People's Democracy

BIHAR

Anti-Eviction Convention For A New Phase Of Land Struggle

N K Shukla

AFTER the JD(U)-BJP combine led by Nitish Kumar came to power in Bihar, feudal forces and their criminals have stepped up their offensive against the rural poor. They are targeting particularly those landless and marginal peasants who captured the ceiling surplus or government land during the land struggles organised in the 1990s, and against the sharecroppers who are demanding a legal share of the produce and pattas.

In Purnia, the family members of a big landlord R C Lal got the help of state armed forces to demolish over 200 huts of the poor, living there for decades. In Bodh Gaya, a number of dalit men and women, while resisting eviction, were injured in firing by feudal elements in collusion with the police. In Katihar, a number of hamlets were burnt in presence of the police. In Beldaur in Khagaria district, landlords attacked the sharecroppers possessing the land for more than 50 years and shot dead a local leader, Murali Mandal. Landlords also killed Anand Mohan Singh in Naugachhia and Kaful Sah in East Champaran. On June 29, Brahmdev Thakur, a kisan leader of Jamui district, was brutally killed along with his father and nephew, by the goons of local landlords. Suresh Vidyarthi of Jahanabad and Ilias Ansari of Sitamarhi were killed last year. All these were martyred after the Nitish Kumar government came to power.

It was in this background that the Bihar state council of AIKS organised a state level Anti-Eviction Convention at Purnia on June 14, the day of martyrdom of Comrade Ajit Sarkar. This popular kisan leader and MLA from Purnia was brutally killed on June 14, 1998.

After the delegates placed floral wreathes on the statue of Comrade Ajit Sarkar at R N Sah Chauk, AIKS president S Ramachandran Pillai asked the cadres assembled there from all over the state to take inspiration from the sacrifices made in the struggles against landlords, feudal and other exploiters, and strengthen the organisation and the movement to face the challenges. He declared that conspiracies to throttle down the voice of the poor sections would not succeed and the coverage of the struggle would continue to expand.

Pillai had reached here after visiting Champaran and Naugachhia where AIKS cadres were martyred.

Later, Pillai inaugurated the Anti-Eviction Convention in Kala Bhawan, which was full to the capacity and attended by delegates from all over the state. A large number of the rural poor, both men and women, from the Purnia and other areas of land struggles also attended the inaugural session.

In his inaugural address Pillai stressed the importance of land reforms for the development of feudal dominated states like Bihar, and exhorted the cadres to accelerate and expand the land struggle. He also dwelt in detail on the prevailing crisis in agriculture in our country, which is deepening day by day due to the wrong policies of the central governments --- earlier of the NDA and now of the UPA. He pointed out how our farmers are not getting the remunerative price for their produce, while the government is importing 50 lakh tonnes of wheat at higher prices. In the recent meeting of NDC, a marathon discussion took place on the crisis in agriculture, but no concrete proposal for a solution came forth. The number of agricultural workers is increasing day by day. The National Sample Survey indicated the increasing landlessness and decreasing agricultural production, but the NDC meeting did not even discuss these serious issues. Representatives of three Left-led states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura submitted their alternative proposals in the NDC meeting but the central government and some other state governments did not take the agrarian crisis seriously.

Pillai dwelt on the main recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers; chaired by Dr M S Swaminathan. He expressed regret that the central government has done nothing to implement these recommendations, which included easy credit to farmers at 4 percent interest, waiver of old loans, and building a fund to compensate the farmers in case their crops are damaged due to natural calamities.

The speaker outlined how the issue of land reforms is all the more relevant in the period of globalisation and liberalisation. Implementation of land reforms will not only help the poor peasant and landless but also pave the way for the overall development of the state. The experience of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura confirms it.

Recalling the glorious history of land struggles in Bihar, both before and after independence, Pillai exhorted the cadres to accelerate and expand the struggle for distribution of ceiling surplus, Bhoodan land and government wasteland, while defending the lands already captured and protecting the sharecroppers. He stressed the need to strengthen the organisation and raise the consciousness of the peasantry. He also appealed to other democratic organisations to participate in these struggles.

The main resolution of the convention was moved by AIKS state secretary Awadhesh Kumar, and noted that in Bihar the “land issue is still the main issue,” as no state government has taken any concrete measure to implement the land reforms here. Rather, they only helped the feudal and landlords to divide the land among their kith and kin, and among the so called “gods” and animals, and to evict the poor.

After the Nitish Kumar government came to power, attacks on the poorer sections and sharecroppers have increased. There is no legal protection for the sharecroppers. Widespread attacks and evictions are going on.

No step has been taken to implement land reforms in this state. According to the 1971 agricultural censuses, 17 lakh acres of land were estimated to be ceiling surplus in Bihar. But landlords used courts to obstruct the implementation of land reforms. Out of the 2000 cases pending in various courts, a majority are related to the landlords owning land above 200 acres.

In Bihar, there are several big landlords like Maulchand (22,000 acres), Raghubansh Singh (19,000 acres), Hasibur Rahman (10,000 acres), and Ram Gulam Sahu (28,000 acres). As many as 416 landlords own, on an average, 785 acres each. Some 12,000 religious trusts and their “gods” own large tracts of land, more than one forth of which is under the illegal possession of landlords. Lakhs of acres of Bhoodan land are still under their possession.

Though the JD(U)-BJP government has constituted a commission for land reforms, the experience so far shows that the move is being used only to kill time and hoodwink the poor and landless.

According to article 5(I) (III) 07,72 of the Bihar Ceiling Surplus Land Act, district magistrates have the right to cancel the illegal (benami) transactions of land. But nowhere has this provision been used. Landless persons have the right to get the patta for their housesites, but they are being evicted from there. Sharecroppers, instead of getting a 75 percent share of the produce as per the act, are being continuously evicted.

The resolution noted that Bihar has a tradition of land struggles. Before independence, a number of land struggles were organised here in the 1930s and 1940s, under the banner of Bihar State Kisan Sabha, led by Swami Sahjanand Saraswati, Karyanand Sharma and others. After independence, struggles to protect the sharecroppers and for distribution of ceiling surplus and government land were organised in the 1960s and 1970s, though they could not be continued due to disruption by the reformist and sectarian elements.

In 1993, a joint convention organised by the mass organisations led by the CPI(M), CPI and CPI(ML) decided to initiate a land struggle. But the CPI deserted the movement while the CPI(ML) demanded “nationalisation of land” instead of its distribution and began to side with the landlords at many places to attack and kill our cadres. AIKS units, however, continued the land movement, capturing over 40,000 acres of land. More than 200 cadres were martyred in these struggles in the last 15 years.

Reviewing all these developments and the present situation, the convention took the pledge to strongly oppose evictions continue to fight for the distribution of the entire ceiling surplus land, government land and Bhoodan land. The organisation will also fight for pattas to the poor occupiers, occupation for those who have got pattas, homestead land and pattas for the landless and poor (a minimum 4 decimal of land for dwelling houses) and for the registration and protection of sharecroppers.

The struggle to oppose forceful acquisition of land by the government in the districts of Nalanda, Vaishali, Siwan, Champaran and others will be continued with new vigour and strength.

The convention also decided to take up other burning issues like the correction of BPL list, job cards, employment and proper wage under the NREGA, credit, fertiliser, seed, irrigation, crop insurance etc. The AIKS will also for strengthening the PDS, for control over rising prices and for implementation of Dr Swaminathan commission’s recommendations etc.

The convention decided to organise militant demonstrations, gherao and other actions before block offices on August 7 and before district headquarters on August 20.