EVERY 10 TH Adivasi of Jharkhand’s Pathalgadi area
charged with sedition!!
People stand up against
violations of Constitutional rights of
Adivasis and use of sedition law as
tool for repression!
Representatives of several
people’s organizations from across
Jharkhand gathered today at Raj
Bhavan to protest against the
severe violations of Constitutional
rights of Adivasis of Khunti district
and the use of the sedition law as
an instrument of repression. The
dharna was organized by
Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha,
a network of activists and people’s
organizations. The dharna was
attended by representatives of
several organizations - Adivasi
women’s Network, Samajwadi Jan
Parishad, Right to Food Campaign,
Bagaicha, Jan Sangharsh Samiti,
TRTC, Jharkhand Kisan Parishad,
NAPM, Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas
Andolan, National Domestic
W orkers Union, Van Adhikar
Manch, Sarvodaya Mitra Mandal
and so on. Several activists of the
state – Arvind Avinash, Jean Dreze,
B B Choudhary, Siraj Dutta, Jerome
Kujur, Elina Horo, Bineet Mundu,
David Solomon, Ambika Yadav,
Jacinta Kerketta,Ranjeet Kindo,
Saroj Hembram, Vinod Kumar,
George Monippally, Vishwanath
Azad, Sushma Biruli – participated
in the dharna.
In the last two years, several
Adivasi villages of the district,
primarily in Khunti, Arki and Murhu
blocks, dia ‘Pathalgadi’. Based on
traditional practice of the Munda
community and drawing from
Constitutional provisions of Fifth
Schedule and the Panchayat
(Extension to Scheduled Areas ) Act
(PESA), stone plaques (pathals),
painted with legal guarantees for
Adivasis and rules formulated by
the Gram Sabha, were erected at
the entrance of the villages. The
18
stone slabs quote sections of the
Indian Constitution and PESA that
give special protections to Adivasis
and recognize the Gram Sabha as
the basis of self-rule in tribal-
dominated areas. For example,
Adivasis have the primary right
over their natural resources – Jal,
Jangal, Zameen. The plaques also
mention some locally formed rules
such as restricted entry to
outsiders. Some interpretations of
the Constitutional provisions,
mentioned on the slabs, are
definitely unusual and also, may
be, impractical.
Instead of attempting to
dialogue with the people of these
villages on these interpretations,
and
their
demands,
the
government has responded with
severe repression and violence. In
2018, police raided several villages
that had done pathalgadi. It
attacked Ghaghra village in Murhu
during a Pathalgadi ceremony.
They vandalized houses and
severely beat people, including
women, children and a deaf man.
One pregnant woman who was
beaten delivered a baby with
disabilities. Two persons were shot;
one of whom died. Many other
Pathalgadi villages also saw police
violence in the last two years. The
police has randomly picked up
villagers on the pretext of
“questioning” them. Police camps
have been setup in at least nine
schools and two community
buildings, without the permission of
the respective Gram Sabhas.
Terming Pathalgadi as a
wrong interpretation of Consti-
tutional provisions, the police has
charged 30,000 unnamed people
under several draconian laws,
including sedition. According to the
government, almost 10% of the
total population of the three blocks
is anti-national! People of the
region are not able to freely share
violations of their rights as they are
scared that they may be named in
FIRs. Jean Dreze, addressed the
dharna, and said, “The brutal
manner in which the Jharkhand
government is dealing with the
pathalgadi movement is a case of
gross over-reaction to legitimate
and nonviolent demands from the
local adivasis. The tradition of self-
government in Khunti should be
valued and celebrated.”
The
government
also
considers people who raise
questions on violations of Adivasi
rights as seditious. Jharkhand
government charged 20 people,
including activists, writers and
journalists, with sedition only
because they had raised
questions, on social media, on the
government’s actions in Pathalgadi
villages and attack on Adivasi
rights. Recently, warrants were
issued against four of them – Stan
Swamy, Vinod Kumar, Aloka Kujur
and Rakesh Roshan Kido – who
have always fought for Adivasi
rights. Well known poet Jacinta
Kerketta said, “ the government
should stop labeling voices of
dissent as sedition. It is a violation
of right to expression”.
The assertion of Khunti’s
people through Pathalgadi has
roots in the long history of
alienation of land and exploitation
of Adivasis in Jharkhand. Based on
conservative estimates, at least 1.5
million people have been displaced
in the state due to alienation of land
between 1951 and 1995. Of these,
41% were Adivasis. In the last few
decades, Khunti district itself has
seen several attempts for forceful
acquisition of land for various
projects such as construction of
Koel-Karo hydroelectric dams and
Class Struggle