The Ranvir Sena is a militia functioning as a landlord group,[2] mainly based in the state of Bihar, India.[3] The group was formed by Bhumihar Brahmin landlords under the leadership of Brahmeshwar Mukhiya[4] in 1994, with the aim to counter the influence of various left-wing militants, Naxalite groups and the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML) in central Bihar.[5] The Ranvir Sena has been connected to a number of massacres including the massacre at Laxmanpur Bathe.[6] It has, on several occasions, been accused of human rights abuses.[7] The Bihar state government banned the Ranvir Sena in July 1995, but the group continue to remain active. The group has frequently publicly claimed responsibility for its crimes with impunity.[6]
According to Professor Ashwani Kumar, the "origin of the Ranvir Sena is shrouded in mystery... [but] it is fair to assume that the Bhumihars in Belaur village in Bhojpur district" in 1994.[8] The name Ranvir comes from Ranvir Baba, an iconic local hero of the Bhumihar caste and Sena is a Hindi word meaning 'army'. As the legend goes, during the late 19th century, Ranvir Choudhary, a retired military man and a resident of Belaur village in Bhojpur district, protected the rights of the Bhumihar, a land-owning upper caste of the State, against the domination of the Rajputs. Due to the activities of Ranvir Baba, the Bhumihars asserted their power in Bhojpur district and established regional supremacy of the Bhumihars.[9]:129
Rang Bahadur Singh was the first president of Ranvir Sena.[10] He came from Ichari village, Jagdishpur, Bihar.[11]Brahmeshwar Singh of Khopira became the group's leader a few months after it was formed.[12]
Brahmeshwar Singh was killed by unidentified gunmen on 1 June 2012 while on his morning walk in the Bhojpur district headquarters of Arrah. He was facing life imprisonment for coordinating various massacres but was acquitted and released from jail in April 2012.[13] A day-long curfew was clamped on Ara as tension escalated following his murder. Prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC were also enforced in the district.[14]
Police and politician involvement
Some politicians are members of Ranvir Sena and some policemen have helped them on their raids.[15] For example, in a Ranvir Sena raid in Ekwari, a village in Bihar, in April 1997, policemen opened the doors of Dalit villagers so the Ranvir Sena could go inside instead of protecting the villagers as they were supposed to. Chandradeo Prasad Verma, former member of Janata Dal and Member of Parliament for Arrah, put legalising the Ranvir Sena as one of his campaign points in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections.[16]
In 2015, in a media sting operation, evidence came to light that BJP leaders, including Murli Manohar Joshi and C. P. Thakur and the former PM Chandra Shekhar were complicit in the Bihar Dalit massacres committed by the Ranvir Sena,[2] further Lalu Prasad's RJD set up the Amir Das Commission,[17] after the Laxmanpur Bathe massacre. The mandate of the commission was to inquire if there were any links between political parties and the Ranvir Sena. The Nitish Kumar government abruptly disbanded the commission in 2006, just before it was to submit its report. It is strongly believed that the commission's findings were going to demonstrate firm links between the Ranvir Sena, the JD(U) and the BJP .[18]
Mass killings
On 11 July 1996, 21 Dalits were slaughtered by the Ranvir Sena in Bathani Tola, Bhojpur district. Among the dead were 11 women, six children and three infants. The perpetrators targeted women and children in particular, so as to deter any future resistance. Three people were sentenced to death and 20 sentenced to life imprisonment in 2010 for participating in the massacre, but the Patna High Court acquitted all 23 in April 2012.[19][20]
We kill children because they will grow up to become Naxalites. We kill women because they will give birth to Naxalites.
Ranvir Sena killed 10 workers in Haibaspur on 23 March 1997. They wrote the name of the organisation in blood on the village well before they left. Most of the people Ranvir Sena killed that night belonged to families allegedly supporting Party Unity, a communist group.[6][22]
On 1 December 1997, sena members killed 63 Dalits–16 children, 27 women and 18 men–using guns in Laxmanpur-Bathe.[23] The dead included 5 teenage girls who had been raped and mutilated before being shot, and 8 people from the Mallah community who had ferried Ranvir Sena members across the Son River before and after the attack.[6][21]
On 25 January 1999, there was a massacre of 22 Dalit men, women and children by Ranvir Sena in the village of Shankarbigha, Jehanabad due to their alleged Naxalite allegiance and to establish the supremacy of landlords. Another massacre followed two weeks later in the neighboring village of Narayanpur, where Ranvir Sena killed twelve villagers belonging to the Chamar community.[24]
In June 2000, Ranvir Sena was alleged to be behind the attack, carried out using automatic weapons, on the lower-caste Yadav villagers of Miapur, Aurangabad district in Bihar. 22 people died immediately and the rest succumbed to their injuries. The victims included six minors. 18 were injured included 10 critically. This was speculated to be a revenge attack after the killings of 11 upper-caste villagers.[25]
Caste-based violence in southwest Bihar, 1996–2000[26]
Year
Description
Trial
1996
Nadhi (Bhojpur): 8 killed in CPI(ML) attack on upper castes/landlords
Nadhi (Bhojpur): 9 killed in attack by upper castes on SCs
Bathanitola (Bhojpur): 22 Dalits killed by landlords, the worst of that year's many attacks
1997
Raghopur (Patna): 6 Bhumihars killed by CPI(ML)
Haibaspur (Patna): 10 SCs killed by landlords
Ekwari (Bhojpur): 10 SCs killed by upper castes
Khadasin (Jehanabad): 8 SCs killed by landlords
Lakshmanpur-Bathe (Jehahanabad): 61 Dalits killed in attack by upper castes
Chauram (Jehanabad): 9 members of upper castes killed in CPI(ML-Liberation) attack
1998
Nagri (Bhojpur): 10 SCs killed by landlords
1999
Shankarbigha (Jehanabad): 23 SCs killed by upper castes
Narayanpur (Jehanabad): 11 SCs killed by upper castes
Usri Bazar (Jehanabad): 7 upper caste members killed in attack by CPI(ML-Liberation)
Senari (Jehanabad): 35 killed in attack on landlords, first strong sign of MCC gaining strength
Sendani (Gaya): 12 SCs killed by landlords
2000
Afsar (Nawada): 12 upper caste members killed in attack by OBCs
Miapur (Aurangabad): At least 35 OBCs (Yadavs) alleged to be killed by Sena in a revenge attack.[25]
Organisation
Brahmeshwar Singh 'Mukhiya', the founder chief of the Ranvir Sena, on whose head the authorities had placed a reward of half a million Indian rupees, was the Supreme Commander of the Ranvir Sena until he was arrested in Patna on 29 August 2002 to face a number of criminal cases, which included those related to massacres.[27]
Initial reports said that Shamsher Bahadur Singh was, on 7 September 2002, appointed a new chief of the Ranvir Sena. However, according to a report of 25 December 2002, the chief of the Ranvir Sena was Bhuar Thakur until he was arrested with his two associates on 24 December 2002 near Karnol bridge on the Patna-Sasaram road in Charpokhri, Bhojpur.[28]
Rashtravadi Kisan Sangathan is the political wing formed to take part in the 2004 elections. The Ranvir Mahila Sangh, a women's wing, has also been created. Its members too have been trained in arms use.[16]
On 8 July 2011, Brahmeshwar Singh was released on bail after serving 9 years in jail awaiting trial for 17 cases, including those related to Dalit carnages in Bihar. He had earlier been granted bail in 16 other cases.[29] On 5 May 2012, Singh floated a non-electoral outfit named Akhil Bharatiya Rashtravadi Kisan Sangathan.[30] However, he was shot dead less than a month later, on 1 June 2012, by unidentified gunmen in the town of Ara.[31]
Decline
After perpetrating a number of massacre of Dalits, Ranvir Sena perpetrated Miyanpur massacre in 2000, in Aurangabad, Bihar. In this massacre, the Yadav caste was victim; over 30 people were killed by Sena in this incident. However, it is reported that this incident set tone for decline of Sena. In response to this incident, the party of Lalu Prasad Yadav, which was in government, took stringent administrative policies to counter Sena; on the other hand, various naxalite group also resolved their internal differences and started an extermination campaign of the men of Sena in small operations.[32] Miyanpur incident was the last massacre perpetrated by Sena.[33]
In 2001, one of the area commander of Ranvir Sena, Chunnu Sharma, who was accused of numerous criminal charges, was killed by police in an encounter in the Mahadevbigha village, Mukhdumpur police station area of Jahanabad district. While police claimed it to be an encounter, the kins of slain alleged that Mukhdumpur police held him up, along with four of his associates and they were taken to Mukhdumpur police station. After an interrogation, the associates were freed, but Sharma was killed in police custody. Thereafter, his dead body was abandoned at Mahadevbigha village by Police and the stories of encounter killing was spread by administration. The Member of Parliament, Arun Kumar and Member of Legislative Assembly Jagdish Sharma also supported this 'conspiracy theory' and demanded investigation in the alleged cold blooded killing of Sharma.[34][35]
In the same year (2001), another leader of Sena's armed squad, Shashi Bhushan Sharma was brutally killed by unidentified assailants in the Bahadurpur village of Patna district, allegedly by members of People's War group.[36] In August 2002, Brahmeswar Singh, one of the founder of Sena, surrendered to Police, after being held during a meeting of farmer's wing of Sena in Exhibition Road, Patna. It was believed that in the new political arrangement in the state, the political patronage given to Sena was withdrawn, which led to his arrest. On his arrest, Lalu Prasad Yadav, the president of Rashtriya Janata Dal claimed that, his arrest will expose the links of many politicians with Sena.[37] Singh was shot dead after his release from jail in 2012.[31]
In 2005, Communist Party of India (Maoist)'s guerillas conducted one of the largest jailbreak incident of India, to free their associates incarcerated in Jahanabad prison. The Maoists highjacked the whole town of Jahanabad for few hours and during that incident, they kidnapped 40 members of Sena, who were also incarcerated in the same jail. The Maoists, while freeing their commander, Ajay Kanu, immediately killed commanders of Sena, Bade Sharma and Bisweswar Rai. Of those kidnapped, dead bodies of 9 was recovered later. The other members of Sena were not traced. As per reports, a total of 8-12 members of Sena were killed in this incident.[38][39] According to District Magistrate Rana Avadhesh, the dead bodies of 3 members of Ranvir Sena, who were killed by Naxalites was found on railway track near the Jahanabad prison; 5 other Sena men were killed after being taken to Belaganj in nearby Gaya district.[40]
In 2010, a Patna court sentenced 16 members of Sena to death in connection with Laxmanpur Bathe massacre, in which a total of 58 people including 27 women and 10 children were killed; 10 other members of Sena were given life imprisonment.[41]
In 2011, another commander of Sena, Manish Sharma, who was accused of committing numerous murders in Gaya district, was killed in the Belaganj Police Station area by unidentified gunmen. Police claimed it to be a handiwork of CPI-ML activists.[42]
In 2017, the Rohtas district area commander of Ranvir Sena, Dhanji Singh was killed by unidentified killers along with two of his bodyguards, Mantu Singh and Shashikant Tiwary near Durgapur village in Rohtas district. It was believed that his killing was a result of growing caste based animosity in the region, which was caused by his attempt to revive the defunct Sena once again. According to Police, the murders seemed to be meticulously planned as evidences like empty cartridges were not found at the site of murder.[43]
Lalu Prasad is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parliament (MP) of the Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha.
Arwal district is one of the thirty-eight districts of Bihar state, India, and Arwal town is the administrative headquarters of this district. It was earlier part of Jehanabad district.
Caste-related violence in India has occurred and continues to occur in various forms.
Bhojpur District is one of the 38 districts of the Indian state of Bihar. Arrah city is the administrative headquarters of this district. Bhojpur district came into existence in 1972. Earlier it was the part of Shahabad district. This district is named "Bhojpur" after great Parmara King Bhoja as most early settlers were Rajput rulers of Parmara dynasty then called as Ujjainiya.
Bhumihar, also locally called Bhuinhar and Babhan, is a Hindu caste mainly found in Bihar, the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal.
The politics of Bihar, a state in east India, is dominated by regional political parties. As of 2021, the main political groups are Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United) (JDU), Indian National Congress (INC), Left Front, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM). There are also smaller regional parties: Samata Party, Rashtriya Jan Jan Party, Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, Jan Adhikar Party and Vikassheel Insaan Party, Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party. As of 2024, Bihar is currently ruled by NDA. This is after JDU broke away from a Mahagatbandhan coalition and returned to NDA fold.
The Laxmanpur Bathe massacre was a massacre conducted in the Laxmanpur Bathe village in Arwal district of Bihar, where 58 scheduled caste people were killed by members of the Ranvir Sena in retaliation for the Bara massacre in which 37 upper castes were killed. Laxmanpur Bathe is a village in Arwal district in Bihar, on the Son river about 90–km from Patna.
The 1996 Bathani Tola massacre was an incident of caste-related violence in which an upper-caste militia killed 21 Dalits, including women and children, in the Bhojpur district in Indian state of Bihar on 11 July 1996. The attacks were allegedly by members of the Ranvir Sena, in response to Dalit labourers' demand for wage increase.
The Bara massacre was a caste based carnage that took place in 1992 in Bihar. At midnight on 12–13 February 1992, the Maoist Communist Centre of India killed 40 Bhumihars at Bara Village in Gaya district of Bihar, India. The MCC's armed group brought the 35 men of Bara village to the bank of a nearby canal, tied their hands and slit their throats. As many as 36 people were accused of the crime, but 13 were charged. The police failed to arrest the others, who had defied their summons.
Brahmeshwar Singh also known as Brahmeshwar Mukhiya or Mukhiyaji, was the founder of an Anti-naxalite militia functioning as an upper caste landlord militant group Ranvir Sena in Bihar, India. On 1 June 2012, he was assassinated by unidentified gunmen.
The Paswan, also known as Dusadh, are a Dalit community from eastern India. They are found mainly in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. The Urdu word Paswan means bodyguard or "one who defends". The origin of the word, per the belief of the community, lies in their participation in the battle against Siraj-ud-daulah, the Nawab of Bengal at the behest of British East India Company, after which they were rewarded with the post of Chowkidars and lathi wielding tax collector for the Zamindars. They follow certain rituals such as walking on fire to assert their valour.
Lal Sena (1974–1990, was an organised armed militia of CPIML Liberation in northeastern India, across the terrains of central Bihar, north-west of today's Jharkhand, and a few districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. It was formed mainly by lower caste peasantry and landless labourers.
The Kuer Sena was a caste-based private army operating in the Indian state of Bihar during the 1970s and 1980s. The majority of its members were young men from the Rajputs, and the militia was named after the 19th century anti-colonial revolutionary, Kunwar Singh, who is considered be a community hero by the Rajputs of Bihar.
Jagdish Mahto was an Indian communist activist. He was a naxal leader who led the 1970 Bhojpur uprising in the landlord-dominated Bhojpur region of Bihar. He was a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), an organisation which was leading the Naxalite insurgency in Bihar. He also fought against the upper-caste landlords for the cause of lower-caste people. Mahto, also called Master Saheb, was a member of the Bihar State Committee of CPI(M–L) and one of the founding leaders of the party in Bhojpur.
The Afsar massacre was a mass shooting and mass stabbing that killed 12 people in the Indian village of Afsar, in 2000. The massacre was the result of caste wars of Bihar, which originate from clashes between upper-caste, who were supporters of the existing status quo, and the lower castes, who wanted to change the current system. According to the data by the "South Asia terrorism portal", the victims of these caste wars were most often Dalits, followed by Forward Castes, while Upper Backwards were victims less frequently than any other group.
The Caste based violence in Bihar has a history of conflict between the Forward Castes, who controlled vast swathes of land, and the Lower Castes who were mostly poor. The Zamindari abolition and communist upsurge in Bihar gave rise to a tug of war between upper and the lower castes. The tussle between the Marxists and the landed proprietors was not divided along caste lines as some of the middle peasant castes were also proprietors. The decade of 1960s witnessed communist upsurge in the Bhojpur region of Bihar led by Jagdish Mahto under the banner of Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, while the 1990s saw dreaded caste wars. The belligerents were Dalits and poor peasantry of middle peasant castes who were fighting for their rights with the supporters of the status-quo, i.e., upper castes as well as the affluent section of the middle peasant castes. Its first mass leader was Jagdish Mahto, a Koeri teacher who had read Ambedkar before he discovered Marx, and started a paper in the town of Arrah called Harijanistan("dalit land"). Religious sentiments also became the cause of bitter strife. The violence that happened in Bhagalpur is a precedent.
Naxalite movement in Bhojpur or Bhojpur uprising refers to the class conflict manifested in armed uprising of the 1970s, that took place in the various villages of the Bhojpur district of Bihar. These clashes were part of the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency in the state, which mobilised the agricultural labourers and the poor peasants against the landlords, primarily belonging to upper-castes. A distinguished feature of these insurgencies were their confinement to the villages, and the nine towns of the Bhojpur district remained unaffected from the periodic skirmishes between the armed groups. One of the reason sought for this peculiar feature is the absence of modern industries in the district. The economy of the district was primarily agrarian, and the industrial proletariat class was absent.
Dalits in Bihar are a social group composed of many Scheduled Castes, placed at the bottom of the "caste-based social order". The Dalits also include some of the erstwhile untouchable castes, who suffered various forms of oppression in the feudal-agrarian society of Bihar. Some of the Dalit castes have specific cultural practices, which differ from those of orthodox Hinduism.
The Jahanabad prison attack, also known as the Jahanabad jail break incident was a naxalite operation, conducted by the members of Communist Party of India (Maoist) against the state of Bihar, on 13 November 2005. In the backdrop of legislative assembly elections being conducted in the state and lack of elected government in power, the state machinery was involved in conducting the elections in free and fair manner. The President's rule was being implemented in the state, and the Naxalites found it a good opportunity to conduct this massive operation. As per various reports, around 12 people, all belonging to Ranvir Sena were killed by the naxalites in this incident. This event was not centred around the prison only, which was the centre of operation, but around 1000 Naxalites were inside the city of Jahanabad, who virtually controlled the city for a short span of time. A total of 389 prisoners were freed by the Naxalites in this operation codenamed 'Operation Jailbreak'. Those who were freed, also included Ajay Kanu— a top level Naxal commander, and many of the Maoists. The operation was conducted by People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (India)— a militant underground unit of CPI (Maoist).
Ajay Kanu also Known as Ajay Sao and Raviji is a naxal commander, who was allegedly responsible behind 2005 Jahanabad prison attack. As per reports, Kanu is said to be the chief organiser of India's biggest prison break incident, intended to free the Maoist activists incarcerated therein. He was the commander of People's Red Army— a left wing militia. Kanu was arrested by Bihar Police in 2002, while he was travelling to Patna— the capital city of Bihar, from his hideout. After arrest, he was kept in Jahanabad prison, which was attacked by naxalites subsequently with the intention to free him. He has several criminal charges over him, which includes assassination of Ranvir Sena commander, Bade Sharma and several other Ranvir Sena supporters.
↑ Sinha, Arvind; Sinha, Indu (2001). "Ranveer Sena and 'Massacre Widows'". Economic and Political Weekly. 36 (43): 4095–4099. JSTOR4411296.
↑ "Ranvir Sena". South Asia Terrorism Portal. Institute for Conflict Management. Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
1 2 Björkert, Suruchi Thapar (September–October 2006). "Women as arm-bearers: Gendered caste-violence and the Indian state". Women's Studies International Forum. 29 (5): 474–488. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2006.07.005.
↑ Chaudhuri, Kalyan (27 February 1999). "Carnage in Narayanpur". Frontline. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
↑ "The Badlands Of Bihar Where Caste Hatred Is Overriding Emotion". Outlook. Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2023. However, the Miyapur massacre cost the Sena dearly, perhaps also because the victims were Yadavs, the caste to which Laloo Prasad belonged. Laloo's party, after dominating Bihar politics for most part of the 1990s, had got a fresh mandate in 2000 for another five years. While the administration started tightening the noose around the Sena, the Naxal outfits had mostly resolved their internal conflicts and focused on eliminating Sena militia men in small-scale operations.
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