Onam Release : Film on Chengara by Sharat

A film by C.Sharatchandran on the Chengara land struggle in Kerala. 36 minutes, split into four parts of nine minutes each. Music by another filmmaker K.P.Sasi. The titles running at the end (in part 4) says "copy left, right and centre."

Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four


The film gives some insight into the cultural and historical background of the struggle. Some excerpts from the film below.

Some Historical Background

communist party held a convention at trichur in 1956 where they accepted the slogan 'krishibhoomi krishikkaranu' .. and thus came the land reforms bill.

the bill intended to distribute land to the tenants who 'leased' the land (പാട്ടത്തിനെടുത്തു കൃഷി ചെയ്തിരുന്ന കുടിയാന്മാര്‍) and to the dalits and others who were agricultural workers who toiled in the land..
for this there were two conditions in the bill: one, to give ownership to the tenants, with a ceiling of 15 acres per family. two, the surplus land should be given to dalits and adivasis.

if we consider the land distribution in kerala, it failed to account for the caste system that existed in that society, so the tenants and workers who could articulate better got the land.. there is no caste below ezhava which benefitted from this bill.. which meant the middlemen got the land.. they were exploiters of the dalit working class.. as a result, the dalits were naturally thrown out from the land..

when ems govt initiated the land reforms bill, the liberation struggle (വിമോചന സമരം) started.. in turn the central govt dismissed the state govt. the govts which came to power later diluted it.. the landlords approached the judiciary to protect their property.. this led to changes by the intervention of judiciary.. this process left the land reforms incomplete and majority of the population remained landless..

since majority of the lower caste communities were neglected in the land reforms, the govt introduced the right to shelter and decided to provide 10 cents in the villages, 5 cents in muncipalities and 3 cents of land in the corporations.. a large population was left out of this also..

the govt stopped this and later introduced 'lakshamveedu' (literally, a lakh houses) colony or the harijan colony, but still a significant percentage of this population was left out without any land by the end of land reforms in 1970. they are the people living in small huts as outcastes in the roadsides and on the wasteland..

the plantations in kerala have been exempted from the land reforms act around 38 years back.. not any single political or social agency demanded that the waste land or the govt owned land in the plantation sector be distributed to the landless people.

Reactions

നമ്മള് കൊയ്യും വയലെല്ലാം
നമ്മുടെതാകും പൈങ്കിളിയേ
എന്നുപറഞ്ഞ്‌ വോട്ടുകള്‍ നേടി
അധികാരത്തില്‍ വന്നവരെല്ലാം
തൊഴിലാളികളെ വഞ്ചിച്ചു..

(a slogan that recalls a famous communist song/slogan of the earlier days that says the fields that we toil on will become ours)

the leaders of communist movement took refuge in our huts in the earlier days..
we used to go for daily wages works (koolivela) and get tea or coffee powder..
we used to feed them with what we earned..

please don't think we are speaking shamelessly, it is a matter of our integrity and culture..
but thats how the dalits of this state have given their lives for the communist movement in kerala..
we had many hopes when they came to power in 1957..

they showed the black and downtrodden people of kerala the dream of getting a better life.. of getting land..
that is how the communist party came to power through ballot (for the first time anywhere in the world)..

അപ്പോ ഓണം ഉഷാറാക്ക്.

[earlier post and comments : ..to kill a struggle?]

Attacking women : Easiest way to kill a struggle?

The news from Chengara (ചെങ്ങറ) is depressing. Women are being abducted and raped, men kidnapped, in addition to over two weeks of cutting off food and other lifeline supplies to people who have been protesting peacefully for more than an year now.

[See: ചെങ്ങറ: 4 യുവതികളെ പീഡിപ്പിച്ചെന്ന്]

Even worse, all this is not making news. It seems CPM goondas are doing all this, so one expects the likes of Malayala Manorama and Mathrubhumi to cover this as sensational news. But they are silent. Are they just scared? Or plain bought off? Or the managements have personal interests in protecting these people and finishing off this struggle?

Indiavision reported the abduction and sexual abuse on women on last Sunday 10th August. When I saw no mention of this in next day's major Malayalam newspapers, I searched for Chengara" on Malayala Manorama online edition (English version). It returned zero results. "Nandigram" returned 100 results on the same page.

* * *

So is there a parallel between Nandigram and Chengara?

The similarity is that both have CPM on the wrong side. The difference, in Nandigram it is people who have land who are struggling to keep it, whereas in Chengara, it is the landless who are at struggle.

Which makes it difficult to understand their demand for many of us. Many of us who can connect to Nandigram as an emotional attachment of "man with land". (The time is not 1957 when we had some sort of land reforms in Kerala. Make no mistake, we are living in a time when the power centers of this nation are ruled by the land mafia.)

* * *

What is this struggle all about?

Over 5000 families of landless Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised people started this protest on 4th August 2007 claiming 6000 acres of land (you read that right -- six thousand acres) that is illegally kept by Harrison Malayalam Private Ltd in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala. Around 24,000 people from different parts of the region have moved to this area, with tents with poles and plastic sheets.

* * *

Why should they be given land? We do not have enough land to give everyone..

I would not blame someone from a relatively better-off household who thinks like this (that is, if they came to know about it). But I hope we try to go beyond this and try to find out why these people would risk their lives in a life and death struggle like this.

Dalits and Adivasis are the sections of people who were denied any right to land in the land reforms that said "krishibhoomi krishikkaaranu". That applied to the farmer, but it excluded those who worked at the fields. Needless to say, it also excluded others who were at the lowest end of the society.

"The Sadhu Jana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi (SJVSV), the collective that leads the struggle, has opted for the land take-over as strategy remembering the tradition of the great leader Ayyankali, the militant dalit leader whose mission was to ensure liberation of dalits from various forms of slavery, right to agricultural land, as well as right to education in Kerala," says an article that appeared in The South Asian.

Add to it the fact that the land kept by most rich land owners have been encroachments traditionally, this becomes an even more severe power inequation. Many of them managed to get some legal right to their land with the power they had, and some did not even care that much. (Apparently the land where this struggle happens was leased to Harrison Malayalam and the lease expired in 1985. No rents have been paid to the State ever since).

That is where a state intervention is required to ensure justice and right of living to those who are living in the "margins", so to speak. And it asks us to rethink the way we are used to looking at things. Labeling anyone who comes out in support of this struggle as a "Maoist" will not help.

* * *

Some links in Malayalam:
Mathrubhumi news
ചെങ്ങറ ഭൂസമരം ഉയര്‍ത്തുന്ന ധാര്‍മ്മികപ്രശ്നങ്ങള: a blog post with links to some writings on this issue.
Randaam bhooparishkaranam viplavavayaditham ennu Pinarayi, Manorama news today without mentioning the word Chengara.

Videos:
Indiavision: Women attacked in Chengara


Chengara land struggle: a report

Chengara and Deshabhimani's turn as Manhappathram

It was not long ago that one prominent CPM leader in Kerala, himself the general manager of the party's Malayalam newspaper Deshabhimani, called Mathrubhumi a yellow journal (Manhappathram).

Now it is Deshabhimani's turn to do some real yellow journalism. After Kairali and People TV channels (they claim not to be party channels, and let us buy that) spied on some men and women late night at a vigil extending support to Chengara land struggle and aired some hot clippings that featured some of my friends, Deshabhimani today carries on its front page scenes from those clippings.

The news piece also claims that it was found that those who came for the struggle are Naxal, Maoist activists feigning themselves as human rights activists.

CPM knows that it may not be too long before Chengara becomes another Nandigram so this could be just a frustrationary measure. If they really think they have won some points with this one, I can only wish them get well soon.

[The news is available on their web edition right now here].

Below is a trailer of a video on Chengara struggle, for those who did not know about it.