MAHARASHTRA

One Lakh Court Arrest In Land Satyagraha

Ashok Dhawale

LAST month, during the period from October 2 to October 15, over one lakh peasants and agricultural workers in 20 districts of Maharashtra courted arrest in a massive statewide land satyagraha, the call for which had been given by the CPI(M) state committee, and was fully supported by the state councils of the AIKS and the AIAWU.

SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE

Both the above dates had a special significance for the Left movement in the state. October 2 was the birth centenary day of Comrade Shamrao Parulekar --- an outstanding freedom fighter; the founder of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha; the leader, along with Comrade Godavari Parulekar, of the historic Warli Adivasi revolt against feudal oppression in Thane district that was unleashed in 1945-47; one of the leaders of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement; a member of the Lok Sabha from 1957-62; and a member of the first Central Committee of the CPI(M) from 1964 till his untimely death in detention in 1965 in the wake of the Sino-Indian conflict.

October 15 was the birth centenary day of Karmaveer Dadasaheb Gaikwad ---the closest associate of Dr B R Ambedkar. Gaikwad was the main organiser of the Nasik temple entry satyagraha; topmost leader of the RPI after Ambedkar’s demise; one of the leaders of the Samyukta Maharashtra movement; a member of the Lok Sabha from 1957-62; and a leader of the massive 1964 satyagraha of the landless in which the blue flags of the Republican Party and the red flags of the Communist Party had come together in struggle. The land struggle led by the CPI(M) in Maharashtra thus fittingly commemorated the birth centenaries of both these remarkable peasant leaders.

NEW ONSLAUGHT

A month before the land satyagraha was to begin, came the countrywide orders of the BJP-led central government for the forcible removal of all encroachments on forest lands on or before September 30, 2002. Notices were put up by the forest department all over the state ordering these evictions. In some districts of Vidarbha, the forest department, aided by the state police and the SRP, actually began the destruction of standing crops on forest land, mostly tilled by the Adivasis, in September itself, even before the September 30 deadline. All this led to a big statewide uproar and large-scale physical resistance to the evictions. In this phase of the struggle, massive demonstrations of thousands were held, hundreds were arrested while resisting the evictions and 82 Adivasi men, women and children led by the CPI(M) and AIKS in Yavatmal district were sentenced to one month imprisonment. As a result of all this, the INC-NCP-led state government was forced to issue orders calling for a suspension of the eviction drive.

It was in this background that the land satyagraha in Maharashtra acquired an even greater intensity and urgency. In each district, thousands of forms were filled up by the satyagrahis pledging to court arrest in defence of their right to land. Tens of thousands of handbills were printed in which the main demands of the satyagraha were spelt out and a call given to resist any more forcible evictions. Innumerable meetings were held in villages and hamlets to prepare for the massive land satyagraha.

MAIN DEMANDS

Some of the main demands of the land satyagraha in Maharashtra were: regularisation of all occupations of forest lands and vesting these lands in the name of the tillers; regularisation of occupations of grazing lands and government wastelands and vesting these lands also in the names of the tillers; return of the lands that were earlier usurped from Adivasis and Dalits to the original owners; regularisation of all house-sites, hutments and slums in both rural and urban areas; and so on.

It must be mentioned in this connection that the PDF state government in Maharashtra had taken an official decision in 1978 to regularise all occupation of forest lands between 1972 and 1978. Similarly, to commemorate the birth centenary year of Dr Ambedkar, the state government had taken another official decision to regularise all encroachments on grazing lands and government wastelands upto 1991. However, due to a lack of political will on part of the rulers and the impediments put up by the bureaucracy, both these decisions were never faithfully implemented. It was in this light that the above demands acquired even more importance.

MASSIVE RESPONSE

The land satyagraha from October 2 to 15 elicited massive response, especially in the Adivasi-dominated districts which have a burning question of forest land encroachments. From reports that have come in, over 1,30,000 people from 20 districts took part in the mass actions that were held at several centres during this fortnight, and out of these over 1,00,000 actually courted arrest. From Nasik district, 1488 people were imprisoned for 15 days; from Amravati district, 85 people were imprisoned for 15 days and from Yavatmal district, 40 people were imprisoned for 40 days. Those imprisoned included CPI(M) state committee members Udayan Sharma and Chandan Gavit as well as several district committee members. In Nandurbar district, the Adivasis retook possession of 32 acres of land that had been earlier usurped from them, along with the standing sugarcane crop. Thousands of others were detained for a day and many thousands more were arrested and then let off, simply because the state government lacked the police machinery to arrest such a large number.

The largest participation in this struggle was from the two districts of Thane (60,000) and Nasik (51,200). The participation figures in some of the other major districts were as follows: Beed -- 4500, Nandurbar -- 3000, Hingoli -- 3000, Yavatmal -- 2500, Nanded -- 1500, Wardha -- 1000, Parbhani -- 1000, Kolhapur -- 1000, Bhandara-Gondia -- 500, Chandrapur -- 500, Pune -- 400, Usmanabad-Latur -- 300, Amravati -- 200, Buldana -- 150, Aurangabad -- 150, Jalna -- 100.

GAINS OF THE STRUGGLE

In the midst of this land satyagraha, a delegation of the CPI(M) --- led by its state secretary Prabhakar Sanzgiri and comprising Krishna Khopkar, Suman Sanzgiri, Kumar Shiralkar, Jiva Pandu Gavit, D L Karad, Ramji Vartha, Prakash Choudhary and Ashok Dhawale --- met chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on October 8 and submitted a detailed memorandum of demands. As per the discussions that were held, the state government has now published an official government resolution that calls for speeding up the process of regularisation of forest land encroachments from 1972 to 1978 through the process of a fresh survey. The survey is to be conducted by three-tier committees at the village, tehsil and district levels within the next two months. The chief minister also assured the CPI(M) delegation that there were no hurdles in the way of regularisation of grazing lands and wastelands encroachments upto October 2002.

However, the major question of regularisation of forest land encroachments after 1980 remains to be solved, mainly due to the serious impediment of the Central Forest Conservation Act of 1980. It is therefore extremely essential that radical amendments be made in this act, not only to facilitate the regularisation of encroachments, but also to remove the obstacles to all developmental works in the tribal areas. But this is an all-India question that can only be effectively taken up by the party at the national level.

The CPI(M) state committee has decided to review the implementation of the assurances given by the state government within the next two months, and then decide on the future course of agitation on the land question.