‘What shall we eat? Shall we eat the Nano car?’

A unique chalval is unfolding in ten villages near Mankol in Sanand. These are prosperous villages. Here the lands are irrigated by the Fatehvadi canal built by the British. The Narmada waters flowing into the old canal has added to the irrigation. Two additional water sources ensure that 15 villages get to plant and reap three crops a year - wheat, rice and millet or pulses.

But today they are a crushed lot. The Gujarat industrialisation rath is about to roll over them and crush them - they who are happy, and happily providing first class grain to the people of Gujarat.
Yes, these are villages served with an order for acquisition of land for yet another industrial estate under GIDC. And yes, they are sure they will be offered a lot of money. But they are farmers. They want to remain farmers. The land has been in their families for generations. No, they do not want to become rich and idle and then have no occupation.

They run from pillar to post. They have appealed to the courts,
to the CM. The Ahmedabad collector has promised them a meeting on January 20.

They have stopped their children from going to school for the last seven days and will continue doing this as a mark of protest. And on Sunday they refused to have their infants take the polio vaccine. "If they are going to kill us by buying us out, what use is it to protect our children? Our lives will be finished."

After India's independence, through the intervention of Sardar Patel, they got their land registered in their own names. "We live with dignity. We pay landless labour Rs150 a day to work on our fields. Working in factories, labour do not get either permanent jobs nor anywhere near the minimum wage. Why should we be forced to give up such fertile land," asks Maganbhai Ratyhod of Hirapur.

Haribhai Jagmalbhai of Charal village asks, "When we are not asking for dole or help from anyone but living our lives self-reliantly, how can our gold yielding farms be snatched from us? We are 38 families living as a joint family in the Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam style."

"We are fifty members amongst a family of eight brothers and we all till our lands. We will lay down our lives but will not part with our land. We will not become beggars," says Jagabhai Gordhanbhai of Gokulpura.

Seven of the villages have 10,000 heads of cattle, small and large and 30,000 people. They make-do well and though all illiterate, have no complaints as long as they are left alone. "Recently while inaugurating the Dholi Dhaja damn's carrying of Narmada waters, the CM asked farmers not to sell their land. Why is he then
snatching away ours? Why this double talk," ask these villagers.
The farmers ask, when the government has appropriated 75% of the farm land in nearby Iyava Vasan, and this is lying vacant, why can't that be used for industry?

Similarly in the Vapi, Ankleswar and Naroda GIDC outfits, thousands of factories have shut down and are lying vacant. Why are these spaces not being used? They already have the required infrastructure and would not require starting from scratch. Why this constant aggression on farmers?

It is well known that industrialists take loans, build factories, abscond and take other loans and continue hoodwinking the public and the tax payer, and this is tolerated. The farmers, trying to avoid debt and financing, trying to make both ends meet with dignity, are continuously hounded. "Politicians like Sadhvi Rutambara talk of saving cows. But they and their agents have sold off the gauchar lands for profit. What is the use of saving cows and profiting from the lands that can feed them?" ask the farmers.

Will these farmers be allowed to continue their rightful protests? Will they too be forced or bought out? And if this continues with our most fertile lands what will we eat? Will prices of basic food not sky rocket even further? Shall we bite the Nano for lunch and have a cocktail of chemicals instead of chai?

Narmade Sarvade, Have Jameen Vechide. Is this where we are headed?