BREAKAWAY REPUBLICS
A hundred-odd tribal villages have declared independence by putting up stone slabs to mark areas where the government writ won’t run
A hundred-odd tribal villages have declared independence. Here, the government writ won’t run
CLOSE TO THE LONG, winding Khunti-Jamshedpur road, huge stone slabs have come up in villages to function as unofficial frontier check posts notifying that these tribal areas no longer consider themselves under the Government of India. The stone slabs—similar to pathalgadi or monoliths erected in the memory of forefathers—are being used to demarcate tribal settlements as autonomous villages under the gram sabha, defy the government, and bar outsiders from entering the area. While the state government, led by Chief Minister Raghubar Das, has said that pathalgadi is being used as secessionist tool by anti-national groups to mislead naive residents, the local tribals seem all ready to believe in the powers of their liberated little kingdoms.
One such monolith at the entrance of Udburu, south of the Khunti district headquarters on the Tamar-Khunti-Kolebira road, declares it a sovereign village. Inscribed on the slab is a warning about a ban on outsiders entering or doing any business inside the village. It also says that Parliament or the Government of India have no authority to govern Udburu or any other tribal village in Jharkhand; the rule of gram sabha (local village council) is above everything else. Paradoxically, they swear by the Constitution, yet oppose constitutional institutions.
Udburu is the native place of Adivasi Mahasabha leader Joseph Purti, who goes by the aliases ‘Professor’
and Yusuf. After the police arrested Vijay Kujur, 42, the alleged mastermind of the secessionist movement, in Delhi on March 18, Purti, a 38-yearold former college teacher, emerged as the main leader of the pathalgadi ‘movement’. Purti’s name figures on the wanted list of the police.
india today managed to enter Udburu with the help of two tribal youth from Ranchi, who had earlier met Purti. Immediately after walking inside, this team was accosted by a bunch of Munda youth, each one of them wielding a weapon—scythe, bow and arrows, axe, knife—and shouting in Mundari, the local dialect. An autorickshaw was parked right in front of our vehicle, blocking its exit. After a two-hour-plus wait in a school and with the locals somewhat satisfied with our identity papers, we were granted a meeting with Purti, who arrived riding pillion on a red scooter. The school bell was rung and within minutes, almost a hundred villagers, men and women, gathered at the place.
“The Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 1931 prohibits holding of any election in tribal areas. The gram sabha has the power of self-rule. As per India’s agreement with the British Empire, non-tribals were entitled to rule us only till 1969,” Purti claims. Invoking international charters, Purti says, “We can seek the direct intervention of the United Nations to establish our rule.” His followers agree. “Even the prime minister will have to seek the permission of the gram sabha to visit these areas,” shouts one of them. “This government is against tribals. They want to change the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act. But these are illegal acts, yet to be ratified by British Parliament,” continues Purti. It seems he has succeeded in brainwashing the villagers, who shout slogans like: “Na Lok Sabha, na Vidhan Sabha, sabse bada gram sabha (neither Parliament nor the assembly, gram sabha is the highest authority).” Their defiance is palpable as they brandish their crude weapons and fake guns. “If the state government does not listen to us, I will be forced to intimate the government of France. They are our friends. They can send troops to remove this government.” Wide-eyed tribals, shocked and enthralled in equal measure at Purti’s fantastic claim, cheer him. Purti then shows a white sheet with pictures of PM Narendra Modi, Queen Elizabeth and the Kohinoor diamond pasted on it. “Do you know Modi requested Britain to return Kohinoor to India? The British parliament did not give it back because he did not have the approval of the gram sabha.” And when india today referred to his audience as janta (public), Purti was quick to retort: “Don’t call them janta, they are the malik (master) of India. The Election Commission is illegally conducting polls in Fifth Schedule areas.”
Since August last year, pathalgadi events have been reported from 100 villages across Khunti, Chaibasa, Simdega and Seraikela Kharsawan districts, with 62 of these in Khunti district alone, and tribal settlements dotting the Murhu-Birbanki road—Tubil, Bahamwa, Sijuri, Tusunga, Sake, Totkora and others. “This may be a small number considering Jharkhand has more than 30,000 villages, but their leaders are poisoning impressionable minds with absurd ideas like the gram sabha’s power to hand over the area to the UN
“Antinational forces such as the PLFI are misleading the tribals.” RAGHUBAR DAS Jharkhand CM
and break away from India,” says a senior IPS officer in Ranchi.
Pathalgadi leaders have asked tribals to boycott polls, government schemes, schools and hospitals. A video clip of the Udburu school shows children being asked to abuse other communities. In August last year, 80 officials of the Khunti administration, including SP Ashwini Kumar Sinha, were held hostage for over 12 hours at Kanki village. In February this year, personnel from Arki police station were held hostage in Kurunga village after the arrest of one Sagar Munda for illegal opium cultivation in connivance with the banned People’s Liberation Front of India or PLFI, a splinter group of Maoists that controls Khunti and adjoining areas. Sagar had to be released under public pressure. The police and district officials are now reluctant to enter these villages.
Several of these villages are in areas where opium is cultivated illegally. The chief minister says the pathalgadi movement is linked to opium cultivation. Between January and March 2017, the police destroyed 1,550 acres of poppy cultivation in 40 villages under the Khunti Sadar, Murhu and Arki police stations. Another thousand acres of opium cultivation was destroyed in Chatra, Lateshar, Garhwa and Palamu districts. In May 2017, police seized a truckload of opium. According to Sinha, 1,200 acres of poppy cultivation has been destroyed this year besides 60 kg of semi-prepared opium recovered from Khunti and 17 persons sent to jail.
“Pathalgadi is a potent mixture of political aspirations of the PLFI and opium cultivation. It is a ploy to prevent the police from conducting anti-opium operations,” says Sinha. Another police officer in Khunti says, “Opium cultivation is profitable, people get Rs 1 lakh per acre. One kilo of unprocessed opium costs Rs 70,000. The money is distributed between the Maoists and the villagers.”
Opium is grown in the remote villages of Ranchi, Khunti, Gumla, Simdega, Latehar, Chatra and Palamu districts. On April 2, police arrested two opium dealers from Uttar Pradesh who were about to make an advance payment of Rs 70,000 to a local named Bichu Pahan. Purti backs opium cultivation. “The tribals have a right to choose what they wish to cultivate,” he says.
The chief minister has blamed the PLFI for pathalgadi. “There are some anti-national forces with fronts such as the PLFI, who are misleading the tribals. They are also inciting them against the country. The state government dubs it a secessionist tool of vested interests.”
The only official attempt so far to tackle the issue was a meeting Governor Droupadi Murmu had with 400 tribal chiefs on April 3. Even in this case, Purti and his associates managed to dissuade 40 tribal chiefs from going to Raj Bhavan.
The mistrust between the government and tribal groups began when the chief ninister proposed to amend the Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Acts to facilitate ‘non-farm’ use of holdings while keeping ownership intact, and hoping it would solve the problems of land acquisition. Many tribal villagers saw this as a ploy to take their land away, an impression reinforced by radical leaders. Around the same time, a group of tribals revived the Adivasi Mahasabha and started fanning secessionist sentiments.
Governor Murmu returned the bill in June 2017. In August 2017, the state government proposed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Jharkhand Amendment) Act, 2017. The state cabinet proposed to dilute the clause on compulsory social impact assessment in case of land acquired for public utility projects. The state government awaits the Centre’s nod on the issue.
However, Khunti Deputy Commissioner Suraj Kumar says the pathalgadi issue is being resolved. “We have initiated grassroots-level communication with the tribal chieftains. The administration will work in close coordination with the people and deliver.” Only the people have to be willing to listen.