Keshav Nankar: 1999 Anti-Slavery Award Recipient
October 27, 1999
Courtesy of Anti-Slavery International(The Pandits' presented the Anti-Slavery Award to Keshav who received it on behalf of bonded labourers in India.)
Honourable Mr. Neil Gerrard, Member of Parliament, Mr. Chairmnan and all our friends at Anti-Slavery International, Kathy Sreedhar, Director Unitarian Universalist Holdeen India Programme, our inspiration Tai and Bhau, distinguished guests and my dear friends.
I am here as a representative of the numerous bonded labourers who have been freed, who are seeing and experiencing freedom and dignity for the first time. I want to express our gratitude and sincere thanks to Anti-Slavery International for selecting Bhau and Tai for this prestigious Award as they are the genuine supporters and fighters for our struggles and sufferings. They have been responsible for helping us transform our lives, moving from an animal-like existence to a life of dignity. Because of them, we now know what it means to be human and to have confidence in ourselves.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kathy Sreedhar and John Byehrens, the chairperson of the Unitarians, which that has not only been a constant support but also has been actively involved in the struggle for a just and humane society. We have realised that to win our fight against exploitation and poverty, we must assert our rights and struggle continuously. We are proud that the Unitarians—who actively supported the movement for civil rights led by Martin Luther King, fought for women's rights, and supported the struggle to end apartheid—nominated "Bhau" and "Tai" for this prestigious award.
Today, I am here in front of you, speaking to you, after travelling thousands of miles. This is unbelievable considering who I was in 1983. Today, I have the capacity and the confidence to address thousands of brothers and sisters. I am proud that today I can deal with government officials at various levels. And, if they do not pay attention to my community's genuine demands, we will protest and demand our rights. Furthermore, I have become actively involved in the political process. I contested the elections for the State Assembly. I teach my fellow farmers the latest, modern techniques of farming practices. Looking back at my past I cannot believe my present today. It seems unreal but its not a dream, it is a reality born out of a lot of pain, a lot of struggle and a lot of dreams put together.
I remember as a child, when I was six or seven years old, my father enrolled me in the village school. I used to like my school very much. I especially loved the singing, dancing, and playing. But my father needed some money. He asked his landlord—for whom he had worked his entire life—for some money. The landlord gave him the money but took me in return. He asked my father, "What would your child do in school?" and "How will he feed himself?" He said, "Remove him from school, send him here to look after my cattle and I will give him one meal a day." That is how I was taken out of school when I was seven years old and I was not allowed to study beyond my first standard.
I continued working with the landlord. I got married and my wife and I worked in the fields and at home. Through marrying me, my wife also became a bonded labourer to my landlord. From dawn to midnight, we use to fetch water, clean the utensils, wash clothes, collect firewood and remove cow dung. We also had to prepare the ground for sowing the seeds, transplanting the saplings, nurturing the plants, harvesting the field, and finally husking the grains. The other agricultural labourers, who were lucky not to be bonded, worked much less and earned much more than me.
Once, to earn a bit more, I went to work with another landlord. This angered my landlord. He sent his henchmen to fetch me. They brutally assaulted me and verbally abused me during the journey back to my landlord.
My wages were not sufficient to feed my family even once. My debt kept increasing. I was getting sucked into a whirlpool. As a result, I became suppressed, with no voice of my own. I wanted to break the shackles and get out of this misery but I could not see any way out. In 1983, I met a few workers of Shramjeevi Sanghatana, a trade union that had started mobilising bonded labourers, agricultural labourers and small farmers in the neighbouring areas. They built our confidence and our powers. They taught us to say NO and not to bow to any injustice. They gave us the strength to fight against all sorts of atrocities that have been committed against us for generations. The landlords troubled us in many ways but the Sanghatana members remained with us through all our sufferings and hardships. When we were beaten severely, they were there getting beaten with us. When we had no food, they starved with us. This is how our struggle continued.
Today, in our area nobody dares to keep a bonded labourer. We proudly run the village Gram Panchayat. I contested the assembly elections based on the credibility of Sanghatana, not on the power of money. I lost the elections but it is not the result, but the process that is important. I proved that a poor person once without any rights, suppressed beyond imagination, could also emerge stronger and exercise his democratic rights to the fullest.
Today, I also do collective farming, along with the other freed bonded and agricultural labourers. The landlords who were keepers of bonded labour now come to me for advice on farming. This is not my story alone but a story of thousands of changed lives. The Award conferred on "Bhau" and "Tai" is a fitting tribute to our struggle.
I would like to tell everyone present here that we are not free and organised just because we suffered personally but because we expressed our solidarity and affiliation to all the poor and oppressed people of the world. It is because of this that we can identify with people like Martin Luther King. We extend our support to all the causes, which are fighting for justice all over the world. To demonstrate this commitment, we contributed one rupee from our daily wages to the people of South Africa fighting for freedom and against apartheid.
Anti Slavery International is involved in campaigning against all forms of slavery and slavery—like practices all over the world. As one of the freed bonded labourers and the Executive Director of Shramjeevi Sanghatana, I want to express my good wishes and pledge our support and participation in all their activities. Before ending my speech I once again thank all of you.
Keshav Nankar
London
27 October 1999
For more information contact international @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
