जब सेनारी (जहानाबाद ) में 34 भूमिहार गाजर-मुली की तरह काट दिए गए थे |

THE years of bloody conflict between warring classes have changed the way children play in the killing fields of Bihar. Born amidst the raging battle between the upper-caste landowners and landless Dalits, these children indoctrinated - by the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) - no longer play with traditional toys. In the villages of the Naxal heartland in Gaya district, they instead romp the fields with full-sized wooden toy guns. 

One group of children poses as reactionaries the other as revolutionaries. The mock battle is modelled on adult lines.

One group of children poses as the 'reactionaries', the other as revolutionaries. The mock fight goes on in the same fashion as carried out by their elders in the mcc armed squads which recently mowed down 34 upper-caste landowners in Senari village in Jehanabad district.

As Bihar limps through one massacre to another, a new crop of tiny militant fighters is fast coming up in the rural areas of the state, preparing itself to pick up the real guns in the coming years. Groomed by the mcc, these kids justify every action carried out by 'the party', analyse the intricacies of the ongoing fight and are convinced that the bloodshed is necessary to 'teach a lesson to the pratikriyavadis (the reactionaries) till justice is done to the poor masses'.

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.

Suspected extremists of the Maoist Communist Centre killed 35 upper-caste villagers in Senari village of Jehanabad district in the night of March 18.

But police officers investigating the massacre pointed out that though the attackers left behind posters saying the MCC was responsible, they had reason to believe that organised criminal gangs operating in central Bihar were the real culprits.

Prior to 1985, leftist extremists who attacked wealthy landlords in the state targeted only the men. But after the Daler Chak massacre in Aurangabad district in 1986, women and children increasingly started becoming victims, a clear sign that criminal elements masquerading as ultras had begun spreading a reign of terror among the landowners to extort money.

Pointing out that the throats of some of the victims in Senari were slit, the bureaucrats said this cold-blooded modus operandi is very unlike the extremists who usually shoot their victims.

They also said the description of the Senari killers given by the villagers indicated that the same murderers had struck in Narayanpur, Shankarbigha and Usri Bazaar in Jehanabad district where the victims ranged from poor, landless dalits to upper-caste landlords.

The bureaucrats said the likelihood of more attacks on landlords in the Jehanabad-Kahalgaon belt came to light following the interrogation of some suspects who have been taken into custody in connection with the Senari killings.

In the last 12 years, Jehanabad has acquired the dubious distinction of being the state's killing field.

Asked why the police in central Bihar, especially Jehanabad, are unable to cope with the attacks, they said this is because of the insufficient number of policemen in the region and their obsolete arms. In fact, the extremists often warn policemen to keep out of their way. This is why victims often accuse the police of reaching the site of the massacres late.

The bureaucrats also said sophisticated arms like AK-47 rifles seized from militants in Kashmir are finding their way to these criminal gangs in Bihar, especially in the central districts.

They said unscrupulous persons, usually from Bihar, in "responsible positions" in the security forces fighting the militants smuggle out these weapons through well-entrenched networks.

One senior officer has been dismissed for his involvement in this racket, they claimed, adding that all this is documented in the Union home ministry.

Referring to the infiltration of criminals in the Ranvir Sena and some Leftist groups, the officials said this information has also been passed on to the Union home ministry.

According to these officials, the criminal elements have forced other upper-caste armies like the Lohrik Sena, Sunlight Sena and Brahmarishi Sena to fade away, leaving just the Ranvir Sena.

The apparent aim of these elements is to gain economic benefits by spreading terror among both landlords and poor villagers.

Pointing out that recruits to these criminal gangs are mostly educated youth from eastern Uttar Pradesh, the bureaucrats said their "ransom notes" to the landlords are often polite and persuasive. They usually "charge" five kilos of grain per quintal harvested in the landlords' fields. Besides, regular "income" from kidnappings and extortion ensure that they are flush with funds.

The bureaucrats underlined that the analyses of the massacres by economists and social scientists, blaming mainly the inequitable distribution of land, are outdated because the nature of extremist politics in central and south Bihar has changed dramatically, thanks to the infiltration by criminal elements.

Following 80 killings in 10 weeks this year, Associate Editor Harinder Baweja, Principal Correspondent Sanjay Kumar Jha and Senior Photographer Sharad Saxena travelled through the murderous, caste-ridden tracks of Jehanabad to capture the terror - and despair - gripping the district. Their report. 

The sun glints on fragments of red and green glass bangles strewn on the kuchha track. It is the only flicker of light in a village deep in mourning, steeped in grief. The sobs wracking Mrinal Manjari's frail frame can be heard from the dark depths of a room. The sound of despair.

A ray of light glints again, bouncing over Abhay Kishore's tonsured head. It's despair again, locked in his face as he sits on a wooden cot draped in metres of stark, unstitched white. It's a common sight - shaven men in flowing white sitting listlessly across the porch of every third home - till you reach the end of the village to what the residents call "the spot". A patch of scrub land strewn with torn, bloodstained clothes. A mute testimony to the Thursday night when death visited Senari.

 

 

 

"I cremated my brother and nephew. Will Sonia Gandhicome here only when Dalits are killed?" Abhay Kishore, Bhumihar resident of Senari

Senari, yet another village in the battle zone called Jehanabad in Bihar. Yet another victim of the death game; of the fight between the landed and the landless. Of a war in which the opposing sides - the ultra-left private armies and the Bhumihar-backed Ranbir Sena - have put their prestige at stake. Where victory is now signalled through numbers and battles fought on the gory principle of khoon se khoon, blood for blood.

So it was on the night of March 18 when the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) left Senari after slitting the throats of 34 Bhumihars. The toll in Jehanabad, where killing and retribution move neck and neck, touched 80 in the first 10 weeks of 1999. But it was not a case of chilling statistics alone.

Some 50 km away in Barhaita village - you are lucky to cover 15 km an hour in a district where 600 of the 898 villages are not linked by what are considered roads - Lala Sharma stroked his licensed rifle as the setting sun told him it was time to move to the roof. Time for a night patrol, lest the "party", the "Naxals" come calling. Like other Bhumihars, Sharma smells another attack. If not today, certainly tomorrow. That is the law of Jehanabad.

"We can't sit back like Gandhi. So we have decided to be like Subhas Chandra Bose." Ravindra Chaudhary,Bhumihar peasant leader

It was time too for the Dalits of the same village to bring out their torches and retreat into the fields. Ramnath, a poor Dalit, knows the Ranbir Sena is plotting bloody revenge.

He is worried for himself and his family of 11. The administration has been trying for two weeks now to organise a joint patrol but the divide is too sharp and hostility too deep.

Barhaita, like Ganyari village, is one of the 72 flash points where the Naxalites have imposed an economic blockade. They have reason to fear. After Senari, no one is sure. Bordering Gaya and Aurangabad districts - with a police picket only a kilometre away - the administration had no reason to include Senari in the list of 292 "extra sensitive" villages.

Neither warring group had tried to use it as a base nor was there any social tension. In this village of 300 homes, the 70 Bhumihar families lived in peace with its "mazdoor" neighbours, helping them out at times of need.

Click here to EnlargeThat's why it seems to have been chosen for attack. "A soft target," says District Magistrate Arunish Chawla, "Jehanabad is the ultimate catastrophe where senseless caste politics and killings have taken the shape of a communal clash."

That is the reality of Jehanabad 1999. Eight-year-old Chittaranjan Kumar of Senari describes the MCC as a group which "chops heads" and for whom the Sena is a "majboori sena". For Phulinder Kumar, the 14-year-old survivor of the Shankar Bigha massacre - he lost his parents and two sisters - the Sena "kills us only because we are Harijans".

The divide is deep and wounding. So is the panic. With only 20 police stations and outposts and 30 pickets and the Rabri Devi Government still blaming the killings on the Centre's withdrawal of paramilitary forces, the villagers wait for first light to break. In their quest for security, most are just helplessly throwing their lot behind private armies, adding a lethal dimension to a grave problem.

For the Bhumihars, who haven't had a chief minister since Sri Krishna Sinha and who even today have only two MPs, the Sena is providing just the balm they need. To contest their political irrelevance and their economic marginalisation.

According to revenue records, revised in the mid-'80s, only a dozen Bhumihars own more than 50 bighas of land. Some 75 per cent of the community, though nominally landlords, have holdings below five bighas. Hence their constant refrain: How can you call us feudal? Look at us, the clothes we are wearing? Are we rich?

"She hasn't spoken since January 25 when she was kept hostage and our parents killed." Phulinder Kumar, Brother of Sunita, Shankar Bigha

"It's a struggle for power. In villages, the meetings are now being held on harijan premises and this rankles," says state Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh. It does. Ask a Bhumihar villager how many homes there are and they will only count their own.

They echo another age. "We were giving them 3 kg of rice a day and half a kg of food but they don't want to work and they want to wear slippers and walk past our homes without lowering their heads."

Naturally there is the flip-side. The angry Harijan voices. "We had to sell our land only because we are poor and they don't pay us because we are poor. We are forced to steal the crop from land which is not theirs. They even want control over disputed land."

In an effort to bridge this gap, the Rabri Devi Government - embarrassed by the Senari massacre which followed its reinstallation - is now planning to distribute 400 acres of government land amongst an equal number of Dalits.

It's a move, district officials feel that could fuel the fire and reinforce the image of a government that is only concerned about the non-Bhumihars. Especially since the Rabri-Laloo duo kept away from Senari, the chief minister going to the extent of saying that the Bhumihars were not "our voters".

"The Ranbir Sena thought the Dalits could be cowed down. Give them gun licences too." Ram Jatan Sharma, Secretary, CPI(ML)

It's not merely a caste war. Says Ravindra Chaudhary, vice-president, Rashtrawadi Kisan Mahasangh, the overground version of the Sena: "It has also become Rabri rule versus President's rule." He makes no bones about the fact that they support candidates who can effectively weaken the "Naxal armies", a euphemism for Laloo's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

When Leader of the Opposition Sushil Modi says "the RJD cadres are political workers by day and MCC hitmen by night", he is echoing a common sentiment. Says Saibal Gupta, secretary of the Asian Development Research Institute: "I won't say they are hand in hand. Because the social base of the RJD and MCC is the same,there is a natural coalition."

The Congress with whose help Rabri returned is bearing the brunt of the people's anger. Asks Surendra Kumar Singh who lost his brother and a nephew: "Will Sonia come to Senari only when the Dalits are killed?" A sentiment shared, ironically, by the Dalits who, fearing revenge, believe that President's rule is a safer option.

"I didn't lock my doors for the 23 days that Bihar was under President's rule," says Rajkumar Paswan of Roopsagar Bigha. Yet, there are others who silently appreciate Rabri's absence from Senari.

"It is a struggle for power where massacres fuel revenge and give a sense of respectability." Rajkumar Singh, Bihar Home Secretary

The potent mix of politics, casteism and deprivation has made the district a fertile ground for the private armies. The Dalits who saw a chance out of servitude through these armies are only too willing to give them shelter.

The same applies to the Bhumihars who see the Ranbir Sena as their only saviour. "To some it is also an employment opportunity for it pays each person up to Rs.3,500 per month," says Rameshwar Oraon, IG (CID). More than that, membership of an outlawed group comes packaged with pride and self-respect. "We only retaliate," says Ravindra Chaudhary adding, "We can't sit like Gandhi so we have decided to be like Subhas Chandra Bose.

They eat our food and give shelter to the Naxals. Senari will be avenged soon. Jahan par rog hai, wahin par dawa bhi hai (where there is disease, there is also a cure)." The Sena is itching to retaliate and it's the thought that makes every Dalit seek the refuge of the fields at night.

Villages have emptied out, over 70 per cent of them moving to towns. Each massacre triggers a migration because the accused who figure in the FIRs are members of the rival caste from the same village. Senari's Dalits are named in the FIR, just as the Bhumihars are in Shankar Bigha. The threats are the same. Lakhee Devi, one of four Dalits who hasn't fled Senari, says the Bhumihars plan to set their mohalla on fire.

"I paidRs.20,000 but the blockade continues. There is a police picket now but I am too scared." Baleshwar Sharma, Owner of 22 bighas in Ganyari

And in Shankar Bigha, Aitwarya Devi who lost her husband and son says the Bhumihars keep threatening they will finish them as soon as their men return from jail. Lalita Kumari, whose husband escaped one massacre, lives in permanent dread.

The competitive terror sends both sides scurrying to the private armies. Blessed by social sanction, there are youth willing to be recruited and guns to be had. The Sena has easy access to the 17,000 licensed weapons in the possession of Bhumihars.

The MCC terrorises the police and snatches weapons in ambushes. "It's a case of both sides believing that they have proved a point only if it is within Jehanabad," says Chawla. Which is why the battle has escalated since both sides are numerically matched. The MCC has a grudge - it was neutralised in Bhojpur. The Ranbir Sena wants to prove that its writ runs here too.

That's why Lalita hopes it won't be her bangles next. When sobs wrack her frame and despair her insides . . .

South Asia

Bihar massacre sparks political row 

Poverty and caste divisions have fuelled violence in Bihar 

The ruling BJP party has accused the opposition Congress party of political responsibility for the latest massacre in the eastern state of Bihar, in which 35 villagers were killed.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee attacked Congress for opposing federal rule in the state.
He had sought to sack the state administration because of the breakdown in law and order. But Congress refused to support the move in parliament and the state administration had to be reinstated.
"Had president's rule continued, the Thursday night massacre could have been prevented," Mr Vajpayee told a rally in Calcutta.
He said the Congress party had recently been opposing government moves "just for the sake of it."

Paul Danahar reports on the latest in a series of reprisal killings

In the Senari village in Jehanabad district where the massacre took place on Thursday night, villagers stood around the fire where 17 of the 35 bodies were consigned to the flames.
The other bodies were taken to the state capital Patna and Gaya.
High-caste executions
The left-wing People's War Group attacked Senari village in Jehanabad district, and shot high-caste villagers while they slept, police said.

Paul Danahar: Well-organised attacks

The group first attacked a police station as a diversionary tactic, before targeting villagers in execution-style killings.
The killers left pamphlets on the bodies, identifying the faction to which they belonged.
The Bihar government said it would give 140,000 rupees (about $3,400) and a job to one member of each victim's family as compensation.
Minister denies troop withdrawal
Indian Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani has for his part denied that paramilitary troops were withdrawn from the Bihar before the killings.
Mr Advani, speaking in the southern city of Trivandrum, was responding to a charge made by Bihar's former Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.
Mr Yadav said some paramilitary troops had been pulled out of Bihar, and that this had led to the massacre.
Mr Advani said the central government was ready to send additional security forces to Bihar if the state authorities felt they were needed.
Sharp caste and wealth divisions
Thursday's attack is the latest in a series of clashes between high-caste militia and left-wing extremists in the eastern Indian state.
More than 80 people have died so far this year.
Bihar is among the most backward areas of India. A rigid caste system means sharp divisions in wealth between high-caste landowners, and the poor who work their land.
The divisions have contributed to the growth of militancy in the state.