Anaarkali - The Saga of Bhil Adivasi Indigenous People

Imperialism and Neo-imperialism

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 15:05:39 +0000

Partha Chatterjee, the noted scholar of post colonial development, has in his seminal study of British Imperialism in Bengal, The Black Hole of Empire, defined imperialism as - the privilege to declare the exception to the norm. He extends the definition of the political theorist Carl Schmitt with regard to sovereignty within an European nation as the power to decide on the exception to the liberal norm to maintain law and order in times of emergencies, to the colonial world where there is a continuous exception to the norms by the imperialist powers so as to subjugate the colonies. So, while in the internal governance of Britain itself utilitarian liberalism prevailed, the British deemed their colonial subjects to be inferior and not yet ready for liberal self governance and better ruled by despotism, ostensibly to allow them to become capable of ruling themselves later. This was done to mask the actual historical reality of imperial extraction of surpluses from the colonies which became blatant during the late nineteenth century when even this figment of liberalism was dispensed with and there was a brazen capture of colonies in Asia and Africa by the European powers.

Chatterjee goes on to say that his definition of imperialism applies even more truly in the post colonial era where neo-imperialism predominates. Especially so in the Muslim dominated Middle East where beginning with the settling of the Israeli state in Palestine and immediately afterwards the overthrow of the Mossadegh regime in Iran and down to the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan and now once again Iran, the United States of America, in conjunction with other European powers, has continually made untenable exceptions to the liberal norm to subjugate other nations. The crucial resource in these cases is of course petroleum, which since the turn of the twentieth century has driven capitalist accumulation globally.
Chatterjee has also noted that the post colonial nation states themselves have adopted the imperialist ruling paradigm in their states after independence and frequently made exceptions to the liberal norms to suppress mass dissent as is now happening in India over the protests against the arbitrarily conducted Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls which has deleted a huge 130 million voters from the draft electoral rolls.

The Cockroach Janata Party

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 13:15:37 +0000

According to the latest Indian Government stats, there are 45 million youth in higher education in the 18 -23 year age bracket and about 30 million youth in higher secondary education in the 17-18 year age bracket. There is a huge dropout after the higher secondary stage with the gross enrolment ratio dropping from 56% at the higher secondary level to 28% at the higher education level.

Thus, it is these 75 million youth that are most concerned regarding their uncertain future given the lack of jobs and other economic opportunities for the educated in the current scenario where the educated unemployment rate is between 20% and 30% according to various estimates. Add to this the population of educated youth in the age group 23 -30 years of which there are no reliable estimates and we have a population upwards of 150 million youth who are concerned with the burning issue that the education they are receiving, often at a high cost, is not resulting in gainful employment.

Under these woeful and frustrating circumstances, it is galling to be branded as cockroaches by no less than the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Consequently, there was a huge response to the Cockroach Janata Party and its first successful campaign for justice and action against the irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test.
The CJP followed this up with a campaign to improve school education which being a more broad based issue did not immediately get a similar mass support. So, the CJP picked up another burning one point issue, the problems arising out of the Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls which has removed close to 130 million electors from the draft rolls so far. One does not know what kind of mass support this campaign would have eventually got because the Government decided to nip it in the bud before it could gain momentum by using massive and unprecedented preventive measures.
Understandably, given the very short time in which it has come into being the CJP does not have a very broad programme of action. Its manifesto has five points as follows -
1. No Chief Justice shall be granted a Rajya Sabha seat as a post-retirement reward.
2. If any legit vote is deleted, the CEC shall be arrested under UAPA.
3. Women shall receive 50% reservation, not 33%, without increasing the strength of Parliament. Additionally, 50% of all Cabinet positions shall be reserved for women.
4. All media houses owned by Ambani and Adani shall have their licences cancelled to make way for truly independent media. Bank accounts of Godi media anchors shall be investigated.
5. Any MLA or MP who defects from one party to another shall be barred from contesting elections and from holding any public office for a period of 20 years.
While these are all excellent there is nothing mentioned about how the CJP will address the main problem facing the educated youth - lack of decent livelihoods. So it remains to be seen as to how it garners mass support in future by addressing the livelihood issue. Given the preponderance of modern technology and capital intensive development, which reduces employment opportunities for educated people, there is little possibility within the present paradigm of a solution of the deepening livelihood crisis. There are some part time opportunities on a cheap casual labour basis in manual occupations both in rural and urban areas, but for the educated there are limited opportunities which are mostly for those who are proficient in high tech. Currently, most of the people are self employed in one way or the other in low paying enterprises. Given this situation, as I have argued earlier, there is a strong case for the provision of a universal basic income to all adult citizens, funded by a tax on the rich. If the GST is simplified and made universal without any exemptions then all transactions can be tracked and so all incomes, which will facilitate better tax recovery which can then fund the universal basic income.

Pradip Prabhu - An Activist Par Excellence is no more

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 13:52:30 +0000

Pradip Prabhu passed away at the age of 78 after a long illness on August 25th 2026. Even though I came to know of this sad loss immediately, I was unable due to various other commitments to write then about this phenomenal person who has influenced significantly the history of Adivasi India in the Fifth Schedule Areas in the ten states of Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan. There were two very good obituaries written then https://lnkd.in/dj-cVC22 and https://lnkd.in/dFKsNmWV which describe in detail his life as an activist, policy maker and teacher. I would like to remember him here as an elder and colleague from whom I have learnt a lot.

Born Peter D'Mello in Mumbai he first became a priest. While serving as a priest in Mumbai he came in close contact with the people living in the slums and was attracted to Liberation Theology and Marxism. Finding that his vocation as a priest prevented him from fighting whole heartedly for the rights of the oppressed, he left the church, assumed the name Pradip Prabhu and began working with the Adivasis of Dahanu Taluka of the then Thane district of Maharashtra which is now in the new Palghar district. He set up the Kashtkari Sangathana, organisation of the toiling people, in 1978. This was in line with the earlier setting up of independent Adivasi organisations like the Bhumi Sena also in Palghar and the Shramik Sangathana in Nandurbar district. These organisations relied on both Marxist socio-political analysis and the inherent rebelliousness and simplicity of the Adivasis to forge a new Adivasi politics that broke away from the orthodox Marxist mold.

It became clear by the 1990s that working in isolated niches as small organisations would not be able to fight the larger structural injustices that Adivasis have faced from the British colonial times and which have been replicated by the independent India State. Pradip along with the late Dr B. D. Sharma began a campaign for the setting up of a truly independent Adivasi Self Rule framework which led eventually to the enactment of the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act 1996 which has come to be referred to as a Constitution within the Constitution for Fifth Schedule Adivasi Areas. Later he led another campaign for the grant of rights to forests for Adivasis which resulted in the Forest Rights Act in 2005. Together, these two legislations have gone a long way in establishing the rights to natural resources and self governance of the Adivasis.

Despite his immense activism and scholarship for which he had been invited to teach in prestigious institutions, he remained a very simple person accessible to all, especially the Adivasis for whom he dedicated his life. Rest in peace comrade you will be sorely missed.

The Chronicle of a Dishonest Life

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:11:00 +0000

At the age of five, I traveled from Assam to Kolkata to live with my maternal grandparents for the sake of my education. I remained there until I was eighteen years old. During this period — between the ages of seven and eight — I spent about a year and a half living in a hostel; for the remainder of this long duration, I stayed exclusively at my grandparents' home. My grandmother would not allow me to play with the other children in the neighborhood, fearing that I would fall into bad company and become wayward. Consequently, from the very beginning, I devoted myself intensely to my studies. I did not limit myself to the school curriculum; I also read books beyond the prescribed syllabus. For this reason, I have lived a solitary existence from the start, and my worldview has been shaped by the books I have read.

Although I did experience a different environment during that year and a half in the hostel, by then I had already grown accustomed to solitude; thus, I eventually returned to my grandparents' home. While at the hostel, I learned the practice of masturbation from some of the other boys, and from that point onward, it became an integral part of my life.

When I was around ten or eleven years old, the Naxalite movement was at its peak in my locality. A young man from our neighborhood joined the movement and fled his home. Furthermore, my maternal grandmother's youngest brother also quit his job, joined the movement, and subsequently ended up in prison. I was deeply affected by all these events. Additionally, I read various books containing stories of individuals who fought against injustice. Consequently, by the age of thirteen, a desire to fight against the injustice prevalent in society began to stir within me; however, I did not immediately take any concrete action in this direction and continued to focus on my studies.

A Christian missionary used to visit our school to deliver sermons, sharing how he engaged in social work for the upliftment of the poor. Inspired by him, I joined him in his social work initiatives. As part of this effort, I would tutor underprivileged children, and occasionally, I would visit old-age homes to converse with the elderly residents and offer them assistance.

Confined indoors with my books, my sense of solitude deepened, and the world contained within those books became, to me, even more real than the actual world around me. During my holidays, I would visit my parents in Assam for a month — both in the summer and winter seasons — yet these visits left no lasting impact on me. On one such holiday, a man took me to his home and began stroking my penis. I found the sensation pleasurable; subsequently, he removed my trousers, penetrated me, and engaged in sexual intercourse. At the time, I was merely twelve years old, and I actually enjoyed the experience. However, I never visited his home again and continued to practice masturbation on my own.

Consequently, my character is marked by a sense of solitude. I never formed any truly deep friendships. In school, however, I used to engage in extensive discussions with Rajat Roy regarding Marxism, and with Venkat Ramaswamy concerning global struggles for justice.

Thus, on the one hand, there was a desire to fight for social justice; on the other, my sexual urges—intensified by masturbation—were running high. Yet, during my school years, I took no concrete steps in either direction, and I gradually evolved into a solitary individual.

Whether with my grandparents or my parents, I shared no close, affectionate bond with anyone. I never received the kind of intimate love and affection that a child truly needs. While I was adequately provided with food, clothing, and other material necessities, I was deprived of emotional intimacy and physical closeness. This, too, contributed to the deep sense of loneliness within me. It felt as though my parents and grandparents were merely fulfilling a duty—the obligation to raise and rear a child—but from the age of five until eighteen, I felt absolutely no emotional proximity to my guardians. This lack of connection is the root cause of the emotional aridity that characterizes my personality in later life. I simultaneously harbored deep empathy for the victims of social injustice, yet remained indifferent toward those closest to me. I possessed both a spirit of selfless service and a set of self-centered desires. I would often fantasize about becoming immensely wealthy or an exceptional athlete, thereby earning fame and recognition.

Due to the interplay of these two influences, my character was—and remains to this day—riddled with contradictions. Furthermore, because I consistently excelled in my studies, I harbored a certain arrogance—a conviction that I was destined to become a person of high stature in my adult life—and I would constantly weave various dreams centered around this belief. At times, I would dream of becoming a renowned scientist and winning the Nobel Prize; at other times, I would dream of becoming the country's ruler and working for the welfare of the masses.

Upon entering college, I spent my first three years immersed in academics and sports. My habit of masturbation persisted; however, since there were very few female students in the college at that time, I never had the opportunity to form a friendship with a girl. In my fourth year, I began studying Philosophy and bade farewell to sports. Instead, I began devoting my time to the practice of meditation. I read the Upanishads and was deeply influenced by the philosophical tenets expounded within them. I felt particularly inspired to put into practice the principles of truth and renunciation highlighted in the Upanishads. At one point in 1982, I even seriously contemplated dropping out of college to join an ashram and dedicate myself to full-time meditation; ultimately, however, I lacked the courage to renounce everything.

I also began engaging in social work, which involved visiting tribal villages in the vicinity of the college to teach the local children. Furthermore, I started attending meetings held by Naxalite groups. However, at that time, these groups were not engaged in armed struggle and were operating strictly within the framework of the Constitution. Discussions during their meetings centered on the premise that the robust mass organization required to bring about an armed revolution did not yet exist; therefore, the strategy was to remain within the constitutional framework, mobilize the people, and fight for their rights.

After spending two years in this manner, upon completing my college education, I did not take up any job. Instead — in 1984 — I took upon myself the responsibility of overseeing the construction of a house for my parents in Shantiniketan. I devoted two years to this task. During that period, I continued to read extensively on philosophy and politics.

Thus, while on the one hand I devoted my time to the practice of Yoga, on the other, I began seeking opportunities to engage in full-time organizational work at the grassroots level.

In 1985, I arrived in Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh to undertake rural organizational work. By that time, I had already extensively studied the Upanishads, the Gita, and the works of Gandhi, Marx, and others. Consequently, at that juncture, I resolved to remain celibate throughout my life and dedicate myself solely to the task of establishing Gram Swaraj (village self-rule).

Subsequently, until 1991, I worked tirelessly on rural organizational initiatives while simultaneously continuing my practice of Yoga. Yet, despite this, my sexual urges would periodically surge, leading me to engage in masturbation. Reading the Gita and the Upanishads, along with my Yoga practice, would suppress these desires for a time; however, they would inevitably erupt once again.

It was during this period that a married woman arrived in Alirajpur to conduct fieldwork for her doctoral research, taking up residence in a village called Anjanbara. We initially struck up a friendship, which eventually evolved into a sexual relationship. My spiritual practice of Yoga was completely shattered. For years, I had been striving to control my carnal desires through spiritual discipline, but now they had spiraled completely out of control. Concurrently, I also began engaging in sexual relations with another woman in Baroda. I maintained sexual relationships with both women on an alternating basis. All of this transpired without any form of commitment; that is to say, there was no enduring emotional bond — the relationship was predicated solely on physical intimacy. Thus, I was confronted with a formidable challenge: how to bring my unbridled desires under control. I came to the realization that I needed to enter into a stable, committed relationship with a single woman; otherwise, the consequences could be dire.

The dilemma I faced was that I had no desire to abandon my organizational work in Alirajpur, yet I could not find a woman who was willing to join me in this line of work. I felt the need to fulfill my sexual urges, but I was adamant that doing so should not necessitate giving up my vocation. For me, the organizational work held far greater significance than the gratification of sexual desires. Consequently — from the very outset — I had endeavored to suppress my sexual urges, but ultimately, I proved unable to do so. I had before me the example of Mama Baleshwar Dayal, who remained focused on tribal organizational work throughout his life and never married. However, because I became entangled in a sexual relationship, I no longer remained worthy of following in Mama-ji's footsteps.

One potential solution was for me to marry a tribal woman. However, at that time, I could not find an educated tribal woman who was interested in mass organizational work. Furthermore—since I was deeply engaged in organizational work among the tribal communities—I felt that marrying a tribal woman might create obstacles for that work. Marrying an uneducated tribal woman solely to satisfy sexual urges did not feel right to me.

In 1991, the Sangharsh Yatra (Struggle March) of the Narmada Bachao Andolan was organized, in which thousands of people participated. At that time, several activists from the Ekta Parishad had arrived in the Dahi block of Dhar district to conduct mass organizational work. At the request of Medha Patkar, these Ekta Parishad activists had come to the Barwani region to assist in the preparations for the Sangharsh Yatra. When we joined the Sangharsh Yatra in Alirajpur, we crossed paths with these Ekta Parishad activists.

I took a strong liking to one of the female activists from the Ekta Parishad — Subhadra. I observed her organizing the participants of the march and was deeply impressed by her style of building and managing an organization. Moreover, during a training camp organized by the Ekta Parishad in the village of Gangpur following the Sangharsh Yatra, the manner in which Subhadra debated with the senior leaders also left a lasting impression on me. I began to feel that she could be the ideal life partner for me.

I wrote a letter to Subhadra expressing my desire to befriend her, but I received no response. Subsequently, I went to meet her at her workplace—a village in the Ratlam district. By that time, she had finished organizing a group of twenty activists in Dahi and had already departed for Ratlam—accompanied by two other activists—to work on expanding the organization's reach in that region. Initially, she was quite annoyed that I was bringing up the subject of friendship instead of focusing on the work at hand. However, gradually, a friendship blossomed between us, and eventually, we entered into a sexual relationship. We met during the mass movements that followed, and eventually, in 1993, we got married at the Collector's Office in Bhopal under the provisions of the Civil Marriage Act. Initially, I was not in favor of marriage; however, Subhadra insisted that social recognition was essential and, therefore, a legally sanctioned marriage was necessary. A few of our friends attended the wedding, and Ramchandra Bhargava—who was the Director of Gandhi Bhawan at the time—along with his wife, Rukmini, provided us with immense support. These two senior social workers stepped into the role of parents for us.

Even after the wedding, we continued to live apart — Subhadra in Ratlam and I in Alirajpur — a distance of 250 kilometers. This arrangement created difficulties; we were unable to live together and would meet only occasionally. Our relationship was primarily based on physical intimacy, and we did not know much about one another beyond that. It was impossible to truly get to know each other without spending a significant amount of time together. Consequently, we decided to live together in Alirajpur. But the truth is that due to my selfishness, I never felt the need to know Subhadra properly.

On one occasion, Subhadra came to Alirajpur from Ratlam while I was engrossed in some work. When she asked me to set aside my work to spend time with her, I replied that I could not simply abandon my duties to sit around engaging in romantic dalliance with her. This led to our first major quarrel; in a fit of anger, Subhadra cast aside all her jewelry — including her Mangalsutra — and headed back to Dahi. Subhadra sought to establish a deeper, emotional bond, but I told her that if I were forced to choose between our marriage and my political principles, I would invariably choose my political principles. This stance of mine deeply angered Subhadra.

This has remained the primary obstacle in our relationship: the fact that I prioritize my political principles above the relationship itself.

I have always prioritized political principles and work—specifically, the work in Alirajpur. On that particular occasion, I eventually went to Dahi and managed to persuade Subhadra; however, a persistent issue remained: I had expected Subhadra to leave her work with the Ekta Parishad and join me in Alirajpur to work alongside me. For a time, Subhadra did exactly that, and we both settled into a small cottage — an Indira Awas unit—in Sondwa. We purchased some basic necessities and set up our household in that cottage.

However, whenever we ventured out into the region to carry out organizational work, Subhadra felt that the terrain was extremely arduous, as it required a great deal of walking across the hilly landscape. Furthermore, influenced by the prevailing sentiment within the Adivasi Ekta Parishad, Shankar—a local tribal activist in Alirajpur—declared that there was no need for "outsider, middle-class activists" like us, asserting that they could manage the organization entirely on their own.

For a brief period, we attempted to work in Dhar district — another area under the Ekta Parishad's purview — but we were unable to establish a viable working arrangement there either. The local Ekta Parishad activists simply did not wish for me to reside and work within their territory.

Consequently, we decided to embark on a new endeavor together in a completely new region. At that time, I was suffering from recurrent bouts of malaria. When a doctor in Indore examined me, he advised that I would have to leave Alirajpur, undergo a six-month course of treatment, and, throughout this entire period, sleep under a mosquito net at all times. Such a regimen was simply not feasible in Alirajpur. This medical necessity, too, compelled us to leave the district. After requesting and receiving a financial assistance of five hundred rupees from Baba Amte, we moved to the campus of the Gramodyog Vidyalaya (Village Industries School) in the village of Machla, located near Indore, where we took up residence. Even there, I suffered from malaria once or twice, but within six months, I finally managed to recover completely from the illness.

While Machla offered excellent living facilities, we were entirely without funds. We managed to scrape by — somehow — by selling copies of *Nai Chetna* (New Consciousness), a magazine published by the Alirajpur-based organization, at two rupees apiece; however, this income proved insufficient to sustain us. We also managed to get by, to some extent, by borrowing money from friends as well as from my mother and brother. We would procure kerosene using a resident of the Ashram - Muniji's - ration card and cook our meals on a stove. Although we lived in conditions of scarcity, there was immense mutual affection among us, and those were truly wonderful days.

Subsequently, I secured a research project that enabled me to earn some money. This not only covered our living expenses but also allowed us to purchase a computer and a printer—acquisitions that facilitated our ability to secure similar research projects in the future.

We lived in Machla for two years, sharing deep love and bringing great joy to one another. Those were truly excellent days for us. During this period, I engaged extensively in writing; my articles were published in various journals, which, in turn, opened up additional avenues for earning income through research-related work. After this we were both awarded an American fellowship aimed at improving women's health. This American fellowship significantly bolstered our financial stability.

In 1996, to carry out the work associated with this fellowship, we moved from Machla to the village of Katkut in Khargone district. There, we built a home within a tribal settlement and began living among the community. In the Katkut region, non-tribal populations were engaged in severe oppression and exploitation of the tribal people. However, a dilemma arose: if we focused our efforts on organizing the tribal community, we would be unable to adequately fulfill the specific mandate regarding women's health as stipulated by the fellowship.

Subhadra insisted that we focus exclusively on women's health initiatives and refrain from undertaking organizational work—such as mobilizing the tribal community—in the manner we had previously done in Alirajpur. This difference of opinion created a rift between us. Upon learning of the fellowship, our former colleagues from the organization began alleging that I had "sold out" tor American money and had turned my back on organizational activism. These accusations weighed heavily on me and caused me deep distress. Consequently — and despite Subhadra's objections — I pressed ahead with the organizational work, and eventually, Subhadra joined me in these efforts. As a result, we were both imprisoned, and numerous criminal cases were filed against us. Although this period generated significant publicity for our cause, it also led to frequent conflicts between Subhadra and I, as she remained deeply unhappy about our involvement in such activism. Even after leaving Alirajpur, I continued to work in the same manner—against Subhadra's wishes—which did not please her.

This conflict regarding my work persists to this day. The tribal communities of Katkut and Pandutalab formed an organization and mobilized so extensively against the government that, ultimately, the government deployed its full force to dismantle the mass organisation in 2001. During this crackdown, I was imprisoned for two and a half months, and four of my colleagues in the organization were killed in police firing.

Subhadra was deeply angered by all of this as well; by that time, our son, Ishaan, had been born, and she was forced to flee with him—an ordeal that caused her immense hardship. Thus, my obsessive absorption in my work created a rift in our relationship.

Following this, we stepped away from activism for a while; on the one hand, government repression was severe, and on the other, we now had a child. Subhadra often had to attend court hearings with the child in tow. The police even threatened the landlord of the rented house we occupied in Indore, warning him not to rent to us. Consequently, we were ultimately compelled to build our own home in Indore in 2002.

All our funds were exhausted in the construction of the house. Once again, we found ourselves in financial distress—this time with the added responsibility of a child alongside the two of us. Scrambling for work wherever I could, I secured funding for a research study, and our situation improved somewhat. I was able to purchase a laptop computer, which became a means for me to earn an income once again.

However, the discord persisted, as arguments regarding my work continued to plague our relationship. Due to the demands of raising our child and resuming her own studies, Subhadra had to remain at home, while I was constantly out in the field for my work. In 2008, I secured a research project that required me to revitalize the Alirajpur-based organization, 'Dhas Gramin Vikas Kendra.'

Consequently, the routine of traveling back and forth to Alirajpur resumed, becoming a reason for the escalation of our domestic conflicts.

Subsequently, funding began to flow into Dhas—initially from the Tata Trusts in 2008, intended for advocacy on behalf of migrant laborers, and later, in 2011, from ActionAid, to support work focused on tribal rights. To oversee these initiatives, I frequently had to travel to Alirajpur; occasionally, Subhadra would accompany me. Later, I took Swapan Bhattacharya to the Kakrana school, where he subsequently took up residence. This development further increased the frequency of my travels to and from Alirajpur.

In truth, apart from the physical intimacy inherent in a marital relationship, I harbored no genuine love for Subhadra. Not only was I perpetually engrossed in my work, but I also constantly berated Subhadra, accusing her of being idle and of hindering my own work. Due to the demands of our respective work, we never truly got to know one another; this pattern persisted unchanged from the very beginning of our relationship to this day.

Meanwhile, Subhadra was struggling to secure admission into a PhD program. Despite numerous attempts, she was unable to gain admission at any institution in Delhi, Mumbai, Indore, or Ujjain. Concurrently, as our colleagues in Alirajpur were not performing their duties effectively, the burden of managing the ActionAid project fell increasingly upon my shoulders. Exasperated by this entire situation, Subhadra insisted that I sever my ties with both Dhas and Alirajpur; complying with her demand, I withdrew from those engagements.

Throughout this entire period—from 2008 to 2015—I undertook a significant amount of consultancy work, through which I earned a substantial income. It was during this time that I began writing on Facebook; moved by my posts, various individuals began contributing funds to support our work. Gradually, this activity gained momentum, and writing on Facebook became akin to an addiction for me. As people continued to donate increasingly larger sums, this addiction only intensified. Finally, in 2015, Subhadra secured admission into a PhD program at the Ambedkar University in Mhow, and she subsequently became fully immersed in her studies. Furthermore, at my insistence, Subhadra began working on issues related to women's health; through this work, she eventually came to realize that women's health can only truly be improved if their nutritional intake and dietary habits are properly addressed. To achieve this, it is essential to practice organic farming correctly. In line with this objective, Subhadra began practicing organic farming in 2015 in the village of Pandutalab, located in Dewas district. Consequently, Subhadra became extremely busy; on the one hand, she was pursuing her PhD studies, while on the other, she was engaged in the work of expanding the organic farming initiative.

During this period, my own sexual urges intensified significantly. As a result, I began watching a large volume of pornography on the internet. Furthermore — and not just that — I would constantly stare at the breasts of young women passing by on the street. Conflicts between Subhadra and me regarding our work escalated, and the emotional distance between us widened. Subhadra argued that I should abandon my work in Alirajpur and focus solely on the work in Pandutalab, but I was unwilling to accept this suggestion. Thus, I would satisfy my heightened sexual urges by masturbating—often three or four times a day—while watching pornography. Although we were indeed living together under the same roof, our relationship had effectively broken down; I made no effort to keep it alive—in fact, due to my preoccupation with the work in Alirajpur, I only created further obstacles within it.

Had I, at that time, stepped away from my work in Alirajpur and focused instead on mending my relationship with Subhadra, things could have worked out. However, I could not break free from my addiction to Facebook or my attachment to Alirajpur; consequently, our arguments and the emotional distance between us continued to grow. We were living together physically, yet a vast chasm remained between us. We no longer engaged in meaningful conversation; our interactions were limited strictly to discussions regarding work-related matters.

In this manner, a merely functional relationship limped along between us—one punctuated by occasional, explosive arguments. The fault lay entirely with me; I was unwilling to give up Alirajpur, just as I was unwilling to commit to building a loving relationship.

Meanwhile, I continued to write extensively on Facebook, garnering considerable praise and acclaim; concurrently, the organization continued to receive substantial funding. I developed a sense of arrogance—a belief that I possessed the ability to earn both immense public adulation and financial wealth. Subsequently, in 2021, I fell severely ill with COVID-19; it was Subhadra who nursed me back to health and saved my life. However, in the post-COVID period, a massive argument erupted with Subhadra regarding work. Thus, although fame and financial success were pouring in, our personal relationship continued to deteriorate steadily. I was unwilling to give up the work in Alirajpur.

In 2021, following the COVID outbreak, I struck up a friendship with a woman from Chennai on Facebook and flew there to meet her. I engaged in sexual relations with her at a hotel in Mamallapuram. This was a grave error. Since masturbation — while watching pornography — was no longer sufficient to satisfy my sexual urges, I succumbed to temptation and engaged in sexual intercourse with that woman. This affair continued for four years, during which I traveled to Chennai five times solely for the purpose of sexual encounters.

Instead of resolving our conflicts and strengthening our bond, I resorted to lies and deceit to indulge in illicit sexual pleasures. Rather than nurturing our relationship, I deliberately widened the emotional distance so that I could freely pursue a life of luxury and sexual gratification. I would lie, claiming I was traveling to present a paper at a conference, while in reality, I was heading to Chennai for sexual liaisons. I would stay for two days, engaging in sexual acts four times a day to satiate my lust. I had entered into marriage primarily to ensure a permanent medium for sexual intimacy, not to build a loving and emotionally fulfilling partnership. When sexual intimacy ceased within that marriage, I turned to deceit to seek sexual gratification elsewhere. Thus, despite remaining within the marriage, I effectively absolved myself of its responsibilities, living a life of unbridled self-indulgence.

In 2022, a film based on our love story was produced by Amazon. In it, I flawlessly portrayed the role of a devoted husband. Yet, the reality was that I had become physically and emotionally distant from Subhadra, and I was merely playing a false character on screen. In fact—around the time of the filming and even at the time of its release—I had traveled to Chennai and engaged in sexual relationship with the woman there. This marked the absolute pinnacle of my deceit.

I operated under the assumption that since Subhadra never checked my emails or mobile phone, she would remain completely oblivious to my illicit sexual activities, and I could continue this behavior indefinitely. However, I was finally caught in July 2025, and all my arrogant sexual escapades were exposed. Yet, I remained unyielding; unwilling to humble myself or leave Alirajpur, I fled from home. A few days later, I returned, but I was not fully prepared to embark on the path of genuine self-improvement. I could not bring myself to agree to align my actions with Subhadra's expectations. Instead, I fed misinformation about Subhadra to the activists in Alirajpur—as well as to my own brother—thereby further diminishing her standing and reputation. I adopted an extremely cruel attitude toward Subhadra, driven solely by my own self-interest and a desire for unbridled indulgence. This caused her immense suffering.

For me, escaping the responsibilities of marriage and family life—and achieving a sense of "freedom" through lies and deceit in order to pursue my own arrogant pleasures—was of paramount importance. Consequently, in December 2025, I once again fled from home to Alirajpur. I returned a few days later, yet I remain unable to shed my ego.

I had married Subhadra with the expectation that she would leave the Ekta Parishad to join me in Alirajpur — working alongside me while simultaneously catering to my sexual desires. This was an act of male chauvinism. I believed that I was a superior activist and that our work in Alirajpur was of a higher caliber than that of the Ekta Parishad. This chauvinistic arrogance persisted even after I eventually left Alirajpur — at Subhadra's insistence — to move to Indore and Katkut. The reality is that neither my male chauvinism nor my attachment to working in Alirajpur ever truly left me; consequently, I have consistently maintained a dictatorial attitude toward Subhadra. That is why —even after being caught engaging in sexual relations with another woman — I fled to Alirajpur on two separate occasions. This male chauvinism is the root cause of my downfall. Despite numerous conflicts, I consistently disregarded Subhadra's counsel and continued to act according to my own whims, creating a vast emotional distance within our relationship. I hereby offer my public apology for these reckless and imprudent actions of mine which have deeply hurt Subhadra.

एक फरेबी ज़िंदगी का सफरनामा

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:10:00 +0000

पाँच साल की उम्र में मैं आसाम से कोलकाता नाना नानी के यहाँ या गया था पढ़ाई के लिए। और फिर 18 साल की उम्र तक वहीं रहा। बीच में करीब डेढ़ साल के लिए सात साल से आठ साल के उम्र तक मैं छात्रावास में रहा बाकी इस लंबी अवधि में मैं नाना नानी के यहाँ ही रहा। नानी मुझे मोहल्ले के दूसरे बच्चों के साथ खेलने नहीं देती थी यह सोचकर कि मैं बिगड़ जाऊंगा। इसलिए शुरू से ही मैं पढ़ाई में बहुत ध्यान देता था। केवल स्कूल की पढ़ाई ही नही बल्कि पाठ्यक्रम से अतिरिक्त पुस्तकें भी पढ़ता था। इसी कारण मैं शुरू से अकेलापन में जिया हूँ और मेरे सोच पुस्तकों से बनी है।

इस बीच डेढ़ साल जरूर छात्रावास में एक अलग माहौल मिला पर तब तक अकेलापन की आदत पड़ गई थी इसलिए मैं वापस नाना नानी के यहा आ गया। छात्रावास में कुछ दूसरे लड़कों से मैं हस्त मैथुन करना सीख गया एवं इसके बाद से यह मेरा जीवन का अंग बना रहा।

मेरे दस ग्यारह साल की उम्र में मेरे आस पास में नक्सल आंदोलन का बोलबाला था। हमारे मोहल्ले का एक युवक इस आंदोलन में शामिल होकर घर से फरार हो गया। साथ ही मेरे नयाँ के सबसे छोटे भाई भी अपनी नौकरी छोड़कर इस आंदोलन में शामिल होकर जेल चला गया था। इस सब से मैं बहुत प्रभावित हुआ। साथ ही मैं ने की ऐसे पुस्तके पढ़ी जिनमें अन्याय के खिलाफ लड़नेवालों की कहानियाँ थी। इसलिए मुझे तेरह साल की उम्र से ही समाज में व्याप्त अन्याय से लड़ने की एक इच्छा जाग गई हालांकि मैंने तुरंत इस दिशा में कुछ किया नहीं एवं पढ़ाई ही करते रहा।

हमारे स्कूल में एक ईसाई प्रचारक आते थे प्रवचन देने एवं बताते थे कि कैसे वे गरीबों के उत्थान के लिए समाज कार्य करते थे। उनसे प्रेरित होकर मैंने उनके साथ उनके समाज कार्य में भाग लिया था। इसके तहत मैं गरीब बच्चों को पढ़ाने का काम करता था और कभी कभी वृद्धाश्रम में जाकर बूढ़े लोगों से बात कर उनको मदद करता था।

घर में पुस्तकों के साथ बंद रहने के कारण मेरा अकेलापन के साथ साथ पुस्तकों की दुनिया मेरे लिए और वास्तव हो गया था।

मैंने छुट्टियों में माँ बाप के पास असम जरूर जाता था एक महीने के लिए गर्मी और ठंड के मौसम में पर उसका असर ज्यादा नहीं रहा। एक बार ऐसे ही एक छुट्टी के समय एक आदमी ने मुझे उसके घर ले गया और मेरे लिंग पर हाथ फेरने लगा। मुझे अच्छा लगा और फिर उसने मेरे पैन्ट उतारकर मेरे कूल्हे में उसके लिंग डालकर मैथुन किया। उस समय मेरे उम्र केवल 12 साल का था और मुझे अच्छा ही लगा। पर मैं फिर कभी उसका घर नहीं गया और खुद हस्त मैथुन करते रहा।

मेरा चरित्र इसलिए अकेलापन का है। कोई बहुत गहरे दोस्त नहीं बने मेरे। स्कूल में हालांकि रजत रॉय के साथ मार्क्सवाद को लेकर और वेंकट रामस्वामी के साथ दुनिया भर के न्याय के संघर्षों को लेकर बहुत बातें होती थी।

तो एक तरफ सामाजिक न्याय के लिए लड़ने की इच्छा थी और दूसरी तरफ यौन वासना हस्त मैथुन के कारण तेज हो गई थी पर दोनों में ही कोई वास्तविक कदम स्कूली जीवन में नहीं उठाया और एक अकेला इंसान में तब्दील हो गया।

नाना नानी या माँ बाप, किसीसे भी मेरा करीब का प्यार का संबंध नहीं था। एक बच्चे को जो घनिष्ट प्यार मिलना चाहिए वह नहीं मिल मुझे। हाँ खाना पीना पहनाव आदि पर्याप्त मिलता था पर घनिष्टता और मानसिक शारीरिक निकटपन यह नहीं मिला मुझे। इस कारण भी मेरे अंदर एक अकेलापन था। ऐसा था कि माँ बाप और नाना नानी जिम्मेदारी निभा रहे थे कि बच्चे को पालकर बड़ा करना है पर पाँच साल की उम्र से अठारह साल की उम्र तक कोई निकटता नहीं महसूस हुई मुझे मेरे पालकों से। यह ही मेरे बाद के जीवन में मेरे चरित्र का सूखेपन का कारण है। मैं एक ही साथ समाज के न्यायहीनता के शिकार लोगों के प्रति सहानुभूति रखता था और करीब के लोगों के प्रति उदासीन भी था। निःस्वार्थ सेवभाव भी था और स्वार्थी इच्छाएं भी थी। मेरी यह इच्छा होती थी कि मैं बहुत अमीर बनूँगा या बहुत अच्छा खिलाड़ी बनूँगा और नाम कमाऊँगा।

दोनों प्रभावों के कारण मेरा चरित्र में विरोधाभास था और आज भी है। क्योंकि मैं पढ़ाई में अव्वल था इसलिए एक अहंकार था कि मैं बहुत ऊंचे दर्जे का व्यक्ति बन पाऊँगा अपने वयस्क जीवन में और इसको लेकर तरह तरह के सपने भी देखते रहता था। कभी सपना देखता था कि एक बहुत बड़ा वैज्ञानिक बनकर नोबेल पुरस्कार जीतूँगा तो कभी सपना देखता था कि मैं देश का शासक बनकर बहुत लोगों का भला करूंगा।

महाविद्यालय में जाकर मैंने पहले तीन साल पढ़ाई और खेल कूद में व्यस्त रहा। हस्त मैथुन जारी था पर क्योंकि उस समय महाविद्यालय में बहुत कम लड़की विद्यार्थी थी इसलिए मुझे किसी लड़की से दोस्ती करने का अवसर नहीं मिला। चौथे वर्ष में मैंने दर्शन पढ़ना शुरू किया और खेल कूद से विदा ले लिया। इसके बदले में ध्यान साधना में समय लगाने लगा। उपनिषदों को पढ़ा और उसमें बताए गए दर्शन से प्रभावित हुआ। मुख्य रूप से सच्चाई और त्याग पर जो बाते है उपनिषदों में उस पर अमल करने की प्रेरणा मिली। यहाँ तक कि एक व्यक्त 1982 में मैंने पढ़ाई छोड़कर किसी आश्रम में जाकर पूर्णकालिक रूप से ध्यान साधना करने का भी गंभीरता से सोचा पर आखिरकार सब कुछ त्यागने की हिम्मत नहीं हुई।

समाज सेवा भी करने लगा जिसके तहत मैं महाविद्यालय के आस पास के आदिवासी गाँव में जाकर वहाँ के बच्चों को पढ़ाता था। और नक्सली गुटों के बैठकों में भी जाने लगा। हालांकि यह गुट उस समय सशस्त्र कार्यवाही नहीं कर रहे थे और संविधान के दायरे में ही काम कर रहे थे। इनकी बैठकों में बात होती थी कि सशस्त्र क्रांति लाने के लिए जो सशक्त जन संगठन चाहिए था वह मौजूद नहीं था इसलिए संविधान के दायरे में रहकर लोगों को संगठित कर उनके हकों के लिए लड़ना है।

ऐसे दो साल बिताने के बाद मैं महाविद्यालय की पढ़ाई खत्म करने के पश्चात कोई नौकरी नहीं की। बल्कि मेरे माता पिता के लिए शांतिनिकेतन में उनका मकान बनाने की जिम्मेदारी उठाई 1984 में। इस काम को मैं दो साल तक किया। उस दौरान मैं दर्शन और राजनीति के और पुस्तकें पढ़ी। इस प्रकार एक तरफ मैं योग साधना में समय लगाया तो दूसरी तरफ मैं ग्रामीण स्तर पर पूर्ण कालिक रूप से संगठनात्मक कार्य करने के अवसर ढूँढने लगा।

1985 में मैं ग्रामीण संगठनात्मक कार्य के लिए मध्य प्रदेश में अलीराजपुर पहुँचा। उस समय तक मैं उपनिषद, गीता और गांधी, मार्क्स आदि के पुस्तकों के बहुत अध्ययन कर चुका था। इसलिए उस व्यक्त मैं ते किया कि ज़िंदगी भर एकल रह कर केवल ग्राम स्वराज स्थापित करने का ही काम करूंगा।

इसके बाद 1991 तक मैं डट कर ग्रामीण संगठनात्मक कार्य किया और साथ ही योग साधना भी करते रहा। पर फिर भी मेरे यौन वासनाए बीच बीच में उफान पर आ जाती थी और मैं हस्त मैथुन करता था। गीता और उपनिषद पढ़ने से और योग साधना से कुछ समय तक वासनाए दब जाती थी पर फिर विस्फोट हो जाता था।

इसी समय एक शादीशुदा महिला अलीराजपुर आई उसके पीएचडी के अध्ययन के लिए सर्वेक्षण करने और वहाँ एक गाँव आंजनबारा में रहने लगी। पहले उससे मेरी दोस्ती हो गई और फिर उसके साथ यौन संबंध में फंस गया। मेरे आध्यात्मिक योग साधना पूरी तरह से ध्वस्त हो गया। इतने सालों से मैं मेरी वासना को साधना द्वारा नियंत्रित कर रहा था पर अब वह पूरी तरह बेलगाम हो गई। साथ ही मैं बड़ोडा में एक और महिला के साथ भी यौन संबंध करने लगा। इन दोनों महिलाओं से बारी बारी से यौन संबंध चलते रहता था। यह सब किसी भी प्रकार के प्रतिबद्धता के बिना हो रहा था। यानि कोई स्थाई रिश्ता के बिना केवल यौन संबंध ही इसका आधार था। इस प्रकार मेरे लिए मेरे वासनाओं को नियंत्रित करने की एक बड़ी समस्या खड़ी हो गई। मुझे लगा कि किसी एक महिला के साथ एक स्थायी संबंध में बंधना होगा नहीं तो बहुत बुरा परिणाम हो सकता है।

समस्या यह थी कि मैं अलीराजपुर में मेरा संगठनात्मक काम को छोड़ना नही चाहता था और मुझे कोई ऐसी महिला नहीं मिल रही थी जो मेरे साथ यह काम को करेगी। यौन वासना को पूरी करनी थी पर उसके चलते मेरा काम नहीं छूटना चाहिए था। संगठनात्मक काम मेरे लिए और महत्व रखता था यौन वासना की तुलना में। इसलिए मैं शुरू से ही यौन वासना को दबाने की कोशिश की पर ऐसा हो नहीं पाया। मेरे सामने मामा बालेश्वर दयाल का उदाहरण था जिन्होंने जीवन पर्यंत आदिवासी संगठन के काम पर केंद्रित रहा और शादी नहीं की। पर क्योंकि मैं यौन संबंध में फंस गया इसलिए मामाजी के नक्शे कदम पर चलने के लायक नहीं रहा।

एक समाधान यह था कि मैं किसी आदिवासी लड़की से शादी कर लूँ। परंतु मुझे उस समय कोई पढ़ी लिखी आदिवासी महिला नहीं मिली जो संगठन के काम में रुचि रखती हो। यह भी था कि क्योंकि मैं आदिवासियों के बीच संगठनात्मक काम में लगा हुआ था इसलिए मुझे लगा कि मैं किसी आदिवासी लड़की से शादी नहीं कर सकता जिससे कि संगठनात्मक काम मे बाधा उत्पन्न हो। केवल यौन वासना को पूरी करने के लिए किसी अनपढ़ आदिवासी लड़की से शादी करना मुझे ठीक नहीं लगा।

1991 में नर्मदा बचाओ आंदोलन की संघर्ष यात्रा आयोजित की गई जिसमें हजारों की संख्या में लोग शामिल हुए। उस समय एकता परिषद के कुछ कार्यकर्ता धार जिले के डही जनपद में संगठनात्मक कार्य करने के लिए आए थे। मेधा पाटकर के अनुरोध पर एकता परिषद के यह कार्यकर्ता बड़वानी क्षेत्र में आए थे संघर्ष यात्रा की तैयारी में मदद करने के लिए। हम जब अलीराजपुर में संघर्ष यात्रा में शामिल हुए तो हमारी मुलाकात एकता परिषद के इन कार्यकर्ताओं से हो गई।

एकता परिषद के एक महिला कार्यकर्ता, सुभद्रा, मुझे बहुत पसंद आई। मैंने उसको यात्रा के प्रतिभागियों को संगठित करते हुए देखा और उसके संगठन बनाने की कार्यशैली से बहुत प्रभावित हो गया। इसके अलावा संघर्ष यात्रा के बाद आयोजित ग्राम गांगपुर के एकता परिषद के एक प्रशिक्षण शिविर में सुभद्रा ने वरिष्ट संचालाकों से जिस प्रकार बहस की वह भी मुझे प्रभावित किया। मुझे लगा कि वह ही मेरे जीवन साथी बन सकती है।

मैंने सुभद्रा को एक पत्र लिखा कि मुझे उससे दोस्ती करनी है जिसका कोई जवाब नहीं आया। फिर मैंने उससे मिलने गया उसके कार्यस्थल रतलाम जिले के एक गाँव में। उस समय वह डही में बीस कार्यकर्ताओं को व्यवस्थित कर वहाँ से निकलकर रतलाम में संगठन के विस्तार के कार्य के लिए दो कार्यकर्ताओं के साथ जा चुकी थी। शुरू में वह बहुत नाराज थी कि काम के बजाय मैं दोस्ती की बात कर रहा हूँ। पर धीरे धीरे दोस्ती हो गई और हमारे बीच यौन संबंध हो गया।

उसके बाद की आंदोलनों में हम मिले और अंततः 1993 में हम भोपाल में कलेक्टर कार्यालय में सिविल मेरिज कानून के तहत शादी किए। मैंने शुरू में शादी के पक्ष में नहीं था पर सुभद्रा ने कही कि समाज में मान्यता जरूरी है और इसलिए विधि अनुसार शादी करनी पड़ेगी। शादी में हमारे कुछ दोस्त शामिल हुए और रामचन्द्र भार्गव जी जो उस समय गांधी भवन के संचालक थे और उनकी पत्नी रुक्मिणी जी ने बहुत मदद की। यह दोनों वरिष्ट समाज सेवक हमारे लिए माता पिता की भूमिका निभायी।

शादी के बाद भी हम अलग अलग रह रहे थे। सुभद्रा रतलाम में और मैं अलीराजपुर में जिसकी बीच की दूरी 250 किलोमीटर थी। इससे दिक्कत हो रही थी। हम साथ नहीं रह पा रहे थे। केवल बीच बीच में मिलते थे। हमारे रिश्ता यौन संबंध आधारित था और हम एक दूसरे के बारे में ज्यादा कुछ जानते नहीं थे। साथ साथ अधिक समय बिताए बिना एक दूसरे को जानना संभव नहीं था। इसलिए हम ने तय किया कि हम एक साथ अलीराजपुर में रहेंगे। पर हकीकत तो यह है कि मैंने मेरे स्वार्थ के कारण कभी सुभद्रा को सही ढंग से जानने की आवश्यकता ही नहीं महसूस की।

एक बार सुभद्रा रतलाम से अलीराजपुर आई जब मैं कुछ काम में व्यस्त था। उसने मुझे काम छोड़कर उसके साथ समय बिताने के लिए कही तो मैंने कहा कि काम छोड़कर उसके साथ प्रेम प्यार करते बैठे नहीं रह सकता हूँ। इससे हमारा पहला झगड़ा हो गया और सुभद्रा ने अपने मंगल सूत्र समेत सारे जेवरों को फेंककर वापस डही चल दी। सुभद्रा ने एक भावनात्मक गहरा रिश्ता स्थापित करने को मांगी तो मैंने कहा कि शादी और सिद्धांत के बीच मुझे चुनना है तो मैं सिद्धांत को चुनूँगा। इस बात से सुभद्रा बहुत नाराज हो गई।

यह ही हमारा रिश्ता का प्रमुख बाधा रहा है कि मैं रिश्ते के ऊपर सिद्धांत और काम को महत्व देते रहा हूँ। और काम भी अलीराजपुर का काम। उस बार तो बाद में मैं डही जाकर सुभद्रा को मना लिया था पर यह बात आड़े आते रही कि मैं उम्मीद करता था कि सुभद्रा एकता परिषद का काम छोड़कर मेरे साथ अलीराजपुर आकार काम करेगी। कुछ समय के लिए सुभद्रा ऐसे किया भी और हम दोनों सोनडवा में इंदिरा आवास के एक कुटीर में रहने लगे। कुछ सामान खरीदकर उस कुटीर में हम गृहस्थी बसाये थे।

परंतु जब हम क्षेत्र में संगठन के कार्य के लिए जाते थे तब सुभद्रा को लगा कि क्षेत्र बहुत कठिन है क्योंकि पहाड़ो में बहुत चलना पड़ता था। इसके अलावा आदिवासी एकता परिषद के प्रभाव के कारण अलीराजपुर के आदिवासी कार्यकर्ता शंकर ने कह दिया कि हम जैसे बाहरी माध्यम वर्गीय कार्यकर्ताओं की कोई आवश्यकता नहीं है और वह खुद संगठन को चला लेंगे।

कुछ समय के लिए हम धार जिले में एकता परिषद के क्षेत्र में भी काम करने के लिए गए पर वहाँ भी ठीक से काम करने का नहीं बना। एकता परिषद के कार्यकर्ता चाहते नहीं थे कि मैं उनके क्षेत्र में रहकर काम करूँ।

तब हमने तय किया कि हम किसी नए क्षेत्र में काम शुरू करेंगे एक साथ। उस समय मैं लगातार मलेरीया से आक्रांत हो रहा था। इंदौर में जब डॉक्टर ने जाच की तो उन्होंने बताया कि मुझे अलीराजपुर से निकलकर आना होगा और छह महीने तक इलाज करना होगा और इस दौरान हर समय मच्छर दानी में सोना होगा। यह अलीराजपुर में नहीं हो सकता था। इसलिए भी अलीराजपुर से निकलना पड़ा। बाबा आमटे से पाँच सौ रुपये मदद मांगकर हम इंदौर के पास ग्राम माचला स्थित ग्रामोद्योग विद्यालय के परिसर में हम दोनों रहने लगे। वहाँ भी मैं एक दो बार मलेरीया से पीड़ित हुआ पर छह महीने के अंदर आखिर मुझे इस बीमारी से छुटकारा मिला।

माचला में रहने के लिए उत्तम सुविधाएं थी पर हमारे पास पैसे नहीं थे। जैसे वैसे हम अलीराजपुर के संगठन द्वारा प्रकाशित नई चेतना पत्रिका दो दो रुपये में बेचकर जी रहे थे पर यह पर्याप्त नहीं था। दोस्तों से और माँ और भाई से पैसे मांगकर भी हम ने कुछ हद तक गुजारा किया। आश्रम के निवासी मुनिजी के रैशन कार्ड से केरोसीन लाते थे और स्टोव पर खाना बनाकर खाते थे। भले ही अभाव में जीते थे पर आपस में बहुत प्रेम था और वे बहुत अच्छे दिन थे।

फिर हम को एक अध्ययन करने का प्रोजेक्ट मिला जिससे हम कुछ पैसे कमाए। इससे केवल हमारा गुजारा ही नहीं हुआ बल्कि हम ने एक कंप्युटर और प्रिंटर भी खरीद लिया जिससे कि आगे भी इस तरह का शोध प्रोजेक्ट मिलने के लिए सुविधा हो गई।

माचला में दो साल तक रहे हम और बहुत एक दूसरे से प्यार किए और आनंद दिए। यह बहुत अच्छे दिन थे हमारे लिए। इसी समय मैं बहुत लेखन किया जो जर्नलों में प्रकाशित हुए और इससे भी शोध प्रोजेक्ट के माध्यम से पैसे कमाने के जरिए बनने लगे। इसी क्रम में एक अमरीकी फेलोशिप हम दोनों को मिल गया महिलाओं के स्वास्थ्य में सुधार लाने के लिए। यह अमरीकी फेलोशिप हमारी वित्तीय स्थिति को काफी मजबूत कर दिया।

1996 में इस फेलोशिप का काम करने के लिए हम माचला से खरगोने जिले के काटकूट गाँव चले गए। वहाँ एक आदिवासी मोहल्ले में घर बनाकर हम रहने लगे। काटकूट क्षेत्र में गैर आदिवासी लोग आदिवासियों का बहुत दमन और शोषण करते थे। पर समस्या यह थी कि अगर आदिवासियों को संगठित करने का काम करते तो फेलोशिप के अनुसार महिला स्वास्थ्य का काम ठीक से न हो पाता।

सुभद्रा का कहना था कि महिला स्वास्थ्य का ही केवल काम करे और अलीराजपुर के तर्ज पर आदिवासियों को संगठित करने का काम न करे। इसी से हमारे बीच विवाद की स्थिति बन गई। फेलोशिप मिलने से संगठन के पुराने साथी सब कहने लगे कि मैं अमरीकी पैसे से बिक गया हूँ और संगठनात्मक काम से मुह मोड लिया हूँ। यह आरोप मुझे बहुत खलने लगा। इसलिए सुभद्रा के मनाही के बावजूद मैं संगठनात्मक काम को आगे बढ़ाया और उसमें सुभद्रा भी शामिल हो गई। इसमें हम दोनों ही जेल गए और हमारे ऊपर बहुत सारे आपराधिक प्रकरण कायम कर दिए गए। हालांकि इससे हमारा काफी प्रचार हुआ पर क्योंकि सुभद्रा को यह पसंद नहीं था इसलिए हमारे झगड़े भी बहुत हुए। हालांकि सुभद्रा ने भी संगठनात्मक काम किया पर वह इसको लेकर बहुत नाराज थी। अलीराजपुर छोड़कर भी मैं उस तर्ज पर काम किया सुभद्रा के मर्जी के खिलाफ यह उसको अच्छा नहीं लगा।

यह काम को लेकर झगड़ा आज भी चल रहा है। काटकूट और पांडुतालाब के आदिवासी लोग संगठन बनाकर सरकार के खिलाफ इतने अधिक लामबंद हो गए कि अंततः सरकार पूरी ताकत लगाकर 2001 में संगठन को तोड़ डाला जिसमें कि मैंने ढाई महीना तक जेल में रहा और संगठन के चार साथी पुलिस की गोली से मार दिए गए।

इस सब से भी सुभद्रा बहुत नाराज हो गयी क्योंकि तब तक हमारा पुत्र ईशान का जन्म हो गया था और उसको लेकर उसे भागना पड़ा जिससे उसे बहुत तकलीफ हुई। इस प्रकार मेरे काम की नशा में पागल होना ही हमारे रिश्ते में दरार पैदा कर दिया।

इसके बाद कुछ समय तक हमने काम छोड़ दिया क्योंकि एक तरफ सरकारी दमन बहुत अधिक था और दूसरी तरफ हमारा एक बच्चा भी हो गया था। उस बच्चे को लेकर ही सुभद्रा को पेशी जानी पड़ती थी। इंदौर में जिस मकान में हम किराये से रहते थे उसके मालिक को पुलिस वालों ने धमकी दी कि हमें किराएं से मकान न दे। इसलिए आखिर हमें इंदौर में खुद का मकान बनाकर रहना पड़ा 2002 में।

मकान बनाने में सारे पैसे खत्म हो गए। एक बार फिर हम वित्तीय परेशानी में आ गए। अभी एक बच्चा भी था हम दोनों के अलावा। यहा वहा हात मार कर मुझे एक अध्ययन के पैसे मिले और स्थिति कुछ ठीक हो गई। मैंने एक लैपटॉप कंप्युटर खरीद पाया जिससे कि वापस पैसे कमाने का जरिया बन गया।

पर झगड़े की स्थिति बनी रही क्योंकि रिश्ते में काम को लेकर झगड़ा चलते रहा। बच्चे की परवरिश और पुनः पढ़ाई शुरू करने के कारण सुभद्रा को घर में ही रहना पड़ता था और मैं काम पर घूमता था। 2008 में मुझे एक अध्ययन का प्रोजेक्ट मिला जिसे करने के लिए मुझे अलीराजपुर की संस्था ढास ग्रामीण विकास केंद्र को पुनर्जीवित करना पड़ा। इससे अलीराजपुर आने जाने का सिलसिला फिर से प्रारंभ हो गया और झगड़ा बढ़ने का कारण बन गया।

इसके बाद ढास में पहले टाटा ट्रस्ट का पैसा आया 2008 में आप्रवासी मजदूरों के हक के लिए काम करने के लिए और बाद में 2011 में एक्शन ऐड से पैसे आए आदिवासी अधिकारों के लिए काम करने हेतु। इसे करने के लिए अक्सर मुझे अलीराजपुर जाना पड़ता था और कभी कभी सुभद्रा भी जाती थी। इसके बाद स्वपन भट्टाचार्य को लेकर मैं ककराणा स्कूल में गया और वह वही रहने लगे। इसके कारण भी मेरा अलीराजपुर आना जाना और बढ़ गया।

असल में शादी के रिश्ते में यौन संबंध के अलावा सुभद्रा के प्रति सच्चा प्यार मेरे में नहीं था। न केवल काम में व्यस्त रहता था बल्कि सुभद्रा को कोसते रहता था कि वह काम नहीं करती और मुझे भी काम नहीं करने देती। काम के वजह से एक दूसरे को जान नहीं पाए ठीक से और यह ही सिलसिला शुरू से अंत तक जारी रही।

इधर सुभद्रा को पीएचडी में दाखिला नहीं मिल रहा था। बहुत कोशिश किए पर दिल्ली, मुंबई, इंदौर और उज्जैन कहीं भी दाखिल नही मिला। उधर अलीराजपुर के साथी ढंग से काम नहीं कर रहे थे तो मेरे ऊपर एक्शन ऐड प्रोजेक्ट को संभालने का काम अधिक हो गया था। इस सब से चिढ़ कर सुभद्रा ने मुझे ढास और अलीराजपुर से अलग होने के लिए कही और मैं वहाँ से अलग हो गया।

इस पूरे समय में 2008 से 2015 तक मैं ने बहुत कन्सल्टन्सी किया जिसमें काफी पैसा कमाया। इसी समय मैं फेस्बूक में लिखना शुरू किया जिससे प्रभावित होकर कुछ लोगों ने हमारे काम के लिए पैसे देने लगे। धीरे धीरे यह जोर पकड़ने लगा और फेस्बूक पर लिखना एक नशे की तरह हो गया। इससे लोग अधिक पैसे देने लगे जिससे यह नशा और बढ़ गया। 2015 में सुभद्रा को आखिरकार महू स्थित अंबेडकर विश्वविद्यालय में पीएचडी में दाखिला मिला और वह उसमें व्यस्त हो गई। साथ ही मेरे दबाव के कारण सुभद्रा ने महिला स्वास्थ्य पर काम शुरू किया और फिर बाद में उसी से समझ में आया कि महिला स्वास्थ्य केवल तब ठीक को सकता है जब उनका खान पान ठीक होगा। इसके लिए सही ढंग से जैविक खेती करना जरूरी है। इसी क्रम में फिर सुभद्रा ने 2015 में देवास जिले के पांडूतलाब गाँव में जैविक खेती करना शुरू कर दी। इस प्रकार सुभद्रा काम में बहुत व्यस्त हो गई क्योंकि एक तरफ पीएचडी की पढ़ाई थी तो दूसरी तरफ जैविक खेती का विस्तार का काम था।

इसी समय मेरी यौन वासना बहुत तेज हो गई। इसके कारण मैं ब्लू फिल्म अधिक मात्रा पर इंटरनेट पर देखने लगा। इतना ही नहीं मैं रास्ते चलते युवतियों के स्तनों को देखते रहता था। सुभद्रा और मेरे बीच काम को लेकर झगड़े तेज हो गए थे और दूरी बढ़ गई थी। सुभद्रा का कहना था कि अलीराजपुर का काम छोड़कर केवल पांडूतलाब का काम को करना चाहिए पर मैं ऐसा मानने को राजी नहीं था। तो मैं हस्त मैथुन करके मेरी बढ़ी हुई काम वासना को दिन में तीन चार बार ब्लू फिल्म देखने के वक्त पूरी करता था। एक घर में हम जरूर एक साथ रह रहे थे पर हमारा रिश्ता टूट चुका था क्योंकि मैं उसे जीवित रखने की कोई कोशिश नहीं की बल्कि अलीराजपुर के काम के चलते मैंने उसमें और व्यवधान डाला।

उस वक्त अगर मैं काम छोड़कर अलीराजपुर जाना बंद कर सुभद्रा के साथ रिश्ता को अच्छा कर लेता तो बात बन जाती। पर मैं फेस्बूक की नशा और अलीराजपुर का मोह को छोड़ नहीं पाया जिसके कारण सुभद्रा के साथ झगड़े बढ़ते गए और दूरी भी। हम एक साथ जरूर रह रहे थे पर एक बहुत बड़ी दूरी बनी हुई थी। ढंग से बात चीत नहीं होती थी आपस में। बस काम पूर्ती बातें होती थी।

इसी प्रकार एक काम चलाऊ रिश्ता चलते रहा हमारे बीच जिसमे बीच बीच में भयानक झगड़े होते थे। गलती पूरी मेरी थी कि मैं अलीराजपुर को छोड़ना नहीं चाहता था और न ही एक प्रेम पूर्ण रिश्ता कायम करना चाहता था।

इस बीच मैं फेस्बूक पर बहुत लिखते रहा और मुझे वाहवाही मिलते रही और साथ ही संस्था में पैसे भरपूर आते रहे। मुझे एक अहंकार सा हो गया कि मैं बहुत वाहवाही कमा सकता हूँ और पैसा भी। इसके बाद 2021 मैं कोविड में अधिक बीमार पड़ा और सुभद्रा ने देखभाल कर मुझे बचाया। पर कोविड के बाद फिर से काम को लेकर सुभद्रा से बहुत बड़ा झगड़ा हो गया। इस प्रकार हालांकि नाम और पैसे बहुत आ रहे थे फिर भी हमारी आपसी रिश्ते लगातार बिगड़ते जा रहा था। मैं अलीराजपुर को छोड़ने के लिए राजी नहीं था।

2021 में कोविड के बाद फेस्बूक पर चेन्नई की एक महिला से दोस्ती हो गई और मैं उससे मिलने फ्लाइट से चला गया। ममल्लापुरम में एक होटल में मैं उसके साथ यौन संबंध स्थापित किया। यह बहुत बड़ी गलती थी। ब्लू फिल्म देखकर हस्त मैथुन कर यौन वासना पूरी नहीं हो रही थी तो लालच में आकार मैंने उस महिला के साथ यौन समबंध स्थापित कर लिया। यह चार साल तक चलते रहा जिसके दौरान मैं 5 बार चेन्नई गया यौन संबंध के लिए।

झगड़े सुलझाकर रिश्ते को मजबूत करने के बजाय झूठ और फरेब का सहारा लेकर अनैतिक यौन संबंध का मज़ा लेने लगा। रिश्ते को मजबूत करने के बजाय दूरी को लगातार बढ़ाते गया ताकि जीवन की विलासिता और काम वासना को भोग सके। कान्फ्रन्स में पेपर पढ़ने जा रहा हूँ ऐसा झूठ बोलकर चेन्नई यौन संबंध करने जाता था। दो दिन के लिए जाता था और दिन में चार चार बार यौन संबंध करता था हवस पूरी करने के लिए। यौन संबंध को स्थायी स्वरूप देने के लिए मैं ने शादी की थी न कि एक प्रेम पूर्ण रिश्ता बनाने के लिए। जब उस शादी में यौन संबंध बंद हो गए तो मैं झूठ के सहारे दूसरी जगह काम वासना पूरा करने लगा। इस प्रकार शादी में रहकर भी मैं उस शादी की जिम्मेदारियों से मुक्त होकर अपनी मस्ती की ज़िंदगी जी रहा था।

2022 में ऐमज़ान से हमारी प्रेम कहानी पर फिल्म बनी। उसमें मैंने एक वफादार पट्टी होने की भूमिका को बखूबी निभाई। पर वास्तव तो यह था कि मैं सुभद्रा से शारीरिक और भावनात्मक रूप से दूर हो चुका था और फिल्म में झूठे किरदार निभा रहा था। यहाँ तक कि फिल्म के शूटिंग के समय के आसपास और उसके रिलीज होने के समय भी मैं चेन्नई जाकर गैर यौन संबंध कर के आया था। यह था मेरी फरेबी की पराकाष्ठा।

मैं सोचता था कि सुभद्रा कभी मेरे ईमेल और मेरे मोबाईल चेक नहीं करती है तो उसको मेरे यह गलत यौन संबंध के बारे में पता ही नहीं चलेगा और मैं ऐसे ही करते रहूँगा। पर आखिर मैं पकड़ा गया 2025 के जुलाई महीने में और मेरे सारे अहंकारी यौन कारनामे सामने आ गए। फिरभी मैं झुकना नहीं चाहता था और अलीराजपुर छोड़ना नहीं चाहता था तो मैं घर से भाग गया। कुछ दिनों बाद मैं वापस आया पर पूरी तरह सुधार की दिशा में जाने के लिए तैयार नहीं था। अपने आप को सुभद्रा के अनुसार चलने को राजी नहीं कर पा रहा था। इसके बदले मैंने सुभद्रा के खिलाफ अलीराजपुर के कार्यकर्ताओं और मेरे भाई को गलत जानकारियाँ दी जिससे कि उसकी इज्जत और कम हो गई। मैं सुभद्रा के प्रति एक बहुत ही क्रूर रुख अपनाया हूँ अपने स्वार्थ और मस्ती को पूरी करने के लिए। इससे उसे बहुत तकलीफ हुई है।

शादी और परिवार की जिम्मेदारियों से भागकर झूठ और फरेब के बल पर आजाद हो कर अपनी अहंकारी मस्ती करना मेरे लिए और जरूरी था। इसलिए एक बार फिर मैं दिसंबर 2025 को घर से अलीराजपुर भाग गया। कुछ दिनों बाद वापस आया पर अभी भी अहंकार को भूल नहीं पा रहा हूँ।

मैंने सुभद्रा से शादी की थी इस उम्मीद से कि वह एकता परिषद को छोड़कर मेरे साथ अलीराजपुर में काम करने आएगी और साथ ही मेरे काम वासनाओं को भी पूरी करेगी। यह एक पुरुषवादी अहंकार था। मैं सोचता था कि मैं एक बेहतर कार्यकर्ता हूँ और हमारा अलीराजपुर का काम एकता परिषद से और अच्छा है। यह पुरुषवादी अहंकार लगातार बना रहा हालांकि मैं बाद में अलीराजपुर छोड़कर इंदौर और काटकूट चला गया था सुभद्रा के कहने पर। ऐसा है कि पुरुषवाद और अलीराजपुर में काम करने का मोह कभी मेरे अंदर से गया ही नहीं और मैं लगातार सुभद्रा के प्रति तानाशाही रवैया अख्तियार किया हूँ। इसीलिए मेरे गैर औरत के साथ यौन संबंध पकड़े जाने के बाद भी मैं ने दो बार अलीराजपुर भाग कर गया। यह पुरुषवादी अहंकार ही मेरा पतन का कारण है। तमाम झगड़े के बावजूद भी मैं लगातार सुभद्रा का कहना नहीं माना और मनमानी करते रहा जिससे रिश्ता में बहुत दूरी बन गई है। मैं मेरे यह अविवेकी कृत्य के लिए जिससे सुभद्रा को अत्यधिक कष्ट पहुंचा है, सार्वजनिक तौर पर माफी मांग रहा हूँ।

Bhagirathpura Tragedy and its Lessons

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:10:00 +0000

The line between the private and the public in India is demarcated by garbage and sewage. People are particular about keeping their houses spic and span but are not bothered about public spaces, particularly the roads bordering their houses. Consequently, these roads are littered with garbage and sewage with the expectation being that this waste will be taken care of by urban local bodies ULB). However, the cleaning of garbage and the transportation of sewage and its treatment to prescribed standards is a very expensive proposition requiring the levy of taxes and charges for the same from the citizens. This does not happen as not only are the charges levied much less than what they should be but also even these low charges are not levied on a regular basis. Thus, our cities and towns are mostly dirty and strewn with garbage and with open drains flowing with foul smelling water. Some amount of solid garbage collection does take place but the waste water flows untreated and contaminates both the ground water and water bodies, especially rivers and streams that flow through these cities.

Ideally, the waste water should be conveyed through sewers to sewage treatment plants (STP) and then properly treated there before being released into the environment. However, laying of sewer lines and construction and running of STPs cost a lot of money which is not available with the ULBs. Even where sewers have been laid in some of the bigger cities, they are not functioning properly because the flow in these sewers is not enough to transport the sewage to the STPs and so deposition of sludge takes place in the sewers blocking them. This corrodes the sewers and cracks develop in them leading to the leakage of highly toxic sewage water into the ground near these cracks. Simultaneously, there are the potable water pipelines near these sewer lines and they too in many cases have cracks in them as they were laid quite some time back. So, in many cases the water from the sewers contaminates the water in the potable water pipelines.

Sometimes, the cracks in the sewers and in the potable water pipelines are so great that the amount of contamination becomes large leading to fatal outcomes for the citizens. The recent horrid example of this is the diarrhoeal outbreak in the Bhagirathpura locality in Indore where more than twenty people have died and hundreds have been hospitalised. The irony is that the city of Indore is the cleanest city of India and yet this has happened there. The reality is that Indore is clean only as far as solid garbage removal is concerned but it has not been able to collect and treat its waste water properly and so this tragedy has happened there. Indore is clean on the surface because it has a fairly good collection and treatment system for the solid garbage that emanates from the houses. This is because upwards of ₹ 1000 crores are expended annually for doing this which is paid for by the state government as the Indore Municipal Corporation recovers only about 10% of this cost from user charges. Properly collecting and treating the waste water would cost another ₹1000 crores or more which the state government is not willing to subsidise. So, even though there are sewers and STPs in place to collect and treat the waste water, this is not being done because of a lack of funds for doing so.

The way out of this impasse is to move away from centralised sewer and STP based systems of waste water collection to localised systems at the household and community level, which treat both waste water and garbage as reusable resources and not something to be thrown away. This will happen only when the mindset of people which is that of releasing waste water and garbage into the public spaces is changed. In fact the centralised garbage collection system too does not work very well in most places because of its high cost and is working in Indore only because it is being heavily subsidised by the state government. Thus, what is needed is household and community level waste collection, treatment and reuse systems as shown in the graphic below. Indeed, this system incorporates a rainwater harvesting system also to cover the potable water supply requirements also. This will be possible only with extensive awareness building drives among the citizens so that they take the responsibility instead of putting it on the shoulders of the cash starved ULBs.

This circular system relies on the segregation of grey water from the bathroom and kitchen from the black water from the toilets and is very cost effective because treatment of grey water is much easier than that of black water. The details of this system are as given below.

1. The rainwater falling on the roof of the building is either harvested or recharged. Harvesting is more costly as it involves the construction of an underground sump to collect the water. Currently the cost is about Rs 8 per litre as a reinforced concrete tank has to be constructed. Thus, an optimisation has to be done as to how much of the rainfall is to be harvested and how much recharged depending on the groundwater yield in a particular area, which in turn depends on the underlying hydro-geological characteristics, as recharging is much cheaper. In hard rock areas with poor water availability in summer, water harvesting can be done to take care of the water demand in the summer months if the groundwater dries up then. However, if there is water recharging done on a mass scale throughout the urban area both in a decentralised and a centralised manner, then most towns in the country will have adequate water in the confined aquifer. In alluvial plains, like in the Mahanadi, Ganga and Godavari basins of Chhattisgarh, even the shallow aquifer will have adequate water in summer if water recharging is done. That is why in the diagram two options have been provided and there is also a recharge pit alongside the harvesting sump. This pit is filled with a mixture of gravel and sand and is designed to be of a size to absorb the flow of rainwater coming to it from the roof. The rainwater falling on the ground too will be recharged either directly through the soil if there is a garden or the water falling on the paved area will be directed to the recharge pit. The rain water falling on the roof is filtered through a mixture of gravel and sand before being collected in the harvesting sump. The first one or two showers are bypassed to the recharge pit as the water is dirty with dust gathered on the roof and so about 80 percent of the rainfall can be collected if so required but usually to optimise on storage construction costs, less is collected.

2. The harvested rainwater and the groundwater provide the potable water supply for drinking, washing and bathing uses. There is separate plumbing under a dual plumbing system for the water for flushing of toilets and gardening, which is to be supplied from treated grey used water.

3. The grey water from the bathroom and that from the kitchen, which latter has to first pass through an oil and grit trap, are directed to a filtration tank consisting of gravel, sand and charcoal. After filtration the water is collected in a sump where it is aerated and chlorinated to clean it further. This water is then used for flushing of toilets and gardening through a separate plumbing system. In this way the use of potable water for these uses is obviated which is a considerable saving because as per the CPHEEO norms, of the 135 lpcd of water supply as much as 25 lpcd is for gardening and 40 lpcd for flushing of toilets and only 70 lpcd is for potable uses. Since the black water does not have to be carried in sewers, the quantity of water needed for flushing is greatly reduced and special toilets can be installed that require less water. Sensors have to be placed in the sump and the overhead tank to automatically regulate the pumping of water from the former to the latter so as to prevent over flow in the former.

4. The black water from the toilets and the green waste from the kitchen are sent to a biogas plant. The gas generated from this plant contains mainly methane and some hydrogen sulphide also. The latter being harmful, has to be removed through a scrubber. The gas generated can be used for cooking and for heating water in a gas geyser. In case of four storied or higher buildings, the gas produced can be used to generate electricity which can be reused in the operation of the aerators for grey and black water treatment. The digested slurry is collected in a two chambered sump in which one chamber is alternatively filled up and the sludge further digested by anaerobic decomposition to be turned into manure that can be used in the garden while the other chamber fills up much like a two-pit latrine but with the water not leaching into the ground but drying up slowly in the chamber that has filled up as an aerator runs in it to both oxidise the slurry and dry it up. The energy required for this is much less than that needed to run the heavy blowers in large sized STPs of centralised systems. In fact, if the pits are built large enough then even aerators can be dispensed with as the retention time increases allowing for natural drying up of the sludge.

Communitarian Circular Water Management

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 15:24:00 +0000

India faces the dual problems of inadequate potable water supply and pollution from untreated used water. This is mainly due to the colonial legacy of centralised water management that ignores the economically and ecologically sustainable household and community level circular water management, which is schematically depicted in the accompanying graphic.

The key to circular used water treatment and reuse is the separation of grey water (from kitchens and bathrooms) and black water (from toilets):

· Grey water accounts for nearly 85% of total used water and is easier and cheaper to treat.
· Low-cost methods such as filters filled with 25 mm brick pieces and with canna plant roots can clean grey water to prescribed standards.
· Black water treatment is costly due to the faecal matter in it. When grey and black water are mixed, as in centralized systems, costs rise significantly due to transportation, treatment in Sewage Treatment Plants (STP), sludge management, and infrastructure for reuse of treated water. Sewers need a greater water flow to prevent deposition of the faeces in transit and so it is imperative to mix grey and black water in centralised systems.
A very good example of circular grey water management, in this sordid context of its overall neglect in this country resulting in polluted water bodies, is the newly commissioned grey water treatment and reuse system at the Swami Vivekananda Vidyapeeth campus in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh (https://lnkd.in/dw6NGFEE) run by the NGO Parivaar shown in the picture below.

This circular grey water treatment and reuse system has the following features:

· Daily inflow of 7,000 litres (with a peak of 5,000 litres in the morning).
· Three treatment chambers with 25mm brick pieces hosting beneficial microorganisms.
· Canna plants in the second chamber absorb nutrients and enhance purification.
· Hydraulic retention time of 3–5 days ensures that for the treated water collecting in the fourth chamber, all the important parameters such as ph, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Nitrogen (TN), Phosphorus (P) an d Faecal Coliform (FC) are as per the standards prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board as shown in the table.

· Automated disinfection with bleaching powder (5g per kilolitre) before reuse.
· Treated water reused for toilet flushing and gardening, replacing costly potable water.
The installation cost of this system is only ₹30000 per kilolitre and the operating cost is ₹3 per kilolitre without the need for any electricity. Whereas, centralised used water transportation through sewers and treatment in STPs has a combined installation cost of ₹100000 per kilolitre and a combined operating cost of ₹25 per kilolitre. The cost of reusing the treated water in this localised circular system is low as the point of reuse is near to the treatment plant. Thus, Parivaar has set an example that should be replicated widely.

The Farmer Income Conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Sun, 15 Jun 2025 08:27:00 +0000

Recently there has been a lot of hype about a few agritech companies having made impressive growth in revenues. Especially, the performance of DeHaat Kisan: Agriculture and Farming is in the news for having used "AI enabled technologies to revolutionise supply chain and production efficiency in the farming sector through an extensive network of15000+ centres and 503 FPOs serving12.8 million+ farmers."

I have always argued that the sordid reality is that farmers in this country do not get a fair price for their products which can even cover their household expenditure let alone allow them to earn a profit. As is borne out from the two graphics below that I have compiled from the results of the farmer situation survey and household consumption expenditure survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation 77th Round in 2019.

Therefore, while agtech and FPOs can improve matters marginally it cannot substantially increase farmer incomes. Moreover, since there are huge costs for any aggregator of agricultural produce in transportation and storage, the only way such an aggregator can make money is by cheating farmers both in weight and price. This is what most agri traders do. Thus, if an aggregator is not cheating the farmers, then given the huge costs of transportation and storage it must be making losses.

I did some research on Dehaat's finances to test out this hypothesis of mine. It is registered as Green Agrevolution Pvt. Limited with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The latest financials of the company as per the reports submitted to RoC are as follows -

TOTAL REVENUE: - ₹Crores 2,647.6 which is a 36.12% increase year on year.

EBITDA ₹ Crores -1,118.2

NET LOSS ₹ Crores -1,123.9

NET WORTH ₹ Crores -4,178.2

BORROWINGS ₹ Crores 5,119.6 which is a 24.73% increase year on year

ASSETS ₹ Crores 1,370.9

ROCE -41.72 %

Clearly, the company is making huge losses from its operations confirming my hypothesis that given the low prices of agri produce in wholesale markets it is not possible for an aggregator to make profits without cheating farmers. It is not known what prices it is offering for procurement from farmers but it looks as if it is offering more than the market prices so as to attract them to sell to it. This is not a financially sustainable business model and is not only running but also growing its revenues only because it is heavily funded by big investors. We run an organic store https://kansariorganics.in/

which too runs in losses as we offer the farmers a fair price. The losses are subsidised by our NGO https://mahilajagatlihazsamiti.in/

from grant funds. Therefore, instead of falsely stating that agtech and FPOs can solve the serious problem of lack of income of farmers, what needs to be done is to increase substantially the government support to farmers to pursue ecological restoration, ecological farming, distributed renewable energy generation and local processing and consumption of agri produce.

Whither Armed Struggle?

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Thu, 29 May 2025 08:11:00 +0000

An era is coming to an end. The killing of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), Basavaraju and his security guard of 26 commandos of the People's Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) by the security forces on May 21st deep inside the jungles of Abujhmarh in Chhattisgarh was a decisive blow against Naxalism which will almost certainly bring this six decade long armed struggle to overthrow the state through a people's war to an end soon.

Naxalism emerged in 1967 initially as a movement of Adivasi peasants in West Bengal's Naxalbari village, from where it got its name, to sieze the land of landlords but soon morphed into a revolutionary movement to overthrow the Indian State altogether to establish a revolutionary peasants and workers state on the lines followed by the Communist Party of China (CPC).

However, unlike the CPC, the Naxals neither had a broad mass base nor a guerilla army of any strength and so were crushed very soon and within four years the movement had abated in West Bengal and a little later in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar where too it took off about the same time.

Nevertheless, it did leave a huge impression on some people who were troubled by the unjust development being pursued in India which had left the majority of its citizens in severe economic distress without proper education and health. The idea of a people's state still enthused people and especially the youth in the nineteen seventies and I was one of them. Like others so enthused I read up on Marxism-Leninism and Maoism and was in the student's wing of one of the many splinter Naxal organisations that were floating around then, still mouthing revolutionary rhetoric even if not engaging in armed struggle to actualise it!!

Even though by the early 1980s it became clear to me that Marxism-Leninism and Maoism, while providing a fairly incisive critique of the functioning of capitalism and feudalism, were by then a bit off the mark as far as conducting armed struggle to overthrow the modern capitalist Indian State was concerned, some others in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar continued to believe in this ideology and its programme of armed struggle and launched a fairly strong one. Eventually though the considerable power of the modern Indian state forced these armed groups into the dense jungles of Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Garhchiroli in Central India and in Jharkhand.

They held their own for four decades in these jungles till drone warfare aided by satellite surveillance and the induction of former Maoist surrendered guerillas into the security forces and betrayal by some Maoists from withing have finally taken their toll. Given the fact that there was just one fatal casualty on the side of the security forces while the ferocious and well armed elite commandos of the PLGA and the General Secretary were all killed, it seems that the latter were surprised in their sleep and surrounded by the former from all sides.

Moreover, Mao's famous adage - "The guerilla must move among the people as a fish swims in the sea" was also rendered ineffective as the PLGA was increasingly isolated from the mass base that it had among the villagers as the security forces set up camps in the villages. The urban intelligentsia which provided silent support, sometimes of a crucial nature, too has been decimated through better surveillance technology available to the security establishment.

On many occasions from within their ranks and outside and by the state, the Maoists have been asked to give up armed struggle and pursue justice within the rights framework of the constitution but their top leadership has always refused, saying that there is no alternative to overthrowing the capitalist state. Now with their ranks severely depleted it is unlikely that they will be able to continue with the armed struggle.

Contemporaneously to the Maoists, there have been many mass movements for justice within the constitutional framework in these five decades from the mid nineteen seventies. They too have been unable to bring about a people centric state. Primarily because the state is inimical to any mass mobilisation whether armed or unarmed that tries to foreground the fundamental rights of its citizens in the development policies of the state. In fact, the state has had no hesitation in labelling even mass organisations engaged in unarmed protests as naxals and incarcerating their members under the draconian laws enacted to curb the Maoists and other armed organisations.

It will be interesting to see how the struggle for justice evolves in future in Central India in the absence of the armed Maoists.

The High GDP versus low per capita expenditure conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Thu, 29 May 2025 07:32:00 +0000

The Indian economy is now the fourth largest in the world in terms of nominal GDP of ₹330 lakh crores. This needs to be unpacked to understand what it means in actual terms about the economic status of most Indian citizens. 30% of the GDP is contributed by Government expenditure from the Union to the local. Therefore, the contribution from private persons is roughly ₹230 lakh crores. The bottom 50% of the population contributes 5% of this private GDP or about ₹ 11.5 lakh crores. We can ignore for the time being the minimal benefits that accrue to the vast masses from Government expenditure and then we see that the per capita expenditure contribution of the bottom 50% of the population to the GDP is only 11500000000000/0.5*1450000000 = ₹15862. Thus, despite being the fourth largest economy in the world we have half the population living on just ₹43 or less per day. Alternatively, if we estimate per capita incomes for the lowest 50% then we get from the World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.CD?locations=IN) the latest value for 2023 as current US$ 2540, which at the then prevailing exchange rate of 82.5 comes to ₹209550. That means the total income of the country is ₹209550x1450million. Now, the bottom 50% contributes only 5% of this total income so the average per capita income of the bottom 50% = ₹20955.
Thus, the overall GDP is large because we have a large population but most of them are living in extremely low standards both earning and spending minimally.

Planetary Boundaries Have Been Breached

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Thu, 29 May 2025 06:42:00 +0000

A team of scientists created the Planetary Boundaries Framework in 2009 for nine ecological areas which ensure the continuance of life on the planet. Since then this framework has been assessed from time to time and currently, six boundaries, climate change, biosphere integrity (genetic diversity and energy available to ecosystems), land system change, freshwater change (changes across the entire water cycle over land), biogeochemical flows (nutrient cycles), and novel entities (microplastics, endocrine disruptors, and organic pollutants) have been severely breached as shown in the graphic. Only stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol loading and ocean acidification are within bounds as described in this article in Down To Earth https://www.downtoearth.org.in/.../six-of-9-planetary...

The main problem at the base of all other problems is excessive fossil fuel energy use. This is what has created the present human over consumption and ecological crises. We need to both rein in energy use and also transition to renewable energy immediately if we are to avert climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation, pollution and the like.
The linear resource extractive economy is causing this problem. A local circular economy needs to be prioritised and this will be possible only if all governments strictly apply the polluter pays principle to garner the resources for subsidising the mitigation measures.

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Communitarian Forest Conservation in Alirajpur

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 13:39:00 +0000

The Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath (KMCS) in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh will be completing four decades this year in its fight for justice for the Bhil Adivasis. Not only has it been one of the most successful mass organisations in the country in the implementation of the Forest Rights Act for its members but it has also organised them into doing communitarian ecosystem restoration by leveraging their traditional labour pooling customs. The biggest achievement of the KMCS has been the conservation of forests, soil and water over 12500 hectares in 62 villages. The forests are either very dense (over 70% canopy cover) or medium dense (between 40% and 70% canopy cover) with one village Bada Amba having as much as 64% of its area under dense forests and overall the proportion of forest area to total land area of these villages is 24%. Analysis of Remote Sensing Data over a period of 33 years between 1990 and 2023 was carried out by the School of Climate Change and Sustainability, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, for these 62 KMCS villages and compared with 62 control villages in the district which did not have communitarian protection. The results are summarised in the map attached in which the green areas are those in which there has been increase in vegetation and the red areas are those in which there has been decrease in vegetation. The green circles are the KMCS villages where there has been communitarian ecosystem restoration work and the purple circles are the villages in which there has not been any communitarian ecosystem restoration work. Clearly, the vegetation has increased in KMCS villages as compared to the control villages.

A more detailed analysis of LandSat data with higher resolution of 900 square meter pixel size was also carried out and that shows that even in the control villages there has been increase in vegetation over the three decades from the 1990s even though there are no dense forests there as there are in the KMCS villages. So overall there has been an impact of the KMCS in the whole of Alirajpur district as people have been inspired to protect trees. This is an extremely important achievement from the perspective of Climate Change Mitigation.

Incidentally, 13000 hectares of forests were submerged by the Sardar Sarovar dam and as per the detailed project report, the Government should have done compensatory afforestation on four times that area. However, even after spending a few hundred crores, there is nothing to show. whereas the KMCS through communitarian collective action has done almost the same amount of conservation as the forests submerged.

The Need for State Funded Proportional Representation Based Elections

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 14:50:00 +0000

Introduction

Ideally the Indian electoral system should be based on proportional representation to accommodate the vast diversity in the socio-economic characteristics of the population. In this system political parties are allotted seats in the legislature and parliament in proportion to the votes that they get and so even small local parties who can get votes higher than a specified threshold can find representation in the legislature and parliament. A threshold voting percentage, as low as 3 per cent of the total valid votes polled is required to prevent frivolous legislative participation and too much fragmentation. Those parties getting this threshold vote will also be recompensed in proportion of the votes gained for the election campaign expenses on the production of proper bills. There is thus scope for a thousand schools of thought to contend and bring to fruition a much more vibrant and diverse democratic culture in India than has obtained so far.

Instead the first past the post (FPTP) system was adopted in which the candidate getting the most number of the valid votes cast in a constituency is declared elected. This latter system was to the advantage of the Indian National Congress party at the time of independence as it got to rule unhampered on its own without the pulls and pressures of coalition governance that a system of proportional representation usually gives rise to and would certainly have in the diverse Indian context. So the first past the post electoral system of the British and American democracies, which the British had introduced to suit their own agenda of keeping the unruly masses at bay, was retained after independence giving the Congress an undue monopoly of power in the crucial first decade and a half of governance under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru.

History of FPTP in India

The first elections to the Lok Sabha held in 1951 saw the Congress winning just forty five percent of the total valid votes but as much as seventy five percent of the seats. Similarly in the second elections in 1957 the Congress won forty eight percent of the total valid votes and seventy five percent of the seats. In the third general elections of 1962 the Congress won forty five percent of the total valid votes and got seventy three percent of the seats (ECI, 2005). The second largest party by way of votes won in all these three elections was the Socialist Party but due to the fact that their support base was spread much thinner than the Congress' they could not win seats in proportion to their votes. In 1951 the Socialists got ten and a half percent of the total valid votes but only two and a half percent of the seats. This is to be contrasted with the Communist Party of India, which won only three and a half percent of the votes and a similar percentage of the seats because their mass base was of a concentrated nature. Interestingly Ambedkar's political party, The All India Scheduled Castes Federation, also failed to do well at the hustings in the first elections in 1951 with the great man himself losing from the Bombay City North constituency despite having done so much for the Dalits. Similarly in 1957 the Socialists once again got ten and a half percent of the votes but only three and a half percent of the seats while the Communists got nearly nine percent of the votes and five and a half percent of the seats. In the 1962 elections the two separate Socialist Parties together got nine and a half percent of the votes and only three and a half percent of the seats while the Communists got almost ten percent of the votes and five and a half percent of the seats.

Thus, a clever and unnatural choice of electoral system gave the Congress party thumping majorities to do as it pleased with little effective parliamentary opposition to its policies. The significance of this disproportion between votes and seats becomes crystal clear if we compare it with the relation between the percentage of votes and seats won for the same three groups above in the general elections of 2004 by which time fractured mandates and coalition politics had become the order of the day. The Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Trinamool Congress Party, which have their roots in the old Congress, together won thirty percent of the votes and twenty nine percent of the seats. The various splinter groups of the Socialists together won eleven and a half percent of the votes and sixteen percent of the seats. The Communists and their allies won eight percent of the votes and eleven percent of the seats (ECI, op cit). The tables had been turned. The Congress is continually being spread thin while the smaller parties, concentrated as they are in localised niches are garnering more seats in proportion to the votes won. The BJP, which too, harbours similar grandiose political visions as the Congress in its heydays, now benefits from this FPTP system. While it got only 38 percent of the votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections it yet secured as much as 66 percent of the seats.

FPTP and Corrupt Electoral Practices

The adoption of the first past the post election system is only a short step from letting the influence of money power and unethical political practice dominate the electoral strategies of parties. The conservative elements who formed the majority within the Congress in the pre-independence days had a free hand in the preparations for the elections to the provincial assemblies in 1936 and they generally selected candidates from local businessmen, contractors and landlords who were able to donate funds to the party and also spend lavishly on their own campaigns. Defections were also engineered from non-Congress parties in areas where the party was not strong with the dangling of the usual sops (Das, 2001). This strategy was immensely successful and helped the Congress to come to power everywhere it contested. Nehru made a few deprecating noises within the party forums regarding the infiltration of unscrupulous elements but went along with this wholesale subversion of democratic and ethical norms by the conservative leadership of the party so as to gain support from them for his overall leadership.

Nehru in fact was busy cleverly "burning the candle at both ends" to the appreciative delight of the Conservatives in the Congress led by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel after whom the Sardar Sarovar dam is named (Patel, 1936). He played the mentor to the then young Marxist firebrands led by Jayaprakash Narayan and gave them much greater importance than the mass following they commanded. Presiding over the crucial Lucknow Annual Convention of the Congress party in 1936, held against the backdrop of the British beginning to devolve power to the Indians and the emerging possibility of independence, he not only espoused socialism as the solution to India's and the world's problems but also nominated three members of the Congress Socialist Party which had been formed earlier with his blessings in 1934 to the Congress Working Committee (Sinha, 1984). In this way he both countered the Conservatives and also co-opted these firebrands into the leadership and deflected them from pursuing subversive mass mobilisational work. However, once their purpose of buttressing Nehru's position vis-a-vis the Conservatives within the Congress was served the Socialists found themselves rejected in the same way as the Gandhians after independence. They severed their connections with the Congress and formed the independent Socialist Party in 1948. Following exemplary democratic principles they also resigned their seats in the legislative assembly of the United Provinces and sought re-election. The Congress then used its art of winning by hook or by crook developed earlier during the 1936 elections to defeat the Socialists and push them into the political wilderness (Brass & Robinson eds, 1989).

Given this corrupt pre-independence history of the Congress right from the first general elections in 1951, money power, muscle power and the state machinery were used to vitiate the sanctity of the electoral process in such a way that there was little chance of an ethical person being able to win elections. Both the Socialists and the Communists lost out because of this in most areas except in a few niches where they were in such great mass strength that they could effectively counter the electoral mal practices of the Congress. Losing out on state power in a poor post-colonial country like India with an underdeveloped economy and civil society and an over-developed state apparatus (Bardhan, 1999) meant losing out on everything as the state was the main collector and commander of resources and distributor of largesse. Control of state power also provided the Congress with the opportunity to get massive financial contributions from the industrialists - the nascent Indian capitalist class in exchange for policies and programmes favourable to them. This further reduced the chances of the Socialists or the Communists of winning elections. Even when the Communists despite mountainous hurdles did manage to cobble together a government in Kerala, the first democratically elected Communist government in the world, Nehru threw all political scruples to the wind and dismissed the government in 1959 to impose Central rule in the state. Defections were engineered with the dangling of sops to win away elected representatives and their supporters. Thus there was a continuous exodus of workers and leaders from among the Socialists and Communists to the Congress (Sinha, op cit).

The net result was that both the Socialists and Communists got effectively sidelined in the Nehru era and parliament lost its capacity to act as a check on governance, which increasingly became of a strong centrist nature shedding even the little formal federalism that had been provided for in the Constitution. The extent of the Congress hegemony can be gauged from the fact that the first no-confidence motion against Nehru's government was moved only in the year 1963, all of sixteen years after independence. Nehru became the supreme leader as head of both the government and the Congress party ruthlessly removing those who tried to stand up to him in opposition by overt and covert means and consciously promoting weak politicians without much mass following as the chief ministers in the states (Das, op cit). A patron-client relationship was set up beginning with Nehru at the top and a whole sycophantic pyramid going down to the lowest workers at the grassroots level all trying to dispense state favours. Indira Gandhi, who followed Nehru as Prime Minister after a brief interlude after his death, pursued these corrupt practices and perfected them into an art. Finally, the mass movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan, which reached the verge of forcing a general election, challenged this covert subversion of democracy by the Congress party. Indira Gandhi then went to the extent of declaring an internal emergency and overtly curtailing democratic freedoms in 1975.

Betrayal of the Sampoorna Kranti Movement Ideals

The long incarceration in jail during the emergency must have given the opposition leaders of all hues an opportunity to review the reasons for their electoral marginalisation and they probably realised that winning elections and being able to cut and distribute the developmental cake were crucial to effective operation in the Indian democratic system as it had evolved under the Congress. So when the parliamentary Socialists and Communists finally made their way to power at the centre and in the states following the historic elections of 1977 after the internal emergency was lifted they too began treading the corrupt trail blazed by the Congress. Winning elections and staying in power became the driving goal and ideology began taking a back seat as Jayaprakash Narayan's ideas of total revolution too were floated down the Ganges with his funeral ashes (Sinha, op cit). Nowadays most political parties, and there are many to accord with the varied diversity of the people across the spectrum from the left to the right and from the bottom of the social order to the top, that take part in elections, have recourse to unfair electoral practices prior to winning and dubious parliamentary practices after that. Indeed the Bahujan Samaj Party of the dalits, which had given a clarion call for cleansing the dirty politics of the "Manuvadi" upper castes when it first began participating in elections, too has gone the corrupt way of the other parties. Most parties have also duplicated the patron-client relationship on which the Congress is based and are top down parties centred around single leaders or a small group of leaders. No wonder then that hardened criminals who have both power and pelf in the local settings have begun winning elections in embarrassingly large numbers and dictating what little is left of party policy. Since winning elections and staying in power have become ends in themselves rather than being the means for social transformation and people oriented governance, both electoral and legislative practice have been reduced to being a theatre of the absurd with bizarre goings on these days. The BJP, backed by the organisational muscle of the RSS and the backing of the capitalists has now excelled in manipulating the FPTP to gain an upper hand.

The Marginalisation of People’s Movements by FPTP

It does not require much perspicacity to see that given this corrupt milieu it is next to impossible to win elections at levels higher than that of the panchayats, and there too with much difficulty, while remaining true to ethical canons and priniciples of equity and sustainability. This is why the environmentalist mass movements have been unable to make any electoral headway at the legislative and parliamentary levels apart from some stray MLAs here or there and the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and to some extent in Punjab. They have been able to win some seats in panchayats but since these have little financial or political powers, this does not help in influencing policy at the state or national level. A vicious circle of marginalisation results from this. There is a tendency among the masses to vote for those parties who they feel will be able to win and make an impact on governance. That is why the marginal "bin pende ka lota" image of the environmentalists has resulted in electoral formations set up by them falling flat and becoming even more marginalised. A major problem always is the mobilisation of resources to do political work in general and election campaigning in particular.

Therefore, there is a dire need to launch a campaign for a switch from the FPTP electoral system to the proportional representation system supported by state funding of elections which will considerably increase the chances of people’s movements being able to enter the legislatures and parliament. Even if these movements have small bases in diverse disjointed locations, cumulatively a federation like the National Alliance of People’s Movements can garner enough votes across the country to cross the minimum threshold of votes. Since the members of these movements and other voters will also know that their votes will not go waste they will also vote in larger numbers for these movements.

References

Bardhan, P (1999): The Political Economy of Development in India, Oxford University Press, Delhi.

Brass, P & Robinson, F eds (1989): The Indian National Congress and Indian Society 1885-1985: Ideology, Social Structure and Political Dominance, South Asia Books, Delhi.

Das, S (2001): The Nehru Years in Indian Politics: From a Historical Hindsight, Edinburgh Papers in South Asian Studies Number 16, Centre for South Asian Studies, School of Social & Political Studies, University of Edinburgh.

ECI (2005): Performance of National Parties Vis-a-Vis Others in General Elections, Election Commission of India website accessed on 12^th September 2005 at url http://www.eci.gov.in/Election Results_fs.htm

Nehru, J L (1975): Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, First Series Vol VII, Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, Delhi.

---------- (1983): Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Second Series Vol I, Oxford University Press, Delhi.

Patel, V (1936): All India Congress Committee Papers, Nehru Memorial Library and Museum, New Delhi, File-G-85(1).

Sinha, S (1984): Fifty Years of the Socialist Movement: An Overview, in Reddy, G K C ed Fifty Years of Socialist Movement in India: Retrospect and Prospect, Samata Era Publication, New Delhi.

------ (2005): Chunav Niti, Ranniti Va Anubhav (Election Ethics, Strategy and Experience), (in Hindi) Samayik Varta, Vol. 28 No. 11

Universal Basic Income as a means to a Revolutionary Transformation

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 14:30:00 +0000

Current late capitalist domination has so atomised the working class that we now no longer have a proletariat, a class for itself but only a precariat with little or no class consciousness as a prelude to organising for a revolutionary transformation to a more socio-economically just dispensation. Under the circumstances just fighting for better working conditions and wages will not only be difficult but will not achieve a progress towards revolutionary transformation. Consequently, there is a need to fight for a universal basic income as well as will be argued in this note.

1. Primitive Accumulation

Karl Marx had in Das Kapital defined primitive accumulation as a pre-capitalist phenomenon that led to the initial accumulation of capital on the one hand and the creation of wage labour on the other hand, resulting in the establishment of capitalism in England in the eighteenth century (Marx, 2016). Marx, critiquing Adam Smith’s earlier assertion that the process was a peaceful one in which some labourers through their hard work had accumulated capital (Smith, 2018), contended with evidence that peasants were driven off the land, on which they were serfs or petty producers and even the commons were enclosed, through extra-economic means such as arbitrary violence and laws enacted by the state. However, Marx himself said that while this was at that time a one-off process in England, it was not so in the colonies where petty agricultural producers continued to be there in large numbers providing rent to the colonisers, who sent the surplus so extracted back to the imperialist countries for expansion of capitalist production there. Rosa Luxemburg, too, argued that the existence of a non-capitalist space was necessary for the realization of the surplus component of the value of a capitalist commodity as well as for primitive accumulation from exploitation of labour and natural resources from the colonial periphery for the continuance of capitalist development as capitalism internally would not be stable (Luxemburg, 2003).

Later, Louis Althusser argued that primitive accumulation has been an integral part of capitalism because even after capitalism was well established in Europe and America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it continued to extract surpluses by extra-economic means from the colonies and later the nominally independent nations of the post World War II era (Althusser, 2006). The onset of the neo-liberal era from the 1990s onwards, led on the one hand to a withdrawal of welfare benefits and union rights which had been gained by the working class through hard fought battles in the industrialised capitalist countries of the West and a dismantling of the socialist apparatuses of the USSR, China and Eastern Europe on the other. Many Marxian theorists argued that this was a revival of primitive accumulation within the capitalist system since it involved the exclusion of a vast number of people from the social commons which provided free education, health and unemployment benefits combined with the squeezing of wages through outsourcing of jobs and the handing over of public enterprises to private capital (Harvey, 2003, De Angelis, 2004). Moreover, tax breaks and subsidies were given to corporations which led to their increasing profits further reducing the funds available for maintaining the socio-economic commons. The huge dominance of finance capital globally and the use of international financial organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to impose cuts in public welfare spending in the developing countries and the transfer of the surpluses from them to the banks of the developed countries through debt and interest repayment were also considered to be extra-economic dispossession of the people of those countries and so a form of primitive accumulation.

This analysis has been cogently extended by Prabhat Patnaik to the case of India since the 1990s when neo-liberal policies were introduced in this country (Patnaik, 2017). Patnaik writes –

“The neo-liberal regime, has increased the tendency to inflict primitive accumulation upon third world petty producers. In the name of free trade, this sector, and above all peasant agriculture, is now exposed to world market fluctuations, which bring ruin to large sections of the peasantry. In the name of bringing about fiscal rectification, input subsidies to this sector, including cheap credit, are withdrawn. International agri-business and domestic big capitalists are able to squeeze the peasantry.

The second way in which primitive accumulation is carried out is in the name of ‘development’ itself, peasant lands are taken over for a ‘song’ for industrial and infrastructural projects. Not only is the peasantry, that legally owned this land, squeezed in the process, but also the entire group of tenants and agricultural labourers whose rights on the land are not even recognized when such take-over of land occurs.

The third way of primitive accumulation is increasing the tax-burden on petty production. Take the case of the uniform Goods and Services Tax, under which, all products are taxed, including the products of the petty producers that had not been taxed earlier, on a par with the products of big capitalists. This has, needless to say, the effect of squeezing this sector.

The fourth mechanism of primitive accumulation is through the privatization of essential services like education and health that the neo-liberal regime effects, which raises the prices of these services. Since the new service providers belong to the capitalist sector, such a rise in price is analytically analogous to a rise in the ‘degree of monopoly’ (Kalecki, 1971), which clearly has the effect of compressing the real income of the petty production sector and of the workers of the capitalist sector itself.”

Patnaik, however, does not mention above the most important means of primitive accumulation, that of non-payment of statutory minimum wages due to extra economic pressure exerted on the workers, leading to huge extraction of surplus value. This is even more of a problem in India than in the developed countries because the statutory minimum wages are themselves very low in most states in this country (The statutory minimum wage is 15 Purchasing Power Parity dollars a day on an average in India as opposed to 120 dollars per day in the USA). Marx showed that the exchange value of goods and services produced, depended on the socially necessary labour time required to produce them (Marx op cit). This social determination of labour time is not simply a function of supply and demand but is also dependent on negotiation between the working class and the capitalists. Thus, over time the proportion of the value created that would be given to the workers in the form of better wages and working conditions, was decided by contestation through trade unions between the workers and capitalists and increasing workers’ power resulted in the State also legislating to provide for regulation of the capitalists. Consequently, the absence of unionisation in the large informal sector or the roll-back of unionisation from the formal sector as has happened since the 1990s all over the world and in India, mean that there is extra-economic extraction of surplus value from workers within the capitalist system and this is a basic feature of primitive accumulation.

2. Labour Situation in India

The fact is that industrialisation in India has from the beginning been fuelled by primitive accumulation based on cheap labour resulting from state policies to prevent unionisation and keep down wages and through dispossession by displacement (Basu, 2008). Education, health and employment for the masses have never been provided adequately by the State unlike in the developed countries and so the vast majority have had to remain unskilled, unhealthy and underemployed providing a large industrial reserve army who can be cheaply employed by the capitalists. Attempts by labour to organise and get better wages and working conditions are met with state repression. The most infamous example of this in recent times is the state repression of the workers of the Maruti Suzuki Car factory in Haryana (Deshpande & Haksar, 2023). The State has enabled this exploitation as labour laws have been implemented only for a miniscule proportion of the total workforce that is formally unionised. Whereas, there were 11124 registered trade unions in India, only 2311 of them filed returns and the total membership of the latter was only 6,181,731 (GoI, 2022). We can safely assume that those trade unions that are not filing returns are defunct and so given the industrial workforce in India to be about 130 million or about 25 percent of the total work force (CEIC, 2023), the effectively organised industrial workforce is just 4.6 percent of the total. Thus, the overwhelming majority of the workforce, being not only unorganised but also prevented from organising, are being paid much less than the statutory minimum wages which are themselves very low.

Moreover, from the time of independence the draconian but now repealed colonial Land Acquisition Act 1894, the Indian Forest Act 1927 and later the post-independence Wildlife Protection Act 1972 have been used to dispossess millions of peasants, especially tribespeople, from their land for development projects like dams, steel plants, mines and industrial areas without adequate compensation or rehabilitation (Basu, op cit).

A major labour phenomenon in India has been circular migration, which by definition, is a transitory phenomenon but it has been a long-standing feature of industrialisation right from its inception. Incipient industrialisation in the nineteenth century attracted migrants from rural areas. In the case of the jute mills of Bengal these were workers mostly from the rural areas in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and also from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh (De Haan, 2022). The cotton mills of Mumbai also had migrant workers from Ratnagiri to the south of the city and from Uttar Pradesh (Chandavarkar, 1994). These workers were men who lived alone and maintained close relations with their families back in the villages. Industrial or other urban jobs gave these migrants an opportunity to supplement meagre family incomes and farm livelihoods but did not result in a permanent transition from rural to urban life. It was only later in the twentieth century and especially after independence that the migrant workers settled down in cities as industrial growth spurted with greater public investment under the Five Year Plans and the need for permanent skilled labour increased (Joshi, 2008).

However, even after independence matters did not improve much because the nascent capitalist class drew up a plan for economic development of India based on primitive accumulation that is known as the “Bombay Plan” after the industrialists from Bombay who conceived of it (Thakurdas et al, 1944). This plan envisaged the rapid development of basic infrastructure through heavy state spending garnered from exploitation of the labour of the masses and the vast natural resources. It specifically mentioned that the state must intervene to maintain law and order and restrict individual freedoms given the possibility of dissent from the masses against such a policy and the new independent Government in India followed this path of development.

Consequently, the new Indian Constitution adopted in 1949 did not give fundamental rights status to the rights of education, health and employment and instead put them into the section on Directive Principles of State Policy which are non-justiciable. In fact, the Constitution was largely a copy of the colonial Government of India Act of 1935 and mirrored its anti-people provisions. So much so that G.D. Birla the doyen of the Indian capitalists gloated at the time, "We have embodied large portions of the 1935 Act, as finally passed, in the Constitution which we have framed ourselves and which shows that in the 1935 Act was cast the pattern of our future plans" (Birla, 1968). The Five Year Plans that were implemented from the 1950s, followed the anti-people guidance of the Bombay Plan. So, right from the time of independence people have been displaced from their land and have been forced into increasing the industrial reserve army, mainly as migrant labour. The state has actively promoted this policy. As a result, the unionisation of labour has always been weak in India and been restricted to a few big private firms, government departments and the public sector enterprises leaving the vast majority of workers at the mercy of primitive accumulation. Unfortunately, the Governments in the states and the centre which are mandated to enumerate the number and type of migrant workers as a part of the regulatory provisions of the Interstate Migrant Workmen Act 1979, do not do so. Therefore, there are no reliable estimates of migration in India apart from the Census data, which are both suspect and outdated. The Labour Bureau under the Ministry of Labour and Employment is conducting a large sample survey covering 1.2 Lakh households but the results have not been published as yet. According to one estimate there are 140 million migrant workers which amounts to about 27 percent of the total workforce (Ajeevika Bureau, 2023). Assuming that 25 percent of these migrant workers are working in industries, this comes to a fairly large number of 35 million and they are overwhelmingly unorganised.

Thus, migratory labour, continues to be of relevance and constitutes a large part of India’s urban workforce as was vividly shown by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic when hundreds of thousands of workers returned to their villages from the cities (Khan and Arokkiaraj, 2021). Migratory labour is preferred by employers because of their lesser ability to unionise and demand better wages and working conditions as compared to local labour and so they are the mainstay of primitive accumulation in India. This process has been further enhanced with the spread of outsourcing and the gig economy in the neo-liberal era (Madan, 2023).

3. Characteristics of Late Capitalism

The working class globally and in India received a major blow from the 1990s onwards as computerisation and the internet made it possible to outsource manufacturing to anywhere in the world where labour supply was high and state regulation was low and consequently wages too were low, so as to facilitate primitive accumulation. Not only did manufacturing shift out of the western capitalist countries but even in countries like India it shifted out of traditional manufacturing centres and even in those, contractual labour was used in large numbers. Moreover, in India, to further avoid the possibilities of the unionisation of workers, local recruitment of workers was reduced and migrant workers were brought in. This huge migrant work force is invisible simply because there are no records of their migration with the government or the employer industries as they are employed informally by contractors. They did become visible for some time during the initial Covid Pandemic in 2020 but they have once again become invisible.

This is a global phenomenon and so it is not possible for workers to fight for their rights locally beyond a point. Simply because a company that does not adopt these practices of primitive accumulation will go out of business as it will not be able to compete with others which are practising primitive accumulation elsewhere. States too are wary of regulating the capitalists because they will just pack up and leave as it is very easy to relocate manufacturing with the new technologies that are available. India, in fact, has seen a progressive whittling down of workers’ rights so as to increase the ease of doing business for capitalists (Jenkins, 2004).

Thus, the situation has changed drastically as there is no more a proletariat – a working class that is assured of its jobs and only has to fight for better working conditions and wages. Instead, what exists now is a precariat – a working class that is not assured of employment in addition to suffering from bad working conditions and wages due to extra-economic pressures. Organisation work requires money which traditionally used to come from the contributions of the workers who were assured of their jobs. However, now with workers not being assured of their jobs and mostly working on contract as migrants, not only are they unable to make contributions to their unions but they are also fearful of losing whatever low paying jobs they have by unionising. The new Labour Codes that have been legislated by the Union Government and whose implementation is presently stalled, not only do away with many protections that were there in the earlier laws but in the case of the unorganised sector and migrant workers, leave them high and dry without any social protection (WPC, 2020).

Expectedly Industry associations like Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Conference of Indian Industries (CII) and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) have welcomed the reforms resulting from the new Labour Codes, since they facilitate industrialists to further casualise the workforce in their factories and reduce the workers’ collective bargaining powers and dilute the state’s regulatory institutions. The removal of the protective framework of labour rights and entitlements will result in further informalisation of the already small organised workforce in the country and reduce the possibilities of formalisation of the informal workers and especially migrants (Shyam Sundar & Sapkal, 2020). Thus, the whole project of organising workers in trade unions has been rendered very difficult. It has become even more utopian than it used to be earlier to propose the formation of a class for itself organised into a party of the working class seeking to overthrow the capitalist order beginning with the formation of trade unions.

Matters have been compounded by the fact that consumerism is being aggressively promoted among the workers also and so they are more interested in working long hours to earn more money to satisfy their consumerist desires rather than organise to improve their wages and limit primitive accumulation. Moreover, whatever little organisation there is, is being diabolically deflected into sectarian conflicts between different castes and religious communities further dividing the working class and preventing mobilisation for workers’ rights.

4. Universal Basic Income

This increasing tendency of primitive accumulation is difficult to roll back in the present milieu of late capitalist dominance in which neither are states prepared to uphold workers’ rights and nor are the workers in a position to agitate for them on a sustained basis. This precarity of the working class can be countered only by ensuring that they have a universal basic income (UBI) from the state given that welfare measures like free education and health that form part of the social commons have been cut back in recent decades (Gentilini et al, 2020). The state has to step in and provide a life long universal basic income to all adults so as to both provide a dignified life to workers and shore up the demand in the economy. The eternal problem for capitalism is that even after primitive accumulation and even more so because of it, crises of over production will beset it from time to time as there is not enough demand for the goods and services that are produced due to the poverty of the vast majority (Marx, op cit). For instance, in India the per capita annual income is dismally low at $ 2400 and 70 percent of the population earn less than this and so there is always a recessionary trend despite high overall growth in GDP which gets aggravated from time to time, as is currently the case, with high inflation. From the 1930s onwards, capitalist states have adopted welfare measures, the social commons, to counter this. However, these have been progressively dismantled over the last three decades of neo-liberal economic policies. Consequently, the social commons have to be restored through a new welfare measure like UBI. This will also enable the working class to organise for their rights as they will have some funds instead of being on the economic edge as they are now. As opposed to the utopian programmes of organising the fragmented working class to become a class for itself, the fight for an UBI holds more promise though it too is utopian given the present capitalist control of the world.

The resources for the UBI will come from a tax on all financial instruments and transactions that there are, most importantly the huge international trade in currencies which is not being taxed at all at present. The trade in currencies is more than twenty times the value of the trade in goods and services and is totally speculative in nature. It goes on 24 x 7 across the world and its profits come from exploitation of labour through primitive accumulation. So on the one hand labour is not being paid a living wage and on the other currency trading which is profiting from this is not being taxed at all in a blatant show of power by late capitalism.

Therefore, the working class movements the world over and in India will have to bolster their local battles for better wages and working conditions with a wider battle to put pressure on the state to provide a universal basic income so as to restore the social commons that has been whittled away. This will considerably reduce the precarity of the working class and allow it to once again organise not only for better working conditions and wages but also for a revolutionary transformation to a more just and inclusive socio-economy.

References

Ajeevika Bureau (2020): Labour and Migration in India, accessed on 30.08.2023 at url https://www.aajeevika.org/labour-and-migration.php.

Althusser, L (2006): Philosophy of the Encounter: Later Writings, 1978-1987, London and New York. Verso.

Basu, P. K. (2008): Globalisation: An Anti Text; A Local View. Delhi: Aakar Publications.

Birla, G. D. (1968): In The Shadow of The Mahatma, Mumbai, p. 131 quoted in S. K. Ghosh, 2001, The Indian Constitution and Its Review, Research Unit for Political Economy, Mumbai.

CEIC (2023): Labour Force Participation in India, accessed on 30.08.2023 at url https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/india/labour-force-participation-rate

Chandavarkar, R (1994): The Origins of Industrial Capitalism in India: Business Strategies and the Working Classes in Bombay, 1900–1940, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

De Angelis, M (2004): Separating the doing and the deed: Capital and the continuous character of enclosures, Historical Materialism, Vol. 12: 57-87

De Haan, A (2022): Labour in South Asia from mid Nineteenth to mid Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Deshpande, A. & Haksar, N. (2023): Japanese Management, Indian Resistance: The Struggles of the Maruti Suzuki Workers, Harper Collins, New Delhi.

Gentilini, U., Grosh, M., Rigolini, J. & Yemtsov, R. (2020): Exploring Universal Basic Income: A Guide to Navigating Concepts, Evidence, and Practices, World Bank, Washington, DC.

GoI (2022): Report on Trade Unions in India 2019, Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, Chandigarh.

Harvey, D (2003): The New Imperialism, Oxford University Press, New York.

Jenkins (2004): Labor Policy and the Second Generation of Economic Reform in India, India Review 3(4): 333–363.

Joshi, C (2008): Histories of Indian Labour: Predicaments and Possibilities, History Compass, pp. 439-454.

Kalecki, M (1971): Selected Essays on the Dynamics of the Capitalist Economy 1933-1971, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Khan, A & Arokkiaraj, H (2021): Challenges of reverse migration in India: a comparative study of internal and international migrant workers in the post-COVID economy, Comparative Migration Studies, Vol 9.

Kumar S, Heath AF, Heath O. (2002): Changing patterns of social mobility, Econ. Polit. Wkly, Vol. 37 No. 40 pp 4091–96.

Luxemburg, R. (2003): The Accumulation of Capital, tr. Agnes Schwarzschild, London and New York, Routledge.

Marx, K (2016): Capital Vol 1,2,3. Fingerprint Publishing, Delhi.

Madan, A (2023): Dark Side of the Gig Economy, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 58 Issue 19.

MoSPI (2010): Migration in India 2007-08, National Sample Survey Organisation, New Delhi.

Patnaik, P (2017): The Concept of Primitive Accumulation of Capital, Marxist, Vol. XXXIII, No. 4, October-December.

Saxena (1993): The Hindu Trade Union Movement in India: The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Asian Survey, Vol 33, No 7.

Shyam Sundar, K. R. & Rahul Sapkal (2020): Changes to Labour Laws by State Governments Will Lead to Anarchy in the Labour Market. Economic and Political Weekly 55(23)

Smith, A (2018): The Wealth of Nations, Fingerprint Publishing, Delhi.

Thakurdas, P., Tata, J.R.D., Birla, G.D., Lalbhai, K., Dalal, S.R.A., Shroff, A.D. & Mathai, J. (1944): A Brief Memorandum Outlining a Plan of Economic Development for India, Mumbai

Vaid, D. (2014): Caste in Contemporary India: Flexibility and Persistence, Annu. Rev. Sociol. No. 40 pp 391–410.

WPC (2020): Why the New Labour Codes leave the Workers even more precariously poised than before, September 23^rd, Scroll, accessed on 31.08.2023 at url https://scroll.in/article/973877/why-the-new-labour-codes-leave-workers-even-more-precariously-poised-than-before

Propagating Heirloom Seeds

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 11:27:00 +0000

Kansari nu Vadavno, the Bhil Adivasi women's organisation led by Subhadra Khaperde has been reviving the cultivation of the traditional indigenous seeds of Western Madhya Pradesh over the past eight years. These women farmers have not only succeeded in cultivating over thirty varieties of traditional seeds ranging from millets, rice, wheat, pulses, oilseeds and fibre to vegetables, but have also spread them across the country by participating in organic seed festivals. Bicchibai and Gendabai two stalwart farmers of the organisation are participating in the latest Organic Seed Festival in Indore with their cornucopia of seeds and are holding forth before farmers, consumers and the media about the importance of this campaign to save the agro-biodiversity and so the food security of Western Madhya Pradesh.

The Used Water Debacle

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 05:51:00 +0000

A few years ago I did a study for the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) on the status of Water management in the city of Jaipur (https://lnkd.in/dqwkV4yM

). On the basis of data collected I had shown that centralised water management in the city was both economically unviable and ecologically unsustainable. I had also said that the beautification project on the Dravyavati River passing through the city was ill conceived and would fail in the long run because the plan for intercepting drains emptying into the river and treating the used water in them through STPs would not work. The main problem was that the Jaipur Municipal Corporation did not have the funds to operate the STPs and the centralised water supply. While water supply being crucial is somehow fulfilled to some extent, used water treatment is given a go by.
I had also said that the only solution was to implement building level rainwater harvesting/recharge and used water treatment and reuse.
I find now on a visit to Jaipur that all my dark predictions have unfortunately come true.
The biggest STP at Delawas of 215 MLD capacity is dysfunctional and is releasing the sewage water untreated into the Dravyavati River. The smaller STPs along the river built to treat the used water from the intercepted drains are also dysfunctional. Consequently, the Dravyavati River is not only stinking to high heaven but is also emitting the green house gas methane in large quantities.

What I found most disconcerting was that a totally irrational method of disposal of used water is being implemented in individual buildings. Small wells called kuis of 1m diamter are dug to about 10m depth and concrete rings with a few small holes are put in them. The untreated used water is emptied into them.

These wells fill up very soon and then they are emptied by desludging tankers which then empty their tanks in the Dravyavati River or some drain that empties into it.

To add insult to injury, farmers downstream are using this highly polluted water of the Dravyavati River to produce food crops.

There is something seriously wrong with water management in this country, especially in our cities and towns and despite clear guidelines in the rules and laws for implementation of building level water management, the folly of centralised water management is persisted with.

The Crisis of Smallholder Agriculture

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 12:47:00 +0000

The biggest concern at present should be about the severe constraints that the small and marginal farmers, who constitute 85% of all farming households and 50% of the total population of India, face. These farmers put in a huge amount of back breaking family labour into their farming. This labour is grossly underpaid at about Rs 100 per day as revealed from surveys that we have conducted in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh. Whereas the latest statutory minimum daily wage in the state is Rs 335 for unskilled, Rs368 for semiskilled, Rs 421 for skilled and Rs 471 for highly skilled. Farming is a highly skilled operation and so the farmers should be paid Rs 471 in the interests of equity. Especially because the analysis of the consumption expenditure surveys that we simultaneously carry out show that the respondents are suffering from chronic hunger. One can easily imagine what raising the household labour wage to Rs 471 per day will do to the farmgate price of agricultural produce. When we paid a wage of Rs 220 per day (the statutory minimum wage for unskilled labour in MP last year) and also a fifty percent profit over and above their operating costs to the farmers with whom we work in our organic farming project (https://kansariorganics.in/) the farmgate price of our organic wheat shot up to Rs 27 per kg as opposed to the Rs 17 prevailing in the market for chemical wheat and the Rs 20 offered under the MP government's MSP scheme (which is anyway available to a limited number of farmers). After adding on the costs of the subsidy we provided to the farmers for organic composting and bio-enzyme rich liquid making and cleaning and grading the price of our wheat in Indore is Rs 35 per kg whereas the chemical wheat of similar quality sells at Rs 25 per kg. Few people are prepared to buy our wheat at this premium despite its being the cheapest authentic organic wheat available in this country because we are not charging any profits or management costs which are met by grant funding. This in turn means that there is a need for direct transfers to farmers by the government to compensate them properly as the market will not do so. Since the chemical agriculture being practised now is both economically and ecologically unsustainable this cash transfer should be given to farmers to switch the country from chemical monoculture to organic biodiverse agriculture combined with huge investments in communitarian ecosystem conservation and restoration, compost and bio-enzyme rich liquid making on a very large scale to replace chemical fertilisers and decentralized renewable energy production from gasification of agricultural and forest biomass.

But why have we come to this sorry pass? There were four major constraints to agriculture in the British colonial times as follows - high land rents under the zamindari and ryotwari systems, usury, these two in turn prevented investments in soil and water conservation and in situ irrigation development and the low availability of fertilisers. We had innumerable varieties of crops including rice and wheat varieties that were of a high yielding type and therefore there was no constraint as regards to crop varieties. There was no storage problem either as there were traditional methods of decentralised storage of crops that were very effective. With independence the first obstacle was removed to a great extent even though land reforms did not take place as much as they should have and this released the energies of the peasantry in farming leading to a considerable boost in agricultural production. However, usury continued and constrained investments in soil and water conservation and in situ irrigation. Therefore, what was required was greater land reform, control of usury and extension of cheap credit, heavy investments in forest, soil and water conservation and in situ irrigation development and last but not the least heavy investments in composting to increase organic manure availability which is a highly labour intensive process. Animal manure on its own is not enough for the huge agricultural land in this country and so agricultural residue has to be mixed with a little organic manure and composted to greatly multiply the availability of manure. Beginning with Albert Howard there have been many experts in composting in India and so the needs of fertiliser can be easily met through widespread composting and bioenzyme rich organic liquid making. Unfortunately, none of these were done and so agriculture continued to be constrained and combined with the other folly at the time of independence of not implementing compulsory and free school education which would have put boys and girls in school instead of them getting married and producing children which led to a population explosion, we faced a food crisis in the 1960s. There was no nationalism involved in going for the green revolution. It was a neo-colonial collaboration between the American MNCs and the Savarna elite who were ruling this country and still do ( the British too were able to rule over India for such a long time because of the collaboration they received from the Savarna elites. they would have been kicked out in 1857 itself if they had not received extensive support from the Savarnas who had benefited from their rule), to ignore the possibilities of a policy of land reform, control of usury, investment in forest, soil and water conservation and in situ irrigation and widespread composting and instead foist hybrid seeds, big dams, deep tubewells, chemical fertilisers and pesticides and cheap coal fired electricity all heavily subsidised by the Government. This chemical monoculture has devastated both agriculture and food availability, especially in the rural areas where there is chronic hunger.

There is only one solution to the crisis of agriculture, water scarcity. rural unemployment and chronic hunger - gradually switching the whole country to organic biodiverse agriculture over a period of five years by providing heavy subsidies to farmers to make the switch by investing in forest, soil and water conservation, in situ irrigation and composting and generation of decentralised renewable energy from gasification of agricultural and forest biomass. Especially composting because it is a labour intensive process and absolutely essential to replace chemical fertilisers. This is difficult though because after 50 years of chemical agriculture most farmers have lost the belief that it is possible to do agriculture in any other way and it is extremely hard to convince them to make this switch as we have found out when we have tried to fund farmers to make this switch.

A Fair Income

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 11:13:00 +0000

The FAO has estimated that a healthy diet costs about US$4 per person per day, which applying the purchasing power parity conversion rate of ₹23 to the dollar works out to ₹92. So given an average household size of 4.4 currently this works out to a food expenditure of roughly ₹400 per household per day. The latest consumption expenditure survey conducted in 2022-23 by the National Statistical Organisation says that food expenditure constitutes about 43% of the total household consumption expenditure. So for a healthy diet combined with other associated requirements for a good life the annual household consumption expenditure should be at least (400/0.43)*365= ₹340000.

Ideally a household should have a savings of 20% and so a decent annual household income is ₹425000.
Therefore, when we as development workers talk of improving the incomes of the people at the bottom of the pyramid and say we have impacted their lives positively we have to benchmark our impact against this desired basic income. To what extent have we been able to ensure this level of income for the beneficiaries on a sustainable basis. So far I have not seen such an analysis anywhere. Instead organisations proudly say that they have increased the incomes by a few thousand rupees or so.
In fact given the kind of low prices that farmers and craftspersons get for their produce and the low wages workers get for their labour, it is doubtful that such a high income as estimated here can be ensured by NGOs through development interventions. Therefore, there is a strong case for the provision by the government of a lifelong universal basic income equal to the statutory minimum wage to all adults funded by a tax on bank deposits and other financial assets. This can be tied to various projects of ecosystem restoration, sustainable farming and craft and renewable energy generation to ensure sustainability in the long run. This will not only solve the problem of low incomes resulting from low productivity and lack of well paying employment opportunities but will also push up both demand and supply in the economy.

Revisiting Machla

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:20:00 +0000

Three decades ago Subhadra Khaperde and I came to Indore from Alirajpur to start rights based work in a new area so as to expand the mass base of the organisation. We stayed on the campus of the Gramodyog Vidyalaya of the Sarvodaya Shikshan Samiti in the village Machla situated about 13 kilometres from the city for about two years. At that time we had very little money so we used to live at subsistence levels initially. We used to go around on a bicycle trying to sell copies of a monthly magazine that we used to publish at the time to eke out some funds. Slowly, we started doing consultancies and then landed a project for organising Bhil Adivasi women to fight for their reproductive health and rights and work got under way in the nearby districts of Dewas and Khargone and today the organisation (https://lnkd.in/dV-nhpBz) has a vast spread across the whole of Western Madhya Pradesh working to make the independence gained 77 years ago more meaningful for the masses who still lead a precarious subsistence existence at the margins. So this campus in Machla has a special place in our hearts.

Some of the shootings for the film on our love story, Rah Sangharsh Ki, episode four in the series Lovestoriyaan on Amazon Prime Video (https://lnkd.in/dKbUsT6C), were shot in Machla and so we had an opportunity to visit it again last year and revive those sweet memories. Ravi Uchhe, one of the cinematographers of the film, has shared a lovely photo of us that he took at that time.

The Adverse Agricultural Terms of Trade

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 00:52:00 +0000

Globally and in India the big problem is that market prices for farm produce do not cover the costs. Consequently, governments have to subsidise farm production either by direct transfers to farmers or farm input producers or by providing support prices and insurance covers. However, these subsidies are not enough and so farmers are perpetually in the red and have to sell their produce immediately after harvest to pay off debts. This problem is more acute in India as the average landholding and the subsidy given is very low as compared to the high income countries, which are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Some amount of relief can be had if farmers can hold their produce for some time to get better prices rather than selling at the time of harvest but this requires both storage space and money which are not available to most farmers. Therefore, theoretically, if a company steps in and provides warehousing facilities to store the produce of farmers and provides cheap credit to them against this collateral, then the farmers can earn more at a later date by selling their produce when prices firm up and still carry on their operations in the interim. However, this is fraught with problems for the intermediary company as there is no guarantee that the prices will firm up enough later to cover the costs of warehousing, weight and pest attack loss and operational expenses. The traders who work in this space generally cheat the farmers by giving them even lower prices than the low ones which prevail in the market and they also provide the inputs to them at higher prices and usurious interest rates and so are able to make profits at the expense of the farmers. Therefore, it is unlikely that any intermediary company can make profits by giving farmers a fair deal.

There are a few agri startups in India which are trying to do this work. However, none of them are making any money because of the inherent constraints detailed above. One such company started off on a small scale by hiring warehouses and providing loans to farmers cheaply against the grains they stored in these warehouses. This boot strapped company worked at a small scale with a small turnover making small losses for a few years before it was funded by venture capital of a small amount of Rs 2 crores and then with a large amount of Rs 40 crores to scale up operations. The turnover shot up tremendously as a result but so did the losses as is evident from the graphics below!!

So, much higher government subsidies and investment are needed not only to shore up the economics of farming currently but also to gradually transition it away from chemical inputs towards natural farming. Unfortunately, the outlay in this year's budget, where it has been claimed that 1 crore farmers are to be transitioned to natural farming is only a paltry Rs 365.64 crores amounting to Rs 365 per farmer, which is less than the daily statutory minimum wage for skilled labour.

Economics of Food Delivery Personnel

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Sun, 07 Jul 2024 07:26:00 +0000

Ishaan Khaperde has studied the economics of food delivery by Zomato India and here are the results from the point of view of the delivery person. The data has been culled from videos shared by delivery boys like the one linked here. The delivery frequency is the least on Mondays and reaches a peak with dinner time on Sundays when it is three times that of Mondays. The base delivery payment for up to five kilometers distance combined for pickup from the restaurant and delivery to the customer is Rs 22 on an average while above five kilometers the delivery person gets Rs 11 per kilometer on an average in addition to the base delivery payment. The pickup plus delivery time is about 30 minutes on an average for short orders of less than 5 kilometers while it is 50 minutes on an average for long orders above 5 kilometers. The daily mix is about 30% short orders and 70 percent long orders with the short orders on an average being 2 kms or so and the long orders being on an average being 9 kms or so. The delivery persons on an average operate for 12 hours. Thus, by solving for these parameters and rounding off [30 x number of short orders + 50 x number of long orders = 12 x 60, number of short orders/(number of short orders+number of long orders)=0.3], assuming that they are continually delivering orders, delivery persons can at the most squeeze in 4 short orders and 12 long orders per each 12 hour day. The payment for this is [4 x 22 + 12 x (22 + 4 x 11)] Rs 880.

The total distance covered on an average is 120 kilometers per day. Assuming a coverage of 40 kms per litre in stop and start city traffic at higher driving speeds this means a petrol consumption of 3 litres at a cost of Rs 330. Add another Rs 50 per day towards two wheeler depreciation, insurance and maintenance cost and the total cost comes to Rs 380. Thus, the net earnings are Rs 500 for a 12 hour day which comes to Rs 333 per eight hour day. Whereas the statutory minimum wage in Madhya Pradesh in urban areas for semi-skilled labour like driving a motor cycle is currently Rs 411 per day. Conversely, assuming double wages for the extra four hours of work done, statutorily the wages for 12 hours of work should be Rs 822 and not Rs 500.
Moreover, the delivery persons face many challenges like having no place to sit in the shade in restaurants, having to climb up the stairs of buildings where there are no lifts or where use of lifts are prohibited to service persons and also face jams and diversions enroute to delivery which further adds to their troubles.
An analysis of the prices charged by Zomato for the food ordered as compared to the prices that the restaurants charge for in dining, shows that there is a mark up of about 10%. So Zomato is not only grossly underpaying its delivery persons but also overcharging its customers 😜.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-NDWpzCF1Y

Rationale for Taxation

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Sun, 12 May 2024 08:11:00 +0000

A recent paper published by a team of economists led by Thomas Piketty (https://wid.world/.../WorldInequalityLab_WP2024_09_Income...) on the huge rise in inequality in India and their suggestion of taxing the rich to reduce this has led to a huge push back with people saying that it is the rich who create wealth and they should not be penalised through taxation. These people forget that redistribution of incomes through taxation has been a settled principle of all major economies since the 1930s because of very sound reasons. It would be helpful to go through these reasons which are as follows -

1. A modern economy has many enterprises which compete with each other to sell their products in the market and this leads to cutting of costs to stay competitive. Consequently, all enterprises tend to cut both material and labour costs. Cutting of material costs devastates the environment and labour costs are cut by paying low wages. Cutting of labour costs is also achieved by mechanisation which reduces the demand for labour while at the same time increasing the demand for materials, thus further devastating the environment.

2. The low wages of most employees in the economy, with some being unemployed or under employed, results in low effective demand for goods and services. This leads to recession in the economy and markets are flooded with goods and services that do not find buyers resulting in an over production crisis. Simultaneously, the devastation of the ecosystem results in the production of goods and services itself being jeopardised which can be termed as a production crisis. Thus, an unregulated competitive economy will eventually collapse due to an over production crisis combined with a production crisis.

3. This is what happened in 1929 across the USA and Europe and so the modern states thereafter stepped in to regulate the economy. An elaborate system of regulation was put in place to ensure that there is fair competition, wages are just and the ecosystem is not devastated indiscriminately. Moreover, the State in any economy is the biggest spender, not only in buying goods and services and developing infrastructure but also in providing subsidies of various kinds, especially in education, health and welfare, which ensures that the effective demand is kept at a level that counters recession. Apart from this the State maintains law and order and provides external security so that the economy can function smoothly. The state also protects the right to property without which the market cannot function and wealth cannot be accumulated by the rich.

The State has to garner the resources for this necessary regulation of and investment in the economy from taxes. The proportion of taxation in all developed economies currently is 40% of the GDP or more whereas in India it is only 12%. Therefore, the rich need to be taxed much more than they are being at present in India!!

Universal Basic Income

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Wed, 01 May 2024 09:36:00 +0000

May Day is celebrated in the memory of those valiant workers who gave up their lives fighting for better working conditions and remuneration. Many legal rights were won by workers organised in trade unions in factories. However, from the 1980s developments in computer technology not only made workers redundant in factories but the work could also be outsourced to distant locations. Even in factories apart from a few skilled workers to run the automated machines the rest could be employed through labour contractors. Consequently, the power of trade unions began to decline and both working conditons and wages grew much less than the productivity as most of the surplus was appropriated by the corporations.
Thus, there is very little to celebrate currently on May Day as there aren't permanent factory workers in enough numbers who can agitate for labour rights. The vast numbers of casual workers, a considerable proportion of whom are migrants, are in such a precarious condition that they cannot think of organising for better terms of work.
I am associated with the Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath and the Centre for Labour Research and Action which are fighting for the rights of Adivasi migrant workers in Western India and we are unable to get even the Minimum Wages Act implemented let alone secure other benefits.
The problem is compounded by the fact that outsourcing and underpaying of labour is a global phenomenon and so if one factory or industry pays more to workers then it will become uncompetitive and go out of business. Therefore, it is an economic compulsion for corporations to under pay labour as much as they can. The Governments go along with this so as to prevent the companies from fleeing elsewhere in search of low cost labour. That is why currently all over the world and especially in India there is a lack of decent paid work and it especially affects the youth who are without livelihood options.
So, while it is all very well to come out with demands for the statutory right to work and implementation of protective labour legislation it is unlikely that they are going to be met given this sordid economic reality. Consequently, what is necessary is to launch a campaign for the Government to provide a lifelong universal basic income to all adults. This will considerably ease the distress being suffered not only by casual workers but also farmers and self employed small traders and artisans who together constitute 98% of the workforce. Moreover, by providing money at the bottom of the pyramid this will create huge demand that will revitalise the whole economy. Another benefit will be women's empowerment as paid labour participation of women is abysmally low in this country. This needs to be augmented with investment for ecosytem restoration, sustainable agriculture and distributed generation of electricity so as to counter the threat of climate change which is now the most serious challenge to human civilisation.

Are FPOs viable?

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 09:28:00 +0000

Can Farmer Producer Organisations ((FPO) increase the incomes of small farmers as policy thinktanks and the government are suggesting?

For answering this we have to first study the economics of the farm sector in the USA. The farm gate prices offered to farmers by the market in the USA do not cover their costs of production. Therefore, the government there gives a subsidy of $20 billion to farmers. Now there are only 250000 actual farm owners left in the USA as small farmers have gradually exited due to the unviability of farming and of these 25000 are big corporations and tycoons like Cargill and Bill Gates who own hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland. However, even after practising industrialised agriculture with high levels of mechanisation, they are all running in losses as far as farming is concerned, and are compensated to the tune of $20 billion annually by the government through various subsidies.
Not only in the USA but markets worldwide do not remunerate enough to cover the costs of production of farmers and so governments provide hefty subsidies to keep farming afloat. When the likes of Bill Gates and agri-businesses like Cargill can't make profits out of farming it is farcical to expect FPOs to do so without substantial government subsidies. I have tried to get a few FPOs to reveal their audited financials so as to analyse their economic performance but have not succeeded so far 🙂.

Is Land Reform Possible

noreply@blogger.com (Rahul Banerjee) — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 09:26:00 +0000

What are the possibilities of the landless in rural areas getting land for cultivation at present? Those farmers having landholdings that are more than 5 hectares in size constitute only 5% of the total landed farmers and they own 31.8% of the total cultivable area. The average landholding size for this category being about 10 hectares of land which is less than the ceiling. The rest 95% of landed farmers have landholdings of less than 5 hectares and the average size is only 2 hectares. Thus, this latter cultivable area which constitutes 68.2% of the total is not available for redistribution. Totally 26 lakh hectares were identified as ceiling surplus land of which 24 lakh hectares were possessed and 20 lakh hectares redistributed. Some 1 lakh hectares are under legal dispute. Therefore, currently only about 5 lakh hectares of ceiling surplus land is available for distribution to 10 crore landless households. Which means that each landless household can at the most get 0.05 hectares of land. The overall average landholding size is also 0.8 hectares which is less than the limiting size for marginal landholdings - 1 hectare. Under the circumstances it is unlikely that landless people will get economically viable plots of agricultural land. Increasing the sustainability of agriculture and natural resource management combined with in situ localised production of energy through gasification of biomass and post harvest processing in cooperatives will be better options than distributing miniscule plots of land among 10 crore landless households.