The alternative

Poster at Nandigram protest meeting in Calcutta, 2007. Slogan:
From Singur to Nandigram, Resistance's new naam (name).

The people's struggles in West Bengal over the last decade and more have brought to centre-stage the issue of land. City-folk, intellectuals, professionals, people who empathise with the peasants - are quick to point out that the old must give way to the new, that the spread of urbanisation is inevitable and irreversible, that a village cannot hold out against the advancing city, that industry is necessary and so on. And that, therefore, in a region of significant population density and relative land scarcity, it has to be agricultural land that is given up. They emphasise the issue of proper compensation and rehabilitation.

We are living in a time of great scams. Historically too, there have been some great conspiracies. And always, the poor and powerless have borne the brunt of these, and been simply forgotten. The bulk of the people in entire regions of the country have been living out, and continue to do so, direly, the ramifications of the planned consignment of their places to backwardness and zones of exploitation and extraction. Entire peoples and communities, cultures and languages, live out the consequences of the planned expropriation of a place by "enlightened" people from outside, and the conversion of the indigenous people into serfs, in a mutually beneficial plot between them and the state (colonial, Indian).

Although the mega-scam / conspiracy of forced land acquisition in Rajarhat by the CPI(M) mafia preceded Singur and Nandigram, and was held up as a "model" of consensus-based land acquisition, Rajarhat is now set to explode in the face of the arch-villain, Gautam Deb. In the documentary film on Rajarhat, "Their City on Our Land", an elderly farmer says, "we are not poor, we are rich, we have land, they have nothing, only money, but they don't have land. They buy our land with money, and become rich and we become poor." And just as the historic election in West Bengal comes to a close, the election in which the land question was perhaps the key issue driving the desire for change, in the very centre of the country, another explosion of the land question is taking place.

The city folk who empathise with the peasants but think land acquisition is unavoidable, a necessary sacrifice for collective advance - they must realise that democracy is not just about what they think it is about. Democracy in India implies an unflinching adherence to some basic parameters, that are being set by people's struggles in this land of historical injustice and inequity. The struggles are democracy in action, and the parameters set by them are directions for public policy and governance. Knee-jerk resort to assertions that "there is no alternative", "dams are vital", "urbanisation is inevitable", "land must be acquired" and so on is only part of the unquestioned continuation of status quo, regarding what "development" means and entails. It only shows what "power" is, and where it lies, who has it, and who does not. So, really, it is very clear that the empathic, development-oriented city-folk are with someone and against someone else.

But time is running out. The people of this country are not going to go on and on accepting that status quo, which is entirely one-sided: some sit in comfort while some suffer the earth sinking beneath their feet. The peasant whose land is being seized today, is not the peasant of an earlier age, who gave way to capitalist industry. He and she are here today, together with us, and contemporaneous with global capitalism. And fighting against it, unlike anyone else. Fighting for survival.

What is the alternative? That is what the city-folk ask. As if, over and above all the comfort and privilege they have enjoyed, they are now also privileged to have this formulated by the (powerless) people and handed over to them, to examine with cynical arrogance. What about them? What is their role? What can they do? Have they tried to immerse themselves in this concern, taking full responsibility? Instead of the sneering, despising disdain reserved for the poor and powerless. You better think fast, and think soundly, for your balls are otherwise going to be excised by the peasant's tangi.

If there is to be a market economy, that must be guided by people's interests. The lives of people cannot be dictated by unbridled market forces.

The poor are ingenious and enterprising, they must be in order to survive. In central Kolkata, slum dwellers hang around the spaces where the cars of early morning shoppers in New Market are parked. As soon as the babu goes off, someone will swiftly duck behind the car and crouch and empty his bowels, and thus get ready for another day of labour to sustain the fragrant city. That same ingenuity and razor-edge, do-or-die intensity must be brought to the engagement with the subject of "alternative" - by those who today only ask the question.

Against the "irreversible", "immutable" sway of global economy, the poor and powerless in Bengal, the ever rebellious land, have screamed out: you shall not take our land! The unstoppable advance of the jack-boot of economic forces, that goliath, may finally have come up against a little David in the Bengal peasant.

Which side are you on? Will you finally start working with the people and for the people, to fabricate an alternative, to produce a genuine local crop?

Shan sines again in Bengal

It took 32 years for the ghost of Siddhartha Shankar Roy to be buried, and for the self-destructive negativism underlying much of life in Bengal to be set aside. Bengal has rejoined the national mainstream. It has been part of a national wave, and played a significant part in enabling the formation of a stable federal govt committed to good governance, economic growth and social inclusion. Bengal had played a significant role in India's anti-colonial and freedom movement. Now, through its electoral behaviour, it has once again found its place under the Indian sun. The people of Bengal have to give flesh and bones to that promise and potential.

It is unlikely that any future govt will last for 30 years - or for that matter, whether "Bengal" as we know it today, will have any meaning in 30 years time, given the pace at which changes and transformations are taking place in the world. Any new dispensation in Bengal has only a short time within which it can carry out the work of repairing, rebuilding and renewing Bengal. It is not a question of pragmatism, or expediency or opportunism. Of erstwhile CPM-supported auto, bus-transport and union mafias, and real estate dons now doing business as usual with new rulers. It is a question of overturning and transforming the way life is lived in Bengal, of how people breathe, and what they are.

Bengal needs vision, inspiration and example; people need counselling and instruction and encouragement; and chastening and chiding and punishment and reward. In short, Bengal needs leadership. Bengalis are habitually averse to all these things. But the same Bengalis can do as much and more when they are inspired, and believe and trust. Netaji is long gone, and is not about to return. Even Prabhakaran, the mass murderer, who claimed Netaji's inspiration, is now dead. The people of Bengal have to find leadership within themselves, individually and collectively. Yes, Bengal needs a new Swaraj party.

With that, no one or nothing can stop Bengal from realising its place of destiny in this planet. A beautiful land, a peaceful and prosperous place, of gifted and quirky people, a different place, which is also a beacon for others.

Painting: The Sun Makers Free Your Mind, by Eric Singleton.

Some articles

Here are some articles I've been reading recently, which may be useful in helping one gain a perspective as well as personal focus vis-a-vis living in Calcutta and India today.

"Imminent ruin and desperate remedy: Calcutta and its fragments", by Swapan Chakravorty.

"The Use and Abuse of Democracy in West Bengal", by Sanjeeb Mukherjee.

"Democracy and Economic Transformation in India", by Partha Chatterjee.

"Prescribed, Tolerated, and Forbidden Forms of Claim Making", by Ranabir Samaddar

"Communalism: An Ignored Malady" by MKA Siddiqui.

Bliss

Bliss is it in this dawn to be alive.

But to be in Bengal is very heaven.


Image: Bengal Landscape, Gaganendranath Tagore, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi.

Tata bye bye

Finally, Mr Ratan Tata has announced that the Nano car plant of Tata Motors will not come up in Singur. The reason he has cited for his decision is the agitation led by Ms Mamata Bannerjee, on behalf of the farmers whose land was forcibly acquired for Tata by the West Bengal state govt.

But all thinking people can only welcome this decision. Sure, when someone loses something, they are not going to give it up gladly. They are going to scream and shout and rant and rave and protest and sulk and pout... The shrill cacophony of demolished delight over West Bengal's imagined industrial resurgence is just that.

The truth is that the Tata pullout is good news, for a number of reasons.

First, a resounding slap has been administered on the face of the CPI(M). In May 2006, riding high on a wave of media hype and puff, the party had declared that Tata's Nano unit was going to be located in West Bengal. In less than two and a half years, they have been brought to their knees, and entirely by their own idiocy and arrogance.  The CPI(M) thought (and still thinks) that they own the state, that they can do as they please, that they can snarl and kick people into submitting to its dictates.  Well, they have learnt a lesson, but yes, given what CPI(M) is, it never learns the right kind of lessons.  But learn or don't learn, they have had to face facts. And that is indeed something positive.

Second, in recent weeks the discourse on the Nano project has brought to the fore the fact that the West Bengal govt is in effect subsidising Tata Motors, to enable the car to be priced at Rs 1 lakh (one hundred thousand rupees, or about $ 2,500). Now why should the state subsidise Tata Motors? Why should it subsidise a car project? Why should it subsidise purchasers of a car? Why should it subsidise personal transport? In economists' jargon, the opportunity cost of state expenditure on the Nano project, i.e. what is lost by such support, or the alternatives upon which this could instead have been spent, was simply too high.

Third, from about 2005, the CPI(M) had been hoodlumming through its land acquisition drive, to please its capitalist masters. The Nandigram agitation had punctured that. And now, the Tata withdrawal from Singur has just emphasised once more to the CPI(M), in brutal terms, that it cannot grab farmers' land. It was protest in Singur, from 2006, that had catalysed people's agitations across West Bengal, and begun the process of demise of the mafia mobster party, something most people could never have anticipated. 

All that remains now, the icing on the cake for the people of Bengal, is the verdict of the court on Suhrid Dutta, the CPI(M)'s Singur zonal committee secretary. He is in custody and facing trial on the accusation of organising the rape and murder of Tapasi Malik, a teenage girl who was a member of the farmers' anti-land acquisition movement in Singur. I wonder what ideological obfuscations the CPI(M) would proffer when he is sentenced to death.

If the people of West Bengal want something positive for themselves, then they should not depend upon the CPI(M) or on external vultures like Tata Motors to give it to them on a platter. That will only bring deceit and destruction. There is much that can and should be done. There is public transport. There is public healthcare. There is public education. There are closed industries that need reviving. There are many, many products that can be produced, which would be wholesome in every way. But for that, vision, enterprise and effort are needed. Thanks to the CPI(M)'s noxious nurturing these are hard to find in Bengal today. But unless the people of Bengal come forward to build Bengal's future, the only prospect is submission to CPI(M) and Tatas, the road to slavery.

The slaves and the slave contractors are wailing at the exit of Tata. But if there was ever a bright day for Bengal, then it was 3 October, the date of the Tata pull-out. For this date tells the people of Bengal that freedom won through hardship is more precious than the comfits of slavery.  

Apparently the state industries minister, Nirupam Sen, has said that he does not feel like living in Bengal. Well, I hope he goes away very soon. It seems he has begun to get a taste of what the common people of the land have been feeling for over 2 decades. Thanks to the presence of his wonderful party, there has been a mass migration of people from the state, by choice and by compulsion. Any person in his or her senses, who knew what was best for one's future, left the state. Only vultures flocked to the land, and the party was their lapdog. But with the Tata pull-out, people should start reconsidering. Maybe its time for all those who had forsaken Bengal, all those who had been driven out, to think of returning. There's a future to be built. The rats will be leaving their sinking ship. And for those who held on to hope and humanity and stayed behind, perhaps vindication is finally arriving.

Believe it or Not!

I was astonished to read in today's newspaper that the infamous Tata group has been hailed as the world's third most transparent and accountable corporation by Britain's One World Trust in their Global Accountability Report!

The assessment is supposed to be "a measure of the extent to which organisations have the policies and systems in place to enhance consistent and coherent accountability to the people they affect."


Victims of police firing, Kalinganagar.

In January 2006, 13 people (including a woman and a boy) were killed in police firing in Kalinganagar, Orissa, when indigenous communities protested against the setting up of a Tata steel plant and demanded rehabilitation of the evictees.


Tapasi Malik's charred body.

And later in 2006, the Tatas were in a hush-hush deal with the CPI(M) in West Bengal to obtain land to set up a car plant in the fertile agricultural zone of Singur. Almost exactly a year ago, Tapasi Malik, a young girl participating in the anti-acquisition movement, was brutally raped, murdered and burnt by the local powers that be, with a view to terrorising the agitationists into submission. (Read Dr Mrinal Bose's story on Singur here, and Sandip Bandopadhyay's article on Singur and Nandigram here.)

Here's my letter to the One World Trust (info@oneworldtrust.org).

Dear Madam or Sir

I am writing from Calcutta, India, after reading about the Tata group in India being named the world's third most accountable and transparent company in the One World Trust's Global Accountability Report.

I am dismayed to read this. In the last year and a half, people in Calcutta, in the state of West Bengal in India, and also elsewhere in India, have been extremely concerned about the secret deal made between the Tatas and the West Bengal state govt, for land in Singur to set up a car manufacturing plant in an extremely fertile agricultural belt. Both the company and the govt have shrouded the whole matter in secrecy. But given the fact that a large number of farmers and farm workers would be displaced, the matter is one of acute public concern. In December 2006, Tapasi Malik, a young girl participating in the anti-acquisition movement, was brutally raped, murdered and burnt by the local powers that be, with a view to terrorising the agitationists into submission.

Though the Tata group had tended to be regarded with a modicum of respect in India for its socially concerned policies, it is evident now that with the intensification of globalisation the company has decided to discard such principles and hunt with the hounds.

The state govt with which the Tatas made this deal - is one which is notorious in India today for its failure of governance, with the state ranking among the lowest in India in human development indicators. It is the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) that is running the state, rather than the govt. It is a parallel state within the state, unconstrained by laws and constitutional strictures. Every aspect of life in the state is controlled by the party. As witnessed through 2007 in Nandigram, another site of proposed land acquisition, the party rules by its murderous might. Yet the Tata group, for its commercial interests, has chosen to make a secret deal with this party, giving short shrift to the interests of people. The party then uses its proximity to the Tatas to boast about its success in attracting investments to the state.

The car plant being built in Singur is to manufacture the very low-cost car being developed by the Tatas. However, much more than cheap cars, what India needs now is a drastic overhauling of transport policy to address paralysing congestion, frightening pollution and escalating accidents. The Tatas have chosen to entirely disregard such concerns.

But in January 2006, well before the Singur land acquisition, 13 people (including 3 women and a boy) were killed in police firing in Kalinganagar in the neighbouring state of Orissa, when indigenous communities protested against the setting up of a Tata steel plant and demanded rehabilitation of the evictees. In its alacrity to make secret deals with pliant govts, all concern for the well-being of the country's people, and especially the poor and vulnerable sections, has been thrown to the wind. Amnesty International had conducted an investigation into this incident and concluded that the land acquisition was shrouded in secrecy, without the slightest transparency or public accountability.

Incidentally, the Global Accountability Report comes close on the heels of the news of the Tata vehicles being rated the worst in South Africa.

In the light of the above, one is compelled to dismiss the Global Accountability Report as something not worth paying any attention to, or even, more cynically, see it as a means to help the Tatas shore up their rapidly eroding credibility with a little bit of cosmetic make-up. However, the govts who make secret deals with the Tatas would undoubtedly be very pleased to read about the "distinction" granted to their friends, the Tatas.

Yours sincerely

V Ramaswamy
Calcutta / INDIA

Voices from the soil

Yesterday evening, after a long time I had a reunion with my old friend and comrade, Dr Pasupati Prasad Mahato. Pasupati-da is a distinguished anthropologist and social and cultural activist.

We met again today afternoon. He gave me a copy of his recently published book of poems (in Bengali) Manbhum Ma Hamar (Manbhum, My Mother: A Collection of Adivasi Bengali Poetry). The book has been published by Shobar Ganyer Khobor (Calcutta, 2007).

Pasupati-da selected and read out to me two of his poems from this volume, written in his native Purulia dialect. I present them below, together with my translation.





shombuk aajo

ramchandra uakey sidhailo tumi ke hey?
uttar ailo, hami shombhuk, jatitey shudro.
ramchandra sidhailo, tumi ki koirchho?
uttar ailo, hami baed path korchhi.

proja botshol ram, gota desher raja
ragey gur-gurayn, tolwar tainey
ghochang korey dilo shombhuker gola kaitey
shurdrer baed path cholbek nain.

manusanghitar ain, ramchandra rokhok,
ain omainnyo korlaey rashtrodrohi
shasti to patei hobek.
mrityudondo mrityudondo mrityudondo.
shombhuker gola kathchhey ainer rokhokra,
rashter biruddhey judhyo ghoshona,
eeta shoibhek nain,
hamra gonotontrer raja, shoibo nain.
shombuk-ke khujte ramayan ghantley pabi
ekhon jey ramayan choilchhey
otha domey samajsebider dolkhani,
shombhukra ekhon jailey, Bina bicharey.
bichhinotabadi, prithokotabadi,
rashtrodrohi shombhuk,
e’der gharey kota matha!!
shombhukra moirlo 14 march 2007 ey
nandigramey, nandigram tomakey selam.

Shambuk today too

Lord Rama asked him: Who are you?
He replied: I am Shambuk, Shudra by caste.
Lord Rama asked: What are you doing?
He replied: I am reciting the Vedas.

Rama, the ruler of the masses, is the king of the nation
Trembling with rage, drawing his sword,
Decapitated Shambuk with a single stroke.
A Shudra must never recite the Vedas.

The Law of Manusamhita, Lord Rama is its protector
Violation of the law is anti-national.
He must be punished!
Capital Punishment! Capital Punishment! Capital Punishment!
The protectors of the law are decapitating Shambuks
Declaration of war against the state?
This cannot be tolerated,
We are the kings of democracy, we won’t tolerate it.
To find Shambuk search through the Ramayana,
But the Ramayana of today -
Is brimming with the arrogance of social liberators,
Shambuks are in gaol, without trial.
Separatist, secessionist
Treacherous Shambuks,
Who, pray, are these fellows?
Shambuks were killed on 14 March 2007
In Nandigram, Nandigram we salute you!

(Translator's note: Shambuk is a Shudra character in the Ramayana. In the epic, after Rama has assumed the throne of Ayodhya following his return from exile, a Brahmin accuses him of causing the death of his son by his toleration of the Shudra, Shambuk, who has violated the caste hierarchy by engaging in extreme penances. In order to redress the situation, Rama searches for, finds and kills Shambuk. And the Brahmin boy comes back to life.)





Toutor

gota puruliay toutor toutor
domey liyai ke bodo toutor, babur?

court kachariye toutor,
jomi registri-ye toutor
thanay toutor, party office-ey toutor,
panchayat-ey toutor.
uara anchla paitey ghurchhey,
somajsebi-ke bishisto samajsebi boley
shwor ta chaikhey dhekrichhey
bolchhey hami puruliar toutor

chho nachey programme patey,
bidesh jaitey toutor dhor
suratey lebar legbi taw
mota taka niye toutor dhor.

hashpataley bhorti kortey
toutor dhor -
oxygen cylinder patey
toutor dhor
na holey anjona mahato’r
lekhen morbi.
chaila bhorti korbi schooley, toutor dhor,
B.Ed-ey bhorti hobi toutor dhor -
gota puruliyai toutorer desh.
toutor dhorei to legechhilo
koilkata patal railey
ghurli jokhon, tokhon TB,
ley ibar toutor dhor.

Touts

The whole of Purulia is full of touts!
A great competition over who’s the greatest tout of the babus!

Touts in the courts
Touts in the land registration offices
Touts in the police stations, touts in the party offices
Touts in the village government.
They go around with their collection cloth held out
The social liberators are termed as “distinguished social liberators”
Burping after swallowing the cream,
They declare, “We are the touts of Purulia!”

Want to get a chance to go abroad for the Chho dance programme?
Catch the touts.
Want to be a labour supplier to Surat?
Catch touts, with a big pile of money.

Want to get hospital admission?
Catch touts.
Need an oxygen cylinder?
Catch touts.
Or else, you will die, like Anjana Mahato.
Want to admit your child to school? Catch the touts.
Want to be admitted to the Bachelor of Education course? Catch the touts.
The whole of Purulia is tout country .
‘Twas through touts that I got to work
In Calcutta’s metro rail.
When I returned, I had tuberculosis.
There, now to go and catch the touts!

[Translator's note: In colloquial parlance, "tout" refers to fixers or middlemen, an entity with which Bengal society, and especially the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), is brimming. Anjana Mahato is the poet's mother.]

Nandigram lament

The current issue of the Economic and Political Weekly carries an article titled "Reflections in the Aftermath of Nandigram" by "A CPI(M) Supporter".

Wooly-headed so-called "ideology" and hollow jargon appear to be of more importance to the writer - than reality.

His (I presume it must be a man) heart bleeds for the victims of Nandigram. But his pious plea for the West Bengal state govt led by the CPI(M) to show an alternative way to the neoliberal paradigm of foreign investment based economic growth - is plaintively disingenuous.

It would be no exaggeration to say that today the CPI(M) has no concern whatsoever for the common citizen of West Bengal. The only concern is the short-term interest of the party. The key indicators which reveal the real face of the CPI(M) are in primary education and healthcare. West Bengal ranks among the lowest in the country on these counts. The socio-economic and human development status of the Muslims in West Bengal is also pathetic. And all that can be said by the rulers, after 30 years in power, is that the Muslims have only themsleves to blame for being backward.

The party has eroded the fabric of law and order in the state; it has destroyed the edifice of democratic governance, with the party rather than the institutions of govt running everything. It has supervised an insidious privatisation of the public space, and criminalisation of life and politics.

The lack of any effective and credible opposition in the state has enabled the CPI(M) to attain this character. The party and the govt are completely bankrupt in terms of having any vision, strategy or capability to bring about positive improvement in the quality of life of the labouring masses. Rather, it has ensured that acceptance of living in utter degradation has seeped into the very psyche of the masses. It has crushed the very dignity of the common people, reducing them to servile begggars and ugly criminals.

In that respect, the resistance in Singur and Nandigram are definitely most cheering; they tell us that people cannot be taken for granted endlessly. But with no prospect of emergence of any progressive, anti-communal front to challenge the ruling party - the only thing on the horizon is destructive, violent opposition by various disgruntled elements, leading to growing instability and anarchy.

The true picture of the state of affairs in West Bengal has been given by Sumanta Banerjee in this article (also in the EPW). He writes:

West Bengal is in need of an opposition to challenge the hegemony of a partisan and oppressive CPI(M) governance. ... The alternative ... has to emerge from within a new democratic Left, with constituents that are seriously committed to the ideology of socialism and courageous enough to restore the moral integrity and high principles of the movement.

Related articles:

Sumanta Banerjee on Singur, and on the changing face of crime in Calcutta.

"Strategy for Economic Reform in West Bengal". This was published in 2002, but is still informative, especially the narrative on pg 23 of the document, just before the "Conclusion", about corruption and privatisation of public space.

Nandigram video

Moushumi sings for Nandigram

4 May 2007 saw a Cultural Convention on Nandigram in Calcutta, organised by the United Students Democratic Front. Kabir Suman, Moushumi Bhowmick and Dohar, among others, sang in support of the victims of state and party terror in Nandigram.

Here's a clip of two of Moushumi's songs, Jessore Road and Swapno dekhbo boley.

Dohar for Nandigram

In the wake of Nandigram

A call by concerned citizens

The valiant struggle of the peasantry in Nandigram against the acquisition of their land and homesteads for the proposed chemical hub SEZ has drawn nationwide attention. Despite the massacre of March 14 and the continuing reign of terror unleashed by the police and the hired killers of the ruling party in the state, Nandigram has remained defiant and refused to surrender. On the contrary, it has sparked unprecedented mass protests across West Bengal and elsewhere. People’s movements in various parts of the country against the forcible acquisition of farmlands, forests and other natural resource base of the poor in the name of SEZ and for the so-called industrial projects have also drawn inspiration and sustenance from Nandigram.

The time is now ripe to bring all the people’s resistance movements across the country under one coordinating network. Towards this end, we are proposing an All India People’s Convention, followed by a huge Rally, in Kolkata on 2-3 June, 2007 (before the onset of monsoon). We call upon all our friends in the people’s movements and people’s organisations, irrespective of political or ideological moorings, to come forward and actively participate in this programme. May the Convention/Rally become the launching pad for a united nationwide resistance struggle against government’s land acquisition policy for SEZs and other industrial projects.

The convention/rally, and the countrywide movement to be launched from there, will be raising the following demands:

1. Scrap the SEZ Act, 2005 that aims to set up ‘extra-territorial’ authorities within the country and acquire huge tracts of farm and forestlands for the corporate capitalists while endangering the lives and livelihoods of millions.

2. Abolish or reformulate (in consultation with the people) the colonial and draconian Land Acquisition Act of 1894 that serves as the chief instrument of land acquisition by the government.

3. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, who has owned up to the responsibility for the mass murders in Nandigram, must resign. Everyone who has had a hand in the Nandigram massacre, directly or indirectly, must be punished.

4. People’s institutions at the grassroots must be allowed the autonomy to act so that a life of peace and dignity returns to Nandigram and wherever conflict has erupted over land acquisition.

Send your endorsement ("I ENDORSE") with your name, phone, e-mail contacts and how you would like to describe yourself, e.g. professor, filmmaker, activist, etc. or your organisational/ institutional identity) to the following e-mail addresses:

chowdhuryaditi@yahoo.com, sumit_chowdhury@yahoo.com

Read more about the People's Convention here.

Development & Discontent

Media Solidarity presents "Development & Discontent", a programme of film-screenings and discussion.

Date: 3-4 May 2007

Place: Max Mueller Bhavan, Calcutta

3rd May:

3.00 - 3.30 pm Inauguration and Keynote Address.

3.30 -5.00 pm Life and Debt (Jamaica / 85min)

a documentary look at the effects of globalization on Jamaican industry and agriculture, by Stephanie Black.

5.30 - 6.00 pm Who’s Land Is It Anyway? ( India / 28min.)

a documentary on peasant movement against land acquisition in Singur, by Ladly Mukhopadhyay.

6.15- 7.30 pm Interactive Discussion: Economy of Development

Moderator: Subhendu Dasgupta. Participants: Anjan Chakraborty, Jaya Mitra, Raghab Bandyopadhyay and others.

7.30-8.35 pm Aftershock: The Rough Guide to Democracy (India / 64min.)

a documentary about the transformation of the welfare state into an instrument of corporate governance after Gujarat earthquake, by Rakesh Sharma.

4th May:

3.00-3.35 pm SEZ: A Prelude to Anarchy (India / 35 min.)

a critical, in-depth documentary on Special Economy Zone projects, by Atul Pethe.

3.50- 4.35 pm Development at Gunpoint (India / 45min.)

a film on peasants’ resistance movement at Nandigram and the massacre following it, by Pramod Gupta.

5.00-5.30 pm Filming Eviction

Filmmakers Pramod Gupta and Ranu Ghosh share their experience.

5.30- 7.00 pm Interactive Discussion: Reporting from the Edge - Singur and Nandigram.

Moderator: Raju Raman. Participants: Journalists who reported from Singur and Nandigram.

7.00-8.50 pm. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (Canada / 120 min.)

The 78-day stand-off in 1990 between Mohawk Indians and the Canadian government provides the basis of this insightful documentary that focuses on the Mohawks’ courageous defiance and determination to protect their land in the face of mortal danger. By Alanis Obomsawin.

Or

The Fourth World War (USA / 76 min.)

this documentary offers an eyeball-to-eyeball look at the people’s battle against the growing global empire. By Richard Rowley.

On industrialisation

If multi-party parliamentary democracy means giving people a wide range of political choices, we have it in plenty in India, parties big or small with a variety of labels. However, if we have to choose also the content in critical areas of economic policy there is hardly any choice anymore. A marked convergence among political parties is taking place, less apparent in their rhetoric, but unmistakably clear in their actions.

One could have believed that this is the result of compromise of coalition politics at the centre. But when the same thing happens at the level of states, and political parties of different labels follow with equal vengeance the same economic course, no room is left even for illusions. Grand terms like 'growth, 'industrialisation', and 'development are used by politicians with abandon these days to hide the poverty of their economics and politics. And, the central question remains unanswered.

If a high rate of growth necessarily entails a certain type of industrialisation, is this industrialisation synonymous with development?

Thus begins an article, "Industrialisation: Which Way Now?", by Amit Bhaduri, Professor of Economics, University of Pavia, Italy, and Medha Patkar, social activist and leader of Narmada Bachao Andolan and National Alliance of People's Movements.

Read the full article here.

In Solidarity

SANHATI (meaning "solidarity") has been created to resist neoliberal forces in West Bengal and to spread the spirit of dissent that has been sparked by Singur. The forced acquisition of agricultural land and the consequent dispossession of thousands of farmers made many of us rally in Calcutta, elsewhere in India and abroad. Democratic forces, leftist forces, people who stand for human rights and civil liberties all came together to form the Chhatra Chhatri Sanhati Mancha (Students' Solidarity Forum) in Calcutta. Sanhati is inspired by this solidarity of resistance.

Singur marks a watershed event in the moribund political landscape of West Bengal. A loud and resounding NO has been heard all over Bengal – a strong negation of a linear anti-people development model. With their livelihoods threatened, thousands of peasants have united in resistance. The State has responded with terror.

We are voices of dissent. We oppose the murderous politics of the state government of West Bengal as well as the cheap populism of otherwise pro-liberalism parties. We stand in solidarity, in Sanhati, with all forces that oppose police terror in Bengal and the inhuman urban-industrial vision. We staunchly defend the rights of tillers over their lives and their lands.

We have a vision that Sanhati will develop both as a clearing house for ideas and as a platform for people looking for a new way - from old third-streamers to new activists. We may be the last generation to be able to realistically organize. We may be the first generation to drive back the “development” beast.

The above introduction is from the website of SANHATI. The website is a valuable resource as it makes available important documents, such as the reports of APDR and a medical team on the Nandigram massacre. Upcoming events have also been announced, such as the Cultural Convention, featuring Kabir Suman, Dohar, Moushumi Bhowmick, Joy Goswami and others. Several important recent articles on the forced land acquisition in West Bengal and the resistance movement against it are also accessible here.

Kanu Sanyal on Nandigram

The Statesman recently carried an interview with Kanu Sanyal, the founder of the Naxalbari movement, by Bappaditya Paul. I reproduce extracts from that below.

Q: What is your view on the latest industry-agriculture conflict in West Bengal? How do you take the ongoing anti-farmland acquisition movement at Singur and Nandigram? Do you find any similarity with the Naxalbari Movement?

There is hardly anyone who doesn’t want industrialisation in Bengal. But the question is for whose benefit it is. The industrialisation policy has been adopted and implemented by the Left Front government solely to benefit the imperialists and so, we oppose it. We say, set up need-based industries, keeping in mind the resources of a particular area and drive it for the general wellbeing of the common man. But the government is ruthlessly adamant on setting up industries by trampling farmlands.

The chief minister is harping on industrialisation and believes that everyone, barring himself, is wrong. But my question is, if Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wants to rejuvenate the industrial scenario, why doesn’t he first reopen the nearly 56,000 closed industrial units in the state? Why is there no effort to save the tea gardens in the Dooars and the labourers from starvation?

Singur and Nandigram have unmasked the cruel facets of the CPI-M, which fancies itself to be a party of the underprivileged. The movement that has generated out of Singur and Nandigram, if explored properly, can bring about a sea change in West Bengal. So far as the form is concerned, I find a great deal of similarity between Nandigram and the Naxalbari Movement. The ongoing fight in Nandigram, in particular, has the potential to excel the Naxalbari Movement. The only thing needed is a strong, selfless, political leadership to sustain it.

Q: Why single out Nandigram, when the same fight is on at Singur?

Mamata Banerjee has ruined the movement in Singur. By embarking on a hunger-strike, she spoilt the ignition of the Singur farmers.

I am sure the farmers of Singur will never get back their lands and Miss Banerjee is solely responsible for this. Just take a look at the happenings in Singur, as long as the farmers were battling it out themselves, the state government could not erect a fence on the acquired land. But soon after Miss Banerjee hijacked the movement and started her fast, the focus shifted to Esplanade and fencing work went on in Singur unabated. Whereas in Nandigram, farmers and locals relied on their own strength and even on the face of a persistent joint offensive by the police and CPI-M goons, they have so far managed to resist the imperialist invasion.

Q: But Miss Banerjee is the one considered capable of throwing out the Left Front? In fact, the Jamaat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind leader, Mr Siddiqulla Choudhury, is talking of a grand alliance with the Trinamul and others, to fight the CPI-M?

Capturing power is one thing and fighting the imperialists is another. For the moment, even if a grand alliance were to pull down the Left Front government, would it make any difference to the poor, the framers? Rather, the alliance would continue in the wake of what the CPI-M-led government is doing now, albeit with a different set of propaganda. I say this because like the CPI-M, the Trinamul, the Jamaat and the rest lack the political will to work for the common people. If I am wrong, then let them first make a public declaration what radical changes they would initiate for the benefit of the farmers, if elected to power.

Q: In this context, how do you rate the role of the Left Front allies?

I don’t find their role satisfactory either. If parties like the CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc are really opposed to the CPI-M’s ruthless industrialisation agenda, why don’t they step out of the Front? I advised some of their leaders to come out of the government, at least that would have created pressure on the CPI-M. But despite continuous humiliation at the hands of the CPI-M, they seem only too eager to continue sharing power.

Q: If we were to leave out the Trinamul, the Jamaat and the Left allies, who then would lead the movement forward?

United Naxalites alone can guide the movement on the right path. I urge all Naxalite factions to form a common platform and take the anti-farmland acquisition movement to every corner of the state. Forget about the elections, just make a collective effort to intensify and sustain the struggle generated out of Singur and Nandigram.

Read the entire interview here.

Nandigram: Left Front must go!

Jaga re jaga re jaga sara sansar!

Awakened, awakened, awakened!
The whole world’s awakened!

Pictures from yesterday’s Nandigram protest rally and demonstration at Esplanade, Calcutta, are accessible here.

The meeting demanded the resignation of the Left Front govt of West Bengal, led by the murderous CPI(M). Speakers expressed their rage and revulsion against the govt. Singer-activist-mediaman Kabir Suman exhorted the police to revolt against the govt. Naba Datta, of Nagarik Manch, called for exemplary punishment for those responsible, like Binoy Konar, the so-called peasant front leader, who must be held accountable for his explicit incitement to murder, which was no different from the incitement to kill Muslims by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2002.

The question of alternatives etc – is not pertinent at this point. The govt must go, and all else will follow.

Whatever “moral” authority Mrs Sonia Gandhi had – has been squandered by her studied silence on the Nandigram massacre. She should have visited the affected areas immediately after.

Meanwhile, a group of spit-licking “leftist intellectuals” has set a new record for shamelessness and obsequiousness by issuing a statement to condone the Left Front govt’s actions – after 10 days of silence following the massacre. This includes Amiya Bagchi, MK Raina, Malini Bhattacharya, Utsa Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, Mohan Rao, Nasir Tyabji, Teesta Setalvad. It is shocking that Teesta Setalvad should have added her name to this shameful apologia. Did she ask for Narendra Modi to be excused after the Gujarat riots and pogrom?

I am astounded that not a single minister in the West Bengal cabinet thought it fit to resign because of the massacre. But I guess I should be astounded at my wishful thinking.

Left Front chairman has alleged a deep-rooted conspiracy to destabilise the govt. He should forget his schoolboy cloak-and-dagger fantasies and know that it is simply a clearly-expressed hatred of the ugly criminals who make up his CPI(M), that is widespread and is now finding voice thanks to the Nandigram resistance.

A group of women activists from Calcutta visited Nandigram yesterday for a first-hand appraisal. Their report will be available soon.

A mass movement has been kindled by Nandigram. But the ramifications of the stark vacuum of civil society stares at us. Perhaps for the first time in decades, civil society is emerging. The soil of Singur and Nandigram should be consecrated by anyone who cherishes human dignity. It may be difficult to build martyrs’ memorials in neighbourhoods throughout the state and country. But people can make them within their own homes. They can build the memorial in their hearts, and pay tribute to the victims of Nandigram through their action. In the new topography being mapped by the resistance to the all-powerful nexus of global capital and the pliant, corrupt local state, Singur and Nandigram are sacred sites. Children born now should be named “Singur” and “Nandigram”, expressing their parents' fervent wish that they shall grow up to usher in and live in a world of dignity and justice.

Nandigram: crime against humanity

At Sandip's book release ceremony yesterday, one of the speakers was Sujato Bhadra, of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR).

The APDR is an organisation whose work I respect enormously. For 3 decades, the APDR has almost single-handedly held aloft the candle of human rights in West Bengal.

Sujato read out from the Govt of India’s SEZ Act and the state rules. In explicit terms, it is stated that this territory will be like a foreign territory.

Very, very fitting indeed, especially in this year of the 60th anniversary of India’s independence, the independence for which Bhagat Singh, whose centenary falls this year, and so many others, gave their lives. Ironic indeed, and deeply shameful, that the same govt should issue advertisements paying tribute to Bhagat Singh. And the CPI(M) has paid its tribute to the memory of Bhagat Singh, whom it had claimed in its pantheon, by the massacre at Nandigram, for the setting up of a SEZ by a businessman associated with other crimes against humanity in Indonesia.

Sujato spoke briefly about their findings from Nandigram. He said what happened there can only be called a crime against humanity.

In international law there are 3 kinds of mass killings. War crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. India is not a signatory to the law on crimes against humanity, just as the USA and China are not. And Sujato informed the gathering that in 2003, during the BJP govt’s tenure, a secret pact was signed with the USA, under which perpetrators of crimes against humanity would not be prosecuted in each other’s countries.

The Left Front govt of West Bengal has the distinguished record of having perpetrated another crime against humanity in the past – in Marichjhapi, on 31 January 1979, when 36 people (the official no.) were killed in police firing.

Sujato’s conservative estimate is that at least 45 persons were killed in Nandigram, and 100-120 persons are missing. But even this estimate is only on the basis of visiting 3 villages, of the 14 affected. Local people speak of scores of dead bodies having been taken away, thrown into the river, or carried off for secretly burying. A large no. of children are missing.

The police operation of 14 March was not to restore law and order. It was aimed at annihilating the resistance. There were multiple bullet wounds on the bodies of several of the dead.

While the CPI(M) may have announced that land will not be acquired for a special economic zone in Nandigram, the people there are living in terror. For they know the CPI(M) will not spare them, and will ensure their elimination after things appear to have calmed down. They committed the cardinal sin of abandoning the party. And they created an example of militant resistance, which is now going to create more Nandigrams everywhere.

The only parallel in India that Sujato could think of – was the killing and mass burial of some 1,500 youths in Punjab in the early 90s, in the name of anti-terrorist operations.

APDR’s report on Nandigram will be completed shortly and made available to the public. I remember the historic report on the organised massacre of Sikhs in Delhi in 1984, in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Who are the guilty? The Nandigram reported will be as significant.

Nandigram: rebirth of hope

Rudrangshu Mukherjee had written in January, following the Nandigram disturbances, about the death of hope for West Bengal.

Yesterday, I read the Trotskyite turned fascist groupie/apologist Swapan Dasgupta’s article about the return of hopelessness.

And today, senior journalist Sunanda K Datta-Ray has written about the death of hope.

A remarkable convergence of opinion, very revealing about the make-up and worldview of India’s educated, English-proficient class. Alienated, thus fundamentally ignorant, and full of despise for the humble, toiling folk. Totally enslaved in their hearts and minds by colonial hangover.

Hope isn't dead. Its these people who are dead fish!

They all suffer from “market-fetishism”. They denounce opposition to capitalist globalisation as anti-market. But markets do determine economic activities everywhere in West Bengal. As Prof Abhirup Sarkar pointed out in a seminar in Calcutta last year, it is the collusion between the ruling party / state and the large cold storage owners that ensures that the interests of potato farmers, and especially small farmers, are systematically thwarted.

They also suffer from “modernity-fetishism”, which is simply another form of wearing fine suits and boots and sneering at the rustic peasant in his loincloth for his lack of finesse!

They talk about "setting back the industrialisation clock". What nonsense! They should sit in a time machine and try to return to the Victorian era where they rightly belong.

Nandigram has advanced the clock of an economics that is just and democratic.

Thankfully its possible to see through and dismiss these pathetic purveyors of pious platitudes. Being a student of economics, I know that economics rests on a foundation of values. The set of values that comes by default – acceptance of the distribution of resources and endowments in society - is only one set of norms. There could be others. The values thrown up by the farmers of Singur and Nandigram – present a mandate for economists and public policy specialists to try to act upon.

The poor do not wish to stay poor. They know what poverty is, like the self-proclaimed pundits will never know. They want economic growth, which will bring greater opportunities for improved quality of life. However, to assume that economic growth of any hue – through real estate development, through dubious international capitalists (recall Enron) – will automatically translate into removal of poverty is plaintively disingenuous. I can see that it may not be possible for an agency committed to eliminating poverty to get all the capital investment it wants in the desired spheres. So there can be a strategic outlook, where whatever is achieved is sought to be linked to people’s welfare.

But in a state where perhaps the worst oppression on the people is in the state of the primary education system and the public healthcare system – which in turn are in this state because of the extortionary activities of the CPI(M) – care and concern for the people is nowhere on the party's horizon, they care only for power and loot.

The people of Singur and Nandigram have spoken. It is the duty of the educated, privileged section to understand and interpret this, and come up with fitting solutions.

The squeaks of all these “analysts” are not unlike the self-righteous denigration of black capabilities by beneficiaries of the apartheid regime. There is no hope for them in a just order.

As scholar Ross Mallick has written, violation of human rights in South Asia can be largely attributed to the dominance of westernized elites who control the state apparatus. He argues that there is a tacit collusion between national elites (including scholars), NGOs and international agencies in neglecting human rights issues on the subcontinent. He concludes that the very survival of democracy in South Asia will depend on how the dominant elite groups accommodate the needs and aspirations of the deprived and marginalized groups.

Nandigram – is the rebirth of hope.

Citizens for Nandigram

There will be two citizen rallies in Calcutta tomorrow, i.e. Saturday 24 March 2007, in protest against the Nandigram massacre by the shameless and murderous CPI(M).

One is a "Walk for Democracy", from Deshbandhu Park (near Shyambazar 5-point crossing) to Esplanade, beginning at 2 pm.

The other is a rally from Nandan to Esplanade, at 2 30 pm.

Be there and make your conscience count. And remember, in order for us to be able to play our role as citizens in a democracy, the rally organisers who have taken the initiative also have to bear the organising costs. So make sure you express your appreciation and reciprocate by making a contribution.

Read What really happened in Nandigram?