75 years ago, in a Bengal that was just emerging from the grip of famine, landless peasants rose in protest against feudal landlords and demanded their rightful share, Tebhaga, the two thirds of the crop. Thousands of women participated in this movement that faced state repression with a revolutionary fervour. Today, the reality is not very different.
The farmers have been intensifying their agitation, the women have been at the frontlines of protest sites and the movement has drawn support from diverse sections of the civil society.
For this episode of Bol, Aishe Ghosh, the brave and fiery student leader from JNU, reads Salil Chowdhury’s diatribe against incarceration and persecution in the guise of judicial process, O Bicharpoti. Salil Chouwdhury’s poem from 1947, sung by Aishe, echoes the victory of many decades ago and extends a thumping solidarity to the farmers movement.
বিচারপতি তোমার বিচার করবে যারা
আজ জেগেছে এই জনতা, এই জনতা।।
তোমার গুলির, তোমার ফাঁসির,
তোমার কারাগারের পেষণ শুধবে তারা
ও জনতা এই জনতা এই জনতা।।
O dispenser of justice, the people
have awoken to your injustice.
Your bullets, your gibbet
and the torture in the prisons
will all be brought to books
by the people, the people.
