Late last week, some 1,300 landless protesters of Arippa, in the forest-rich Kulathuppuzha grama panchayat in Kollam, watched with bated breath, Mannu Maryada , a 40-minute documentary on their four-year-old, ongoing agitation to reclaim land rights.
The protagonists, and the first viewers, of the film comprising mostly tribespeople and Dalits never expected their untiring struggle to be canned this honestly by a group of students from Ernakulam.
“It was the most touching experience of the journey, as their response to the film on March 6 made it singularly fruitful,” avers Nishida Sahir, director of the documentary who has just completed her post graduation in multimedia from Sacred Heart College at Thevara.
Nishida, and her college friend Sankhyan V. Purushan, had been drawn to the ‘Nilpusamaram’ (the standing protest by adivasis of Muthanga for rehabilitation and compensation) which took them to Attappady in late-2014 and study the issue up-close.
The duo keenly studied the course of the land rights struggles in Kerala and decided to film the Arippa agitation led by the Adivasi Dalit Munnetta Samithi (ADMS), as part of their extended semester requirement, with a scholarship to boot, besides support from social organisations. The spadework took about five months and the shooting began in October last year.
“The Arippa struggle is not just for the right to work in the fields. It aims at reinstating the indigenous people as holders of the land they once possessed. Their notion of land is not one of ownership; they farm the fields for existence,” says Nishida. The makers of the film have chosen to relate the story of the people’s struggle, their survival, bonding, community living experiences, and hopes of a fertile future, through Sheelamma and Sabu, a couple at the forefront of the agitation.
The protesters, staying in makeshift shelters, decided to do farming in 10 acres of fallow land to make a living. A community-run ‘Gothrapadasala’ school children from nearly 1,320 families fighting for their rights.
As Dalit activist and intellectual Sunny M. Kapikad puts it in the film, “The economic model they are presenting is sustainable in the long-term. Staying in revenue land, they do farming without disturbing the surroundings.”
Sankhyan, who handled the camera along with Ananthu Chandrababu, considers the documentary-making an enriching experience, ‘a thanksgiving gesture to the society’.
The 10-day shoot and the visits to capture the entire cycle of farming were rewarding. The film opens with the protesters harvesting the yield and closes with the paddy seeds for the next season ready for sowing.
“Arippa insists that Kerala should have a clear policy for agriculture. The people’s way of protest here is by tilling the land without hurting the environment,” says Nishida.
Asha Achy Joseph, heading the Sacred Heart College’s School of Communication, guided the project.
