Land Dispossession and Everyday Politics in Rural Eastern India by Kenneth Bo Nielsen

Author:Kenneth Bo Nielsen [Nielsen, Kenneth Bo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General, Sociology, Rural, Developing & Emerging Countries
ISBN: 9781783087495
Google: XV1PDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2018-02-22T04:13:03+00:00

The Decline of the SABKMS

When I left Singur in April 2008, my impression was that the relationship between the chasi SKJRC leadership and a section of Nadipara’s khet majur was tense. The semi-autonomous mobilization of the khet majur had been met with disapproval, reprisals and a general reluctance on the part of the SKJRC to grant public recognition of the fact that interests, meanings, knowledge and power differed within the movement along class-caste lines on key issues. Rumours had begun circulating about Ajay – widely seen as the person spearheading the khet majur mobilization – as a result of which he acquired a reputation for being a Maoist and someone whom one should not associate too closely with for fear of reprisals. Other rumours held that he had become an ‘agent of Tata Motors’, which had bribed him to wreck the movement from within, or that he was on the payroll of the PBKMS, on whose behalf he would soon start collecting chanda, which the poor khet majur could ill afford. Partly as a result of this, Ajay sometimes received a ‘cool welcome’ when he ventured into other villages to promote the SABKMS. This was particularly the case in chasi-dominated paras, where his work was met with veiled disapproval.

When I returned to Singur later in 2008, I soon learnt that the SABKMS had, for all practical purposes, ceased to function. When I enquired with Ajay about what had happened, he simply told me that they were no longer active. A similar fate had befallen the paper packet initiative. In place of the now-defunct SABKMS, the MKP had decided to continue its khet majur mobilization by trying to establish itself as a political party in Nadipara, and among Singur’s khet majur more broadly. In this way the MKP sought to keep alive its class-based politics both within and beyond the context of the anti-dispossession movement.

To consolidate its presence in the area the MKP organized a block meeting and district conference in Singur in December 2008. At the meeting, which was attended by Ajay and around a dozen other villagers from Nadipara, Asit explained that the MKP was a party that intended to fight to establish working-class domination in every sphere of society. Yet the MKP’s report to the district conference, drafted in advance, brought to light some of the difficulties the MKP had faced while trying to establish a foothold among the khet majur. The report spoke of the absence of local working-class leadership in the district; its total dependency on ‘political workers’ (such as Prabhat and Asit); a general failure to conduct regular meetings at the local level; and the inability to strengthen the organization ‘even a little bit’ at the grass-roots level. In light of these difficulties the district conference concluded by establishing a local committee to which Ajay was nominated, but when I spoke to Ajay, Gopal Maitri and two other khet majur from Nadipara the next day, none of them appeared enthusiastic about the MKP’s local prospects.

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