[Reader-list] Forwarding Sudhanva Deshpande's mail...
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
shuddha at sarai.net
Thu Nov 22 00:56:42 IST 2007
Dear all,
I am posting below, my reply to Sudhanva's rejoinder that was forwarded
on to this list by me, and by Subasri Krishnan. Apologies in advance for
its length.
regards,
Shuddha
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Little Biology, A little Arithmetic, And a lot of Politics
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
Dear Sudhanva,
*A Biology Lesson*
The discussion on Nandigram is heading in interesting directions across
lists and blogs, (even as the Army walks the talk in Kolkata tonight)
and I find this situation of accumulating discursive intensity actually
very productive. Let a hundred rejoinders blossom, and a few good
schools of thought contend. So I welcome your rejoinder and criticism of
my text. And I for one, stand chastised by your incisive criticism of my
posts (responding to your earlier writing) on the reader-list, and on
Kafila.
Clearly, I did not pay as much attention to Biology textbooks as I
should have in high school. Reptilia are indeed vertebrates (albeit with
remarkably supple and flexible spines, that bend with ease and elegance,
not unlike the spines of some of those that I listed) and a Phylum are
indeed not a Species. In my opinion, in this case, it is only a matter
of academic interest for the biologist as to whether the spines in
question are elastic or absent, but since the point has been laboured, I
am happy to concede. I am all for precision in argument.
Had I actually worked harder on making my prose more precise than purple
- and therefore tended towards underlining the 'absence' as opposed to
the elasticity of the spine in the leading lights amongst the fellow
travellers of the Consolidated Promotors of India (Militant) I would
have gestured towards Arthropoda, Crustacea, Mollusca and other
invertebrates. Not doing so, was an unforgivable error on my part.
Thank you Com.Deshpande for pointing out this taxonomical error. You
have actually helped me refine my argument. I stand corrected. Sudhanva,
dear readers, please do insert the phrase 'Arthroproda' wherever the
words 'Reptilia' occur in the concerned posting. Better still, choose
whichever invertebrate family you fancy, depending on the specific
character of spinelessness of those 'activists' who said in their
statement in the Hindu a few days ago that further 'agitation in
Nandigram is unwarranted'. Then hit the 'find and replace all' commands
on your word processing programmes.
*Nodding at Verifiable Facts*
Having said that, let me return, inspired by your urging, to the urgent
task of an 'occasional nod at verifiable facts.
In your rejoinder, you say "...I said that 14 died on March 14, and, as
many on the Left have said, this was 14 too many. I have faced police
brutality a number of times while protesting, and I am no fan of it. I
am perfectly willing to believe that the number exceeds 14. "
I am glad to see that your arithmetic is as capable of improvement as my
biology. Because the statement - "I am perfectly willing to believe that
the number exceeds 14 " - is a significant step forward from your
previous ZNet communique, which while mentioning the question of the
'numbers' of the dead baldly stated - "In the firing of March 14, it
was alleged that "hundreds" were killed, women raped, children
butchered. It turned out that the number of dead was 14. Of these, 8
were killed in police firing, 6 died for other reasons, including one
person who died because a bomb he was holding went off. Since January,
one has heard of "hundreds," even "thousands" dead and missing. This is
simply not true."
Reading the above, where all numbers other than 14, are only cited in
hundreds and thousands (and therefore easy to dismiss) one could have
formed the impression that you mean that it is 'simply not true' that
the number of casualties could have been more than 14.
It is also 'simply not true' that 'since January' all that 'we' have
heard is accounts of 'hundreds, even thousands' killed. Neither
hundreds, nor thousands are likely to have died on March 14. And the
reports that carry with them the greatest credence, the APDR, PBKMS and
MASUM reports, do not speculate wildly and irresponsibly about the
numbers of the dead and missing. Which is why I agreed with you that any
comparison of the scale of violence with Gujarat was misplaced and
exaggerated.
In your rejoinder you say - "All I am asking for is: where are the
lists of those dead or missing? Masum supplied to the Asian Human Rights
Commission a list of 11 dead, and there were fears that the number would
be higher. For seven-and-a-half-months, from March 14 to end of October,
Nandigram was out of bounds for CPI (M) supporters. Surely, this was
enough time to figure out who was missing. As I wrote in my commentary,
the one list submitted to the court turned out to be a fraud. If you
have come across any other list, please do let me know. Sanhati doesn't
have a list, by the way, so don't bother with that." You also say "Not a
single child's body has been found. Not a single child is reported missing."
*Lists of Lists*
Where, indeed are the lists of the dead and missing? Unfortunately, I
have to report that there are lists available. They name several amongst
the missing, and they cite places where the unidentified dead may be
lying buried, or where their corpses may have been disposed of. In fact
one can even begin constructing a 'list of lists' of this nature.
But before we get to the lists, a few thoughts on identification. In any
exercise of identifying missing people, one has to tally the names,
residences and other known details pertinent to a number of people in a
given area, with census records, land records, police records, FIRs,
electoral rolls and other administrative data. The list of the missing
or the unclaimed dead in any situation is extremely difficult to
construct given the reluctance of a hostile government machinery to
undertake such an excercise or to allow for any transparency into its
own records. For one, across India (and this is not specific to West
Bangal) attacks against ruling party activist routinely show up in FIR
records in police stations, but attacks against opposition activists by
ruling pary members tend to be less frequently acknowledged. Missing
children, as we know from Nithari, are often 'missing' from police
records. The fact of their disappearance, also disappears because they
leave no paper trail. Their parents, if they are not millionaires are
not known to be entertained at Police Stations. Children do not figure
on electoral rolls, or government muster rolls, or revenue records. It
is not surprising that there is a 'paper' silence about missing children
in Nandigram, there was a 'paper' silence about missing children in
Nithari, and it took the stench of bones to break that silence. Files,
and the record rooms of police stations, may speak, but they generally
end up telling only one side of the story, and often only one set of
numbers gets tallied.
Since the issue of children as casualties has been brought up by
Sudhanva, let me here quote verbatim some of the statements given in the
APDR-PKBMS report
"...I also witnessed the police killing children and stuffing them in
sacks and taking them away" Kajal Gharai W/o Ratan Gharai. Residence-
Sonachura.
"... We wanted to save the children however the police started targeting
them and dragging them. They even kicked the children in the stomach
with their boots.." Renuka Bala Kar. W/o Sampada Kar. Residence- Gokulnagar
"....I witnessed women being dragged away by the police and they were
also throwing small children into the pond..."Satyabala Mandal W/o
Anadhi Mandal. Residence-Soudkhali Char
"......They killed children-they shot, hacked and even tore them apart
with their two legs..." Lata Mondal w/o Shakun Mondal. Residence-
Gokulnagar
I wanted to state this as baldly as possible in order to demonstrate
exactly what has been reported in the matter of children as casualties
in Nandigram.
The tumultous events of March 14 make clinical accounts difficult to
muster. However, lists, patchy, inadequate, contradictory, based on the
statements of affected people, relatives, neighbours and friends can
still be made. And they need to be refined and honed through persistent
investigation.
It is my case that such 'lists' do exist with regard to Nandigram.
*The Missing*
For one, the list submitted by MASUM (Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha -
Human Rights Protection Forum) to the Asian Human Rights Commission does
incidentally contain a list of 19 missing. They are named. Here are the
19 names.
1. Mr. Subrata Patra, son of Mr. Lalu Patra of Sonachura village
2. Mrs. Basanti Kar, wife of Gora Chand Kar of Sonachura village
3. Mr. Subrata Samanta alias Gura, son of Pranab Samanta of Sonachura
village
4. Mr. Musaraf Khan, son of Kaked Khan Nathchirachar
5. Mr. Badal Mondal, son of Gobardhan Mondal of 7 Jalpai village
6. Mrs. Sabitri Bijoli, wife of Sudarshan Bijoli of Sonachura village
7. Mr. Ratikanta Das, son of Surendra Das of 7 Jalpai village
8. Mr. Durga Pada Mondal of Roynagar village
9. Mr. Rabindra Nath Das, son of Bhanu Das of 7 Jalpai village
10. Mr. Subrata Bijoli, son of Late Sudarshan of Sonachura village
11. Mr. Proloy Giri, son of Loba Giri of South Khali village
12. Mrs. Kalibala Patra, wife of Nishi Patra of Kalicharanpur village
13. Mrs. Swapna Patra, wife of Bidhan Patra of Kalicharanpur village
14. Mrs. Srimati Das, wife of Panchanan Das of Kalicharanpur village
15. Mrs. Kalpana Patra, wife of Bibhuti Patra of Kalicharanpur village
16. Mrs. Basanti Bala Kar, wife of Gora Chand Kar of Kalicharanpur village
17. Mr. Tapas Kar, son of Gora Chand Kar of Kalicharanpur village
18. Mr. Panchanan Das, son of Gunadhar of Keshabpur village
19. Mr. Imadul alias Raja, son of Manirul Islam of Jadubari Chowk village
This list is available on the MASUM website at
http://www.masum.org.in/list.HTM
This list is also quoted on the Asian Human Rights Commission webpage at
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2007/2276/
The APDR-PBKMS report has its own list of the 'missing', it mentions the
number of 28 missing reported in two days of investigation, and names
the following. The investigators state that since this list is based are
the accounts that they heard in their brief span of two days in the
area, their list is likely to feature a lower figure than was really the
case. In all likelihood, there are many more who went missing on March
14, 2007
For the sake of precision, here are the details, and wherever possible,
names and provenances of the missing detailed in this extract taken from
the APDR-PBKMS report. The discerning reader will not fail to notice
that several amongst those reported missing are alleged to be children.
a) Basanti Utthasin 60 years w/o Montu Utthasin Village Sonachura
Cannot find any of her family members , except for 1 child
b) 3 children of Anubha Khanra, wife of Rasbihari Khanra, village Sonachura
c) The Mahatos of Sonachura Village
Joydeb Mahato S/o Gobindo Mahato
Sandhya Rani Mahato w/o Joydeb Mahato
Bishu Mahato (age 12) S/o Joydeb Mahato
Pooja Mahato (age 8) D/o Joydeb Mahato
Sukhdev Mahato S/o Gobindo Mahato
Arati Mahato w/o Sukhdev Mahato
Musha Mahato S/o Sukhdev Mahato
(all of village Sonachura)
d) Badal Chandra Mandal S/o late Gobardhan Mondal,Village 7 Nambar
Jalpai is missing .He was last seen with bullet wounds on stomach and leg
e) Salil Das Adhikary, Purnima Das Adhikary, Animesh das Adhikary(9
years). Atanau Das Adhikary (7 years), Aparna Das Adhikary( 3 years)
f) Mangal Das, son of Shakti Das, village Gokulnagar
Prabhanjan Maity and daughter Sabitri Bijli w/o Sudarshan Bijli
g)Panchanan Das, S/O Gunadhar Das, Barkeshabpur, Nandigram
h)Pushpendu Mondal, S/O Beni Madhab Mondal, Vill – Gangra, Nandigram
i))Joydeb Das, S/O Haradhan Das, Sonachura, Nandigram.
j) Basanti Kar, W/O Gora Chand Kar, Kalicharanpur
*The Unclaimed and Unidentified Dead*
The report goes on to add "Meanwhile, there is confirmed information
that 27 additional dead bodies were found near the Haldi River near
Nandigram."
There is also another grisly list of locally confirmed as well as likely
locations of unclaimed dead bodies in and around Nandigram in the
aftermath of the 14th of March this year. This list forms a part of a
report prepared by the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights
(APDR) and Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity (PBKMS). Incidentally,
contrary to your assertion, it is available on the Sanhati.org site.
Perhaps you have not had the time to look hard enough for it. Here is
the url.
http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/nandigram_final_report.pdf.
The section of the report titled 'Concealing of Dead Bodies' merits a
lengthy quotation -
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FROM THE APDR-PBKMS REPORT
"The CPI (M) - police combine disposed off 5 bodies in the septic tank
of the latrine at Janani Brick field, Khejuri . Several bodies were
earlier carried from Bhangabera and Tekhali areas to Khejuri and from
there to Naya Char. At 8 PM on the 15th night, launches came from the
Haldia Satkar Samity to Naya Char and the dead bodies were transferred
to these launches. Soon after, the bodies were burnt on the other side
of the river.
A pick up van was used to take bodies from Tekhali to Heria, after which
their destination was not known.Some bodies were buried in a sunflower
field near
Sonachura by Sudanghsu Samanta of Sonachura and his men. On hearing that
a CBI team was coming, the bodies were transferred and buried under a bamboo
bridge nearby . Local people would be able to give the exact location.
A ground floor room in the Khejuri College had been used as a store
house for 4 bodies. After hearing that the CBI team was coming they
tried to transfer these
bodies out but had not been able to do so, as the police was no longer
so cooperative.
Bodies of three children were found in a pond to the south of
Bhangabera, two floating in the pond and one on the side. When villagers
went to recover the
bodies, they were refused access by the police. Journalists had also not
been allowed to go to the spot.
According to Abdus Sammad of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC)
Bodies of children and others had been buried under the earth that was
used to fill up a trench near the Bhangabera Bridge.
Bodies had also been buried around Shankar Samanta's house in
Bhangabera. He also informed the CBI team about the same, but they
refused to dig up the earth
in the trench. However they did find blood stains and women's and girls'
clothes and undergarments in Shankara Samanta's premises.
The were corroborated by Sumit Sinha and Mohidul also activists of the
Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee and many others.
That the above spots are the likely places where the bodies of a large
number of missing persons, feared to have been killed have been
corroborated by many
people with whom the team interacted.
According to Sukumar Mitra, a journalist working with the Dainik Statesman,
Two bodies had been found in Geokhali by the 19th of March, which could
be of those killed in the police-cum-goons firing. one dead body and a
unconscious person had been found in Uluberia who could again be of
those killed. A mangrove forest in Kadirabad Char was a possible place
for disposal of bodies as that was being used as a safe haven by armed
CPI(M) men . Bodies could have been burnt in Kalinagar and near Rasulpur
Ghat, as it was known that these spots were used for disposal of bodies
at earlier times. Meen Dwip near Naya Char had been used for the burning
of bodies. Furnaces of 7 brick fields (including Shibani and Janani
brick fields) and 2 tile factories in Khejuri on the other side of
Talpati Canal have been used for disposal of bodies."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Forensic Politics*
The Shibani and Janani Brick Fields, Khejuri; Nayachar; a Sunflower farm
in Sonachua; a bamboo bridge in Sonachura; Khejuri college; Bhangabera;
Geokhali; a mangrove forest in Kadirabad Char; Kalinagar; Rasulpur Chat;
Meen Dwip in Nayachar; 2 tile factories on the other sie of the Talpati
Canal - all these are real places. All that needs to be done is a little
mapping, a little excavation, a little forensics. In all likelihood, we
are looking at numbers way above fourteen. If we count however many
still remain missing from the original list of nineteen missing, add the
27 unclaimed and unidentifiable bodies in the Haldi river, add the 5
bodies found in the Janani Brick Fields, 2 bodies in Geokhali and 1 in
Uluberia . We get 34 bodies in total. To which remain to be added the
possible numbers buried in mass graves, or cremated, or thrown into the
sea and the rivers. Reasonable estimates, given the pattern and scale of
violence on that single day could make the numbers range anywhere from
fifty to a hundred.
The world over, from Rwanda to Congo to Sri Lanka to Cambodia to
Argentina to Iraq to Bosnia - the discipline of forensic anthropology
has actually yielded concrete results in terms of finding mass graves,
and the accumulated evidence of the hasty and hurried disposal of bodies
- which often accompanies mass violence.If, as the CPI(M) and its
apologists have claimed, there was no mass killing in Nandigram and its
environs on the 14thof march, they should have nothing to fear from an
independent and professional forensic investigation. For one, DNA
analysis of remains could also help identify the dead, and consequently
point towards who killed them.
*The West Bengal High Court's Judgement on Nandigram*
Meanwhile, the West Bengal High Court, has, as of the 16th of November,
rejected all all arguments of the West Bengal government and held that
the action of the police on March 14th was wholly unconstitutional and
cannot be justified. The court has also ordered a CBI enquiry into the
incident. There are no guarantees, but It is possible,that an
independent and professional forensic investigation in the Nandigram
region, were it to become a part of the now mandatory CBI enquiry, could
yield evidence of a nature that might be deeply troubling for the ruling
party in West Bengal. It will be time, in any case, to revisit all the
sites that have been mentioned in the APDR - PBKMS and MASUM reports,
and interview all those individuals who have been named and quoted in
great detail in these reports. For this to occur, it is necessary that
the invesitgators be allowed to function without fear or favour.
See -
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070033028&ch=11/17/2007%2012:45:00%20AM
- for a report detailing this news on NDTV.
The West Bengal government, in its wisdom, has said that it is
considering an appeal in the Supreme Court against the 16th November
High Court decision. It has, after all, the precedence before it of the
way in which the CBI enquiries in Gujarat began to unravel the carefully
constructed edifice of 'terrorist encounter deaths' in that state.
*A 'Conservative' Estimate*
Whatever the case may be. Let us be conservative. Let us say perhaps
'only' fifty people of the 'anti-CPI(M)' camp, were killed on or around
that single day of the 14th of March. We are not here, taking into
account subsequent incidents of sporadic violence in the months after
March. Then we look at the much touted list of 27 CPI (M) supporters
dead over a period of 11 months from January to November this year, and
we begin to get a sense of where the actual brunt of violence in
Nandigram comes from.
At a highly conservative estimate, the State government's police forces,
in connivance with the CPI(M) machine, in a single day, killed more than
twice the number of people that the opposition felled over 11 months. I
am nowhere suggesting that the agitation at Nandigram was peaceful, or
non-violent, nor do I expect it to have been so. Peasant and subaltern
disaffection over land, revenue or tax revolts against authority,
wherever it occurs, whether in Chauri-Chaura in 1922, Tebhaga in Bengal
in 1946, or Naxalbari in Bengal in 1967 - tend towards violence, often
as a measure to defend the gains of the immediate results of peasant
and/or subaltern appropriation of property or resources. That the people
of Nandigram, in enforcing a social boycott of the forces they saw as
threatening their livelihoods, or even by defending their land from
perceived threats of alienation by a vastly better equipped and armed
force, may have taken to violence is neither surprising, nor, in my
view, particularly reprehensible.
After all, if, as per the CPI(M) line, the state government was sincere
in its intention to actually not grab land in an unfair manner in West
Bengal, then, following from the early days of March, all that the
CPI(M) would have needed to do was to say to its 'own' people in
Nandigram -
"There has been a mistake, 'our party' has made that mistake, and 'we'
will rectify it by ensuring that those in the party at the local level
who were pushing for that mistake would be made accountable."
In what transpired, no sign of contrition or self criticism came from
the local party unit. Nothing changed on the ground. The men who had
been rooting for the Salim Chemical Hub in Nandigram and at the State
level, the Lakshman Seth-Bijoy Konar network in Nandigram-Haldia, and
their masters in Kolkata, continued to function as they had always done,
with impunity. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the
people of Nandigram thought that the only option available to them lay
in an armed defence of their land.
*On Notices*
Finally, at the risk of repetition, let me try and answer your question
about land and notices -
"Is a notice that informs the public of an intention to acquire land the
same as a notice that actually acquires the land? Surely not."
Let's try and get to grips with this by means of an analogy. When a
judge informs a defendent that they will be hanged till they are dead on
such and such a date, they are not hanging the accused. They are
informing the accused of the fact that he will be hanged. But the impact
of a death sentence, and the impact of an official (but yet somehow
retrospectively 'informal') notice that land will be acquired are
remarkably similar. They seal the fate of the future, for the person who
will die, or lose his land. In fact the certitude that such a
prounouncement brings in its wake is in some ways far more cruel than
the actual act itself. The prisoner on death row who has lost his last
appeal is as good as dead. All he can do is either bide is time or make
a run for it by trying to enact a jail-break. The people of Nandigram
were trying to make a run for it, trying to enact a jail-break by acting
against the notice that came their way. Their actions may have been
desparate and they may not have always made the best chocies of allies,
but we have to ask, seriously, what options did they have?
*Anti-Shanti*
Finally, Sudhanva, I have actually never made a secret of the fact that
I consider myself very much on the left. And my definition of left wing
politics does not have to devolve to a 'one size fits all number' that
has you and me chafing together in the same narrow space. To you,
whatever is left of what you believe in, to me my understanding of where
exactly I stand on the left, for which I do not see how exactly I have
to owe you an explanation.
It is just that I do not treat whatever may be my political commitment
as a form of inherited property, which I must jealously guard against
those that I consider to be encroachers. Or as we might say in the crude
language of the street which you rightly read in my anger, 'Marxvaad, ya
Communism, kisi saale ki baap ki jaagir to hai nahin, ki aap harap lo
aur ham harapne dein'.
I have never thought that you, or the CPI(M) are not the left. It is
rather my contention that today the CPI(M) acts as the effective left
hand of capital, just as Social-Democracy and State Capitalist
tendencies of different varieties have done in many parts of the world,
in different epochs.
You want 'patriotic' nuclear weapons (so does the BJP) you want a big
tough state (so does the BJP) , you want your culture minister to be
your police minister to be your chief minister (so alas, does the BJP).
I don't want ministers, I don't want nuclear weapons, or a big tough
state. This difference between what you want and what I want does not
mean that we are not both on the left. Its just that we have very
different points of departure in terms of how we define the space of the
left. We come to it from different ends, for radically different
purposes. You come to make the state your own, I come expecting,
desiring, working to make it to wither away.
Rather than quibble over which corner of the Left suits our contrary
predelictions, I am more interested in seeing whether your actions place
you behind the guns, the barricades of the police and the well oiled
apparatus of the party-state, and the spin that emanates from the CC or
PB or whichever alphabetical combination your have going for you at the
moment, or whether you choose a place confronting them. For me,
thinking about that location is more important than whether one is to
the left or right of any arbitrarily chosen centre of nominally left
wing gravity.
I sincerely hope that, as someone who wears his radicalism flamboyantly
on his sleeve, you will find it in you someday to cross that line and
move from being behind the guns, the lies and the spin-doctoring to
standing with people who happen to be in front of them, and with those
who are in solidarity with them. If and when that happens you will find
many comrades, me amongst them, and even your ideas of what constitutes
freedom, dignity and equality might find unexpected ports of anchorage
in critical but respectful challenge. I actually look forward to that
happening, and hope that it does not take that many more Nandigrams to
make you cross that line. Until that happens, until you walk rather than
crawl, until you are so disabused, I am afraid, there will only be more
abuse from the likes of me.
sincerely,
Shuddha
-----------------
*Nandigram and the riddle of Nayachar*
PS: I have been intrigued at the great urgency with which operation
'Recover Nandigram' was realized. It is true that Buddhadev
Bhattacharya had said that the proposed chemical hub would not be
located in Nandigram if people did not want it. There was even talk of
another site - 'Nayachar', which is not far from Nandigram. But the
'Nayachar' option began palling. The geological surveys of the site
found a great deal of problems that needed longer periods of study
before any definitive decision could be made about siting a Chemical
complex on the soil of Nayachar.
see - the following reports in the Telegraph of a Geological Survey of
India team's visit in September this year to Nayachar
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070913/asp/bengal/story_8311582.asp
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070914/asp/bengal/story_8316158.asp
Further, the central government made it clear that siting the complex
on Nayachar would be in clear violation of environmental regulations
pertaining to the protection of the ecology and environment of the
deltaic coast.
see - the following reports in the Financial Express and the Times of
India on the environmental regulatory hurdles to the Nayachar proposal
that have very recently come to light
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Green-hurdle-to-Bengals-Nayachar-hub-plan/232799/
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Centre_spanner_in_Nayachar_hub_plan/rssarticleshow/2493913.cms
Consequently, is it possible that attention was once again focussed on
Nandigram as a site, and therefore, a comprehensive operation to
engineer consent for the land acquisition had to be put in place, in
order to placate and address the restlessness of those who represented
the interests of the Salim Group of Industries in the corridors of power
in West Bengal?
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