NON - VIOLENT STRUGGLE - AN INDIAN EXPERIENCE

Flurina Danzeisen

Selina Schulz

This picture of 100 people walking along the beach, carrying green-white flags and singing, will stay in our mind for ever.

It all began with our wish to see more of the world after finishing 12^th class. When we got to know about CESCI (Centre for Experiencing Socio Cultural Interaction) students programme we decided to go to India. We choose this programme because we wanted to get to know the country not only from a tourist view. During the two weeks programme we learned a lot about India, its culture and problems. Here we also heard the first time about the people’s movement Ekta Parishad. To see how Ekta Parishad works the CESCI-staff suggested us to participate in Tamil Nadu’s Bhoomi Yatra. This Yatra was organized to draw attention to the still affected Tsunami area of Tamil Nadu.

Together with eight other foreign students we arrived in a small village near Poompuhar where we joined the padyatra group. They sat in the shadow of a temple having lunch break and offered us something to eat. Between all the new people to whom we got introduced there was one face we recognized, P.V. Rajagopal. We got to know him as a strong personality who, in spite of his serious work and his responsibility, never lost his humor and his closeness to the people.

After the short rest we started walking in two lines and shouting slogans we left the village behind and walked in between rice fields and palm trees. Reaching the next village, wee were heartily welcomed by the villagers with flower garlands and Kumkum. We all sat together with the people of the village, tea was served and to open the following meeting a song was sung. Ekta Parishad was introduced and then the word has given to the people of the village. They were encouraged to speak about their life situation. For us it was the first time that we heard from first hand about the problem they have to face. What a difference it makes if you read about poverty or if there stands a poor man in front of you and tells you about his struggle for surviving. We felt much moved and the stories we heard made us think and discuss. When Rajagopal spoke to the villagers in his understandable for everyone and encouraged them to fight for their rights, we felt that there is hope for these people.

This was of going to the poor people, listening to them and informing them about their rights was new to us. Normally the poor are expected to fight for improvement of their situation themselves. But how can they fight if they don’t know about their rights, they don’t know whom to address and nobody is listening to them? We are impressed by the work Ekta Parishad is doing and we see it as the most sensible way to treat these problems.

After staying in Tamil Nadu for three months thanks to CESCI we got the opportunity to go to Delhi for joining the Chetawni Yatra for the last days. When we arrived in Delhi after a long journey we felt as if we were in an other country. Everything was different: the people, the landscape, the food and the language. We couldn’t understand anymore what the people were talking about. The more we were happy when we arrived at Jantar Mantar and met our Ekta Parishad friends of Tamil Nadu Yatra.

In the suburbs of Delhi, on the Highway there is traffic jam. Between overfilled buses, horning lories and overtaking motorbikes there were two straight lines of walking people moving through the chaos. In spite of different languages, status and origins, the joint aim makes the 450 people from all over India a unity. From the outside visible through the dominating colors of green and white from the inside feelable through the unbreakable motivation of every participant. The atmosphere pushed up by the cultural group songs and the slogans caught us. Even walking for hours on the asphalt in heavy rain in the early morning doesn’t bother us. After one day of waling when he had tired legs we were impressed by the effort of the people that had been walking now for fifteen days from Gwalior to Delhi.

As a support and solidarity action a second big group of activists and landless people were sitting at Jantar Mantar and fasting from dusk to dawns. The motivation and the atmosphere we had experienced during the yatra weren’t missing at the Dharna. We didn’t understand much of the speeches that were held by important guests that came to show their solidarity because they were in Hindi. Therefore we enjoyed the cultural performances very much.

This Chetawni Yatra was meant as a warning for the government. If the government doesn’t agree to the demands of this years Yatra, there will be a much bigger action next year: Janadesh 2007. We had many people talk about this Janadesh. Because unfortunately we will not be able to come to India at that time we re glad that we could participate in this Chetawni Yatra. The Yatra in Tamil Nadu was much smaller and therefore easier to organize. In the Chetawni Yatra we got an idea of what it means to organize a Yatra in the extend of next year: 25,000 participants, food and enough drinking water for everyone.

The motivation of the activists is a feature of Ekta Parishad. The believe that one can change something in this world is something world is something we miss in Switzerland. It could be a matter of the problems that are not that bad. Out country is smaller than many states of India which makes it easier for the government to handle the appearing problems. We are happy to see that even in a big country like India there can be positive results achieved through non-violent action. We are convinced that the next years Janadesh will be a big success.

(Visiting students from Switzerland)