Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement PDF
Preview Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement
TRIBAL GUERRILLAS The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TRIBAL GUERRILLAS The Santals of West Bengal and the Naxalite Movement EDWARD DUYKER DELHI OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS 1987 Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0X2 6DP New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Pooling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Oar es Salaam ' * J Melbourne Auckland and associates in Beirut Berlin Ibadan Nicosia © Edward Duyker 1987 SBN195619382 Filmset by South End Typographies, Pondicherry Printed by Jay Print Pack.(P) Ltd-, New Delhi 110015 and published by R. Dayal, Oxford University Press YMCA Library Building, Joi Singh Road, New Delhi 110001 Gooele Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN /?"//? r~ / ' ? 'fS For my parents Herman and Maryse Duyker Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Google Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Contents List of Tables viii List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements x Abbreviations xii Glossary of terms xiii Introduction 1 PART I MODERNIZATION AND THE SANTALS 1 The Early History of the Santals 27 2 The Commercialization of Santal Agriculture 40 3 Contradictions in the Green Revolution 50 part n THE NAXALITE RURAL CAMPAIGN IN WEST BENGAL 4 The Naxalbari Uprising: 1967 67 5 The Midnapore Uprising: 1969-70 80 6 The Birbhum Uprising: 1970-71 88 part m NAXALISM AND THE SANTALS 7 The Vanguard 99 8 Naxalism and Santal Cultural Rationalizations 110 9 Inter-Tribal and Inter-Caste Response 133 10 Epilogue 150 11 Conclusion 159 Appendix I: Some Ethnographic Notes on the Santals 165 Appendix II: Programme of the Communist Part of India (Marxist-Leninist) 173 Bibliography 181 Index 197 Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN List of Tables I Bolpur P.S. and Environs 22 II Double Cropping in Birbhum 52 III Mayurakshi Project: Birbhum Command Area 53 IV Gross Cropped/Net Sown/Multi-Cropped Area (Debra-Gopiballavpur) 56 V Average Rainfall/Net Area Irrigated/Total Product (Debra-Gopiballavpur) 56 VI Agencies in the Distribution of Power Pumps & Tillers, etc. 56 VII Political Killings: Birbhum, December 1970-July 1971 (Occupation of Victims) 62 VO! Political Killings: Birbhum, February-September 1971 (Number and Percentage of Incidents per Thana) 63 IX United Front Government Land Redistribution; Midnapore A Birbhum (November 1969) 64 X Consumer Price Index: Midnapore 1970 and Birbhum 1971 102 XI Naxalite Killings: Midnapore, 1969-70 (Weapon, Number of Participants and Location) 128 XII Percentage of Cultivators with Agricultural Labour as their Secondary Occupation (Naxalbari, Phansidewa, and Kharibari) 137 XIII Percentage of Cultivators Holding less than 5 Acres of Land (Naxalbari, Phansidewa, and Kharibari) 137 Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN List of Illustrations MAPS I Santal Population Dispersion II Police Station Bolpur S 1 III Náxalite Activity, West Bengal and Bihar 8 IV Darjeeling District S S V Midnapur District 8 VI Birbhum District 8 DIAGRAMS I Santal Social Divisions 141 II Santal Group Affinity: West Bengal 166 PLATES (following page 96) Sidhu/Kanu slogans of Jharkhand Santal woman with chest tattoos Santal women at Sriniketan Mela Santal woman and child The hunter The Santal boy The harvest The Sohrae dance Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Acknowledgements This study could not have been completed without the constant encouragement and guidance of Sibnarayan Ray, former Reader in the Department of Indian Studies, University of Melbourne. While a student in his department, I was also introduced to the riches of the Bengali language and gained something of the basic means to communication within the village world, thanks to Atindra Majumdar and Elizabeth Bacskovsky. During my sometimes difficult sojourns in India, I met many brave and generous men and women who helped me carry out research on what is still a sensitive subject. For various reasons I cannot name them all. I can, however, acknowledge an enormous debt to Indrajit Sen, who patiently accompanied me on dozens of excursions by bus, bicycle and on foot—braving the mosquitoes and the elements—as friend and guide. I will always be grateful to Fr. Hans Hendriks for the unique introduction to Santal culture he afforded me, and for his help in the translation of numerous Santal Hui songs, which I collected in the field. Similarly, I can never forget the charity and kindness of Ellen Laursen, of the Danish Santal Mission, who nursed me back to health after a particularly debilitating bout of illness in the Santal heartland. Many others in India assisted me far more than their official duties would have required them to. Ashok Sen, of the West Bengal State Archives, comes immediately to mind. My thanks are also due to Dr John Martin, of the Department of Germanic Studies, University of Melbourne, for his help in trans lating ancillary German and Norwegian works, which opened doors to less known (yet none the less rich) European scholarship. In the course of writing this book, I incurred a major debt to Dr Don Ferrell, Michael Cooke, Dr Robin Jeffrey, Roni Linser, Barry York, and the staff of Oxford University Press, New Delhi, who read through numerous drafts and helped fashion order from confusion. My parents, Herman and Maryse Duyker, and later my wife Susan, contributed to this process, but were also readily at hand with the emotional and financial support that no writer can survive without. Original from Digitized by UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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