Why The War Never Dies

The children's war games may be a common sight in the Dalit villages of Gaya district, just 150 kilometres southwest of Bihar's capital Patna. Driving down the kucha road for nearly three hours you enter Karma village which has won the dubious distinction of being the mcc headquarters. Probably in no other village do people so openly advocate and express their support for the banned Naxalite outfit.

The general mood has been upbeat ever since the news of the Senari massacre reached Karma. Says Jitendra Yadav, a young undergraduate: 'Agar hamara daman karoge to ham bhi tum par daman karenge. Krantikari party ne badla le hi na liya hai (if you are going to repress us, we will pay you back. The revolutionary party has taken revenge).' A farm labourer himself, Jitendra is the most articulate and politically conscious in the group. For him the people are clearly divided into two categories - the oppressed and the reactionaries. Surrounded by fellow villagers, Jitendra thunders: 'The land should be given to the tiller and political power to the revolutionary peasant committees.'

The police authorities unofficially admit that the Naxalites run a parallel government. Dominated by the Yadavs, Karma is home to Vijay Kumar Arya, a top-ranking leader of the mcc. There was a time when the police didn't dare enter the village. However, after the death of MCC supremo Sagar Chatterjee in an encounter, the police raided the village and destroyed Arya's shanty. The mcc leader and his wife no longer live in the village.

Though the Ranvir Sena is either very weak or not active in this part of the state, no one wants to take the chance. Armed villagers patrol in shifts during the night 'to repel any possible attack from the class enemy'. The children imitate their elders in the daytime. 'Why are you taking pictures of toy guns? We can show you real guns with which we protect the village. We all are trained to kill attackers,' boasts Jitendra.

Ironically, a few kilometres away from Karma, in Jehanabad district, the survivors of the Senari massacre ask: 'After seeing our economic condition, can you call us feudal lords?' They took this correspondent by the hand and showed him around the village to display their half-constructed, thatch-roofed, dilapidated houses.Says Ramakant Sharma, a senior advocate in Patna High Court: 'These people don't have enough money to construct roofs. If they construct the house they can't send their children to school. And they call us the samants, the feudal lords!'

An average Bhumihar farmer in central Bihar cannot be called a zamindar by any yardstick. Many of them have only five to 10 bighas of land, hardly sufficient to feed a household and lead a comfortable life. The division of land among several inheritors is the main reason for this land-holding pattern. At one point the Bhumihars had been the full-fledged landlords who used cruel and feudal methods of exploitation. As the population increased, the land kept shrinking but the old feudal mindset persists even today.

Even the smallest Bhumihar landowner considers himself superior to the Manjhis, Dhusadhs, Kahars and other Dalits who work in his fields. The legacy of caste hierarchy has given him the notion that he has the natural right to rule the people of the lower castes. Coupled with this is the concrete ground reality of basic economics: as a rule almost all the Dalits in Bihar are landless. So when the Naxalites spread their activities in the late '60s under the banner of the cpi-ml in the Bhojpur region and started organising the landless peasants, the all-powerful landlords were furious. They resisted the Naxalites tooth and nail, and organised mercenary armies like the Brahmarshi Sena, Sunlight Sena, Ganga Sena - and so the class war began.

The large-scale massacres in Bihar are not an old phenomenon. In the initial days of the Naxalite movement, the ultras used to choose the 'toughest and the most ruthless landlord' of the area - mainly a Rajput - as their target. Another successful weapon was the economic blockade - labourers would refuse to work in a particular landlord's fields. As the landlord was not allowed to hire labourers from other villages, he was forced to concede to the workers' demands.

Ironically, the Bhumihar farmers of Arraha district were once supporters of the cpi-ml (Liberation). During the 1989 Lok Sabha election, the Liberation candidate Rameshwar Prasad used to refer to Bihar's great peasant leader Swami Sahajanand, a Bhumihar, in every meeting. Not surprisingly, the Bhumihars of Bilaur village - the birthplace of the dreaded Ranvir Sena - supported Rameshwar Prasad and he went on to win the election.

But things took a turn for the worse when the Ranvir Sena vowed to avenge the killing of one Bhumihar by killing 12 Dalits. This was when the mcc took the plunge, conducting raids that matched the barbaric methods of the Ranvir Sena. While the other two Naxalite organisations - the Liberation and the pwg - rarely resort to Senari-style mass killing, the mcc killed even children and women in their raids in Shankarbigha.

But the Ranvir Sena has the reputation of being the most cruel of the groups. Says Ramnandan Sinha, a Jehanabad-based journalist: 'We've no problems from the Naxal organisations. At the most they correct us on the facts. But the Ranvir Sena is the biggest threat for us. Even the mcc doesn't normally kill women and children but the Ranvirs indulge in indiscriminate killings.'

The hatred and chasm between the castes is evident. Dalits no longer suppress their anger and hatred. Says Baleshwar Manjhi of Utrain village in Gaya district: 'While we work hard on their fields, cut their crop and carry it to their granary, we are not welcome inside their house. After 10 days, if we go to their house they say: 'Go away you untouchable'.'

Utrain is a typical mcc village and Baleshwar Manjhi is no meek and submissive Dalit labourer. It's clear he's been politically groomed, though he does not admit it. Says he: 'Dharti par ham log kaise din gujaar rahe hein yeh hamin hi jaanate hein. Agar ham ekjut ho jayen to aap kahte hein ki ham mcc ho gaye. (How we live our life only we know. If we get together you say we've joined mcc.)'

As is usual after every massacre, this time too the Rabri-Laloo government made a fresh demand for more paramilitary deployment. The Centre has also summoned some of the state's top-level custodians of law and order for consultation. But there's still no reprieve in sight for the people of Bihar, who sleep every night with the fear of waking up to yet another bloodbath.