Monday, October 12, 2009

ജാനു മുതൽ ളാഹ വരെ

ചെങ്ങറ ഭൂസമരം വിലയിരുത്തിക്കൊണ്ട് ഞാൻ എഴുതിയ ഒരു ലേഖനം ജനശക്തി വാരികയുടെ 2009 ഒൿടോബർ 10-16 ലക്കത്തിലുണ്ട്.

“ചെങ്ങറ നവോത്ഥാനം വീണ്ടെടുക്കാനുള്ള വഴി തുറക്കുന്നു” എന്ന തലക്കെട്ടിലുള്ള ആ ലേഖനത്തിന്റെ മൂലരൂപം ഇവിടെ വായിക്കാം.

12 comments:

കിരണ്‍ തോമസ് തോമ്പില്‍ said...

മംഗളം പത്രത്തില്‍ നിന്ന്

സമരം ചെയ്‌ത എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും ഒരേക്കര്‍ ഭൂമി നല്‍കണമെന്നാണ്‌ സര്‍ക്കാരിന്റെ ആഗ്രഹം എന്നാല്‍ ഇതിന്‌ ആവശ്യമായ ഭൂമി കേരളത്തില്‍ ഇല്ലെന്നും മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി പറഞ്ഞു. അതേസമയം ചെങ്ങറയില്‍ സര്‍മവ്വ നടത്തി മിച്ച ഭൂമി പിടിച്ചെടുക്കണമെന്നും പട്ടികജാതിക്കാര്‍ക്ക്‌ ഒരേക്കര്‍ നല്‍കണമെന്നുമുള്ള തന്റെ ആവശ്യത്തിന്‌ തടസ്സം നിനന്ത്‌ മുഖ്യമന്ത്രിയാണെന്ന്‌ ളാഹ ഗോപാലന്‍ അറിയിച്ചു. മറ്റു മന്ത്രിമാര്‍ തന്റെ ആവശ്യത്തോട്‌ അനുഭാവമായ നടപടിയാണ്‌ സ്വീകരിച്ചത്‌. എന്നാല്‍ പട്ടികജാതിക്കാര്‍ക്ക്‌ അരയേക്കര്‍ ഭൂമി മതിയെന്ന്‌ വാശിപിടിച്ചത്‌ മുഖ്യമന്ത്രിയാണെന്നും ളാഹ ഗോപാലന്‍ പറഞ്ഞു.

സി.പി.എം പ്രവര്‍ത്തകരില്‍ നിന്നുള്ള വധഭീഷണിയേ തുടര്‍ന്നാണ്‌ ഒത്തുതീര്‍പ്പിന്‌ വഴങ്ങിയതെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം കൂട്ടിച്ചേര്‍ത്തു.

അപ്പോള്‍ സമരം ജയിച്ചിട്ടൊന്നുമില്ല. വധ ഭീക്ഷിണി കാരണം നിര്‍ത്തിപ്പോയീ.
അങ്ങനെ ആ സമരവും പൊളിച്ചു കൊടുത്തു. ഇനിയും തുടരുമെന്നും ളാഹാ ഗോപാലന്‍ ഇന്നു പറയുന്നുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. കേരളത്തിലെ മുഖ്യധാര പ്രതികരണക്കാര്‍ ചെങ്ങറിയില്‍ ഇറങ്ങിയതോടെ ഇതിന്റെ വെടി തീരാന്‍ അധികം കാലതാമസമുണ്ടാകില്ല എന്ന് ഉറപ്പായിരുന്നു.

ജനശക്തി said...

അന്ന് വെടിയുണ്ട; ഇന്ന് ഭൂമിയും വീടും

ചെങ്ങറ സമരം: രണ്ട് നയം

Blogger said...

Sir
I saw the Article.
I have few doubts.

The Land struggles in Kerala why so important?
Is it because the people have no land to farming or the value of land is unusually very high is the primary reason?

I respect the dalits, backwards and all other landless struggle. I salute that.

But the question I raised is because most of the time people who proclaim their struggle is for the farming land do not even know how to do farming.

The landless of kerala is the 3rd or the 4th generation peasants and farm workers only. Most of them have no basic knowledge on how to farming and how to work in the farmland this is one side of the story.

Other side the land of Chengara really good for any kind of farming? If the govt. agree to give the Harisson estate to the land less what kind of farming possible in that? It is a plantation land and more than 40-50years continuous Rubber plantation and its related fertilization etc that land is not fit for any other agricultural farming.

How can we justify calling it a struggle for farming land?

Kerala have a plantation belt where we can only grow rubber, tea or cofee kind of plantation products. This land how much good for any other kind of farming? If we do any agro/food product farming it will be profitable and this will give proper bread and butter to the new comers in the farming sector?

Most of the area kerala having agro/food product farming the land maximum owned by a keralite is less than 10 Acre only. Most of the land belongs to people who have less than 3 acre land only.

One generation to another agin these land going to re distributed into small pieces and few of us going to build a house and settle down in that small portion of land.

On the other side the paddy land and farming sector related to rise or any other paddy farming facing some important issues like lack of farm workers. The lack of farm workers is a stark reality of Kerala and this proving that our people are not expert or good in agricultural, peasantry works.

the only people who earn a good income is in the plantation sector only. If the landless demand to provide land from these plantation sector what about the plantation workers and their lively hood?

I believe the chengara struggle caused a division in the working class of Kerala knowingly or unknowingly. I don't know whom to be blamed but the leaders of the struggle failed to educate the poor plantation worker that their struggle is not against them and it is form them also only.

What is the justification of distancing the working class in the plantation sector and making them enemy of the landless of Kerala?

If I accuse the chengara movement for creating such divide in the poor and oppressed do you have any justification?

In my opinion chengara was not only a failed struggle but it created more rift in the class struggle and going to divide the oppressed in to more fragile parts.

I believe if the struggle focused on bringing all the plantation land in the hands of State and providing the landless necessary place to build home and giving training to work in the plantation and other farming sector and gradually if we moved to wards demanding all the land of Kerala to be available for farming might have given a new dimension to the struggle and it might converted the struggle to a mass movement.

Today we can only see Chengara struggle as a struggle created rift and divided in the working class politics. Now onwards people in the working class can be divided as the one supporting cpm and the other one as opposing cpm. who is the beneficiary of this divide? Not the CPM and Not the one organized Chengara struggle but some one else who do not help the struggle.

have any justification for this divide created in the working class?

BHASKAR said...

Bloger,
The land situation in Kerala is rather complex. Adivasis had land. They didnt have title to the land, but had the right to cultivate it. That land was taken away from them by encroachers from the plains, who then get title in their names with the help of corrupt officials and religious and political interests. The much advertised land reform took land away from the landlord and gave it to the tenant, leaving the landless far hands (most of them Dalits) in the same condition as before. The tenant who got the land had already lost interest in farming. In his hands, land became an asset to be used to further his middle class dreams. Plantations were exempted from ceilings law when land reform was introduced but the law was silent on what will happen if the land was no longer used for plantations. That made it possible for Xavy Mano Mathews to emerge. The Chengara agitators were landless people willing to do farming and they were seeking land to cultivate. There is more landlessness among Dalits in Kerala, where there was revolutionary land reform, than among Dalits in UP, where there was no land reform.

Blogger said...

Sir,
Thanks for the reply.
I think your reply needs little more clarifications.
How much land in kerala is good for farming?
What kind of farming possible in Kerala?
Food grains or commercial products?
If the state distribute the land to landless for farming are they able to
Survive with the farming in the said possible land govt. going to deliver?

If anybody need to survive with farming then most of the time rubber farming is the only source which give a regular income and
Make a family to survive. If you have 75 or 100 rubber trees then you can survive with the income from the rubber. But if all the land we use for
Rubber it spoil the land and later on that soil won’t be god for any other farming.

Except the plantation belt which other area kerala have sufficient land to distribute for the farming purpose? Outside the plantation belt land is hardly available most of the time it is very expensive and an average malayali have less than 2acre of land in Kerala. If anybody have 10 acre or more land they are supre rich of kerala today.

You used the name Xavy Mano Mathew, a rich man and landloard (plantation land) but how good/usefull his land for farming? After the ASIAN FTA agreement most of the kerala commercial farming products become cheaper and it hurt the plantation badly. The issues in the tea plantation sector is one of the best example for that.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Chengara agitators were landless people willing to do farming and they were seeking land to cultivate.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What is their farming experience? What kind of farming they know to do? Will the farming make them surviving and running the family?

Sir I am not against the landless or their struggle but without finding an answer to my questions agitating and demanding land have any value?

Can I suggest like:
We need to demand mapping the kerala land and classifying it into different area is necessary.
We need to classify the area good for commercial farming, food and other kind of framings like flowers
Area need to designate for constructing houses and commercial buildings
And the size of the buildings can make in each designated area and
Making sure each village/panchayat/municipality have sufficient land for building house for different income groups
Common grave yards and places for worship and other public needs.
And sufficient land for farming. If the land in some area not sufficient for farming
For example big cities like metro cochin need more land for buildings
State need to impose an agricultural/farming tax and that tax should use to promote farming in other parts of the state.

BHASKAR said...

Bloger: I have publicly demanded on many occasions that the government must make a survey and ascertain the extent of land that is available, draw up a land use policy which will specify how much land is to be set apart from farming, industry, service activities like tourism etc. We can follow Japan's example and have a zoning system to ensure that the limited land that is available is used in the best interests of the society. Our rulers are reluctant to do this because it will limit their ability to dispense land as favour.

Blogger said...

Sir,
What about the other questions I raised in my mail about the struggle and its motives?

are you trying to avoid answering the points I raised?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I have publicly demanded on many occasions ............
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

why this was not in the demands of the struggle? and why it is not included in the discussion with govt.and opposition leader?

Being a journalist in the mainstream why are you failing to give some momentum to this issue?

ജനശക്തി said...

“സാര്‍ത്ഥവാഹകസംഘം മുന്നോട്ട്” എന്ന മറുപടിയാവും ബി.ആര്‍.പിയില്‍ നിന്ന് ബ്ലോഗര്‍ക്ക് കിട്ടുക. :)

BHASKAR said...

bloger: It is for every group which nurses grievances to decide how it should articulate its demands. If I am convinced that the cause is just, the demand is just, I lend my support to its cause/demand.

Unknown said...

Sir, you said "Our rulers are reluctant to do this because it will limit their ability to dispense land as favour"

More than Chengara, the life of Dalits/adivasis are pathetic in wynad. why people like you are afraid of even mentioning Wynad ?

Think the 'cause and just' are prone to change from person to person, region, and influenced by vested interests

Blogger said...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is for every group which nurses grievances to decide how it should articulate its demands.
If I am convinced that the cause is just, the demand is just, I lend my support to its cause/demand.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sir this is not the answer to my questions. I am not asking about your personal choice and individual decisions.

The topic your are speaking is a social issue and I am reading it with its spirit and responding to that with my views. I am raising some doubts and questions about the Chengara issue and about the Kerala Land issue.

Being an expert in this issue I expect a reply with specifications and details about the land issue.

I am copying few of them below here
one again
How much land in kerala is good for farming?
What kind of farming possible in Kerala?
Food grains or commercial products?
If the state distribute the land to landless for farming are they able to
Survive with the farming in the said possible land govt. going to deliver?

If anybody need to survive with farming then most of the time rubber farming is the only source which give a regular income and
Make a family to survive. If you have 75 or 100 rubber trees then you can survive with the income from the rubber. But if all the land we use for
Rubber it spoil the land and later on that soil won’t be god for any other farming.

Except the plantation belt which other area kerala have sufficient land to distribute for the farming purpose? Outside the plantation belt land is hardly available most of the time it is very expensive and an average malayali have less than 2acre of land in Kerala. If anybody have 10 acre or more land they are supre rich of kerala today.

BHASKAR said...

Bloger: The answers to your questions will possibly emerge if the government undertakes a proper survey.