11-15-2005, 03:34 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Nov 14 2005, 10:41 AM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Nov 14 2005, 10:41 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Maoists storm Jehanabad jail, kill 2</b>http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/nov/14bihar...?q=tp&file=.htm
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â District Magistrate Rana Avadhesh told a press conference here that three bodies, believed to be of kidnapped men of the 'Ranvir Sena', a banned militia of upper caste landowners locked in a feud with the Naxalites for over a decade, were recovered from the railway track near the jail.â<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The issue is coming across as an upper caste VS a lower caste fight.
There is some truth in this.
What is a deeper truth, is this is a leftover, from the old Zamindari/ feudal system, that existed in Rajastan, Andhra, Eastern U.P
In the Punjab and Western U.P, the Zamindari system never really took hold, and when abolished, first in the Punjab under Sir Chotu Ram, and then in U.P and Rajastan by Charan Singh and others, the farmers (or Kisans) got back the land they farmed, which had been hitherto given to a Zamindar. The zamindar was also known as a Thakur, or a Talukdar.
His function was collect revenue; pay a certain portion of the Government of the day( whether Islamic , Hindu or British). He, the Zamindar, had full rights over the rest of the revenue, the land, the people themselves. The people had no rights, not even to build a âpuccaâ house, or to cut a tree, or even dig a well. If the married they had to pay a cess, if they had a baby they had to pay a cess, if they died, and wanted their children to succeed to same dreary fields, and the daily grind, they had to pay a cess. They were taxed up to 98% of their income, and were reduced to total servitude.
The government of the day, first the islamics, and later the British, were only interested in the revenue, and confirmed by law, the status of the Zamindar, and thereby his total stranglehold on the now serfs and peasants.
To add to this, these Zamindars were largely absentee landlords. Their passion was âspending moneyâ and as a consequence they were largely in debt to the local moneylender or Mahajan.
Under this combination of the Zamindar, the moneylender, and the Administration, the poor peasant/serf, his family, his women, and children were ground into a demeaning existence- to a nothing.
Not many know that slavery was legal in Bihar and Bengal until Independence. This slavery has only continued.
This then a large part of the root cause for the social tensions that have gripped Eastern U. P., Bihar, Andhra.
Where Zamindari was effectively abolished, as in Rajasthan, -we see an increasingly productive society.
In Punjab, Haryana, and Western U.P., the Zamindari never really took hold, as these areas were largely republican and had fought off the would be Zamindars
People who are under economic and social stress will turn to other outlets. If society will not provide them with an outlet for their social and economic dreams then rebellions will occur.
Indian Naxalism is just that.
90% of India is still rural, and that is where most of our people live, and draw their day to day survival income.
Yet, sadly, what we have come to see, is not any progress in land reforms in these troubled areas, but rather confirmation of Zamindari rights to the new Zamindars- the politicians and bureaucrats of the day.
To compound it, it is portrayed as a caste war.
Ravi Chaudhary
[right][snapback]41140[/snapback][/right]
â District Magistrate Rana Avadhesh told a press conference here that three bodies, believed to be of kidnapped men of the 'Ranvir Sena', a banned militia of upper caste landowners locked in a feud with the Naxalites for over a decade, were recovered from the railway track near the jail.â<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The issue is coming across as an upper caste VS a lower caste fight.
There is some truth in this.
What is a deeper truth, is this is a leftover, from the old Zamindari/ feudal system, that existed in Rajastan, Andhra, Eastern U.P
In the Punjab and Western U.P, the Zamindari system never really took hold, and when abolished, first in the Punjab under Sir Chotu Ram, and then in U.P and Rajastan by Charan Singh and others, the farmers (or Kisans) got back the land they farmed, which had been hitherto given to a Zamindar. The zamindar was also known as a Thakur, or a Talukdar.
His function was collect revenue; pay a certain portion of the Government of the day( whether Islamic , Hindu or British). He, the Zamindar, had full rights over the rest of the revenue, the land, the people themselves. The people had no rights, not even to build a âpuccaâ house, or to cut a tree, or even dig a well. If the married they had to pay a cess, if they had a baby they had to pay a cess, if they died, and wanted their children to succeed to same dreary fields, and the daily grind, they had to pay a cess. They were taxed up to 98% of their income, and were reduced to total servitude.
The government of the day, first the islamics, and later the British, were only interested in the revenue, and confirmed by law, the status of the Zamindar, and thereby his total stranglehold on the now serfs and peasants.
To add to this, these Zamindars were largely absentee landlords. Their passion was âspending moneyâ and as a consequence they were largely in debt to the local moneylender or Mahajan.
Under this combination of the Zamindar, the moneylender, and the Administration, the poor peasant/serf, his family, his women, and children were ground into a demeaning existence- to a nothing.
Not many know that slavery was legal in Bihar and Bengal until Independence. This slavery has only continued.
This then a large part of the root cause for the social tensions that have gripped Eastern U. P., Bihar, Andhra.
Where Zamindari was effectively abolished, as in Rajasthan, -we see an increasingly productive society.
In Punjab, Haryana, and Western U.P., the Zamindari never really took hold, as these areas were largely republican and had fought off the would be Zamindars
People who are under economic and social stress will turn to other outlets. If society will not provide them with an outlet for their social and economic dreams then rebellions will occur.
Indian Naxalism is just that.
90% of India is still rural, and that is where most of our people live, and draw their day to day survival income.
Yet, sadly, what we have come to see, is not any progress in land reforms in these troubled areas, but rather confirmation of Zamindari rights to the new Zamindars- the politicians and bureaucrats of the day.
To compound it, it is portrayed as a caste war.
Ravi Chaudhary