Fahad Hashmi, TwoCircles.net
Globalisation is going places with a string of developmental projects and it has forcefully made inroads Third World countries. Mines and steel plants, refineries, big industrial projects, big dams and irrigation projects, SEZ, etc are generally regarded as the emblem of development in any country in the contemporary world. In the Indian context, these projects have brought a good deal of capital in the country which obviously has also brought smile and happiness to a large chunk of population. This is the grand narrative of development in India, much hyped by media.
However, there is also an “unofficial” half of the truth omitted in this grand narrative. A host of troubles and turmoil owe much to ‘development’ since it has displaced scores of people from village after village destroying their habitat, economy, social and cultural milieu. Moreover, this development is on the border of displacing hundreds of millions of people in the periphery.
Of late Niyamgiri has caught the imagination of the country. A crisis is brewing there as the news has started coming. Across India, people apprehensive of being displaced have been resisting and protesting against the ‘development’ in their places. In other words this ‘development as project’ has also spawned movements.
One gets struck by seeing kids lying in a long row against gun-toting police personnel, and other such spectacle. Why do movements come into being, one wonders? The first impression that one gets after seeing such large and small movements is that it is an emblematic of pathology. That means the system is not healthy, and is suffering from ailments. To put it in other words, movement and resistance reflect that hope never dies in human heart. In fact it will not be incorrect to say that ‘street’, just like media, is one of the pillars of democracy that pushes the boundary of democracy in scale as well as scope. In a nutshell resistance is the power of the marginalised, oppressed and subaltern.
Concerns of the Tribal:
The rapidly expanding demand for land under India’s neoliberal regime has been confronted with a relatively inelastic supply. Tribal refuses to part with their land at any price. And this has led to a proliferation of pitched battles across India against land acquisition. Laws related to eminent domain give the State the power to confiscate private land for public purposes. In India we have Land Acquisition Act 1894, a colonial hand-me-down, enacted by the British in the Colonial era.
Large numbers of people have been displaced from their original habitats to make way for developmental projects. Such projects have also permanently changed the patterns of use of land, water and natural resources that previously prevailed in these areas. People dependent upon their land, forest and other natural resources for their livelihoods have been dispossessed of their resource of subsistence through land acquisition and displacement.
Are tribals foolhardy adventurers who love to confront with the state and its apparatuses? Tribals have reasons to take to street and resort to agitation contrary to what mainstream media portrays them as bandits and criminals making hullabaloo out there, and becoming stumbling block in the way of the country’s development. They are engaged in agitation because their existence which out and out depends on land is at stake. To these people land is a source of employment and livelihood.
One would agree that in reality, in most cases, the land does not give him a very high quality of life, but it helps them eking out an existence and be somewhat ‘food assured’. This is called the ‘income function’ of the land. Further, land is also something he/she can fall back on, even though it may not be anything much. And this has been termed ‘insurance function’ of land. Ownership of land does not make people jobless, the way a person can be jobless in the urban areas in the industrial system. Not only is somebody not jobless but she/he also has some ‘assured capital’. Therefore, shifting from one’s land means shifting to an entirely new kind of existence with new kind of uncertainties and risks. Thus this process of transfer of land is not, and could never be a smooth one.
We could not deny the fact that development has its positive sides too but the question arises whether the benefits from development exceeds the costs associated with it. One would hasten to add, is it right to ask in terms of ‘cost and benefit’ analysis of development since we are not dealing with commodities? The tribals protesting out there are citizen of this country and our own people.
Repression is no answer to agitation. It has the potential of triggering any situation into chaos. Respect for the right to dissent is not only a marker of democracy but also a marker of a mature civilization and a great society.
This is becoming very commonplace in peer group, on the campuses and streets to silence the voices of dissent. Dissent has almost become a crime in our society. If one questions today’s development and so many other things, one is in no time, labelled a Naxal (or supporter of Naxalism), anti-national and a traitor. Loyalty (I don’t know what the criteria are to measure these!) of citizens comes in the crosshairs, the moment one dares to speak one’s mind on AFSPA, Kashmir, North-East, current state of development vis-a-vis its repercussions and scores of such issues.
Are alternative voices not an attempt to plea for an inclusive, all-encompassing and open democracy? Democracy would be meaningless until neglected sections are empowered. Fair play and better participation of all classes of Indians are essential for a just and durable order. The responsibility for justice is part of the power. Are we not supposed to have this luxury of asking right questions, and speaking truth to power without state’s reprisals? Ghalib was right:
Mauje khoo ser se guzer hi kiyon na jay/Aastane yaar se uth jaein kaya!
(Whatever be the circumstances, we will not leave the place [country or home of the beloved] even if our heads are chopped off)
(Fahad Hashmi is pursuing MPhil in Sociology from University of Delhi)