Par arli liam amen enta tary ry de demo mocr crac acy y in In Indi dia a is mu much ch ha hail iled ed.. In Indi dia a is sa said id to be th the e bi bigg gges estt democracy in the world. This democracy is known to be ‘ for the people, by the people and of the people’. The past more than half a century proved this democracy to be sham. Pe People ople of India and all over the world are vexed vexed with the inee ineective ctiveness ness and misapp mis appro ropri priati ation on of the ‘de ‘demo mocra cratic tic ins instit tituti utions ons’’ lik like e the cou court, rt, pol police ice,, !ai !aill and the administra admin istrative tive machinery. machinery. "sse "ssential ntial services like wat water er and elect electricit ricity y are a point of agitation in many parts of the country almost every day. day. #nd it is inaccessible to the adivasi population who constitute one important section of the population of the country. The presence of the parliamentary democratic institutions and minimum medical services are not seen in most of the adivasi areas of the country. country. It is true that the people in these areas were at a loss, away from the ‘modern’ world. $ut for the past few years, things took a dierent turn in some parts of the adivasi areas. %hile the &orth "astern states and some other areas are 'ghting for the liberation of their nationalities from the domination of the Indian state, the adivasis of the central part of the country and a few other eastern states sought a dierent alternative. They started forming a people’s government of their own. ‘People’ ‘Peop le’s s dem democr ocrac acy’ y’ fou found nd bir birth th in the mos mostt ‘ba ‘backw ckwar ard’, d’, ‘unc ‘uncivi ivili( li(ed’ ed’ ar areas eas of the country. It continued to develop in divergent ways and levels. The achievements of this people’s democracy prove that this is a real kind of democracy, a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people in its actual sense. The main principles of this democracy are collective functioning and democratic centralism, the )aoist principles. The people’s democracy named ‘!anathana sarkar’ *people’s government+ in the andakaranyam -pecial one of the state of /hathisgarh under the leadership of the /ommunist Party of India *)aoist+ is the ‘embryonic stage’ of people’s power to be achieved countrywide in future, as put by the party. The activities in production, cultural, educational and military sectors of the present !anathana sarkars, give an outline of the future socialist state. It also reveals that despite the severe repression campaign of the parl pa rlia iame ment ntar ary y st stat ate, e, th the e !a !ana nath than ana a sa sark rkar ars s ar are e go goin ing g to su succ ccee eed. d. Th The e pa part rty y ha has s succeeded in consolidating the people’s government to a certain stage and is heading towards forming higher levels of the same.
The following information tries to give a glimpse of the !anathana sarkar of one area in the )aad division of the 0 -pecial one. In terms of the parliamentary democratic administration this area falls under antewada district in /hhathisgarh. Revolutionary Cooperative Agriculture The /ooperative sector is discussed a lot not only in the administrative circles but also in the acad academic emic circles. circles. 1cca 1ccasiona sionally lly articles are writ written ten with empirical empirical data about the achievements of the government in the cooperative sector. sector. $ut it is a known fact that the cooperative department of the government is the most corrupt. %hatever the facts and 'gures shown on paper may be, the reality is something else. Perhaps none would dier with this fact. 2ere is an experience of a cooperative sector in production without corruption and in a real collective sense. /ooperative societies are being formed under the !anathana sarkar formed in the adivasi areas of andakaranyam -pecial one under the leadership of the /PI*)aoist+ in the state of /hathisgarh.
# few words about the area of discussion. The area is on the bank of a river. The mode of production is relatively backward. There are rich, middle and poor peasants in the area. Tilling is done with bukkocks and ploughs but all do not have implements. The crops are paddy, dal and a few kinds of millets. In this area *the name of which is not being mentioned due to technical reasons+ the collective work in agricultural production started with tilling collectively with ploughs. 3radually it spread to other works. Initially work teams were established. The work teams prepared plots, lay ponds, did 'sh culture, sowed seeds, tilled land and prepared small wells. The work of these teams appealed to the people and educated the masses and collective work gained momentum. They started establishing wells, ponds. They sold a little crop and a little 'sh after keeping some for themselves. They got good revenue. 1nce the people attained a certain level of consciousness the )aoist party started forming the !anathana sarkars. Thus the collective work became more systematic. Production increased. There was a great change in the mode of production. The collectiveness in agricultural activity created the opportunity to increase the usage of cattle and other agricultural implements. These are some of the data regarding the agricultural and developmental activity in this area. The !anathana sarkar bought 456 cattle and distributed them to the poor peasants. They also distributed 786 9uintals of seeds ranging from paddy, gingelly, dal, mai(e and millets. They built :6 houses and repaired another ;76. %hen the area was aected with famine they distributed ed from the village and the landlords and rich peasants. ?orest land too was sei(ed. =67: acres of this land was distributed to 8@4 families. ;=6 was put in the control of the !anathana sarkar and 57 acres was given to the militia. To go into the details of the breakup of these activities A 1ne of the lower level sarkar in this area sowed 7 kgs of paddy and mai(e. 3ingelly too was sown. Begetables were planted but they were not successful in raising them. The cooperative committee distributed 4 9uintals and 47 kilos of seeds worth =466 rupees in the villages of its concern. They built one new house and repaired the rest. The cooperative activity and the increasing revolutionary consciousness broke certain taboos regarding the participation of women in production. In the old society women were not allowed to do certain things in agricultural work like sowing seeds, going near the paddy crop after the harvest and later to the paddy store. -o the 0ranthikari #divasi )ahila -anghatan *0#)-+ took up the task of breaking these taboos. The organi(ation started with dealing with the women’s problems much earlier to the launching of the collective and cooperative activities and the !anathana sarkars. &ow after the age old superstitions were removed, the women’s organi(ation is mainly taking up the task of mobili(ing women into the activities of the !anathana sarkar. The !anathana sarkar helped the people in one more way. That is regarding the 'xing of rates for the forest produce being sold in the weekly markets. It is also helping the victims of salva !udum and state violence through the revenue and crop raised from the collective activity.
The salva !udum campaign of the /hathisgarh state government brought a lot of changes in the life of the villages. The repression unleashed in the campaign taught a lot in defense for the masses. The militia that was already set up in the villages became more active. )ilitia platoons were formed and most of the youth, both women and men became full time activists in the militia. They have become another big family in the village. Initially the !anathana sarkar looked after them. $ut within no time the militias did not only become self suCcient but began helping the !anathana sarkar too in terms of production of crops and revenue. The militias could gain a revenue of =6,666 rupees out of the gingelly crop. It produced =766 9uintals of paddy. The cooperative activity in the area also developed a team of carpenters this year. This team went around the villages before the onset of the agricultural season and ful'lled the necessities of the agricultural implements of the masses. The !anathana sarkar bought furnaces and the necessary metal for the pur pose. uenced by imperialism, capitalism and feudal values *including hindu fundamentalism+. The changes in ‘people’s democracy’ are in>uenced by )arxismD EeninismD)aoism and the practice of social change in the light of this theory. The
concepts of )E) and the )aoist discipline are interpreted and implemented in the speci'c social context and the problems and contradictions dealt with in a scienti'c manner, thus building a ‘modern’ society in terms of progressive social change. The adivasis had a lot of unscienti'c, blind beliefs regarding production, health and human relations in their social life. Though the basic reason is their lack of scienti'c and articulated knowledge, these customs mainly bene'ted the hierarchies in terms of help in agriculture and gaining money. The hierarchy in this adivasi area was mainly constituted with the village head and the village priest. It was mostly hereditary. These families en!oyed all power over the village. Inter and intra family problems and contradictions were brought to the village head for a solution. %ith the given knowledge about the medicinal herbs and treatment of diseases the village priest was the native doctor and he too had a say in these matters. These heads intervened in matters of marriage, house construction and other such social and essential matters. %hen the village head solved a problem, the concerned families were to give him a hen. %hen the village doctor performed a pu!a as a part of treatment of disease, he too were to be given a hen. uring festivals they were given a large share of the meat distributed among the villagers. In agricultural work, the villagers were expected to work in the 'elds of these two heads without payment. %hen the )aoist party entered the villages and formed mass organi(ations, the authority of these heads came to an end. #s the organi(ations gained strength, they gained command over village matters. The authority was a collective one and no single person en!oyed it. The matters were discussed in a meeting and all the villagers had a say in any matter. # decision was reached with a consensus. $oth the andakaranya #divasi 0isan )a(door -anghatan *#0)-+ and the 0ranthikari #divasi )ahila -anghatan *0#)-+ took up a lot of problems and solved them. This was a part of educating the masses politically and scienti'cally. &othing was possible without education as a campaign. This education was in the form of meetings and the cultural organi(ation of the party, /hethana &atya )anch */&)+ had a main role in it. It prepared many songs, dances and playlets on superstitions and age old evil practices and propagated the unscienti'c nature of the same. This appealed to the people and made them think. &ow after the !anathana sarkars were formed, these matters are being taken up by the cultural committee, education committee and the !udicial committee. The cultural committee looks after the cultural life of the people. The festivals are normally related to agricultural activity. The ‘Bi!!a pandum’ *seed festival+ is performed before sowing seeds. It performs the native dance, ‘dhaka’ occasionally. It conducts marriages and also sees that there is no force and that there is agreement by both the girl and the boy. The cultural committee took up education against the practice of killing persons on the suspicion that they were doing witchery. 1ne normal practice is bigamy. The women’s organi(ation had been 'ghting against this practice. The activists say it has relatively come down. $ut there are still incidents where the wife is left and another wife is brought. "arlier the abandoned wife did not have any say in the property, though she had children. -he had to look after herself or the parental family supported her. &ow the !anathana sarkar is solving it in a dierent manner. In one case where the man brought a second wife, the !udicial committee ordered him to give a share of property to the abandoned wife. It speci'ed the amount of land, the cattle and other such things. ue to the repressive salva !udum campaign, the people are forced to go to a weekly market very distant from where they used to go until then. 0eeping in view the problem of distance the cultural committee arranged small markets near the villages. It discussed and took money from the !anathana sarkar and brought articles from the market and sold them.
%hen they fought back the initial phase of salva !udum the committee, on behalf of the !anathana sarkar conducted a ‘$hoomkal 0harsad’, meaning festival of all. It helped the /&) write songs on salva !udum. In a big move the cultural committee brought a change in the participation of women in festivals and especially hunting. %omen were not allowed to participate in the festivals. The women’s organi(ation broke the tradition to a large extent and now the !anathana sarkar is advancing it to other such issues.
