Immersion with tribal communities affected by police abuses and torture
by Praxis Chennai Team
Why we have done it
The spirit of an Immersion experience is to provide an original learning opportunity about a given reality according to the insiders’ perspective by living with them and participating to their daily life activities. This may constitute a real challenge for those who decide to “immerse” as it concretely means abandoning one’s intellectual frame, overcoming personal bias and looking at the reality from a different perspective, that of the insiders, by living like them.
Through such experience, we had the opportunity to fully engage into the understanding of particularly disadvantaged families by living and working with them for 4 days and 3 nights.
How we have done it
The immersion undergone by the Praxis team in Chennai focused on the issue of police abuses and torture against tribal and rural communities surrounding the areas of Biligirirangana Betta, Male Mahadeshwara Betta (Hills), Sathyamangalam and Gundiyal forests (Tamil Nadu – South India). Here is where Veerappan - the notorious Tamil bandit also known as “Robin Hood” of India – used to reside and act.
The NGO People’s Watch (PW), which has been supporting and advocating for the torture victims and their families, acted as local partner.
On the 6th June 2007, the team - composed by Ajai, Sundar, Manjusha, Mary and Raffaella, started its travel to Mettur (Tamil Nadu), where PW has its headquarter.
The exact Immersion location was jointly defined after an orientation meeting with some of the organisation representatives. Among several options, the village of Martahalli in the district of Chamarajanagar (Karnataka) was finally chosen in consideration of its multiple social implications. Families living there had been victims not only of the police abuses in name of Veerappan but also of the forced displacement due to the construction of the Mettur dam under the British colonial administration. Because of this, many people residing on the banks of the Kavery River and surroundings had been forcibly relocated to Martahalli village, which is 115 km away.
Once in Matahalli, the PW district coordinator helped us to identify suitable families on the basis of their willingness and housing capacity to host and having been victims of police abuses. All team members could speak tamil (the local language), except Raffaella. Therefore, Ajai and Raffealla stayed together in the same family while everyone else went alone.
What we have experienced, learned and reflected upon
Mary stayed with a family of 6 members, namely mother, father, son, daughter-in-law and their two children. They own a 3-acre plot of land nearby the forest where they are all engaged in agriculture activities. The parents, now an old couple, live in the farm where Mary spent most of her time sharing their tasks. Though she had minor difficulties, it was a great experience for her because she has been able to adapt to, enjoy and appreciate their simple, unsophisticated style of life.
“Through this experience…
- I got an opportunity to compare the urban and rural living standards
- I appreciated the openness of the rural poor and their ability to trust others
- I realized that they are much richer (than us, urban dwellers) in many ways, particularly in human relationships and traditional, wise knowledge
- I understood that values are maintained because of the close-knit community life they live and share in the villages”
Ajai and Raffaella lived with a family of 5 members, mother (Mary), father (Joseph) and 3 children (one boy and two girls).
It is an agrarian family. They are originally from Mettur, place that they had to leave due to the catchments of the Kavery River more than 50 years ago. One day, while Joseph was working in his fields, the STF personnel came and took him to the police station for interrogations related to his suspected links with Veerappan. He has been tortured extensively for 15 days during which his teeth were pulled out and he was badly beaten up. The scars of the torture that he underwent are still visible.
“Ajai’s reflects:
- The consumer’s way of life (urban life style) has imposed itself very harshly on the producer’s way of life (rural life style) and in a globalising landscape, the rural artisans/producers have little to gain. Of take prices only go down, cost of production keeps going up, productivity of the land keeps going down, access to basic amenities keeps getting more and more difficult and all this in a context of a diminishing role of the State in protecting its agrarian community. After a point, the State begins to play the role of an aggressor and perpetrator of human rights violations against the poor and marginalised.
- Rural producers’ hard work subsidises urban life styles and pathologies.
- I reflected on the fact that, with each layer of being disadvantaged, marginalisation keeps multiplying in the case of our family, which is a Tamil, Christian, displaced victim of torture living in Karnataka State with two daughters.
- I’ve learned about the cycles of manual labour involved in the production of food, access of water etc. and the interrelatedness of rural life style with the production ethos.
- I personally experienced that in a village morning walks are compulsive and…what a feeling to walk back relieved!
- Life is beautiful when we do what it takes to take what is due the sweat of labour
- Is it worth living in the killing fields of society (cities) amidst the pollution and havoc created by the megalomania of a very few people who vow to make life and living unsustainable, unequal, and unjust? Living in the home of a wonderful agrarian family and being given liberal servings of love, hospitality and sustainable wisdom, and living it out with them convinces me that this is the way to the future…. At least for me.”
Raffaella reflects…
- Leaving the crowded, noisy and money/career-oriented urban context, even if for few days, was really energising and inspiring;
- I’ve learnt some new things related to cropping patterns, rural activities in general and its practice!
- Community solidarity and neighbourhood are vital (and probably safer) coping mechanisms that rural poor have in comparison to the poor families living in cities.
- I was surprised of the importance that Indian people, especially in rural areas, still give to the colour of your skin. In particular, white people are considered “superior”, regardless to what they are or do. It was, therefore, significant for me to break this myth by practically affirming that real values and genuine styles of life are universal.
- It was shocking to realise how little villagers knew about the outer world, events and basic technological innovations. It is unacceptable to see how little information and progress benefits are shared with some rural communities.
- I agree with Ajai in regard to the “MORNING WALKS”. I just feel to add, as a farengi, that the lack of even primitive toilets/washing rooms may sometimes be very challenging due to two reasons: you are already on the spotlight because you are “different” (so you are followed everywhere!) and you don’t have the same “skills” of the local people to deal with it.
Manjusha stayed with a 4-member family; an old couple, their younger daughter and grand-daughter.
Up to now, the son-in law has been kept in the central jail of Karnataka with relation to the Nagappa’s murder case. (Nagappa - Minister of Karnataka - got kidnapped and killed by Veerappan). This particular family’s background was quite different form others, because of no livelihood options.
“I understood that…
- more time should be spent with families in order to acquire accurate information
- Building mutual trust (family – immersee) is fundamental to understand the problem in depth.
- Rural poor are more capable and ready to face challenges
- The cultural background existing in my village forces women in a state of hardship without access to any support
- It is possible to gradually share and adopt to the rural poor people’s lifestyle but to share their emotional and psychological stress is much more difficult and challenging.”
Sundar lived with a family consisting of one old couple, their son and grandson. The family livelihood is based on agricultural activities that they practise in their own 4.5 acres of land. 
“I realised that…
- The rural people are minimising their needs with proper utilization of natural as well as material resources
- Alcoholism was affecting almost all families living in that village (this wasn’t Martahalli)”
How the community has felt
In the morning of the forth day, after a long good-bye to our respective hosts, we have all met together again and had a first collective reflection in the house of PW district coordinator. He too was a victim. He shared with us that nobody before had come to that area and lived with them, as we did. And this had a profound impact on all families (and not only those who hosted us). People had never felt so “important” before and this helped them reinforce their confidence and dignity as individuals.
Before noon we left Martahalli, by bus. Once in Chennai, we sat together again to organise our reflections, which are part of this report.
We concluded by agreeing that…
“Immersion was a great experience. We have definitely gained new insights into the life and challenges of disadvantaged families. It has also been an inspiring change from our daily routines, which we wish could have been longer.”
CollaborationsPraxis and the Avahan-India AIDS Initiative
Voices of KosiPeople’s Campaign to Re-assert Issues of the Kosi Basin
ImmersionsUnderstanding development from a people's perspective
VoicemailBlog. Debate. Read. Write
Stock photosPictures of rural India.
20th July 2010 for nationals from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and for foreigners of Pakistani origin and Stateless persons (as per the regulations cited by the MEA, GOI)
30th August 2010 for all other participants
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