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commentary

Caste and Landlessness in employment in the countryside. Many of


the lower castes and artisan castes and the

Kerala: Signals from Chengara upper caste poor could move to the
expanding construction sector, or alterna-
tively, seek work in west Asia. Possessing
almost no resources for themselves, most
K T Rammohan dalits could do neither.

K
The persistence of colonial erala’s celebrated land reforms Persistence of Colonial Patterns
patterns of ownership of of the 1970s had four major The deficiencies of the 1970s reforms are
weaknesses. First, it excluded the manifested today in the persistence of the
plantations in Kerala remains
plantation sector. A vast geographic area colonial pattern of landholding in the
one of the enduring weaknesses – most of the highland and a good part of highlands and the continuing landlessness
of the land reforms programme the midland – was thus put out of the pur- of the socially disadvantaged castes across
of the 1970s in the state. The view of the reforms. The large plantations the state. Even in the post-land reform pe-
were all initially held by Sterling compa- riod, the Sterling group James Finlay con-
case of Chengara’s landless
nies and subsequently passed on to Indian tinued to be the biggest private agricultur-
dalits underlines the necessity to big capital. The exclusion of plantations alist in Kerala, controlling through lease
address the issue of land reforms from reforms legislation had adverse grant the whole of Kannan Devan hills in
once again. implications for plantation workers too; Munnar that grew the best tea in the
the question of their landlessness was r­egion. The authority over this vast tract
overlooked. Second, the reform enacted of 227 square miles was a matter of d­ispute
for garden-land and rice-fields was prima- between the local chief of Poonjar and the
rily a tenancy reform with transfer of land king of Travancore in the 19th century.
to intermediate and small tenants. It left The pioneering British planters who were
out the vast masses of landlesss workers, high officials, acting through the British
who were mostly of socially disadvan- resident of Travancore, however, acquired
taged castes and communities. Third, the an unambiguous lease grant, inheritable
ceilings reform that was expected to yield and transferable, to be held in perpetuity
land to the landless workers turned out to and at a very low rate of tax. Through the
be severely inadequate. With plantations past century and a half, the lease has
excluded and the landlords circumventing passed through many hands – Finlay Muir
reforms through family partition well and Company, James Finlay, and Tata-
ahead, only a meagre extent of land could Finlay – and finally came to rest with Tata
be acquired for redistribution. Workers Tea Company in 1983.
living on the landlords’ garden-land were In 2005, Tata Tea Company, faced with
given a tiny plot of 10 cents around their a crisis of nearly 35 per cent fall in auction
hut or elsewhere in the plot as decided by prices and rising overheads, and with a
the landlord but no meaningful extent of view of focusing on highly remunerative,
cultivable land was made available to retail marketing of branded teas – includ-
them. Fourth, in the absence of common ing the newly acquired Tetleys of UK –
systems of land and water-management withdrew from production operations.
and commonly agreed crops and agricul- The lease rights of 24,000 hectares spread
tural calendar, the fragmentation of rice- over 17 estates, woods, and grasslands
fields consequent to land reforms had were transferred to the newly floated
adverse effects on production and envi- K­annan Devan Hills Plantations Company
ronment. Coupled with other factors, like in which Tata Tea Company and Tata Tea
a rapidly expanding middle class and Trust jointly have 25 per cent stake, the
The author wishes to thank Sunny Kapikkad, migrants’ remittances flowing in from rest being held by managerial personnel
K P Sethunath, and James Zacharias for west Asia, fragmentation produced other and workers, present and former.
discussions.
chain-­effects. It took little time for Operating nearly as much plantation
K T Rammohan (ktrammohan@yahoo.com) is the  frag­mented fields to be recast as resi- tracts but growing mostly rubber is the
with the School of Social Sciences, Mahatma dential plots. This had serious implica- Harrisons Malayalam Plantations Com-
Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala.
tions for both the environment and the pany of R P Goenka. The company holds
14 september 13, 2008  EPW   Economic & Political Weekly
commentary

many long-period leases. These leases missionaries, access to education, and is a sad index of the government’s social
bear extremely low tax and were issued by state affirmative action have placed a few and economic priorities.
the princely government to Sterling com- dalit castes and sections ahead, but on the Despite the reported differences over
panies earlier, often upon pressure from whole there is a big hiatus between dalits the land question within the party, and
the British paramount government. The – including dalit Christians – and the rest between the party and the government,
economic might of the company in Kerala of Kerala’s population in terms of eco- all are united in implementing a differ-
agriculture now as well as the gross inad- nomic development indicators, especially ent kind of reform that aggravates ineq-
equacy of the 1970s land reforms is illus- land and other asset holding. uities in land distribution. This reform
trated by the fact that the land it now This reveals that, contrary to the imagi- comes under the guise of industrial
holds in lease – about 25,000 hectares – is nation in most of the academic and policy- development. Vast expanses of land are
greater than the extent of land distributed making circles, the land question is still acquired by the state – often attendant
to the landless under the ceilings legisla- unresolved in Kerala. There are other with displacement – for special economic
tion in the whole of Kerala. pointers too: the tribal agitation of 2003 in zones to accommodate multinational and
The second tier of big landholders in Muthanga wildlife sanctuary – fizzled out Indian big IT companies. Ecologically
highland and midland Kerala comprises as much on account of repression by the s­ensitive coastal land, backwater tracts
local corporate groups and families, earlier, Congress-led government as due and forest fringes are allowed to be passed
mostly of Syrian Christians. They own to the romantic vision of naxalite vintage on to hospitality capitalists to recreate
plantations but the extent of land bears – and the subsequent mass entry of tribal “god’s own country”.
not even a distant comparison with the people to the state agricultural farm in Indeed, because of the “Kerala model”
holdings of the all-India corporate groups. Aaralam, and the continuing occupation and other “complicating aspects” of
The Syrian Christian Church is a third of a part of the Harrisons Malayalam Plan- society, the party has been careful not to
mighty holder, owning both plantations tations in Chengara by over 7,000 landless handle the land struggles the same way as
and urban land. Garden-land growing a dalit families. What is more, with the real it did in eastern India. All the same, the
variety of crops including coconut and estate boom, there are signs of the response to the over one-year old struggle
arecanut and wetland rice tracts on the si­tuation worsening for dalits and other of occupation by the landless dalit fami-
coast and adjoining midland are mostly landless sections – as it happened in lies in Chengara shows that the party
owned by upper caste Hindus, especially N­ainamkonam, where landless dalits bosses in Kerala are not far behind: rais-
nairs, and by Syrian Christians, and to a inhabiting the commons for long were ing allegations of foreign funding, involve-
much lesser extent by Muslims and ezha- forced into resistance when real estate ment of NGOs, and prompting by naxalites;
vas. The large populace of small holders in players usurped ownership and tried to resorting to such tactics as kidnapping
the state is also drawn from these castes evict them. These struggles of occupa- women agitators and sexually harassing
and communities. Some of these castes tion and resistance clearly bring out that them, and engaging saboteurs to beat up
and communities are also players in the the land question in Kerala is unresolved male agitators. It is not without party
real estate market, vigorously speculative and that, as in other parts of the country, sanction that the powerful estate trade
consequent to housing boom and tourism. it is as much a question of caste and unions in the Chengara have laid siege to
tribe  as class. the dalit settlement. The agitating fami-
Landless Many lies – which include new-born babies and
By sharp contrast, the overwhelming Role of the Government over 85-year old men and women – are de-
majority of tribal communities and dalits What is the stance of the Communist Party nied not only of food and medicine but
in Kerala continue to be entirely landless. of India (Marxist) – CPI(M), the ruling even drinking water. Medical profe­
Most of the tribal people were, through party and its government on the land ssionals, media personnel, and human
the past few centuries, drafted into agrar- question? The state secretary condemns rights activists are prevented from meet-
ian society as workers – bonded and oth- any talk of a second round of land reforms ing them. It is a political statement to the
erwise. Through a much longer stretch of as “gibberish radicalism”. He is not exactly landless dalits: “You have no right to
history, dalits have been the backbone of honest when he misrepresents the demand strike; only we the proletariat have”. The
Kerala’s wetland rice cultivation: initially of the landless as a threat to the small estate trade unions have issued a stern
as slaves, and following the ban on slave holders. The chief minister is said to be warning to the agitating dalit families that
traffic in the mid-1850s, as attached more favourably disposed, but there has they would be driven out if they do not va-
labourers, and finally, with the advance of been very little evidence to this so far. The cate. The move has definitive support from
caste-based social movements and com- relative share of time spent by the high the management of Harrisons Malayalam
munist trade union organisation in the administration on discussions with multi- too. Struggles throw up strange opposi-
1940s, emerging as “free” labourers. The nationals and information technology (IT) tions and alliances: here, a curious situa-
creation of the rice-bowl of Kuttanad owes companies and their brokers, with realtors tion where the proletariat and capitalists
entirely to dalit labour. Relatively better and tourism magnates, contrasted with have joined to fight the landless dalits.
initial endowments, adoption of Christian the the time spent on negotiations with The signals from Chengara are clear.
faith and resort to assistance from the agitating landless tribal people and dalits There is need for a land policy that engages
Economic & Political Weekly  EPW   september 13, 2008 15
commentary

with the serious deficiencies of the earlier without disturbing the small and middle were transferred to the workers at the
land reforms. The reforms of the 1970s holders. Very large extent of land could be instance of, and for, the Tatas to move up
sought to address, even if partially, the mobilised by not renewing the leases of the global tea commodity chain. Other
class aspect of the land question. The big, corporate plantations. It might be pos- plantations could be restructured at the
present situation demands addressing its sible to identify areas on the forest fringes instance of, and for, the present workers of
caste and community aspects. Given the that have little conservation value such as these estates and landless tribal people
marked asymmetries in land distribution forests subjected to fragmentation and and dalits so that they acquire at least
and intensifying struggles by the landless degraded by the state itself through “plan- some degree of social and economic
tribal people and dalits, and the ploy of tation forestry”. Varied new, institutional mobility. The time to do these is now;
“absolute scarcity” may no longer work. forms, such as collective leases and before special economic zones and air-
Indeed, it is possible to make land availa- p­eople’s cooperative forms could be ports, hotels and resorts, malls and multi-
ble to the landless tribal people and dalits thought of. The plantations in Munnar plex swallow up the last bits of space.

Hindutva’s Fury against an electoral advantage for the Bharatiya


Janata Party (BJP) in the forthcoming

Christians in Orissa elections.

Laxmanananda and His Mission


Who was Laxmanananda and what was
Pralay Kanungo his mission? More than five decades ago
he left his family home in Dhenkanal dis-

T
The anti-Christian violence he last week of August scripted a trict to become a sadhu. After spending
in Orissa, orchestrated by the horror story for the Christian some years in the ashrams of north India,
minorities in Orissa. They experi- he participated in the 1966 gau (cow)
Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its
enced the fury of the worst-ever com­ r­aksha andolan and then joined the newly
allies, has unleashed the fury munal rage – churches were set on fire, formed VHP as a Hindu missionary. As
of Hindu kandhas against dalit Christian institutions, orphanages and part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
pana Christians. The former is hamlets were destroyed, pastors were (RSS)-VHP strategy he came to Phulbani
attacked, one nun was burnt alive and (now Kandhamal) in 1969 and set up base
resentful of the latter’s attempts
there were reports of the gangrape of at Chakapada with a twofold objective:
to get scheduled tribe status. another. Fearing this fury, thousands of Hinduising the adivasis and countering
The new-found assertiveness of Christians fled their homes to take shelter the proselytising activities of the Christian
the previously untouchable panas in the forest. The violence was not missionaries. Saraswati concentrated on
c­onfined to Kandhamal district alone; it the adivasis, primarily the k­andhas, con-
has added to the tension. The
shook other districts as well, killing, stituting more than half of Kandhamal’s
Hindutva organisations, engaged in­juring and terrorising Christians and population, in order to bring them closer
in converting tribals to Hinduism, rendering thousands homeless. All this to Hindutva. Claiming that “vanavasis are
accuse Christian missionaries of barbaric v­iolence followed the night of Hindus” he systematically introduced sat-
August 23 when a controversial Vishwa sangs and yagyas, Hindu gods and god-
“forcing” the dalits to convert.
Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Laxmana­ desses, Hindu religious scriptures and
They conveniently ignore the nanda Saraswati and his four associates, mode of worship, and organised mega-­
continuing oppressive casteist while celebrating Ja­nmashtami at religious congregations (‘ashtaprahara
order that forces the dalits Jalespata Ashram, were killed by a group namayagyas’) attracting and mobilising
of armed assassins. the kandhas in a big way. Laxmanananda
to do so.
Who killed Laxmanananda? Various opened schools, colleges, hostels for the
theories are doing the rounds. While the adivasi boys and girls; the Sangh parivar
Maoists claim that they did so, because trained them ideologically and created a
the sadhu has been “mixing religion with pool of permanent cadre. Though Hindu­
politics” and pursuing a “fascist” and divi- isation did not offer any substantive socio-
sive communal agenda, the Sangh parivar, economic empowerment to the poor adi-
blamed a “Christian conspiracy”, and vasis, the VHP’s “packaged Hinduism”
legitimised their reign of terror as a befit- gave them a sort of religious and cultural
Pralay Kanungo (pralaykanungo@yahoo.com) ting revenge. Some others believe that gratification; in an otherwise hopeless
is with the Centre for Political Studies, this murder has been engineered by a existential world, it perhaps generated
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
s­ection of the parivar itself in order to reap some hopes under a larger Hindu identity.
16 september 13, 2008  EPW   Economic & Political Weekly

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