Opinion Caste Human Rights West Bengal
Nandigram, an atrocity on dalits
The hypocrisy with which the Government of West Bengal acted at Nandigram this March is a serious cause of disillusionment and has opened the door to further radicalisation of the dispossessed. Tanveer Kazi presents the dalit perspective, even as the High Court continues to pass strictures on the state government.
Police firing and subsequent deaths at Nandigram in March had shocked the nation. The central and state governments received a clear warning of the dangers of forcing an arbitrary SEZ policy premised on an unjust land acquisition law on the people. But seen from a dalit perspective, the violence at Nandigram was the reflection of a deeper tension that has been building up since the local residents claimed political autonomy of the area, and the state administration made a pre-meditated effort to put down the dissent with force. Police records also show that the majority of victims did indeed come from the Scheduled Castes. This is the story of Nandigram, beyond the immediate waves of the events of 14 March.
A fact-finding team from the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) gathered details through visits to Nandigram on 16 and 17 March and later from 20 to 25 April. The team engaged in conversations with the victims and their families.
Build up
On 2 January the Nandigram Block Development Office (BDO) announced the seizure of land in the area for the creation of an SEZ. The announcement was made by postings on the BDO office door and the district magistrate’s office. On 3 January a group of villagers, incensed by the news, marched on the Garchakrebia Panchayat office. The Panchayat members called the police to intervene and remove the protestors. The police arrived and lathi charged the protestors. The villagers responded by torching two police vehicles and attacking the Panchayat office.
In the ensuing violence 11 people were killed in clashes between the police and party cadres on the one side and protestors on the other. CPI(M) party members were allegedly driven from the area by the angry villagers. In the ensuing violence, one female party member was allegedly raped. The party members stationed themselves in neighbouring Khejuri and allegedly fired on protestors from across the dividing canal.
Government action
With this background the West Bengal state government decided to act to ‘restore order’ in the area. Prasad Ranjan Roy, Home Secretary of the West Bengal government, announced at Writers Building (seat of the WB Government) on 9 and 12 March 2007 that there would be police action in Nandigram. The exact numbers of how many police were mobilised are not clear - conservative figures put the number at 700 whilst others claim as many as 3,000. Along with standard lathis the police were armed with .303 rifles and semi-automatic insas assault rifles. The police were poorly equipped with non-lethal crowd dispersal equipment, an issue they have not addressed since then.
It appears that there was dispute amongst the police about the role that the CPI(M) cadres should play - whether they should form a rearguard to occupy the villages after the crowd had been dispersed or whether they should not be allowed in at all. Disturbingly, in the end, they formed the vanguard alongside the police force and what is apparent now were allowed to carry their own arms, guns as well as swords. It has even been stated by eyewitnesses that they were dressed as policemen. This decision was apparently taken by senior policemen, who decided that their knowledge of the area would be valuable to the expeditionary force.
14 March 2007
Even in the January incident, when 11 people were killed in firing, the police were poorly equipped with non-lethal crowd dispersal equipment, an issue they have not addressed since then.
The expeditionary force reached Nandigram at about 10:00am and proceeded in four columns. They faced resistance in two places; Bhangibeda (Sonachuda) and in Gokul Nagar. The protestors had anticipated a robust response from the police so had placed women and children at the front of the march to deter police from instigating violence. As the combined force approached, the protestors’ accounts differ slightly about the ensuing flow of events. What is clear is that very little time passed between arrival, any preliminary warnings and the carnage unleashed by the police. Estimates vary from between five to 15 minutes. Some accounts have the police demanding the crowd to disperse and then firing tear gas and rubber bullets followed by stone pelting and finally opening fire.
What is certain is that the legal requirement for a magistrate to be present and sign an order permitting the use of lethal force was not met. What is also apparent from all accounts is that the police gave protestors very little time and effective persuasion before opening fire especially considering the sheer number of people and therefore the logistics in clearing the crowd. All evidence points to a readiness and anticipation of opening fire with live ammunition on the crowd.
After the first rounds were fired, eyewitnesses state that as the protestors fled, the assailants chased them down the road. Survivors spoken to report seeing the brutal murders, including the beheading of a child. Our observers, who entered the village as late as 17 March, say that the streets had remnants of human blood on them for two kilometres from the site of the initial confrontation. Locals claim that 100 to 150 people were killed and party cadres were seen placing dead bodies into the back of lorries. The police suggest that 14 people were killed. Official figures differ greatly from what we gathered from the survivors, prompting suspicion amongst our observers that either party could be wildly exaggerating.
Subsequently a variety of reports have emerged suggesting serious questions about the integrity of the official figures. These include the number of rounds found in the area with also a variety of bullet types. Body parts have been unearthed, most notably the charred remains of a body in the Sonachura area. Meanwhile many families report missing relatives; some report seeing their family members falling to the police bullets. An arms cache with 800 live rounds belonging to CPI(M) members was also found in a brick kiln. Whilst the confrontation occurred, party cadres cordoned off the area to prevent press and supporters of the villagers into the area for quite some time before allowing entry.
Our observers spoke to some of the survivors and relatives in hospital. Kajili, attending to her badly beaten son in Nandigram hospital, told our team amidst tears, “I saw a child being beheaded. I could not see it anymore, and ran from there.” Other accounts taken by our team highlight wide ranging incidences of beatings and sexually harassment including that of a 55-year-old woman, who on all accounts was not a threat to ‘law and order’ or to practically anything or anyone. So traumatised was she that her relatives had to recount her tale for her. “She had fallen down on the spot; bahini (party cadres) people beat her badly, later because they did not prefer raping her, they put a stick in her genitals and mutilated them.” The team also visited a building where women had been gang raped, still littered with items of clothing.
Confirmed deaths as per police records
Women gangraped as per police records
Government response since the atrocities
The state government put forth a variety of responses. Most notably they have withdrawn the proposals for the area and the SEZ will most probably be built in Haldia, the neighbouring district. A CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) team was one of the first to mobilise and visit the area, sent there by the Supreme Court in Kolkata. The CBI report highlighted key facts already presented here, including police and ‘outsider’ collusion and the fact that the firing was ‘unprovoked’.
The CPI(M) has responded with a variety of statements varying from denial, to counter attack and most recently limited efforts at a reconciliation process in the area. Most bizarre are statements about a U.S. collusion with protestors.
Background: SEZs and the Left
The CBI report highlighted key facts already presented here, including police and ‘outsider’ collusion and the fact that the firing was ‘unprovoked’.
• Rights denuded in wordy forest
Haldia is a town and municipality in West Bengal, about 150 kilometres from Kolkata. Situated near the mouth of the Hooghly, it is a major port and is being developed more for bulk goods. In 2001, its population was 170,695. Companies operating in Haldia include Indian Oil corporation limited, Exide, Shaw Wallace, Tata Chemicals, Haldia Petrochemical and Hindustan Lever. The town is fast growing and the neighbouring district of Nandigram was thus seen as an ideal location to build an SEZ (Special Economic Zone).
The West Bengal government chose the Salim group of Indonesia for the development of the SEZ. The proposals include three SEZs that would have comprised the largest project of its kind in West Bengal with a minimum size of 250 square kilometres. Estimates as to the number of people who would be displaced by the SEZs are hard to gather.
The adoption of SEZs in West Bengal by the left front government can be seen as mimicking Chinese adoption of this policy. However, Indian SEZs appear even more aggressive than China’s. In China, the government controls the area and even owns the SEZs and they are considered more labour intensive. China has only six massive scale SEZs in areas such as Shenzen, whereas in India, an unlimited number of small SEZs are being proposed. India’s policy threatens to promote lopsided development and deter companies from investing in non-SEZ areas.
The adoption of SEZs in West Bengal is concurrent with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Battacharya’s reformist stance, whereby rhetoric is wholly outdated when compared with actions and policy. The 1 April 2007 issue of People’s Democracy, the weekly organ of the CPI (M), states: “The Bengal CPI (M) is of the firm opinion that the strong agricultural and agrarian base of Bengal should be further consolidated and extended and the state’s economy taken further forward and to newer heights through a process of pro-people industrialisation.”
Yogendra Yadav, senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, wrote in an article in The Indian Express: “This gap between the CPI(M)‘s preaching and practice did not surprise me.” Yadav refers to Christophe Jaffrelot’s research on the social profile of MLAs in India, which shows that the proportion of upper caste MLAs is on the decline all over the country since the 1960s except in West Bengal. Here, the proportion of upper castes has increased in the state assembly after 1977, after the Left Front came to power. He points out the caste composition of successive Left Front ministries: about two thirds of the ministers come from the top three jatis (Brahman, Boddis, Kayasthas). Yadav also points to an earlier occurrence of a similar nature in West Bengal, in Alipurduar, in 1987 where CPI (M) goons attacked a peaceful, Dalit march. The peaceful protestors were then victimised by the police.
Conclusion
It is clear that the majority of victims did come from the Scheduled Castes – not surprising as in the area and most parts of India the most economically vulnerable are the dalits. Lip service is all that these vulnerable communities receive in place of rehabilitation and compensation, and the same has happened in the case of land seizures too. As villager Santosh Patro reiterated to our team of the former residents of Haldia “…all those who left their land are selling cucumber and cleaning shit.”
Effectively the local residents were claiming political autonomy of the area, ridding it of party cadres and asserting themselves.
• Rights denuded in wordy forest
The decision to act with such force and brutality must be seen as pre-meditated and could also be related to caste or the perceived status or lack of, of those living in the area. Effectively the local residents were claiming political autonomy of the area, ridding it of party cadres and asserting themselves. This can be seen to reflect a deeper tension that the SEZ issue finally inflamed. The response was a decidedly brutal one, in order to put residents ‘back in their place’. Terror is one of the most effective tools to manufacture submission and in this instance has already been effective; the mere sight of police was enough to disperse a crowd that had gathered after the discovery of charred remains in the area.
The hypocrisy with which the state government acted is a serious cause of disillusionment and has opened the door to further radicalisation and violence on part of the dispossessed. There have been suggestions that the resistance at Nandigram has a Maoist influence and that Naxalite rebels were planning on targeting such developments in the future. The experience of the insurgency in the adivasi communities in many eastern states, who were displaced from their ancestral homes because of the traditional mineral wealth of the region, should serve as a warning when planners contemplate land seizures of this sort.
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Cite this article
Tanveer Kazi (2007) ‘Nandigram, an atrocity on dalits’, India Together, 5 May 2007. https://indiatogether.org/nandigram-society/
14 reader responses
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Rajkumar · 6 May 2007
I'm just a lay reader. But I am appalled at the simplistic conclusion arrived at here. I would be more convinced if data about the general % of castes in that area, caste wise breakup of people involved in agitation are all provided. You could come up with umpteen such groupings, say for example by sex and say men were more affected than women and etc., though there were no specific motives to hurt men, but just that they happened to be the majority of agitators.I would also be more interested in knowing about the caste breakdown of oppressors/police involved and was there any agenda on targeting the dalits. I am also not sure what we can SPECIALLY understand about the dalit factor in this article without answering some questions. Out of a diverse grouping, were dalits singled out for such oppression?; Or is it just that most of the agitators were dalits and obviously they were the worst affected? Was government against the agitation because it was the cause of Dalits or would they have gone ahead anyway? It is an obvious fact that most of poor people are dalits and especially those involved in agitations and we don't really need a NCDHR comission to tell that.
tony · 9 May 2007
Raj kumar, when do the police fire on upper caste students protesting reservation? how many upper caste women were raped? the motives may not have been superficially caste based but the outcomes affected the most disposesed, the poorest, those at the bottom, that is why this grouping is important, when a man beats his wife, is her sex unimportant? is it not a 'women's issue'?
Krishna · 16 May 2007
The issue is not of caste so much as poverty and powerlessness. Most of the land in India is cultivated by poor, mostly scheduled caste, men and women. Even if they own land it would be a fragment that would not be of any consequence in the the social and political dynamics of the countryside. Political parties have used these groups as an obedient mass base. It is the sudden rebellion of this hitherto faithful following that led to the fury of the police and their political masters. It would of course not have happened to an upper-caste group because such people, often owning more land and having some education and alternative sources of income, would take the compensation offered and move away. (this is what happened in Singur too) The people who would have nowhere to go would be the very small land-holder,the share-cropper and the landless labourer. They would also be desperate enough to stake everything in their fight because they had no options in front of them. That these are mostly scheduled caste people is indisputable, and that is why most of the dead are SCs, but they were fired upon, not because they were SCs but because they were poor people who dared to defy the diktat of their (political)masters.
Kamalika Sengupta · 17 May 2007
I am a journalist from bengal and I have covered Nandigram massacare. Whatever has happened is not only sad but it is true that the ruling party here now has lost its credibility as a mazdoor party and at the same time has lost its credibility to criticise Gujarat. But it has nothing to do with caste in this struggle because farmers and villagers are both from backward community and minority community but more important is their economic backwardness. Therefore though this article is good but the caste factor is not important because it was not that the police and CPM goons fired dalits.
anoop kumar · 18 July 2007
I agree with Tony abt the caste dynamics involve. I am at despair why people go into denial mode whenever caste/dalit is mentioned. Similarly when Kherlanji massacre happened people started saying that it was land related issue not caste issue. Though I am yet to come across of such brutal incident inflicted to 'upper caste' family by whole village.
Abhijeet Kumar · 9 September 2007
Land holding pattern in india is very skewed.Marginal & small holdings (0.6 hactares or less per holding) account for 80% and rest are medium & large holdings.If this factor is considered then land covered by any SEZ has to largely come from large holders since SC/ST more often than not are marginal holders.Keeping this in view, we have to understand this problem.According to me ,opposition to SEZ is upper caste zamindars game plan to sqeeze money from large companies.SC/ST farmers are emotionally tied up with their small piece of land and more particularly in the absence of any other gainful employment and/or non-agricultural skills.This attachment to land is well understood by upper caste zamindars so they instigate these hapless dalits.Moreover small number of zamindars do not count much in mass based agitation so they make use of these large number of agri-labourers.This is confirmed by subsequent action of the state¢ral Govts.No SEZ has yet been scraped but rules of land acquisition by companies have been changed.Now,the SEZ companies have to acquire land directly from the farmers instead of Govt.Large farmers will dictate terms to the companies and sqeeze them through their nose.It is a known fact that agricultural activities have become a loss business so zamindars want to get out of this. SEZ is a god sent opportunity for them.SC/ST farmers are caught in this cross-fire.They should bargain for educational facilities and jobs for their children in SEZ companies in lieu of their land rather than opposing acquisition of land which any case is a lost cause.Key to dalits emancipation lies in industrialisation,education and industry jobs.Loss of agri-land is far lesser than the compensation through jobs in SEZ.Need of the hour is to understand the game plan of these upper caste zamindars.If at all zamindars want to oppose SEZ then let them come in front and fight for their land,since they are going to lose more than dalits.
ram · 11 November 2007
Maybe what you have written is true, but I am really amazed at the conclusion u have driven into....! How does this issue become a casteist one? Do you have no boundaries as to what shoud be made a casteist issue and what not? Pls address the real issues, and not make every problem in the country caste-based even when it is not.
subhamoy banerjee · 14 November 2007
sir, india is not a country of dalits, obcs and minorities only, west bengal is not the state only for dalits, obcs and minorities, upper caste of india and west bengal has a severely large contribution towards the development of this country. i am against cpim's 'goondaraj' in west bengal but it is a false claim that cpim fired the villagers as they were dalits,it is not so,it is a mass killing, may be the dalits occupy the higher nos but it is because they live/lived in villages. adhikari para is a brahmin para but the torture was no less than the dalits in 14th march or post 14th march. so please try to see beyond caste or religious line. we need abolition of the tags like dalits and upper castes. upper caste is not the culprit and dalits are also not the saints. obc and dalit affluents torture more on dalits and backwards of this country. may be this fact is very hard to digest for you or the indian politicians or so called proquota lobby, but i would urge do not see everything through the spectacles of castes. we need to build a democratic society,not caste sponsorship. people and intellectuals of bengal are supporting the distressed people of nandigram as human beings, this is more important than terming everything as a matter of casteism.
Maniklal Adhikary · 17 November 2007
74. After our Independence, it was Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, the-then Chief Minister of West Bengal, who was the front-runner in getting WB placed in some high position in the rank of States of India in respect of industrialization and industrial development. Dont misinterpret that I am stating in favour of Congress Government in WB. I am talking about the wisdom, prudence and humane face of Dr. Roy, who had successfully shaped Bengal. WB came to face the model of darkness in all senses towards the end of Congress rule in WB and Left Front replaced that in the true sense of the term in 1977 under the Chief Ministership of Sri Joyti Basu. WB has now been successful in materializing the same old culture of the said model of darkness through their cadres and this has almost crossed the tolerance limit for the last three or four years. The approach of the present Government in WB in the case of Singur and Nandigram substantiates this fact. This Government and todays CPM are nourished and dominated by many persons who have no grass-root level experience and involvement of struggle. They are no doubt CPM, but not definitely Marxist. If Marx were alive, he would have preferred to commit suicide since he is being capitalized and mal-used (used as a tool for malpractice) by the exponents of some sectarian philosophy who do not deserve to be Marxist. In WB the true Marksists are our students who take the membership of SFI from the time they are students of Class VI and run after high marks only in spite of the fact that they dont deserve it (think of therefore education in WB). Due to imprudent, aggressive and immature trade unionism, the industrial progress that was achieved after independence had come to a halt, then started being demolished since 1977 in WB. Now WB has been toppled in the rank of industrialization. Steps towards industrialization are most welcome. But, SEZ cant be the solution and getting the cultivators stripped of their lands by force. Its inhuman and barbarism that has been reflected through the functioning of the present Government in Nadigram, West Bengal. The present Government in WB dream that it has got some sort of Aladins Lamp. In one dark night it will go to bed and it will wake up in the next fine morning with the sunrise and industries it likes to have. During the thirty years of their rule in WB they have destroyed the industrial base that was developed after independence. Are they so fool that they hope for some magic and that magic at the cost of human life and livelihood? This world belongs to human beings, neither to CPM nor to Congress nor to BJP nor to Hindus nor to Muslims etc. etc. How does our Chief Minister forget that to boastfully declare our men, their men? Has he not lost credentials to hold the post of Chief Minister?
JS Karkada · 19 November 2007
Cast feelings in W.Bengal are much less compared to states like Bihar, UP and Orissa. The larger number of casualties among dalits may be because of their larger percentage in the population and their voluntary frontline participation in the agitation. It is sad all the same. The CPM leaders and leading "cadre" in W.Bengal want to make a fortune for themselves by snatching ancestral agricultural lands of the peasants and gifting it to industrial sharks. CPM national leader Prakash Karat has compromised his reputation for personal honesty & integrity by supporting them.
Prasun Bhattacharya · 6 September 2009
The statistics is incomplete, it did not mention the % of SC population in that area. In Nandigram there was no cast fight or cast atrocities. It was simple political clash. The majority of victims were naturally from SC community, because they are the vast majority there. The WB government assured that no sez would come up there, land would not be acquired. Even after that Trinamool Congress, naxal and maoist continued violence in Nandigram. If you look at those who were brutally killed by these forces in the name of struggle against land acquisition, you will find the same ratio dominated by SCs. I mean, the political violence which was continuing in Nandigram was ultimately snatching the life of poor backward community people in other way. The Government of WB sent Police forces there just to stop this violence, not to acquire land for sez. Unfortunately the opposition parties successfully misled and instigated the poor villagers (SCs) to fight against the police. That resulted the untoward incident on 14th march, 2007.
asit guin · 10 April 2013
5 yrs after her son died in the march 14, 2007 Nandigram incident, Firoza Biwi, Nandigram MLA asked industry minister the question on industrialization in Nandigram. It was Nandigram and Singur that put TMC to power. TMC had converted Nandigram into a samshan. The people are not against industry. But it is too late.
asit guin · 3 November 2013
What happened in Nandigram, dubrajpur and tehatta? In Nandigram, Maoists arranged road digging. Trinamool arranged false news of land acquisition, which actually not occurred. Maoists arranged women at their front and themselves behind with weapons. The roads are dug. So, war-like situation was created by Maoists and Trinamool. Police took action for which hardly they can be blamed. Among the 14 died, 8 died in police bullet, 6 died by other causes, for which Maoists are to be suspected. Victims have only fault; they believed in land acquisition campaign, which was a lie of respectable liars. This land acquisition at Nandigram has never occurred. This unfortunate death actually reduced number of idiots in Bengal. In Birbhum village, peasants are ready to give land in exchange of proper compensation. Govt is denying discussion. So, it is govt fault only. War does not start in the battlefield. War starts in politics. TMC politics is responsible for Nandigram violence as well as for Birbhum violence. Whether rail-minster or chief-minister; spoiling-player is always spoiling-player. People have to pay for their wrong choice. And that is what happened in tehatta. If Puja is not permissible in one location, it is to be shifted to another location. Why SDPO does not know this simple solution of a simple problem? Police firing cause is unknown in tehatta . CM is speechless. No comment please. Will she resign?
asit guin · 30 November 2013
Nandigram Police firing: पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री बुद्धदेव को क्लीनचिट कोलकाता/ब्यूरो। नंदीग्राम में पुलिस फायरिंग की घटना में सीबीआई ने पश्चिम बंगाल के पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री और माकपा के वरिष्ठ नेता बुद्धदेव भट्टाचार्य को क्लीनचिट दे दी है। वर्ष 2007 में 14 मार्च की घटना में हाईकोर्ट ने 17 मार्च को सीबीआई जांच कराने का निर्देश दिया था। तब पुलिस की गोली से 14 जनों की मौत हो गई थी। मौजूदा ममता बनर्जी सरकार ने सीबीआई से प्रकरण में भट्टाचार्य की भूमिका की जांच की मांग की थी। सीबीआई ने राज्य सरकार को बताया कि घटना में भट्टाचार्य का हाथ होने का कोई साक्ष्य नहीं मिला है। सीबीआई ने रिपोर्ट राज्य सरकार को भेज दी है। सीबीआई ने बंगाल सरकार से घटना के दौरान तैनात 12 पुलिस व प्रशासनिक अधिकारियों के खिलाफ कार्रवाई की सिफारिश की थी। इनमें से तीन के खिलाफ सीबीआई ने राज्य सरकार से अकारण गोली चलाने के लिए चार्ज लगाने की अनुमति मांगी थी। अन्य नौ के खिलाफ कड़ी कार्रवाई की सिफारिश की गई थी। सीबीआई के संयुक्त निदेशक अरुण बोथरा द्वारा भेजी गई रिपोर्ट की राज्य का गृह विभाग जांच कर रहा है। माना जा रहा है कि राज्य सरकार यह रिपोर्ट कानूनी सलाह के लिए विधि विभाग को भेजेगी। सरकार फिलहाल किसी पुलिस अधिकारी के खिलाफ चार्जशीट पेश करने की इजाजत देने में जल्दबाजी के मूड में नहीं है।