Draft Joint Statement on the Acquittal of the Convicts of Laxmanpur bathe dalit massacre for endorsement

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Draft Joint Statement on the Acquittal of the Convicts of Laxmanpur bathe dalit massacre for endorsement

 

We the undersigned are extremely  distressed and outraged by the Patna High Court judgement on the 9th of October acquitting the murderers of the infamous and shocking Laxmanpur Bathe Dalit masacre in the Arwal district of Bihar.

 

In the year 1997, Ranveer Sena, a dreaded upper caste feudal private army of mostly Bhumihar and Rajput landlords descended on the dalit tola of Laxmanpur bathe in the broad daylight and masacred 58 dalits, which includes 27 women and 10 children.

 

 The cruelity and bestiality of the upper caste vigitante attack of the Ranajir Sena was such that it didn’t spare even 3 year old children.

 

Atrocities on the dalits, sexual violence and exploitation of dalit women, including genocides and day to day humiliation that the dalits have been goingon since centuries.

 

From the time when this shameful graded inequality, brahmanical social order came into existence, which is India specific caste-feudalism; after the transfer of power by the colonial masters to their desi compradors in India, the ruling classes of India had betrayed its so called social contract with the Indian people which it had promised after taking over the reins of state power from their imperial masters.

 

From the Nehruvian era, Kilvemani, Tsunduru, Permakudi, Khairlanji and Karamachedu to Bathanitola is the bleeding post colonial history of caste violence and genocides on dalits in this country. which aspires to become a superpower, boasts of being the largest democracy, liberal rights discourse, being its legitimising ideology which Indian state has inscribed in its constitution.

 

All those various rights enshrined in the Indian constitution is turned into a sick joke every moment. Indian liberalism is the most despicable fraudulence which the Indian ruling elites have done to their toiling subaltern masses.

 

Throusands of fake encounters, custodial deaths and tortures, genocides and mass gang rapes of oppressed nationalities, minorities, dalits, adivasis, ethnic minorities and other marginal groups of the Indian caste Hindu society. Indian state has made made mockery of the very term of liberalism. The day to day caste violence and acquital of armed, feudal, vigilante private armies clearly proves that Indian state is a upper caste Hindu fascist state. From police to judiciary, Indian state stinks of extreme caste prejudices towards  oppressed nationalities,religeous minorities, dalits, sexual,linguistic, ethnic and other marginal groups.

 

The district and sessions court of Patna in its judgement against Laxmanpurbathe masacre had convicted 26 armed goons of Ranveer Sena. The district sessions court had pronomunecd death sentence for 16 Ranavir sena members and life sentence for 10 other members in 2010.

 

The court had acquited 19 accused for lack of evience.

 

 The then district and sessions judge in Patna in his judgement had remarked about the masacre that ‘the Laxmanpur Bathe Dalit masacre was a stigma on civil society.’ we are horified by the casteist nature of the Indian judiciary which is yet to have a proper representation of dalit judges.  

 

The casteist mindset of the judiciary has been evident right from the transfer of power to the desi elites in 1947.

 

In the infamous Kilvemani massacre judgement in Tamilnadu, the trial judge had noted about the murderer landlord that “the person of his social status will not indulge in such acts”. In the Bhanwri Devi gang-rape judgement in Rajasthan, the judges had noted “how can upper-caste men rape lower caste women”. This clearly indicates the anti dalit, upper caste, brahminical mindset of the Indian judiciary.

 

In the Laxmanpur bathe acquittal judgement, the Patna High Court had noted that ‘we are of the view that the prosecution witnesses are not reliable and so all the convicted persons are entitled for benefit of doubt.’ So all accused were set free. This clearly indicates the insidious casteist nexus of upper caste landlords, police and bureaucracy and judiciary. This same casteist Patna high court last year had acquitted the Ranajir Sena butchers of Bathanitola in which 21 Dalits were killed. Apart from that, the casteist judiciary of Bihar have acquitted the upper caste private armies in Miyapur, narayanpur, Khagdibigha and nagribazar dalit masacres. Successive judgements in cases relating to massacres/killings of dalits/minorities/poorer sections of the people, acquitting the accused and conspirators and at the same time awarding stricter punishments to even unrelated people of dalits/minorities/poorer sections in cases involving powerful is a matter of grave concern.

 

One has to see the cycle of violence and counter violence in Central Bihar, the context of the class struggle which is being raged by the revolutionary peasant resistance movements against the upper caste feudal lords in central bihar. Decadent feudalism in its death bed becomes most obscene and perverse; so it perpetrates the most sadistic and brutal violence and masacres on the toiling  dalit men and women. The post-colonial India has seen more than 100 dalit massacres in Bihar itself. To counter the demand for land and dignity by the underdog who were organised by the communist revolutionaries. The violence that engulfed the flaming fields of central Bihar is the rusult of the sharpening contradictions between the archaic, medieval and extremely exploitative agrarian relations. Which results in carnages and sexual violence on dalit women. The most horrifying examples of these gruesome massacres and medieval barbarism are: Belchi, Pipra, Parasbigha, Tiskhora, Laxmanpur bathe, Bathanitola, Miyanpur, Nagri Bazar, and so on. The list is endless.

 

The above violence must be seen in the context of the struggle of dalits for land, dignity and against sexual violence on dalit women. This is a direct result of the complete failure of Indian state of implement radical land reforms and ensure the dignity of the dalits. The conflict in Laxmanpur bathe was about the dalits’ rightful ownership of the government land, i.e.,  50 bighas of gair mazaura land for which the dalits were entitled and the upper caste landlords wanted to forcibly usurp.

 

The upper caste landlords raised dreaded private armies like Ranveer Sena, lorik sena, bhumi sena, bramarshi sena, sunlight sena, diamond liberation front, savarn liberation front, brhamarshi sena etc. These decadent feudal vigilante armies have masacred more than 1 thousand dalit men, women and children. Thanks to the heroic revoultionary peasant resistance momement central bihar all these private armies were forced to surrender. Therefore, history has proved that only the underdog when it gets organised and hits back can only break its chains. recently there was a gang-rape and murder of a dalit girl student in jind, Haryana where the police in connaivance with the upper caste rapists proved it to be a suicide and the re was no rape. Around a month after that another dalit girl student in sirsa, haryana was gangraped by upper caste lumpen youths, her unconscious body was found in the next morning. the police refused to file the rape FIR under the pressure of the upper caste. we are firmly convinced that the dalits are not going to get any justice from the upper caste hindu indian state apparatus. therefore we appeal to our dalit brothers and sisters to get organised and hit back at the perpetrators.  we appeal to the radical left forces, the radical Ambedkarites, the democratic right movement, and the womens movement to form a principled joint forum against atrocities and masacres on dalits and sexual violence on dalit women.

 

We condemn the blatant anti dalit upper caste brahminical judgement of the Patna High Court. We urge the radicl left forces, the womens’ movement, the dalit movement  and the democratic right movement to join hands to fight a decisive street battle against the decadent feudal upper caste brahminical patriarchal and communal fascist forces in India.

 

Saheli – Delhi

Students for Resistance

Prof. Uma Chakrabarty – Women against State Repression and Sexual Violence (WSS)

Anand Teltumbde – CPDR, Membai

Subhash   gatade     convenor   new socialist initiative

Sharad Gaikward   President  Replubican Panthers   Marashtra

Amidyuti kumar  APDR   KOLKATA

B.Sreenivas rao   president pop   andhra pradesh

prof  Chaman lal ex professor jnu

 Vir bharat talwar professor jnu

Anita bharti dalit feminist activist and editor streekal a dalit feminist journal

Gail omvet   dalit movement theorist and activist

Bharat patankar dalit movement theorist and activist

 katyani   eminent marxist feminist poetess

 Gabriel   Detrich    feminist thinker  and member penura mayi iyakkam an autonomous progressive womens group   madurai

 Maya john   centre for struggling women delhi

Hargopal eminent political theorist hyderabad

prof Manoranjan mohanty   politcal thinker and democratic rights activist delhi

 prof  G.N Saibaba   professor english delhi university

Nivedita Menon   feminist thinker and professor jnu

 Aditya nigam   CSDS DELHI

Pothik Ghosh    radical notes   delhi

Alok     krantikari yuva sanghathan   KYS   delhi

Soma marik      Radical socialist kolkata

Kunal chatopadhyay   Radical socialist kolkata

Amar singh    gen secratary delhi university colleges staff union and president sc welfare association du

VS Roy david  natinal adivasi alliance

Subhrodeep chakraborty film maker delhi 

meera chakraborty   film maker delhi

Shamsul islam      NISHANT NATYA MANCH DELHI

Neelima Sharma   nishant natya manch delhi

Srirupa   REVOLUTIONARY CULTURAL FRONT JNU

Brahmprakash   JANRANG JNU

MARTAND     JAN SANSKRITI MANCH   JNU

Sumati pannkar  VIPLAV SANSKRITIK MANCH  DELHI

 Bharti  VIPLAV   SANSKRITK MANCH DELHI

Ish Narayan Mishra     JANHASTHKSHEP   DELHI

Vira Sathidar – Editor, Virodhi, Maharashtra

Kiran Shaheen – Women for Water Democracy, Delhi

Swati Birla – Sanhati, Mumbai

Anil Chamadia – Journalist, Delhi

Bhasha Singh – Journalist, Delhi

Satyam verma journalist delhi

Nayan Jyoti – Kranti Kari Navjawan Sabha (KNS)

 Piyushraj    AISA JNU

Siddhi    NOWROZ and student jnu

Snehil manohar singh   student jnu

 Ram Puniyani    all india secular forum

Shidharth Mitra     SANHATI

Akbar Choudhury – President, JNU Students Union (JNUSU)

Chinmaya – United Dalit Students Federation (UDSFJNU)

Anand Krishan Raj – The Newmaterialists JNU

Abhay Kumar, Concerned Students JNU

Kavery Rajaraman – Sanhati, Bangalore

Kamayanibali Mahabal – Lawyer Feminist Activist, Mumbai

Vivek Sundara – Human Rights Activist, Mumbai

P.K.Sundaram – Research Scholar, JNU

Asit Das – Contributing Editor, India Resists.com

Anshitan    KNS JNU

Subhasini     KNS DELHI

Meghna Arora   KNS DELHI

Omprasad  research sholar jnu

Badre alam research scholar delhi university

Meena Menon   activist mumbai

Ayushi      student tiss mumbai

Usman – Research Scholar, JNU

Nitin Kumar – Student , Indian Institute of Mass Communications, Delhi

Hadi Sarmadi  - BAHROOP, Progressive Theatre Group, JNU

Ramashankar Yadav Vidrohi – Radical Left Balladeer and Poet, JNU

Mayur Chettia – Research Scholar, JNU

Archana – Research Scholar, JNU

Dinesh Kumar – NSYOF, JNU

Anuradha Pandey – Research Scholar, JNU

Ashish Kumar – Research Scholar, JNU

Imran – Radical Left Activist, Delhi

Vikram – Student, Centre for Russian Studies, JNU

 

 

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