-- By V.B.Rawat

Betrayal with Adivasis in Bundelkhand:

Uttar-Pradesh¡¦s Chitrakoot district is adjacent to Satna district of Madhya Pradesh. The conspiracy divided the one town to two states. Then there was a bigger conspiracy in waiting. One community of Kols was divided into two categories in these two states. Hence in Madhya Pradesh they became tribals while in Uttar-Pradesh they were under the category of Scheduled Caste. So the Madhya Pradesh Kol of Chitrakoot town get to collect minor forest produce while it is not possible for the Uttar-Pradesh Kol even though it is the same forest.. Though, they don¡¦t understand this contradiction of the authorities, in doing so, they often find themselves, in jails. The exploitation grows further.  And now, the forest department is chasing the tribals from their land. When we put this question to the district magistrate he had a ready-made answer from his own Mandal experience. ¡§ See, the caste system in India is such that it is not necessary that the Kols in Madhya Pradesh are the same as in Uttar-Pradesh. And then he referred to Patels in Gujarat and the Patels in Bundelkhand. Patels in Gujarat are powerful upper castes but they are backward in Uttar-Pradesh. The Kols in Uttar-Pradesh are much better then those in Madhya Pradesh hence they are under Scheduled castes here¡¦.

So these are the answers of the district magistrates and forest officials, which clearly means that a tribal cannot be a rich person. Both the arguments given by him were false. One may agree that there are a number of communities in different parts of the country which have similar names but different occupations and categories. Patels in Gujarat are different from the Patels in Bundelkhand but is it not ironical that in Bundelkhand the same Kurmis are trying to put Sardar Patel as their own community hero as they are starved of a hero. Secondly, Kols of MP and UP are not different tribe. They live in the same area, go to the same forest, have family relations and just because the babudom created an artificial boundary of the two states between them, is no justification that UP¡¦s Kol are better hence they are scheduled castes. A community is tribal because of its anthropological background and not its economic status. Tribals can also be rich but that will not take away their tribal status.

The big babus of UP are happy that even if the government decides to give land to the tribals, they would be saved from the hassle as there are very few tribals in UP. Bundelkhand¡¦s forest department is happy because it does not have to do much work. But there are serious issues in Bundelkhand, which the forest department has to answer along with the revenue department. If it is not resolved,  there will be no peace in Bundelkhand. There will be more feudalism and oppression. Years ago, the land lawfully given to the tribals by the revenue authorities are being questioned today. Forest department has refused to acknowledge the entitlement papers given by the revenue department to those residing in various villages. Villages like Cheriya khurd, Aillaha in Mankepur block where hundreds of the dalits and Adivasis are facing extinction threat. Their land has been occupied by the forest department and the revenue department keeps quiet. The district magistrate informed us that those entitlements were wrongly given. One does not understand how can the district authorities think of it. 48 Kol families of Aillaha villages were dethroned from their land in 1997 but a visit to those areas shows that the land is still barren. Over 8 years have passed and there is nothing but barren land over the entire area. The adivasis remain landless, for they don¡¦t know what to do. Many of them were arrested by the police and kept in jail for no fault of theirs. Chinkawan s/o Hira Lal is a Kol tribal and was jailed for one day.  The local advocate would ask him  to come to the tehsil but he did not know what was happening. His uncle is a member of the Panchayat who does not know the schemes of the Panchayats. He just puts the stamp on the resolutions.

Forest verses Revenue : Victims are Dalits and Adivasis

While we may talk a lot of environment when the question of right over forest produce comes for the Dalits and tribals. The enormous tragedy that has stuck upon the forest dweller in Bundelkhand remains unattended. NGOs are making money to ¡¥empower¡¦ people while political parties are using identity to strengthen their vote banks. Enough has been written about the ¡¥revolutionary¡¦ nature of the ¡¥gangs¡¦ which are working in the area. Nodoubt, there have been these big gangs some of whom provided security to the poor people for whatever have the reasons but the biggest obstacles in providing power to the people is the bureaurocracy. The local babus, lekhapals, sarpanches and secretaries of Panchayats are the biggest offender in denying the people their legitimate right.

Shiv Pal s/o Kallau is  chamar by caste and is almost 60 years of age. He got 12 bigas of land ( approximately 2 hectare) in 1967. Got his land papers in March 1970. A father of 7 daughters and 3 sons, he is now facing the most difficult time of his life. 10 bighas of his land has now been claimed by the forest. The forest people came and threatened him not to cultivate the land otherwise face imprisonment. The man paid all his taxes for the land and had a very good crop of paddy and mustered apart from the livestock for the animals. Shiv Pal is deeply tensed. What will happen to his family. Where should he go? Who will arrange for his animals as access to forest is now prohibited? And there are hundreds of Shiv Pals who face such threat. When I ask as what would they do afterwards, a crude question in itself, and he replies ¡§ There is no alternative then death¡¦. This brutal fact need to be understood by those sitting in power in Delhi and state capitals. We moans and cry as why people die of hunger but make no efforts to prevent them.

Ram Asrey s/o Baldev is another person from the same community of Dalit who has lost his entire 9 bighas of land to the forest department. A father of two sons and 4 daughters, his future look grim.

The interesting aspect in this is the complete apathy of the revenue department. Nobody is questioning them as if they were not certain why they issued entitlement to the people. It is shameful that people living in a place for over 30 years are being forced to vacate land without being provided any alternative. If these people turn to rebel then who would be responsible.

Lekh Pals: the master manipulators: Old saying in the villages is that if Lekh Pal stops any one from occupying the land, even the Rajyapal (governor) cannot revoke that. This shows the power of Lekh pals, the revenue inspectors in the villages. Our government talks of changing the administration and we blame that the people are not educated and hence they are betrayed but the fact is that the language of revenue and courts need to be changed. The sooner it is done the better it would be for the health of society. In Uttar-Pradesh, the persianised revenue language is beyond the understanding of common man,
Leave alone the poor tribals. Even the city bred so-called educated elite would not understand what exactly is written in these record books. Your mapping is done according to 500 years old system introduced by Mughal emperors Shahjahan and Akbar. Our children are learning in their schools and colleges the international system of measurement and don¡¦t understand beyond kilometer, meter and acre and hectare but our revenue records talk of bigha, biswa and nali. And interestingly, Bigahs differ in different parts of the state. One would be surprised that when we have different bighas in UP what would be the condition all over the country. It is shameful. Above this, the language written in the papers is illegible and beyond the reach of the ordinary mortals. The Patwaris, Lakhpals mint money over this ignorance of the common man.

In the village Ailaha (Baithaya) the 67 entitlement were given on the papers by the village Panchayat. Only 21 were measured and mapped by charging a sum of Rs 300/- per family. The other people were unable to pay the amount and hence no news of their land. Chinkawan, Jagannath, Lota, Shiv Prasad, Brij Mohan, Durgashankar and Shiv Murth paid an amount of Rs 8,000 to get their 3 bighas land each measured. The lekhpal took the money and did not do so. Instead, he started demanding Rs 500/- per person before measuring it. The tribal say that their complaint are not heard. The problem is that the NGOs also use them for their own purposes. This case of 47 tribals is almost listed in the good workbook of the measure NGOs in Chitrakoot. Everybody claims to have been working for the rights of these 47 tribals of Ailaha but the situation remain unchanged. The second problem is the caste equation in the region and if the exploitation helps the ruling class they wont raise the issue but if the other community does the exploitation, they are eager to raise the issue.

Many people complain that the lekh pal don¡¦t measure their land because they don¡¦t want to take on the local feudal lords who have illegally occupied the land. In many villages people complained how the local Panchayat head has withdrawn the money meant for villager in the Indira Awas Yojna.

Arvara villages has over 788 voters. The village has dominant Kurmi as the main oppressive community. The Dalits of the village have given in writing as how their Kurmi landlords are threatening them and have illegally grabbed their land. The Kumhar  ( potter) community asked for the rights to collect the soil.  The Kurmis don¡¦t allow them to collect clay to make their pots.

Nathiya w/o Ramnath a Dalit is about 35 years of age. She has 6 children including 2 daughters and four sons. She got an entitlement about 9 years ago. The land was given in the name of her father in law. She herself remains landless. They have no ration card. The quotedar does not give them ration. They have an APL card (above the poverty line card). The village sarpanch informed her that she has been granted permission to build an Indira Awas for which she was to get Rs 20,000. An account was opened in her name at the local cooperative bank. On 21st November 2003, the first installment of Rs 10,000/-. The sarpanch promised that he would be building her house and went along with her and her brother Ghansyam, who used to stay with her, to the bank to withdraw the money. The Sarpanch took away the money and got some bricks for the construction. The work never started. In February 2004, for the second installment, the pradhan took her to bank informing that the work is half completed and hence the second installment be realized. Rs 7000 was released and the Sarpanch took away that money. In all Rs 17,000 have been withdrawn but no work is done. The balance 3000 will also go the same way. It is possible that the bank send her notice against her, mortgaging her land. Nathia is now feeling the threat as she came to see me and complained about the Sarpanch. She is being
Threatened not to open her mouth.