*Northeast Diary – Dispatch 1 (3/10 to 3/20/08)*

After about 10 days of exploration and travel in Assam, mainly in and around
Guwahati and Gossaigaon, my head swirls with all that I’ve learnt and
observed. First of all I feel compelled to briefly touch upon the numerous,
rather offensive stereotypes that folks from other parts of India have about
this region. Stuff I’ve heard since I was a kid. While they sounded
offensive even before I ever came to the region, now they feel particularly
repulsive. And while hardly deserving attention, they still merit a couple
of minutes of censure. Of the top of my head, some of the garbage I’ve heard
either first-hand or second-hand include: “Do they have schools there?”
“What about roads?” “And eating habits, don’t they eat just about anything?”
“Don’t they all hate other Indians?” “I’ve heard that it’s filled with
jungles” “Literacy and education levels must be so low”

Let me be really brief in retorts to each of the above respectively in the
order that they’re shown…

Yes and very good ones;

Yes, as bad or good as you’d find elsewhere in India;

No, what is eaten is called food;

No, and give me a break, it’s not like folks in other regions are oh so
loving to their fellow-humans…need we be reminded of the violence against
Muslims in 1992 Mumbai and 2002 Gujarat or the savagery towards Dalits and
Tribals in most parts of India;

No, although the countryside is much prettier and greener than what you
would find in most other parts of India;

No, actually literacy levels across most of the region are comparable to
Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which have the highest literacy/education levels in
India. In fact Mizoram is I believe the second most literate state in India
after Kerala. Furthermore the per-capita college-going rate is the highest
or second-highest in all of India

Ok, now that this painful exercise is out of the way, I would like to share
some general observations that I found interesting in the few days that I’ve
been here

*Guwahati bus service *– I know that this would seem quite amazing to
believe, but the Guwahati bus service has been the best I’ve been on so far.
Compared to some of the metros, it’s comparable to Mumbai, marginally better
than Chennai, significantly better than Calcutta, and simply streets ahead
of both Bangalore and Delhi. I have never had to wait more than 5 minutes at
a bus stop thus far, and have almost always found a seat. There are times
when I’ve had to wait nearly an hour in other cities and find my rather
large self standing cramped in the midst of sweat and irritability. The
conductors have also been helpful once I tell them that I’m new to the city
and ensure that I get of at the right stop. The experience has also been far
more tolerable than what one faces in other cities. One doesn’t have to deal
with the annoying tardiness in Bangalore, the occasionally bizarre speeds in
Chennai or the macho molesting madness in Delhi (where one can see, as clear
as day, women being leered at and groped)

*Strong presence of Women* – The last sentence on bus services directly
connects to a particularly heartening sight in Assam, and from what I’ve
heard, all over the Northeast. While economic development levels in the
region (due primarily to resource usurpation by the Indian state) are
comparable to some of the poorer North and Central Indian regions, both
visually and from data corroboration, what is astonishingly different about
the Northeast when compared to North India is the significant public
presence of women, cutting across age, class and community. On every bus
ride that I’ve taken within Guwahati and when I travelled to Gossaigaon,
almost always at least 40-60% of the commuters were women, even at night
times (almost impossible to see in Delhi). It was similar to what I’ve seen
in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. There was also a discipline shown by men
on buses getting up from women’s reserved seating when women came in, again
something missing in some other cities. Even on the streets, one sees many
women, students, workers, vendors, housewives mulling around the crowd and
travelling on public transportation without any hesitancy or fear.

Another noticeable feature, of course due to this large public presence of
women, is the markedly lesser leering and harassment that women face here,
again in comparison to what I’ve seen in Delhi and even Chennai. Now I’ve no
doubt in my mind that cat-calls, groping and harassment of women very much
exist in Assam and the rest of Northeast India, but so far, each and every
woman I’ve spoken to, who has also been to Delhi, said they feel much safer
here than they ever did in Delhi. Even many of the men I spoke to
highlighted the huge amounts of sexual harassment that their female friends
from the region face in Delhi, when studying or working there, facing the
oppressive brunt of it as much because of their gender as their place of
origin. There’s something in this place that a lot of the other cities and
towns in India can learn from.

*Spunk and paan-stained teeth* – A particular incident stands out in my mind
with respect to the public presence of women that again was uplifting to
witness. On a cramped overnight train ride from Gossaigaon back to Guwahati,
the compartment I was precariously standing in was overflowing with large
gunny sacks filled with vegetables. They belonged to a group of about 6
middle-aged women, all with weathered feet, strong arms, red paan-stained
teeth and wearing worn-out, tattered saris. They sat with the poise and
strength of daily struggle. I asked one of them (who looked like the leader
of the group), where they were heading and through a paan-filled gurgle, she
said that they were going to sell vegetables at the weekly Sunday markets in
Kokhrajar town and Guwahati. They bought veggies from across state lines in
West Bengal (where there’s always a surplus and thus much lower prices) and
sold them at the weekly markets for a small profit. Upon reaching the first
station, Kokhrajar, they proceeded to unload these monstrous sacks, all the
while barking at the men in the train to move aside. The word that comes to
mind is spunk.

Of course my heart took a little dive when I saw the local Sub-Inspector of
the Assam Police at the station receive his weekly bribe as they were
unloading the sacks, but even here the women’s chutzpah was evident. She
handed him a twenty-rupee note, and when he asked for more, she completely
brushed him off. I’m not sure what she said, but she seemed to indicate the
exact bodily orifice that he could shove his baton in or something along
those lines. The khaki-clad lout slunk away, muttering something to himself,
probably looking for the next handout. I believe this weekly exercise is
because it’s illegal to transport produce on passenger trains, and that too
across state lines…but then again this is India and indeed, South Asia…the
people always find a way to survive. Three women got off with half the
veggies as the train trundled on, and the same cycle of events repeated
itself when we reached Guwahati in the wee hours of the morning. I don’t
know what it was that lifted my spirits, whether it was their spunk, their
attitude, their powerful forearms that heaved sacks I would find myself
struggling with or their entrepreneurial spirit in the face of obvious
hardship. Maybe it was a bit of each or just the picture of the hardened
working-class woman, tougher than anyone else.

*Adivasis in Lower Assam: Struggle and strife* – While in Gossaigoan I had
the opportunity to interact quite intimately with an Adivasi student
organisation (All Adivasi Students Association of Assam or AASAA) that
campaigned on behalf of the Adivasi community across the state. Here, as in
the rest of India, the term “student organization” is quite a stretch, with
many of the members and leaders married with children. Student organizations
for the most part are political fronts, not especially concerned with
students per say, but more as power-garnering machines before they go on to
contest elections as part of some political party or the other.

I did learn a lot about the Adivasis in Assam though, who mainly came in the
mid-1840s till the 1920s as indentured labour to work for the British in
Assam’s numerous tea gardens. Many continue to work in the gardens till
date, while others left and started cultivating their own land. The
connection of the Adivasis with the tea gardens is very strong, and there is
another organization called the Assam Tea Tribes Students Association
(ATTSA) active specifically with those working in the tea gardens, however I
haven’t able to meet any members or leaders as yet. The Adivasis do face it
from various angles here, whether it’s political disenfranchisement,
socioeconomic hardships or sectarian violence. And even the little franchise
they are able to access through reservation in educational, job-related and
political seats in other parts of India as a result of their Scheduled Tribe
(ST) status is missing in Assam, as it’s the only state in India to deny
them ST status. In fact ST status remains the central (and often only)
campaign demand for all the Adivasi groups in the state.

The situation of the Adivasis in Assam, as well as the sectarianism and
violence existing between them and the other communities like Bodos and
Muslims, is of course an issue that cannot fit into a paragraph in a field
notes dispatch, so it will be written about at length in a later dispatch.

*Strong local knowledge and Sectarianism* – AASAA did request me to work on
a memorandum with regards to their campaign to get ST status, and two things
stood out as I was discussing the same with them.

One was their acute knowledge of local happenings and goings-on, and this is
true with activists in other communities I met as well. They knew almost
every Member of Parliament (MP) and Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA)
from Assam, and particularly about those who directly represented their
district or sub-district. I have no clue as to who my MP or MLA back home in
Bangalore is. And with Karnataka politics going down the present path, I
would be hard-pressed to name the Chief Minister at any point in time.
However they not only knew names, but their political orientation with
respect to the Adivasi cause, honesty-levels, inside secrets and so on,
mainly I guess because their campaign demanded such intimate knowledge. It
was of course in complete disproportion to their knowledge of national or
international affairs, even with respect to their own cause. For instance
they didn’t know that an All-India Federation of ST organisations existed
whom they could potentially ally with.

The second aspect of that discussion that stood out was their intense
sectarianism. They didn’t feel like even traditionally sympathetic movements
such as the Left or Civil Liberties ones could be trusted as allies or
supporters. Partly, I suppose this sectarianism is forced upon, not just
them, but other communities as well, by the divide and conquer tactics of
the Indian state. However another reason I feel it exists is because, the
leaders *within* the communities want to maintain a hold over their personal
sense of power and not have it diluted in any way through coalescing with
other groups. The sectarianism can also be internecine. While I was their
meeting with various people, 3 Bodos were killed in fighting between rival
Bodo militant groups in a clash for power in the Bodoland Territorial
Council.

*Hegemonic presence of the Armed Indian State* – Thus far I have seen
gun-toting Central security forces in every place I have visited or stayed
at. Whether they’re military, paramilitary or state police forces, their
presence is visible and one of absolute power. Even the lowliest police
constable is armed with an Indian-made INSAS Assault Rifle (apparently as
deadly as an AK-47 or M-16) or at the very least a rapid-fire sten gun.
This, when in many other parts of India, cops barely have a baton when
they’re on patrol. One doesn’t normally get the feeling that the Indian
state is a particularly hegemonic one in many parts of India (mainly because
of its bumbling incompetence), but one can really sense its power here.

I’m tempted to draw comparisons with what I saw of the Israeli occupation in
Palestine. It’s a lot more cut-and-dry over there, while over here there are
multiple layers of occupation as well as complexities arising out of
nationalist movements fighting both with the Indian state and sometimes with
each other as well as a shaky engagement with the federalist experiment.
However one commonality is the hegemonic strength of the military in both
operations, and the horrendous atrocities inflicted upon the occupied
peoples in both Palestine and Northeast India.

And one really doesn’t have to dig deep to find evidence of these
atrocities. As in Palestine, nearly everyone has some connection or the
other to the bloody treatment meted out by occupying security forces…a
friend tortured to death, an uncle maimed, a cousin jailed on false charges,
an aunt shot in the legs…and I’ve been here all of 10 days. There are also
those caught between the armed insurgencies and the military, facing the
brunt of both groups, and risking the wrath of one or the other.

*Workers killing workers* – During an Adivasi bandh or shutdown in
Gossaigaon, I had the opportunity to interact with a Central Reserve Police
Force squad who were breaking for their lunch. Usually during bandhs put
forward by any community, the entire town shuts down, but this tea shop was
made to open temporarily to accommodate the CRPF soldiers. Famished after
trekking through nearby villages, I took the opportunity to have my regular
tea and bun meal and proceeded to chat with the soldiers.

Among the ones I spoke with, I found out that one of them was the son of a
Public Works Department labourer in Hyderabad, another belonged to a tribal
community from Central India, while the subedar (sergeant) came from a small
farming family in Rajasthan. All mentioned the bad pay and work conditions,
stating that they had barely enough to make ends meet. Once they found out
that I was examining labour conditions in the region, the chap from
Hyderabad immediately said that a union in the CRPF would be useful but was
not permitted

It is a particularly Machiavellian work of art by the Indian state that puts
the working class in a uniform, arms him with a deadly weapon and makes him
kill and maim other poor working class people. In terms of their material
conditions, these soldiers have more in common with the people they’re
killing than the political fat cats and money bags whose murderous bidding
they follow.

*Cricket on uneven ground* – After meeting the CRPF squad I roamed around
some more and soon spotted a cricket match ensuing on the banks of a stream
on the outskirts of Gossaigaon. The “ground”, if that is what it can be
called, was basically a patch of bumpy grass mounds with scattered rocks and
a few cows grazing on the side. Nevertheless the game was being played with
gusto. Due to the shutdown, all the kids and youth had no school or work to
go to, so it looked like cricket was going to be the day’s entertainment.

What struck me was the fielding skill of the players. On such a horrendous
surface, they were judging irregular bounce and speeds with amazing
alacrity. It further baffles me to think of the rather appalling fielding
standards of the Indian national cricket team. Now the team is probably the
second-best in the world after Australia, but is seriously hampered when it
comes to the fielding department. I wondered how it was that in a country
where the foundation of young cricketers was built on such uneven, rocky
surfaces (even on full fledged cricket fields in the big cities) could there
be such an appalling paucity of high-quality fielders in the national team.

*On a lighter side* – I think I will end this dispatch with a couple of
interesting hoardings and posters I saw. I have always felt that my own
place of origin in India and the entire South Asian region is a land and
people of delicious insanity, and this just further proves my point.

At 3 establishments near the Paltan Bazaar bus stop in Guwahati I saw the
following next to each other:

“Only Lodging”

“Only Fooding”

“Lodging and Fooding available”

At the tea shop in Gossaigaon, I saw this poster advertising for spoken
English classes. I’m reproducing verbatim:

“Good News! Are you week in English? Want to develope your speaking power?
Are you 10+? No Problem! Join SPOKEN ENGLISH. Learn to speak English in the
easiest way and develope your personality. Admission stars from: 25th Jan
2008″

And finally, trust our national icon, Bollywood to come up with a lovely
truism of a caption for one of it’s films starring huge stars like Saif Ali
Khan and Bipasha Basu. The films name is Race:

RACE

Two Brothers…One will Play to Win…One will Play to Defeat

*********************************************************************************************************************************************

*Two Unions for Two Classes of workers:*

*Trade Union struggles at the Guwahati Refinery*

In an era where workers across the world have been facing an unprecedented
assault at the hands of capital, there is some merit in examining the
labourstruggles at the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Refinery in
Guwahati, the
largest city in the state of Assam and the entire Northeastern region of
India.

Assam and indeed the rest of Northeast India, because of numerous movements
with nationalist and sub-nationalist aspirations, continue to have much of
its small town and rural population face the brunt of a heavily armed,
hegemonic Indian state. One cannot travel to a single sub-district or
district without seeing even the lowest ranking police constable carrying a
rather deadly INSAS assault rifle (compared to other parts of India where he
might, with luck, carry a baton to imperiously whack a poor pickpocket’s
rear end). And while workers in an urban centre like Guwahati might face
marginally less violence at the hands of armed security forces, they face
the assault of resource usurpation, low development priorities and the
overall oppressive treatment meted out to the region by the central
Government of India. This obviously results in harsher material conditions
for the working poor, even in the formal, more organised sectors.

IOC is a public sector undertaking meant for refining the oil that’s been
discovered and extracted by other undertakings such as Oil India and ONGC.
Workers here would naturally fall under the highly organised sector. At a
larger level, oil represents one of the key resources that fall under the
afore mentioned issue of resource usurpation that the region faces at the
hands of the Indian state, but this article will focus more on the labour
struggles at the plant-level.

The labour stratification here presents an interesting, albeit hardly
uncommon, picture of workers division. As is the case with the majority of
the plants across India cutting across industrial sectors and public-private
lines, workers are divided into permanent employees and non-permanent
workers, who are further divided into contract workers and daily-wage
labourers. Naturally the demands for each group hardly overlap and might
sometimes even clash. In addition there are social and cultural divisions
that result from the creation of a labour aristocracy side by side with a
working poor, all in one plant. Needless to say that this is hardly fertile
ground for fostering strong workers unity and thereby launching union
struggles that can successfully press for rights and demands.

Furthermore in the IOC Refinery (again as is the case in most other
industries) there are two unions for the two classes of workers. It is
important, from the standpoint of understanding labour rights, to examine
how trade unions handle such complex and difficult situations thrust upon
them by capital…whether with ingenuity and honesty, or just mere
capitulation to management and the forces of capital. The IOC Refinery
unions offer one such case in point

At the refinery, there is the Refinery Workers Union (RWU), for permanent
workers, who for the most part consist of English-educated IOC staff members
below the rank of officers or managers. They seem to be very much part of
India’s growing and increasingly prosperous middle class, conceivably with
generational aspirations to move up the socioeconomic ladder, and quite
possibly possessing every opportunity to do so. Indeed, one of the union
members I spoke with, upon knowing that I was from Bangalore, proceeded to
ask me numerous questions about South India, as he and his family were
planning an extended holiday touring the region. The conversation covered
hotels, beaches and tourist hotspots, hardly things that India’s labouring
masses get a chance to even dream about. The union office itself is an
impressive two-floor building, with a drama hall, couple of offices,
kitchen, a children’s park outside, some sports facilities, and a guest room
where they were kind enough to allow me to spend a couple of nights in.

Barely hundred metres away is the dusty, one-room office of the United
Workmen’s Union (UWU), which is the union for all contract workers and
daily-wage labourers. Affiliated to the leftist All India Central Council of
Trade Unions (AICCTU), its membership includes workers who can barely make
ends meet, if at all, on paltry wages with insecure work in often hazardous
conditions. The union has seen multiple struggles on numerous issues
including fighting for higher wages, timely payment, compensation for
victims of injury or death, better health benefits and numerous others. For
entertainment, there is a single carom board usually played on a by-turn
basis by large numbers of members, who crowd around it in the evenings after
work.

Thus the socioeconomic differences between the two classes of workers, and
indeed the infrastructure levels of the two unions are stark and plainly
visible. However an interesting feature is the manner in which the unions
themselves have dealt with the situation of workers division.

Talking to members and leaders alike from both unions, there was the common
feeling that unity among the two unions and mutual support for each others
struggles was important. Instances were even mentioned of one union joining
in the struggles of the other, despite not having any vested demands. Strong
communication links also seemed to be maintained between the two. One of the
crucial reasons for this mutual support seems to be the fact that there is
an overlap of leadership, and even the constitutions of both don’t bar
cross-membership. While the UWU for the contract/daily-wage workers is
affiliated to the AICCTU, the RWU has AICCTU leaders in central roles,
despite not officially affiliating. In speaking with both unions, one heard
fairly honest and forthright descriptions of successes and, more
importantly, failures. It would seem obvious that unions representing
workers from the same plant should naturally support each other, but this is
often hardly the case, with multiple plant-level unions fighting with each
other to gain the support of the workers, thereby severely reducing the
militancy of the working class movement. In addition, there are many sectors
and plants where unions for contract and daily-wage workers barely even
exist. Significant examples of this can be found in the numerous automobile
industry plants in Gurgaon (Haryana), where for the most part only permanent
workers have any form of representation or space for collective bargaining,
while the contract and daily-wage workers are left to languish without any
real association.

Biren Kalita and Janik Barman, both AICCTU leaders and central guiding
forces of the two unions at the IOC Refinery spoke candidly about the
existing contradictions among the workforce and the unions representing
them. Barman said that the main focus was directed more towards the rights
and demands of the contract and daily-wage workers as their situation was
far more precarious and their needs greater, but still required some time
also to be directed towards the permanent workers union as there was the
need to build workers solidarity and two-way support. He further mentioned
that not enough had been done by them with respect to daily-wage workers in
the UWU and women workers in both unions, specifying that patriarchy in the
membership of both unions was a huge hindrance in this.

Keshav Goswami, Secretary of the UWU, spoke at length about past struggles
to bring contract and daily-wage workers onto a unified platform. He
mentioned that in previous years there were as many as nine different unions
for all the contract and daily-wage workers, with the AICCTU-affiliate being
the biggest. This caused serious dilution in negotiations and overall
collective bargaining measures with management. After much perseverance,
three to four of the more progressive unions formed a collective platform
which soon resulted in all the workers coming under it, followed by a
democratic process to decide the federation that the workers wished to
affiliate with. Goswami also mentioned the mutual support among the two
unions, and spoke about future plans in the struggle for workers rights
including, canteen facilities, Provident Fund for contract/daily-wage
workers, skill development and better infrastructure for the union. He
mentioned the need to promote women’s leadership as well as conduct
workshops on workers rights and contract labour law.

While overall, the mutual support between the two unions is heartening to
see, and certainly a creative way to thwart capital’s attempt at workers
division, there are many visible problems as well. For instance, much of
this unity seems to be maintained by the common AICCTU leadership,
progressive leftist leaders like Kalita and Barman, and it remains to be
seen how it will continue should it pass on to future hands through
elections or any fissure in either of the unions.

Another extremely bad indicator seems to be the abominable lack of women in
leadership positions. While research was being done for this write-up, one
didn’t come across a single female leader, office-bearer, committee-member
or even just a member in either union that I could speak to. Women seem to
form around 20-25% of the contract/daily-wage workers (depending on the
season), and I was told that there were some women members in the UWU
committee, but I didn’t see any in all the visits I made to the office. The
RWU has a women’s organisation that primarily comprises of the wives of
permanent staff members, and one does see them occasionally in the RWU
office. However this seems to be primarily a socio-cultural group and not a
political one with a clear goal of combating patriarchy within the unions.
The expressed need to combat patriarchy by some of the leaders does not seem
to have percolated down to the membership based on conversations with
members and workers.

Furthermore, one could notice that the progressive thinking imaginably
coming from a leftist federation like the AICCTU, had not had as much of a
political effect on the members as I’m sure the AICCTU themselves would like
to see happen. Most of the members I spoke with were avowed supporters of
the Asom Gana Parishad, a party which is hardly a bastion for progressive
thinking. Some were also quite open in their dislike for Bangladeshi Muslims
and Biharis whom they felt were taking over Assam through their continued
migration, mostly as poor labourers, into the state.

No doubt combating patriarchy, politicisation of the membership and
maintaining unity are problems that numerous unions across India face. And
while some of these problems might not be as directly connected to the
day-to-day travails of traditional unionism that focuses on acquiring higher
wages, better benefits, safer work environments, and good health care, they
still merit serious examination as they point directly to the manner in
which unions can play a significant role in positive societal (and
political) change. However, one does get the feeling that the overall
direction that the IOC Refinery unions in Guwahati are heading in is
positive and, hopefully, slowly inching towards building a genuinely
progressive workers movement.

Please find below my second dispatch from Northeast India. I have only
written about two issues that stood out in my mine. Below that is an article
on Adivasi Struggles in Assam. Both pieces should take about 10 minutes each
to read. If you would like the word documents, do email me and I can send
them to you.

Also in case you get a chance, do check out the link below. The first
article I sent out on 22/3/08 regarding Union Struggles at the Guwahati
Refinery has been published in a slightly revised manner by India Together.
Please do peruse through the journal as it’s a fine publication to read
development articles on numerous issues of a progressive nature in India.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/mar/eco-iocunions.htm

Finally, based on the suggestions of quite a few friends, I’ve started a
small blog (shown below). This would probably be a little more interesting
as I hope to add pictures to the posts. It’s just a personal, rather badly
maintained, space that I’m sharing with friends. Do check it out, and if you
would like to contribute anything, that would be great.

Much peace and regards,

Sriram

–
Sriram Ananthanarayanan

http://northeastindiadiary.blogspot.com/

***Humanity is all***

*Northeast India Diary 2 (23/3/08 – 3/4/08)*

**

*Jhum and the markets of Tuenzang in Nagaland:*  I’m going to continue to
write a little bit about hardened working class women and so it would be a
travesty to not mention the hard labour of women in Nagaland.

I had the opportunity to join a couple of friends on a project they were
conducting on Art and Conflict, which gave me the chance to learn a little
more about work and livelihood in Nagaland. Driving along the undulating
hill roads of the region, my eyes were greeted with what can only be
described as a riot of green starting with the tea gardens in Upper Assam
that border Nagaland to a verdant explosion once we entered the tribal
state. Now, my roots are in Kerala, which I chauvinistically believed to be
the greenest region on the planet but I’m now forced to beat a timid retreat
from that position, particularly as I was told that it was one of the driest
times of the year! However the lush and dense foliage covering the steep
hills pose a particular problem with respect to cultivation for the local
population…a problem overcome only by dint of hard labour. And that is where
once again, I came to witness the awesome strength of the local population,
particularly women.

The cultivation practised in Nagaland and in many other parts of Northeast
India is called *jhum* and is essentially cultivation along hill slopes.
Anyone who has ever done some real hiking would confirm that trekking up a
steep hill slope, even for fairly fit individuals, is hard work. Now imagine
chopping firewood along a tract of hill-land, clearing that tract through
controlled fires for cultivation, cultivating on the land as per a tight
seasonal schedule, and then carrying large bundles of firewood (uphill) back
to your village in the evening for cooking fire. Add to this, household
chores, preparation of meals in the morning and evening, tending to
livestock as well as rearing children and you’ve pretty much got a vague
picture of the sheer volume of hard labour that rural women here (and all
over the world for that matter) are immersed in. I’m not going to fall for
the liberal middle-class trap of romanticising the idyllic village life
while hardly being able to function without a computer, cell phone and a
grocery store round the corner. What I saw with the women in Nagaland was
hard work, the hardest there is, and it required not just strength of
character but actual physical strength as well (both abominably lacking
among upper-class city folk).

I was also told by locals and friends familiar with the area that *jhum *is
usually a cooperative system of production with a village or many villages
cultivating one tract of land and then sharing the produce at the end of the
harvest. The practice of *jhum* is however sadly affected in certain parts
of the region due to the presence of the Indian army and the resulting
conflict, which causes disruption in the cultivation cycle resulting in
harsh insecurities for people depending on the produce to feed themselves.

Cut to the main market in Tuenzang town, and one can see that out here
almost every element of public commerce has women pretty much running the
show. About 90% of the vendors were women, many clad in jeans and t-shirts,
and wearing makeup. They were selling anything from vegetables and tubers to
snails and frogs. To those of you whose quasi-brahminical sensibilities are
a little pricked, I would like to add that in many European and Asian
countries snails and frogs are delicacies in some high flung restaurants
(they just have some hoity-toity name for it that make it sound all exotic
when some upper-class twit eats them with a small silver fork).

Mothers, daughters, relatives, and friends ran small stands together, many
with babies on their laps. Older children would sometimes take the young
infants on their backs and care for them while the women worked at the
stands. Unloading boxes, setting up the stands, arguing with shoppers on
prices…all women, all the time, at the Tuenzang market.

I hope and pray that the strength and public presence of women in this
region continues to grow and show others how, even poor societies
functioning under tremendous pressures from outside forces can function with
remarkably lesser patriarchy and macho male oppression.

*Anti-immigrant sentiments against those who toil:* Thus far I have been
quite struck by many aspects of the region…it’s raw beauty outside the
cities, extremely hardworking people in the face of numerous obstacles,
strength of women and amazing diversity. However I feel compelled to write a
little bit about some very stark anti-immigrant, xenophobic sentiments
(especially in Assam) that I am continually coming to face to face with,
which is starting to feel a little disturbing in a place I’m fast falling
head over heels in love with.

Right at the beginning of my travels here, on the train to Guwahati from
Bangalore, I chatted with an obviously middle-class woman (we spoke in
English), who was returning to Assam after working for a couple of years in
Bangalore. As the conversation started veering towards the issues that the
people face, she seemed to feel that all the problems were singularly
because of Bangladehsi Muslims, whom she felt were taking over the state
with their continued migration, as well as the Biharis, whom she felt were
corrupting the purity of Assamese culture.

I dismissed it as a one-off incident incident, but again and
again, speaking with workers at the Guwahati Oil Refinery, a very
intelligent, proud Assamese intellectual as well as shop keepers and traders
in Uzaan Bazaar, the anti-immigrant (read anti Bihari and Bangladeshi)
sentiment, at times virulent, hit me hard. Of course none of the people
mentioned had any problems at all with me, being an outsider myself, rather
they were extremely friendly and helpful to my English-speaking Bangalorean
self. My head rang out “CLASS”

Let me elaborate…two extremely brutal incidents (among many) came to my
mind regarding this. One happened very recently, when about 60-70 Bihari
migrant labourers were gunned down. The other occured in 1983, and is now
known and as the infamous Nelli massacre when hundreds of Bangladeshis were
killed in a riot. Now I’m not going to speculate who perpetrated these
crimes, as I’ve been getting different accounts from different people, and I
would rather not cast asperions on particular political groups. But what is
clear is that this is a particularly bloody manifestation of the xenophobic
sentiments in Assam, that I can now only assume to be a fairly mainstream
one.

I earlier mentioned the class factor…because in both incidents, it was
poor, working-class people who were killed. The softest targets. They
weren’t the occupationary forces, they weren’t the armed police state…they
were toiling workers.

An Assamese friend told me that if the Bangladeshis were to leave, then the
entire vegetable supply and a good amount of the grain supply to Guwahati
would come to a halt as they are the ones who cultivate on the
*chars*(little island-like tracts of land along the Brahmputra river).
In all the
building and road construction sites that I have had a chance to speak to
workers, a huge chunk of the contract/daily-wage labourers come from Bihar
often working for private companies based in Guwahati.

These are the vegetables and grains eaten by the very people who feel that
Bangladeshis are taking over the country, the roads and buildings used by
the same people who say that these uncivilised Biharis should be thrown out.

The paradigm, lacking in any rationalism or political sensibilities, is
astonishingly similar to the one in the USA with strong streams
of xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments, particularly against migrant
Mexicans and other Latin Americans who work in all the crappiest jobs for
even crappier wages building the roads, manning the stores, repairing the
cars and pruning the gardens used by well-off white folk.

It is sad that in a region like Assam, which boasts of such a proud and
diverse histroy of peoples struggle, one finds a mainstream sentiment akin
to what is found in an imperialist rogue state.

Of course this sentiment is not even minutely unique to Assam. As recently
as a couple of months back, a few North Indians were attacked by goons of
the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Even a few days back, in my own neck of the
woods, the longstanding conflict between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over
Cauvery Water threatened to flare up again. All over India, there is
xenophobia and often the degeneration of positive identity-based movements
into hatred for the other.

The entire region of Northeast India, which has been facing the brute end of
the armed Indian state, has a host of rather wonderful identity-based
sentiments and movements for preserving rich cultures and histories against
the onslaught of hegemony. It’s sad to see a few of them go down the route
of sectarianism and xenophobia, but one is hopeful that this is not a trend
that will engulf the region.

*
******************************

Please find below my third dispatch and an article below that examining
struggles of tea garden workers in Assam. The first should take about 10
minutes to read and the second around 15.

Much peace and regards,

Sriram

*Dispatch 3 from Northeast India (14/4/08)*

*Identity and hegemony:* Identity, with all of its philosophical and
political complexities, is something that I have come face to face with
numerous times in the short while I’ve been here. Whether it be the
awe-inspiring struggles of oppressed identities in resisting both military
and cultural hegemony or its degeneration into sectarianism and xenophobia,
one is made to constantly think about where one is from, and its historical
placing. Adivasi, Boro, Assamese, Naga, Khasi, Bangladeshi Muslim, Bengali,
Bihari…often all other identities based on class, gender etc get subsumed
under broad-based cultural-nationalist or sub-nationalist ones. In the
Northeast, multiple identity-based struggles, positive or negative, and the
acute nature of these struggles can more often than not be directly seen as
a result of a very heavily armed occupationary presence.

Even sectarian battles, not obviously against the Indian state, have strong
elements of Indian hegemony. In Gossaigaon, I found out that the Indian
government supported, either covertly or openly, both the Bodo Liberation
Tigers and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland at different times,
which not only resulted in internecine battles between the two groups, but
also the massacre of Adivasis and Muslims at different times by both Bodo
groups. A friend who was doing field work in Manipur investigating clashes
between different armed insurgencies such as Kuki and Naga groups found that
the Indian government had funded and supported numerous of these groups at
different times, playing them upon each other so as to dilute any resistance
to the Indian state or even suppress any popular, democratic assertions. She
also added that since the region she was examining bordered Burma, there was
added cooperation between the Burmese and Indian militaries in planning
operations together.

And this takes on other more sinister proportions. Another friend made an
interesting point that while usually soldiers from the Indian heartland in
the North and Central regions are used to suppress identity-based movements
in the Northeast, soldiers from the Northeast are used to suppress the armed
radical-left Naxalite movement in Central India, which has its base among
the tribal communities of that region. Again further proving the designs of
the Indian state that pits poor working class people with similar material
conditions against each other.

*Mongrel South Indian from Bangalore:* I must say that, with all this talk
on identity, I am of course finding previously dormant elements of my own.
Now I have to strenuously say that it has been nothing but pleasant for me.
The moment I say I’m from South India and live in Bangalore, I am greeted
with the utmost affection. Multiple friends have told me about the great
love that folks here in the Northeast have for South India and South
Indians. Thus far, they have been proved absolutely right. Whether it’s
workers, intellectuals, peers, shopkeepers, or bus passengers, I have faced
nothing but wide smiles and friendliness when I tell them about my roots in
Kerala/Tamil Nadu and particularly when I tell them of the city I grew up
in. Bangalore seems to have really built up it’s brand value (for lack of a
better phrase) across the region. Everyone tells me about a sister, cousin,
uncle or grandchild working in Bangalore as a doctor, call-centre employee
or a waiter in one of Bangalore’s umpteen “Chinese” restaurants (come on, we
all know Indian masalas are used there…which only makes the food that much
more enjoyable). South India and South Indians seem to be viewed with a lot
of affection, and I think this has to do also with the large number of
people from the Northeast region who have gone their for work and many who
have ended up settling down there.

One of the most interesting aspects of this treatment I have received is
that, even among those opposing the Indian state, I have not been viewed as
necessarily a denizen of the occupying state. I am not too sure why, because
the upper-caste Hindu community I was born into is right at the top of the
beneficiaries of any expansionist designs or resource-usurpation on the part
of the Indian state. I think partly this might do with viewing the hegemony
here as essentially one emanating out of the power-corridors in Delhi and
thus North India rather than Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore or even Mumbai
and Calcutta. It seems that the cultural character of the hegemony is
obviously viewed as a Hindi one, which almost completely separates it from
any South Indian connection, the numerous regions of which itself would have
strong anti-Hindi streaks.

*Shillong, a cursory look:* Finally managed a very short trip to the
very-famous city of Shillong in Meghalaya state. The trip itself was rather
trying. 12 adults and 2 children were squeezed into a Sumo taxi, which is
pretty much the only way to get to Shillong from Guwahati (the famous Indian
rail-connectivity is missing in most of the Northeast barring Assam). There
was probably a little irritation directed at slightly larger people like
myself, and possibly quite understandably at that. After all we were all
paying the same, yet I was occupying much more space then some of my smaller
co-passengers. Offers to buy tea at the rest stop and small-talk of course
cleared the air (and I always had Bangalore to fall back on as an
ice-breaker!). But the cramped traveling was not the problem, I had traveled
in much more tightly squeezed situations and through  distinctly less
beautiful scenery. The biggest problem was that the trucks along the road
from Guwahati to Shillong and back are among the most polluting,
black-smoke-spewing monstrosities this side of the continent. And we had to
travel with the windows down lest we suffocate from lack of air. Also the
windows had to be down because invariably somebody pukes during the drive
through curving, hill roads (as did indeed happen with one of the tykes in
our taxi). So the lowered windows and polluting trucks essentially resulted
in the entire vehicle being filled with smoke each time we overtook a truck
or one passed us, which happened approximately 50 times. It was 14 coughing
souls who finally emerged out of the vehicle at our final port of call.

Shillong itself is beautiful. On first sight it reminded me of Bangalore
many years back, before the city went mad with capitalism and started adding
200 vehicles a day onto its roads. Old Bangalore on sloping hills that is.
Shillong is also, funnily enough, the first place I’ve gone to where I heard
a lot of Hindi being spoken, probably because of the high influx of
tourists. The leads I had to do a couple of articles on the exploitative
mining industry didn’t pan out, and I had to postpone it to another trip in
May, so I decided to explore the place anyway.

Police Bazaar, which from what I hear is the heart of the city, is like any
other mid-sized or big city commercial centre in India with large
ad-hoardings, restaurants, bars, shops, crowds milling about and of course
the street market. There is also an obviously wannabe-hip culture among the
city’s youth, with many sporting gelled-up hairdos, earrings, and t-shirts
with old heavy metal bands on the front. The love for heavy-metal and
hard-rock music is quite obvious here. Even garages and small shops on the
way to as well as in Shillong had Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and PInk Floyd
emanating from them. The interesting aspect is that for all its commercial
activity, the place pretty much closes down by around 9/9.30pm, which is
when things are just about starting to heat up in places like Mumbai!

It was quite sad that I had to cut my trip short, because Meghalaya itself
has so much to be seen and examined, especially around mining. Uranium
mining by the Public Sector Undertaking UCIL is being planned in the state
on a fairly large scale, part of India’s ambitious nuclear plans, and
supposedly Meghalaya has the largest deposit of uranium in India. The
effects on the local villagers can only be imagined. Limestone and coal are
some other continuing mining initiatives, mostly by private companies
protected by the Indian state as well as some public sector companies. The
state and indeed the entire Northeast is being opened up to capital with
quite a vengeance, and it remains to be seen how resistance is mounted
against it.

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