Illegal Police Invasion of Badu Center

In an outrageous and bizarre development on last Thursday (17th July, 2014), our premises at the Badu Collective were invaded first by members of Intelligence Branch, and then by a massive police force. The police force led by the Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) came in with tear gas shells and prison vans to break up a meeting of the civic police that they had heard was to take place on the premises. Our peaceful community, which has children and old people living in the Center, was taken by surprise as we had no information of such a meeting. The police kept our campus surrounded the whole day, and in a clearly illegal invasion, trespassed on our land and houses without any rhyme or reason and without any warrants.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures or record any videos of this appalling action of the police who are meant to protect and serve common citizens like us.

This unprecedented incident began on Thursday morning when 3 people who claimed to be from the District Intelligence Branch (which is the domestic security agency of the Indian police responsible for gathering intelligence within the country’s borders) came to the homes of two collective members, first Pravat Chakroborty and then Anuradha Talwar. They wanted to know if any civic police volunteers would be meeting in Badu Center on that day. The “civic police volunteers” are youth who have been recruited by the West Bengal government to provide assistance to the formal West Bengal police force for traffic management, crowd management during festivals, disaster management etc on a contractual no-work no-pay basis. They have started organizing themselves to demand job security, higher wages, and basic job benefits like health care and provident fund. The association formed by them recently held a huge rally in Kolkata attended by about forty thousand people. Despite our repeated denial of any knowledge of any such meeting on that day, the DIB men insisted that we give them names, phone numbers and other details of people who visit us and eat at our common kitchen. They also wanted to know the last date on which the civic police volunteers had met there, the frequency of their meetings etc. We repeatedly assured them that, although our premises were used by many activists for overnight stay and to hold informal meetings, this was, first and foremost, a commune where more than 12 families lived along with their children. All of us cooperated with the DIB men fully even though we found all the questions very strange, because like any other family we do not keep such detailed information of friends and others who visit us.

Not being satisfied with their endless barrage of questions, the three DIB men now started to snoop around the center. They began roaming around the premises peeping into various houses and buildings. They tried to surreptitiously open some doors and even tried to sneak into the house of Jamir and his mother Joynur Biwi.  Some of our members objected to this strenuously. Collective members pointed out that all this snooping and searching was completely illegal on private property with no search warrant. The DIB men stopped, but, that was, by no means, the end of police harassment for the day.

A few hours later, after we had already been told by the DIB that all queries had been satisfactorily answered, we found two jeep loads of police personnel coming to our campus. They were led by Shri Pandey, the Inspector-in-Charge (IC) of the Barasat Police station. Soon after, two more jeep loads of police personnel arrived, and this time led by the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Subir Chatterjee. They invaded our campus, surrounded our premises and set up a police picket outside our gate. It was frightening because they were all equipped with kits with tear gas shells. We were afraid for the safety of all the children and old people living in the commune, and simply wanted at all costs to prevent any kind of violent action on part of the police forces. Some of us objected to the presence of armed forces on the premises, asserting that this was a simply a peaceful community where families lived together and that there were several vulnerable children around. But our protests and appeals fell to deaf ears as the SDPO Subir Chatterjee brushed aside our concerns, simply stating that it was within the call of his duty to check on anything that happened anywhere in his jurisdiction without any kind of warrant even on private property. When asked, he did not, however, tell us what nefarious or illegal activity he was after on our premises.

The police kept Badu Center surrounded practically the whole day. Meanwhile, a few police personnel in plainclothes sneaked into one of our buildings while impersonating journalists from a barely known newspaper. These fraudulent reporters asked the same questions about a supposed meeting of the civic police volunteers on our campus, perhaps trying to ferret out information that we might have kept hidden from the Intelligence Branch. We also got news that a very large number of police personnel had been deployed in the area, on the roads leading in and out of the Badu center and in the local marketplace.

Finally, after repeated calls, complaints and appeals to higher-ranking police officers, all the police personnel left Badu center at 6:30 in the evening.

Our problems, however, did not stop there. We have heard even today that rumors (which we have had to counter) have been circulating in our neighborhood and village that we are suspected Maoists (radical left-wing insurgents in India) and that our commune has been sealed by the police.

The police’s presence and their actions, with no clear law and order problem involved, amount to trespassing. They had absolutely no legal right to invade our premises and try to search our buildings without warrants. Their overwhelming presence armed with tear-gas shells on a campus with several children is simply appalling. Our Collective is used by many like-minded people to stay in or to meet each other. This is done on an informal basis, as they are our friends or relatives who come to visit us. Many of them eat in our common kitchen, often sharing costs with us. This is an informal arrangement and we are not accountable to the police or to any other agency for such actions that we take in our private lives. We regard the questions asked of us and the time spent by police forces on our commune premises as an invasion in our private lives and an attack on our rights to privacy and dignity as citizens of India.

In face of this police harassment that we faced, some vital questions also arise about the rights of the young civic police volunteers. Is it a crime for them to organize for better working conditions? The Right to Form Associations and the Right to Organize are a part of the fundamental rights in the Indian Constitution. What then is the crime of the civic police volunteers in meeting and organizing for better working conditions?

Our Story : A Brief History of the Badu Collective

After much persuasion, we finally have a guest post by one of the founding members of the Badu Collective, Anuradha Talwar ( affectionately known to all of us as Bomma or 'Big Mother').
Bomma gives us a brief account of the history of our collective; the germinal ideas that culminated in its formation, the way it evolved to its present structure and her vision for its future. As she herself writes, the members of the collective never felt the need to share the story of this idea and experiment with the public but now, we realize that it is worth telling people "why we chose to set up this collective, about all our trials and tribulations and all about our joys and achievements."

We never thought it was important to write down and publicize what we are doing. We were doubtful in the early years about our success, so we never wrote. In the later years, we were too busy with other things to write. It also at times seemed unimportant – who wants to hear about our lives anyway?

Whoever thought we would need to justify the way we chose to live our lives to the world? However, today, our way of living seems an anachronism- a fossil of togetherness in a world where only the “I” is important. Yet it gives us much joy and many who visit us find much in it worth admiring. So now we feel we must tell others about it too- about why we chose to set up this collective, about all our trials and tribulations and all about our joys and achievements.

Our way of life is to practice collectivism and not just preach it. It is difficult, we are far from perfect and we go through many ups and downs. We hope, however, that our cumulative experience will benefit those who come after us.

The Seeds in the 1980s

The oldest amongst us, who are now part of this Collective, came to know each other in the 1980s, while working together and organizing in Kolkata and rural areas. We were all working for social change- for a society which was free of discrimination and injustice and where all would be equal. We believed that the individualism being promoted by capitalism must be opposed. We felt it was not just enough to talk about collectivism. We needed to practice the same in our life. 

Those of us who later built up the Collective started off as a group that would meet during this period once in a month or sometimes once in two months to discuss work, life, and all problems associated with the two. Two days of intense discussions would occur where we oriented ourselves to becoming better human beings, better activists and also better organizers. In those early years, a number of young people who are now Collective members left home to become activists. They needed a place to stay since many of them faced a lot of family hostility on their decisions to take on activism, which was considered dangerous and insecure work and definitely not a “profession" in the accepted sense. The women had it worse because their families literally threw them out for refusing a traditional, arranged marriage with dowry. We lived together in a rented house centrally, as well as in places given to us by villagers in our work areas. A few of us – four families – also had their own homes.

The Collective Starts

In 1990, a new phase in our lives began. From the “group”, we became the Collective. Six of us bought land in Badu (which was very cheap then), wanting to permanently live together. We began building houses. We agreed through discussions that this land was not for speculation- we would live here, but if any day any of us left we would sell the land and house back to the Collective. One of us did in fact do that a year later, and despite there being no written agreement, he kept his word.

Not only were our work lives discussed and decided in group meetings, we also began to share and setup collective systems for other parts of our lives. We began a single kitchen in Badu. All of us ate there.

Many of our comrades fell in love with fellow comrades and got married. There were love marriages, inter-caste, inter religion marriages- many against their family’s wishes. Homes began to be set up, children were born. Badu became a place for joint child care, so that women were free to work. All that we earned was put into a pool fund from where our health needs, our children’s care and education, our food and travel costs were met. After that each of us took a pocket allowance. We also saved money and used our collective savings to buy land. Land was bought in the joint names of individuals, as the Collective had no legal entity. We made sure that no one individual had control over all the land. The understanding was that if any of us left, the land would remain with the Collective to support the work of Collective members who were working to build mass organizations. We also used our savings to start businesses- a dairy farm, a poultry farm and even a vehicle to give out on hire. Some of these ventures failed but the agricultural land proved sustainable and we manage till today to generate a large part of the food for the Badu collective from this land.

The New Century: Additions and Depletion

The Collective also saw deletions and then new additions- five Collective members left to form Jana Sanskriti. They did not, however, raise major questions about the Collective and, in keeping with our earlier agreement, left the land and property bought in their names with the Collective. In fact , two of them actually returned after a few months. Three others decided to go back to individual family life, though they kept in touch with the Collective.

In the meantime, the rest of the Collective members after some discussion and debate decided to invite key and senior whole timers of mass organizations we were working with to join the Collective. The Collective, now, had about 15 new members.

Relations within the Collective were also more varied. One couple decided to continue to be Collective members, but made their residence away from Badu at the husband’s work place in Kulpi. Many Collective members were no longer organizers alone. Two were housewives at the Badu Collective with minimal involvement in the work of organizing. Some were providing support to the organizing work – looking after accounts, publishing a magazine, providing legal aid, looking after the Collective‘s farm. One member- a doctor- preferred to start his private practice outside though he still helped the Collective in his free time and continued to stay at Badu.

The Collective’s income remained varied- from the salaries some of us drew from different NGOs and from earnings that we made by doing studies, consultancies etc. and also from the farm that we had at Badu. There were many Collective members who did not have a fixed income, but who did very important organizing work. The earnings of others supported them. All of us got facilities such as child care, health, transport and food according to what each of us needed. This was our way of putting into practice the Marxian idea of “from each according to his ability and to each according to his need.”

A very important step that we took, at this time, was that Collective members decided to donate a large amount of their income to some mass organizations every month. On the other hand, when the Collective went through a severe financial crisis in 1997, members of these very mass organizations sustained many of them by providing them with food in their village centers.

The Present: Our Assets and Our Management

The Collective had used its collective savings and its good will to acquire some amount of property including agricultural land, life insurance policies, a vehicle and some amount of savings in joint bank accounts held by collective members. Agricultural land of about 2.5 acres owned by a family member of a Collective member has been given to us for use.

The income from all this property, along with our individual incomes, goes to the Collective fund. It has been the mutual understanding between the Collective members that these assets would stay for the use of the Collective members and for the benefit of those who continued to work with the mass organizations or for any social cause.

The Collective is presently managed by 5 committees:-

1.      Finance committee that manages the Collective fund and gives accounts every month to all the adult members of the Collective. It also gives money to each of the other committees for their work every month on the basis of a commonly agreed upon budget.

2.      Agriculture Committee to manage the farm at Badu

3.      Kitchen committee to manage the Badu kitchen(The agriculture and kitchen committee work together to ensure that the Badu farm produces things needed by the kitchen.)

4.      Children’s committee to see that the education needs of all the Collective’s children are met

5.      Entertainment committee to ensure that the Collective members save some money every month together that is then used for a holiday and other recreational activities.

Many Collective members take on responsibility in one or the other of the committees. All Committees are elected in the General Body meeting of the Collective.

The Future

The Collective is a magnificent utopian idea. It is the daily practice of the socialistic society that we preach. Many of us who are still Collective members believe strongly that we have the strength to continue and build our collective life. This is despite our knowing that ours is a very small collective island in the midst of a world where only individualism wins.

Much to our delight, many of the second generation of the Collective who are now adults and who were born and brought up within the Collective also support our Utopian ideas. They are our future and proof that islands of beauty can exist even in the midst of stormy seas.

New Management Committees in the Collective

Dear Readers,

Some news from the Badu Collective.

The members of the Badu Collective set up different committees every year to look after each and every aspect of our day to day functioning i.e. health, kitchen, education, entertainment etc. These committees are formed through meetings and elections by all the adult members of the collective.

We have just formed new committees this year. There are a few major changes from the management structure that we had before. Instead of 5 committees which included Kitchen, Agriculture, Finance, Children and Entertainment in the past years, the Kitchen and Agriculture committees have now been combined for seamless functioning, and a new committee to manage overall functioning of all the committees known as the “Scrutiny” Committee has been formed.

Now the details:

Kitchen & Agriculture Committee

The Kitchen and Agriculture committee is responsible for management of the agricultural farm and the collective kitchen in Badu. Their responsibilities apart from managing what is grown on the farm and  the finances of the farm and kitchen also include planning menus and ensuring smooth functioning of the kitchen while sufficiently satisfying our collective appetites with excellent food for birthday, festivals and other special occasions. Badu collective’s kitchen is largely dependent on our farm and with the idea that both the departments should run in parallel, we have clubbed these two departments in a single committee.

Present members:  Swapan Ganguly, Provat Chakraborty, Niranjan Sardar, Sutirtha Bagchi, Jashoda Sahoo, and Kalidasi Sardar.

Gola for storage of paddy produced in the farm

Children Committee

Presently, we have ten children in our collective family, all of whom are students. So, some of our senior members have taken the responsibility to look after the education of the children and seeing that all the needs of the children are met. The children committee is allocated with a fixed and appropriate budget which they spend for our education and other necessities.

Present members: Swapan Haldar, Amita Sinha and Bela Adak.

Riya  practicing for her Music lessons

Entertainment Committee

Throughout the year we maintain a cheerful and colorful life in our collective family. We celebrate more or less all Bengali festivals (and some non-Bengali festivals) without religious discrimination. We also save some money every month to make a yearly holiday trip. We celebrate many other occasions like birthdays, marriage anniversary etc. All these aspects of entertainment and recreation of our family is looked after by the Entertainment Committee.

Present members: Anuradha Talwar, Namita Gayen , and Uttam Gayen

Bhai Phota 2013

Bhai Phota 2013

Finance Committee

This committee, as the name suggests, manages the Collective fund and gives accounts every month to all the adult members of the Collective. It also gives money to each of the other committees for their work every month on the basis of a commonly agreed upon budget.There is no such committee for finance like the others. Generally, Harekrishna Sahoo very carefully looks after all the financial accounts of the Badu Collective.

“Scrutiny” Committee

As mentioned earlier, this new committee formed this year will mainly scrutinize the functioning and expenses of all committees and provide overall management.

Present members: Molina Pramanik, and Astabala Maity,  

Construction of a new Collective House

A new building is now being constructed with nine 2 bedroom apartments and a common recreational center for the collective. Here are a few pictures of the building under construction. We will keep posting updates as the construction proceeds. People will most probably be able to move in by the end of July, when we will also have a grand house warming celebration.

Fun at Katakhal: Fishing and minor mishaps

Guest Post by Anirban (a.k.a. Phochke, 7 years old)

কাটাখালের আনন্দ

১২ জুন, ২০১৪-

আমরা কজন,অর্থাৎ আমি,জামিরদা,টুকটুকিদি আর সরজদা, কাটাখালে যাওয়ার জন্য হাসনাবাদগামি ট্রেনে কদম্বগাছি স্টেশন থেকে ট্রেনে উঠলাম। ভ্যাবলা স্টেশনে নেমে ওখান থেকে মটর ভ্যানে উঠলাম। তারপর এলাম কাটাখাল। এখানে আমাদের খুশিলাল কাকু ও অর্চনা পিশি থাকে এবং কাজ করে।

আমি তোয়ালে পরে পুকুরে নামার জন্যে রেডি 

পুকুরে আমরা

এখানে ছোট বাড়ির সাথে পুকুর ও বাগান আছে। বাগানে অনেকগুলো আমগাছ।ওখানে আমরা পুকুরে নেমে অনেক মাছ ধরলাম। চারটে বড় বড় রূপচাঁদ মাছ ধরেছিলাম। এক একটার ওজন ছিল প্রায় ২ কেজির মত! 

সরজ দা আর জামিরদা রূপচাঁদ মাছের সঙ্গে

পুকুরে ঘন্টা দুয়েক ধরে আর প্রচুর মাছ ধরার পরে অর্চনা পিশির তাড়া খেয়ে পুকুর থেকে উঠলাম।

জামিরদা ,আমি, আর সরজ দা

তারপরে আমি তোয়ালে পরে যেই আমগাছে আম পাড়তে উঠেছি অমনি আমার তোয়ালে খুলে গেল। ব্যাস, একেবারে কেলেঙ্কারির একশেষ! তাড়াতাড়ি গাছ থেকে নেমে সামাল দিলাম।

তোয়ালে খুলে গেলেও সাত-আটটা বড় বড় গাছ পাকা আম খেয়েছি।

তারপর টিভি দেখতে দেখতে আমারা দু-থালা মাছ খেলাম। খেতে খেতে সন্ধ্যা হয়ে গেল।

আমরা আবার ট্রেনে উঠে বাদু ফিরে এলাম। 

Kali Pujo and Diwali 2013

Pujos are a very exciting time of year for all of us in Bengal.

And so it  was last year in 2013 beginning with nimki and mishti making in the morning.  Everyone was hard at work.

 Sujoy being the exception.

Pandal Parikrama for Kali Pujo went on all night.

Back row (from L to R) Tutul, Sujoy, Aahana, Bitul. Middle row (from L to R): Pooja, Riya , Tuktuki, Ghontu. Front row: Phokre

Riya strikes a serious pose

Sujoy and Bitul

From L to R: Riya, Bitul, Jamir and Pooja

The following night for Diwali the whole center was decorated with lamps. And again Ghontu (Sanchayan) took the lead.

Niranjan Kaku's Banna Tree Lamp Tower

Gol Ghar Center-piece

Riya, Maam and Tuktuki next to the lamp tree

Result of Ghontu's incredibly patient initiative

Winter Picnic 2012 and 2013

Bomma descends with the firewood

Picnic 2012 

From L to R: Jamir, Pooja, Bitul and Namita Pishi

Then joined by Phochke who can't resist even salad, Tutul and Riya

Bitul, Riya and Phochke

Settling down for the feast from L to R: Molina Di, Namita Pishi, Bela Pishi, Ashta Pishi, Suchitra Pishi

And now let the feast commence. From L to R: Phochke, Aahana, Riya and Ghontu

And now Doctor Kaku's turn

 Aahana relishing Mishti Doi

Picnic 2013

Fake Chef Aahana caught on camera

The real head Chef Prabhat Kaka and his able assistant Bela Pishi at work 

From L to R: Tuktuki, Pooja and Riya

From L to R: Amita Pishi, Ashtami Di (trying to hide from the camera) and Kali Pishi

Bomma at your service

Ghontu and Bitul working very hard

Jethu putting in his 2 cents with the Beguni

Firewood in dangerous hands

And Sujoy says, "Uff the smoke, Gadha"

Finally setting down to eat after a hard day's work. From L to R: Aahana, Jamir and Molina Di