Peasant struggle

 

 

The V.S. Achuthanandan-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala is in a fix. Thousands of landless Dalits and tribals have intensified their struggle for land. They were once the bases of the communist movement. The four-month old struggle for land in Chengara, in Pathanamthitta district, has entered into a crucial phase with the agitationists demanding immediate allocation of five acres of land and Rs 50,000 for landless families.

In Chengara on August 4, 2007, around 400 families under the banner of Sadhujana Vimochana Munnani (Forum for Poor People) forcefully entered the plantation owned by Harrison Malayalam Plantations Ltd. Now, around 13,000 people from various communities, including women and children, live in there in temporary tents. The protestors claim that they have every right to occupy the Harrisons’ land since Harrisons itself is an encroacher. Even the state government has made official remarks that Harrisons Group has illegally encroached thousands of acres of forest and revenue land. Meanwhile, various Dalits and tribal organisations rallied under the United Front for land struggle to intensify their fight for land.

Surprisingly, the government is keeping mum over the demand for allocation of land to Dalits. Commenting on the protest, Munnani leader Laha Gopalan says, “We should get the land, or have to die in this battleground, we have no other way.” With the visit of writer activist Arundhati Roy to Chengara, the issue has attained national prominence.

Meanwhile, tribal areas like Aralam and Alakkode in Kannur district and other places in Idukki and Wayanad districts are also witnessing similar protests. In Aralam, the confrontation is between the Adivasi Gotrajanasabha and Adivasi Kshema Sabha under the CPI(M).

These movements question the claims of the communists that the Kerala model land reforms introduced by E.M.S. Namboodiripad ministry in 1957 were a ‘great revolution’. “Only the middle caste tenants could benefit from the land reforms. The Dalits and tribals never got the farm land; rather they were forced to move to colonies,” says Sunny M. Kapikkad, a Dalit activist.

Unless the government takes urgent steps to resolve the demands of these hapless people, Kerala may have to get ready to face a bloody confrontation between the government and the landless.