THE LOSERS SHALL INHERIT THE WORLD

T. Vijayendra

Editor

Nyla Coelho

Publishing Collective

Cerana Foundation Sangatya Sahitya Bhandar Permanent Green

Sahitya Chayana Bal Sanskriti Kendra Shishu Milap

1

THE LOSERS SHALL INHERIT THE WORLD

Author: T. VijayendraEditor: Nyla Coelho

Year: 2010

Price: Rs. 60.00

Second Edition: 500 copies

O Copy Left: All Rights Reversed

Publishing Collective

Cerana Foundation D 101, High Rise Apartments, Lower Tank Bund Road,Hyderabad 500 080

Sangatya Sahitya Bhandar7-67 P, Jayadurga Compound, Temple Road, Kannarpady, Udupi 576 103, Karnataka

Permanent Green, an imprint of Manchi PustakamC/o Wassan, 12-13-450, Street No. 1, Tarnaka,Secunderabad 500 017

Sahitya Chayana 6, Saraswati Camp, R. K. Puram, Sector 3, (Opposite JNU Old Campus) New Delhi 110 022

Bal Sanskriti Kendra

C/o VHAP, SCF 18/1, Sector 10-D, Chandigarh 160 011

Shishu Milap1, Srihari Apartments, Behind Express Hotel, Alkapuri, Baroda 390 007

Cover: Painting by Rohini Kumar E.

Cover Design: M. Upendar Cell: +91 90104 44935

Printers: Deccan Press, Azamabad, Hyderabad-500 020 India

2

PREFACE

These essays represent my engagements with various social and political issues in the last three decades of the 20th century. The perspective is a mix of Marxism and Anarchism.

The essays challenge some popular notions, beliefs and theories. Many of these are even held by progressive intellectuals. Thus, they have a tendency to influence the progressive movements.

However, theses essays are not written in a polemic or academic style. They are more in the style of ‘education for the activists’. The idea is to clear up the mess in our minds that is cluttered by these popular notions, beliefs and theories created by the ruling class and the media.

All these essays were written for and published in the weekly journal ‘Frontier’ from Kolkata. Established in 1968 by Samar Sen, it has educated a generation of the activists thrown up by the crisis in the late 60s. I thank Timir Basu, the present editor of Frontier, who is ably carrying out the mission in spite of great hardships, for permission to reprint these articles.

Today, when we are in the midst of yet another major crisis of capitalism, a new generation of activists is coming up. These essays are addressed to them. All these essays are copy left, that is, there is no copy right and one can use them in whatever manner one likes.

22. 01. 2009

In the second edition a post script has been added to the Naxalite and to the Coal Mafia article. Also, this time, I had the help of an editor, Nyla Coelho, who, has removed some proof reading mistakes and has made the text more readable.

V.

3

CONTENTS

1. The Bihar Failure Syndrome: Myth and Reality 3

2. Coal, Mafia and Miners 7

3. Why Do Naxalites Survive? 13

4. Activists for the Poor: Naxalites and NAPM 18

5. The Logic of Ol Chiki: A Tribute to Guru Gomke Pandit Raghunath Murmu 24

6. Buddhism in Modern India 28

7. Dakhni: The Language in which the Composite Culture of India was Born 35

8. Language and Biogeography: The Logic for a Separate Telengana State 42

9. Dumping on the Environment: Class, Caste and Gender 45

10. Prolonging Death: Capitalism and Old age 48

11. Vegetarianism and Communalism 53

4

THE BIHAR FAILURE SYNDROME

Myth And Reality

The May 2004 parliamentary election results have shown that the debacle that Mr. Naidu, Mr. S. M. Krishna and the NDA government faced was due to the failure of their development model.

Social activists have been criticising the development model, but they have no praise for a place like Bihar where the development model has already failed. It is like criticising the education system, but no one praises a child who has failed! “If I were to be punished for the sins I commit, then I should be rewarded for not giving in to the temptation!”

Much of my understanding about Bihar (including the present day Jharkhand) I owe to late Dr. Arvind Narayan Das. I take this opportunity to pay my humble tribute to his memory.

For the purpose of this article the word Bihar includes Jharkhand.

The Failure of Bihar

Bihar is normally associated with failure. It appears to have failed on every front - economic, political and cultural. All the traditional economic development indicators as well as the newer human development indices tend to show this failure. Articulate Biharis themselves talk about it, often contrasting with the past glory of Bihar.Left wing commentators point out the tradition of protest and struggle. Bihar played a leading role in the formation of Kisan Sabha. After independence Bihar was the first state to have a land reforms act. In the Bhoodan movement again Bihar had a leading position. In the Naxalite movement only Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have significant presence. The Jharkhand movement is the biggest ethnic cum regional movement. Even in the offbeat left movement A.K.Roy’s trade union movement in Dhanbad was quite unique. Yet, these comments are often coupled with a melancholy statement that it has all failed.

The poor in Bihar are not significantly worse off than the poor in M. P., U. P. and Rajasthan. Large areas of Orissa, Maharashtra and A. P. also have similar situation. Data about education, health care, atrocitiesand atrocities on women, dalit and tribals are comparable. Yet it is Bihar that is singled out as a model of failure. Why?One obvious answer is that the middle class and the rich in Bihar do not feel comfortable as they do in other states. It is their legitimacy to rule that is threatened. Hence, the cry there is no government in Bihar. In short, it is the legitimisation crisis of the ruling class. What has failed in Bihar is a certain kind of bourgeois development and a certain kind of government and state that has been held as a model. This includes the left democratic models too.

The Struggles of People of Bihar

The people of Bihar have not failed in participating in these development processes, or in protesting against it or even creating newer alternatives. In this century, they have cleared jungle lands for agriculture and mining. Capitalist agriculture has developed in several large areas of Bihar. The working class in Bihar has worked in agriculture, mines and industries both in Bihar and outside Bihar including overseas plantation.

5

In their protest movements, the people of Bihar have taken part in all forms of traditional left and ultra left movements at significant levels. That these have not led to ‘successes’ of the kind in West Bengal or in Kerala is a historical fact and has its historical reasons that have been well explored and argued by scholars.What is not argued is that to look for this kind of success itself is wrong. Every latecomer social group in capitalist development has a different response and they give rise to a different kind of ‘socialism’. So what are these different kinds of responses?

The ‘Failures’ of the Struggle

In the last few years there is a general talk of failure or crisis of Marxism. In India the issues generally raised are caste, gender, ethnicity, regionalism/federalism and ecology.In Bihar the fat left or Naxalite movement is not just a breakaway group from the traditional left. There was hardly any CPI (M) presence in Bihar. And the CPI remained intact during the Naxalite upsurge.The Naxalite in Bihar inherited the socialist movement with its emphasesemphasis on caste and oppressive social structure. Thus, it has articulated the caste question in left wing politics both theoretically and in practice. We hear this articulation more strongly in Maharashtra due to Phule-Ambedkar Tradition. Bihar has no such bourgeois liberal advocate of the issue. Here the advocacy is more radical (and hence ignored?).

Bihar is the only state, which has hosted the All India Women’s Conference for the second time. In the Patna conference the issue of class/caste within the women’s movement figured very strongly, particularly on the issue of right to property. The Ranchi conference threw up the ethnic issue within the women’s movement and feminist issues within the ethnic struggle. In many women’s conferences women from Bihar felt that the condition of women in other states is much worse than their own. This includes Kerala. The official statistics of crime against women also shows that Bihar is way down, 18 in ranking, that is, almost all the major Indian states are worse ifof. Only North East India is better.

The Jharkhand movement is a composite of several movements. Like other regional movement it combines ethnic issues with the issues of internal colony. However, the ethnic issue is alive and separate as can be seen from the leadership as well as the kind of ethnic energy the movement has. In addition, the issue of tribals as peasant and tribals as proletariat has also figured very strongly in Dhanbad and Singhbum district. Finally the environment issue, the relation of people and control of natural resources and the issue of big dams have also figured.

This brings us to the issues of ecology. Bihar is the only place where an anti dam movement succeeded in stopping the Koel-Karo project. When tribals from Koel Karo visited Bargi dam, the first dam on Narmada, they were aghast. “How did you let this happen?” they asked the NBA activists. ‘How could they build with your protests?’ The struggle against Subernrekha dam and the struggle of dam ousters have also been partially successful. The north Bihar region perennially suffers from floods and ill-conceived embankment and others flood control programmes. Every year about 4 lakh people migrate due to floods. The struggle against these policies has been going on for decades. It also represents one of the best-researched struggles by activists.What emerges from the above is that their struggles have ‘failed’ in not allowing the hegemony of bourgeois liberal issues and leadership of the movement. Instead, it has articulated and sharpened the differentiation within the movement.

6

Alternative Forms

Everywhere there is a cry that there is no government in Bihar and some even say that the state has ceased to exist. There is anarchy! What is surprising is that anarchy has not been considered in a positive way. It reminds me of Brecht’s poem about government in crisis, in which he wonders how will the farmers plough the land and mothers feed the babies since the government is in crisis.

We fail to see that the people of Bihar are alive, eating, working and participating in full human cultural life. They are also protesting, struggling and migrating. While peasants are committing suicide in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, in Bihar no peasant has committed suicide.'" One may also add that in Bihar no encounter murders are committed by the police. We fail to see that the people of Bihar are alive, eating, working and participating in full human cultural life. They are also protesting, struggling and migrating. As Laloo Prasad Yadav said “I want to ask Mr. Chandra Babu Naidu, ‘OK, you have video conferences and in Patna even telephones don’t work. But why is it that peasants are committing suicide in Andhra Pradesh, whereas in Bihar no peasant has committed suicide.’” One may also add that in Bihar no encounter murders are committed by the police. But more importantly, they have devised strategies to cope with the present difficult times with a genius of their own. Thus public and state transport is running without salaries for more than 18 months. How? It is co-operation between the people and the union of transport workers that is making it possible. Schools are running with teachers collecting their salaries from their pupils in the form of tuition fees. Post offices, railways and telephones are actually functioning. But more to the point is that the migrant workers are able to send moneys home. The informal sector of the economy is taking care of the needs of the people.So what is being argued is that people of Bihar are coping with the situation in a viable fashion. Secondly, they are throwing up new forms of organisation and methods in doing so. Struggle and co-operation are the key words.

Whose Failure?

So why is it that we do not see this or see a positive future? I would not dwell too much on the class bias of the observers. It is there. But surely we can try to go beyond that.We are talking of a failure of a certain kind of socialist model. Not only it isis it failing where it appeared successful until recently,. It it is also not allowing us to see the possible newer models of socialism.

The 20th Century has been dominated by the theories of Marx, Darwin and Freud. It has also been dominated by the revolution of Soviet Union, China, Cuba and Vietnam. Their ‘successes’ have blinded us from looking at their weaknesses. It has not allowed us to look at the possible ‘truths’ on the side of those who have been defeated within the movement.

An important aspect of this is that we have looked more at the struggle aspect (within human psyche, in society and with nature) and neglected to look at co-operation. For arriving at a concept of socialism we will have to correct this balance. This socialism will be more like ‘an egalitarian, decentralised human society living in harmony with nature’. However we cannot be revivalists and think of the noble savage. Any vision of future society must combine the idea of sovereignty of the individual within a co-operative society.

7

To arrive at this we will have to look into the ‘failure’ within the movement, both in theory and practice.

Thus in the historical experience of the theory, we have to look at the possible truths on the side of those who ‘lost’ or failed in the past. These will be anarchist traditions, Rosa Luxembourg’s Critique, Trotsky and various opposition groups in Russia, China, Vietnam and Cuba.

Nearer at home we have a range of left wing experience outside the ‘Stalinist’ Tradition of CPI, M, & ML. There are also socialist and militant Gandhian traditions.

This should enable us to look more closely at the current movements where people’s energies are - both in Bihar and outside Bihar. In Bihar there are issues thrown up within the struggle, such as caste, gender and environment. There are also movements of dam oustees, migrant labour, ethnic and regional movement. Then there are emerging movements of struggle and co-operation. All these ‘failures’ of Bihar will contribute to the development of a new model of socialism for the 21st Century. Therein lies the importance of the failure of Bihar.

Published in Frontier, October 3-30, 2004, Kolkata.

8

COAL, MAFIA AND MINERS

India is the third largest producer of coal in the world after China and Russia. At the time of independence the country produced 30 million tones (mt) mainly in the private sector. On the eve of Coal Nationalisation in 1972-73 the production was 72 mt. Today it produces 345 mt of coal out of which 30 mt is cooking coal [Standard Committee on Energy, 2001].

The principal user of coal is power sector which consumes around 200 mt and is responsible for 63% of power generation in the country. Cement is the other major user, consuming 17 mt. Coking coal is mainly used in the iron & steel industry.India has a coal reserve of over 200 billion tones which at the present rate will last more than 200 years. Indian coal is relatively poor in calorific value and has high ash content. However it has low sulphur content.

Coal is arguably the most polluting fuel [Martin, 2002]. Historically coal is on its way out. World coal production reached its peak in 1997 and since then it has fallen by 7%. Coal is being replaced by oil which in turn is being replaced by natural gas [Brown, 2002]. However, India is likely to continue to produce and use it because coal is still the cheapest fuel available. Otherwise the import bill of oil and gas will go up. As for hydro electricity and nuclear power plant are concerned, there is large number of unresolved issues. Their share is not likely to go up significantly [Das, 2002].

Production of coal today is mainly in the public sector except for a few captive mines. It is organized under Coal India Ltd (CIL) which has 500 working mines in 7 subsidiary producing companies spread over W. Bengal, Jharkhand, MP, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Singareni Collieries Co Ltd is jointly owned by A. P. Govt. and Govt. of India.

While CIL as a whole is a profit making company, three of its Eastern Indian subsidiaries – ECL, BCCL and CCL have been making high losses.

Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) was formed on 17.10.1971. It produces coking coal to be used mainly in iron & steel industry. There are 81 working mines in Jharia-Dhanbad area. It has been producing around 30 mt. There is a reserve of 17 billion tones in the area out of which 4.6 bt is prime coking coal and 5.6 bt is medium coking coal [Roy, 2002a]. However, the production is going down. In 1999-2000 it was 27.90 mt. The production has high ash content which is reduced in coal washeries. These are also working only at about 45% capacity. To meet the stipulated 17% ash content the industry is importing coking coal to the tune of 12 mt and blends it with local coal to obtain stipulated quality [Das, 2002].

As said above the industry is in crisis. Production is falling, work force is falling, there is no new recruitment and there are high losses. The losses increased from 140 crore (1997-98) to 1277 crore in 2000-01, that is Rs. 3.5 crore per day! Some 19 mines have been closed and there is fire below Jharia Township that is difficult to douse and prime coking coal is turning to ashes! So while theoretically coal and coking coal has a good demand in India, coal industry and particularly coking coal industry is sick and faces insurmountable difficulties in coming out of it. How has this situation come about? What is the role of different stake holders – that is government management, workers and unions and bystander population?

9

Jharia Coalfield

Coal mining in this area started at the end of the 19th century under the British Raj by British Coal companies. Over the years and particularly on the eve of independence it changed hand and came to be owned by Indian business community. It produces mainly coking coal and it is one of the biggest and oldest coalfields in India. It is also, due to its long history, the most labour intensive coal mine. The mines are located in what was Santhal Country in Chotta Nagpur Plateau. The rural hinterland still has significant Santhal population and many mine workers have been and are Santhalis. The area has seen significant Jharkhand movement in the 70s under the leadership of Shibu Soren. The miners’ struggle also had hinterland support and the struggle carried the overtones of the Great Santhal rebellion in the form of bows and arrows carried by some of the miners!

The Situation in the 60s

Coal mining under the private Indian ownership had by this time become predominantly slaughter mining. That is they paid no heed to safety, future of the mine and carried out unscientific mining with an attitude to make as much profit as you can make now. The owners had no capital to invest, did not pay minimum wages and the musclemen originally brought from the ABC (Arrah, Balia and Chhapra) districts of Bihar to control the workers in the 40s had become powerful Mafia type contractors in the late 60s.

Nationalisation

The demand primarily came from the non-coal big industry such as iron and steel and power and not from the coal industry. The demand itself has a long history starting from 1920 with the Coal Field Committee. It was the 1936 Coal Mining Committee which for the first time mooted the idea of state ownership. However, due to the hold of private owners, govt. dragged its feet although committee after committee (1945 Coalfield Committee, 1951 Working Party for Coal Industry, 1954-55 Estimate Committee for Lok Sabha, 1955 Balwant Rai Mehta Committee) pointed out about safety of workers, avoidable waste, increase in production through a well considered plan, ruthless and haphazard exploitation of national wealth and so on. It was however the inability of private sector to bring capital that made it imperative to nationalize coal with Kumara Mangalam’s dream “takeover of entire coal mining industry, marks the end of an era of unhealthy and unscientific mining along with exploitation of labour and other malpractices. It represents the beginning of a new period of management of the coal mines in the over all interest of the nation.” [Roy, 2002] But this dream did not come true though over all production, productivity (output per mine shift, 0.58 to 1.9 t) and employment have definitely gone up. Most of the production has been in open cast mines, (19.8 mt to 225 mt), the increase in the underground sector being (58.4 mt to 74 mt) although enormous money was spent in coal mechanization [Das, 2002].

The Emergence of BCKU

As has been said above the Mafia had come into being. It was dominated by upper caste male outsiders from ABC (Arrah-Balia-Chhapra) districts of Bihar and Azamgarh district of UP. A situation of a very humiliating kind of exploitation against lower caste, tribal and women existed.

10

This chaos led to the workers to the workers movement against the mafia under the banner of BCKU. This became more acute after nationalization because the ABC Mafia became stronger. Thousands of telegrams were sent by Mafia to their cousins in ABC districts on the eve of the coal nationalization inviting them to heap the harvest in time.

Although the Bihar Colliery Kamgar Union (BCKU) has always been affiliated to CITU, from 1969 onwards it worked as an independent union. Politically too, its leader, A K Roy was thrown out of CPI(M) due to the fact that he published an article in Frontier stating that the question raised by the naxalites are valid and deserve a debate and response.

BCKU developed its own political front called Marxist Coordination Committee and allied with the regional movement for the Jharkhand. Specifically it allied with Shibu Soren who, under the banner of Jharkhand Mukthi Morcha, raised the land question. The other ally was Vinod Bihari Mahato, leader of the non-tribal local people of Jharkhand. The front was a major intervention in the existing political praxis. It raised the slogan of Lalkhand (Red Region). A K Roy won the 1977 Lok Sabha election from jail!At the trade union level it contributed to the agenda, form and style of the movement and hinterland support. It became a mass-based militant movement and won wide scale recognition in the progressive movement in the country.

In this context the main slogans of BCKU were (i) Goonda Bhagao (Throw out the muscle men) and (ii) Regularisation of Employment.

The first was aimed at getting rid of goondas from the coal mines. Goondas meant Mafia, musclemen, contractors and moneylenders. Regularisation of employment meant jobs for local people and workers who were already working in the mines as contract labour. Except for a handful of skilled and unskilled workers, none of the local people were permanent employees. On the other hand hand, some 50,000 out of a total workforce of 2 lakh were inducted from outside who had never seen a mine. This was the result of the telegrams mentioned above. Many mines destroyed the evidence of contract labour and the mafia burnt the records to induct their own people. People who worked for years in the mines found no trace of their records. Managers were forced to put these new people to work who had never seen a mine face.

As a result of the workers’ struggle led by BCKU some 20,000 contract labourers were absorbed as permanent labour in the decade of the 70s. While this was a major victory, they could do nothing about those illegal 50,000 recruitment. Nor could BCCL throw them out because these people were well connected politically and economically. And they had the good jobs – overman, labour sardar and supervisors. Under the pressure of unions however some contract labourers also got some office jobs and munshi jobs. On the whole however there is a surplus labour in every category except mine loaders. This is one of the major contributing causes of the crisis of BCCL.

The Mafia got firmly in place of power within the BCCL management and in the coal field as contractors. They were no longer interested in squeezing the workers. They moved to greener pastures, that of, looting the mines and government. coffers. Every kind of corruption was taking place. And of course this led to inter Mafia warfare or gang warfare. The Dhanbad-Jharia coal field got completely dominated by the Mafia.During this period although the union had become strong there were no major issues of struggle left. Workers were interested in wages, bonus and covertly tried to get part of the loot. The trade union was left with day to day grievances of the workers.

11

Mechanisation

By the 80s coal mechanization became a new mantra with the coal bureaucracy and the government. Massive international loans were taken to import mine machinery from Austrialia, Poland, UK and USA. Many of these machines were never utilized and many broke down due to inadequate repair facility and non-availability of spare parts. Not much attempts were made to develop indigenous technology and MAMC of Durgapur has no work. A dragline of Rs 50 crore is standing idle in Block II of BCCL in absence of large virgin area to utilize its capacity. In Amlabad colliery of BCCL two sets of long wall machines are lying idle costing crores of rupees because this technology does not suit our mines [Roy, 2002]. On the whole there is a yawning gap between the liberal norms fixed by CMPDIL for the utilization of equipment and their actual utilization [Standing Committee on Energy, 2002]. By the 90s the idea of coal mechanization was dropped. While there are lot of ideas such as semi-mechanisation, but meanwhile BCCL has become a sick unit of CIL.

BCKU was from the beginning opposed to mechanization and VRS but could not organize large scale opposition.

The sickness of the coal mining industry in the Dhanbad-Jharia sector is thus a combination of many factors. The number one factor is mismanagement and corruption of the top officials of the company. The theft and loot at BCCL is estimated to be of the order of Rs 100 crore, which is roughly same as its annual loss [Roy, 2002 a]. None of the Govt reports, BIFR, reports of CIL etc. mention this but talk of problems that actually arise from this. These are: 1. Surplus in all categories except in mine loaders category. 50,000 or 25% of the employees are surplus, most of them drawing higher salaries. Again it is these people who are indulging in corruption and looting. Their number also kept on increasing till the 90s.

For CIL as a whole, since 1971, the number of officers has gone up fourfold, monthly and time rated workers have doubled, but the number of mine loaders has decreased. In BCCL there are 19720 mine loaders out of which on an average 10278 are present. The other categories taken together are 93097 out of which 75995 are normally present. Thus the ratio of direct and indirect workers is 1:7 whereas it should never be greater than 1:2 [Roy, 2002a].

2. Wrong kind of mechanization involving locked up crores of rupees of investment. On the other hand basic production tools like picks and shovels, boots, helmet with torch and battery are not available or in short supply. This contributes to fall in production and a vicious circle emerges.

In this sort of scenario the workers are mainly interested in keeping their jobs. Their sons and daughters will not get jobs. The management cannot retrench any one. There are no new recruitments. Workers are suffering from heart problems, TB, Black Lung (coal worker’s pneumonoconiasis), blood pressure and so on. Alcoholism is on the rise and many are dying due to alcoholism and for consuming illicit liquor. Although workers have high salaries, there are not enough schools or hospitals. Jharia town is declared unfit for human habitation. The railways have stopped using one main line and two others are also dangerous and trains run at 10 kmph.

There are four stake holders involved and each has a sort of solution which is difficult to realize. They are the government, the private sector, the workers and the bystander population.

12

The first is the government management side. Their position is that unless the BCCL annual production goes up to 37 mt it is impossible to save the company. This is possible only if it can take out coking coal under Jharia town which is under fire. At present this valuable coal is reduced to ashes. So the only way to take it out is by open cast mining. This however means displacing the whole Population of the Jharia town, acquiring land, giving compensation and so on. Jharia is one of the largest markets in Eastern India. No one has that kind of money to give compensation, nor is any one in Jharia prepared to leave [Mukherjee, 2002].

The other option is to expand to new areas in Jharia or even outside. Here the greatest difficulty is in acquiring land. Even for the land acquired earlier, ‘jobs for land’ struggle is still going on in Jharia. Today no one is prepared to give land, there is no guarantee of job nor is any land available for resettlement.

The only possible partial solution is limited mechanization in some mines. All mines are not making losses. A comparison between profit making and loss making mines will give some space for reorganization and viability. When there is no money to buy picks and shovels, where would money for this come from?

Privatisation

That is of course the current mantra for all problems. However the main reason for nationalization, namely, lack of capital in the private sector still exists. No one in the area believes that private sector will sink capital in this scenario. Also, all sections of workers and particularly the officer class which is living on the loot are opposed to it. As far as private sector in new areas is concerned, the problem of land acquisition remains.

Union Response

The workers and unions are firmly opposed to private sector, VRS and retrenchment. They do not even talk of redundancy among officers class. But they demand that officers should actually work and get back to the half pant culture! They want the theft/loot by the officer class to stop, which they estimate is of the order of Rs 1000 crore and that this alone will cover the losses. They would like the govt. to have a pro-worker attitude, increase the manpower at the mine loader level, plan mine by mine concretely, and take the workers and union in confidence and so on. It is only wishfuly thinking.

Another equally wishful thinking is worker’s take over of the mines and running them. It appears attractive but has lot of problems. Deep underground mines are difficult to take over because of the technology involved and safety factors. Easy mines are already over exploited and are well on their way of being exhausted. Mining is a hazardous industry and will become more unsafe. Illegal mines in Gridih are good example. Many closed mines are already being run by workers illegally and lot of accidents occurs. While it is possible to choose a few mines and run them, as a solution to the industry it is a non-starter. And even then the union is hardly prepared for it and is unaware of the kind of actual problems it will face.

13

Mines, Minerals & People

MM & P is an alliance of individuals, institutions and communities who are concerned and affected by mines. MM& P takes a wider perspective. It holds that the destruction of pre-existing habitat for the mining industry undermines the possibility of any other use of the resources of the area. It has also social and political implications when it is in the most forested region and traditionally inhabited by Dalits and Indigenous Peoples. It holds that mining should be the last resort for the use of land and that there is much greater wealth for humankind above these minerals. They advocate minimum mining and replacement of non renewable with more renewable sources [MM&P, 2001].While MM& P itself is not a large force they form a part of debate on development issue, which is growing in energy and has a large mass support. Development for whom? Who benefits from coal mines, power and iron & steel and cement? In Jharkhand this is a powerful movement which has tasted victory in Koel Karo Dam project and forests of west Singhbhum district. In Hazaribag where Australians are trying to acquire land for new coal mines, there is a powerful opposition. So the views and interests of bystander population are not only significant but decisive.

Concluding Remarks

It is a depressing scenario. Jharia-Dhanbad coalfield is no longer a destination for capital. The future is in closing down these mines - at least that is what the best alternative is in the near future. Some 15% of profit making mines will survive. From the workers’ point of view it is a losing battle which has to be fought because livelihood anywhere in any condition remains important and cannot be given up. Some form of struggle has to be taken up to wind up this mess. A million people are dependent on it and huge land mass is involved. You can’t drop a bomb and start in a new area. The people have to fight and demand their rights from the state which is responsible for this.Having said that, the situation in a long term sense is not necessarily depressing. A flight of capital does not leave an area destitute. As experience shows, it is the coming in of capital that brought destitution of the local population in Jharkhand. Less negative is positive. Left to themselves people can manage for themselves quite well.

Postscript

This article was written in 2002. Much has happened since then.

1. Due to heavy demand from China for the olympic games, demand for steel and coal have gone up and BCCL is no longer a loss making company. In fact it is making good profits now.

2. No major change has occurred in functioning of the BCKU. No major change in leadership either. A K Roy is still the official head but in day to day work he has hardly any role.

3. The concept coal mine (new or old ) has changed. There is no coal mines any more. Now it is coal bearing areas which has already been earmarked as area I, area II etc. Now there are new or old projects. the exact number of which is not known to me

4. The most important development is the resistance against notice of eviction to people of Jharia due to under ground fire. There is also one case of resistance against a new project This is in the township of Bhuli where retired employees of BCCL and their relatives who are still occupying the quarter illegally as well as some small traders who are unauthorized occupants of BCCL land

14

are refusing to vacate the land earmarked for starting an open cast project. They are getting support from political parties of all hue.

References

AICFAIP (All India Coordinating Forum of the Adivasis/Indigenous peoples)2001: Voices of the Adivasi/Indigenous People of India.Brown, L R (2002): Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth.Das, Anjana & Jyothi Parikh (2002): “Coal, Oil and Gas” in India Development Report, 1999-2002. Ed. Kirit S. Shah.Standing Committee on Energy (2002): Dept. of Coal, Thirteenth Lok Sabha Secretariat.Martin, Max (2002): “Black Burden” The New Indian Express, July 15.Mines, Minerals & People (2001): BrochureMukherjee, Uttam & Ashok Kumar (2002): Awaj, July 5.Roy, A K (2002): “Coal. Is Privatisation an Answer”, Frontier Feb, 3-9Roy, A K (2002a): “Is Privatisation a Solution of the Crisis of the Coal Industry? Workers’ Answer is: No”, Dhanbad, BCKU (CITU), Pamphlet in Hindi.

_____________________________________________________________________Published in Frontier, April 6-13, 2003, Kolkata.

15

WHY DO NAXALITES SURVIVE?

Introduction

The Naxalite movement was born on April 27, 1967 when the CPI (M) home minister Comrade Jyoti Basu’s police killed a few peasants in the village Naxalbari in North Bengal. From such a small beginning, today the Naxalites have spread to 170 districts in 15 States covering a population of nearly 100 million! This is about one-fourth of the country in terms of area and about one-tenth of the population. This is larger than many countries in the world!

The articulate section of our society has generally condemned the Naxalites. However some human rights activists and some people who have worked in rural areas seriously appreciate their efforts though not agreeing with them. The State has a mixed attitude. While generally opposed to Naxalism, sometime it treats it as a law and order problem and relies on the police and paramilitary organisations to deal with it. On the other hand, the State views Naxalism as a social and development problem, requiring socio-economic intervention.

Yet the fact remains that after nearly 40 years, Naxalites still survive and their numbers have grown. And even today there are only 12,000 trained cadres. Compared to the state, their strength and armament is minuscule. They have probably less than one per cent armaments compared to our faction-fighting districts and other criminal groups.

So how do the Naxalites manage to survive and grow? Who supports them and why? Where do the Naxalite cadres come from? Why is the state not able to control/wipe them out? This paper attempts to answer these questions. And the final section deals with the future of Naxalism.

I. The Naxalites Serve a Constituency

The Naxalites survive because they serve a specific constituency, which no one else is able to. These are the Dalit and tribal men and women and some other sections of the poor. The Naxalites have protected them and their women from the abuse and the violence of the ruling class and the State. Earlier, they could be exploited by them. Even minor functionaries of the police and revenue department used to ‘lift’ any of these women for their pleasure. The Naxalites have organised trade unions among them and have managed to increase the wages of the Bidi workers, the price of the Tendu leaves and other minor forest products. They have organised workers of mines and quarries and have waged successful struggles. And finally they have carried out land reforms in a limited way in the areas they control. The Naxalites have not always actually organised and led the struggle in all these situations. In many cases their mere presence and support enabled other groups and people to lead their struggles successfully. What gives Naxalites this strength and reputation?

16

Violence Is Necessary To Serve This Constituency

The answer is the Naxalite ideology, which permits use of counter violence against the state/class/caste violence, exploitation and oppression against the poor. Very often the Naxalites don’t have to actually use the violence. The very fact that they are prepared to do so and have demonstrated it on several occasions suffices.The Naxalite constituency has been facing violence for a very long time. From the time of the Arthashastra and Manusmriti, that is around 2300 years ago, violence against them has been sanctioned by law. Only with the birth of the Indian Constitution, in 1950, that they have a legal protection. But as Dr. Ambedkar warned, unless this is translated into economic upliftment of the poor such protection has no meaning, and we are facing an explosive situation.And this is precisely why the Naxalites are thriving. They are primarily militant trade unionists! Any one familiar with the history of trade union movement knows that the very formation of the trade union involves violence, particularly in the unorganised sector, in the rural and forest sector, in the mining sector and so on. They are successful in organising formal and informal trade unions among these workers and helping them get economic relief.The Naxalites are more successful than others because it is not an ad hoc local effort. It is a large organised movement backed with a trained and armed guerilla force that can strike at targets of its own choice.

Recognition and Use of This by Others

Naxalites are not the only people working with this constituency. Historically Christians, Gandhians, and Ambedkar-inspired Dalit and Buddhists groups have been working with the tribals and Dalits. More recently a host of NGOs too have been working with this constituency.

When these groups work alone, they have no answer to the ruling-class violence. They neither believe in violence nor are they prepared to face it. When it happens they run to the press, human right activists and to the courts. Most of it ends in failure and dejection and frustration sets in. Some of them recognise and admire the Naxalites from a distance because they can see that in the Naxalite areas the poor cannot be insulted and humiliated easily.

Many of the NGOs get support and grants from the state and funding agencies as a measure of ‘counter insurgency’ towards the Naxalites. Sometime they come in conflict with the Naxalites, but in most cases they avoid and carve out areas of work that does not bring them in conflict with the Naxalites. There is also a trend to move towards ‘advocacy’ so that they don’t have to work in the field and face the Naxalites. In general they treat the Naxalite problem as a ‘social problem’ and think that their way of doing it is better.

Finally there are groups that informally collaborate with the Naxalites. These can be in the form of shelters, medicines, and food supplies, but more importantly they take up struggles of the people on issues that have Naxalite support. Thus an issue-based alliance is formed. Typically these can range from Tendu patta collection struggle, land to the tiller, human rights issues – beating, burning, murder, rape and so on, and more recently antinuclear struggle in Nalgonda district. After the recent peace talks the Naxalites set up a people’s land reform commission in Andhra Pradesh. Most of the members of this commission are not Naxalites and they are doing important work in finding out the extent of land available and strengthening their own struggles.

17

Who are the Naxalites?

In the beginning the Naxalites leaders were from their parent CPI (M) party. Initially a large number of university graduates also joined. However that period ended a long time ago. Today most of the cadres are from Dalit, Tribal and backward caste communities. Why do they join? Broadly speaking their conditions is quite intolerable. A small number of them have the courage/idealism to join, what appears to them, a revolutionary movement. Still there numbers are so large that a very few of them end up joining. For one, there are severe tests. Secondly, there are just so many that the movement can absorb. It is said that there is a long invisible queue of young people wanting to join the Naxalites and only the number of arms available limits it! One government estimate gives the number as 3000 for Andhra Pradesh alone.

II. The State and the Naxalites

Generally speaking the State is not interested in solving the Naxalite problem. A real solution would mean a revolution, which the present State is neither capable of nor interested in. The response of the state is mainly fire fighting and to keep its credibility. In the process many vested interests in the society use the Naxalite issue for their own benefit.

Hawks and Doves

Hawks are those who want to treat the Naxalite issue as a law and order problem. These are mainly the arms industry and their users, the police and paramilitary organisations. Their very existence depends on small controllable wars in which the State won’t lose or win. There is a whole nexus generally known as the military -industrial complex. It can be the major part of the economy as it is in the U. S. A. There are arm dealers, their political agents, kickbacks, unnecessary/bad quality of arms and so on. Then there is the police department and its own special type of corruption - non-existent informers who are paid unaccounted money, sale of ammunition passed off as ammunition used, increased budgets and so on. Some encounters real or fake are regularly carried on to justify continued hawk posture.

On the other hand, doves are those who treat the Naxal issue as a social and developmental issue. The departments of social welfare, education, labour, rural development and forest are involved in it. Many NGOs too survive in the Naxalites shadow or what is called the ‘or else space’. That is if the NGOs are not there then the Naxalite will take over. In reality of course there is a peaceful coexistence with an occasional skirmish. There is a lot of ‘development’ in Naxalite areas in term of roads and other infrastructure. So there is a lot of business in the Naxalite ‘business’!There is another aspect of development that is triggered by the Naxalites. Normally a large pool of semi-employed poor helps the employers to keep the wages low because of the competition among the poor. This has a tendency to pull down the entire wage structure from top to the bottom. Conversely, when the wages of the lowest wrung of the working class goes up this has the tendency to raise the wage structure. The tendency among the employers to keep profits high in the new conditions leads to some industries closing down and others changing over to new technology. Thus when the bottom is shaken the entire structure is affected.

18

The Peace Talks

Peace talks were held after a new government came in Andhra Pradesh. On the part of the government it was mainly a credibility gaining exercise. However, the hawks in the government derailed it very quickly. The interesting thing was that the lower officers of the police force did it, because their earnings were hurt. They could do it; the tail could wag the dog because the police chief himself was vulnerable. His wife is accused of selling orphaned babies to the foreigners! And the chief minister could only assure that he will try to restrain the police. He could not order!The Naxalites were far clearer in their objectives when they began the peace talks and achieved more. They used the opportunity to have huge mass meetings all over the state including Hyderabad. This established their credibility. Then they united with the Maoist Communist Centre of Bihar and Jharkhand to create a larger party. They were prepared for the breaking of the talks and successfully put the responsibility on the government. They also used the opportunity to create links with other non-Naxalite organisations, particularly in the area of land reforms.

III. THE NAXALITE STRATEGY IN FUTURE

To Continue to Serve the Constituency

Although the Naxalite discourse still talks of revolution, in practice their main activity is to directly serve their constituency, enable other groups to do so and stand as guaranty to be available with violence when needed. In this respect they are like the state. Any modern society is actually two nations. The state with its violent apparatus ensures that normally ‘law and order’ is maintained for the ruling and middle class. The Naxalites perform the same function with their specific constituency. The poor see them as a last resort. Hence even under torture they do not reveal information about them to the police.

To Relate to Other Movements

Some Naxalite groups go for elections and form alliances with other mainstream political parties. This is referred to as joining the democratic process. Actually this is suicidal for them. The larger Naxalite groups PWG and MCC (now joined together as CPI-Maoist) do not believe in this. They do not seem to have an articulated position on alliances except the theoretical position of worker-peasant alliance. However in practice, as has been seen above, the Naxalites collaborate with a lot of local organisations. These are issues of militant trade unionism and land reform. In addition they collaborate on issues of ethnicity, Dalit, tribal and women’s oppression, alcoholism and antinuclear movement.As a general rule, they seem to make local alliances or extend support on practical grounds such as struggle of people on various issues, opposing government development projects that serve nobody except money grabbers and harm the people. It will be interesting in coming days to see on what issues they collaborate with the others. Some of these could be from the agenda of NAPM- National Alliance of People’s Movement. It is not a new thing in the Communist movement. Immediately after the Russian Revolution, Lenin adopted the Agrarian Programme of the Socialist Revolutionaries since the Bolsheviks did not have much experience in these matters.

Some of the important issues will be relating to the forests, water, neo colonialism of the LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation) kind and economic and cultural imperialism like the presence of MacDonald’s, Pepsi and Coca-Cola. For example, they can take a stand against the timber mafia, they can support community-based conservation programmes, oppose big dams and so on. It is interesting to note that on most of these issues the initiatives are taken by non-

19

parliamentary groups or what is called people’s movement. Thus the Naxalites are not alone in finding the parliamentary path not useful to the poor people. In that sense these groups are natural allies of the Naxalites.

Concluding Remarks

Naxalites are effective in some areas in India because there are some glaring unresolved contradictions in our society. These are basically aspirations aroused in our society by the Indian Constitution and not fulfilled to date. And people’s movement alone can resolve them. In Kerala and West Bengal, which have long history of such movements, the Naxalite movement did not survive. So long as these basic contradictions remain unresolved in these areas, the Naxalite movement will survive. Naxalites have proved more effective than others because they have an ideology that inspires youth, an organisational structure and armed groups.Is it possible that these so-called backward areas will develop and Naxalite activities will die down as in Kerala and West Bengal? Maybe, maybe not. The uneven development can accentuate these differences rather than reduce it. Some pockets of affluence in these areas and creamy layers from each section of the society can and do emerge but it only worsens the problem and does not resolve it. On the other hand, the so-called developed reas are also facing deep crisis. Kerala is a prime example. Everything is going wrong. The farmers are committing suicide on a large scale because the international prices of rubber have fallen to one-fourth. Tourism is creating child prostitution. The rate of crime against women is higher there than any other state in India.

In such a scenario, maybe the backward districts will show us what a sane society should look like.

Published in Frontier, October 2-29, 2005, Kolkata.

Postscript

1. This article was written in 2005. Some observations can be added in the light of events in the last 4 years. The contradictions of Indian society have sharpened because the policies of ‘reforms’, that is, those of liberlisation, privatisation and globalisation have allowed increased exploitation of people and natural resources. This has further sharpened due to resource depletion, particularly of petroleum products. Indian capital has been expanding in the area of coal, thermal power plants, steel plants, sponge iron plants, hydroelectric projects and SEZs. All these are affecting livelihoods in terms of direct loss of agricultural land, crop losses due to pollution, loss of jobs in rural areas and large scale deforestation and environment degradation.

2. All these projects are facing large scale opposition from affected people, by standing population, environmentalists and civil society organisation. These are involving millions of people and a diversity of organisations. There are, apart from the Maoists or Naxalites, NAPM, ngos, international organisations like Greenpeace and host of other small groups. Also at each location a local coalition bearing a local name is created with a specific objective of opposing the local project. Often they bear the name of the project or region, such as Narmada Bacho Andolan, Save the Western Ghats etc.

3. The response of the State has also undergone a sea change. The old discourse is still maintained that there should be a development with a human face or that the Naxalite

20

movement has socio-economic roots. The essence of these discourses in the past was that the protest should be democratic and open to negotiation. The demand should for transparency and fair and adequate and compensation. However people’s movement are increasingly rejecting these discourses in the light of past experiences and the current slogan that is emerging is ‘We will not give an inch of land’ and people are questioning the concept of development and the goal of GDP rates of 10%.

4. In response to this the state on one hand has adopted a policy of ruthless suppression unleashing the state violence wherever possible and on the other hand the state has also evolved newer legitimizing discourses. In the newer responses, people’s movement are branded as undemocratic, violent, influenced by the Naxalites. In fact a discourse is generated that the Naxalites are preventing the democratic movements by violent interventions. On the other hand non Naxalites protesters are branded as Naxalites and are dealt with violence by the State.

5. The case of Bastar in Chhatisgarh illustrates these responses. In Bastar, the Chhatisgarh government wants to give land for development of coal mines, large steel plant and a thermal power plant. It does not go about acquiring land legimately like buying land from the land owners and offering compensation. Instead it declares the area as influenced by the Maoists, raises a vigilante army called Salwa Judam, arms them, pays them a stipend and creates a reign of terror to evacuate the people from their land. Nearly a 100,000 people have fled and have come to Andhra Pradesh, without land, animals, papers etc. It also arrests the State People’s Union of Civil Liberty President and puts him in jail for two years accusing him of being in league with the Naxalites. It manages to gag the Chhatisgarh media completely.

6. The strategy of gagging the civil liberty movements takes many forms. A discourse is generated that they defend only the Naxalites and ignore other human rights violations. Also they are accused that while they accuse the state violence in cases of false encounters, they never condemn Naxalite violence. Although there is little truth in these accusations, in Andhra Pradesh such a discourse even split the civil liberty movement a few years ago.

7. There is also a social basis of eroding of the middle class support, including the support for the civil liberty movement. The Naxalite movement is more than 40 years old. Many of the middle class sympathizers have grown old. While a small section has kept its allegiance intact, most have distanced themselves due to pressures of earning livelihood. A small section due to the prosperity of the liberalisation era, has even got prosperous in construction industry, software, academics and ngo sector.

8. A section of this prosperous group, particularly among academics and ngo are vocal in their critic of the Naxalite movement. Often this critic is fairly pedestrian in its quality and it does not the engage the Naxalite movement seriously. While such a critic gains currency, serious critic does not. Nor do the debates within the movement, including its self criticism, acceptance of its own mistakes when it even apologized for wrong killings gain any media attention.

9. As the crisis deepens the struggle will be bitterer and bloodier. The state will come out more and more brazenly on the side of the capital, democratic norms will be forsaken and fascist tendencies will get strengthened.

21

10. The Naxalite movement will tend to get more support from the affected poor people and may loose support from the middle classes. For it to survive meaningfully it may have to go through appraisal of its policies, broaden its front by way of engaging with issues of contemporary concern, evolve methods of struggle that involve broader masses and other stakeholders in the struggle, engage meaningfully with other political and social forces to form a broad united front. While the historical trend will move towards the direction of collapse of the capitalist system and industrial society, what role the Naxalite will play in this process time alone will show.

11. In the wake of the situation in Bastar and world wide protest against Dr. Binayak Sen’s arrest, many new voices on the situations have come up. They explain the social background in which the naxalite movements exist and aslo how the ruling classes use naxalites as scapegoat to evict tribals from their homes. Arundhiti Roy, Nandita Hkasar, Dayamani Barla and many others have published important contributions to the subject.

22

ACTIVISTS FOR THE POOR

Naxalites and Napm

Obviously Naxalites and NAPM (National Alliance of People’s Movement) activists are not the only activists working for the poor people. However, they comprise the largest of such coalitions.

Naxalites, who started as a breakaway Maoist group of the communist movement in 1967, today have grown, in the form of CPI (Maoist), into a formidable people’s army of 12,000 armed cadres, spread over 170 districts, comprising a population of nearly 100 million and covering nearly 25% of land area in the country. They mainly deal with issues of exploitation (wages and union rights of miners, agriculture labour, forced labour, land to tiller, wages of forest workers) and oppression (insults, forced labour, dress code, use of separate tea cups in hotels, insults to poor women including rape and so on). They also deal with armed attacks of police, landlord’s armies and state- sponsored anti- naxalite organisations.

NAPM grew around Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and today encompasses various such movements all over India. They organise mainly the victims of so-called Development, the displaced persons from development projects, who have lost their sources of livelihood – land and forest- and have become destitute or on the verge of becoming so. Before NBA, there were other important movements like Chipko and Koel Karo.

Among other groups, Vahini, an offshoot of the JP Movement, has its own network of such movements. It is called National Co-ordination of Democratic Forces, comprising of 21 organisations in 13 states of north and central India. Vahini is mainly organising development oustees. More recently they have been active against the Jharkhand government selling mining leases to the steel giants. Christian groups have been active locally, mainly with tribals, collaborating with other tribal groups. Dalit groups, (including dalit Muslim groups) by and large work in isolation, with their own communities, suspecting all others as tainted by Brahminism. They have also produced significant literature. Specific women’s groups and large number of fringe groups and individuals in many anti- authoritarian religious groups also have been acting meaningfully with the poor people.

There are very few NGOs left who do ‘constructive programmes’. Most of them are funder driven and are doing advocacy work. However some good work has been done around environment and livelihood issues and organic farming for the poor. Some Gandhians and subsistence anarchists have also done good work with poor with voluntary simplicity. While their achievements are not significant they are contributing to a possible vision of the future, which is based on low consumption of earth’s resources.

Similarities and Differences

The common thing among all the above is that they have the same constituency, that of the poor which constitutes about 30% of India’s population. The other important thing is that none of the parliamentary parties support them and many actively oppose them. The State and these parties are openly opposed to poor people’s movement since the mid 80s, specifically starting from the Bhopal Gas episode where none of these parties came to help the citizens of Bhopal. They all support ‘development policies ‘ that amount to genocide of a section of the poor, immense

23

suffering to rest of them and lead to ecological disaster.

The main differences are:

1. Naxalite groups are prepared to use counter-violence, have an aim of overthrowing the State, are illegal in many parts of the country and live among the poor people as “fish in water’.

2. NAPM and others do not use counter-violence as a rule, have a critique of development, and work with development oustees. Their lifestyle is middle class, with ‘church mission compound’ or ‘campus’ culture i.e. keeping a distance from the poor people. However many of them practice voluntary simplicity.

Lack of Vision

All these organisations are fighting against something (NAPM – against development devastation, Naxalites – against exploitation and oppression, against capitalism and imperialism), but they are not fighting for something. They do not have a vision of what a future society should look like. This lack of a positive cause is a principal weakness of the movement. It leads to a lack of moral energy, on the one hand, and, on the other, lack of support of ‘sympathisers’, people who share your vision but are unable to participate. This also leads to a lack of support from middle class people, media and even from sections of critical upper class, all of which is crucial for making any movement broad based success.

Compare this to earlier times in the twentieth century. For India, during the first half of the century there was the independence movement with various visions of free India. Then in the late 60s with fall of the Congress monolith, various parliamentary and non-parliamentary alternatives emerged that gave rise to several social movements. Today all the parliamentary parties appear corrupt, nakedly opposed to the poor people, totally selling out to imperialist forces in the form of liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation and defence deals with the USA. On the other hand, China taking the road to capitalism in the 1980s and fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s has robbed the left of its vision of the future. Thus while the Maoist are gaining due to the fact that they are serving the poor in their dire situation, a lack of vision is not allowing a general enthusiasm for a revolutionary alternative to grow. A small exception to this scene is Gandhian and anarchist groups who believe and practice for a future based on low-tech option.

TINA or TINHFU

The lack of hope in future is not limited to just these groups. The entire society is suffering from this malaise. The ruling class tells us that There Is No Alternative (TINA). Actually what they are telling us that There Is No Hope for You (TINHFU).

So it is not just the poor that are facing exploitation, oppression, displacement, destitution and genocide. The entire trade union movement is on the retreat for nearly two decades. Millions of people have lost jobs. Schooling, medical and transport expenses have shot up so much that much of the middle class is in debt. The rural middle classes too are in debt due to rising costs of agricultural inputs, schooling, health care and transport, on one hand and, on the other, low yields and falling prices. Some rural farmers in desperation are committing suicide. There is a general sense of giving up, a collective unconscious of no hope!

The activists too are burying their heads in the sand and are refusing to face the reality – a reality of acute crisis of capitalism and ecology. We are all fighting losing battles and rejoicing in

24

victories of little skirmishes; stopping some dam, a weapon site or getting some guilty people exposed and punished. Can we afford to ‘time pass’ like this?For, the fact is that time is running out. World capitalism is going through an acute crisis and is therefore getting desperate and aggressive. It is engaging in suicidal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and getting ready to wage war in Syria and Iran. It is promoting aggressive consumerism. In the last century it has exploited the earth’s resources at such a high rate that we have now reached an ecological crisis where natural regeneration cannot replace what is being consumed. We also appear to be very near to a point where a runaway ecological crisis can occur when no corrective action will be possible. Added to this is the fact that the world population has risen six times in the last century, which by itself is capable of triggering an ecological catastrophe. In as much as there is no visible and significant corrective trend, many people believe that we have already reached a point of no return.

Need for a Dialogue

Given the urgency of the situation, it is high time that we look beyond the immediate and plan for a viable future that fits the ideas we strive for. Given the fact that all these groups are working with the people and the people in turn support them it is reasonable to assume that all of them have some ideals, which are in the interest of the people. It, therefore, makes sense if we have a dialogue to arrive at a more comprehensive vision of the future that can inspire all the activists and sympathisers.

One may ask why a dialogue among these groups is more important than any other since the whole society is in crisis? One answer is that it is the greatest sufferers; the victims who are often provide the energy for change. However, the more important reason is that in the present crisis these are the people who are dying first and they have the maximum skills for survival in a post doomsday scenario. Most of us cannot even make fire without a matchstick! Or a rope with grass!For a dialogue to occur between different groups, some criterions should emerge. These could be:

1. Readiness to listen to other, respectfully, assuming that every one has something from which we can learn and modify our position.

2. Readiness to look critically at our own past, pose questions raised by others and those emerging from our past/present practice and try to answer them.

For instance, the Naxalites have to pose:

1. Ecological concerns, saving forests and our water resources along with the struggle for the exploited.2. Is modern industry compatible with ecological concerns? Are tobacco, alcohol, large dams, and nuclear weapons compatible with ideas of socialism, peace and ecology?3. Relationship between technology, division of labour, power and the state – the problems that plagued the Soviet and the Chinese experience. What do we learn from them?4. Role of violence in people’s struggle. How to overcome its negative impact within organisations and people. The question of ends and means.5. Stand on communalism.

Similarly NAPM has to pose questions and answer them:

1. Attitude towards the State. Why do they run to the State institutes when the State and its

25

institutes consistently oppose them?2. Contradictions among their constituencies. The farmers around Mandleshwar, themselves have caused an ecological havoc, much before the dam came. They oppose the dam because it will submerge their lands on which they were practising such irrational agricultural methods.3. Pacifism and the state. Can any State be peace loving?4. Alienation between activists and people.

Christian groups have to face similar questions as NAPM and for Roman Catholics, authoritarianism of Vatican, abortion etc. are added questions.

Dalits have to pose the question of treating all other groups as Brahminical. These are only examples of some of the questions and it is not an exhaustive list. For the dialogue to be meaningful, we should be prepared to be as thorough as possible and go as deep as possible.

The Quaker Method

The Quaker Method of conducting meetings has proved very useful in political movements in recent times. Quakers’ real name is Society of Friends. They are an antiauthoritarian Christian religious group. They do not advertise themselves or practice conversion. You become a ‘Quaker by Convincement’. In fact there are Quakers who are agnostics. Quakers can be considered as belonging to pacifist anarchist tendencies, which include the ideas Tolstoy and Gandhi.

Quakers believe that there is divinity in every individual. This principle translated in secular terms amounts to the idea that every one has access to some aspect of the Truth. In meetings and dialogues, it is assumed that all are searching for truth, that you listen to others carefully and examine your own truth. The objective is not to arrive at compromise, consensus or agreement, but to realise truth collectively as much as possible.

This method is not unique to Quakers. Quakers themselves observed similar methods with American (Red) Indians. Nearer home there are reports of tribals in Ghadchiorli discussing issues threadbare and reaching a decision only when everyone was clear about it and agreed to it. In recent times, in anti-globalisation demonstrations all over the world, groups believing in non-violence and groups believing in ‘unconventional tactics’ including violence learned to work together successfully. At the Seattle protest against WTO, the varied groups involved used this method to act in unison.For our purposes even if we learn to respect each other, and understand their point of view and cooperate at the field level, it will be a big step forward.

Appendix

Collective Intelligence and Quaker Practice

By Leonard Joy <leonardjoy@igc.org>

The ways in which society generally provides for collective discernment and decision-making are ill designed to tap our collective intelligence and do much to explain our collective inability to

26

discern and pursue the common good. The fact that adversarial debate is likely to fail to respect all needs and legitimate interests - and, at best, provides for compromise- is fairly readily grasped. Where not all voices are equally heard, the neglect of some concerns may be acute. And where there is no mutual caring between parts and whole there is pathology, even death.

I have many experiences of sustained decision-making in which, in my judgement, collective wisdom prevailed. I shall now examine the practice that supported this and consider whether its preconditions have general application. The practice in question is the Quaker practice of decision-making. The fact that it is approached as “a meeting for worship for business,” in particular, raises the question of its more general applicability. Let me anticipate and say that, approached as a meeting for discerning the common good, the practice stands up well in secular contexts.

The appended extracts from a Quaker Faith and Practice describe the practice. They also describe its mystical roots-the belief that “there is that of God in everyone,” and that this can be experienced so that discourse can be “Spirit-led.”

The essentials of Quaker practice, translated where necessary into secular terms, are as follows (no special order):

1. grounding of all participants in the desire for the common good2. ensuring that all voices are heard and listened to3. respect for all - both participants and those outside (but affected by) the decision making

process4. respect and caring for the agreed legitimate interests of all5. maintaining community-loving relationship - as a primary concern6. grounding of all participants in their own humanity and their experience of it during the

meeting 7. sensitivity to interdependence-open systems thinking 8. speaking out of the silence (the state of being personally grounded)9. addressing the clerk/facilitator not one another 10. speaking simply and not repeating what has already been offered11. contributing personal perceptions and convictions-speaking one’s own truth-without

advocating that all should act on it12. the commitment to air dissent13. not using emotion to sway others while being authentic with the expression of feeling14. distinguishing “threshing” meetings from meetings for decision-making15. preparing factual and analytical material for assimilation prior to meetings for decision16. the role of the clerk/facilitator in offering syntheses of the “sense of the meeting” that are

progressively modified until there is unity17. the role of the clerk/facilitator in resolving difficulty in coming to unity 18. decisions are made not by majority vote, nor by consensus, but by unity19. the organisational structures that bring to bear the voices of many collectivities.

In principle, LeonardJay’s description of the Quaker Method is a very good guide. However, real life always demands adaptation and practicality. If undertaken from a position of standing on good principles the end result is generally closer to the model.

Published in Frontier, Kolkata, March 25-31, 2007

27

THE LOGIC OF OL CHIKI

A Tribute to Guru Gomke Pandit Raghunath Murmu

Some time during the mid 80s my friend Ms. Kaveri Dutt was joining her husband at Rairangpur. She asked me what she could do in such a remote place. I said why, the best thing you can do is to visit Pandit Raghunath Murmu and write down his memoirs. She went and visited his house. His son came out and said sadly “How would you know? After all no newspaper published the news of his death, let alone an obituary. He died last month”.

I have never met Pandit Raghunath Murmu or read his biography. I hope a good biography does exist by now. But I knew him by his works and by legends about him. He was known for his knowledge of a large number of languages. He certainly knew Santhali, Ho, Mundari, Oriya, Bengali, Sadan and Hindi. Possibly he knew many more. He has certainly given a lot of thought to the problem of scripts. He was confronted with Santhali being written in Bengali, Oriya, Devnagari and Roman scripts. He found none of them satisfactory for his language. And so he invented a new script for Santhali called OL Chiki. He cut his letters in wood himself and printed them on his own press at Rairangpur. He printed several books to help Santhali people to learn to read their own language. I have met one very tall and handsome Santhali person travelling all over Jharkhand and propagating OL Chiki. He was dressed in green and had a white strip across his shoulder on which OL Chiki letters were printed. He used to sing beautifully “Bono Jangalo Bhora Amaro Jharkhando”.

Ol Chiki was recognised by the West Bengal govt. in 1978 for the instruction of Santhal children at the primary stage. When Guru Gomke (the’ Great Teacher’ - the title of Pandit Raghunath Murmu) was reportedly asked by the former Maharaja of Mayurbhanj, to cease propagating the script because it was divisive ‘ the Guru was said to have replied that he would gladly do so ‘ if the Maharaja would see to that the Oriya script was also abandoned!’

Scripts in India

I don’t know the reasons and logic Pt. Murmu had for the invention of his script. I can only tell how I came to appreciate his efforts. I believe this may throw some light on the vexed question of scripts in India. “India is a home of 10 syllaberies ( scripts) that are used by dominant national groups. These are:

Devnagari (Hindi, Marathi, Nepali & Sanskrit and as link script officially for the whole country), Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujrati and Panjabi.

For more than hundred years some voices have been heard for a common script in India. Apart from Devnagari and Roman, several attempts have been made to modify them or even invent new scripts as a common script for India. All these attempts have failed miserably. There is also a lot of energy for imposing Devnagari script on scriptless languages, that is mainly Adivasi languages. They have usually been using Roman script mainly due to the efforts of Christian missionaries in the field of education among Adivasis. For Santhali, it was P.O. Bodding a missionary, who introduced the Roman script as a common script for Santhali spoken in different states. It is however worth remembering that Christian missionaries have also taken a lead in standardising many Indian scripts, preparing and publishing their grammars and dictionaries.

28

Pandit Raghunath Murmu invented and printed in his own script more than 30 years ago. Recently I have even seen a new script for Ho language. I also understand that they have developed software for using these scripts on a computer. Since they are all alphabetic scripts, it is easy to design software for them.

Will the Adivasi use these new scripts or will they use one of the existing scripts? It is for them to decide. Different historical conditions will probably evolve a different solution for each language and region. Below I will describe how I came to appreciate Pt. Raghunath Murmu’s position.

A Common Script for India?

I belong to the dominant/ powerful national groups in India. However being Kannadiga, I belong to a somewhat middle position. Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi & English etc are more powerful groups. So I ended up learning the languages of the dominant groups viz. English, Hindi, Marathi and Bengali. My knowledge of my own language, Kannada is poorest.

I began, like many others, to think that India should have one common script either Roman or Devnagari. The arguments for either of them are quite powerful and many good people who are interested in the subject have taken one or the other position.

Then I came across “Nagri Lipi Parishad” and their journal “Nagari Sangam”. I became a life member and so for the last 1 0 years I have been reading their views which mainly support Nagari as a link script in India. Most of the articles try to prove the superiority of the Nagari script, many authors advocate adoption of Nagari as common script for India and some even voice for Vishwa Nagari for the whole world, since, in their opinion it is the best script! As I read the journal, I began to think that if the Nagari script is all that great why don’t all the Indian nationalities (like Maharashtrians) adopt it? Over time the reasons became clear to me. They can not undo their written and especially the printed history. They have much to lose and little to gain. That is how B.C. Roy, the then Chief Minister of W. Bengal put it - “If the whole country wants to adopt Bengali script, I have no objection” meaning to say that we Bengalis will never change our script. The irony is that it was a Bengali, Justice Mitra, who in 1898 first began the Ek Lipi Parishad Parishad, proposing a common script for India. It is also poignantly brought out by Sindhi Sahitya which repeatedly rejected Devnagari script and retained their Perso-Arabic script. Their logic was that Sindhi Hindus today are land less people and if they lose their script also they will lose their cultural heritage of the great Sufi saints.

Contrast this with the tragedy of Panjabi. The Indian Panjabis changed their script from Perso-Arabic to Gurumukhi. Now many important Panjabi writers have stopped writing in Panjabi and are writing in Hindi. They have been cut off from their own literary tradition of Bulle Shah and other Sufi saints. They are also cut off from their Pakistani brothers and sisters who continue to write Panjabi in Perso-Arabic. Only the T.V. with its shallow culture gives them a bridge.

The story of Outer Mongolia is also very instructive. When they joined the Soviet Union, they changed their ideogrammatic script to Cyrillic (Russian) alphabetic script. After the break of the Soviet Union, they have gone back to their original script. They have got a UNESCO grant to transliterate important literary efforts during the soviet period into their original ideogrammatical script.

So changing script is not such an easy matter. Today no one will change his script to another script, no matter how wonderful the other script is. They can do only at the cost of losing a lot of their cultural heritage and identity.

29

But what about scriptless societies, that is Adivasi languages? This is where dominant scripts like a Roman, Nagari, Bengali etc. are trying to impose themselves with apparently rational arguments. As a general rule, most societies today when adopting a new script, when they had no previous script will go for an alphabetic script. In India it means Roman. Or they will invent their own script like OL Chiki, which is also alphabetic. What are the reasons for it? Can one script be betterthan others? Are syllaberies (Indian scripts like Nagari, Bengali etc.) are superior to alphabetic ( Roman, Arabic, Cyrillic) or Ideogrammatic scripts (Chinese, Mongolian, Korean etc. ) ?

What is a Script?

The most lucid work on this subject that I’ve read is by Anthony Burgess in his “Language Made Plain”. What is a script? It is a tool that converts language from a temporal (time) mode to spatial (space) mode. When we speak, our thoughts are expressed one after another in time. When we write it is converted to space. We can go backward and forward, where as speech is, as the wise old saying is, ‘like an arrow, once released, it does not come back.’ So think before you open your mouth!

There are three kinds of scripts in the world - ideogrammatic, alphabetic and syllaberies. All evolved independently and in different regions.

- Pictograms Pictograms in Egypt and in their more evolved form ideograms in China and Korea,. Alphabets alphabet in West Asia (Arabic) and syllaberies in India. Outside India there is only one syllabery, that is in Japan, which has all the three systems!

Now each system has its advantages and disadvantages. The great advantage of ideogram is that it is not phonetic. So people using different languages can use the same script! That is how China remained united over the centuries. There won’t be any need for translations if the whole world were to adopt it! In a limited sense the world has adopted it in the form of mathematical symbols like plus, minus, multiplied by, and divided by and so on. In most cases the Roman numbers 1,2,3---0 also are used universally and are ideograms!

The disadvantage is of course the large number of ideograms, nearly 4000 in Chinese that you have to learn. Modem Chinese has reduced it to 400 or so. Still they could not have typewriters and till the computers came in the seventies all Chinese, Japanese and Korean correspondence was hand written. That is why they have such a wonderful tradition of calligraphy and why the computer revolution quickly took place in these countries.

The advantage of syllaberies is that they are the most phonetic scripts. This allows a new reader to pronounce correctly. It is particularly useful when you are a foreigner to that language. The disadvantage is that it is also a difficult script due to its half letters and vowel signs (matras). Secondly, being so true phonetically can also cause problems due to problem of standardization of spelling. The same word is pronounced differently in different regions of the same language and therefore it is spelt differently.

Alphabetic scripts historically did not have vowels to begin with. Vowels got added on and thus they are not fully phonetic and have some glaring irrationalities. Indians never tire making fun of English spellings and quoting George Bernard Show who left a large sum of money for spelling reform in English.

30

The great advantage of alphabets particularly that of Roman, is its simplicity. There are only 26 letters, there are no half letters, vowel signs and so on. The greatest point is their adaptability to machines. Even with computers, it is not easy to use Indian syllaberies or ideograms on computers. These are the main reasons why so many “script less” societies prefer Roman/alphabetic scripts.

The Logic of Ol Chiki

So where does this leave us? Anthony Burgess said that most of the irrationality of English spelling is due to the fact that Roman script is suitable mainly for Italian language! This is the clue. Scripts are like dresses. While we can we can wear the dress of any culture, we are comfortable only in our own dress. There are no superior or inferior dresses. Each is suitable for that culture or for that work. Similarly any language can be written in any script, but it is best expressed in its own script. That is the logic of Ol Chiki.

Development of various scripts for different languages followed the requirement of the particular language. Furthermore, a script is also a part of the effort to define and assert one’s identity. ‘A language is mother, a script is father’, says a tribal leader.

It is of course for the Santhalis to choose their script. Different Santhalis living in different parts of India may use those dominant scripts. But in Jharkhand Ol Chiki may find its place of pride. That will be the best tribute that the newly confident Jharkhandis can pay to Guru Gomke Pandit Raghunath Murmu!_____________________________________________________________________Published in Frontier, Sep. 29-Oct. 2, 2002, Kolkata.

31

BUDDHISM IN MODERN INDIA

Why do statues of Ambedkar have his index finger pointing outward? Because he restarted Buddhism’s Wheel of Dharma (with his finger in its spokes) which had stopped in India for centuries! …So the story goes. The mythology of resurgence of Buddhism in modern India is charming and romantic.

It begins with a boy working in a field in Konkan (Goa) who reads the life of Buddha in a torn Marathi newspaper. He is so charged by it that he travels to Nepal (via Pune and Banaras, studying Sanskrit and Pali) the birthplace of Buddha in search of Buddhism, only to find that he has to go to Ceylon (Sri Lanka today) to look for it. Undaunted, he travels to Ceylon and Burma and becomes Buddhist and a scholar. Back in India, he teaches Pali at Calcutta University, goes to Baroda, meets James Wood of Harvard University and ends up editing and translating a Buddhist tome at Harvard, published as one of the volumes in the Harvard Oriental Series. Returning again to India he teaches at Gujarat University then joins the Salt Satyagraha, spending six years in jail and moving on to Banaras Hindu University. Towards the end he decides to exit from his life in the Jain way only to be persuaded by Gandhi to come to live in Sevagram, where he breathes his last. Acharya Dharmanand Kosambi (1876-1947) remains one of the greatest scholars of Buddhism and Jainism that India has produced. He was also father of an equally illustrious son, Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi!

Buddhism in Sri Lanka

What did Kosambi find in Sri Lanka? How come Buddhism was flourishing there? There lies another romance. On May 18, 1880, two colourful persons arrived in Sri Lanka – one a New England puritan, Col. Henry Steele Olcott (1832-1907), and the other an occultist, Mme. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891). They identified themselves as Buddhists but not with ‘the sorry state of the Buddhist community’ that they found there. They created an ‘esoteric’ variety of Buddhism that was in essence the same as Vedanta, since they had already founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875. In fact within a month, on June 17 1880, they created the Buddhist Theosophical Society.

Olcott had a missionary zeal for education. He had already created agriculture education in the USA. Here, he campaigned for the access of Buddhist children to English medium education, a privilege enjoyed by Christians only. In 1881, he wrote the Buddhist Catechism and also created the Buddhist Educational Association. He founded the Ananda College at Colombo (1886), Dharmaraja College at Kandy (1887), and Mahinda College at Galle (1892). In 1889 he went to Japan and brought together 12 Buddhist sects together and organised a convention of Southern Buddhists of Burma, Siam and Ceylon.

This was the Buddhism that young Kosambi found flourishing in Sri Lanka. The modern Sinhala bourgeoisie / middle class is largely a product of this English medium education. In 1880 a young Sinhala boy came under the influence of Olcott. Son of a furniture merchant, the youth was impressed by the simplicity of Buddhist monks. Olcott took him to Adyar in 1884 and brought him back in 1886 to collect funds for the Buddhist Educational Association. The young Bhikku Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) was moved by the plight of rural people. He became a great Buddhist scholar and propagandist who brought Buddhism to India, pioneering the revival movement at enormous personal sacrifice.

32

Buddhism Comes Back to India

Before Anagarika Dharmapala established the Maha Bodhi Society in 1891, Buddhism in India was in a chaotic condition. Holy places connected with the life of the Buddha were neglected and dilapidated, and the shrines were considered as show pieces under the control of non-Buddhists. Dharmapala was heart broken when he saw the lamentable condition of Bodhagaya Temple, then in the possession of a Hindu Mahant. He resolved to recover the Bodhagaya Temple and other places of Buddhism and spread the dharma in the land of its birth, and so with this determination he founded the Maha Bodhi Society.

The Buddhist revival movement initiated by Dharmapala spread in many parts of India. Branches of the Society were established in Sarnath, Bodh Gaya, Calcutta, Madras and Sanchi. He influenced many scholars, such as, Rahul Sankrityayana, Bhadant Anand Kausalayayan, Jagdish Kasyap and Dharmaraakshita, all trained in Sri Lanka and who propagated Buddhism in India by translating the Buddhist religious books lost in India for centuries.

Dharmapala established Upasana centres, libraries, schools, colleges, orphanages and hospitals in India and Sri Lanka for the general public. He was a great patriot and unflinching advocate of independence both in India and Sri Lanka. He helped India to rediscover Buddha and take pride in Buddhism and Buddhist culture. The present flourishing condition of Bodhagaya, Sarnath, Kushinagar and Sanchi and many other sacred places of Buddhism in India are the direct result of Dharmapala’s untiring and selfless efforts.

He died on 29th April 1933 at Sarnath. His last words were: “Let me die soon. Let me be reborn. I can no longer prolong my agony; I would like to be born again 25 times to spread the Buddha dhamma.”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891-1956)

Ever since the 1935 Depressed Classes Conference, when he had shocked Hindu India with the declaration that though he had been born a Hindu he did not intend to die one, Ambedkar had been giving earnest consideration to the question of conversion. Further consideration made him increasingly convinced that there was no future for the Untouchables within Hinduism, that they would have to adopt another religion, and that the best religion for them to adopt was Buddhism. Some scholars think that John Dewey, the American philosopher who was his teacher, influenced him.

In 1950, he visited Sri Lanka at the invitation of the Young Men’s Buddhist Association, Colombo, where he addressed a meeting of the World Fellowship of Buddhists in Kandy and appealed to the Untouchables of Sri Lanka to embrace Buddhism. In 1951, he wrote an article defending the Buddha against the charge that he had been responsible for the decrease in women’s status in ancient India. The same year, he compiled the Bauddha Upasana Patha, a small collection of Buddhist devotional texts.

In 1955, he founded the Bharatiya Bauddha Mahasabha or Buddhist Society of India. Addressing the thousands of Untouchables who had assembled for the occasion, he declared that henceforth he would devote himself to the propagation of Buddhism in India. He also announced that he was writing a book, ‘The Buddha and His Dhamma’, explaining the tenets of Buddhism in simple language for the benefit of the common man. It was published after his death in November 1957

33

and is described as his magnum opus.On 14 October 1956, Ambedkar took the Three Refuges and Five Precepts from a Buddhist monk in the traditional manner and then, in turn, administered them to the 3,80,000 men, women, and children who had come to Nagpur in response to his call. Ambedkar died on 6th December 1956.

Although Ambedkar had been a Buddhist for only seven weeks, during that period he probably did more for the promotion of Buddhism than any other Indian since Ashoka. At the time of his death three quarters of a million Untouchables had become Buddhists, and in the months that followed, hundreds of thousands more took the same step-despite the uncertainty and confusion that had been created by the sudden loss of their leader.

Why did Revival of Buddhism Fail to Help the Dalits?

Ambedkar’s contribution to the cause of Dalits has undoubtedly been the most significant event in 20th century India. His conversion to Buddhism shook India and gave an enormous sense of pride to the Dalits. It also strengthened the liberals among caste Hindus who were uncomfortable/ashamed of the practice of untouchability in India and oppressions of the Dalits. The socialist and the communist trends in India were also strengthened. It should also be remembered that Ambedkar played a big role in drafting the Indian Constitutions with affirmative justice (reservation) clauses in it.

While Ambedkar is still a very important name in Dalit’s struggle, Buddhism has not played any significant role in it. Certainly not the kind of role it played for the Sinhala middle classes. Among the lower- income, rural neo- Buddhists there is practically no change in the worldview. Their village Buddhism tends to make new gods out of Buddha and Ambedkar and fit them into Hindu pantheon. Even the ideas of purity and pollution directed at castes ‘lower’ than themselves remain widespread. The fault is not entirely theirs. Buddhists Viharas in poor Dalit areas are neglected and priest/Buddhist Bhikkus never comes there. Dalits have repeatedly demanded that they be taught at least some Buddhist prayers. But no one comes. It is only the more educated, politically mobilised minority among the neo-Buddhists who take the scientific temper of the Buddhist teaching into their lives. In simpler words, it means it helped them acquire middle-class status.

Hindu Revivalism in the Nineteenth Century

The revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and later in India bears a marked resemblance to Hindu revivalism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Like in Sri Lanka, they, the middle classes, faced the criticism and threat of Christianity. They faced two contrary pulls. On one hand they wanted the colonial jobs and to socialise with the colonial masters, on the other they did not want to become Christians as some of their more daring countrymen did. They way out was Hindu reform in the form of Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj. Undoubtedly these reforms also served the cause of anti-colonial struggles. A similar mix of reforms took place all over the country and most of them were aimed at educated middle classes though they did talk in the name of the country as a whole. The important fact is that they all harked back to ancient India, back to the authority of the Vedas, ignored the medieval period of saints and remained authoritarian and sectarian. They also implied that the plight of the Hindu society was due to Muslim invasion. This led to, even in the 19th century, Hindu-Muslim divide in Western U.P.

Both Gandhi and Tagore were aware of this problem. While Gandhi called himself a ‘sanatan Hindu’, Tolstoy and the anti-authoritarian Christian Quakers influenced him. He sought and

34

found such traditions in Hinduism, using them effectively both in South Africa and later in India. Therefore, he was able to work with and inspire a wider section of Indian society.

Tagore had Acharya Kshiti Mohan Sen with him at Shantiniketan, probably the greatest scholar of his time on medieval religious movements in India. His great work, ‘Madhyayuger Sadhana’ influenced Tagore. Tagore learnt a large range of Indian folk music ranging from boatmen’s song in Bengal to Panjabi Tappa. Most of it was from rebel, anti-authoritarian religious tradition of Indian society. The important thing to note is that it was relatively less sectarian and often cut across the Hindu-Muslim divide.

However, in as much as the leadership of the movement was largely middle class it remained culturally revivalist, authoritarian and sectarian. As independence began to loom over the horizon, particularly after the 1937 assembly election when only propertied classes voted, sectarianism was vigourously articulated, fighting to inherit the rule from the British, which led to the well-known tragic consequences.

Ambedkar found that his community was losing out and he was desperately looking for cultural rejuvenation of the community. For a variety of personal and historical reasons, some outlined above, he chose Buddhism. He died within months of conversion and all he could contribute was his book, ‘Buddha and his Dharma’. It remains marginal to the Dalit movement. Like the Hindu reform movement, Ambedkar also harked back to ancient India. Having been exposed to Western education, he too lacked respect for the culture of his people. Thus, addressing his people he scolded, ‘Tolerance of insults and tyranny... has killed the sense of retort and revolt. Vigour and ambition have completely vanished from you. All of you have become helpless, unenergetic and pale. Everywhere there is an atmosphere of defeatism and pessimism...’ His response to the medieval saints was that they did not oppose the caste system. In his complete neglect and disparagement of the cultural tradition of his own people, he was not unaware of it. His own father was a follower of Kabir. Thus his Buddhism, again a product of the New England Puritanism of Olcott and Deweyan rationalism, could only help a Dalit middle class to rise but could not help the Dalit poor. Also, one must not forget, Buddhism too is an authoritarian religion!

What Happened to Buddhism in India?

The Cultural Traditions of the Working Poor

The Chinese traveller, Huen Tsang gives evidence, that in the 7th century, Buddhism, particularly its Mahayana sect was flourishing in North India. What happened to Buddhism after that? There is no clear picture about it, but it could not have vanished without a trace.

It is said that Buddhism left India due to Vedantic and Mimansak Acharyas like Shankaracharya, Kumaril and Udayan. While that is historically untrue, what it means is that the world of pundits and intellectuals lost faith in it, as the ordinary people were never interested in its theology. When Buddhism lost its patronage, many Bauddha Mathas got converted to Shaiva Mathas and even today millions of people worship there. Buddhism itself turned to attract people through Tantra, magic etc. During 9th and 10th centuries in the Nepal terai region a mixture of Shaiva and Buddhist Sadhana gave rise to the Nath Panthi yogis. In Nepal even today Buddha and Shiva are respected equally. The founder of the Nath Panthis was Gorakhnath. There is a tradition that he met with Allamprabhu, the founder of the

35

Lingayat tradition in the south at the Srisailam hill in present-day Andhra Pradesh. Thus, the wind of change was flowing across the land.

There was a continuous pressure for religions to turn towards people and people’s language. In the Apabhransh (pre-modern language) literature we find Buddhist songs and couplets. Later the same metaphors keep on reappearing in many saints’ writings. The culmination of this trend came with Kabir and the Nirguna tradition. Kabir and many of his successors like Dadu and Jayasi grew in an Islamic social atmosphere. Sufis had spread in many parts of India and most of these saints were familiar with their ideas. Later, in Guru Nanak’s travelogues, there are scores of encounters with Sufis. Sikhism also created the Granth Sahib, a collection of all the important saints’ songs and poems till then in the Nirgun tradition. This tradition did not accept the authority of the Vedas and the Gita, and the majority of the saints who followed it came from the artisan castes.

There was also the tradition of Krishna Kavya, written mainly in Braj, which also had an all-India spread. For instance, the Krishna Kavya in Braj was written in Kerala! Bengal and Orissa also had a strong Braj tradition. The Ram Bhakti tradition was equally widespread. These traditions accepted the authority of the Vedas and the Gita, and many of the saints were Brahmins, like Surdas and Tulsidas.

Scholars often use the term Bhakti Movement for the movement of medieval saints, in Indian tradition. The term however, tends to see the many trends whtin it without differentiating. But it is possible to differentiate between those that have accepted the authority of the Vedas and the Gita and the other or ‘Ved Bahya’ traditions that have not. I believe that it is the latter, the anti-authoritarian traditions, that represents the continuation of Buddhism in India.

An important element in anti-authoritarian traditions is the use of secular themes. In the Sufi tradition love among different caste and communities was used to establish that all are equal in the kingdom of God and that one does not need intermediaries like Mulla or Pandit to reach God. Kabir repeatedly made fun of Brahmins and Mullas and of Sanskrit. These saints constantly used images from daily life of ordinary peasants and artisans. This attitude gets reflected in the expressions of relatively recent poets like Ghalib. I believe these traditions are the important precursors of secular literature, ideology and organisations.

Today we find that the working people, both rural and urban, particularly those from artisan castes have inherited these traditions. Most workers do not distinguish between different traditions. In general, they respect all (in the style of the Hindu pantheon!). But many stick to the main tradition of their caste, and generally speaking the artisan castes belong to the Nirgun tradition. In any working-class district, groups of workers gather and sing these songs. Weekly market pavement bookshops often carry ‘chap’ literature of these saints. These traditions articulate themselves in various festivals and day-to-day cultural life of the ordinary people. These traditions are also found among the wives and parents of many ‘modern’ westernised middle-class persons who reject them while swearing by esoteric ancient India or atheistic / materialistic modernism.

Concluding Remarks

1. The Hindu revivalist movement of the last couple of centuries has harked back to ancient India because the middle classes, being exposed to English education and facing the criticism of Christianity, felt ashamed and contemptuous towards their ‘illiterate’ countrymen. They

36

also blamed the Muslim invasion for the loss of Hindu power. Thus, the nature of such revivalism was sectarian, on the one hand leading to the Hindu-Muslim divide while on the other looking down on the people’s multi-religious and composite cultural tradition.

2. Ambedkar also harked back to ancient India, yet it was to a tradition that was anti-Brahmin and opposed to the authority of the Vedas. But, having been molded by Western education he failed to respect the culture of his people. In discounting the medieval saints for not opposing the caste system, he failed to recognise that the people were at that time (and are still) holding onto aspects of those anti-authoritarian traditions. His Buddhism, a product largely of Olcott’s New England Puritanism and Deweyan rationalism, could only enable a Dalit middle class to rise but could not help the Dalit poor. And all in all, Buddhism too is an authoritarian religion!

3. We can arrive at a thumb rule of what kind of tradition is useful for people. Any tradition that is sectarian, ignoring the multi-cultural and multi-religious composite identity of present India is likely to be harmful. More specifically, any tradition that ignores the medieval period, ignores Islam, the saint tradition of this period including the Islamic tradition of Sufism, the Sikh tradition and Lingayat tradition of the South and harks back to ‘ancient India’, is likely to be either of no use or even injurious to the common people. This includes the Hindu revivalism of the Arya Samaj, the Brahmo Samaj, and the Ramakrishna Mission as well as Buddhist revivalism.

4. The choice is not between rationalism and irrationalism, atheism and theism, or materialism and idealism. The real choice however is between authoritarian and anti-authoritarian traditions. And, on their own, what people tend to choose is the latter.

5. It is the anti-authoritarian tradition that leads to secular trends like socialism and anarchism and organisations like trade unions and people’s co-operatives.

Published in Frontier, Kolkata, Sep, 24--Oct 21, 2006.

37

DAKHNI

The Language in Which the Composite Culture of India was Born

Dakhni: Mother of Modern Urdu and Hindi

When Wali Dakhni (also known as Wali Aurangabadi and Wali Gujarati), a famous poet of Dakhni visited Delhi in 1700, he astonished the poets of Delhi with his ghazals. He drew wide applause from the Persian-speaking poets, some of who, after listening to Wali, also adopted the language of the people, ‘Urdu’, as the medium of their poetic expressions. Prominent poets—Shah Hatem, Shah Abro and Mir Taqi Mir—were among his admirers.

At that time in Delhi, the court poets were composing in Persian and Arabic. For others, Braj and Awadhi were the languages of literary and religious expressions. The spoken language of all was Khari Boli. When the poets listened to Wali in Dakhni language (which is also a variant of Khari Boli) they were struck by the fact that the spoken language of the people was capable of such rich literary expression.

Wali Dakhni, born as Wali Muhammad (1667-1731 or 1743) was born in Aurangabad and went to Gujarat in search of a Guru. He became a disciple of Wajihuddin Gujarati and soon became famous. He came back and settled in Aurangabad but travelled twice to Delhi. His first trip produced the dramatic results mentioned above, and made him known as father of Urdu poetry. He died in Ahmedabad and Hindu fascists recently razed to ground his tomb in the aftermath of Godhra riots. Wali Dakhni composed 473 ghazals besides masnawis and qasidas. His ghazals are still sung by several singers including Abida Parveen.

Thus in the early eighteenth century, after Wali’s visit, Urdu as a literary language took birth. Both modern Hindi (written in Devnagari script) and Urdu (written in Perso-Arabic or Urdu script) are variants of Khari Boli spoken in Delhi and Meerut region. Court circles, Persian and Arabic scholars and especially the Muslims of Delhi adapted this language with much eagerness, and from the end of the 18th century the Mughal house turned only to Urdu. For the first 60 years or so the influence of the Dakhni poets, Sufi thinking and an Indianness of diction prevailed over Urdu. The term Four Pillars of Urdu is attributed to the four early poets: Mirza Jan-i-Janan Mazhar (1699-1781) of Delhi, Mir Taqi (1720-1808) of Agra, Muhammad Rafi Sauda (1713-1780) and Mir Dard (1719-1785).

Although Amir Khusro (1253-1325) and Kabir (1398-1448) used Khari Boli in the 14th and the 15th century, ‘Hindi’ became a literary language only in the latter half of the 19th century. Till then the authors were mainly writing in Braj and Awadhi. It was Raja Shiva Prasad ‘Sitare Hind’ (1824-1895) and Bharatendu Harishchandra (1849-1882) who first started writing in Khari Boli in Devnagari script. They were obviously influenced by the popularity of Urdu, which was written in Perso-Arabic or Urdu script. In the beginning the difference was mainly in the script and the authors knew both the scripts. In fact the famous Hindi author, Premchand (1880-1936) first wrote in Urdu under the name Nawabrai. Thus modern Hindi is only about 150 years old and like Urdu, has also been inspired by Dakhni.

A twentieth-century Kerala Hindi scholar, Dr. Muhammad Kunj Mettar, established Dakhni as source for modern Hindi. Dr. Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay also maintained that it was Deccan

38

that established the use of Khari Boli replacing Braj in the North. In fact, even the name Hindi for the language originated in the South. A Tamilian, Kazi Mahamud Bahari in 17th century used the word Hindi for Dakhni in his Sufi poetry called Man Lagan.

What is Dakhni?

Dakhni is the lingua franca of the Deccan. The Deccan is roughly the area between the Narmada and Tungabhadra or Krishna. On the east it is bounded by the Mahanadi and on the west by the Western Ghats. It is the great South Indian plateau. Politically it is comprised of Berar (present-day Vidarbha with Nagpur as its important city), ten Telangana districts of Andhra Pradesh, the Maharashtra districts of Latur, Nanded, Ahmednagar, Beed and Aurngabad, and the Karnataka districts of Bijapur, Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur and Bellary.

However as a spoken language Dakhni is widely used even outside this region. It is the lingua franca of all the Muslims in South India and is understood by all those who have access to Hindi. In many Hindi films, Dakhni words and dialogues are used and in films like ‘Hero Hiralal’ and ‘Sushman’, Dakhni was the main language. Recent films like ‘Angrez’ and ‘Hyderabadi Nawab’ also use Dakhni profusely. There are no current census figures for speakers of Dakhni because no one reports Dakhni as a mother tongue. Still the estimates of Dakhni speakers will run into crores, because its variants are spoken in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamilnadu. As folk tradition, in the urs of Sufi saints, in the songs used by beggars and fakirs, Dakhni is still widely used.

Linguistically it is a variant of Khari Boli as spoken in the Meerat region in U. P. However it has some specific differences. For “no’ it uses nako instead of nahin, for the word ‘only’ as used in Indian English it uses cha instead of hee and for OK it uses hau instead of han. In terms of vocabulary, up to 30% is constituted of local words so that in Telangana it has Telugu words, in Karnataka Kannada words and in Maharashtra Marathi and so on. As a rule, it is the first language of the Muslims in the region but most people exhibits bilingualism.

The Origin of Dakhni

The standard understanding of the origin is as follows. Medieval Deccan, known as Al Hind in the Arab world, was extremely rich. It attracted adventurers, traders, scholars and saints from all over the world. Turks and later Mughals came from the north. But the sea route through Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala was equally flourishing. Egyptians, Abyssinians and Arabs came through this route. Afsani Nikitin a Russian traveller, who spent several months in Bidar, thought that it was the capital of India!

Allauddin Khilji after conquering northern India moved to the Deccan to attack Devagiri on February 1295. He again attacked the city during 1306 and 1307. Malik Kafur carried the third attack to defeat the last of the Yadav kings of Deccan. Muhammad Tugluq transferred the capital from Delhi to Devagiri in 1326. In its wake thousands of families shifted from Delhi to the Deccan. Thus in the 14th century, soldiers and traders with their own dialects moved to the Deccan and settled among the Marathas, Kannadigas and Telugus. There were also many Hindus among them, such as Rajputs, Jats, Banias and Kayasthas. They brought dialects spoken in the Delhi region and these formed the basis of a literary speech, known as Dakhni.

39

In 1347 Hasan Bahamani became the ruler at Gulbarga. Soon the Bahamanis (1350-1525) became very powerful. Around 1489 the Bahamani state broke into four new states at Ahmednagar (1460-1633), Bijapur (1460-1686), Bidar (1487-1619) and Golconda (1512-1687). Aurangzeb defeated all of them one by one in the late 17th century. One of Aurangzeb’s Subedar, Asifjah, established an independent state around Hyderabad in 1723, which comprised areas in present-day Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The Nizam’s rule lasted till it was overthrown by independent India’s ‘Police Action’. Dakhni flourished in all these courts. With the Bahamanis it was the official language.

Dakhni historians divide the history of the literature in four periods. The key figures of the period and their main works are also given below.

1.1300-1500: Khwaza Bande Nawaz Gesu Daraj (1332-1437): Mairajul Ashkin, Hidayatnama, Shikarnama etc; Nizam Bidri (1462-92): Kadamrao va Padamrao

2.1500-1700: Muhammad Kuli Kutub Shah (1571-1611): Kulyate Muhammad Kulukutubshah; Mulla Vajahi: Sabrag; Mulla Gawasi: Maina Satwanti; Kazi Mahamud Bahari: Manlagan.

3.1700-1850: Wali Dakhni (1668-1741); Shah Turab: Jahur Kulli, Ganjul Asrar.

4.1850- Present: Purushottam (32 Plays inspired by Parsi Theatre).

Wali Dakhni signifies the beginning of the end of the great period of Dakhni. After him Urdu began to gain prestige, and in the Deccan, too, Urdu became popular as a literary language. Thus Dakhni had a rich cultural and literary history for four hundred years (1350-1850).

Today Dakhni is no longer a significant literary language in the South. First, Urdu and, then, Hindi replaced it. Later with the formation of linguistic states, the major Dakhni area, namely Hyderabad Nizam’s state, was split up, with portions going to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Later the status of Urdu, Persian and Arabic declined rapidly. Since most of Dakhni was written in Perso-Arabic script, access to it also declined for the new generations in the linguistic states.

The Nirgunia-Sufi Link

There are some lacunae in the standard account of the origin of Dakhni. For example, if the language was born with the Muslim invasion in the 14th century, how did such sophisticated poetry as that of Bande Nawaz emerge in so short a period? And why has Dakhni remained so popular?

Deccan, as we said above, is an area that can be defined as lying between the Narmada and the Tungabhadra rivers. The area south of the Deccan is called Dravid. The Deccan has been a meeting point of southern and northern cultures. This has given its culture a special quality. It does not keep its independent existence but spreads and accepts influences from north and south. It is a home for Kannada, Telugu and Marathi, and also has contributed to Hindi and Urdu.

So the contact with the north is far older than the Muslim invasion. Both Buddhists and Jain religions that were born in Bihar had significant presence in the South. The Jains even today have an important presence. After the decline of the Buddhists, it was the Shaivaite and Nathpanthis who inherited the Buddhist tradition. There was a lot of movement of Nathpanthis, Nirgunias,

40

Sikhs and Sufis from Punjab to Gulbarga, through Gujarat and Maharashtra. In Maharashtra, Gyaneshwar and his elder brother Nivrutinath are in direct tradition of Gorakhnath. Hence we find Namdev (1270-1351), a saint from Maharashtra and a tailor by caste, writing in Dakhni. His son Gonda also composed in Dakhni. Some 50 of Namdev’s poems are included in the Granth Sahib. Eknath and Tukaram are the two other Marathi saints who wrote extensively in Dakhni.However the bulk of Dakhni literature is in the Sufi tradition. Sufis too travelled from the North to the South, as did Nanak. Nanak reached up to Nanded and Bidar. Sufis spread all over the Deccan and every district has at least one important Sufi dargah. One should remember that all Muslims poets were not Sufis nor all Sufis were Muslim. For example Nizam Bidri’s Masanavi Kadam Rao va Padam Rao is a Jain Charit Kavya. Countless number of Hindus goes to the Sufi dargahs and many sing Sufi songs.

Distinction of Nirgunia Sadhana in Indian Tradition

Indian medieval sadhana is generally referred to as bhakti in English. This is a bit confusing because in Indian tradition, bhakti tends to mean the sagun sadhana or revering God with guna or qualities. Nirgunias, on the other hand, revere a formless God without qualities. This distinction has important social implications. Sagun sadhana means God with a form, which in turn means images of God and temples. It means a priest, a mediator between man and God, offerings and so on. Its manifestations in literary tradition have been Krishna Kavya and Ram Katha. Nirguna, on the other, hand implies no temples, offerings and so on. Nirgunias used simpler spoken language, which was akin to Khari Boli. Thus Kabir used some Khari Boli and later it generally became the language of nirguna sadhana. It thus travelled with the Nathpanthis, Sikhs (Nanak visited Bidar and Nanded) to the South. In fact the Indian tradition maintains that Bhakti (saguna sadhana) travelled from South to North whereas the nirguna sadhana travelled from north to south! There is a tradition that Allamprabhu, the guru of Lingayats, had a meeting with Gorakhnath at Srisailam! They certainly had much in common and it was probably a historic turning point for the Lingayats.

The Sufi Context

The Sufis were quite close to the Nirgunias in terms of world view, language and geography (western India and the Deccan). They were also simple people wandering around. They used to meet each other very often since the places of rest and worship tended to be common. In Nanak’s travels known as udasian, three is constant reference to the Sufis many of whom became his disciples. The Sufi tombs known as dargah are places of worship for all communities. The famous ones in the north are those of Moiuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Salim Chishti in Agra and Nizamuddin Aulia in Delhi. In the Deccan the most famous is that of Khwaza Bande Nawaz Gesu Daraz at Gulbarga. All over the Deccan, at the annual urs or anniversary at the local Sufi dargah they hold a festival where good Dakhni Sufi singing can be heard.

The Social Basis

By and large saguna had a peasant base, people who had a stable base and some wealth. The priests tended to be Brahmins. Many of the major saints, like Surdas, Tulsidas and Chaitanya etc. have been Brahmins. On the other hand, Nirgunias were wanderers and their followers were poorer people because it did not cost anything to be a Nirgunia or nirguna follower. Most of the nirguna saints came from artisan castes: weavers, potters, carpenters and cobblers. As a rule they had a greater social mobility as against the peasants who were tied to their lands or agricultural labourers who were generally bonded. The conversion to Islam, mainly due to the Sufis, also

41

occurred among the artisans because of their mobility. To this day, a majority of the Muslims in India are workers, artisans and petty traders. Finally in the South there were Lingayats who had a very similar religious and social basis. Geographically, saguna sadhana centres/temples are located in relatively prosperous river valleys whereas the nirgunias move around the relatively dry Deccan plateau.

There is another ‘small’ tradition. It is the Lambada and Pardhi migration to the Deccan. Lambadas are the great Roma gypsies of the world who spread from north Rajasthan to most of western India and through Central Asia to Russia and Europe. They have retained their language to this day all over the world and thus also contributed to Dakhni. Pardhis are a bird-trapper community, also from Rajasthan, and are thinly spread all over the Deccan. They too retain their language.

So we get a picture that in the medieval India there was a great social and religious mobility among the artisans and traders comprising the Nathpanthis, Nirgunias, Nanakpanthis and Sufis. It is these people who also carried a common language from the north to the south, which went back to the north in the eighteenth century with Wali Dakhni!

The ‘Ugly’ North Indian

Visitors from north India’s Hindi belt are often puzzled by the contradictory signals they get about Hindi in South India. On the one hand, they feel that every one understands them in the street—rikshawalas, shopkeepers, bus conductors and so on. Some of these visitors, like the Ugly American, patronizingly approve that the natives are speaking a tolerably understandable Hindi!

On the other hand, they find strong anti-Hindi feelings among the middle-class educated people. They conclude that actually Hindi is understood and ‘accepted’ by the common man in the South but it is being opposed by the ‘vested‘ interests who want to keep English alive for a better edge in the job market. So English, and for the leftists among them ‘imperialism’, is the enemy and they try the ‘Angrezi Hatao’ movement. Of course none of these ‘movements’ make a dent in the non-Hindi regions.

The problem with these people is that they think that Hindi is ‘their’ language, which is inherently so good that the rest of India has accepted it as the national language. They endlessly quote Rajgopalachari or Acharya Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay for this purpose. In fact they are again puzzled that these stalwarts of Hindi later denounced Hindi chauvinism.

They fail to understand that the ‘Hindi’ that they hear in the South is actually Dakhni and that it has a much older literary history and in fact was the source of inspiration for modern Hindi to emerge as a literary language. The ‘lingua franca’ of India is not ‘their’ Hindi but the street Hindi that evolved from Dakhni and reached the Indian masses, through the Parsi theatre and the Bombay film industry. It is ‘their’ highly Sanskritised Hindi that is opposed all over the non-Hindi region. In fact, Acharya Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay, in his article ‘Bharater Rashtra Bhasha Chalti Hindi’ even proposed Bombay Hindi as a national language whose ‘grammar can be written on a post card’!

The Inheritors of Dakhni Language and Cultural Tradition

In the final analysis, it is not the modern Urdu and Hindi that have inherited the tradition of Dakhni. As Dr. Veer Bharat Talwar has shown in his book ‘Rassakashi’, Muslim and Hindu

42

upper-class people fought with each other for getting jobs in colonial India in western U.P. For this they used the struggle for use of Hindi (written in Devanagari script) in government work replacing Persian (written in Persian script). This resulted in the Hindu-Muslim divide with its tragic consequences. It also led to Urdu becoming a language of the Muslims with Persian and Arabic words, and Hindi as a language of Hindus with Sanskrit words replacing the commonly spoken words. Hindi and Urdu have become the standard language, and therefore the language of power or as some linguists call the standard language, the language with a gun! These standardized languages have carried power, sectarianism, hate and violence! This Hindi has grown at the cost of more than a dozen languages in the “Hindi Commonwealth” (a term used by Acharya Kishoridas Bajpai) making their speakers second-class citizens in their own land. How can such a language serve as a national language to unite Indians?

The true inheritor of Dakhni is the language of the common people, often called Hindustani, which the vast majority of the working people, particularly in urban India, understand. Its literary tradition continued in modern India through Parsi theatre, Hindi theatre in general, and the Bombay cinema and Hindi film lyrics. Some authors in Hindi still write in people’s language and the ‘chap’ literature (religious tracts like Kabir Ke Dohe) sold on the pavement and rural weekly markets and popular magazines still use this language. This language carries the common composite cultural tradition of India, a culture of love, assimilation and tolerance.

The Future: The Rich Potential of Dakhni Film and Theatre

Although Dakhni has been eclipsed by Urdu and Hindi in the ‘big’ tradition, it still has a lively presence in the ‘small’ tradition. Now that the protagonists of the small tradition are becoming vocal, they can tap the vast potential of Dakhni in their activities in the people’s movement. Dakhni songs and theatre have immense potential. I feel that a Dakhni theatre group will be as viable as the Jatras and Tamashas have been. Of course there are newer issues, particularly those of communalism and environment. Theatre activists have an interesting challenge before them. And if theatre succeeds, can video and cinema be left behind?

References

1.Bajpai, Kishoridas (1988): Hindi Shabdanushasna, Kashi, Kashi Nagari Pracharani Sabha.

2.Chattopadhya, Suniti Kumar (1977): Bharatiya Arya Bhasha aur Hindi, New Delhi, Rajkamal Prakashan.

3.Chattopadhyay, Suniti Kumar (1945): Bharater Bhasha o Bhasha Samasya, Calcutta, Rupa & co.

4.Dhage, Pandurang (1993): Dakhini Sahitya: Samanvit Sanskriti, Hyderabad, Hindi Prachar Sabha.

5.Sharma, Sriram (1954): Dakhini ka Padya aur Gadya, Hyderabad, Hindi Prachar Sabha.

6.Talwar, Veer Bharat (2002): Rassakashi, New Delhi, Saransh Prakashan Pvt. Ltd.

Published in Frontier, December 17-23, 2006, Kolkata

43

LANGUAGE AND BIOGEOGRAPHY

The Logic for a Separate Telengana State

Our Understanding

We would like to begin with some ideas about languages. We will first define the term language, standard language and link language. In the popular terminology, standard language is just called language and other languages are called dialects. We will use the example of Telugu to clarify. For us, Telugu represents a set of languages whose broad divisions are the four broad divisions of AP, namely – 1) North Coastal AP, 2) South Coastal AP or Kosta, 3) Telangana and 4) Rayalseema. The standard accent free Telugu is from somewhere between Khammam and Guntur. It also has full Sanskrit alphabet and many Sanskrit words. For example, in spoken language in Telangana, aspirants like kha, gha, etc., are often dropped. All these regions have been brought together somewhat artificially due to a political understanding of language and viable economic size of the state. Language (or dialect) is defined biogeographically. Thus, Telangana is a biogeographic region separated from the Coastal Andhra by the Eastern Ghats in the East and from Rayalseema by Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers in the south. Within this, broad region one can still detect smaller subdivision, both biographically and language wise. Also, language and accent change occur in a continuum and bilingualism exist across all borders.

Standard language on the other hand, is a political power entity. That is why; it is sometimes called language with a gun. It can stretch or be imposed on widely different regions. Such is the case of Standard Telugu, Official Hindi and English. Children in Telangana region fail in Telugu because they make ‘mistakes’ in the use of standard Telugu used in school. People from Telangana are looked down because they cannot speak ‘proper’ Telugu. Sometimes people from Telangana themselves say that they do not speak proper Telugu just as people from Bidar say that they do not speak proper Kannada!

Link language is a language, which spreads over a well defined large biogeographic region due to trade, travel, religious and cultural communication. We will consider Dakhni as an example. Dakhni is spread across Deccan. Deccan is a well-defined biogeographic region bounded by the Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats both of which almost meet near Nilgiri hills. In the North it is bounded by Satpura range (and the river Narmada) and in the West Vidarbha (Nagpur) or the river Mahanadi appears to be its border. Deccan Plateau as such is a bigger region. Here, we are also limiting it by the spread of Dakhni language.

Now Dakhni, linguistically is of the same origin (Khari boli of Meerut division) as are Hindi and Urdu. It came to South through Nirgunia wandering Sadhu, Sufis, armies of Allauddin Khilji, Malik Kafur, Tughlaq and Aurangazeb and traders, artisans who came along with them. Even some gypsy communities like Lambadas, Pardhis, etc., brought the language to the South. It acquired specific literary characters of its own from 12th Century onward through the writing of Nirgunia and Sufi saints. Gulbarga, Bidar, Golconda, Bijapur and Aurangabad appeared as the major literacy centers between 14th to 17th Centuries. Today, it is the common lingua franca of all Muslims in this Deccan region, the language of Sufis and traders and understood by almost all people and spoken as a bilingual language by most urban dwellers.

Dakhni is significantly different language compared to its origin in Meerut region. It has

44

borrowed vocabulary from Marathi, Kannada and Telugu in varying quantities in the different sub regions. These languages, in turn, have borrowed phrases and words from Dakhni in the Deccan region.

Another example of a link language is Nagpuria or Sadan spoken in Chhota Nagpur/ Jharkhand region. Although linguistically it is quite different from any of the tribal languages spoken in the region it is understood by all. And like Dakhni, there is a mutual exchange of vocabulary in different sub regions of the area.

The Logic for Separate Telangana State

Thus, there is a biogeographic logic for the demand for separate Telangana state. A biogeographic region defines its flora, fauna and human society. Thus, Telangana defines a people, a speech community or if you like a nation. They are defined in terms of the food they grow and eat, the kind of houses they live in, kind of dresses they wear, kind of religious/ local deity festivals they have. There are even festivals across religion such as pir panduga where the ancestors are brought alive and carried around to a common worship ground, fed and appeased with dances and songs! All communities take part in it.

The Federal Republic of Deccan

Using the similar logic, we can propose a Federal Republic of Deccan. The region is linked together with a common language, Dakhni, and is comprised of Republics of Telangana, Rayalseema, Hyderabad Karnataka and Bombay Karnataka regions of Karnataka, Marathwada, Khandesh, and Vidarbh regions of Maharashtra. Let me hasten to add that this is just a general utopian proposal. There can be more or less regions or republics in it and of course, people of each region have to agree to it and have a right to secede. Generally again, it will be like the 1924 constitution of USSR (the later version strengthened the center under Stalin’s leadership), which is indeed a model federal document.

Concluding Remarks

The alternatives proposed here are not viable in today’s world. They are possible only in a non-capitalist and more egalitarian, peaceful world where love replaces power! The idea of proposing these alternatives is to answer question like, “Ok. Capitalism is bad. But what do you want?”

If Telangana is created today, it will go the same way as Jharkhand and Chattisgarh have gone. These mineral rich regions are attracting rapacious capitalist sharks. The ruling politicians in these states are not equipped to deal with them and will sell the resources cheap. Thus, the exploitation of natural and human resources will increase enormously. So the demands for these identities can give good results only if they are achieved along with socialist or libertarian demands of freedom from exploitation, equality and rational uses of resources.

___________________________________________________________________________Published in Frontier, March 2-8, 2008, Kolkata

45

DUMPING ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Class, Caste and Gender

In the last decade, a new and disturbing trend has emerged in dealing with the contradictions involving class, caste and gender. They are no longer dealt directly. An easy way has been found, namely, to dump it on the environment.

Class Struggle verses Encroachment on Forest Lands

Let us take class first. For more than seventy years all left and centrist parties have talked of land to the tiller. There have been some glorious struggles and some notable victories. This has helped these parties to come to power one after another. But the problem largely remains unsolved. Majority of people working on land don’t own them, semi feudal/capitalist exploitation goes on and rural poverty and misery remains.Today, in many parts of the country, this issue is being dealt with by encroaching on the forestland. Many political parties, NGOs and sometimes government too are involved in this. This is contributing to already decreasing forest cover to dangerous levels. These very organizations in other places cry hoarse about decreasing forest cover and related environmental issues such as water crisis. Environmentalists are split on the issue. Some oppose any encroachment on forests whereas some others take the stand that it is livelihood problem of the poor and should be resolved in a sustainable manner, whatever that means. Meanwhile, class struggle has taken a back seat and environment continues to get degraded.

The Glass War In many parts of rural Andhra Pradesh a glass war has been going on. This refers to the struggle against keeping a separate glass outside a teashop for the scheduled caste customers. They are expected to wash it themselves and tea is poured into the glass from a distance. This is practicing untouchability, which is unconstitutional and unacceptable to the members of the scheduled castes as well as to many progressives including the Naxalites. There have been violent incidents and some victories. But the problem has remained. Recently this hasis sought to be resolved by the miracle of technology. You have guessed it right- by introducing use, destroy and throw plastic glasses! Its impact on environment need not be spelt out. Surprisingly, the environmentalists themselves have not created much noise. Maybe they think it is a small issue or maybe they themselves use a lot of plastic! Meanwhile, yet another ‘win-win’ solution has been achieved at the cost of environment.

Gender and Tap Water

In many villages in India tap water is introduced. This is done by pumping water from a village pond or river into an overhead tank and supplying to the village households through pipelines and taps. Sometimes some chlorination is also done.

This has replaced the earlier practice of villagers going to the village pond or river-front. There they used bathe, wash clothes and utensils and carry some water back essentially for drinking and

46

cooking. This also used to keep the pond/river-front relatively clean.

With the introduction of tap water, the amount of water used in the rural household has increased at least fivefold. Obviously, only a very small portion of it goes back to the pond and over a period of time the pond starts drying up. The pond and the river-front get filthy and the pumped water requires to be ‘purified’. The impact and load on environment is obvious. When this was articulated one feminist response was ‘But you males don’t think of the reduction in drudgery of women!’ Thus, a gender issue is sought to be resolved through dumping it on the environment rather than tackling it head on.

There is no denying that privacy for women in the use of bathroom and toilets is important particularly in the face of population pressure. However, this need not be done only through pumping water and supplying through tap water. Proper rainwater harvesting and a hand pump will meet the need in most difficult situations where the source of water is far. What is actually happening is that with the tap water easily available even wells –both private and community- are not in use and are getting filthy and unusable. We must remember that India is actually very rich in water resources and present water scarcity is a creation of the technology.

Rural Development

Rural development assumes that rural people need roads, schools, agricultural extension Programme, Green Revolution (HYV- High Yielding Variety seeds, Fertilizers, and Pesticides), irrigation, tap water, latrines, elimination of child labour, women’s development and so on. The underlying assumption is that rural people are backward and need to be developed. There is no appreciation of the fact that they have been living for a very long time in an environment friendly sustainable/subsistence existence. The aim seems to be that rural people should ‘enjoy’ all the benefits that urban people do.The net results of most of these efforts are:1. The ‘wealth’ in rural area increases.2. The rich become richer and poor become poorer.3. There is an environmental disaster. The water table is falling every year. Drought and failure of crops occur every second or third year.

In the long term, productivity falls and rural people migrate to urban areas. And who pays for all this? The environment and health and lives of poor people! Reports of farmers committing suicide are coming from all these rurally ‘developed’ areas!

What needs to be done is also well known. Water is scarce because it is being over used and its source, the forests, is getting denuded. So the forests need to be protected and the water guzzling green revolution technology should be replaced by organic farming. The rural economy can be sustainable only if it is close to a subsistence economy. This will eliminate most of these rural development programmes and villagers can live in peace.

But who will let them live in peace? It is the urban economy that is looting the forests and land resources. It is the urban people who need to change their outlook and life style. They and their life style are responsible for the degradation of the environment. They have to reduce the load on the environment. This can be done by reducing conspicuous consumption, reducing waste, productive waste management by recycling waste (metal and paper) composting the green waste, water conservation and improving and better utilization of public transport system. In fact, there is whole tradition of urban planning known as the ‘Garden City’ movement. A lot can be learnt from this movement. So what we need is urban ‘de-development’ like ‘de-schooling’.

47

The Environmentalists’ Response

Today probably there are more environmentalists than Marxists. In fact there are Eco-Marxists, Eco - Feminists and there are people who take trouble to show that Marx, Phule, Ambedkar and Gandhi were also environmentally conscious. Then there are people who will find environmental consciousness in Buddha, Vedanta, Islam, and Christianity and among Tribalstribals. So everybody is an environmentalist! Then why is there so little success?

I think most of these people are anthropocentric. So it is easy to dump the issues on environment.There is much talk about sustainability. Well, capitalism or even anthropocentrism and sustainability don’t go together. Only a subsistence economy is sustainable economy. This implies that much of the way that the human society is organized today is not sustainable. This includes most of the ‘military- industrial complex’ most of the state organs such as police and jails, many industries and agri-business such as tobacco, alcohol, cosmetics, such bizarre industries as fortune telling, pornography and so on.

How to combine contemporary human sensibility and subsistence economy is the question. Obviously the answer has to be evolved by practice. This means learning from various ‘Anarchists’ kind of practices. These include Primitivists Anarchist Groups, Quakers, Tolostoy and Gandhian Groups and many Tribal tribal Groupsgroups. None may have a full answer. Maybe each group has to evolve its own answers. But some basic premises may be spelt out.

1. The world belongs to all. Human beings have no primacy.2. Within human society no authoritarianism – State, Family, Gender etc.3. Human society has to be organised on the principle of ‘Free Association of Free People’.4. Technology has to be as primitive as possible. Appropriate technology-mainly to undo the

damage caused by the last few thousand years of human history and to preserve, restore and celebrate the environment.

Published in Frontier, Kolkata, January, 2-8, 2005.

48

PROLONGING DEATHCapitalism and Old Age

I. Who wants old people?

I’d like to be working up to 3 days before I die. But I am not likely to. I envied my father because he died at the age of 80 and still was managing his affairs on his own. On the other hand, my mother was incapacitated for many years and the last few months she developed bedsores and died in misery, and every one was happy to see her go! I am 62 year old and it scares me (like it does so many of us) that I may have the same fate as my mother had. From the age of 50, I have been on asthma medicine, from the age of 60 I am on blood pressure and cholesterol medicine and now my knees are getting really painful. What triggered this essay was the news coverage of deaths in France.

Deaths in France

Sometime back about 15,000 old people died in France during an unusually hot summer. France has a longevity figure of 84 years. Most of these old people lived in old age homes. Most doctors and relatives had gone for vacations to ‘hotter’ climates. The bodies stayed in morgues for weeks. Even after after their return, many relatives did not want to claim these bodies and let the State arrange the funeral. Everybody blamed everybody including global warming. One unstated loud fact was that everyone was relieved that they died, perhaps including some of the old people themselves.What happened in France is, of course, an extreme case. In most affluent countries the number of old people is increasing at an alarming rate. In developing countries, too, the rich and the middle class are living longer. India has an average longevity figure of 67 years. Communities are dying and so are the traditional support systems for the old people. There are not enough old-age homes and few of them are adequate.

II. Old age is a new phenomenon

Till the 19th century most people died before they reached the age of 50. Even today most poor people in Asia, Africa and Latin America die early. Thus, the longevity figure of 67 years for India actually means that the affluent here are living much longer than 67 years and that the poor are still dying before they reach 50 or so. Today, in India, there are about 75 million old people above the age of 60 years, which is about 7.5 % of India’s population. In the ‘developed’ countries this percentage is higher and in the poorer countries it is lower.

These old people on the whole are is a burden on the earth. (This includes the present author also.) Most of them (this includes the present author also) are pure consumers. And since they are from affluent societies, their consumption levels are far above average. In the market it is the young who are sought after. Older people are forced to retire. They do not find any productive or meaningful work. But now the reverse is also true in the West – because of the pensions crisis people are being warned they will have to work till 70, like it or not! Possibly the pension fund managers want people to die before they can claim their pensions!

A few old people are of course very rich and powerful. Most of these are corrupt politicians and business people. At the other end, there are a few old people who are ‘nice’ people, that is, wise, caring, lovable and respected. But the overwhelming majority of old people are ordinary

49

unwanted people!

III. Old age is a racket!

The Medico-industrial complexOld age is a racket created by the medico-industrial complex. This is the second largest business after the armament industry. Both control people and nations. The medico industrial complex controls people and nations by creating dependencies. Just as the military-industrial complex survives on small-scale continuous warfare, the medico-industrial complex also survives in rich people having prolonged illnesses, involving expensive treatment, but not dying. People above 60 years of age ideally suit this purpose and they pay nearly 70% of the medical bills. This is a nexus of loot between the health care system, medical technology, drug industry, pension and insurance schemes and housing industry. Britain is an exception, where the National Health provides health services free at the point of delivery.

Capitalism survives on individualism and insecurity. A fear of old age is generated right from the day one starts work. Social security, pension and insurance scheme vultures arrive with one’s first paycheck. Credit cards, loans for consumer durables and housing loans follow. A big chunk of one’s paycheck vanishes into pension and insurance scams. Lovely media images are created as to how a wise old man is enjoying his old age with children and grandchildren! Now each of these is a well-known racket. Everyday somewhere or the other a pension or insurance scam is being exposed.

When old age actually arrives the problems show up. The house has to be repaired regularly because the construction is poor. With Eevery breakfast you are swallowing half a dozen pills to keep this or that symptom under control. And your pension is not enough.

And as we said above the old people are unwanted, lonely, unhealthy, depressed and unhappy. They are living in what the naturalists call ‘zoo conditions’. For example, in nature a sparrow lives about 3 years. In a cage, however, it can live upto 13 years! But a bird in a cage is also lonely, unhealthy, depressed and unhappy. Just like our old people.!

The abuse of medical ethicsBooks have appeared about how rapacious the drug industry is. Irrational tests and surgical procedures take a big toll on money, health and sometime life too. However, it is in the interest of the industry to keep the patient ill but alive.

One of the worst abuses of the health care system is prolonging death. As Ivan Illich has said, death is defined as the stage when the patient is unable to pay. A new culture has come into being saying that life per se is precious and that a person has to be kept alive no matter how much he is suffering or whether he himself wants to live such a life. Some time, the converse can also be true. Recently, a man with incurable disease went to the Court of Human Rights to make sure that doctors don’t stop life support systems. In other words, he wants to go on existing, even in a vegetable state. In this, the religious organizations, and particularly the Catholic Church, have played a powerful role. This has led to an enormous amount of suffering to the patients and their families. In many cases it has also financially broken the families. On the other hand, millions of young people are dying all over the world from ‘curable’ diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, cholera and diaorrheadiarrhea. But they cannot pay and hence they have to die!

50

IV. A ‘natural’ life! What is a typical natural life? We just have to see a tribal family, which is not yet seriously affected by ‘modern’ life. Up to the age of five or so the child stays near mother and the family. Many children died at childbirth or a few years later if they were weaklings. Then, the child starts going out with the elders and helps in some activities that helps the family. This can be food gathering, carrying and fetching. It is also an apprenticeship. The child learns a lot. By twelve years s/he starts venturing alone or ‘gangs’ of children begin moving on their own, exploring, learning and getting to be self-sufficient. By eighteen, the young adults start their own families, by thirty all the children are born and by the time they are forty they are ready to go! Most ‘old’ people in their forties continue to work till a few days before they die. They usually die with very few days’ illness or none. The causes of death are more ‘natural’ and not ‘zoo condition’ deaths of contemporary old people. These can be hunger and famine, encounters with wild life, poisonous insects, reptiles, bacterial and viral disease and accidents.

Such a life does not face the diseases of our time, such as cancer, heart attack, backache, diabetes or even menopause. Most of these occur after 50 and are related to lifestyle patterns. Their life cycles are similar to other living beings in nature. Most people till the 19th century lived this kind of life. Until 200 years ago, there was no population problem. In 10,000 B.C. the population of humans on earth was less than a million!

Lessons from the past

What was the basis of life in the past? One was that every one was working, although they worked much less than we do. This was so because there was no leisured class (which consumed enormous resources) to be supported, and the natural resource base available was much higher. Today there are huge wasteful industries such as armament, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, tobacco, alcohol and so on, which guzzle natural resources. They also demand human labour and consumerism, all of which cause much of our problems today. Secondly, individualism and consumerism in modern society is breaking down communities. In the past, the family and community provided much of the caring needed in illnesses. Physical labour, reviving communities and reducing consumerism is the main lesson we can learn from the past.

V. Living with dignity

Reviving communities/ communities of a new typeTo revive communities, first we have to understand why communities are breaking down. They are breaking down because the old society was unfree in many ways and curbed people’s aspirations. Now that cannot be reversed. Old type of communities havetypes of communities have to go.!The driving forces are individualism and cash economy. If you have money in your pocket you are free to do what you want to do! Now, individualism has come to stay because people cannot give up the freedom they have achieved. But dependence on cash economy and consumerism can be reduced. The need for community will always be there because the human species is is a social species. What we need is a new type of community. A community not based on power and authority but on freedom. A free association of free people! In such a situation the insecurities will be less and one can avoid, to a large extent, the rapacious nexus of medical industrial complex, insurance scams and housing loans.

51

A rational health careThe rational health care will essentially be based on community care. It will be based on caring and not fleecing. It will be based on a healthy life style – a good mix of mental and manual outdoor work, a healthy diet and a stress-free, peaceful tranquil life! Illnesses and diseases can and will still occur but they can be more effectively dealt with in such a situation. In health care there are three components – knowledge based reassurance, relief and cure – in decreasing order of importance. A well-trained and experienced doctor can indeed play a very important role. However, he will be much more effective in delivering health care in a community based health care system than in the present market based system.

VI. Dying with Dignity: Doctors and Death

Most classics in medical literature, in all systems of medicine, ask the doctor to respect people, reduce their sufferings and when death is inevitable, not to prolong the misery. However, as we have seen above, a new culture has come into being where prolonging life at all costs has become a lucrative business at the cost of the patients and their families. Often, doctors are helpless because of the pressure of this culture and the possibility of the patient’s families taking them to court. Family members, in turn, feel helpless lest their neighbours say that to save money these people let the patient die! We need to restore the concept of living and dying with dignity.

Euthanasia and the Living Will

There are many cases where it is no longer good to prolong life, which in fact amounts to prolonging death. In some countries medically assisted death is legal. However, in most countries it is not and many may not want it. For such cases, a ‘Living Will / Advance Directive’ is useful. It is made when the person is of sound mind and gives his/her directive to doctors, relatives and friends for such situations. Essentially, it asks them not prolong their death with medical intervention or treatment, not to put them on life support systems and manage their last hours with painkillers only, even if it shortens their life.

Cultural and Religious Traditions

In most societies there is a tradition and ritual of meeting death with dignity and peace. In essence it is similar to the living will. However, here it is not solely dependent on individual will but there is a community support. The Christian tradition of Hospice comes closest to the living will, where medical care is provided to reduce suffering but not to prolong death. Some Hindus build a cottage next to a holy river and spend their last days peacefully. Jains have a tradition of systematic fasting to death with religious rituals. Some tribes in Fiji believe that after death they will live eternally at the age at which they died. So they prefer to die in their prime! In the polar region some communities send their old on a boat with provisions. It is possible to build secular traditions too. In Hyderabad, there is an old-age home run by the Communist Party!

ADD LIFE TO YOUR YEARS AND NOT YEARS TO YOUR LIFE!

Published in Calcutta, Frontier, June 26, 2005 also in Medico Friends Circle Bulletin, October, 2005.

52

VEGETARIANISM AND COMMUNALISM

Is there a relation between vegetarianism and communalism? Vegetarianism is supposed to be related to non violence and communalism has often led to violence. So? ! Read on!

Vegetarians and Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism is not same as being a vegetarian. From the beginning of human evolution man depended upon proteins from animals. It has remained an essential part of human diet till today. Vegetarian food can be defined as consisting of animal proteins derived from milk products alone. The logic being that there is no direct killing of animals. Using the same logic some people permit eggs as vegetarian food. There is even a concept of treating infertile eggs as vegetarian eggs!

Throughout history most people had less than 15 % non-vegetarian/animal protein, food in their diet. However it was a very important source of essential protein and was and has always been relished. Most of it was food from water - crabs, prawns and fish. Different ecological zones produced different sources of meat. For American Indians it was bison. Wild boar, rabbits, game birds etc. were and are common in many parts of the world. Regular meat became possible only when domestication of animals and agriculture became more important than hunting and gathering. This happened only about 10,000 years ago.

Domestication of animal made it possible to have milk and milk products as part of diet. And in some areas in India where agriculture was highly productive and domestic animals were more important as draught animals, beef eating was discouraged. That is the origin of taboo on beef in India. Religions like Buddhism and Jainism discouraged beef eating. However, most Buddhists all over the world are not vegetarians. Having animal proteins exclusively from milk products is relatively recent. It began about 2600 ago with Jainism and Jain community. Later some trading communities like the Bania caste (Gandhi was a Bania) and some Brahmin castes in the Western, central and Southern regions also became vegetarians. Historically only in India this concept seems to have taken some root. Even then, today more than 90% of Indians eat non-vegetarian food some time or the other. Vegetarianism, that is propagating and extolling it, was never an important issue.

Today, these vegetarian communities in India, that is the Jains, the trading castes of Banias and Marwaris, and the Brahmins of South India are socially and economically very powerful and therefore vegetarianism in India has become far more powerful than the numbers (5-10%) indicate. Prime situations in the market are taken by these so called ‘pure’ vegetarian eating places in Western and Southern India.

Outside India vegetarian food never took root. Although domestication of animals was widespread, use of milk and milk products was not. Historically, the American and the African continents never used milk. In Asia, the Chinese and the South East Asian countries did not use milk either. Even within India many tribal communities do not use milk. They use itrear cattle mainly for production of bullocks and use the dung for fuel and farming and don’t use the milk at all for themselves. The general logic appears to be that milk is produced by nature only, for offspring and not for other species. Only in the last three hundred years the European culture carried milk all over the world. Today there are probably 1-2 percent vegetarians, that is, people

53

in whose diet the animal protein comes exclusively from milk and its products.

With the advent of Industrial revolution, production of meat, poultry and fish began to get commercialized. By twentieth century the consumption of meat in wealthier families and working class increased enormously. At the same time the scale of production made it highly unhygienic and unsafe. The butcheries were and still are extremely filthy and cruel to the slaughtered animals. Upton Sinclair in his book ‘The Jungle’ (1906) and more recently Robin Cook in his book ‘Toxin’ have documented it forcefully. Reading these books made many give up eating meat and poultry produced by the industry and some people began to propagate the virtues of vegetarian diet. This was the birth of vegetarianism in Europe and the USA. It was and still is a small movement and most people regard them as cranks. There is an even smaller trend called Vegans. These people do not use milk products either. Gandhi tried it once and had to give up. He settled for goat milk.

Vegetarianism in India

In his book ‘The Mahatma and the Ism’ EMS Namboodripad described Gandhi’s first visit to England. While all the progressives were talking about publication of Marx’s Capital, Gandhi, being a Vaishnava Bania, was searching for vegetarian hotels/boarding places in London. In that search he came across vegetarianism. These British people who were considered cranks in England were quite happy to discover a brown person who spoke good English and was actually a vegetarian! In my opinion, it was Gandhi who brought vegetarianism to India. In fact the term, vegetarian and non vegetarian, does not exist in Indian tradition. They have been created for translation purposes only. To repeat, vegetarianism is an ideology as against preference for vegetarian food which is a choice which one may exercise as an individual or group for short or long periods without adding a value judgment to it.

Gandhi made vegetarianism as an important component of his Non-violence movement. It became a must in the ashram life and almost all followers were under pressure to become vegetarians. It also became a part of upward mobility of many lower castes and in at least one case, among tribals (the Tana Bhagat movement among Oraons of Jharkhand). Vegetarianism came to be associated with a moral superiority, requiring moral courage similar to practicing non-violence in the freedom movement. However, the practice of vegetarianism did not become very popular. Lower castes and poor people could not stop eating the little protein that was available from home range poultry or pork. Most tribals could not afford not to eat some wild life food that was easily accessible. But vegetarianism did become associated with higher value system, an ideal, which while one could not achieve in one’s own life nevertheless was respected.However, this was not so in areas like Bengal, Kerala, Goa and in most of the coastal regions. And it is not accidental that these areas are relatively free from communal violence. Communal violence is by and large a Hindi heartland or as it is called the cow belt phenomenon. The Muslims as a social group never accepted vegetarianism, although several Muslims, like Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and Maulana Azad were important followers of Gandhi. . This paved the way for vegetarianism to be used as a tool for communalism.

Communalism

Images of Muslim community as the other have been built around some facts that make them different from Hindus in India. Because they are different, poor and have less power therefore they are lower human beings. That has always been the logic of racism and communalism. The specific image here is that they are beef eaters, dirty, highly charged sexually (again associated

54

with eating beef), have four wives, ready to seduce Hindu women, convert them and add to their harem, potential rapists and so on. Other innocent differences are added to make the picture complete. Like they shave their mustache and keep the beard, whereas the Hindus keep the mustache and shave the beard. After the partition of India, another addition is the charge of loyalty to Pakistan and other Islamic countries.

This image has been built over a period of last 150 years or so. The Hindu Muslim divide also has this long history. It has resulted in the partition of the country and a series of communal riots after independence. Riots and killing are possible because the communities on the whole believe in these images and end up endorsing the riots. Deconstructing these images and building saner understanding about these differences is part of the secular agenda. Here, we are dealing only with one part of it, namely vegetarianism.

A Sane Attitude

Vegetarianism, as we noted above, came as a reaction to capitalist production of meat and poultry in the West. It is, on the one hand, an extremely cruel and unhygienic process, it also led to over consumption of red meat.

Why can’t one have a moral attitude towards one’s choice of food? The problem with a moral attitude is that it has a tendency to become righteous and to impose it upon others. Otherwise every one is free to have his one’s own opinion based on morality or reason or both. In this in instance the vegetarians feel that killing is morally wrong. On the other hand, several communities feel that stealing milk from other species is morally wrong.

Vegans agree with the both the above and reject both forms of animal protein. There is also an ecological argument against red meat. Meat is produced by animals which eat grass and grain etc. The conversion ratio in terms of energy and nutrition is as high as eight1:8. So, where agriculture production is good it makes sense to avoid eating meat. In grass lands, where rearing domestic animals is the main activity, meat eating becomes natural. In coastal regions and in areas like Bengal fish and other food from water become naturally part of the nutrition.

Capitalist production of agriculture and, hence, vegetarian food is not innocent either. The use of pesticides makes it highly toxic. It is capitalist production of animal food like oil cakes that helps in production of beef and meat. The case of Soyabeen Soyabean production in India is illustrative. It reduced the acreage under Ddal thus increasing the price enormously and reducing the protein intake of vegetarians. The oil cake is exported to Europe where it is fed to cows and pigs. The export is probably handled by the vegetarian ‘oil kings’ of Gujarat. Thus, beef in Europe is supported at the cost of reduced intake of vegetarian protein by vegetarians themselves. Then, production of milk sweets is similar to beef production in terms of load on ecology. It requires a large quantity of milk to produce these ‘mawe ki mithai ‘and ‘chhene ki mithai’. So, as a part of sane policy we should reduce production of SoyabeenSoyabean, restore acreage for Dal dal and reduce production of milk.

As a naturalist or ecologist, one would see a lot of violence being carried out by all (vegetarians and non vegetarians) in the capitalist society. A large number of species are endangered and some have become extinct due to what the naturalists call haibtathabitat loss. Human society is taking over a large amount of space and resources from other living beings resulting in this

55

environmental and ecological disaster. In the final analysis, global warming is essentially a violence done by human being on the planet earthEarth. It is this over exploitation of resources of the earth Earth and depriving other species their habitat - place to live, access to food - that is real violence and not eating so called non-vegetarian food by people.

And so, within the constraints of ecology, one still has choice of what to eat. A variety of balanced diet menus are available for different ecological regions of the world. There is absolutely no need to preach vegetarianism. In fact, one should stop using terms like vegetarian and non vegetarian which divide people unnecessarily. Passages from the Guru Granth Sahib (the holy book of Sikhs) say that only fools argue over this issue. Guru Nanak said that any consumption of food involves a drain on the Earth’s resources and thus on life.

Published in Frontier, August 31-September 6, 2008, Kolkata

56

About The Author

T. Vijayendra (1943- ) is a B. Tech. (Electronics) from I.I.T. Kharagpur (1966). Over the past four decades, his work with the trade union movements, alternative journalism, libraries, bookshops, publishing, socio – political research, health, education, and environment have given him unique insights into India’s people and problems. He lives on an organic farm in the foothills of the Western Ghats, watching birds and writing occasionally, directed towards activist education, which are published regularly in the weekly journal Frontier.

More Books by the Author

The Teacher and Child Labour, 2009, Telugu and EnglishRegaining Paradise:Towards a fossil fuel free society ,2009

About The Editor

Nyla Coelho is an environmentalist based in Belgaum. She works as an editor for the publications of the Other India Publications and has recently edited the voluminous ‘Source book of Organic Farming’.

Cover

Painting by Rohini Kumar E.

Back Cover

Photograph by Usha Sriram

57

(Back Cover)

The U. S. never lost a single battle in Vietnam but lost the war. The book is a series of essays, looking positively, at some of the losing battles that the Indian people have been waging against forces of exploitation and obscurantism. The essays, published in the journal Frontier, from Kolkata, are not written in a polemic or academic style. They are more in the style of ‘education for the activist’. The idea is to clear up the mess in our minds created by popular notions, beliefs and theories created by the ruling class and media. Today, when we are in the midst of yet another major crisis of capitalism, a new generation of activists is coming up. These essays are addressed to them.

58