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Scroll.in
25 minutes ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Erased from the record: The Adivasi freedom fighters of Bardoli
In 1927, the colonial British government announced a revision in the land tax rate in the Bardoli taluka of Surat district in South Gujarat. Citing factors such as increased land prices and agricultural wages, it declared that it was increasing the tax rate by 22%. The local population criticised this hike vociferously – they had, in fact, been hoping for a reduction, given that they were facing considerable economic hardship. The scholar and independence activist Mahadev Desai noted in his 1929 book The Story of Bardoli that the Taluka Congress Committee formed an inquiry committee which found that 'the agriculturist had no profits out of land which could sustain even the existing rate of assessment'. Local community leaders decided to protest by refusing to pay the land revenue the government was demanding. On February 4, 1928, the Bardoli Satyagraha was launched under Vallabhbhai Patel's leadership. It continued for six months until the government agreed to revise down the revenue rate and return the lands it had seized. Bardoli became one of the most successful peasant revolts the country had seen. Reflecting on its success in July 1929, Mohandas Gandhi wrote, 'Bardoli has shown the way and cleared it. Swaraj lies on that route alone and that alone is the cure for starvation.' In Lahore, The Tribune declared that the Bardoli struggle had shown that if all of India rose up 'as satyagrahis, the arms of the British government would prove a matter for mere jest'. The Chennai daily Swaraj described the people of Bardoli as 'the vanguard of the army of liberation of our enslaved country from perpetual thraldom'. But only few in this vanguard have been recognised in the historical memory of the Bardoli satyagraha. While the role of Patidar leaders such as Vallabhbhai Patel, Kuvarji Mehta and Kalyanji Mehta has been well documented, the participation of Adivasis of the region has been largely overlooked. 'Hundreds of Adivasis who were inspired by Gandhian leaders participated in the nationalist movement,' Arjun Vaghela, head of the history department at Gujarat University, wrote in a recently published paper in Hindi after conducting research about Adivasi participation in Bardoli. During his fieldwork in the village of Veddchi in 2010, Vaghela came across evidence of around 40 Adivasi freedom fighters who had participated in the Bardoli Satyagraha. He spoke to a few who were still alive. Among them were people who had never received any official recognition, let alone the pensions given to freedom fighters. There was other evidence of the community suffering disproportionately. 'It was recorded as a non-violent movement but at least two of those Adivasi freedom fighters died in jail,' Vaghela said, citing his research from administrative records. 'Nobody else is recorded to have died in the Bardoli movement,' he added. Trapped in bonded labour According to the 1921 census, Bardoli comprised 137 villages that had a total population of around 87,000. The social composition was mixed. The dominant landed class, also known as the Ujaliparaj or fair-skinned people, included the Patidars, Anavil Brahmins and Baniyas. Alongside them, more than half the population was made up of Adivasis, colloquially known in Gujarati as the Kaliparaj or 'black people', later to be known as the Raniparaj, or 'people of the forest'. This term included the Gamit tribe, the Chodhara, or the Chodhari tribe, and the Dubla tribe, whose name literally means 'weak' – the community is known as the Halpati tribe today. A large number of the Raniparaj worked as agricultural labourers for the landed castes. 'The control of the caste Hindus – mainly Baniyas and Patidars – over the tribesmen was almost absolute,' political scientist Ghanshyam Shah wrote in a paper on Bardoli. A large number of Halpatis, in particular, were trapped in the hali system, which was akin to bonded labour. In his book The Story of Bardoli, Desai who was also Gandhi's secretary, wrote about the Halpatis, 'There is very little that is voluntary about their labour. They get married at the expense of their masters, get into their debt, and remain attached to the masters practically as their serfs.' Adivasis back Gandhi Despite their oppressive circumstances, Adivasis played a key role in the freedom struggle in the region. Indeed, veteran Adivasi activist Ashokbhai Chaudhari, whose family has deep Gandhian roots, explained that Adivasis participated in large numbers, not only in the Bardoli Satyagraha, but also the subsequent Dandi March. 'Gandhi used to be surrounded by four-five circles of people so that the colonial police couldn't touch him,' he said. 'Who were these masses? A large number of them were the local Adivasis.' Prior to the Bardoli satyagraha, the region had already seen some organisation among Adivasi communities – many had attained higher education owing to the efforts of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III to promote education in the communities, and had become teachers in South Gujarat. Some of these educated members of the communities started an organisation named Kaliparaj Parishad for the upliftment of their community against rampant socio-economic oppression by landowners. In fact, five years before the Bardoli satyagraha, the organisation had announced its decision to back Gandhi and other Congress leaders in the freedom struggle. Ashokbhai's maternal family was one such family, which became staunch Gandhians devoted to the freedom struggle. His great-grandfather Jeevanbhai Chaudhari was one of the first Adivasis to organise against British oppression in the region. 'They started small ashrams in every five to six villages dedicated to swarajya,' said Ashokbhai. He recounted that his mother, Dashriben, met Gandhi when she was only eight years old, and decided after to only wear handspun khadi, and no jewellery. Local lore has it that many years later, Dashriben and Kasturba Gandhi were cellmates at Yerawada jail – and that it was Dashriben, who had studied up to Class 5, who taught Kasturba to read and write. Though this story is not corroborated by documentary records, Tushar Gandhi, an author and the great-grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, told Scroll that it was highly likely the two women were in prison together, and that Kasturba was known to take the help of educated prisonmates to write letters. Shah wrote in his book that local leaders like Kuvarji Mehta also worked to draw widespread grassroots support for the freedom struggle. Among the messages they sought to communicate was that Gandhi was devoted to the poor of the country, including Adivasis. Shah wrote that the leaders told locals that after his return from South Africa, Gandhi 'travelled over the country to find that the people were poor and naked, or at best wearing a langoti (loin cloth), as was true of the Adivasis. He, therefore, put away his own clothes and wore only a langoti.' Vaghela noted that movement leaders also used myth to convince people to support the movement. Specifically, they projected Gandhi as a god who was endorsed by their own gods – Siliya and Simaliya Dev. 'They were told that their two gods went flying to South Africa and saw that Gandhi was doing god's work,' he said. 'So they told him that he was required in India which is why Gandhi returned to serve his people'. Shah wrote that community leaders in the region spoke of 'their new 'god'', who 'deeply felt their misery and therefore lived like them'. Lack of recognition The Adivasi freedom fighters that Vaghela interviewed during his field-work gave a vivid account of their resistance. They recalled that during the movement, 'one person was always on the lookout for government officials. If he saw them coming he would alert the entire village by playing warning sounds on the nagada, then the whole village would lock up their homes and run into the forests,' Vaghela said. Chaudhari recounted that his mother and others from the Adivasi community formed bhajan mandalis and travelled from one village to another, inviting people to join the satyagraha through their songs. They would also leave behind written messages in earthen pots kept in villages during their journeys. But the communities' contributions received little recognition. Of the 40 or so freedom fighters he learnt about in Vedcchi, Vaghela wrote, only between 10 and 15 freedom fighters had received official letters of recognition and pensions from the government, owing to the general 'indifference and negligence' towards the Adivasi population. Further, Vaghela said that while independence leaders had assured Bardoli's local population that if their lands were seized during the satyagraha, they would be returned, he learnt that several Adivasis never had their lands returned to them – and that it was largely the upper caste landed communities who had their land returned. 'Community betrayed' Chaudhuri recalled his elders telling him that Gandhi and other Congress leaders had encouraged them to fight for independence, and assured them that after independence, they could jointly fight internal exploitation within society. In her book, The Peasantry and Nationalism, Mehta wrote that in 1927, Gandhi insisted on setting up an enquiry committee to examine the socio-economic conditions of the Kaliparaj. The enquiry report noted that several Kaliparaj women endured sexual violence at the hands of their landowning masters. It stated that the hali system had led to an 'unending perpetuation of slavery'. But, Mehta wrote, 'Though the inquiry committee led the Congress workers to activise and intensify the Gandhian programme of constructive work it did not lead them to strike at the root of the economic and social injustice – abolition of the Hali system. The Halis continued to suffer under the typical oppressive agrarian system.' The Dutch sociologist Jan Breman who studied the hali system in South Gujarat between 1962 and 2017 wrote that in the early 1960s, he found the community 'in a state of pauperism'. He observed that the political leaders of the freedom struggle ' had closely allied themselves with the dominant landowners', and thus 'did not want to antagonize them by introducing radical reforms to the agrarian regime and were not overly concerned with the predicament of the landless masses'. Thus, despite the promises made to the community, the conditions of the Halpatis remained deplorable in independent India too. 'The struggle for national freedom was waged with the promise to return land to the tiller, but the landless remained as dispossessed as before,' Breman wrote. While the hali system eventually disappeared, Breman noted, it was replaced by the 'casualization of employment' and the 'replacement of farm servants with daily wage labour', which only further deepened inequality. Unsurprisingly then, in free India, Chaudhuri noted, there was a strong sentiment amongst his elders that 'Our community has been betrayed.' Vaghela echoed this account. 'Independence leaders always told people that their main fight was to get rid of the British colonisers, it was after independence that they would address internal problems,' he said. 'It is only in the last few decades that there has been some material change. But I feel that we are still addressing many of those problems.'
The Print
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
Caged parrot or fearless eagle? India should give the Shastri formula a try
Readers may recall the previous column on the Santhanam Committee appointed by then-Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to look into all aspects of corruption among public servants. The present format of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) can be traced to his statement in the Lok Sabha on 23 January 1963: 'The CBI will investigate cases of corruption in which Central government servants are involved, cases in which the interests of any PSUs or any Statutory Body financed by the Government of India are involved, cases of fraud, cheating, embezzlement etc., relating to Public Joint stock companies, and also at the request of, or with the concurrence of states concerned, cases where organised gangs or professional criminals, having ramifications in several states are involved. The Bureau will describe statistics of all India importance relating to crime, conduct Police research including the analysis of trends and causes of crime, and make special studies of certain types of crimes having all India, or interstate ramifications or of crime having particular importance from the social point of view'. The war ended, but the scourge of corruption did not. In fact, in 1946, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the interim Home Member, piloted a resolution in the Central Assembly for the creation of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act , thereby extending the scope to investigate corruption among central government employees anywhere in the country. The agency's administrative control moved from the War and Supply Department to the Home Ministry. The Government of India Act of 1935 clearly listed public order and police, along with the PWD, agriculture, health, and education, as among the 54 subjects in the Provincial List. However, when the Second World War started in 1939, the War and Supply Department of India got an expansive mandate with a hitherto unprecedented budget. Suddenly, the department was inundated with complaints of corruption and nepotism. Following this, the government issued executive instructions in 1941 for the setting up of a Special Police Establishment (SPE) under this department to look into these complaints at Lahore — with Qurban Ali as the superintendent and Rai Bahadur Karam Chand Jain as the legal advisor. In 1942, officers and contractors associated with the railways were also brought within its domain. As the jurisdiction of the SPE was challenged in the High Court, the Imperial government notified Ordinance XXII of 1943 conferring legal sanction and authority to the establishment of a Special Police Establishment within the Department of War and Supply. The original mandate of the CBI is now shared by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), and the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The BPR&D, established by the MHA in 1970, looks into the interface of law with practices on ground zero, technology upgrades, and best exemplars. The NCRB came up in 1986 with the core mission of collecting, analysing, and disseminating crime data across India. One month after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, in which about 170 people were killed across multiple locations in the city, the NIA was set up to probe terror attacks in any part of the country, covering offences including challenges to the country's sovereignty and integrity, bomb blasts, counterfeit currency, hijacking of aircraft and ships, and attacks on nuclear installations. However, CBI continues to be India's nodal point for interaction with the Interpol on matters connected with global crime where inter-country collaboration is required. As things stand today, the CBI has a sanctioned strength of 7,295 personnel, and has field offices across the country. Also read: From 'Jai Kisan' to CVC, Shastri walked the talk. But corruption proved harder to root out The de facto control of the MHA Since 1985, when the Department of Personnel and Training was carved out of the MHA, the CBI has been functioning under DoPT. After the directions of the Supreme Court in the Vineet Narain vs Union of India case of 1997, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act of 2003 was amended to empower the Commission to review the progress relating to cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Additionally, the Supreme Court and the High Court also monitor the progress of specific cases. However, the de facto control of the CBI is firmly entrenched in the MHA, for it is the cadre controlling authority for the IPS, and Home Minsters have always had greater political heft than the ministers of personnel. The saving grace is that for quite some time — and now almost like a convention — the minister of state for personnel also has concurrent responsibilities in the PMO. The agency has had its highs and lows. While it has been called a 'caged parrot' by the Supreme Court, it is also the soaring eagle which is called upon to investigate some of the most complex cases with manifold implications cutting across states, sectors, realtors, regulators, and political pressures. It has built its reputation as a premier crime investigation agency by securing prosecution in many high profile cases including the Harshad Mehta, Priyadarshini Mattoo, Sant Singh Chatwal, Purulia arms drop, the Harchand Singh Longowal, and the Tipu Sultan's sword and antiquities theft case. But many others like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, 2G spectrum, coal block allocation, Arushi Talwar, and the Sunanda Pushkar case have remained unresolved, or resulted in acquittals. The agency has also been accused of playing to the tune of the ruling party in the Centre. And in a reflection of the fractured polity of our times, several Opposition-ruled states — West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkhand, and Punjab— have withdrawn their 'prior general consent' to CBI for investigation required under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946. But perhaps the biggest damage to the agency was done by its own helmsmen — two of whom being AP Singh and Ranjit Sinha – who were the subject of the agency's investigation itself. In fact, AP Singh had to resign from the UPSC after allegations of his proximity to infamous meat exporter Moin Qureshi came to the fore. Ranjit Sinha's visitors' diary had names of many of the accused in the 2G scam. The Qureshi factor was also at play in the Ranjit Sinha case. Also read: India can't fix food security with more grain alone. FCI at 60 needs a nutrition agenda Books by CBI officers One of the best ways of understanding the inner sinews of an organisation is to look at the books, published papers, and public interviews of the officers who have spent decades in it. This column has drawn from the works of five CBI officers — Shantonu Sen, AP Mukherji, Joginder Singh, RK Raghavan, and SK Datta. The one underlying theme in all of these is that the professional competence of this agency has often been sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. Former CBI Director AP Mukherjee worked with three titanic leaders and wrote about his experiences with them in his book Unknown Facets of Rajiv Gandhi, Jyoti Basu, Indrajit Gupta. He enjoyed the confidence of all three, even though they came from three different political streams. While both Basu and Gupta were from the Left, the politics of CPM and CPI was often at odds. Mukherjee acknowledges that while Rajiv Gandhi — apparently — stood for a certain value-based politics, he turned a Nelson's eye to the diversion of funds from big ticket purchases like Bofors, Airbus, and HDW submarines for political activities, giving credence to the popular aphorism: there is no smoke without fire. In his trilogy — CBI: Tales from The Big Eye, CBI Insider Speaks, and Corruption, CBI and I — Shantonu Sen ponders on whether the organisation he served for three decades was a 'fearless eagle', which it was intended to be, or a 'caged parrot' which it became when senior officers chose the 'proffered crumbs' to the 'independence of the skies'. As long as the cases did not impinge on the ruling dispensation of the day, there was functional autonomy. But if the PM, or for that matter the PMO, was involved, the agency was quick to take the necessary hint. Joginder Singh, another former CBI director, was involved in the probe of many high profile cases including the 2G scam, and wrote 25 books some of which — including Corruption: A Threat to Indian Bureaucracy and Inside CBI — were a compilation of newspaper columns and public speeches delivered at various forums. He also wrote his autobiography Without Fear or Favour . RK Raghavan's A Road Well Travelled documents some of the most high profile cases — Bofors scam, in which he acknowledged the support received by the agency from journalist Chitra Subramanian, Rajiv Gandhi assassination, the match-fixing scandal of 2000 involving cricketers Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, and the SIT on the 2002 Gujarat riots in which the present Prime Minister was given a clean chit. Then we have SK Datta's CBI Top Cop Recalls in which he points to the political pressure on the CBI to go easy on Warren Anderson of the Union Carbide Corporation, Sajjan Singh in the anti-Sikh riot cases, and Sanjay Singh in the Syed Modi murder case . Well, the message from these books is loud and clear. Exceptions apart, at the end of the day, for all the high claims of professionalism, the political leadership calls the shots, especially when Prime Ministers are critically dependent on the coalition dharma. While the damage may not be visible in the short run, nations which dent their institutional capacities run the risk of facing aggravated dangers — both external and internal. The CBI's crest has three words emblazoned on it — industry, impartiality, and integrity — and if the agency adopted these in letter and spirit, it would indeed live up to the ideals and expectations which Shastri had for this organisation. This is the fifth article in a series on Lal Bahadur Shastri and the institutions he helped establish. Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal. Disclosure: The columnist is a trustee of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial (LBS Museum). (Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
The Hindu
16-06-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Footpath along Taluk Office Road revamped with lights, fountains
The left side of Taluk Office Road in Saidapet now has a long, lit up footpath interspersed with greenery and quietly tinkling fountains. The Highways Department beautified the 300-metre-long stretch adjacent to its campus, where the Chief Engineers' offices and the Highways Research Station are located. Below the 15 trees lining the path are round seating arrangements and mellow lights. Apart from shrubs along the paved walkway, Korean grass, shade grass, and Mexican grass have also been planted between the trees and the seats. The branches of the trees have been aesthetically trimmed, to ensure their safety, an official says. The work, which includes automating the switching on and off of the lights and fountain, was taken up at a cost of ₹75 lakh. The lights will remain on from 6.30 p.m. till 5.30 a.m., and the fountain will turn off at 11 p.m. 'We have planned to beautify spaces on the other side of the road too, over a similar length. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's statue too will get a facelift,' another official said. Mothi Chandrika, a resident of Perungudi who work at the Saidapet court, welcomed the beautification efforts, and said a similar walkway could be established near the court complex, so that visitors could relax there during the day. Small dustbins could be placed near it, she added. Meanwhile, the construction of a storm-water drain and a 550-m-long footpath on the right side of Taluk Office Road, from the start of Maraimalai Adigal Bridge in Saidapet, is nearing completion. The work is being carried out at a cost of ₹2.5 crore.
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
City to host national mayoral summit in Oct
Gandhinagar: Ahmedabad will host a 'National Urban Conclave and Mayoral Summit' in mid-Oct this year, where various subjects related to governance of urban local bodies will be discussed by about 150 mayors of the country, along with experts in urban management subjects. State govt sources said that the summit is being organized on Oct 15 and 16 to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who served as president of the Ahmedabad municipality over a century ago. The conclave will be themed on 'Let us Unite Together to Innovate, Lead and Transform', sources said. Sources involved in planning of the event said that sessions of the conclave will include rethinking planning and governance frameworks, encouraging climate resilient development, catalysing digital urban features, main-streaming women and youth in urban development, redefining city investment and climate finance. Sources said that over the recent past, Ahmedabad has implemented modernisation projects while maintaining its cultural legacy. Major projects such as the Sabarmati Riverfront development, multimodal transport hub (BRTS, AMTS and Metro), Smart City initiatives, urban greening, sports and cultural activities, and high-quality infrastructure, have been undertaken, sources said. Ahmedabad also hosted the sixth cycle of Urban 20 (U20) 2023, one of the 11 engagement groups under G20. During India's G20 presidency, U20 India collaborated with global cities to create a roadmap for transformative urban impact and narrowing gaps between policy and implementation across governance levels. During the U20 Mayoral Summit, the state govt released the Ahmedabad Climate Resilient City Action Plan: Towards a Net Zero Future by 2070. A heritage walk, visit to the Sabarmati Riverfront and Atal Bridge, and a visit to GIFT City are also being planned as part of the two-day conclave, sources said.
Hans India
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Intimate tour programmes to public in advance: CM to officials
Bengaluru: 'DC and CEOs should make their tour programs available to the public in advance. Inspection reports should be kept in proper records. Schools, hostels, residential schools should be visited regularly in the district to ensure that they are functioning properly. I have repeatedly instructed that such visits should be conducted every month without prior notice'. 'However, I have received reports that some have not followed this. It is your responsibility to ensure that the departments and officers under your jurisdiction function properly. If you do not work efficiently, how can you expect your subordinate officers to work?', queried Siddaramaiah. The exploited, the poor, the common people usually come to the office of the DC. If you do not listen to their problems, who will solve them? To whom should they tell their problems? All officers should be required to live in the taluk and district headquarters. All officers should be available at the centre and available to the people. The DC should ensure this. I should be given a report on the action taken against officers who are not at the centre. The District In-charge Secretaries should visit their respective districts at least twice a month and inspect the development works. Along with that, they should make surprise visits to schools, hostels, hospitals and submit a report to the Chief Secretary, instructed the CM.'No one should act against the intentions and objectives of the Constitution. Such forces should not be allowed to grow under any circumstances. In recent times, such forces have been rising, and such forces should be nipped in the bud. Whoever such people are, it is the responsibility of the DCs, CEOs and SPs to ensure that such forces do not grow', the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said vehemently. On 10 October 1949, the Constitution Implementation Meeting discussed whether the Indian Civil Service was needed and decided to create the IAS. In that meeting, Vallabhbhai Patel said, 'To lead the country in the spirit of real freedom struggles, there should be IAS service, you should understand its real concern social justice. We are running the government with the tax money of the people. We should not forget that we and you are enjoying all the privileges with the tax money of the people. We have given all the privileges including cars and houses with tax money. Therefore, we should work with a pro-people attitude. This is the basic idea of democracy. This year, 700 child marriages have taken place, incidents of becoming mothers in childhood have also been reported. FIRs have also been filed in many places about this. It has come to my attention that it has not been recorded. How is it that 700 child marriages are taking place even after so many years of independence? There are laws and regulations to prevent child marriage. However, they have not been used effectively in some places. Isn't this wrong, he asked. Why does child marriage not come to the notice of the DC? Don't your subordinates report to you? If your subordinates do not tell you, it means that you are not efficient. You have no control over the officials, it means that they are not afraid of you', he said. He added, '295176 applications have been submitted for forest rights, of which only 16700 forest rights have been provided. This should be disposed of properly. Cases should be disposed of properly in the DC, Tahsildar, AC courts. Decisions should be made on merit. There should be no tendency to postpone cases'.
