Is Lalgarh Showing the Way?
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COMMENTARY the People’s Committee against Police Is Lalgarh Showing the Way? Atrocities (PCAPA) to form the people’s mi- litia; and (5) from the formation of the Sidhu-Kanu Gana Militia on 27 October Amit Bhattacharyya 2009 till date. Each of these phases has its distinctive features. If one studies the The Maoists have been at the he ongoing struggle in Lalgarh, movement, one will see that it was not just helm of the movement in Lalgarh nay, Jangal Mahal has already com- a movement against land grab or just for right from its inception. Even as Tpleted one year in early November the assertion of the rights of the adivasis 2009. This struggle is totally different or against humiliation suffered by the they organised the resistance from any other recent movement in our tribal people; it was more than that. And to state repression, they put in country. If Singur faced the initial experi- that broader aspect gradually unfolded as place, at a rudimentary level, ence of defeat, Nandigram could take movement rolled on. One of the major as- an alternative programme pride in having tasted victory in the course pects of the movement is the PCAPA’s advo- of a long bloody battle against the Left cacy of a pro-people new model of devel- of development based on the Front (LF) government and the terror per- opment – a model that shows the imprint people’s initiative and their petrated by the “hermads” backed by the of the Maoist party. This aspect of the voluntary labour. But when the Communist Party of India (Marxist) movement hardly received any attention joint forces of the central and [CPI(M)]. The struggles waged in both Sin- from the urban intellectuals. gur and Nandigram were directed against state governments moved into the land-grab movement resorted to by New Model of Development the area, the organisation of domestic big comprador capital and for- The model of development the Indian rul- a people’s militia became an eign imperialist capital. In both Singur ing classes and their political representa- imperative. There is a need to and Nandigram, the parliamentary par- tives have adopted ever since they came to ties played some role, and in the case of power in 1947 was the policy of depend- trace the roots of the armed the latter, the Maoist party also inter- ence on foreign capital and technology, resistance. The grudging Bengali vened. In the case of the Lalgarh move- which led to the selling out of our country’s urban literati need to understand ment, on the other hand, the parliamen- economy, water, land and vast natural re- that questions as to who is to lead tary parties were rejected by the people sources to foreign imperialist capital and and the Maoist party played a major role. domestic comprador big capital. It was the and guide the movement and The Lalgarh movement began in a dif- Naxalbari movement and the Communist the form it should take are to be ferent context. It started as a response Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) led by decided by the sons of the soil against the brutality perpetrated by the Charu Mazumdar that first raised the themselves, and not by those who police on 5 November 2008. It was, at the demand for radical land reforms, opposi- same time, a fight against age-old depri- tion to and confiscation of imperialist keep a safe distance from it. vation and humiliation and for the asser- capital, and, at the same time, formulated tion of dignity and the rights of the people. the blueprint for an alternative model of However, the landmine attack on the development. That programme could not West Bengal chief minister on 2 Novem- be implemented by the communist revolu- ber 2008 as a mark of protest against the tionaries of the first phase of the struggle Jindal special economic zone (SEZ) at for reasons we need not get into at present. Shalboni also possibly acted as a catalyst At a later period, the Maoists put into prac- that initiated a snowballing process. In tice an alternative development programme that sense, it also resembled those in in the Dandakaranya area covering some Singur and Nandigram. mineral-rich states. The main elements of The Lalgarh movement can be divided this programme are self-reliance, equitable into five phases: (1) from 5 November 2008 distribution of resources and property to the day the dates for parliamentary among the people, distribution of land to elections were announced; (2) from the the tiller, all-round development in the following day to 16 May 2009 when the countryside based on people’s initiative election results were declared throughout and voluntary labour, and the weeding the country; (3) from 17 May to 17 June, out of foreign influence and control over the day before Operation Lalgarh began; our economy, society, culture and politics. Amit Bhattacharyya (amit_bh200405@yahoo. (4) from 18 June 2009, when the joint As in Dandakaranya, such attempts com) is with the Department of History, forces started moving into Lalgarh, to 26 are being made at the rudimentary Jadavpur University, Kolkata. October, when decisions were taken by level even in the Jangal Mahal area of Economic & Political Weekly EPW january 9, 2010 vol xlv no 2 17 COMMENTARY West Bengal. This is evident from the direction, as is reported by different sources. and vegetables there for at least two sea- following newspaper report captioned Let us state some of the features. sons before it becomes fit, hopefully, once “Welcome to India’s Newest Secret State” again, for paddy cultivation. Side by side, by Snigdhendu Bhattacharya (Hindustan Agriculture and Land Distribution: Any- it was also decided that the lands of the Times, 10 June 2009): one going to Jangal Mahal would be able “new landlords” such as those of the Here across a 1,000 sq km area bordering to realise that the much trumpeted land CPI(M) leaders like Anuj Pandey, Bimal Orissa in West Medinipur district, the Mao- reform programme of the LF government Pandey or Dalim Pandey – the rural boss- ists over the last 8 months have quietly un- does not have any presence there. In areas es-rogues-cum-moneylenders who had leashed new weapons in their battle against where trees have been cut to introduce amassed millions by expropriating the the Indian state: drinking water, irriga- land reforms, nothing has been done and wealth and land of the poor peasants, as tion, roads and health centres…carefully shielded from the public eye, the Hindustan vast tracts have been allowed to be con- also by swindling money from govern- Times found India’s second ‘liberated zone’, verted into wastelands. Although the West mental projects, would be confiscated and a Maoist-run state where development for Bengal government, through an Act of distributed among the real owners. more than two lakh people is unfolding at 2004, vowed to distribute these lands a pace not seen in 30 years of ‘Left Front’ among the landless adivasis, nothing has, Irrigation: In the dry Jangal Mahal belt, rule. Apart from taking over the organs of the state and most notably the executive and as yet, been done. On the contrary, the LF where rainfall is scanty, special attention the judiciary, the Maoists here have built at government and the CPI(M) that leads it is needed. However, one cannot see any- least 50 km of gravel paths, dug tube-wells had decided to hand over thousands of thing of the sort. The government has and tanks, rebuilt irrigation canals and are acres of those lands for the setting up of an built a huge canal that runs from Mayurb- running health centres, with the help of SEZ to the corporate house of the Jindals. hanj in Jharkhand to Midnapur town so as local villagers. Faced with such government apathy and to provide water to the fields when the Another daily (The Telegraph, 24 June deprivation, it was quite natural for the rainy season is over. However, because of 2009) reported under the caption “Lalgarh people of Jangal Mahal to organise under faulty construction, the canal remains dry Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme the banner of the PCAPA to initiate a genu- throughout the year and the pipes that (Maoist): Rise and Rot of a Rebel ‘State’” ine land reform programme. open to the fields remain completely that the People’s Committee-Maoists began The Committee initiated a programme choked. The PCAPA, in response to this the following schemes: Jobs for landless – to ensure full rights of the adivasis over governmental mal-development, started work in development projects in lieu of forest land to the landless with adequate building small check dams and lock gates Rs 60-80 per day; building kutcha roads, facilities for irrigation. Opposing the govern- that would store the water during the culverts and water reservoirs and digging ment policy of welcoming multinational monsoon and preserve water flowing deep tube wells; bringing medical teams seed companies, the PCAPA opted to form down from natural streams. Such a check from Kolkata; lending money to repair and seed cooperatives through the promotion dam was in the process of construction at build cheap houses. of organic fertilisers prepared with either Bohardanga village when the DSU team The first attempts were made by the forest ash or cow-dung. visited the place. PCAPA soon after it was born. It set up vil- Another important step is land distribu- lage committees each of which consisted tion. The village committee decided to en- Construction of Roads: If one goes to the of five men and five women, where deci- sure one bigha of land for the landless and Lalgarh villages, one will be struck by the sions were taken on the basis of mutual 15 kathas for peasants with less land and absence of roads worth the name.