used to trigger the mine was dug
from Lalgarh. up. The simple reason being the village and the region is politically a CPI (M)
There is no map to Lalgarh. At least not easily available, the most detail stronghold, and their leaders did not want the police to harass their supporters.
map shows a narrow road from Midnapore Station, which abruptly ends Most adivasi of Lalgarh would point out that police repression has
somewhere near Pirahkata. The road from Pirahkata to Lalgarh is well made increased by the day since 1998. The year is important as a sudden spurt in
and scantily used. The road is of no use to the indigenous population who Maoist activities in the tribal belts. People were picked up from homes by the
possess no cars, where bikes are a rarity and the primary mode of transport is police and often relatives were asked to sign on papers which said that the
bullock cart, cycle or walking. So the quality of road is not for the locals to person arrested was found in some forest and certain guns and ammunition
appreciate. Its sole purpose is the quick transportation of police and para- was recovered from them. Refusal to sign would result in inhuman torture and
military. This in fact sums up the face and direction of development in prolonged detention without the arrest being acknowledged officially,
majority of such areas. The black pitch road on the red soil, surrounded by however signing on the paper would mean lesser tortures and a never ending
forests is most picturesque. The tranquility of the place was until recently, litigation. By 2008, there isn’t almost a single home in the tribal belt of West
disturbed every now and then by rumbling police jeeps and vans which would Bengal where police has not picked up and tortured a member for being a
enter villages routinely and pick up adivasi for questioning. Often such ‘Maoist’ or a sympathizer.
questioning was accompanied with generous dosage of sadistic torture, both The funds allotted to development of adivasis are regularly siphoned
physical and psychological. It is most common to come across many men and away by Panchayet leaders while the only visible development are more and
women of the region who have been detained and tortured apparently for no more police camps, modern weapons and better fortified police stations.
concrete reason, without any legal charge sheet produced. Detention often Even as crores are being spent on modernizing the Lalgarh police stations, no
extends to three months on the base of mere speculation. People could not house in the villages around has access to electricity, schools are but building
venture out of their houses after dark. The local police even have some people without teachers, irrigation canals are perennially dry and the only toilets are
targeted in particular who they used pick up repeatedly for interrogation. A the fields and forests. The majority of houses are of mud and thatched roof of
few conversations with the locals are enough to reveal a completely different dry leaves while leaders of CPI (M) have grossly misdirected funds allocated
world where a day does not pass without terror. The entire system at every for Indira Awaas Yojna. According to IAY money in installments can be
level is bent on keeping these people in such a state of constant fear that provided to the people below poverty line, (preference is given to SC/STs) for
demands of development become far fetched and all they wish for is a day building proper houses on a cost sharing basis between State and Central
without torture and police oppression. government while the people who truly needed the benefits hardly heard of
Just after Shalboni incident the police of Lalgarh and Ramgarh police the scheme while sons and daughters of the leaders got one each. Health
stations led a joint operation on 5th November 2008, into the villages of Choto Centers in the villages are occasionally visited by doctors and medicines are
Pelia, Boro Pelia, Bashber, Kata Pahari. These are small villages at lest two never present.
to six miles from each other, surrounded by forests and interconnected by In spite all the deprivation and torture, only small un-coordinated burst of
narrow roads. These are thus most easy targets of the police where they can protests occurred, which were easily pacified or repressed. Often the
carry on their torturous interrogations in isolation without the news leaking to leadership was bought and made to give pacifying statements after closed
surrounding villages quickly. In Choto Pelia the police rammed into houses door meetings, which misled the masses. The leaders took the decision for the
and tortured and beat up people in their usual manner. According to one entire mass. But the post Shalboni protests were different, they had no
person “We know the police from the way they knock at the door, just one leadership who could decide for everyone. The adivasis had representatives
long and loud knock and then they break in with heavy kicks. They do not who only communicated the decision of the mass rather than take them on
even wait for anyone to open the door.” In one such house the family was everyone’s behalf.
having a guest, a relative from a nearby village who was helping to stack up On 6th November, adivasis gathered and moved to the Lalgarh police
the paddy from the fields. The police at once picked him up, to take him away station and demanded immediate and unconditional release of all villagers
labeling him as an ‘outsider’ who has come to carry out the ‘Shalboni detained without any ground, including the three boys. Looking at the
Landmine Operation’. When the police tried to take him away the women unprecedented mobilization of the adivasis, the police well understood the
from the family tried pleading with the police. They pointed out that he was a gravity of the situation and started making false promises to pacify the crowds
guest and a relative and it was a disgrace to take him away in that manner. The and buy time. But the situation grew tenser by the hours and soon support
police were in no mood to listen and thrashed them with the butt of their guns. from other adivasi villages started pouring in. After night long assurance that
One of them was hit right on the eye. She fell unconscious, her eye damaged the boys will be released soon, in the morning when the mobilization had only
permanently. Their guest was dragged away by four constables holding his growing thicker, the police had to concede that the boys were never in the
hands and legs and thrown into the police van. On the same night, another local police station but have been transferred to Mednipur Police Station. The
police patrol came across four boys, all school students of standards eighth to adivasis could not be pacified with this and they understood clearly that the
tenth. They were returning to their homes in Bashber after a programme of

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TOWARDS
A NEW D AWN VOL. 1 ISSUE 3 January - February 2009
words of assurance from the police could not be counted upon for release the elite Bengal intelligential will not act as sympathetically to the
of their people but a full fledged movement needed to be launched. It was movement of the indigenous tribal masses, and they are prepared to do
made clear to the police that they were not welcome in the villages any more. without it. But they have decided that they won’t fade out without being
They decided to organize themselves and move for a permanent solution to heard.
this mindless police oppression. The demands of the adivasis are not revolutionary but of a simple life
The Lalgarh adivasis sat together in lengthy meetings and chalked out a without unnecessary interference. It has inside it the demands of their right to
proper plan to carry forth the movement. They decided upon surpassing the decide for themselves, to preserve their culture. Indeed their movement has
existing mainstream political parties and float a forum of their own. This not hampered the normalcy of their lives. Their blockades are lifted from time
resulted in almost unanimous support of all adivasi sections towards the to time to allow passage of paddy filled bullock carts from fields to villages,
movement. They also decided upon an 11 point demand. The leadership which is a most important activity during this season of harvest. They allow
emerged from within the people. But they insist upon calling themselves a and invite representatives of all press, organization and even general citizens
committee of the people, rather than leadership. And truly they act as to come and move around their villages. They have successfully prevented
spokesperson of the villages. Every village has chosen a 10 member the uninvited patrol of the police jeeps, and the villages are most peaceful
committee of 5 men and 5 women. Surprisingly the participation of youth in these days. The state of constant fear that they had to live with is gone. The
these committees is truly overwhelming, as is their participation in the only hardship they have had to accept is carrying away seriously ill patients to
movement. This development and practice of participatory democracy is town. They never had any proper health center anyway, for any serious
perhaps the most distinguished and positive feature in this course. And this is ailment they had to travel to town, now they only have to take a longer route.
the main point of concern for the government and the mainstream parties. In their path towards a sustained movement, they meet often within and
These committees further have specialized works allotted to the members, amongst villages. Each village committee has two persons who should be
like communicating to the journalists, maintaining contact with outsiders, available at every meeting. The meetings are in local languages and are often
communicating within the village, keeping in touch with far off villages lengthy and attended by many. In one late night discussions among the
where movement has spread. Within weeks of the movement, results started committee members it’s not unusual to find the youth in early twenties doing
to show. The movement spread across other districts like Bankura, Birbhum, most of the talking. They even mention ‘class struggle’, ‘imperialism’,
Puruliya and even North Bengal. Everywhere the character was similar, the ‘cultural hegemony’ rather lucidly, and in their own way. They admit openly
mainstream parties dissolved away and committees sprung up. And their failure to spread their movement and thoughts in all ‘fronts’. To a
everywhere the adivasis took measures to keep out the police; they barricaded question like what would happen if paramilitary is deployed to crush the
the roads with felled trees and cut trenches across roads to prevent quick movement, they smile and reply that they will resist but will eventually fail,
mobilization of reinforced troops. many will perish but not all. They quickly refer to Iraq, that many were killed
In every aspect the movement has shown that it has not ignored the their but the protest is on. They also point out that since the commencement of
lessons of Nandigram and Singur and is in fact a level above. Without spilling the movement not a single act of violence has taken place, and that they want
a drop of blood it has spread so far that it really inspires many thoughts. All none, so they prefer the path of non-violent mass movement unless they have
these years in spite of their regions being neglected and kept underdeveloped to defend themselves from armed attacks. To ask these people who are
and in darkness the adivasis, who are peace loving people have never protesting the police excesses, demanding a normal life whether they are all
protested, until now. But gradually this movement has taking a rather out of Maoists, becomes somewhat redundant.
pattern shape. The government is at a loss to counter something which has Koustav2007@gmail.com
grasped the imagination of such a large section of population across such vast
region in such short time. Unlike Nandigram it is too large to be surrounded This is the leaflet circulated by ‘People’s Committee against Police
by CPI(M) mercenaries. And the adivasis are too self sufficient to be starved Atrocities’. To highlight the demands of Lalgarh we are publishing this. It is
out. These people need too little to sustain themselves and they themselves translated from Bengali by Koustav De.
produce most of it. The roads that they have blocked are preventing police
vans only; they never needed these roads and hardly ever use them. The If Need be, the Demand of
government and the ruling party are at complete loss as their meager presence
within the adivasis suddenly evaporated and information flow from the
‘Sarjam Girou’ will Persist
Organize and spread the fire of this fire of Santhal movement.
adivasi belt has stopped completely. Moreover unlike Singur or Nandigram
they had no ready group of leaders who would be willing to negotiate or
Dear friends,
bargain behind closed doors, keeping the movement on hold. In fact the
Since the British period, the legacy of torture, repression, deprivation
adivasis have welcomed any representative of government to discuss their
upon the indigenous (tribal) population has continued. In 62 years since
demands but only at their villages. In total disregard and disrespect of where
independence, this has not changed. Wherever in India the indigenous people
the adivasi people live, it was even stated that how can negotiation and
or ordinary people are trying to build up a movement, it is being brutally
discussion take place in jungle.
repressed, like in Manipur, Assam, Chattisgarh, Kamtapuri and Gorkhaland.
The government tried to stage confusion by roping in the cream section of
Apart from this, in Bengal Nandigram and Singur are witness to violent
the traditional adivasi leaders, who posed as the leadership of the movement.
attacks, murders, rape, arson and many other means adopted by the ruling
They emerged out of nowhere, completely ignorant of the ground situation,
party to suppress movements. Whenever the indigenous or ordinary people of
attended a meeting with the government officials and came out and declared
the state have moved in demand of their rights, the treatment has been same.
before the press that all there demands have been met and they are thereby
In independent India movements in demand of the right to water-forest-land,
calling off the movement. Initially it caused some misunderstanding amongst
language and culture, like the Jharkhand movement have countered with
adivasi masses, but they soon got the crux of the matter and these traditional
tremendous violence where the police and CPI(M) mercenaries have burnt
respected elders of the adivasi society were boycotted and asked to stay out of
down entire villages. Memories of Rajkhoroswa Guduriya and Goa firing
the movement.
incidents still make one shiver.
The ruling party was and still is in a state of constant denial of the true
Whenever the indigenous people of the forests have raised their voices in
nature of the movement and at rallies and meetings they utter unconfident
demand of cultivable land, jobs, corruption in ration distribution and
phrases like ‘our adivasi brothers are being misled by Maoists’, ‘it is a counter
development they have been violently dealt with by the CPI(M) led Left Front
revolutionary force’, ‘imperialist funded conspiracy’ and so on. At one
government.
meeting the State Secretary of the CPI (M) went as far as stating that at least in
Since 1998 when Maoist organizations like MCCI, CPI(ML) (PW) and
West Bengal the Adivasis are in better conditions than their Jharkhand
CPI(Maoist) have spread their influence in regions like West Midnapore,
counterparts, at least the West Bengal government hasn’t ordered their
Bankura and Puruliya the CPI(M) and police have started oppression the
shooting as the Babu Lal Marandi government did in Jharkhand. Mr. Bose
population at slightest pretexts. The incidents in Laljol, Belpahari where
perhaps expected his ‘adivasi brothers’ to be thankful for that and call off their
Behula Mahato was raped by the police and female school students were strip
movement.
searched and in Teshabad, Lalgarh where an elderly woman was beaten to
The Lalgarh movement has matured, and is preparing for a long drawn
death surpasses all definition of torture. The tortures on arrested and detained
sustainable movement, beyond mere blockades, demonstrations and rallies.
people have gone up another level. How can pouring petrol for ‘third’ degree
They are coordinating their moves with far off villages, communicating
torture or tying rope on genitals and pulling be justified? The list of people
strategies. They are campaigning, talking to people and press, writing posters,
jailed, tortured, fired upon or arrested without warrant will fill up the memory
distributing leaflets and trying to take their demands to the heart of Calcutta.
of computers. Where a mine or what exploded near the tail of Buddha
All their campaign and communication are on behalf of ‘the people’ or ‘the
Bhattacharya’s convoy and the raids and searches started in Lalgarh, Binpur.
people’s committee against police atrocities.’ They understand very well that

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Three students were kidnapped at night while returning from Katapahari
after watching a cultural program. Even pregnant women were not spared. The Greek police kill school student – big
Dipak pratihar was literally dragged and thrown into the police van and wave of mobilisations all over Greece
carried away.
On 5/11/2008 half past four in the morning women were mercilessly On Saturday
night, 6th December
beaten up in Choto Pelia village by the mercenaries of Buddha Bhattacharya. 2008, an officer of the
Some were blinded, some had their arm broken, skulls cracked. Who will Special Forces of the
account for these tortures? What punishment do they deserve? Asking them to Greek Police killed a
hold their ears as punishment isn’t much. It is not that the movement has young 15-year old
spread far and wide at the pace of arrows just on the issue of torture on school student,
women. It has the history of deprivation, repression, iron rule and torture A l e x a n d r o s
behind it. We appeal to all students, youths, artists, intellectuals and Grigoropoulos, in
democracy loving people to stand beside our movement. We the children of Exarchia in the centre of
Athens. This is the Students’ rally in Athens
modern "democratic" manner in which a police officer answered the usual
anti-police slogans that a small group of ordinary and completely unarmed
school students were raising against him. The police officer shot at the group
of school students in an area where there are many coffeehouses full of people
and at an hour (9pm) when there are many youth gathered together enjoying
an evening out.
This fascist, brutal and unprovoked attack on the part of the Greek police
has led to a widespread and deep feeling of disgust throughout Greek society.
It reminds everyone of the criminal actions of the Greek police forces in the
past, of the black years of the Greek colonels' dictatorship (1967-1974), but it
has also served to highlight in the minds of the people the many brutal actions
of the Greek police over these past four years of right-wing government. Two
years ago in Thessalonica six police officers brutally and mercilessly beat up
a Cypriot student, causing serious injuries, both physical and psychological.
In the same period one police officer seriously injured a young teacher by
using knuckledusters. Many immigrants are also regularly brutalised by the
Greek police, especially in the police stations of Athens, as many videos that
have been broadcast on Greek TV channels have revealed. All these are just a
few examples of the "democratic" actions of the Greek bourgeois state in the
last few years under the New Democracy (ND) government.
This most recent killing has had a big impact on every ordinary working
person and in particular on the youth of Greece. On the night of the killing
thousands of young people spontaneously mobilized across Athens,
Sidhu-Kanu Birsha-Munda have never bowed our heads and never will.
Thessalonica and Patras, to demonstrate their anger, clashing with the police
Come let us spread this fire of rebellion and uphold the people’s demands. throughout the night into the early morning. Yesterday, Sunday 8th,
People’s Committee against Police Atrocities’ thousands of people demonstrated all over Greece, in 14 different cities.
Today another rally is planned in the centre of Athens, which will see the
The Demands: participation of many more people than yesterday.
On 8th December from the early morning, the big majority of schools all
1) The SP has to hold his ears and ask for forgiveness. He has to say ‘Form over Greece have been occupied by the students. The High School Teachers'
now onwards I will stop illegally arresting the people and especially women.’ Union has called a 3-day strike and the Primary School teachers had come out
2) The police who were involved in the 5/11/2008 incident where women on strike. The KKE (Greek Communist Party) and SYRIZA, a left front
were beaten up have to rub their noses on the ground as punishment, from around Synaspismos, have also participated in the rally.
Dalailpur Chawk to Choto Pelia. 3) The women of Choto Pelia who were The Monday (8th December) morning witnessed a phenomenon that has
injured by the police torture have to be compensated with 2 lakh rupees each. not seen in Greece since the uprising of December 1944. In every town of
4) All suspects arrested or detained in relation to the Shalboni incident have to Greece a total of about forty thousand school students, young 15-year old
be released unconditionally. 5) All people arrested or accused in suspicion of teenagers, attacked the police stations. In Athens, Thessalonica, Patras,
being Maoist in West Midnapore since 1998 have to be cleared of all charges Larissa, Corfu, Komotini' and in many other towns across the country the
and should not be compelled to attend court sessions or police station attack of the school students pinned down the heavily armed and well-
enquiries regularly. 6) Arresting locals from anywhere, anytime without equipped police officers inside their stations simply with the use of small
warrant have to be ended. 7) All paramilitary camps like those in Dharampur, rocks, tomatoes and yoghurts! Without any fear whatsoever, thousands of
Kalaimudi, Ramgarhhave to be removed immediately. 8) That Sasadhar teenagers gave an example of heroic struggle against police brutality.
Mahato planned the Shalboni explosion sitting in Bashber village -- this One important element that has to be underlined is that three weeks ago,
allegation has to be withdrawn. 9) The practice of harassing clubs and long before the killing, the Greek Confederation of Workers' Unions in the
organizations independently by the people al over Bengal must be put to an private and public sectors (GSEE and ADEDY), had already called a general
end. 10) Police patrolling in villages from 5 in the evening to 6 in the dawn strike against poverty and the threat of unemployment to the Greek working
have to be stopped. 11) Schools, hospitals, panchayet offices cannot be used class for this coming Wednesday. Without a doubt, the general strike will now
as police camps, the existing ones have to be removed. 12) The continuous be much more different after the killing of the young Alexandros.
attacks by CPI(M) mercenaries on peaceful adivasi agitators have to be The Greek government has been trying to calm the people by promising
"exemplary punishment" of the police officer involved in the shooting, but
stopped. The three cycles and two motor cycles damaged by CPI (M)
the mood in society is one where such promises have only a very limited
attackers on 22/11/2008, during an agitation on the National Highway 60 effect. The latest opinion polls show that the ND is 6-7% behind PASOK. The
have to be compensated for. And the expense for treatment of Mohan Tudu combined vote of the workers' parties stands at over 60% in the opinion polls.
injured in the attack has to be borne by the government. 13) The government All the factors exist for the fall of the government in the very near future.
will be responsible and have to face agitations for any further attack by the The Marxists strongly support and actively participate in the big
CPI(M) on the peaceful demonstrations. movement against police terror, but they also explain that the killing of the
young Alexandros was not an accident, but the expression of the reactionary
nature of the bourgeois state and of the present ND government. State terror,
for the ruling class, is a necessary weapon in support of the capitalist system.
Police violence is the twin brother of poverty, exploitation and privatisations.

TOWARDS Police brutality is a method of class war against the working people. The
ruling class is organising class violence against the working class and youth
and that is why all must react against it, and the whole labour movement must

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be mobilised using the methods of class struggle.
Source: Marxistiki Foni
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state of Israel. He wrote a book on the Jewish state (Der Juudenstat) in
60 Years of Palestinian Freedom 1896 that became widely popular among the Jews, scattered in many
countries. However, this theoretician of Judaism did not envision a Jewish
Movement and the Current Carnage state in the present Palestine for its location far away from Europe.
The Holocaust, Israel formation and Palestinian Catastrophe of
Ashrujit Nandi 1948 (known as the Nakba) are a closely integrated phenomenon. Holocaust
2008 is the 60th anniversary of the continuous struggle of the Palestinian of the Jews is a horrible history created by Fascism in Europe. The victims of
people for national liberation. Sixty years back Israel was created by the big fascist brutality, the question of fanning Zionism, the capitalization of
powers of the world robbing the Palestinians of their right to their homeland. emotive issues, robbing the Palestine people of their right to their land and the
Since then the state called Israel expanded further by occupying more and highhandedness of the Western powers are issues that are to be seen in proper
more Palestinian territories. It is a saga of a heroic resistance of a freedom perspective to understand the Palestine question. 60 summers have passed by
loving people for six decades against an evil and illegal Zionist state after the dispossession of Palestinians.
supported by US and other imperialist powers.
It is often kept under wraps that in Germany the extermination of Jews
We learn from Sinha Flapin’s ‘Birth of Israel: Myth and Realities’ that
included large number of communists from the Jewish community. And
“Zionist acceptance of the United Nations Partition Resolution of November
Hitler was as venomous against the Jews as against the powerful presence of
29, 1947, was a far reaching compromise by which the Jewish community
communists, among whom many were Jews. So the Holocaust victims were
abandoned the concept of a Jewish state in whole of Palestine and recognized
not solely the racial victims of Nazism. Such omission is deliberate to cover
the right of Palestinians to their own state.” [Quoted in the Monthly Review,
up the motive behind the formation of Israel directly supported and aided by
October 1988]. Facts, however, proved that it was a tactical move towards
big Western powers to make an Anglo-American base to help in their oil
future expansion of Israel. The crude reality is that in that Israel 40 percent
interests.
would be non-Jews. Neither the Arab League nor the Palestinian Arabs
It was first the Zionist ideology and then the basically US design in the
accepted this scheme and soon after the formation of Israel hostilities started
making of the Israeli policy that continues till now. The Zionist ideology, born
between Zionists and freedom-loving Palestinians. An Arab Liberation Army
on the Palestinian soil in the late 19th century grew and received all support
was formed while Zionists, which had already an army, strengthened it many
from the western imperialists made it an issue to take over most of the
times. But the Arab armies from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Trans Jordan
Palestinian territory to build up a Jewish state. This Zionism was fanned with
attacked Israel on several fronts but they proved inferior to the enhanced
all possible ways by the British colonizers of Palestine, particularly from
strength of Israeli army.
1917. Judising Palestine naturally meant de-Arabising Palestine and ethnic
Then started a mass scale ethnic cleansing operations in Palestine. Cracks
cleansing. In February 1947 British rulers had to leave Palestine and they left
and greed of Arab states showed distinct signs. Golda Meier (later an Israeli
behind the ground work and horrendously criminal plan to activise the Zionist
Prime minister) and other Zionist leaders held secret negotiations with Trans-
programme. In 1948, the conspiracy was meticulously hatched up and
Jordan (later known as Jordan) king Abdullah who wanted his state’s border
between February and October of that year the imperialists propped up the
and both parties in the negotiations tried to thwart an independent Palestine.
Israeli army that attacked and eliminated more than 500 villages and 11
Thus after 1949 it was proved that the promised Palestinian state will not be
towns, killing, ravaging and devastating the lives of Palestinians who were
possible without removing the Zionists. By about 2000, about 20 percent of
forced to flee in hundreds as refugees from their own land. This was ethnic
the Arabs lived in Palestine under extreme of threat, ostracisation and
cleansing, ironically on Hitler lines, with half of the population uprooted and
repression and many have since forced to flee to the Arab and other states.
the properties and cultural sites taken over by the criminal Zionists with the
Soon after the World War I, small streams of Jews came pouring from
connivance of the British mandatory government. For the ground work of
Western Europe into Palestine, establishing small colonies and towns. Soon
ethnic cleansing and executing the Zionist plan even a decade back in 1936-
after Theodor Herzel’s book (1896), in 1897, in Bassel city of Switzerland the
39 when the Palestinians rose into a revolt, the British government
first Zionist Conference was held. A programme was declared on the
calculatedly murdered and exiled most of the Palestinian leaders who had
formation of a free Jewish State in Palestine. Thus Zionism received its first
organized the rebellion. Thus by 1948 the Palestinians were almost reduced to
concrete shape. In 1902, the British government offered a proposal to the
a terrorized and defenseless lot, failing to put up a sufficiently fitting
Jews to handover a 40 to50 square kilometer area in Uganda in Africa. Herzel
resistance to the Israeli army. The Palestinians virtually threw their lot with
agreed but his associates opposed the proposal. Soon after this proposal
the ineffectual Arab League to redeem them from such distress and
batches of Jews reached Palestine. In Europe, the Zionist movement received
occupation of their land. The pan-Arab solidarity proved to be a failure time
some support for the fact that the Jews had been the victims of anti-Semitic
and again.
politics for centuries. An interesting thing was that the Jews settled in
Palestine, migrants from Europe were befriended by the native Palestinians. Glimpses of Past History
It was not something exceptional as communities of Sephardic Jews (known Christianity survived the crisis of Roman Empire after 400 AD. It
as Arab Jews who spoke Arabic and identified ethnically as Arabs) had been had a small beginning in the previous centuries and then became the official
living in Palestine for long. Besides that, the migrant Jews brought with them ideology of the Empire. Jesus of Nazareth is said to have been born in
their medical and agricultural knowledge that attracted the native Bethlehem in the Roman province of Judea, the New Testament says.
Palestinians. Jerusalem was one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire. In the first half
However, from the flickers of grievances actual problems were felt when of the 1st Century poverty was however quite extensive, Particularly in Judea,
the influx of Jews increased after the World War I. Jews were 6% of the Samaria and Galilee, leading to considerable hostility to the Romans as well
Palestin’s populations in 1914 and by 1939, after the Nazi policy of as to a Jewish upper class that collaborated with the Roman extortionist
extermination of Jews, the number of Jews in Palestine reached 30 percent. governors. There was a near uprising against King Herod just before his
The Jews were long victims of anti-Semitism and the then Fascist onslaughts death, in which 3,000 Jews are said to have died. Herod’s son Archelus put
but in Palestine the increasing number of Jews not only changed the ethnic down a rising, crucifying 2,000. There was a guerilla war in the countryside of
scenario, land was being alienated on a large scale from the Palestinians and Galilee led by a certain Judas who called himself as the “King of the Jews”.
the actual motive of the British government was abundantly clear. The US The Roman rulers ruthlessly crushed one after another rebellion. Jerusalem
government could envision that a client Jewish Palestine would ensure frequently became a battle field. In all such bloody clashes, the class hatred of
Western interests in oil in the future. On 2nd December 1917, the British Prime the Jewish poor against the Jewish upper classes mingled with the general
Minister Arthur Buford assumingly wrote to the British Jew leader hatred of the occupying Roman forces. Like in the Christian religion, class
Rothschild “His majesty’s government views with favor the establishment in based differences found expression in different interpretations of the Jewish
Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The Arab leaders religion. Against the view of the rich who collaborated with the Roman
strongly protested it. The influx of Jews created actual problems and the Empire, the non-hereditary religious scholars coming from various
members of Arab League asked the British authority to stop the influx of backgrounds were inclined to favor the Pharisee School, emphasizing on
Jews, enact rules to save Palestinian properties and demanded freedom of strict adherence to the Jewish Law as found in the Old Testament relating to
Palestine after the World War I. However, the Arab League did not ignore the rituals and dietary rules, and they opposed the upper class collaboration with
question of the Jews. the Romans. Another sect among the Jews called Essenes preached an escape
In Palestine, Jews were a miniscule percentage of the population. route from the social evils by setting up monistic-type communities in the
Historically, the son of a priest made the first bid for a Jew state during the countryside without private property and also rejected slavery. Then the
Ottoman Empire. In fact, it was one of the first historical efforts to mix Zealots combined religious faith with political agitation against the Roman
religion and nationality for a separate Jewish state. However, much later, rule.
Theodor Harz, a Hungarian, theorized a sustained movement for a separate Jesus also preached in Jerusalem which was a hotbed of class

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conflict directed against the Roman Empire and religious stirrings. Christ’s History records that the new Monarchies and absolutisms that
followers panned to other cities. Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors had developed in France and Italy were more virulent than the old feudal order.
deported the ruling classes of the Jewish states of Israel and Judea to The joint monarchs, Isabel and Ferdinand in Spain conquered the Moorish
Mesopotamia 500 years ago. Many of them had not returned when the Persian kingdom of Granada and fought wars over territory in Italy. Marriage
Emperor Xerexes restored Jerusalem to them. Thus the Jews spread to alliances ensured the relationships between Spanish monarchies and Henry
various places and got settled. Large number of other Jews had left Palestine Viii of England. Isabel and Ferdinand of Spain fallowed the conquest of
to settle at different places in the Mediterranean region. Thus at the beginning Grenada and committed inhuman crimes that the Islamic kingdoms meted out
of the 1st Century AD large Jewish populations got settled in every Roman city to Christians. The Christian rulers used the inquisition to convert to
like in Alexandria, Rome etc. The Jews even with their various settlements Christianity. By the 17th century, along with 900 years of Muslim population,
maintained an identity as a separate community through their monotheism the Jews were expelled on a large-scale. The Jews were tolerated by the
(single invisible god), rituals, dietary rules and observance of a day of rest. Muslims for so long a period and now they dispersed to North Africa, in the
They were also expected to pay regular amounts for the maintenance of Turkish-ruled Balkans and Eastern Europe.
Jerusalem and pay a visit to the city for the Passover Festival. They focused The Palestinian territories had seen many centuries of colonial
on their Synagogue meeting places. Judaism also found many converts. domination and occupation. During the 500 year rule of the Ottoman Empire
Monotheism unlike the pagan religions with many gods associated with the Palestinians not only endured mass oppression but also created a rich
certain localities, had a unifying power for the urban traders, artisans etc, of literary tradition. The First World War thrust the Palestinians under the British
different locations. This could build up a bridge to connect Jewish Empire through the mandate system. However, new urban trade centers like
communities thousands of miles away with feelings of suffering Palestine Ramallah and Nablus emerged. Many news papers like Filastine, Mirat-al-
under the Roman Empire. Yet, when the Jews of Palestine rose in revolt in AD Sharq, and Palestinian Bulletin went into circulation and an atmosphere was
70 they did not find the chorus of rebellion by Jews elsewhere. Here we created to keep the Palestinians posted with the developments from Haifa on
should keep in mind that Christianity emerged on the scene as a version of the coast to Jenin in the North to Jericho near the Dead Sea.
Judaism but incorporated emotive aspects from other religions and infused
new elements on birth, death, love, kindness of a new world etc. However, ARAB NATIONALISM
with the cooption of Christianity by the Roman Empire it threw away its The spread of Islamic faith after the death of Prophet simultaneously
earlier message on purity and poverty, leading to dissidence. What emerged spread Arabic from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Yemen,
as a version of Judaism, the early Christianity dropped strict rules allowing Lebanon, Syria, Jordan of West Asia to African Sudan, Egypt and then to the
people to be more attracted and added popular motifs from the religions as countries South of the Mediterranean Sea like Syria, Tunisia, Algeria,
embodied in the New Testament with lot of contradictions. It could appeal Morocco etc. and in all such states Arabic was adopted as the state language.
poor artisans and trades people along with the rich with power and wealth. Through the struggle first against the rule of Turkey and then against Anglo-
The Christian message initially could provide consolation to the poor as well American imperialism pan-Arab nationalism emerged but that could not
as a sense of betterment for the rich with some provisions of purifying guilt materialize with splits, interventions by Anglo-American-French
through confession, etc. Its power was vastly enhanced by the patronage of conspiracies, betrayal of the Arab rulers since the setting up of the state of
the Roman Empire, the bishops arrogating to the right to confirm the correct Israel. What has come to pass is a chronic rivalry among the Arab states.
version of the doctrine. Heretics arose but the Papal power mingled with the When in 1958, the then president of Egypt, Nasser wanted to build a united
state power and this continued for the next one thousand years. And Judaism Arab world none except Syria responded to it and it too withdrew from this
that once became the universal religion of the masses lost much of its ground bid in 1961. Even against Israel the Arab states had repeatedly proved their
and Jews became scattered communities in Europe with some mythical link weaknesses and submission to imperialist pressures. In 1991 Gulf war, when
with Palestine of the yore. the US was attacking Iraq, no Arab country stood by Iraq. After the defeat in
(1) Though being a Jew, Marx critically studied Judaism and the the war with Israel, the president of Egypt stooped so low to strike up
problems of the Jews. Marx supported the demand for civil rights for Jews, notorious Camp David treaty. And what failed the pan-Arab nationalism was
considering that civil rights would only confer political emancipation, an the statist concept that ignored nationality sentiments of various Arab
insufficient but necessary step towards human emancipation. Going against countries and did not take into account the fact that Arabic is not the mother
the famous German thinker Fichte who argued that the Jews themselves were tongue of the people of most of the Arab countries except that of Jordan,
unwilling to free themselves and that that Christians could not bestow Yemen, Saudi Arabia etc. And the absence of the strong Marxist, left
freedom on Jews, for they themselves were not free, Marx stressed on the fact movements, as present in the 1950s, has made it possible the US conspiracies,
that for enjoying civil rights, the Jews could not be advised to shun Judaism. aggression and domination using Israel as a pro-US client state to loot oil
For Marx religion being a private affair, the state had no right to intervene in resources of the Arab countries.
it. Jews comprised about 1% in Germany and yet had financial power The Arab countries are obviously class divided and in some of them
emanating from successful commerce and trade. For Marx this power enable feudo-religio monarchy prevails. Some of them are quintessentially pro-
the Jews not only to demand civil rights and to infiltrate their social and American. The Saudi monarchy supplies half of USA’s oil needs. It is now
commercial values in the civil society. The state also assimilated those clear that American imperialism endorsed the oil price rises by OPEC in the
values. His criticism of Judaism as a religion was based on dialectical 1970s. What gladdened it was that going to be a move more unjust
materialism posting it in history. mechanism by which many of those oil rich states with greater revenue would
It is a fact that the Jews faced repression when the Roman Empire be greater importer of armaments from the West, the US in particular. It was
adopted Christianity as the state religion, leading to the exodus of many Jews found that by late 1970s Saudi Arabia and Iran topped the list of arms
from Palestine. The Roman Empire created extensive poverty and resorted to Importers from the US and other Western countries. A report in the British
extortionist levels of taxation to pay tribute to Rome. The people rose in revolt media in 2007 said that the British Minister of Defence paid one Billon
against the Romans and the Jewish upper class, the Jewish Kings invited the Pounds to prince Bander of Saudi Arabia fallowing Britons big arms deal with
Romans in 139 BC. Jerusalem saw repeated riots and revolts. Mention may be that country. Briton’s big arms dealer BAE Systems spent up to 120 million
made of a huge guerilla war in the countryside of Galilee led by certain Judas pounds a year in to two Saudi accounts in Washington. A RAMCO (Arabian
who identified himself as the “King of Jews”. In a near uprising against King American Oil Company) operates the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and this
Herod, about 3000 were said to have died. It must be made it clear that like in company receives ample favor from the USA.
Christianity, class differences were quite obivious in various interpretations
of Jewish religion like the Sadducee School, Pharisee School, the Essenes Arab Summit and Failure of pan-Arab Unity
School etc. After the Crusade many further went into exile. However, during Avraham Sela in his well researched book [The Decline of Arab-Israeli
the rule of Salauddin many Jews came back to Palestine. Conflict Middle East Politics and the Quest for Regional Order, State
Jerusalem then became a center of competing religions of different University of New York Press, 1998] concluded that after more than 20
classes in respect of the Roman Empire. The Jews, even before Christ were summit conferences between 1964 and 1990 of Arab states basically to
dispersed people. Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors had deported the diffuse intra-state problems vis a vis Israel along with the general call for a
ruling classes of the Jewish states of Israel and Judea to Mesopotamia 500 solution to Palestinian question the ethno-national identity was distinctly
years ago, many had not even returned even when the Persian Emperor Xerex giving way to economic considerations. And a shift from ‘Pan-Arab regional
Jerusalem to them. Many Jews had left Palestine to settle in the system’ was already visible despite trails of affinity firmly rooted in cultural
Mediterranean region. It was found that by the 1st century AD large Jewish bonds. The entry of US imperialism and then another super power the Soviet
populations in about every Roman city as scattered communities. Yet, over Union could do enough to fish in the troubled waters, to the satisfaction of
centuries the Jews maintained their identity as a separate community with Israel. The world war 11 saw the emergence of the Arab League (1945) as an
their belief in a single god, dietary rules etc. expression of Arab sentiments for a commanality of objectives but of disunity

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remained in it as the British government had a direct role to protect its oil breathing into the Palestinian society a spirit of rebellion simultaneously
interest. So it is natural that after more than half a century it is clear that Pan- sending out a powerful message that the American-sponsored status-quo over
Arabian, anti-imperialism through united Arab moves, Arab socialism have Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as the right of
given way to splits, contentions and regional hegemony while the Palestinian self-determination of the Palestinians was no longer an answer. The first
question has not at all lost any relevance till date. The first Arab summit in Intifada or the massive and sustained uprising in the West Bank of Gaza,
1964, and the next two, tried to move away from the inter-Arab struggle for massive in its grand sweep and after 9 months, 221 Palestinians were killed,
hegemony and resort instead to collective Arab action to deal with thee river thousands sustained bullet injuries and more than 6,000 West bank and Gaza
water problem (along with denial of water to Israel ), the establishment of a Palestinians were held in detention, wrote the New York Times, 19 August,
joint Arab command and initiation of action to organize the Palestine 1988. The ferocity of Israeli attacks can be found from a report presented at
politically. This could happen in a short-lived unity of the Arab countries and the UNO General Assembly in ….. 2006 that between June and November
intensified struggle of Palestinians. There also happened temporary unions of 2006 alone, Israel killed over 400 Palestinians and injured 1500, conducting
Syria and Egypt to form United Arab Republic (UAR) and of the UAR and 364 military incursions into Gaza.
Iraq. All Arab countries at least rhetorically has shown eagerness for the The pressure of the people’s support to the Intifada so monumental that
Palestinian cause and anti-imperialist struggle. However, a strong radical the Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Emirates had to come with financial aid to the
trend was emerging in the Arab states.There was a psychological defeat of the Palestinians. US imperialism received the rude shock when it realized that the
Arab states after Egypt’s Six Day War of June 1967 with Israel met with Intifada was going to be a sustained and organized one. It made no delay in
dismal defeat. The acceptance of United Nations Security Council Resolution producing a plan with its focus on the Palestinian self-rule minus self-
No. 242 by Egypt and Jordan in November 1967 brought about clear splits determination.
among Arab states. The world saw the Islamic Summit in September 1969 The Oslo Peace Accord between Israel and the PLO in 1990 promised
organised by Egypt with the US support, which was boycotted by Syria and some rights on paper some rights on Palestinian’s right to central Jerusalem’s
Iraq. In that very year in December another Summit at Rabat took cognizance Islamic shrines, restrictions on the Jewish settlements etc. But the Israeli
of the boost to Palestinian nationalism, getting strengthened in the post 1967 government led by Barak ultimately gave a noisy burial to such promises in
period. But the betrayal was soon evident in the summer of 1970 when the 2000 itself, with intensified terror on the Palestinians.
Jordanian Army demolished the Palestinian camps that were launching battle
against Israeli Zionists, in Amman. It was clearly at the prodding of the U.S. Zionism and Expanding Israeli Territory
Many Arab states fumed and snapped relations with Jordan. However, the Mohmmed Hasnain in his book The Road to Ramadan (Collins, London,
Egyptian declaration of a war on October 6 in 1973 surprised Israel, downed 1975) records a peace mission that Romanian foreign minister undertook to
its self-confidence and a bitter taste of humiliation. However, Egypt knuckled Egypt in 1968 after catastrophic losses at the hands of Israel in 1967. Gamel
under pressure and it along with Jordan signed the shameful Disengagement Abdel Nasser, the then Egyptian president raised a simple question to the
of Forces Agreement on January 18, 1974. The Arab unity was officially peace mission if Israel could place before him and the world a clear map
broken for ever. Soon Syria invaded Lebanon and then the 1975 civil war displaying the final boundaries of the Zionist state. Heikal, the Egyptian
(between the Christians and Muslims), which killed 50,000 people, was statesman and journalist, writes that the peace effort failed with Israel’s
evidently a US-Israeli ploy. Abraham Sela writes, “The Syrian invasion of strong disinclination to answer to the Nasser poser. When Israel’s Prime
Lebanon was preceded by tacit understanding with Israel, meditated by the Minister Ehud Olmert announced that Israel would define its boundaries by
United States, on a ‘Red Line’ delineating their respective spheres of military 2010, one can simply dismiss such a pronouncement given the expansionist
presence on Lebanese soil” [ pp. 180-181]. The Syrian army confronted with record of the Zionist regime. Olmert, as leader of the Kadima party won the
the PLO in Lebanon created a considerable stir that, however, was elections in January 2006; he was the successor of the notorious Ariel Sharon
temporarily y pacified by another Arab Summit in October 1976 but the stage who openly told his belief in a Greater Israel stretching from the River Jordan
was set for a substantive move by the PLO in 1977. By this time when the to the Mediterranean. Olmert announced in the late 1980’s, when the
Palestinian question got an enormous boost the US diplomatically Palestinian Intifida was just incipient that the Arab “demographic threat
maneuvered with a clear Soviet support (The US –Soviet communiqué of represents a danger to all our forms of life.” Irrespective of under what party
October 1, 1977) that culminated in Egypt’s November 20,1977 Israel is ruled, the expanding Israeli borders are a reality. But one thing is clear
reconciliatory tête-à-tête with Israel further aggravating the fragile Arab that Israel has been passing through acute economic problems and widening
unity vis a vis Israel. In this meeting Israel could neutralize the Egyptian economic disparities. Some small political formations have questioned the
factor and formally put forward a plan for Palestine autonomy in the West various Zionist policies, vast expenditure for building illegal Jewish
Bank and Gaza Strip, rejecting the sovereignty over those areas by the Settlements, military expenditures and some even raise the demand to declare
Palestinians. The infamous Camp David Accord was the outcome of this Israel a bi-national state.
reconciliation .The Arab camp was distinctly shattered with Morocco, Sudan, With the US support and all sorts of favour Israel has so long met the
Somalia, Oman and Tunisia supporting the Egyptian President’s Anwar resistance of the Palestinians with its patented racist tactics of demolition of
Sadat’s signing the Accord while strong denunciation coming as it did Palestinian homes, population transfer, calculated assassinations of
quickly from Syria, Iraq, Libya, Algeria Yemen (PDRY) and of course from Palestinian leaders and economic siege.
the PLO. The explicitly pro-US states like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Gulf
Emirates kept a calculated mum over such a betrayal. But the politics of ENCIRCLEMENT OF PALESTINIANS AND
summitry was yet again revived by a Iraqi initiative in 1978, that formed an
Arab Fund of $ 3.5 billion a year for 10 years for the states involved in THEIR PERRENNIAL RESISTANCE
confrontation, the PLO and the Palestinians in the occupied areas and decided Palestinian society, politics and economy have been further atomized
a sanction to be imposed against Egypt if it signed a formal peace treaty with (fragmentation of Palestine people) and brutalized since the Oslo agreement
Israel. But the consensus soon vanished with the Iraq-Iran war two years later. of 1993. The Palestinians in Gaza and West bank are now in starvation with
Yet another Arab summit was convened on 20, 1979 in Tunis but no decision skyrocketing unemployment and all-pervading terror. The Oslo Agreement
on sanctions against Egypt was taken along with this a proposal to consider that Arafat and other reconciliatory leaders were too eager to strike up and
sanctions against the US finances, aid to Lebanon and to the states involved signed with a false image of the future have since legalized Israel’s Zionist
was further deferred. The Arab summit in 1980 in Amman was simply programme and in a good measure truncated the earlier cohesiveness and the
boycotted by Syria, Lebanon, Algeria and the PLO. By this type Israel chorus of mass-scale resistance power for the right of self-determination of
stepped up its move to fish in the troubled waters in Lebanon, supporting the Palestinians. The earlier robust nationalist struggle against the Israeli
openly the Lebanese Christian in the civil war. The Iraq-Iran war, Egypt’s occupation, with the left leaning, secular ideological moorings eminently
betrayal and then the ostracisation of it, the invasion of Lebanon by Israel in tangible as leading lights have taken the back seat and the current struggle,
1982 and the pathetic plight of the people there temporarily marginalize the obviously uncompromising and sticking to the fundamental demand of self-
decades long Palestinian question. The next Arab summits only showed the determination, is basically led by forces with various strains of religious
splits of Arab states and US maneuvers to outshine the Soviet imperialists in nationalism embedded in Islamic milieu. The first Intifida in 1991 with mass
the Middle East. The PLO under Yasser Arafat too gradually bent itself after rebellion scared the Zionists and Uncle Sam in particular. The Oslo
the dispersal of its bases in Lebanon, in 1985 Arafat and King Hussein signed Agreement they considered as a crying need to contain another higher level of
the Amman Accord for a peace process, and in 1988 Arafat conceded the upsurge and they met with a success with power- happy moderate leaders like
question of negotiations with Israel. Yaser Arafat surrendering to the conspitorial pressures for accepting Israeli
But what the politics Pan-Arabian or frequent summits failed to deliver. terms and conditions for further subjugation of the Palestinians. Western
The first Intifida starting in December 1987 could do eminently. The media and imperialists hurriedly cheered up those leaders but what came up
uprisings from inside occupied territories decisively altered the scenario ostensibly as a settlement for the Palestinian question was in reality an
unbridled, stepped-up campaign to radically alter the demographic character
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of Gaza and East Bank and to calculatedly set up disintegrated hamlets of and strangulation of Palestinian rights increased. The PLA also did its
Palestinians encircled by Jew population with military restrictions at every notorious duty to wield control over the Palestinian society with its armed
point on the Palestinians on their free movements. The criminal design and its measures, political repression and authoritarianism to fulfill Israeli demands
consequence greatly emasculated the joint move of thousands of Palestinians of containment of Palestinian’s unputdownable desire of self-determination.
against the Zionist rule. The scope of mass resistance being profusely Arafat became a willing tool of imperialist designs and he went on record on 9
curtailed, the Palestinian fighters have since then resorted mainly to armed September 1993 that “the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts
attacks in groups as well as suicide attacks on the Israeli armed forces. (3)Yet of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and
what is significant is that despite the lack of a unified strategy Palestinians personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and
stubbornly refused to surrender and the just struggle is on against Israeli discipline violators.” This speech bristles with reconciliatory desires of abject
Zionists and their imperialist masters. surrender and assurance to the West and Israel’s Zionist government to their
The Israeli inhuman policy hinders the duty of strangulating all forms of resistance
free movement of the Palestinians, using by the Palestinians, a fall out of the Oslo
hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints Agreement. This also was an infamous bid
that now exist 546 in total. Thus the to legitimize Israeli’s acts of strangulating
interactions or any accessibility between the struggle for self-determination by the
Gaza and West Bank or between Israel and Palestinians, forcibly occupying their
the outside world have been forcibly territories, disintegrating the Palestinian
stopped. With the second Intifada the communities and robbing the Palestinians
regimentation of the Israeli rule and of their right to free movement. Thus the
atomization of Palestinians have been Palestinian self-government under the PLO
further intensified robbing them of emerging as it did through the Oslo
minimum rights to existence. The Agreement proved a puppet to the
conspiracy of discriminatory zoning against satisfaction of the Pentagon. The
the Palestinians has devastated the Palestinian Authority (PA) became an
Palestinian economy and the relentless organization of corrupt bureaucrats with
checks and obstructions have even negated powers of patronage and cooperation,
the people normal shopping, having health forcing thousands of Palestinians
care facilities, schooling of the children, dependent on it for jobs and quelling all
cultivation of the land etc. The migrant trade union movements. One recalls that
working class has now been excluded from even during Camp David negotiations in
jobs n Israel. However, the creamy layers of July, 2000 Arafat could not go to that extent
self-seeking Palestinian leaders do have of servility.
some relaxations. The principle groups that now lead the
Since January 2006 when Hamas won resistance are Hamas (most prominent and
in the elections in Palestine, Palestinians powerful), Popular Front for the Liberation
have been further reduced to harsher of Palestine (PFLF) and Democratic Front
treatment and economic blockades and for the Liberation of Palestine.
international sanctions compounded the Other than sporadic attacks, the current
problems for the Palestinians. forms of struggle are, suicide attacks,
Colonization by Israeli Jews on a mass massive candle light marches, funeral
scale in the occupied Palestinian territories processions the concept of mass resistance
is a state-sponsored programme. In 200 in the form of uprising has been reduced.
during the Ehud Barak government,
colonization vastly increased with the Hamas Victory
construction of about 4,800 new housing In January 2006 legislative elections
units. Such land grabs under colonization Hamas received the popular support of
process in Palestinian territorial contiguity most of the Palestinians defeating the
is shattered. With the rapid pace of land Fatah. Its Reform and Change
grabs in 2007, 450,000 settlers had seized announcement unambiguously reiterated
lands in West Bank and East Jerusalem. The the right of self-determination of the
notorious development is the 703 km Wall, Palestinian people in Gaza and West Bank
nearly completed, incorporating the most of along with the inalienable right of defence
the Israeli settlements, 85 percent of it of the Palestinian people. However, it
covers the west Bank, annexing 16 percent continues to stick to its programme of
of its territory. It is estimated that with the Islamising the Palestinian society which
completion of the Wall over 400,000 has received the support of only a minority
Palestinians would be surrounded partially of 13 percent. Its broad welfare programme
or completely. The demographic change in the in the occupied Palestinian apart, its determination to carry on the struggle has breathed a militant spirit in
territory was tellingly brought by the International Court of Justice in July the hearts of the Palestinians. The Hamas victory has so much scared US
2004 itself showing that in that Territory 320,000 individuals from Israel imperialism and its Zionist Israeli government that all forms of attacks on the
outnumbered 237,000 Palestinians and the Wall would force around 160,000 Hamas, even on the elected representatives, have been the order of the day.
other Palestinians to reside encircled by other communities. The Wall, for The US is toying to topple the Hamas rule.
example that surrounds the Qalquiliya city of 40, 000 Palestinian people, Neoliberalism’s attack with the Globalization programme was
who can only enter and leave through one military checkpoint open everyday synchronized with the US supremacy on the globe. (2)Bush’s declaration of
from 7am to 7pm. ‘war on terror’ placing ‘Islamism’ or even ‘Islam’ as the ‘enemy of the West’
Frequent invasions of Palestinian areas, assassinations and destruction in situation of retreat of the revolutionary Marxists has created conditions for
of Palestinian properties, killing of Palestinians have been regular the radical Islamism. As anti-Americanism and the anti-US struggle is
phenomena. The Zionist government forces of Israel killed 4,000 demonstratively launched after all-out attack inflicted on Muslims, the
Palestinians since the al-Aqsa Intifida and thousands are still in Israeli religio-social-economic factors have blended to do the main battle in Iraq,
prisons. The ferocity of Israeli attacks can be found from a report presented at Afghanistan, Palestine, etc, as a significant force. Although we Marxist prefer
the UNO General Assembly in 2006 that Between June and November 2006 socialist secular forces.
alone Israel killed over 400 Palestinians and injured 1500, conducting 364 Huntington’s theorization of the clash of civilizations, ranging Europe
military incursions in to Gaza. plus America with Christianity against the Muslims in West Asia and other
regions of the world is an international conspiracy and Israel is mainly the US
base in the Middle East to ensure the supply of oil from the Gulf countries.
Capitulation of the PLO/PA The American ‘War on Terror’ programme that is basically spearheaded
With the assumption of power by the PLO, the persistent Israeli attacks against the Muslims, in the absence of the powerfully revolutionary left on
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the globe right now, is to control the oil fields and service the geo-political succession of nuclear tests, particularly with South Africa. Now it
interests of the US in Asia. Islam-phobia is deliberately spread to buttress the possesses a large number of nuclear weapons along with a large stockpile of
US hegemony. Interestingly, the burgeoning capitalism in Europe and the chemical and biological weapons. [Hersh, Seymour. M , “The Samson
financial imperialism did not pit Christianity against Islam to a scale as found Option: Israel’s Nuclear Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American
in the present stage of imperialist globalization. The reason lies in the Foreign Policy”, Random House, New York, 1991]
resistance against the US, particularly by the Muslims living in West Asia. Israel and American imperialism are desperate to capitalize on the
The Middle East, with its huge oil reserves, has been the most covetous Hamas-Fatah contradictions. On 14 June 2007, the Hamas army even rooted
region for the imperialist powers. Britain first extended its sway in the Middle out Dahalan’s apparatus and took over the internal security of Gaza. The
East during World War I by striking a deal with the ruler of Mecca, Sharrif intra-group clashes invited strong criticisms and the Hamas bid to resolve
Hussein, assuring him all the territories ruled by Turkey. The British such contradictions through recourse to arms was not taken kindly by various
government simultaneously promised Zionist leaders that it would allocate Palestinian organizations. Abbas exploited Hamas’s strategic blunder,
Palestine to the Jewish settlers from Europe. The vision of a Jewish state in declared a national emergency, dissolved the unity government and instead
Palestine even before the Holocaust under Nazism was farsighted in view of a formed a new government by US barrowed Salam Fayyad, to the satisfaction
future Arab threat to the nearby Suez Canal, the shortest route to the transport of the US and Israel. Thus the political separation between a Hamas run Gaza
of oil and armed forces against the emerging Arab nationalism. It was not and a PA run West Bank has come as further disintegrating the Palestinians.
without reason that the prominent Israeli political leader Abba Eban had it to The need of the hour is a comprehensive strategy unifying all genuinely anti-
confirm later: “We would help Britain become the ruling power and Britain Israel, anti-US forces to launch attacks on the Zionist government and to
would help us to develop the Jewish National Home.” thwart all US bids for meddling in the affairs of the Middle East.
The British imperialist policy of double-dealing did not last long. Initially The US threat of using arms twisting is actually its foreign policy as
British firms got their hands on the oil resources of Iraq and Iran while Jewish regards the Middle East. In 2003, Bush met the Palestinian leader Mahmood
Volunteers in Palestine sided with the British sided with the British to Abbas and told the Palestinians that action must be taken quickly to
suppress revolts of the Palestinians that had assumed serious dimensions in implement the one-sided roadmap that the American administration had
the 1930’s. And then the British imperialist policy started to backfire. There drawn up. Bush swore by Christian God and said idiotically and arrogantly
were large- scale acquisition of lands by the Jewish settlers in Palestine “God told me to strike at al-Quaida and I struck them. And he instructed me to
making hundreds of peasant families leave their lands to which they had their strike out at Saddam, which I did. And now I am determined to solve the
roots tied over centuries. In the late 1930’s, circumstances forced the British problem in the Middle.
government to restrict Jewish immigration in order to dispel the fear and
diffuse the discontent among the Palestinians. This policy simply Gaza 2008-09 : The Carnage Continues
antagonized both sides. Both the Jews and Palestinians had been farming Victims of Israeli air raids are 312 while wounded are up to 1000.Around
paramilitary groups for the past two decades. The British army now faced 80 air raids took place in Gaza strip from the early morning of Sunday ,
double blows, from the Jewish as well as Palestinian side. The Arabs December 31-2008: till 7pm in the evening. Around 300 air raids in the last 2
intensified their attacks on the British army. The escape route was apparently days. Trauma spreads across Gaza residents especially children due to the
found in the withdrawal of British troops in 1947 but the British interests in loud noise of the heavy bombing of F16s.Israeli air forces bombarded 40
the oilfields were served by the British puppets, the monarchies in Iraq, targets across the strip including civil and security buildings. Israeli F16
Jordan and Egypt. With the British withdrawal, the major powers, the US and bombarded 2 mosques in Khan Yonis City.
the Soviet Union jointly backed a United Nations resolution on Apache Helicopters hit commercial shops at Jabalia town leaving many
dismemberment of Palestine and establishment of Israel with half of children injured. Israeli F16 bombarded a house of a Hamas key leader east of
Palestinian land area for one third of its population. The original centuries old Khan Yunis City. Israeli F16s raided south of Rafah destroying more than 40
Palestinians became the victims of this dangerous bid. The US profusely tunnels. One Palestinian and Egyptian solider killed in exchange of fire in
supplied arms to the Israeli army that started attacks on the Palestinian Arab Rafah City. Many Palestinians tried to cross the borders with Egypt but failed
villages. In Deir Yassin, a village had seen the brute massacres. At this point, due to excessive presence of Egyptian forces. Rafah Crossing still closed and
the Arab monarchies sent an ill-organized army that could only grab a mere 20 casualties unable to leave for Egypt to get treatment.
percent of original land and it was divided between the kings of Egypt and More troops, tanks and heavy guns arrived on Gaza borders. Israel vows
Jordan. Now Israel could be the Zionist state, armed and financed by the to ground invasion soon. Israel calls up 6500 reserve soldiers for the military
USA. operation in Gaza. Around 24 homemade light rockets fired from Gaza hit the
In Egypt the nationalist forces utilized the anti-monarchy sentiments and bordering areas of Gaza. The rockets hit Asklon and Ashdod leaving a few
defeat at the hands of Israel. Abdul Nasser rose to power ending the rule of wounded. Air raid killed a man and a woman in Al zaytoun area at the centre
pro-British monarchy. Nasser’s immediate effort to nationalize Suez Canal of Gaza City.Six Israeli heavy missiles launched by F16 destroyed "Al Safina
owned by Britain and France led to the joint attacks of Britain, France and security Bulidng" which was previously the compound of Palestinian
Israel in November 1956. Nasser retreated but entered US imperialism intelligence in Gaza. Around 40 civic targets were hit today by Israel. Some of
exploiting the declining British strength in the Middle East. The anti-British the targets where houses and some others are charities. Israel hits mobile
movements spread and immediately the British backed Iraqi monarchy was targets such as motorcycles and cars in Gaza. Therefore, people are confined
replaced in 1958. The US carried on the old British policy of wooing and to their houses. Israeli heavy bomb hit Al-Shati Refugee camp Police station.
arming the Zionists along with collaborating with the Arab client regimes. Some civilians injured in the densely populated camp. Air raid destroyed Al
Saudi Arabian monarchy became its main support base. Saddam Hussein was shija'ya police station early in the morning. Israeli air raids destroyed a truck
allowed to occupy the seat of power in Iraq in 1962 and in Iran the Us helped carrying fuel in Rafah City causing a fire which destroyed around 20 t0 30
to re- establish the rule of the Shah in 1953. Thus the Middle East came under houses early in the morning on Sunday. Israeli Air force destroyed Al Saraya
the US hegemony. Israel’s power was tremendously enhanced. The Arab- security compound leaving some of the prisoners dead and causing extensive
Israeli war of 1967 and 1977 are too known to repeat here. Israel invaded damage to the compound. Many workshops destroyed due to Air raids in
Lebanon in1982. And the US directly entered the scene by invading Iraq in Gaza and Mid areas.
1991 and again in 2005 and still occupying it. And in all such surcharged OXFAM organization announced inability of running their functioning
situations Israel proved to be the main US base to ensure the steady supply oil due to the Gaza attack. Demonstrations across the West Bank leaving 2
wealth for the US. Palestinians dead. Jordanian lawmakers burnt Israeli flag in the parliament
Since 1967 war Israel still occupied some parts of Jordan and Syria. But while Lebanese protesters tried to break into the Egyptian embassy in
those states and Saudi Arabia have persistently fallowed US dictates. During Bairout. Protests took place in the Arab countries of Yemen, Egypt, Sudan,
the Gorbachev period eight lack Russian Jews immigrated to Israel. The Syria and Iraq. Meantime, heavy shelling and air raids at Jabalia Camp.10
deliberate policy of establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza and West Bombings in Khanyonis City.
Bank areas of Palestine has been fallowed with the aim that if autonomy is The massacre in Gaza continues unabated. So far, 600 people have
ultimately given to those regions the Jews will dominate the scene. been killed of them 89 are children and 30 are women. The ground
George Bush lied to the people that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had invasion is in full swing, and the Times of London reported that Israeli
nuclear and biological weapons. But Israel developed into a nuclear power army is firing white phosphorus shells. The phosphorus in the smoke-
with the imperialists’ (basically the US) support. In 1949 French nuclear emitting shells causes agonizing, unquenchable burns, sometimes
scientist Francis Perrin came to Israel and helped locate Uranium in the searing flesh right down to the bone. This weapon was previously used by
Negev desert, in 1952 Israel formed Atomic Energy Commission, in 1953 US army in the assault on Fallujah.
came the Israeli-French nuclear cooperation, in 1955 the US joined the Reprehend the genocide designed by Israel and USA, Stand for
nuclear cooperation, in 1966 Israel did its nuclear tests in Negev, in 1968 the Free Palestine, Fight against the retrogressing imperialism.
CIA confirmed that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, then occurred a ashrujit@yahoo.com
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Remembering Com. Anuradha A revolutionary is born
She started her political life at Elphinstine College Mumbai in 1972.
Gandhi! Those days, in 1971, urban Mumbai was not oblivious to the bitter realities of
people struggling, facing one of the worst famines that had struck rural
Remembering a beautiful life! Maharashtra. The young Anuradha was deeply affected by the horrors of
famine that had ravaged the lives of the rural poor. The beauty of the
If you fall
one evening twilight,
indomitable spirit of the wretched to stay alive, even in such miserable man-
eat-man conditions, not to lose hope in a bottomless pit had stirred her entire
you should fall like a sun, being as she along with a group of students witnessed the beastly face of the
and behind you thousands of shooting stars. famine. This had left a deep impression on her about the hard realities of
They say that how you are everyday life in rural India.
born is not remarkable. But how It was this concern for the well-being of the poverty stricken masses that
you live and die certainly is. drew her to revolutionary politics. Unable to tolerate the poverty and
Com. Anuradha Gandhi’s life humiliation that the poor faced, she sought answers. Soon she began taking
has left an indelible mark on part in college activities and social work among the poor. While active
many; it was a life of such high amongst students, she came in touch with the student organisation
moral, ethical, political and PROYOM—Progressive Youth Movement—which was inspired by the then
ideological standards that her Naxalite movement. She became one of its active members, and later one of
death has left a void in the its leaders. Work in the slums helped her interact with the dalit movement.
revolutionary movement of The horrors of untouchability, the agony of dalit oppression led her to seek
India. answers to it. It was at the same time that she read voraciously and gained a
It was a hope that was deep knowledge of Marxism as a touchstone to understand the basis of the
suddenly broken, when on the oppressive and exploitative caste system and all the other ills of society.
morning of April 12 2008, The post-Emergency period saw her becoming one of the leading figures
Anuradha breathed her last, at of the civil liberties movement in the country. Com. Anuradha was one of the
the relatively young age of 54. initiators of the Committee for the Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR)
The revolutionary movement in in Maharashtra. She played a prominent role in the famous Civil Liberties
India and the oppressed masses Conference held in 1977 at Delhi, demanding the release of political
in general would remember her prisoners, which included such leading lights as V.M.Tarkunde, Govinda
martyrdom with a clutch of grief Mukhoty, Subba Rao, Sudesh Vaid and even some ruling class elements as
and pain. But it certainly is not George Fernandez and Arun Shourie. She was one of the leading persons in
the time for despair. The revolutionary movement always waits for the new the civil liberties movement in the country till she left for Nagpur from
day… Mumbai in 1982.
Com. Anuradha had just returned after spending a week in Jharkhand While teaching at the Nagpur University she actively participated in, and
taking classes amongst the tribals on the question of women’s oppression. played a leading role in the trade union and dalit movements in the region. As
Little did she suspect, on April 6, that the high fever that had gripped her the movement grew militant, several times she was put behind the bars. Later,
would kill. The local pathologist could not trace any malarial infection in the at the call of the revolutionary movement, she went to Bastar, and on
blood. Instead, a local doctor treated her for stomach upset. Little did she returning she took up the responsibility once again of building the
know that it was the killer falciparum malaria, griping her entire being, revolutionary movement of the most oppressed masses in Maharashtra. For
already weakened by systemic sclerosis, an auto-immune disease that had the last 15 years, she has been working for the most downtrodden, braving
affected her hands and been slowly eating into her heart and lungs. Little did state repression, until her sudden and untimely demise.
she speak of that incurable disease, the systemic sclerosis that had been with At the time of her death, Com. Anuradha was studying the problems
her for over five years. The exigencies of the revolutionary movement, the facing the women comrades in the revolutionary movement. She was deeply
difficulties of life on the edges of our society, in the thin margin that separates involved in the enquiry of the varied forms of patriarchy that women had to
life and death, had given her few options for proper medical attention. Yet her face every day, so as to devise a way, a method to enable the women comrades
waning health never deterred Anuradha from what she wanted to be, what she to grow to greater leadership responsibilities. Her very last task was taking a
wanted to do. It was the commitment to the masses and revolution that got class of the leading women activists from Jharkhand, mostly from tribal
transformed into labour and labour with the same ardour as before. backgrounds, to explain the decisive role of women in revolutionary social
transformation. Her untimely and premature death will have an impact on the
As the poet in the guerrilla says: revolutionary movement in the country, particularly on women’s work in the
No, she did not laugh at death. revolutionary movement as also the development of work in Maharashtra.
It was just that she was not afraid to die A Renowned Leader of the Downtrodden
Of Malaria, tuberculosis, sclerosis … During the late 1970s, Com. Anuradha was in the forefront of the
countrywide civil liberties movement. Her magnetic and persuasive
On 11th, another blood test had confirmed the presence of falciparum personality made many well-known intellectuals and prominent citizens
malaria. On that morning she appeared fine, though inside, the dreaded come forward to endorse statements and campaigns condemning draconian
falciparum bacteria had already started the dance of death affecting her lungs, laws and violations of democratic rights. In the early 1980s, with the clarion
heart and kidney. She was put on oxygen and later life-support systems in the call of the revolutionary movement in Gadchiroli District of Maharashtra,
hospital, but barely within an hour her systems began failing. While on there was the need to spread the message of revolution from Mumbai to
oxygen, she was conscious, with her eyes wide open. The same soft eyes, Vidarbha. As already mentioned, it was Com. Anuradha who shifted to
deep as the ocean, though in acute pain, with the probable knowledge that she Nagpur, a place totally unknown to her. With her record as a good lecturer, she
was sinking. As usual Anuradha was right. The end came the next morning. soon landed a job of teaching sociology to post-graduate students in Nagpur
University. She divided her time working in Vidarbha primarily between
I remain a song dedicated to trade unions and amongst the dalit community.
the revolution In the trade union work, she focused on the construction workers and led
This thirst will end only with my life many a militant struggle. Most notable was the protracted strike at the
--Cherabandaraju Khaparkheda thermal power plant (30 km from Nagpur) being constructed by
about 5,000 workers. The police resorted to firing and imposed curfew in the
region. She also organised the molkarins (household labour) of Nagpur,
Anuradha Gandhi’s commitment to the cause of revolution was workers in the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC)
unshakeable, no matter what the ups and downs. Being with the incipient companies at Hingna (Nagpur), railway workers, beedi workers in Bhandara,
revolutionary movement right from her college days in the early 1970s, she powerloom workers at Kamptee (15 km from Nagpur) and other workers in
gave up a career as a brilliant student and teacher, dedicating her entire life to the unorganised sector. Later she shifted to Chandrapur to help organise the
the revolution. At the time of her martyrdom, as per press reports, Com. coal-mine and construction workers there. Most of these unorganised sector
Anuradha Gandhi had risen to become a member of the Central Committee of workers had no basic trade union rights and were totally ignored by the
the Communist Party of India (Maoist). It is reported that in the 9th Congress- traditional unions. She also developed links for joint activities with other
Unity Congress, she was the single woman comrade to be elected to its progressive trade union leaders of the region, from Nagpur, Chandrapur,
Central Committee. Amravati, Jabalpur, Yeotmal and other surrounding centres. In the course of
A supreme labour that spanned about three decades and a half, Com these struggles, she was arrested and put behind bars several times in Nagpur
Anuradha contributed much to the ideological, political and organisational jail. In spite of her job as a lecturer at the Nagpur University, she became a
development of the revolutionary movement in the country. She was a renowned revolutionary trade union leader of the region.
founder-member of the CPI (ML) Party in Maharashtra. Her work among the dalit community, organising and awakening them
against caste oppression, for liberation from this oppressive system was an

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ideal example for any revolutionary Marxist. It had the stamp of a attracted to the revolutionary movement by the impact of that Conference
pioneering revolutionary Marxist to have addressed the issue of dalit and the cultural performances. Many in the region remember her fondly from
oppression and caste discrimination at a very early stage. The terrible those days.
humiliation that dalits faced due to untouchability and other forms of Yet, her most effective impact was taking revolutionary politics to the
inhuman discrimination drew her to study deeply the caste question in India dalit community and arousing revolutionary consciousness among them. She
as well as the writings of Ambedkar. Com. Anuradha owned the cause of the lived and worked amongst the dalits of the region day-and-night. She also
dalits from a very early period, at a time when dalit issues were not in vogue as helped build the women’s organisations in Nagpur and Chandrapur.
in the present, and was anathema in most Marxist circles.
Unlike the traditional Marxists, she fully identified with dalits and in fact
moved her Nagpur residence to one of the largest dalit bastis of Mahrashtra, The Call of Bastar
Indora. Though this was a stronghold of most of the dalit leaders, her incisive The revolutionary message of the movement in Dandakaranya was taken
knowledge of Ambedkar and other sociological writings on the caste question to the rest of Vidarbha, to the most deprived, oppressed and exploited masses.
seen in the light of Marxism drew large sections of the youth to the The revolutionary movement was looking for a new day. It needed the
revolutionary movement. The cultural troupes, in particular, had enormous services of comrades like Anuradha deep inside the jungles in Bastar. As
impact. She grew to become the open face of the Maoists in the dalit usual, true to her self, without flinching, Com. Anuradha responded to the call
movement and one of the major public speakers at most dalit functions in to shift base to Bastar. In the second half of the 1990s, she spent three years
Vidarbha. living amongst the tribals of Bastar. She went out of her way to gather many a
She wrote profusely on the topic in both English and Marathi, presenting Ph D study on the Gond tribals for the revolutionary movement of
a class view-point of the issue and countering not only the numerous post- Dandakaranya. One would always recall her saying with utmost conviction
modernist trends on this count but the wrong Marxist that these three years were one of the most fulfilling in her life where she
interpretations of the dalit and caste questions as well. learned about the lives and struggles of the Gond
The most elaborate article on the issue was a 25-page The 'Naxalite menace', the tribals of Bastar. She keenly studied their lives, the
piece in Marathi that appeared in Satyashodhak PM says, is the biggest painstaking ways in which the movement was built,
Marxvad (the organ of Sharad Patil from Dhule) threat to the nation. But I particularly focusing on the lives of the women, their
explaining the Marxist standpoint on the dalit question remember a girl who gave organisations, the KAMS (Krantikari Adivasi Mahila
linking dalit liberation with the task of the New up a rich life to change lives Sanghathan) and the women in the detachments.
Democratic Revolution (NDR) in the country. Till date, All this was happening amidst heavy state
this article is quoted by many. Jyoti Punwani repression, at a time when the armed contingents of the
Many years later, it was based on her original draft Times of India mercenary para-military forces were tracking every
that the erstwhile CPI (ML) (PW) prepared the first ever inch of the Bastar forests. Yes, living life on the edge
caste policy paper within the revolutionary Marxist was the norm for the revolutionary. Com. Anuradha
movement in India. This draft had categorically outlined that in India the had once a narrow escape after coming under the cross-hairs of the gun of the
democratisation of society is inconceivable without smashing the elitist caste repressive police. But this is the hard reality of India today. To be with the
system and fighting all forms of caste oppressions, most particularly, its masses, to understand them and be like them is also to place yourself in risk of
crudest form ¾ untouchability. Many of the views expressed by her then in being killed. As today, the forests, hills and valleys of India have become the
the mid-90s have become the core of the understanding of the present hunting ground of the predators in the form of Multi-National Corporations,
revolutionary movement. Comprador bureaucrat capital, the greedy politician ready to take any crumbs
Besides these two fields of work in Nagpur, there were many notable thrown at them. To be with the poorest of the poor in the richest of the forests,
events in which she played a pioneering role. Below we mention only two valleys and hills is at your own peril. All these valleys, rivers, forests and hills
such examples, which left an indelible revolutionary impact on the are being sold off for a pittance to fill the coffers of the politicians, and other
consciousness of the people of Vidarbha. The first was the Kamlapur greedy hucksters.
Conference of 1984; the second was the proposed cultural programme of Com. Anuradha spent most of her time in the Byramgadh area, which has
Gaddar in 1992. Both these events had a major impact on spreading been in the limelight for facing the brunt of the Salwa Judum attacks. Though,
revolutionary views widely all over Vidarbha. The Kamlapur Conference during her stay, she contracted malaria a number of times, it was never the
was organised deep in the forests of Gadchiroli by the incipient Naxalite dangerous falciparum kind; besides, she was in the good care of the local
movement in the region. A massive campaign, led by Anuradha, was carried tribal people who showed great concern for her. Her tenacity to stay in such
out all over Vidarbha, while the armed squads did a huge mobilisation within difficult conditions astounded and impressed even the local tribals who
the forests. Though the conference was ruthlessly crushed by the police, would time and again remark on how, at her age, she had managed to come
hundreds and thousands of people began flocking towards Kamlapur — a and stay there.
small village deep in the forests. The revolutionary message from Kamlapur But as the revolutionary poet in the Guerrilla says:
reverberated throughout the region for months. The proposed Gaddar
programme in Nagpur, which too was crushed by ruthless police action, had No she never laughed at death.
an even greater impact. People still recollect the diminutive Anuradha It’s just that she was not afraid
climbing onto a motorcycle to address the large crowd gathered on the streets to die among birds and trees.
outside the college hall which had been sealed by the police, inspite of a High
Court order allowing the programme. Though thousands of police had During this period she also spent much time in taking classes, mainly for
surrounded the hall and occupied all approach roads to it, the big gathering the growing leadership among the tribal women. She took classes on
included a large number of journalists, lecturers, writers, lawyers, and even women’s health issues, women’s oppression and the New Democratic
senior faculty members. All were lathi-charged as soon as Gaddar appeared. Revolution, on imparting general knowledge, on the rudiments of Marxism,
Though the programme did not take place, this was head-line news for nearly etc. She helped draft handbills and wrote numerous articles for the local
two months. Both these events had a major impact on spreading revolutionary revolutionary movement.
views widely all over Vidharbha and it was she who was the main architect of Towards the last part of her stay she was responsible for the West Bastar
both these programmes. area covering what is known as the National Park region. This too is a region
In spite of her busy schedule as an activist, Com. Anuradha never missed which is affected by the onslaught of the Salwa Judum.
a single lecture and was a very popular teacher amongst her students. Her During the peak of the famine in 1997, Com. Anuradha was there in
thorough and conscientious approach was much loved by her students, and Bastar, which saw hundreds of people perish of starvation in other areas. The
respected by her colleagues. revolutionary movement had resorted to seizing grains from the hoarders and
During her one-and-a-half decades’ stay in the Vidarbha region, she made distributing it among the masses, thus preventing a major calamity. During
an enormous impact in carrying revolutionary politics from Gadchiroli to the this period, intermittent attacks of malaria, the terrible dry heat of summer,
entire region. Together with others, she had built a revolutionary working coupled with the famine conditions took a toll on her health, and she lost
class movement and a powerful revolutionary movement among dalits. about 10 kgs. of weight. It was only her enormous commitment to the cause of
Anuradha also played a major role in building the revolutionary student the people, and tremendous will-power that kept her going even under these
movement and in attracting a vast cross-section of intellectuals, including terrible conditions. She never made a show of her own sufferings, always
senior professors, journalists, noted playwrights and top lawyers of the bearing pain, whether physical or mental, with dignity, without complaining
region. Soon after coming to Nagpur, on the martyrdom of Cherabandaraju, or letting others know.
she got his poems translated into Marathi, which was released at a function by After returning from Bastar she contributed immensely to developing the
the most renowned Marathi poet of the region. The Marathi translation of the revolutionary movement in Maharashtra. She was also deeply involved in
poems had a huge impact and sold extensively in all Maharashtra. She also developing a perspective of the role of a revolutionary women’s movement
played a role in the formation of the All India League of Revolutionary and the need to organise the most oppressed women in realising New
Culture (AILRC) in 1983. In 1985, as one of the main speakers at the Sindri Democratic Revolution free from all forms of oppression, exploitation and
(near Dhanbad) Conference of the AILRC, together with KVR, Gaddar and discrimination.
others, till date, she is much remembered by the comrades of Bihar and
Jharkhand (many in the leadership of the revolutionary movement) who were

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The Writings of Anuradha arrests of senior comrades it was Com. Anuradha who held the
Anuradha played many roles in the long span of her revolutionary life organisation together. All these qualities shone through her personality even
from being a mass leader to an organiser. She was associated with the as a woman activist in this highly patriarchal and feudal atmosphere in the
formation of the Vidyarthi Pragati Sanghathana (VPS), the Committee for the country.
Protection of Democratic Rights (CPDR), the All-India League for The most beautiful thing
Revolutionary Culture (AILRC), Stree Chetna, Akhil Maharashtra Kamgar for those who have fought a whole life
Union (AMKU) and numerous other mass organisations, primarily in is to come to the end and say;
Maharashtra. we believed in people and life,
But whatever her role, she was a consistent and prolific writer. She was and life and the people
closely associated with the revolutionary student magazine, KALAM, which never let us down.
achieved a countrywide image. This magazine was brought out in both
English and Marathi. She was the main architect behind the revolutionary Com. Anuradha will always be remembered. By all those who met her, no
Hindi magazine, Jan Sangram, brought out from Nagpur. She contributed matter who the person was. Her sincerity, honesty, her child-like simplicity,
regular articles, under various pseudonyms, to the revolutionary magazine, vivacious, unwavering commitment, acute sense of responsibility, total
Vanguard, People’s March, and others. She wrote for the local Marathi selflessness in spite of her poor health, made a deep impression on anyone she
magazine Jahirnama and for some time was in charge of its publication. met. She could relate equally well with the poor, the intellectual, the young,
Com. Anuradha also wrote many theoretical and ideological pieces, both the old, the revolutionaries, the progressive, for that matter, anyone human.
in English and Marathi, particularly associated with the dalit and women’s She was indeed a model communist. Her dynamism is an example for all
question. Besides, she conducted many a polemic on this question both with women activists, where she could go well beyond the patriarchal limitations
those taking a dalit/post-modernist view on the question and with Marxists of this society and blossom into a revolutionary communist. Yes, Com.
who took a hostile view. Anuradha will live for ever in our hearts; in the precious stone beneath our left
As already mentioned, it was she who wrote the basic draft for the policy breast.
paper on the caste question in India which was later adopted by the erstwhile In her death have,
CPI (ML) (PW). This was the first such policy paper by a revolutionary …men become men,
communist party. More recently, she wrote a polemical/analytical piece on women become women,
bourgeois feminism, bringing out its various manifestations. She was also fighting day and night
instrumental in the preparation of the Women’s Perspective for the for people and for life.
revolutionary movement in the country. Many would recall the numerous
statements that Com. Anuradha drafted on Women’s Day (8th March) And it should be noted that
celebrations for the revolutionary movement. Only in this way do men become men,
There was not even a short time when she was not writing something women become women,
linked with the movement. She was a regular contributor to many magazines fighting day and night
in English, Hindi and Marathi. Many of her articles and writings have also for people and for life.
been translated into other languages. Otto Rene Castillo
An Exemplary Communist [ This article is reproduced from the booklet published by
Closing the tear
‘Anuradha Gandhi Memorial committee’. We are trying to collect
of your wound with your two hands, the writings of her on ‘Dalit’ and ‘Tribal’ questions.
you are carrying a star in your breast, Surely those writings will enrich our political perception. ]
but that star will fall.
Pretence, falsehood, intrigue, ego, all these traits were alien to Com. Farmers defeat first referendum on
Anuradha. Her disdain to such traits only grew in strength through all the ebb
and flow of her revolutionary life. That extremely high level of honesty an SEZ in India, in Raigad,
towards oneself and others had attracted all genuine people, even those who
disagreed, with Com. Anuradha. She had a natural ability to connect and Maharashtra
integrate in any environment, with various people, be it tribals, dalits, Farmers in Raigad district have defeated Reliance Industries SEZ
construction workers, or the sophisticated academia or intellectuals, with her
happy smile, her child-like simple demeanour, a face that mirrored every ebb referendum that the government had organized to know people’s
and flow of emotion. If revolution was the struggle for a society with the impression about the Reliance Industries’ mega SEZ. The defeat of
finest sensibilities of humanity, then Com. Anuradha was the embodiment of referendum means that the Special Economic Zone may not come up at the
that struggle. Her simplicity, child-like innocence, together with an infectious site where it was originally planned. The yet to be launched SEZ was being
liveliness made her a most endearing person. One who would cry as easily as
would laugh, stirred by a situation. described as mother of all SEZ that have come up so far in India.
Her indefatigable, selfless hard work with an insatiable concern, a strong The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) would have entailed an investment
sense of discipline and responsibility towards people, uncaring about one’s of rupees one lakh crore. Tata’s much hyped Nano car plant at Singur where
own comforts — she was the one who would take any task to ensure that it Tatas have invested Rs 1500 crore so far pales into oblivion.If reports are
would get done. This was reflected in her teaching work, attitude towards believed people were not prepared to hand over their lands to be acquired
students, colleagues, comrades, political work and anything else she took up.
A person of high principles, standing up for what she believed in, Com. for the SEZ.
Anuradha had the modesty to be a willing learner. Yet, she was willing to So thousands of people in 22 villages where referendum was held did
acknowledge the positive in others, even with those she differed, no matter not turn up to vote and those who voted refused to give up their lands.
what her differences. While being creative and not stereotyped in her Judging by the mood of the farmers in the command area of the Hetwane
thinking, she was always firm on the proletarian line and Marxist ideology. It irrigation dam, it appears that the Reliance group will have its task cut out
was this steadfastness that allowed her to uphold the correct revolutionary
line till the very last. to acquire land for its multi-crore SEZ project in the Konkan area. Of the
10,000 hectares of land required for one of the biggest SEZs in the country,
Never did she let the precious stone nearly 3,000 hectares of land lie in 22 villages in the Hetwane dam area.
under her left breast grow dull. As the farmers thronged the 23 zilla parishad schools earmarked for the
She had hatred for fear even in the face of death. referendum, there was some commotion at the Vashi centre as the
She was the steadfast anchor, like a rock, for the revolutionary competent authority declined to acknowledge the receipt of the opinion.
movement, through all its ups and downs, particularly in Maharashtra. The
most arduous and dangerous tasks at very critical junctures in her political life
came to her naturally without any sense of doubt or self-belief — her Read and Subscribe Towards a New Dawn (Bi-Monthly)
readiness without a hitch to give up the high-profile public life in Mumbai and Single Copy Annual Subscription
shift overnight to Nagpur where not a soul knew her; to give up the university India Rs. 10/- Rs. 120/+Rs. 7/- (Postage for India per copy)
job and the image of being one of the most popular leaders of Nagpur
particularly amongst dalits, construction workers and progressive Abroad $3.00 $18.00
intellectuals of the region, to be with the struggling masses in Bastar as one For Copies and Subscriptions, Contact :
among them. Abhijnan Sarkar
Even in her very last days, when the revolutionary movement in the urban 12 Garfa 3rd Lane, Kolkata - 700 075, India
belts of Maharashtra was facing a crisis due to heavy state repression and Mobile : 09836262819, e-mail: towardsdawn@gmail.com

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however agreed that the public opinion especially among Calcutta babus
Morichjhapi: The cover of darkness be attracted towards them. For that, they dug deep into their scanty resources
Koustav De and arranged for a feast for the intellectuals from Calcutta, who they invited to
their island. The uses all their sources and connections and missed none. They
took care to invite reporters from all newspapers. Sunil Gongopadhyay was
‘Today as we see andolons across the country, we see people amongst many writers who visited the island and enjoyed the feast of fresh
throwing bricks and stones. In our dweep, we had nothing hard enough to hurt ilish chingri then forgot the people faster than they could digest the food. The
them. The soil was muddy, and bricks were not in use we fought with wooden reporters did their part but the newspapers at the time did not have wide
arrows against the guns of the police and goons………and we failed.” circulations, and the few radio channels were owned by the government. The
remembers one of refugee who managed to leave the island of Morichjhapi ‘left’-front went as far to criticize the news papers, stating that the entire
alive. Thanks to today’s media and newspapers and fast modes of morichjhapi issue was being created and hyped by the ‘bourgeois media’ for
communication, Nandigram was ‘marketed’ with utmost efficiency so that defaming them7. From 26th January, 1979, unprecedented oppression started
the death of 14 people shook up quite a few of us from our slumber and made at Morichjhapi. Economic blockade was declared on the island. It was
us say ‘NO’ before it was too late. The lives of the martyrs of Nandigram did declared out of bound for all public and media. Many boats filled with police,
not go in vain. started circling the island, addressing the dwellers through loudspeakers. On
Things were not the same in 1970s. Newspapers were few and had little 31st January, police firing killed 36 people. They were ordered to leave or
circulation. Radio channels were government and almost evidently biased. face dire consequences. But the people stood their ground. Then arrived many
The exodus of refugees, especially dalit Hindus (namasudra) from more boats filled with hired goons from Calcutta. CPM had supposedly hired
Bangladesh to India, West Bengal in particular, never seemed to end. It poor Muslim youths from Calcutta, as it was assumed that they would be less
continued even after the Indo-Pak war. The Congress as a policy decided to sympathetic towards Hindu dalits from Bangladesh. The embankments of the
disallow these hapless Bengalis any room in West Bengal and decided to island were broken; no one was allowed to leave in search of food and fresh
forcibly deport them to the refugee camps of Dandyakaranya. Here they were water. The few boats that tried leaving were shot at and drowned. The
forced to live in concentration camp like situations; under the camp condition inside the island worsened. Disease like diarrhea played havoc.
administrators. Soon the entire settlement ran out of food. They were forced to boil and eat
Dandyakaranya was a land of forests and barren unfertile tracts, which wild roots. The patrolling forces grew ever more hostile, shooting at sight,
were unfamiliar hell to these farmers and fishermen of the Sonar Bangla. The without provocation. It was at this juncture that the protests in the heart of
scanty crops which they managed to produce were often looted by the local Calcutta gained momentum and the High Court ordered lifting of all
adivasis, were protected by the police. Meanwhile the Congress Raj was on blockades, which was never implemented. Soon, the floods entered the
the decline in West Bengal, and the ‘communists’ appeared as the single village regularly and every standing structure was razed.
largest alternative party of the ‘have not-s’. The charismatic Jyoti Basu The refugees had nothing to loose and nowhere to go, they hung on to
championed the cause of these refugees and declared that as soon as Bengal their ground and hoped against all odds that this nightmare would end, before
rids itself of the oppression of the Congress, the refugees will be welcome in their lives did. Soon, in May 14th, the police along with the goons set foot on
the vacant lands of Bengal. But it never occurred to Basu that the refugees the island with intention of forcefully evicting them. The men were first
would take his promise to be genuine this easily. separated from the women and children, the men were either killed or
As soon as the ‘left’-front government came to power in Bengal, in 1977, arrested. The women were violated and then killed along with the children.
Satish Mondal, the president of Udbastu Unnyansil Samiti, announced to the Dead bodies were thrown in the river. The rest were sent back to
Bengali refugees of Dandakaranya that they would soon be moving to settle at Dandyakaranya. The bodies were never noticed as there were no more
Morichjhapi a 125 sq. mile island of Sunderban1. The UUS, which then settlements south of Morichjhapi. The dead were embraced by the bottomless
worked closely with the CPM, had already paid a visit to Morichjhapi as a silts of the Sunderban delta. According to Ross Mallick, ‘This will make
team and decided that it would be their permanent re-settlement in West exhumation of bodies as was undertaken in Cambodia and Bosnia
Bengal. As the elated refugees were rejoicing at this prospect, the Left front impossible’. By May 16th, the last of the remaining population from
were suddenly bothered about the message it is going to send across to many Morichjhapi were evicted.
more Bangladeshi refugees scattered across India. The economic prospect of Someone remembered, ‘We could not even leave our marks of anger and
‘bearing’ them also bothered them immensely. By the time the refugees frustration in the island. There was no government property to burn or raze,
started their long journey on foot with only their bare essentials, after sell off everything there were, were built with our own hands. We cut down a few
their meager ‘all’, toward Morichjhapi, the policy of the ‘left’-front had coconut trees of the island, as we believed them to be part of the government
completely changed. Of the 15,000 families that started, some 7,000 plantation, before our arrival.’
managed to reach the promised land Morichjhapi. Some perished on their By July 1979, the Dandyakaranya Development Authority declared that
way; others were arrested and sent back. The refugees walked all the way, of the 15,000 families that left to seek refuge, 5,000 had failed to return and
following railway tracks, occasionally resting near stations. The police under were ‘missing’. Of them it was assumed that some 3,000 people managed to
direction of the government, arrested them, but did not have the vehicles or scatter into parts of West Bengal. Thus the rest of 17,000 people (assuming an
capacity to detain or deport them. They harassed them by denying water or average of 4 persons per family) perished either on their way or in the
shelter that they seek at the stations, hoping that they would turn back. But the Morichjhapi atrocities. No one reported or authenticated the atrocities or
spirits and hearts of these oppression hardened refugees turned out to be ordered a enquiry, though the Central Governments’ SC and ST commission’s
indomitable. Reaching the island, they turned Morichjhapi almost overnight Morichjhapi file contains the name and age of 236 men, women and children
to a well planned settlement. They marked roads, built houses with mud and killed in police firing, prior to the massacre. One
wood, built schools and also a health centre. They built 5 feet embankments Saphalananda Haldar, during the blockade, evaded police barricade and
all around the island to prevent the salty high tide water in. They developed a swam across and reached Calcutta to narrate his story to the press. His story
fish industry and also built salt pans. Within a year, without any aid or was published along with his name, but it only led to his arrest. Amrita Bazaar
assistance from the government, Morichjhapi became a viable centre for Patrika managed to publish picture of the massacre, the dailies condemned
trade among the island settlements of Sunderbans, and became capable the atrocities, but every thing was rubbished by the CPM, naming it a ‘false
enough to support itself. But as the stories of Morichjhapi spread, other bourgeois propaganda’ to tarnish their image.
groups of refugee tried trickling in. But the ‘left’-front were long planning to The brutality at Morichjhapi from 26th January to 16th May, 1979,
evict the Morichjhapi dwellers and set an example to other refugees so that exceeds anything that Independent India has ever seen. And it was
they get the idea of settling in West Bengal out of their heads. The government comparable to only Jallianwallah Bagh. In every respect it surpasses
started to state that the settlement was unauthorized, as morichjhapi was a Nandigram and in all dimensions. The problem in writing anything about the
part of the Sunderban Reserve Forests, thereby violating the Forest act. They brutality and oppression and the torture in a massive scale is that it may
tried to develop opinions amongst the upper classes of West Bengal in this become generic. We may start to accept it. The rape of Monorama in Manipur,
manner. They made it clear that a brutal attempt to evict them was impending. Tapashi Malik in Singur managed to stand out, but some hundreds of girls in
The Morichjhapi settlers were well organized, and picked up the pulse Kashmir are lost in this cold abyss of silent acceptance, just because, they
quickly. They did everything in their power to persuade the government not to were a hundred and over a period of time, long enough to make this
do harm to them. Some of the refugees believed that any persuasion was futile phenomena accepted and commonplace. The pictures of torture in
and that they have to start a movement across the country to project their Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, prisons of Afganistan or the killings in Iraq,
plight and attract attention, which might prevent the use of force against them. Afghanistan, Lebanon, starvation deaths in Africa, all have become
Others thought it prudent to talk with the CPM leaders and make them acceptable as ‘commonplace’. All of them have become mere figures, just
compassionate towards them and ultimately accept their settlement. They all because they remained anonymous, we never knew them as proper humans

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with proper family lives. But the story of a mother of a taxi driver, fend for themselves, the government will not help.”
Dilawar of Afganistan, who cried her heart out, suddenly stands out. The Initially when the CPI(M) had not accumulated a mass base it thought
picture and story of her son, who was tortured throughout a month in some that championing the Refugee cause will earn them a major share of the vote
dark cell, to the extent that his legs turned to soft blue pulps of flesh, suddenly bank, and thus inviting all Bangladeshi Refugees to Bengal was profitable. It
shakes us back to horror. We are outraged and shocked to learn that Dilawar’s also server another purpose, the Congress led government was bound to fail
crime was he ‘misbehaved’ to an American official in Kabul. It is the issue of when it came to managing this sudden influx, this would give the CPI(M)
‘making cruelty itself commonplace in trying to portray the another opportunity to expose their mismanagement. But once in power the
commonplaceness of cruelty’ as is pointed out by Steven Miles. This singular CPI(M) found any more refugee influx to be unnecessary, and their
problem of documenting real tragedies applies to Morichjhapi as well. It leadership which started mingling well with the Bengal bourgeois lobbied for
hurts, to realize that the same problem will arise with the narration of prevention of refugee influx as it was rather distasteful to their patrons. So
Morichjhapi incident. The limit of acceptance of cruelty in a society is ever they had to strike a balance between preventing any further influx at any cost
rising till it breaks down one day and starts to rise again. Another factor and also keep the support of the several hundred thousands of existing
contributing to this acceptability as ‘commonplace’ is the matter of Refugees of Bengal.
humanizing the victims. Unfortunately the Morichjhapi massacre either More were in store for the refugees who decided to come to Bengal
became acceptable or too unbelievable to stage a protest massive enough to anyway and find a place themselves after CPI(M) came to power in 1977.
prevent it. After so many years, it does not shake us to life or ‘fill us with cold They were arrested, detained in groups at stations without food and water,
horror’, just because the real people of this tragedy were never accompanied deported forcibly and even arrested. The CPI(M) did not need to care for them
by humanizing details of name, age, family, home, and background that any further and the Congress did not have the face to take up their cause. Most
Dilwar, Monorama or Tapashi were privileged with. So we will never be Refugees never made it but some succeeded against all odds to reach
moved in the same way about the real people of Morichjhapi as we are by Marichjhanpi. By that time their belief in CPI(M) were changing but not
Fokir, his mother or Saar, from the pages of Amitava Ghosh’s Hungry Tide. significantly. CPI(M) was anything but unwelcome in Marichjhanpi and
All we have access is to some figures, and some anecdotes: As the economic Jyoti Basu was still a beloved figure.
blockade continued, the islanders began to run out of food and fresh water. The region around Marichjhanpi, in the Sunderban region was much
The embankments were broken and the natural reservoirs we all flooded with under another partner of the Left Front Government, RSP. The leadership of
the salt water of high tides. Some people tried to utilize the cover of the the Udbastu Unnyansil Samiti, the main organization of Marichjhanpi well
darkness to bring back food and water to the island in small boats. One such understood that CPI(M)’s attitude towards them and decided to distance
boat with 6 men was surrounded by patrolling police boats. They were asked themselves.
to dump the bags and jars overboard. They pleaded to be allowed into the Soon the RSP was as close in touch with the Refugees of Marichjhanpi as
island. The men cried and asked for mercy. But the police were not to bulge, the CPI(M). This gave CPI(M) yet another excuse for themselves to betray
they shot warning fires, and the men started rowing towards the island, the Marichjhanpi Refugees at their own words. Any help that the State
shouting in unision: Amra kara ,bastu hara Morichjhapi charchi naa, charbo Government could have offered had to be through the local panchayets, and
naa.(who are we? the homeless of Morichjhapi. We will not leave at any cost.) that was under the control of RSP, and so no aid was ever provided. But the
were shot at and their boat sunk. The cover of darkness did not let the waters people of Marichjhanpi never required any aid. They were more than self
turn red. sufficient and were starting to produce surplus.
Development in Marichjhanpi was a case study and many interested
people visited the place. The people had dug ponds and canals to these ponds
Marichjhanpi II were controlled with flood gates, once in a while these gated opened and
water from the tides filled it along with fishes. The bigger ones were caught
Why the CPI(M) did Marichjhanpi is perhaps more important and and eaten or traded while the smaller ones were nurtured and cultivated in an
chilling than the actual tragic massacre. CPI(M) had the majority government organized manner. Then there were fishermen of Marichjhanpi village who
from 1977. After the emergency it had successfully emerged in Bengal as the went out and brought in sea fishes as well. Slowly a considerable fish market
champion of movement for the democratic rights for people. Marichjhanpi grew up in Marichjhanpi. And the Marichjhanpi people proactively involved
was flourishing and developing in a way that could have been a model for any the people around to share the fruits of this new development. They soon
student of socialist politics, and the people of Marichjhanpi were anything but realized that the primary producers were not getting the fair share of the price,
opposed to CPI(M). Still CPI(M) decided to betray them. They betrayed those so they organized with locals and arranged for the fish to be transported via
refugees who came just taking the invitation of Jyoti Basu as evidence of his boats up to Kumirmari, Basanti and even Canning. The head master of the
honest willingness to accommodate all Bangladeshi Refugees in West Marichjhanpi School, named after Rabindranath Tagore, proudly once stated
Bengal. The CPI(M) sacrificed a group of more than twenty thousand that given the chance, they would reduce the price of fish in Kolkata by 25%.
prospective voters in a rural region where the hold of CPI(M) was not as The main problem inside the island was the saline soil and lack of
absolute as it was to be. drinking water. The people had built five feet embankments around the island
The people of Marichjhanpi had the world against them, literally. It was to prevent the saline tide. And it took just one monsoon to dilute the salinity,
bent on not letting them thrive and it made sure that their creation of a the water of which was ploughed out of the embankments by the villagers.
civilization out of nothing but blood sweat and tears were burnt down to the Soon they were sowing vegetables and cereals. They had dug smaller ponds
ground. to accumulate fresh water from monsoons but it was not enough, with little
The factionalism with the communist party had already exposed the help from some well wishers from the cities, tube-wells were set up. With
opportunism and greed for power amongst the leaders. After Naxalbari, 1968, each passing day Marichjhanpi was growing more prosperous, with booming
the true face was revealed even more when a peasant uprising was fired upon fish trade, vegetable cultivation, a running bakery, biri factory, health center,
by police controlled by the United Front government where CPI(M) school and so on.
participated and Jyoti Basu held the post of Police Minister. Those who This development shook the CPI(M) to the core. How could they tolerate
shunned the path to this race to the throne knew well that to put an end to this such co-operative development from a bunch of Refugees who took no help
menace of a Party, it was struggle to the very end, there was no middle path. from the government? This was dangerous and could not be allowed as it
They took the path but failed and were hounded down and killed or might give out wrong signals. People could start to believe that self sustained
encountered throughout the 1970s with active support from CPI(M). development was possible without the blessing of any party. And being non-
All of these did not escape the notice of the Refugees who came to aligned to any major party at that time, Marichjhanpi people were easy
Marichjhanpi. They definitely gave their unconditional support and faith to targets, with no one to back them up, or shout for their cause. Jyoti Basu led
the CPI(M) but somewhere deep inside they were skeptical. One of the the propaganda against them. In a meeting near Sunderbans he declared that
survivors remembered “we knew that all this goodness of Jyoti Basu was too Marichjhanpi people were indulging in anti-national activities, foreign funds
good to be true.” were pouring in the island and it was turning out to be a major threat to the
But at a meeting at Dandyak in 1975-76, when Jyoti invited all of the region. He pointed out in no uncertain terms that if Marichjhanpi was allowed
Refugees to Bengal, they erupted with spontaneous joy and never ever spoke to flourish any further it will mean doom for everyone around. Soon it was
about their doubts even to one another. They rejoiced even more when the made clear that the Refugees had to leave Marichjhanpi or face dire
CPI(M) came to power in Bengal, they sincerely believed that it was making consequences.
their chances brighter to settle in Bengal. Skepticism crept in when CPI(M) This was the only aspect that the thoughtful people of Marichjhanpi had
took an about turn and declared, “West Bengal does not welcome any more never imagined, that they could be evicted from the island just because they
refugees.” This expressed their attitude in a nutshell, but did not go down well were doing too well, and they were unprepared. They were shocked, but
within everyone in the Part and the Front. Soon they had to swallow these decided to face it wisely, they campaigned and appealed to the Kolkata babus

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A NEW D AWN VOL. 1 ISSUE 3 January - February 2009
and press in every possible way they could afford. They knew only too compromise or without undermining the human rights and trained- C L_ -
well that they had to gain support of the kolkata babus, because it was this We are constrained to argue that the claim of the Government regarding the
section of the society that mattered and was heard by the party and newly introduced bills about safeguards ‘against any possible misuse of such
establishment. Simultaneously they pleaded with ‘the Party’ not to be so provisions” is a false commitment since there is no such safeguard
harsh on them and to let them live. But all effort was too little too late. Some incorporated in the bills. Rather Unlawful Activities (Prevention)
people responded, some students took up their cause and shouted and rallied Amendment (UAPA) has structurally infringed on human rights in a
number of ways—developing exceptions to human rights based on the
for them. But there was something more terrible that worked against the seriousness of the offence, expanding the definitions of exceptional
people of Marichjhanpi. They were Namasudra. Somehow the babus of categories and arguing that curtailment of a human right is necessary for the
Kolkata could not relate to them, these people of the lower strata, lesser promotion of human rights of other individuals, and propounding a “duties
humans who were not like them. Namasudras from across the border and responsibilities based citizenry” thesis. Our concerns in respect of these
somehow never became one of their own, their plight was but news only, bills include –
never invoked much emotion from the Bengal intelligentsia. i) vague and broad definitions of “ terrorism “in these bills would
Amidst mild protests in Kolkata, order of High Court, operation inevitably lead to infringement of the freedom of expression
Marichjhanpi continued. Anti socials from across south Bengal and Kolkata and the freedom of association ;
especially Muslim youths were transported to Marichjhanpi, to carry out the ii)Insertion of new clauses to the section 43 of the principal Act, UAPA,
,which include power of arrest , search at any time of houses of
operation against the Hindu Namasudras from Bangladesh with least any person on the basis of any document , any article would
sympathy. Launches and boats from all surrounding islands were hired for only result in harassment, illegal detention and other violations
decent amounts of money, those who stilled refused were harasses and made of human rights ;
to understand that they never had a choice. Continuing the economic iii) Permitting longer detention of “terror suspects” upto 180
blockade on the island for more than four months, the starving people were days which would allow the investigating agencies to detain people
forced to give up and were fired upon, tortured, killed, raped and finally were without charge and trial and would get ample scope for using false
deported. Even as thousands were never accounted for, some ended up in evidence ,and additional blank check permission of taking a detained
dandakaranya, some were forced onto ships for Andaman, some transported person from judicial custody to police custody at any point of time would
to Orissa. And a few were taken away to form a symbolic ‘Marichjhanpi further aggravate /facilitate torture ;
colony’ near Dumdum which was projected as the rehabilitation package for iv) permitting harsh and tough procedures for the detained person
to obtain bail which curtails the rights of the accused ;
the ‘illegal’ refugees of Marichjhanpi provided on humanitarian grounds by v) permitting absolute denial of bail to foreign nationals , which destroys
the generous Left Front government. The entire Island was literally cleaned, the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of nationality
every standing structure was raised ad burnt to ashes. By May 1979 in the and the principle of fair trial;
corridors of Writers, Home minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya declared vi) most importantly, permitting reversal of age-old pillar of
“Marichjhanpi udbastu mukta”. natural justice regarding the presumption of innocence would
show disrespect to the most basic principles of fair trial;
References and sources: vii) permitting more tough and difficult procedures pertaining to
1. Ranjit Kumar Sikar, ‘Marichjhapi Massacre’, The Oppressed Indian sanction for prosecution against erring and delinquent
2. Prasannabhai Meheta visharat 18th April 1979, report on morichjhapi investigating officers, which would only enhance the culture
of impunity .
affairs viii) permitting curtailment of appeal period by the accused , which
3. Ibid. seriously jeopardizes the rights of the accused in getting
4. Ross Mallick, (Refugee relief and Rehabilitation Department, 1979). fairness in the process of the administration of justice ;
5. Nilanjana Chatterjee, Midnights Unwanted Children. ix) permitting anonymous witnesses , which would limit and
6. JSTOR, Ross Mallick, Refugee Resettlement suspend the rights of the accused to examine the witnesses on
7. Nilanjana Chatterjee, 1992. same terms as the prosecution.
8. interview IAS sec WB, by Mallick
9. Annu Jalais, Dwelling on Marichjhapi.
10. Ross Mallick. To sum up, these bills under review, indicate a spirit of minimalism,
particularly in the arena of the rights of suspects and defendants in the
criminal process; the bills seriously limit, suspend , undermine and even
Koustav2007@gmail.com destroy certain non derogable rights , as recognized by International Laws
and Covenants. In the name of security , the entire population would
henceforth be viewed and considered as ‘possible terrorists” / “terror
suspects and are bound to live in a atmosphere of insecurity , fear and of
PRESS STATEMENT intimidation, which in turn would defeat the very declared purpose of the
bills- to ensure the security of population.
AGAINST THE UNLAWFUL These bills restrict human rights in such a way that calls into question the
ACTIVITIES (PREVENTION) basic principles of rule of law, India’s commitment to international laws and
standards relating to promotion and upholding of human rights. These bills
AMENDMENT BILL, 2008 have condensed all the power in the hands of a single branch of the
government, thereby have undermined the ideologies of importance of
We, the following organizations had gone through the full texts of the two individual rights, the separation of powers, process of judicial review of such
‘anti-terror bills” that have recently been passed in both houses of parliament security legislations,. Our experiences have shown that these security
and the stated objectives and reasons for promulgation of such acts. measures only help strengthen tyranny.
While expressing our deep anguish and condemnation in no uncertain With these observations, we are demanding the unconditional repeal of
terms of Mumbai incident of November,2008 and other similar acts of these 2 draconian bills. We do hold that under the existing laws, effective
violence on the citizens of India , we note with concern that taking advantage action against ‘terrorism could be taken.
of such acts, the Government of India and political society as such have been
increasingly using military language to emphasise the urgency of the APDR, TASAM, NAGARIK MANCHA, GANA PRATIRODH
situation and trying to introduce a distinct repressive turn in the politics of MANCHA,USDF, ANHATI, BMC, SEZ BIRODHI MANCHA,
criminal justice of our country, manifested in the security legislations and law IC,PRESDENCY COLLEGE, CCSM, AKINCHAN PATRIKA, FORUM
enforcement measures, such as TADA, POTA, and very recently The FOR INTELLECTUALS,MASUM,FAMA
Unlawful Activities (prevention) Amendment Bill, and The national
Investigation Agency Bill, 2008. Date: 23.12.2008
While assuming that we are living in a risk society, we are wondering why Venue: Press Club of Calcutta
after the Mumbai incident in particular, about which our neighbouring
country, Pakistan has been squarely held responsible by the Government and
the Media, did political society pass such legislations in a quickest possible Read and Subscribe Towards a New Dawn (Bi-Monthly)
manner, which are exclusively meant for citizens of India. Single Copy Annual Subscription
India Rs. 10/- Rs. 120/+Rs. 7/- (Postage for India per copy)
We do not agree to the perception that the protection of human rights Abroad $3.00 $18.00
stand in opposition to effective action against “terrorism”. We hold that that For Copies and Subscriptions, Contact :
the challenge of the State is not to promote security at the expense of human Abhijnan Sarkar
rights, but rather to ensure that all people enjoy respect for the full range of
rights. We do hold that the action against “terrorism” can be pursued without 12 Garfa 3rd Lane, Kolkata - 700 075, India
Mobile : 09836262819, e-mail: towardsdawn@gmail.com
16
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markets, including India. Afterall the US consumer last year spent a huge
The financial collapse in the US greatly impacted the European financial $ 9.5 trillion, compared to $ 1 trillion in China and a mere $ 600 billion in
system which had invested heavily in the US mortgage market. Initially the India. In Asia exports represent 43% of the pan-regional GDP, most of which
companies affected were those directly involved in home construction and goes to the US. Today after years of following imperialist dictates 40% of
mortgage lending such as Northern Rock (UK) and . Financial institutions India’s GDP comes from imports and exports. The US is loosing jobs at a fast
which had engaged in the such as then fell prey. rate with 1,60,000 jobs lost in September alone, taking the years total to
Northern Rock was nationalised by the British government on Feb. 17 7,60,000. All this will severely impact the economies of these Asian
2008. By early October the British govt pumped in $ 150 billion into the bank countries, including China.
to save it from collapse. On Sept. 17th the Scottish Bank HBOS was taken over
by Lloyds to save it from collapse. On Sept 29th British Bank Bradford &
Bingley was nationalised by the UK government. Recession Looms Large
Dexia, a European bank, reputed to be the world’s biggest lender to local As we go to the press reports are coming in that the major economies are
governments had to be rescued. Fortis, one of the biggest European banks, already in recession.
has been nationalised in bits and pieces by Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg. The economy of the 15-nations sharing the euro has slumped into
Germany has rescued mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate for $ 60 billion and recession for the first time ever, with the GDP falling by 0.2% in the second
earlier rescued West LB. Italy had to suspend trading in its largest bank, and third quarters (from April to Sept) of 2008. Italy’s GDP shrank 0.5% in
Unicredit, to stave off panic. The Irish government has guaranteed all bank the third quarter. The Iceland Krona has declined by 40% against the euro in
depositors to stem panic. Icelands major 6 banks have gone bust and the 2008 and has experienced an inflation of 14%. Iceland’s economy is expected
government had to suspend trading in most and has nationalised one. to shrink by as much as 10% this year. Ireland’s economy reported a
Governments have bought stakes in banks of Britain, Belgium and Holland. contraction of its GDP by 1.5% in the first quarter of this year. Germany’s
The German government also took the unusual step to provide guarantee to economy contracted in both the second and third quarters putting it in official
all private savings accounts in German Banks. Similar steps were taken by recession. France’s economy was expected to decline by 0.1% in both the
Greece, Denmark and Austria. third and fourth quarters, also putting it in recession. UK’s economy is one of
the worst hit with it shrinking by 0.5% in the third quarter. The pound fell to
below $1.53 in end October, its biggest drop in 37 years and is at its weakest
The Gigantic Bail Outs since 1971. Woodsworth, the giant retail chain with 800 stores, is bankrupt
and to be sold for one pound. Marks & Spencers, the other big retailer, has
Unlike the earlier Great Depression on this occasion the slashed prices by 20% to remove stockpiles.
governments had pumped in gigantic amounts of funds to prop
The US economy shrank 0.3% in the third quarter. In Canada the GDP
up the crumbling financial system. This nothing but the shrank by 0.5% in the first two quarters (Jan to June 08). Giant bankruptcies
utilisation of tax-payer’s money to rescue big business. The continue the latest being Citicorp, the largest US bank, which was finally
much hyped privatisation mantra is being discarded for bailed out by the government at a huge cost of $ 400 billion. One of the biggest
nationalisation. This is nothing but privatisation of profits; US airlines, Delta Air Lines, was bought over by another airline, to save it
nationalisation of losses. The corporate bosses are not affected from collapse. General Motors, after piling up losses over the last two years
by the losses; it is the people who have put their savings who are and attempts at continuous restructuring, is also going the same way. There is
most seriously affected. Till now the total bail-out package by no end to the crisis which has hit the US economy, the epicentre of the present
worldwide depression.
US and European governments is a massive $ 2 trillion (i.e
double India’s entire GDP of $ 1 trillion in 2007-08). After much The Japanese economy declined by 0.7% in the second quarter, while
exports to the US dropped 21.8%, the biggest decline on record. On Nov. 17th
debate and a near collapse of the US stock exchange the US the Japanese Economy Minister announced that the nation was officially in
senate passed a $ 700 bail-out package (India’s budget for 2008- recession. In Japan the stock market has been so badly hit that 75% of listed
09 is a mere $ 185 billion); the British government put forward a Japanese companies are trading below their book value.
$ 865 billion package; France $ 491 billion and Germany $681 Russia’s foreign exchange reserves of $ 600 billion dropped by as much
billion. The US bail out comes on top of $85 billion to rescue as 50% in just the two months Sept and Oct and by Sept the RTS stock index
AIG and the plan to spend $200 billion to shore up Fannie Mae had plunged 54%. The volatile situation of the Russian economy was
and Freddie Mac. compounded by its Central Bank’s investment of $ 100 billion in the US
But according to economists this does not even touch the massive losses mortgage market which it never likely to be recovered. Spending on non-
hitting the financial world; not to mention its growing impact on industry and durable goods like food and paper dropped at the sharpest rate since the 1950s
manufacturing. The US housing bubble itself is estimated to have losses of $ 3 and disposable incomes dropped by 8.7% in the third quarter, the highest ever
trillion and stock exchanges around the world have lost 40% of their value since such records were kept in 1947.
during the year leading to the evaporation of trillions of dollars. But the worst In this ‘globalised’ economy the backward countries are bound to be the
affected are the main sphere of the speculative market, the derivatives whose worst hit. All have been so inextricably tied up and dependent on foreign
market has grown to the astronomical figure of $ 531 trillion (40 times the capital that its sudden withdrawal has not only badly hit the stock exchanges
US’s GDP) from $ 106 trillion in 2002 and practically nil two decades back. but also credit availability. In addition all these countries are heavily tied up
Money has been recycled and turned around so that loans were taken against with the imperialists for not only marketing but also production. In Asia just
assets or investments. In turn these led to an increasing spiral of loans by way exports comprise 43% of the GDP and vast sectors of the economy are
of derivatives so that the financial economy became much larger than the real involved in outsourcing products, parts and services for the TNCs. So we see
economy. The bubble of the derivative market grew and grew, particularly in that in all three spheres — capital, production and marketing — the backward
these past six years. There is no estimate of losses in these so-called ‘toxic countries are highly dependent on the imperialist economies and the TNCs.
assets’ but the defaults in swaps alone is estimated at $ 60 trillion. Five years The impact is bound to be devastating here. This is already visible in the
back, Warren Buffet (the richest man in the world), described derivatives as crashes in the stock exchange, drop in foreign exchange reserves, weakening
“financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, now latent, of their currencies, drop in export orders and resulting unemployment, etc.
are potentially lethal”. Even in China its trade surplus fell by 11% since January. Also 70 Asia-
So the losses involved are so gigantic that even these huge bail-outs may focused hedge funds have closed down since January. The ten member
just touch the tip of the iceberg of debts, defaults, losses, etc. The meltdown in ASEAN countries have set up a fund to cushion the crisis. Of the total fund
the financial sector has already begun to impact the industrial sector with China ($ 80 billion), Japan and South Korea will contribute 80%.
major companies recording heavy drop in sales, growing inventories and In the first week of October global commodity prices recorded their
rising losses. Rising unemployment and wage cuts are shrinking the market biggest weekly fall in over 50 years. Prices are down by over 30% since July
intensifying the crisis of over-production. Global output of mines and and are still falling.
industry have already fallen 2% since January. It is expected that by mid-2009
about 4 lakh(0.4million) jobs will be lost in the financial sector worldwide; Impact on India
the ILO says that the world would loose 20 million (2 crores) jobs by the end
of next year. Car and truck sales in the US have plummeted 30%. Car and Take India, for all the exaggerated claims of the PM and FM the economy
truck sales in the US in the first half of 2008 were down half a million to 1.7 is already badly hit. Till end October the BSE share index has fallen 60%
million from 2.2 million in 2007. The big three automakers in the US, General since its all time high of 21,207 in Jan 2008 as the FIIs have pulled out a
Motors, Ford and Chrysler, are already making losses. GM lost $18 billion in massive $ 12 billion. On November 21st it reached a 38-month low of 8,451.
the first half of 2008 after making heavy losses last year. This company that Real estate stocks have dropped by 90% and Mutual Funds (where much of
was for decades the largest company in the world heading the Fortune ranking middle-class savings are put) by 80%. Today, of the 2,699 quoted companies
for decades is now on the verge of bankruptcy and is seeking merger with half are below the book value. Due to the big pull out of foreign funds not only
Chrysler. has the stock market crashed the rupee declined by as much as 15% in the few
weeks ending October 2008 to fall below the 50 mark.
The US is a gigantic consumer of goods and large number of countries
have been dependent on the US for its exports. The slowdown in the US Exports have already been badly hit given the foreign trade and service
economy has already badly affected countries dependent on the US for their comprises 40% of our GDP. So, for example, there has been a 50% drop in
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iron ore exports since August leading to a pile up of 4 million tonnes at the other.
ports. Prices have crashed from $ 140 a tonne three months back to $ 85 per But this was not able to stem the rot. The collapse of the banks, financial
tonne. Tata Steel has been regularly closing its plant in Tatanagar since the last institutions and now even the industrial giants continue. Interest rates were
two months. Drop in cement orders has led to ACC laying off 25 of it staff. reduced further and now in the US the rate stands at 1% and in Japan at 0.2%.
Small textile firms are collapsing and are over 4 lakh garment workers are On Nov 6th England once again slashed interest rates, this time by as much as
likely to be thrown out in the next few months due to cancellation of export 1.5% to bring it to 3% — a 53-year low.
orders. It has already suffered losses of Rs.400 crores since January due to a In desperation they have thrown all their neo-liberal theories to the winds
massive hike in prices of cotton yarn and other inputs. The Tirupur textile hub and governments have intervened with gigantic bail-our packages to rescue
alone will loose 50,000 jobs in the next six months as 25% of its units will shut the banks, investment institutions and even companies. This is defacto
down. Ludhiana’s hosiery manufacturers and exporters have already lost resorting to the much abused ‘nationalisation’. As long as they were making
30% of their business due to the meltdown seriously affecting the 35 lakh
workers (15 lakh migrant) involved in the industry. In Meerut over 20% of the huge profits, privatisation was the mantra; now when they are making losses
30,000 gold artisans have gone home. In Surat 20% of the diamond units have and are in fact collapsing it is back to nationalisation. But this Keynesian
closed down and those that remain have less work. They have been affected alternative is no real solution; it is a mere palliative to give immediate relief. .
by the drop in exports and rise in costs of rough diamonds with rupee falling The social democrats and the CPI/CPM type socialists may harp on these
against the dollar. In Mumbai’s sprawl slum, Dharavi, export of leather belts alternatives but they will have to explain the earlier failures of the Keynesian
have dropped from 70,000 per month to 3,000 per month. model of the 1960s resulting in the crisis which began in the 1970s, and still
continues. Also they will have to explain the collapse of the Soviet Union
Besides this badly hit will be all the BPOs, IT enabled services and those (after capitalist restoration) and those of the then East European countries —
dependent on foreign orders for their survival. Already many are facing all of which were build on a powerful state sector.
closure and those that survive are cutting jobs, salaries and perks at a fast rate. The present crisis which is reminiscent of the Great depression is a
Indian airlines like Jet have retrenched on a big scale and cut salaries by more systemic problem of the capitalist mode of production itself. The roots of the
than half. ASSOCHAM, a top association of the business houses, has said in a crisis lie in the capitalist system itself for which there is no solution. The only
report dated Oct.31 08 that Indian companies will slash 25% of its workforce
“to sustain operations”. It said that layoffs to begin with will be in the seven real solution to revive the economy is through the very overthrow of the
key industrial segments — steel, cement, IT-enabled services/BPOs, system and its replacement with the socialist alternative
financial & brokerage services, construction, real estate and aviation. Why? To answer this let us go into the history and dynamics of the present
And this is just the beginning. So far savings have not been hit crisis and see if there is any answer within the system.
particularly except in Mutual Funds as nationalised banks have not had
significant exposure abroad. But ICICI Bank has been badly hit and there is Crisis of Over-production Endemic to Capitalism/Imperialism
strong possibility of bank and insurance failures, particularly in the private The Great depression of the 1930s was followed by the world war. The
sector with those tied up with TNCs. The ravages of the worldwide post-war years saw a relative boom in the worldwide economy with the US at
depression with hit countries like India badly as the imperialists will seek to the centre. But in the 1970s the world economy once again slipped into crisis,
push the burden of that crisis on the backward countries. Already the dalal marked by the oil shock, removal of the gold standard (against the dollar),
Finance Minister have announce a slew of measures that increases perennially slow (or even negative) growth rates, etc.
enormously the concessions given to foreign capital. As we go to the press he
announces that drastic changes are to be made in this sphere. (See other article This crisis that began in the 1970s has continued with intermittent brief
on this issue) recoveries, right up to today. The crisis of over-production which
endemic to the capitalist system results from the intrinsic
Crisis of Neo-liberalism; Keynesianism no Answer
contradiction of the capitalist seeking to maximise profits (and
capital accumulation) through depressing wages to the
The Great Depression of the 1930s was finally pulled out of its crisis after maximum possible. Continuous capital accumulation demands
World War II through Keynesian formulas of state intervention
(nationalisation) and the welfare state. In those days it also had to contend continuous growth of the market; but markets are always
with a powerful socialist camp. But with the temporary collapse of socialism restricted due to the depression of the wages and low
worldwide and the retreat of national liberation movements and a persisting purchasing power of the masses. The capitalists can only
economic crisis since the mid-1970s, the neo-liberal formulas were pushed to operate within this limited framework, but is unable to resolve
the fore. Reagenism, Thatcherism, et al were in fashion and Keynesianism, this contradiction resulting to regular crisis.
nationalisation were much ridiculed, not to mention the socialist alternative. In the 1980s the high levels of capital accumulation, specifically thrown
The 1990s say neo-liberal economic polices peaked where the market was the up by the petrodollars, found a new outlet in lending to the third world.
new god that determines everything. Fortunes were made on a scale never Through the 1980s this went on on a huge scale helped along by the IMF and
seen in the history of capitalism; of course, in the wake of immense World Bank, giving gigantic returns to the investors and pushing these
impoverisation, with the rich-poor gap also becoming the widest ever. It was countries into deeper and deeper debt. Enormous profits were not only made
even portrayed as “the end of history”, as though the ‘golden’ capitalist era is through charging interest, but devaluation of the currencies and making the
here for ever and socialism relegated only to history text books. Even welfare loans conditional to extract maximum tribute from the prey. Within a decade
was now privatised with a massive mushrooming of NGOs funded by the the loot was so acute that most of these countries were pushed to bankruptcy
moneybags and the state. and, in fact, many of the loans had to be rescheduled. This period though
Growth rates grew compared to the era of the 1970s and that became the witnessed regular economic crises as in 1973, 1979, 1985, 1987, 1992. It also
irreversible alibi for the neo-liberal theoreticians. And with it was witnessed the bubble like growth of the Japanese economy (which briefly
accompanied the gigantic leaps in communication technology in the form of began to be a challenge to the US), and then its bust in 1989, from which it is
the computer, internet, cell phone, TV, etc that gave it the glamour of a yet to recover.
scientific inevitability. The high profile media portrayed none of the misery The 1990s and the present centaury witnessed what came to be called
below the surface and only promoted the world of wealth and glamour. The globalisation as the solution for their endemic crisis. Now the surplus
middle class was brainwashed with this continuous bombardment, and a generated through capital accumulation, unable to find a growing market
section even got an opportunity to eat off some crumbs from the (except for the opening up of China) resorted to two means: massive Mergers
imperialist/comprador table. The smallest dissidence was labeled ‘terrorist’ & Acquisitions, on a scale never seen before creating giant conglomerates;
and callously dispensed with. Once so branded, one ceased to be human, it second, resorting to high levels of speculation and finacialisation of the
was as though a dangerous insect had been crushed. The poverty stricken surplus being generated through the real economy. This was facilitated by the
masses too were a non-entity in this make-believe world. technology boom in computers, internet, etc.
But now the fantasy world of the neo-liberal bubble has burst; and burst in As Reymond Lotta said in an article on the net: When we speak of
a way that it is unlikely to re-gain for long. Meanwhile it will pull down with it capitalist accumulation, we are referring to the competitive production of
millions into the mire and suck away lives in lakhs. With one financial bubble surplus value (the source of profit) based on the exploitation of wage labor;
after the other bursting the theoreticians of neo-liberalism have no answers and the investment and reinvestment of profit on an expanding, cost-
and seem totally helpless in the face of the continuing collapse of pillar after cheapening, and technologically more productive basis.
pillar of the financial establishment. The gods of power and wealth are
tumbling down. When we speak of “financialization,” we are referring to three particular
features of the larger structure of capitalist accumulation in this period of
They have just their standard fiscal answers — reduction of interest rates imperialist globalization: a) the growing political and economic power of the
is their main tool: to increase liquidity (i.e. money for capitalists) and make financial layers of the capitalist class; b) the vast expansion of financial
available easy credit for the masses to spend and revive the slumping market. activities and of financial services, like organizing and financing corporate
But it is not working. On Oct 9th, for the first time ever several Central Banks takeovers, insuring investments against risk, creating new financial
acted in concert to stem the market panic. The US Fed cut interest rates by 50 instruments, etc.—activities in which profit-making involves the siphoning,
basic points to 1.5%; while the European Central Bank cut interest rates from centralization, and reinvestment of surplus value through financial channels;
4.25% to 3.75%. The Bank of England and the Central banks of Canada, and c) the increasing separation of finance from production.
Sweden, Switzerland and China also cut interest rates within seconds of each

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This process of financialization has gone the furthest in the United States,
and it is a major factor in U.S. imperialism’s ability to preserve and extend its Crisis in agriculture: Suicides
dominance in international financial markets.
Financialization is also a means through which wealth, and effective continue Unabated
control over productive forces, is centralized by the imperialist Abhijnan Sarkar
countries—even as production has grown more geographically dispersed Even as the UPA government announced the Rs 60,000 crore (later
and increasingly carried out within subcontractural networks in the Third revised to Rs72,000 crore) loan waiver for farmers in its budget, farmers in
World. Vidarbha and other parts of Maharashtra and neighboring Andhra Pradesh
continued to end their lives. Vidarbha in Maharashtra is a region where six of
Financialization involves efforts to squeeze out more “value” from the eleven districts namely Yavatmal, Wardha, Amravati, Akola, Washim and
already created value. One measure of this is that in 2006, the daily volume of Buldana are tragically known as suicide districts.
trading in foreign exchange markets and in derivatives (financial Since the first reported suicide by a debt-ridden farmer in 1997, suicides
instruments) added up to $11.4 trillion—which almost equals the annual among the 3.2 million farmers of Maharashtra’s cotton-producing districts
value of global merchandise exports that year. In terms of the shifts in the have been shaking the country. According to the state government, from
structure of the U.S. economy, the financial sector’s share of total corporate January 1, 2001 to August 19, 2006, 1920 farmers, many between the age
profits has risen from 8 percent in 1950 to 31 percent last year. 20 and 45, have killed themselves. The situation is reminiscent of the Great
So here the surplus value generated from the real economy was circulated Bengal Famine of 1943. According to the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, in
again and again around the globe giving astronomical profits to the owners of the past three months one farmer has died every eight hours. The
the capital. But it was a bubble and had inevitably to burst as it had no solid overwhelming cause of death is debt, sometimes as low as Rs 10,000.
base to it. Market expansion in the US was sought not by hiking wages but by Ironically, there were three reported cases of suicides even on 15th August,
pushing the entire populace into debt through excessive credit — housing 2008.
mortgages, credit cards, etc. The US also became the most indebted country Maharashtra is neither the only state to report farmers’ suicides, nor the
(in Oct. 2008 the external debt reached the gigantic figure of $ 10 trillion) first one. In state after state, district after district, village after village hope
with the largest trade deficit. This fragile situation was sustainable as long as is dying slowly. The living dead in India’s once prosperous green
the dollar maintained its supremacy resulting in large inflows form other revolution areas are soon joining the already dead and swelling the
countries (with most holding their reserves in dollars — the largest today is numbers of ‘suicides by the farmers’. The feeling of helplessness and
that of China). If the collapse of the US financial institutions is accompanied despair is almost tangible. Ironically, the only ‘hope’ is seen in ending the
by the fall of the supremacy of the dollar (which is rivaled by the euro) and hopeless existence. Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala,
shifting of reserves to another country the fragility of the US economy will Punjab…the story is the same. According to official estimates, in the ten
result in total collapse. But with it, it will pull down other economies of the year period between 1997 and 2006 as many as 166,304 farmers
world, so that is why, as yet, no one wants to disturb the existing equilibrium. committed suicide in India. Thus, going by the official data, on an average
The crisis today is so deep that it is being compared to the Great nearly 16,000 farmers committed suicide every year over the last decade or
Depression of the 1930. But even the boom years of the 1990s there was the so. Even this number, shocking as it is, is in fact an underestimation of the
crisis of 1997 (South East Asia and Russia as centre), the bursting of the actual number of farm suicides in the country during this period.
internet bubble of 1999, and the recession of 2001. So since the 1970s the Suicides: Tip of the iceberg
crises continue with brief periods of recovery, in many cases artificially Suicides are actually symptomatic of a much more serious problem; an
created through fiscal manipulations and creation of bubbles. This has now acute crisis in Indian agriculture virtually doctored by the Indian state. In
imploded on their face in a crisis, the magnitude of which is incomparable to India, bulk of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood (66
the other downturns since the 1970s. It is in essence the crisis of over- percent) and considering that there are virtually no employment
production, and all fiscal stimulation is proving ineffective. opportunities outside this sector, stagnation and crisis therein has serious
There is no solution within the framework, but to survive the impending implications for the entire people and country. This is also the sector which
chaos the imperialists and their agents throughout the world will resort to provides food for the entire country and thus agrarian crisis also impacts
horrors of unbelievable proportions, including wars, fascist massacres to food security. All sections of people dependent on agriculture viz. different
quell the inevitable revolts, levels of exploitation not recently seen, etc. Such classes of cultivators –rich, medium, small and marginal peasants as well
are the dismal days ahead, not to mention the massive distress created through as agricultural labour, have been affected by this crisis albeit to varying
the collapse of people’s savings, earning capacity and purchasing power. degrees.
At a time when India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world
with a growth rate of 9.6 percent for the year 2006-07, agricultural growth has
The Only Alternative stagnated. The growth rate of agriculture and allied activities has been merely
There are a report that in Europe Marx’s writings has come onto the best- 2.6 percent. It has declined sharply compared to 1980s when it was 3.3
seller list. Even rulers are referring to Marx to understand the causes for the percent (1980-95). Despite the retrogression in agriculture, it still has to
crisis. This is quite natural as it was only Marx that gave a scientific support more than two-thirds of the population.
understanding of the capitalist system, building on the initial understanding
put forth by people like Adam Smith and Ricardo. No doubt capitalism has In recent years, according to Ministry of Agriculture data, the net sown
changed its form in this era of imperialism (scientifically explained by Lenin) area has actually fallen from 143 million hectares in 1990-91 to 140.9
but the laws of its functioning remain in tact. The understanding of these laws million hectares in 2003-04. This is also partly due to acquisition of
will not only give an understanding to the present crisis (with all its new agricultural land for non agricultural purposes such as special economic
manifestations of financialisation, etc) but also the limitations to the solution zones etc. Even the net irrigated area decreased. The cropping intensity has
within the existing system. stagnated at around 1.35 i.e. only 35 percent of the area is cropped more
But Marx not only gave a scientific understanding of capitalism but also than once. This is also on account of fall in the water tables due to
put it in historical perspective. Through a scientific understanding of history mindless application of a technology which uses water intensively.
he traced its evolution from feudalism and its inevitable transition to
socialism. Through his understanding of history from earliest times to now he Food grain output has risen marginally to 219.3 million tonnes in the fiscal
showed that with capitalism it is far from “the end of history” but history will year 2008 as compared to 217.3 million tonnes in the previous year. This
traverse through to finally communism. But as history has shown no society has grave implications for the country’s ability to feed itself. In order to
transformed from one to the next peacefully. It always came through blood maintain the per capita production level of 2001-02, food grains
battles as the rulers of the old do not voluntarily give up their benefits without production should reach 240 million tonnes in 2010 which seems highly
out a bitter struggle. They did not wage world wars for nothing. They resorted unlikely.
even to genocide when their interests were threatened. Numerous examples
are there in history and contemporary Iraq is yet another example. In the post-WTO period, terms of trade for agriculture have
worsened. That is, agricultural prices relative to non-agricultural
So amidst this chaos sanity and peace can only be brought by prices have fallen by 1.7 percent annually between 1996-97 and 2003-
overthrowing the existing system and replacing with something that is more 04. With the prices of inputs rising sharply (costs have risen more than
humane and rational — socialism. In backward countries like India it will five times above the level in 1980s in the case of wheat), and prices of
have to pass through two phases but the direction is the same in all countries output stagnating, agriculture is becoming increasingly unviable.
of the world. Communism has been much vulgarised by the revisionists of the
CPI/CPM/CPIML(liberation) variety and much reviled due to the reversals The income of agricultural labourers also remained stagnant between 2000
of socialist systems the world over. In this 21st century communism must learn and 2005; what little growth took place in wages was nullified by
from the negative experiences of the past and incorporate all that is positive reduction in the days of employment.
with a new creativity to catapult society into a real paradise that we all seek.
abhijnan_juprod @ yahoo.co.in The technology being used is spelling disaster for soil, groundwater and
environment. Water table has fallen in 264 of the country’s 596 districts.
As a result of the worsening condition of the soil, the soil’s response to the

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inputs has been decreasing necessitating larger and larger doses of disaster for agriculture and even SASF (Situation Assessment Survey of
chemicals and fertilizers. According to the Department of Land Resources Farmers) admits that for the average “farmer households”, net receipts from
in the Ministry of Rural Development, nearly two-thirds of India’s cultivation covered only 35 percent of their consumption expenditure. Even if
agricultural land is degraded or sick. incomes from activities other than cultivation (such as working as wage
labourers on others’ farms, non farm business like small shops) are added, the
The only section which has shown spectacular growth is the transnational sum total of earnings (Rs. 2115) is still less than the consumption expenditure
and multinational corporations engaged in agricultural operations. of the household (Rs. 2770). It may be noted that the monthly consumption
Companies like Cargill, Monsanto, Syngenta, Dupont, Bayer, Dow etc expenditure is merely Rs. 503 per head or less than Rs 17 per day.
involved in agro-business operations throughout the world are reaping Escalation of costs, uncertainty and fluctuations of prices and lack of
profits as never before. For example, profits of Cargill increased by 36 alternative employment opportunities have combined to create this appalling
percent between 2006 and 2007. situation.
The Way Out
Genesis It is quite clear that the situation and condition of agriculture today is not
accidental but engineered by the policies of the ruling class. Irrespective of
The genesis of this crisis can be traced to colonial times. British rule the political party in power, all governments consciously stripped agriculture
abolished the peasant’s traditional right of occupancy to the land and a new of funds, allowed the entry of big corporate houses and opened the markets of
legal system based on private property and contract was introduced. India agricultural produce to international competition and have allowed the old
was drawn into the world capitalist market and commercialization of backward relations of production to perpetuate (even if in a new form). In
agriculture increased. The land revenue system under the colonial rule such a situation, it is futile to expect any ‘change of heart’ of the state. The
exerted immense pressure on the tillers of land who were forced to borrow most it can deliver are platitudes.
heavily from the moneylenders. These tillers of land had no ownership over The only times when the governments were forced to give in were during
land and thus not much incentive to increase production. militant agitations by organizations like BKU. It is not surprising that the state
procurement of wheat and paddy is made mainly in Punjab and Haryana, the
The land reforms enacted after 1947 were mere eye wash. The enormous states where lakhs of farmers have been taking to the streets to press for their
inequality in land ownership in India has not reduced in the last five demands. The government was forced to revise the Minimum Support Price
decades. According to National Sample Survey (NSS), top 10 percent of in 1984 when nearly a lakh farmers gheraoed the governor in Chandigarh.
the rural households own more than half of the area. Another aspect of The time has come for peasant organizations in different states to come
inequality arises from the steady decrease in the common land and water together on a common platform and launch militant struggles for meeting
resources to which the rural poor do not have any legal rights but on which their demands. There is no other way that pro-imperialist, urban-centric
they depend for fuel, grazing of animals, water for irrigation. As a result of governments will pay any heed.
takeover of land for non-agricultural purposes by the state and the private
interests (aided and abetted by the state), these resources have reduced. abhijnan_juprod@yahoo.co.in
Instead of attempting to bring about a much needed change in these social
relations to increase agricultural growth, Indian rulers sought a
technocratic solution to agriculture. In accordance with the needs and
dictates of imperialist agencies, new kinds of agricultural technology was
Supreme Court tells Chhattisgarh
introduced. It is well documented that Ford and Rockefeller Foundations government to implement NHRC
backed the green revolution. The new technology gave improved yields
but made the peasants dependent on multinational companies for seeds and recommendations on Salwa Judum
fertilizers. It also accentuated the inequalities between regions and Expressing concern over the National Human Rights Commission’s
between different classes of peasants within a region. (NHRC) report over the “atrocities” committed by the counter-naxalite
salwa judum movement in Chhattisgarh, the Supreme Court asked the
The economic reforms of the eighties and the nineties worsened the state government to come up with its stand on the remedial measures.
situation and increased the vulnerability of the peasants. Public investment in A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice P
agriculture was decreased; subsidies were slashed resulting in escalation of Sathasivam and Justice J M Panchal said: “Part I of the report (filed by
costs of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. Major changes were brought about in NHRC) speaks of various atrocities committed by salwa judum.” “When
the credit policy which greatly reduced the access of majority of the farmers somebody is given arms he is bound to commit crime. It is a serious
to cheap institutional credit throwing them into the clutches of the offence. Who is responsible for it”? Asked Justice Balakrishnan speaking
moneylenders. Trade was liberalized and import restrictions were removed for the bench.
for a number of agricultural products making the farmers more vulnerable to Perusing parts of the exhaustive report of NHRC, the court
international prices. Procurement by the government became a formality for said,”Salwa judum has committed serious offences. The people are
most of the crops except paddy and wheat. Foreign Direct Investment up to subjected to serious problems”. Further, the NHRC report has
100 percent is now permitted in areas like floriculture, horticulture, recommended remedial measures to be taken by the state government,
development of seeds, animal husbandry etc. paving the way for big agro- said Justice Balakrishnan.
business corporate houses. Senior counsel K K Venugopal appearing for state said that the
government will submits its objections to the NHRC report. When
In the case of cotton, the main crop of Vidarbha (this year there has been a another senior counsel Ranjit Kumar appearing in the case sought more
shift away from cotton and more and more acreage is being brought under time saying that the elections in the state were scheduled to be held
soybean cultivation), the costs of cultivation have risen continuously around November, the court said, “It has nothing to do with elections”.
especially after the late seventies on account of rising prices of Bt seeds and Earlier, the court had asked the NHRC to probe the allegations of
the indispensability of fertilizers and pesticides. The cost of inputs is as high human rights violations by the salwa judum (Peace Mission) in the state
as Rs 7-8 thousand for cultivating one acre of unirrigated land. This one acre in response to the petitions filed by noted sociologist Nandini Sundar,
gives a yield of around three quintals. What becomes most important is the historian Ramachandra Guha, E A S Sarma and activist Kartam Joga
price at which this cotton can be sold. With the opening of markets to challenging the setting up of salwa judum. The petitioners had alleged
international trade, the price of cotton fell to as low as Rs 1600-1700 per that in the guise of countering the naxal movement, the salwa judum was
quintal in 1997 (this drop was from Rs 2500 per quintal in 1995). The price of indulging in killings and committing atrocities against tribals. They had
cotton declined continuously from 1997 upto 2003 triggering a spate of sought a direction to the state government to refrain from “supporting and
suicides in Andhra Pradesh. The prices have been somewhat better since last encouraging” the salwa judum.
year but what is important here is the fact that farmers have to bear the brunt of The government, however, had said that naxal ‘menace’ in the state
uncertain prices in the international market. The situation in Maharashtra was has reached alarming proportions and it cannot stifle any people’s
somewhat under control till 2003 due to the existence of monopoly initiative in the form of salwa judum movement to combat the violent
procurement scheme of the state government which provided assured market illegal activities of the ultras. Centre also had backed the state
to the farmers. After the scrapping of this scheme in 2003, suicides there, government’s stand on the issue. In defence of Salwa Judum, the
increased many times. This situation has thrown most of the farmers in a Chhattisgarh government said: “It is not state-sponsored, but a people’s
vicious cycle of debt. Bank loans have reduced in general and can only be initiative to combat the menace of naxalites. The State is committed to
availed if there are proper land records. Also the upper limit of these loans is resolving the problem of naxalism, and any peaceful movement which
much lower than the actual requirements. In case of a default, this avenue is resists violent methods definitely gets support of States.” Though it is a
closed for the next year. This is making the farmers more and more dependent BJP-ruled state, the UPA government through Subramaniam had during
on moneylenders and input traders for loans and getting the inputs on credit. an earlier hearing made a strong pitch for continuance of the Salwa Judum
as a counter to the Naxals’ unchallenged run in the Bastar and Dantewada
The domestic reforms, opening of agriculture to international trade and regions.
the complete apathy of the state along with a distinct urban bias has spelled

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Tibet: Myth and Reality, Beijing Review, March 1988). In the book
Questions Concerning Tibet: Part II Tibetan Interviews by Anna Louis Strong, there is the picture of a Tibetan
Amit Bhattacharyya herdsman whose hands were cut off by the serf-owner as he opposed the serf-
( Author’s note: This piece is the second part of the article on Tibet. The owner’s taking away his wife ( Peking, 1959). In fact, the Tibetan serf-owners
first part was published in the last September 2008 number of Towards a New and other reactionaries often out on pious airs and expressed the hope that
Dawn. In the first part, I had dealt with four sections: 1) Was Tibet historically everyone would go to heaven, but actually, they turned Tibet into a living hell
an integral part of China? 2) British imperialist designs on Tibet (early 19th on earth; they wanted to force the Tibetan people to live perpetually in the
century to 1949); 3) Tibet in China-USA-India relationships; and 4) Mao and abysmal darkness of a life of barbarism and cruelty worse than that of Europe
Chou En-lai on the question of small nationalities in China. I thought of in the middle Ages. I would like to draw the attention of those civil rights
completing this article in this issue. However, as I myself went deeper into the activists and writers who shed their tears for torture on the Tibetan people and
subject, I realized that the discussion should be more detailed as violation of human rights by the Chinese government to such reality and not
misconceptions about the nature of the issue are all-pervading. So I decided turn their eyes off from it. Such methods are likely to put to shame those
not to hurry and take some more time to dispel the wrong notions that methods used by the feudal ruling class in medieval Europe.
pervade. As I understand it now, it will take at least a total of four parts to do Stories of a Tibetan Shangrila ruthlessly destroyed by the Communists
justice to the theme.) had gained a great deal of currency in the Western world. It is but nostalgia for
the Tibetan theocracy comparable in certain respect to the nostalgia some
5) Tibetan serfdom people feel for the earthly paradise of medieval Christendom. Kawaguchi, a
The people who have been very much critical about the Chinese Japanese Buddhist monk, who had been there in Lhasa for three years at the
government’s policy towards Tibet quite surprisingly prefer to maintain a turn of the 19th century, described the terrible punishments—mutilation and
total silence on the social conditions in Tibet, on how the Tibetan people had amputation for the slightest transgressions. He wrote in Three Years in Tibet:
been subjected to various forms of feudal oppression under serfdom in the “Lhasa abounds in handless beggars and in beggars minus their eye-balls, and
pre-1949 period. In fact, Tibetan serfdom was of such a brutal type that it perhaps the proportion of eye-less beggars is larger than that of the handless
would put to shame even the most abominable and despicable of the feudal one”. After talking of traditional medicine, Kawasaki writes: “the mere
lords in other parts of the world. mention of this second series of so-called medicine would, instead of curing
“The Tibetan social order was somewhat like the manorial system and the people of other countries, infallibly make them sick, as the essential
chattel slavery in most of medieval Europe”, stated T.T.Li in his Tibet Today ingredients are nothing less than excreta, both liquid and solid, of the grand
and Yesterday. This statement is, in fact, an understatement of the existing lamas and other high priests. These are mixed with other substances and are
reality. Actually, it was more than that. In the serf society of Tibet, there were made into pills which are gilded over and sometimes coloured red”.
serf-owners of three types, commonly known as the “three manorial lords”. Long before the Japanese monk made this observation, an Englishman,
They were nobles with manorial holdings and private perks; the local Manning wrote about Lhasa in a similar vein in 1811: ‘There is nothing
government with landholdings and enjoying the right to bestow or confiscate striking, nothing pleasing in itsappearance. The inhabitants are begrimed
land; and the monasteries. They possessed most of the land and controlled with dirt and smut. The avenues are full of dogs, some growling and gnawing
what little trade there was with the rest of China and the Himalayan border bits of hide which lie about in profusion and emit a charnel-house smell;
areas. These lords were also usurers. Given the backward social conditions it others limping and looking livid, others ulcerated; others starving and dying
was no surprise to see that the economy generally was a barter economy and pecked at by ravens; some dead and preyed upon”.Nothing had changed
rather than a money economy. even after a century or more. Spencer-Chapman described Lhasa thus in
The serfs had no land of their own and so they were the property of the 1940: “Besides the gateway are always swarms of beggars sitting against the
serf-owners, as did their children and their children’s children. Bound for life walland, with protruded tongues and upraised thumbs, whining for alms.
to the master’s land, they had no personal freedom or political rights Some beggars are strong and healthy and could work for their living…others
whatsoever. Their masters regarded them as nothing but “talking cattle” are aged and loathsome, blind, crippled and diseased. They sit there as
which could be bought, sold and exchanged as commodities or simply given somebody rides by.” He also writes in another place: “Among the filth, some
away as gifts. They had been subjected to exploitation, torture and repression of which is indescribable, are the semi-decomposed dead dogs which are
of various types such as corvee, taxation of types such as birth tax, child tax, being torn at by their species and by three ravens which are remarkably tame.
poll tax, marriage tax, purchase tax, “jail tax” and what not. The dogs are one of the most disgusting and pathetic slights of the city. They
There were no schools, no hospitals and the most common scourges of seem to have no owners; nobody cares for them except for a few devout old
venereal diseases and small pox made considerable inroads into the women who throw them scraps as an act of piety…there was one wretched
population. Wheeled transport was unknown except the Dalai Lama’s car creature that we saw day after day, with one eye, or rather the place where the
which he took as a joy ride every morning to drive around the grounds of the eye should have been, swollen up many times its normal size, completely raw
Norbulinka palace. As P.Carrasco points out in his Land and Polity in Tibet, and discharging. It is strange that the Tibetans will spend any amount of time
forced celibacy, polygamy and polyandry were the common features of and money on their religion, but have no interests in even the rudiments of
Tibetan social system. charity, hygiene or cleanliness”.
The nature of Tibetan serfdom can be gauged from the various methods of
torture to kill and maim people who were treated as two-legged beasts. Every 6) Background of the Rebellion of 1959
manor and monastery had its private jail and its own collection of weapons We have pointed out clearly that since Tibet was an integral part of China,
and instruments of torture. The serf-owners and their henchmen were free to it was quite natural for the new Chinese government to establish its suzerainty
torture the serfs at will—flogging them, cutting off noses, gouging out eyes, over Tibet after the accomplishment of the New Democratic Revolution
chopping off limbs and they could even execute the serf. In fact, the Tibet in1949. By the end of 1949, entire China had been liberated with the
Revolutionary Museum houses torture instruments collected from different exception of Tibet and Taiwan and the establishment of the central People’s
parts of Tibet, the skins of old men and children, human skulls, bones of serfs Government was declared on October 1, 1949 in Peking. Thus in order to
who had been buried alive, and hands fried in oil. The musical instruments complete the cause of the liberation of the mainland, the People’s Liberation
used in the halls where religious ceremonies were conducted were made of Army entered Tibet in 1950 in order to free the Tibetan people from the
human limbs. Bugles made of maidens’ leg bones, small drums made of enslavement and oppression of domestic reaction and foreign powers. The
human skulls and skin and a rosary made of 108 pieces of parietal bones. PLA reached the Kantse area east of the Kingsha River. This alarmed the US
Before the liberation of Tibet, an area called Parkor was the site of torture and and British imperialists and the local reactionaries in the Tibetan local
a slaughterhouse. Here some fifty different torture instruments are on display. government. The United Press of the US reported that the Tibetan authorities
Among those there is a heavy stone cone. When placed over the head and were about to dispatch a “goodwill mission” to the USA, Britain, India, Nepal
pounded with a stone, the victim’s eyes would protrude making it easy for and Peking respectively to declare Tibet’s “independence”. The US and
them to be gouged out. Before the execution of a serf, a bugle was sounded. British imperialists tried thus to create a pretext for their open interference in
Some were dis-embowelled and paraded through the streets of Parkor before the internal affairs of China so as to attain their aims of preventing the
they were put to death. Others were tied naked to a red-hot copper horse People’s Liberation Army from entering Tibet.
mounted on wheels and paraded around Parkor before they were killed. That The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China strongly denounced the above
is not all. There were two scorpion dungeons in Lhasa, one of which was in plot is a statement dated 20 January 1950 released by the Hsinhua News
Parkor and the other just beneath the Potala Palace. Before the democratic agency which read as follows: “Tibet is the territory of the People’s Republic
reform, many serfs were thrown into these dungeons and stung to death by the of China. This is a fact which is known to everybody in the world and which
venomous creatures which sucked the blood of the corpses.(For details, see has never been denied by anybody. Since this is the case, the Lhasa
authorities, of course, have no right to arbitrarily send out any ‘mission’ and,

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still more, to announce Tibet’s ‘independence’. Since the ‘independence’ functions and powers of the Dalai Lama. Officials of various ranks shall
of Tibet has to be publicized to the governments of the United States, Britain, hold office as usual.
India and Nepal, and has to be announced by the American United Press, it is 5. The established status, functions and powers of the Panchen Erdent
not difficult to see that, if the content of such views is not a United Press shall be maintained.
fabrication, it is at most merely a puppet show directed by American 6. By the established status, functions and powers of the Dalai Lama
imperialism and its accomplices who are invading Tibet”( Concerning the and of the Panchen Erdent are meant the status, functions and powers of the
Question of Tibet, Peking 1959, p.207). On 21 January 1950, i.e the very next 13th Dalai Lama and the 9th Panchen Erdent when they were in friendly and
day, in order to seek a peaceful solution to the Tibetan problem, China invited amicable relations with each other.
the Tibetan authorities to send representatives to Peking to “negotiate a 7. The policy of freedom of religious belief laid down in the Common
peaceful solution of the question”. While on 30 January 1950, it demanded Programme of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference shall be carried
the withdrawal of the “goodwill mission” sent to foreign countries, it offered out. The religious beliefs, customs and habits of the Tibetan people shall be
“appropriate regional autonomy”( Natarajan, p.189). respected and lama monasteries shall be protected. The central authorities
The Tibetan authorities were reported to have appealed to neighbouring will not effect a change in the income of the monasteries.
countries for assistance in fighting “possible aggression” from China. But 8. Tibetan troops shall be reorganized by stages into the People’s
then, probably on second thoughts, they agreed to send a negotiating team to Liberation Army, and become a part of the national defence forces of the
Peking via India and Hong Kong. However, although the team came to India, People’s Republic of China.
it never went to Peking on one plea after another ( Natarajan, pp.189-90). 9. The spoken and written language and school education of the Tibetan
Dalai Lama’s brother, Gyalo Thondup came to Calcutta and in May went to nationality shall be developed step by step in accordance with the actual
Taipeh where he met Chiang Kai-shek and then went to Tokyo and other conditions in Tibet.
places. It was reported in the press that the Tibetans had been making 10. Tibetan agriculture, livestock raising, industry and commerce shall
purchases of arms from India (New York Times, 20 August 1950). be developed step by step, and the people’s livelihood shall be improved step
Meanwhile, in July 1950, the Chinese government sent Living Buddha by step in accordance with the actual conditions in Tibet.
Geda( a Tibetan patriot), Vice-Chairman of the Sikang Provincial People’s 11. In matters related to various reforms in Tibet, there will be no
Government, to Tibet to dispel the misunderstandings of the Tibetan local compulsion on the part of the central authorities. The local government of
government about the Central People’s Government so that negotiations Tibet should carry out reforms of its own accord, and when the people raise
could be carried out at an early date. As soon as he arrived at Chamdo on 24 demands for reform, they shall be settled by means of consultation with the
July, Living Buddha Geda was prevented by the British agent Robert Webster leading personnel of Tibet.
Ford from proceeding further to Lhasa The Chinese accused Ford of 12. In so far as former pro-imperialist and pro-Kuomintang officials
poisoning Living Buddha Geda on 21 August 1950, who died the next day. It resolutely sever relations with imperialism and the Kuomintang and do not
is said that after his murder, his whole body turned black and the skin came off engage in sabotage or resistance, they may continue to hold office
at a touch. Ford burned the corpse of Living Buddha Geda. After the irrespective of their past.
liberation of Tibet, the British agent was arrested ( For more details, see 13. The People’s Liberation Army entering Tibet shall abide by all the
Concerning the Question of Tibet, pp.207-08). It was high time for China to above-mentioned policies and shall also be fair in all buying and selling and
drive out the foreign agents and imperialist forces from Tibet and bring the shall not arbitrarily take a single needle or thread from the people.
domestic forces representing reaction who had been willing accomplices. At 14. The central People’s Government shall conduct the centralized
the instigation of the British and US imperialists, the Tibetan local handling of all external affairs of the area of Tibet; and there will be peaceful
government directed the Tibetan army to resist the PLA at Chamdo. On 19 co-existence with neighbouring countries and establishment and
October 1950, the PLA wiped out the main force of the Tibetan army, development of fair commercial and trading relations with them on the basis
numbering five thousand men, and established their control over Tibet. Thus of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect for territory and sovereignty.
the scheme of preventing the PLA from entering Tibet was defeated. The 15. In order to ensure the implementation of this agreement, the Central
Anglo-US block got frightened and started slandering the entry of the PLA People’s Government shall set up a military and administrative committee
into their own motheland Tibet as “aggression”. The US State Department and a military area headquarters in Tibet, and apart from the personnel sent
urged the United Nations to interfere in the question of Tibet. London also there by the Central People’s government shall absorb as many local Tibetan
incited the governments of India and Pakistan to raise “protests” with China. personnel as possible to take part in the work. Local Tibetan personnel taking
Those who were defeated were still not prepared to accept it. They did not part in the military and administrative committee may include patriotic
cease making new conspiracies. A handful of persons in the Tibetan ruling elements from the local government of Tibet, various districts and leading
clique headed by Regent Tagcha, in collusion with the British and US, monasteries; the name-list shall be drawn up after consultation between the
abducted the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to Yatung from where they had planned representatives designated by the Central People’s government and the
to take him to India. This aroused the opposition of the three major Tibetan various quarters concerned, and shall be submitted to the Central People’s
monasteries as well as of the broad masses of the Tibetan people. Many Government for appointment.
kanpos and kaloons near the Dalai Lama also disapproved of his flight to 16. Funds needed by the military and administrative committee, the
India and stood for negotiations with the central government. Thus in the military area headquarters and the People’s Liberation Army entering Tibet
spring of 1951, Tagcha relinquished his post and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama shall be provided by the Central People’s Government. The local government
“assumed power”. After assuming power, the new Dalai Lama appointed of Tibet will assist the People’s Liberation Army in the purchase and transport
Kaloon Ngapo Ngawang-Jigme and four others as plenipontentiaries of the of food, fodder and daily necessities.
Tibetan local government to conduct negotiations in Peking. The conspiracy 17. This agreement shall come into force immediately after signatures
of the Anglo-US forces had thus been doomed, at least for the time being. and seals are affixed to it.
Source:Concerning The Question of Tibet, Peking 1959, pp.14-16.
An agreement was concluded between the central People’s Government
and the Tibetan local government called Kasha on 23 May 1951. It was In his article entitled “On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions
known as the Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, Among the People” written in February 1957, Mao Tse-tung commented on
namely the 17-article agreement. Thus the Sino-Tibetan agreement developments in Tibet:
guaranteeing the autonomy of Tibet within the People’s Republic of China “According to the seventeen-point agreement reached between the
was signed. Those articles are as follows: Central People’s Government and the local government of Tibet, the reform
of the social system must be carried out, but the timing can only be decided by
1. The Tibetan people shall unite and drive out imperialist aggressive the great majority of the people of Tibet and their leading public figures when
forces from Tibet; the Tibetan people shall return to the big family of the they consider it practicable and one should not be impatient. It has now been
motherland—the People’s Republic of China. decided not to proceed with democratic reforms in Tibet during the period of
2. The local government of Tibet shall actively assist the People’s the Second Five-Year-Plan. Whether they will be proceeded with in the
liberation Army to enter Tibet and consolidate the national defence. period of the Third Five-Year-Plan can only be decided in the light of the
3. In accordance with the policy towards nationalities laid down in the situation at that time”.
Common Programme of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Nevertheless, between the years 1951 and 1959 when social reforms
Conference, the Tibetan people have the right of exercising national were slow, great changes were brought about which undermined the old
autonomy under the unified leadership of the central People’s Government. order. First, there was rapid development of communications in the form of
4. The central authorities will not alter the existing political system in highways and roads and the increase of wheeled transport. Second, there was
Tibet. The central authorities also will not alter the established status, the substitution of the existing barter economy by a market and money

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economy which alone would give rise to new socio-economic forces. In the Katse Chou, in 1957, two documents were found, both of which,
Third, a massive educational programme got under way. Whereas in the according to Anna Louis Strong, showed on their face that they had been
previous society, public education was non-existent, by 1957 alone there printed in 1954 in India. The first was entitled “For a Tibetan State” aimed at
were seventy primary schools with 600 students. The training of Tibetan attaining a “Greater Tibet” and was widely distributed among the serf-
cadres was also taken in hand. Side by side, factories, farms and ranches were owners. Another document called “Program for a New Republic” called upon
set up to develop industry, agriculture and animal husbandry in Tibet; low the Tibetans in Szechuan, Chinghai and Kansu to set up a separate Tibetan
interest loans were granted to poor Tibetan people to help them promote State. Another document found in Chinghai province was a “proclamation”
production; hospitals which gave the Tibetan people free medical treatment of the “Defend Religion and Anti-Communist Army”.
were established in various places. In 1956, the Preparatory Committee for The rebellion in the Kanting area broke out in the winter of 1955-56. At
the Autonomous Region of Tibet was established to prepare for the realization that time, there was no PLA there, but only local police of the newly organized
of national regional autonomy. All these measures were entirely new to the autonomous counties made up of mixed nationalities. The rebellion took the
basic masses of Tibet, and, quite naturally, received their wholehearted form of murder of central government personnel and Han citizens. When the
support. PLA cleared the Szechuan area, the rebels entered Chamdo, where they had
However, the upper section of the Tibetan ruling clique were not at all hundred thousand square miles of mountains to roam about. When beaten in
willing to see Tibet joining the People’s Republic of China which would spell Chamdo, a considerable part of these rebels went into areas nearer Lhasa and
doom to their centuries old serfdom that brought havoc to the people. They, joined the next rebellion under direct Lhasa command. These were the forces
with the backing of the imperialists and Indian expansionists (of whom we known as “Khampas” or the “Sikang troops” and consisted of
talk in a separate section later), they plotted all along to scrap the seventeen- cavalry—totally wild and undisciplined and living on loot and plunder. The
article agreement, and prepared an armed rebellion. There were air-drops of Szechuan-Chamdo rebellion was more or less suppressed by the end of 1956.
American tommy-guns and radio transmitters, sent by Chiang kai-shek in his The revolts in Chinghai and Kansu broke out in 1958 as a protest against the
American-given planes to promote rebellion against Peking. These were the “democratic reform”, which had, quite naturally, aroused armed resistance
small, preliminary revolts in the Tibetan Autonomous “chous” and counties, from the class enemies such as the landlords, pasture lords and monastery
in provinces adjacent to Tibet. They were planned and incited from Lhasa by chiefs. These revolts were smaller than the earlier revolts and suppressed
ministers and high clerical officials of the Dalai Lama. After Dalai Lama’s within a short period.
trip to Peking in 1954-55, where he had presented that glowing Hymn to Mao As the reform movement gained momentum in new areas, the feudal
Tse-tung which compared Mao to “Brahma, the Creator”. On the way back, as oppressors became restless and started opposing them to the best of their
Anna Louis Strong relates in his Tibetan Interviews, some persons of his ability. As their control over the people diminished and people began to assert
entourage dropped off in Kantse Autonomous Chou(district) in Szechuan, on their rights in everyday life, they had no option other than to revolt against the
the pretext of religious business with the monasteries, and laid the base for central government and its local representatives. Previously, the lords in the
future rebellion(p.80). monasteries enjoyed a large number of feudal privileges such as imposing
We may refer here, however briefly, to Tibetan monastery system where excessive land rents and a very high rate of interest for loans, holding their
many joined at a very tender age (baby to eight) and where there was great own courts, passing sentences against the people, including torture and
difference in wealth. Monks from wealthy or noble families kept their status imprisonment etc. All these feudal privileges were taken away during the
in the monastery and often become heads of monasteries, while the monks 1957-58 reform, and monks were made amenable for crimes to the regular
from serf families remain lifelong servants within monastery walls. county courts. After the suppression of the rebellion, the democratic reform
Kantse—a wild area of very high mountains--was “liberated” in 1950, the went further and gave “personal freedom” to all the monks.
area became a Tibetan autonomous district under its own chosen council of Formerly, the monks entered the monastery at a very early age, being put
twenty-three Tibetans, two Hans, one Yi and one Moslem, this being about into it by their parents. The reality, however, was that the monastery
the proportion of the population. Most members of the council were from the compelled the parents to send their children. When once they entered, those
old governing class of nobles and clericals barring a vice-chairman who came coming from the families of peasants and herdsmen became slaves for life to
from a serf family and he had joined the old Red Army when they passed the higher lamas, who usually belonged to the elite sections of society. If they
through this area during the Long March (1934-35). A journalist named ran away for being unable to bear the torture for long, they were caught and
Winnington, who toured the area along with others in 1955, reported that brought back to punishment by torture, just like any other serf. Thus when
people in the area faced two major problems—one was clan warfare, and the ‘freedom of person’ was decreed for the monks, the overwhelming majority
other was ula or unpaid labour. A general agreement was reached after several of the lamas were extremely joyous.
conferences of clan leaders, monastery chiefs and herdsmen that clan warfare Despite these setbacks, the Tibetan rebels carried on their plots with
would come to an end; and as Peking agreed to pay the cash, ula gradually international backing. The local government of Tibet is called kasha and its
became less and less. It was in the in Katse that there was the big monastery of six members are called kaloons in Tibetan. According to the official Chinese
De Ge, where the Queen ruled over 70,000 serfs and was thus the mistress of source, of the six kaloons, two were patriots and one of whom was wounded
one the largest Tibetan tribes. There were thirty hereditary clan leaders under by the rebels on 10 March 1959. One of the four, Yuto Chahsidongchu had
her and under then were eighty small leaders. become a traitor in 1957 and fled to Kalimpong in India which incidentally
The entire area is very high and wild, divided by rivers which are difficult was the main centre of the rebels’ activities abroad—a clear evidence of the
to cross and by breath-taking passes unfit for wheeled traffic with some government of India’s connivance in the whole plot. Their rebellion was
walled towns scattered over the wild landscape with noble living in castles instigated by the Anglo-US imperialist agents, the Chiang Kai-shek’s bands
and a very large number of monasteries all over the countryside, dominating a and other foreign reactionaries, according to the Chinese. tHeir command
population in which a large number of males joined as monks. By 1955, some centre was Kalimpong and their main leader was Lokongwa Tsewongrouten.
results of the presence of the central government were evident. Clan wars Many of their arms were brought from abroad. The rebels’ base south of the
came to be mediated, ula was discouraged but not abolished, the construction Tsangpo River received airdropped supplies from the Chiang Kai-shek’s
of a new highway linked the mountainous region with the lowlands, and bands many a time and radio stations were set up there by agents sent by the
hospitals set up in some towns brought basic health facility to the people. imperialist forces and the bands of Chiang Kai-shek to further their
Democratic reforms had their beginnings then, implying recognition of the conspiracy. After concentrating considerable counter-revolutionary armed
serfs as free citizens, leading up to land reform, giving land to the serfs and forces in Lhasa, they started their armed rebellion on 10 March 1959, openly
other things. Such reforms had begun in Kantse Chou. scrapping the 17-article agreement.
It was into such an area that some of the Dalai Lama’s retainers dropped After the outbreak of the 10 March rebellion in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama
off in late 1955, and organized for rebellion, on two potent slogans: the wrote to central government representative in Tibet on three occasions stating
preservation of religion, and the exaltation of Tibetan nationalism. One that he had been seized by the reactionaries and was making all possible
representative from the Minorities Commission told Anna Louis Strong that efforts to deal with such illegal actions. In reply, the central government
in 1955, living Buddha Tze Tsiang went to the southern part of Chou to representative welcomed the attitude of Dalai Lama and expressed the hope
foment rebellion, while Gama Ba went around northern part with the same that the local government would change its wrong attitude and do its duty in
aim in view. Two kinds of documents were later recovered which give an idea suppressing the rebellion. Such expectations, however, proved to be futile.
of the nature of the appeal. One was the “Four Rivers and Six Ranges” On 20 March, the PLA intervened and within three days, the rebellion was
organization, which promoted the idea of Greater Tibet, to be organized under crushed which left 5000 armed rebels dead and 4000 taken prisoner. After that
and through monasteries and to include every area where Tibetans lived. It is the central government lost no time to initiate basic transformation in Tibet
pertinent to point out in this connection that according to the 1953 census, out with the granting of autonomy. We will deal with the nature of that
of a total Tibetan population of 2,775,622, only 1,273,969 or less than 50% transformation in a subsequent section.
lived in Tibet proper, while the rest or more than 50% formed minority groups Much is made of the rebellion among the Khampa tribesmen, which was

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sometimes regarded as the articulation of Tibetan nationalism. In reality, workers of Jay Engineering were forced into “voluntary retirement” with
large numbers of these tribesmen lived and live in other areas of China, and little or no compensation and sent into limbo, except for Shambhu Prasad
have always been notorious for their turbulent spirit. Coming from the Singh.
bleaker areas of Central and Eastern Tibet, they periodically raided the more Originally a migrant from the neighbouring state of Bihar, Shambhu has
prosperous regions of country. Long before the advent of Communism, the refused to opt for the meagre handouts from his employers and has instead
Dalai Lama never ceased complaining about these fierce inhabitants of taken his case to court claiming as compensation what would have been his
Kham. The question is: What kind of nationalism the Khambas, then, were actual earnings till his natural retirement from service as a skilled worker.
articulating? Can the marauding Khammba hordes be said to have been Against all odds, and withstanding the sustained pressure of the builders, he
representing any national feeling? continues to live in his appointed quarters, surrounded and dwarfed on all
The revolt of 1959 was nothing but a feudal revolt against new social sides by the construction in progress of South City. Nowhere Man is the saga
changes. This revolt and the subsequent flight of the Dalai Lama to India had of an individual who while resisting his own victimisation, has unwittingly
been given, not unexpectedly, much publicity than possibly was its due. challenged the destructive development.
Certain reactionary leaders saw even in the modest reforms of 1951-58 an From student days, my interest in issues concerning the environment and
increasing danger to their privileged position in society. They made a development has been a motivating factor and I was drawn towards the
desperate attempt to stem the tide in 1959 and failed. It may be argued with impact of the South City development. I began to personally document the
authority that without local support, this rebellion could not have been demolition of the factory sheds and towards the end of 2004 I shot the
suppressed within three days. The Dalai Lama was at first a prisoner of these demolished quarters, the early phases of the construction work, and recorded
reactionary rebels. The central government in Peking naturally described him interviews of some displaced workers. I had just met Shambhu Prasad then.
first as being under duress. It is only after a few years did they call him a Upon hearing his story and the difficult circumstances he was facing, and
traitor. The Dalai Lama’s route to India was known to Peking. Had they impressed by his innate zeal to fight for his rights, I started to document him.
wished to harm him they could easily have done so. In fact, the news of the But it was not enough to get the feel of Shambhu's everyday life inside the
Dalai Lama’s entry into India was broadcast over Peking radio hours before it construction site surrounded by the rising towers as entry to the construction
was actually known to the Indian authorities. Moreover, reports of large-scale had been totally restricted for outsiders. I began to clandestinely record
destruction of Tibetan monasteries deliberate lies as may be seen from the activities inside the complex from the rooftops of neighbouring residences.
film and photographs brought back from Tibet by Stuart Gelder and his wife. Not completely satisfied, I handed over a small video camera to Shambhu and
Before we pass on to the next section, we should refer, however briefly, to gave him rudimentary tutoring in its use. In a few days he returned with
the opinion of the International Commission of Jurists which has been cited amazing footage of days and nights inside the construction site, his own
by some critics of China’s Tibet policy. The Commission had accused the household space and other activities. Quite naturally these recordings have a
Chinese of committing genocide in Tibet. The Society for Anglo-Chinese unique character reflecting his state of mind.
Understanding, in its monograph on Tibet, has argued that the pretensions of
political impartiality of this body are, to say the least, highly suspect. At a time South City flouts Supreme Court ruling:
when the American magazine ‘Ramparts’ was busy disclosing the links In 1995, in the context of shifting of factory premises from the city of
between the Congress of Cultural Freedom and the CIA, similar allegations Delhi, The Supreme Court had given a ruling to protect the city from random
were made against the Commission of Jurists. These allegations were not urban development on the vacated land. According to this ruling, if the plot of
effectively denied. In fact, this Commission had passed judgements on land measures more than 5 hectares, 65% of the land has to be given to the
several issues many of which were not above board. We will, however, refer Municipal Corporation for planting trees and developing gardens. Only 35%
only to two of them. It passed a judgement on communal disturbances that of the land may be used for construction. Joy Engineering Works has flouted
plagued the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent in 1964. According to its findings, this ruling and sold off the entire land to the South City project. The people
Pakistan was guilty of committing genocide against its minority community. living in the neigbourhood of the complex have been deprived of open spaces,
This verdict had received scant respect abroad. Moreover, the repeated and playgrounds and gardens. Instead, they have got a concrete jungle, pollution
indiscriminate use of a term like genocide by a body of supposedly impartial and traffic jam.
jurists is indeed strange, unless it is part of a campaign of political polemics. Perhaps the biggest loser in the whole game is the Bikramgarh
More remarkable than this was the Commission’s deafening silence on the Jheel(Lake) – a huge water body, that partly fell inside the premises of the
American atrocities and innumerable genocides in Vietnam, including the South City Project. The Bikramgarh Jheel, in its size, is next only to the two
My Lai massacre. Yet the report of this International Commission of Jurists other huge water bodies that do our city proud – Dhakuria Lake and Subhash
was, and still accepted by some as serious evidence against China (China in Sarovar. But this water body has never acquired the status or prestige
the News The Question of Tibet, Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, conferred upon its other two cousins in appearance, it has never matched the
London, dated November 1968). In the next section we will deal with Nehru’s idyllic image that the idea of a ‘jheel’ (Lake) conjures up in our mind. Located
role concerning Tibet. (Contd. to next issue) in the densely populated Bikramgarh area, on its west side is the cluster of
Amit_bh200405@yahoo.com garages, on one side the tall towers of South City and all around it settlements
of encroachers. The jheel itself is used as a dumping ground for wastes
generated by these varied settlements. Yet, Kaustav Basu, a student of
Nowhere Man environment, has spotted 22 species of birds and 32 species of flora around
this jheel – and several species of butterflies and grasshoppers. Among the
species of birds, at least one, according to him, is an endangered species and
Ranu Ghosh among the plants, he has spotted a cluster of shrubs that are rapidly vanishing
Fifty thousand factories and more are closed, sick or shut down in West from the Kolkata landscape. In the good old Usha Factory days, when Joy
Bengal as on date. Over six hundred thousand workers have lost their jobs, or Engineering Works had not sold off the property to South City, young boys
have been displaced with no foreseeable future. Apparently, the Leftist used to spend their time catching fish in this jheel. They even remember
government of Bengal wants a “revival” which is largely happening by seeing turtles in this biosphere. People’s crass negligence and now the
acquiring agricultural land to set up large-scale industries mostly with the advancing grip of South City is slowly suffocating the Jheel and snuffing out
support of both Indian and international private investors. At the same time, the biodiversity it supports.
especially in Calcutta, operational factories are being sold off to provide I interacted with the people in the dense settlement around the jheel and
premium space for high value real estate “development”. These contradictory among them I found active members of the major political parties of West
development activities in the state raise many important questions about the Bengal. Their hutments on the edge of the jheel stand on firm ground, which
entire issue of “development” itself. in a way proves that the slow process of illegitimate filling of the water body
A classic example of such development is the South City Project on has been going on for a long time and it serves the vested interest of so many
Anwar Shaw Road in south Calcutta. Jay Engineering, a large sewing people to get the jheel filled. Most of these encroachers have the tacit support
machine and fan manufacturing unit of the Usha Group of Industries of some political party or the other.
operating since the 1950s was closed down, made defunct, and the land Years back, when the South City project had just been mooted, Saugata
handed over to a consortium of five major real estate “magnates” in 2003. Roy, an MP from that locality, had said that perhaps a plan to save and
Having demolished the factory buildings, the construction of the South City rejuvenate the Bikramgarh Jheel would emerge from the South City
Project - “Eastern India's largest mixed-use real estate development” - development. Today, in the face of recent ‘developments’, his comments
comprising three 35-storey towers, one 28-storey tower, a shopping mall, sound like a harsh irony. As it so happened, 1.31 acres of the Jheel fell within
school, multiplex, club etc, started from February 2004. This included the the premises of the Usha Factory, which has been handed over to the South
illegal filling up of one of south Calcutta's largest natural water bodies. The City builders. Towards the end of December 2005, Vasundhara, an
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environmental activist group, spotted that the 1.31 acres of the water the clothes, 15,000 Rupees and most importantly all the court papers.
body has been filled by the builders and towers III and IV are being Then they threatened to give a sedative injection to the child, which
constructed over this filled space. Vasundhara got their facts together and Shambhu’s sister in law protested vehemently and promised not to shout and
wrote to the Governor, the Chief Minister, to the Fishery Deptt. And the raise a ruckus. They also threatened the lady further by saying that they could
Pollution Control Board. On January 24, 2006, Pollution Control Board even kill her if she would go to police or media. They were forcibly taken out
summoned Vasundhara and South City for a hearing. South City declared at of the South City premises and abandoned just outside the gate with no
the hearing that they had got permission from the State Board to fill 1.31 acres belongings except the clothes they were wearing, the child barefoot and
of the water body on the condition that they would recreate 1.41 acres of a shivering with cold. Both Shambhu and his brother arrived in due time and
new water body. found that the staircase to their quarter was already demolished. They went to
The PCB constituted a committee headed by Shri P.N Roy. The other Jadavpur Police Station to file an FIR. The FIR was lodged the next morning.
members of the committee were Ex Prof. All India Institute of Hygiene &
Public Health, Prof. Manav Sengupta, Secretary, Faculty of Science & Meanwhile, residents of nearby buildings have given shelter to
Technology, Univ. Of Calcutta and Shri Bishwajeet Mukherjee, Sr. Law Shambhu’s family. Shambhu is bracing himself for one more battle. On the
Officer. This committee surveyed the premises of the South City project and 26th of December, at 4p.m. number of city organizations like, APDR, FAMA,
conducted the necessary enquiries. In May 2006 they submitted their report to Media Solidarity, Shilpi Sanskriti, Buddhijibi Mancha, and many individuals
the PCB. have gathered in front of the South City Complex and held a protest meeting
Having made these observations, the Committee has recommended: against that inhuman incident. An informal core committee has been formed
“The entire work of the M/S South City Project should be closed for the to support Shambhu to continue his legal battle for his due rights.
following reasons: It is understood that a widespread protest against such ugly inhuman act
i) Construction work of Tower III & IV have encroached the water by the so called developmental forces is much needed now.
body and also have developed by filling up the water body. ghosh. ranu@gmail.com
ii) Presently, M/S South City Project has failed to show any water
body area of 1.31 acres for which M/s SCP obtained permission from the State
[Sri Lanka is Experiencing a heinous civil war. To wipe out the disaffected
Board to fill up.
Tamil existence, Sri Lankan armed force committing genocide at the LTTE
iii) M/S SCP failed to show any area where 1.41 acres of land will be
controlled North Sri Lanka. Reticence over this onslaught is prevailing in our
developed as water body as per their commitment against the filling up of the
political and civil society. Owing our failure to produce a original article in
water body of 1.31 acres.
this issue we are publishing a leaflet, circulated by Democratic students
iv) Tower III & IV should be demolished and the water body of
Union Delhi, alofting the demand for self-determination of Tamil and other
Bikramgarh Jheel should be restored and Kolkata Municipal Corporation
struggling nationalities.]
should demarcate the area – not only the side of M/S SCP, but also other parts
should be restored,” as has been done in the case of other water bodies in
Kolkata.
Construction work of South City project was going on in full swing in
blatant disregard to the recommendations of the Commission. The question Public Meeting: Sri Lanka's
is, with whose blessings are they breaking the law of the land?
Genocidal War on Eelam Tamils and
Eyewitness
According to the eyewitness account of Shambhu Prasad Singh, all the
the Question of Nation's Self-
rubble generated by the day’s construction was collected at the edge of the Determination
Jheel. At the dead of night, when the whole city was asleep, the rubble pushed Self-determination of nations in the Marxist programme cannot, from a
into the Jheel by bull dozers. The Jheel was gradually getting filled by the historico-economic point of view, have any other meaning than political
rubble from the South City Project. To demarcate its territory, South City had self-determination, state independence, and the formation of a national
put up a bamboo fencing across the water of the Jheel. Shambhu asserts that state. - Lenin
every time the rubble was dumped into the water, the fencing shifts by a Genocidal war on Eelam Tamils by the fascist Sri Lankan state: For the
couple of feet. last two weeks, the Sri Lankan armed forces have been engaged in an
I have been recording the progress of South City with my camera from aggressive war with the people of Tamil Eelam, aimed not only at the
outside. My visual documentation shows that the land behind the towers III combatants but the entire civilian population. As a result, Thousands of
and IV is now more than what it used to be. The trees that lined this part of the Tamils have been killed, wounded and have been forcefully displaced. It is
jheel are now gone. Instead the parking space extends to this spot and cars can not a war between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE as the mainstream
pass smoothly. Very soon, all traces of the water body will be obliterated by media tries to portray, but is an attempt by the Sri Lankan state to wipe out the
encroachers from all classes – those who live in slums and those who live in entire Tamil population from the island, in the cover of eliminating the LTTE.
towers. Schools, orphanages, hospitals had been made targets of indiscriminate aerial
The South City Project developers are committed to handing over the bombings by the Sri Lankan Air Force. For example, 61 children from
first phase of occupation to their owners by September 2007 and they are “Sencholai” (Red Garden), a home for children who lost their parents in war,
desperate to get rid of Shambhu who continues to live there by an order of the recently died in one such attack. Sri Lanka Army’s Deep Penetration Unit
Court. Shambhu has been offered placement in one of the Usha factories fired upon a civilian bus travelling from Madhu to Paalampiddi in January
elsewhere in the city provided he moves out from the South City compound 2008 killing 20, of whom 11 were school children, and injured 14 out of
and withdraws his plaint from the Court. Shambhu however is not accepting whom eight were children. No civilian area has been spared by the air force,
the offer, seeing it as a trap to displace him from his point of strength. He fears which are attacked on an everyday basis. Bunkers have become an inevitable
if he falls prey to this tempting offer it will mean his moving out from the infrastructure in all schools. It is as if the Sri Lankan government wants to
South City compound, making him dependant on the factory management, create a graveyard in the whole of Tamil populated areas in the Eelam. Such
and soon becoming victimised again. Shambu has rather optimistically an approach is consistent with the Sri Lankan President’s comment that this is
decided to maintain his stand and wait for the final judgement of the Court. the final assault to finish off the ‘terrorist’ LTTE, only after which it will think
of any ‘talks’ with the Tamils! We have heard many times about the ‘final
Present status : solution’ to the Tamil national question by Sri Lankan presidents through the
It was a prolonged battle of nerves for Shambhu, where he had to brave use of brute force, but the Tamils fighting for their separate country has
threats from the South City authorities, apathy of the legal system and work defeated the wars of aggression every time in the past. This time too, even
hard to sustain the legal battle. On the 21st of December he had a court hearing, with thousands of casualties, the Tamil people are bravely resisting the might
of the Sri Lankan state, and this time too, its misadventure is bound to
where the judge said that the final verdict would be given on the 6th of January.
culminate in failure. The struggle of the Eelam Tamils for an independent
All indications pointed towards Shambhu winning the case.
country has emerged out of a historic experience of oppression and
On the 24th of December at 8.30pm, a group of about 10 women and 4 subjugation in the hands of the Singhalese nation. This reflects the political
men, their faces covered with black cloth, stormed in to Shambhu’s quarter. aspirations of the Tamil people to be free of Singhalese national oppression,
They were all dressed up in South City’s Security guard outfit. Shambhu’s and it can only have a political solution, and not a purely military one. It is
sister in law and her 10 years old son were alone in the house. The men and therefore necessary for all the democratic voices to recognise and stand by the
women gagged the woman and the child, tied them up and locked them in a inalienable right of the Eelam Tamils to self-determination through secession
Contd. to page 29
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made many, tall promises of a bright future. We saw the two page appeal
Fact Finding in Dumka- Searching that the company made and the two page appeal that the state government
made. We will get copies of the same, soon. Circulation will follow, as will a
the Root of People’s Resistance complete report on the situation in that area of Jharkhand. .
Meher Engineer
One final point: why were we not detained at all, like Sandeep and his
Five of us, from Kolkata (I do not give the names of the others in the Friends? The fact that we were not, makes it clear that Sandeep's movements
group, for obvious reasons) were at Aamgacchia (Dumka District,Jharkhand) are constantly being monitored by some Govt. agency, presumably a Central
on Sunday(28th December,2008) - all day - and on Monday - for half of that Govt agency. We cannot accept that. It infringes on sandeep's civil liberties. It
day. We read whey we were there, about the visit of Sandeep and Co. on the also makes a repeat of what happened to Binayak sen, Ajay TJ and others,
previous day. The news was carried, together with a pix of Sandeep, in a local possible.
Hindi daily. We also learned about the visit from our contacts in the area.
I therefore suggest filing an application, under the RTI, asking for a list of
Here is a short account of what our local contacts told us about the whole all (social activists?) whose movements are so monitored.
series of events leading up to Dec 6th,2008 and thereafter: it is incomplete.
Some of the details may be inaccurate. I am sending it anyway. . The BSP, in UP, kills to get funds for the party's coffers. The state Govt in
jharkhand kills to give people a progress that the people do not want. The
a large number of people were at the Dec 6th rally. a meeting , of an central Govt. shadows a citizen who wants to find out what the state Govts are
estimated 10 to 15 thousand adibasi's, had been held before the day of the rally doing in jharkhand in the name of development. What will it do to other
but after the arrest of a senior adibasi involved in the on going agitation citizens who want to find out what is going on in UP?
against the Govt of Jharkhand-Reliance power project (1,000 Megawatts,
300 acres, water from a local river, displacement….the usual things). a "jail Terror in territory controlled by the State acting in Pakistan is resolutely,
bharo" rally, for Dec 6th, was decided upon. and rightly, condemned. Terror in territory controlled by an Indian state isn't
condemned at all, or, if it is condemned exceedingly softly.
The rally went on for the whole day. Kathi Kundi was the first stop. The
rally was intercepted at Haripur village by the police, first with tear gas, then It sems to me that protest is therefore necessary, in three places - in
with a lathi charge and then with bullets after people began to fight back. It Lucknow, in Ranchi and in New Delhi.
seems that the police first retreated, and then set one of their own vehicles on
fire, of course as an excuse for shooting - in the police version, it was "the mengineer2003@gmail.com
people set fire to the vehicle, so we had to shoot". The first person to fall was
Sugan Marandi, who was shot in the chest. He is now At RIIMS Hospital in Contd. from page 28
Ranchi. The police even beat up those who were taking the injured to the Nagalim
Dumka hospital. In all 15 people were injured.
vol.XV,p.562,566; see also ibid,p.123.
One person - Lakshiram Tudu - was killed we visited the Tudu family. It 6. SW Nehru,XIV,p.161,325.
has nine members. We talked mainly with Lakshiram's widow and with his 7. Ibid,pp.440,441-2; see also SWN,XIV,p.332.
younger brother. The whole family depended on Lakshiram's earnings. Its 8. P.D.Saggi, Life & Works of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel,
faces a bleak future. Lakshiram was shot, in the upper part of his right leg, Bombay,n.d,p.89.
near the groin, when he went to help people who were shot (shiblal soren was 9. CW Gandhi,LXXXVII,p.216.
shot in the eye; kalyan chatravas was also shot). His younger brother tried to 10. SWN,XIV,p.450.
get a vehicle to take Lakshiram, who was bleeding profusely, to the hospital": 11. J.Nehru, Nehru’s Speeches 1949-53, Delhi 1957,pp.176-8.
no vehicle was available, for many hours. Finally, he got a truck at 9 pm, put 12. Michael Brecher, Nehru: a Political Biography, London
his brother in the back and sat with the driver in the front. But, alas, Lakshiram 1959,p.424.
died on the way. He was declared dead on admission into the 13. Sarat Chandra Bose, ‘A Constitution of Myths and Denials’, in Sarat
Dumka(Jharkhand) hospital. Chandra Bose Commemoration Volume, Calcutta 1982,p.427.
14. S.K.Ghosh, India’s Nationality Problems and Ruling classes.
Lakshiram has one son who studies in a local college. His mother is still Published by the author, Calcutta January 1996, passim.
alive; his wife's name is Pakku Murmu. She also was at the rally but was cut 15. For details of earlier history, see Nagas are what Nagas were. A
off from her husband who was in the front. The demand for compensation is brochure printed at Dinapur and issued by Naga Mothers
"Rs 10 lakh for the person killed and half of that for those injured". Association(NMA), Naga Students Federation(NSF) and Naga
People’s Movement for Human Rights(NPMHR) on 14 August
Daldali village has not allowed any policemen or any politician to enter 2003.
since Dec 7th, because one of its residents has been arrested. The person's 16. See Free Nagalim Manifesto National Socialist Council of Nagalim,
name is Munnai Chenam. The ban will stay till Munna's release. Oking 3rd edition, March 20,2007,p.37.
17. Ibid.
Those jailed have been charged with dacoity, with being 18. Ibid,p.38.
Naxal's/Maobadi's ...the usual charges. . 19. Ibid.
20. SWN,XV,p.279.
We asked about Shibu Soren; the adibasi's refer to him as "hamara guru", 21. Free Nagalim,p.44.
but also say that they do not listen to him any more because he used the 22. S.Gopal, J.Nehru II,p.208.
movement for a Jharkhand state in order to get power for himself and now 23. The legal Status of National Armed Resistance Right to Self-
only talks with the corporate sector. determination under International law & Why and how the Nagas
are not Terrorists, Oking Publicity and Information Service,
Our contacts insisted that the movement had no leaders and certainly no Government of the People’s Republic of Nagalim, January 2001.
supreme leader. They do not work that way. 24. Ibid.
25. ‘Human Rights Week in Nagaland 10-15 December, 1978: A Report’
We visited the Shaheed Samadhi (Martyr’s tomb) for Lakhiram Tudu that in 25 Years of NPMHR Naga People’s Movement for Human Right
has been set up at the meeting place of three villages, one of which is Embracing Hope and Dreams, no place of publication, no
Aamgacchia. Dec 6th will, it has been resolved, be observed as Martyr's Day date(2003?),pp.4-6. As the NPMHR was formed in 1978 and as this
in the whole district. book was published on the occasion of the 25th year of its existence,
so the year of this publication is likely to be 2003.
The solidarity of the adibasi's is total. They will not give their land for the 26. Free Nagalim,pp.53-54.
proposed 1, 000 Megawatt power project. They fear that the river that they 27. Ibid,p.55.
depend on will be dammed - in order to supply water to the project - and
polluted - by the effluents that the project will produce. They do not trust the amit_bh200405@yahoo.com
Government. They do not trust the Reliance Company. Both entities have
Write to us at - towardsdawn@gmail.com
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That was not all. Nehru considered Ceylon to be “really part of India” and
Policy of the Indian State, Nagalim wanted her to be “an autonomous unit of the Indian federation”.10 He claimed
that Nepal was “certainly a part of India”, though she was a nominally
and Human Rights independent country.11

Amit Bhattacharyya Such was the attitude of the future prime minister of India, i.e,
This paper was presented at a UGC-sponsored seminar organized by the subjugation of small nationalities and bringing them forcibly within
Department of Philosophy, Scottish Church College, Kolkata in March centralized Indian union. The future of small nationalities as independent
2008. political units was thus doomed. There are many such cases. We, however,
In this paper, we propose to study the policy of the Indian state towards will take up one of many of those—the case of Nagalim. But before that, we
small nationalities, particularly the Naga people. It is the story of broken take up the various Articles of the Constitution.
promises, opposition to the rights of nationalities to self-determination and
human rights, and the most savage persecution of people who have dared to Articles of the Constitution
be free. Such a policy was in conformity with the policy of creating a strong
central government. The policy of creating a strong centre was linked up with The Constitution of India tramples underfoot the rights of the various
the ambitions of the Indian ruling classes to become a big power—a super- nations of this subcontinent as it does the rights of the individuals. There are,
power. It betrayed a ‘Great Power’ syndrome on the part of the Indian ruling besides others, Article 19, Clauses 2,3 and 4; Article 22, Clause 3(b); Articles
classes and their political representatives. 352 to 360; various legislations which, empowered by the Constitution, the
We propose to divide our discussion into three parts. The first is the state has enacted and which ensure that a citizen can enjoy his democratic
‘Great Power’ syndrome as manifested in the writings of Jawaharlal Nehru at rights only at the pleasure of the executive). Under the Constitution, the
a time when he himself was in British prison. The second deals with various indivisibility of the Indian Union cannot be questioned; that is, the demand
articles of the Constitution of India that trample underfoot the rights of for the right of self-determination including the right of cessation has been
various nationalities as it does the rights of individuals. In the third, we take made illegal. Even no bill seeking territorial changes of a constituent state can
up the story of Nagalim or Nagaland—a story of broken promises and war be “introduced in either House of parliament except on the recommendation
waged by the Indian State against the Naga people. of the Parliament”. The Governor of a state is not elected by its people but
appointed by the President(i.e, the central government) and holds “office
The ‘Great Power’ syndrome during the pleasure of the President”.

As the Second World War drew to a close, the Indian big bourgeoisie saw When the method of selecting State governors was debated in the
rosy visions of its future. As there was hardly any control over prices of Constituent assembly, Nehru was emphatic that they should be nominated by
goods, they made very high profits. On the other hand, in Asia, the end of the the central government because, as he said, “we should always view things
war saw the defeat of Japan, decline in the might of France and the from the context of preserving the unity, the stability and security of India”.12
Netherlands and the prospect of a bitter civil war in China. They came to
cherish ambitions to dominate not only South Asia but the entire Indian There are provisions in the Constitution which confer absolute power on
Ocean region. the President who is elected through a very indirect process and on the basis
of extremely limited franchise. The emergency provisions—Articles 352 to
In fact, it was Jawaharlal Nehru who gave voice to their aspirations. 360 have, according to Sarat Chandra Bose, “a remarkable family likeness to
However surprising it might seem, he was a bitter opponent to the right of Sections 42, 43 and 45 of the GOI Act of 1935, the quintessence of which is
nations to self-determination. While being lodged in the Ahmedabad fort reincarnated in our Constitution with a minimum of verbal changes”.13
prison, he wrote: “Whether India is properly to be described as a nation or
two, or more really does not matter, for the modern idea of nationality has The Armed Forces(Special Powers) Act, 1958(as amended in 1972)
been almost totally divorced from statehood. The national state is too small a confers on the Armed Force, special powers in “disturbed” areas. It is the
unit today and small states can have no independent existence”.1 He again prerogative not of the ministers but of the governors of a state, the
held: “…the small national state is doomed. It may survive as a cultural, administrator of a union territory or the central government, to declare an area
autonomous area but not as an independent political unit”.2 “disturbed”. When an area is declared as “disturbed”, the state legislature has
no jurisdiction over it. The Act empowers any armed forces officer or any
Elsewhere he remarked: “The right of any well-constituted area to secede person of equivalent rank that he may, if he may consider necessary, fire upon
from the Indian federation or union has often been put forward and the or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death of persons not only
argument of the USSR advanced in support of it. That argument has little disobeying any law, but also disobeying orders prohibiting the assembly of
application, for conditions there are wholly different and the right has little five or more persons and those carrying weapons…The Act also permits the
practical value”.3 military personnel to destroy any shelter from which, in their opinion, armed
attacks are likely to be made. The Act also allows the arrest without a warrant,
The future prime minister of India betrayed his big-power chauvinistic with “whatever force as may be necessary”, of any person against whom “a
thinking when he held that it was India’s “manifest destiny” to become the reasonable suspicion” exists that he is “about to commit a cognizable
centre of a “super-national state” stretching from the Middle East to South- offence”.14 And the armed forces, by virtue of enjoying such autocratic
East Asia and to exercise “an important influence” in the Pacific region”.4 powers, enjoy complete immunity from any punishment whatsoever. They
Nehru affirmed: “So it seems that in the modern world it is inevitable for India can torture, rape and even murder any person on mere suspicion. One can still
to be the centre of things in Asia(In that term, I would include Australia and recollect the case of the rape and murder and Thangjam Monorama, the
New Zealand too, being in the Indian Ocean region, East Africa comes into it Manipuri girl by the Indian Army some years back which snowballed into a
also)…India is going to be the centre of a very big federation…”.5 Referring to powerful mass movement leading to the self-immolation of Pebam
the bygone days when India ruled over various countries of Asia and its Chittaranjan and the novel way of nude protest as shown by the Manipuri
culture spread far a wide, Nehru affirmed that “India is likely to dominate mothers.
politically and economically the Indian Ocean region”.6 In August 1945, he
held: “I stand for a south Asia federation of India, Iraq, Iran, Afganistan and What the people describe as “armies of opposition” have been stationed
Burma…”; then he quite arrogantly declared: “In the world of today there are in the north-east and the in J & K for a long time and a bitter, undeclared war
two big powers, Russia and America. In the world of tomorrow, there will be has been going on against the nationalities fighting to be free. Irom Sharmila
two more, India and China—there will be no fifth”.7 Chhanu, a college girl of Manipur, has been continuing an epic hunger strike
from November 2001 demanding the withdrawal of the Act of 1958.
Although Nehru was the main spokesman of the Indian big bourgeoisie,
he was not alone in being afflicted with this ‘great power’ syndrome. In fact, the Indian bourgeoisie, which flourished as intermediaries of
Vallabhbhai Patel, too, harboured such wild aspirations. He said: “Let India British capital, were keen on having a unitary Indian state with a strong centre
be strong and able to assume the leadership of Asia, which is its right”.8 by controlling which they would be able to establish their sway over different
Gandhi desired that Hindustani should “become the language of the whole of national regions and curb the forces of genuine nationalism. Moreover, they
Asia”.9 aspired to become a zonal power in the Indian Ocean region as junior partners
of Anglo-American powers.

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Case of Nagalim make a mockery of democracy that this Indian State boasts of. Some of
The land of the Nagas or Nagalim is a land of proud and free people who these are as follows: execution in public, mass rape, deforming sex organs,
never succumbed to the domination of external forces. They have had their mutilating limbs and body, electric shocks, puncturing eyes, hanging people
history of free existence from time immemorial. They live in parts of Burma upside down, putting people in smoke-filled rooms, burning down of
and the present-day Indian sub-continent. Despite attempts by the British raj, villages, granaries and crops, concentration camps, forced starvation and
larger portions of the Naga territories could never be conquered and were labour and many more. An old lady, Dzuviu of Kohima village narrated in
termed as “excluded areas” or “un-administered areas”. In 1929, before the tears how a girl from the Lotha area was raped and then hanged upside down,
Simon Commission, the Nagas demanded restoration of their independence after which sticks were thrust into her private parts. Her hands and legs were
when the British withdrew from India and Burma. severed. These acts of brutality were done in front of villagers who hand been
A memorandum was submitted again to the British Cabinet Mission on 9 rounded up by the Indian army to teach them a lesson. That reminds one of the
April 1946, clearly stating that the Naga future would never be bound by any similar acts done by the Japanese imperialists in China as has been narrated
arbitrary decision of the British government and that no recommendation by Iris Chang in her book The Rape of Nanking. This act of bestiality was
would be acceptable without consultation.15 equaled by another in which a pregnant woman was dragged around and thus
In June 1947, the Governor of Assam, Sir Akbar Hydari, acting on behalf the foetus came out which the soldiers put in her mouth. In 1962, at Matikhru
of the Indian Constituent Assembly, negotiated an agreement with the Naga village of Phek district, the Indian army rounded up all the adult male
National Council(NNC) in meetings held on 27,28 and 29 June 1947 in members and after torturing them for hours took them into the village chief’s
Kohima. That agreement is known as the Nine-point Agreement. According to house where their heads were chopped off. In May 1979, the Angami
that agreement, the Nagas had to control their affairs for a period of 10 years at Women’s Welfare Association and some other organizations submitted a
the end of which the Nagas should be asked to decide whether to join India or memorandum to the then chief minister of Nagaland, parts of which read as
to be free to determine their own future.16 follows: “They(BSF) chase our innocent women who are working in their
However, after a few weeks of signing the agreement, to the dismay of the fields as well as on roads. They roam about our jungles. Their conducts as
Nagas, one evening Sir Akbar Hydari warned several Nagas that if the Naga such are causing nuisance among the people and our women find no
Hills District refused to join the Indian Union, India would use her force protection”. One can go on multiplying such instances.
against them. This is a clear case of broken promises.17
A Naga delegation then went to the Bhangi colony in Delhi on 19 July Projection of the Nagas as ‘hostiles’, ‘savages’ ‘rebels’ etc.
1947 to tell Gandhiji that they had resolved to declare their independence a
day before India would do so, on 14 August 1947 and to ask him for help. The people of Nagalim have been projected as ‘hostiles’, ‘savages’,
Gandhiji told the delegation: “Nagas have every right to be independent. We ‘blood-mongers’, ‘separatists’, ‘terrorists’ by the Indian state and sections of
did not want to live under the domination of the British and they are now the media. Their struggle has been branded as ‘internal disturbances’.
leaving us…I do not believe in forced unions…If you do not wish to join the The reality is that the Nagas were neither ‘secessionists’ nor ‘separatists’,
Union of India, nobody will force you to do that. The Congress government but people fighting for their freedom. It is the Indian State which broke its
will not do that”.18 When the Naga delegates pointed out that Sir Akbar Hydari promises and forcibly grabbed a piece of land that does not belong to it; and
was threatening to do exactly that, Gandhiji exclaimed: “Sir Akbar is wrong. when the people, to whom that land legitimately belongs, raise the standard of
He cannot do that…”.19 resistance when all other avenues are sealed by the Indian State, the same
But Jawaharlal Nehru definitely did have other considerations in his State brand them as ‘terrorists’, hostiles’ or ‘secessionists’. How does the
mind—considerations quite in conformity with the policy he had been question of ‘secession’ come in when Nagalim was never part of India?
championing throughout this period. Regarding Nagalim, he wrote: “It(the The Naga people have been the victims of all conceivable forms of
Naga territory lies between two huge countries, India and China…Inevitably, savagery, hostility and brutality perpetrated by the Indian security forces. But
therefore, this Naga territory must form part of India and Assam…the did they commit brutality either to the Indians or to the captured Indian
excluded areas should be incorporated with the other areas”.20 In fact, the big- security forces? Facts will definitely reveal that the Nagas are far from what
power chauvinism or expansionist aims of the Indian ruling classes would not they have been projected to be. Let us cite a few instances furnished by the
allow the Nagas to take their destiny in their own hands after the withdrawal Nagas to establish what they truly are.
of the British. They, in fact, wanted to annex the whole of the Naga territory. On 27 March 1956, 78 Indian police personnel were captured in an
Meanwhile, the NNC held a plebiscite which began on 16 May 1951 in outpost attack at Satakha; they were released unharmed. On 26 August 1960,
Kohima on the issue of the future of the Naga people. About 99.9% of the an Indian Air Force Dakota plane engaged in dropping arms and ammunition
Naga people voted in favour of remaining independent.21 to the Indian troops at Bhor outpost was shot down. All the nine members of
On 7 August 1951, Nehru’s principal private secretary wrote to the crew were captured and later released. On 28 November 1986, Phek
A.Z.Phizo, the leader of the NNC, that the Indian government would not treasury convoy was immobilized and captured in an ambush. Every
allow any attempt by any section of the people of India to claim an wounded captive was administered first aid and treated well. Thirty para-
independent state.22 This, needless to say, was a political ‘justification’ which military personnel were pinned down at Kamjong post attack on 23 April
can never be justified by any standard of national or human rights. The 1987, and set free. On 10 July 1993, a para-military outpost(NAP) at
Nehrus used this plea to defend their annexation of the Naga territory even Pughoboto was taken over without any casualty. All the 50 disarmed NAP
though the Nagas had never been a section of the people of India. personnel were set free unharmed.26
The United Nations Charter’s preamble proclaims that the UN will try to The Nagas can legitimately ask the question: “Are these acts or signs of
save surrounding generations from the scourge of war and will “reaffirm faith savagery or terrorism? What is more, believe it or not, there is not a single
in the fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human case of an innocent Indian or Burmese civilian having been tortured or killed
person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and by the Nagas just because they are Burmese or Indian…”27
small…”23 Article of the Charter sets out the aims of the UN as being “To In 1997, a ten-year-ceasefire was signed between the Indian government
develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of and the NSCN. That cease-fire, after the expiry of the term, was renewed in
equal rights and self-determination of peoples…”24. There are many other August 2007, this time for an indefinite period. Neither do we nor the people
things as well which clearly show that India’s actions are totally at variance of Nagalim know how long this temporary peace would last and what lies in
with UN declarations. store for them in future. However, the people who place freedom above
Thus the struggle started, the struggle waged by a free people who everything else and sincerely hold that it is the people and people alone who
refused to be enslaved. On 18 October 1952, Mr.Zasibito of Jotsoma village should have the last word, should firmly affirm that each nationality—big or
was shot dead by a sub-inspector of the Indian police force. The barbarity small—should have the right to take the destiny of their own country in their
committed by the Indian armed forces beggars description—genocide, rape, own hands. After all, whatever might have happened to Vietnam later, that
cutting of limbs into pieces, destruction of buildings by aerial bombardment, small country still acts as the beacon light to all those who dare to be free.
not to speak of the day-today humiliation and other forms of brutality
perpetrated by the Indian security forces. During the period of eight years References
from 1956 to 1964, there were about 1,50,000 casualties on the side of the
Nagas—mostly civilian. 1. Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of India, London 1956,p.545.
2. Ibid,p.550.
Instances of torture and state-sponsored brutality25 3. Ibid,p.548.
4. Ibid,p.550.
The brutality perpetrated by the Indian armed forces against a free people 5. Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, ed. By S.Gopal,
who refused to be cowed down will put to shame all human beings and will
contd. to page 26
28
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from Sri Lanka, and to oppose the ongoing genocidal war of Indian state, the faithful agent of U.S. imperialism in South
aggression by the Sri Lankan state on the freedom-aspiring Tamils in Asia:
t h e n o r t h e r n a n d e a s t e r n p a r t s o f t h e i s l a n d c o u n t r y. India has been following an expansionist policy towards its
neighbouring countries in South Asia, and has even militarily intervened
The approach of the Sri Lankan state: more than once in their internal affairs. In Sri Lanka too, under this policy of
Irrespective of the parties in power in Colombo, the response of the furthering its own geo-political interests (which is tied to the interests of U.S.
Singahlese ruling classes in Sri Lanka towards the democratic aspirations of imperialism) Indian state initially supported the armed struggle of the Eelam
the Tamils have primarily been through the use of brute force. In 1983 itself, Tamils. But soon the Indian state joined hands with the Sri Lankan
the then President Jayawardene declared that “I am not worried about the government to suppress the movement, and sent the Indian Peace Keeping
opinion of the Tamil people …now we cannot think of them. not their life or Force in 1986 which created mayhem in the Tamil populated areas in Sri
their opinion …the more you put pressure in north, the happier the Sinhala Lanka, killing, raping and maiming thousands. After a complete military
people will be here… really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will defeat of the Indian mercenary army it was forced to retreat, but Indian ruling
be happy”. From the time direct British colonial rule ended in 1948, the classes, irrespective of the party in power, has till date continued full
successive Singhalese governments have followed a consistent policy of diplomatic and military support to the fascist Sri Lankan state. Pranab
national oppression and discrimination towards the Tamil minorities, Mukherjee, the defence minister has this week stated that India will not stop
denying their basic rights and opportunities for socio-economic military aid to Sri Lanka, and expressed its willingness to help the Rajapakshe
development. Land settlement policies implemented from 1950s onwards government in carrying out the present genocide of Tamils. A Sri Lankan
displaced millions of Tamils in the northern and eastern districts such as army official has recently revealed that Sri Lankan military officers are being
Mannur and Mulai Thivu in a planned manner, which were then redistributed trained in Dehradun and Gurgaon military camps by the Indian army. But this
among Singhalese peasants and landless labourers. The Sri Lankan is not all. According to some media reports, hundreds of Indian military
parliament declared Buddhism as the state religion, and pursued a policy of personnel are directly involved in the present war, serving in Sri Lankan
discrimination against other religious minorities. The ‘Sinhala-Buddhist armed forces in advanced battle fronts. Such overt and covert support is not
Only Act’ formulated in 1956 declared Sinhala as the only official language, surprising, given the Indian state’s anti-democratic and pro-imperialist
which was against the policy so far followed of recognizing both Sinhala and character, which itself has been crushing the genuine demands of various
Tamil as state language. Further, in 1970, discrimination against Tamil youths nationalities, such as Kashmiris, Nagas, Manipuris and Assamese and others
pursuing higher studies in the name of standardization led to a drastic decline within its territorial boundaries through the use of superior military might. It
in their entry to government jobs. In 1979 the Sri Lankan state enacted the is not possible for Sri Lanka to continue its war against the Tamil national
notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act to cope with the growing militancy minorities without the approval of the Indian state, and Rajapakshe’s constant
among the Tamils. This Act and the subsequent crackdown by the army of visits to New Delhi of late makes it clear that Indian government is
Tamil youths confirmed the fears of the Tamils that the Sinhalese government actively supporting the present war. And being the foremost custodian
w a s h e l l b e n t t o e x t e r m i n a t e t h e m . of U.S. interests in South Asia, it is not difficult to conclude that
India is given a go-ahead in this by Washington itself.
These are only a few examples from the history of a long-running
process of calculated oppression and discrimination by the Sri Lankan state The so-called Marxist parties such as CPI, CPI(M) or CPI ML
towards the Tamil minorities. The Tamils in Sri Lanka initially voiced their (Liberation) too has abandoned the Leninist principle of supporting the
opposition peacefully to these oppressive and undemocratic policies, such as democratic demand of national self-determination, including secession, and
the mass resignation of Tamil MPs in 1956 and 1958, a series of have failed to force the Indian state from following a policy of non-
demonstrations and strikes in Colombo, etc. The response of the Sri Lankan intervention in Sri Lanka. They are equally responsible for castigating the
state then, as now, has been to unleash a reign of terror and brute force through movement for Tamil Eelam as ‘terrorism’, thereby helping in its brutal
the army on the agitating Tamil population, leading to the first major wave of repression. Major regional parties in Tamil Nadu, whether DMK or AIDMK
Tamil refugees to the northern and eastern parts of the island in 1958. The which never fails to celebrate Tamil nationalism to garner votes, have utterly
state-sponsored massacre of hundreds of Tamils in 1983 made the question of failed to take any decisive action to prevent the ongoing massacre and
self-determination through peaceful means decisively redundant, and pushed displacement of thousands of Tamils in Eelam. Close to than 60,000 people
the Tamils in Sri Lanka to the path of armed struggle for national liberation of have died and nearly 3 lakh have been displaced so far during this war, most of
Eelam, a path made crimson by the blood of thousands of martyrs. This war whom are Tamils. The media also has played its devious role in hiding the true
has also helped the Sinhalese ruling classes in diverting the attention from the situation of Eelam Tamils, which is uncritically presenting the biased
basic issues of livelihood and economic development of the versions spoon-fed by the Sri Lankan government, or completely blacking
people of the country in general, with a large part of the out this calculated extermination of an entire population in the name of ‘war
GDP spent in financing the exorbitant defense budget. against terror’. The Indian media, such as the casteist and Brahmanical Hindu
group run by N. Ram, too is guilty of justifying this brutal repression, rather
The Tamil national movement for an independent Eelam: than building a public opinion against this unceasing cold-blooded massacre
With the democratic aspirations and demands of the national of hundreds of civilians on an everyday basis.
minority in Sri Lanka crushed ruthlessly, the Tamil parliamentary parties
passed the historic Vettukottai Resolution in 1977 where demand for a The need of the Hour:
separate Tamil Eelam was raised for the first time under the banner of Tamil The Sri Lankan government, in its attempt to silently carry out this
United Liberation Front. From that time onwards, for more than 30 years the latest military misadventure to sniff out the Tamil resistance, has expelled all
struggle for a separate Eelam is being waged by the Tamils, withstanding humanitarian agencies including the Red Cross as well as the international
untold repression of the Sri Lankan armed forces which is aided directly or media from the war front. Of late the Sri Lankan forces have also stopped
indirectly by Indian state and its imperial master, the U.S. The war imposed providing data about casualties in the ongoing war. Such criminal attempts of
on the freedom-aspiring Tamils took genocidal proportions in 1995 and 2000, systematically silencing democratic and genuine rights of the people by use
in 2002 when the ceasefire agreement was broken, and again now in 2008. of force will inevitably fail. We must demand an immediate and
The Sri Lankan state has violated agreements signed with the Tamil unconditional declaration of cease-fire from the Sri Lankan government and
representatives over and over again, and now it is imposing the precondition a stop to the genocide in Tamil Eelam. At the same time, following the
of laying down arms, in one word surrender, before any negotiation. The principles of Marxism-Leninism, which stands unequivocally in favour of
Tamils have been facing the choice between fighting for freedom at the risk of the right to self-determination of the oppressed nationalities, we must raise
death or living as slaves throughout the period of this decades-long war. The our voice in support of the demand of Eelam Tamils for independence. It is
Tamils have been offered and they have rejected a negotiated settlement high-time that the Sri Lankan and Indian ruling classes as well as their master
through international mediation many times in the past, which could have led U.S. realize that only a free and independent Tamil Eelam can ensure
to peace, but a peace without justice. An uncompromising struggle for permanent resolution to the nationality question in Sri Lanka, and only a unity
national self-determination, the fight for a free Eelam has emerged as one of based on justice and equality of the two nations can usher in peace in the
the foremost nationality movements in the world, which have been island. Moreover, only an integration of the revolutionary class struggle with
demonized and isolated by the present imperialist world order led by U.S. the national liberation struggles can effectively fight feudalism and
imperialism. Rather than recognizing and upholding the just demand of the imperialism, two primary enemies of the people in the Third World countries.
Tamil national minority, the rulers of India represented by Congress, BJP or
even the so-called communists CPI(M) has acted as the faithful South Asian
agents of U.S. interests in repressing the Tamil Eelam movement. TOWARDS Write to us at -
A NEW D AWN towardsdawn@gmail.com
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VOL. 1 ISSUE 3 January - February 2009
injustice and violence isn’t a simple fairy tale after all--of monsters,
Media and its Public in the War heroes and innocents--no matter what politicians would make us believe!
against Terror…Part of the State’s A celebrated scholar proposed that through demonizing certain offenders
and creation of ‘moral panics’, the media helps to reinforce social order and
Design? political ideological boundaries. Thus our fear of Kasav builds a wall in our
minds. It prevents us from looking beyond…why does a 25 something
Nilanjana Sengupta become a suicide bomber…why does a peasant woman doing back breaking
A single act of terrorism is not in itself meant to achieve military victory; at work from sunrise to sundown take up arms? We are unable to cross over the
best it is meant to be a catalyst that triggers something else, something much ideological political boundaries that the images on the screen and the print
larger than itself, a tectonic shift, a realignment. The act itself is theater, nail securely into our minds. We are unable to fathom that some things,
spectacle, and symbolism, and today the stage on which it pirouettes and somewhere had, have, and are going terribly wrong. And without setting that
performs its acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even as the Mumbai attacks were right the Kasavs will continue to be born. No amount of repression can wipe
being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes was out ‘insurgency’ or ‘resistance’. As long as the wound remains…it will
being magnified a thousand-fold by the TV broadcasts. (Arundhati Roy, continue to bleed.
Outlook India, 15 December, 2008) What is the State Doing?
All through the live telecast of terrorist attacks in Mumbai, many of my To come back to the original question. Why doesn’t the state do
middle class urban friends slept fitfully, perspiration beading their temples. In something about it? Well to begin with the state is doing several things. On the
their sleep and awakening…they lived in panic and indignation…why doesn’t one hand it is displacing farmers and tribals from the home of their ancestors
the Indian state do something about it? and pawning their land to big industrialists at a pittance! The massive
Questions Asked…Questions Unasked… displacement from land and livelihood is gradually taking gigantic
The question of what the state was doing… should have done… and should proportions with no system in place that can accommodate the growing
do…were not open ended questions on which massive public debate was number of the homeless and unemployed. Compensation is a myth or at best
happening. That perhaps could have been a turning point. Instead what was piecemeal. At the same time economic policies of a globalised world with
happening was quite predictable. TV anchors and analysts hammered into our integrated international markets threaten to destabilize the Indian economy
brains exactly what the Indian state wanted…demonizing Islamic terrorism, every time the US market or some such thing sneezes or runs a cold nose.
war mongering and a resounding demand for ‘tough, tougher, toughest’ anti Farmers fall into debt traps and commit suicides when volatile prices in
terrorist measures. international agricultural markets crash and turn hugely adverse. Targeted
Public Distribution System further cuts into the ranks of the poor and denies
The layperson could ask…but wasn’t the media decrying Indian politicians access to millions who cannot afford the prices in the open market for food
as well? It is important to remember that the hue and cry was about security grain. Privatization and disinvestment of the public sector retrench workers.
lapse and not about the political context in which such acts of terrorism are The private sector employs only on a hire and fire basis. Even forgetting
enacted. The need for context is not to justify such heinous killings. Rather, corruption, general investment on social overhead capital (social security
understanding of context leads us to the bedrock of the river of hatred and nets, social infrastructure like education, health etc) and poverty alleviation
fanaticism. As long as that foundation remains, the river will continue to flow programmes are going down alarmingly. Existing divides are heightened
taking in its tide millions of dashed hopes and slaughtered bodies…on both everyday…shining India of the flyovers and malls and six digit income
sides. brackets on one side….with the dirty, dingy, dark shanties of the multiply
The object of this article is not an analysis of the foundation of Islamic displaced and dispossessed on the other.
terrorism internationally or nationally. Much has been written and said about Of course there will be anger. Anger that threatens to become a Tsunami.
it, though mostly outside the purview of the dominant media. It is relevant
here of course, to question why all that has remained so conspicuously absent Protests pick up in various corners of the country. Struggles against rising
in the mainstream discourse. Why is it that we have round the clock coverage prices of essential commodities. Struggles for minimum wages. Struggles
of Mumbai terror attack, parliament attack case and vilification of SAR against displacement. Struggles for right to self determination. Wait a minute.
Geelani even before his crime is proved (which was not)… whereas… hunger Blasphemy is it? Self determination and not cessation? But are we really as
deaths in Orissa, farmer suicides in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, tribal killings stupid as to decontexualise the struggle in Kashmir or in the North East? Has
in Chattisgarh, massacre at Nandigram, military rampage in Kashmir and our collective memory erased the history of ‘Big Powering’ of India over
North East hardly make it to the top charts or the head lines? Or is it simply a small nationalities (which were never really part of India…ever before
coincidence that mass genocide at Gujarat or rape, murder and hounding of independence), the history of breach of promises of plebiscite, the forceful
Christians in Orissa never call for such ‘tough’ measures against drawing of geographical, political boundaries of communities in the North
terrorism…in fact these incidents are not even constructed as acts of East not to mention the protracted policy of their gradual marginalization
terrorism! from the mainstream? Call it what you will…cessation or right to self
determination…the history cannot be forgotten. However, it is precisely this
Why also is it that the mine explosion of a convoy of Government Officials en sort of collective amnesia that the Indian state and the media tries to gift us
route to Salboni (where the Jindals are setting up a steel factory on land seized with. ‘Moral panics’ and the persistent sensationalism of news bytes create
from tribals) attracts so much media and public attention where as there is a only fear of an untamed force which must be curbed at any cost. Never mind
silence on the tremendous state terror that was unleashed among tribals at why this became such a force or what nights of fear, ‘offenders’ of our
Lalgarh under the pretext of combating Maoist ‘insurgency’? civilized urbanized world have lived through for so long.
Even more perturbing perhaps is the silence over why there is so much of On the question of curbing. Every time a terror attack happens…either it
dissent…so much of ‘insurgency’…? Why are the poor and hungry, Dalits is the ISI or the Lashkar- e- Taiba or some such thing. The new tag is Maoists
and tribals, Nagas, Manipuris, Kashmiris …so angry, so angry? of course! And young men and women are picked up here and
Media and Construction of Public Opinion… there…Muslims…Dalits…tribals. They are jailed without trial, tortured and
For a long time now, many scholars have been brainstorming on whether the even killed in fake encounters. On September 19th last year we had the famous
‘audience’/ ‘civil society’/ ‘public’ are passive recipients of information or do shootout at Batla house in Delhi in which two Muslim students were killed in
the media construct our thought process, actions and worldview? One stream a controversial ‘encounter’ in their rented flat. All those who protested,
within scholarship argues that the media only plays out what is ranging from eye witnesses in local community to senior activists, were
present…widely held fears and anxieties. Thus for an event to capture public threatened and branded as ‘anti national’. Days after the Batla House
imagination, it must have a recognizable party and have ‘cultural’ familiarity. incident, the Central Burueau of Investigation (CBI), in a report submitted to
For example, the murder of Jessica Lal becomes iconic of violence on the Sessions Court, stated that a team from Delhi’s Special Cell(the same one
women. However, rape and murder committed by upper caste goons of that led the Batla House encounter) had abducted two innocent men-Irshad
‘Ranvir Sena’ on Dalit women or the everyday rape and brutality perpetrated and Moarif in December 2005. The team had planted two kilograms of RDX
on women in police custodies and military camps often escape our (explosives) and then arrested them as terrorists. Irshad and Moarif are still
attention…as well as the media’s. Of course, the issue here is: who is the languishing without trial in the jails.
public? Going by the information that is filtered through news channels on Such stories are endless. From Dr Binayak Sen to students of the
TV…it is my urban, upper class, mall going, Kentucky fried chicken outlawed SIMI (an Islamic student organization against which not a single
chewing…friend. In her nightmares, flashes the face of Kasav but not that of case has been proved so far), hundreds of human rights workers, activists,
Tapashi Malik or Radharani Ari. After all, she is far removed from the world students, innocent people are put behind bars with ‘planted’ cases, tortured
of Radharani or Tapashi. And the face of Kasav disturbs her …terribly… and brutally murdered. In the game of hero, villain and innocent people—the
because she fears she may be the next victim. It is precisely this fear that the state picks its actors. The police or the military as the hero. The Kashmiri
state would like to build on. But more on that later…. Muslim, the Chattisgarhi or Puruliya tribal, the Naga activist, the displaced
The media also creates a simple binary of good and evil- us good, them farmer at Singur…or their friends and supporters…as the villain. And the
evil. With simple solutions- destroy them, destroy the evil; and we will live innocent…why the public of course! The same public on the other side of the
happily ever after. It helps us to make some sense out of a muddlesome, wall…the shining India side.
meddlesome, complex world. Or is it that which precisely prevents us from Playing into the Master’s Scheme…
making any sense at all. Life and this world with its multilayered inequality, Anti terror laws like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act or the
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Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) which was repealed by Man Mohan these identities sharpened since the nineties, post Babri Masjid
Singh’s Government only to be reincarnated in many parts in the Unlawful demolition and has taken the most acute form now. The media portrayal of the
Activities (Prevention) Amendment Ordinance---actively serve the state’s ‘terrorists’ only augments this stereotyping and further legitimizes it! All
need to vilify, villainise and suppress agitations. Generally, under such Acts Muslims are not terrorists, but beware, all terrorists are Muslims! The war
and Ordinances…the ‘criminal’/ ‘rebel’/ ‘insurgent’ can be arrested on against terror, initiated by Uncle Sam and carried on by his faithful nephews
merest suspicion, kept in police custody for extended periods of time and therefore necessarily has to be a fight against Muslims. And as the
denied the general rights and privileges accruing to the accused in the usual
process of justice. Simply it means that people can be picked up, detained and investigations confirm it’s no more the orthodox looking dari-topi Muslim
tortured without any proof. It also means that there exists an immense that one has to be careful about. The brunt of repression after the terror strikes
possibility for bypassing a fair trial. claimed more urban educated, computer savvy, Versace t-shirt sporting
Obviously this helps the police to select a scapegoat or many scapegoats youngsters who are the neo-jihadis in the eyes of the media. And since jihad is
for any act of ‘terror’ whenever it pleases. Also it implies that any sort of equivalent to terrorism for the state and its imperialist masters, anybody who
resistance or agitation can be repressed by evoking such laws. has any faith in the holy Quran can be a potential ‘terrorist’! Such is the
Interestingly, media representations of crime and punishment and the magnitude and extent of the state’s definition of ‘terrorism’!
environment of moral panic injected into the ‘public’ ultimately translates
into a ‘public’ opinion in favour of such laws. In the 2001 Parliament Attack The politics of bomb blast
case, human rights lawyers and activists clearly demonstrated how 2008 had been marked by the repeated blasts in Bangalore, Jaipur,
fabrications happened, how trials were conducted in an unfair and
undemocratic way, completely in contradiction to our own Constitutional Ahmedabad, Delhi, Malegaon and Guahati. These claimed over 100 lives and
principles. The Press however conducted people’s tribunals and ‘convicted’ injured many more. The bombs were planted in heavily crowded areas of
one of the accused S.A.R. Geelani even while the case was subjudiced. different cities resulting into heavy causalities. The police and intelligence in
Geelani had become a household name for terror and continues to be a target each case failed to foresee these incidents. The same intelligence network
of vicious slander long after his acquittal by the Supreme Court! It is no however unraveled the ‘mastermind networks’ behind the blasts with
wonder therefore that in upholdingthe death sentence of another of the amazing speed right after the blasts! The organisation that supposedly
accused, Mohammad Afzal, despite absence of proof of his affiliation to any claimed responsibility for these blasts was Indian Mujahideen (the claims for
terrorist group, the Judge went on to say, quite shockingly, "The collective Guahati blast came from an organisation called Islamic Security Force-
conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is Indian Mujahideen). What constitutes of IM, we are yet to know. What is their
awarded to the offender."
agenda, constitution, aims and networks we are yet to know. The state tells us
So two things are happening here. Collective amnesia. Collective it is a break away faction or in some other versions the more radical section of
conscience. the outlawed Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). However, the
Collective amnesia about our history. Collective conscience which state did nab a number of Muslims in connection to the blasts, right after the
identifies terror as the only and ultimate evil that needs to be dealt with in the incidents. The various state polices claimed that the man in their custody is
severest possible manner. (Excluding state sponsored terror of course!) This
leads to another monumental act. An act of selection and deletion. the mastermind behind the blasts. The ‘masterminds’ multiplied. So did the
number of arrests, illegal detentions in the name of interrogation and
Continually fed with selected images, we automatically delete certain
other images. Images of persecuted peoples. Images of persecuted freedoms. harassment of civilians who were all Muslim. The show culminated in an
Images of dissentions and assertions. There is only one reigning image… encounter in the Batla house of Zakir Nagar area in Delhi, that resulted in the
‘terror’. And one solution. Militarization and the virtual conversion of our death of two ‘terrorists’ and a well decorated police officer Insp. Moahnd
nation into a police state. (When in the history of our world has any Chand Sharma. The encounter was however full of contradictions and
community, nation or people been able to arrive at a military solution to a loopholes. So much so that many civil right activists and a minor part of the
problem that is deeply political? It may hold it in temporary abeyance. But media had evidences to call it fake with conviction. The police had claimed
never put it down. ) that two ‘terrorists’ had fled while the operation was continuing. The house of
However, this suits our Government fine. This will help them to pawn Batla House where the ‘encounter’ took place however had only one exit
land of the indigenous people and farmers to the industrialists. This will help which was guarded by the police and the possibility of escape from the
them to aggressively privatize and liberalize. As long as the attention is on rooftop is simply impossible as the only option there is to jump down on the
war and terror, its own failures will remain hidden below the carpet. And it road from the fifth floor! Moreover, one of the deceased Atif Amin, a young
will justify every step of repression…all the way…all the way. student from Jamia Milia Islamia is said to be the ‘mastermind’ of both
Unfortunately the public created by the mainstream media has become Ahmedabad and Delhi blasts. In between the two blasts however, Atif had
part of this collective amnesia, collective conscience and selection – deletion. submitted the details of his identity proof to the police for residence
We play into the master’s hand fine…
verification. Will such a ‘dangerous terrorist’ who was obviously on the
nilanjana.seng@gmail.com prime look out by the police and other agencies do such an act? The police
claimed that Atif had got one lakh Rupees deposited in his bank account from
his ‘masters’ to carry out the act. The bank balance of Atif revealed a sum of
Rs.900. Another ‘dangerous associate to the terrorists’, Saquib Nisar was
Of Bomb blasts, bloodsheds and arrested with the charges of assisting the ‘terrorists’ in multiple ways in
terror strikes: the untold tales Ahmedabad and Delhi. Saquib was however arrested only after he dared to
talk openly in the media defending Atif, denouncing any possibilities that he
Banojyotsna Lahiri could be associated with any kind of ‘terrorism’. Saquib, by the way, was in
Delhi when the Ahmedabad blasts took place and was taking his MBA exams
Is this country right now on a brink of a war? More than the carefully during the Delhi blasts. After the caretaker of Batla House Zia-ur Raheman,
drafted statements from the statecraft, which is more of empty threats to the confirmed that he had taken Atif and Sajid to the police station for their
neighborhood, the war cry in the media sound more belligerent. It seems as if identity verification, the police arrested Zia and his father too claiming that
the media wants a war! They however package it in a different parlance, one of they were also associate to the terrorist activities and the identity proofs were
‘revenge’; to teach the ‘terrorist spectre’ a lesson once and for all. And the fake. They were let off by the court as late as December on bail. Photographs
media presents it as the demand of the moment, of the ubiquitous ‘common taken covertly of the dead bodies of Sajid, at the morgue, clearly showed six
man’ in India. The likes of the protagonist of the film ‘A Wednesday’. A bullet marks on his head fired form point blank range. This again goes as a
common man who has died over and over again in the repeated terror strikes. proof that it was one sided firing on these people rather than it being an
A common man who suffers the failing inefficient security loop holes and is encounter. Mystery also shrouds the death of M.C Sharma. The first question
the victim of the government’s inability to control ‘terrorists’! While it is true that was raised was why did the ‘encounter specialist’ and the leader of the
that the victims in the bomb blasts and other terror strikes are indeed the charge of the operation, not wear a bullet proof jacket when his other
common people, the media narratives which are simply various versions of colleagues did! Moreover, the police first had claimed that Sharma had
what the state wants us to believe are replete with misgivings and brazen sustained injuries in his stomach, while a photograph that came out in the
stereotypes. The narratives are often faulty and always dangerous. The state press after two days of the incident showed an injured Sharma being carried
via the media is carefully implanting and legitimizing a communal away, with a clear front; while the blood stains indicated the bullet wounds
stereotyping of the Muslims in this occasion of the repeated terror strikes. were on his back! Also, why was such a high profile officer with critical bullet
(1)Since all the six decades of the so called independence, Muslims in injury made to walk a considerable distance to board his car while the road
this country had been bestowed with only two identities by all the was perfectly motorable? Even after the incident random picking of men
parliamentary parties. They are either ‘vote bank’ or ‘terrorists’. The crisis of from the Jamia nagar, Zakir nagar area continued. Many to face the brunt of

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VOL. 1 ISSUE 3 January - February 2009
this repression were students who leave in large numbers in these areas. The other and more hidden face of terror:
For a long time an impending feeling of fear loomed on the people of these In Kanpur August 2008, two Bajrang Dal activists Bhupendar Singh and
areas. Rajeev Mishra were killed while the bomb they were making accidentally
exploded. The Kanpur SP admitted to the press that the material used
Islamophobia and the ‘War against Terror’: (Amonium Nitrate) in making these bombs were the same as the bombs that
Witch hunting of Muslims is not a new or recent phenomenon. Students were used in Delhi. The police have deliberately overlooked this aspect and
Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was banned by the NDA government in never pursued the links except interrogating a couple of VHP activists. In the
2001 for two years and the ban was reinstated without a day’s break in 2003. interrogations Awadh Behari (the provincial general secretary of VHP) and
Midway to the ban the NDA government lost the elections. The UPA Vishwas Kulkerni, an IIT professor and the Vibhag Sanchalak of RSS have
government after coming to power banned SIMI for the third and the fourth been named as being involved in the whole incident. The police however did
time in 2006 and 2008 again without a day’s break. The reasons showed for not pursue these links and investigate their involvement in the subsequent
the ban were identical in both the regimes and they were extremely flimsy, blasts or any other unlawful activities.
baseless and without ANY concrete evidence. There were blanket charges Such conscious oversight could no longer be maintained when the Anti-
that SIMI was in ‘close touch’ with militant outfits and supported Terrorist Squad of Maharshtra came out with its investigation about the
‘extremism/militancy in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere’. That Malegaon Blast that took place in September, 2008. In the communally
they were in touch with Al Qaeda and the Palestinian Hamas were working to sensitive town of Malegaon a bomb went ablaze in a parked motorcycle,
establish international Islamic order, they published objectionable and killing five people and injuring a dozen others. The motorcycle in Malegaon
provocative literature that they sought to disrupt the peace and communal was parked below the now-defunct first floor office of SIMI while the one
harmony of India. The state claimed to have seized ‘anti-national’ campaign used in Modasa had Islamic stickers on its seat. attack was blamed on SIMI
material and propaganda documents in the form of literature, video and audio and nine men were arrested. Further investigation however exposed
cassettes. In no occasion however the state could provide a single evidence of decisively the involvement of Hindu extremist groups in the blast. During
all these charges in any public forum. They kept making these vague, investigation evidence was made ascertaining the involvement of a Hindu
unsubstantiated and generic allegations against SIMI. Also in much similarity group/s in the blasts. The three arrested were identified as Pragnya
to the tactics adapted by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels the Chandrapal Singh Thakur, a ; Shiv Narayan Gopal Singh Kalsanghra, and
government also took to repeating mere allegations so often that the media Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu. Later further investigation implicated Samir
portrayed them as ‘truth’ without bothering for evidences and proves. In Kulkarni, ex-army man Ramesh Upadhyay, Retd. Colonel Shrikant Purohit
March 2001, SIMI had called public protests across India against the burning and religious leader Dayanand Pandey of Abhinav Bharat. The names of
of Quran in Delhi. This was cited as an unlawful act to justify the ban! Hindu organisations like Rashtriya Jagaran Manch and Sri Ram Sena also
Ridiculously, the police across India have repeatedly told the courts that the came up along with the already well known notorious Bajrang Dal and Akhil
use of internet by SIMI activists proves their anti-national and Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Even Shiv Sena in both direct and convoluted
unlawful goals. The Maharashtra police said that the accused terms registered their support behind the accused. They first dismissed the
wanted the state to secede from India!! accusations and later added if it’s proved then understandably it is a welcome
During the course of these bans hundreds of criminal cases were retort to Islamic terror. The quizzing of Lt.Col Purohit particularly exposed
slammed on the alleged SIMI activists across the country. Only a few were the involvement of other men from the army and the Military Intelligence in
lucky to get a bail whereas most spent a year or two in jail. Some served the such communally charged acts of terror. It further revealed that he had
sentence for a much longer period. Most of the charges slammed on these procured 60kg of RDX for the blast in Samjhauta Express in February 2007.
people were heinous and completely baseless. Be it SIMI’s ex-president Earlier it was held that Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the attack although no
Shahid Badr Falahi or the Rajasthan state secretary Dr Mohammad Hasan, all decisive evidence could be gathered.
had been booked over and over again on flimsy and unsubstantiated grounds And then came 26/11…
to be acquitted by the court every time due to lack of evidences. However that After Mumbai suffered the biggest terror strike the country has ever
does not minimize the harassment and torture they had faced in the course of known, many new questions cropped up, while many old questions which are
these events or the subsequent social stigma they have suffered. These are just still unanswered were brushed under the carpet. In Mumabai attack on the 26th
a few cases which have been brought into light by investigative journalists of November, hundreds of people were indiscriminately killed. But there are
like Ajit Sahi who travelled across 11 states to look into the trial of hundreds of strong possibilities that there were three targeted killings, including that of
alleged ‘SIMI’ activists. The SIMI activists as Sahi has shown were all Hemant Karkare, the chief of the ATS which was efficiently unraveling the
booked on the basis of confession before the police, which is NOT a legally face of Hindu terror. Karkare’s death along with two of his other colleagues,
tenable ground to have judicial probe against people. The same people who DIG Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar is still shrouded in
apparently had given long fabricated statements as confession to the police mystery as already quite a few conflicting versions of how exactly were they
denied everything when they were interrogated in public view infront of the killed have come. Karkare while alive was vilified and maligned in ugly
magistrate. It simply shows the falsity of the concocted confessions which the terms by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar for his investigation against Hindu
police produced. In case of outlawing SIMI and penalizing its activists the terror. The local channels of Mumbai showed (although it was promptly
police confessions were considered as evidences pulled off air after a while) the pictures of celebrations after Karkare’s death
c o n t r a r y t o t h e l e g a l p r o v i s i o n s . in the RSS offices! We do not know who exactly was behind the Mumbai
terror attack, but one can feel that the space to raise doubts has shrunk at
The list of persecuted Muslims is seemingly endless. length post 26/11. This was evident in the harassment which Minority Affairs
Maulana Abdul Haleem, a cleric in Ahmedabad had been picked up after Minister A.R Antuley had to face after he hinted that there can be more to
the Ahmedabad blasts with far fetched claims that he is a ‘terrorist’ without Karkare’s death than just succumbing to combat firing. The media too in all
any concrete evidences. His attempts to rehabilitate some children, orphaned these incidents have acted just as the spokesperson of the state and the role of
during the 2002 Gujarat riots to an UP orphanage had been deemed by the investigative journalism had come down almost to nil. The media simply
state as a conspiracy to send potential terrorists to UP for training in seditious presents the police version, unproblematically. Its attack is limited only to
activities. Maulana Naseeruddin of Hyderabad has been framed and put politicians while the organs of the state, the police, army, the law and the likes
behind bars for his crime of ‘leading anti-Bush protests’ in the city! Junaid a of it get all the hero worship and are seldom held at scrutiny unless people like
25 year old medical student was picked up along with 20 others in connection Karkare makes it brazenly obvious. The sights of terror strikes have become
to the Mecca Masjid blast that took place in Hyderabad in May 2007. They most saleable commodity to the consumerist media and all they vie about is to
were illegally detained for about six months and were subject to inhuman package it better in a more sensationalized manner. An effort to probe beyond
torture. After six months the court let them off in lack of evidence. Jnuaid the crust of the state of affairs as portrayed by the ruling class is no more a
however was thrown out of his university in the mean time and the others lost concern for the media. What we get therefore in the more-‘patriotic’-than-
their jobs. Inspector Kumar Tyagi has been booked by the CBI for framing thou media is a legitimization of the state propaganda and an eraser of state
two innocent men, Mohammad Moarif Qamar and Irshad Ali as Al-Badr terror!
terrorists. The CBI has given clean chit to Qamar and Ali while Tyagi might Where this is taking us to, can be described in variant terms. The term that
face life imprisonment for implicating them in false cases. Among four other we however can’t use is ‘democracy’.
police officers who are being investigated in the case, two sub-inspectors, banojyotsna@gmail.com
Sanjay Dutt and Rahul Kumar were also involved in this Batla House

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