Jal Satyagraha is a form of protest where a person whose land is being snatched away or destroyed submerges most of her body into the water. For the past many days, villagers in Madhya Pradesh have been standing in water, often up to their necks, waiting for their enlightened rulers to listen to them. Their bodies have slowly started giving way, as they develop blisters and vomit their way through a lonely war. To feed our power cravings, the Government has decided to raise the water levels of the dams. This rise will inundate their farms, thus depriving them of their only source of earning. Their request is simple. That it not be so that they lose all they have.
Elsewhere, farmers are being forced off their lands to make way for mining companies and industrial plants. The same reasoning should apply. In the seas of the South, men, women, and children protest submerged in the sea. They do not wish to live near a nuclear power plant. It is not unfair to desire a disease free existence. It is not unfair to have a say in how your surroundings are treated.
Sometimes it is necessary to displace people while building a nation. What is fair and just, is to compensate and rehabilitate the dispossessed. Sometimes the defeated farmers are given tiny compensations. Rehabilitation is a distant dream. Men and women who have lived on a tiny plot of land for generations know no other trade. They either have to be provided with similar land or taught how to spend their money in learning a skill. Without essential skills, they may just end up staring at the imposing walls of the factories made on their homes, or gaze blankly at the massive electricity pillions carrying power to unknown places, and perhaps, if fortune allows, be privileged enough to collect some industrial garbage.
The poor do not have many alternatives. When their sole livelihood and surroundings are attacked are they left with three options. Some give up, move to an urban area, and fit into the squalor of our slums. They may find work as ragpickers. Some protest using non-violent means. They hope to appeal to our good sense. To our notions of justice. To our meager consciences. They fail. And a few take to violent revolt.
All our growth, all our development, should be here. All our work, our progress should be among these people. All we are, should be first established among the poor and marginalized. Rehabilitation should precede growth.
But alas, we are too enlightened for that, and multiple tragedies unfold.
Elsewhere, farmers are being forced off their lands to make way for mining companies and industrial plants. The same reasoning should apply. In the seas of the South, men, women, and children protest submerged in the sea. They do not wish to live near a nuclear power plant. It is not unfair to desire a disease free existence. It is not unfair to have a say in how your surroundings are treated.
Sometimes it is necessary to displace people while building a nation. What is fair and just, is to compensate and rehabilitate the dispossessed. Sometimes the defeated farmers are given tiny compensations. Rehabilitation is a distant dream. Men and women who have lived on a tiny plot of land for generations know no other trade. They either have to be provided with similar land or taught how to spend their money in learning a skill. Without essential skills, they may just end up staring at the imposing walls of the factories made on their homes, or gaze blankly at the massive electricity pillions carrying power to unknown places, and perhaps, if fortune allows, be privileged enough to collect some industrial garbage.
The poor do not have many alternatives. When their sole livelihood and surroundings are attacked are they left with three options. Some give up, move to an urban area, and fit into the squalor of our slums. They may find work as ragpickers. Some protest using non-violent means. They hope to appeal to our good sense. To our notions of justice. To our meager consciences. They fail. And a few take to violent revolt.
All our growth, all our development, should be here. All our work, our progress should be among these people. All we are, should be first established among the poor and marginalized. Rehabilitation should precede growth.
But alas, we are too enlightened for that, and multiple tragedies unfold.
1 comment:
woot, thankyou! I finally came to a site where the webmaster knows what they're talking about. Do you know how many results are in Google when I search.. too many! It's so annoying having to go from page after page after page, wasting my day away with thousands of people just copying eachother's articles… bah. Anyway, thankyou very much for the info anyway, much appreciated.
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