8 MANUSHI

Assam -- A New Phase

TILOTTAMA MISRA

Women, who participated in a big way in the AASU-AAGSP led agitation, arerealising that they cannot hope to get justice from any government unless

they wrest it through organised protest...

SINCE 1985, March 21 has beenobserved in Assam as a day of protestagainst atrocities on women. OnMarch 21, 1984, Mukuli Bala Rai, anoctogenarian, met a violent death atthe hands of the police.

At that time, in response to thecall of the All Assam Students’ Union(AASU) and All Assam Gana SangramParishad (AAGSP), people all overAssam were boycotting meetings andfunctions organised by theCongress(I) government which hadcome to power in the state after oneof the most controversial and bloodyelections ever held in India. Theoverwhelming majority of the people

of the Brahmaputra valley hadboycotted the elections and had, inconsequence, faced brutal repression.

The Congress(I) planned to holda meeting in village Khagarpur,Goalpara district, on March 21, 1984.The local people resisted the move.The police began a house to housesearch for AASU activists.

Biraj Rai, a first year student atAbhoyapuri college, was thesecretary of the local AASU unit.While searching for him, the policedragged his 80 year old widowedmother, Mukuli Bala Rai, from herhouse and shot her dead in coldblood. They then forced Biraj’s sister

to sign on a blank sheet of paper, andcarried away Mukuli Bala’s bodywhich was not handed over to herfamily.

As news of this murder spread toother parts of Assam, protest rallieswere held in various places,demanding a high level judicialenquiry. But, though three years havepassed since then, no step has beentaken either to carry out an enquiry orto arrest the guilty policemen.

Hundreds of women died incommunal and state violence duringthe boycott of elections movement in1983, and many others were molestedand tortured in north Kamrup andother parts of Assam during the sixyear movement on the foreigners’issue. Mukuli Bala’s death became asymbol of atrocities committed onwomen by the state machinery.

The fact that the Asom GanaParishad (AGP) government has notyet meted out justice in the case,strengthens the conviction of thewomen that they cannot hope to getjustice from any government unlessthey wrest it through organisedprotest. This is the lesson Assamesewomen have learnt after six years ofparticipation in the mass movementled by AASU and AAGSP.

In earlier years, the protest day,March 21, was more or less a ritual toexpress solidarity with the cause ofthe AASU-AAGSP led movement.This year, it acquired a newsignificance because women’sorganisations realised that atrocitiesDemonstrators setting out - men leading, women following

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Picketers outside Narangi oil pumping station. Guwahati

on women do not cease with a changeof government.

Ever since the excitement of themass movement has come to an endand the euphoria of the Assamaccord and the AGP’s electoral victoryhas subsided, it has become possibleto take stock of women’s role in themovement.

Assamese women have a fairlylong tradition of participating in massmovements. Women took a leadingrole in the Moamaria rebellion in the18th century, which led to theoverthrow of the Ahom monarchy fora short period and plunged Assaminto a prolonged war.

Women were very active in the

struggle for freedom from British rule.Many women were martyred in the1942 Quit India movement. KanaklataBaruah, a teenager from Gohpur, waskilled in police firing on September 20,1942, while trying to hoist the nationalflag on the Gohpur police station. Thesame day, three other women werekilled in police firing at Dhekiajuliwhile trying to hoist the Congressflag. Women took a leading role inorganising meetings to observe“independence day” on January 26,1943.

In the post-independence era,women participated in large numbersin agitations for the establishment ofoil refineries in Assam as well as for

the recognition of Assamese as theofficial language of the state. Asignificant feature of thesemovements is that they were led by anonparty student leadership.

Women, responding to the callof the students, would organise atshort notice, usually in the local namghar or prayer house, an importantAssamese social institution. Theappeal and the response were usuallyemotional—that mothers and sistersmust support sons and brothers intheir war against injustice. Womennever voiced specific women’s issues.After each movement subsided,women quietly retired to their homesand the political arena continued to be

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occupied by men.It was the prolonged nature of the

recent movement that enabled womento acquire a certain degree of politicalmaturity. A characteristic feature of thismovement was the overwhelmingnumber of women amongst thesatyagrahis and the demonstrators.Whether it was to blockade the oilinstallations or to lie down on therailway tracks or to violate prohibitoryorders, the AASU-AAGSP leadershipcould always rely on women to comeforward under any circumstances.

Yet, the leaders never consideredit necessary to give womenproportionate representation in theupper echelons. Not a single womanwas included in the numerousdiscussions between the movementleaders and the representatives of thecentral government. No woman set hersignature to the Assam accord. Therewas no woman in the AAGSP centralexecutive. In the 1986 elections, whichthe AGP won with a massive mandate,only two women were given the AGPticket. They were Rekharani Das Boroand Jyotsna Sonowal. Both won withsweeping majorities.

It was during and after the 1985elections that many Assamese womenbecame aware of the way they hadbeen relegated to the background, oncepolitical power was in sight. Men whohad sacrificed little during the struggleand played opportunist roles were nowvested with power and authority, whilewomen who had made great sacrificesfor the cause were denied any positionin the new government.

However, the energy that was letloose by the movement foundexpression in other, more meaningful,activities. Most of the leaders of theSadau Asom Mahila Samanay Parishadare erstwhile active members of theAAGSP and the AASU. Amongst themare the two women MLAs and theRajya Sabha MP, Bijoya Chakravorty.The president of the Parishad, KuntalaDeka, who was the first womanmagistrate in Assam and is now an

advocate at Guwahati high court, wasalso actively involved in the recentmovement.

Women’s groups have beeninvolved in organising rallies againstatrocities on women. On March 9, theNalbari district Nari Mukti Santhaorganised a demonstration demandingthe closure of the brothels at Darrangaon the Indo-Bhutan border, whichhave, for years, been encouragingtrafficking in women belonging to thepoor communities of the borderdistricts.

Another meeting was organised bythe Jagrata Mahila Parishad atGuwahati on March 6, in which 31women’s organisations participated. Atthis rally, a committee for theprevention of atrocities on women wasformed. The meeting emphasised theneed to pressure authorities to takeprompt action against the perpetratorsof crimes against women.

The Guwahati rally was provokedby the murder of a young girl in thecity on January 30. The girl, SampritiDevi, was nine months’ pregnant, andwas allegedly tortured and burnt todeath in her father-in-law’s house. Theprimary accused, the father-in-law,Rajen Sarma, was released on bail soonafter arrest, and the husband, alsosuspected of active complicity, has notyet been arrested. Women’sorganisations have demanded anenquiry by a higher police official.

Soon after, MuhungminChoudhury, the owner of a school atDibrugarh, died suddenly withoutproper medical attention. Her husband,a former executive engineer, is knownto have been ill treating her for a longtime. The AIR regional news bulletinreported that she had died of cardiacarrest. But, soon afterwards, herrelatives, who belong to the powerfulKhamti royal family of Arunachal

demanded a post mortem which thehusband stubbornly resisted. Whenthe post mortem was finally conducted,he was arrested on the basis of thereport and refused bail. Local women’sorganisations have submittedmemoranda to the district authoritiesand to the chief minister demandingjustice.

On March 9, Karabi Hazarika, ateacher, allegedly committed suicide bysetting herself on fire. The policeregistered a suicide case but Karabi’sparents insist that her death was theresult of continuous ill treatment byher husband, who is an electricalengineer, and in-laws.

During the current session of thestate assembly, the chief whip of theAGP drew the attention of thegovernment to these cases anddemanded stern action against thecriminals. These cases of violence onwomen have shocked the Assamesemiddle class society. They have finallyshattered the myth that women inAssam have a higher status thanwomen in most other parts of thecountry.

It is true that because of Assam’sisolation, certain social evils, like therigidity of the caste system, dowry andfemale infanticide, could not strikedeep roots in Hindu society here.Besides, the overwhelming majority ofpeople in Assam belong to the hillsand plains tribes and were brought intothe Hindu fold comparatively recently.

Tribal customs and practicespersisted in Assamese society, theupper castes having comparativelyless influence on the common people.The semitribal mode of production inthis region until recent times and theabsence of a feudal influence allowedAssamese women to retain animportant position in rural society.

Not only do women play an

It was during and after the 1985 elections that many Assamese womenbecame aware of the way they had been relegated to the background, once

political power was in sight

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important part in agricultural activitiesbut they also command a lot of respectbecause of their skill in weaving andother handicrafts. They enjoyed adegree of freedom and social dignityeven though the society is patriarchal.

In the handful of upper castefamilies, however, things weremarkedly different. Women of theupper castes were debarred fromworking in the fields. They led a

Assam Rifles men watching demonstrators outside D.C.’s court

secluded life and could not participatein folk festivals. Child marriage wascommon amongst these castes untilrecent times, and widow remarriage,which is permissible in other sectionsof Assamese society, is even todaysocially unacceptable. Ill treatment ofand restrictions on widows was acommon feature of upper castesociety. In recent times, a change hastaken place, but ill treatment of women

in the family continues and often goesunreported.

With the gradual urbanisation ofAssamese society in recent years, amarked change is visible in socialrelations. The new rich class in urbanareas has broken off from its pasttraditions and has acquired the socialpractices of its counterparts in otherparts of the country. This class,comprising people from differentcastes and ethnic groups, is becoming“Pan Indian” in its lifestyle. It is notsurprising, therefore, that the statusof women in this class is falling.

At such a crucial moment, thewomen’s organisations of the regionhave an important role to play.

The state wide protest dayobserved by the Sadou Asom MahilaSamanay Parishad on March 21indicates the beginning of a newphase. If women’s groups across thestate can unite despite politicaldifferences, a powerful movementagainst oppression of women can bebuilt up.

Vahini Activists Sentenced To Two Years’ ImprisonmentOver the last decade, landless

labourers in 100 villages of Gaya,Bihar, organised by Chhatra YuvaSangharsh Vahini, have beenstruggling against the illegalpossession of 12,000 acres of landheld by the Mahant of Bodhgaya. Thegovernment was forced by themovement to seize a small part of theland held in violation of land ceilinglaws and to distribute it amongst thelabourers. But the movement had toface severe repression by police, localadministration and hired goons of theMahant. Many of the labourers weredeprived of employment and falsecases filed against them. (SeeManushi No. 14 for a detailed accountof the struggle).

On August 8, 1979, a peaceful

procession of labourers was taken outby the Vahini at Mastipur village,Bodhgaya, to protest the harvestingof crops by the Mahant’s people onthe disputed land. The processionwas fired on by the police and bombswere thrown at it. Two labourers,Ramdeo Manjhi and Panchu Manjhi,were killed and one, Janki Manjhi, wasdisabled. One of the Mahant’s menwas also killed.

Cases were filed against 33 Vahinipersons and 23 of the Mahant’spersons. The case dragged on foryears. On February 27, 1987, thedistrict court, Gaya, gave its finaljudgment. Although the presence ofthe Mahant’s men at the site wasproved, all of them were acquitted andreleased on grounds of doubt.

However, nine of the Vahini men weresentenced to two years’ rigorousimprisonment for “inciting the mob toviolence.” They have been releasedfor a month on a security of Rs 2,000each, to enable them to appeal in thehigh court.

This sentencing of the labourersand acquittal of those backed by therich and powerful Mahant, is typicalof our government’s style offunctioning. The labourers hadstruggled in a nonviolent manner forimplementation of government’s ownstated policy of redistributing excessland amongst the landless. Even toget this promise implemented on asmall scale, in one district, they havehad to face years of persecution. (Seealso page 25)