76.
India
A Genocide In Progress
Genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group”. While a precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG).
Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Raphael Lemkin, in his work Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944), coined the term “genocide” by combining Greek genos (race, people) and Latin cīdere (to kill).
Lemkin defined genocide as follows: “Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.
The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.” The preamble to the CPPCG states that instances of genocide have taken place throughout history,3 but it was not until Raphael Lemkin coined the term and the prosecution of perpetrators of the Holocaust at the Nuremberg trials that the United Nations agreed to the CPPCG which defined the crime of genocide under international law.
According to this definition, in India, there is a genocide in progress. The food supply of 1.2 billion people is being systematically destroyed. Gradual handing over of food sector to unscrupulous corporations is a bold step in that direction.
Article 2 of the Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Raphael Lemkin, in his work Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944), coined the term “genocide” by combining Greek genos (race, people) and Latin cīdere (to kill).
Lemkin defined genocide as follows: “Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.
The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.” The preamble to the CPPCG states that instances of genocide have taken place throughout history,3 but it was not until Raphael Lemkin coined the term and the prosecution of perpetrators of the Holocaust at the Nuremberg trials that the United Nations agreed to the CPPCG which defined the crime of genocide under international law.
According to this definition, in India, there is a genocide in progress. The food supply of 1.2 billion people is being systematically destroyed. Gradual handing over of food sector to unscrupulous corporations is a bold step in that direction.
Great Scarcity of Soil Nutrients
It is estimated that every year, 20.2 million tonnes of the three major nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium – is removed by growing crops (Tandon 1992) but the corresponding addition through chemical fertilisers and organic manures falls short of this figure. It was determined that only 23% of the applied fertiliser is consumed by plants; the remaining 77% is either leached out beyond the root zone or lost by volatilisation, etc. Thus, out of 20.2 million tonnes of nutrients removed by plants, only 2.66 million tonnes comes from fertilisers and nearly 3 million tonnes from organic sources. This leaves a little less than 14 million tonnes, which is obviously contributed by soil. If the loss of nutrients due to soil erosion is included the loss of nutrients from the top soil is 43 million tonnes, which amounts to 0.24% of the nutrient reserves of the soils.
According to Brandon, Hommann, and Kishor (1995), the annual loss in production of eleven major crops in India due to depletion of nutrient as a result of unsuitable agricultural practices amounts to 0.5 to 1.3 million tonnes. This estimate, however, does not take into account the loss due to erosion.
The problem of maintaining the nutrient balance and preventive the consequent nutrient deficiencies will be a major concern in most cultivated areas.
It is happening at a rather fast pace. Agriculture, the livelihood of 70% of the Indian population, is being turned into an untenable occupation. Every day 2000 farmers are calling it quits and heading for urban shanty towns. Out of those who dare to stay on, one is committing suicide every fifteen minutes.
Indian agriculture is a fragile system which had withstood the test of time. India supports approximately 16% of the world’s human population and 20% of the world’s livestock population on merely 2.5% of the world’s geographical area. Any tinkering in this sensitive area will have disastrous impact on the nation’s food security.
Already the widespread incidence of poverty, and the current phase of economic and trade liberalisation are exerting heavy pressures on India’s limited land resources for competing uses in forestry, agriculture, pastures, human settlements and industries.
This has led to very significant land degradation. According to the latest estimates (Sehgal and Abrol 1994), about 187.8 mha (57% approximately) out of 328.73 mha of land area has been degraded in one way or the other. It appears therefore, that most of our land is degraded, is undergoing degradation or is at the risk of getting degraded.
Indian agriculture is a fragile system which had withstood the test of time. India supports approximately 16% of the world’s human population and 20% of the world’s livestock population on merely 2.5% of the world’s geographical area. Any tinkering in this sensitive area will have disastrous impact on the nation’s food security.
Already the widespread incidence of poverty, and the current phase of economic and trade liberalisation are exerting heavy pressures on India’s limited land resources for competing uses in forestry, agriculture, pastures, human settlements and industries.
This has led to very significant land degradation. According to the latest estimates (Sehgal and Abrol 1994), about 187.8 mha (57% approximately) out of 328.73 mha of land area has been degraded in one way or the other. It appears therefore, that most of our land is degraded, is undergoing degradation or is at the risk of getting degraded.
Modern word for unscrupulous colonials is corporations. Corporatisation is the modern way of colonizing the world. Today’s world is getting ground under the corporate jackboot. These huge corporations make obscene profits from human misery and they want the world to remain in misery.
They run our health care industry. They run our oil and gas companies. They run our bloated weapons industry. They run Wall Street and the major investment firms. They run our manufacturing firms. They also, ominously, run our government.
World is simply not a safe place in the shadows of these greedy monsters. They want profits - when economy thrives and they want profits - when economy dies. Profits in a dying economy means war, death and destruction. That’s the only way to go about it.
The negative effects of land degradation are telling very heavily on India’s environment and economy, which are causes of grave concern.
Indian government, in tandem with the vested interests is applying the same policies that have destroyed Africa’s agriculture. In just three decades Africa has gone from a net food exporter to become a net food importer.
Indian government, in tandem with the vested interests is applying the same policies that have destroyed Africa’s agriculture. In just three decades Africa has gone from a net food exporter to become a net food importer.
Formerly, men worked in the open air only as much as they liked. Now thousands of workmen meet together and for the sake of maintenance work in factories or mines. Their condition is worse than that of beasts. They are obliged to work, at the risk of their lives, at most dangerous occupations, for the sake of millionaires.
-Gandhi
