tribute systems and oral-treaty

alliances epitomized the confederacy, December

disputes over resources usage and raids
on each other’s villages occurred
among all three groups co-inhabiting
the region. There is no evidence of
interference in the internal indigenous
governance before the arrival of the
British in the region.
68. The meidingu or ceremonial
and military head of state of the Meetei
attained his position and retained it by
a combination of inheritance through
paternal and maternal ancestry,
personal ability and consensus from
various other agencies. Some of these
agencies were representatives or chiefs
of the Naga or Kuki-Chin tribes as well
as other Meetei chiefs and authorities
depending on the prevalent alliances
in force.
To be continued
beyond the horizon
Online Partner
THIRD UPR REVIEW OF
INDIA: IMPLICATIONS
FOR MANIPUR
Jiten Yumnam
The adoption session on the
recommendations of the Third Universal
Periodic Review (UPR) of India for
implementation of its international human
rights obligations at the UN Human
visit Rights Council (UNHRC) on 21st
Kangla Online September 2017 at Geneva is yet another
occasion that questioned India’s assertion
at as the largest democratic nation in the
www.kanglaonline.com world. The review is a litmus test if the
Government of India will ever respect the
recommendations of member states of the
2017
UN to uphold intrinsic fundamental
rights and freedom, inherent traits of a
democratic society. As the entire UPR
review process involves incorporating
the voices of human rights organizations,
the review process is a unique occasion
to enhance and indeed prove the
democratic nature of the Indian State by
incorporating civil society views,
concerns and suggestions for a more
democratic society. India opted to prove
otherwise on advancing human rights.
Earlier, India’s human rights record
reviewed on 4 May 2017 at the UNHRC
had Indian Government delegates
receiving 250 recommendations from
UN members states on a range of issues,
including the need for India to ratify the

beyond the horizon Third UPR Review of India... Jiten Yumnam .......................... 1
Economic, Political and Social Views Manipur Can Fight for a Common Cause, AMUCO ................... 6
Kuki Chieftainship in Democratic India, Dr. George T Haokip 8
Imphal Declaration: Eastern Himalayan Peoples’ Convention. 11
Editor ... Attack Against the Rohingyas, NTUI ................................. 14
Dr. Malem Ningthouja Code on Wage Bill, 2017, PUDR ........................................... 17
Condemn the House Arrest of CRPP President... , CRPP ....... 22
Editorial Team Condemn the Decision to Entrust Construction of Railway
Chitaranjan Thoudam, Dr. Malem Ningthouja, Bridges to the Indian Army, CPDR .................................... 23
Somorendro Khangembam and Tiken Laishram Waive all Loans of Peasants and Agricultural Labourers,
AIKMS ............................................................................ 24
Views expressed in the articles are those of authors and not necessarily of A Letter to a Hunted Hero, Navayana .................................... 26
the Editorial Team The Revolutionaries and the Masses of the Philippines,
Published by Nileema Khangembam from Chingmeirong, Maning leikai, near Vodafone
Jose Maria Sison ............................................................ 32
tower, Imphal East, Manipur 795005, and printed by her at Progressive Printers, A-21, On the Situation in Catalonia, Redspark ................................ 38
Jhilmil Industrial Area, G.T. Road, Delhi- 95. E-mail: editorbeyondthehorizon@gmail.com Criticism and Constructive Submission ... by CORE Manipur
beyond the horizon December 2017 (1999)
December Part II ...................................................................
2017 beyond the horizon 42
Rs. 20
 This issue of the journal is dedicated to
Baby Laishram Chanu Lungdaiyol
(Born on 25-July-2017)
D/o Laishram Tiken Khuman &
Binashwori (Bachaspatimayum Ningol Laishram Ongbi)
Khangabok Maisnam Leikai,
Thoubal Distt., Manipur
(Presently at London, United Kingdom)
Convention against Torture and Other 1958 (AFSPA) and to ratify the Rome
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Statute of the International Criminal
Treatment or Punishment (CAT) as well Court and to end all forms of violence
as the International Convention for the against women and discrimination
Protection of All Persons from against minorities and marginalized
Enforced Disappearance, repealing the communities.
Armed Forces Special Powers Act, In the last UPR review of India,
2 beyond the horizon December 2017
countries like Switzerland, the United
States of America and Estonia etc.
raised concerns with the arbitration of
human rights principles in places in
Manipur, especially extra judicial
executions, arbitrary detentions,
torture etc. and the continued lack of
accountability of the armed forces for
the violations in the recent UPR review
of India. Slovakia indeed called for
repeal of the AFSPA, 1958 in the last
UPR in 2012, while Switzerland
recommended for review of the Act for
full compliance with international
human rights standards, which means
all derogation of fundamental human
rights like “Right to Life”, “Right to
Justice Remedy” and also the arbitrary
declaration of “disturbed area” or a
State of Emergency” without informing
the rest of the world need be revoked.
India accepted most of the general
recommendations, a little bit more than
260 recommendations related to
economic, social and cultural rights,
such as right to health, education,
promoting sustainable development
goals, promotion of women’s and child
rights etc. in the Third UPR review, but
most of the recommendations around
ending impunity, access to Justice,
protection of Human Rights defenders
and on indigenous peoples rights
remains unaccepted. India has
consciously chosen to reject the
recommendations around the
continued application of emergency
laws and call to end militarization and
subsequent human rights violations. It
is highly concerning that the
December 2017 beyond the horizon
Government of India refuse to repeal
the AFSPA and to end security forces
violations and impunity despite
recommendations of several member
states of United Nations in the first,
second and third review of India in
2008, 2012 and 2017.
The continued enforcement of
AFSPA, 1958 will mean the unleashing
of more inhumanity, extreme forms of
human rights violations, genocidal
practices and a culture of impunity,
targeting the most marginalized
communities, indigenous peoples and
national minorities. The AFSPA, 1958
has no place in the modern world. The
derogation and denial of “Right to
Life” and “right to justice”, simply
contravenes all provisions of the
International Law.
In Manipur in India’s North East,
the self-determination efforts of
indigenous peoples are responded
militarily with brute forms of extensive
militarization, facilitated by the
enforcement of emergency legislations
like AFSPS. Militarization processes in
Manipur led to wide controversy in
Manipur, especially the direct civilian
casualties. One of the most direct
impacts of militarization is on women
and children. The infamous rape and
murder of Miss Thangjam Manorama
on 11 July 2004 by personnel of the
17th Assam Rifles and the countless
victims of rape and other forms of
sexual harassment is clear testament of
the true nature of the Indian state. There
are countless victims of rapes and
sexual harassment committed by Indian
3
security forces, such as the infamous
incidents of Chanu Rose, Ahanjaobi
etc. and many rape cases goes
unreported due to the fear of
intimidation, social stigma etc. In
Manipur, rape is being used as a
weapon of war and indeed constitutes
a form of genocide against the
indigenous populace of Manipur. The
UN Special Rapporteur on Violence
against Women, Ms. Rashida Manjoo
during her recent visit to Manipur in
April 2013, also urged upon the
Government of India to stop all forms
of State violence against women and
to deliver justice for all violations
recorded.
The failure to deliver justice for
the unaccountable victims of extra
judicial executions by the Indian
armed forces and the Manipur police
remains a serious matter of concern.
The AFSPA, 1958 with its continued
imposition in places like Manipur and
other North East States, represents a
clear a symbol of oppression,
undemocratic nature in Manipur and
wherever it is imposed in other parts
of India. The Act has become an
instrument of genocidal practices.
The failure to implement the
recommendations already accepted by
the Government of India in UPR
reviews is another serious concern.
The Government of India accepted to
end enforced disappearances in India
in the first UPR review in 2008, but
enforced disappearance continues to
be a serious concern in India. The
practice of torture and enforced
4 beyond the horizon
disappearance is another practice that
undermined all democratic practices
and the refusal to accept the
recommendations to end enforced
disappearance is a serious concern. The
recommendation to protect the rights of
women and children is another concern
which India accepts to adopt
appropriate steps, but failing to reverse
the trend of targeting violations. The
failure to accept the recommendations
to protect Human Rights Defenders is
a major concern, as testified by the
increased incarceration and torture of
human rights defenders, killing of
journalist.
The call for protection of
indigenous peoples and other
marginalized communities is another
area which the Government of India has
failed to respond positively and indeed,
indigenous peoples land and territories
are increasingly been subjected to
exploitation and plunder for economic
development and mega development
projects, like mining, oil exploration,
mega dams, infrastructure projects etc.
that threatened their livelihood and
survival. The plans to build the 1500
MW Tipaimukh dam, the 190 MW
Pabram dam and 67 MW Khongnem
Chakha dam over the Barak River will
unleash multiple rights violations on
indigenous peoples. The Ithai Barrage
of 105 MW Loktak Hydroelectric
project and the Mapithel dam has
already caused wide displacement and
affected the livelihood of indigenous
peoples. The Government of India
failed to adhere to the minimum
December 2017
standards of the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007 in
all its effort to drill oil and gas or to
mine minerals from Manipur. The
Government also refused to accede to
the ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous
and Tribal Peoples.
The failure to accede and ratify the
Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court is another concern and
the ratification would definitely
facilitate holding the perpetrators of the
extreme forms of human rights
accountable for the violations, such as
in armed conflict afflicted region like
Manipur.
The three UPR review of India in
the year 2008, 2012 and in 2017 are
continued processes and hence all the
recommendations in the three reviews
should be fully implemented. Accepting
and full implementation of the
recommendations in the UPR review of
India is critical to foster the human
rights of all peoples and to really uphold
democratic practices in India. The
human rights situation in Manipur and
across North East India would continue
to worsen and indeed, several states in
the region continue to impose AFSPA,
1958 even after the recommendations
to repeal the Act for its notoriety and
genocidal practices. The Government
of India should repeal the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act, 1958 and should
end all forms of extra judicial execution
and all forms of genocidal practices by
Indian armed forces under AFSPA,
1958. The Government should ratify the
Rome Statute on establishment of the
December 2017 beyond the horizon
International Criminal Court to enable
the prosecution of those unleashing
genocidal killings and other violations
in Manipur. All appropriate steps to
protect human rights defenders for
exercising their legitimate rights to
freedom of expression need be
initiated. The Government should
promote and protect the rights of
indigenous peoples by ending all
forms of expropriation of their land,
territories and resources and
implement the UN Declaration on the
rights of indigenous peoples, 2007 to
guarantee minimum rights and
protection for indigenous peoples to
survive as peoples with rights and
dignity.
The UPR is another occasion to
advance democracy in India. However,
for reasons best known to itself, the
country has chosen to ignore these
important global processes and the
crucial messages for fostering genuine
democracy and practices. Especially
for a country aspiring to a global leader
with permanent membership in the
United Nations, listening to the
recommendations of both member
states of UN and also from human
rights organizations, would be a
crucial step to exhibit its real
commitments to human rights and
democracy.
Note
This article was published in The Imphal
Free Press, 24 September 2017
5
 MANIPUR CAN FIGHT FOR A COMMON CAUSE
Dear friends,
I, on behalf of the All Manipur
United Club Manipur, would like to
thank The Telangana Praja Front (TPF)
for inviting our organisation to address
at the All India Seminar in Hyderabad
on 11th and 12th November, 2017. It is
indeed disappointing to note that, even
after 20 years of Warangal Declaration
and the three and half years of
Telangana State Formation, the larger
questions of social and economic rights
of the larger bulk of the peasants and
labours had not been resolved.
Any neo-liberal regime that come
to power does nothing other than acting
as the functional instrument of the
system that survives on the basis of
exploitation and oppression of the poor.
The pathetic conditions of inequality
and injustice in Telengana harbour the
ground of democratic movement that
out-rightly challenges class rule and
injustice. I am grateful that this Seminar
brings together on the same platform
opinions and concerns related to the
respective democratic movement that
each of us is associated with. In this
regards, it is an honour for me to throw
some lights on the ‘national’ question
of Manipur.
Let me put in this way. Perhaps,
there is a view widely circulated by
certain left radical forces that identify
India with ‘prison house of nations.’
One may either uphold or reject this
view. However, it remains a fact that
the Government of India had indulged
6 beyond the horizon
name of counter-insurgency. In such a land and natural resources, (c) Right
situation, peoples are being forced to economic equity and social justice,
upon to take onto the street to defend (f) Right to peace, (g) Right to freedom
their democratic rights. of political expression, (h) Right to
in historical injustice to Manipur
This brings me to highlight what resist divide and rule by chauvinist and
through the most treacherous political
our organisation AMUCO stands for. reactions, (i) and Right to resist
plot of forced annexation in 1949. The
Without any reservation I am honoured unregulated inflow of monopoly
historical injustice could have been
to inform you that our organisation traders, labours and powerful settlers
either rectified or the memory of
upholds the Universal Declaration of that are responsible for demographic
injustice would have rendered into
Human Rights 1948, International imbalance and all forms of social
political redundancy had it not been for
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights malaise. We are devoted to social
the continuous miseries inflicted on the
(1966) and International Covenant on campaigns to spread awareness of our
people in the name of ‘national’
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights democratic rights. We mobilise peoples
security and ‘capitalist growth’.
(1966). These are the instruments that to build up a strong and powerful
The miseries of our people have
the Government of India had too united front to defend our democratic
manifold manifestations that may be
acceded to and ratified. Within the rights.
broadly clubbed into political,
framework of these instruments, we To conclude, I am grateful to the
economic, social and cultural. Each of
assert that sovereignty is rested with Telangana Praja Front for this
these can be elaborately explained and
people and that peoples or nations must wonderful seminar. I have come across
discussed separately if time would
enjoy respective right to self- and likely to come across many more
permit. But the point that I would like
determination. We articulate for unity like minded friends in the course of our
to raise is, the miseries became a
of sovereign peoples or nations; that short stay. All of us here have certain
catalytic factor for the continuous
had to be voluntarily forged on the common concern cutting across our
relevance of armed liberation
basis of the evolution of mutually national or territorial barriers. This
movement carried out by the outlawed
favourable conditions of material common concern had to be converted
parties. They uphold the policy of
equity, social justice and progress. We into some kind of practical mechanism
“national democratic revolutionary
reject subjugation and oppression of to help one another. Having said this,
movement” as the precondition of
peoples or nations through brutal I, on behalf of our organisation, express
delivering social and economic
mechanisms of ‘subjugation and solidarity to the genuine struggle of the
progress in Manipur. They keep the
oppression’ by neo-liberal and colonial democratic forces in Telengana. In
national question of Manipur alive. The
forces. future too, we will extend our moral
Government of India remains
Our organisation AMUCO is a and political support to the progressive
unsuccessful in the attempt to wipe
lawful democratic organisation with a individuals and organisations in the
them out with heavy hands of
strong mass base. We resist struggle for democratic rights. We also
militarisation, policing and fifth
suppression of our democratic rights invite you all present here to visit
columnists. The side-effect of the
by the powerful forces of crony Manipur to study our condition, share
military option is reign of terror by the
capitalism. Our democratic rights your experience to our people and also
government, which added to the
include: (a) Right to life and security, learn from our experience.
miseries. The Supreme Court of India
(b) Right to protect indigenous rights,
had recently recognised a pathetic
including collective ownership over AMUCO
trend of serial fake encounters in the
December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 7
 KUKI CHIEFTAINSHIP IN DEMOCRATIC INDIA
Kukis from North East India continue
to practise a traditional chieftainship
system, in sharp contrast to the
democratic systems in the rest of the
country. This has resulted in the
impairment of democracy and
development in Kuki areas. There is a
need to rethink the relationship
between the two systems and their
prospects within the scope of India’s
democracy.
The Kukis live in Manipur,
Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram and
Tripura. The Constitution (Scheduled
Tribes) Order, 1950 categorised them
under the generic nomenclature “Any
Kuki Tribes.” In Manipur they live in
all the five hill districts and in certain
areas in the Imphal Valley. They
constitute the second largest
population in Manipur. In Nagaland,
they are found living in the three
districts, namely, Kohima, Dimapur
and Phek. Some live in Meghalaya. In
Tripura they are known by different
names. In Assam they live in Karbi
Anglong, N C Hills (now Dima
Hasao), Kachar, and other parts.
Generally, Kuki tribes continue to
harbour a certain nostalgia for
inherited traditional governance.
Chieftainship is considered inalienable
for the 22 tribes that constitute the
Kukis. In Mizoram the system was
abolished by the Assam–Lushai
District (Acquisition of Chief’s Rights)
Act, 1954. Tripura had replaced it with
8 beyond the horizon
Dr. George T Haokip
the panchayat system functioning under
the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous
District Council. Chieftainship has been
functioning among the Kukis despite
the introduction of the representative
system. The two systems are considered
to be in opposition to each other. Their
coexistence, however, had an impact on
certain aspects of chieftainship.
The chief is patriarchal and feudal.
He retains absolute authority over
village land and the villagers. The
relationship between him and the
villagers is symmetrical to feudal
relations seen between landlords and
tenants. His words are law. Villagers
could settle in the village so long as they
please the chief. This system is
considered antithetical to the practice
of democracy. In short, villagers have
no freedom. Their fate is decided by the
chief. At the same time chieftainship is
an institution that is considered an
inalienable custom practised by the
Kuki tribes since time immemorial. A
debate, therefore, emerges on whether
to continue with chieftainship. The
debate goes on without any resolution.
Historically, in the context of
Manipur, the post-independence
Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947
was enacted which did not apply in
matters where specific reservations of
powers were made to any authority in
the hill under the provisions of the
Manipur State Hill Peoples
(Administration) Regulation Act, 1947.
December 2017
However, the government was in a
hurry to enact in the same year, the
Manipur State Hill Peoples
(Administration) Regulation Act, 1947
and later the Manipur (Village
Authority in Hill Areas) Act, 1956, the
Manipur Hill Areas (Acquisition of
Chief Rights) Act, 1967, the Manipur
Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act,
1960, the Manipur Land Revenue and
Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1975. The
regulation of these legislative acts are
a direct attempt to end the continuation
of traditional authority within the
democratic system. While a democracy
constraint is one aspect, the
introduction of new administration has
changed not only their traditional
system but also their relationship with
land, forest, and natural resources.
Therefore, there was strong opposition
from the Kukis, particular the chiefs,
which leads to freezing of the
government regulations.
Chieftainship Debate
Despite the attempts by
governments to either wish away
traditional leadership or to actually
attack it through various reform
measures with a view to abolish it, Kuki
chieftainship remained the centre of
authority in Kuki inhabited areas in
India’s North East and in Myanmar. The
post-independence dualism of political
authority still continued without any
major changes in the structure. There
are modern state structures on the one
hand, and indigenous political
institutions on the other. This reality has
December 2017 beyond the horizon
sparked intense and ongoing debate
among policymakers, politicians, and
academicians. The debate focuses on
the relevance, role and place of these
indigenous institutions of governance
in political systems.
Debates on chieftainship in
modernity focus on the role and place
of traditional authority in Indian
democracy. How could the
chieftainship system coexist with
elected local authorities? How is this
relationship mediated so that the two
structures can work in harmony rather
than in competition? These questions
have generated intense debate between
“traditionalists” and “modernists” in
both academic and policy circles. The
gist of this debate revolved around
three positions. One which considers
traditional Kuki chieftainship
institutions as outdated forms of
authority, an affront to democratic rule,
and one that has no valuable role to
play under Indian democracy. Such a
position believes that they should not
be accorded any recognition by the
modern state, and must be abolished.
A pragmatic counter position asserts
that these institutions are still relevant
and legitimate, particularly in rural
areas where the majority of the people
reside. Consequently, they should not
be abolished. The third group believes
in both traditional authority and the
democratic system, and that
chieftainship system should evolve
with democracy to remain relevant.
The reality is that among various Kuki
tribes this indigenous institution exists
9
in juxtaposition with modern state There are constraints of chiefs for meetings and dictate to them. novel approach. We need new research
structures at the local level. chieftainship in the progressive Accordingly, village chiefs tell the to investigate on the dialectic of the two
functioning of representative villagers who to vote for in the system to bring to light the course of
Authorities and Dictating democracy. In the Kuki areas, chiefs election. In both cases, villagers have continuity and discontinuity in
If representative democracy fulfils are autocratic. There is a serious clash to cast their valuable vote to an already tradition, the coexistence of traditional
democracy, chieftainship may be between chieftainship and democracy, selected candidate. The villagers’ and modern elites within the
considered outdated. At times, particularly during elections. The electoral rights are thus abused. overarching democratic structures, the
chieftainship had proven its inability to chiefs assert legitimacy to assert emergence of democratic forces
adjust with democracy. This is authority on the ground of defending Conclusions challenging authoritarianism in any
particularly true in the case of election inviolable Kuki tradition, culture and Most studies have not researched form, and the prospects of reforming
systems when chiefs indulged in identity. He owns land and decides the the dialectics of chieftainship and tradition to retain cultural uniqueness
colluding with vested candidates and fate of villagers. Villagers are subjected representative systems in democratic while promoting representative
forced people to cast votes for them. to him and he enjoys enormous India. Most sociological researches on systems to achieve the goals of
Such authoritarian roles are to be seen psychological sway over his subjects. chieftainship overstress on the cultural democracy.
as constraints to representative systems. Practically, villagers do not enjoy aspect of chieftainship as a social
These can be seen in various ways. democratic rights, particularly the institution. There are abundant works Note\\
First, chiefs play a crucial role in rights to know candidates and to elect on democracy and electoral This article was published in Economic &
the elections for Parliament, state representative on the basis of personal representation. However, the dynamics Political Weekly, Vol. 52, Issue No. 34,
legislatures, and autonomous district choice. of coexistence of Kuki chieftainship 26 Aug, 2017. We reproduce it with
councils (ADC). Second, a chief’s There is coexistence of and electoral representatives will be a the permission of the author.
decision is binding on the villagers over authoritarian chieftainship and
whom he rules. He decides for all whom seemingly democratic representative
to vote for. Anyone who does not system in the Kuki areas. The situation IMPHAL DECLARATION
comply with the order could be expelled is more favourable to the chiefs as they Eastern Himalayan Peoples’ Convention on Protection of
from the village. Under the prevailing can exercise influence to get candidates Indigenous Peoples and Natural Resources
situation, the secret ballot system has to win elections. The collusion between 6th September 2017, Imphal, Manipur
no meaning at all. Third, due to the chiefs and elected representatives,
election model, those who win elections therefore, is natural. The collusive Organised by: Save Sikkim; Action Affirmed that indigenous peoples’
are more inclined towards the chief and force enjoys absolute power over Committee on TEESTA; Borok land, forest, water and natural
they are likely to distance themselves resource mobilisation and policy People’s Human Rights Organisation; resources are sources for our spiritual
from the cause of the powerless. Ipso implementation. A corrupt collusion Karbi Human Rights Watch; North and physical survival and existence as
facto, at the lower level of the ADC, can indulge in violation of democratic East Dialogue Forum; Centre for peoples with dignity and rights.
elected councillors face constraints in rights. They can misappropriate public Research and Advocacy, Manipur; Indigenous peoples of Eastern
functioning without the consent of the funds meant for the development of Khasi Students’ Union; Peoples Right Himalayas have the right to self-
chiefs. The situation raises serious villages. for Subansiri Valley; Manipuri Youth determination and self-determined
questions in regards to policy Chieftainship is not only Front Assam; Youth Forum for rights to develop their own land and
implementation. There appears to be a antagonistic to democracy, but is also Protection of Human Rights; Siang natural resources, which is our future.
sub-governance system that fails to an institution that armed militants can Peoples Forum; Karbi Students’ Express serious concern with the
fulfil democratic aspirations. Many use to serve their interests. In many Association and with other Civil increased ‘development’ onslaught on
wish to reform chieftainship. cases, the local militants invite the Society Organisations. indigenous peoples’ land and resources

10 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 11
in the aggressive pursuance of India’s
Look East or Act East policy towards
fostering trade and connectivity with
South and South East Asian Nations.
Concerned with the increased
targeting of the Rivers in the Eastern
Himalayas for construction of mega
hydel projects and the signing of more
than Two Hundred (200)
Memorandum of Understanding
(MoUs) between the Government with
dam building companies without the
peoples’ free, prior and informed
consent
Express concern with the
proposed mining plan in the region,
especially the exploratory mining and
further plan to commercially mine
Uranium in Meghalaya.
Further concerned with
perpetuation of land grabbing, rights
violations, restrictions on communities
and arbitration of forest and customary
laws.
Further concerned with the
increased oil exploration plan by
Jubilant Energy, Oil India Limited,
Asian Oilfield Service Ltd etc. without
recognizing indigenous peoples’ rights
over their land and resources and not
taking their free, prior and informed
consent, especially in Manipur, Assam
etc. The absence of safeguard
measures to hold these companies
accountable for plunder of resources
and violations is an additional concern.
Express concern that the
pursuance of such unsustainable
development projects, oil exploration,
mega dams, mining etc., will clearly
12 beyond the horizon
undermine and go against the
provisions of Sustainable Development
Goals of UN.
Express concern with the
formulation of policies, such as the
North East Hydrocarbon Vision, 2030,
the Manipur Hydro Power Policy, 2012,
the New Land Use Policy etc., to
intensify oil exploration, mega dams
building and the commercialization of
community land and their resources
through force and coercion by so called
legal sanctions.
Take serious note of the intrusion
and the financing by international
financial institutions, such as the Asian
Development Bank, the World Bank,
Japan International Cooperation
Agency in financing infrastructure
projects that will lead to exploitation
of peoples’ land and resources in the
region.
Express concern with the extensive
militarization of the region and the
continued imposition of the Armed
Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 that
actually facilitate corporate bodies to
expropriate the land and resources in
the region without recognizing
indigenous peoples’ rights.
Express concern with the increased
targeting of human rights defenders in
North East India
Express concern with the
continued refusal of the Government of
India to implement the UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
2007 and other set of international laws
and standards that guarantee human
rights of indigenous peoples.
December 2017
The participants hereby resolved:
To recognize indigenous peoples
self-determined rights over their land
and resources in accordance with the
provisions of the UN Declaration of the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007 and
accordingly all development process
affecting their land and resources fully
respect and accept their self-
determination and right to free, prior
and informed consent.
Resolved to stand against all mega
dams in North East and to urge the
Government of India to revoke all
MoUs and rescind all plans to build
mega dams all over the Rivers of
Eastern Himalayas, such as the 1500
MW Tipaimukh Dam and 190 MW
Pabram Dam over the Barak River, the
2000 MW Lower Subansiri Dam, the
2700 Lower Demwe Hydroelectric
Project, Siang Lower HEP (2700MW),
Siang Upper II (3750 MW), Siang
Upper I (6000 MW), Tawang Stage I,
Stage II and irresponsible planning of
dams on the Kameng.
Decommission failed,
underperformed and unsustainable
mega dams like the Ithai Barrage of 105
MW Loktak Multipurpose
Hydroelectric Project, Khuga dam, the
Dumbur Dam, Ranganadi
Hydroelectric project. Stop the
commissioning plan of Mapithel dam
and release water from Mapithel dam
reservoir.
Rescind all plans of the UCIL to
commercially mine uranium in
Meghalaya including exploratory
mining by AMD and stop all mining
December 2017 beyond the horizon
plans like Chromium and limestone
mining in Manipur, Assam etc. Further
resolve to urge upon the UCIL and
other companies to withdraw from
Meghalaya and North East India.
The Government of India should
stop all oil exploration and drilling
across North East States and to revoke
all contracts and licenses awarded to
oil companies like Jubilant Oil and Gas
Private Limited, the Oil India Limited,
the Asian Oilfields, CANARO etc. for
failing to respect indigenous peoples
rights.
Repeal policies like the North
East Hydrocarbon Vision, 2030, the
Manipur Hydro Power Policy, 2012,
Indian Oilfield Act, 1948 etc. that
facilitate extensive corporation,
privatization and exploitation of
indigenous peoples land, resources
and territories. India’s Act East Policy
should also stop causing harm and
destruction of peoples land and
resources and violation of their human
rights.
Urge the International Financial
Institutions to respect indigenous
peoples’ human rights and also to stop
financing projects whose intention is
to plunder land and resources in the
region.
Reviewing and rescinding
unsustainable and destructive
development projects and policies,
recognizing indigenous peoples’ rights
over their land and ensuring their
rightful involvement in development
decision making processes in the
region would be crucial step to realize
13
sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Stop all forms of militarization of
indigenous peoples land and repeal
emergency legislations like the Armed
Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 that
lead to human rights violations with
impunity while also facilitating the
plunder of indigenous peoples land and
resources by the State and corporations
in North East India. Stop targeting
human rights defenders promoting
defending of land and resources in
Eastern Himalayas.
The Government of India should
fully implement the UN Declaration on
RELIGIOUS MAJORITARIANISM AND COMMERCIAL
Interests drive the attack against the Rohingyas
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his
visit to Myanmar from 5-7 September
2017 assured India’s support to the
government of Myanmar despite the
continuing government and army driven
ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas, the
majority of whom are Muslims. The
Government of India has also labelled
the 40,000 Rohingyas as illegal
immigrants in India calling them a
threat to national security and hence to
be deported through an affidavit before
the Supreme Court and.
The Attack on Rohingyas in
Myanmar
Following weeks of silence on the
issue of ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas
in the State of Rakhine, Myanmar’s
‘democratic rights’ crusader, nobel
14 beyond the horizon
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007
in all development related decision
making processes.
Forge stronger unity among the
indigenous peoples of Eastern
Himalayas and strive collectively to
defend our land and resources from all
corporate expansion, privatization and
exploitation of our land and resources
and undermining of indigenous peoples
rights in the region. The participants
committed to work for empowering
local communities for decision making
to assert their rights over their land and
resources.
peace prize winner and State
Counsellor (de facto Prime Minister)
Aung Sang Suu Kyi in her first national
address on the recent crisis, said there
had been no clashes or clearance
operations in the western coastal state
since 5 September and that that all
refugees would be allowed to return
after a ‘verification process’. More
than 1,000,000 Rohingyas have been
forced to flee and have become
stateless since 2012, their villages have
been razed to the ground by the
Myanmar army, their settlements burnt,
and women raped and denied access
to even humanitarian aid. Nearly all
Rohingyas live in Myanmar’s western
coastal state of Rakhine.
Central to the chauvinistic and
racist persecution of the Rohingyas is
December 2017
the 1982 Citizenship Law, which
effectively denies citizenship to them
by excluding them from the list of
recognised “national races” that would
entitle them to full citizenship. This law
requires every person to provide
“conclusive evidence” that their
ancestors settled in Myanmar (Burma)
before independence in 1948. The
government considers Rohingyas to be
illegal immigrants from Bangladesh
with official government statements
referring to them as “Bengalis”.
The transition from military rule to
parliamentary democracy initiated in
2011, was followed by waves of cold
blooded communal violence in 2012,
forcing the 1.4 million Rohingyas into
camps which they are forbidden to
leave ostensibly so they can be given
protection. Most Rohingyas held
temporary citizenship documents,
commonly known as ‘white cards’.
Following these attacks, in December
2014, the United Nations General
Assembly passed a resolution urging
Myanmar to provide “full citizenship’’
to its Rohingya Muslim minority and
to allow them freedom of movement
within the country and called upon the
Myanmar government to address the
root causes of violence and
discrimination and to promote
peaceful coexistence.
Responding to international
pressure, on 10 February 2015,
Myanmar parliament granted ‘white
card’ holders the right to vote in the
referendum on the country’s
constitution. The President however
December 2017 beyond the horizon
revoked this right the very next day in
response to protests, led by Buddhist
monks, taking away even the temporary
citizenship right of the Rohingyas. The
only serving Rohingya MP in the
bicameral parliament from 2011 to
2016 was first denied candidacy by Suu
Kyi’s National League for Democracy
(NLD) and then barred from contesting
the election by the Election
Commission in 2015, on the ground
that his parents were not citizens of
Myanmar, when NLD won an
overwhelming majority, ending
military rule.
Attack on Natural Resources
Apart from majoritarian politics,
the beneficiaries from the attack on the
Rohingyas are the corporations
exploiting Myanmar’s natural
resources. From the 1990s onwards the
Rohingyas have been displaced as a
result of expropriation of land. The
transition government gave sanctity to
land grabbing by changing land
acquisition laws in 2012 as part of
economic policy aimed at attracting
foreign investment.
With the discovery of massive
natural gas and oil deposits,
concentrated in the Rakhine state, in
2004 both China and India have sought
to enter into drilling and purchase
agreements with Myanmar. Estimates
suggest that natural gas deposits in the
Myanmar maritime zone equal nearly
25% of India’s reserves making this of
strategic interest.
Since 2013, India’s leading private
15
enterprises including Reliance and combating terrorism”.
Essar gained entry along with already Both before and after Prime
existing public sector ONGC and Minister Modi’s visit to Myanmar, India
GAIL in offshore oil and gas blocks. has welcomed chiefs of the Myanmar’s
Poor infrastructure in Myanmar and Army and Navy. During these visits
access barrier created by Bangladesh India has renewed its commitment to
inhibited India’s capacity to pump the supply Myanmar defence equipment
gas into India even though it has including for surveillance to combat
invested in a petrochemical complex, Islamic terror.
in the upgradation of the Sittwe port The joint India-Myanmar statement
and set up an SEZ in the Rakhine state. makes the position amply clear that,
Hence as part of BJP Government’s both governments view all people of the
Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for the Islamic faith, especially in the state of
North-Eastern States, India is Kashmir in India and in the state of
negotiating a plan to lay 6,900 km of Rakhine in Myanmar, as terrorists and
gas pipelines from the Rakhine state directly associated with terrorists
to West Bengal and the North eastern groups or at the very least supporters
states through Bangladesh. Myanmar’s of such groups. This is a clear instance
Rakhine state, if freed of its people, of governments employing peoples’
would make this expansion easier. religious identity to define their
political choice and branding an entire
India’s Role people by such association.
The statement issued jointly on The BJP government in New Delhi
behalf of Prime Minister Modi and is determined to push India to its
State Counsellor Aung Sang Suu Kyi majoritarian understanding of Hindutva
on 6 September 2017 “… condemned and drive divisions in the sub-continent
terrorism in all its forms and against those of the Islamic faith. It
manifestations and agreed that the fight presses this position through a
against terrorism should … (include) chauvinistic politics alongside
entities that encourage, support or militarising both India and the sub-
finance terrorism, provide sanctuary to continent through its ‘internal security
terrorists and terror groups, and falsely doctrine’ undermining democracy both
extol their virtues. Myanmar at home and across South Asia.
condemned the recent barbaric terror The view of the BJP government is
attacks during the Amarnath Yatra in echoed in the annual Vijay Dashami
India …India condemned the recent address by Mohan Bhagwat, the Chief
terrorist attacks in northern Rakhine of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh
State.... They called on the when he termed all Rohingya muslims
international community to end as infiltrators chased away by
selective and partial approaches to Myanmar as people who engage in
16 beyond the horizon December 2017
continuous, violent and criminal
separatist activities and linkages with
the terrorist groups. The BJP, the RSS
and their cohort are seeking to advance
the view that every person of the Islamic
faith is a terrorist and every person who
does not ascribe to the Sangh Parivar’s
view of majoritarian Hindutva is anti-
national.
Singling out one community or
people of a particular faith and branding
all members as violent, criminal and
terrorist is rooted in a majoritarian
politics that view peoples as unequal
and predetermined by their birth is both
unscientific and undemocratic. All
forces of equality, social justice,
democracy and progress must stand up
this simply divisive and reprehensible
politics.
The NTUI calls upon the
Government of India to:
* Recognise that the attack on
Rohingyas in the Rakhine State of
Myanmar amounts to state led ethnic
cleansing and therefore it must cease
immediately,
* Employ its diplomatic relations
with the Government of Myanmar to
bring the attack on Rohingyas to a halt,
to take measures to ensure that the
Rohingyas can safely return to
their communities, to ensure that they
receive immediate humanitarian relief
and create conditions for “full
citizenship’’ to the Rohingya
Muslim minority,
* Place an arms embargo on
Myanmar until such time as the
forgoing are not dealt with,
December 2017 beyond the horizon
* Recognise the Rohingyas in India
as refuges and have them registered
as such with the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees and
ensure that they are treated as such,
* Convene a Myanmar-
Bangladesh-Pakistan-China-India
summit to deal with the humanitarian
crisis of Rohingya refugees.
Gautam Mody
General Secretary
New Trade Union Initiative
October 04, 2017
CODE ON
WAGE BILL, 2017
A Proposed Legislation
Violating the Rights of the
Workers
People’s Union for Democratic Rights
has long been drawing attention to
egregious violation of rights of
workers governed under various
labour laws. Most important of these
rights is the fundamental right to form
trade union, so as to engage in
collective wage negotiations and to
ensure that conditions on shop floor
do not become tyrannical.
Ever since the economic reforms
began in India in 1991, attempts have
been afoot to whittle down the rights
of the workers. These efforts received
a boost when the Second National
Commission on Labour (SNCL)
chaired by a socialist and veteran trade
17
unionist Ravindra Verma submitted its
report in June 2002. It is significant to
note that majority of central trade
unions had boycotted the SNCL
because of its truncated terms of
reference which spoke of the context
as the need for “international
competitiveness” where globalization,
liberalization of trade and industry and
changes in technology had taken place.
One of the trade unions Hind Mazdoor
Sabha that participated in the SNCL
because of their respect for Ravindra
Varma, expressed its opposition to the
terms of reference. The first National
Commission of Labour (1969) chaired
by Justice Gajendragadkar was
assigned the task to “advise how far
these provisions (labour laws) serve to
implement the Directive Principles of
State Policy…”. In contrast by the time
SNCL was constituted the context had
completely reversed and not even lip
service was paid to the Directive
Principles especially Article 41, 42, 43
and 43A of the Constitution.
While speaking at the 46th session
of the Indian Labour Conference in
2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
talked about the need to ensure “ease
of doing business”, making it clear that
the thrust would now be on making
changes which would help and benefit
employers. The NDA government is
making amendments in labour laws in
order to push their programs like
‘Make-in-India’, ‘Skill India’, ‘Digital
India’ and ‘Ease of doing Business’
thereby enabling companies to work in
India and squeeze labour. Among other
steps, the Central Ministry for Labour
and Employment is consolidating 43
labour laws into 4 major laws. These
are Labour Code on Wages, Labour
Code on Industrial Relations, Labour
Code on Social Security and Welfare,
Labour Code on Safety and Working
Conditions.
On 10th August 2017, a bill called
the Code on Wages Bill 2017 was
introduced in the Lok Sabha. The
proposed legislation Code on Wages,
2017 intends to “subsume,
amalgamate, simplify and rationalize”
the relevant provisions of the
following four Central Labour
enactments relating to wages, namely,
(a) Payment of Wages Act, 1936; (b)
Minimum Wages Act, 1948; (c)
Payment of Bonus Act, 1965; and (d)
Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. This
bill claims to be inspired by the
recommendations of SNCL. However,
it even goes beyond these. It outrightly
favours the management instead of
workers. Given below are some of the
problematic provisions of the
proposed bill.
Schedules of Employment: In the
proposed bill, the Schedules of
Employment categorizing skilled,
semiskilled and unskilled labour have
been removed and wages have been
defined with universal applicability.
This might be useful for those workers
who are not listed in the Schedule like
domestic workers (except in 13 states,
they do not appear in the Schedule,
hence the rule of minimum wages is
not applicable them). But this will
have a negative impact on the semi-
skilled and skilled workers who are
entitled for higher wages as per the
Schedule as their base line of wages is
reduced.
Criteria for fixing wages: As per
Section 6 of the proposed Code, the
minimum wage rates shall be fixed for
timework and piecework and the wage
period can be by the hour, by the day
or by the month. As per Section 6(6)
“the appropriate Government shall
take into account the skill required, the
arduousness of the work assigned to
the worker, geographical location of
the place of work and other factors
which the appropriate Government
considers necessary”.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly
stated that minimum wages should be
determined by need-based criteria that
extend beyond basic physical needs.
It is also not defined as a factor of the
quantum of production. The need-
based criteria for fixing minimum
wages should include specific nutrition
requirements (defined in calories),
clothing and housing needs, medical
expenses, family expenses, education,
fuel, lighting, festival expenses,
provisions for old age and other
miscellaneous expenditure. In a
specific case of 1992 Workmen
Represented by Secretary v.
Management of Reptakos Brett, the
Supreme Court laid down the
following six criteria for minimum
wage determination: (1) 3 limits laid down for the general
consumption units for one earner; (2)
Minimum food requirements of 2700
calories per average Indian adult; (3)
Clothing requirements of 72 yards per
annum per family; (4) Rent
corresponding to the minimum area
provided for under the Government
Industrial Housing Scheme; (5) Fuel,
lighting and other miscellaneous items
of expenditure to constitute 20 percent
of the total Minimum Wages; (6)
Children, education, medical
requirements, minimum recreation
including festivals/ceremonies and
provision for old age, marriage, etc. to
constitute 25 percent of the total
minimum wage).
The Code on Wages, 2017 has done
away with all of this. Even though the
states are required to take into account,
cost of living calculated from ‘time to
time’ under Section 7(2), this provision
is very ambiguous and not mandatory.
This clearly violates the criteria for
fixing minimum wage standards
established by the Supreme Court.
Working Hours and Overtime:
Under Section 13 of the proposed
Code, the government can fix the
number of hours of work, which shall
constitute a normal working day. But
the following category of workers can
be excluded: (a) Employees engaged
on urgent work or in any emergency,
which could not have been foreseen or
prevented; (b) Employees engaged in
work of the nature of preparatory or
complementary work which must
necessarily be carried on outside the
working in the employment concerned;
(c) Employees whose employment is

18 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 19
essentially intermittent; (d) Employees
engaged in any work which for
technical reasons has to be completed
before the duty is over; and (e)
Employees engaged in a work, which
could not be carried on except at times
dependent on the irregular action of
natural forces.
This means that the existing
definition of overtime of work beyond
9 hours per day and 48 hours per week
is being sought to be done away with.
By removing a clear definition of
overtime and allowing complimentary
and intermittent work to exceed normal
hours, the proposed bill opens the door
to compulsory overtime without extra
payment.
Concessions to Employers with
respect to Payment of Bonus: The
provision of exemption of new
establishments in the Payment of
Bonus Act, 1965, from paying bonus
has been further expanded in the Code
on Wages, 2017 using an ambiguous
language for defining new
establishments. Now the definition
includes “trial running of any factory”
and “prospecting stage of any mine.”
Accordingly under the bill, not only are
new establishments exempt from
providing bonuses, but existing
establishments can also escape liability
by being on “trials runs” or at
“prospective stages” in order to gain
exemption from paying bonuses to their
employees. There is no time limit for
these “trial runs” or “prospective
stages.”
The bill further undermines
transparency by prohibiting authorities
from disclosing balance sheets without
the express permission of the
employer. Here the presumption is that
statements and particulars submitted
by corporations and companies are
accurate without requiring proof of
accuracy from the corporation or
company. Unions/ Workers will have
to approach the Tribunal/Arbitrator for
any clarification who must be satisfied
that such clarification is necessary.
Arbitrary Wage deductions:
Section 18 of the Code permits
employers to deduct wages based upon
the performance of an employee which
may deem to be unsatisfactory; and to
“recover losses”. In the absence of any
due process to be followed before
making such deductions, this provision
will be misused by the employers for
making arbitrary, punitive and
vindictive deductions from the
workers.
Gender Based Discrimination:
Even though Section 3 talks about
prohibition of discrimination on
grounds of gender, the Code on Wages,
functionally dismantles the
mechanisms available within the Equal
Remuneration Act, 1976 for promoting
women’s employment and seeking
accountability for gender based
discrimination.
Labour Inspectors are replaced
by Facilitators: The Code on Wages,
2017 replaces commissioners and
inspectors with “facilitators” appointed
to “supply information and advice to
employers and workers concerning the
most effective means of complying
with the provisions of the code”.
Facilitators will also be responsible for
undertaking inspection consistent with
inspection regimes set forth by state
governments. However, the bill requires
state inspection schemes to provide for
web-based inspection schedules
(s.51(2)). The surprise inspections are
going to be missing. Further, there is
also a provision of web-based self-
certification scheme within the IT-
enabled service.
Putting Limitations on Trade
Union Activities: Workers’ contribution
to trade union shall be limited to
membership fee. The bill explicitly
prohibits them from contributing for
promoting common social or political
activities.
Dilution of Penal Provisions to
Employers: Under the Minimum Wages
Act, 1948, payment of less than
minimum wage is punishable with
imprisonment upon the first offence. In
the case of Sanjit Roy v. State of
Rajasthan (1983), the Supreme Court
has observed that non-payment of
minimum wages amounts to
constitutionally prohibited forced
labour.
In contrast, in the proposed bill,
there is a shift from criminal liability to
civil liability in matters pertaining to
wages, payment of wages and payment
of bonuses. Employers violating the
Code will be given the opportunity to
comply with provisions of the Code or
give reasons for violation prior to
receiving any penalty. Those who
commit offences can be acquitted if the
offences are compounded.
No Fixed Time Line for Revision
of Wages: In the Minimum Wages Act,
1948 there is a provision for the
revision of minimum wages as and
when required, which must not exceed
five years. It is a major bargaining point
for trade unions. This provision has
been modified in the Code on Wages,
2017. Section 8 of the Code on Wages,
2017 states “The appropriate
Government shall review or revise
minimum rates of wages at an interval
of five years.” It virtually removes the
time line for revision by introducing
the words review or revise and make it
optional.
In the light of the above, PUDR
views these proposed changes with
alarm. For one, these go against
Articles 41 (Right to Work), 42 (Just
and Humane Condition of work and
maternity relief), 43 (Living Wage), in
so far as employers are encouraged/
allowed to introduce short term
employment, increase the number of
overtime hours, reduce outgo on
wages, overtime, bonus and reduces
the collective rights of workers to
demand and receive company’s audited
accounts. Workers were at a
disadvantage to begin with. What the
Code on Wages, 2017 does is to
accentuate the blockades and make it
more difficult for them to organise and
struggle collectively against
employers.
People’s Union for Democratic Rights
8th November 2017

20 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 21
 CONDEMN THE HOUSE ARREST OF We at the CRPP while condemning revoked with immediate effect.
the arrests of Syed Ali Shah Geelani,
CRPP PRESIDENT PROF SAR GEELANI! Yasin Malik and Mirwaiz Umar CRPP
Condemn the arrest of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Yasin Malik and Farooq demand that the continuing Date: 9 September 2017
Mirwaiz Farooq in Srinagar! house arrest of Prof. SAR Geelani be

The Committee for the Release of neighbours. Notwithstanding the

Political Prisoners (CRPP) condemns
in the strongest of words the continuing
confinement of CRPP President, Prof.
SAR Geelani, since early morning [9
September 2017] at his residence in
Zakir Nagar, New Delhi. He is being
prevented from organizing a protest
before the National Investigation
Agency (NIA) head quarters in New
Delhi against the continuing harassment
of the leadership of Hurriyat led by
Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the broad
sections of the people. As part of this
program the leadership of Hurriyat—
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Yasin Malik and
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq—were supposed
to join in New Delhi. All the three have
been arrested yesterday night in
Srinagar.
To trample down the right to hold a
protest in New Delhi before the NIA
head quarters to highlight the
continuing harassment of the protesting
people and the leadership of Hurriyat
in J & K due to their uncompromising
political positions once again shows the
desperation of the Indian state to not
let the larger world know what is
happening in the region as the dominant
narrative of the mainstream media and
the state has conflated into nationalist,
jingoist rhetoric interspersed with
constant war mongering with its
hyperbole of this rhetoric the
executivisation of politics in India is
further having its violent run in Jammu
& Kashmir through the highly
authoritarian instrument that is the
National Investigation Agency to foist
as many cases as possible on the rank
and file of the Hurriyat so as to drum
up the narrative of national jingoism
as the only way out or the pigeon hole
through which the rest of the world
should perceive the political
aspirations of the people of Jammu &
Kashmir. The protest was meant to
expose this shallow, hollow approach,
especially of the present dispensation
at the centre, of how they terrorise the
common people, the small and medium
entrepreneurs as well as the traders of
the region.
Such acts of authoritarian nature to
stop the leadership of Hurriyat to hold
a protest in Delhi tells more about how
brittle the very foundations of this
democracy is that the India State time
and again labours to project to the
world. It should be noted that the
Director General of Police (J&K) had
announced yesterday that the Hurriyat
leadership will not be stopped from
proceeding to Delhi for their protest but
did a volte-face by re-arresting all the
leadership in the middle of the night!
CONDEMN THE DECISION
to Entrust Construction of Railway Bridges to the Indian
Army
The Committee for Protection of
Democratic Rights views with concern
the intrusion of the Indian army in the
field of civilian affairs at the invitation
of the Government of Maharashtra.
A stampede that occurred at the
foot over bridge (FOB) connecting
Parel on Mumbai’s Central Railway
line and Elphinstone Road Station on
the Western Railway line on September
29, 2017 killing 23 people and injuring
hundreds of others created an outrage
amongst the commuters and concerned
citizens.
It was criminal negligence and
abdication of duties that led to
overcrowding, possible short circuit
and apprehension of the foot over
bridge collapsing, which collectively
caused the stampede. The Central and
State Governments, rattled by the
outrage and stood exposed of the
neglect in fixing the decaying Railway
infrastructure.
The embarrassment was
exacerbated in the face of the
government’s grand plans of setting up
a bullet train corridor between
Ahmadabad and Mumbai. The bullet
train project is being set up with the
help of Japanese financial and technical
aid. The project is estimated at Rs
1,10,000 crore. This same amount was
the Modi government’s first Budget
was fixed as a five year expenditure of
a similar amount for network expansion
in the entire country. Or a similar
amount could be set aside for
strengthening safety of the railways
over five years.
The government, with a view to
save face with the commuters and
concerned citizens, and on realizing
that there are three more such bridges
in an unsafe condition requiring
immediate attention of the has thought
it fit to invite the Army to address the
issue on a war footing.
The invitation by the government
and its acceptance by the Indian Army
is symptomatic of the deep crisis facing
civil society and an admission of failure
of civil administration to address the
woes of the people. It forebodes a
situation of civil administration slowly
slipping into the hands of the armed
forces. The Indian Army is thus getting
drawn into civilian roles and willingly

22 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 23
falling prey to the machinations of the
ruling class,
The alarming situation is further
compounded by a pro active over reach
by the judiciary slowly taking over
civil administration through PIL’s, to
the ultimate detriment of the gains of
democratic movement and people
whose woes it has been invited to
address.
WAIVE ALL LOANS OF
PEASANTS AND AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS
Fix MSP at 1.5 times the cost of Production
Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization have led to Costly Inputs,
Falling Rates, Indebted Peasants, Hungry People
Agriculture is in deep crises. Input
costs and rates of crops are against the
peasants and in favour of companies.
The “Green Revolution” model of
agricultural development has favoured
imperialist companies. PM Modi had
promised to double farmers’ income in
5 years, waive their loans and make
MSP 1.5 times the cost of production
as per recommendations of
Swaminathan Commission. Centre
announces MSP of only 24 crops but
this year it has announced MSP for 19
Kharif crops. Out of these the MSP of
9 crops is less than the Govt. assessed
cost of production of those crops. BJP-
RSS govt. is reneging on its 2014
election manifesto and promises.
Some states announced some loan
waivers under pressure from peasant
movements, but the central
24 beyond the horizon
CPDR calls upon the people of India
to be ever vigilant and prepare to rise
to meet the challenges ahead to keep
the republic’s socialist, secular and
democratic flag flying high!
Dr Anand Teltumbde
General Secretary
CPDR
6th November 2017
declarations were against these waivers.
The Govt. says it does not have money
for loan waivers and subsidies. If that
is done the banks will suffer losses. But
it has put Rs 10 lakh crore worth of
corporate loans under NPAs which will
not be recovered. To overcome this loss
it has refinanced banks to the extent of
Rs 2.11 lakh crores. As it does every
year, in 2015-16 it has foregone
corporate taxes worth 6.11 lakh crores.
Seeds, fertilizers, insecticides of
MNCs are very costly. Govt. is reducing
subsidies and increasing taxes on every
article. Due to taxes diesel is sold in
India for Rs 58/ litre, though it costs
Rs. 40 in Srilanka, Rs. 46 in Nepal, Rs.
49 in Pakistan, Rs. 51 in Bangladesh.
Due to price rise, indebtedness is rising.
During this period economic
slowdown and unemployment have
December 2017
increased. The govt. is reducing
facilities and subsidies meant for the
people. Peasants are unable to fulfill
their livelihood needs from agriculture.
The agro processing industries which
earlier were reserved for the small scale
sector are now controlled by MNCs.
MNREGA work has been decreased. In
cooking gas and kerosene oil, first
scheme for cash transfer was begun,
now subsidies have been withdrawn.
Cooking gas cylinders have become
costly. This year fertilizer subsidy too
has been put under cash transfers. Now
fertilizer costs will go up 3 to 4 times.
Subsidy will initially go into bank
accounts of peasants, then it will be
stopped. Govt. has also stopped cheap
food grains in PDS and is transferring
the subsidy amount into accounts. Once
PDS is wound up, procurement from
peasants also will stop and crops will
fetch only a low price. Shanta Kumar
Committee had recommended precisely
this in 2015. WTO, which functions at
the behest of MNCs too has directed
India to do so by 2018.
Several govts., including UP are
promoting Corporate Farming. Due to
Demonetization, GST and cashless
transfers by the Govt., peasants failed
to get even market rates for their crops.
This has ruined small shopkeepers and
producers also. This is providing big
benefits to big traders and MNC and
domestic corporations. They are buying
farm produce at cheap rates and selling
dear.
Govt. is also snatching natural
resources under control of people and
December 2017 beyond the horizon
handing them over to MNCs. It is
acquiring agricultural land for smart
cities and industry, making big dams
in the name of irrigation and
transferring water to industries.
Narmada’s water is going to Sanand,
Polavarum’s to Coastal Corridor,
Kanhar’s to Sonebadra and Jamuna’s
to Coal Thermal Power Projects.
Workers, fishermen and peasa nts
dependent on rivers are being
uprooted.
Modi claims the Congress had
ruined the peasantry over 60 years and
allowed them to die. He is right but in
3 years of his govt. too peasants are
dying. In this period bank dues on
them have increased 55 % from 8.11
to 12.6 lakh crores. Since 1995 more
than 4 lakh peasants and equal number
of agricultural labourers have
committed suicide. When peasants
came out on the streets, MP govt. fired
on and killed them.
When peasants fought, some loan
waivers were announced, which were
to be implemented with several
conditions. UP govt. waived
ridiculously small amounts of Rs 1 and
2. Laws were made in Kerala,
Telangana and Punjab to waive private
loans of landless and in Telangana the
Govt. was forced to grant Rs. 4000 per
acre for input cost subsidy twice a year
for each crop.
Friends, be it the BJP or the
Congress or any other ruling class
party, the SP, BSP, JD(U), Trinamool,
BJD, TDP, TRS or the Akalis, their
Govts. implement anti peasant, pro
25
corporate policies. BJP – RSS divides under the banner of All India Kisan hashtag campaigns, never able to keep nothing — ‘designed to make inmates
people on religious lines and unleashes Sangharsh Coordination Committee up with the surfeit of bad news that crack’, as Arun Ferreira writes—needs
atrocities on Dalits. Only peoples’ unity (AIKSCC) against ruining of India’s comes to us every day, every hour, to go first. John Berger, in his 1983
can fight these forces. agriculture. every minute. As you write: ‘Homo essay “The Hour of Poetry”, says:
We appeal to all democratic forces sapiens can never stop living ‘Torture smashes language: its purpose
in Delhi, intellectuals, students, Central Executive Committee, gregariously. The life of production, is to tear language from the voice, and
workers’ organizations. rights activists All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha agriculture, industry, or any other is the words from the truth. The one being
and women’s organizations to support 16 November 2017 happiest one for [the] gregariousness tortured knows: they are breaking me.
this united fight of India’s peasantry of humans. Life in solitude is not His or her resistance consists in trying
human.’ Marx had written in The to limit the me being broken.’ Berger
A LETTER TO A HUNTED HERO Grundrisse, ‘The human being is in the goes on to say how, ‘Normally silence
most literal sense a political animal not means a lack of sound. Here silence is
merely a gregarious animal…’ You’ve active and has been turned, once again
GN Saibaba, English Prof. at Ram Lal Anand College (Delhi University), was
been denied gregariousness but did systematically, into an instrument, this
arrested in 2014 in a controversial manner at Delhi by a combined team of
they think the anda cell would snuff time for torturing the heart.’
Maharashtra and Delhi polices. He was involved in launching widespread
out your politics? Yet you speak to us resoundingly
opposition to the corporate pillage of adivasi water, forest and land resources
The world has gone near-silent on and defiantly from a place of
by profit-hungry mining and industrial corporations. Saibaba also opposed
you, but we believe you have been emptiness. Words have not deserted
the deployment of 100,000 paramilitary forces in mineral-rich adivasi areas
getting some news of the world, you even after the court in Gadchiroli,
in eastern India under the name of Operation Green Hunt, which began in
through newspapers that make their disregarding all evidence, found you,
2009. The Supreme Court on Monday, April 4, 2016 released him on bail on
way to you bearing rectangular cells along with the JNU student Hem
medical grounds. However, on March 7, 2017, the Gadchiroli District Court
of emptiness where free speech was Mishra and four others, guilty of
(Maharashtra) sentenced Saibaba and five other activists to life imprisonment.
literally scissored. You speak of the waging war against the nation-state. It
They were convicted with being members of the banned Communist Party of
silencing of Perumal Murugan, Hansda is the nation-state waging war against
India (Maoist), with opposing industrial development in Gadchiroli, Maharastra
Sowvendra Shekhar (for depicting you. Against the adivasis, against its
and with “waging war against the state.” It is worth reminding that Saibaba is
same-sex love among Santhali women) many people who dissent, resist.
a wheeled chair bound man with 90 per cent physical disability. There are
and how when Gauri Lankesh was You use the word silence in such
reports of his deteriorating health condition in the isolated prison cell without
murdered, silence started to speak amplified and damning ways—twenty-
adequate care by the jail authorities. Following is the reproduction of an article
eloquently. It fertilised our imagination three times in the first letter. When VK,
published by https://navayana.org and circulated to personal mail.
and yielded a fresh crop of poems, as you call Vijay Kumar, wonders what
songs, and a book as you will see. Did your literary engagements are like in
Editor
the tattered Nagpur papers they bring the anda cell, the zero cell, the prison
Dear Prof G.N. Saibaba habitual disregard of the law. In a you have this bit of local Delhi news: within the prison, you say you are
We read the two handwritten letters prefatory note for those of us who we can no longer protest at the Jantar ‘reading silence’. ‘This has been my
you wrote to your friend P.V. Vijay forget easily and wilfully, Vijay Kumar Mantar, that contained space where at literary engagement. I count all the
Kumar in September, on the 21st and explained the likely cause of your life least the charade of democracy was blank spaces between word and word,
26th, letters he felt had to be shared with sentence whose illegality, as you say, allowed. What needs to be dismantled and between the lines… My friend, I
the world, even a world indifferent to has hardly been an issue for the rest of is all prisons, as Angela Davis tells us; am measuring silence because I am
the injustices done to you by the state us preoccupied with living and reading, the anda cell designed to reduce you silenced.’ Your letters break through
and its justice system in their now writing and publishing books, running (and many like you) to a zero, to many walls between your world and

26 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 27
ours to demand of us: Are you even
listening to your own silence? Are you
figuring out if my prison letters are
literary enough to be eventually
canonised? Will all this have to wait
till I die? Will you wait till then to
commission a reader of my writings?
Perhaps concerned that the first
letter was too literary, too abstruse, or
could be seen as the ramblings of an
isolated mind, you spell things out
more clearly in the second, without
rancour, prosaically telling us what you
expect: ‘Now it is you people in the
outside world, who have to take the
responsibility to prove the illegality of
the judgement.’ You end with: ‘My
freedom is in your hands… I mean all
of you.’ If we read the silences between
your words and lines, each perfectly
aligned with the rules on the pages,
pages that say at the bottom, without
irony, ‘Cellpage’, what is implicit and
implicated is this: Why did #I Am
Gauri not become #I Am Saibaba?
When all causes are subsumed by easy
hashtags in our times, why is the cause
of my freedom not trending, so to
speak?
A measure of our silence
At Navayana, as we draft this letter
we realise it is the 5th of November.
We complete fourteen years today. A
life sentence of freedom to write and
publish, to hear and speak up, to
dissent and to love. We have been lax
though in writing newsletters to our
readers that we had promised to
ourselves we would do every month.
We have not even offered excuses for
going silent for months. Your words,
that speak of measuring silence, may
well have a measure of ours too. With a
mixture of shame and guilt, while
remaining unashamedly pragmatic
when presented an opportunity, we want
to tell you that we have just published
(in association with DC Books,
Kottayam) The Way I See It: A Gauri
Lankesh Reader edited by Chandan
Gowda who studied in the same
university as you and Rohith Vemula.
Did you know that Gauri, in one of her
columns, spoke up for you—wondering
how, while Salman Khan secured bail
within three hours of conviction, and
Jayalalithaa even managed an acquittal
after being sentenced to four years of
imprisonment on charges of corruption,
you and many like you languish in jail
for no reason?
In her distinctive way, Gauri drew
our attention to the lesser known story
of Vittala Malekudiya, an adivasi from
the Malnad region along the Western
ghats. He had protested the
displacement of his people by the
Kudremukh National Park. Vittala, the
only youth from the Malekudiya tribe
to have entered college and trained in
journalism at Mangalore University,
joined the forces of the Resistance,
ongoing since 1987 when his people
were first asked to collect a
‘compensation package’ and vacate the
forests, their home for centuries. A
member of the Democratic Youth
Federation of India—youth wing of
CPI(M)—Vittala was branded a naxal
and arrested in 2012. Owing to public
protests, away from the hashtags,
Vittala got bail in four months,
completed his degree, and appeared for
the Karnataka State Public Commission
exam in 2015. Then, Gauri writes:
‘Siddaramaiah’s government gave
permission [in May 2015] to the police
to go ahead and file a charge-sheet
against Vittala and his father’ for
‘waging war against the state’ under the
draconian Unlawful Activities
Prevention Act. The Siddaramaiah
government did not try to find the
killers of Kalburgi; they let Gauri be
killed. It was also a Congress
government that abducted you, branded
you a naxal, and put you in the anda
cell. And here we are, so divided,
struggling to find a shared vocabulary
for the evils the Hindutva-driven state
has unleashed.
Poetry’s hour of failure is now.
In March 2014, soon after we
published the annotated edition of Dr
B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste
with an introduction by Arundhati Roy,
you had ordered a hundred copies of it
for your students at Delhi University.
You were out on bail for a while when
this happened, and we read about how
all the students in the batch, save for
the one who told us the story, avoided
your optional paper on Indian English
writing. We never checked with you
which of the students consented to
receive that copy of AoC as a gift from
you. A silent boycott from society was
your welcome back. For the essay
Arundhati Roy wrote on your
incarceration, “Professor P.O.W.”, she
was hauled up by the courts for
‘criminal contempt’.
When your daughter Manjeera
recently sent you a letter accompanied
by a Faiz poem, the prison authorities
tore up the poem thinking it must be a
coded message. For once they were
right. Faiz, incarcerated several times,
is indeed a code for revolution, for
love, for justice, for the gregarious
pleasures of poetry and music. Here’s
a Faiz ghazal for you. Wish you could
hear this sung by Farida Khanum as
the smoke from your cigarette slices
through Delhi’s air toxified by power
and pollution—yet free, an air toxic
and intoxicating. The writer Ali Sethi,
a disciple of Farida, says this haunting
ghazal was ‘written from the
perspective of a hunted hero. Faiz
wrote this in the 1960s for his leftist
friends who were being harassed,
arrested, tortured and even killed by
the dictatorial former Pakistan
president Ayub Khan’s military
government.’ Faiz, as always, speaks
to his political detractors and
tormentors in the language of love and
poetry—a language, he complains,
they barely understand. You wrote to
VK, ‘I still have feelings, emotions and
thoughts along with a language to
express my heart’s beats to my
beloved. But they are banished by the
gods.’
We hope this song—that says there
can be no justice without love, no love
without justice—reaches you

28 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 29
somehow. a caged bird sings songs. But I am eloquence of the world outside. I want high levels, and far and wide. I hope
Poetry’s hour of redemption is now. gagged, can’t send the song of my heart to spread my silence all over the you all collectively and individually
to my sweetheart. I still have feelings, universe so that it explodes with a big will take up my case at all these levels.
with love emotions and thoughts along with a bang of ‘eloguence.’ If you bring out various illegalities of
Navayana language to express my heart’s beats My friend, I am measuring silence the judgement in a sharp way before
to my beloved. But they are banished because I am silenced. Because the public, governments and
https://navayana.org by the gods. The ban applies to the everyone else is also threatened to be international community, it will shock
5 November 2017 unborn songs as well. Even my silenced. Many chose silence as golden the people for how our lower judiciary
thoughts are proscribed. I sing the song on their own. I am reading silence. I is functioning. I would like you all take
of silence. I know silence can also am writing silence when the adivasi all the relevant parts of the documents
SAIBABA’S LETTERS speak when it stands before an never dances. of the case to various jurists, senior
audience. Now the question for us is: lawyers, retired judges. If they
21-09-2017 how do we retrieve the songs of silence. Yours, comment and bring out the illegalities
Dear V Kumar Silence flew as eloquence when With love, of the judgement, the public domain
Your letter is a great relief for me. Perumal Murugan’s voice was axed; Saibaba will understand and respond I hope you
Thanks for your recollections of our and Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s lone Anda Cell, Central Prison, Nagpur will do this.
friendship. You seem to be tied down was crushed. The Adivasi will never How could such a judgement be
to your new job too much. My last letter dance. Perumal said he would never 26.09.2017 handed down without a shred of
to you was like ages ago. More than six write. When Narendra Dabholkar, Dear VK, evidence for the allegations the case
months have passed since the Pansare and Kalburgi were silenced, I wrote a letter to you on 21 Sept. made? Why principles of legal criminal
embedded and the brutal judgement silence grew thick like smoke and mist. But couldn’t send it to you. I read your jurisprudence not followed in the
pronounced and my painful But when Gauri Lanesh was silenced, short letter once again. Hence these judgement? What has happened to the
incarceration started. Everyday is it started speaking eloquently. Then the lines I am adding. You know the judicial system? So far my health issues
painful. Every hour is filled with silence thunders: “I am Guari Lankesh, ‘embedded’ judgement doesn’t stand have been focussed in the media. What
suffering. A 90% disabled person’s life I am Dabholkar, I am Pansare, I am for my judicial scrutiny. But I am still is really required is to bring out the
in a prison within a prison makes the Kalburgi.” Where silence is dredged, languishing in this prison without any glaring illegalities of judgment and the
infernos of the religions of the world it breaks open into eloquence. Then, relief. How it is you people in the embedded nature of it. Various aspects
pale out. Solitary life is not in tune with the question is how do you trace the outside world, who have to take the of it have to be discussed in the public
human nature. Homo sapiens can never footprints of this silence? I am engaged responsibility to prove the illegality of domain. Why are you leaving these
stop living gregarious. The site of in measuring this silence which also is the judgement. I have been endlessly illegalities in the dark pages of the
production, agriculture, industry or any eloquence. This has become my literary waiting for your decisive act. files? Why are you leaving all these
other, is the happiest one for engagement. I am reading silence. I am Meanwhile, I have been suffering from aspects only for the lawyers to address
gregariousness of humans. Life in counting silently all the blank spaces the severe ailments which are life among themselves? When Supreme
solitude is not human. between word and word, and between threatening. The pain and suffering I Court judgements are discussed and
Six months after I had encountered the lines. I don’t leave out the margins have been going through is unbearable. debated in the editorial pages of the
vibrant human life, you reminded me from my country. I need all these My ailments now might take a serious newspapers why this judgement is not
of our lively literary discussions in the spaces to fill my silence. I want to turn. They will prove to be damaging discussed? I hope you and other friends
cold winter nights of Delhi. You have preserve my silence hoping that one my organs beyond treatment. think about it.
asked me in your letter about my present day it will explode. My silence is not You have rightly pointed out that I saw only one editorial on the
literary engagements in my cage. Even my pain. I want my silence to be the my case has to be taken up at various judgment. Soon after the judgement

30 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 31
was delivered, the Indian Express
wrote a sharp editorial condemning the
judgement and declaring it as one
which doesn’t follow the laws of the
land. I don’t know know if any other
newspapers wrote editorials.
I don’t know how you could follow
up any of the things with your busy
schedule of your job. Please help
Vasantha meeting various people. Also
think of how to support Manjeera’s
education. She needs a lot books to be
bought apart from the hostel fee and
THE REVOLUTIONARIES AND THE MASSES
of the Philippines must rely on their own strength
This exclusive interview with Jose
Maria Sison, Chief Political
Consultant of the NDFP (National
Democratic Front of the Philippines)
and founding chairman of the CPP
(Communist Party of the Philippines)
was made in the beginning of July
[2017] by Gabi Fechtner, Party
Chairman of the MLPD, for the Red
Flag. Jose Maria Sison will also
participate as one of the keynote
speakers at the international seminar
on the 100th anniversary of the October
Revolution in October in Germany.
Gabi Fechtner: Dear Jose Maria
Sison, we are very glad that we can
make this interview for the Red Flag
Magazine with you because. Our first
question is: How is the development
under the new President Duterte to be
assessed and how is the population in
32 beyond the horizon
changes of course. You will give
emotional support.
You talk to Prof Haragopal as you
have already thought of. He is the
chairperson of the Defence Committee.
My freedom is in your hands. I mean
all of you.
Please do reply.
Yours,
With love
Saibaba
the Philippines?
Jose Maria Sison: President
Duterte is “unique” to the Philippines
in that, before he took over the
presidency of the Philippines, he
explicitly referred to himself as Left.
That he was a socialist, not a
communist. He said he wanted to
uphold the sovereignty of the
Philippines, build the economy, promote
land reform and industrialization. And
that he wanted to pursue an independent
foreign policy. It was the first time a new
president made such announcements.
But we still do not know how he
would withstand the pressure of the
ruling government system. He stands
before a government in which there is
a mixture of some left cabinet members,
but mostly right-wing. This is especially
true in key positions in the field of
December 2017
security, such as the Department of
National Defense, the Department of
the Interior or the National Security
Adviser. These belong to the right-wing
and pro-USA poles. How Duterte can
cope with this will be shown. He has
announced that he wants to make an
independent foreign policy to use funds
from China and Russia - but he also
wants funds from the old allies - USA,
Japan, and Western Europe.
The crisis in the Philippines is so
deepgoing that he has to think seriously
about a great many questions. First of
all, things have been very simplified in
order to win the elections. He said he
would “kill” those involved in the
illegal drug trade and wage war against
drugs. These were his words and today
he will have to learn to clear up his
expression. He has promised to
eradicate drugs, crime and corruption
in the government.
In the fight against drugs, there are
already extrajudicial killings (people
shot in the street), and he has publicly
encouraged the police to kill suspects
if they resist. There is a reward system,
a quota system for the police units,
depending on how many heads they
deliver. The police have already
murdered thousands. This is a public
scandal, both nationally and
internationally.
He has promised reforms and has
won approval. This is a point which
speaks in his favor: He has opened the
possibility for reforms. On the other
hand there are increasing indications
from commentators as to whether there
December 2017 beyond the horizon
has already been a silent coup in the
background. The resources of the
Philippines are not enough to stabilize
the country economically. In addition,
foreign borrowings must be sought to
augment the country’s revenue,
including the income of the Filipino
workers working abroad.
I cannot guarantee that Duterte will
be able to honor his promises. The
revolutionaries and the broad masses
of the people must rely on their own
strength, on the strength of the masses,
for mass struggles to achieve the best
for them.
Duterte made it a special concern
to begin negotiations on peace with the
NDFP. But these negotiations are not
without obstacles. There have been
several intermittent interruptions in the
negotiations. But the negotiations go
on in principle.
An important point is that all
agreements made so far in the first
round of formal talks remain valid.
This means that the agreements on
immunity and safety guarantees or the
absence of prosecution continue to
apply. This is intended to protect
negotiators and their consultants on
both sides. That is, the NDFP
consultants who are going back to the
negotiations to the Philippines can
remain active and have the guarantee
that they are protected there and not
to be arrested. Nineteen among them
are out on bail, based on the promise
made by Duterte, that they would be
released with many others under an
amnesty. His amnesty promise,
33
however, Duterte has not fully fulfilled. CPP in the Philippines developing in Let me classify the various forms accused of common crimes, you must
It has to be said that the NDFP - to put this situation? What role does it play of struggle. also fight this in court. The
it cautiously - is annoyed that he has in this development? First, it is perfectly legitimate for Communists must also go to court.
not kept his promise. But it is important the people and the revolutionary forces When you are in prison, the enemy
that the negotiations go on, that Jose Maria Sison: The CPP, the to wage people’s war or to conduct controls your body. There you have to
negotiations on social, economic and revolutionary forces and the masses revolutionary armed struggle. This is make the most of your legal
political reforms have begun, and thehave to carry out their basic tasks, with the highest form of struggle because it possibilities. There are many ways to
review of an existing agreement on the
or without Duterte. There are answers the central question of stand before a bourgeois court and to
respect of human rights and revolutionary tasks that need to be revolution, the conquest of political resist. There are a variety of ways to
international humanitarian law. carried out, such as the struggle for power. And with political power, you contribute something to the
Duterte lives with the risk that national independence, promote can carry out all the social reforms, in revolutionary struggle.
different political forces oppose him.
people’s democracy, realize all its various aspects. As a revolutionary, you must show
We are currently experiencing the spike
development and so on. But, of course, Second is the legal mass that you stand for principles and stand
of armed conflict in Marawi. The Maute
these forces cannot undertake national movement. This can consist of by your responsibility to serve the
group and Abu-Sayaff groups are industrialization by themselves, before protests, petitions, etc. These are legal, interests of the people. But you can also
involved. They are associated with they can control over the ports and unarmed activities and these mass be an accused who does not say
Islamic State/Daesh, known to be the cities. But there are economic actions can be carried out at any time anything and who lets his lawyer speak.
creation of the CIA. This is financedinitiatives that can be developed by the and on any question. The prosecution submits “evidence”,
by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab revolutionary movement. It can The third is the struggle in and then it is up to the lawyer to prove
Emirates and Qatar. advance the peace negotiations so that bourgeois elections. The Communist the falsity of these “proofs”. This is also
But the larger opposing forces will
national industrialization is agreed Party is always careful not to interfere a form of struggle.
come from other reactionary forces. upon. It is good if certain socio- with these legal campaigns and their
Duterte spoke of the danger that the CIA
economic arrangements can be progressive actors. There are patriotic, Gabi Fechtner: What role does
would initiate his assassination or aachieved within the framework of the progressive, left-wing parties. party building play?
coup against him. He fears that. peace negotiations. And then there are the peace
My opinion is that the danger that There are also bourgeois- negotiations as fourth. This is also a Jose Maria Sison: We must build
threatens him from the US is currently
democratic reforms, such as land form of struggle. A peace agreement the revolutionary party, the proletarian
rather low. The US appears to have reform, and this is necessary to develop can come about, but it can only be a party, because this party stands for the
difficulties cleaning up the act of the economy. And then, of course, in stepping stone to the ultimate victory. most progressive and most productive
Duterte. But we have only heard his connection with national You have to be very vigilant, so that political force. It has the
words so far that he wants to be industrialization or the Filipinization of the movement does not suffer a defeat. comprehensive theory and practice of
independent from the USA. He has the economy. This is not a socialization The other side is working with how to carry out the social revolution.
talked a lot about what he wants to do.
of the ownership of the means of concepts that are meant to make you If you build the revolutionary party
In fact, however, he has gone into production, which is still mainly in the accept the power of imperialist of the proletariat, you must answer the
merely symbolic acts. And the Left says
hands of the private sector, but it is relations. There are ways to push you question about what kind of revolution
this is not enough. But, the Left still
about giving way to the rights of into a position of surrender and to you are doing. Whether you want to
gives him a chance, especially the Filipino entrepreneurs and the subject you to pacification. recycle the old democratic revolution,
NDFP, to negotiate a peace. Philippine state giving priority to Then the fifth kind of struggle: If like in the nineteenth century, whether
Filipino entrepreneurs over the foreign you are arrested as a suspected you want to go back to these
Gabi Fechtner: How is the role of monopoly capitalists. revolutionary, or even if you are experiences. Or let us try to carry

34 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 35
through a new kind of democratic
revolution led by the proletariat. One
thing is certain: If you declare that you
want to carry out a democratic
revolution of the new type led by the
working class, then the party is the key
for this revolution to be carried
forward to socialism.
For in this era of imperialism and
the proletarian revolution, you can not
carry out a bourgeois- democratic
revolution, which as such can exist
independently. If the proletariat is
dispensed with, there will be recessions
and regressions, and no further
progress to socialism.
If you build a revolutionary party
of the proletariat, you must assume
what proletarian revolutionary
leadership means. This means that the
class leading the revolution has the
capacity to bring about socialism, upon
the basic completion of the bourgeois-
democratic revolution. Take land
reform, for example. Land reform is
an anti-feudal measure. In history it
was carried out in bourgeois
revolutions. But if the proletariat has
the leadership, you will first distribute
the land titles of ownership to the
peasants. This means that you are
creating a whole lot of petit owners.
Under the leadership of the working
class, however, cooperatives are built
up immediately. Cooperatives of
people who would otherwise be
independent individual owners and
producers. But this is the beginning of
socialization of land.
And if you reinforce
36 beyond the horizon
industrialization, the surplus rural
population can get industrial jobs. And
so you have fewer and fewer people on
the farms. The most effective method
would be to create state farms. In China,
for example, there were three ascending
stages of cooperatives, up to the level
of people’s communes. Or the
collectives in the Soviet experience, etc.
The working class and its
connection with the party are, in any
case, the key. The working class can
bring about the continuation of the new
democratic revolution and its
transformation into the socialist
revolution.
There are two stages which must be
distinguished. You cannot undertake the
socialist revolution directly in a country
like the Philippines, which is semi-
feudal and semi-colonial. Here you can
not reach socialism directly. First, you
must defeat imperialism, the local
reactionary classes, the compradors,
and the landowners by winning the new-
democratic revolution. Here you need
the People’s War. To realize socialism
is indeed the more peaceful part of the
process when you have already taken
over the power. You only have to be on
your guard against the few
counterrevolutionaries.
Gabi Fechtner: We would still be
interested to know something about the
Second CPP Congress. We’ve heard
that you’ve successfully done it. What
can you tell?
Jose Maria Sison: Indeed, the
December 2017
Second Congress took place, according
to reports that I have come to know.
Prior to this, there were plenary
conferences of the Central Committee
which had the weight of several
congresses.
It is significant that after such a long
time an actual congress could be held
with hundreds of delegates, a truly
comprehensive congress. In this case,
there were 200 delegates, surrounded
by battalions of NPA fighters who
protected them. The process of
conducting this second congress lasted
several months. Since the documents
were prepared, there were frequent
large meetings. Delegates worked
through the documents, without
necessarily being present in the
congress itself.
Because the character of the
Philippine society is still that of a semi-
feudal, semi-colonial country, there are
no radical changes in the program. But
there are certain improvements that will
adapt the program to current facts and
circumstances. For example: When the
first congress was held, there were US
military bases in the Philippines.
Subsequently, after the removal of the
US military bases. there would be
agreements allowing the US to go
anywhere in the Philippines and to
rotate their troops on Philippine
territory. This had to be included in the
new program. But we can no longer
speak of US military bases but US
forward stations within Philippine
military camps.
There were other changes. Thus, the
December 2017 beyond the horizon
program shows that there have already
been various so- called but ineffective
land reform programs. These have
been fraudulent, they did not solve the
land problem.
So there are already important
revisions of the program and
constitution of the CPP. I spoke of 200
delegates, but more than 200
participated, through the meetings that
took place before the actual congress.
The whole party has participated in
drafting and developing the
documents.
There were selected delegates who
did not attend the congress as a matter
of precaution against the possibility of
the enemy attacking the congress. You
have to be prepared for such a thing
and ensure that delegates are not
victims of a massacre by the enemy.
There are instances in history that
entire parties have disappeared
because all the leaders responsible
were at a single gathering and were
massacred. In times of danger, make
sure that there are members of the
Central Committee and delegates of
the party congress who can live on and
continue the life and development of
the party.
The congress also ensured that
there was a good distribution among
the members of the Central Committee
in terms of age. Highly experienced
senior, middle-aged and young cadres
are well represented. The CPP has
made sure that young and middle-aged
members of the Central Committee are
in the majority. The cadres who are still
37
robust, robust to lead the struggle of the
people (peoples struggle), form a
majority. In the revolution, the
commanders at all levels must be
young. If you have too many
commanders who are already 50 years
old, if the army has already grown old, your good wishes. All concerned in the
it is not so effective, not so agile.
If I refer to the example of the
revolution of 1896, the revolutionary
generals were in their twenties. The
generals of the enemy army were in
their fifties.
Gabi Fechtner: We congratulate under the leadership of the working
you heartily on this successful congress class.
ON THE SITUATION IN CATALONIA
What is happening in Catalonia? This
nation, located in several regions where
the culture is Catalan (Valencia,
Baleares, Andorra, …), mainly in the
Spanish State and partly in the French
State, has a quickly evolving political
situation with an unprecedented
political crisis. Since 2015, the
Generalitat Government (the political
organization holding regional executive
and legislative power in this
“autonomous community”, which was
integrated centuries ago into the
Spanish State) has promised to move
towards independence. To this end, the
Generalitat convened a referendum on
October 1, 2017.
The Conservative Spanish
government of Mariano Rajoy (leader
of the Partido Popular, representing the
right wing coming from the Francoism)
under these difficult conditions and
thank you very much for the interview.
And we wish you all the best for
your further revolutionary work.
Jose Maria Sison: I thank you for
Philippines will receive your
congratulations and best wishes. You
can be sure that the Communist Party
of the Philippines will try to become
stronger and realize its revolutionary
tasks for the benefit of the people. The
Philippine revolution will advance
seems ready to use all means at its
disposal to prevent the referendum,
which the Constitutional Court
declared illegal. It should be
remembered that the police searched
the Catalan regional government
offices and seized nearly 10 million
ballots on September 19 and 20, that
14 senior regional government officials
were arrested on September 21, that the
court has subpoenaed more than 700
Catalan mayors, that private companies
that contributed to independence
propaganda have been searched, and
that the Constitutional Court
announced fines of 6,000 to 12,000
euros daily for 24 referendum
organizers until they comply with the
“Justice’s” resolutions. 60 websites
promoting the referendum have been
shut down, the election campaign and
placing of posters for independence
made illegal, and Madrid has placed
the region’s finances under
surveillance to prevent illegal
financing.
The Constitution considers Spain
one indivisible State. In spite of the
existence of different nations within it
(Catalonia, the Basque Country, but
also Asturias, Galicia, Andalusia …),
the legacy of the empire and Francoism
remains profoundly marked in the
organization of the State. The
bourgeoisie continues to celebrate
“Hispanic Day”, and the main right-
wing party, the PP, is the direct heir of
the Francoist bureaucracy. But in
reality, the Spanish bourgeoisie is a
class torn between its imperialist
character and the reality that they have
not achieved centralization of state
power. The country was built on gold
from the colonization of Latin
America, but there was a significant
industrial delay afterward. Moreover,
Spain has not completed its process of
centralization, as France did by
crushing its national minorities much
more effectively with the spread of a
republican Jacobin ideology. Only a
few regions of northern Spain truly
experienced the industrial revolution
in the 19th century, such as the Basque
Country (Euskal Herria), Catalonia
(Catalunya), and Galicia.
These contradictions have created
great misery in the countryside, glaring
economic inequalities, strong national
revendications, and deep political
instability. The majority of the
bourgeoisie is closely linked to the
Catholic Church, openly despises the
people and does not seek to hide it
under a layer of progressivism. In
opposition, the labour movement
developed mainly on an anarcho-
syndicalist and anarchist basis. In
particular, the contradictions in Spanish
society led to reactionary uprising and
then to the civil war of 1936-1939,
which saw the intervention of fascist
powers, and of Mexico and the USSR.
Basques and Catalans mobilized
alongside the Second Republic, hoping
to obtain national independence, or at
least some autonomous status and
liberties.
The defeat of the Republic
temporarily silenced national
aspirations. The anarcho-syndicalist
and anarchist movement was swept
aside, the Communists plunged into
clandestinity, and the bourgeoisie
crushed the proletariat. The democratic
transition begun after Franco’s death
in 1975 merely repainted the façade of
the old authoritarian and nationalist
state: despite the parliamentary form
of the state, Spain has some of the most
repressive laws in Europe. The torture
of revolutionary and independence
activists is common, and it is still not
possible to openly criticize the
monarchy.
But let us come back to the current
situation. Who leads the independence
movement in Catalonia? The direction
of the movement is clearly in the
Catalan bourgeoisie’s hands. In terms
of class, part of the proletariat and of

38 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 39
the bourgeoisie, and the majority of the
petit bourgeoisie are of Catalan
culture. However, “the very rich and
the very poor are Spanish”: the big
bourgeoisie, like the most precarious
proletarians who migrate to Barcelona
and the industrial zones to try their
luck, are closer to Spanish culture.
At the last Diada (National Day of
Catalonia), the national holiday
became a protest for independence and
brought together a million people. For
a decade, the quick economic
development of Catalonia encouraged
the Catalan small and middle
bourgeoisie to openly support the
movement for independence. To
simplify, let us say: for the bourgeois,
it is more advantageous to keep all
taxes in Catalonia than to pay them to
Madrid. Catalonia still accounts for
20% of Spain’s GDP, 30% of its
exports and 50% of its high-value-
added activity! There is a reactionary
idea that “the Catalans” should not
have to sacrifice for the rest the
Spanish population. However, should
the Catalan movement be rejected as
a whole? No. It is a national struggle
with a progressive characteristic
(independence from an imperialist
state). But this is not a revolutionary
struggle. National oppression targets
the people, but also the nation as a
whole.
Revolutionaries of the French State
must follow the situation closely. It is
a potentially explosive situation in
Spain and could have very important
consequences at the European level,
leading to a domino effect in the Basque
Country and elsewhere, for example in
Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is
clear that Madrid did not believe that
the situation would worsen to this
extent. The Conservatives believed that
they were entering into a simple
economic bargain with the Catalan
bourgeoisie, whose participation in the
independence vote they presumed was
an engineered spectacle to mobilize its
electoral base.
But the Spanish bourgeois, whether
conservative or socialist, neglected a
factor: driven by its base, disappointed
by the decline of the Generalitat against
the Conservatives, the Catalan
bourgeoisie went farther than expected.
It can still give up the independence
project and get away with it by doing
what the bourgeois politicians do best,
that is, by theatrics. They may argue that
threats (a Spanish army general
suggested that they would defend the
constitutional order “by any means”)
and repression prevent them from
holding the referendum because of the
ballot seizures and subpoens, websites
closures, and trials and financial
oversight of the Generalitat.
But Madrid plays a very dangerous
game. Civil disobedience is massive in
Catalonia. There have been large
student demonstrations in recent days,
many schools are occupied, and unions
have given notice of a general strike
starting from October 1 if the
referendum was prevented from going
forward. If the local police forces, the
Mossos, still obey Madrid, the
administration will disobey openly.
Searches of public buildings have
shocked the public. And the trials of the
Catalan leaders can push the masses to
go for broke. Here we are faced with a
situation of double or nothing: either
the government temporarily crushes the
independentist movement, or it
radicalizes it and loses its ability to face
popular pressure.
In any case, the next few weeks will
be decisive. Thus, our Party takes the
following positions:
We recognize the definition of a
nation as a stable, historically
constituted community born on the
basis of a community of language,
territory, economic life and psychic
formation that is reflected in a
community of culture.
The Spanish State used and
continues to use force against the
Catalan nation to prevent it from
seceding. We support the Catalan
nation’s right to self-determination. If
the Catalan nation feel the necessity to
secede and thus create an independent
state, it is because it feels oppressed by
the Spanish state. We must support it
right to self-determination.
Comrade Lenin teaches us that,
“The principle of nationality is
historically inevitable in bourgeois
society and, taking this society into due
account, the Marxist fully recognises
the historical legitimacy of national
movements. But to prevent this
recognition from becoming an apologia
of nationalism, it must be strictly
limited to what is progressive in such
movements, in order that this
recognition may not lead to bourgeois
ideology obscuring proletarian
consciousness.” (Critical Notes on the
National Question, 1913)
The bourgeois nationalism of every
oppressed nation possesses
democratic content directed against
oppression – this is what we support.
On the other hand, we do not support
the content aimed at strengthening the
nationalism and privileges of the
national bourgeoisie and which breaks
the class consciousness of the
proletariat by obscuring class
distinctions between bourgeois, petty-
bourgeois and proletarian.
“On the plea that its demands are
“practical”, the bourgeoisie of the
oppressed nations will call upon the
proletariat to support its aspirations
unconditionally…The proletariat is
opposed to such practicality. While
recognizing equality and equal rights
to a national state, it values above all
and places foremost the alliance of the
proletarians of all countries, and
assesses any national demand, any
national separation, from the angle of
the workers’ class struggle. To the
workers the important thing is to
distinguish the principles of the two
trends. Insofar as the bourgeoisie of
the oppressed nation fights the
oppressor, we are always, in every
case, and more strongly than anyone
else, in favour, for we are the
staunchest and the most consistent
enemies of oppression. But insofar as
the bourgeoisie of the oppressed

40 beyond the horizon December 2017 December 2017 beyond the horizon 41
nation stands for its own bourgeois
nationalism, we stand against.” (Lenin,
quoted by Ibrahim Kaypakkaya in The
National Question in Turkey, 1971)
We therefore support the right of
self-determination of the Catalan
nation. And we support the unity of the
CRITICISM AND CONSTRUCTIVE SUBMISSION
REGARDING THE STUDY ON TREATIES, AGREEMENTS
AND OTHER
CONSTRUCTIVE ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN STATES
AND INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS Part II
CORE March 1999
IV. COMMENTS ON CHAPTER I:
SOME KEY POINTS OF
DEPARTURE
40. The unedited final report of the
study (Chapter I: Some key points of
departure) seeks to establish a clear cut
distinction between indigenous peoples
and minorities31 and limit its purview
by “strictly distinguish(ing) between
“minorities” and “indigenous
peoples”32 and to “situations where the
category of Indigenous peoples has
been established beyond doubt”33.
41. We recall the contents of the
working paper by the Chairperson-
Rapporteur, Mrs. Erica-Irene A. Daes,
on the concept of “indigenous people”
(Standard-setting Activities: Evolution
of standards concerning the rights of
indigenous people)34. With regard to the
matter of concept and situations of
indigenous peoples of the world, and
indeed particularly with relevance to
42 beyond the horizon
Catalan and Spanish proletariat against
the interests of the bourgeoisie and
landlords.
October 2, 2017
http://www.redspark.nu
Asia and Africa, the Chairperson-
Rapporteur concluded that
“governments in the Latin American
countries have expressed confidence in
their understanding of the meaning of
“indigenousness” in their own regional
context, rendering an explicit,
negotiated definition of this concept
largely unnecessary”35. She further
concluded that that “it would be
foolhardy to disregard both the
regional and national dimensions of the
concept of “indigenousness”.36 The
need for fully participatory
constructive dialogue, consultations
and negotiations to iron out
inconsistencies at the regional and
international levels as well among
expert opinions cannot be over-
emphasized.
42. The Special Rapporteur has
consistently attempted to justify the
exclusion of some groups from the
December 2017
purview of the study as well as from
participation in the processes of the
working group on the basis of
inapplicability of definition37. The
grounds for this insistence on exclusion
are not clearly enunciated nor are the
specific groups to be so excluded
identified.
43. We recall again the
Chairperson-Rapporteur’s search for
factors specific to “indigenous” in her
working paper, where she opines that
the attempt to distinguish between
long-distance aggression (the blue
waters thesis) and short-distance
aggression is unjustified in the context
of the global situation of indigenous
peoples38. The Special Rapporteur’s
proposed limitation of the mandate he
received for his study to the specific
historical period of colonization, and
therefore aggression, seen in overseas
expansion by European nations only
serves to do deep injustice to the
overall purpose of the work in the
United Nations regarding the
problematique of all indigenous
peoples.
44. It is not clear whether the
Special Rapporteur is attempting here
to not only re-embark into or revive
the debate of the definitions of
“indigenous” and “minorities” in the
context of the work in the United
Nations on these issues, but also to
obscure his own established guidelines
for his research (1991)39. In the end,
with regard to the work in the United
Nations and the Asian and African
indigenous peoples, the study is in
December 2017 beyond the horizon
danger of having no discernible clear
commitment to a stand that
encompasses the indigenous peoples’
problematique world wide.
45. The purpose, mandate and
report of the study on treaties,
agreements and other constructive
arrangements between States and
Indigenous populations must be placed
in its appropriate historical context of
the Commission for Human Rights and
specifically the Sub-Commission for
Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities under whose
jurisdiction the Working Group of
Indigenous Populations was
constituted and still functions.
46. It is also a continuation of the
work initiated by Mr. Cobo’s study,
which has examined the indigenous
issue without pre-conceptions or
prejudice. It must naturally accept as
minimal the standards of the present
international human rights instruments
including the Draft Declaration on
Indigenous Peoples and ILO
Convention 169. Unless a clear
reversal of the position of the Working
Group on major specific concerns and
positions enunciated in this study or the
Declaration is made, the assumption
must remain that subsequent work will
adhere to the basic principles expressed
by these documents. It may of course,
seek to advance or further the minimum
international standards of human rights.
47. The most fundamental of these
is the question of definition.
Indigenous peoples have been and are
still collectively defined by a range of
43
nomenclature and categorization
imposed by various colonial or
mainstream institutions and agencies.
Indigenous peoples must be entitled to
individual identity of their choice as
well as a collective identity40.
48. The study explicitly seeks to
redefine the term “indigenous” as
applicable to populations and peoples
of Asia, Africa and the Pacific,
redefining them, without their consent
as ethnic or national minorities41. This
is unquestionably a denial of the rights
of the indigenous peoples of these
regions, a unilateral, individualistic
interpretation of the term indigenous
and a reduction of the scope of the
global international mandate of the
Working Group, almost completely
excluding certain continents and
regions from its purview. This has
been done, as the report itself admits,
in conditions of few resources and little
information from these regions42.
49. In the case of Asia, only the
Panglong Agreement of 1947, the role
of European charter companies, the
indigenous peoples of Siberia and the
case study of the Ainu of Japan have
been referred to in the final report43.
In the absence of an available
bibliography of the materials studied
from this continent, it is impossible to
assess the extent of research, its
pertinent lacunae or the rationale for
exclusion.
50. The language and content of the
report on the question of self-definition
for the indigenous populations of Asia
and Africa is coloured by an incapacity
44 beyond the horizon
to distinguish the innumerable cultural
and ethnic variances found in these two
vast continents. Furthermore, while the
report acknowledges the fact of
variance, it denies itself a meaningful
and in-depth examination of the
multiple histories of the civilizations
and cultures inhabiting these continents
and thus of the reasonable implications
of such variance. These characteristics
of the report reflect undoubtedly
inadvertent predominance of colonial
and perhaps even racist values that heap
Asian and African peoples into a
homogenous category on the basis of
the regions or continents of their
origin44.
51. These characteristics contradict,
and simultaneously underscore, the
repeated assertion in the study that
assessment of the situation has been
based on incomplete data45, that a de-
centered understanding of historical
processes is essential and that
“ethnocentrism, Eurocentricism and the
evolutionist paradigm” are to be dealt
with critically46.
52. However, in the context of this
study, it may be sufficient to note that
the issue has already been satisfactorily
dealt with in the working paper of the
Chairperson-Rapporteur on the concept
of indigenous peoples47 as well as by
indigenous peoples. The question of
identity has been settled in the
appropriate forum of standards setting
and what remain to be discussed are the
specific rights consequent on the
assumption of such an identity and the
mode of their implementation in the
December 2017
present geo-political realities. It may
be pertinent to point out that once
fundamental questions of this nature
have been settled through negotiation,
it will only retard and disable the
progress of the Working Group in its
mandate to revisit this ground
repeatedly with the intent of revisions
seeking applicability for specific
aspects of the work presently
undertaken by the United Nations.
V. COMMENTS ON CHAPTER II:
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
53.Regrettably, as has been
previously noted, the response from
Asia and Africa to Special Rapporteur’s
questionnaires on the question of
treaties and the appeal from the United
Nations have been inadequate. In
exploring this question, the Special
Rapporteur has emphasized the
necessity for a de-centered view on
culture, society and history 48 .
Moreover, the close and not always
simple connection between the
indigenous problematique and
“colonialism, domination and
assimilationist policies had to be
thoroughly reviewed and
acknowledged”.49
54. The following is an attempt to
provide information in the form of a
case study in Asia pointing out the
connection that the Special Rapporteur
has established.
CASE STUDY OF INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES FROM THE INDO-
December 2017 beyond the horizon
BURMA REGION: EROSION AND
LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY OF
MANIPUR50
55. The peoples of Manipur
comprise a typical Asian indigenous
nation of the Indo-Burma region,
which lost its sovereignty through a
complex process of political and
cultural colonization initiated by
British colonial intervention and
continued by successor states in the
region, in this instance, the Union of
India51. In order to understand this
process of erosion of sovereignty and
self-determination, it is necessary to
review briefly Manipur’s indigenous
forms of self-governance as a
sovereign nation of indigenous
peoples and the process of erosion of
this status.
56. The main agents of this erosion
were illegal military coercion, the
forcible re-structuring of indigenous
land holding and territorial patterns,
the disenfranchisement of indigenous
economic and judicial processes and
the induction of alien systems and
institutions of governance and the
economy by the paramount British.
All this occurred under a mantle of
progress, continued by the successor
governments of India, which has been
in fact a genocidal assault with the
object of assimilation and extinction
of indigenous identity.
57. In this process, treaties,
agreements and other constructive
arrangements with Manipur have been
45
the instruments of disenfranchisement.
These have never been accepted or
endorsed by the peoples according to
their own processes and laws. In fact,
they have been strongly and
consistently repudiated as aggressive,
alien, coercive and therefore, bad in law
by indigenous norms.
58. The sovereign status of Manipur
has never been questioned up to its
annexation by the successor
government to British India, the
Dominion and subsequently the Union
of India. The process of annexation and
subsequent assimilation into post-
British colonial India and its
consequences have been recognized by
the indigenous peoples themselves as
so prejudicial to their survival that this
has never been accepted or undisputed.
59. The range of undemocratic laws
and secret fiats of the Ministries of the
Republic of India legitimizing the
denial of civil rights to the people
backed up by an extraordinarily strong
and active military presence, which
most frequently acts against civilian
protest, should be adequate evidence
that India has taken and continues to
keep the territory of Manipur only by
use of grossest military force. There is
no element of acquiescence from the
people in the assimilation. The
widespread, armed opposition
movement demonstrates this, as does
universal participation in political
movements and protests by civilians
and the regular public discourse on the
situation and its legalities.
46 beyond the horizon
60. The following section includes:
* An overview of the traditional
indigenous governance systems
including the description of some
important indigenous agencies of
governance and their role
* An examination of treaties which
resulted in compromise of sovereignty
of the indigenous peoples in the context
of indigenous law and processes as well
as extant international law
* An overview of the traditional
indigenous governance systems
61. Manipur has been continuously
recognized under various names as a
nation for more than two millennia. By
the time of invasive European colonial
expansion, it had consolidated itself
under a defined predominant system of
governance and an identifiable culture.
The ningthou or meidingu, different in
role and character from mainstream
Indian or European heads of State was
the representative figure of Manipur or
Manipur’s solidarity and unity.
62. Colonial British and later,
Indian perception distorted his
indigenous political identity and role
into that of a typical Indian feudal rajah
or maharajah. This imposed identity
and role was then exploited in order to
colonize the Meetei52, the Naga and
Kuki or Mizo-Chin indigenous
populations.
63. Two fundamental differences in
perceptions of political identity and
structure were introduced. One crucial
difference being the European
December 2017
perception of the congruence of the
“nation” and the “state”, which is in
contradiction to the indigenous
perception of nationhood. The state
as conceptualized in Eurocentric
colonial terms is attributed with
overriding and exclusive hegemony
over the peoples of its territory.
Frequently, in analyzing the status of
indigenous sovereignty the word
“state” is used by indigenous analysts.
This implies a consciousness of
sovereignty, independent governance
and integrity of identity, not to be
confused with the concept of the
European model of Statehood.
64. The second difference is of
territory. In indigenous tradition, this
is non-exclusive, in the context of other
indigenous peoples, whereas that of
post-Westphalia treaty states territorial
hegemony is the foundation of state
entity53. In terms of the indigenous
territorial paradigm, the Manipur
nation extended from the banks of the
Brahmaputra in Upper Assam and the
Cachar district of modern India up to
the banks of the Chindwin
(Khyendwen or Ningthee) River of
modern Burma.
65. The governance system that
was developed and established through
the ages was intricate as well as
conglomerate, contrary to most
systems dominant today or at the time
of colonization. It was typically
decentralized and concerned with
distributing control and authority in a
wide range of autonomous agencies
December 2017 beyond the horizon
and institutions. A major function of
positive law that later developed was
the limiting of power of these centers
of governance and setting up a system
of checks and balances against abuse.
The pre-dominance of multiple models
and overlapping institutions of self-
governance at the village, leikei or
kinship and sagei or tribal level was a
distinctive hallmark of the indigenous
governance system.
66. Three groups as of colonial and
present classification can be described
as co-indigenous peoples of these
territories: the Naga, the Kuki-Chin
and the Meetei peoples. Prior to
colonization, these groups were not
exclusive. For a number of reasons,
including political expediency, sections
or even entire clans or tribes of each
of these groups have occasionally
integrated or re-aligned themselves
with one of the other groups either by
adoption or by conversion. There are
manuscript and other records of
assimilation of some groups today
known as Naga or Kuki-Chin into
Meetei sagei or clans and vice versa54.
The Manipur nation comprised a
number of peoples, some
autochthonous, some descended from
groups known today as Naga or Kuki-
Chin who, over several centuries
evolved a federation known and
recognized since the first British
treaties as the sovereign Manipuri
nation or the indigenous Manipur State.
67. Territorial aggression with the
purpose of conquest is rare. While
47