IN Karnataka “Forest land cultivators” or “Bagair-Hukum” cultivators is how the government describes the peasants who have been cultivating the forest land for generations. There are more than 16 lakh such cultivators in the state who have applied for getting the rights over their land. The government however, summarily rejected 12 lakh applications and also the future of the rest is hanging in doubt. These cultivators have been termed as “encroachers”, equated with land grabbers and the government has filed an affidavit to that effect in the High Court. The same government however, has a number of high profile land grabbers with strong links with the land mafia in the cabinet deciding on the lives of lakhs of poor people who are dependent on their small landholding for their livelihood. The peasant movement in the state has been forthright in saying that the “Bagair-Hukum” cultivators cannot be equated with the land grabbers and has been seeking that their rights over the land be recognised. Consistent organised struggles have also been launched across the state. The state government however, has gone back on its earlier assurance that such cultivators would not be evicted from their land. It is notable that on many occasions including during the massive mobilisation by the All India Kisan Sabha and All India Agricultural Workers’ Union in October 2014 in Bangalore seeking land rights, the government had assured that the cultivators with up to five acres will not be evicted if the ‘Document of Title’ also known as the Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC) has not recorded an area as forest land or if the forest land has no features of a forest. Throwing these assurances to the wind they are now resorting to the worst form of threat as well as intimidation and seeking to summarily evict them using coercion. “Bagair-Hukum” is a reminder of the despotic rule of the monarchs of yesteryears. Literally meaning without the order of the monarch, the term itself is a manifestation of a despotic rule. The Congress government is living up to a reputation bordering on despotism. The forest department has precipitated matters with tacit blessings of the state government and is claiming overlordship over millions of acres of such land under cultivation on the pretext of it being “forest” land. They have deliberately provoked a confrontation with the poor peasants who are cultivating such land in many places. CONSPIRACY FOR FORCIBLE EVICTION In the latest instance of gross violation of the basic rights of the peasantry in Adavibantenahalli village of Belur taluk of Hassan district, the forest department used force to evict the poor peasants who have been cultivating the land for more than six decades. More than 150 families have been cultivating over 400 acres of land in that village. As opposed to the claims that these lands are under illegal occupation, few of the families have lands vested in them and have also been availing bank loans. Others have applied before the Land Grants Committee more than two decades ago but the government has been sitting over them without any action. They applied again when the state government announced a one-time “Akrama-Sakrama” or “Regularisation of the Unauthorised” Programme. But the government turned a blind-eye to their plight. On February 12, 2015 the authorities forcibly entered the land of the “Bagair-Hukum” cultivators using the most dreaded of Joseph Cyril Bamford’s inventions - the JCB which is the term used colloquially to describe the huge excavators that have followed multinational corporations wherever they went in the Third World for colonising land. Here it was the forest department of a democracy that was putting to use this innovation of his. The excavators were soon doing what they best could- wreak destruction- and destroy they did many coconut palms which were the testimony of the toil of the peasantry. Natural as it was, the peasantry reacted in a united manner with unprecedented courage and resisted the inhuman act. The forest officials had come prepared with police force required to intimidate and possibly scare away the “squatters”. What they failed to recognise was that a people threatened with unjust eviction and the possibility that they would be uprooted from their only source of livelihood, however few they may be, when organised will be a very potent force. On the next day they came with more force and the peasantry resolved that they would not bend before any force and gave a fitting rebuff to the repressive machinery of the forest department and police. Their confidence got a big push with the presence of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (affiliated to All India Kisan Sabha) leadership and activists who reached the disputed area and stood by their side. The forest officials climbed down from their position and assured that they would examine the documents with the cultivators and stall any action till then. The forest officials were enacting a farce. They claim that the disputed region known locally as Seegegudda was marked as “reserved” forest even as the revenue records dispute their claim. The revenue department claims that although the land was demarcated as reserved forest the land was converted to agricultural land and granted to Bagair-Hukum cultivators as there were no features of a forest in this region. Even four decades ago there were no traces of any forest-like features according to the old people of the region. Neither has the forest department made any efforts at afforestation in the region they now so vehemently claim to be forest land. The forest department has woken up too late and suddenly realised that this region is a “reserved” forest over four decades only when the revenue department started granting land rights. The precipitation of a confrontation by the forest department was unwarranted given that the revenue department had jurisdiction and was seized of the matter. The same forest department has a different yardstick for the rich and corporate sections. A private company has been allowed to set up huge wind-mills for electricity generation. The forest department claimed that there was no need for prior notice before evicting the cultivators as the land belonged to the department. However, in Belur taluk, retired IAS Officer I M Vitthala Murthy has occupied nearly 20 acres of forest land and converted it into a coffee plantation. He was issued a 10-day notice before any action was initiated and despite a month of the notice there has been no further action. Brutal police action and imprisonment is reserved for the poor peasantry who earn their livelihood from cultivation of small-holdings, while the rich go scot-free. The government chose to turn a blind-eye to the atrocities and just parroted its much publicised statement that cultivators of up to five acres of land will not be forcibly evicted. It is behaving as though there has been no confrontation or attacks on the genuine poor and marginal cultivators. ARREST OF LEADERS AND THE PEOPLE’S RESPONSE The forest department instead of acting on the basis of the documents furnished by the cultivators complained to the police and the KPRS leaders as well as the cultivators were charged with unlawful assembly (IPC Section 143), rioting and rioting armed with deadly weapons (IPC Sections 147 &148), wrongful restraint (IPC Section 341), intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace (IPC Section 504) and the charge of obstructing “public servants” from performing their duty (IPC Section 353). The leaders of this resistance were soon arrested and jailed on these trumped up charges even as they were holding a meeting in their office to decide the future course of action. HR Naveen Kumar, convenor of the district organising committee of KPRS, MG Prithvi, DYFI district secretary and CITU leader DL Raghavendra were arrested. Cultivators from Adavibantenahalli and advocate Virupaksha were also arrested. They were all arrested on Friday night after 9 pm deliberately as they would have to remain in prison for six days due to Court holidays. As the news of the arrests spread Hassan, Sakleshpur, Mysore and other regions witnessed massive protests. CPI(M) state secretary GV Sriramreddy, KPRS president Maruti Manpade, CITU secretary S Varalakshmi, Hassan district secretary of CPI(M) Dharmesh and others took part in the protests in Hassan and expressed solidarity with the cultivators as well as the arrested leaders. On their release, the leaders were welcomed by a massive gathering and taken in a procession. People remained resolute that they would protect their land with all their strength unmindful of the arrests and police action. The government was forced to make assurances to assuage the people’s anger. The struggle for land rights will go on until victory.