Volume 6, No. 9, September 2005

The land distribution question was once again debated in AP when the Naxalites focused their proposals before the people of AP and the state government. All the bourgeois and the revisionist party’s leadership interpreted the problem and its solution according to their won political outlook.

None could actually deny the same. Almost every bourgeois political party came out with the statement that the distribution of land to the poor is necessary. The government too did not deny it. The YSR government announced a commission to decide upon the wasteland and said it would take up distribution depending on the report of the same. The main opposition party of the state, the TDP came out with a statement that it has already given pattas to the landless. Anyway, later developm-ents made it clear that the government is least bothered about the distribution of land.

The people understood the answer and started taking what they need. A lot of land occupation struggles broke out in many parts of Andhra Pradesh. This is a report from one part of the state.

People played a major role in this situation. They lost their lives. They lost their belongings — houses, animals and many other things. It was a saga of struggle and repression. In one word it was the process of development of the revolution-ary movement in this part of the state for the past twenty-five years. It was part of the on going armed agrarian revolution under the leadership of the Maoist Party.

The readers of the People’s March are aware of the propaganda meetings held during the ‘peace’ process in the state. People of the state took up struggles for their right to land, right to a better life and in a way right to live like a human being as a part of and rehearsal to seize political power through revolution.

What follows is a report of the struggles in the northern part of the state. This area is popularly known as the ‘agency’ area and is led by as the Andhra Orissa Border Special Zone (AOBSZ) of the CPI(Maoist).

The whole area comprises tribes. The people of the Peddamallapuram mandal took up agitation with the demand to form a special adivasi mandal. People of six mandals in Srikakulam and Vijayanagaram districts demanded the category of scheduled Mandals.

Kondareddi, a local tribe demanded recognition as a scheduled tribe. Nearly five thousand people belonging to 60 – 70 villages of Pappu, Kurmanur and Kappathotti panchayats conducted a demonstration in the Chithrakonda town center. Another 1500-2000 people of Kalimela and Malkangiri areas also conducted rallies on the same demand.

Coming to land struggles, it was like the rekindling of the earlier Srikakulam armed struggle in some parts of the district. A part of the district together with a part of the Vijayanagaram district has developed into a division in the AOB zone.

In Mashimi panchayat of Srikakulam district, 350 families of 8 villages came together and occupied 102 acres of land. The local tribe called Savara distributed the land among them. Each family got one to one and a half acres. Importance was given to the totally landless families.

In Ganasari village of Srikakulam district the dalit masses occupied four acres of the landlord’s land for building houses. In fact it was their land. The landlords seized it from them with the aid of the power and authority of the state. Now it was the peasants’ organization under the guidance of the Maoist Party that returned their land.

The masses of Maasaguda village in the plains of Srikakulam district occupied 25 acres of the landlord’s cashew plantation. Eleven persons were arrested and cases foisted on them. But the people were not frightened and continued the struggle. They were sucessful in distributing the plantation to 20 families.

Coming to the East division that comprises Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts of North Andhra, struggles were taken up in the plain areas of Soutidibbala, Dalipadu, and Ullempadu panchayats of Konalova area. The landlords of the Kapu and the Kamma castes occupied these lands of the local people. Now the people obtained them back. The distribution of land is going on.

In Cheedipalem village 115 acres of land was re-occupied from the Reddy landlords. In Mohanapuram 80 acres including 40 acres of cashew plantation was occupied. Sixteen acres was left to the four brothers of the landlord’s family. In Ebulam, Kummariveedhi, Cherapalli 26 acres of land was occupied. In Panasalaloddi village the people occupied 7 acres of the coffee plantation.

One occupation struggle grew to become a serious issue. In Kothabanda the village masses cut 35 acres of teak plantation. Since it was a major plantation, the government took it seriously. It propagated that the tribes are destroyers of the forest and that the Naxalites were provoking the people to do the same. It also ordered for an enquiry and appointed a Special Collector as the commissioner. Around 360 personnel of the forest department came and occupied the timber plantastion. The people of the area opined that though it is necessary to protect the forest, people must be given land when there is no other alternate land.

Eight families occupied and redistributed 25 acres of land in Errabayalu and Sariapelli villages in Pedabayalu area near Paderu, the administrative center of the government in the agency area. In Gurthedu area, 15 acres of land was occupied. The bonded laborers of Darakonda village occupied 40 acres of forest land under the leadership of the peasant organization. Twenty-five acres in Lakkavaram – Pedapadu villages and 50 acres in Koyyuru was occupied.

The land distribution was not that easy. It was preceded by a thorough class analysis. The people of the village were categorized into, poor peasant, landless peasants and middle peasant. Importance was given to totally landless peasants. Leaders and the cadre made a class analysis and prepared reports. Opinions of the leaders of the mass organizations and related persons were taken into account. The selection was carefully done.

It was not a simple land occupation struggle. Andhra Pradesh has witnessed in the past the CPI, the CPI(M) and also Bhoodanam types of land distribution. The Naxalbari struggle attained its glory by virtue of its surpassing the state defined limits of ceiling on surplus land distribution and moving towards attaining political power in the rural areas. The question of land distribution or the struggle for grabbling the zamindars’ and jotedars’ lands was of course there but its orientation was to establish a parallel revolutionary power centre for doing all such tasks. If the land struggle moves within the existing laws of the Indian state it assumes the character of mere economic struggle. Here lies the question of the revolutionary linkage between the struggles for alternative power structures as the primary aim of the struggle for land. And after distribution the land in the hands of the landless and poor will be maintained on the basis of this new revolutionary power in the countryside.

Land is the key factor for any government. The government, which, until then, was talking about ‘democracy,’ threw off its veil all of a sudden when the people started occupying land. It hurried to end the ‘peace’ process. This was what had happened in 1990 too. In 1990, after a brief period of relaxation the government started unleashing repression.

Despite repression, the masses not only got their land back, Committees for Land Struggle were formed in many villages. Most of the land occupied was distributed among the needy. This instilled confidence in the people in their struggles. It instilled confidence in the path of agrarian revolution, in the armed struggle, in the New Democratic Revolution.

These land struggles indicate that power is the basic factor. If the landlords have the power or the support of the power of the government, they unleash it and exploit the masses. If the masses have power, they collectively utilize it for their community living.

It is clear from the recent experience that ruling class parties like the Congress, TDP will talk about land reforms through land distribution but whenever the people take the initiative in their hands for real distribution of land under the leadership of the Maoists or even spontaneously, the state machinery comes down on them with all its brutal force.

Mr. YSR assured the people that he would distribute one lakh acres of land by January 26th itself. A big propaganda was taken by his government with all fanfare. The erstwhile Chief Minister Mr. Naidu and his TDP countered the government’s arguments and the pet plan of YSR. However, the administration declared that they had allotted ‘pattas’ to the landless and were searching to find further surplus and govt. lands, again to distribute. God may bless the YSRs and Naidu but people are moving on their own to occupy the land.

Some liberal bourgeois elements are arguing that the occupied lands were not cultivated due to police excesses. So the land in various parts of the state occupied by the people under the leadership of the Maoists remained as waste lands. It is true that the major portion of the land has been kept idle due to the serious repression of the successive governments. To resist the onslaught of the police, peasants need their own people’s army to protect them and to resist the state. This process has been started and the embryonic form of their RPC (Revolutionary People’s Committees) is taking birth and people’s militia are becoming an active supporting force to defend the peasants.

The Revolutionary People’s Governments being built in the areas of the movement under the leadership of the CPI(Maoist) are the embryonic form of the New People’s Power.

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