Godavari Parulekar – Pioneer of the Warli Tribal Revolt in Maharashtra
A revolutionary salute to the memory of Comrade Godavari Parulekar, pioneer of the Warli tribal revolt in Thane-Palghar district, only woman National President of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), first woman Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), author of the Sahitya Academy award-winning book ‘The Awakening of Man’, and the first woman lawyer in Maharashtra. So many firsts to her credit. From each of these accomplishments Godutai’s extraordinary work can be easily imagined.
Background
Godavari Parulekar, nee Gokhale was born in a progressive family in Pune. The rich and famous Solicitor Laxmanrao Gokhale was a cousin of the great freedom fighter Gopal Krishna Gokhale. He was a social reformer and also an advocate of girls’ education. He encouraged his daughter Godavari to pursue law. But with an intention to make his daughter a successful lawyer like him. Godutai passed the exam, becoming the first woman lawyer in Maharashtra. She could have easily practiced law and become a successful lawyer, rolling in money and all privileges.
However, kicking away all such prospects as material success, fame, career, and the benefits of future generations, the sensitive Godutai plunged into the freedom struggle. In 1932, she took part in Satyagraha at Mahatma Gandhi’s call, and was thrown into jail for some time by the British. Her father was a Moderate, and hated such agitational methods. He threw her out of his house, disowned her from his huge estate, and left a ‘princely’ amount of Rs 25 for her. She took to social service in the Servants of India Society in Mumbai, organized the working class, served a two-year jail sentence during the freedom struggle from 1940-42, and finally came to the communist ideology, which is the only hope of the working people. In 1939, she married Shamrao Parulekar, another revolutionary like herself, also a freedom fighter and a communist.
In 1942 Shamrao was given the responsibility by the AIKS to organize peasants in Maharashtra. The Parulekars moved in several districts of the state for three years, and initiated the peasant movement under the red flag of AIKS, first in Thane district, then elsewhere. The first conference of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha was held on 7 January 1945 at Titwala in Thane district. Godutai and her comrades along with the progressive cultural group of the Communist Party covered over 700 villages on foot and addressed 160 public meetings for this conference. Shamrao was elected the first general secretary and Godutai one of the joint secretaries of the new organization in Maharashtra.
Later, she would be elected the President of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha for many years. In 1986, she would be elected President of the All India Kisan Sabha in its Golden Jubilee Conference at Patna in Bihar.
The Plight of Warli Tribals
Fifteen Warli (the name of a tribe) tribal delegates from the Umbargaon-Talasari-Dahanu area of the then Thane (now Palghar) district attended the Titwala Kisan conference. And within six months, inspired by this conference, the Warli Adivasi Revolt began. It would be written in golden letters in the history of the peasant movement of India.
Till the 19th century, the tribals in this area were the owners of all the forest land. But with the full backing of British rulers, the landlords and moneylenders robbed their land and forced these original owners to render all services to the landlord for free, reducing them to bonded labourers and debt slaves for generations. The wife of the debt slave was also the slave and mistress of the landlord. Massive rents and illegal exactions abounded. Exploitation and oppression by the government forest department went on relentlessly. The courts, police and administration were completely controlled by landlords. There was no redress anywhere.
Many heart-wrenching incidents are quoted in the writings of Godutai herself and others. An Adivasi named Rupji was tied to a tree and whipped mercilessly till the flesh of his back split, for just eating a mango from his landlord’s tree. Another tribal named Zipar Jawaliya (who later played a militant role in the Adivasi Revolt and was felicitated by Harkishan Singh Surjeet in the golden jubilee year of the Adivasi Revolt in 1995) was yoked to a plough, replacing a bullock in the pair, for not sending his just delivered wife to work, which was the order of his master. Warli women were tortured and molested in front of their husbands. It was a common thing for them to make obscene remarks to the women who worked for them, to touch them, pinch them, push them and get them alone into the corners to molest. In another incident, an Adivasi was burnt alive in a coal furnace, just because he spoilt some of the coal. Burning alive, burying alive was not rare.
When the Parulekars moved around in this area, such were the horrendous and brutal conditions of the Adivasis. Poverty, misery and destitution knew no limits. Godutai and Shamrao Parulekar were distraught to see the inhuman condition of the Warli tribals in Thane-Palghar district who were serving their landlords as bonded labourers for generations. Both of them decided to take up the struggle to free these poor tribals from the stranglehold of rich landlords. This revolt was an integral part of the various glorious pre-independence peasant struggles led by the AIKS against landlordism and feudalism, like Tebhaga in Bengal, Punnapra Vayalar in Kerala, Surma Valley in Assam, the tribal struggle in Tripura and the glorious Telangana peasant armed uprising in Andhra.
First Phase of Adivasi Revolt
Keeping the promise to help in their struggle, the Kisan Sabha held a large convention at Zari village in Talasari tehsil on 23 May 1945. 5000 Adivasi men and women made the venue an iconic one. It was addressed by Shamrao and Godavari, and it gave the clarion call to launch an uncompromising struggle around four main and simple slogans. These were: Do not cultivate the private land of the landlord unless he pays in cash the daily wage of 12 annas. Do not render any free service to the landlord. Resist him if he assaults you. You must all unite.
Within a day of the Zari convention its message had reached everywhere in the jungle. On the strength of cent per cent unity, the Adivasis themselves broke their century-old chains, and within just three weeks, forced labour was abolished once and for all. Landlords were terrified at the new-found unity and might of the Adivasis, and so the assaults and torture also automatically stopped. The Adivasi peasants refused to cultivate the lands of the landlords free, and demanded wages at rates fixed by the Kisan Sabha. In the face of this revolt of unprecedented intensity, the landlords had no choice but to yield. There was no looking back then.
Second Phase of Adivasi Revolt
After the glorious victory in the first phase, the second and more difficult phase began. The Warlis went on strike demanding a minimum wage of Rs 2.50 for cutting 500 pounds of grass. This time the landlords refused to yield and plotted a conspiracy with the British police force. A false message was sent to the Adivasis that Godutai was going to address a meeting on the night of October 10 at Talwada village; the landlords were planning to attack her; so the Red Flag had directed all Adivasis to reach there with lathis and sickles to defend her. This message went to every hamlet and by midnight over 30,000 Adivasi peasants gathered at Talwada, many of them walking more than 100 km to reach there. At the same time, the police were informed that a huge armed Adivasi mob had gathered for killing the landlords. The treacherous plot worked. Firing by the British regime was its culmination. Five Warlis were killed in the firing. The first martyr of the Adivasi Revolt was Jethya Gangad. The number of wounded was large.
Among the wounded there was a boy of 12 years of age. And still the gathering refused to disperse. For 15 hours they defied bullets which were showered on them from time to time. Firing failed to influence them to move from the place and it was difficult to guess how long they would have continued to remain there if a Kisan Sabha worker had not arrived there at 3 pm on October 11 and dispersed the gathering.
For 15 hours all the Adivasis had protected the Red Flag which they had hoisted by shielding it with their bodies. As the police van used to pass by the spot and the police opened fire, they crowded round the Red Flag. They thought that the police were aiming to shoot the Red Flag, and they felt it to be their sacred duty to protect it at the cost of their lives. Firing did not and could not have succeeded in dispersing the meeting. A word from the Red Flag for dispersal was necessary for the purpose. They would rather pay any amount of price in life rather than disperse without the permission of the Red Flag.
After this firing, the government let loose a reign of terror. Thousands of Adivasis were put behind bars, beaten and tortured. Their wives were threatened with rape, the right to assembly was banned for months. Shamrao, Godavari and other leading comrades were externed from the area. But in spite of all this repression, the strike went on undeterred. Finally the landlords were forced to concede the demand for fair wages. The second phase of the Adivasi Revolt had achieved victory.
Gains of the Struggle
In Godutai’s own words, “In this struggle, the Adivasis rose to magnificent heights of courage while the government, landlords and moneylenders sunk to the very depths of inhumanity in their reign of repression. Those who had marched into the battlefield with unlimited power and money, and were aided by armed police and goondas, were made to bite the dust before half-naked, half-starved men and women, whose only weapons were a capacity for self-sacrifice, invulnerable solidarity and unflinching dedication. Out of this battle arose the class-conscious peasant.”
Godutai not only freed these tribals from the landlords, but awakened their pride and self-consciousness as human beings. She also ensured that this movement would not remain individual-centered. She developed thousands of activists, and instilled political awareness among the party members by holding week-long camps on a regular basis. As a result, even in the fourth generation today, Godutai and the Red Flag have retained their relevance. Even today, Thane-Palghar district remains a major center of the revolutionary movement in Maharashtra because of this vision. Otherwise, once the land (or freedom) is obtained, succeeding generations rarely appreciate and value the struggle, hard work, and sacrifices that the previous generations have made.
Challenges of Today
Of course, the nature of today’s struggle is not the same. Bonded labour disappeared completely. Wages increased substantially. For the first time, thousands of tribals became the owners of their land. With the initiative of veteran leaders like Lahanu Kom and L B Dhangar, educational institutions were started. A new generation of educated tribal activists developed and is now leading the movement.
Now the struggle is to implement the Forest Rights Act and get forest lands vested in their names. During Godutai’s time, the Congress party, representing the landlords and money lenders, was their direct enemy. But in the changed situation, the biggest threat to the movement is that of the corporate-communal forces led by the RSS-BJP. Warlis (or any tribal community for that matter), who never even had a place in the Hindu varna hierarchy, are now targeted by these fanatics. RSS activists distribute huge amounts of money through various social (?) organizations for festivals which were not even known to the tribals, like Ram Navami, Ganesh Utsav, Navratri etc. They spread superstitions especially among women, and arrange for free pilgrimages to temples. The younger generation is getting influenced and carried away by free drinks, parties and DJs. All these evils will have to be combated by us with imagination and determination.
Defending our principles and values, and underlining that we are standing tall because of the AIKS and the Left movement has become part of today’s struggle. The AIKS and other progressive mass organisations including SFI have already initiated measures to deal with these new changes. A systematic effort is being made now to get fresh, young, educated activists. But looking at the surrounding situation, this challenge is not easy to meet. To maintain the legacy of Shamrao and Godavari Parulekar, strengthening the peasant struggle and the Kisan Sabha is vital.
Another aspect which fascinates me about Godutai is that she is hardly described as a woman leader. That is simply because she wasn’t so in a traditional way. She was a farmer’s leader. She took not only women, but the entire tribal community into confidence and organized them. In the Warli tribal society, leave aside women’s emancipation, the men themselves were so backward, suppressed and trapped. Tribal men who were draped in a simple waist cloth, had never had an opportunity to sit in a chair in their life. They were sure that a chair was not for them. Fighting for their just rights as citizens was a far cry. Imagine from where Godutai had to start her work!
Today, the area is quite developed. National and state highways touch almost all tehsils, maximum villages have electricity, public transport to major areas is available, mobiles make communication easier. Still contacting our activists in every pada/village is not easy. It boggles the mind how nearly eight decades ago, Godutai could have built a movement, gained, sustained and justified the people’s trust when none of these facilities were there. And her example inspires us to work much harder.
I will conclude this piece with a very heartening memory of Godutai. She was the chief guest in our sixth Maharashtra State Conference of the SFI held at Aurangabad in 1988. In her emotional and equally inspiring speech, she had appealed to the delegates to become full time Kisan Sabha activists after completing their education and work in the (then) Thane district among the Warli tribals. Many of those delegates are working today not only in Thane district but also in other parts of the state.
Today, the way in which our activists are working in Thane-Palghar district, with very meagre or no compensation, living in remote areas, walking for hours to just attend a meeting is simply amazing. Seeing their persistence and loyalty to the cause, their tenacity and hard work to maintain and strengthen the movement, had Godutai been alive, she might have given them the exactly opposite advice. She would have asked these tribal activists to go to other parts of the state and build a stronger organization. Such is the legacy of the Warli Adivasi Revolt.
Let us move forward and build a stronger movement so that the next generation gets inspired to fulfill the dreams of Godutai and all our leaders of an exploitation-free society!
Long Live Godavari Parulekar!
Long Live Revolution!
– Prachi Hatiwlekar is the General Secretary of AIDWA Maharashtra State Committee