P. A. Chacko
A recent study was put out by the Jharkhand-based Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch
looking into the BJP’s hue and cry about the so-called Bangladeshi infiltrators into Santal Parganas in Jharkhand.
The study could not identify any such infiltrators or the latter marrying Santal girls for purposes of land grab.
Santal Parganas shares a not so distant border with Bangladesh. It is difficult to say who are infiltrators and who are not. People have their own techniques of merging with the crowd.
The fact of non-tribals marrying tribal girls or luring them into marriage cannot be ruled out. Such instances are there and are glaring. Muslims alone cannot be blamed for it. Hindus equally have taken advantage of such marriages.The purpose is primarily political. it is to grab power sources, starting with the local Panchayat. Once that is assured, the next move is to grab land or influence Anchal/ Block authorities not to notice illegal transfer of land or lure them to collaborate.
Land is transferred through diverse means. The 150 km long Rajmahal Hill Range is dotted with quarries and mines, operated by nontribals, many of them from outside Jharkhand state. The rape of the hills goes on unabated. Much land is taken for such operations. Secondly, the increasing population of both Muslims and Hindus looks for land and resources not just for survival. People circumvent the law.
The Santal Parganas Tenancy Act stipulates that no land transaction should take place even among the tribals. Neither by exchange nor by purchace.
On the other hand, a practise, which gets the tribal community’s approval for land, is becoming a customary one. This has nothig to do with Gram Sabha.
Who is to take the blame? The functioning of Gram Sabha under Panchayati Raj Act is limping or non-existent.
Think of the poverty issue. By any means the Santals are not poor. Every village community has vast areas of land and resources. What is lacking is the will of the tribals to utilize their land. It appears that they have not heard of the saying: ‘Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof!’
There are two main issues : tribals not being avaricious and not being equipped with a futuristic outlook.
These issues need to be tackled. I have arrived at this conclusion over the last fifty years of my interaction with them as a social activist. I stand by what I have observed.
These issues have added dimensions. The educated among them move out to town or city areas. This gentry has not taken time to analyse and higlight the root causes of their people facing socio- economic and socio- political problems.
The Pakur incident of the tribal college students getting involved in some land issue can be considered sporadic. Tribal students in Santal Parganas, on the whole, wake up when a politicians prepares the ground for it.
The tribals getting declared as red card holders and their becoming beneficiaries of subsidized food stuff from the benevolent government are to be seen as agenda-based politics. I see this in the perspective of the government’s agenda of exercising a survival technique. Keep them alive and floating. On the other hand, through backstage and even in front of their eyes, their land and resources are appropriated by the business community or agents of mega business for industry, quarrying and mining.
Adani’s power plant in Godda is a clear example. Vast areas of tribals and SC community are appropriated by India’s mega capitalist Adani for Adani Power plant. Coal from Australia is dumped there and electricity is to be supplied to Bangadesh. No question is asked as to who benefits from this mega project or to what extent the land holders are deprived of their life resources. The semiliterate villagers are unaware of the goings on. Nor do the intellectual gentry take any steps to understand the implications.
The exercise of addressing the issue of land alienation has to be multipronged. The rural folks, the intellectuals, the bureaucracy and the legislative domain have to own up responsibility.
The topsy-turvy programme is to turn people into victims and dole recipients primarily. After denying them legal rights and Constitutional provisions, they are kept on a drip, a dastardly anti-social and politically motivated move. How long it will take the victims to see through the game is a million dollar question.
Rajmahal Hill Range