The organized killing of poor peasants and landless labourers by middle and upper-caste landed armies and retaliation by Marxist-Leninist organizations have been flashpoints in the agrarian scene in Bihar over the last fifteen years. Hence, this is not a new phenomenon. What is relatively new, however, is the entry, on the rural scene in parts of the central Bihar districts of Bhojpur, Patna and Jehanabad of a new upper caste landed organization called the Ranbir Sena It has over the last three years been responsible for a series of massacres of rural poor in many villages such as Bathani Tola, Haibaspur, Ekwari etc.
In order to gain first-hand information on these killings PUDR sent a team to these villages. The team probed nine incidents by speaking to residents of these villages, members of Ranbir Sena, members of the Marxists-Leninist organisation, the District Magistrates of Bhojpur, Jehanabad and Patna, and Superintendents of Police, Bhojpur and Patna.
This report is an attempt to record these massacres, their context, the issues and struggles of the people, and the response of our ‘socialist and democratic’ republic.
To download the report, click below:
Agrarian Conflict in Bihar and the Ranbir Sena
