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Background
The roots of Naxalism, later termed as Maoism or Left Wing Extremism (LWE)
as now officially labelled pre-date independence. Tebhaga and
Telengana movements in Bengal and Nizam's Hyderabad respectively, were
in mid-1940s. The issues were the land and rural exploitation.
Naxalism is pre-dominantly rural but has witnessed urban
manifestations such as in Calcutta during the period 1967 to 1970. The
LWE has extended across nearly half of India covering the hill-forest
belt through middle and peninsular India.
Zamindari System
Zamindar was told that area covering so many thousands of acres or
districts would form part of his zamindari for which he had to pay so
many lakhs per annum to the company or to the state. The zamindar did
not cultivate the land. He had various people who took entitlements,
distributed them, farmed them out and they in turn farmed them out to
others, and they in turn to others till to the actual cultivators or
share croppers. Above the tiller of the land, there are series of rent
collectors, each attempting to suck the tiller dry to produce enough
for themselves and enough to pay rent for the next year. This spiral
moved upward till it got to the state. The Zamindar remained a rentier
and not a cultivator and several layers of sub-infeudation existed and
each one extracted his pound of flesh.
Forest Management and Status of Tribals
In the case of forests, the process of reservation for forests and
protected forests for conservation for scientific extraction of timber
provided to the state, reduced the tribal inhabitants to intruders and
encroachers. These people lived in forest which was their home, their
habitat and livelihood for generations and centuries and then they
were declared intruders and encroachers and their rights the way they
exercised, since time immemorial, were reduced to privileges given by
the state. he who gives can take them away and it is not he who gives
but it is all the hierarchy of the state government going down to the
lowest level of the forest official and contractors who exploited
these people. The tribals not only lost their rights but now they have
to pay for their privileges. And all this is dependant on the whims
and fancies and exactions of forest officials. The symbiotic
relationship between the tribal and the forest was scorned, and the
process of tribal exclusion continued apace with the creation of game
sanctuaries, tiger protection, nature and biosphere reserves and land
acquisition for a hundred different reasons – dams, roads, refugee
settlements, expansion of urban areas, expansion of agricultural
domain, mines, industries and so on. All of these were at the cost of
the jungle and the tribals believe this belongs to them. It was free
for all, and tribals kept on being squeezed in this process.
Resettlement and Rehabilitation Records
Unfortunately, the records of resettlement and rehabilitation and
payment of compensation for the lands and assets acquired from people
who were then in possession of the place, have been very poor
resulting in a huge credibility gap. So today when the state,
corporate body or anyone else promises compensation for the dam,
factory or whatever, the people laugh and scorn and say we have heard
it before. For example, the people in Orissa displaced due to
construction of Hirakund Dam, have not been re-settled and
compensated. Previously, adequate legal framework for providing
compensation and maintaining proper Revenue and Rights records was not
there. We have cases where a generation of people were uprooted and
settled in another area. After some time some factory or road or
railway expansion scheme fructified and the same people were displaced
the second time and again not compensated thereby; another generation
suffered. Subsequently, some new factory or urban development process
came about and the people got displaced the third and the fourth time.
It has been a life time of displacement by the state with very little
regard to the rights and the livelihood of the people displaced. There
has been much illegality in all this and manipulation by process of
deprivation and marginalisation.
Administration in Remote Areas
Being located in isolated areas, agency tracts, former princely
states, and in partially internal excluded areas, had two
implications. These areas were by definition, less developed and had
poor connectivity. The Abujhmarh area in Chhatisgarh is bigger than
the Manipur State. The area is totally un-surveyed. It does not have
roads, schools, hospitals, and so on. Consequently, such areas are
less developed, have poor connectivity and mostly unadministered.
Post-Independence agrarian reforms, barring in Jammu and Kashmir have
not been successful. The land reforms were poorly conceived and
executed. The zamindars were given compensation which they were paid
in bonds and so on. But their records of rights were not repatriated
by the states and no body knew who actually held the land. The process
for sub-infeudation was very complex with no clear knowledge on the
part of the state officials as to what the land records were. There
were no settlements, no revision of surveys for decades and plenty of
snags and loopholes in the legislation for agrarian reforms leading to
eviction, litigation and poor implementation.
Vested Interests
Basically, there has been a lack of political 'will' because the
feudal class with vested interests is sitting on top. Bihar was
perhaps one of the worst cases. There were issues like bonded labour
and non payment of minimum wages. By and large, feudal class is well
entrenched in the government jobs, media, judges, professors and so
on. The freight equalisation policy which the government of India
introduced in the 1950s, eliminated the comparative advantages of the
mineral rich states which are mostly in the central tribal belt. This
eliminated the location advantage and the state paid the subsidy to
ensure that the price of iron or coal was same be it in Kerala or in
Nathula Pass or Zozila Pass as in area where it is mined. This meant
that comparative advantage of the states to industrialise these areas
were considerably reduced or eliminated. Thus, all the triggering
mechanisms for development–connectivity, incentive for capacity
building, generation of employment and incomes disappeared.
Training of Tribals and Dalits
Where there was industrialisation and new opportunities; the tribals
and dalits were not educated and devoid of training. They could not
avail of new opportunities because of the competition. It led to
widening gaps and mounting exploitation and the state and society
watched helplessly but did nothing.
Agraraian Development Programme
Cosmetic solutions like bhoodan and gramdan have not been effective.
In the 1960s, the Ministry of Home Affairs under Shri LP Singh set up
a Perspective Planning division and the officer Shri BS Raghavan
prepared a paper on the land situation with reference to Bihar. There
was a talk of Green Revolution, new hybrid seeds, fertilisers, water
and so on and so forth. It did not work and instead of green acres we
had red acres. Much of India's "socialism" and "garibi hatao"
programmes were hollow or were soon hollowed out. Corruption, vote
bank politics and atrocities against scheduled castes have played
havoc with the economic and social fabric of the society. The schedule
castes commission is treated with total contempt by everybody
including the Parliament.
Socio-Economic Challenges
In the forests, tribals find their livelihoods and rights threatened.
Land rights despite 5th Schedule safeguards, through disregard of due
process, manipulation and impersonation, have not been preserved.
Other dubious means are bogus marriages, bogus benami transactions of
various kinds and outright fraud. Tribals depend for much of the year
on minor forest produce because most areas are not fertile. Besides
due to primitive kind of agriculture, productivity is very low.
Therefore, in a good year, agriculture can sustain for seven to nine
months. For the rest of the year need for cash income from minor
forest produce is there. But tribals have been squeezed on that as
well, by forest contractors and institution of various regulations and
so on. This has led to very poor levels of agriculture, education,
health status and so on.
Tribal Advisory Councils set up under the Fifth Schedule have been
very weak bodies with co-opted members of various kinds and are
totally ineffective. Efforts are being made to amend and undo damage
due to new forest policy acts and the new forest rights bills. Efforts
are to settle tribals on land in the forest, unless land is available
outside and so on. But there is a fierce opposition to it.
Rise of Naxaliam
Cumulative wrongs, deprivation and despair have given rise to naxalism
which has grown in the interior. Naxalites came as protectors and
Robinhoods. They set up Jan Adalats and dispensed justice. Once they
took control over these areas, which were lightly administered or
un-administered, they became bolder. These were the protectors of the
people against exploitation by what they saw as apparatus of the state
and contractors. After taking control they said that every family
would contribute one male or female able bodied person to their
squadrons. People came under an iron control. This in turn led to
another kind of pressure. The Government is now keen to develop these
areas by constructing roads, railways and so on. The naxalites do not
want area development because this will give access to the state
administration and threaten them and their power base.
State of Law and Order
Law and order is necessary to deal with criminal activities of the
people including extortionists of various kind. Law in wider sense
includes the rule of law and new processes of law. The order means not
merely prevention of disorder, which it does, but what we have done is
institution of laws to preserve the established order. The established
order is full of violence and inequity in its operation. We have said
there would be no change. Any one trying to break through that is
deemed as a violator of the law and, therefore, must be punished. Our
whole concept of law and order has been turned on its head as the
defence of feudalistic and oppressive system. So we need social and
economic reforms to ensure human dignity, fraternity, social justice,
fulfillment of basic needs, education, training and equal democratic
rights to exercise adult franchise. The current agitation is about
displacement, about land acquisition for steel plants, aluminum
plants, mines and so on. So what we need is a new paradigm of
development in which we have public, private and people's
participation. People mean individuals and their community whether
they be dalits, or tribals or anybody else. All must get equal
opportunities specially through education and training.
Need for Rehabilitation
I think, land is not a vital factor. We have some old fashion thinking
about that. Land is shrinking because of growth of population and
growth of its use. But the productivity of land can be increased and
that must be done. There is a need to take people off the land and
provide them with jobs elsewhere. This requires education and
training. The concept of resettlement and rehabilitation should not be
by giving land for land which I think is a dishonest policy because
there is no land. We give land somewhere and displace someone else and
really transfer the problem from place A to place B. People should be
rehabilitated by providing full job employment, opportunities and
dignity. Dalits and tribals are not opposed to industrialisation or
urbanisation or construction of dams, but only if they are equal
beneficiaries and stake holders. The new industrial corporate houses
are beginning to think on these terms and have come up with packages
that go beyond the declared policies of the government. I think this
is good, but we need to develop this on a wider scale and cover areas
where the state has its responsibility to its own people.
Need to Improve Governance
The other thing we need is better delivery system. Remote areas are
not popular with Government employees and consequently administration
suffers. Those forced to serve in those areas are not well motivated.
Development programmes need a different kind of delivery system and
different kind of administration. We had the Indian Frontier
Administrative Service in the North East many years ago. It was
unfortunately wound up. We need a new approach and single window
system for big schemes. There is need to trigger the dynamo to build
the infrastructure which has not been built for hundreds of years and
that will open the door for good administration and other kind of
socio-economic development.
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