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The Rediff Special/Sanjay Ghose

What happened that day

We managed to get to the pulse of the local community, and help work on few action programmes together. The most memorable of these has been the stand taken by the community to prevent erosion of the island. More than 30,000 man-days of labour (mostly woman-days, in fact) were contributed, and an experimental stretch of 1.7 km has been protected. There is little guarantee of it surviving even the first flood season, but it has demonstrated how communities can be mobilised to take matters into their own hands.

This has had other implications that we didn't realise. It alienated us from the powerful contractor lobby, which has been skimming the fat off the government forever. They see us as a serious threat. The second group is the ULFA, who see a real threat in the creation of an alternate mass base. They have been able to do little over the last 15 years, except extortion, which funds the revolution out of Bangkok and Geneva.

Meanwhile, the arrival of the Indian army in Majuli on the heels of AVARD starting work, led to tongues wagging on the "intelligence links" that AVARD had with the army.

Three months after they came, two of our women members who witnessed drunk soldiers mercilessly beat up residents of Citadarsuk village, filed the report at the police station. That established the fact that we were on the side of the people, but circumstances were against us -- we were from outside, had an office in "Delhi", could manage well in Hindi and these facts could easily be distorted to give it sinister overtones.

AVARD has been pushing the case of Majuli in various national and international fora. We approached the HRD ministry for processing an application for listing Majuli as an endangered world heritage site; and have had Majuli covered on national television and in the local and national press. This resulted in enhanced awareness about the plight of Majuli, and will ultimately result in resources being set aside for Majuli's protection and development.

Meanwhile, we would keep bumping into ULFA cadres all over the island, since our areas of geographic focus were more or less the same, though for different reasons. Once they caught and interrogated Mallika and Jamini for over three hours. Mallika and Jamini are Mising tribal girls from Majuli, a community under-represented in the ULFA.

Around the first of May, several posters appeared all over the island, accusing us of perpetrating a culture of dependence, being impostors, and destroying the local culture of Assam. From the style we knew that it was the ULFA, but they were not signed, which left room for doubt.

A week after that, they began systematically interrogating people closely associated with us, warning them to stay away.

Their methods were the same -- call people individually, or in groups, to a "safe house", and put them under pressure. Their foremost argument was that we were agents of the Indian State, and had come to spy. Faced with this kind of an intense propaganda offensive, carried out by half-educated, trigger-happy kids, naturally made people scared.

We decided to take the issue to the people. We gave an article to Janmabhoomi, (the largest circulation Assamese newspaper in the state). They carried it, with a front page analytical piece by their correspondent, entitled, "Will the people of Majuli lose this opportunity as well?" Letters to the editor began to come in, and more importantly, people on Majuli felt that they could speak out. The media seemed to be rising to the occasion.

We decided on June 1, the day after the chairperson of the Assamese State Human Rights Commission would be visiting Majuli. Many of our supporters told us that they had been warned off from attending the meeting -- they would come, but not speak.

On May 31 Justice Bhargava visited the island. As he was having lunch in the Circuit House in Garamur, seven trucks and three busloads of women and children, shouting slogans against AVARD arrived. When several journalists present went up to the crowd, they were astonished that nobody seemed to know why they had come. Five people came to present a memorandum to the SDO. They started by talking about the problems of Majuli and then switched to AVARD. Their objections ranged from the Tatas funding AVARD, (objective -- to exploit the resources and people of Majuli), to the dress that AVARD women workers wear.

Although I was present, they refused to listen when I answered. The young lady who actually stated the case against AVARD turned out to be a former ULFA cadre. The trucks band buses were all "requisitioned" by ULFA, and people were herded into vehicles at gunpoint. Ranjit Bonya, from one of the "home stay" extended families of AVARD, also on the protest rally, said that he had been forced.

June 1 dawned cloudy, and the island was lashed by the first torrential downpour of the monsoon. Still, a large crowd of about 300 came, walking and on cycle, to save bus fare. As each one entered the hall, he or she was given a complete report of AVARD's activities in the past year, an income expenditure statement and its history and objectives in Assamese. For the first time people experienced a public organisation opening itself to public scrutiny.

Displaying courage and candour, one speaker after another challenged the detractors of AVARD-NE to reveal any evidence of its wrong-doings and cautioned them not to make use of the gun to muzzle truth. "Public opinions formed at the point of a gun is not public opinion at all," decried an agitated Kishori Mohan Pal, school teacher and journalist.

"These armed men (of militants) were threatening my men and women colleagues with death for helping an organisation which is working for the development of Majuli," said Dilip Phukan from Naya Bazar, who had recently written a daring article in the local press against the environment of terror which was being created by the militants.

The people who had pressed charges in the posters and those who presented the memorandum did not attend the meeting. The five hour mukoli sabha (open meeting) unanimously adopted a resolution supporting the work done by AVARD, and requested it to continue its work.

So is this the end of the story? Unfortunately not. Even today, as I write, people are being threatened and warned off, and it has become difficult for us to work in this atmosphere of tension and fear. Everywhere we go, people are welcoming as before, but seem slightly distant.

They all want development and change, but are scared. Three health workers didn't show up for their training programme, pleading ill-health; our landlord has given us notice ("for personal reasons only, please"), one of our Dweep-Alok editors has resigned, again for "personal reasons".

It seems an uncanny coincidence, coming in the wake of these events.

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Kind courtesy: Voluntary Health Association of India

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Death In A Time Of Freedom

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