Civil disobedience in Umbergaon

RAJNI BAKSHI

UMBERGAON was once a quiet and obscure fishing village on the Gujarat coast. It is now known to some political activists all over India as the home of Col. Save, a martyr of the struggle for an alternative, more humane, development.

On July 10, a quiet prayer on the sea shore at Umbergaon launched a protest action by the local people and the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF). On that day the NFF leader, Father Thomas Kocherry, began an indefinite fast to highlight the plight of fisherfolk in general and particularly the threat posed by plans to build a large modern port at Umbergaon.

A day earlier Thomas Kocherry stood in solidarity with activists of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, as they launched their monsoon satyagraha. For the last eight years this protest action has been an annual event in the beleaguered Narmada River valley where the homes and lands, of thousands of families, are being submerged by the reservoir of the Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Both these events were largely overlooked by the national media. This is only partly because it was also the week of a mega news- story - the visit of President Musharraf. The primary reason for lack of media presence at these protest events is that they seem to be a routine affair, a repetition of actions that have often been played out before.

But the dogged persistence of civil disobedience has an intrinsic value which cannot be diminished by lack of media attention. There are people who acknowledge and admire the modest advances made at these struggles. This process is aided by a small community of loyal supporters, who come from different parts of India, to bear witness. Such supporters, who come from all classes and walks of life, stand in solidarity with local struggles for the right to creative, instead of destructive, development.

Yet, is such symbolic support enough to keep these struggles going? What gives their full-time activists the energy to carry on against all odds? In Umbergaon, the memory of Lt. Col. Pratap Save is a powerful impetus for the struggle. After retirement in 1995, Save had settled in his home town, looking forward to a quiet life of working the family land. When word spread about government plans for the Maroli-Umbergaon port, Save was among those who vehemently opposed the idea. Soon this disquiet led to the formation of Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (Save the Coast Action Committee) with Save as its head. This samiti mobilised various acts of non-violent protest to prevent survey work for the proposed port.

These people are fighting to save a way of life that is both plentiful and peaceful. They fear that a large port and all its related activities would destroy the highly profitable traditional fishing and agriculture of this area. This would be a consequence of both the construction activity and the pollution generated by a port complex.

Last year the Indian People's Tribunal (IPT) on Environment and Human Rights conducted an independent enquiry into the proposed port project at Maroli-Umbergaon. Hundreds of local people told the IPT that they do not believe government claims that the proposed port will cause minimal displacement. The residents of the area fear that they will be rendered landless and homeless.

In April last year, there was a sudden crackdown by the government and several activists of the samiti, including Save, were taken into police custody - being picked-up from their homes late in the night. Save's family, and his comrades in the struggle, allege that the police beat him and caused the brain injuries that killed him a few days later. The police claim he suffered a natural cerebral haemorrhage.

Several friends and colleagues have filed criminal complaints saying that Save was murdered but there has been no action on these complaints. The Gujarat Government has instituted a judicial enquiry into the death of Save but a year later the report of this enquiry is still awaited.

Nikhilesh Save, the son of Col. Save, alleges that his father was murdered at the behest of those who have a vested interest in the construction of the port. Perhaps they hoped that this would frighten the people and scuttle the protest, he suggests. But, he adds, his father's death had the opposite effect. Col. Save has become a martyr and this has galvanised many people to intensify the struggle.

These protests led to the withdrawal of Unocal, an American company, which had earlier been selected by the Gujarat government to develop the Maroli-Umbergaon port. Though there is currently no project activity at the ground level, the Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti believes that the Gujarat government is still planning to go ahead with the project.

That is why Father Thomas Kocherry chose Umbergaon as the location for a protest fast. The demands of last week's protest action included - government action against foreign fishing vessels, a ban on certain types of commercial aqua-culture farms, adequate supply of subsidised diesel and kerosene for fisherfolk and immediate criminal proceedings against those accused of killing Col. Save. The protest action in Umbergaon was backed up by a team of activists pressing their demands before relevant ministries in Delhi. Kocherry's fast was lifted on July 14, when the Central government promised action on some of the demands - such as subsidised supply of diesel and kerosene and ban on import of fish into the Indian market.

This is not quite a victory for the protesters, but it is a small incremental step forward. The core demand of all such struggles is that people who depend directly on nature for their livelihood should have control over the local natural resources base. This is essentially a struggle to prevent common property resources from being privatised and squandered for short term profits by commercial interests.

Kocherry is not deterred by the enormity of the challenge that lies behind this demand. Change takes time and there is no short- cut says Kocherry, a Keralite Catholic priest-turned-activist. The divine dimension of life is in giving to others, adds Kocherry, so I give my time and energy to these struggles and I get peace and joy. This is probably the source of energy for many activists, even those who are atheists. Plus they are driven by the certainty that they are on the side of humane justice. The struggle in the Narmada valley is a classic example of this.

There is a veritable mountain of evidence to show that the law is being violated because people's lands and homes are being submerged without proper resettlement and rehabilitation. Further evidence has recently been added by the findings of the Justice Dawood Committee, which had been appointed by the Maharashtra government to look into the problems of rehabilitation. Yet the dam continues to be constructed and thousands of people face submergence this monsoon.

The struggle in the valley continues because there are enough people who are determined to fight till the end. The energy for this comes largely from the conviction that truth, and in this case the law, is on their side. And, as some of them will tell anyone willing to listen, the pain of fighting ceaselessly against tough odds is preferable to the despair of passive submission.

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