Mahila Bhoomi Samwad Yatra reaches the Arippa Land Struggle

Our first visit to peringala panchayat a very precious village in UN 669 category the most precious civilisation in world.

A community of 300 kanikara tribes fighting for their land! Government wants to make this a waste dumping plant.

These tribes are being asked to vacate this place as the land has been leased for rubber plant, the women climb up the teees and put noose around their neck when authorities come to harass them they too threaten to hang if not left alone or asked to force to leave their land.

In 2009, the Government of Kerala had set aside a big portion of the 90 acre Arippa revenue forest land for various institutional projects. Adivasis and the landless Dalits in Kerala have been relentlessly protesting against the state, demanding that the surplus revenue land be distributed to the landless Adivasis and Dalits. This article uncovers the timeline of the protest in Arippa forest and reveals the political manipulation of various governments that have come to power. The article also details the decisions of the state government to set up hollow schemes like the Zero Landless Kerala programme, which aims to provide secure land titles to the landless tribals; however, in actuality it seems like an effort by the government to restrict the life of the tribals in government-approved colonies.

In modern societies, land is considered as one of the first signs of power. The landlords are those naturally elevated to the higher ladders of society and historically belonging to the upper caste in the caste hierarchy. Whereas, those who have been pushed to live on roadsides or forced to live in colonies, are people who reside far below in the social, political and cultural hierarchies, disconnected from the caste system and lying at the foot of the social ladder.

Historically, the Adivasis and Dalits, who together comprise 10 percent of the total population of Kerala, had never been land owners. Although an integral part of Kerala’s agricultural economy for centuries, the Adivasis and Dalits never held any records of possession. Most of the land was owned by the Namboothiris (the higher caste Brahmins in Kerala), the Nairs (a warrior class belonging to the Kshatriya caste), wealthy Christian Janmis (land owners) and few rich Mappilas (Muslims of Kerala). The Dalits and Adivasis cultivated the land for land owners or worked as agricultural labourers. Besides, due to a lack of modern education among the Adivasis and Dalits, these landless people were all the more forced to be dependent upon land for sheer survival.