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| This web page chronicles the struggle of a tribal community in northern India to obtain and sow land that the government has for decades left idle, and is now seeking to return to the local elite.
Across India, laws originally intended to benefit the landless poor are being perverted by the government in favor of corrupt landlords and businessmen. Vast amounts of land under government title are lying fallow while people starve. |
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These laws were intended to reduce inequities in land ownership, but they have never been properly implemented.
In Maharashtra, a 1961 act placed a 'ceiling' on how much land any one person could possess and manage. Lands in excess of the ceiling fell under state government control. However, the government has since done nothing with fast acreages. Additionally, it is now being re-engineering the law to return the land to the rich.
For years, tribal people in Maharashtra, adivasis, have occupied small areas of this land. Being among the most marginalized peoples in India, the majority of adivasis live as semi-bonded labourers. In the 1980s and 1990s, lawyers and rights groups began representing individual adivasi land claims in the courts, but as the piles of petitions grew they became bogged down, and the petitioners subject to police intimidation.
In 1995, an adivasi community at Puntamba, Ahmednagar District, set up Bhumi Hakka Andolan (Land Rights Movement), and began a campaign for their rights in the Bombay High Court, as well as organizing mass occupation of ceiling lands. Despite constant violence and threats by police, government officials and the hired thugs of local landlords, the campaign has continued to this day.
Latest Updates:
- Bhumi Hukka Andolan Samitee Press Release - 2004-09-01
- The sacrifices by our slain leaders are bearing fruit - 2004-08-05
- A pathetic state - 2004-07-30
- More huts destroyed - 2004-06-09
- Written statement to UN Commission on Human Rights 60th Session - 2004-04-16
- AHRC UP-13-2004: INDIA: Please send a letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra calling for right to land for Adivasi people - 2004-04-09
- Lots of things happening - 2004-02-09
- A Herculean Task - 2003-12-04
- Obstacles in the courts - 2003-11-21
- Background to the struggle - 2003-10-17
1961
Maharashtra Ceiling Lands Act introduced
1972
Amendment to the Act strengthens its provisions,
however land taken by the state government is not used
productively
1982
Adivasis begin cultivating vacant ceiling land
1990
Supreme Court ruling permits encroachers on vacant
government lands to stake claims of ownership
1995
Bhumi Hakka Andolan established to organize claims of
ownership, as state government makes preparations to
return land to landowners
2000
Adivasi claim for ceiling lands lodged in Bombay High
Court
January 2001
Bombay High Court directs local authorities to
examine adivasi claim
2001
Local authorities reject claim on a technicality;
adivasis lodge appeals against the decision
Bill to amend original Act and return land to landlords passed in state parliament
June 2001
Police kill and detain local adivasis protesting
inaction over a rape case
(see UA-22-2001, http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2001/124/ )
2003
2001 Bill amending the original Act passed into law,
effectively reversing the amendment of 1972
July 2003
Police and state government authorities destroy
adivasi huts and crops, although legal action is still
pending
(see UA-35-2003, http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2003/494/)
August 2003
Enquiry begins into June 2001 shooting
(see UP-32-2003, http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2003/552/)
September 2003
Police and local authorities destroy more houses and
lands; adivasis lodge complaints
(see UP-34-2003, http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2003/554/ )
October 2003
State government authorities begin planting parts of
the contested land just to show it is
‘productive’; meanwhile, other areas remain
fallow
Adivasis go on hunger strike to protest government
actions, but are stopped by police
(see UP-40-2003, http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2003/560/ )