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| Editor: Mr. Waman Meshram | New Delhi | Monthly Magzine | | | | Editorial |
China tightens grip on India's neck : Brahminical rulers unconcerned because they remain unchallenged India, the world's second largest populated country, ruled by its mere 15% upper castes (Aryans), is gradually losing its battle — politically, economically, diplomatically and even militarily — against China which is fast emerging as the world's No.1 super power. At the recent G-8 summit in Rome, the talk was that henceforth it is better to hold G-2 summit between the US -China. And yet our micro-minority boasting Brahmins have not given up their efforts to go on kicking non-Aryan native Indians. Carrying Clinton on head: Brahminical "national" toilet papers, experts in boasting about "Incredible India", "India Shining" etc. are hiding the real picture but the world famous Financial Times (June 13, 2009) from London has disclosed that the Indian rulers are deeply worried about China getting an upper hand in South Asia. The military message must have cracked the nerves of the holy cows of Delhi but they are least worried because their supreme happiness lies in sucking our blood. As long as this goes uninterrupted, they are not bothered about what happens to India because this country does not belong to the Bhoodevatas. They are Aryans and hence foreigners. Our Bahujan party leaders take no interest in foreign affairs. Our stupid rulers were more busy carrying on their heads for three days the discredited and defeated Hillary Clinton, the powerless American Secretary of State. Of course there is a sinister motive behind inviting Hillary and being hilarious with the White American lady whom they financed, confident of her victory against Obama whom they hate. Hindu India against Lankan Hindus: The Brahminical media, as silly as the political leadership, has kept a secret of China acquiring a tight grip on the very neck of India. The so-called "free press" of India is not free to publish anything that goes against the interests of the Brahminical Social Order. But the FT has quoted Arundati Ghosh, a Bengali upper caste Baidya and former Indian Ambassador to UN, admitting that India is worried over China "flexing its muscles". According to the FT report China has put a "string of pearls" around the neck of India establishing seven powerful posts in strategic places round the country (Pakistan, Nepal, Lanka, Bangladesh and Burma) completely encircling the country and virtually taking over the Indian Ocean. Hindu India no doubt went against the Hindu Tamils of Lanka and helped the Lankan Govt. to finish the LTTE. Despite all this the Rajapaksa Govt. trusts China more than India. Why nobody trusts our Brahminical bogus leaders? Yes. Not a single neighbouring country trusts India. But they are all very close to china. The Indian rulers have a knack to create enemies wherever they go. Whatever they touch turns into charcoal. The greatest wonder is the world's only Hindu country, Nepal, is against "Hindu India". Sri Lanka loves China but does not trust the Indian rulers. China has increased its aid to Lanka five fold to 1 billion dollar a year and stepped up military supplies. Through diplomacy and arms supply China has conquered all our neighbouring countries but India is hated by all of them. Pakistan hated being Muslim: Having established powerful ports round India, Chinese ships can now freely move, fully guarded by the Chinese military might. That means India has lost its monopoly on the Indian Ocean — so far considered as its backyard. China has become Burma's closest ally while Indian rulers joined the Western critics of Burma. Southern Burma extends over Bay of Bengal which is protected by both Burma and Bangladesh, another close ally of China. China is the closest ally of the nuclear-powered Pakistan which the Hindu rulers hate because it is Muslim. Despite several wars, the Indian rulers are not able to "finish" Pakistan. Over 40-years of trusted relationship has made Pakistan rely on China's help if there is any trouble from India. Gawdar Port built by China on Pakistan coast promotes transhipment links reaching all the way to Xianjiang in China's West. China is also the largest supplier of defence hardware to Pakistan. Hated Dalai Lama loved: Defence experts in Delhi are seriously worried over the tightening grip of China on the very neck of India. All this started with the Kashmiri Brahmin, Nehru, offering asylum to the hated Dalai Lama whom the Brahminical rulers are still sheltering even after he admitted defeat and surrendered to China. Meanwhile, China is getting closer to the West and America in particular because in its current financial crisis the only country in the world that can rescue it is China. India, being a beggar country, is held in contempt. Neither politically, economically nor militarily India is no match to China. Yet the rulers of India have not stopped their hate-mongering.
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If you've been wondering why prices burn a bigger hole in your pocket each time you go grocery shopping even as the inflation rate stays firmly negative, here's part of the reason: The official wholesale price index (WPI) tracks stuff you don't buy, not unless you are caught in a time warp.
Time was when middleclass families across India cooked with Dalda or Rath brands of vanaspati oil. When toasts were raised with Double Horse whisky or Old Port Dix Rum. When scooters outsold motorcycles and teenaged girls ritualistically used Keo Karpin hair oil before stepping out. Consumer preferences have changed but the WPI remains stuck in the early 1990s. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4950509.cms | 31/08/2009 UPA 100 days' scorecard: Hits, misses & the action points The Manmohan Singh government completed 100 days in office on Aug 30.Here is a bird's eye view of how the UPA2 government functioned in office: Hits: 10 good deeds 1. Setting up delivery monitoring unit within the Prime Minister's office to ensure effective delivery of government's flagship programmes. This was set up within 45 days in office and is functioning effectively. 2. Setting up the Unique Identification Authority headed by Nandan Nilekani. A good and ambitious move. 3. A new draft direct tax code to recast the Income Tax Act. Revolutionary in concept and will make IT payments easier and less burdensome. Credit goes to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. 4. Security environment has improved. Setting up four NSG hubs in Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai which have become operational. Credit should go to Home Minister P Chidambaram. 5. Overhauling of the education system and the Right to Education Act. Good work has begun, but problems lie ahead. Credit goes to HRD minister Kapil Sibal. 6. Overhauling medical education by bringing in a single regulator called the National Council of Human Resources and Health. A good and bold move. Credit should go to Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad. 7. Rajiv Awas Yojana for rural poor under JNNURM that will provide affordable housing through partnership for the rural poor. Credit goes to Ministry of Urban Housing and Poverty Alleviation headed by Kumari Selja. 8. Gender equality at grassroot level by introducing 50 percent reservation in panchayats. Credit goes to Rural Development Ministry headed by C P Joshi. 9. Special trains for women, non stop trains, reduction in tatkal ticket rates. Credit goes to Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee. 10. Sops in new foreign trade policy including tax refunds for exporters, lower transaction costs, better export infrastructure. Credit: Commerce and Industry Ministry Anand Sharma. http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3198736 Left confused, Right ragged back to the Centre?Rajeev Deshpande & Shobhan Saxena, TNN 30 August 2009, 01:47am IST The Right Was it about ideology or a case of old-fashioned ego clashes and power games clothed in high-sounding rhetoric? The question is not easy to answer as the BJP moves from crisis to crisis and the half-jocular question every morning is: Which party leader will do a rebel act today? Its hierarchy blurred by unceasing infighting, the BJP has seemed in terminal decline for some time. The problems are manifold: Simmering conflict between BJP chief Rajnath Singh and party senior L K Advani sapped the party in the run-up to the 2009 elections, perhaps more than was realized. When Rajnath Singh looked to consolidate his hold over the organization, his rivals ran him down as a mofussil man, out of his depth and class. The BJP's gennext never accepted Singh's authority. Successes in several state elections masked the depth of the party's decline. The success kept alive the thought that Congress might be pulled under by allies and that its weakness in major states such as UP and Bihar would force it to cede power to its national rival. It was not to be. Party leaders who felt they had been passed over in the generational drama hit back. The now-expelled Jaswant Singh set the ball rolling with his demand that "inam (reward)" be linked to "parinam (results)", a clear enough indication that he did not think Arun Jaitley, the man seen to be the party's chief election strategist, ought to have been made leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie joined issue. Shourie's criticism is correct — the party has ducked an honest post-mortem. The farcical chintan baithak in Shimla focused on expelling Jaswant Singh rather than that post-election non-report by the Bal Apte committee. But despite the claims made by both sides, ideology — Hindutva or the more nebulous "integral humanism" and "cultural nationalism" — is not the issue. Neither is it about whether or not the BJP has "strayed" from its ideological moorings. It's not about a "right-wing" party bitterly quarreling over dogma. The irony is obvious. Neither the dissidents nor those in the saddle disagree that BJP must be a conventional right-of-centre party, which speaks of middle India and avoids harsh rhetoric and confrontationist politics. Shourie, Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar would not differ much on this. Right now, the BJP's situation does not look too different from when Arjun Singh and N D Tiwari "revolted" against P V Narasimha Rao with 10 Janpath's backing. They spoke of the "wrong" policies of reform initiated by Manmohan Singh and of Rao's colossal failure over Ayodhya, but it was clear to most people that Arjun Singh wanted to be PM. In the BJP, the issue is about who gets the lion's share of the spoils once Advani walks into the sunset. The RSS has finally stepped in. Its leaders met Rajnath Singh and conveyed the firm message that factional fighting must end and a smooth transition to the next presidency effected. They also spoke to Advani, having already made clear that the time may be ripe to hand over the baton. They also received a delegation of four of the party's leading Gen Next leaders — Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu, Ananth Kumar and Jaitley — who made clear their views on Singh. The jury is still out the outcome. Will that be enough for the BJP to return to form as a sleek and disciplined, election-winning machine? The Saffron Brotherhood Year of birth | 1980 Earlier avatar | The Bharatiya Jana Sangh, founded in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mookerjee Ideology | Right-wing Hindu nationalist; socially conservative; belief in a free-market economy Key players | L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley Turning points 1990 | Advani's rath yatra for a Ram temple at Ayodhya turns the BJP into a national force 1992 | The Babri Masjid is torn down, prompting nation-wide rioting between Hindus and Muslims 1998 | The BJP forms a coalition government under Vajpayee. India conducts nuclear tests 2002 | Between 1,000 and 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, die in riots in Gujarat May 2004 | BJP-led alliance loses general elections | | | | | More Stories from this section | This was the Naxalite revolt, and it burst out first in West Bengal, ... In the context of economic crisis, drought, and food shortage in 1965-66, the Agrarian Crisis continues till this date. In Bengal, the Agrarian Crisis is branded as Insurgency subject to Immediate Repression, Military Option and zero tolerance! Just because the Ruling Marxist gestapo Hegemony is UPROOTED from its Agrarian Mass Base and running on the Super Highway Colonised Capitalist MADONALDISATION. While the Ruling Left front COMMEMORATES the Golden Jubilee of FOOD Movement, the Launching Pad for State Power, US Brands wait in the wings to CAPTURE Food retail in West Bengal! The Opposition led by CONG TMC combination also,IRONICALLY enough celebrates the COMMEMORATIONS in Midnapur in Turmoil. It was the CONG Government led by Dr BIDHAN Chandra Roy, directly appointed by Lady Mountbatten,which OPENED fire on the STRVING Masses in Kolkata and it was the first GENOCIDE in Independent India. Meanwhile, India's government said on Monday 278 districts in 11 states have been affected by drought as monsoon rains were 24 percent deficient between June 1 and August 27. The world foodgrains production is expected to be lower by 2.5 per cent to 1,748 million tonnes in 2009-10 even as the International Grains Council (IGC) slightly improves its forecast for the current month.
In 2008-09, the global foodgrains production stood at 1,792 million tonnes (MT).
"An unexpected good yield in the EU and improved prospects for US maize and spring wheat, resulted in a further 15 MT increase in the world grain production forecast to 1,748 MT, only 2.5 per cent short of the 2008 record," IGC said.
Till last month, UK-based IGC had pegged the global foodgrains production at 1,733 million tonnes (MT). However, it revised it slightly upward by 15 MT in its August report after gauging the improved crop prospects in the US and Europe.
According to IGC report, the global wheat output is pegged at 662 MT, an increase of 8 MT from last month, as yields exceeded expectations in the US, Europe, Ukraine and China.
Similarly, the world maize output is forecast to be 787 MT in 2009-10, an increase of 7 MT from July forecast, but short of 2MT from 2008-09 season, it said.
Meanwhile, global consumption is forecast to rise by five million tonnes from last month to a record 1,741 MT, mainly because of increasing use of maize to produce ethanol in the US, the report said. | | India July consumer price index up 11.89 pct y/y | India's consumer price index rose 11.89 percent in July from a year earlier, rising sharply from June's annual rise of 9.29 percent as prices of food items increased, government data showed on Monday.
The consumer price index for industrial workers increased by 7 points to 160 in July from a month ago.
Last week, the wholesale price index fell 0.95 percent in the 12 months to Aug. 15, compared with the previous week's annual decline of 1.53 percent.
The wholesale price index is more closely watched in India because it covers a higher number of products and is released weekly. But, we must realise that there is nothing like SHAME Factor in Politics! Everything is RIGHT in Politics besides Love and war while it hits the Right Equation to sustain the Manusmriti Rule manipulating People`s mandate! And it is referred as DEMOCRACY which is NEVER better than AUTOCRACY! We have not to prove it as the GOVERNANCE in India is vested in Extraconstitutional Immoral Imposters AntI nation working for United states of America, Zionist Illuminati and India Incs! Thus, FOOD Politics and flagship progrrames become jsut a TOOL for Monopolistic Corporate Aggression! Economic reforms means Mass Destruction! Public Sector and everything tagged Government have to be Divested or Disinvested! False recessionis over Hyped to FEED the Money Machine! Inflated Economy and Fiscal Deficit continue with crisis in Balance of Payment with Rocketin Defence Expanditure and needless Moon Mission, AUTO and Realty boost and artificial Fuel Crisis! Foreign borrowin Unregualted! FDI Open! Tax Code is glorifed as public Welfare! Big Names involved in land game! LPG Mafia rapes the GOOD Earth! Public utilities Privatised! War Gods invoked to justify defence deals and Swiss Bank Accounts! parliamentary All party Floor Understanding coined to pass all Anti People legisalation without keeping Minutes of debate! Unique Identity Number Project is associated with Mass Exodus and Displacement to boost Realty and MNCs! promoter raj! No SHAME Factor is RELEVANT for the Ruling manusmriti Hegemony as it is HABITUAL to practice Untouchability and apartheid! It justifies Enslavement of the majority Masses! It glorifies the Mass Destruction! Media and Intelligentsia cover up everything! Literature, Art Forms and genres, languages and nationalities have to be used as PROSTITUTION without any SHAME! Agrarian Crisis is not addressed. CPIM boasts to lead a Kisan sabha with more than One Corore mamebership. But is is detached from the RURAL Scenerio and has nothing to do with land reforms, food security and harvesting! Stravation and JOBLOSS are ISSUES no more! The left monopolises the Trade Unions but there is no Trade UNION movement and organised sector is the Victim now amidst the breaking news about Peasant Suicides! Hilsa is being sold at a rate of Rs SIXTEEN Hundred to Rs Twelve Hundred in kolakta. Food, Grocery and vegetable rates ROCKETED. But Ruling as well as Resistance hegemony are ENGAGED in hypocrite FOOD Politics without any concern or commitment! Who is ASHAMED of , tell me! A month after Railway Minister Mamata Banerjees' show of strength at the Martyr Days rally, Left Front on Monday (August 31) is holding a massive rally as it commemorates the golden jubilee of the food movement. Coincidentally, Left romps home in the heart of EUROPE in Germany and the election defeat of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after 54 years of nearly unbroken rule and the landslide victory of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has met a cautious welcome in newspapers around in the world.white House is PUZZLED enough to update its foreign realtions with Japan and europe. Contrarily, while the rest of the World feels the Come back of the marxist Ideology, the PROGRESIVE Bengali Intelligentsia as well as Civil Society turns SAFFRON AMERICANISED!
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and other Left front leaders including Biman Bose are expected to address the rally.
Life has come to a screeching halt for commuters as more than 5 lakh people are expected to congregate at the rally.
Stung by the recent electoral debacle, this rally is being touted as an effort to lift the drooping morale of the Left Front cadres and supporters.
Mamata Banerjee celebrated her Lok Sabha victory in Kolkata on July 21. A long awaited celebration, since the Trinamool-Congress alliance routed the CPM in Bengal, is expected to showcase her vision towards the 2011 Assembly polls in the state.
July 21, was also commemorated by the Trinamool Congress as the Martyr's Day since 1996, to pay tribute to the 13 Youth Congress workers who were killed in police firing on this day in 1993. Banerjee was then a leader of the Youth Congress. Accusing West Bengal's principal opposition Trinamool Congress of double standards, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Monday said the party was blaming his government for price rise but keeping mum in Delhi where it was part of the coalition government. "This opposition party says the state's Left Front government should answer why prices of food items have gone up. But what about Delhi? Is there only fragrance of flowers there? Why is this party silent?" asked Bhattacharjee at a rally organised by the Left Front here. The Trinamool is the second largest constituent of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre. Bhattacharjee, also a politburo member of Left Front major Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M), claimed that prices of essential commodities in West Bengal were less than that in Delhi. Ridiculing the UPA government, he said: "It calls itself 'aam admi's' (common man's)government. But 30 crore people in the country are hungry. Why is there a food scarcity? Why is the production of rice and pulses going down? Why are prices escalating? What is the central government doing?" Tracing the cause of the price rise to forward trading and hoarding of rice and pulses, Bhattacharjee said despite repeated demands from Left parties, the centre had not done anything to arrest it. "And as a result, prices have soared northwards. If the whole country is on fire, can West Bengal stay unaffected?" he asked. The chief minister said the Left Front government was trying to provide rice, pulses, potato, edible oil and sugar to the people at reasonable rates. Meanwhile, With the internal squabbles in the BJP continuing, the CPI(M) on Monday (August 31) said the rejection of its Hindutva plank in the recent elections was the prime cause for the crisis. Noting that the saffron party had won in 1998 and 1999 by "broad-basing its appeal and getting on board parties who do not share its sectarian ideology", top CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat said the BJP had no identity without Hindutva as its economic and foreign policies were no different from that of the Congress.
In an article in the latest issue of party organ 'People's Democracy', he said the BJP was a party "shepherded by the RSS. It has always settled such leadership questions with the help of the RSS whose writ runs on such key matters."
Observing that the BJP was at the crossroads as it cannot break from RSS and "become an ordinary rightwing party as Jaswant Singh wants it to be", Karat said "it will find it easier to fall back into the comforting grip of the RSS as Arun Shourie wants it to.
"But it will have to pay the price in the long run of remaining an avowedly communal and sectarian party. Given the DNA of BJP, it will inevitably adopt the latter course."
Maintaining that the crisis in BJP had come after its "comprehensive defeat" at the hustings, he said out of 28 states, its vote percentage had declined in 26 compared to the 2004 elections. Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh were the only states where the percentage increased.
In Karnataka, Karat said the victory was accomplished after more than two decades of continuous work by RSS and its outfits "in fomenting communal tensions, riots and creating
communal polarisation.
"Without this groundwork, the BJP could not have succeeded in emerging as such a big force, its first success in a south Indian state. No amount of intellectual sophistry by the Hindutva ideologues and fellow travellers can mask this reality."
The CPI(M) leader said that notwithstanding L K Advani's "efforts to broaden the NDA and strike a posture" to appeal to wider sections of the people, the Leader of Opposition had to "time and again" fall back on the "explicit communal agenda".
These, Karat said, were reflected in his initial reactions to the Malegaon blasts case where Advani wanted the alleged culprits, even if they belonged to Sangh Parivar outfits, to be brought to book. "The same vacillation was seen regarding the virulent speeches of Varun Gandhi."
He said the stepping down of Advani from the post of President and expulsion or desertion of leaders like Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh was witnessed after the 2004 elections.
While the current tussle in the saffron party was bound to result in a temporary setback, "a remoulded BJP made to order on RSS prescriptions does not augur well for the country", Karat said, asking people to combat communalism. The brewing public anger against rampant corruption in the public distribution system has erupted into widespread violence in several districts of West Bengal. Angry villagers are up in arms against dishonest ration dealers who have not supplied them with sugar, wheat and other food grains from the ration shops. These unscrupulous dealers have allegedly been selling all these things in the black market. In the past few weeks, in Bankura, Burdwan and Birbhum districts, rampaging mobs have attacked and set ablaze houses of ration dealers and looted food grains from their godowns. A couple of protesters have even been killed in police firing. The situation has become so volatile that ration dealers are closing down their shops and surrendering their licences to the authorities. The police and the administration seem completely incapable of checking this fast-spreading unrest which is causing serious concern to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who is still reeling from the relentless attack against his industrialisation drive. To add to his woe, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has quickly tried to exploit the growing public discontent and reap political benefits. She kicked off a new khadya andolan or food movement, in Bankura and exhorted the people to rise in revolt against the government which was even unable to provide them with subsidised food grains for their two square meals. Ms Banerjee has already made life miserable for the Left Front government over Nandigram and Singur â€" both of which are related to sensitive land issues. Food has the potential of becoming an even more powerful political weapon in the hands of the Opposition. Who should know this better than the communists whose political fortunes rose considerably after they launched a successful khadya andolan in the early Sixties? Instead of knee-jerk responses, the state government should take effective measure to address the genuine grievances that people have. It must punish corrupt ration dealers by cancelling their licences and appoint new dealers. It must immediately ensure a smooth supply of essential commodities to the villagers. What it must avoid is use of force to suppress public protests. History shows that the brutalisation of the hungry masses has always boomeranged on the rulers. A few more casualties at the hands of a trigger-happy police, which does not know how to manage crowds, will prove costly for the Left Front which must not forget that the next crucial panchayat elections are only seven months away. Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee launched a 'second food movement' in West Bengal to weed out corruption from the public distribution system, the first being started by the Marxists in 1959.In a reference to the agitation against ration dealers in Bankura, Birbhum and Burdwan districts that turned violent, Banerjee said at a rally here that her party would stand by the people. Demanding action against CPI (M) leaders and food inspectors allegedly involved in the ration scandal, she announced that the party men would demonstrate before all SDO's offices in the state on October eight and a procession would be taken out in Kolkata on October 11. She appealed to Left Front partners to join the agitation by opposition parties against corruption in the public distribution system. Mamta also sought CBI inquiry into the death of Muslim computer graphics artist, Rizwanur Rehman, who was allegedly threatened by senior Kolkata police officers to part with his Hindu wife, Priyanka, after their marriage on August 18 and whose body was found on railway tracks on September 21 near Dum Dum. The Indigo revolt ( Bangla :নীল বিদ্রোহ Neel bidrōhō) was a peasant movement and subsequent uprising of indigo farmers against the indigo planters that arose in Bengal in 1859. The back stage of the revolt goes back half a century [1] when the indigo plantation act was established. After the courageous fight by the Sepoy for independence in 1857 it was it was in February-March 1859 when the farmers refused to sow a single seedling of indigo plant. The strength of the farmers' resolutions were dramatically stronger than anticipated from a community victimized by brutal treatment for about half a century. Most importantly it was a revolt of both the major religious groups of farmers in Bengal, notably a farmer Haji Molla of Nischindipur said that he would "rather beg than sow indigo" [2]. The farmers were in no possession of any types of arms, it was totally a nonviolent resistance [3]. The revolt started from Nadia where Bishnucharan Biswas and Digambar Biswas first took up arms against the planters. It spread like wildfire in Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Pabna, Khulna, Narail, etc. Indigo planters were put into public trial and executed. The indigo depots were burned down. Many planters fled to avoid being caught. The zamindars were also targets of the revolting peasants. However the revolt was brought down by iron hand. Large forces of police and military backed by the British Government and the zamindars mercilessly slaughtered a number of peasants. In spite of this the revolt was fairly popular, involving almost the whole of Bengal. The Biswas brothers of Nadia, Kader Molla of Pabna, Rafique Mondal of Malda were popular leaders. Even some of the zamindars supported the revolt, the most important of whom was Ramratan Mullick of Narail. Indigo planting in Bengal dated back to 1777. Louis Bonard was probably the first indigo planter. With expansion of British empire in India, indigo planting became more and more popular. It was introduced in large parts of Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, Murshidabad, etc. The indigo planters left no stones unturned to make money. They mercilessly pursued the peasants to plant indigo instead of food crops. They provided loans, called dadon at a very high interest. Once a farmer took such loans he remained under debts for whole of his life before passing it to his successors. The price paid by the planters was meagre,only 2.5% of the market price. So the farmers could make no profit by growing indigo. The farmers were totally unprotected from the brutal indigo planters, who resorted to mortgage or destroy their properties if they were unwilling to obey them. Government rules favoured the planters. By an act in 1833, the planters were granted a free hand in oppression. Even the zamindars, money lenders and other influential persons sided with the planters. Out of the severe oppression unleashed on them the farmers resorted to revolt. The Bengali middle class supported the peasants whole-heartedly. Harish Chandra Mukhopadhyay thoroughly described the plight of the poor peasants in his newspaper "The Hindu Patriot". However every such contribution was overshadowed by Dinabandhu Mitra, who gave a perfect account of the situation in his play "Nildarpan". Tax sops in FTP to cost exchequer extra Rs 2,200 cr
31 Aug 2009, 1324 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Tax concessions to exporters announced in the new Foreign Trade Policy will cost the exchequer an extra Rs 2,200 crore. "Our analysis (of FTP's implications on indirect taxes ) is Rs 2,200 crore for (this fiscal)," Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) Chairman V Sridhar told reporters on the sidelines of a CII function. The new Foreign Trade Policy announced a slew of tax concessions to boost exports, which have been on the downslide since October 2008. Among other measures, the five-year FTP continues with the 2 per cent interest subsidy for exporters on pre-shipment credit and income tax exemption to 100 per cent Export Oriented Units (EOUs) till the end of next fiscal. Further, the government also extended the duty refund scheme till December 2010, and increased assistance for development of markets. The country's exports grew by a meagre 3.4 per cent in 2008-09 to about $168 billion. Policing of tax-haven money flows set to get new byte
31 Aug 2009, 0830 hrs IST, Deepshikha Sikarwar, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: Turning the heat on tax havens used to route investments into the country, India is now examining a proposal that seeks to create a specialised information tracking system on the lines of Austrac—Australia's anti-money laundering agency. The information system will collect data on the use of tax havens and abuse of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) by overseas investors entering India. It will also keep tabs on Indian investments abroad to ensure tax havens are not being used to bring that money back into the country. This mechanism, called round-tripping , is alleged to be used by some Indian entities to avoid tax on income from their investments in the country. The Australian Transaction Reports & Analysis Centre (Austrac) is an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulator and specialist financial intelligence unit. India already has a financial intelligence unit in place that keeps track of certain transactions, such as bank transactions of value exceeding Rs 10 lakh. But the income-tax department wants a dedicated agency to monitor the flow of investments from tax havens. The proposal figured during discussions at the recent meeting of directors general and chief commissioners of income-tax , a tax department official said. The proposal has been mooted by an internal committee of the Central Board of Direct Taxes that was set up to examine investigation issues in abuse of tax havens and tax treaties. Creation of such a unit becomes important in the backdrop of India looking to amend its tax treaties to expand their scope to include extensive information exchange or enter into specialised Tax Information and Exchange Agreements with tax haven countries. This special unit would be able to track the flow of investments from tax havens into India and also from treaty countries such as Mauritius, which enjoy special tax benefits. The idea is to closely monitor all cross-border transactions to ensure all taxes legally due to India are paid and action is taken in time, if tax is evaded. The CBDT has set up a task force to look into information exchange with treaty countries. While India has already begun negotiations with Switzerland to amend its tax treaty, it also plans to amend other DTAAs for information exchange. | Top stories | | Dos and don'ts to enjoy your office party
31 Aug 2009, 1812 hrs IST Unless you are careful, office parties can turn you from 'hardworking and reliable' to 'flirtatious when drunk'. Here's how you can avoid the pitfalls. Pink slip blues Firms doling out surprise bonuses to retain talent
31 Aug 2009, 1225 hrs IST, Mahima Puri India Inc is trying various ways and means to keep the momentum high among their employees. Set career goals and plan moves | Bright career in insurance sector Disguised as corp biggies, fraudsters offer jobs for money
30 Aug 2009, 1214 hrs IST Fraudsters are using names of corporate biggies like HCL and NTPC to lure job seekers. Small firms in US not paying incentives based on performance
30 Aug 2009, 1115 hrs IST A survey shows that most small companies in the US are just paying employees to "show up" and that incentives do not necessarily guarantee profitability. Whirlpool to shut US plant, cut about 1,100 jobs
29 Aug 2009, 1149 hrs IST Whirlpool plans to shut a plant in Evansville, Indiana and move some production to Mexico next year, a change that will eliminate about 1.6 per cent of the world's biggest appliance maker's workforce. Want the world's best wages? Move to Switzerland; Mumbai has lowest
28 Aug 2009, 0320 hrs IST It pays to work in Switzerland: employees in Zurich and Geneva have the highest net wages in the world, a study by banking group UBS shows. Set career goals and plan your moves
27 Aug 2009, 1643 hrs IST To begin with, it is important to have a vision for your career and work every move towards it. Car makers eye festive demand, hit hiring lane
27 Aug 2009, 0241 hrs IST, Chanchal Pal Chauhan Domestic automakers are once again in hiring gear to accelerate production. PE firms cut salary hikes, bonuses of top exec's amid downturn
26 Aug 2009, 1912 hrs IST With the economic downturn impacting deal flows, salaries of top private equity professionals have taken a hit as most of the firms froze pay hikes and held back bonuses this year, experts say. Satyam BPO to hire 300 employees
26 Aug 2009, 1854 hrs IST At a time when software firm Mahindra Satyam is rationalising its headcount, its BPO arm seems to be on a hiring spree with plans to recruit 300 employees by the next month. | http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Jobs/articlelist/107115.cms People offload equity investments as stockmarkets dip, says RBI stats
31 Aug 2009, 2026 hrs IST, Atmadip Ray, ET Bureau KOLKATA: When stockmarkets go through a rough patch, people typically offload their equity investments and put the money in banks instead. The latest RBI stats on financial savings of the household sector clearly comfims the trend. In fact, some people even chose themselves liquid amid the steady rise in food prices and the economic downturn. The household sector had parked 58.5% of their collective savings with banks and non banking finance companies (NBFC) in 2008-09. This was a solid 6.3% percentage points rise from 2007-08 s share of deposits to total saving, according to RBI s latest data. As on March 31, 2009, banks collectively had an outstanding deposits of Rs 4.1 lakh crore, reflecting a 13.6% year-on-year rise. During 2008-09, people wound up their equity investment significantly to Rs 19,349 crore from Rs 89,134 crore in 2007-08. On percentage terms, stock market exposure of retail players was merely 2.6% of the total savings pie in 2008-09. It was 12.4% in the preceding fiscal. The banking regulator has come out with the statistics in its recently published annual report. It was apparent that a significant portion of the withdraw exposure found its way to banks. The retail equity investment shrunk by nearly Rs 70,000 crore while banks have seen a rise in their collective retail deposits kitty of about Rs 49,000 crore. Country s top bankers would vouch for the so-called flight of savings from equity market to banks. They have always maintained that their deposit mobilisation during 2008-09 had been high. And, people mostly put their funds with banks long term deposits, which typically carry higher interest rates than short term deposits or savings deposits. So much so, that banks cost of funds were on the higher side during the period under review. Even NBFCs managed to grow their public deposits by almost Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 13,453 crore. Insurance companies have grown their retail portfolio to Rs 1.5 lakh crore (Rs 1.29 lakh crore). Total financial savings have expanded too on a gross basis to Rs 7.47 lakh crore (Rs 7.16 crore). Cash in hand increased to Rs 93,000 crore in 2008-09 from Rs 81,300 crore. This was 12.5% of the financial assets. grew from 11.4% as it was a year back | Left rally halts Calcutta traffic | | By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta |   The rally was held in the heart of Calcutta | Nearly 500,000 people joined a rally in the Indian city of Calcutta to remember the martyrs of "a movement for food" in West Bengal state 50 years ago. The rally brought traffic to a complete standstill in the eastern city. In 1959, more than 80 people died when police fired at protesters who had gathered to demand food. The rally was the first massive popular upsurge against the then Congress government in the state. It was led by the Communists who now rule the state. Analysts say the rally is a massive show of strength by the Left, which has suffered several electoral reverses in the state in recent months. 'Bullets and batons' "It was unbelievable the police could kill so many people, so many hungry people, who had done no wrong but had only come to demand food," West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said at the rally. Mr Bhattacharya was a student organiser during the food movement. "The Congress leadership of that era lacked conscience, they could kill 80 people in two days," Mr Bhattacharya said. "They ran a government of bullets and batons." Mr Bhattacharya said food shortages would haunt India again - because of the impending crop failures and price rises across the country now. The site of the rally - Esplanade in the heart of Calcutta's business district - was chosen because this was where the state's leading opposition party, the Trinamul Congress, held a ceremony on 21 July. That rally, addressed by the Trinamul leader Mamata Banerji, drew a massive crowd and paralysed the city's traffic. Analysts said the Left parties' rally was an attempt to remind the younger generation of Bengalis of the "police oppression during the Congress era". They said the leftists, who have suffered a series of electoral reverses in recent months, especially during the 2009 parliamentary elections, used the gathering to demonstrate their popular support. Food shortages and famines have dogged much of West Bengal's recent history since the British effected disastrous changes in agriculture after conquering the province 250 years ago. The 1959 movement was marked by Bhuka Michils (rally of the hungry) and police used baton charges and gun fire to stop the protest. SEE ALSO 
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8230179.stm | | CM-led team to visit China from tomorrow to woo investors | | Bangalore,Aug 31 (PTI): |
A top-level Karnataka delegation led by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is leaving for China tomorrow to woo investors to the two-day Global Investors Meet (GIM) to be staged here from January 11. |
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The government is positioning it as a mega event, seeking to attract huge investments into the State.
Ministers V S Acharya, Shobha Karndlaje and Katta Subramanya Naidu are among the delegation, Large and Medium Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani, also part of the touring party, told reporters.
During the five-day China trip, the delegation would attend industrial meetings and road-shows in Beijing and Shanghai.
The Chinese visit would follow road shows in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi, Nirani said.
The Government would also convene a meeting here inviting 100 of some of the top industrialists to seek their suggestions and requirements for investment opportunities in Karnataka, he added.
State officials earlier this month said road shows were also planned in Japan, the UAE and the USA but it is now known that no final decision has been taken. | |
Left parties want Ahamed to quit
31 Aug 2009, 0207 hrs IST, ET Bureau NEW DELHI: The demand of Left parties for resignation of minister of state for railways, Mr E Ahamed, gained momentum after the government ordered a judicial inquiry into allegations of irregularities in the Haj quota allocations when he was minister in the external affairs ministry of the previous UPA regime. After CPM, it was CPI which insisted that Mr Ahamed must step down as an inquiry has been ordered into his role in the Haj quota issue. CPI's Kerala state executive which met in Kochi on Sunday said all details on the Haj quota "irregularities" should be probed. CPM leaders in the state and in Delhi had already demanded that Mr Ahamed resign in the light of the expose by a television channel alleging favouritism by Mr Ahamed when he was a minister of state in the external affairs ministry. It quoted MEA documents presented to Parliament in March, 2008, showing that the ministry's Haj section had issued approximately one-fourth of all quotas to tour operators in Kerala, and in particular one tour operator, Alhind Tours and Travels. The average quota allotted to travel agencies was 150 passengers, but Al-Hind Tours bagged the quota for ferrying 1,700 passengers. Also the number of Haj travellers from Kerala rose after Mr Ahamed became minister of state for external affairs. CPM's youth wing, DYFI, alleged that the minister had misused his position and connections to influence the Saudi royal family into providing favours to the Al Hind Tours, a private agency based in Kozhikode. Congress was not averse to an inquiry saying it will clear misgivings in the minds of pilgrims. Mr Ahamed has denied the allegations saying the quota was increased during his tenure and that the issue was being raised to settle political scores. The Muslim League, which has also refuted the allegations, is unhappy with the decision of the ministry of external affairs to order a judicial probe. external affairs minister S M Krishna has even said that lessons from the past years would be taken into account while allotting quota to private Haj operators. Saudi Arabia had reportedly sanctioned a quota of 1,57,000 seats for Haj pilgrims from India last year. Only 1,04,000 were allotted for Haj committees in various states and 6,000 went to the external affairs ministry. The rest 47,000 were given to private travel groups . While the state Haj committees select pilgrims through ballots, private agencies are reported to sell the seats for higher payments. | | Food for thought | | A STAFF REPORTER | | As the Left Front commemorates the golden jubilee of the food movement by paralysing the city on Monday, the Calcuttan will be lamenting the upward movement of food prices as much as the curbs on his freedom of movement. "An event to commemorate the food movement does not help me in any way. I would be happy if they could do something about food prices instead," complained Paikpara homemaker Anasua Datta. Anasua has started rationing every food item to make ends meet. "I used to buy 2.5kg of sugar a month; now I buy 500gm less," she said. Traders attributed the price rise to the Aila effect on agriculture in parts of Bengal and lower production across the country because of a rain-deficient monsoon. According to a wholesaler, Monday's rally to commemorate the 1959 uprising that was also triggered by rising prices — 80 protesters died in police firing during a march in the city on August 31 that year — could aggravate the current crisis. "So many trucks will be on rally duty that the supply chain is sure to be affected. Even a day's break in the food-supply chain can affect price movement," he said. Several items have become dearer by up to Rs 10 since Ramazan began. The price of sugar has gone up from Rs 30 to Rs 33 per kg, masur dal from Rs 60 to Rs 70 a kg, eggs from Rs 3 to Rs 3.50 per piece, milk from Rs 20 to Rs 22 per litre and apples from Rs 60-70 to Rs 90-120 per kg. "My four-member family spends Rs 150 on food to break our fast every evening. Our expenses were much less last Ramazan," said Zeenat Salauddin of Park Circus. Finance minister Asim Dasgupta said after a meeting with food minister Paresh Adhikari on Sunday that sugar would be sold at Rs 27.50 a kg, mustard oil at Rs 58 a litre, and pulses at subsidised rates through the public distribution system from the first week of September. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090831/jsp/calcutta/story_11429464.jsp Election 'Revolution' Swings Japan to the Left Posted on Aug 30, 2009  | | AP / Itsuo Inouye | | Somewhere in Tokyo, Yukio Hatoyama is still smiling. Red rosettes next to candidates' names signify victory. Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan cleaned out the florist on Sunday. | Japan's Liberal Democratic Party has ruled for all but 11 months since 1955, but a stunning electoral defeat cut its representation in the Diet by perhaps hundreds of seats. The victor in all this, Yukio Hatoyama, called it a revolution and promised to take Japan from a corporate state to a welfare state. Since before World War II, Japan has been in love with and at the mercy of its corporations. The country's safety net was built on lifelong employment and corporate benefits, until endless recession started putting Japan's economic miracles out of business and companies were pressured to reform—and fire people. With horrendous unemployment and economic malaise driving reform, Hatoyama, the man who would be prime minister, has promised to boost welfare and socialize the country. He has said, "I want to create a horizontal society bound by human ties, not a vertically connected society of vested interests." US reaches out as Japan shifts left By Shaun Tandon (AFP) – 6 hours ago WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's administration is calling for a "strong alliance" with Japan's incoming center-left government, which has vowed a more independent path for the long steadfast US ally. The Democratic Party of Japan scored a landslide victory on Sunday, riding a wave of voter discontent with the conservative Liberal Democratic Party which ruled the economic giant virtually interrupted for more than half a century. While the campaign focused on the bumbling economy, the Liberal Democrats were the architects of one of Japan's post-World War II credos -- leave security, and often foreign policy in general, in US hands. Hours after the polls closed, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama "looks forward to working closely with the new Japanese prime minister" -- most likely Yukio Hatoyama, a professorial Stanford-educated engineer. "We are confident that the strong US-Japan alliance and the close partnership between our two countries will continue to flourish under the leadership of the next government in Tokyo," Gibbs said in a statement. The State Department said it hoped for early talks with the new Japanese government on a range of issues including ending North Korea's nuclear drive and -- a common concern for both Obama and Hatoyama -- fighting global warming. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton believes "the US-Japan alliance is strong and remains a cornerstone of peace and security in East Asia," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. But Hatoyama, while saying that the US alliance would remain "the cornerstone" for Japan, has pledged to resist the US economic model and to devote more attention to Asia, where many remain bitter toward Tokyo over war memories. In an essay on The New York Times website, Hatoyama said that "as a result of the failure of the Iraq war and the financial crisis, the era of US-led globalism is coming to an end and that we are moving toward an era of multi-polarity." Hatoyama's Democrats have sought a review of the 47,000-strong US troop presence in Japan -- including a painstakingly negotiated but controversial deal on shifting some 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam. Yet the Democrats -- borne of a 1998 mixed-marriage between disgruntled former Liberal Democrats and socialists -- have deep divisions. Some members, notably former party chief Seiji Maehara, are strong advocates of a more assertive Japanese defense role overseas. "It is still very schizophrenic as a whole on the direction of Japan's foreign policy," said Weston Konishi, a Japan expert at the Mansfield Foundation think-tank. The party will face crunch-time in January when it has to decide whether to extend a naval mission in the Indian Ocean that provides fuel to US-led forces in Afghanistan -- a country that is among Obama's top priorities. The Democrats fought to bring the ships home while in opposition, saying Japan should not take part in "American wars." In the meantime, Hatoyama is likely to head to the United States in September for the Group of 20 summit of major economies in Pittsburgh and the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. When he meets Obama, "if he comes out articulating the kinds of things that he wrote, if he's quite critical of US global leadership, that could get the relationship off on the wrong foot," Konishi said. "But if he tries to reassure President Obama on the strength of the US-Japan alliance and if he looks to ways to coooperate with the United States, that would obviously be well-received," he said. Hatoyama spoke favorably about Obama on the campaign trail, often trying to link his party's struggle against the Liberal Democrats to Obama's own "change" message in his historic victory last year. Obama, in turn, has been sensitive to Japan's fears of being ignored in the face of a rising China. He invited Taro Aso, the defeated prime minister, as his first foreign guest at the White House. http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090830_election_revolution_swings_japan_to_the_left/ From The Times August 31, 2009
Merkel victory in doubt after left-wing surge in regional elections Germany's lacklustre national election campaign was thrown open last night when left-wing parties made a surprise surge in two key regional states. Early results from elections in Thuringia and Saarland showed that Chancellor Angela Merkel will face a much stronger opposition than expected in the general election. Political pundits had assumed that Ms Merkel would be a shoo-in on September 27 and that she was poised to rule Germany with a coalition of Christian Democrats and the small, pro-business Free Democrats. But her Christian Democrat Party was hit hard by voters in what seemed to be a general protest against the conservative party identified with a tarnished financial and banking elite. Suddenly, the terms of this national election campaign have changed. Ms Merkel remains the most popular politician in the country but it is now unclear with what coalition she intends to rule and how she will realise her dream of introducing a "progressive conservatism" to Germany. "These results show that there is no support in the country for a coalition between Christian Democrats and Free Democrats," said Frank Walter Steinmeier, leader of the centre-left Social Democrats, Ms Merkel's main rivals. "It also shows what an unreliable indicator opinion polls have become. We will fight for outright victory on September 27." What seemed to be emerging last night was the prospect of a left-wing coalition governing in two important regional states. In Thuringia in the east, the Christian Democrats lost their absolute majority and scraped up barely 32 per cent of the vote. Their support plunged more than 10 per cent, in part because of popular disappointment with the regional Prime Minister, Dieter Althaus, who had been involved in a controversial ski accident this year, over which he was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. But it was also plainly a vote of no confidence in Ms Merkel. The Left Party — including some former members of the old East German Communist Party — became the second biggest force in Thuringia with 26 per cent of the vote. Together with the Social Democrats and the Green Party, a new left-leaning government could take shape. The question is whether the Social Democrats would be prepared to serve under an ex-communist Prime Minister. It is this issue that has now become central in German politics: can the German Left, splintered over the past seven years, re-form itself in time to mount a serious challenge to Ms Merkel? In the region of Saarland, in the far west of Germany close to the French border, the Left Party also became a strong force. The Christian Democrats there again lost their absolute majority with only 34.5 per cent of the vote. Their natural coalition partners, the Free Democrats, could muster only 9.5 per cent of the vote — almost certainly not enough to form a ruling coalition. Last night a combination of the Social Democrats, who won 25 per cent of the vote in Saarland, and the Left Party, who won 21 per cent, looked to be in the strongest position. It would not take much for them to form a workable coalition with the Greens, who won about 5.5 per cent of the votes. Special factors are always at play in regional elections. In Saarland it was the charismatic figure of Oscar Lafontaine, the co-chairman of the Left Party and former Saarland Prime Minister, fighting hard on his home territory. This pushed up turnout and galvanised the chances of a left-wing resurgence. Left-wing parties also seem to be capitalising on the financial crisis. Above all, there is great resentment about the revival of bankers' bonuses and generous payoffs to the managers of bankrupt companies. Ms Merkel will try to seize initiative today by warning of the consequences of a lurch to the left. But it is now clear that even she can no longer avoid the central issue of unemployment, which is set to accelerate in the coming month. It is the fear of this so far unspoken election issue that is mobilising support for the Left. Fifty Years Ago: Food Movement of 1959  In post-independence and post-partition Congress-ruled West Bengal, the echoes of famine continued to be heard in the 1950s. The collusion between rice mill-owners, jotdars and food hoarders created an artificial food crisis. These proprietor segments, who controlled rice distribution, also exercised a strangle-hold over the villages and formed the rural backbone of the Bengal Congress. So the government refused to take any measure which went against their interests. As hunger assumed famine like proportions, the people organised themselves into a 'Committee to Combat Famine' under the leadership of the undivided Communist Party of India. Other left parties also endorsed this initiative. From the second half of the 1950s, between 1956 and 1958, food movements became an annual occurrence. The Food Movement of 1959 however was a turning-point in the history of class struggle in West Bengal. Food insecurity by this time had reached frightening proportions in rural and urban areas and distress was acute among the marginal and landless peasantry, the workers and lower middle-classes. On 31 August, a huge mass demonstration was organised in Kolkata where hundreds and thousands arrived from the villages under the leadership of the Kisan Sabha. Though primarily a mass protest by peasants, rural women with babies walked alongside high school students; office workers merged with the columns of manual workers. The whole of Kolkata's colonial city centre turned into a sea of 300,000 people demanding an end to destitution and hunger. The centre of the rally was the Shahid Minar, the foot of the monument and the adjoining open space of the 'Maidan' having historically served as the convergence point of anti-colonial and anti-establishment protests. That afternoon rain repeatedly lashed at the demonstrators. But their determination to force the Congress government to provide immediate relief or quit remained resolute. At the end of the meeting, a procession began and started making its way towards Writers' Building. By then evening had descended. First, the demonstrators were cordoned off by the police. Then unexpectedly, without any warning, violent 'action' began. Contemporary observers have noted the way the police attacked directionless, panic-stricken people blinded by teargas. 80 people died in the carnage that day; they were mostly starving peasants who had survived the devastating and man-made Bengal Famine of 1943 and were no longer willing to die of hunger without a protest. Not a single bullet was fired. The police used sticks to beat people to death. 1000 people went missing and 3000 were injured. Ordinary bystanders, petty shopkeepers, cinema-hall ushers and sex-workers offered solidarity and assistance to those fleeing the police from the main thoroughfares in a bloodied state and spilling into the side streets and narrow alleys of north Kolkata. The police arrested thousands. According to one eye-witness who is now 74 years old: 'In the semi-darkness, I saw mothers, sisters, brothers lying motionless in the streets.' The police later cremated many of the anonymous victims. Bodies could be seen floating in the Ganges. The next day, on 1 September, the police fired on students who were protesting against the atrocities and a wave of repression followed. Entire neighbourhoods of north Kolkata became anti-police bastions of resistance and the government deployed troops in several districts. Jyoti Basu compared the events of 31 August with Jallianwallabagh in the Bengal Legislative Assembly and the combined opposition managed to corner the Congress. In 1966, a second Food Movement was launched by the left parties and its impact could be felt in the victory of the First United Front government of 1967. 1959 demonstrated that despite utmost and merciless ferocity, the Congress and the social forces it represented in West Bengal, were in a process of retreat. This retreat, however, claimed the lives of 80 people on 31 August 1959. At a time of rising hunger in the country, Pragoti remembers and salutes them. http://www.pragoti.org/node/3575 | | THE SHAME FACTOR | | Ashok Mitra | | The country's Constitution cannot be faulted. The set of directive principles of state policy it starts with is most uplifting. Consider the catch-all entry, Article 41, "The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement and in other cases of undeserved ones." Close on its heels comes Article 45: "The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen." For full six decades, these articles have lain dormant. Along with other assumed obligations on the part of the State, imparting education, including induction of children into primary and secondary schools, has remained an unfulfilled pledge. In both the articles just quoted, there is, of course, an escape clause. Article 41 indicates a rider: the State will perform such and such tasks, "within the limits of its economic capacity". Article 45 is even more generous: the State should only "endeavour" to send children to school. Whether the State has actually put in the endeavour, or merely gone through the motions, was going to be difficult to determine in all seasons. The ground reality is daunting though. Close to one-half of the nation continue to be functionally illiterate. Some who are enumerated in the census as literate are barely able to inscribe their signature, but, among them, the proportion of those who lapse into illiteracy is frighteningly high. While the proportion of literate children in the age group of six to fourteen has gone up over the decades, the rate of drop-outs hardly shows any sign of decline. The gender divide is equally daunting; female literacy as well as school attendance among girls lag way behind. It is a sorry picture, and it is so despite grandiose schemes such as mid-day meal schemes and the Total Literacy Campaign. A directive principle, a few wise ones thought, was not strong enough; to transform the landscape, education must be declared as a fundamental right. The outcome was the 86th amendment to the Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. Doubt nonetheless refuses to be a fugitive. Despite the punctilious — even finicky — details in the new legislation, will statutory elevation of education as a fundamental right make much of a difference? If the prerogative of receiving education free of cost is denied to a child, a complaint might be posted on its behalf to the nation's highest judiciary. The Supreme Court could issue a directive to the authorities concerned, to look into the matter. It is a big country, the source of the complaint might be a remote village thousands of miles away from New Delhi. The authorities could submit the plea that they were doing their best in the matter. If their best were judged as not enough, the Supreme Court might, at most, hold the authorities guilty of contempt of court. That, as such, would not advance the cause of primary education. In addition to the existing National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, a special National Educational Rights Commission too could be set up along with similar commissions for the states. These commissions might work round the clock and receive unending representations. But the impact of their findings is unlikely to be any more impressive than that of the assorted human rights commissions. No mystery actually lies behind the failure to live up to the promises of the Constitution with regard to literacy and elementary education. Those in charge of shaping the nation's destiny have not ever considered the issue as one of life and death. Passion can move mountains. If there were enough national passion for the cause, illiteracy could have been wiped out from the country within the space of a few years by launching a massively big push. China could do it within a decade of the establishment of the People's Republic; the embers of the fervour which drove the revolution were still burning — that did the magic. Or take the instance of a small country in Central America, Nicaragua, which had as high a rate of illiteracy as 92 per cent when the Sandinistas assumed power for the first time in the 1970s. In the course of a bare quinquennium, they brought that rate down to less than 10 per cent. We did not go through a revolution. Still, we have the commitments in the Constitution reflecting national aspirations during the freedom movement. But, at a certain stage, the passion that ignited those pledges was spent. Whether the poor are taught letters or remain dumb, or whether children from impoverished families attended school, ceased to bother the power brokers. Even where passion was dysfunctional, fear that the deprived millions could turn against them in the polling booths might have propelled ruling politicians to positive action. Notwithstanding their state of ignorance — or conceivably because of it — the poor have, however, continued to exercise their franchise in the manner that the governing oligarchs wanted them to. A little learning, who knows, could in fact be a dangerous thing; if a morsel of literacy imbues the poor with a quantum of social awareness, they might begin to vote errantly; better play safe. Cynicism, or myopia, or whatever, if only it could be snuffed out, objectives such as 100 per cent literacy and school attendance of all children in the age group of 5-14 should not be beyond the nation's reach. But it presupposes a return to what is now derisively described as idealism. Conventional modalities per se are unlikely to make much headway. Why not, instead, raise an education army of one million dedicated young graduates who will spread -eagle themselves across the states and Union Territories, and act as a vanguard, under appropriate guidance, of a national literacy-cum-schooling campaign? There were, at the last count, 350 universities and 60,000 colleges in the country, with a total student population exceeding one crore. It should not be difficult to recruit one million earnest 'literacy scouts' to take up the challenge. These scouts will be the constituents of a network of state, district, taluk, village and muhalla squads, and reach out to the humblest household in the remotest towns and villages. Each scout may be assigned the responsibility for ten households that have lagged behind or been left out of the literacy race. He will be charged with the mission of ensuring that each child attends school and each adult is literate. The authorities may consider offering the scouts a monthly stipend of say, Rs 15,000. There will be need for further outlays, including some on account of construction of new schools and for essential educational equipment, such as textbooks and other accessories. To reduce drop-outs and persuade economically hard-up parents to agree to send their children to school, monetary compensation may also be called for. Subsidies to raise the nutritional standards of school-going — and even pre-school-going — children should not be ruled out either. All told, the total annual outlay could be of the order of Rs 50,000 crore, supplemental to spending under official auspices pursuant to the recently enacted legislation. This nation lays aside close to Rs 150,000 crore in the name of defence. A further amount of around Rs 30,000 crore is put aside, it is a fair guess, to ensure internal security, which includes the provision of regalia for a battalion of mostly useless politicians. A system that makes this much of outlay in order to feel safe should not be under any strain to spare another Rs 50,000 crore for universal education. But no: a suggestion of this nature is bound to meet with instant disapproval. For there is no lobby for either universal literacy or primary education. In the absence of pressure groups, the authorities will not deviate from the beaten track. It is an aspect of felt emotions. We are ashamed at the prospect of being given a bloody nose by Pakistan or China. We, however, experience no sense of shame if the majority of our compatriots are horrendously poor or their chil Mon, Aug 31 04:56 PM  Enlarge Photo Force India's Formula One team chairman Vijay Mallya (C) poses with drivers Giancarlo Fisichella (R)...
Force India can be just as quick in Italy next week as they were in taking their first Formula One points and podium in Belgium on Sunday, according to owner Vijay Mallya. Italian Giancarlo Fisichella finished second for Force India from pole position at Spa behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, who can also expect to go well at the champions' home circuit on Sept. 13. It was Force India's first points after 30 starts and Fisichella considered himself unlucky not to have won after sticking on Raikkonen's tail all the way to the finish. Mallya said the team could cause another upset by producing the same kind of speed at Monza. "Why not? We know that the car is quick -- blindingly quick I would say," the liquor and aviation tycoon told Reuters after Spa-Francorchamps produced one of the big shocks of a season that has already seen plenty. "The sector times show it and I think the Monza track will suit us." Monza, the fastest circuit on the calendar, favours those teams using the KERS energy recovery system, which harnesses power generated by the brakes and delivers a brief boost at the push of a button. Ferrari and McLaren were the only teams using the system at Spa but Fernando Alonso's Renault are considering bringing it back for Monza. The system will be a big help out of the Parabolica turn and after the start/finish line. Force India have the same Mercedes engines as McLaren, who struggled with their set-up for Spa, but will not have the benefit of KERS that helped Raikkonen power past Fisichella when the safety car came in after the first few laps at Spa. BUTTON AGREES Brawn's championship leader, Jenson Button, expected the former tail-enders to shine again and said that while closest rivals Red Bull were likely to start with lighter fuel loads, they were unlikely to be the main challengers at Monza. "....It's going to be more the McLarens, and the Force Indias because they are good on low downforce," the Briton, who crashed out on Sunday, told reporters. "Kimi will also be quick, and I don't know who else is going to be in the other Ferrari." Italian Luca Badoer has occupied the second seat since Brazilian Felipe Massa was injured last month but has been last across the line in both his races and Fisichella could be the man to replace him at Monza. If that happens then Force India may entrust Fisichella's car to their Italian reserve driver Vitantonio Liuzzi, who previously raced for Red Bull and Toro Rosso. Fisichella skirted that issue on Sunday and focused on Force India's prospects instead. "Our speed on the straight is usually very good. Monza is a very high-speed circuit," he said. "Obviously we will have a proper package for Monza and it looks very promising. It looks very good. "I'm not saying that we will repeat a result like today's, which would be fantastic, but obviously getting into the top 10 and scoring points would be another fantastic result." dren fail to attend school because they cannot afford to. | http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090831/jsp/opinion/story_11430496.jsp Motor racing-Force India can repeat feat at Monza, says | Big names in Gaffar's land game - Brother says fugitive used to claim high connections; panels help players get around politics | | ZEESHAN JAWED AND BISWAJIT ROY |  |  | | (top) Gaffar Mollah's house and that of one of his brothers beside Vedic Village; Mollah. (Sanat Kumar Sinha, file picture) | Calcutta, Aug. 30: Gaffar Mollah grabbed land in Rajarhat and Bhangar taking the names of the three forces that matter in Bengal: the CPM, the Trinamul Congress and police, the fugitive's close relatives have told The Telegraph. A tale of political expediency — laced with remarkable ingenuity to get over seemingly irreconcilable differences — emerged after a reporter of this paper scaled the wall of the compound in which Gaffar's house is located and ran into four of his relatives there. "He (Gaffar) is a rich man now…. He's earned a lot of money by grabbing land for Vedic Village," said one of Gaffar's eight brothers, sitting outside a one-room tiled house. The nine brothers live in the seven-cottah compound, adjacent to Vedic Village. Gaffar's green house stands tall in sharp contrast to the brothers' tiled houses in the compound, the main entrance to which has been locked since the arson at Vedic Village. Behind the locked main entrance, the reporter could spot only four people — one of Gaffar's brothers, two sisters- in-law and a niece — instead of the 35 who used to live there. "Gaffar called up after the trouble and asked all of us to leave. He can afford to stay elsewhere but we can't…. We have to look after our cattle and poultry and so we come here during the day but spend the night elsewhere," said one of Gaffar's sisters-in-law, pleading ignorance of the whereabouts of the land-sale enforcer, his wife and four children. The brother said he had heard Gaffar speak about his connections with ministers. "Gaffar often told us that he met ministers like Manab Mukherjee and Abdur Rezzak Mollah inside Vedic Village. He was also close to (Trinamul MLA) Arabul Islam and his brother Khude," said the brother, pointing towards the iron gate within the compound that opens into Vedic Village. Contacted about the claim, Mukherjee, information technology minister earlier and in charge of tourism now, said: "It is all baseless…. I went there only once for the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the convention centre." Land minister Mollah could not be contacted this evening to establish the veracity of the claim. He had earlier denied any links with Gaffar. MLA Arabul had also denied any association with Gaffar. The land department had reached an out-of-court settlement with Vedic promoters who had also entered into a land-for-infrastructure deal with the government for an information technology park. The brother claimed Gaffar, a wanted criminal in Rajarhat police station long before a teenager was shot dead near Vedic Village on August 23, showered gifts on policemen. Gaffar's professed reach was common knowledge in the area and even CPM cadres did not dare cross swords with him. Take the case of Nilotpal Dutta, a former CPM leader and secretary of the Rajarhat Jami Bachao Committee, who had to approach the party's higher leadership. According to Dutta, he had complained to Rabin Mondol, the CPM MLA from Rajarhat and chairman of the Bhangar-Rajarahat Development Authority (Brada) and other party leaders several times about Gaffar's threat to grab the land of farmers. "But I was told that the farmers had been selling their land voluntarily. But the ground reality was completely different," Dutta said. Although the state home secretary has said land was acquired at gunpoint, Mondol is still sticking to his earlier stand. "Local farmers may have grievances against the land mafia and Vedic Village. But I did not receive any major complaints from them earlier,'' said Mondol. According to local CPM sources, Gaffar had links with Mondol but he switched to the Trinamul camp and drew closer to Bhangar MLA Arabul. Gaffar was not alone in the land-grab game. Gour, the son of Khitish Naskar, the CPM pradhan of Mahishbagan-II gram panchayat, and Ruish Naskar, both with strong CPM connections, were known as Gaffar's peers in the business, said a resident of Shikharpur. Politics dissolved before the goldmine called land. In North 24-Parganas' Rajarhat, where the CPM is strong, Gaffar knew which party to take orders from. In adjoining Bhangar that falls in South 24-Parganas, the scales tilted in favour of Trinamul. The "inclusive" policy of co-opting rivals was assiduously followed, which reduced the possibility of malcontents blowing the whistle. Gautam Deb, the housing minister who held up the land procurement policy in New Town as "peaceful and successful", also faces such allegations. "He tried to co-opt Trinamul's Tanmoy Mondol (a former Trinamul MLA from Rajarhat) and Arabul in his scheme of things to tame the farmers' resistance to the land procurement for New Town," Dutta said. A series of committees offered the necessary cover. Tanmoy Mondol was in the save-land committee but left it while Arabul, who earlier supported the committee, distanced himself after his contact with Deb. Arabul had said yesterday he had received some calls from Deb but had stayed away. Deb had said he had called Arabul to discuss consensus on development projects. With BRDA chairman Mondol as the head, another committee was formed with the stated objective of evolving political consensus and finding livelihood for landlosers. The panel, the "advisory facilitation committee", soon faced allegations that it was little more than a co-ordinator of syndicates supplying construction materials for projects in the area. The committee has Trinamul's Tanmoy Mondol and Joydeb Karmakar as members. | The Great Lalgarh Revolt Starting in November 2008, the tribal people (or adivasis) of the Lalgarh village area of the Midnapore district of West Bengal, India, rose up against decades of oppression and abuse by the police and armed thugs of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). This party is usually known by its initials as the "CPM". Despite its name, this is by no means a revolutionary Marxist party; it is instead a revisionist or phony "communist" party, which represents not the workers, peasants and the poor, but actually the ruling alliance of exploiting classes (capitalists and landlords). The CPM has been in power in West Bengal for decades, and has come to demonstrate that old revolutionary Marxist addage that revisionism in power is nothing other than outright fascism as far as the masses of people are concerned. Naturally the people of West Bengal are more and more resisting this state oppression, but when a revolt like that in Lalgarh occurs, the CPM police and armed goons become all the more ferocious in their attempts to suppress the people's upsurge and drive them back into submission. There are now huge numbers of state police and paramilitary forces in the Lalgarh area attempting to put down the people's revolt. But the mass struggle is continuing! In recent years hundreds of adivasis in the Lalgarh area have been imprisoned on charges of having ties with the Maoist insurgency which is ongoing in large parts of India, and many of them have been murdered. This was the immediate spark for the uprising in late 2008. While the resistance of adivasis to their oppressive conditions has taken many forms over the years, the organized strength of this advanced political revolt grew from over a decade of work by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in the area. It has proven to be the only significant party which actually sides with the people in their fight against the oppressive CPM state machine. It has helped the adivasis set up People's Committees, and start to take control over their own lives. Activists of the CPI(Maoist) have played a leading role in promoting these People's Committees and in expanding the struggle to new areas. Among these people's organizations, which have a broad range of support and participation, is the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, which is playing a very positive role in defense of the masses. This is the overall situation at present in the Lalgarh area and beyond. The reports and documents below, available either on this site or else via links to other sites, provide extensive information about this great Lalgarh struggle of the Indian masses. While many of the news reports from the establishment press which are included below are of course not themselves banned in India, they are listed here in order to present a fuller and more complete picture of all the many events in this prolonged struggle. Sometimes the ruling class suppresses views and information outright and directly, but more often it suppresses it through simply making sure it has very limited circulation and does not actually reach most of the masses. This is just as much true in the United States as it is in India, and maybe even more so, due to the tyranny of capitalist media market forces. Withholding news coverage to the people, or only very spotty news coverage, is really almost as bad as the outright banning of publications which try to break the news embargo. It is the goal of BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET to help break down both of these forms of suppression of news and ideas, and to combat the ignorance and "dumbing down" of the population which the rulers seek to impose on us. Much background information on sources below has been provided by researchers from the MLM Revolutionary Study Group in the US; their web site is www.mlmrsg.com, and they can be contacted at: mlm.rsg@gmail.com
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Pamphlets and Articles by Amit Bhattacharyya, Professor of History, Jadavpur University, Kolkata -
Selected Press Accounts and Commentary - August 2009:
 Ration Card Gift for Maoist-hit Districts, The Times of India, Aug. 28, 2009. PDF Version (51 KB); MS Word Version (29 KB) - Maoists Bandh Hits Banking, The Times of India, Aug. 28, 2009. PDF Version (50 KB); MS Word Version (29 KB)
- Maoists Kill CPM Leader, Ransack Lalgarh Houses, The Times of India, Aug. 27, 2009. PDF Version (103 KB); MS Word Version (29 KB)
- Monsoon Hampering Anti-Maoist Operation in Lalgarh Area, PROKERALA.COM, Aug. 26, 2009. PDF Version (28 KB); MS Word Version (54 KB)
- Teen Released After PCPA Gherao, August 26, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/kolkata-/Teen-released-after-PCPA-gherao/articleshow/4934834.cms - Maoists Expanding Base in South Bengal, August 25, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&id=266087&usrsess=1 - Maoist Bandh Brings Midnapore to a Halt, ExpressIndia, Aug. 25, 2009. PDF Version (166 KB); MS Word Version (29 KB)
- 62 Held on False Charges go on Strike, August 20, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=2&id=297735&usrsess=1 - Call for Thousand more Lalgarhs, August 18, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/bhubaneshwar/Call-for-thousand-more-Lalgarhs/Article1-444379.aspx - Mahato Dares Cops with a Rally, Calls for a Bandh in Maoist Hotbeds, August 18, 2009
http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090818/814/tnl-mahato-dares-cops-with-rally-calls-f.html - [Video] A 22-minute video from the Al Jazeera "Inside Story" program on Aug. 17, 2009, about the reasons for the rise of Maoism in India, with the Lalgarh revolt especially in mind. While none of the 3 people interviewed is a Maoist (and two of them are quite reactionary), one of them understands that there is a strong objective basis for the rise of Maoism, namely the intensifying povery of the rural masses and also the vicious police attacks against them. Available on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1gnf7TPbGU
- WB Left Front Calls for Launching Anti-Maoist Operation in Jharkhand Immediately, Aug. 17, 2009. PDF Version (123 KB); MS Word Version (29 KB)
- Military to Take on Maoists in India, August 11, 2009
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090812/FOREIGN/708119932/1103/NEWS - Naxals Hold Armed Rally in Lalgarh, August 8, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Naxals-hold-armed-rally-in-Lalgarh/articleshow/4869637.cms - Bengal Admits Op Lalgarh a Failure, August 7, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=bce37089-4d29-49c7-a984-67f59cce55c2 - Military, Monsoons and Maoists, August 6, 2009
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/jawed-naqvi-military-monsoons-and-maoists-689 - Lalgarh Backfires on Left, Leaders Want Forces Out, August 3, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=dc3a7ee2-b31c-4395-80df-8f6d1eb0c34a - July 2009:
- Women Lathicharged in Lalgarh, July 28, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=1&id=295222&usrsess=1 - Top Maoist Warns CPM, July 25, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=1&id=294771&usrsess=1 - Maoist Real Target: Police Intelligence, July 24, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090724/jsp/bengal/story_11276060.jsp - Lalgarh: Not Much Gained, July 22, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=2&id=294376&usrsess=1 - Maoist Claims Lalgarh Presence, July 19, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090720/jsp/bengal/story_11258619.jsp - Rebels Fuel School Fire, July 14, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090618/jsp/bengal/story_11127192.jsp - Joint Forces Face Students' Ire, July 10, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=1&id=293091&usrsess=1 - Mahato Sets No-Arrest Term for Talks, Demand Force Pullout, July 2, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090702/jsp/bengal/story_11185806.jsp - June 2009:
- Camp Priority for Police Forces, June 30, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090630/jsp/siliguri/story_11176153.jsp - Rebels Back on Secure Stretch, June 30, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090630/jsp/siliguri/story_11176357.jsp - Out of Sight, Army of Youths, Absence Fuels Fear of Permanent Insurgency, June 29, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090629/jsp/frontpage/story_11172477.jsp - Cops Torment, Maoists Profit, June 29, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090629/jsp/frontpage/story_11172478.jsp - Shut Schools in Lalgarh Prompt Stir, June 28, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=2&id=291762&usrsess=1 - Chhatradhar Rallies Tribals, Govt Plans Arrest, June 28, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4711148.cms - Maoist Support Base in Women, Children, June 27, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=2&id=291761&usrsess=1 - Satellite Tracks Foe, June 27, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090627/jsp/bengal/story_11165932.jsp - Spraying Dye from Helicopters, June 27, 2009
http://sanhati.com/front-page/1083/#47 - Near Base, a Maoist Session, June 24, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090625/jsp/bengal/story_11156261.jsp - Hard to Pin: Foe & Goalpost, June 24, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090625/jsp/bengal/story_11156259.jsp - Maoist Leader Gaur Chakraborty Sent to Police Custody for 14 Days, June 24, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=affb20ff-2863-4515-896f-92240ddd3d2a - Lalgarh: An Analysis of the Media's War Hysteria, Partho Sarathi Ray, June 24, 2009
http://sanhati.com/front-page/1083/#43 - Life Paralysed in 3 West Bengal Districts on Second Day of Bandh, June 23, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4690933.cms - Centre Bans CPI (Maoist), June 22, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=1&id=291286&usrsess=1 - Cops Force Locals to Look for IEDs, June 22, 2009
http://sanhati.com/front-page/1083/#37 - Koraput Headed the Lalgarh Way: Tribals Look to Maoists for Liberation, June 22, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=c93006b9-d91f-4dda-8d08-99a6d39250d9 - On the Road to Lalgarh, Troops Taste Red Terror, June 20, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=82f0b778-1c1d-4078-8e7e-9e7d3f851e48 - IAF Choppers Drop Leaflets Over Lalgarh, June 19, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4675573.cms - Govt Can't Tell Between Maoists and Activists, June 18, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=1&id=290933&usrsess=1 - Maoists Ask Mamata to Support Their Struggle, June 18, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=fc63dd36-790e-4946-9f61-aca215a3ba22 - Go-Slow on [Jindal] Steel Plant, June 17, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090618/jsp/bengal/story_11127192.jsp - Reclaim Territory from Maoists: Chidambaram to West Bengal, June 17, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=c0b00e78-d61f-4f15-b5ad-0d893462d8be - Lalgarh Rage Refuses to Die Down, June 16, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=6&id=291056&usrsess=1 - Maoist Arrows Defeat Cops, June 11, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=85333853-aa73-4041-b309-a1254114c3a3 - 36 Arrested for Supporting Maoist Bandh, June 1, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=22&id=289019&usrsess=1 - May 2009:
- April 2009:
- Minimal [Election] Turnout in Lalgarh, April 30, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=10&id=285648&usrsess=1 - Cops Withdraw Camp in Lalgarh, April 27, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=23&id=285120&usrsess=1 - Lalgarh Tribals Block Traffic in Kolkata, April 25, 2009
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2009/04/25/stories/2009042554391200.htm - A Brief Report on the Adivasi Rally at the Heart of Kolkata, Koustav De, April 25, 2009
http://sanhati.com/front-page/1083/#29 - No Healthcare, Water, They Look to Maoists for Help, April 25, 2009
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/no-healthcare-water-they-look-to-maoists-for-help/451062/ - Polls or No Polls, Lalgarh Not to Welcome Cops, April 16, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=23&id=283970&usrsess=1 - Lalgarh Movement: Building Infrastructure in the Face of Government Apathy and Terror, April 15, 2009
http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1336/ - Police Face 8-Hour Gherao, April 13, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090413/jsp/bengal/story_10813978.jsp - Lalgarh Under Maoist Rule, April 8, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090408/jsp/siliguri/story_10790051.jsp - PSBPC Warns Police, April 6, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=22&id=282436&usrsess=1 - January-March 2009:
- PSBPC Firm on Police Boycott Stand, March 24, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=23&id=280817&usrsess=1 - Cop Camp Shift Demand, February 6, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090206/jsp/bengal/story_10492906.jsp - Adivasi Development Inadequate, January 16, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=23&id=267125&usrsess=1 - Lalgarh Victims Want More, January 14, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=23&id=266809&usrsess=1 - Damages for Lalgarh Women, January 12, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=23&id=266415&usrsess=1 - December 2008:
- November 2008 — The Movement Begins:
- Lessons of Salboni: Limited Success of the Police Against Maoists, November 30, 2008
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=3&id=259851&usrsess=1 - Expelled Woman Leader Joins Adivasi Battle, November 27, 2008
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=23&id=259714&usrsess=1 - Lalgarh: Cops Bow to Maoist Demands, November 27, 2008
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=22&id=259693&usrsess=1 - The Charter of Demands, People's Committee against Police Atrocities, November 23, 2008
http://sanhati.com/front-page/1083/#9 - Parallel Rule, as Elsewhere, The Statesman, November 21, 2008 PDF Version (113 KB); MS Word Version (39 KB)
- Lalgarh Stir Spreads, Cops Helpless, November 18, 2008
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3725261.cms - Life in Midnapore Paralysed, The Statesman, November 16, 2008 PDF Version (112 KB); MS Word Version (40 KB)
- Parts of Paschim Mednipur District Still Remain Cut Off, The Hindu, November 15, 2008 PDF Version (125 KB); MS Word Version (30 KB)
- Background of the Movement, by Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati, November 13, 2008 PDF Version (188 KB); MS Word Version (42 KB)
- Lalgarh on the Boil After Arrests, The Statesman, November 10, 2008 PDF Version (175 KB); MS Word Version (38 KB)
- Three Schoolkids Arrested for Blast, The Times of India, November 5, 2008 PDF Version (72 KB); MS Word Version (30 KB)
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Photo Gallery -
Statements and Interviews by the CPI (Maoist) - Second Phase of Lalgarh Operations Will Also Fail: Kisanji, August 20, 2009
http://www.zeenews.com/news556336.html - Lalgarh is Naxalbari-II: Maoists, Interview with Koteshwar Rao (Kishanji), Politburo Member of the CPI (Maoist), August 7, 2009
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/08/07/stories/2009080760031100.htm - CPI (Maoist) Message to the People of Lalgarh, July 15, 2009 PDF Format (126 KB); MS Word Format (32 KB)
- Armed Movement in City Before 2011 Poll, Interview with Kishanji, July 1, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4722317.cms - We Fight for the People, and Our Only Partners are the Oppressed, Interview with Koteshwar Rao, June 21, 2009
http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/we-fight-for-the-people-and-our-only-partners-are-the-oppressed/ - We Will Spread This Fire, Comrade Manoj, prominent CPI (Maoist) member in Lalgarh, June 21, 2009 PDF Format (146 KB); MS Word Format (32 KB)
- "It's a People's Uprising Against Oppression," Interview with CPI (Maoist) West Bengal Spokesperson Gour Khakravarty, June 20, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=1d9fb516-ba8e-4b78-b540-5c48161fbc22 - We are Ready to Talk to the Government, Interview with Koteshwar Rao, June 20, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=ce237e8a-a704-4ea4-ba69-5e99442027cd - Our Aim is to Break CPM Shackles, Interview with Comrade Bikash, Zonal Committee Secretary of the CPI(Maoist) for West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts, June 18, 2009 PDF Format (139 KB); MS Word Format (30 KB)
- Mainstream Politics Not for Us, Interview with Koteshwar Rao, June 15, 2009
http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/interview-with-koteshwar-rao-a-member-of-the-politburo-of-communist-party-of-india-maoistmainstream-politics-not-for-us-says-koteshwar-rao/ - Extracts of Interviews with Comrade Bimal, Politburo Member of the CPI (Maoist), May-June 2009 PDF Format (162 KB); MS Word Format (38 KB)
- We Want a Sustainable Development Path and Inclusive Growth Trajectory that Won't Divest the Poor from the Fruits of their Labor", Interview with Comrade Bimal, April 27, 2009 PDF Format (213 KB); MS Word Format (42 KB)
- The Mass Uprising in Lalgarh, Maoist Information Bulletin #6, January 15, 2009 PDF Version (182 KB); MS Word Version (515 KB)
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Articles from People's Truth, Voice of the Indian Revolution
[The articles from issues #4 and #5 are not yet available separately, but the entire issues are available on BannedThought.net via the links below.] - The Lalgarh Revolt a "Festival of the Masses", by Cherag, and other shorter items totaling 10 pages, from People's Truth, #7, August 2009.
PDF Version (295 KB); MS Word (66 KB) - Lalgarh Revolt Surges Ahead, by Ayesha, 9 pages, from People's Truth, #6, July 2009.
PDF Version (461 KB); MS Word (83 KB) - The Mass Uprising in Lalgarh, People's Truth #5, April-June 2009.
- Uprising in Lalgarh, People's Truth #4, January-March 2009.
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Solidarity with Lalgarh and Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) Statements - ILPS Message to the Lalgarh Solidarity Convention, by Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Aug. 6, 2009. PDF Version (65 KB); MS Word Version (9 KB)
- Prachanda Slams India, Lanka for Anti-Terror Operations, August 3, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=8b1aa527-d501-4e85-95be-60657374a0a8 - Revolution in India—Lalgarh's Hopeful Spark, 12 page pamphlet by Sam Shell, member of the Kasama Project in the U.S., July 2009
http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/revolution_in_india_lalgarh.pdf - South Asia Solidarity Group [Britain] to Hold Picket on Lalgarh Issue, July 19, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=acf79ee2-2c0b-44e0-ab96-8e862f644026 - Activists Bat for Forces' Pullout, July 14, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=2&id=293474&usrsess=1 - Joint Demonstration in Delhi Opposing Military Action and Repression on Adivasis of Lalgarh was Disturbed by Delhi Police, June 30, 2009 (Organized by the RDF, NBS and other organizations.) PDF Version (129 KB); MS Word Version (30 KB)
- Support the Heroic Struggle of Adivasis in Lalgarh, India, statement by the International League of People's Struggle, June 30, 2009. PDF Version (147 KB); MS Word Version (33 KB)
- Art Brigade, June 28, 2009
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090628/jsp/calcutta/story_11166840.jsp - CRPP Statement Condemning the Arrest of Gour Chakravarty, West Bengal Spokesperson of the CPI (Maoist), June 27, 2009 PDF Version (294 KB); MS Word Version (86 KB)
- CRPP Statement Condemning Arrest of Fact-Finding Team, June 27, 2009 http://sanhati.com/news/1607
- Intellectuals, West Bengal Government on Confrontation Course, June 26, 2009
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=d7cb5c8f-14ff-45d4-9c21-55f3258336f0 - Stop the Impending Massacre in West Bengal, Communist Party of Greece (M-L), June 24, 2009
http://indianvanguard.wordpress.com/category/communist-party-of-greece-marxist-leninist/ - Stand With the Struggling Masses of Lalgarh, statement by the Communist Party Reorganization Centre of India (M-L), June 23, 2009. PDF Version (104 KB); MS Word Version (33 KB)
- Send Food, Not Force to Lalgarh, June 23, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Send-food-not-force-to-Lalgarh/articleshow/4690223.cms - Intellectuals Appeal for Peace in Lalgarh, June 22, 2009
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=6&id=291230&usrsess=1 - Press Release by Fact Finding Team of Students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, June 15, 2009 PDF version (95 KB); MS Word version (42 KB).
- An Appeal to the International Community by the CRPP, June 2009 PDF Version (237 KB); MS Word Version (34 KB)
- Intellectuals Boycott Film Fest as a Mark of Political Protest, November 21, 2008 PDF Version (140 KB); MS Word Version (40 KB)
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Useful Links
BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET Home Page http://www.bannedthought.net/India/Lalgarh/index.htm.  People's Democracy (Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
| Vol. XXXI No. 09 March 04, 2007 | THE 1857 REBELLION: A PRE-HISTORY 
Centres of early revolts Archana Prasad THE 1857 rebellion was preceded by a wave of agrarian uprising in the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. The thrust of these uprisings was to contest the nature of changes that were being brought about by the East India Company which was leading the colonial campaign in several parts of the country. The Company's administration tried to re-order an existing feudal order in the first century of colonial rule in order to ensure the political and economic stability of the Empire. This process led to a severe discontent amongst the traditional landholders and the peasantry comprising of cultivators and tenant farmers; as well as other groups like pastoralists, tribals and landless labourers who were intrinsically depended on agriculture and its allied sectors for their survival. Broadly speaking, there were at least three or four distinct processes that led to the agrarian uprisings between 1757 and 1857. The most important one was the land settlement process which structured all British policies through out this period. The conquest of Bengal led to the permanent settlement, while ryotwari tenures were regularised in Madras, mahalwari tenures in the North and malguzari tenures introduced in several parts of Central India. These land tenures were also accompanied by basic reforms in the process of collection of revenue where the fixing of rents was done by Company officials and not the traditional mirasidars, poligars, zamindars or taluqdars. The British promulgated rules where the lands of revenue defaulters could be auctioned to a new class of land holders especially in the permanent settlement areas. This meant that traditional landholders were converted from people who could govern and administer their own estates to mere revenue collectors and farmers. This created a disgruntled class of displaced zamindars who provided leadership to many protests of the period either themselves or through their militia. Perhaps the most representative rebellion of traditional chiefs and revenue collectors who lost their powers because of colonial measures was the rebellion of the poligars of North Arcot (1803-05). The revolt of the Paiks in Orissa under Jagbandhu, the commander of the Raja of Khurda, in 1817; the rising of the Gujars under Bijai Singh talukdar (1824) in Kumaun and Garhwal and the revolt of the Gumsur zamindars in Ganjam district of Orissa (1835-37) reflected the general dispossession amongst the traditional feudal elite of the period. PEASANT REVOLT 
Sanyasi Rebels Though the traditional elites may have lost their power and privileges because of early colonial penetration, these measures had a far more devastating impact on the peasantry. The peasants were forced to pay higher and higher taxes without any remission because of direct colonial control over fixation of revenue. In fact those landholders who complied with and became agents of the colonial regime were forced to enforce a strict time line in the collection of revenue. In addition they also extracted additional labour and revenue for their own profit, thus subjecting the peasants to double exploitation. Further the peasants were unable to invoke their customary feudal relationships with the landholders to default payments. This accentuated the contradictions between the peasantry and the landholders including the traditional rulers granted tenures by the British. At another level, the increasing indebtedness of the peasantry and its exploitation by a new class of landholders and moneylenders was clearly reflected in the agrarian uprisings. The Sannyasi rebellions (1763-1800) in East Bengal, the Kol revolts (1831-32) in Chhottanagpur, and the Santhal insurrection (1855-56) were conducted against the exploitation of the landlords and the mahajans. Similarly the Mappilla revolts in early nineteenth century Malabar were against the zamindars. Many of these revolts followed the strategy of raiding the properties of zamindars and mahajans and extracting taxes from them. In this sense these classes were firmly identified by these people and institutions as implementers of oppressive colonial policies. This anti-colonial tendency of the peasant movements was evident most clearly in the Khasi resistance in Sylhet (1829-31), resistance by Lallaji Patel, a village headman, in the Satmahals (Malwa, 1831) and the Khond insurrection (1846) in Ganjam. While the settlement of property rights provided the basic context of the pre-1857 revolts, the commercialisation of agriculture through the introduction of cash crops and the establishment of European plantations for this purpose was seen in the case of the indigo growing areas. The cultivation of indigo was determined by the needs of the English cloth markets as well as those of remittance trade. The Indigo Commission also highlighted the importance of trade to the tune of two million pounds sterling a year and political importance of having a large body of European planters. Thus for 22 years (1780-1802) the Company directly promoted indigo factories and placed India amongst the foremost indigo producing nations of the world. Though the plantation of indigo was a private enterprise the East India Company not only encouraged the planters in various ways but also gave them legal and administrative protection against the peasants who worked on their plantations who were forced to grow indigo in place of food crops. Several economic and non-economic oppressive practices including torture were routinely practiced by the planters many of whom colluded with the zamindars to maintain their dominance and deal with their problems in administering those areas. The discontent of the raiyats was because of three reasons: lack of remunerative prices for indigo – indigo was not lucrative as it was planted at the same time as food crops – and loss of fertility of the soil because of indigo. INDIGO REVOLT 
Titu Mir It is significant that many uprisings of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century opposed the planter raj by either refusing to grow indigo in the lands where they were originally growing food, and also by refusing to pay their taxes. The first phase of revolts in Eastern India started in the early part of the nineteenth century under Biswanath Sardar who looted the Neelkunthis (or the estates of Indigo planters). Two decades later the first signs of trouble again emerged when the cultivators of Saran, Tirhut, Munger, Bhagalpur and Purnia refused to plant indigo. In Madhubani subdivision they formed a body and refused to plant indigo. Another major revolt against the indigo planters and their zamindars was that led by the Wahabi peasant leader Titu Mir in 24 Parganas of Bengal (1831) who provided leadership to both Muslim and Hindu lower caste peasantry. The third instrument of colonial oppression over the peasantry was monopoly merchant capital through a series of unfair measures that were in evidence throughout the country. The East India Company appointed its agents for indigo and opium trade and passed regulations that made indigenous trade illegal. In other areas like Khurda they put a tax on the production of salt and ensured that salt could only brought from agents who had been given leases by the Company. Thus ordinary peasants were forced to buy salt from the agents at exorbitant rates. In Chhittagong the British started the method of revenue collection from cotton and gave over the collection rights to speculators through the establishment of karpas mahals. This affected the Chakmas (who were essentially shifting cultivators) adversely as they cultivated cotton on their sterile lands and exchanged it for rice, salt and other necessities. They reacted under the leadership of Janbox Khan in 1782 and gathered the people to stop payment of cotton. They also destroyed the storehouses of the lease holders who protected their stocks with the help of the British. A similar pattern was also seen in the case of the Kurda revolts where peasants made salt in violation of the Company's orders and attacked and looted the stores of the salt agents. This clearly showed that it was not only the land tenure and tax policies but also the trading practices in commodities of daily use that had impacted the peasantry and spurred it into rebellion. MISCONCEIVED NOTIONS 
Velu Thambi, Diwan of Travencore Scholars from the 1960s onwards have classified these movements as restorative (Katheleen Gough, 'Indian Peasant Uprisings', Economic and Political Weekly 1974) and messianic movements which used religious symbols and relying on revivalist, nativist and syncretic leadership (Stephen Fuchs, in his book Rebellious Prophets, Asia Publishing House, 1965). Thus Titu Mir's movement, the Sannyassi and the Mappilah rebellion, amongst others, are seen as movements that have communal overtones and religious base. This characterisation however comes out of the lack of understanding of the nature of agrarian discontent and the political philosophy that guided these movements. The first point to remember is that these agrarian uprisings from the mid eighteenth century till the 1857 rebellion spanned the entire length and breadth of the country and often followed the trajectory of colonial expansion. Their existence also showed that the penetration of colonialism was a contested process and the colonists met resistance wherever they tried to establish their authority. Six major uprisings were identified in Bengal, five in Bihar, three in Assam and fifteen in Central and South India. This meant that the pre-colonial society of the time was providing an important challenge to colonial annexation which was bringing about a realignment of classes through its interventions. And this realignment of forces only sometimes and not always articulated a restorative agenda. In other words, though anti-colonialism was a more general characteristic of these movements, the restorative agenda depended more on the local co-relation of forces in these movements. At a second level however, many of these movements can also be seen as ones that had incipient anti-feudal characteristics which also used religion for political mobilisation and articulation of their goals. For example sannyasis and fakirs rebellions of the late eighteenth century were led by settler sanyasis from the Giri and fakirs from the Madari sects who had settled in Mymensigh as peasants. Many of them had turned to agriculture and were regular peasants who were a victim of British merchants. Similarly Titu Mir's Wahabi protests found a mass base in lower caste Hindu and Muslim peasantry because of its agrarian programme. In both cases the leaders of the movements belonged to religious traditions that were outside the pale of organised mainstream religion that formed the basis of most feudal authority. Similarly K N Pannikar ('Peasant Revolts in the Malabar', in A R Desai eds., Peasant Struggles in India) has effectively shown how the class conflict between the Muslim peasantry and Hindu landlords structured the contours of the nineteenth century protests where religion gave them both moral strength and a potent language to articulate their demands. Thus, more than anything else, the use of religion as also the restorative agenda of some of these movements revealed the inability of the peasantry to articulate their own politics especially where the peasants were led by the traditional elites. In other cases it reflected the 'tunnelled' vision of the peasant leadership and the lack of a vocabulary to articulate the agrarian agenda in the first century of colonialism. In this sense the agrarian uprisings preceding the 1857 rebellion were both structured and limited by the imposition of colonial measures on a feudal system. This ensured that they remained pre-modern in character and consciousness. | Centres Of Resistance (1763-1856) | | 1. Sanyasi,* 1763-1800, Dhaka, 1763, Rajshahi, 1763, 1764, Cooch Bihar, 1766, Patna, 1767, Jalpaiguri, Rangpur, etc., 1766-69, 1771, 1776, Purnea, 1770-71 Mymensingh, 1773 | 37. Gujars,* Kunja (near Roorki), 1824 | | 38. Sindgi (near Bijapur), 1824 | | 2. Midnapur, 1766-67 | 39. Bhiwani, Rewari, Hissar, Rohtak, 1824-26 | | 3. Rajas of Dhalbhum, 1766-77 | 40. Kalpi, 1824 | | 4. Peasants under Shamsher, Ghazi's Leadership, Roshanabad, (Tripura), 1767-68 | 41. Kittur, Belgaum District., 1824-1829 | | 42. Kolis,* Thanna District., 1828-30 | | 5. Sandip, island south of Noakhali, 1769-70 | 43. Ramosis,* Poona, 1826-29 | | 6. Moamarias, Jorhat and Rangpur, 1769-99 | 44. Garos,* also called Pagal Panthis' revolt, Sherpur, Mymensingh District., 1825-27, 1832-34 | | 7. Ckakmas,* Chittagong, 1776-89 | 45. Gadadhar Singh, Assam, 1828-30 | | 8. Gorakhpur, Basti and Bahraich, 1781 | 46. Kumar Rupchand, Assam, 1830 | | 9. Peasants, Rangpur, 1783 | 47. Khasis,* under Tirot Singh, 1829-33 | | 10. Birbhum and Bishnupur, 1788-89 | 48. Singhphos,* Assam-Burma border, 1830-31, 1843 | | 11. Chuar* Peasants, Midnapur, 1799 | 49. Akas,* Assam, 1829, 1835-42 | | 12. Peasants, Bakarganj District., 1792 | 50. Wahabis,* Bihar, Bengal, N. W. F. P., Punjab, etc., 1830-61 | | 13. Vizianagaram 1794 | 51. Titu Mir, 24-Parganas, 1831 | | 14. Bednur, 1799-1800 | 52. Peasants, Mysore, 1830-31 | | 15. Kerala Varma Raja, Kottayam, 1797, 1800-05 | 53. Vishakhapatnam, 1830-33 | | 16. Sylhet, 1787-99, Radharam, 1787, Khasis,* 1788
Agha Muhammas Reza, 1799 | 54. Bhumji,* Manbhum, 1832 | | 55. Coorg, 1833-34 | | 17. Vazir Ali, Awadh, 1799 | 56. Gonds,* Sambalpur, 1833 | | 18. Ganjam and Gumsur, 1800, 1835-37 | 57. Naikda,* Rewa Kantha, 1838 | | 19. Palamau, 1800-02 | 58. Farazis,* Faridpur, 1838-47 | | 20. Poligars,* Tinnevelly, Ramnathapuram, Sivaganga, Sivagiri, Madurai, North Arcot, etc., 1795-1805 | 59. Khamtas,* Sadiyas, Asdsam, 1839 | | 60. Surendra Sai, Sambalpur, 1839-62 | | 21. Vellore Mutiny, 1806 | 61. Badami, 1840 | | 22. Bhiwani, 1809 | 62. Bundelas,* Sagar, 1842 | | 23. Naiks* of Bhograi, Midnapur District., 1810-09 | 63. Salt riots, Surat, 1844 | | 24. Travancore under Velu Thambi, 1808-09 | 64. Gadkari,* Kolhapur, 1844 | | 25. Chiefs of Bundekhand, 1808-12. | 65. Savantavadi, North Konkan Coast, 1844-47 | | 26. Abdul Rahman, Surat, 1810 | 66. Narshimhs Reddy, Kurnool, 1846-47 | | 27. Hartal and agitation in Benares, 1810-11 | 67. Khonds,* Orissa, 1848 | | 28. Parlakimedi, western border of Ganjam District., 1813-34 | 68. Nagpur, 1848 | | 29. Cutch, 1815-32 | 69. Garos,* Garo Hills, 1848-66 | | 30. Rohillas,* Bareilly, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Rampur, 1816 | 70. Abors,* North-eastern India, 1848-1900 | | 71. Lushais,* Lushai Hills, 1849-92 | | 31. Hathras,* 1817 | 72. Nagas,* Naga Hills, 1849-78 | | 32. Paiks,* Cuttack, Khurda, Pipli, Puri, etc., 1817-18 | 73. Umarzais,* Bannu, 1850-52 | | 33. Bhils, Khandesh, Dhar, Malwa, 1817-31, 1846, 1852 | 74. Survey riots, Khandesh, 1852 | | 34. Kols,* Singhbhum, Chota Nagpur, Sambalpur, Ranchi, Hazari Bagh, Palamau, Chaibasa, 1820-37 | 75. Saiyads of Hazara, 1852 | | 35. Mers,* Merwara, 1819-21 | 76. Nadir Khan, Rawalpindi, 1853 | | 36. Platoon of the Bengal Army, Barrackpore, 1824 | 77. Santhals,* Rajmahal, Bhagalpur, Birbhum, etc., 1855-56. |
* Indicates a movement, a community, a tribe, or a group of people.
Long Live People's Resistance in Nandigram Thursday, April 5, 2007 Long Live the People's Resistance against Aggression of Globalization! Long Live the People's Occupation of Nandigram! [As observed by Jiten Nandi, Shamik Sarkar, Md. Helaluddin, Subhapratim Roychowdhury, Anupam Das Adhikari and Amita Nandi on behalf of Manthan Samayiki, a bi-monthly Bengali little magazine from Kolkata, West Bengal.] We, associated with a Bengali bi-monthly little magazine, 'Manthan Samayiki', went Nandigram three times during January to March. Being the residents of Metiabruj in Kolkata, we are neighbored by the people involved in garment industry, a community-based industry of muslim bengalees. Thousands of male villagers (about seventy-five thousand, according to Morsalin Molla, MLA, Mahestala, South 24 Parganas) from Nandigram block stay in Metiabruz and around temporarily for working in the community garment industry. We went Nandigram each time along with these people. We visited there on 18th January, 17-18 March and 27-29 March 2007. We travelled within Nandigram by bicycles and van-rickshaw.  Nandigram is almost 160 km away from Kolkata. There are three blocks, Nandigram I, II, and III in the district of East Medinipore. Nandigram I block is mostly dominated by muslims and lower caste hindus. People survive by cultivation, fishing, and engaging themselves in garment industry. Haldia township and industrial belt, being just opposite to the Haldi river, promised them a huge opportunity of getting employment in modern industries. But in reality, most of the workers who got jobs there, were driven off once the construction works were finished. They realized that, in modern industries only highly educated elites could manage a respectful job. Village people are going to get nothing from there. Still now, some villagers go Haldia, for purely temporary contractual jobs with miserably low salary. We heard about the Jellingham Project at Nandigram Block 1, where about 400 acres of land had been acquired in 1977 for ship repairs. One hundred and forty two families lost their land. The Project stopped functioning after five years and the site today lies deserted.
Nandigram fought British colonial rule gloriously, almost occupied itself from British Raj in 1942. It took part in the tebhaga movement afterwards, under the leadership of legendary Communist Bhupal Panda. The indomitable spirit of the community (the chashi-samaj) Nandigram was carried positively by the leadership of Communist Party of India in tebhaga movement. Time and again, Nandigram village-folks dug trenches on roads to fight the aliens. In 1982, a movement under the leadership of Bhupal Panda originated in Nandigram with the demand for development (roads, sanitation, water supply, electrification, etc.). Police fired on the agitation and killed a student, Sudipta Tewari. Again, village-folks dug trenches in Nandigram to prevent police from entering into the villages. Before 29th December 2006 A rumour was there in Nandigram for more than a year that some of the mouzas or villages and cultivation land might be acquired by the State Government for instituting an industrial zone, Special Economic Zone (SEZ). A land acquisition row was already there nearby for increasing the area of Kulpi port which would take lands from coastal area belonging to mostly fisherfolks and farmers. A committee, dubbed as Krishak Uchchhed Birodhi O Jonoswartho Roksha Committee (Committee Against Eviction Of Peasants And To Save People's Interest) was formed during August 2006 by Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) along with Indian National Congress for propaganda work against forced land acquisition. Another committee started to function in Nandigram and adjacent Khejuri block, called Krisi Jami Raksha Committee (KJRC) (Committee To Save Farmland). It is a state-wide initiative led by main parliamentary opposition party, called Trinamul Congress, formed in the pretext of land acquisition row in Singur of district Hooghly for a Tata Motor's manufacturing unit. Another initiative, called Gana Unnoyon O Jana Odhikar Sangram Samity (GUJOSS) (Association For The Struggle Of Mass Development And People's Right), comprised of Jamait I Ulema Hind and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Santosh Rana faction), established in Bhangar of district South 24 Parganas in the last quarter of 2006 to fight forcible eviction of peasants there for setting up of an industrial zone, started working in Nandigram during November 2006. Meanwhile, State Government occupied and fenced ( kanta-bera ) Singur land imposing section 144 of penal code of India despite protest and refusal to take compensation for land from a large section of villagers. And Ministers and ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders started talking publicly of setting up a huge chemical hub in Nandigram under the Selim group of Indonesia. GUJOSS started setting up some village committees comprising villagers cutting across the boundary of party affiliation after conducting a survey in some villages in Nandigram which showed that almost 99 percent villagers were ready to 'give their lives before leaving their motherland'. 29th December 2006 to 3rd January 2007 A public meeting was held on behalf of ruling CPI(M) in Nandigram market on 29th December 2006 where MP from Tamluk and East Medinipore district leader Lakshman Seth urged farmers to pave the way of development and industrialization in Nandigram by giving up their lands, both farmland and residential land, against compensation. He also urged people to take the opposition at gunpoint, alleged the villagers. He gave a list of the names of the villages (mouzas) those would be taken for the proposed chemical hub, on behalf of Haldia Development Authority of which he is the chairperson. Later that document was found in District Land Reforms Office. Male-folk returned to their villages hearing the news. A large number of male-folks, predominantly muslims, who worked in Metiabruz or elsewhere came to their villages for Idujjoha on 1st January 2007. They also became agitated hearing the news that their birth-place (matribhumi) is going to be forcibly occupied by the government. On 3rd January 2007 a Governmental car entered into Nandigram  | | Torched police van (on 3rd January) carrying a poster, we will not leave motherland for industry | Prodhan Samiran Bibi and her husband CPI(M) leader Rejjak told them that a UNICEF for a government project for Nirmal Gram Prokolpo or Fresh Village Project. People marched back, but in their way to Garchakraberia, they found some four police vans with armed police force arrived there in Osmanchawk. The procession asked the police why they came. Police replied with lathicharge and gunfire which left 4 persons wounded. People got furious and chased the police van. One police van had been torched in Garchakraberia Bhuta More. All the police personnel left rapidly. Traditionally the peasant community of Nandigram is hostile to police administration. In 1902, villagers burnt a Daroga, called Raimohan in Gumgarh village of Nandigram who was backing a mahajon (money lender) called Gopal, and attacked Nandigram police station. Several villagers were hanged later for that offence by the British rulers. This memory is still alive among villagers through folklores and songs. One such song goes like "Ki khela khelili Gopal Nandigramer bajare/ Khelar tape Gumgarh kanpe/ Raimon daroga pure more/ kharer gadar bhetore. (Gopal, what a trick you played in Nandigram market./ The trick trembled Gumgarh,/ leading Raimohan daroga to be burnt in a heap of paddy-grass). Till the day, i.e. 3rd January the agitation was mostly dominated by male-folk of the villages. After this incident women-folk from both communities, Hindu and Muslim came out of their homes. Within an hour (in the afternoon) all the village populace started digging the roads in their villages for preventing police to enter into the villages. Within 12 hours, people dug more than hundred places, cut small concrete bridges, blocked the roads with tree-trunks, huge trees, boulders and bricks all through the villages proposed for acquisition for the chemical hub SEZ. People occupied their own villages. It was a huge show of people's power and uprising. Sumit Sinha, a member of CPI(ML) (Santosh Rana faction) was present there at that time. He described the event like one when 'people's knowledge and initiative surpass leaders' episteme and craft'. He said that he was reluctant to believe the incidence in North Bengal when over 100 km rail-track was eliminated within a night by people during Khadya Andolan in 1950s. Now, seeing this mass initiative he started believing the actuality of that incidence. Upto 7th January 2007  From 4th January 2007 people urged for unification of three above-stated committees. On 5th January 2007 a meeting was held in Etimkhana (muslim orphan house) in Tarachand Bar beside Nandigram market involving all block or district level leaders of political parties who were involved in those three committees. A unified committee, called Bhumi Uchchhed Protirodh Committee (BUPC) (Committee for Resistance to Eviction from Homeland) was established from the meeting and resolution was taken that nobody would hoist their own political flags within Nandigram excluding the case when a political party was organizing a meeting or march on its own. On 6th January noon, a huge public meeting was held in Bhuta More, Garchakraberia announcing the formation of BUPC. Meanwhile, the agitation led by KJRC in Khejuri was brutally suppressed by State administration and CPI(M) cadres there and all the agitating villagers were made silent or 'proponent of industrialization' at gunpoint. Nandigram and Khejuri are separated by a 50ft wide canal called Talpatti Khal. A bridge separates two newly made (2004-2005, under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Jojona or Prime Minister Village Road Project) pakka roads or pitched roads, Nandigram's one connects Talpatti Khal to Basulichawk (16.2 kms.) and Khejuri's one connects Talpatti Khal to Rasulpur. Historically, Nandigram was attacked time and again by Portuguese armada (Harmad in colloquial tongue) or Pirates and British invaders through Khejuri. Nandigram people used to resist them. Nandigram was again attacked on the onset of 7th January 2007, from Khejuri, with bombs and bullets. It was a foggy morning. Thousands of people from the adjacent villages (Bhangabera, Sonachura, Gangra, Adhikaripara, Gokulnagar, Tekhali etc) started thronging at Talpatti Khal bridge, to resist the invaders, the 'army of industrialization', the 'harmad bahini', the 'cadres of Lakshman Seth', carrying sticks, Da (bamboo cutting knife), Banti (knife used for domestic vegetables cutting). Three persons died of bullets during resistance, namely, Bharat Mandal, Sekh Selim and Biswajit Maiti (12 year old). A landlord of Bhangabera, Shankar Samanta (His two storied fort-like residence, gardens and ponds constitute at least 20 acres of land, leaving aside the farmland he owned. Almost all of the other houses in Bhangabera are made of mud. This family was traditionally with Indian National Congress, also his father Sudhangsu Samanta, but turned into CPI(M) two decades ago) was allegedly showing the invaders the key persons of the resistance for killing them, villagers alleged to us. People chased him, captured and burnt alive. His mansion was ransacked and torched also. Invaders stopped shooting after the sunset. Thousands of people decided to dig the pakka road to cut the link between Talpatti Bridge and Nandigram. The 16.2 km long pitched road was ornamented with several ditches, trenches, tree-trunks, boulders, bricks. The war began.
7th January to 14th March 2007  | | A trench on Prime Minister Village Road Project road, with a black flag of BUPC | As the war situation unfolded, formation of village committees, the organization from below, virtually stopped. Instead political leaders of BUPC started leading the whole resistance. People already started night-vigil to resist the invaders. When they found any intrusion in night, they started chanting Shankha from households and making call of alert ( ajan ) from mosques. Hearing this everybody used to come out of their households and marched towards the Talpatti Khal, which was started to be termed as border, colloquially. In a war like situation, people couldn't resist the sophistically armed police and cadre force without weapons. And so weapons including guns started to come in the hands of villagers through some heavyweight political leaders of parliamentary opposition. Villagers reorganized the barricades and trenches on roads in a manner so that one could move by walking, bicycle or even Ricksaw, but no car or speedy motorbykes could move in or out. The ferry service connecting Nandigram and Haldia through Haldi River was cut out by ruling CPI(M) cadres temporarily, Haldia town being a stronghold of them. The supply of cash crop and labour from Nandigram to Haldia was halted. Haldia market faced a huge price rise. Fearing unrest in Haldia, ferry service resumed after seven days. But labourers from Nandigram were systematically manhandled in Haldia by CPI(M) cadres. Especially Muslims were targeted. It is very special. CPI(M) is known internationally as the strongest critique of Gujarat communal riot and Hindu fundamentalism. Cadres belonging to that party in Haldia, started provoking muslim sentiment by targeting them specifically. The Nandigram-Metiabruz buses were systematically searched by CPI(M) cadres in Nandakumar, some 40 km away from Nandigram, and people belonging to those villages proposed for chemical hub SEZ were got down from buses and were advised to go by walking as 'they were opposing industrialization, they should not be allowed to go by buses'. These things were done by CPI(M) cadres after a state level leader of CPI(M), Benoy Konar called for 'making the villagers' lives a hell encircling them from three directions' before media. The three directions were Nandakumar, Khejuri and Haldia. Meanwhile Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said before media that the proposed chemical hub would not be set up at Nandigram, if villagers didn't want it there. He also announced to tear apart the Haldia Development Authority's notice, before media. But Lakshman Seth, the Tamluk MP and Haldia's strongman, urged for setting up the SEZ in Nandigram. Nirupam Sen, state industry minister, also said in that way. No official notification was issued any further.  The everyday life of village-folks hampered in a big way. Cultivation, schools and food supply and external communications were hampered. People overcame those, just by solidarity within community. People even ate raw khesari leaves and cereals during these two and a half months. Help came in the form of rices and cereals from adjacent villages. Village life, in a contrast to the city dwellings, can live on its own resources, crops from fields, fishes from ponds, quoak doctors etc. People survived by the virtue of their own resources, despite the barricades and trenches they organized to occupy their own villages. No festivals or ceremonies had been held in those villages during this period, be it marriage ceremony, or tajia of Muharram. A handful of strong CPI(M) followers from those villages left voluntarily fearing atrocities, or been driven away in some cases. The total number wouldn't cross 120, the villagers urged. All the rest of CPI(M) followers took up the call of resistance to save their home land and livelihood. Some of them led the resistance also. The martyr, Bharat Mandal was one of them. These villages were dominated by CPI-CPI(M) followers traditionally. All the villages became united showing huge communal amity. BUPC remained the only organization left there.
On the eve of 14th March 2007 After a state wide, two-month long campaign for industrialization, CPI(M) organized a big mass meeting in Kolkata on 11th March under the banner of Krishak Sabha, the party's peasant wing. The home secretary of the State Government, Prasad Ranjan Roy ordered the administration to RE-OCCUPY the Nandigram villages on 14th March 2007. BUPC organized a mass deputation at Nandigram police station on 13th March. The mass deputation was thronged by women-folks in thousands. After a meeting in state assembly between East Midnapore district leader of Trinamul Congress, MLA Subhendu Adhikari and Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya, Subhendu assured the BUPC leadership that police would come on 14th March to repair the trenched and barricaded roads only. Police would use tear gas or fire blank from guns at most, BUPC leadership perceived. They urged the villagers to organize a peaceful demonstration of at least 10 thousand by the side of the Talpatti bridge and send back all their weapons. In a way, one can say that BUPC leadership disarmed the village-folks on 12th and 13th March, who were indulged in a war with the invaders for saving their homeland and saving themselves from eviction. Villagers followed BUPC leaders' advices. On 14th March 2007 The villages by the Talpatti canal were mostly populated by hindu community. And the heart of the resistance was Garchakraberia, a muslim dominated village, which is 10 km away from the Talpatti Khal. The shankhadhwani by hindu women-folk started as early as at 3 am on 14th March. Children and women gathered beside the Talpatti bridge at 3 am and started puja of Gouranga idol and Singhabahini, the community believes that the goddess save their land and lives. Muslim women and children came a little late, at 4 am and started reading from Koran Sharif. Thousands of villagers, mostly children and women were present there by the dawn. No prominent leaders of BUPC were available at the spot, but local village level leaders were there.  | | A trench by Talpatti bridge | Police started the operation on 10 am. They fired tear gas and within some minutes began firing. Armed CPI(M) cadres came along with the police. The cadres wore police uniform for camouflage. State reoccupied Sonachura, Bhangabera, Adhikaripara, Tekhali (3 km from the Talpatti bridge) with police, special combat force, sophisticated weapons, and CPI(M) cadres. Within one hour wounded persons started to come to ill-prepared Nandigram Hospital. By the evening, 60 people came with injuries, mostly with bullet injuries in upper parts of the body. So the firing was intended to KILL the protestors, not to disperse them. 14 deaths have been reported immediately by government. Party flag entered into those villages of Nandigram after two and a half months. The victory of state over the villagers was celebrated there, and the rest part of the East Medinipore district by hoisting innumerable brand-new hammer-and-sickle marked red flags. Meanwhile, a district wide 12 hour strike was issued at the afternoon of 14th March by CPI(M) trade union wing CITU, to prevent the miscreants from hampering the process of reinstallation of administration in Nandigram, according to 'The Hindu', a media source. Everywhere in the district, CPI(M) cadres took the streets with flags, blocked roads, and prevented the parliamentary opposition leaders, the Governor and the media from entering into Nandigram. The ambulances carrying seriously wounded to Tamluk hospitals were also attacked. Reports of huge death and disappearance of body, rape started coming from Nandigram. Sonachura, Bhangabera, Adhikaripara, Tekhali were completely under the control of police and armed CPI(M) cadres by the night of 14th of March. After 14th March 2007 Under the direction of Kolkata High Court, CBI team arrived at Nandigram on 15th March. Police and cadres in Sonachura village organized the villagers there at gunpoint for leading a procession for re-occupation of Garchakraberia on 16th March.  But their attempt failed, as almost 50 thousand villagers from other villages, led by BUPC, came to sonachura on 16th March morning. Cadres escaped the villages. Police forces presented their begged for lives. Red flags had been replaced with a handful of black ones of BUPC, and predominantly with tri-coloured Trinamul Congress flags. After the red ones, entered the tri-coloured party flags. After severe protests in and outside of West Bengal and condemnation of state sponsored mass killing of unarmed villagers, facing opposition from ruling coalition partners of decades, Left Front Government decided to withdraw the police force from Nandigram systematically, issued a notice on behalf of East Medinipore district magistrate stating that no land acquisition would be held in Nandigram. It was the second official notice related to Nandigram SEZ. First one was issued on behalf of Haldia Development Authority at the end of December 2006 providing the list of mouzas to be acquired in Nandigram, as stated above. The struggle of Nandigram is still continuing. Now the land grab fear is over. But the anguish and grief of losing a number of their comrades remains. Villagers are asking for the punishment of the murderers and rapists. We asked the female-folk about what kind of help they needed. They urged us to join the struggles 'like them'. The CPI(M) party cadres are still bursting bombs at night, from the side of Khejuri. BUPC asked most of the 'driven out' or 'left out' of the villages for their CPI(M) affiliation to come back, but urged for the arrests of a few of them who were involved in the violent attack and massacre on 14th March. The residents of 38 villages, mostly a peasant population, predominantly poor and marginal, in Nandigram fought a severely uneven fight for last 3 months. It was a genuine people's resistance against globalization in its present aggresive form. Global capital is installing SEZs, neo-colonies in India. Almost 200 SEZs are already working in our country. Gujarat, Haryana, Orissa, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand etc are prominent states in SEZ maps of India. All state governments, be it Congress led or BJP led or else, are asking for SEZ and advocating it for industrialization and development. The SEZ Act was planned during BJP led NDA government, and implemented in 2005 by Congress led UPA government. It was passed by parliament without even any debate. The country-wide people's resistance sent the act under review and sanction of fresh SEZs was stopped, in January, immediately after the people's uprise and occupation in Nandigram. Village-folks are resisting the land grab and forced eviction almost everywhere, at Kalinganagar-Jagatsinghapur in Orissa, at Raigarh in Maharashtra, in Jharkhand, in Uttarpradesh etc. Nandigram was one among them. And it emerged VICTORIOUS. Chemical hub SEZ in Nandigram died before its birth. It's a successful local resistance, a people's resistance against globalization with a broader and immediate implication. http://peoplesresistanceinnandigram.blogspot.com http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ - HC notice to UP DGP over contempt petitionPTI - 08:12 PM
Allahabad, Aug 31 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court today asked the DGP of Uttar Pradesh and other top police officers to appear before it in person over non-compliance of its order on out-of-turn promotions in the department. - Decks cleared for Phase-III of Delhi MetroPTI - 08:12 PM
New Delhi, Aug 31 (PTI) The city Government today sanctioned Rs three crore to the Delhi Metro for preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Phase-III of the new age transportation which envisages covering another route length of 85 kms in the national capital. - NPSC prelims results declared null and voidPTI - 08:11 PM
Kohima, Aug 31 (PTI) The Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) has declared "null and void" results of preliminary examinations for state civil services following complaints of irregularities. - Azad reviews situation as swine flu toll crosses 100PTI - 08:07 PM
New Delhi, Aug 31 (PTI) As the death count in swine flu crossed the 100 mark in the country, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today held a high-level meeting to take stock of the situation. - Disney to acquire Marvel in $4 bln dealReuters - 08:05 PM
Walt Disney Co said on Monday it plans to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc for $4 billion in a deal that would add characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to its entertainment empire. - 'Congress has nothing to do with Press Club politics'IANS - 07:52 PM
New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) The Congress Monday said its president Sonia Gandhi's accepting the honorary membership of the Press Club of India had nothing to do with the internal politics of the club. - Left Front's massive show of strength in KolkataIANS - 07:33 PM
Kolkata, Aug 31 (IANS) After a series of electoral losses, West Bengal's ruling Left Front Monday sought to enthuse its cadres by organising a huge rally in the city to mark 50 years of a mass movement against food shortages. - Kowtowing to imperialists unacceptable to Left: BasuIANS - 07:28 PM
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New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) The three Congress-ruled states of Haryana, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh will elect new assemblies Oct 13 in the first popularity test after the April-May Lok Sabha elections. - Supreme Court accepts CPI-M leader Vijayan's pleaIANS - 07:10 PM
New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday admitted CPI-M Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan's plea against the state governor's approval to the Central Bureau of Investigation to prosecute him for his alleged role in a corruption case as a minister in 1997. - Slim chanceHT - 07:05 PM
If there are two words that have become ubiquitous in the media, our social interactions and our heads, it is these: weight loss. We've heard them a million times, from women who want to lose weight to people who are fed up of trying to lose weight; from 10-year-olds who barely know what fat is, to grandmothers who think they don't look youthful enough. - Fantasy islandsHT - 07:05 PM
Early this year, Tourism Queensland ran a campaign titled 'The Best Job in the World'. They were looking for a caretaker for the islands of the Great Barrier Reef - one of the most beautiful places in the world. The campaign received such a response that the official website crashed on the first day itself. - Afghanistan gets realHT - 07:05 PM
Inside the spot-lit Marco Polo marriage hall in Kabul, three Koranic scholars sit cross-legged on a dais. They have a copy of the Koran and sheaves of paper in front of them. The three bearded theologians - one wearing a Pathan turban, another an Islamic cap and the other bare-headed but looking stern nonetheless - are scribbling away furiously. - Those Black & White days...HT - 07:05 PM
Vintage black & white photographs on the walls; a 1948 vintage DeVere enlarger, a 81-year-old Yebta wooden camera. the studio of Mahatta & Company in Connaught Place looks like a museum of photography. - Food For ThoughtHT - 07:05 PM
The last time I wrote about the things that frequent travellers wanted from hotels - and rarely got - I ended with a threat: I would be returning to the subject with further installments. This week, I am going to focus on hotel food. Because India is still to develop a full-fledged restaurant culture, it is the hotels that have become centres of F&B excellence. This is great and worth applauding. - 30 Maoists held in OrissaHT - 07:05 PM
The Orissa Police have arrested about 30 armed cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) early on Saturday from four places in Sundargarh district, about 450 km northwest of Bhubaneswar. Following a tip-off on Friday night, the police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) began a joint operation in Banei subdivision. - Principal rapes 14-year-old in jaipurHT - 07:05 PM
A 48-year-old principal of a local school allegedly raped his 14-year-old student inside the school premises on Friday. - MP dacoit beheaded, offered for sacrificeHT - 07:05 PM
A dacoit's head was chopped off and offered to the deity as sacrifice at a temple in the Dadri village of Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district, 500 km northeast of Bhopal. - Trader robbed of Rs 13.5 lakhHT - 07:05 PM
Motorcycle-borne men robbed a trader of Rs 13.5 lakh at gunpoint in Moti Nagar in west Delhi on Thursday night. Police said Nand Juneja (40) was outside his house when four armed men on two motorcycles approached him. - Buta Singh says he is ready to be questioned by CBIANI - 06:15 PM
New Delhi, Aug. 31 (ANI): Former Bihar Governor Buta Singh on Monday informed the Delhi High Court that he was ready to be questioned by CBI in connection with the bribery case involving his son. Land reform continues in West Bengal  Table 1
The primary point of distinction between Left-led and all other State governments in India is that, on coming to power, every Left-led government has confronted the agrarian question directly. Land reform has been integral to the policy of the Left in government from the outset. The importance of agrarian issues in the programme of Left governments is illustrated by the speed with which these governments have turned their attention to land reform. The first Communist government in India, led by E.M.S. Namboodiripad, was sworn in on April 5, 1957; the government's first Ordinance on land reform was promulgated on April 11, just six days after the government was formed. In West Bengal, too, land reform has been and remains a foundational feature of the power of the Left, and was perhaps the earliest item on the administrative agenda of the Left Front. New data presented by the Minister for Land Reforms in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly indicate how significant a contribution West Bengal has made to India's aggregate land reform effort. Net area sown in West Bengal as a proportion of net area sown in India was, according to the Union Ministry of Agriculture, 3.9 per cent in 2003-04. At the same time, as Table 1 shows, the extent of agricultural land distributed under land reform in West Bengal as a proportion of land distributed in the country as a whole is 22.6 per cent. Of the total number of gainers from land distribution programmes in the country, more than half — a full 54.5 per cent — are from West Bengal.  Table 2
The absolute numbers give us an idea of the sweep of land reform. As a rough measure, the aggregate, as on February 15, 2008, of the total number of recipients of agricultural land under land reform (2,971,857), the number of recorded bargadars (1,510,657) and the number of recipients of homestead land (557,151), is 5,039,665 beneficiaries. (As an indicator of the obstacles to land reform, it is worth noting that 179,878 acres cannot be distributed because they are under legal injunction.) The current data (that is, as on March 15, 2008) show that, among the recipients of agricultural land under land reform, the proportion of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe recipients (55 per cent) was significantly higher than the proportion of Scheduled Castes and Tribes in West Bengal's population (which was 28.1 per cent). Another interesting feature of the data is that, as on February 15, 2008, the number of new joint pattadars (that is, persons who had received new joint title deeds to agricultural land under land reform) was 581,000, and the number of new women pattadars was 159,400. Assuming that half the new joint patta holders were women, a total of 449,900, or about 4 lakh and a half, women received title deeds to agricultural land under land reform. I have no comparative data for other States on this matter, but the number indicates a noteworthy response to a long-standing demand of the women's movement (although it still falls far short of creating conditions of equality in this regard). A myth of "reversal" Despite this achievement, there has been recent criticism, particularly since late 2006, that the Left Front government, in pursuit of its policy of industrialisation and industrial modernisation, has actually reversed its land reform programme. On the face of it, this allegation seems somewhat implausible: what could be the motive for a government to be so obviously self-destructive (or, in Jyoti Basu's blunt formulation, "We are not out of our mind that we would destroy our agriculture…")? Current data show the allegation also to be untrue. Table 2 shows that, in each of the last three years, the extent of land acquired by the State government for industrial and infrastructural purposes was a fraction of the agricultural land distributed under land reform (and this does not even include the extent of homestead land distributed). Even in 2006-07, when acquisitions peaked, the extent acquired was 4,135 acres, and the extent distributed under land reform was 10,848 acres; in other words, in that year, the extent of agricultural land distributed under the land reform programme was no less than 2.62 times the extent acquired for industry and infrastructure. Although it is true that more land was distributed in the first two decades of Left Front rule than at present, the fact remains that even today, with a narrower base of land available for redistribution, the extent distributed is much greater than the extent acquired. The freedom of the government to implement land reform in West Bengal has been hemmed in historically by the constraints imposed by the Constitution and obstructed by counter-land-reform action and endless litigation. Nevertheless, the data show unequivocally not only that land reform swept the countryside in the late 1970s and 1980s, but also that the process of land distribution continues in rural West Bengal today. Article courtesy, The Hindu. Times of India - 16 hours ago Chief judicial magistrate Sangram Kumar Saha heard all the arguments of Modi's defence lawyers, who pointed out that the Vedic Village compound was such ... Expressindia.com - 15 hours ago Kolkata With the Vedic Village arson bringing issues of land acquisition to the forefront, real estate developers in Kolkata are determined to put the ... Times of India - Aug 24, 2009 KOLKATA: City realtors are shocked by the arson at Vedic Village in Rajarhat and fear that unless strong action is taken, investor and buyer confidence ... Expressindia.com - 15 hours ago Kolkata A Day after police arrested the managing director of Vedic Village, Rajkishore Modi, in connection with the seizure of arms and ammunition from the ... Times of India - Aug 29, 2009 The incident comes days after a mob set fire to the Vedic Village resort, which stands a few kilometres away, and burnt down property worth crores. ... Times of India - Aug 24, 2009 The arson and mob fury at Vedic Village on Sunday shows that the quiet, green countryside which has gone from sleepy village to global village in a matter ... Calcutta Telegraph - Aug 25, 2009 The younger brother of the youth felled by a bullet during the football fracas leading to the Vedic Village flare-up is struggling to come to terms with the ... Calcutta Telegraph - Aug 26, 2009 Pankaj Gupta, a wedding planner based in Delhi, was at Vedic Village on Sunday. This is the 42-year-old's account: I had organised a high-profile engagement ... Press Trust of India - Aug 27, 2009 Kolkata, Aug 27 (PTI) The burning down of a premier resort, Vedic Village, in North 24 Parganas on Sunday and the subsequent unearthing of arms there, ... Times of India - Aug 28, 2009 We have seen this in Nandigram, Singur and Vedic Village. The last incident has established the fact that the CPM has illegal arms manufacturing units ... | | IBNLive.com - 19 hours ago Why did the WB government bail out Vedic Resorts even after land acquisition violations in the past? Why did the government enter into a joint-venture with ... Hindu - Aug 27, 2009 Official sources said the Chief Minister has convened a meeting of the department heads concerned on September 8 to finalise steps for land acquisition. ... Express Buzz - Aug 29, 2009 "Some vested interests were misleading the local people on the acquisition of land and therefore the district administration should immediately announce a ... Hindu - Aug 28, 2009 The government has already posted an officer of the rank of Deputy Collector to coordinate the land acquisition proceedings. Quoting the Revenue Minister, ... Times of India - Aug 23, 2009 But the sequence of events that led to the clearly points to simmering tension and growing discontent over land acquisition for the resort. ... SamayLive - Aug 29, 2009 Now poor people are losing their land and homes on the pretext of acquisition," the AIADMK general secretary said in a statement. ... PATNA: The much publicised Nabinagar thermal power plant (3x660 MW) in Aurangabad district is likely to be delayed due to delay in the acquisition of land. ... Already WBIDC has got over the first stage of land acquisition Section IV, which is serving acquisition notices without inviting a single objection. ... There are two dominant issues that stand in the way of quickening highway construction — land acquisition being one and the need for capacity building at ... Express Buzz - 13 hours ago CHENNAI: Cheyyar residents, who have not received compensation for land acquisition by the State government for SEZ expansion, had to return disappointed ... Stay up to date on these results: | |
Mulnivasi Mela
On The Occasion of Birthday Celebrations of
Rashtrapita Jyotirao Phuley and Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar 500 Mulnivasi Mela's & 500 Symposiums are being organised all over the Country 5000 years ago the Indus Valley Civilisation was the leading civilization in the world. This civilisation founded by the great aboriginal race 'Nagas'. The Indus Valley civilisation was flourishing in the areas of Indus River and its 5 dimensions in the entire North-West of India. Out of several civilised cities Mohanjodaaro and Harappa were established at the banks of Indus (Sindhu) River. Consequently this civilisation came to be known in the world as 'Indus Valley Civilisation' . The excavationary evidences have now established beyond doubt the this civilization was a symbol of moral values, humanity, equality, fraternity, liberty, prosperity, planning and scientific thoughts. Aryans being an uncivilised, barbarious and nomadic race destroyed the Indus Valley Civilisation and imposed upon Indian aboriginal race, the inequality & hatred based varna system ultimately dividing into 6000 castes to enslave them.After innovations in this history, BAMCEF decided to spread the Mulnivasi culture, among the masses. To achieve this goal BAMCEF has been organizing Mulnivasi Melas since 2005. During ceremonious salutation to our land of Sindhu civilisation, the great 'Indus River' by organizing inaugural function at Laddakh on 8th April 2007.
Caste identity is our real problem
The Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj had forgotten its respectable identity and accepted the caste identity imposed upon them by the Arya Brahmins and started deriving pride in the caste identity. They are ready to fight and even die for the sake of one's caste and in the process strengthen the caste system ignorantly. Brahmanism is the root cause of all the ills of our society. Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj fight Brahmanism, in isolation by organizing them as a caste group and are making sporadic efforts without any success. It is essential to make an united efforts to fight Brahmanism. However caste identity is the major obstacle in our salvation. If we want a everlasting solution for our problems, then people belonging to all Mulnivasi castes should unite under a common identity i.e. Mulnivasi Identity and form a separate class to fight for our rights.
Efforts of our Great Forefathers
There has been a history of conflicts between the Arya Brahmins and Mulnivasis from ancient times and our great forefathers used appropriate identities to unite the Mulnivasis. Tathagat Gautam Buddha had united the Mulnivasi people under 'Bahujan Identity' discarding the Varna Identity. In Maharashtra, Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj had united the Bahujans of Maval territory under the identity of 'Mavale', which means the original inhabitants of Maval land. Instead of organizing any single caste, Rashtrapita Jyotirao Phuley had united us under the class of 'Shudra' and 'Atishudra' while Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar had brought in the Mulnivasis, who are disintegrated into different communities, under the 'socially and educationally backward classes' comprising of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Castes and strived to unite us. According to the prevailing times and situations, our great forefathers had strategically used suitable social identities and organized us. However, our enemy has countered the movement of our forefathers using the same identities and therefore those identity does not suit in the present situation to run the movement. Therefore to fight Brahmanism taking cue from our great forefathers, we have to adopt a suitable strategy to forge a common identity and bring unity amongst Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj.
Our Original Identity
In order to forge unity among different castes, BAMCEF is rejuvenating our original identity, i.e. the 'Mulnivasi Identity', which is the common identity that our great forefathers had time and again used for our deliverance. This identity has the potential to remind us of our glorious past and dignified history and would enable us to reestablish our culture and reorganize Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj.
Cultural Invasion of the Arya Brahmins
The basis of our Mulnivasi Culture is the principle of equality, liberty, fraternity, justice and generosity. As a result of the invasion of the Arya Brahmins, the Culture of the Mulnivasi Bahujans was infested with their culture of falsehood, injustice, debauchery, deceit, and immorality, which was accredited by the Brahminical Shastras and smritis. Mulnivasi brethren those who had fought against such debased culture were either brutally killed or burnt alive. They have destroyed our cultural evidences, memorials, universities and burnt the libraries and established the Brahminical social system based on graded degradation through Manusmriti.
Uniqueness of the Mulnivasi Culture
Mulnivasi culture is based on fraternity. Despite disintegration into 6000 castes, the Arya Brahmins could not destroy the culture of Mulnivasi Bahujans. Even today distinct culture of Mulnivasi people can be observed in their life style, dietary habits, languages, dialects and traditions despite disintegration in several castes. Our cultural moorings are expressed in different aspects of social life. Even today, in spite of being separated into distinct castes, the surnames (Kul) and totems of Mulnivasis are similar and distinguishable from the traditions of Arya Brahmins. Our festivals are entirely different from the festivals of Arya Brahmins. The patriarchal culture of the Arya Brahmins relegated an inferior status to women. On the contrary, the original culture of the Mulnivasis is matriarchal which gave honorable place for women. Our forefathers have engraved the philosophical edifice of equality, liberty and justice in our mind to establish fraternity in the society. They are values of life for us. In contrast, the philosophy and way of life of the Arya Brahmins is based on inequality, hatred, contempt and deceit. During medieval period the saints of the Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj such as Sant Kabir, Guru Nanakdev, Sant Ravidas, Sant Tukaram Maharaj and other teachers supported the cause of Mulnivasi rulers like Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj who initiated their battles against Brahmanism and the social system based on inequality. Mulnivasi Bahujans gave him their wholehearted support keeping aside their distinctions of caste. Even during modern period, the people of Mulnivasi Bahujan Samaj extended their united support to the movements led by Rashtrapita Jyothirao Phule, Rajarshi, Chatrapathi Shahuji Maharaj, Periyar E.V. Ramasamy and Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar. It became possible only because of their innate philosophical values of fraternity, liberty, equality and justice. It is the unique quality of the Mulnivasis. Being the original inhabitants of this land, the Mulnivasi Bahujans are well convergent to geographical boundaries of our land. The extent of love and affection of the Mulnivasis towards their motherland is immense.
Only Alternative – Strong Organisation
The root cause of all problems faced by the Mulnivasis is the caste identity entrusted upon us by the Arya Brahmins and their immoral culture. To counter this, it is necessary to build a strong organization based on Phule-Ambedkar ideology and Mulnivasi identity and unite the Mulnivasi Bahujans as a uniform society under its aegis. It is only through such organization, we could erase the inhuman culture of the Arya Brahmins and reestablish the honorable Mulnivasi culture. BAMCEF has taken up this task and in order to strengthen the Mulnivasi culture special programs are being organized this year on the occasion of birthday celebrations of Rashtrapita Jyothirao Phule and Baba Saheb Dr. Ambedkar.
The Program of BAMCEF
Since 1992, BAMCEF has been spreading the concept of Mulnivasi identity which was used by our forefathers and conducted several programs to make our society understand and realize the importance of Mulnivasi identity. Several seminars and campaigns were organized by BAMCEF till 2006 on Mulnivasi identity on the occasion of Phule-Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations. This year, during Phule-Ambedkar Jayanti celebrations of 2007, BAMCEF has earned a great response. Therefore during 2007 it has planned to organize 500 Mulnivasi Melas & 500 Symposiums in 24 states throughout the country. In these Melas, cultural, literary and social activities, painting, skits and dramas, Kavi-sammelans, elocution and several other exhibitions of Mulnivasi culture will be organized. In addition to the above activities, Mulnivasi cricket tournaments, Mulnivasi indoor sports events, Mulnivasi youth and women conventions and other such activities, which bring awareness among our people about the history of Mulnivasi society will be organized. The success of these activities will lead to re-establish the movement of our forefathers. As you are aware, these activities require adequate financial resources, we request our Mulnivasi Bahujans Brothers to support this nation-wide program contributing financially and participate in thousands to make it the success.
Jai Bheem! Jai Mulnivasi!!
Date: 2nd February, 2006 (Sant Ravidas Jayanti Divas)
Place: New Delhi
Yours in Mission
S.S. Dhammy,(National General Secretary), BAMCEF
(Mob.: 9910168408)
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