By Jaspal Singh for TwoCircles.net,
I have been following the debate in parliament and outside about the land theft bill in India. Thousands of farmers marched to Delhi on foot to protest this land theft and land grab by the corporates shielded by the state and government. It reminded me of earlier stories, that when invaders and marauders would raid India they would forcibly take women and children with them, to enrich themselves. Their logic was the same what the proponents of land theft are giving that they need them and they can put them to a better use and that otherwise they are just idling away.
Two of the most pernicious and insidious colonial arguments are being given by the government and BJP. The same arguments were being given by congress and CPI(M) earlier. The first one is that of state being the owner and trustee of all resources.
This argument was the brain child of the Cornwalis, with which he created permanent settlement act of 1793 and which created for the first time landlessness in India and unemployment. Land Acquisition Act of 1894 was continuation of this land theft .For thousands of years of existence of India, we did not have issues of landlessness or unemployment. Sounds unreal. But this fact is stranger than fiction, which the ruling elite or their parties are not willing to admit.
Before the colonial act of 1793, land, forest, rivers and other resources belonged to the people in that area collectively. No sovereign, King or Queen could evict people from their land and make them landless and without livelihood. No sovereign ever usurped this right of people that the BJP and government are trying to do.
The British initiated the biggest land theft in Indian history with this act, as they had done in the Americas. It is not a coincidence that Cornwalis was the British governor in America where he was defeated by the American revolutionaries and he was sent by the British to India to continue the land theft for them.
The Indian ruling elite after the independence has continued the policy of land theft and displaced millions of people. According to one estimate close to 60-65 million people have been displaced since 1947 without any relief and rehabilitation or livelihood.
Although BJP claims to invoke Indian culture, religion and tradition, but on fundamentals it is following the British colonialists. Their invocation of Indic tradition is a big fraud just like the invocation of socialism by Congress was a big fraud. BJP talks about Indian traditions and going back to them, why does it not go back to the pre-colonial experience of the collective ownership of natural resources? It can not,because, it also represents the ruling elite who wants to enrich themselves with land theft just like their colonial mentors. So just like Congress they are mouthing one thing and doing another.No where the Indic tradition has ever usurped the rights of people over their resources, which the BJP and its government are trying to do now on behalf of a tiny minority.
Land theft is also the need of global capital. World Bank in a report in 1995 demanded that 400 million Indians be moved from villages to cities. The Indian state and government are hell bent upon obliging the international Capital. Chidambram had argued that by the middle of the 21st century, 85% Indians should be in the cities. Modi is also arguing the same with his smart cities, Industrial corridors and bullet trains for which land theft is necessary.
Farmers, women, tribals, Dalits are mounting a stiff resistance to this land theft and facing this onslaught with building and strengthening their unity. It is a matter of life and death for them. This is one battle they can not afford to lose.
A friend suggested the other day that if BJP is so interested in this bill, then the government should acquire the lands of all BJP MPs and MLAs and then those of Congress and other parties who are supporting land theft bill, this will give them plenty of land for their purpose and will also set an example for the poor and vulnerable whose land and resources are being targeted.
(Jaspal Singh is a philosopher based in Cambridge, Massachusetts)