Forty-three-year-old Polusu Purtie, a school teacher in Maoist-affected Gudubura village of Khunti district, has been trying hard to convince people to come out and vote in the ongoing assembly polls in Jharkhand. Khunti, barely 30 kilometres from state capital Ranchi, is the birth place of tribal leader Birsa Munda, who rebelled against the British rule in the late 19the century.
In July 2018, Khunti village hit the headlines when locals launched the 'Pathalgadi movement' against the state government's attempt to tweak the land rights of tribals. 'Pathalgadi' means planting a stone—a traditional practice of tribals to announce important decisions regarding their families or to mark the boundary of the village. But, nowadays, these stone slabs carved in Hindi and English in Khunti district is saying something else. The tribals have put up these stone slabs dismissing the administrative authority of state or central government on their villages.
Khunti is one of the 20 assembly seats where polling for the second phase of assembly elections took place on December 7. But nearly 200 villagers of Khunti district have decided to boycott the polls after Chief Minister Raghubar Das-led BJP government cracked down the Pathalgadi movement and booked nearly 10,000 people for sedition under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. Among them, 43 are village chiefs and remaining are named as 'unknown' in the nearly 200 registered FIRs. Several stone plaques can been seen in corners of the villages citing provisions of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 which meant to serve as warnings to the outsiders. These plaques have "orders" prohibiting outsiders from entering the tribal village, challenging the state authority.
"After the state government's action, most of the villagers have gone underground. A call to boycott the polls was also given by village chiefs. Though officials from local administration are making regular visits to villages, people have some other thoughts,” Polusu says. Polusu's elder brother Prabhu Purtie, village chief of Guduburu, has been in jail since September 2018 on sedition charges. Polusu says that his family does not have enough money to hire an advocate to file bail application for his elder brother. Guduburu, which has only 47 houses, was the place where Pathalgadi movement started against the state government ordinance amending the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Paragana Tenancy Act. The amendment to the British-era tenancy law allows government to acquire land of tribals. Yusuf Purtie, the main leader behind the Pathalgadi movement, is still at large.
"Most of the people related to the movement are hiding from police, but still they come here and force me to close down the school. Due to fear, only 22 kids are studying in the school today. Before last year, more than 200 kids used to come to this school," Polusu added.
Most of the villagers are dependent on agriculture. "For tribals, jal, jameen and jungle (water, land and forest) is everything, and they are very emotional about it. Tribals have fears that the state government is taking away their land by making changes in the land laws. That is why they are protesting against each and every move of the administration," Polusu told THE WEEK, while adding that the tribals had even objected to setting up a water tank by the district administration a few months ago.
Khunti district has a population of nearly nine lakh, which is dominated by Mudaru tribals. Interestingly, Khunti has more female voters compared to male. The district is also home to 209 Cobra Unit of CRPF. Cobra battalions are specialized force in jungle warfare.
Twenty-eight-year-old Monika M. Tiru, a primary teacher of Bhandara village, says local administration has not done anything for the villagers for long. "Villages of this area have been completely ignored by the state administration. There is no hospital in the area. Whenever we visit the district hospital for medicines, doctors there denied us medication for raising voice against the government," Monika said.
Local people believe that instead of using force, the government should have spoken to the agitated locals.
"After stone plaques were installed by villagers, police came to our houses and started picking up male members of the family. In some instances, they also misbehaved with females. All these things created further anger among the villagers," Sukarmani Sangha of Bhandara village said.
"For many days we did not come back to our house. We used to sleep in jungles due to fear of police. Still most of the people are hiding," said Manki Mundu of Ghaghra village, whose husband was also once picked up by the police.
Pathalgadi leaders have sent their demands to President Ram Nath Kovid early this year. Changes in land acquisition laws, withdrawal of para-military force and police from the scheduled areas and, withdrawal of sedition cases against the agitators and more funds for gram sabhas are some of the key demands of Pathalgadi leaders. They also demanded that the tribals not be branded as naxals.
Attacking the Raghubar Das government for taking away land from tribals, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) president Hemant Soren said the last five years of the BJP government had been anti-tribal.
"The BJP has been trying to snatch away land from tribals. Tribal people are emotionally attached to their land and forest. Tweaking the land acquisition rules has exposed Raghubar Das government's hidden agenda. Now, people will respond to him during elections," said Soren, who is the chief ministerial candidate of JMM-Congress-RJD coalition.
"Slapping sedition charges on protesting tribals is the most sinful act by the state government. The government can not arrest local people for raising voice. Its an undemocratic act by the BJP government," Subodh Kant Sahay, a senior Congress leader from the state, said.
