Tuesday, July 15, 2025
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A night to remember

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Stay up all night with me for once, I say

Don’t complain we have work the very next day

Step out and behold the magic of moonbeams

Our banal rooftop is now someplace of fairy tales and dreams

The crisp cold wind washes away the traces

Of exhaustion and distress on our faces

Just then, the moon hides behind the clouds

For now, so do our worries and doubts

Annoyance fades and amazement lights up your eyes

As you look up and admire the starry night sky

The date hues of black and blue, so full of mystery

We get carried away in the nature’s artistry

The silence soothes the soul so broken and weak

And heals all the wounds of which we never speak

The dusky night with its twinkling stars

Become the secret healer of all our scars

Rediscovering the light within and again things feel right

All the glory of the majestic night

Daydream

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“Wow, you look…” As soon as those words slipped from his mouth, he regretted conceding to a third drink at an office party. Had he been sober, he would have been able to retrieve in time a safe adjective, akin to “nice” or “good” to route the sentence he had begun into a friendly, but not too-friendly territory. But intoxicated as he was by alcohol and spelled by the suddenness of her beauty – he had never seen her looking like that – his unfinished sentence suspended in the air between them while he tried to recall or coin a word to communicate what he felt, with sincerity and propriety, and in that agape muteness, gave away everything speech could have withheld.

“Thanks! You look nice too, Sam,” Allie beamed audibly ending Sam’s misery, blushing at the compliment herself and hoping her make-up would conceal the flush she felt on her cheeks. In her long black sequined dress and dangling crystal earrings – neither haute couture, but both expensive and newly acquired for the occasion – with her hair tied in an elegant high bun and face made up immaculately, she did not just appear dazzling to others but felt so too. She was poised about her charm that night, yet his half-articulated compliment had titillated her. It was not her fault, she reminded herself gently.

The two men he had been chatting with before she showed up, in their nook by the fire, exchanged brief pleasantries with her, then excused themselves to go socialize with others. He asked her if she had just arrived and if she would like a beverage. To both she replied in affirmative, accusing traffic for the first nod and appending “white wine” to the second yes. While she settled in one of the easy chairs vacated by his previous company, he walked up to the bar counter and fetched her a glass of Chardonnay – the only white wine they were serving at the party.

“I am not leading him on. I am not.” She defended herself against her guilt. “So if I flirt with him a little? It’s not adultery. Not on my part, at least. I am not married. Heck, I am not even seeing anyone right now!” She steadied herself with a deep breath, anticipating another jab from her conscience. “I did not dress up like this to lure a married colleague, did I? This is a holiday party! How else am I supposed to dress or conduct myself here? Argh! I’ve got to stop feeling so guilty!”

“And, where the hell is his wife tonight?” When Sam was back with her drink, she paraphrased the question to him, with a smile and without a trace of profanity.

“Prachi is a little under the weather.” He replied, and took a sip of his drink to, only for a moment, avert his eyes from her gaze. He knew he had come off unconvincing in offering a fact but hiding the truth, the truth being the relief he felt in having been able to come to the party without Prachi.

She wanted to get to know him a little better, if only she could hush her mind’s ramblings: “Why would a happily married man show up to a party like this without his spouse? Perhaps the marriage isn’t going so well! They could have separated, or are thinking of separating. Or perhaps it’s an open marriage? Do Indian couples do that? Oh, fuck! Does thinking that make me a racist? Is this racism or xenophobia?” Pricked again from within, she pressed on him with her eyes to say more.

“She is sorry to miss the party. She was so looking forward to meeting everyone and having a good time. I was going to skip as well, but she persuaded me against it. I am glad she did. This is a great party!” He shared that moment with Allie as if he was sharing a secret with her, and the secret itself was that moment, in the making. He felt such warmth rising in him that he wanted to hug her – not in a way two colleagues at a holiday party could not, and yet the want thrilled him as much as it mortified him.

Samriddh Joshi went by Sam to be easier on his American colleagues. He migrated to the US from India in August 2006 to pursue a Ph.D.in Computer Science at Stanford University. Along with came his college sweetheart, Prachi Anand, to work towards the same degree at the University of California, Berkeley. Prachi and Sam had each been accepted into multiple prestigious programs, including a few in Europe, all promising full funding, and though their shared desire to be co-located in a foreign country was a prime factor in finalizing where to go, their relationship had been saved, at least at the time, from conflicts and resentment born out of compromises, when in the end, they had been able to make the same choices they would have without the other in the equation.

That is not to say that their relationship leading up to marriage had been a cakewalk. Their commitment or love, whichever was stronger, had been tested against the blows of social norms, with Sam’s family playing vigilante and making not the slightest attempt to mask or soften their disapproval over his dating a girl from a Dalit caste. They were a proud Brahmin family protective of their place at the peak of the societal pyramid. Hence, grave threats of disownment, banishment, and life-long silent treatment had been issued repeatedly to Sam by his father to keep him from marrying “down”. This had also quite naturally led to the issuance of distrust against him from Prachi’s folks. “He will not marry against his parents’ wishes. And even if he does, it’s not going to be easy because they’ll never treat you well. We don’t want you to get hurt, Beta.” Her father had tried to plead with her when she told him they were serious about each other and wanted to get married in a few years.

The couple had weathered this resistance patiently but with dwindling hope for sentiments to change over time. They eventually got married in October of 2009, while still in graduate school, amidst a small gathering of friends in Oakland. Prachi’s family watched the ceremony in real-time over a video chat on their living room desktop. A few weeks before her wedding she had received an email from Sam’s mother warning her to, for God’s sake, leave her son alone and to please let him focus on his priorities which of course were his family and his studies, in that order. The note had ended with a “God Bless” and a postscript: “If you don’t heed my words now and go on with this ‘relationship’ or whatever you call it, know that he will leave you sooner or later. You are not good enough for him but I am sure you are smart enough to see why.”

Prachi had waited until late that evening when they were both home to discuss the implications of the email. At this point in their relationship, she had stopped expecting Sam to arbitrate such matters with his family – he had previously tried to persuade them with reason, with a host of well-crafted arguments to make them understand the issues with their bigotry, while also steering clear of any name-calling – they were bigots all right, but calling them so also meant accepting the finality of who they were. As Prachi had feared, his every appeal for understanding and acceptance had only tightened the tenacity with which his parents held their views. So, she had to resort to building imperviousness to anything his parents said to him to justify their stance against her or her people. Still, the email had slighted her in its directness, in its listed and intended recipient being her and only her. She had been bullied. She had cried. He too had been appalled. He had apologized and entreated her to not let his Ma’s meaningless threats get to her. “Listen, should we just get married now?” He had asked then, looking slightly amused but sounding earnest.

That was three years ago when the idea of spending his entire life with Prachi, whom he had known, admired, and gradually fallen in love with since he was eighteen, was like being home overseas. Now, he still loved her, perhaps as much as he ever had. But he doubted if he was in love with her or, for that matter, had ever been. She was more familiar to him than anyone else was, including himself, and yet there was hardly anything about her he could not tolerate, which he was humble enough to be grateful for and human enough to not be entirely content with. It was not as if she didn’t challenge him intellectually or emotionally, not as if they got along perfectly as a couple. Their harmonious coexistence was rhythmically jolted by strong disagreements and light quarrels. Yet, there was a predictability about their conflicts – what they argued about, why, and how – that had begun to dull their effect on him, so he didn’t feel as hurt by her remarks as he needed to hurt her in turn, and acquiesced too quickly, without a passionate defense of his otherwise presumed rightness. Passionate reconciliatory love-making had consequently ceased too though they continued to have consensual sex.

The at-homeness in marriage he had glamorized as a bachelor was indeed conferred upon him, except that the appealing foyer of stability had led him inside a sticky labyrinth of sameness. Moored to a long-term partner, he now romanticized drifting. At the same time, he had no intentions to abandon her, neither in adultery, nor divorce – not for some ill-defined temptations. He knew he would be lost without her – his closest friend and wife.

He had started his job the same day as Allie in June, only six months before the holiday party they were now attending. On their first day at the company’s main office in San Francisco, they were in orientation together and when she had raised her hand to ask a question about getting access to a software package, he had really noticed her – more intently than he usually noticed co-workers’ appearances. She had creamy-white skin, large hazel eyes, and her brunette hair was tied in a ponytail. Nothing glaringly spectacular, yet that very instant he had felt drawn towards her, and the next instant he had felt guilty – not because he thought it morally wrong for a married guy to find anyone other than his wife attractive but because he fretted over potential unconscious biases that might fuel attraction for a specific kind of other. He tried hard emotionally to not fall prey to the same narrow set of beauty standards that outright disqualified or underrated the Blacks and Blackish-Browns of the world, and that had particularly marginalized his wife. He had always considered Prachi beautiful but most Indians did not. “We only have four girls in our class – one of them is about as pretty as the blackest crow,” he had overheard a classmate in college thus convey his misery to someone on the phone. Prachi had frequently been called “ugly” in India – sometimes even to her face. Even seemingly sympathetic acquaintances would compliment her sharp facial features only in reference to her complexion, “yes, they make up for your dark skin!” His own mother had grimaced when he had first introduced them to each other at their college graduation ceremony. She had later described her as too kaali as evidence for why she was not an eligible match for her handsome, lighter-skinned son. This was when his parents were yet to inquire into her caste for once that information came to light, it became the uncontested top item on their list of reasons to reject her as their future daughter-in-law.

For days since the orientation, Sam dwelled upon his attraction towards Allie, which only intensified as he got to know her better at work. He was exasperated with the analytical mind that forced him to dig deep into simple instincts, something as natural as an infatuation until he could see the unnatural in them. “At this point in my life, would I be attracted to Allie, if she was not a White American?” He could not turn off this self-imposed torture when all he was looking for was a set of clauses to add to his existing values, so it would be permissible for him to think about Allie in whatever manner he pleased, without straying from his marital vows.

He asked Prachi one day, “what do you think about open relationships?”

“You mean, for us?” Prachi replied, looking confused.

“No, generally about this concept of polygamy or open relationships. I recently read an opinion piece on it in the New York Times and I am still trying to wrap my head around it. You know, I mean I don’t think I have formed my own opinion on it yet, so I was wondering if you had any thoughts to offer. Do you think it can work long-term?”

“Hmm, I think it can work for some couples, maybe when both persons are equally into it and if there’s something about the relationship – or those individuals – that keeps them from getting jealous. I don’t think it’s for me though – I don’t know if I will be able to deal with the emotional complexity the arrangement might inflict on me.”

He looked intrigued but remained quiet. So she continued, “let’s say it’s us, hypothetically, in an open marriage. What will not destroy me is your physical proximity to another person, but if that proximity kindles an emotional connection that then becomes stronger than ours – maybe because she is a better fit for you now than I am – then I won’t know what to do. I love you, so I will want you to be happy with the person who might make you happier than I can, but I also love myself so I am not sure if I’ll be able to voluntarily step back or away from your life and altruistically bear the heartache.” She planted a peck on his cheek when she was done talking.

He smiled vaguely and said, “thanks for humoring me. To be completely honest, I would be tormented if you slept with someone else even if we had discussed it beforehand.”

Troubled by the revelations from his own introspections, he lost the will to pursue the topic any further.

It was after 1:00 am when he got home from the holiday party. He peeked into their bedroom to make sure Prachi was asleep, took off his shoes at the door, and tip-toed in to grab his laptop that lay on the nightstand at his side of the bed. He made a pit-stop in the kitchen to look for a remedy for his prickly throat. Thereupon, balancing in one hand a mug of hot ginger tea filled to the brim, and clutching a laptop under his other arm, he trudged towards the living room. He placed the mug on the coffee table and plopped himself in the center of the couch. Then his laptop lid was lifted, a Chrome browser was opened, an Incognito tab summoned, and these words were typed in the Google search bar: ‘least painful natural deaths’. A minute passed. He breathed in the awareness of his agency, then gulped it quickly with a swig of his medicinal tea. Finally, one of his fingers hit ‘Enter’.

During his ride back from the party, the inevitable had happened; he had made out with Allie in his fantasy. Prachi’s face, calm but knowing, had also kept flashing in his mind’s eye. For the first time in his adult life, he had felt and understood shame. “What if Prachi was dead?” He had thought. “No, I mean, what if I think about Allie, assuming Prachi is dead. Prachi would want me to move on if she died before me. Of course, I don’t want her to die! But if I imagine her dead just as a… what is it called, a role-play…it might even revive our relationship. Of course, I want her to live for very, very long!”

“But how did she die? Did she suffer a lot? How long has it been?” The analyst in his head had asked. He realized that a handful of finely concocted details about Prachi’s hypothetical death could permit him an imaginary fling with Allie. The premise he landed on was: Prachi died six months ago, suddenly but peacefully. The exact cause was to be established later after some research.

On the second of January the following year, he received a call from an unknown number informing him that his wife had been in a car accident. Her car was wrecked but fortunately, she had incurred only minor injuries and had been taken to a nearby hospital. “She is fine, just a little shaken up.” The voice on the other end said when he nervously asked again how she was.

They split up a week later.

There had been no arguments between them since the holiday party. She simply woke up one morning and confessed to Sam, “our marriage has been dead for some time now, Samriddh. It’s only now that I have found the courage to acknowledge it. Life is fragile, time is fleeting, and we owe it to our today to live it like it’s a new day – with hope and aliveness. We cannot be so scared of exploring the unknown, especially when the known has lost its thrill.”

“You are bored of me?” He posed in a daze.

“No, not of you but of us, of our relationship. And I don’t know if it’s because this ‘us’ is not what it used to be or because it is what it has always been. Either way, if we stayed married, we’d only be lugging its heaviness into our future.”

“I thought we were happy.”

“Are you?” She left it at that.

In the office the next day, he saw a woman approaching his desk holding two cups of coffee, one in each hand. She raised one cup to signal a hello, and he squinted a little in an effort to recognize her.

“Got you a dry cappuccino. Should we find a meeting room or do you want to walk and talk?” Allie said, handing him the lighter cup, then adding, “you don’t look so well. Is everything ok?” Her new year’s resolution was to not get involved with men unless they were 100% single. She rebuked herself for the feelings his disarrayed hair stoked in her.

He smiled lightly and took in her appearance in one long stare, recognizing a face that would never again torment him in his daydreams. But that face and many others would haunt his existence in the flesh. “What am I supposed to do?” He would inquire of himself often, before resigning to inaction.

“Thank you. I am a little tired. Didn’t sleep well last night.” He mumbled as he sank into his seat.

Burn

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One day when I’m dead I’ll be alive is

how they put it at church and Sunday School

and sometimes I believe and sometimes I don’t

and for the times I don’t then if I die

during I’ll wake up dead in Hell but for

those times when I do then I’m guessing that

I live forever in Heaven instead

of burning and burning and burning in

Hell and burning some more, never burning

out, kind of like that burning bush but that’s

not the same burning as there is in Hell

or is it, when I ask Miss Hooker to

clear these matters up for me after class

we’re usually fallen to our knees

in prayer and she’s usually who’s

doing the talking, the praying any

-way, while I listen with my eyes shut, when

I’m not peeking, that is, she’s awfully

pretty for 25 and I’m only

10 so she’s old and my head bowed and hands

folded and by the time it’s finished

and I pull my praying hands apart my

palms are wet, sweaty I guess, and sometimes

they make a sound like a kitten pooting,

not that I’ve ever heard that before nor

smelled it for that matter but it’s not half

bad and by the time we’re on our feet I

confess I feel better, God touches me

but not really how Miss Hooker’s hoping

for and I’m feeling wiser because God

doesn’t want me to believe in God and

I sort of get to have belief and dis

-belief at the same time, contradiction

is what it is or call it religion

or imagination or the super

-natural but for Miss Hooker it’s my

weekly dose of the Holy Ghost and one

day she’ll be dead, too, but I wouldn’t change

that even if I could. Or I couldn’t.

In Defence for Nature: The many hurdles of forest dwellers in Uttarakhand

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“It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to carry on with our way of life,” Ghulam Nabi, a Van Gujjar from Uttarakhand laments as he spoke about a succession of laws and rules with regard to forests under which the nomadic pastoralists are being slowly squeezed out of their traditional homes and migration routes. At 64, Ghulam Nabi is the ‘painchi’ or the headman of the Gujjars of Gohri Range. Nabi has never attended school and is illiterate. But he is alert, knowledgeable, cheerful and above all articulate. He is also looked up as someone with immense knowledge of traditional herb-based medicines which are used to treat ailments both in animals as well as humans.

The Van Gujjars of Uttarakhand are a semi-nomadic pastoral community who have lived in the forests for hundreds of years. Though they are part of the larger Gujjar community, these forest Gujjars have carved out a separate identity for themselves through their lifestyle and practices after migrating to the Himalayan regions of northern India, Pakistan and even Afghanistan. They are the custodians of a unique nomadic practice described in the realm of academics as ‘transhumance’ which roughly means that they alternate between the foothills and meadows located in higher altitudes of the Himalayas along with their cattle. Entire families including children and older people make the trek. The people belonging to these groups make their living in the lush forests of the Uttarakhand Himalayas by rearing cattle and farming in small segments of the forests.  

The Van Gujjar community does seasonal migration with their livestock – up into the middle Himalayan meadows in the summers and down into the foothills of the Shivaliks during the winters. Their nomadic life mainly involves herding water buffalos and finding food for them. They treat both animals and trees as part of their families. And in doing so, they gather hands-on dynamic knowledge of the environment. In addition to this, they are equipped with the experiences passed through various generations that laboratory based-scientists and foresters often miss out.

The Van Gujjars has developed close links with animals as well as the ways of the forests. This is evident from the likes of Dhiman, who lives in one of the half-a-dozen deras (homesteads) in the Gohri Range, which is part of Rajaji National Park that stretches across the state of Uttarakhand, running through three districts – Dehradun, Haridwar and Pauri. These deras are located near the banks of the Ganga where the buffaloes are taken for their daily ‘dip.’ “She is 25 years old and gave birth to a calf only last year… unusual at this age for buffaloes,” Dhiman informs us about his favourite animal which weighs a tonne and is about nine feet long, standing about four-and-a-half feet at the shoulders. Dhiman calls out to his daughter, a slip of a girl about a twentieth of the buffalo’s weight who leads the way by the tether around its neck. This ‘tough’ buffalo follows her docilely back to the trough where she continues with her interrupted evening snack of grass and leaves.

The connection of the Van or forest Gujjars with Uttarakhand goes back to more than two centuries after they migrated from the foothills of Jammu and Kashmir to Himachal Pradesh and what is today Uttarakhand over a period that saw a number of administrative and political changes in the entire region. According to a lore prevalent among the Van Gujjars, it was the queen of the princely state of Nahan (belonging to the Jammu) region who was responsible for bringing them to the Nahan-Chakrata region bordering Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It was her love for the dairy products supplied by Gujar Bakarwals to her paternal home that led to invite some of the tribal families to settle down in the Nahan-Chakrata area. They were then further spread to Mohund, Barkot, Pauri and Uttarkashi areas that today fall within the boundary of Uttarakhand.

The period when these nomadic people moved into the hill state coincided with the period of transition from the feudal-princely era to the colonial domination and lately under democratic governance after independence. Not much is recorded about the forests in Uttarakhand prior to the British takeover of the hills in the western Himalayas from the Gurkhas of Nepal in the early 19th century.

It took half a century for the British to consolidate their position in northern India, their commercial approach to the forests is evident as large tracts of forests disappeared from the Tehri area that had been placed under a king from Garhwal. This was the heyday of the biggest depredator of those times – Frederick (Pahari) Wilson (1816-1883) who floated logs down the Bhagirathi to supply government demand for the upcoming railways (wooden sleepers) and for kilns that produced bricks for the Ganga canal that was coming up. According to a recent book “Mussoorie and Landour: Footprints of the Past” written by scholars Virgil Miedema and Stephanie Spaid Miedema “Entire forests of deodar and other trees disappeared from the Himalayan foothills. And no one had more to do with or benefitted from this than Frederick Wilson.” The forests were leased out by the Raja of Tehri to Wilson for 20 years and subsequently they were given out on a 20-year lease to the British government.

It was not until 1865 that the Imperial Forest Department was set up for forest management under which all forests were claimed as government owned. In 1878 colonial administrators gave detailed legal shape to the regulation of forests and their management passing the first Forestry Act. But even in this was revealed their commercial motives since the entire exercise of formulating the new law was prompted by alarm at the steep fall in revenue from the Himalayan forests. Mr. H.G. Walton, a British administrator has recorded in his well-known Gazetteer published in 1910, the reactions of a newly appointed deputy conservator on the condition of the hill forests following indiscriminate felling of trees. “There can be no doubt that sal, tun and shisham were the trees chiefly felled, for even now there is no demand for any other kinds of timber; and when I entered the department in 1854 the ground was everywhere studded with stumps of those trees.” Waltson notes that “all that was valuable” had already been cut and it was the duty of the forest department (formed in 1855) to find a market for the inferior trees.

For the first time an effort was taken to create a special cadre of forest managers for whom a forest school was established on the recommendation of Dr. Dietrich Brandis, a German forester employed by the British government in India. Dr. Brandis has been described as the ‘father of scientific forestry’. What is more pertinent for the Van Gujjars was the classification of forests that was made under the Act of 1878 – the first class closed government forests, the second-class open government forests and the third class of forests outside the previous two areas that included what were usually described as ‘wastelands’, which were lands that yielded no revenue for the government. While all villagers and pastorals were completely excluded from the first class forests, grazing and collection of fuel wood was permitted in second class forests. The third class forests were left for management to the villagers. But the significant thing was the clash between revenue and forest department officials over the term ‘grazing rights’. The former’s push for the recognition of ‘prescriptive rights of grazing as having existed from time immemorial’ was rejected by the forest department who were not willing to recognize their rights.

The various laws and rules that were passed under the colonial administration with regard to forests were consolidated under the Forest Act of 1927 and this became the foundation for the forest policies followed even after independence. Naturally, since it was inclined towards the commercial exploitation of forests, the law could do little to prevent the indiscriminate felling of trees during the Second World War as the Tehri Raja Narendra Shah wanted to show his loyalty to the British crown by supplying timber for the war effort. The total amount of wood supplied during 1939-1942 was more than 14 million cubic feet. The plunder continued even after independence, though later in the “nobler cause” of development. The continued destruction of forests and wildlife resulted in two new laws – the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 that aimed at checking the alarming fall in the number of tigers in India and the Forest Conservation Act of 1980.

However, even the forest laws formulated after India’s independence also perpetuated the colonial legacy. The emphasis of the 1980 Forest Conservation Act was on curtailing the powers of the states to change the status of forests as defined under the previous Ace of 1927. There was no mention of the role of the community in managing or using the forests which instead was mainly described as “illegal” and overuse that resulted in the degradation of forests. And most importantly, the term forest was nowhere defined clearly. (The Report of the Tiger Task Force: Joining the Dots, published 2005 by Project Tiger of the government)

Complicating the issue further were the efforts to protect wildlife under the flagship project ‘Tiger’. A view that prevails in the realm of conservationists is that the only way to save the tiger is to completely fence off forests to provide an ‘inviolate space’ to tigers. This in effect meant the eviction of human and cattle populations that lived in these areas. Environmentalists who want to save forests also hold similar views in their eagerness to restore the forest land. However, in both the cases the sufferers are the forest people like the Van Gujjars who are almost never consulted when plans about drastic changes in their habitats are drawn up by the government.

They were settled in two villages near Haridwar. It was not until a 1991 amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act that for the first time the rights of forest dwellers were recognized though it was limited to just the tribals. So, these rights were not considered during the first 19 years of the law.  

But it was the Forest Rights Act of 2006 that broke new ground when it recognized for the first time in India the rights of not just tribals but also other traditional forest dwellers were recognized. Autonomy for tribals was recognized in the constitution’s fifth and sixth schedules but they applied only to some selected states. Besides, there was neither any mention of forests or other traditional forest dwellers (OTFD).

According to a report jointly prepared by  kalpavriksh.org the FRA – full form Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights Act) 2006 aims at undoing ‘historic injustice’ meted out to forest dependent communities due to curtailment of their customary rights leading to their marginalisation and displacement. The Act formally recognizes their right to use, manage and conserve forest resources as well as their critical role in conservation and maintaining biodiversity.

So, is the confidence of the lawmakers in the entire forest dwelling community justified? It is and this borne out by the experience of Justin Adams of the Tropical Forest Alliance when he compared the aerial view of the Amazon forests – forests on the part inhabited by indigenous people were in much better shape than an adjoining part under private ownership. This view is endorsed by the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set in Nagoya, Japan in 2010 under the Convention on Biodiversity. Target 18 clearly specifies that by 2020 traditional knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous people and local communities relevant for conservation and maintenance of biodiversity must be respected. It called for the “full and effective participation of indigenous and local communities, at all relevant levels.”

Though the FRA came as a shot in the arm for forest dwellers of India, its good work was sought to be undone by two subsequent developments that set the clock back for communities like the Van Gujjars. The first was the passage of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act of 2016 that sought to bypass the FRA. A running battle has followed ever since between the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change over the issue of permissions under FRA. Later, a Supreme Court ruling in 2019 said that all the forest dwellers whose claims had been rejected should be evicted forthwith. This order has been stayed by the Supreme Court itself  till the legal issues regarding the rejection of claims are settled, but it does hang like a sword of Damocles over the heads of the forest communities. Meanwhile, the forest communities like the Van Gujjars who have access to knowledge on the preservation of forests and biodiversity are being displaced and resettled by various govenments due to which they are losing their traditional nomadic cultures and attachment to the forests and its ecology. Alarmed by this, Ameer Humza, a Van Gujjar who has succeeded in equipping himself with mainstream education is trying to organise people to keep the Van Gujjar cultural flag flying. For this purpose, he has founded the Van Gujjar Tribal Yuva Sanghatan (VGTYS) that seeks to keep their language, customs, dresses and way of life alive. Pranav Menon, a researcher from JNU and an advisor to the VGTYS, he is helping to put together a bio-cultural protocol that records the cultural practices of the nomadic communities of India. According to Menon it is important to keep the nomadic culture alive since it is this culture that has endowed them with the knowledge of the environment necessary for the success of any effort to conserve biodiversity.

“The farmers have overcome fear and have sown fear in the minds of our enemies to win this struggle”—AIKS leader, Vijoo Krishnan

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During the last days of the Farmers protest at the borders of Delhi against the three farm bills introduced by the Union government, Sreerag PS, Associate Editor of Indian Ruminations spoke with All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader Vijoo Krishnan about the deep-rooted crisis faced by the farmers in the country.


Sreerag: Could you please elaborate how your interest in farmer’s issues began?

Vijoo Krishnan: I have been involved with the student movement since 1995. Being part of student movements in a university like JNU, we have tried to link it with the broader issues of people outside the campus as well. That led to a lot of engagement on issues of the workers, the working class and the peasantry. My Ph.D – The neoliberal economic policies and its impact on Indian Peasant: a comparative study of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala – was at a time when the agrarian crisis was at its peak. People like P. Sainath and Patnaik were writing about it. I spent considerable time in the villages, trying to understand the problems of the peasantry, what they were going through, problems of the agricultural labour and how these policies are pushing them into an acute crisis.  I shifted to Bangalore after my Ph.D. in 2005. I worked for about three and a half years as the head of the Department of Political Science, St. Joseph College. I was called for an interview in JNU on 2008 December, but I decided not to take part and work amidst the farmers. Since 2009 January, I have been part of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and visited different states, villages and has been part of organizing farmers.

Your leadership was instrumental in the 2018 Kisaan Long March in Maharashtra. Maharashtra is a state where there were multiple co-operatives which thrived in the 1980s. However, at present we don’t see as many of them in the state, what do you think is the reason for the decline of farmers co-operatives?

In the last 30 years of neoliberal economic policies, the government approach has been to dismantle many of these cooperatives. In Maharashtra, in the sugar sector, there were many cooperatives; and in states like Bihar, where the sugar factories were in the cooperative sector are now closed down as there hasn’t had much support. If you look at the majority of the cooperatives in Maharashtra or Karnataka, they are run by the rural rich and many of them are political party leaders. You have leaders in the NCP, Shiv Sena, the Congress, BJP and Janatha Dal (S), who run some of these cooperatives. If you study the situation of sugar mills, there are huge arrears due for farmers. It would come around 23,000 crores. This is not just the arrear that has to be given to the cooperative sugar mints, but also to other corporate sugar mills as well. This is the present stature of the cooperatives in some of these regions. We envisage cooperatives where the interests of the working class and peasantry are protected. For instance, let us say, processing, value addition, marketing and the share of the surplus going back to the farmers; that is something we envisage. Unfortunately, these cooperatives aren’t running in that manner. Even now, the government is talking about something like the farmer’s produce organization. But there is no enough promotion for such cooperatives. There has been a systematic attack even on the primary agricultural cooperatives, which were providing credit to the farmers for agriculture. There have been different committees that have recommended the dismantling of this entire cooperative system. So, this is a struggle that we have to fight. Also, this is a long-drawn battle that is going to be there to protect the cooperatives which are in favour of farmers and the workers.

Could you also speak about the crisis faced by the Cotton farmers in the states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh?

The suicides that are happening in the Cotton belt in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra is a phenomenon that has been often spoken about. It has been witnessing an increase in input costs with the coming of BT cotton and there is total decontrol now. The prices of the inputs are fixed by the corporate companies which are only interested in profiteering, they have no interest in the farmers. So, the cost of cultivation is increasing and also, the credit sources or the institution sources are scarce. Hence, farmers have to depend on the money lenders and pay high-interest rates on the loans they take. Once the product is ready, they do not get commensurate prices. This leads to a crisis where the investment is huge and the farmers are not getting remunerative prices at times. There are also cases of crop losses. It may be bollworm or other pests or even natural calamities like drought, flood, and so on. Having all these risks the government is not doing anything to mitigate those risks.  Even providing effective insurance is not happening. So, this leads to a crisis wherein a lot of farmers in this area are forced to commit suicides

Could you share with us your opinion about the importance of providing insurance for agricultural crops?
  
This is a diverse country and in northern India they say, at very short distances, the taste of the water changes as the language changes. When there are agricultural losses, the investment on the seeds and the cultivation is gone. Also, the expected output is gone.  If so what income would it generate in such a situation? That has to be kept in mind when the compensation is given. There is also a need, especially to seed companies. Farmers have suffered huge losses because of the spurious seeds by the companies. In the last three decades, the policies implemented here allow companies to go scot-free, and at the same time farmers suffer huge losses when the seeds are not performing as required. So, there is a need to ensure that if there is a loss and the farmer suffers, that has to be compensated to the maximum. We often come up with demands like pre seeds for the next season, subsidized inputs for the next season, interest subvention and loan waivers. If such losses occur, depending on the situation in each state, the central government may also have to pitch in with the State governments.

What message does this farmer’s movement set for the Narendra Modi led government?

This struggle has sent a strong message to the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. In their arrogance, they have made all attempts to suppress this movement. They spread canards, did a big campaign through the corporate media, and called the farmers who were protesting on the borders of Delhi as Khalistanis, terrorists, and Chinese agents or Pakistani agents. They use repressive measures, arrests, attacks using their sangh gundas and more than 700 farmers have become martyrs in this country. It is after overcoming all these hurdles that we have been able to achieve this result. There are more than 500 organizations that have come together. We also managed to build a never-before kind of solidarity with the working class. So, it is a clear message to the Modi led BJP government that we will not tolerate anti-farmer policies; we will fight till our demands are met. Usually, the repression unleashed by the state machinery, the police, leads to some sort of fear about the state mission. But in this struggle, the farmers and the workers have overcome fear and we have literally sown fear in the minds of our enemies and won this struggle. So I think the ruling classes will think many times before implementing policies like this without consultation and discussion with any states or the main stakeholders the farmers.

 
How do you view the criticism that the farmer’s struggle is merely lead by a particular section of castes?

Actually, there have been different arguments. Some people have argued that the agriculture laborer is not part of this protest. Some have argued that the oppressed sections, the Dalits and Adivasis have not come in this. Some have also argued that this has been the demand of rich farmers and not a struggle of the poor and landless farmers and so on. However, that has been disproved by the nature of this protest itself. Such a prolonged struggle in extreme cold, in extreme heat, 700 deaths happened. Which rich or the rural rich person would come and sit, be willing to go through these travels for more than a year? It is the sections that are losing out all their source of livelihood, they are threatened, their futures are threatened, that realization that these acts have been brought, not for their benefit, but to promote corporate profiteering. That has led to this kind of mobilization. And the mobilization is not just in the areas where Jaat farmers are there. All sections have come into this struggle. Agriculture and labor organizations have come in a big way. Different Dalit groups and Adivasi organizations have come out in support. This struggle unlike what Modi has claimed that it was only restricted to a few people or only to Punjab and so on, has become a pan Indian movement. It is spread across – all states. You take a look at the Muzaffarnagar Kisaan Mahapanchayat, and the sections coming there. From an area that saw the worst communal riots, which led to a communal polarization and victory of the BJP in the last election,  there – evolved a strong message of unity, a strong message against the communal forces. If you look at the State like Haryana, how the unity of different sections of the peasantry is forged. Haryana and Punjab have come in big numbers. There were almost 1000 Adivasi farmers coming all the way from Maharashtra and sitting here and sitting in the borders in extreme cold. So, it is absolutely wrong to say that it is only one community’s protest. This has created a broad based unity, the entire working class also have come out in support in a big way, in all forms. They have come out and have been part of these struggles – not just making token actions, but stood shoulder to shoulder with the farmers contributing even financially to the struggle. I think it should be seen and given the due it deserves. It is a movement that has generated hopes among all sections that talk about the protection of the Constitution. We’re fighting the communal forces, and protesting for the rights of the labour and other oppressed sections.

As the agricultural bills have been repealed, how do you and your organisation foresee the future of farmer’s rights movements in the future?

First and foremost, yes, these acts have been repealed now. Along with that, we had made certain other demands that are ensuring a minimum support price at 50% above the cost of production and then making it a legal guarantee. Also, we demand the withdrawal of the amendments in the Electricity Act, withdrawal of all cases against the farmer leaders of the organizations which have been foisted during this time, and compensation for the families of the 700 farmers who have died in the course of this struggle…The labour code has to be withdrawn. And we are watching how this government is out in a pandemic, to literally sell the country by keeping the people under lockdown. They have tried to unlock the country for corporate profiteering and corporate loot. So the slogans that have emerged – is ‘Save India’, ‘Stop Corporate Loot’, ‘Save Farmers Save India’. So these are the direction in which future struggles will happen. It is required that an alternative set of policies is required against the neoliberal economic policies which were essentially responsible for the huge crisis the farmers face. The movement in the coming days will go in that direction. That is what people like us hope.

The interview is a condensed and edited version of the original conversation.

Cover Photo by Raneesh P.R, Creative Director, Indian Ruminations

If ever

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If ever my shadows leave me,

and I’ll know that tomorrow it will,

I will plant some mango trees for

the people, I’d leave my hefty will.

If ever the Abdiel presents before

my naked eyes and touch my hands,

I’ll hold his hands tight, and ask to

leave my body in my beloved’s hands.

If ever the Orion asks me in

the cold moonlight of the Indian plains

to come and join after I am passed

I’ll pull it with a rope to my low plains.

because I know death is the destiny,

we all share, it can’t be still, be only at all

for all the moments we lived and loved,

those were not to end on death, not at all.

Because till it is passed over and over

my love, to the last heir of the human race,

and then even when the last heir dies,

that race will not be the final race.

Because it is a revival, we live when

we live when we know death occurs once,

and revival it is when we also know that

not only death but even life occurs once.

Love, Catalogued

0

What they said of love

was functional

and dyslexic.

Love got us

wrapped up

in one blanket,

sleep patterns waiting to shift.

We cried

about death –

of people not known;

of people known;

 of it happening to them all.

We went up a carousel

for a different worldview.

We felt deeply about

the world

and the words that

didn’t fit between us, sometimes.

And nothing at all some other times.

We lifted up our souls a little

and tried putting them next to each other’s.

We made furrows of hope

and buried the non-believers’ bit

deep inside them.

We wavered, splintered,

even fragmented a little.

But kept walking,

hand-made emotions resting

in the dent of our palms

Cartography

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Behind the neck

where thoughts bloom

a birthmark maps an ocean.

There, a kiss evaporates

into the salty wind.

Two exiled bodies

meet in the blue meridian.

Though weary

their bodies and language

mirror dance and poetry.

Their forbidden love tastes of salt,

smells of unslakable thirst,

echoes the depth of blue

where compasses vanish.

Their entwined fingers whisper

like mountain to the wind.

Secretly they smile,

together they cook

their salty dreams

caught in fish eyes.

Like the sea

opening into a desert,

they quench each other,

breathing heavily,

entangled—

a submarine volcano

unwinding its heat

into an ocean, deep.

Two exiled strangers

meet in the expanse.

Their bodies

marked by tears.

“Lokame Tharavaadu celebrates diversity; at a time when the secular aspects of India are being questioned,” ̶ Artist and Curator Bose Krishnamachary

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The Editorial Team of Indian Ruminations had a discussion with Artist and Curator Bose Krishnamachary of Kochi Biennale Foundation on his latest show ‘LokameTharavaadu’. The show held in Alleppey showcases the works of 267 artists from Kerala. In the Interview, Krishnamachary speaks about the diversity among the art exhibited, the challenges he faced to curate the exhibition during the pandemic, and his future endeavours.

Indian Ruminations: Could you please share with our readers what Lokame Tharavaadu is all about? What does it represent and how did you curate the show?

Bose Krishnamachary: ‘Lokame Tharavaadu’ means the world is one family. It was conceptualised during the time of the pandemic. In the year 2020, the Kochi Biennale Foundation couldn’t do the biennial due to the pandemic. The best thing that could have been done at that time was ‘thinking local’. How can we instil some confidence in the local community? In 2020, I was planning to do it in Kochi. At the same time, Dr Thomas Isaac was thinking about an artist’s exhibition here in Alleppey. The Muziris heritage project’s chief architect Benny Kuriakose also suggested checking out the spaces here. Thus, when I came to see this place in October, it was totally dilapidated. I went across so many places here and I found immense potential. I then suggested doing a show here and was given an offer by the state government. Dr Thomas Isaac told me, Rupees two crore will be allocated to the project. So I became a little ambitious to look at it. 

I had done a show in 2005 called Double-Enders. A show by Kerala Artists in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kochi. It was then, people realised, there are so many talented Malayali artists. Artists like Jithesh Kallat, Gigi Scaria and many others. Most people were unaware that I’m a Malayali. So an opportunity was given and many people bought their work. I felt it is important to give an opportunity to the artists’ community, especially artists coming from Kerala. Many of them don’t even have a gallery space. They don’t have representations in the gallery. So, I travelled from Kannur to Trivandrum and found 267 artists. I think the diversity coming out from Kerala is amazing, than any other state in India. I live in Bombay, and I’ve been working in so many places in India; but with this diversity, I felt like bringing it together as the name ‘the world is one family’. Also, India when I look at it presently, there is a kind of insecurity; the secular aspects of India are being questioned. So, why not the diversity coming through art, exhibited in six lakh square feet of space inside and outside of the exhibition area?.

This site EPC was conceptualized for cafeteria performances, poetry reading and music jamming sessions. Unfortunately, we could do only the exhibition part of it. The performances had to cut down as the total budget was four-and-a-half Crore for this project. We started this show on April 18, but unfortunately, we had to close it down after the 12th day. We later reopened it on August 13th. Many collectors wanted to come from other parts of the world. They said it would be good to have the show in December or January, as they would be able to come. Some art collectors who are coming from Delhi and other parts of India have collected already some works. We could sell more than three Crore worth of artwork from this exhibition. And that is the confidence given to the artists’ community. The local public also gets an opportunity to experience what is happening in contemporary practices.

So how did the pandemic play a role in the creation of this event? What were the limitations? 

The limitation is always the fun. When you have ideas, execution is not a problem. You have to physically keep social distancing and follow such protocols. We took those decisions and discipline to create it. We only had a problem with the financial implications of it. As everything is mostly funded by me, I hope I will get back the money from the State.

Actually, the pandemic was helpful me; as a curator, I was travelling a lot. So there was no kind of mass exodus or anything like that. It was researched in villages, I’ve been to, Wayanad, going into all the kinds of interior spaces, looking at artist’s studios. That was a great part of this research. And some of them didn’t have spaces to paint. Sometimes the kitchen table becomes their painting space, for some artists it is their bedroom, as there isn’t much space to keep the arts. So when I visited, they opened up everything like a Pandora’s Box. But it is great to experience this. Like, there are unknown names, unknown people, younger generation and all kinds of school.

Could you tell us why you chose Alappuzha as the venue? Also what is something unique about Loakame Tharavaadu that makes it stand apart from the rest?

I believe this is the largest show happening in the world during the period of this pandemic. I think Lokame Tharavadu gave confidence to the public. This area, Alleppey, is a silent space, there are so many heritage spaces and factory spaces that are empty. It can be converted into museums.These heritage places are almost like acupuncture, the art can play as a kind of acupuncture. It can revive certain areas. This space EPC belongs to private people, and there are two other places which I didn’t have [initially]. I wanted more spaces and Mrs Betty Karan supported me to get these two spaces which make up to 35,000 square feet of exhibition area. I haven’t thought it like I am doing it because of the Pandemic, but as the best thing that can be done when physically nothing is happening. Physical presence is important when it comes to visual art.

Dr. Thomas Isaac had the idea of converting these spaces into Museums. Thus, there can be 21 museums here, and he’s very much committed to it. The state and the Tourism department are also interested in the project. Dr. Venu is the Tourism Secretary, when he was there, we started the biennial. He is a visionary who believes in the best thing that can be offered by this exhibition. And we’ve been doing online as well like others. Our students’ Biennale is one of the verticals of the Biennale that is happening online, also another vertical called ‘ABC art by Children’. We have organized, online programs, talks and similar programmes. But it is important to have physical experiences of art. So slowly, we are getting a lot of people to come and see the show now. I’ve seen doctors coming from Malabar, architecture students coming from all around India. Every week, I have guests coming from all around India. So this has given a new platform for a new site in India for culture building. Also, I think when the Biennale happens in Kochi, it could be extended to Alleppey as well. May be every five years, they should think about Malayali shows like this; so that you could find some newer curators, newer people, newer exhibits and new vision.

Also, there are a lot of women artists who have come here and that is not so common in events like these in India?

Yeah. I was not interested in the gender aspect of it. I was looking at the talent and I was looking at the consistent practice done by artists. There were a lot of women artists, who have never exhibited their works in their life. Also bringing them together was an interesting aspect. The press asked me the number of women artists participating in the exhibition. I said to them there will be at least 50-56 artists. Later, when I checked to know how many woman artists are there and that number was 63. One of the magazines came up with the women artists’ story. So again, when I numbered it and looked at it, there are 65 Women artists. But for me, that is not an important aspect. Of course giving them an opportunity is an important aspect like any other practice. For example, for the third gender, if they have done good work, I would have picked it up. I wouldn’t have looked at the work as something which a third gender artist has done.

Did you mean Transgender?

Yes, Transgender.

What will be the next projects that you plan to curate and do you intend to curate any further shows in Alleppey?

There can be. In Alleppey, they wanted to build museums, so I will provide whatever support that they are expecting from me. The Biennale Foundation goes on working for the Kochi Biennale, which will happen in 2022.

The interview is a condensed and edited version of the original conversation.

Cover photograph by Reneesh P.R, Creative Director, Indian Ruminations

“Elected Autocracy can lead to Fascist Dictatorship; that is the Lesson We Draw from History” CPI General Secretary, D. Raja on Modi Government

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D Raja, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) spoke to Sreerag PS- the Associate Editor of Indian Ruminations, at CPI headquarters, Ajoy Bhavan in New Delhi. In the interview, Raja speaks in detail about his early life, the struggles he had growing up as a Dalit and climbing the ladders to become his party chief. He also speaks in the interview regarding the Dravidian movement in Tamilnadu, the Agrarian crisis in India, the tenure of the Modi Government and the objectives before the communist parties in India.

Sreerag PS: Could you share with us about your childhood and early life experiences that influenced your political and ideological outlook?

D Raja: It is a long journey. I was born in a tiny village in Tamil Nadu on the bank of river Palar, in Vellore district. My parents were landless agricultural workers and we used to live in a small hut. Cooking, sleeping and everything were done in that small hut. My parents gave birth to six sons and one daughter. I am the second son and we are six brothers [in which] two brothers are no more. [I had] one sister, she was the youngest and she is also no more, during COVID she had some problem and she passed away. In our childhood, my parents did all the help for our education. Unlike others they wanted us to study. They sought us to go to school and did not force us to follow their profession of working in somebody’s land. We were all sent to schools and I went to Harijan Welfare School, which is an elementary school, class one to five. Then I went to high school which was also in a small town at the bank of river Palar, Pallikonda. I used to be good at studies. There was a mid-day meal scheme brought by late Kamaraj, who was the Chief Minister of the State. My mother also used to work as a mid-day meal cook [for] some years and in those days that was an ordeal for any Dalit family. Then at high school, I didn’t have lunch at all, because my parents could not afford to pack lunch for me. Only whatever frugal food is available in the morning, we call it kanji, we used to have it and go to school. During then my teachers were fond of me as I used to be good at studying. Whenever I went to the ground with the other students, my physical education teacher used to tell me, “You have not taken lunch, you better go to the library reading room and sit there”. That is how I started going to the reading room library. I started reading all books which came on my way. My Head Master, Varadachari, used to admit in the prayer meetings that ‘this boy reads beyond his age’. The books and my studies gave me some kind of power to question everything. Whatever good qualities, and virtues I have, I inherited from my mother and father.  They were hardworking people, very honest helpful to the people around us and they never spoke lies, and they’d never have any iota of intention to cheat. We inherited those qualities. When I was in class 10, I read ‘My Experiments with Truth’ or ‘Satya Sodhanai’ by Mahatma Gandhi. After reading that, I made a comparison. What is the great quality that Gandhi had, which I don’t have? Finally, I arrived at one conclusion. Gandhi was a vegetarian and I was a non-vegetarian. After that, I stopped eating non-vegetarian food. I became a complete vegetarian. I did not even eat eggs for two years; but, this gave a lot of trouble to my mother. She had to pass through great ordeals. Because we used to have a water pond; a common pond where people used to go and do fishing. It was luxurious food. When my mother cooked for others, she had to find some other vessel and some other food for me, and it was a great trouble for my mother. After seeing these difficulties, I decided that for Gandhi it would have been easy to be a vegetarian, but for us, it is not possible. And, I turned back to non-vegetarian. That was the time when Kamaraj was the Chief Minister. Congress was in power in Tamilnadu. The Indian National Congress was one of the main political streams in our state during the period; the communist movement was also one of the important political streams.

I went to a college named GTM College – Government Thirumagal Mill’s College. There was a mill called Thirumagal mills in the locality. The owners of the mill donated five lakh rupees or so to the government [to set up] the college and thus the name GTM College. Even today, it is called GTM College, but it is a government [run] college, and I went to that college in Gudiyattam, the town that is known for communist movements. And they used to fight the elections from the very first round of elections. The town produced several freedom fighters as well. Pallikonda also produced numerous freedom fighters and the communist movement was also in the mainstream. As you said, it was the time that the Periyar movement and the Dravidian movement was gradually growing. I can say that from my own family experience as well – my elder brother’s name is Selvam, my name is Raja, but my immediate next, younger brother’s name is Karunanidhi. Then further, my brothers were named as Karunakaran, Kannadasan and Kalayarasan. These are all due to the impact and growing influence of the Dravidian movement and Periyar movement. Ambedkarite movement was also very significant.

Are you saying that Ambedkarite Movement was popular in Tamilnadu even during your college days?

Yes! My village used to celebrate Ambedkar’s birth anniversary every year. People from KGF Kolar and Maharashtra used to come and deliver speeches hailing Dr Ambedkar. They used to print leaflets; I read ‘Educate, Organize, Agitate’ for the first time from there. Whenever I got that leaflet, I noticed Dr Ambedkar’s name – Dr Bhim Rao Ramji Ambedkar– and two lines [mentioning] the degrees he obtained from various universities. This struck me, how come this man had so many degrees? How did he emerge as a great scholar? I have grown up amid all these ideological and political currents; the Congress, the Communist, the Dravidian and the Ambedkarite movements. In fact, I heard about Karl Marx, when I was in class 10. My Tamil teacher had to take a lesson on Thiruvalluvar, our great poet-philosopher in Tamil. The subject matter was Thiruvalluvar’s economic thoughts. Before starting the lesson, my Tamil teacher Vaidyalingam asked the students whether anybody know about Karl Marx. I used to sit in the first row, right in front of the teacher. He started asking from the last row and finally, he came to me [and asked], “at least, you…, do you know about Karl Marx?” Then I got up and said, “I don’t know”. My teacher commented, “If you do not know, then I should not have asked others”. It was at that time I felt some kind of a shame.-. How come we don’t know about Karl Marx? That was in my mind all the time. Then I started questioning why my people used to suffer? They all work hard and were honest people like my parents. Why other villagers should suffer? Why they should live in huts when others have reasonably good houses? And why our people should suffer due to lack of medical facilities? Why even very ordinary needs are not fulfilled? So I started questioning. This questioning took me to confront all ideological and philosophical movements. I studied Gandhi and Nehru. I started engaging with all these people, and I started to find out what is communist movement, the Dravidian movement, the Periyar’s self-respect movement, the social reform movement, the Periyar’s fight against superstitions, Periyar’s fight for social justice and many other things; of course, Ambedkar and his fight against the caste system. . In my village, people used to fight against Brahmanism openly. I grew up amidst all these struggles. In college, I started reading Marx, I read about dialectics, dialectical materialism, historical materialism, the Marxist philosophy for beginners. I was a science student. I did B.Sc. in mathematics, but I used to study Karl Marx [as well]. One day, I went to a trade union office of Beedi Workers Union. A leader of the Match Workers Union there had all books and I saw ‘Capital Volume I’ among them. I jumped and took that copy. The trade union leader was so happy, and said, “Oh, I was waiting for you. I was waiting for somebody to come and take the book and study. That person has come; you have come. It is your book. You may take it”. I started reading ‘Capital Volume I’ on my own.. It took me to the Marxist ideology which answered my questions. Whether it be a question on the issue of caste, poverty, discrimination, or inequality, I found Marxist philosophy as the most appropriate one. A theory cannot remain just as a theory; the theory must lead to practice, practice must strengthen our theory. That’s how I joined the All India Students Federation (AISF) in my college. At the same time, I joined the Communist Party of India (CPI) as well. 

My questioning of the problems of life around me and the sufferings of my parents and my people; my search for answers and my thirst for knowledge led me to come to this movement. Then [there is] no question of looking back. I moved from stage to stage, I was secretary of All India Youth Federation (AIYF) in Tamilnadu, I was a member of the State Executive of my party in Tamilnadu. Then I was General Secretary of All India Youth Federation at the national level. Later, I became a National Council member, Central Executive member-, and finally, now I am the General Secretary of the party.

 What made you choose North India as your area of activism? What were the challenges you faced initially?

It wasn’t a big challenge, because somehow I used to speak in English. Even when I was in high school, I used to speak in meetings in English. In the meetings organised by English literary forums, my teachers used to dictate versions to me and I used to memorise and speak it during my school days. When I went to college, I used to write my speeches. I used to win prizes in elocution competitions and essay writing competitions. I was an inter-college debater, both in English and Tamil. That helped me. I used to teach English and mathematics. Then I left that job and became a full-time functionary of my party. When I was in Tamilnadu, I participated in national-level campaigns, meetings in which I communicated in English. I had no problem even though I didn’t know Hindi, and eventually, I became the General Secretary. At the same time I used to try to learn Hindi; now I speak a little bit of Hindi although I am not very well versed in it. But I deliver speeches in Hindi and people appreciate that. So, I never faced any challenge, other than the political and ideological challenges of other parties and movements. Because the communist movement is something that has to fight ideologically, politically against the ideology of the exploiting classes. It is a fight between exploiting classes and the exploited classes. We are with the working class, peasantry and all other sections of the tiring masses. That was the challenge and that is the challenge. Language itself is not a big challenge. There is an interesting instance with VP Singh. Singh, invited me for a campaign in Allahabad and I told him, I can’t speak in Hindi to the farmers to which he replied, “Raja, you don’t worry about that, your very presence is enough. That will give a message this man is our man; he stands with us and he fights for us. That is enough, you come”. That is the way I think it is if you are really sincere in the fight for the country; for the people, then people will respect and listen to you, whichever way you try to communicate.

How do you see yourself as the first Dalit to be the General Secretary of a Communist Party in India? Do you think communist parties failed to promote leaders from deprived backgrounds into higher positions of the party?

Firstly, I’m telling you, I was the first graduate in my village. Even among the other sections, the non-Dalit sections, there was no graduate from my village at that time. Then I became a political activist; a communist activist. Communist Party stands for classless casteless society… So CPI has been growing and consolidating its position. And we used to address the question of social justice, the question of social discrimination and the protection of rights of the Dalits. Even this month, we are going to have a national-level convention on Dalit rights and movement in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. So, we reach out to Dalits and other downtrodden sections. As far as my case is concerned, it is not because I happen to be the son of a Dalit, that the Party promoted me to this position. No…, even my leaders before me say that it is not because he hails from such a community, but because of the talents and –capacity he has to lead the Party and nobody can undermine him intellectually or politically. History has its own way to provide opportunities for fulfilling the requirements of the time. That’s how I became the General Secretary. And of course, this created a very strong reaction or response among the people and –the political parties. It is true that many independent authors idolize this and has written a lot of things about it.

 Sreerag: Yes, I read a Kancha Ilaiah piece calling it a historic decision. 

Raja: I know Kancha Illiah wrote and several people keep writing on it. Ambedkar had to fight for the annihilation of caste. We are all fighting, but still, it is there. Now, look at what is happening in Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh, how Dalits are being lynched! Even in Gujarat and other states, this caste system is horrific. If you want me to say what are the challenges we face today, what are the issues the revolutionary movement has to address, number one, according to me, is the ‘Caste’, number two is the ‘Class’, and number three is the ‘Patriarchy’. We live in a caste society and no religion is free from caste. Hinduism, of course, it is based on the caste system. This is not a question of faith or rationality. Hinduism or Hindutva try to perpetuate the caste system. But in other religions also people are divided into caste lines. You are from Kerala and you must know, how caste wise Christians are [divided]. Even people come to me to raise the issue of reservations for Dalit Christians. Similar is the case with Dalit Muslims, OBC Muslims etc… So religion has not provided any answer to the caste question. 

The other one is class; the means of production are in the hands of a few people. They exploit the labour-power of working people. This class division is getting very intense in the present situation. Because the corporate houses have grown, and the people have become poorer and poorer, the class struggle is intensifying. Then the Patriarchy; women do not have equality. They are suppressed and are not treated at par with men. This is a patriarchal society. We have to break this Patriarchy and free our women. These are the fundamental questions of our society and these are the challenges before any political party; particularly, the communist parties.

 Do you think an electoral alliance among Dalit, Left and Muslim organizations is possible?

We are fighting for minorities. Whether they are Muslims or Christians or Parsees… We are fighting for the protection of the democratic rights of minorities. Of course, class consciousness is emerging in every caste and every religion. It may not be par with what we expect it to be. But, it is growing. In such a situation, when we fight against the corporate houses, the big business houses, we should also fight against caste discrimination and social discrimination simultaneously. We should fight for social justice and social equality. Dr Ambedkar has made it very clear in the constitution that, ‘We the People’ should strive for Justice. Social, political and economic justice. Equality, Liberty and Fraternity must exist as a trinity and you cannot separate one from the other. How do you achieve this as long as caste is there? This is why Ambedkar said ‘Annihilation of Caste’ must be the task before everybody. So this is India and the Indian question is primarily a caste question. We Indians, wherever we go, we carry caste with us. Whether we go to Europe, America or Australia, we carry the caste and we try to live based on that caste division. Thus, it is an Indian problem one has to fight. The Communist Party of India (CPI), and, I understand, other parties including the left tries to address these questions.

 Do you think an electoral alliance is possible?

We are working together. It varies from State to State, which I must underline. Many parties use Ambedkar’s name. Even BJP talks about Ambedkar and tries to appropriate Ambedkar. BJP talks about Gandhi, [but] are they sincere? Are they real? So now, the point is, when we fight against caste discrimination, economic disparity or exploitation, we should try to unite all secular and democratic forces. That is what we are trying to do.

We are speaking at a juncture where the farmer’s protest is on the verge of a victory, what message does the protest give to the Modi government?

 In Independent India, this is the biggest, historic and most popular movement. Political parties must draw lessons from this. They should draw lessons as to how the movement could sustain for more than one year and force the government to repeal certain laws which the farmers have been fighting and agitating. One has to study the movement and draw lessons for the future. Now, the farmers are being supported by Trade Unions. That way the unity of farmers and workers is emerging and all other civil society groups, whether it be youth, students or women, they all gave support to the farmer’s agitation. This is a new situation. How parties like communist parties, would draw lessons and take the movement forward, that we will have to wait and see.

What message does this protest give for the Modi Government?

 Modi cannot take people and democracy for granted. Already Modi’s Regime is characterised as ‘Elected Autocracy’. This elected autocracy can lead to a fascist dictatorship. This is the lesson we draw from history. These dictators cannot rule forever. We see this not only in the history of Germany but recently with Trump in the US also. This is a message to Modi as well. He cannot take people for granted and he cannot use all powers at his command to crush the people’s movements and uprisings. Nobody should think that they can succeed forever. Ultimately people will succeed and people will show who the real power is and uphold democracy.

You once spoke in the parliament regarding short-term solutions and long-term solutions to the agrarian crisis in India, can you elaborate on that aspect?

Agriculture is an important economic sector in our country. Agriculture is scheduled in the state list, which is for the state governments. But the centre is encroaching upon the state governments’ rights and appropriating powers of the states. This must stop. This is why several states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab and others have passed a resolution against Agricultural laws. If elected state governments do not agree with such laws, how central government can impose them? So these are the questions that we need to understand. Agriculture needs more investment and farmers need more support from the government. Since agriculture depends upon – ecology, climate and other factors, our farmers need adequate protection and support. Several commissions including the Swaminathan Commission have studied the agrarian crisis and made several recommendations. The demand for a separate budget on agriculture and other related issues are being raised in the parliament. Let us see what the future is.

The Modi Government is in full swing to privatise the public sector, the corporate giants are using new techniques and technologies to influence the public. Does the CPI have any strategy to counter the privatization of the public sector and the corporate loot?

The BJP thinks using social media and other technologies can condition – and hijack people’s minds. It is known to others as well. At present, BJP has huge money power. It is the richest political party in the country. The way they use the electoral bonds, the way they try to manipulate many things is to get more money. It is the richest political party, so they use the money to recruit cadres for social media. They call them warriors. This is known to everybody. But resources are limited [for us]. Despite that, every party is having its own social media networks. We are also having social media networks. It may not be very strong and widely spread all over the country as BJP’s. But we are doing that. We try to build counter-movements for the propaganda and – the ideological offensive coming from the BJP and the RSS.

How do you see a revival of the left in the coming years? How do you and your party plan the future?

The left will have to grow strong because ultimately it is the future and that is why we say socialism is the future for humanity as a whole. If socialism has to be achieved, the communist movement has to grow in strength. When I say strength, it is ideological, political and organisational. During this process, communists should also work with other democratic forces and parties so that a broad-based unity emerges to take on the battle with RSS-BJP combined. 

 The interview is a condensed and edited version of the original conversation.

Cover Photo by Raneesh P.R, Creative Director, Indian Ruminations