Emmanuel Louail , a student studying Agriculture interning in India met Thanga Raju, as he was sharing his life story during a training camp organized by Ekta Parishad for youth from extremely excluded families. This man, whose face shows marks of a very painful experience, explained to these people in the becoming, how individual and collective mobilization can lead to freedom and recognition of human rights.

" I come from a family of bonded labor workers who lived in the state of Tamil Nadu before settling in the state of Madya Pradesh, located in central India for several generations. For reasons that remain unknown to me, my ancestors migrated north in search of better living conditions and employment.

My family was really deprived of everything. They had no home, money or land for food.

When by chance my parents arrived in the village of Chandatta, 300 km from Bhopal, they asked for a job in a stone quarry because that’s all they knew how to do.

The owner of the premises had loaned money to my parents to cover the immediate needs of our family. In exchange, they had to work for him until they paid back the debt. They had no choice because they needed a certain amount of money. They thus entered into a vicious circle without an end.

When I was born, my parents still worked in this quarry breaking rocks in masses, under wretched conditions. With the system of outrageous amounts of interest imposed by the ’zamindars’ (bosses), the debt of my parents had indeed been increased. As this debt is inherited, from the age of 10, it was my turn to break stones in the same way as my parents. The conditions of life and work were inhumane. I had to break 500 stones everyday.

Usually, this was equivalent to a salary of 500 rupees per month but not one member of my family was paid because our boss told us that it was used to repay our debt! So we all found ourselves in the condition of bonded workers.

The zamindars made an arrangement with a small local shop keeper to provide us with 5 kg of rice per person per week. Rice was our only food. In addition to that, he gave us alcohol, to relieve the pain of working days but more importantly, to keep us from rebelling.

He also gave us old, torn and dirty clothes to wear to work.

He never gave us money, he thought that in that way, we would never be able to escape.

Of course, we often thought of running away but we were beaten by the zamindars henchmen whenever they wanted. They were armed to dissuade us in escaping. Regardless, the idea was eating at me. You see these marks on my legs; these are trademarks of shattered stones that show how hard we worked!

Our women, our daughters were raped every day and beaten at the liking of the zamindars. If they were not suitable for them, they were constrained and forced to work the same way as we did. It was vile! These people were like "tigers". They had no heart, no feelings! They are inhuman and destroyed our lives. One day, I escaped alone, without anything or anyone. I could not take anymore of this torture that they inflicted on us every day. Anyway, I could not live in a situation worse than what I knew then!

I took up some small illegal jobs which helped me survive. I had left my wife and my family behind. I knew we were not alone in this situation. I heard that in a village near ours, 80 families lived in a similar situation. I started my investigation from there.

For 8 years I met, across India only, 15,000 people in the same situation. Every place I traveled through and for each case of rights violations, I collected testimonies. I took down the specific names of the villages and the exact conditions under which these people lived.

One day, I met someone who told me that some Rajagopal fought alongside the landless peasants and bound workers. He said that I had to go see him to talk to him about my situation and my experience of the past 8 years. Rajagopal said he would call the police. Thus, 8 years after my departure, my family was finally released as were the families of the 15,000 others I had met. The "tigers", have still not been troubled by the authorities! Today, at 47 years old, I live with my family, near Pondicherry and I am helping an association.

So for "Janadesh" of course I will attend it! I know that if I alone met 15,000 people living in this situation, there are many others who are still living in these conditions. Look at the village where we are now, everyone lives in the fields, but nobody has "patas" (the right to own land).

Nobody has the right to land, so, everyone is working for the landowners!

I’ve experienced this in the stone quarry, I know that in the state of Tamil Nadu, they are thousands of others who live that kind of life in the rice fields. In other states, it’s the same thing!

One problem is that in India there is not only one single law that governs access to the land. There are several and sometimes they are contradictory!

How do we fight these "tigers" if there is nothing to prevent them from acting as they are doing?

I know that "Janadesh" will change a lot for millions of people who are humiliated and violated in their rights. This type of "padyatra" (March) has already done a lot for the poor communities in India!

We must fight because this suffering cannot continue!"

Interview by Emmanuel Louail
Translation from Tamil by Krishna Kumar
Village Nagappatinam - State of Tamil Nadu
August 2006