A new Chattisgarh in an old India

By Neera Chandhoke

A BRAND new State has appeared on the horizon of Indian politics - Chattisgarh, but the faces that have already begun to circle the body of this new polity, ready for the picking as it were, are old, tired, and discredited. Even before the new State has taken shape, we see a familiar figure from the Emergency making a bid for the Chief Minister's post - Mr. V. C. Shukla. Having been denied the Congress(I) ticket to contest the elections, Mr. Shukla joined the Chattisgarh Rajya Sangarsh Morcha as a convenor in May 1999. His involvement with the aspirations of the Chattisgarhi people is thus hardly a year old. True that the now defunct precursor to the CRSM, the Chattisgarh Asmita Sanghathan, and its precursor, the equally-defunct Chattisgarh State All Party Manch, formed in the 1960s along with the Chattisgarh Bhratir Sangh have intermittently demanded a separate State in the name of Chattisgarhi identity and self-respect. But the group that has fought long and hard for the dignity of the ordinary human being, for a new Chattisgarh in a new India - the Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha - has been left out in the cold.

All reports dismiss the CMM as a trade union. But the CMM is much more than a trade union, it is a political movement like no other - a political movement with a difference. For the CMM has managed to chart out a vision of a `new Chattisgarh for a new India' in and through struggle against savagely oppressive industrialists, labour and liquor contractors, and an insensitive state. If the CMM had not been formed under the leadership of Shankar Guha Niyogi, if it had not thought long and deep about the various ways in which the people of the region could be emancipated, the Adivasis and the Dalits of the region would still be working for the Bhilai Steel Plant, the ancillary industries, and the mines for a pittance.

For, despite being one of the richest resource-laden regions in India, and despite the fact that the region has witnessed massive primary and ancillary industrialisation, the local people lived in absolute poverty till the arrival of Niyogi. The Government of India had promised jobs to the local people in the Bhilai Steel Plant. Yet less than ten per cent out of the roughly 70,000 workers came from the area. They were recruited both by the contractors and the cooperative societies set up by the trade union leaders, as well as the management, to perform casual, menial, low-skill work for as low a wage as Rs. 3.50 a day.

Work conditions were exploitative and inhuman, and a large and powerful lobby of liquor barons compelled workers to exchange their wages for liquor. Child labour was rampant and the region witnessed the highest number of people living in conditions of bonded labour. Schools were non- functioning because teachers were unavailable. Health facilities were non- existent. And the organised trade unions representing workers that had been brought in from outside the region were completely unfeeling towards the needs of unorganised labour.

Niyogi came to work in the Bhilai Steel Plant in 1961 as an engineering apprentice at the coke oven plant, where he worked till 1968. Deeply moved by the conditions of the casual workers, he founded the Blast Furnace Action Committee with 16 members, and organised a number of strikes on the issue of remuneration for casual workers. For this reason, he was dismissed from his job by the management in 1968 on charges of conspiracy. This was the first of many attacks on Niyogi, which ultimately culminated in his assassination in the early 1990s. For, Niyogi had given to the people of the region hope and courage to struggle. In the fields of Bastar he launched a struggle against the middlemen who profited from the sale of meat to the urban areas. Mobilising the people to directly sell their agricultural produce, poultry, and meat to the cities, and founding a newspaper for the area, Niyogi moved on to establish the Chattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh to secure a minimum wage for the local workers. Initially the CMSS managed to raise the daily wages from Rs. 3.50 to Rs. 7, and subsequently to Rs. 80.

Till 1977 the movement was no different from other trade unions. But Niyogi, now in Dalli Rajhara - an area rich in iron ore - realised that raising of wages was not enough. A radical movement had to reach out in two directions. One, it had to reveal the true character of the Indian state, and, two, it had to concentrate on both the domestic as well as the work front. Towards this purpose, he launched the anti-liquor movement. In 1976, the much-acclaimed anti-liquor movement led by women was to overwhelm the region, much to the dismay of the liquor lobby. Liquor shops were banned, people were discouraged from visiting them, social sanctions were imposed upon those who did visit them, and far-reaching mobilisation on the issue rocked the area.

The movement signified but the beginning of a struggle for comprehensive social reforms, which in time were to transform the life of the people of Chattigarh. Increasingly, the movement was to negotiate significant issues such as environment, the evolution of a mechanisation programme that would balance technology and human energy, and the setting up of a school, a hospital, and a garage. It concentrated on the empowerment of women, the release of bonded labour, the rehabilitation of slum dwellers, and the dismemberment of exploitative work conditions. All this culminated in the formation of the CMM - a combination of 20 organisations - in 1978-79 by the people of Dalli Rajhara.

In time, lakhs of people joined the movement, which was meant to ameliorate the conditions of the Dalits and the Adivasis and raise their consciousness about local, national, and international problems. The membership is aware of issues from the WTO to Kashmir, to other social struggles. The rise in the daily wage and the banning of liquor has resulted in higher levels of nutrition, and higher standards of life. Workers now live in pucca houses and they can afford green vegetables and fruit. Households are able to provide clothing and cleanliness, because they have access to funds that were earlier frittered away on drinking. The ban on liquor has also eradicated what is the scourge of rural India - indebtedness. People are now able to save small amounts of money and bank them. The CMM then expanded its constituency to the marginal farmers. It has launched programmes on health awareness and local remedies.

Though the CMM has been involved in the electoral process since 1977 and though it has fielded candidates winning elections has never been its objective. Elections have been used by the movement to heighten awareness about the shortcomings of the present political system among the people. Accordingly, the CMM has spelt out a series of issues that have not been addressed by the political parties ever: basic rights such as the right to work, unemployment, irrigation policy, and the membership of the country in the WTO. The people are called upon to vote out parties that have taken away the right to work from the people. Second, the CMM tries to demonstrate that accountability should be an integral part of electoral politics. And it has set practical examples for this. All this in the face of extreme coercion that has taken countless of lives, which were fighting for what is due to every human being - dignity.

But more importantly, the CMM has conceptualised citizenship on the basis of productive labour and non-exploitation. Correspondingly, enemies of Chattisgarh are those who exploit the people and the natural resources of the area for private gain. All this invests the CMM with the moral authority to inherit the new state. But no, it will be tarnished by power hungry politicians who will inherit the State, leaving the CMM to begin its struggle for a new Chattigarh in an old India anew.

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