Gaura Devi and the Chipko-Reni Andolan
51 years ago, the Reni resistance in Uttarakhand gave the Chipko agitation a clear shape and a certain shine
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The Himachali labourers were told to remove their caps and the windows of the bus were shut on the morning of March 26, 1974, when it started from Joshimath town to Reni village in the border district of Chamoli. A Forest Department team followed in a jeep. The vehicles entered the forest from the less used pathway along the banks of the Rishi Ganga, which emerges from the Nanda Devi sanctuary.
A girl from Reni saw the men climbing up towards the forest. The men of the village had gone to town. She ran to the head of the Mahila Mangal Dal (MMD), Gaura Devi, and told her about outsiders approaching the forest. The MMD was a small organisation. The women would sit at the back during the Chipko meetings at times. Gaura herself had not attended any such meeting, although her son had spoken about the gatherings.
It was around 11 am, the time for cooking and household chores. Gaura Devi left her house and other women quickly gathered around her. With Gaura Devi were 20 women and seven girls, who proceeded towards the Sitel forest path. Taking a shortcut, they reached where the labourers had gathered for cooking and plans were afoot to fell trees.
As they saw the women climbing up, panting, they were surprised as well as shocked. The women told the labourers not to cut the jungle. “This is our parental home, our maika. We get wood, grass, herbs and vegetables from here. If this jungle is cut, the hills will fall on our village and there will be landslides and floods. Our bagads (farmland on the riverside) will be washed away. Don’t destroy our maika. Don’t destroy our home,” they pleaded.
Seeing the meals being prepared, the women told the workers to eat and then come down with them. Some of the contractor’s men and forest employees were drunk. They shouted angrily at the women and accused them of interrupting their work. A drunk forest official with a gun stumbled towards the women. Seeing him approach, Gaura Devi paused for a moment and then opened the buttons of her woollen garment. “Here, shoot me and cut down my maika and take it away!” she said.
The Rishi Ganga flowed below and the mountains rose above towards Nanda Devi. Her challenge was met with stunned silence. This was an extraordinary moment in Uttarakhand’s history, comparable to January 13, 1921, when in Bageshwar a pledge was taken to stop carrying loads (forced and unpaid labour) for colonial officials, or to April 23, 1930, when in Peshawar, Garhwali soldiers refused to fire upon unarmed Pathans/Khudai Khidmatgars.
Now, in March 1974, in the upper Alaknanda valley, it seemed as if through Gaura Devi, not just Reni village but all of Uttarakhand and all the forest-dwellers of the country had spoken. The labourers, the drunk henchmen and the employees were rattled. Somebody scolded the gun-toting man and disarmed him. The labourers started moving downwards. The drunken men called themselves ‘high caste men’ and abused the women as ‘low caste’. Meanwhile, the women stopped the labourers and asked them to eat before trekking down.
Chandi Prasad Bhatt.
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Govind Singh Rawat. Photos: Dr Shekhar Pathak
As an Army vehicle was seen moving towards Malari, the forest staff thought the Chipko activists might have come. Not finding their associates and labourers around, they started the descent. They picked up their sabbals (crowbar or iron rod) and axes. Everybody came down to the road. Seven women stayed behind. They used the sabbals to shake the cement strap and broke it, closing the only way to the forest.
The 50-year-old Gaura, 52-year-old Moonga and others had all come to the road. Near the bridge lay sacks of rations. The women sat down on the junction of the forest track and the road. The contractor’s men called Gaura Devi aside in the evening, threatened her and even spat on her. They felt all this had happened because of this woman who was not scared of the gun. Gaura Devi tolerated all this silently. The women continued to sit there through the night and sang songs about Nanda Devi and local deities. Gaura Devi recalled they did not raise any slogans. When words transform themselves into action, there is no need to say much.
***
The morning of March 27 dawned. From the summit behind Dhauli-Rishi Ganga rivers, the sunlight descended slowly. The women saw their forest smile.
By 9 am, Govind Singh Rawat from Joshimath and Chandi Prasad Bhatt and others from Gopeshwar had arrived. Ignorant of Karl Marx and the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, these women had made all these leaders and activists proud. Hayat Singh did not lose a moment in taking Bhatt, Rawat and others to the women, who greeted them with folded hands.
Gaura stepped forward: “Whatever we did was the right thing. We are not remorseful or scared. We did not hit anybody. We spoke to them with love. If the police arrest us, we have no fear. We saved our maika and bagads.” She led them to the dirt track where they had broken the connecting cement strap above the Rishi Ganga. The women narrated the chain of events, but did not speak about the gun being trained on them or being spat on the face. Perhaps they did not want the men to lose their jobs.
Though Rawat, Bhatt and their associates were behind the awareness campaigns and protests germinating in these border villages, the ‘promises’ made by them had received the protective cover of the unprecedented action taken by these women.
In the evening, a demonstration was held. The labourers felt that the women would get the men to beat them up. They were told that the activists had no quarrel with them, their bosses or forest employees. The women of Reni had to save their forest and that had been done. Thus assured, the labourers also came to the place of the demonstration.
Those who failed to cut the trees and those who had succeeded in saving them were both listening to Bhatt with attention. He was praising the actions of the women and of the need to take this struggle further. Rawat said he had never been so happy as with this action of resistance. A decision was taken for holding a demonstration on March 31. By now, the men of Reni village had come back from Chamoli after collecting the money pending for years for their land taken by the Army after the 1962 India-China war. They were proud of the women but found the chain of events hard to believe.
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For the next four days, the activists and labourers stayed there. Different groups were given the responsibility of guarding the jungle, labourers and rations. The women came from the village and arranged for food. Slogans were raised daily. There was conversation and songs.
On March 31, 1974, an impressive demonstration was held. It was as if all of Dhauli valley had gathered on the banks of the Rishi Ganga. They came with the musical instruments of Nanda Devi temple, used for the first time for social protest purposes.
At this meeting, the villagers and activists described the movement in their own ways. The most recent victory was celebrated, with some speakers tracing the sequence from Gopeshwar, Mandal, Phata and Reni and of the need to prepare for the future. The village representatives called for taking forward the fight and the need to be watchful over the forest that had been saved.
The Reni resistance gave the Chipko agitation a clear shape and a certain shine. It gave to the Himalayan mountains, the Indian subcontinent and the world the compelling message of understanding the multi meanings of forests. Who will not be proud of this resistance!
The Chipko chronology
State takeover of forests starts after 1878, and forest settlement of Kumaon and Garhwal from 1911-17.
Jungle satyagraha held before and after 1920; Forest Grievances Committee formed in 1921. Reserved forests given back to the community.
Forest Act of 1927 enacted; protests continue in 1930-31, and in 1942.
Recommendations of the report of Kumaon Forest Fact Finding Committee, 1959-60, not implemented.
Alaknanda flood of 1970 compels communities to understand how the fragile ecology and destruction of forests are resulting in landslides and floods.
First big rally against the forest policy and for forest rights held in Gopeshwar in 1971.
Protest processions held in 1972; ‘Chipko’ terminology used for the first time in 1973.
All-party Sangharsh Samiti formed under the guidance of DGSM (Dasoli Gram Swaraja Mandal), parent organisation of Chipko Movement.
First direct action in April 1973; Symonds company withdraws from forest cutting. Phata Chipko Movement leads to no tree being cut.
Awareness tour by Chipko activists in villages of Dhauli.
Reni forest auctioned; Reni women stop cutting of trees. The Reni Chipko Committee calls for a complete ban on tree felling in the catchments of major tributaries of the Alaknanda river.
Chipko spreads in Uttarakshi, Almora-Nainital. Uttarakhand Sangharsh Vahini formed in Gopeshwar in 1977. Janata Party fails to address Chipko demands.
Forest Conservation Act of 1980 imposes ban on green felling above 1,000m, lease of forests to industrial houses cancelled.
Chipko diversifies to other movements and constructive work 1980 onwards.
— The writer is the author of ‘Chipko Movement: A People’s History’ and the editor of Pahar
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