Discrimination Against Dalits in Eastern UP
Eighty years ago, on 20 March 1927, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar led thousands of Dalits to defy feudal diktats of ‘untouchability’ and drink water at the common pond at Mahar. Today, the Constitution scripted by Dr. Ambedkar declares the rights of Dalits in independent India to be fundamental and inalienable. But all over the country, feudal forces in tandem with the ruling political classes continue to wield feudal discrimination and violence as a weapon against the assertion of Dalits. Untouchability may not have the same social sanction that it once did, but it is still a handy tool to ‘punish’ agrarian labourers (very often Dalit in origin) when they demand their rights. The use of social boycott, ban on the use of common water sources, land, roads and pathways and so on, as well as violent assaults (like massacres by the Ranveer Sena and the attack on Bant Singh) are commonly used to ‘punish’ rural labourers struggling for better wages and social dignity.
A recent struggle in eastern UP reminds us how Dalits even today have to march to reclaim their right to common resources like ponds, and to resist violence not only by feudal forces but also by the newly emergent rural landed rich.
The Sonebhadra-Mirzapur area of eastern UP is one where the All India Agrarian Labourers’ Association (AIALA) has been very active in mobilising agrarian labourers to struggle for proper implementation of the NREGA and minimum wages. This has signalled a new assertion and awakening of the rural poor, most of whom are Dalits and tribals. In Bhadkuda village in Chunar tehsil, a Dalit labourer Manju Devi demanded payment of pending wages from a neo-rich landlord, and all the agrarian labourers of the village were mobilised in her support. The neo-kulak forces then ganged up to beat up Manju Devi and, to ‘teach a lesson’ to the entire labouring Dalit community, also banned them from access to the common pond in the village. This pond served the personal needs of the Dalits and was also used for their cattle. The Gram Pradhan showed Rs. 99, 000 of the funds allocated for village development to have been used to surround the pond from all sides by a barbed wire fence. His claim was that the fence was needed to protect the crops planted by the Gram Sabha all around the pond. Whereas the fact was that no crops had been planted there at all, and in any case the amount shown to have been used for fencing off the pond (ostensibly to protect crops) was far larger even than that required to sow crops!
CPI(ML) launched a struggle to demand removal of the fencing around the pond and punishment for those who attacked Manju Devi. For two months continuously, dharnas were held from Ahraura to Chunar. Memoranda were submitted to the District Collector and Commissioner several times. In the first fortnight of January itself, the Deputy Collector of Chunar had ordered that the fencing around the pond be removed to allow access the pond, and that the Superintendent of Police register an FIR in the matter of violence against Manju Devi. But it was not so easy for Dalits to receive justice in a feudal society. Eventually the CPI(ML) announced a March from Chunar to Bhadkuda. On March 1, a spirited procession of 3000 people led by CPI(ML) State Secretary Akhilendra Pratap Singh, AICCTU State Secretary Dinkar Kapoor, AIALA State Secretary Shriram Chowdhry CPI(ML)’s District Secretary Nandlal Biyar and others marched from Chunar towards Bhadkuda. The march was stopped by the Administration at Chacheri Tiraha, and the marchers sat on the Mirzapur-Banaras Road. For four hours, there was a massive jam on that road. The Administration then announced its intention to arrest the marchers. A mass meeting took place at the spot of the arrest itself. It was clear to all that the District Administration was not willing to take action against the feudal forces – and was instead ready to arrest those who were demanding basic rights for Dalits.
Seeing that over 2000 people were ready to court arrest – including a large number of women, the local Administrative authorities proposed that they would make a token arrest of leaders alone. But the protestors refused, so they were transported in 10 trucks to the Mirzapur Polytechnic Institute. Finding it impossible to keep so many people in jails, the Administration was eventually forced to agree to removing the fence and opening the path to the pond for public access within 24 hours, and to book those who had beaten up Manju Devi under the SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act.
The District Administration’s reluctance to restore the rights of the Dalit labourers to the common pond must be attributed to powerful political interests – BJP MLA and former Minister Omprakash Singh as well as Samajwadi Party’s local leaders, feudal and neo-kulak forces all joined hands against the assertion of Dalit labourers. In the coming Assembly polls, the polarisation of Dalit agrarian labourers under the banner of CPI(ML) on the one hand and the feudal and neo-kulak forces with the BJP is likely to sharpen.
– Sharad Mehrotra