Bihar Killings: From Caste War To Class War

A report on the political killings in Bihar, titled `Gunshots and Silence', suggests that the nexus between crime and politics and the unequal distribution of land in the state are at the root of all political killings. The study, backed by several non-government bodies, was undertaken after the recent murders of three Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) activists, including former Jwahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) student leader, Chandrashekhar.

The report, released on Friday, is based on an on-the-spot survey by a team of five activists. It suggests that a state committee consisting of distinguished citizens should be constituted to enquire into the criminal antecedents of candidates contesting Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.

While the committee could identify people with criminal records and help debar them from fighting elections, a simultaneous land distribution programme would obviate caste-class tension in various parts of the state, the report says.

Land is still in the hands of the upper castes and the middle castes, the report says. While only 5.7 per cent of upper castes do not own land, as many as 60.9 per cent of Dalits and tribals are landless. The corresponding figures for the middle castes and the lower castes are 25.9 per cent and 69.5 per cent respectively.

The report delves into the genesis of the current culture of political violence and concludes that the contradictory pulls of the politics of social justice and the state government's open support to the landed peasantry is one of the factors behind the killings.

The scenario that emerges in Bihar is that of the state government providing tactical, if not strategic support to sustain a significant proportion of the traditional rights of the landed gentry and at the same time propagating themselves as the defenders of social justice, it says.

The report further argues that while the aspirations of the dispossessed have risen, the landed groups have become more ruthless.

It is in this sense that the new ruling class finds itself squeezed between the more aggressive and oppressive Bhumihars and Rajput landlords, on one hand, and the social and political assertion by the landless and the marginal farmers of their democratic rights on the other, it says.

About the Siwan killings, the report alleges the involvement of a gang backed by Janata Dal MP Shahabuddin and demands a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry into the incident. Shahabuddin has denied the charge, which the CPI(ML), a number of JNU students and others have levelled.