Exile and Resistance

In the sprawling forests of Sonbhadra, an epic land struggle by unarmed tribals and dalits is facing the armed might of police repression, corrupt forest department and local landlords

Akash Bisht Robertsgunj, Eastern UP

Robertsgunj, a small, sleepy town in UP's Sonbhadra district, has become the epicentre of a major land rights struggle, especially after the arrest of several social activists and police repression. Roma, a woman leader of the Kaimur Kshetra Mahila Majdoor Kisan Sangharsh Samiti (KKMMKSS) and an active steering committee member of the National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers (NFFPFW), has been charged under the National Security Act (NSA) by the UP police. Her crime: she resurrected human and constitutional rights awareness amongst the landless poor in Sonbhadra with the slogan of 'Jo zameen sarkari hai, woh zameen humari hai', originally coined by Mayawati in 1996.

Besides, peaceful tribals are branded as Naxalites. Village homes face midnight raids and people are beaten up. Even women are brutally attacked.

Roma, along with three other social activists, who work with landless tribals and dalits in the abjectly backward and poor Kaimur region of eastern UP, was picked up from Robertsgunj in Sonbhadra district in early August on dubious charges framed by the police and forest department. “While Shanta Bhattacharya, Lalta Devi and Shyamlal Paswan have been charged with IPC 143, 144, 447, 34 and IFA 1927- 5/26 and 63, Roma has also been charged under 120(B) of the IPC,” informs Ramesh Shukla, a lawyer

representing Roma.

Sonbhadra is the largest and one of the poorest districts in eastern UP. Of its 6,788 sq km area, 3,782.86 sq km has forest cover. The locals call Sonbhadra the energy capital of India because of the vast natural and mineral resources the area possesses. However, for several decades now, the Sonbhadra region and several other districts of eastern UP have been the focus of a protracted land struggle. The struggle is between the forest department and forest dwellers, mostly landless tribals and dalits, for the return of land that the local community claims is their traditional gram sabha land, illegally and forcibly taken over by the forest department in collusion with the police and local landlords. The forest department claims the land as its own and has reportedly refused to negotiate the issue or recognise the rights of these landless and economically impoverished indigenous communities.

The struggle dates back to 1950 when the Zamindari Abolition Act was passed and surplus land of landlords distributed among the poor. Later, as a step towards social and economic justice by way of providing land to the landless and agricultural labour, the Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holding Act, 1960 (subsequently amended in 1972), was enforced in the district in1961. It replaced the UP Large Holding Tax Act, 1957. Under this Act, the maximum area of a holding was fixed at 16.19 hectares of fair quality land. If, however, the number of members of the landholder's family was more than five, he was allowed to retain for each additional member an area of 3.25 hectares, subject to a maximum of 9.72 hectares of such additional area.

“Everyone knows that upper-caste landlords registered large families and took land under names of their servant and cattle, and this is most disturbing to us. Lokpati Tripathi is one of the landlords who registered land under such dubious names but nothing has been done. While our land is forcibly taken away in the name of forests, no one is bothered to check the records of these landlords who are holding huge portions of land that should have been ours,” rues Munnabhai, a tribal leader.

After the ceiling on Land Holding Act was implemented, the landlords didn't want to part ways with their land and lodged various cases in the court on the settlement issue. “Each landlord filed various cases on the distribution of land. This led to overcrowding of courts and delays in the distribution process. More than one lakh acres of land could not be distributed because of the delay in the judicial process benefiting the landlords who continued to till these lands,” informs Shukla.

Before Independence, large portions of forest land were under private owners. With the passage of an amendment to the Forest Act, 1927 in 1933, the forest department started taking control of the forests and the tribals and dalits working in these forests were thrown out. After much hue and cry, the government in 1986 ordered a survey of Sonbhadra district to assess the land situation but the survey was conducted in only 20 per cent of the villages and settlement was made only in those areas. This has become the main issue of dispute in the region.

After the passage of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, the debate has shifted. This new law ensures land rights for the forest people on the disputed forestland and thus attempts to end the injustice against the poor, landless forest people. NFFPFW and its constituent KKMMKSS initiated a campaign in the Kaimur region to make the 'forest people' aware of their rights, in the light of the enactment of the Forest Act, 2006.

Roma pointed out to this reporter at the Robertsgunj district court while still in police custody. “The government arrested me and my colleagues on charges that don't make sense at all. The forest department filed an FIR against me at Vindangunj police station falsely charging us with inciting land-grabbing by dalits and adivasis of the area. The administration said that my slogan of 'Jo zameen sarkari hai, woh zameen humari hai' incited the crowds. The truth is: I only used a slogan that was used by Chief Minister Mayawati in 1996. Why didn't they arrest her when she declared this slogan publicly and repeatedly?” complains Roma.

Since the enactment of the Forest Act in December 2006, tension between the forest department and KKMMKSS has heightened. “The passage of the Forest Act in 2006 by Parliament and Mayawati's declaration to distribute land to the landless after August 1, 2007 gave more teeth to the movement but it also threatened land-owners and forest officials who virtually owned the land of these poor farmers. In collusion with the police they are doing every bit to suppress the movement and brand these peaceful protestors and dalits and tribals as Naxalites. The Forest department has become the new zamindars in Sonbhadra,” says Roma.

However, after the arrest of Roma and her colleagues, the locals blocked roads and held strong protests with women as catalysts and at vanguard. Consequently, in what seems a clear act of vengeance, the police on August 10 came in two jeeps with upper-caste landlords to Chandouli village near Robertsgunj in the night. Heavily armed, they demanded the villagers to produce Bachalal, an active member of the KKMMKSS, before them. When they did not find Bachalal, they barged into his house and attacked his sister-in-law and pregnant sister. They misbehaved with them and other women of the village.

His sister later that night delivered a baby boy with injuries on his head. “I haven't gone home for the past 10 days as I fear for my life because everyday goons of local landlords come to my house looking for me. I am even scared to go to the police station as they might take me to the forest and kill me and then brand me as a Naxalite,” says Bachalal.

The administration is brazenly toeing the police line. They are blaming Roma and her colleagues for instigating people to organise a “violent struggle to grab land”. “Roma's attitude is positive but the speeches she gives are very negative. She incites the crowd to grab land. The Forest Act, 2006, has not been implemented yet and she cannot go on saying 'Jo Zameen sarkari hain, woh zameen humari hai'. I know even Mayawatiji raised the same slogan in 1996 but she is a political person and can get away with it,” explains Rajendra Prasad Singh, District Magistrate, Sonbhadra.

He, however, agrees that tribals have not benefited from any of the land reforms and blames the forest department for making the situation so difficult. Says Singh, “I know that there are officials who have the tendency to benefit themselves from all these schemes and suppress the tribals. Their human tendency is to benefit from the poor and impoverished and that's what the forest department is doing. But even Roma is not right. There needs to be a dialogue and both parties should agree on issues; only then can we arrive at a peaceful solution.”

Meanwhile, Shanta has been released on bail while Roma, Shamla and Paswan are still under police custody. NSA has also been withdrawn against Roma and the state cabinet has ordered to distribute the gram sabha land amongst the tribals and dalits who had been tilling the land before August 13, 2007. The Mayawati government has also asked her principal secretary to visit the area and submit an unbiased report to her on the entire land issue in Sonbhadra.