Land Grabbing

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Man is a grabber; a greedy predator pouncing on every opportunity, often manipulated, to grab things. When there was no  culture or civilization he thought the landmass on which he stands and moves is all his. When he realized that only land  can feed him, shelter him and  sustain his quest for ownership, he enclosed as much of land as he could. He surveyed his possessions which pampered his ego. Yes he is the owner, the master of all he surveys. Gradually he faced competition; others with the same land grabbing propensity encroached into his land. He fought. He fought for his exclusive ownership of the earth. He wanted more land, more of God's little acre, more trees, lakes, rivers, mountains and more of everything. He became king of a large landmass but he was never satisfied, wanted more. He attacked other land grabbers, killed them. If he became the Chakraborty, the emperor of  vast territory he wanted to invade other countries. He called it heroic adventure. He wanted to beat Alexander, Napoleon in their own games. He knew he might die but he didn't care. He had his logic: If you win you enjoy the earth, if you lose you attain heaven. He swore not to give an inch of land - a pinpoint speck of earth - without causing a river of blood. He searched for Xanadu, he searched for the Golden Bird, he moved directionless for the New World. When Cain became the first (Bible) agriculturist he drove away the animals of Abel, wanted absolute possession of land. He had no qualms of conscience to kill his brother Abel. He argued Am I My Brother's Keeper?

Yes, man is not anyone's keeper. He is for himself. He wants to possess the whole earth and play God. Man is God, that is, the absolute authority, the unchallenged master of whatever he senses. He vows to protect the earth, his possession, which he calls  his motherland. He will shed his blood, the last drop, only to save his pride of being the master. This instinct was given a facelift by the word patriotism, but the psychological truth was the ego of power. Land made him powerful. In all cultures of the world we see this basic tendency of man, this landgrabbing image of man. Man's fights, wars and irrational  conflicts  always centre around the power of possession. Land, Kingdom, Country always gave man  the power push on  which he founded his own metaphysical essence. Jamindar, landlord, king, Primeminister are designations of power, stemming from possession of land - the larger the area, the greater is the power.

In Odia literature Fakirmohan Senapati's Chha Mana Atha Guntha, arguably the greatest Odia novel depicts this land- grabbing of Ramchandra Mangaraj who enters the society from the outside without any roots. But he, by his evil, manipulating mind tricks  the hedonist self - servers and the superstitious fools out of their wits and grabs their land. His end is naturally tragic as nature does not allow herself to be chained by human will. The same land grabbing is seen in Gopinath Mohanty's Paraja and the end is almost similar: The change here, however, is that man's sense of right cannot be trodden over by human boots. What Bhagia - Saria ought to have done in Senapati's novel is done by Sukru and Mandia in Mohanty's work. But the question is why man invests all his mental energy in land grabbing is not explained. Maybe to grab land comes naturally to man as he is power crazy to construct what Byron called, "The Immortality of Independence" (1818). In many a novel we have landgrabbing as the driving force. Pearl Buck's The Good Earth is a bright example. Kalindi Panigrahi's Matira Manisha ( The Earth Man) is also a glowing example where land breaks a family. The brothers part and movement towards the city starts. It may be a legal - moral crime but man cannot but be a victim of his own power hunt. The greatest illustration of landgrab and powerpush is however our own The Mahabharat. This epic states the theme for all time in indelible grandeur. But man refuses to outgrow this built psychic hubris.

Leo Tolstoy in his story "How Much Land Does A Man Need" has dramatically shown that greed for land, is insatiable and ultimately leads man to his untimely end. All ethics - philosophy - law and ideologies have exposed this landgrabbing  as a sin, a crime, an insane obsession but it goes on. Highly educated and otherwise powerful men do this landgrabbing, this transgression of nature's soul territory. Encroachment of govt land is a petty weakness even in the docile humans. There is no cure. But if one is rich and powerful, his grabbing instinct is in free flow. Aggressive communities push their boundaries, expand their power by force. The decline of Globalization was caused by this grabbing of others' "land", the business liberal temper and the Freedom native to a culture of a landmass which we now call cartographic territories of national pride. China today is pursuing the Salami technique of landgrabbing by claiming the history and culture of most neighbouring countries as unclaimed Chinese heritage. This geopolitical muscle flexing is now being resisted by India, USA, Japan and other countries. But no country except India is free of this guilt or crime of land grabbing. The world was never free of such  powerpush nor will ever be. But as men and countries develop more and more ingenious ways of grabbing power the Armageddon will be proportionally self- stultifying.