01. A tribal scene in Andaman and Nicobar

02. OFFICIAL CRIME IN INDIA

See this video to see a tribal scene in Andaman and Nicobar.

Video is missing on youtube now.

Here I must go back to Kerala. I have mentioned about the migration of a huge population of newly converted to Christianity into the Malabar forest areas, from the erstwhile independent kingdom of Travancore, immediately in the aftermath of the cessation of the British rule. The British administered forest department literally went lame when India was formed.

These settler populations cut an immensity of trees and also burnt up huge areas. In fact, each family went to the extent of burning up 10 to 20 acres of pristine forest land. I remember in my childhood, one person coming and mentioning that in his childhood, he was witness to his own father burning huge number of trees. He said, ‘Many were Rosewood and such expensive trees. If I had one such now in my possession, I could have made 100s of thousands of rupees’.

Now, this is the fact of what happened to Indian forests, after the departure of the British. However if one were to go in for a formal study about this, one would be heaped with such writings that the British looted the forests for their war efforts. There are no qualms in mentioning lies. Actually, it was the British collector Henry Connolly, who made the famous Teak Plantation in Nilambur in Malappuram district in Kerala.

Since I have mentioned this looting of forest wealth after the departure of British, I should mention one incident. I have mentioned a hint of this elsewhere.

I was living on my own, after a bitter family issue, in which my daughter was admitted into a village English school without my knowledge or acquiescence. A police DySp (Deputy Superintendent of Police) was also brought into the picture, possibly to act as a mental pressure on me. I did not meet him.

I was called to teach English to a family of rich business owners. I used to go there in the night hours. It was a very cosy atmosphere there and quite friendly.

One night, they all seemed quite preoccupied with some extremely fabulous business opportunity. They were seen making a series of phone calls to various people in the Middle East, who were their acquaintances. It was seen that they had come across around 230 acres of pristine forest area in Wynad district, just next to Calicut district. By some official record manipulation, some official records had been manipulated to show that this forest land was of private ownership in someone’s hand.

That man was to transfer this land into this group’s hands. Now, what was required was a lot of money. To pay that person, and then to pay the huge number of officials who would have to connive. This group was busy arranging a cartel of people to put in the money. The people involved were all powerfully connected to local politicians. So, money would get shared to many layers of the Indian political apparatus.

Everyone was in a mood celebration. One of them told me in a mood of ecstasy, ‘I tried to put up hands around the trunk of one tree. At least three people are required to do this. So big is it!’ Trees of age going back to a thousand years have fallen into the hands of such people, when the accursed idiot Atlee went berserk.

Within a few months’ time, everything was done perfectly. I could see many trucks coming down the mountain road everyday carrying huge trees. The sight was quite painful. Later I heard that the group had started resorts in Wynad. In the forest area, there was an old British bungalow. I can imagine the British family taking care of pristine natural resources, only to have them squandered by rank scoundrels. I was told that one of the new owners did make this remark, it seems: ‘When we came here, there was only a dark forest and a lot of useless tribal folk here. Now look at the place. It is clean. And we have driven out the tribals’ [avattakale].

OFFICIAL CRIME IN INDIA

In India, official crime is a very deep-rooted thing that is connected to so many people. It is quite difficult to remove it. However, there was another time in history in the geographical areas of current-day north India. The terror of the Thuggees, who killed immense trades on the long trade routes. It was Henry Sleeman, the British official who could crush this menace: See what Mark Twain has written about this achievement:

In 1830 the English found this cancerous organization embedded in the vitals of the empire, doing its devastating work in secrecy, and assisted, protected, sheltered, and hidden by innumerable confederates —big and little native chiefs, customs officers, village officials, and native police, all ready to lie for it, and the mass of the people, through fear, persistently pretending to know nothing about its doings; and this condition of things had existed for generations, and was formidable with the sanctions of age and old custom.

If ever there was an unpromising task, if ever there was a hopeless task in the world, surely it was offered here—the task of conquering Thuggee. But that little handful of English officials in India set their sturdy and confident grip upon it, and ripped it out, root and branch! How modest do Captain Vallancey’s words sound now, when we read them again, knowing what we know:

QUOTE: “The day that sees this far-spread evil completely eradicated from India, and known only in name, will greatly tend to immortalize British rule in the East.” END OF QUOTE

If this be the truth, see this. When the tribals tried to take possession of their forest lands, they were beaten up and their female leader taken into custody and slapped within the hearing distance of feeble Indian media men. These individuals who lived a free life in the forests were despoiled further by the use of powerful lower indicant words like Nee (inhi), Edi, Eda, Avan (Oan), Aval (Oal), Avattakal (Aiyitingal) etc. by the Indian officialdom. Anyone would get despoiled. Even a British man or woman, if he or she could be addressed thus, and made to understand the meaning would go into stink level. That is the power in feudal languages, especially when they are used by low quality persons.

Speaking about the persons who did the daylight robbery of forest land, they do not look like villains. They are extremely affable people, and quite courteous.