Regional political parties in india s. Bhatnagar pradeep kumar

It may be noted that there has been the seemingly attractive (and relatively effortlessly contrived) model of a regional party under the "charismatic" leadership of other suites (particularly Andhra Pradesh and

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Kashmir) The corresponding regional formation elsewhere in the country only reflected the contradictions that the relatively strong and substantial regional bourgeoisie had begun to develop with national bourgeoisie. The absence of a corresponding class in political terms has been the crucial inhibiting factor in the consolidation of regional force as political party in Assam and in the northeast in general. This explains why strong regional parties have more or less consented to become wings of the Congress (I) in these states. The regional parties in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh had all been at one time or the other independent and sufficiently strong. But gradually they are losing their base and strength. Perhaps, the AGP would be no exception to this trend of the regional parties, particularly in the northeast.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. Amalendu Guha, "Immigrants and Autochihones in a Plural Society: Their Inter-Relations in the Brahmaputra Valley in Historical Perspective," North East India: A Sociological Study (ed), S.M. Dubcy (Dchi, 1977) p. 43.

2. Speech in Bengali, Assam Legislative Assembly Debates, 16 February, 1938, pp. 66-71, (Translated).

3. Reported in The Assam Tribune, 29 March, 1940.

4. Census Report of India (Assam), 1931, Vol. Ill, Part I, p. 49.

5. Harendranath Baruah, 'The Development Scheme: Position of Indigenous People", The Assam Tribune, 29 August, 1941.

6. Reply to B.C. Goswami, March 24, Assam Legislative Council Proceeding, 1933, Vol. 13, p. 888.

7. Amalendu Guha, Planters Raj to Swaraj: Freedom Struggle and Electoral Politics in Assam 1826-1947, (New Delhi, 1977) p. 209.

8. The Assam Tribune, 29 March, 1940.

9. Home Poll, File No. 119/46, (Poll) (i) National Archives of India. Cited in A.C. Bhuyan&S.P. De (ed), Political History of Assam, 1940-47, Vol.III, (Gauhati, 1980) p. 262.

10. Census of India (Assam), 1951 Vol. XII, Part I(A) p. 337.

11. The Assam Tribune, 4 April, 1950.

12. Ibid, 8 July, 1949.

13. See Economic Survey, Assam, 1972, Department of Economics and Statistics, Government of Assam.

14. One aspect of fight for identity of Assamese has been the restoration of the Assamese Language to its rightful status of being stale language and medium of instruction. The agitation for making Assamese the State language (1960) and the movement for making Assamese the medium of higher

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education (1972) confirmed the existence of this fight in independent India too.

15. It may be noted that the Bengali Muslim has already held the balance of political power in Assam. Their political clout was reflected in the State Legislature. A directive from the centre in 1975 to detect foreigners and deport them was not implemented by the Assam government because the issue provoked to the compact block of 25 Muslim MLAs and they threatened to withdrew their support from the Ministry. Many other Bengali-speaking legislators also joined with them. The emergence of United Minority Front (UMF) in Assam which secured 17 seats in the last election in a House of 126 member is also a significant development in this direction.

16. See, P. Katoky, 'The Assam Movement: Sings and Portents" The Assam Mirror, July, 1980, p.9.

17. See, Myron Weiner, Sons of the Soil, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1978, p.81.

18. Mention may be made that while all-India average per capita income increased at the compound annual rate of 1.1 per cent during the period from 1960-61 to 1982-83, the corresponding figure for Assam was 0.2 per cent. Moreover, the number of job seekers on the live Register more than doubled from 1.89 lakh during 1975 to 4.03 lakh to during 1982, out of 4.03 lakh job seekers in 1982, 1.76 lakh were educated unemployed. (See, Jogram Hatibaruah, "Assam and the Seventh Plan", The Assam Tribune, 24 August, 1985).

19. Reported in The Assam Tribune, 25 October, 1978.

20. Ibid, 17 March, 1979.

21. Several complaints were raised before the Election Commission alleging inclusion of names of foreign nationals in the Electoral Rolls of Mangaldoi Constituency. As a result, all arrangements for holding the election were cancelled. Reportedly, out of the alleged 70,000 names about 15,000 were found to be foreigners.

22. With the initiative of the AASU, the AAGSP was formed on August 27, 1979 to run the movement. Its main constitutents were AASU, PLP, AJD, Asom Sahitya Sabha and Sadau Asom Karmachari Parishad. Although the AASU was one of the constitutent members of the AAGSP it had been maintaining its autonomy and separate identity from the very beginning.

23. See Amalendu Guha, "Little nationalism Turned Chauvinist: Assam's Anti Foreigner upsurge, 1979-80" Economic and Political Weekly, Special Number, 1980, p. 1709.

24. Between 1979-1985 Assam had witnessed a series of communal strife, bandhs and various violent activities. In the communal violence, more than 4,000 people lost their lives, numerous settlements were burnt, nearly 400,000 people were either displaced or rendered homeless. As a result of disruptions, the State Government lost Rs. 45 crores in revenue and suffered

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production losses amounting to Rs. 13,000 crores. Education suffered tremendously and life became insecure because of fighting between supporters and opponents of the movement. See The Sunday, 15-21 December 1985.

25. See, Traloikyanath Goswami, "Anchalik Dal Gathanar Sampakat" (Regarding formation of Regional party) DainikJanambhumi, Jorhat, 26 September, 1983.

26. See, The Telegraph (Calcutta), January 12,1984. Also see, Resolution No. I, adopted in the first national Political convention held at Jorhat on January 10-11, 1984, vide Draft, Constitution placed before the third national political convention, 12-14 October 1985, (Golaghat).

27. See News Star, (Gauhati) 17 January 1984.

28. Ibid

29. The Statesman (Calcutta) February 9, 1984.

30. See, Political, Constitutional and Legal Report, prepared by Jatiya Karmahuchi Pranayan Sala (Manuscript) dt. 12.4.84.

31. Ibid.

32. The Plains Tribal Council (PTCA) The Karbi Anglong People's Conference (KAPC), the AJD and the PLP were the major political parties in Assam, of them the PTCA and KAPC were against losing their independent identities and were prone to shy away from the talk on merger. Another reason for this attitude of the PTCA and KAPC was that they demanded separate states.

33. It may be noted that the main political demands of the AJD were (a) autonomy to states (b) dual citizenship. The PLP, though much in line with the AJD's idea of state autonomy was in favoaur of setting up the inner-line permit system in Assam to check inter-state migration.

34. See, The sentinel, 4 April 1984.

35. ibid.

36. Ibid, 6 April 1984.

37. The Assamm Tribune, 26, November 1984.

38. Ibid.

39. The Sentinel, 27, November 1984.

40. Report of the Preparatory Committee, third National Political Convention, Gelaghat, 12-14, October 1985 (Printed) published by Mr. Bindabon Goswami and Mr. Dineswar Tasha.

41. Ibid.

42. See, The Assam Tribune, 10 January 1985.

43. This was decided in a joint meeting between the PLP and the AJD held on February 21, 1985. (See, News Star, 22 February 1985).

44. Ibid,

45. Under the Accord, these foreign nationals who entered the state between 1 January 1966 and 25 March 1971 would be disenfranchised for ten years and those who came after 25 March, 1971 would be deported.

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46. Reported in the Dainik Janambhumi, 25, September 1985.

47. News Star 8 October, 1985.

48. Ibid, 15 October 1985.

49. Dainik Janambhumi, 3 October 1985.

50. It may be noted that a section of AJD workers walked out from the Convention in protest against the non-fulfilment of their conditions, later or the dissolution of AJD and its merger with the newly formed AGP evoked strong reaction, among the grass-root level workers of the Dal. They alleged that the representatives, who were authorised to merge with the then proposed new political party "on condition", "betrayed" the AJD. (See, The Sentinel, 21, October 1985).

51. But other regional parties, who attended the convention did not become the constituents of the new party due to the reasons already stated. They rather prefered to make an election alliance with the new party.

52. See, Draft Constitution, accepted by the national political convention, Golaghat, 12-14, October 1985 (Printed).

53. Ibid.

54. Ibid.

68 69

JHARKHAND PARTY IN BIHAR

Haridwar Rai and Vijay Kumar

Political parties are product of many complex factors like tradition and history, social and economic structure, religious beliefs, racial composition, national rivalries and others. Socio-economic factors like class structure, ideological elements like liberalism and socialism and technical factors like electoral regime contribute to the nature and survival of political parties which have become essentially the lifeline of modern politics. History of every society is a record of struggle among those whose differences are marked by language, religion, race in a seemingly never ending quarrel for the symbols of esteem and pride, the reality of power and place. Organisations, group and political parties stem from these realities of social conflict. Political parties, whether national or regional in nature, are an important means of articulating and organising different political forces competing for dominance and power. One of the main functions of the regional parties is to regionalise the issues, or, to state differently, to give a more regionalised tone to the national programmes. The regional parties attempt to counterweigh the centralization by making the national legislators feel concerned about the particular problem of their regions. It is in the light of the above that the role of the Jharkhand party, which is a regional party whose support for the most part is confined to the tribal belt of Chotanagpur and Santal Pargauas region, has been analysed in historical perspective.

Village commune had been the traditional socio-economic set-up of the tribals of Chotanagpur and Santal Parganas region of Bihar during the pre-British days. This traditional land system was disrupted by the British without a beneficial substitute to the indigenous people. Consequently, there was a gradual alienation of tribal land by crafty outsiders, money-lenders, shop-keepers, merchants, government and zamindar officials,

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who flocked in for business or duty.1 The exploited Tribals in the beginning shrunk back in their own shell getting isolated from the mainstream of public life. However, when things deteriorated for the worse, these peace loving people fought back with ardour and audacity. The Santal Rebellion of 1855, the Kisan Oraon Rebellion of 1918, the Kol insurrection of 1831 and the Bhumij revolt of 1932 were precisely the violent outbursts of the pent-up fury against the many faceted exploitation of the tribals by the non-tribals and the administrative set up.2

In the early phase of the twentieth century, many organisations and groups sprang up to protect the interests and rights of the illitrate and exploited tribal masses. In 1914 the Chotanagpur Unnati Samaj was formed, in 1930 an exclusive Catholic organisation, the Catholic Sabha came up and in the subsequent year Chotanagpur Kisan Sabha was born. These sectarian tribal organisations did not prove very potent The need for a powerful organisation was realised and, consequently, in 1938 Ignes Back, brought them together under a common platform called the Chot-anagpur Adivasi Mahasabha. The first session of the Sabha was held at Ranchi in 1939 under the leadership of Jaipal singh, the 'Marang Gomke' (Supreme leader) of the tribals. From its very inception its slogan was to carve a separate tribal state out of south Bihar with an autonomous status. Its tribal leaders met and made representation before the Simon Commission and Cripps Mission and demanded the grant of separate Adivasi state out of south Bihar with an autonomous status. Its tribal leaders met and made representation before the Simon Commission and Cripps Mission and demanded the grant of separate Adivasi state, though there was no trace of either caste tension between Adivasis and non-Adivasis. With the formation of the Congress Ministry in Bihar after the 1946 elections based on limited franchise, the tension between tribals and non-tribals began to surface.3

The independence did not mean much to the tribals except for the change of the rulers. For a majority of them it only meant change of hands from the white sahibs to the brown sahibs without realising its true sense. The Adivasi Mahasabha which had taken a pro-British attitude before independence due to the dominance of the educated Christian tribals, came to adopt an increasingly anti-Congress attitude after independence.4 To press forward their demand for a separate Jharkhand State two modes were favoured ly its members. One Section favoured launching of Gandhian type satyagrah and the dominant section favoured a constitutional approach to attain the goal of a separate state. The Mahasabha adopted a constitutional approach to get their demand for a separate

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Jharkhand Province fulfilled. They submitted a memorandum to the excluded and partially excluded areas (other than Assam) subcommittee of the Advisory Committee of the Constitutent Assembly in 1947 to this effect The Mahasabha changed its nomenclature in 1950 to become the Jharkhand party advocating formation of a separate Jharkhand state. In the election of 1952 the Jharkhand party received a spectacular success emerging as the main opposition group in the state assembly.5 Having proved their strength in the general elections of 1952, thirty three members of the local legislature from Chotanagpur and Santal Parganas made a forceful representation before the States Reorganization Commission in April 1954 for the creation of a separate Jharkhand state. However, the representation of Jharkhand party in the state assembly remained unchanged even in the 1957 general elections.

The effectiveness of the 'Sub-nationalistic'6 demands for the creation of a separate Jharkhand province, a separate University, Public Service Commission and a separate budget was, however, lost after the Jharkhand party merged with the Congress in 1963. The merger of the Jharkhand with the Congress party was never complete. The rank and file of the Jharkhand party did not appreciate the merger which was devised by the tribal elites to share the spoils of the ruling class.7 the political scene that emerged close on the heels of the merger was one of chaos and confusion in tribal Bihar. Those leaders who were unhappy over the merger formed many dissident groups, 'all essentially personalistic cliques', and though they went into the election fray in 1967 as independents, they used the name of Jharkhand to catch the tribal votes.8 The fragmentation process in the Jharkhand party was so acute that 'as many as nine groups' sprang up to fill the vacuum created by the merger, and the main body of the Jharkhand split up into four factions in the late 1960s'. A major split in the original Jharkhand party occured when the Santals separated themselves from the Chotanagpur tribals and formed the Bihar Prant Hul Jharkhand party in December 1968. This party too split up into two factions in 1972, one of them calling itself progressive Hul Jharkhand party. Thus in 1972 general elections names such as Hul Jhankanad, Rajya Jharkhand Christrian Adivasi Hul Jharkhand, Progressive Hul Jharkhand, Bihar Prantiya Hul Jharkhand, All India Jharkhand were off heard words.

Thus, one of the factions of the original Jharkhand party was the 'Hul' Jharkhand. The only difference between the old Jharkhand party and our party is that we want to adopt some radical methods to get our demands fulfilled' said the top leaders. The word 'Hul' in adivasi language

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means revolution and is closely associated with the name of Sidho and Kanoo and the santal hul of 1855. Leaders of the Hul Jharkhand party promised the people that they would bring revolution in the area by working for a separate state for the tribals. Rajmahal was considered a Hul Jharkhand pocket. But in almost all the constituencies of Santal parganas, the communists have penetrated and have led mass agitations against the mahajans and big cultivators.11

The Jharkhand party, in whatever apparel, appeals to the primordial sentiments of the tribal masses promising to reform not only the immediate problems of economic and agrarian nature but also promising to fulfil a uptopian dream of 'Kharwarism'12 by establishing a separate state of the tribals. it is this psychological factor - the promise of realising the Utopian tribal state - which keeps the Jharkhand consciousness still alive and significant in the tribal mind, the precipitate effect has been that the tribal political parties are not ready to relinquish the label of Jharkhand. They further try to keep the dream of the Jharkhand state in animate existence by their activities. One more such attempt was made by the All India Jharkhand Party in a memorandum submitted to the President of India on June 30, 1980 demanding the creation of a Jharkhand state comprising the tribal areas of Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. Further memorandums keep reinforcing the demand.

Most of these politcal organisastions are concerned with socio-economic development of the tribal masses apart from their much publicized aim of carving out a Jharkhand state. They hold the outsiders responsible for their social and economic backwardness. The Chotanagpur - Santal parganas region has about half the total area of Bihar and is the richest mineral belt in the country accounting for nearly half the coal deposits. It also has the biggest concentration of public sector heavy industry in the country. Yet the original inhabitants of the region remain the most exploited. They are only meagrely employed in industries. Agriculture has almost stagnated and irrigation has actually declined.13 Hinduism, Christianity, industrialization and education have affected their life patterns. Exploitation and apathy of money-lenders, contractors and government officials have compelled these peace-loving people to take recourse to violence to improve their plight. Growth of Christianity has imbibed in them the spirit of nationalism and made them conscious of self help, self-assertion and self-reliance. Education has developed such qualities that enable them to exist and lead prosperous life in industrial surroundings and also to realise that though they were the original settlers of the country, they have been economically deprived by the alien

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people. Industrilization and urbanization have displaced many tribals from their land without adequate compensation14 giving rise to large scale unemployment on the one hand and on the other have made the tribals eager to seek jobs in factories and coal mines instead of doing agricultural work. Craze for jobs in factories and mines is also an outcome of tribals' search for financial security and parity with the non-tribals. They have a feeling that more non-industrial workers have been living through debt than the industrial workers.15 Though they are not safe from the hands of money-lenders and contractors even there,16 but a general feeling of security is there because of trade union organizations. One such organisation is Bihar Colliery Kamgar Union (B.C.K.U.) whose main support comes from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (J.M.M), an organization that is fighting for justice for the tribals and other oppressed of Bihar.

The gap between the aspirations to have an identity of their own and their experience that they had no such identity has ushered in an era of extremist politics in tribal Bihar, spearheaded by the J.M.M. The tribals 'expect free access to the forest and its produce, transfer of land from the money lenders, establishment of public hospitals in large numbers, rehabilitation of homeless tribals (ejected in the wake of industrialization), construction of metalled roads in interior areas and participation of tribals in every administrative decision'17 The widening chasm between their rising expectations and growing frustrations on such counts have kept alive the demand for the promised land. Further, the grant of statehood to the tribals of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram, active support of the C.P.M. for the autonomy, activities of some extremist leftist workers and of certain anti-national communal organisations are adding fuel to the fire. Consequently, Sachidananda pointed out in 1976 that the 'political situation in tribal Bihar is at present apparently quiet but it may be a lull before the storm'.18

In a situation when the whole country is astir with regional movements and Bihar is witnessing revival of sub-nationalist feelings like the demand for 'Kolhanistan' in the Singhbhum district by the Kolhan Raksha Sangh19 a 'Jharkhand Raj' by the J.M.M. and 'Mithilanchal by Mai-thili speaking people of Mithila, it is worthwhile to look into the objectives, aims, ideologies and philosophies of change of such regional organisations and political parties. In view of the fact that ever since the demand for a separate Jharkhand state was raised, it has thrived and still remains alive instead of getting buried in the social welfare policies of the Government and other special schemes for the upliftment of the tribal

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societies, speaks volumes about their deep-seated distrust of the non-tribals and the failure of the government to implement the upliftment programmes.

The J.M.M. the 'latest and most militant' of all tribal organisations was launched on 4 February 1973 amidst thousands of tribals equipped with their conventional weapons on the beating of war drums. Its very name suggests the restoration of alienated lands to their rightful tribal owners. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha literally means Tribal Land Liberation Movement The non-tribals in Chotanagpur, Santal Parganas and Purnea have fits of nervous breakdown by its very name. J.M.M. is associated with Dhankatia Movement (forcible harvesting of crops), 'land riots' and many cases of violence between the tribals on the one hand and the mahajans, police and non-tribals on the other. At one time many criminal cases were registered against its leader Shibu Soren. During the era of Emergency he carried an award of Rs. 10,000/- on his head.20 The J.M.M. propounding a radical ideology of change has emerged as a major political force in tribal Bihar after the 1980 general elections. It has not only revived once against the autonomy demand but have given the tribals a radical ideology of change. The impact of the naxalite movement and leftist parties is also visible in the agrarian programme put forth by its leaders. Its leaders have talked of land alienation, exploitation and various other grievances against the administration and the outsiders and have incited the tribals to organise themselves to fight the enemies. Under its leadership, the tribals in several areas of tribal region have forcibly harvested the crop on land which they have lost to landlords and money lenders. Sometimes, the land has been forcibly taken back.

The J.M.M. has been able to withstand the disintegration fever from which most regional parties have suffered, because it has been able to respond successfully to the militancy of the tribals. Earlier organizations like the Jharkhand party lost in popularity when they started shedding their militancy. Its popularity in the region can be gauged by the fact that in the 1980 assembly elections it won 13 seats while the splinters of the old Jharkhand contented with one seat only. J.M.M. also won a parliamentary seat from Dumka parliamentary constituency elevating its leader Shibu Soren to the parliament. In the 1980 general elections, J.M.M. had an alliance with the Congress (I) and won most of the seats they contested. But this has given them a pro-establishment image which it wanted to shake off before the 1984 elections. It did not, therefore, enter into an electoral alliance or adjustment of seats with the Congress (I) in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections. In assembly election there was a