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.
