Betwa Sinchai Panchayat

Betwa sinchai panchayat is on the middle/tail end of the canal and had about 16 villages in its jurisdiction demarcated on hydraulic basis, and had in total about 15-20 members in the sinchai panchayat. The meeting for nomination and selection of members of Betwa sinchai panchayat was done in Betwa village in the late 1980s, and farmers from nearby villages (Chapna, Amla, Saronj, Karamkheri, Radhakheri, Sadhai, Kanakheri, Sagwaan, etc.) that were notified to be part of Betwa sinchai panchayat came for the meeting held at Betwa village. Although despite prior notification about the time and venue for the meeting by the chowkidaar (watchman) from the irrigation department there wasn’t representation from all the 16 villages (Samar Malik, December 9, 2011 and Bhagwan Singh, December 10, 2011). Approximately 40 villagers came to Betwa village for selecting the sinchai panchayat members, now almost three decades ago. It is noteworthy, that in the late 1980s, this region had very poor connectivity and there were only fair weather roads in the area.

Moreover, there were very few farmers who had motorcycles or any other mechanized means of transport (Samar Malik, December 9, 2011). Mode of commute was mostly on foot or on bicycles / motorcycles, if (some) farmers owned them. Given this context, presence of about 40 farmers for village meeting was considered (by farmers) a good turnout for selection of sinchai panchayat members and president. Officials from the irrigation department and district collector’s office were also present at the meeting held in Betwa village, and were responsible for convening the meeting and documenting/reporting the entire process (Field Notes, December 10, 2011).

Given, that there wasn’t representation from all the villages delineated under the sinchai panchayat for this meeting, the villagers present nominated sinchai panchayat members mostly from Betwa (six members), Saronj (three members), Sadhai (one member), Karamkheri (one member), Chapna (one member) and Amla (one member) villages. Farmers present also nominated few members from villages missing representation in this meeting including one member from the dalit (belonging to scheduled caste) community (Samar Malik, December 9, 2011). There was, however, no representation of women, even for the sake of tokenism, in Betwa sinchai panchayat, which is not surprising as co-opting women in the sinchai panchayat is not elaborated in the Irrigation Act 1931 (c.f. GoMP, 1931).

Samar Malik from Betwa village was the former president of Betwa sinchai panchayat. He describes the entire election ‘process as just a formality’ (ibid.). Explaining the process of his nomination and selection as president, he posits:

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“My name was proposed for president in the meeting held in Betwa village. I was not considered an advanced farmer in agricultural practices, but was educated and an expert in talking to officials. People did not want to ruin their work, so they thought that let us propose his name (…). All influential people and big farmers had proposed my name like the former tehsildar from Betwa village; Nahan Singh from Saronj village, who was former sarpanch (leader of Betwa Panchayat) and is a Congressi (person associated with Congress party); Bhagwan Singh from Saronj; Rakesh Sharma from Amla, etc.

Everyone knew my political affiliations were with Congress Party and this was synchronous with the political leanings of some of the other farmers who nominated my name. Thus, there was huge uproar to my nomination as president in the meeting.

People who belonged to the BJP camp objected to my nomination, for instance, Kanhaiya Lal Saxena and Bhawar Singh who were from my village, also opposed my candidature.

However, this opposition did not change the election result, as majority was on my side including support from farmers who were affiliated with BJP. So all the big people shouted at those opposing my candidature and shut them up. Vote was not given on party lines but on the basis of personality of the candidate in the end. The people who were opposing me were less educated (had studied up till secondary school or lesser)”

(Interview, December 9, 2011).

Box 7.1 provides a short profile of Samar Malik, which further substantiates the reason for him being elected as Betwa sinchai panchayat president.

Box 7. 1:Profile of former Betwa sinchai panchayat president

Samar Malik is an active septuagenarian. He comes from the Muslim community, which is a minority community in Betwa sinchai panchayat. Despite being from the minority community he was elected president of the sinchai panchayat around 1990. His family owned 14.56 hectares of land in 1980s, when the land reforms had not yet happened, and his father and the three brothers owned this land collectively. Currently, he owns about 6.07 hectares of land. He completed his secondary schooling from nearby area, and completed his senior secondary school from Bhopal. Samar Malik completed his undergraduate degree in 1969 and started teaching in a school close to Betwa village. He taught in two schools in the area for 15 years, and simultaneously during this period studied law in Vidisha. After completing his law degree, he resigned from his teaching job and started practicing law between 1975 and 1990 at the district headquarters. Samar Malik discontinued his law practice and returned to Betwa village in 1990 after his father died. Since then he has been practicing agriculture in this region, though, he does not practice hands on agriculture - all agricultural work is done by hired labourers. After his return to Betwa he was selected the sinchai panchayat president.

Additionally, in mid 1990s, he was member of bees-sutra samiti of the Congress Party at the block level for five years.

Samar Malik has sharp memory and recounts with clarity the events that led to constitution of sinchai panchayat for the first time in this region. He also recalled how WALMI was constituted under the aegis of some American funding organization (referring to USAID). Evidently, the WALMI officials and staff communicated this to him. Samar Malik is astute and agile for his age, and is still actively involved in his (agricultural) occupation.

Source: Interview, Samar Malik, December 9, 2011

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From description in Box 7.1, it becomes evident that Samar Malik was not merely nominated. Rather his selection/election needs to be viewed in context of salience of structures i.e. he was materially endowed (owned 14.56 hectares of land), had access to education and thus privy to knowledge/information. There were not many farmers in Betwa sinchai panchayat who had similar capacities. Additionally, he was well travelled, which was rare during that period.

To elaborate further, the process of selection of farmers as sinchai panchayat members by the villagers during the meeting was based on several criterions. First, perception of farmers about the nominee being progressive and active i.e. someone who will bring new knowledge and information to them For instance, Bhagwan Singh, from Saronj was un-educated but considered a progressive farmer who tried new agricultural practices (Interview, December 10, 2011). Thus, he was nominated to be one of the members of sinchai panchayat from Saronj.

Second, was the educational qualification of the nominees. During this period, there were not many people who were educated in this region. In fact the literacy rate is still poor in this region. So, farmers present for the meeting nominated literate farmers, for instance, Samar Malik as president, and Mohan Lal from Samaykheri as member of sinchai panchayat. Maharaj Singh Jat from Saronj, another member of sinchai panchayat elucidates that during the meeting Samar Malik was selected as president as farmers stated ‘you are a lawyer, you should take some time out and get involved in management as that can improve the situation’ (Interview, December 11, 2011).

Third, was how vocal the nominated members were in their respective villages and in their interaction with outsiders, for instance, officials from the local district and block office.

Fourth, critical factor was ownership of landholdings (Field Notes, December 9, 2011). Although, members of sinchai panchayat did not per se, deem landholding as an important criterion for their nomination, however, delving into their personal details illuminates that many of the members of Betwa sinchai panchayat were large landholders, for instance, Bhagwan Singh from Saronj (26.30 hectares), Rakesh Sharma from Amla (20.23 hectares), Ravindar Prasad from Ranakheri (20.23 hectares), Mohan Lal from Samaykheri (24.28 hectares), Behram Singh Yadav from Chapna (14.16), etc. (Samar Malik, December 9, 2011). Thus, it (also) becomes evident that landholding did play a critical role in selection of farmers as sinchai panchayat members, apart from perception of these farmers being progressive. Additionally, almost all the above-mentioned members of sinchai panchayat belong to upper caste, apart from Behram Singh who belongs to Other Backward Caste (OBC). For instance, Bhagwan Singh and Mohan Lal are Rajputs, Rakesh Sharma is a Brahmin and

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Ravindar Prasad is a Kayasth (a sub-caste between Rajputs and Brahmins). Some of these members were from village patel (traditional village authority) family, viz. Mohan lal, and Bhagwan Singh.

Moreover, farmers were connoted progressive if they were educated, active in their villages and vocal. These aforementioned criterions -progressive, educated, village patels and/or large landholders- by definition excluded the marginalized sections of the community. Thus, it is fair to conclude that in the late 1980s the process of selection of sinchai panchayat members and president was biased towards the better-off sections in the Betwa sinchai panchayat villages. Table 7.1, summarizes the characteristics of Betwa sinchai panchayat committee members discussed till now.

Table 7. 1: Characteristics of select Betwa sinchai panchayat committee members Sinchai

panchayat members

Name^#

Land ownership (in hectare)

Caste/

Religion Village/hamlet Education level

Dominant perception about SP members & their party affiliations

President Samar

Malik 14.56 Muslim Betwa¹ Law degree Well-travelled, Congress Party

Member Bhagwan

Singh 26.30 Rajput Saronj² Illiterate

Progressive farmer, good relations with officials, well-travelled, village patel, vocal, BJP

Member Mohan Lal 24.28 Rajput Samaykheri¹ Secondary

school Village patel, BJP Member Maharaj

Singh Jat 80.9 Rajput Saronj² Secondary

school

Well-travelled, Village patel, BJP

Member Rakesh

Sharma 20.23 Brahmin Amla² Illiterate Vocal, good relations with officials, Congress Party Member Behram

Singh 14.16 Sudra Chapna¹ Primary school Active farmer, good relations with officials, BJP Member Ravindar

Prasad 20.23 Kayasth* Ranakkheri²

Senior secondary school

Village patel, Congress party

# Pseudonyms are used to maintain anonymity of respondents

* Sub-caste between Rajput and Brahmin

1 Middle reach village

2 Tail end village

Reiterating, from Table 7.1, it becomes evident that farmers selected those individuals, as sinchai panchayat members who they believed were active, vocal, well educated, had good relations with officials and were considered progressive. Incidentally, all these are also criterion of good leaders.

However, all the farmers listed in Table 7.1 were large landholders of this region, which points that material structures^xciv also played a role in selection of members. Furthermore, most of the farmers

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were also from the predominant caste group (Rajput) of the region. So, it is fair to conclude that all members of the sinchai panchayat were well endowed with one or many of these qualities and were leaders, elites of their villages. Thus, the rationale for selection of sinchai panchayat members was contingent on farmers’ perception about selected members, which was guided by their beliefs about progressiveness of farmers, education, social and material status and hierarchy. For the selection of sinchai panchayats members, farmers’ beliefs about potential farmer organization member, and the value they attached to the candidature of an individual was important. Furthermore, the above discussion elucidates that it was not the individual beliefs, but the intersubjective beliefs on the type of candidate that ought to be sinchai panchayats members that shaped actors worldview/mansikta for selecting sinchai panchayats members.