Who Can Stop Bulldozer (in)Justice?

'Our Problem is Civil Obedience…' (1)

These words of the legendary American historian, playwright, philosopher and socialist intellectual, Howard Zinn (1922-2010), are still repeated the world over whenever people living in a country have no qualms in gulping whatever the rulers do or say.

Not much is known about the brief history of this speech which was delivered in the Baltimore campus during the heyday of the anti-war movement in the US, (1971). That was the period when a mass movement had emerged opposing the US government’s participation in the Vietnam war, where Zinn was invited to address students in one of the universities.

What had happened a day before was rather unplanned and unexpected.

The federal police had detained Zinn when he, along with other war protesters, were participating in an anti-war demonstration. He was asked to appear before the attorney the next day.

The immediate problem was whether to appear before the courts, perhaps get a warning from it and return home, or to opt to leave for Baltimore, respect the invite by the radical students and then submit oneself before courts the next day. It was clear that such 'misdemeanor' would have cost him a few days/months behind bars.

Zinn left for Baltimore, where he delivered the said speech, which received a thunderous applause from students and teachers, and when he presented himself before the courts the next day, as expected, he was sent to jail for a few weeks.

Time and again, as the phenomenon of, what is popularly known as "bulldozer justice, raises its head in India, which is now called the 'biggest country that regularly holds elections', this poser by Zinn in his Baltimore speech sounds more and more appropriate.

The growing normalisation of this metamorphosis of a bulldozer into the dispenser of 'justice' is for everyone to see.

Sometime ago, a leading news magazine talked of India's ‘bulldozer raj’ wherein merely in a span of two years, 1,50,000 houses were razed and around 7.4 lakh people have been left homeless in two years. It also discussed how Muslims and other marginalised groups bear the brunt as these massive yellow machines force their way through houses and business establishments.

One also learns how, within less than a fortnight of the elections results, a massive demolition exercise was undertaken in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), in and around Akbarnagar, where the state government demolished around 1,800 structures, including 1,169 houses and 101 commercial establishments despite people living in the area since many decades.

What is significant is that this summary action could be undertaken despite Article 21 of the Indian Constitution that guarantees the fundamental right to protection of life and personal liberty. It also emphasises that no person can be deprived of these fundamental rights except according to procedure established by law.

The latest in the series seems to be demolition of one Haji Ali's massive house built at a cost of around Rs 5 crore in district Chhatarpur, Madhya Pradesh

What the country and its people witnessed – as usual rather mutely again -- this time was that this house of a Congress leader was demolished in the daytime, without any proper notice being served, nor any prior information about it.

It is unclear who ordered the demolition of the huge house and even the crushing of three cars parked there? Under what law did the police and administration serve such summary justice to a citizen of India, whether it is a crime to lead people to raise their grievances or asking people not to get violent and remain peaceful? And, even if the crowd gets unruly, does it mean that the community leader or a respectable man in the area, who is supposedly leading the procession, will face demolition of his own house and establishments?

Can it be said that the varied stand taken by the administration over this action not only exposes confusion at the highest level, but has put them on the defensive. As analysts have put it rather sharply, first the demolition was justified by saying that it was on government land, then the tune changed and a claim was made that it was situated near a water body. And the last one heard was that although the land belonged to Shahzad Ali, its map was not approved.

Since when is such a construction, supposedly on a map not approved by the authorities concerned, summarily demolished, without going through the procedure to rectify the anomaly, pay some fine or at best remove a portion of it?

In fact, the blatant manner in which the palatial house was demolished and the so-called explanations offered, shows that it is increasingly difficult for the MP government officials to save themselves from charges of 'partisan governance' or functioning not as upholders of the Constitution but as 'servants of the BJP' (Bharatiya Janata Party).

Merely two weeks before this controversial demolition, the Congress party, under the leadership of its ex-Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, had led a massive rally that had sought an FIR to be filed against the Bhind DM for ‘Religion-Based Demolition of Houses'.

What should not be missed here is that these demolitions are just the 'tip of the iceberg' in BJP-ruled states.

Less than a week after the results to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were announced in May, 11 houses, built on government land by 11 persons in tribal majority district Mandla of MP, were demolished as part of action against the alleged illegal beef trade in the state. As alleged by victims, no procedure was followed before the demolition, no notices were issued, just a claim that the houses were built on 'government land' and bulldozers just barged into their area and razed their houses under heavy police protection.

It looked like a case of 'police/administration taking over the job of a mob' where state vigilantism was legitimising violence against the minority community, a replay of sorts of the 2015 incident in Dadri (near Delhi) when villagers had barged into the house of one Akhlaq, merely on the suspicion that he was storing beef in his fridge, and lynched him.

The gravity of the situation could be measured from the fact that as of now at least 1,000 petitions against ‘bulldozer justice’ are pending in Madhya Pradesh courts. The Supreme Court is yet to take cognisance of this form of summary justice.

The question arises as to why are the courts at various levels - even its highest level - have not yet taken a cognisance of such acts of 'summary justice' being meted out in different BJP-ruled states.

Remember, this is not merely a question of Madhya Pradesh, a BJP stronghold since the past over two decades, - but in other BJP-ruled states as well. For example, Udaipur in Rajasthan, witnessed the killing of a (Hindu) boy by his (Muslim) classmate under some pretext. What the police did, is unbelievable. While the courts had not decided about the issue and had not even started deliberating about it, the administration went to the house of the accused boy, whose family lived as a tenant in another Muslim man's house, and it demolished the whole house.

This type of vindictiveness and vengeance against a particular section/community of people cannot be merely explained in legal terms or its alleged lacunae?

Perhaps such acts can take place when either there are discriminatory laws that allow the State and its machinery to target particular ethnic, cultural groups or members of a particular social/religious community, or there is a biased official behaviour that has its roots in the historical fault lines of the society.

History tells us about the promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws (1935) in Germany under Hitler that enabled official persecution of Jews and institutionalisation of anti-semitism in Germany, which even culminated in their ethnic cleansing. Such a situation, puts the minority among them devoid of any rights, leaving them at the mercy of the majority community.

One can encounter a similar situation where formally such discriminatory laws do not exist but for various historical and other reasons such biased or discriminatory treatment is increasingly normalised.

There may be situations where everybody is equal before law, thus de jure, such laws may not exist but de facto, discrimination targeting a particular community exists.

It cannot be denied that this deep penetration of biases in the bureaucracy itself -- what writer Apoorvanand calls 'Hindutvafication of the Indian state machinery' - is the 'most horrific development of the last ten years'. He very well underlines that they should not forget that at some point of their own lifetime, the society will go back to the ways of justice.

"The victims do remember the names of all the officers who sign the orders to take out bulldozers and do the encounters. A day will come, and it is not too far, when they will have to face justice. When their present-day actions will be judged by the principles of justice and each one of them will have to answer for the crime that they are committing now individually. Each individual is responsible for their act. All the administrative and police officers, who are thought to be the brightest minds which are in their positions after cracking the UPSC examination, must not have forgotten the Nuremberg trials. All the accused were in the dock as individuals. Let us hope that these officers remember their individuality and start exerting their minds, the greatest gift that God or nature has bestowed on humans. They must not allow themselves to be turned into the cogs of this Hindutva wheel crushing Muslims or the hands turning this wheel."

When the administration adopts a biased attitude, when the judiciary prefers not to expedite such cases, and when  under the overall ambiance, the rest of the civil society adopts a very compromising stand over such 'egregious violations of rule of law', then what is the way out for concerned citizens or idealistic youth who yearn for justice and peace!

Perhaps, the need of the hour is that they strive for a more creative and inspiring solution.

With 'ethnic cleansing' of Palestinians continuing unabated within Israel, it would be inspiring to know that there are still Israeli youth who are trying to physically block the ethnic cleansing unfolding in the West Bank.

Meet the Israelis Who Are Trying to Physically Block the Ethnic Cleansing Unfolding in the West Bank

Under the cover of war, backed by Israel's army and police, settler violence targeting Palestinian shepherding communities is surging. These Israeli activists are putting themselves in harm's way to protect them.

And they can also look toward the legendary Rachel Korrie to take inspiration in these difficult hours.

Remember, it was 2003, when a 23-year-old Corrie, an American peace activist, was crushed under an Israeli bulldozer when she was protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Southern Gaza. The demolition of the particular house was no lone incident, it was part of a campaign unleashed by the brutal Israeli regime wherein it had already destroyed over a thousand homes in Gaza strip.

Rachel, part of a group of Palestinian and International activists was: “[s]eeking to halt the destruction of Palestinian property. That day, they had been acting as human shields to stop the flattening of a home in the Rafah refugee camp occupied by the families of two brothers, Khaled and Samir Nasrallah.

There were reverberations of Corrie’s unique martyrdom across the globe. What is worth emphasising here is that following Corrie, a few other peace activists were also martyred while defending the homes of Palestinians, sacrificing their lives for defending Palestinians wronged by the Israeli regime.

It has been over two decades that Corrie and other peace activists have been martyred.

We need to think afresh, and ask ourselves, what prompted the Israeli youth or the likes of Corrie to get ready for the ultimate sacrifice.

Perhaps they knew by heart the famous speech by Zinn and had no qualms implementing it.

…. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. And our problem is that scene in All Quiet on the Western Front where the schoolboys march off dutifully in a line to war. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world, in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem. We recognize this for Nazi Germany. We know that the problem there was obedience, that the people obeyed Hitler. People obeyed; that was wrong. They should have challenged, and they should have resisted; and if we were only there, we would have shown them.

The question arises, whether youth in India or concerned citizens are ready to learn proper lessons from this famous speech by Zinn?

The writer is a senior independent journalist. The views are personal.