Wither civil society?

There was a tiAe when the West Bengal's Left Front Government viewed the term 'civil society' or 'non-governmental organisation (ngo)' with much suspicion. But times have changed and many in this government also collaborate with ngo s in spheres such as rural development, child welfare and the environment. Does this indicate that a civil society is finally emerging in West Bengal? No. Ground realities indicate that many have become even more disempowered. We have land acquisition by the powerful in the name of 'development' and displacement of peasants in the name of industrialisation. The much-touted Joint Forest Management programme (jfm) has also started to fall apart in places.

There is very little research on such displacement. And that was a good impetus for me to study this problem. During the mid 1990s, I along with a couple of students of the department of anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Medinipur, West Bengal selected village Maheshpur -- then in Medinipur district -- for fieldwork. The first researcher who entered the village was asked: "After the Tatas, will your university acquire some of our agricultural land for expansion?" The question had a context: the Tatas had recently built a pig iron factory in Maheshpur, displacing many. It also led me to think about our university campus from a new perspective. I recalled the words of old Raghunath, who pulled his rickshaw near our campus: "This was the land of the Rajas. But they allowed us to graze our cattle here, our boys played on this ground. But today your guards intercept us every now and then."

My university in fact went further. It acquired 16 hectares of land in Raghunath's village, Murudanga and, then fenced it to plant saplings of eucalyptus, mango and jackfruit trees. But local tribals broke the barricade soon. The land was reconverted into tribal commons. Meanwhile, the Vidyasagar University's anthropology department proposed that people of Muradanga should also be involved in protecting the land and that they should be given a share of its benefits. The authorities lauded the proposal and then consigned it to cold storage! The land remains under the legal possession of Vidyasagar University and is customarily used by the villagers -- both stakeholders are under threat from each other.
Non-participatory JFM Let us now examine another case. In the late 1990s, I accompanied two students to study jfm in Balijuri village in West Medinipur district. The forest office records showed a remarkable decline in illegal fellings of sal , eucalyptus and akashmoni trees. The reality was far different. Our field observations showed that illegal chopping had indeed fallen, briefly. But then the Santhal tribals of the area badly needed the wood -- particularly for making ploughs. Their opportunity came when the forest department (fd) relaxed its hold during the annual shikhar festival of the tribals (a regular concession given by the department). Animals were hunted and trees also hacked off. Of course, these fellings never went into the fd's registers. And, such non participatory management would have never happened had the Balijuri forest protection committee recognised the needs of the Santhals.
The Char Let us now move to village Dahi in West Medinipur district. After devastating floods in 1978, a huge piece of land -- called Char in Bangla -- emerged out of the Subranarekha river. According to the law, the government can neither distribute nor record such land before 20 years. But the local people began to cultivate it. Egalitarian rules such as prohibiting wage labour for reclamation came into play. Today, instead of distributing the plots to individual families, the government has started social forestry on the Char and the people fear they will be displaced any time.

The Tata factory at Maheshpur, the Vidyasagar University at Muradanga, Char in Dahi and the jfm experiment at Balijuri are symptomatic of the diffferent ways in which the poor are excluded from their customary and legal rights in West Bengal. These initiatives could have turned into sustainable development efforts if the government was responsive to local people's needs and aspirations. But that has not happened at all.



Abhijit Guha is reader, department of anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Medinipur, West Bengal