The Politics of Land & the Besieged Lot # #
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Modern Trends in Farming While discussing on land rights and land related issues it is also essential to investigate the modes and means which in some form or other has outgrown in recent times. A quick recap of what has been happening in Chhattisgarh would also draw our attention to the national picture too. India being agriculture based economy and a country where almost 70% of its population depends for its subsistence, the utilization of land under the genetically modified formula of crop production has also evolved a culture of mono-crop cultivation too. This has developed a dangerous trend among the different layers of farmers. Further it also challenges the very foundation of sustainable agricultural economy. Sustainability is a process by which a community lives in close contact with the nature and preserves the harmonious relationship among human being. In all the cases we would find that the most important aspect is that there are some basic values that sustain the mutuality within the community and that of life. That is the most important aspect of life. Sustainability of any community depends upon the strength of mutuality. This in fact gives birth to the process of harmonious development. In developmental terms this gives rise to the concept of containing food sovereignty, which again is yet another means of sustaining the community life and spirit. Food sovereignty goes beyond the common concept of food security, which merely seeks to ensure that a sufficient amount of safe food is produced without taking into account the kind of food produced and how, where and on what scale it is produced. It encompasses of sustainability and sustainable development practices.46 Hypothetically food sovereignty involves the following
Little by little the entire agriculture land in the state has and is being converted into non-agriculture land, for industrial purpose. The cultivation pattern that has evolved in the last two decades has raised serious questions on farming. Much of the farmers are left without water for cultivation, while the government is busy leasing out portions of the rivers to industrial houses. Non-availability of water is denial to cultivation. Denial of cultivation leads depeasantisation of community. This is happening at an elevated pace. Peasantry in Chhattisgarh have been encountering the fact of denial to cultivation and that is why in most of the villages they have lost their attribute as a peasant. Thus they are more inclined towards migrating out as they find it as the best alternative of earning money. This adds impetus and strengthens is the process of depeasantisation. However in the same area big farmers find it easy to adopt the hybrid varieties of paddy. Some of them are also of the option to go for GMOs although they don’t understand what it is all about. In the last one decade the government of Chhattisgarh had been consistently propagating new farm model. On one hand the state is promoting alien plantation culture and on the other hand they are advocating of crop rotation. Massive plantation of saffed musli and jetropha was promptly endorsed in the whole of the state. While saffed musli is said to be for the promotion of herb culture in the state, jetropha is meant for extracting fuel. In Bastar district itself nearly 1500 hectares of paddy farmland was turned into musli farmland. Many other individual landlords had adapted to this pattern and they say it gives more returns than rice paddy cultivation.48 Resembling to this is the case of jetropha, which is upheld under the pretext of alternate fuel generation. Scientific studies say that jetropha is highly destructive to the surrounding environment as well as for the despoliation of soil. Many specialists are of the opinion that the seeds of jetropha was first sent to India in late 50s and early 60s along with wheat from US and European countries as part of their aid package to combat the severe famine. Since then the seeds began to breed in every part of the country wherever the aid was provided. Ironically in US and most of the European nations it has been banned after reaching a scientific conclusion of its inimical impression on human habitation.49 Currently crop rotation has now become a common parlance among development experts at the national level. In Chhattisgarh the former government was of the opinion to promote sugarcane production instead of rice. It was advocated through the entire government machinery that rice is less productivity and of lesser market value and contrary to this the sugarcane is high yielding as well as high market value. The prime intention was not do any good for the people but the introduction of sugar industries and sugar lobby in Chhattisgarh. Rice mills and rice market has so far saturated in Chhattisgarh. However people in the rural areas resisted this move bravely. Nevertheless this is still on cards. Contract Farming is another aspect being established through this process. In fact many dalals (middleman) are already moving across the rural areas to buy land in order to promote corporate contract farming. Strings of such processes were already on the rise during the last one decade. Land mafias become very active in the past one decade buying and selling large plots of land. Most of the land had been appropriate with this purpose of establishing private farmhouses. This sprouted the monoculture cultivation pattern stubbing all existing sustainable production practices. Monoculture along the line of profit generating economics is the role model to the marginal farmer or even the landless labourers who bank on sharecropping (adhiya), contract farming (regha) and other similar systems. Hence a transformation of agri-culture into agri-business even among the landless labourer is what is happening.
It is under this context that we need to develop a wider understanding and proper perspective about the diverse dynamics of land issue. Land reforms, decentralised resource control, regeneration of soil and water as well as rights to housing, work, education and health are to be at high priorities. In all way land reforms is an unfinished task and land struggle is an ongoing phenomena. A lot of serious effort needs to be put into this. De facto it is only possible with the development of a new culture of change in the mindsets of the masses. No measure could be enforced properly without a cardinal change in the overall attitude of the society. Land reform, broadly conceptualised as a corrective measure to ensure equitable man-land relationship, implies changes in laws, rules and procedures governing the rights, duties, and liberties of individuals and groups in control as well as utilisation of land.
Majority of the people in Chhattisgarh are agriculturists. To understand the dynamics of land problem in the totality, one needs an understanding of the logic of the underlying forces that govern its ownership pattern. The specific economic form in which unpaid surplus labour is pumped out of the direct producers, determines the relation of the rulers and the ruled.50 Hence land problem of a particular area has to be understood from its historical perspective. Historical evidences are ample to prove the conception of depeasantisation as a net result of the uneven structural changes that have taken place from time to time due to the commoditization of the economy in which land plays a critical and predominant role.
Many legal aspects that support eh people are also refuted in this process. The fundamental rights upheld by the Constitution are refuted time and again. Ensuring people’s right as per Article 19 (i), (e) right to settle in any part of the country, 19 (o), (g) right to practice any profession, 19 (i), (f) right to acquire, preserve and transfer the property and Article 21 right to live and livelihood are not part of the State’s concerns. Directive principles of State’s policy, an essential component of the Constitution of India, which provides the guidelines to the State, is never followed by the state government. While dealing with similar cases Article 38, assures the protection of the social order and promotion of welfare of the people, Article 39 (a) right to earn a dignified livelihood, 39 (b) the State shall in particular direct its policy towards securing – that the ownership and control of the material resource of the community are so distributed as best to sub-serve the common good; that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of the wealth and means of production to the common detriment, Article 46, The State shall promote….the Scheduled Caste and the Schedule Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation, Article 47, duty of the state to develop the standard of living of the people, Article 48, to protect agriculture and animal resource, and Article 51 A (g), (i) It is the fundamental duty of every citizen of India – to protect the natural environment including forest, lakes, river and wild life are violated at each and every stage of alienation.51 Industrial activity, particularly mining in forest areas grossly violates major provisions under the National Forest Policy 1988 such as Sections 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 4.3, 4.4, 4.6, and 4.9.52 Similarly in Scheduled Areas all provisions with regards to the Scheduled Area Act as well as the provisions under the Panchayat Raj Act are clearly violated. In Section 4 (a) it clearly states, “a state legislation on the panchayats that may be made shall be in consonance with the customary law, social, and religious practices and traditional management practices of community resource”. Further Section 4 (b) says, “every gram sahbha shall be competent to safeguard and preserve the traditions and customs of the people, their cultural identity, community resources and the customary mode of dispute resolution”53. The Scheduled Area Act or the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Area Act (PESA) is one powerful weapon in fighting unjust mining. The whole of Samatha judgement is based on this Act itself. However it will depend upon the fact whether it is a forest area or an Adivasi belt to make use of such provisions. Gross irregularity and corruption in granting the mining lease are involved. the planned economic development invited a lot of infrastructure projects, but it has displaced an uneven number of people. In MP Land Revenue Code 1957, Section 170-B deals with Adivasi land. This section blocks the transfer or any sort of transaction of Adivasi land to non-Adivasis.54 Certainly this is applicable in the new state of Chhattisgarh too. Again this is not a national policy barring transfer of Adivasi land to non-Adivasis. However land could be taken away from Adivasis for anything that would be National Development applying LAA. Therefore one law or act contradicts another. It is beyond all doubts that industrial land acquisition and free market economy goes hand in hand. The mechanism of compensation and rehabilitation is a supportive kitty of the corporate sector; this only pauperises the poor than a change in their destiny. The principles of compensation never estimates or often forgets that on the very first day of reaching a rehabilitation colony, a poor family has to buy firewood, which they procured free from the Common Property Rights (CPR).55 The tripartite of politicians, bureaucracy, and capitalist raise a whole range of questions. The hire and fire formula of the capital-fascist brigade, the coherence of world capital with global fascism has permeated fast across. The state should become more responsible and accountable to the masses. In the globalised era, the sweeping changes in political structures, coupled with the disempowerment of state, it won’t be so easy for the people to survive. All measure of a ‘welfare state’ has disappeared in the whirlwind of planned development and further outgrown with the globalisation liberalisation policies. Only the people’s rise with acute political clarity of taking up power, the state power can save them from this trauma. With regards to the question of right to produce the first and foremost issue is the conservation and control of indigenous plant genetic resources. One of our biggest concerns in food and agriculture is to save the tremendous diversity of plant and genetic wealth that has evolved over many centuries of experiments and hard work by the cultivators. In Chhattisgarh where paddy is the main crop and rice the staple food of the common and above all nearly 80% of the total population is based on it, preservation of this biodiverse heritage is a big challenge. Who decides what to cultivate and when to cultivate, people or vested interests? Similarly the knowledge system that has emerged over the centuries through the wisdom and ethical and equitable cultural ethos will get lost in a while. Farmhouse culture had already put and is putting these knowledge systems at stake. Corporate sector aims to control food and agriculture systems for profit generation. Hence this raise a genuine question of peasant’s right to produce. Right to produce cannot be addressed unless establishing roper land rights and equitable land distribution is established as it is by and large related with the production and distribution pattern. The implementation of land reforms has been subverted by the absence of political will and bureaucratic commitment, loopholes in the law, tremendous manipulative power of the landed class, lack of organisation among the poor and excessive interference of courts. Therefore the intended benefits to the poor in general and particularly the Dalits and Adivasis failed to materialise. From various studies and reports yet another reason for the failure of land reforms is the failure to update land records in all states. In addition to this tardy implementation of legal and legislative initiatives, judicial delay in setting up disputes, inadequacy of the laws and so on had contributed a lot in affirmation of land rights in India. Any question of sustainable land rights cannot be addressed without recognizing the common property resource character of water. Effective regulation of water could emerge as the single most critical issue of rural governance in the 21st century. The non-sustainable policies of water consumption in the last 60 years have left our rivers dead and polluted, our ground water depleted and contaminated. The water scarcity induced by manmade policies is creating water riots between people and water conflicts between states. After having created a water crisis in our water abundant land, endowed with mighty rivers and a rich culture of water conservation, the government is now offering false solutions that will further aggravate the water crisis and intensify water wars. This commoditisation is also an assault on the very basic cultural values of people. ## A discussion paper on land issues and land rights 1 George, Goldy M. "The Flaring Bihar", a paper relating the caste based violence and its co-relation with land, in which the Dalits have suffered the most. 2 Sinha B.K. & Pushpendra edited "Land Reforms in India – An Unfinished Agenda" Vol. 5, Sage Publications, New Delhi, "Editor's Introduction", page 17. 3 George, Goldy M. “The History of Land Issue & Land Struggles – The Case Study of Bihar”, Advocacy Support Unit, page 1. 4 Jha, Shishir K. "Prospects of Radical Change in Bihar: Recuperating the Diseased Heart of India", page 1. 5 Mohan, Surendra "Arthaarth", in "Zameen Kiskhi Joote Uske", by Prabhat. 6 "Land Record", Participatory Research in Asia, New Delhi, page 9. 7 Ibid., page 10. 8 Ibid. page 10. 9 George, Goldy M. “The History of Land Issue & Land Struggles – The Case Study of Bihar”, Advocacy Support Unit, page 6. 10 Ojha, Gyaneshwar "Land Problems and Land reforms-Study with reference to Bihar", page 32. 11 Kotovsky, Grigory, "Agrarian Reforms in India". 12 "Land Record", Participatory Research in Asia, New Delhi, page 10-11. 13 Jha, Shishir K. "Prospects of Radical Change in Bihar: Recuperating the Diseased Heart of India", page 3. 14 George, Goldy M. “The Politics of Land & the Besieged Lot”, page 8-9. 15 Viegas, Philip “Encroached and Enslaved – Alienation of Adivasi Land and its Dynamics”. Published by ‘Indian Social Institute’, New Delhi. 16 Munda, Dr. Ram Dayal “Adivasi Identity: Crisis and Way out”, in Rising Fascism published by Update Collective, New Delhi, page 57. 17 George, Goldy M. “Turning Tides”, page 1. 18 Ibid. page 8. 19 Saxena, K.B. “Tribal Land Alienation and Need for Policy Intervention”. Published in ‘The Administrator’, April-June 1991. 20 Lourdusamy, Stan “Recent Jharkhand History Ethnicity & Class Perspective”, in Rising Fascism published by Update Collective, New Delhi, page 43. For further details also refer “A Dictionary of Political Economy”, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1985, page 43 21 Ibid. page 43-44. 22 “National Perspective Plan for Women”, 1988, Department of Women and Child Development, New Delhi. 23 George, Goldy M. “The History of Land Issue & Land Struggles – The Case Study of Bihar”, Advocacy Support Unit, page 29. 24 Ibid, page 29. 25 Agarwal, Bina "A Field of One's Own Gender and Land Rights in South Asia", Cambridge University Press, New Delhi, page 446. 26 George, Goldy M. “The History of Land Issue & Land Struggles: The Case Study of Bihar”, page 29-30. 27 Pillai, Dr. Marry “Impact of Globalisation on Women”, paper presented during the 1st Chethana get-together at Marthoma Education Centre, Charalkunnu, Thiruvalla, Kerala from 18th to 21st April 2001. 28 George, Goldy M. “Yet they are denied of their rights”, page 1, www.countercurrents.org 30 George, Goldy M. “Yet they are denied of their rights”, page 1, www.countercurrents.org 31 George, Goldy M. “Questions Arising from Chhattisgarh”, page 4-6. 32 “Vedanta Resources plc Counter Report 2005 Ravages through India”, by Nostromo Research and India Resource Center, London page 10 33 IANS report, July 20 2005 34 Niyogi, Shankar Guha “Mines Mechanisation and People”, in “On A Rainbow in the Sky… The Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha”, Centre for Education and Communication, New Delhi, page 48-57. 35 George, Goldy M. “Mined in! Mined out!! & Mined Off!!! – An Analytical Study of Mining Policy of Chhattisgarh”, National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Pune, page 42. 36 Chhattisgarh Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (draft), 2002, Forest Department, Chhattisgarh. 37 A study of FSI, 199 (unpublished). Cited in State of Forest Report 1999, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun, page 62. 38 George, Goldy M. “Mined in! Mined out!! & Mined Off!!! – An Analytical Study of Mining Policy of Chhattisgarh”, National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Pune, page 53. 39 “Neeti Marg”, Vol 2, No 25, page 14, September 2000. 40 Ibid, page 14-15. 41 George, Goldy M. “Rice, Sustainability & Food Sovereignty”, page 6. 42 Kaur, Naunidhi “Privatising Water”, Frontline, Volume 20 – Issue 18, August 30 –September 12, 2003. 43 Annual Report 2004, Ministry of Water Resource, New Delhi 44 Kaur, Naunidhi 45 Ibid. 46 George, Goldy M. “Rice, Sustainability & Food Sovereignty”, page 1. 47 Ibid. 48 Ibid, page 4. 49 Ibid. 50 Rout, Shyama Prasad “Land Alienation and Adivasi People’s Rights: A Case Study of Mayurbhanj District in Orissa”, JNU, New Delhi. 51 For further details refer to the Constitution of India 52 National Forest Policy, 1988. 53 For further details refer Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Area Act 1996. 54 Section 170-B of the M.P. Land Revenue Code. This is also applicable to the state of Chhattisgarh. 55 George, Goldy M. “Global Capital Vs People’s Power – People’s Struggle Against Gopalpur Steel Plant and Corporate Giants”, National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Pune, page 28. |