Triumph for Adivasi struggle

By K.P.M. Basheer

KOCHI, OCT. 18. Historic triumph. That was what the one-and-a- half-month-old Adivasi land agitation in front of the Kerala State Secretariat led by an unschooled, 30-something Adivasi woman, Ms. C.K. Janu, achieved on October 16 at Thiruvananthapuram. It is a triumph not just for the Adivasi struggle in Kerala; it is a morale-booster for the Adivasi-Dalit struggles across the country. It may be the first time in independent India that a democratic and peaceful agitation by the Adivasis demanding compensatory lands in lieu of their lands grabbed by others has proved successful.

The novel agitation, launched on August 30 (this year's Onam fell on that day) after over two dozen Adivasis died of malnutrition and starvation across the State, had drawn national and international attention. Spearheaded by the Adivasi-Dalit Agitation Committee, some 300 Adivasis arriving in the State capital from the forests and mountain regions of the State had pitched `refugee camps' in front of the Chief Minister's official house as well as the State Secretariat. The agitation ended on Tuesday, with the Government conceding most of their demands.

Their main demand was that 45,000 landless Adivasi families be provided with five acres each of cultivable land. The Government agreed to give cultivable land to all landless Adivasi families, wherever possible five acres each. Some 42,000 acres would soon be identified and given away.

The State Government also agreed to recommend to the Centre to include the Adivasi lands in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution so that the land could not be alienated later. A State law would be enacted to prevent land-grab. Besides, a master plan for creating jobs would soon be formulated.

The struggle was significant on several counts. Apart from the fact that it was for the first time that such a State-wide organised agitation for land by the Adivasis had taken place anywhere in India, it was notable that the agitation was led by a woman. It was the dark, frail-looking and uneducated Ms. Janu (she learnt to read and write at 18 and even now she does not know her date of birth), born to a very poor Adiya tribal family in Wayanad, who catapulted the land issue into public attention. Through her consistent struggles against land-grab and sexual exploitation of their women (the phenomenon called `unwed mothers'), Ms. Janu had brought the over three- million Adivasis into Kerala's collective consciousness. The agitation is also significant for it won the support of large sections of the mainstream society, media, intellectuals, artists, writers and film-makers. This kind of support is peculiar to Kerala which has a history of communist movements and innumerable agitations. Though the Adivasis constitute hardly one percent of Kerala's population, the citizenry generally stood by them.

Lastly, the restraint exercised by the Antony Government in the face of the `illegal' agitation was remarkable. Though the pitching of tents near the Secretariat and the Ministers' officials houses was declared illegal, the Government refrained from demolishing them. The Chief Minister's statements and remarks created an impression that he himself was sympathetic to the Adivasis' cause, though a section of his multi-party Government was hostile.

The starvation deaths had earlier put the Antony Government on the mat and this provided a moral compulsion for the Government to concede their demands. Ms. Janu, Mr. M. Geethanandan and other leaders had contended that the fundamental cause of the starvation deaths was the usurpation of cultivable lands, jobs and forest produce. Now that the Adivasi-Dalit Struggle Committee has got its demands ceded, its next task will be to get the agreements executed. The State's Adivasis had been led up the garden path several times before.

The victory of the Kerala Adivasis' struggle is sure to fire the imagination of the marginalised communities across the country. It would also be reckoned as a defining moment in the long history of the Adivasi-Dalit movements.

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