A Bhil adivasi boy studied in a government school in Udainagar, a remote village in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh and somehow managed to get selected for studying comuputer science in the leading engineering college in the state. However, he then found himself overwhelmed by his studies because they were in English medium while he could read only Hindi. So he took seven years to complete the four year course and even then passed with only a very low percentage. Consequently he could not get a job. He then decided to become an activist of a movement going on in his home area for the establishment of the rights of his people. The people of this movement chose him to fight the election for the post of zila parishad (district council) member from their area and he won by a landslide margin. As zila parishad member he exposed many scams that were going on and at the same time the people in the movement gained in strength so much that all corruption came to a stop. This was too much for the state to digest and so in 2001 with the dawn of the new millennium (the new millennium actually began in 2001 and not in 2000 as people wrongly believe)it came down hard on the people's movement and not only killed four of its members but also jailed many under the false charge of having waged war against the state and having tried to kill its officers. This not only smashed the people's movement but also weakened the mass base of the zilla parishad member. So he was not re-elected. Thus the dreams of both the people and the adivasi youth who represented them were crushed.
The people fought the false case inflicted on them in the lower court as few cases have been and have recently won it and been able to prove that not only were they not waging a war against the state but also that it was the state that had illegally killed four of their brethren. The state is now going to appeal in the High Court against this victory of the adivasis and so the battle will go on.
The new year that is about to come thus brings with it the heartening prospect that the adivasis even if they are down are not out. The dreams of these adivasis may not be easily fulfilled but they will nevertheless die hard.
2 comments:
Ever since the creation of life two opposing forces have been at war with each other- virtue and vice, right and wrong. These struggles were between the Right and the wrong. Consequently the Right prevailed upon the wrong and it was proved that Right is might.
cheers
it is only a small case of right prevailing and it has involved a lot of hard work. with the state now appealing against this victory in the high court the struggle will go on. the might of the state is such that it invariably manages to snuff out the rights of the oppressed in most cases. might has such preponderance that it is very difficult for right to have its way.
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