The Sound Of Silence
From the Times of India
Najeeb Jung, Feb 1, 2011, 12.00am IST
The incarceration of Binayak Sen reminded me of the sophist philosopher Thrasymachus’s definition of justice in Plato’s Republic. Challenged by Socrates to define justice he says: “I proclaim that might is right, and justice is in the interest of the stronger…The different forms of government make laws, democratic, aristocratic, or autocratic, with a view to their respective interests; and these laws, so made by them to serve their interests, they deliver to their subjects as ‘justice’, and punish as ‘unjust’ anyone who transgresses them.”
This is the nature of justice meted out to Sen who has spent a lifetime working among the adivasis of Chhattisgarh. Sen is the national vice-president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties and general secretary of its Chhattisgarh unit. As an activist, he has time and again spoken against state imperialism in the context of the people living in the forests of Chhattisgarh.
Not many in the cities are fully aware of the harsh life in these areas. The truth is that the adivasis who are the original inhabitants of these forests are steadily being ousted from their habitat. With their beliefs and culture repeatedly challenged, they are left with three stark choices. One, to fall in line, grab some peripheral reservations in jobs offered by the state, learn to tolerate the perpetual harassment and exploitation of their women and watch their culture destroyed in the name of development. Two, seek shelter deeper into the forests, and wait for the forest guards and rangers, aided by insensitive revenue officials, to slowly catch up and destroy their huts, crops and drive them away again. Or, three, stand up and protest
against state oppression.
Over the past century, the adivasis of India living in a wide arc spreading across the northeast, 24 Parganas, parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have sacrificed in the cause of development. Each time a steel city sprang up, starting from Jamshedpur to Durgapur to Rourkela and Bhilai, local residents lost a great deal. Every time a new plant came up, lands belonging to the local residents were acquired at a pittance. While some of the able-bodied became factory workers, the majority of men and women lost out. Adivasis who lived in the forests and protected the flora and fauna for centuries were told that the land and forest belonged to the state. Resistance has been ruthlessly crushed, a perpetual reminder of their social backwardness, feeble political voice and inability to be heard.
Local government officials and petty contractors seeped in corruption and insensitive to local cultural traditions have presided over the interior hinterlands and deprived these areas of even basic infrastructure like roads, drinking water, schools, small irrigation facilities or markets where local products can sell at a profit. Is it not strange that a state – which allows a Phoolan Devi to be a member of the Lok Sabha; negotiates truces and offers amnesty to dacoits and terrorists to buy peace; fails to try the accused in communal riots; is unable to prevent gender or caste atrocities; is inept at combating corruption within politics, industry, civil service and indeed the judiciary – endeavours to shut out voices that speak in favour of preserving local culture, protecting the rights of the tiller, protest against exploitation, corruption and lack of basic infrastructure? How is it that this land of the Buddha, Mahavira and Gandhi now turns a blind eye and deaf ear to the thousands of farmers who commit suicide in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh?
Is it then surprising that so many youth, not just the adivasis of Chhattisgarh, are losing faith in the nature of the present state?
Sen has, on several occasions, said that he does not support violence. At the same time, he has strongly spoken against the harsh and illegal activities of the salwa judum that he believes is splitting adivasi society. The salwa judum is an illegal body of thugs that has been formed at the behest of government to “handle” the adivasis who speak against it. Sen has been in touch with Narayan Sanyal, a jailed Marxist ideologue, but this has always been with the formal permission, and in the presence, of the jail authorities. Does this warrant a charge of sedition and life imprisonment? It is reported that he carried letters to the Maoists from Sanyal. These letters need to be published to expose the crudity of the trumped up charges.
Add to this the statement of the director-general of Chhattisgarh police who said his belief is that “dalit movements, women’s empowerment movements, human rights movements, environmental protection movements” are all suspect because Naxalites want to penetrate and hijack “movements not linked with CPI(Maoist)”. Are these statements acceptable coming from the senior-most echelons of civil administration?
Iqbal once said: “Jis khet se dehkan ko mayyassar nahi roti, Us khet ke har gosha-e-gandum ko jalaa do” (burn every stalk of grain from the fields that cannot provide food to the tiller). Naxalism is a shrill alarm of what the future holds and indeed a hint that India Inc travel beyond the glamour of rapid GDP growth towards a state where people are able to participate more and get a greater share of the fruits of its growth.
The writer is vice-chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia.
Filed under Media Coverage, Opinions | Najeeb Jung, Feb 1, 2011, 12.00am IST
The incarceration of Binayak Sen reminded me of the sophist philosopher Thrasymachus’s definition of justice in Plato’s Republic. Challenged by Socrates to define justice he says: “I proclaim that might is right, and justice is in the interest of the stronger…The different forms of government make laws, democratic, aristocratic, or autocratic, with a view to their respective interests; and these laws, so made by them to serve their interests, they deliver to their subjects as ‘justice’, and punish as ‘unjust’ anyone who transgresses them.”
This is the nature of justice meted out to Sen who has spent a lifetime working among the adivasis of Chhattisgarh. Sen is the national vice-president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties and general secretary of its Chhattisgarh unit. As an activist, he has time and again spoken against state imperialism in the context of the people living in the forests of Chhattisgarh.
Not many in the cities are fully aware of the harsh life in these areas. The truth is that the adivasis who are the original inhabitants of these forests are steadily being ousted from their habitat. With their beliefs and culture repeatedly challenged, they are left with three stark choices. One, to fall in line, grab some peripheral reservations in jobs offered by the state, learn to tolerate the perpetual harassment and exploitation of their women and watch their culture destroyed in the name of development. Two, seek shelter deeper into the forests, and wait for the forest guards and rangers, aided by insensitive revenue officials, to slowly catch up and destroy their huts, crops and drive them away again. Or, three, stand up and protest
against state oppression.
Over the past century, the adivasis of India living in a wide arc spreading across the northeast, 24 Parganas, parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have sacrificed in the cause of development. Each time a steel city sprang up, starting from Jamshedpur to Durgapur to Rourkela and Bhilai, local residents lost a great deal. Every time a new plant came up, lands belonging to the local residents were acquired at a pittance. While some of the able-bodied became factory workers, the majority of men and women lost out. Adivasis who lived in the forests and protected the flora and fauna for centuries were told that the land and forest belonged to the state. Resistance has been ruthlessly crushed, a perpetual reminder of their social backwardness, feeble political voice and inability to be heard.
Local government officials and petty contractors seeped in corruption and insensitive to local cultural traditions have presided over the interior hinterlands and deprived these areas of even basic infrastructure like roads, drinking water, schools, small irrigation facilities or markets where local products can sell at a profit. Is it not strange that a state – which allows a Phoolan Devi to be a member of the Lok Sabha; negotiates truces and offers amnesty to dacoits and terrorists to buy peace; fails to try the accused in communal riots; is unable to prevent gender or caste atrocities; is inept at combating corruption within politics, industry, civil service and indeed the judiciary – endeavours to shut out voices that speak in favour of preserving local culture, protecting the rights of the tiller, protest against exploitation, corruption and lack of basic infrastructure? How is it that this land of the Buddha, Mahavira and Gandhi now turns a blind eye and deaf ear to the thousands of farmers who commit suicide in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh?
Is it then surprising that so many youth, not just the adivasis of Chhattisgarh, are losing faith in the nature of the present state?
Sen has, on several occasions, said that he does not support violence. At the same time, he has strongly spoken against the harsh and illegal activities of the salwa judum that he believes is splitting adivasi society. The salwa judum is an illegal body of thugs that has been formed at the behest of government to “handle” the adivasis who speak against it. Sen has been in touch with Narayan Sanyal, a jailed Marxist ideologue, but this has always been with the formal permission, and in the presence, of the jail authorities. Does this warrant a charge of sedition and life imprisonment? It is reported that he carried letters to the Maoists from Sanyal. These letters need to be published to expose the crudity of the trumped up charges.
Add to this the statement of the director-general of Chhattisgarh police who said his belief is that “dalit movements, women’s empowerment movements, human rights movements, environmental protection movements” are all suspect because Naxalites want to penetrate and hijack “movements not linked with CPI(Maoist)”. Are these statements acceptable coming from the senior-most echelons of civil administration?
Iqbal once said: “Jis khet se dehkan ko mayyassar nahi roti, Us khet ke har gosha-e-gandum ko jalaa do” (burn every stalk of grain from the fields that cannot provide food to the tiller). Naxalism is a shrill alarm of what the future holds and indeed a hint that India Inc travel beyond the glamour of rapid GDP growth towards a state where people are able to participate more and get a greater share of the fruits of its growth.
The writer is vice-chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia.
http://www.freebinayaksen.org/?p=1336
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