Kranti at Mirzapur .
The village,
Mirzapur is unheard of to most, and will remain so. Nothing particularly
noteworthy had happened in this village in the past. And whatever story I shall
narrate here too shall be forgotten pretty soon. But its nothing short of
remarkable.
This is an entirely
tribal village, with a majority of them being Bhillala Thakur, a sub-tribe of
the Bhil family of tribes. It comes very close to the forests lying on the
Udainagar-Katkut road. These forests
were all owned by the Forests Dept. For several years now, a stretch of land
had been farmed upon by the tribals, and suddenly the Forest Dept. woke up to
this fact, in 2009. They claimed it was forest land. Some villagers claimed it
was their ancestral land, and not owned by the Forest Dept.
The exact truth is
hidden somewhere, all that we know are some of its different hues.
This created quite a
flutter in Mirzapur, and rumblings of a displeasure began.
Some discussions and
queries ensued between the panchayat and the forest officials. However, what
transpired after that is both fuzzy and unknown to me. All we know is that
these talks were never successful. Thus, the people who were going to lose
their lands, and the village in general were unsure of what is going to happen
of this issue. The situation was uncertain, at best. All this of course, was
only until a certain Mr.Bannerjee appeared on the scene.
This man spent weeks
with them, talking to them about their plight, about their rights, and about
the limits of the rights of the state. He gave them several books, that the
kids attending school could read. Once he was sufficiently convinced that they
could take matters into their own hands, when they were sufficiently enthused
by his ideas. This was when he played his trump, and last card… He supplied
them with guns and fled!
Tantio Mamo was what
they called their lands, after their legendary Tantio Baba, a leader of the
Bhil Uprisings of the 19th century against the British. Together with their new
found vigour, and guns… they screamed their battle cry,
"Humrio Hai,
Humrio Hai ...Tantio Mamo Humrio Hai"
14-15 of them laid out plans and started
attacking the forest range offices. The forest dept had to call on the state
police. The village was cordoned off. Massive check posts came up along the
other village roads. In meanwhile, the gun battle intensified. It went on for a
couple of days, apparently. Four villagers and a policeman died in the battle,
before it finally stopped.
The exact status of
the land is still uncertain. The 11 remaining fighters maintained that they
defeated the police.
The village built a
monument, a memorial on their behalf. It is still venerated. It is a stone
structure of their Baba Tantio in the middle, surrounded by the villagers who
died in battle.
No one of course knows whatever happened to Mr.Bannerjee.
Its actually sad that further details couldn't be collected… but what a chilling story indeed !
PS: One should also note how the Bhil Uprisings of the 1860's is a part of their memory, it is embedded in their living heritage. Either that, or it’s a re-invocation, some sort of a political message to re-kindle Bhil identity and solidarity in recent times.
