[Marxism] An Overview of Lalgarh: A Hopeful Spark

[milongonsinga]

An Overview of Lalgarh: A Hopeful Spark
By Sam Shell
And the riot be the rhyme of the unheard…
- Zack de la Rocha
Background of the Movement

At this moment an incredible event is taking place in the West Midnapore district of West Bengal. Before the eruption, this sleepy area was little known except to its own inhabitants. Now, a people’s movement of unprecedented size to West Bengal has risen from the suffering of its adivasi (tribal) inhabitants, galvanizing the region, and shocking greater India. This movement has been popularly termed “the Lalgarh uprising.”
A map of the Midnapore district
Although one could accurately say the point of eruption of this rebellion occurred early in November of 2008, it is necessary to step back further in order to appreciate the context within which these events have unfolded. Lalgarh is an incredibly impoverished area of West Bengal. It contains one well-developed road—built to accommodate police—that is of little use to its indigenous inhabitants to whom even a motorbike is a rarity. Neither clean water nor electricity is available. Police brutality was a regular occurrence where villagers were detained and tortured for little or no reason—some singled out for repeated horrific abuse. (De, 2008) For many years the State promised development in the area, yet little to none was seen.
In 2007, the Jindal Steel Group was given rights to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) [see note A] for steel production and was awarded a huge portion of land (different reports claim figures somewhere between 4,500 and 5,000 acres). Large sections of these lands were tribal lands, supposedly protected by law for allocation to the indigenous people through a land-reform program. When the development began, adivasi people were displaced, and due to the specter environmental damage, many of their livelihoods were threatened. For years the system had abandoned these people, leaving them under the boot petty bureaucrats to live as paupers and subjected to every imaginable abuse. Then, in a final act of force, it sought to drive them off of the only land they knew. This callous act was no less that applauded by the ruling powers of the area. After word spread of the land rights being granted to Jindal Steel Group, the region shook choking with outrage.
 (Bhattacharyya, 2009)
Full: http://mikeely.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/sam-shell-lagarhs-hopeful-spark/

 
"To be radical is to grasp the root of the matter", Marx.