by V. I. Itty

It was 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, November 23, 1994. The evening sky over the Vidhan Bhavan, the venue of the winter session of the Maharashtra State Legislature, at Nagpur was turning black as tragedy struck, hardly one kilometre from the assembly building, when more than 113 tribals mostly women and children perished in a disastrous stampede triggered by the cane wielding police who attempted to prevent the estimated crowd of 40,000 from pressing towards the Vidhan Bhavan. The processionists, belonging to the Gowari tribe from the adjoining districts of Bhandara, Yavatmal, Tumsar, Gondia, Parbani, as well as Nagpur, had come to meet the Minister of Tribal Welfare, Mr. Madhukarrao Pichad, who was attending the assembly, and to place before him their demand for inclusion in the list of tribes, which are entitled to reservation in the matter of education and employment.

The citizens of Nagpur had gone to sleep on that fateful Wednesday night, unaware of the gruesome drama that was being enacted on their streets, and even some had walked down the road, without realizing that the clothe bundles lying scattered were bodies of the dead who had perished in the stampede.

It is reported that altogether 13 different organizations with different demands had pitched their camps on both sides of the road leading from the MLAs Hostel to the Assembly building. The various decorated pandals had people who were either on hunger strikes or sit-in-dharnas, to attract the attention of the people's representatives, but without any apparent success. The pandals provided temporary shelter to the protesting masses during dark, chilly winter night.

The whole tragic drama enacted in the afternoon of Wednesday, when an estimated 40,000 strong Adivasis of the Gowari tribe converged on to the Morris College "T" point in Nagpur, at 2 p.m. near the police barricade. They carried nothing except their food wrapped in cloth. They had come to present their demands to the Chief Minister or the tribal welfare minister, for inclusion in the reservation list. But none of them cared to come out of the Assembly building to meet them. The Chief Minister left for Bombay and the Tribal Welfare Minister was too busy with his work. After an agonizing and futile wait for over 4 hours, the crowd became restive and started pressing against the barricade. There was confusion as those at the back were unaware of what was happening up in front. It was 6:45 p.m. and was getting dark. Then everything happened in a jiffy. To check the rush of the pressing crowd, the police made a cane charge, and hell broke loose. The innocent Adivasis not used to dealing with the Khaki uniforms, panicked. They all wanted to get away from there, but all the accesses were blocked. It was all over in a short time and when it was over, there was nothing left except bundles of what looked like clothes, scattered all along the road, the mortal remains of more than 113 innocent, helpless people along with their pitiable smashed, food packages and broken sandals, whose only crime was to try to present their demand for what was their right. Many had run away from the place in sheer fright, and so far nobody knows where they have gone. A medical officer who saw the dead bodies said that there were hardly any blood or injury marks on them, and most of the deaths were caused by the rapture of the lungs, head injury, fracture of the ribs or by sheer asphyxiation. Row upon row of bodies were kept at the government medical college hospital, where the relatives could be seen frantically trying to identify them.

It was all over just one comma, according to Mr. Sudhakar Gajbe, the undisputed leader of 1,500,000 strong Gowari tribals. Mr. Gajbe, an accountant at the regional office of the Maharashtra State Road Corporation himself had lost 3 of his family members in the stampede. When the list of Schedule Caste and tribes was first drafted "Gowari" tribe came after the "Gond" tribe. However, when the list was revised in 1985, the comma between Gond and Gowari disappeared for reasons unknown, and the new name appeared in the Schedule as "Gond Gowari," with the result that the Gowaris have been denied the benefits of reservation in employment and education. Mr. Gajbe sad that the Gowaris and Gonds were two distinctly different tribes, and this fact has been acknowledged right from 1869 onwards when the first settlement survey was carried out by the British government. This fact has been endorsed in subsequent surveys, till the 1985 decision, of all the benefits of reservation. Already the education in the tribe is very low, and with the deletion from the list it has gone down drastically.

The Gowaris traditionally are cattle herders from Vidarbha and adjoining areas, but they neither own them or milk them. They have been associated with the Gonds who dominate the region. They constitute only a fraction of the tribal population and spread over five districts of Vidharbha and hence are not in a position to make any significant impact on the electoral scene anywhere. Similarly, the Machchimarkoli and others, who are also suffering due to the bureaucratic muddle. Mr. Gajbe is sore that no political party has taken up their cause and the Wednesday's tragedy has made them aware of their problem.

Have the 113 people (200 according to tribal leaders) sacrificed their lives in vain? Only time can tell. In the meanwhile, the Tribal Welfare Minister, Mr. Madhukarrao Pichad has resigned and the government has appointed a one man commission to inquire into the tragic incident.

(Compiled from the newspaper reports)

[Mr. V.I.Itty is the General Secretary of Vigil India Movement.]