Jharkhand looks headed for fierce acrimony between tribals and non-tribals over proposed amendments to a hundred-year-old law that restricts sale and purchase of tribal land in order to protect the primitive communities. Political parties are bitterly divided even as protests are spreading across the state.
Simmering discontent and a growing series of demonstrations and processions by both supporters and opponents of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, 1908, for a fortnight has created what political observers describe as a “civil-war situation” in Jharkhand. The district administration in Dhanbad had to impose prohibitory orders last week as supporters and opponents of the proposed amendments confronted each other in this bustling mining town in Jharkhand’s tribal heartland.
Trouble began when the Jharkhand high court, in its order on January 25, scrapped the BJP-led coalition government’s order of December 11, 2010, that had made the permission of the deputy commissioners (DC) of districts unnecessary for transfer of land belonging to ST, SC and Backward Castes communities. This permission had been mandatory since the law was enacted by the British in 1908. The court’s order, seen as a major setback to real estate developers and upcoming industries, came on a PIL by firebrand tribal leader Salkhan Murmu.
Most tribal politicians and activists see the state high court’s order as a landmark victory for Jharkhand’s largely poor tribal communities struggling to retain their hold on their small landholdings. But the non-tribal communities and their political supporters described it as unjust and a possible hindrance to the state’s development.