Thanda-Hearted Matlab:

Coca Cola in India

A Case Study In Mehandiganj Village of Environmental

and Community Impact and of the Grassroots Movement

Shira Wolf
University of Wisconsin College Year in India
Varanasi 2003-2004
Advisor: Dr. Ranjana Sheel

Acknowledgements

Vimalji- thank you for what seems like the hundreds of hours you spent with me
translating tapes as well as for all of the insight you have shared with me.

Neha- Thank you for accompanying me to Mehandiganj to help me with my first

interviews. It provided me with important research material as well as interesting
conversation.

Nandalal- Thank you for taking me around Mehandiganj, for making me feel so welcome
and for being very patient throughout all of my questions.

Mona- Thank you for your help with pictures and printing; for sitting with me for long
periods of time trying to figure the computer out.

Ranjanaji- Thank you for your assistance on this paper and for supporting this idea. I am
lucky to have had such a helpful advisor.

Ramuji- thank you for too many things to list

 This paper is dedicated to my grandmother, who taught me that stories should be told.

Table of Contents

Introduction:...................................................................................................................... 3
Colonialism, Post-Colonialism and India’s economy..................................................... 8
The History of Coca-Cola In India.................................................................................10
Coca Cola in India Now...................................................................................................14
Coca Cola In Mehandiganj Village, Varanasi...............................................................17
Background.................................................................................................................... 18
Critical Issues.................................................................................................................22
Pesticides in Coca Cola and other cold drinks.............................................................. 42
Resistance and Action......................................................................................................46
Background.................................................................................................................... 46
The Local Movement..................................................................................................... 50
Issues within the Mehandiganj/Banaras resistance movement and Some Personal
Opinion............................................................................................................................. 83
Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 94
Appendix...........................................................................................................................97

2
Bibliography................................................................................................................... 145

Introduction:

In an era of neo-liberal globalization, where the gap between rich and poor

increases globally and within most countries, many historically rooted systems are at

work. In India these systems have arisen from a history of colonialism and the realities of

neo-liberalism that so greatly affect the country’s economy and socio-political scenario.

One kind of system is when corrupt governments from developing countries allow

corrupt companies from developed countries with corrupt governments to do corrupt

work. This is happening all over the world and usually involves the same dozen or so

companies. One of the worst multinational companies at work is the all American Coca

Cola Company. In America, Coca cola is a simple drink, one you can get in a machine or

at a store for under a dollar. It is considered a working class drink. In India it has acquired

an entirely different association. It is a drink of the middle and upper classes, it is a sign

of modernity and it is fashionable. While many of those who live in cities and suburbs

consume the drink, people in villages are paying the price.

With the upcoming elections, a slogan has come out in India- “Feel Good”; the

feel good factor, India’s growing economy. The government and media are praising how

everyone is feeling so good lately with the rise in the rupee; the growth of the middle and

upper class. But take a walk around an entire city, from the big houses to the slums. Go to

the rural areas and see artisan villages barely surviving while factories mass produce

3
consumer goods on their land. Is India still feeling good? No doubt the growth in

economy is good for the country and many constructive changes have come about, but it

is the way in which it is happening and the disregard for those who are not feeling good

that is the problem.

I have spent the school year living in Varanasi and every day walking through the

streets one cannot help but notice the English signs hung up and painted on the walls

everywhere. And what sign/painting is it that one usually sees? I would have to say, that

at least here in Varanasi, it is the red and white slogan of Coca Cola; thanda Matlab.1

Many shops have their name written on coca cola signs, shops have coca cola

refrigerators, the walls are painted with coca cola slogans everywhere- and meanwhile

you have kids herding water buffalo in the road and chanting men carrying dead bodies to

be burned in the Ganga2. There are two different realities going on at once- tradition and

ritual, and a globalizing city. Perhaps they are not two but one reality; the product of a

history of colonialism and the consequential changes which ensued. Some aspects of

Benaras are as old as the city itself and at the same time things are changing just as the

old things stay the same. There are more cars and SUV’s then ever before yet the roads

are not built for cars but for rickshaws. Tourism seems to have taken over certain areas

causing new hotels and businesses to spring up and yet old rituals and pilgrimages still

occur there.

As this modernizing takes place in the city, many villages are moving in the

opposite direction economically. This seems to be happening all over India, especially in

the case of water. For example, dams will help people [who can afford it] obtain more

water but local communities have been displaced as a result. Bottled water companies are
1
The signs are written in both Hindi and Roman Transliteration, and mean Coca Cola; Cold Meaning.
2
Holy River that runs through Varanasi

4
taking water from villages free of charge to sell mineral water to the middle and upper

class public as well as to tourists.

Coca Cola is one such company whose destructive operations have a detrimental

affect on surrounding villages. This paper presents a history of Coca Cola in India in

relation to the India’s history of colonial and postcolonial discourse and economic

liberalization policies. Following a historical background, the will paper present a case

study of the Coca cola Company in Mehandiganj village, Rajatalab, Varanasi. The

bottling plant operates in the village and has severely affected their ecosystem so much

that farmers’ livelihoods are being destroyed. Even before Coca Cola came, the village

faced problems from globalization- they are a weaving village but there is less demand

for Benarsi Sari’s. This all occurs in the villages and many city people have no idea about

the corruption that is occurring in the surrounding areas. Coca Cola is seen by many

people in India as a fashionable drink; it is an upper class drink and it is costly- sold for

the same price as milk. Lately my friends and I have tried to order fresh squeezed juice in

restaurants and the person working always says that they have no juice, only cold drinks

(Coke, Pepsi, and related cold drinks.) They often make a point of saying how there is no

demand for juice; people want cold drinks. A friend of mine and I like to drink coconut

water, which has just come to Varanasi for the hot season. We have been told that the

price has risen because there is less demand for it. It used to be that coconut water was

drunk in the hot season, but now soft drinks are preferred. Her dance teacher told me that

people do not want coconut water anymore; they want Coke and thumbs up.

In this paper I am following a story. I present the history and background of the

issue, move to the specific case study and follow the local grassroots movement. I have

gathered my data in different ways. One is by spending time in Mehandiganj and talking

5
with the villagers. Two, by spending a significant amount of time with those involved in

the movement. Whether it was attending rallies and lectures or simply sitting and talking

casually, I have learned a lot about what I am writing about through spending time with

people. I have used a lot of quotes throughout this paper because I believe that a person’s

voice is more meaningful than the facts alone. It makes it more personal because this is a

personal issue. The entire village interviews are in the appendix, although it should be

noted that some discussions I have had with people in the village and the local movement

were not recorded, as I wanted to talk to them without the recorder in a more personal

manner. These conversations were anything from talking about Coca Cola to comparing

America to Varanasi to talking about religion and music. I have also interviewed

academics and those outside of the village who are involved in the movement. These

interviews are not in the appendix but some quotes have been used. Through attending

the world social forum I learned a lot about grassroots movements in India and through

reading books I have provided myself a historical background for the present situation I

am writing about.

There are a few problems I have encountered in my research which have caused

me to not have as much information as I would have liked. One is the time limit, there is

so much more information I would have liked to cover (talking to the pollution officer,

talking to Coca Cola Co. themselves, talking to more villagers, talking to the district

magistrate) that cannot be obtained and translated in several months. The second is

gender- being a woman it has been hard to attend every protest because many of the city

protests are attended by men only and at the bottling plant protests the police are known

to be extremely violent. I should also acknowledge that being a white American could

affect the way that some people answered my questions- and I have wondered if some

6
residents of Mehandiganj may have toned down their opposition to Coca-Cola, thinking

that as an American I could not be too opposed to the company. The results I have found,

however, still show extreme opposition to the company and extreme devisation done to

the Mehandiganj community by the Coca-Cola Company.

I have tried my hardest to use people’s opinions and voices because it is important

to realize how things like this affect people. Not just land, not just a society, but also an

individual person.

7
Colonialism, Post-Colonialism and India’s economy:

After independence, India gained an independent economy and a crucial factor in

autonomous economies following independence from colonization is the entrance into the

world economy of capitalism. This process began during colonization and following

independence it continued to transpire. The methods of importing and exporting during

colonialism were that India began producing and exporting what Britain needed at cheap

prices, such as minerals and raw goods. At the same time, the British imported goods

such as cars biscuits and electrical appliances. This worked well for the British who could

export what they needed at a cheap price and have Indian’s begin to depend on foreign

products rather then creating indigenous ones.

India’s policies were determined in Britain and in the interest of the British economy and
British capitalist class. An important aspect of the underdevelopment of India was the denial
of state support to industry and agriculture. This was contrary to what happened in nearly all
the capitalist countries, including Britain, which enjoyed active state support in the early
stages of development. The colonial state imposed free trade in India and refused to give
Tariff protection to Indian industries as Britain, Western Europe, and the United States had
done.1

Throughout colonial rule, Britain took much of India’s social surplus and spent

only a small share of it on development in areas that would benefit the public at large.

Areas such as agriculture, education, industry, social infrastructure and healthcare were

not given much attention. In agriculture, for example, the British cared more about

colleting land revenue then about development. Their other agricultural interest was the

production of crops which would enter the world market. Regarding natural resources,

even since the early 1900’s there has been a benefit given to the multinational over the

local. Designated farmers began growing commercial crops such as cotton to be exported

for the British. Unfortunately, this led to the use of the richer soil and available water for
1
Chandra, Bipan, Mukherjee, Mridula & Mukherjee, Aditya. India After Independence: 1947-2000, New
Delhi, Penguin Books, 2000.

8
exported crops rather than for the food crops needed by those in the area. This process

eventually led to an underdevelopment in state agriculture as the better crops were

exported, most of the money made was kept by the British and the poorer crops were kept

in the country. There was a decline in per capita agricultural production which fell by 14

percent between 1901 and 1941.1

By the late 1930’s, British firms controlled coal mining, cotton industries,

banking, insurance, and tea/coffee plantations. Many Indian companies were controlled

by British capitalists as well. Finally in the 1940’s Indian brand and Indian controlled

companies began to come into operation. By 1947, India had made some progress

economically and an Indian capitalist class had arisen in society. At the same time, the

qualities of artisans’ lives were very poor in terms of economy and health. Overall, the

process of colonialism in India led to an economic and agricultural underdevelopment.

After independence in 1947, India’s economy entered the world economy and

multinational companies were able to come into India. With a developing political and

economic system, there was an absence of important regulations and restrictions for

foreign companies operating in India such as how much direct foreign investment a

company could have. There was also a lack of regulations protecting human and

environmental rights to direct both Indian and multinational companies. All of these

things gave room for corrupt activity and manipulation by both foreign and indigenous

companies.

1
Chandra, Bipan, Mukherjee, Mridula & Mukherjee, Aditya. India After Independence: 1947-2000, New
Delhi, Penguin Books, 2000.

9
The History of Coca-Cola In India (this is by no means complete, and it meant to
provide a basic political/economic timeline in relation to Coca-Cola):

Coca Cola came to India and introduced soft drinks to the Indian public in the

year of 1956, eight years after independence, during world war two- a period of social

change in both India and the rest of the world. Led by Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress

party won power, with George Fernandez as the minister of industry. The major Indian

cold drink brand in the market was Parle and many other drinks on the market were also

produced by Indian companies. When Coca Cola arrived in India they used many

marketing techniques to introduce “soft drinks” to the public. Operating under one

hundred percent foreign equity, the company earned a lot of money in a short amount of

time. Throughout the next decade and especially after Nehru’s death in 1964, much

struggle went on in terms of India’s economic, social, and political development with the

rising and falling of different political leaders and parties.

In January 1974 when Indira Gandhi was in power, the Foreign Exchange Act was

implemented, stating that foreign companies selling consumer goods must invest forty

percent of its equity stake in India and in its Indian associates. Coca Cola agreed with

investing forty percent foreign equity but stated that they would still hold full power in

technical and administrative units with no local participation allowed. This demand was

against the Foreign Exchange act for though it would give ownership of forty percent of

Coca Cola’s Indian operations to Indian investors, these investors would have no vote or

say in how any operations were handled. The government instructed Coca Cola to either

write up a new plan or to leave the country.

Their departure was two years following the emergency, when Indira Gandhi

warned the public of the countries poverty crisis as well as of an intervention from abroad

10
which could destabilize India even further. In 1976 Indira Gandhi called for elections and

all of the other political parties formed one party in her opposition. They called

themselves the Janta party and were made up of people with various political ideologies,

including George Fernandez as the socialist representative. The Janta party came into

power in 1977 and stressed that Coca Cola should either accept the foreign exchange act

or leave the country. They left India that year, with Goerge Fernandez as an instrumental

factor in their eviction. After the departure of Coca Cola Company from India, George

Fernandez said:

Coke had 100 percent equity in India. Their investment was not much. They came into the
country with 600,000 rupees, which at the present rate of exchange is less than $20,000. On
this 600,000 rupee investment, they had taken out of the country, by a modest estimate, 250
million rupees (about $8 million) as profit in the twenty years they had been in the country.1

George Fernandez and the Janta Party coined the slogan of swadeshi2, promoting

the existence of Indian companies and usage of Indian products over multinational

companies and products. Coke was made illegal but in some areas it was still sold for an

expensive price on the black market. While Coca Cola was gone the government put a

new soft drink on the market written as “77” and called Double Seven. Parle put a Coke-

like drink on the market in 1995 called “thumbs up” which was a huge success. This kept

soft drinks very alive in the market, making it easy for Coca Cola to re-enter India- they

didn’t have to spend as much money introducing soft drinks to the public. It also helped

maintain a visible gap between socio-economic classes in India, as Double Seven could

only be afforded by the upper class at that time.

1
Ranjith, K.R, Holy Water From the West, Thrissur, India, Altermedia, 2004. p18
2
Sanskritic meaning- Swa-self, Deshi- of the country= of ones own country. This term had originally been
used in the Swadeshi movement during the colonial period and has also been used by Swadeshi Jagran
Manch, (indigenous awakening forum) who are aligned with the BJP but against the operation of foreign
companies in India.

11
The Janta party did not last long because people administered the party with different

philosophies on how the country should be run. When the Janta party broke up in 1979,

there was a period of instability. In 1980 Indira Gandhi returned to power heading the

Congress party. In 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated and her son, Rajiv Gandhi came

into power. In 1989 he was voted out of power and V.P Singh became prime minister.

This same year Pepsi was approved to enter India. In 1991 Prime Minister PV Narasimha

Rao began an economic reform program. India became a part of the Structural

Adjustment Program (SAP), a corollary of taking loans from the International Monetary

Fund (IMF). Economic policies were greatly changing in favor of multinational

companies. The foreign exchange act, which had once prevented companies from keeping

too much equity, had now been completely modified. The modification made it so that

companies that exceeded foreign equity by forty percent of the total were to be treated on

par with Indian companies. Automatic approval was to be granted for equity investment

of up to fifty one percent and for foreign technology agreements in high priority

industries. Non-Indian Residents and companies owned by them abroad were allowed to

invest up to one hundred percent equity in high priority industries, allowing greater

freedom for repatriation of capital. The government created the Foreign exchange

promotional board as to act as a body for approving and disapproving proposals. The

government and board were very liberal in accepting proposals and allowed up to one

hundred percent equity to foreign investors in some cases. As a result, automatic approval

began to be gained for companies whose equities were to be over fifty one percent. In

1993 Coca Cola re-entered after government approval, due to the new liberalization

policies that were coming about in the economy. In 1996 Congress suffered the worst

ever electoral defeat as Hindu nationalist BJP emerged as the largest single party. In 1998

12
the BJP formed a coalition government under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. They

continued the process of liberalizing India’s economy. Goerge Fernandez became a part

of the BJP Coalition, seeming as though he had promoted Swadeshi ideals to gain public

approval or recognition.

Over the three annual Export-Import Policies presented by the BJP-led government from 98-99
onwards, there was complete liberalization of the import of consumer goods. By 2001, barring a very
few items, the only form of protection afforded to the domestic productive sectors was that offered by
tariffs, which were also simultaneously being reduced.1

In 1999, Coca Cola bought Parle, India’s top soft drink brand, which bottled

Thums up, Limca and Gold Spot. Before Coke and Pepsi re-entered India, more than fifty

Indian soft-drink brands had been developed and 200 production plants set up.2 As time

passed after Coke and Pepsi entered India, people witnessed the progressive

disappearance of indigenous drinks and the demand for healthier drinks lowered as well.

It came [Coca Cola for the second time] when globalization and liberalization were in full
swing. So what happened is that Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola could demolish the local products
in one stroke. Previously there were a lot of indigenous drinks, drinks made in India which
were in the market. So they disappeared. Second thing is with the expansion of media, that is
electronic media, a huge propaganda [was] made on coca cola and Pepsi cola and the result
was [that] their clientele increased. Fourth thing is that Pepsi cola and coca cola type of drinks
became part of the urban cosmopolitan upper class scenario but they equally became part of
the suburban scenario also. What happens is people have a tendency to follow what happens
in the big towns because that is considered as a trend setter so when they saw people are
taking coca cola in big cities or Pepsi colas and that’s being served in the reception so they
started introducing the same thing in small suburban areas. Even in Marriages- I’m saying it’s
considered that if you don’t give Pepsi cola or coca cola than your marriage is not a status
marriage. So that also became part of the marriage scenario, a marriage ceremony as you
know in India there is a lot of meeting and all that and as soon as the marriage party comes
you are supposed to treat them with cold drinks and with food and sweets and so forth.3

In the United States, home of Coca Cola Company, the drink is considered a

working class drink. In India it is a drink of the middle and upper classes, sold at the same
1
Chandrasekhar, C.P and Ghosh, Jayati, The Market That Failed; A decade of Neoliberal Economic
Reforms in India, New Delhi, India, Leftword Books, 2002 p86.
2
Ranjith, K.R, Holy Water From the West, p 46. Thrissur, India, Altermedia, 2004.
3
Deepak Malik, head of Institute of Gandhian Studies March 9th, 2004.

13
price as milk. Either way, there really is no choice but to serve Coke or Pepsi brand

drinks if one wants cold drinks at a marriage, since almost all cold drinks on the market

are bottled by the two companies. Coca Cola bottles most of the cold drinks that are sold

in every store and restaurant- Thums Up, Limca, Maaza, Citra and Gold Spot, Coca Cola,

diet Coke, sprite and Fanta. A market assessment by ORG Marg. states that Coca Cola

owns fifty seven percent of the soft drink market, Pepsi owns forty one percent and native

companies own two percent. In the year 2000, Coke began bottling mineral water under

the brand name of Kinley. In 2001 they put Shock and powdered concentrate called Sun

fill onto the market.

The annual per capita consumption of soft drinks in India is much lower than many other
third world countries and [the Coca Cola Company] is getting ready to sweep the market with
novel tactics to woo customers. Coca Cola estimates that India’s per-capita consumption of
soft drinks is six bottles a year, compared with fifteen in Pakistan, twenty two in China, and
more than six hundred in Mexico.1

The marketing strategies of Coca Cola are growing to reach all parts of the Indian

society:

They became some kind of symbol of a modernized outlook, a fashionable trend, and since
they went for a huge market promotion in a big way they got some kind of encouragement or
some kind of leverage in the villages because they have very interesting market promotional
measures. These measures are such that they go to a sweet shop and say if you sell coca cola
or Pepsi cola than your board with become a glow board, something that will be very
fashionable, the new type, then I will give you a fridge, you may not have a fridge, and all
those kinds of things. So all those things really attracted the retail market and out of that a
habit was created. Remember the habit of course is a very big part of the social scenario in the
country also. 2

Coca Cola in India Now:

1
Ranjith, 48.
2
Deepak Malik, March 9th, 2004.

14
 Currently in 2004 there are twenty seven wholly owned bottling plants and

seventeen franchisee-owned bottling plants in India. In the past decade, Coca Cola Co.

has invested over $1 billion in the country. Coke directly employs 10,000 people in India

and a network of twenty nine contract-packers also manufactures products for the

company. While local employees get paid through contract labor at around rupees 66 per

day, officials are paid salaries around rupees 120,000 a month. The President of the

company makes rupees 250,000 a month and it is said that he has a way of getting around

tax payment.

Due to the lack of regulations (such as groundwater extraction regulations) and to

the governments apathy in the of lack of adherence to existing regulations (such as the

water pollution control act), many issues have arisen regarding the affect of coca cola

bottling plants upon the villages where they are situated. Large resistance movements

have been growing in these village areas as a result. The first and most successful

example is in the village of Plachimada in the state of Kerala.

The Coca Cola Bottling plant in Plachimada covers an area of forty acres. Due to

water pollution, the cultivation of paddy wheat in over six hundred acres of land was

abandoned, forcing farmers to experiment with other crops and greatly affecting the

livelihood of those who depend on agriculture for their income. Coke had been drawing

up 1.5 million liters of groundwater daily, free of charge, severely lowering the village

wells.

Three years ago, the little patch of land in the green, picturesque rolling hills of Palakkad
yielded 50 sacks of rice and 1,500 coconuts a year. It provided work for dozens of laborers.
Then Coke arrived and built a 40-acre bottling plant nearby. In his last harvest, Shahul
Hameed, owner of smallholding, could manage only five sacks of rice and just 200 coconuts.
His irrigation wells have run dry, thanks to Coke drawing up 1.5 million liters of water daily

15
 through its deep wells to bottle Coke, Fanta, Sprite and the drink the locals call, without
irony, thums-Up. 1

Water pollution also caused an increase in health problems among the village.

Villagers stated that the polluted water which flowed from the factory gave them stomach

disorders and skin rashes. Furthermore, the water in their wells had lowered drastically. A

study done by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad warned that if Coke continued to

extract groundwater, the risk of water depletion was not too far ahead.2 The study also

warned that Coca Cola’s operations were greatly reducing water quality. Along with

groundwater extraction, the people of Plachimada complained about toxic waste. The

Coca Cola Company disposed of their toxic waste on the land by saying that it was

fertilizer, only this fertilizer turned out to be full of lead and cadmium. A BBC special

was aired on this topic and the truth about the toxic waste became known to the public.

This waste was also dispersed to farmers who used it on their crops. On April 22, 2002,

the villagers began their series of protests. On April 7th, 2003, the Perumatty Grama

Panchayat3 revoked the license which had been granted to the Coca Cola plant. On May

16th 2003, the Kerala high court took the side of the Panchayat and canceled Coca Cola’s

license. They ruled that water is a human right for the public, not a private asset.

However, the court also ruled that the Panchayat had no right to revoke the license

themselves. In December 2003, the Plachimada Coca Cola bottling plant was shut down

and the people’s movement had won.

Similar problems have also been happening in the village of Sivaganga in Tamil

Nadu, the village of Kudu in Maharashtra and the village of Mehandiganj in Varanasi.

1
(Krishna Swami quoted from ‘Holy Water From The West’)
2
Ranjith, K.R, Holy Water From the West, Thrissur, India, Altermedia, 2004.
3
Village Council

16
Villagers as well as city activists have been staging peaceful protests against Coca Cola

bottling plants but so far they have not found the success that was won in Kerala. Part of

this is due to the fact that the laws and regulations in Kerala are different than in other

Indian states. Kerala is known for being more supportive of human and environmental

rights, not to mention that one hundred percent of Kerala is literate and they have the

lowest infant mortality rate.

Coca Cola In Mehandiganj Village, Varanasi:

17
Background:

Varanasi is said to be the oldest living city in the world. It is certainly less modern

than other places in India. . Yet the corrupt operations of Bharat Coca-Cola Bottling

North-East and their advertisements all over the city seem to signify that this is indeed a

modernizing, globalizing city. These advertisements seem to cover many of the walls in

the city. Most of them are red and white advertisements painted on the outside of little

shops, reading Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola (Coca Cola means cold) in both Hindi and

English. Other advertisements are close up pictures of famous celebrities with Coke

bottles. Additional advertisements are on billboards given by the company to shops. The

shop can have a new board to advertise themselves if they agree to advertise Coke

products at the same time. Thus, a restaurants name will be on a shiny new billboard,

with coca cola or thums up drinks in the background. All of these advertisements are not

just in the cities but near the villages as well. On the bus ride to Rajatalab (the area where

Mehandiganj village lies), the closer the bus gets to the bottling plant the more you see

the painted signs smothered everyone.

Mehandiganj is a village 20 km from the city of Varanasi and was once a

successful weaving village. Their Benarsi Saris are still sold in Chowk, a market in the

old city, but with less demand and the entry of the power loom, adults have had to look

for other work. The result of this is a great increase in the village’s poverty. Nandalal

Master, a leader in the village explained that the demand has also gone down due to the

fact that women are beginning to prefer the more modern Salwar Kamiz1 suits over saris.

Moreover, people prefer to buy something more durable and long lasting these days such

as machine made synthetic sari’s rather than handmade silk saris. Due to the lowering in

1
Indian suit made of a long dress-like shirt, pants, and a scarf.

18
demand for sari’s and for weaving work, the weaving is now done by children. Some of

the men in the village are also potters, making clay pots all day long to be sold along the

main road and in the city of Benaras. While the children weave most of the adults either

go to the city for work or work in the fields. This too is a problem because many of the

fields have gone bad due to the water pollution from the Coca Cola bottling plant.

Currently about 10,000 people are living in the village and it is part of a village

reconstruction project being done by the non governmental organization of Lok Chetana

Samiti. This project will be discussed later in the paper. Mehandiganj is bright green in

the areas farther away from the bottling plant, but the closer you get to the plant, the land

becomes more crumbled and dry and it is completely visible that the land has gone bad.

Above: The condition of the village land on the backside of the bottling plant.

In 1993 Coke and Pepsi both gained entry into India through the governments new

liberalization policies. On February 10th 1999, Coca Cola bought Parle Soft drinks and

Kejriwal Beverages PVT. LTD in Mehandiganj village became Bharat Coca-Cola

Bottling North-East. Parle had been bottling Thumbs Up, Limca, and cold spot. The Parle

bottling plant was built and began operating in the year of 1995. The Parle factory had

19
been built on land belonging to the Gram Sabha (village council) plus about seven acres

of farm land. The Gram Panchayat placed a lawsuit on them for this illegal occupation,

and so the Parle factory never went into operation after constructing their factory. During

the lawsuit Kejerwal sold Parle to Coca Cola, leaving the issue of land occupation

unresolved. Therefore, when people wonder why the protests began when Coca Cola

came and not when Parle was there, this is not the case. It is not the case that they are

blaming a multinational company over a national one. Soft drinks were not produced,

pollution did not begin and groundwater was not extracted in Mehandiganj until the Coca

Cola Company came into operation. The law suit continued against Coca Cola for six

months until a compromise was made. This compromise was due to members of the

Panchayat accepting bribe money as well as political pressure form the local BJP state

legislator and some ministers in the BJP government. The compromise was that the

village would be given new land in return for the occupied Gram Sabha land. However,

this land has still not been given. When Coke bought the company they promised jobs to

the villagers. For this reason the villagers did not oppose the bottling plant in the

beginning as they were continuously waiting for the jobs that they had been promised.

Villagers did not begin opposing the plant until the year 2002, when the bottling plants

operations began taking a noticeable toll on the land. Also when they realized that the

jobs they were waiting for either would exploit them for a few months then release them

or were not coming at all. When the problems began the villagers did not know what the

cause was. They have said in interviews that they did not realize at first why their land

was going bad. When they did come to know the root of the problem they did not think it

was within their power to do anything about it. Villagers also claim that the powers that

be of the village were given bribe money to keep silent about the problems being caused

20
by the plant. In that case, if the people of power in the village were given bribe money

then the rest of the villagers’ protests would not have gone so far without their support.

The farmers formed a group in September 2002 which they officially named Goun

Bachao Sangarsh Samiti (Save the Village Struggle Committee) in September 2003. They

formed this committee to put an end to the water pollution flowing from the factory onto

their farms. As for the other villagers, it was only after the non-governmental

organizations came to them that they were empowered to begin their protest. Many of

these organizations say that they are not just opposed to coca cola but to multinationals in

general. One man working for Lok Chetana Samiti called Coca Cola “an example”, and

part of their fight against globalization. Lok Samiti, a local branch of Lok Chetana

Samiti1 and the National Alliance of Peoples movements (NAPM) made of Mehandiganj

residents began their activism against the plant in May 2003. However, their hard work

and focus on the issue shows that they operate very separately from the organization, who

tackles a number of other issues. Nandalal Master, head of Lok Samiti and national

convener of NAPM explains the background in more detail:

Initially the Gram Panchayat had secretly accepted bribes from the company to transfer the
Gram Sabha land to the company. Neither the villagers nor we knew about this transfer.
When the villagers saw the approach road leading to the village being blocked by the coca
cola plant, questions began to be asked and then when the press reporters asked questions
about this to the Panchayat members and when we of the Lok Samiti put pressure on these
members to clarify this matter only then we came to know about this secret transfer of land.
Because earlier the Panchayat members had told the villages that the panchayat had sold this
land to the company. So everybody kept quiet thinking that the land had been sold to the
company and the proceeds from the sale would be used for the whole village by the
Panchayat and also people from the village would get jobs in the plant. But when no jobs
were forthcoming and no money was visible anywhere from the sale then because the
Panchayat members had transferred the land simply by taking bribes, people began to get
suspicious about the activities of the Panchayat members and when we dug out the court
verdict in the law suit which the Panchayat had filed against the company, and when the
people came to know about the verdict which clearly stated that the company had illegally
occupied gram Sabha land then the Panchayat members had no choice but to openly oppose
coca cola because their theft had been caught, because they realized that if they would not
1
This organization and the creation of Lok Samiti’s in villages will be discussed in the “Resistance and
Action” chapter of the paper.

21
 demand that the company vacate the gram Sabha land then their position of power would be
threatened. Then having no other alternative they began to demand this land back. The land
behind the plant used to be the approach road leading towards the village and when the
villagers told us that they had no more road leading to their village then we inquired and
found that and we wondered where did that road go? So when we dug out the land records
pertaining to that road we found that the Gram Sabha had transferred that road to the
company in view of an equal amount of land promised by the company to the Gram Sabha.
When we brought out the land records only then the truth came out. What actually happened
was that the company on its own occupied the land on which the road was and brought it
within its boundary without asking permission from the Gram Sabha. But while the factories
border wall was being constructed, the Gram Sabha entered into a dispute with the company
over the land that the company had occupied it without asking permission and in this dispute
the Panchayat went to court and obtained a restraining order against the company. As a result
for the next six months all the work in the company came to a stop. At that time we of the
Lok Samiti were not involved in this matter, and this action was taken by the Gram Sabha on
its own. At that time there were to or three movements going on- one was this dispute about
the land, which the local panchayat had initiated against the company, secondly the workers
working in the company organized a one week agitation in pursuit of their demands but the
company broke up that agitation and the third movement was being organized by the farmers
there whose crops were being damaged by the polluted water from the company. We were the
fourth movement to come into the picture after these three. What happened was that every
time the villages created a mass movement against the company, the leaders of these
movements were co-opted by the company and they would accept bribes and stop protesting
against the company. This was true for all three movements, whether it be the workers
agitation, or the Gram Panchayat fighting against the company, or the farmers protesting
against the company. We came to know about this reality only later. When the villages found
their road blocked by the company they questioned the Gram panchayat and the panchayat
assured them that the company had promised permanent employment to 75% of the village,
the company had promised the Gram Panchayat that if it hired five hundred workers, four
hundred of them would be from their village. So the leaders of the Panchayat accepted the
occupation of the road land by the company thinking that at least people of the village will get
jobs in return for this occupation. And their lives will improve. The Gram Panchayat had to
go to court against the company because of pressure from the villagers. And the company had
acted in a willful manner in occupying the village road. One more factory that worked in the
companies favor was that the village quarter which lies behind the plant in the approach road
area is inhabited by people of a different caste. And they are a caste minority in the village
and since eighty percent of the population all of whom belong to the Patel Caste were not
being directly affected by the companies actions they did not see it as their problem. And the
minority that lives in that area has very few people living there so there was no one to listen to
their demands because there were too few, nor was there any organization or union which
was there to voice their grievances.1

Critical Issues:

As was Kejriwal Beverages PVT LTD, Bharat Coca-Cola Bottling North-East is

in Mehandiganj Village, 20 km from the city of Varanasi, on Shur Sha Suri Rd. On the
1
Nandalal Master, April 9th, 2004.

22
way to Mehandiganj the vehicles drive over a very rough and broken up road, currently

being widened by cutting down thousands of trees. A large sign in both Hindi and English

reads that this is Prime Minister Vajpayee’s “dream project” of a national four lane

highway. On the sign is a picture of him with his arms outstretched. This highway, being

widened onto village land, is being funded by the World Bank. In the section of

Mehandiganj closest to the bottling plant as well as in several others, you can see the

wide torn apart road as well as hear the loud sound of the electrical water pump drawing

up village groundwater.

The bottling plant physically covers seven acres but the total area that has been

affected by the factory waste is about twenty acres and the area affected by groundwater

extraction is much larger than that. There are five main issues in Mehandiganj in relation

to the bottling plant and the affects of these issues create even more predicaments for the

ecosystem and for those who depend on it as a source of income. The five main issues are

regarding groundwater extraction, pollution, electricity, employment and land issues. The

first issue which will be discussed is the issue of groundwater:

Water comes down as rain. It flows on the surface as well as under the ground. While access
to surface water can be readily controlled and manipulated, ground water may be tapped at
will by the landowner, so long as he or she has the resources to reach down and lift it. When
the rate at which the groundwater is withdrawn exceeds the rate at which it is being
recharged, the level of ground water table drops, so that more and more effort is required to
get at it. Indians have been tapping water since the days of the Mohenjadaro civilization; but
the rate at which this water could be extracted was previously limited by the capabilities of
human and bullock power. This limitation has now been overcome with the development of
diesel or electric power operated pumps, so that the water below the surface can be pulled up
at rates far exceeding those of recharge, leading to a rapid lowering or even local exhaustion
of local groundwater.1

1
Gadgil, Madhav, and Guha, Ramachandra, Ecology and Equity; the use and abuse of nature in
contemporary India, New Delhi, India, Penguin Books India, 1995.

23
 In this quote it is stated that when the rate that groundwater is extracted exceeds

the rate which the earth can naturally recharge itself (through rain) then the results can be

devastating. Here are some facts: In the peak (hot) season fifty to sixty trucks leave the

premises of the bottling plant daily. In each truck are 500-550 crates and in each crate are

twenty four bottles. It takes ten liters of water to make one liter of Coke and an average of

two Lakh- two Lakh sixty thousand (200,000 to 260,000) liters of coca cola are produced

every day. For this mass production the plant draws twenty five Lakh liters (2,500,000

liters) of groundwater daily. Again, that is two million five thousand liters of water

extracted per day. That is certainly not a rate in which the earth alone can recharge itself.

Just as the previous quote warns, the result is that since the plant has been in operation

the groundwater level has lowered from fifteen to forty feet and villagers claim that in the

past few summers the wells go dry. While the company extracts huge amounts of water

through an electronic pump, the villagers use wells and hand pumps to obtain their water.

The level of a historic well along G.T road has gone down which diminishes the

groundwater meant for farming and reduces availability of drinking water for the village.

Especially being in non-monsoon months, the amount of water being extracted is

dangerous because there is no rain to recharge the groundwater. There is no fix for water

depletion; science and technology can not replace water. Since groundwater cannot be

seen above the ground, a farmer can suddenly find himself with a dried out aquifer

unaware that this danger was in the works. Moreover, excessive groundwater extraction

reduces not only the aquifer but the water table of the entire surrounding area. The land is

Mehandiganj is becoming much drier due to the diminished groundwater. Out of all the

countries in the world, India has the largest amount of groundwater being extracted by

private companies:

24
 It is India that has the highest volume of annual groundwater overdraft of any nation in the
world. In most parts of the country, water mining is taking place at twice the rate of natural
recharge, causing aquifer water tables to drop by 3 to 10 feet (about 1 to 3 meters) per year.
Especially hard hit are the Punjab and Haryana states, India’s breadbasket, and the
northwestern state of Gujurat, where 90 percent of the wells have experienced a serious
decline in water level. In the state of Tamil Nadu, groundwater tables have fallen as much as
99 feet (about 30 meters) in 30 years, and many aquifers have run dry. In the state of
Rajasthan, the water system of the city of Jodhpur literally exploded when the water table
beneath the city was drained dry. And in Punjab and in the country of Bangladesh, the drop in
the water table is even greater than China’s, even though those places experience flooding
every year. According to the International Water Management Institute, a quarter of India’s
grain harvest could be lost in the near future because of aquifer depletion.1

Groundwater extraction is one of the main complaints (translated from Bhojpuri

to English) of the Mehandiganj villagers.

The main difference is that now we have a real problem in getting water. The level of water in
the wells is going down. Since those people are extracting that water it is but natural that the
wells will dry up. So the first problem that will come out is that there will be no water. Then
what will we drink and eat? 2

When the Coca Cola plant was not here then the level of water was quite high but since the
coca cola plant has been set up our groundwater level has gone down by at least twenty five
feet. It has reduced our groundwater level.3

The Coca Cola plant will extract water from a distance of three kilometers to do its work.
Now just think how can we go to a place three kilometers away to fetch drinking water for
ourselves? We can manage every days drinking water needs with the present set up, but if
there is a wedding or ceremony at home, then how can we go to a place three kilometers away
to get water for the drinking needs? Everybody will die without water here. There will be
such a severe drought here due to the coca cola company that there is no limit to how severe
the drought will be. That’s why we want it to leave our country. Then that would be good for
us. Only their leaving will be good for us.4

If the factory does not close down, then we will die for want of even a single drop off water.
How will we live if there will be no water? It is sucking up all the water. The water belongs
to our country, the sugar, if it gets all the profit then what will we do? Our agriculture is
getting scorched; our tube wells are going dry, if they don’t give us water then what will
happen to our agriculture system?5

The whole matter is that if water will not come into the taps then what will we do? Will we
raise our families and look after their healthcare or will we spend our time trying to get
water? If farming becomes totally barren, and farms become as dry as papad6, then how will

1
Barlow, Maude and Clarke, Tony, Blue Gold; The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the Worlds Water,
New Delhi India, Leftword Books, 2003. p 24.
2
Vidya, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
3
Raj Narayan Patel, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.
4
Vidya, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
5
Sukdhei, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
6
Papad is a dry fried Indian bread

25
 we survive? If it goes away from here then it will be a big boost for our welfare. Everybody is
trying there best to make them go away, now lets see how long it takes. It is like a big
penance.1

You can imagine for yourself what would be the condition of a place where 25 hundred
thousand liters of water are extracted every day. We extract water from our wells only
according to our needs and this does not affect the level of the water at all. But if you were to
install a powerful water pump in the same well and let the pump run for twenty four hours a
day you can very well imagine whether or not the water level of that well would go down. In
the last five years, the company has extracted so much water from there that the water level
has gone down to 40 feet.2

After much protest and unrest in the village, the company offered to have hand

pumps built in the village as an alternative to wells. Some people have accepted these

pumps but others see it as a form of manipulation. From time to time Coca Cola also

distributes things to the village and again, some people take the things and some people

do not.

Woman: See at that time they distributed medicines and blankets and utensils. They
distributed these things because they thought that if they would please us by doing this then
we would not chase them away from here.

Vidya: They also installed many hand pumps. They installed hand pumps so that the people
will not try to ride them away from here. But only they who stand to benefit should get these
hand pumps installed in their places. Why should we seeing the fact that we don’t stand to
benefit anyway? …that’s why we want the company to leave. We are not greedy for their
stuff, we don’t want their things.3

Excessive groundwater extraction leads to the contamination of the water because

as the water level lowers it becomes more polluted with dissolved minerals. This

contaminated water is what local people will end up drinking and what these hand pumps

will help them reach.

1
Woman, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
2
Nandalal Master, Protest rally in Lanka, Varanasi, February 10th, 2004.
3
Conversation between Vidya and another Woman, Mehandiganj, March 15th 2004.

26
 Pollution is another very

large complaint of the villagers,

and the issue is that the company

had been dumping polluted water

onto the villager’s fields. After

many protests, they built a pipeline

to dispose of the polluted water.

Yet the problems remains that all

of the land that the water has

touched has been ruined. Farmers

say that nothing will grow on that

land, it remains infertile. Therefore

the farmers are at a disadvantage

because a lowering in the harvest

One area where polluted water was dumped, into a stream
leading to a field of paddy crops
means a lowering in their income.

Until July 2003, the Factory

had been dumping their polluted water into the fields and orchards. This caused an area of

over twenty acres of paddy wheat and chick peas to be destroyed. Eucalyptus and Neem

trees have gone dry and other trees have also been affected. Dumping the water in these

areas also greatly increased the amounts of mosquito’s as well as skin disease. Villagers

say that as soon as the water came into contact with their skin they experienced an intense

itching sensation. Water chemical ash was also being dumped onto the land as industrial

garbage, which ended up flying around and spreading. Wherever the ash was dumped, the

land would lose its productivity. Once in a while the company still disposes some of this

27
white powder on the fields though mostly they are storing it inside of the plant. All of this

has severely lowered the harvest and as a result lowered the income of farmers. Even

though the company has built a pipeline, they have not reimbursed the farmers for their

lost money. In a way, money continues to be lost because the now infertile land could

have been used to sow crops and make more money from a larger harvest. Moreover, if

enough grain does not grow, then the village is forced to buy grain to eat even when they

are spending their time trying to grow it themselves. Below are some of the villagers’

opinions on this matter:

We think to ourselves, “If we have to buy food grains in order to eat then what’s the point.”
Even if the farms yield a harvest we’ll still buy food from outside. If you can’t get a harvest
from your farms then why put up with it? How can we eat if our farms don’t yield any crop?1

Sukhdei: When this water spread into the orchards and fields, our crops were damaged. This
water has harmed all the orchards and boy there are so many mosquitoes that you can’t even
imagine. There are so many mosquitoes that you got measles [bites all over] on your hands
and feet. And also boils on your skin.
Other woman adds in: the water looked clean, so we put that water into our farms to save the
crops from burning in the heat. And we had no idea that this was garbage water.
Sukhdei: we would put that water into our fields, and the fields were dry and parched, but we
had no idea that it was harmful water.
Other woman: but when this water came into contact with your skin, you experienced an
intense itching sensation. You couldn’t stop scratching yourself.2

There is a farm belonging to a Harijan3, where chick pea had been sowed. And in this field
there was so much slush from the factory that when buffalos used to go there they used to die.
Now just think, would we spend our money into buying medicines for our children or for our
cattle or for feeding the children? In this era of inflation how much can one person possibly
earn? People are tired of working hard to earn some extra money and how will we get our
sons and daughters married off? And if it doesn’t happen [the wedding] then they [the
children] will run away.4

Earlier the waste water of the village used to flow into the pond of Kalipur. And that water
used to flow into the Gangaji5, but since the time they began to build the bridge, the water
began to flood our farms, and our farming began to get ruined. That’s the matter. If nothing
will grow in the fields, then suppose there’s only one source of earning, then will we devote
our time to supporting the family and looking after their healthcare or earning? How will our
children survive? How will they live?6
1
Vidya, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
2
Sukhdei and another Woman, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
3
Harijan= a politically correct name started by Gandhi to be used when referring to the scheduled classes
4
Another Woman from Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
5
The Ganga River. The phrase “ji” as added after the word Ganga for respect.
6
Another Woman from Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.

28
 These people [the company] throw broken shards of bottles in our fields. And they dump their
dirty black water from their factory into the fields. It is causing a lot of damage. It should go
away from here; it should go away from our country. The water in our wells and hand pumps
has gone down a lot. There are many mosquitoes. And there are many sicknesses, and the
villagers of that part of the village1 are always paying for medicines and medical treatment.
We are always distraught about paying for our medicines. All this is the crisis hovering over
us. That is why we are running from pillar to post to get coca cola out of here. And the
animals don’t get to graze because where they dump their waste water, there even grass
doesn’t grow. And if animals were to drink that water, they would die.2

The spreading of polluted water into the farms has severely affected the lives of

farmers whose incomes are dependent upon agriculture. Two farmers of the village, Raj

Narayan Patel, a leader of the Goun Bachao movement (save the village movement) and

Mattaiilal, president of the Goun Bachao movement, have told about what this pollution

has done to their lives and the life of other farmers as well as how the groundwater

extraction affects them.

Right from the time when the coca cola company began here about 7 or 8 years ago they have
spreading pollution here. Due to the dumping of dirty water, the crops have become
destroyed, and all the big trees also withered away. And we asked the company to make
arrangements for an alternative dumping site of their water because we said that due to this
water, mosquitoes are spreading everywhere and also diseases. They said “so should we emit
our water into the sky?” Then we started sit-ins and protests against the company, and we also
gave the DM3 a petition and the DM of Varanasi asked this company to change the way they
were doing things so they installed a pipeline and they began to emit their dirty water in a site
a little outside the Bhikharipur village across the GT road. And now the same kind of water is
being dumped there. And the outcome of this was that since the time the factory has been set
up, the water level has gone down a lot. So much so that the water in the wells has diminished
a lot in quantity so the amount of drinking water was reduced and also the water needed for
irrigation that we get from hand pumps and pumping sets etc. has also diminished in quantity.
In my own case, what happened was that earlier my pumping set used to work even when the
water level was at 40 feet below the ground. But since the time the factory was set up the
level of water began to go down and a time came when my pumping set became totally
dysfunctional and I had to get re-drilling done in the ground to reach the new water level.
And when I had the re-drilling done, I had to get it done up to a level of a hundred and twenty
feet below the original level of the well. And we are still continuing our sit ins and protests
against these people, that’s what’s going on. I have one bigha4 adjoining the factory
boundary. And water used to seep out from that boundary wall and it used to come into my
field and because of that all the crops that I used to sow, all of them used to be destroyed. Not
a simple crop used to grow. Now they are dumping their water outside [the village] but their

1
The new area where the pipeline sends polluted water.
2
Meherunnisa, Mehandiganj, April 2nd, 2004.
3
District Magistrate
4
20 bissas= 1 bigha, 27 Bissas=1 acre

29
 pollution is going on there as well. And they have also forcibly illegally occupied the land
belonging to Gram Sabha. Even until now they are refusing to give up that land. So there are
many damages that are resulting from this company. And we have become fed up of this
company, and its going from here is the only solution to this problem.1

Mattaiilal said that because the land has been made barren from the polluted

water, he wastes 1,000 or 1500 rupees of seed money a year. He explained that the

biggest problem in the fields now is that the land where the water has touched will not

yield any crops. The new pipeline is no replacement for his ruined land. Furthermore, the

pipeline does nothing but lead the polluted water to another village. To be exact, the

pipeline leads to the border between Bhikaripur village and Bengalipur village. Since it

took two years before the farmers of Mehandiganj saw an affect on their land from the

polluted water, so it will be another two years for these villages. Many people in

Bhikaripur and Bengalipur oppose the plant but just as it happened in Mehandiganj,

village Pradhans were bribed and so the movement cannot go very far right now. This

splitting in the movement will be covered in even further detail in the Issues in the

Resistance Movement chapter.

1
Mattaiilal, Mehandiganj Village, April 2nd, 2004.

30
 Above: Damaged paddy crops from the plants polluted water.1

Ram Narayan Patel also discussed the problems of the company:

Ever since the coca cola company has come here all of us including farmers and villagers are
facing a lot of problems. Polluted water from the plant has spread in the fields of the farmers
over an area of at least 50 acres, due to which mango orchards, the crops of chick peas and
peas and wheat have all been destroyed. So much so that even the patty crop has been hurt.
From the look of it, it seems that the patty crop will be very good but when the crop ripens
you find that it has no grains in it. Due to the polluted water, mosquitoes have spread
everywhere and due to the air pollution caused by them people have faced a lot of problems.
[When asked to tell more about the illnesses caused by the pollution, Patel responded that] it
was like an epidemic of vomiting and diarrhea. People used to have fevers and things like
that. The fever used to take months to cure. Many such patients went to the city to get treated.
[And what impact has this had on the farms? You were telling us that the patty crop is
growing but not yielding any grain?] Wherever the water from the plant has flown in the
farms, the land is becoming barren. Nothing can be grown there after that. The land becomes
infertile. Approximately 20 acres of farm land have been affected this way. First of all the
harvest size is reduced. Secondly, the hay that was produced after the crops has become
polluted so the oxen refuse to eat it, and so do the buffalo’s. The cattle are not able to eat this
hay until we give them hay and animal fodder in the ration of one to two. And by looking at
the paddy stocks you will think that the harvest is very good, but these stocks will not yield
any rice grains. That is why the harvest size has gone down.
Neha2: And what about the mango’s? We read in the newspaper that the mango orchards
were damaged?
In the mango orchards, mango buds refuse to grow on mango trees. Last year the mango crop
was very good everywhere else, but in our village very few mango trees bore fruit.
Neha: So once you people took the garbage from the coca cola plant and put it into your
farms as fertilizer?
Yes we did that.
Neha: Has the report about it come out yet?
No it hasn’t come out yet.
Neha: So you don’t know what people have to say about this, right?
No.3

It is also true that toxic waste was given to the farmers as fertilizer. As

mentioned earlier, Coca Cola also tried this with Keralan farmers. After a protest outside

the Mehandiganj bottling plant, the company gave the farmers their toxic waste and told

them it would work very well as fertilizer. The Farmers of Mehandiganj took the waste

1
This photograph was taken by Lok Samiti and used with their permission.
2
Neha works for a socio-political magazine called “Dustuk, Naya Sama Ki” (Knocking of a new time) and
once wrote an article about coca cola and Mehandiganj. I met her through my advisor and she accompanied
me to Mehandiganj my first time going. After my initial interview questions she helped me a great deal by
asking clever follow-up questions.
3
Ram Narayan Patel, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.

31
which they honestly believed to be fertilizer and used it on their crops. This “fertilizer”

not only killed the crops but also made the land infertile. As Patel stated, no official

report has come out about this and the bottling company has not been charged with doing

this. Later in the interview, while discussing the protest movement, Patel added more

information about the fertilizer:

And they brought the leftover garbage and mud to us saying that we should use this as
fertilizer for our farms. They brought this garbage and piled it by the roadside saying that it
will work as excellent fertilizer. You know what the fertilizer did? Wherever we put it, even
the trees withered away. There was a mango tree and a jack fruit tree and both of them
withered away when we put the fertilizer in the roots.1

Mattaiilal also spoke about the waste:

That dirty trash that came out of the factory, they told us to put it into our fields as fertilizer.
And our harvest will increase if we do so. They said it will work as fertilizer. When I brought
that trash and spread it into my fields, I found that wherever I did that even the big tree
withered away and the crops were destroyed.2

Aside from the presence of the bottling plant, farming in general has changed due

to new technology. The presence of the bottling plant makes farming even more

complicated:

These days the average farmer grows cash crops. The farmer of today practices agriculture
based on technology. Earlier, there was no technology or fertilizers available. Neither were
there pumping sets. And the harvest used to be pretty low. Earlier we used to obtain only
twelve or thirteen quintals per hector and now we get 50 to 60 quintals per hector of harvest.
There is no shortage of technology now. But because of this Coca cola factory the salt content
of the soil has increased by 10 times. And due to this big damage is caused to the crops. And
plants just don’t grow.3

The only report which has come out about pollution is the one done by Lok

Samiti when the District Magistrate asked for proof that pollution was harming the fields.

This is the result, translated from Hindi to English. This chart provides information about

the farmers, which crops were affected by water pollution and how much money was lost
1
Ram Narayan Patel, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.
2
Mataiilal, Mehandiganj Village, Varanasi, April 2nd, 2004.
3
P.P Gupta, Mehandiganj Village, Varanasi, April 2nd 2004.

32
due to the pollution. Blank areas mean that there was insufficient information found in

one week’s time. This is an unofficial report from May 2003. It should be noted that the

results from the chart have worsened because it was not until July 2003 that the company

built a pipeline to dispose of the polluted water. Before July it was still dumped into the

fields and the farms were still severely damaged. Technically, farmers still continue to

lose money because areas of land where they used to grow crops are still ruined, thus

money that would have come from those harvests are lost.

“Following is the description of the damage sustained by the Farmers and

their Compensation”

Serial # Name of Fathers Farm Area Crop/s Damage/loss

Farmer Name Number in Rupees
1. Raj Kelari 2338 380 Ares Paddy,wheat 40,000
Narayan 2639b 16 Ares Paddy,wheat
2. Ram Sahadev 2269 320 Ares Paddy, 30,000
Suchit chickpeas
3. Mattaiilal Mongru 2647 248 Ares Paddy, 25,000
Wheat
4. Rajendra Ram 2428 30 Ares All five 100,000
Narayan Lakhan 2429 231 Ares harvest
etc. 2430 305 Ares Mango
2469 121 Ares orchards
2460 125 Ares
5. DayaRam Nihor 2460 25 Ares Mango 20,000
etc. orchards
6. Jug Shitala 2303 24 Ares 1-4= Mango 1-4- 100,000
Narayan Parsed 2304 69 Ares Orchards
etc. 2305 409 Ares
2290 214 Ares 5-7= chick 5-7- 50,000
2291 551 Ares peas
2292 214 Ares
2293 210 Ares
7. Ramnat Sahdev 2324 20,000
etc. 2630
Makundi Payag 2631
etc.

33
8. Lallan Ram 2275 352 Ares Plant 20,000
Dular nursery
9. Mohan Nikhiwddi
etc.
10. Surindra Hari 2455 Mango 50,000
Narayan Shankar 2456 orchards
2457
11. Pushpa
Devi
TOTAL:
Rupees
365,000

While walking from one village to the next it was pointed out which plants and

trees had been ruined. The mango trees indeed looked bad as well as the paddy. The

woman leading the way explained to us that this was her land. She talked of how the

mango trees do not usually bloom mangoes anymore and if they do happen to bloom, then

the mangoes are not good enough to be eaten or sold. Similarly, she stated that the arihar

(dal) crops and mahua have not grown properly ever since the polluted water has touched

them. She further explains:

All this land belongs to me. All this land which is where you have the arihar (dal) crops and
wheat and mango’s and mahua. The plants are not even yielding a single fruit. They were
emitting their water into my land and one time we threatened to pelt them with rocks. Then
they turned the water off. But since the water of that place has come into the field, nothing is
growing ever since. And they also throw their useless bottles into my field and one day I
picked up all these bottles and threw them back into their campus.1

Some village women also complained of a gas emitted from the factory. It is

unclear whether they are talking about an actual gas or the smell of the polluted water.

One woman explained that “the gas was such bad smelling that when you sat down to eat

1
Woman in Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.

34
you felt like throwing up. While going to the market and while coming back from there

we used to walk with our mouths covered.”2

Another issue with the bottling plant is regarding their use of electricity. Instead of

a regular electricity connection the factory runs on two huge generators that each use 360

liters of fuel an hour and cause a loud noise throughout the village. In many parts of the

village the noise of the power fueled water pump can also be heard. Using generators over

electricity does not save them any money, so it is more a sign of their apathy. The twenty

four hour generator makes a loud sound throughout many sections of the village.

The fourth main issue is regarding employment. When Coca Cola bought the

Parle Company and came to Mehandiganj they promised to give permanent jobs to at

least seventy five percent of the villagers. There are 10,000 people currently living in the

Mehandiganj area and yet only 60-70 of them have jobs at the plant. These jobs are not

permanent jobs but ones of contract labor. Contract laborers keep their jobs for three

months on average though some have managed to keep their jobs for longer. During his

interview, Shri Narayan Patel also discussed how coca Cola has cause tension within the

village and the workers.

And the coca cola company after having come here pitted workers against each other, and
they pitted the villagers against each other. When some people were working in the plant,
they put up some demands which were not met so they organized a sit in and they took out a
protest march. So the company fired them and hired their opponents. They were demanding
better livelihood saying that we should get a fair wage because the company used to deduct
five or ten rupees from each workers wage every day, saying that we will give you this money
back in the form of either a bonus or a pension fund. But they didn’t give anything like that in
the entire year. So when these people demanded their bonus they fired them and hired the
other side. They said to the other group of people “come on, we’ll hire you, and we’ll fire the
other people.” So if you do that in a village, that is natural to cause friction in the social set
up. As a consequence the villagers fought each other. Because the Coca cola company made
them fight. At least forty persons were on one side and sixty or seventy persons on the other
side. They had to submit a bail bond in the court before they could be released.
Neha: So the villagers physically fought each other?
Yes a physically fight. And the police intervened. And all the people had to submit bail
money. And the law suit went on and it is still going on. Now the company says “you guys
2
Woman in Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.

35
 work it out among yourselves. It is your problem.” The coca cola company has said to both
parties bluntly that it is their problem and they will have to work it out by themselves. So now
you see, this is the kind of friction they have caused here.1

NandaLal Master, Mehandiganj resident and activist (head of National alliance of

Peoples movements in the U.P area, leader of Lok Samiti2 continues on this topic:

When these big companies come to a village, they promise that they will give a lot of jobs to
the villagers. And that they will provide employment to the maximum amount of people
possible in the village. Similarly, when this company came here it promised to hire the
maximum possible number of people from the village. But it did not give permanent
employment to any of the local people. So when the workers working in the plant agitated
against this system and kept the plant non functioning for a whole week and they occupied
the plant for an entire week, so what happened after that was that when the company realized
that they can’t get away with it they had people break into the plant from the backside. And
they brought the workers from the outside through this backdoor entry and started their work.
And they pitted the workers who were organizing the sit-in in front of the plant against each
other. They divided them into two groups and created animosity between the groups.3

I have interviewed three workers from the coca cola plant who are residents of

Mehandiganj village. They live farther in a different section than those agitating against

the plant. At first they were nervous to talk, worried that this could be used against them

and they could lose their jobs. I assured them that I would not use their names and that

this was not intended to be used against them. They all first explained that they needed to

do this line of work because they each have many kids4. Then the first man said:

What I have to say is, that I’m just one person from the village working there, but if the whole
village is being damaged because of my working there than I’ll quit that job. But I don’t see
what I can do if the whole village is suffering on my account because I could be facing that
problem too.5

When Neha asked, what if the villagers were given jobs? The second man said:

How many persons can the company possibly give jobs to? The population of the village is
3,000, [actually there are 10,000] how many jobs can the company possibly give. Forty nine
or fifty people are working there.6

1
Ram Narayan Patel, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
2
Collective Peoples Committee
3
Nandalal Master, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004.
4
Although that was said before the tape started running.
5
Anonymous Coca Cola Worker 1, Mehandiganj, March 15th 2004
6
Anonymous Coca cola worker 2, Mehandiganj, March 15th 2004

36
 When she asked, but just suppose they did give jobs to everyone, then the first
man replied:

Yea suppose the company gives jobs to everyone, yet this problem can come up again. What I
mean to say is that suppose there was a water shortage here at any time, then the same
problem will happen again.1

The second man added in:

Whatever water is going into the plant is going from under the ground. The same water will
come into our wells. If this goes on then our wives and children will face problems four years
from now.2

Therefore both men have acknowledged that even if the plant gives jobs, even if

the plant modifies itself in that way, the core problems will still be occurring.

Groundwater will be extracted from the villagers’ land regardless of whether people are

given jobs or not. Following this I asked what these men did for jobs before working for

the bottling plant, and they all answered that they were weavers of Benarsi Sari’s. Neha

asked if they did not find this work profitable, and man 1 answered:

No it was profitable of course. The only problem is that in that line of work you get work only
for four or five months a year. After four or five months you are forced to work at something
else.3

By this statement he means that he was working for a master weaver, therefore he

was under the rules of someone else. He worked on the basis of contract labor- when

material or Sari’s were needed than these men would make them, otherwise throughout

the rest of the year they were left with no work. Part of the reason he was needed for four

or five months at a time is due to the lowering in demand of Benarsi silk and part is due

to the often manipulative relationship between master weaver and workers. I asked him if

most of the coca cola workers were once weavers and his reply was that yes, most of
1
Anonymous Coca Cola Worker 1, Mehandiganj, March 15th, 2004
2
Anonymous Coca Cola Worker 2, Mehandiganj, March 15th, 2004
3
Anonymous Coca Cola Worker 1, Mehandiganj, March 15th 2004

37
them were. Though their jobs have changed they still have not escaped the pattern of

contract labor.

The rule is for 120 days. After you have worked for 120 days someone else will replace
you.1

Only 120 days. After that someone else will do that job.2

The Coca Cola Company uses this method of three month contract labor so as to

free themselves of the obligation of labor rights benefits. Only three months of work do

not qualify for labor rights. It should be noted that this is not just done by multinational

companies but by many Indian companies too. It is common in India for companies to use

contract labor so as to avoid giving benefits to the workers.

Another worker, Shyamal Yadav, began working at the plant when Coca Cola

bought it from Parle. He began working there by carrying bricks and doing other such

jobs to build the factory. Once the factory was built the company hired the laborers and

soon after began exploiting them.

They used to make a worker work for two or four days and then fire him without giving him
any money. We began opposing this. So when we began to protest, they started giving us a
bonus, etc. After that, they began blaming us for one thing or the other and then they
launched a fake law suit against us, and we were arrested and kept inside the prison at
Chauka Ghat for a week.
They had us arrested on charges of fighting with the security guards. When we were released
we came back and we tried our best to work here but they did not re-hire us. Two of the
lawsuits are still going on. One is under section 107/163 And they always harass us using this
section. After every two or four months, they lodge a complaint against us under this section
and then we have to go for bail whether we like it or not. We get a bail and then for the next
eight or nine months the case goes on. Even at the present time they have registered a case
under 107/16 against eleven people. And they had got four of the people arrested and they
have again got an arrest warrant issued for these four people. On the following eighth there
will be a hearing for this case.4

He also discussed the issue of pay:

1
Anonymous Coca Cola worker #1, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.
2
Anonymous Coca Cola worker #2, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.
3
Covers physical fights or when someone violates peace, then they are arrested under this law.
4
Shyamlal Yadav, March 15th, 2004.

38
 If you look at the government rate of workers wages1 it is at least 72 to 75 rupees per day.
When we were working there they were paying us 63 rupees per day. So slowly we came to
know that the government rate was higher. When we found out from the labor court that the
government minimum wage was rupees 68 and 38 pesa, and we demanded to be paid that
amount and we fought a long battle. For example, we blocked the path of the car of the
general manager of the company in pursuit of our demands. So they began to give us 68
rupees 38 pesa per day. Then they began giving us bonuses. Then they began deducting the
provident (pension) fund from our wages on a regular basis. And then the company singled us
out as political leaders of the workers and they made up their minds to fire us. They had
singled out all the persons who spoke out on behalf of the workers and there were about 11 or
12 of us like that. So first they began fighting the workers and we became agitated, and then
we staged a whole lot of sit-ins and protests and we took the support of the Samajwadi2 Party
and we staged dozens of sit-ins and protests. The party people came here and we had sit-ins
many times and then we were re-instated. We began to work for the company again. And this
happened two or three times. Then there was a man who was the most vocal of all and they
fired him on charges of sleeping on duty when in fact he was not even on duty on that day.
And similarly they began to fire each one of us by accusing us of one thing or the other.
Whoever could answer back to them, they would get them out. When they kicked out these
people then these people got a bad image but inside the company the exploitation went on as
before.3

During this interview another man interrupted and asked what was being

recorded. He then argued that Shyamlal Yadav should either speak for or against the

company; that it is not possible to do both. He pointed out that Shymlal Yadav was

speaking against the company but would still work there if he had the chance. Then

Shymalal Yadav began explaining that he would like to go to the protests but that he does

not go due to the companies restraining order on him. Another man agreed with him

saying that the restraining order makes it so that they cannot go. The two other men who

were present each still work for the company but agreed that if the entire village wanted

them to quit then they would.

One man said:

Look, I don’t believe that simply because I got a job, my entire village should live a life of
darkness. That’s not the way that I think. I don’t think that if the company hurts or damages
anyone or anything then I have no objection to that. Whether the company makes suitable

1
Minimum wage
2
Socialist.
3
Shyamlal Yadav, March 15th, 2004.

39
 arrangements or not is none of my business. If everyone cooperates then I too will cooperate.
But if they won’t then what can I possibly do? No one can do anything alone.1

And the second men:

My point is that the damage that the company is causing to the village is not a good thing. It’s
good that we’ve got jobs there. It’s good that we have jobs and we are earning livelihoods.
But if everyone is being hurt by just one man getting a job and earning a living then it would
be better if that man doesn’t have that job at all. But the fact is that the damage this drink is
causing to people who drink it is not our business. Our point is that if because of the presence
of the company, the village suffers from water shortage and other things, then we would stand
to lose also. If everyone loses then we also lose. Suppose we were for just a short period, and
then get fired, then that will cause problems to us too right? Seeing all this it would be better
if the company doesn’t stay here at all. What will we gain by working for the company for
just a short period? 2

There is ambivalence in all of the men in this interview and these men’s’

statements do not always seem consistent. It is hard to tell how their answers may have

changed due to the fact that I was there and that a member of Lok Samiti was there. In

any case, their ambivalence shows that they themselves may be conflicted. They are glad

to have jobs to earn a livelihood yet they realize that the company is not good for the

village or to its workers. Moreover they do not have a solution to this predicament and

are not sure about figuring one out.

The last main issue is regarding land. In 1995 Parle began constructing its factory

in Mehandiganj Village, along GT road. Part of the area where the plant would be in

operation was being built on Gram Sabha Land. This is why Parle never began producing

consumer goods, because a law suit was placed on them by the Gram Panchayat for this

illegal land occupation. Then in 1999, while the law suit was still going on, Parle sold the

entire company to Coca Cola. When Coca Cola bought the plant, land and company they

cheated the revenue department of Rs. 1,50,75,0003 on stamp duty. The court ordered

them to repay this amount and an equal amount as a fine but has yet to pay the entire
1
Anonymous Coca Cola Worker
2
ibid.
3
1 crore, 50 lakh, 75 thousand rupees

40
amount. Despite lobbying by activists and the court order, the government has not done

much to make them pay what they owe. They also have not further pursued the fact that

the plant is built on Panchayat land. There is a contradiction, however, in that villagers

claim that the head of the village took bribe money and also sold the land. So then how

can this be considered an illegal land occupation? Land occupation is when land is

occupied by force. This contradiction will also be explored later in the people.

Another land issue is that of Chak Roads. Chak Roads exist in villages to provide

a route from the village to the main road and from sections of the village to other sections

of the village so as to make the route smoother and quicker. The bottling plant was

actually built on part of the Chak Road, making it so that if villagers were to take that

road out then it would be considered trespassing. If they trespassed then criminal charges

would follow. Before the bottling plant came, the villagers by the plant could have

walked forward and reached G.T Road in a short amount of time. Following the building

of the plant and the loss of their Chak Road, they expected that a new Chak road would

be made for them. Such a road was never built and women especially complain about the

absence of this road. They feel that it makes their journey to the main road a more

challenging one. They also say that it makes celebrations such as weddings more difficult

to have since people have to walk more of a distance to come.

To conclude this chapter, it should be noted that the contradictions mentioned will

be explored in the chapter titled “Issues within Resistance” The main contradiction that

will be explored is: What is the truth behind this land occupation that is being spoken of

and what is the truth behind the alleged bribing of the village Pradhan? How does this

relate to the splitting in the village? Due to the splitting in the village, what are some of

the problems in the resistance movement?

41
Pesticides in Coca Cola and other cold drinks:

In August 2003, a report by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a

Delhi NGO, came out with reports showing pesticides in all Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola

made cold drinks on the Indian market. The amount of pesticides in each drink far

exceeded the European Standards set by the European Economic Commission (EEC),

used in the U.N and U.S to regulate food and drinks. Following this report the

42
government also tested soft drinks for pesticides. The government analysis was done at

the Central Food Laboratory at Central Food Technological Research Instititute in

Mysore, on August 14th, 2003. The government found pesticides in these drinks as well

but not to as high of a degree as CSE. CSE offers several reasons for this difference in

data. For one, the seasons were different and secondly the way in which they were tested

was different. What remains the same, CSE says, is that both results clearly show

pesticides in the drink and Coca Cola Co. and Pepsi Co. still say that their drinks are

perfectly healthy to drink.

Coca cola was found to have four times the amount of pesticides than the EEC

limits in the CFL laboratory, and thirty six times the amount in the CSE laboratory. This

large difference in results is unclear, yet either way, both laboratories both show results of

pesticides being higher than EEC standards. The conclusion of CFL1 is that Lindane is

present in 100 percent of the samples and exceeded the EEC limit by 1.1-1.4 times. DDT

and metabolites were present in 58% of samples, exceeding EEC limits by 1.8-1.24.

Chlorpyriphos was present in 100% of the samples and exceeded the limit in 75% of the

samples by 3.9 to 7.8 the EEC limit.

CSE found that all samples contained residues of lindane, DDT, malathion and

chlorpyrifos. They also stated that “each sample had enough poison to cause- in the long

term- cancer, damage the nervous and reproductive systems, birth defects and severe

disruption of the immune system.2” CSE also found that the total pesticides in Coca-Cola

brands on average were 0.0150 mg/l which is 36 times higher than the EEC limit. Two
1
Central Food Laboratory At Central Food Technological Institute, “Report of Analysis of Pesticide
Residues in Soft Drink Samples sent by Directorate General of Health Services, New Delhi to CFL,
Mysore,” August 14th, 2003, <http//www.cse.org>
2
“Hard Truths About Soft Drinks,” www.cse.org/html/press
-releases/press_20030805_1.htm, August 5th 2003, Center For Science and Environment, February 12th
2004 <www.cse.org>

43
U.S soft drink brands were tested by PML and no pesticides were found. CSE states that

in 2001, Indians consumed over 6,500 million cold drinks.

In the CSE report1 they explained that in 1955, the Prevention of Food

Adulteration Act was implemented as well as the Fruit Products Order. Both acts were

implemented to regulate the contents in beverages but said nothing about regulating

pesticides in soft drinks. The Food Products Order has standards for lead and arsenic that

are fifty times higher than those allowed in bottled water. The sector is also exempted

from the provisions of industrial licensing under the Industries Development and

Regulation Act of 1951. This means that along with a companies license comes a

certificate from the local government, state pollution control board, and water analysis

board, without ever analyzing the products or the groundwater used to make drinks. Thus,

companies have the power to use polluted water because there are no such water

regulations. Companies can use the surrounding environment however they please

because no environmental impact assessments are ever done. Coke has said that if their

drinks did have anything dirty in them it was due to polluted groundwater, something that

could not be changed. This second part of this claim is false because it is possible to

purify water.

The main response of the Coca Cola Company to these reports has been an

allegation that they must be false. They claimed that the drinks were still fit to drink and

criticized India’s laboratories as being not advanced enough to test for pesticides. To even

further convince the public to keep drinking Coke, the company used the media to

promote their drinks on a much larger scale than before. They began to air more

commercials with sports and bollywood stars showing that Coke was still fit to drink.

1
ibid.

44
Jagriti Rahi, an activist from the city of Varanasi further explained this (translated from

Hindi to English) at an anti-coca cola rally in Lanka, Varanasi.

They took the excuse that the laboratories of our country are not advanced enough to test their
products. They said “we have had our products tested in various laboratories in the developed
countries and our products are ok. They are fit to drink.” And after that our new celebrities, the film
stars and sports stars, began advertising this product one after the other. They told us that if we were
not drinking these drinks or if we had given up drinking Pepsi or Coke because of these reports then
we were fools or extremely backward, and you are not “advanced”1. You have no knowledge that’s
why you have stopped drinking it. You should drink it because we have had it tested abroad.” This is
the mindset which most people acquired and they thought that these people were right and we don’t
have labs like that in India. The scientists of our country cannot be intelligent enough so that we could
trust their reports. But the fact is that the parliamentary committee report that has come out says that
our labs are more technically advanced than the labs abroad where the products were tested.

Advertisement of famous
Bollywood actress, Aishwaria
Rai, promoting Coca cola in a
small Varanasi shop

In India the media is a very powerful tool. Most television shows present very

light skinned and wealthy families who use modern appliances and eat and drink modern

consumer goods. The commercials depict these same types of people and present goods

to the public that symbolize a contemporary lifestyle. If some people have the tendency to

follow what is presented to them in the media, then commercials with bollywood and

cricket stars telling the public what to believe may manipulate them to choose the side of

coca cola and to keep on drinking it. One commercial that is often aired shows a male

1
Speech is in Hindi but she uses the word “advanced” in English.

45
bollywood star drinking a thums up with several young fashionable women circling

around him smiling and laughing while rock music is playing in the background. This is

the mood of the thumbs up drink as well as Coke and other Coca Cola made drinks; that

it is hip and modern.

The only response of the government to the pesticide reports was that they banned

Coca Cola and all other cold drinks from the parliament canteen. As soon as they heard

that cold drinks contained high amounts of pesticides, the only ban that they made was in

their own canteen. Clearly this shows that they agree with the Center for science and

environment reports. Some non-government schools began to ban soft drinks on their

own but the government made no action to ban these drinks from their schools.

Resistance and Action:

Background:

In response to both the problems caused by the bottling plants in the villages and

to the pesticides issue, large resistance movements have been emerging in the villages

and the cities. Most of these movements avow to base themselves on Gandhian ideologies

of non-violent protest and village self rule. The Gandhian movement in India works for

the rural poor and for the building a decentralized, self-sufficient and just social order.

This movement is deep rooted in history and is the backbone of the anti-coca cola

46
movement in India. Throughout India, many different movements along these lines are

interconnected as one common struggle and are titled The National Alliance of Peoples

movements (NAPM). The NAPM is made up of movements ranging from Save the

Narmada Struggle Committee to anti-Coca cola movements to anti river linking

movements. All the movements share the common theme of how globalization is

affecting indigenous and poor communities. Though NAPM is made up of socialists,

communists and those following Gandhian thought, all of its members are linked together

in their rejection of globalization. Yes, globalization is a broad term and is often thrown

around, but members of NAPM refer to globalization in terms of its harmful affects on

their communities and land. They also perceive it to be a threat to a socially-just society

in that it benefits those who do the developing and hurts those living in the “developing”

area. For example, building a world bank funded damn on the Narmada has dislocated

many indigenous people from living along the river to moving to city slums though mig

multinational water companies have made huge profits. Taking World Bank loans often

mean the cutting of government funding for local communities when attempting to repay

debt. It also means the turning of the governments shoulder when multinational

companies commit destructive acts. Coca cola bottling plants have killed land and caused

severe water pollution, negatively affecting the lives of villagers. Besides the example of

Kerala, the government has looked the other way. All of these things are components of

the globalization process and NAPM rejects globalization because though it benefits the

government and those who are “feeling good,” it does not benefit the poor communities.

Though NAPM is made up of a variety of political ideologies, the agitations are all based

upon Gandhian thought. All of the coca-cola protests are referred to as “Peaceful

Gandhian protests” and involve the practice of Gandhian non-violent resistance. This

47
form of non violent protest is called Satyagraha, which literally means insistence on

truth.

The NGO’s involved in this movement who are also working in rural

development follow Gandhian principles as well, especially with the creation of

panchayat samiti’s, the Ghandian idea of village self-rule. Many NGO’s and grassroots

parties are a part of the coca cola movement- Samjwadi Jan Parishad (a grassroots

socialist council), Sajha Sanskriti Manch (joint cultural forum), The women’s

organization, an art inspirational forum, and Lok Chetana Samiti.

Lok Chetana Samiti promotes village empowerment at a grassroots level. They

have offices at five different locations in rural Varanasi and each block works with about

80 sections of villages. One village that happens to be in their arena of work is

Mehandiganj and so they have helped support the anti-Coca Cola movement. In fact, it

was not until Lok Chetana Samiti and their local branch Lok Samiti came to the villagers

that they were empowered to strengthen their protest against the bottling plant. Every

morning workers sit in the main office and each person discusses what he or she has done

the day before. Before the discussion, passages written by Gandhi are read and a prayer is

sung that is not affiliated with any religion, as the workers are of various religions, from

Muslim to Christian to Hindu. Unlike many other NGO’s in Varanasi, this organization

accepts no foreign funding and believes in doing everything at a grassroots level. This

NGO was put into action by a Keralan woman named Lily Bhehen who hoped to put a

great deal of focus on women’s empowerment.

According to the brochure cover, Lok Chetana Samiti “is a registered organization

that works for social as well as structural change in favor of the poor and the

marginalized.” The organization has two main parts, Lok Samiti (Peoples council) and

48
Mahila Chetana Samiti (Women’s council). Though both groups have been interviewed,

the best way to explain Lok Samiti is through the brochures description as it is stated

most poignantly:

The building of village communities through the formation of people’s organizations called
Lok Samiti. These organizations are expected to emerge as a moral force, asserting and
exercising their collective power in the decision making process of their own villages. At a
larger level in collaboration with other village organizations they are expected to emerge as a
people’s movement, capable of influencing the policy making of the nation in favor of the
poor and weaker sections of society.1

In Mehandiganj, the Lok Samiti is leading the local anti-coca cola struggle

without much direct help from Lok Chetana Samiti. Mahila Chetana Samiti, a group

specifically for women, is also involved. Mahila Chetana Samiti’s are separate women’s

organizations that take part in various forms of women empowerment and examine social

issues from women’s perspectives. The Lok Chetana Samiti organization as runs

programs to address a variety of issues. The programs will be explained as to provide a

background of how the Lok Samiti in Mehandiganj came to be and what ideologies it is

built upon.

These programs include: (again taken from brochure)

1. building village communities through formation of Lok Samiti and Mahila Chetana Samiti,

2. Ensuring greater participation of women and other weaker sections of society in panchayat

(Gandhian idea of local self government.)

3. Mass education and formation of public opinion; study circles, seminars, conventions, and

other awareness building programs,

4. Organizing training programs and short courses on relevant topics on social analysis,

development, human rights, legal awareness, leadership training, capacity building, etc.

5. Formation of Self help groups; for strengthening economic power and self dependence.

1
Lok Chetana Samiti’s Brochure

49
 6. Legal entitlement programs- providing community legal services and conflict resolution for

village disputes through “lok adalats’(settlements of disputes by the parties themselves with

community and Samiti participation either in the village or office. This includes family

disputes, human rights violations, caste conflicts, crimes on women and crimes on Dalits.

7. Non formal education (that also teaches about the society critically) and literacy programs

especially for girls,

8. Research activities to help peoples movements, taking up issues that affect the lives of

villagers, especially human rights, social justice, communal harmony and civic issues.

In this last case Mehandiganj is a village in one of the five blocks where they

work and so Lok Chetana Samiti has taken up the issue of the Coca Cola factory and

supported the movement. The leader of the Lok Samiti in Mehandiganj is Nandalal

Master (interviewed earlier), a resident of the village. Nandalal, along with other

members of Lok Samiti Mehandiganj, are working in this movement without much direct

help from Lok Chetana Samiti. The larger organization supports the movement and has

helped with research, but in regards to protesting the plant and the government, it is Lok

Samiti that has done most of the work. Therefore, it is not as though this NGO is

controlling the movement. Rather, they are acting as a form of support and helping out

when they needed. In this way, the brochure description seems to be the truth of the

situation, which is not the case of all Varanasi NGO’s. Lok Samiti has emerged as a

moral force, asserting and exercising their collective power both locally and nationally.

The Local Movement

In a section of Mehandiganj village is a small three room building with a sign on

the outside that reads “Lok Samiti” in Hindi. Inside this area is where the planning of the

movement takes place. It is plastered with signs against Coca Cola and quotes and

pictures of Gandhi. In one room, piles of documents and photographs related to the

50
movement are stored. These documents range from letters written to the president of

India, to unofficial reports on the destruction of crops from pollution. Every day members

of Lok Samiti work on the movement, whether it is writing letters to the government,

going to the district headquarters to see the district magistrate, or planning agitations, they

are always at work. Lok Samiti became a part of the movement in May 2003 and right

away began strengthening the movement by mobilizing the farmers and other villagers.

Lok Samiti is the local organization of the organization1 that works for the interest of the
villages and the Lok Samiti is also a constituent of the NAPM, and the NAPM is made up of
350 such constituent organizations and both Lok Samiti and people like Aflatoon etc. had
been active in this movement even before the pesticide report came out in July 2003. Before
Lok Samiti became a part of this movement, we had planned to celebrate an anti-globalization
day every tenth May in front of the headquarters of the district administration of whichever
district we reside in. And we had planned that on this day we would buy Coke and Pepsi
bottles and empty their contents in front of the district headquarters as a symbolic protest
against globalization. And I decided that instead of doing this in front of the district
headquarters, I would do it with my companions in front of the coca cola bottling plant in my
village, because we had a coca cola plant in our village itself. When I mentioned this to the
villagers and asked for their participation against globalization, they said “you are going to
empty Coke in front of the plant on tenth may whereas we here are facing so many problems
due to this company and we have staged sit-ins and protests and have also met the district
magistrate in this regard, complaining about how our farms are being ruined by the polluted
water from the company, and our crops are getting ruined.” Then we of the Benaras Lok
Samiti decided that we should stand by these villagers and their fight against the company
and then we conducted a survey about the problems and only then did we find out about the
movement which the farmers had been carrying on for so long against the company…Before
the villages of Mehandiganj informed me about the problems that they were facing in the
company, I had only heard about the problems but not actually seen them with my own eyes
because even though I live in that village I had not been there for some time and had not
worked there for a length of time.

Shri Narayan Patel is a leader of the Goun Bachao Sangatan Samiti (Save the village

struggle committee). This is an unregistered organization with a specific focus to the

Coca Cola crisis. Before Lok Samiti was in the picture, the farmers had formed a group to

protest the plant but had not named themselves officially. In September 2003 they gave

themselves a name and along with Lok Samiti they have been working at the local level

to shut the bottling plant down. The difference between the two groups is that Lok Samiti

1
The organizations name is Lok Chetana Samiti and will be discussed later in the chapter.

51
covers a variety of issues (though it is true that now the coca cola movement is their main

focus), and Goun Bachao Sangarsh Samiti was created specifically because of the

problems being faced in the village and by the farmers due to the bottling plant.

We have been working in this for the last two years since the time they set up the plant here1 and
we starting facing problems. Then we people created this organization and after that we organized
sit ins and protest marches and whatever it took. First of all we gave a petition to the district
magistrate about the polluted water from the plant, but nothing happened as result. Then we
repeated this process again, but still he didn’t listen to us. God knows what he did, then we
petitioned the chief minister of the state and also the governor of the state. So much so that we
also sent petitions to the national chiefs of all the national parties, but no one did anything. Then
finally, we sent a petition to the president of India saying that if nothing is done about this then we
will sit down for a long sit in. We gave them 48 hours notice. After 48 hours we had a sit in. This
sit in went on for twelve to fifteen days and during this time the company at least extracted the
polluted water from the farms using a pump. And they brought the leftover garbage and mud to us
saying that we should use this as fertilizer for our farms. They brought this garbage and piled it by
the roadside saying that it will work as excellent fertilizer. You know what the fertilizer did?
Wherever we put it, even the trees withered away. There was a mango tree and a jack fruit tree
and both of them withered away when we put the fertilizer in the roots.2

The first organized protest that took place by Lok Samiti and Goun Bachao

Sangarsh Samiti was on May 10th 2003. A large protest took place in front of the bottling

plant and the people were full of energy.

May 10th 2003 Protest in front of the bottling plant3 Mahila Chetana Samiti at the May 10th 2004 protest4

1
Correction: He said two years and also since the time the plant was set up. The correct year is around 2002
though he might have meant that they opposed the plant from the time it was set up,
2
Ram Narayan Patel, March 15th 2004.)
3
Both photos taken by Lok Samiti and used with their permission.
4
Ibid.

52
 This was just the beginning. In the month of May Lok Samiti also began submitting

complaints to officials such as the local police station, District Magistrate, the Additional

District Magistrate, the President of India, The Pollution Board, and Douglas Daft of

Coca Cola USA. These documents have been translated from Hindi to English and are

provided so that the reader can better understand how many countless letters and petitions

have been written and mostly not responded to. One time an answer was received in

November, when the District Magistrate asked Lok Samiti to provide proof of the damage

caused to the village. They gave the villagers a week to get this information back to them.

After one week Lok Samiti handed the information to the District Magistrate. The District

Magistrate then said that they would get back to them within a month. Seven months later

nothing has been heard and numerous protests continue to be held. One of the first letters

was written on the ninth of May to the President of India. Below is another one of the first

letters written by Lok Samiti to an official- this letter is written to the Additional District

Magistrate. Attached to the letter was the chart about the farmers which was provided

earlier in the “Coca Cola in Mehandiganj, Varanasi” section. Nothing was done about this

report. In the month of May is when Lok Samiti began organizing this movement and also

when the intensity of the agitations first began. In September the protests grew even more

in intensity due to the fact that more villagers had been mobilized and the affects on the

village were growing worse. It should be noted that the small chart following the letter is

incomplete, and thus is just a glimpse of how water flooding has affected the lives of

farmers. For some reason all of the information was unable to be gathered at that time and

now almost a year later, the situation is obviously much worse than it was at the time the

report was made. Following is the letter1:

1
Translated from Hindi to English.

53
To: Mr. Additional district Magistrate: (Finance and Revenue), Varanasi
Subject: In relation to the compensation and damages of the farmers and the people by the coca cola
bottling plant located in the village of Mehandiganj belonging to the country “Kasvar Raja” district,
Varanasi.

Dear Sir,
In the “Save Our Lives and Property” application sent to his excellence the President on 9th
May 2003 A.D at 4:00 PM by the residence of Mehandiganj, the following demands have been made.

1) The polluted water of Coca Cola should come to an end. The water should be purified and
emitted elsewhere.
2) The illegal business of the bones and height of dead animals over there should be closed
down
3) There should be action taken on a war footing to eradicate poisonous mosquitoes in the
Mehandiganj and surrounding areas.
4) We should get compensation for the crops and orchards destroyed.
5) The illegal occupation of Gram Samaj land in Mehandiganj by Coca Cola should be
removed
6) There should be a brick drain joining all the ponds of the village for the exit of the surplus
water and this drain should be built along the G.T road and it should go right up to it.
7) The tension caused in the village by the layoffs done by coca cola should come to an end. The
exploitation of the workers should come to an end and the unemployed in the village should
get permanent employment.

A Non violent agitation has been undertaken by the ‘Goun Bachao Sangash Samiti
Mehandiganj (Mehandiganj save the village struggle committee) for about a fortnight from 10th
May- 23rd May 2003 regarding the above demands.

Therefore, the Sangarsh Samiti demands compensation for the destroyed crops and orchards
of the farmers and presents the copy and list of the village records of the flooded farms of the
farmers.

Farmers Affected by Flooded Farms:

Name of Farmer: Son of: Amount lost due to Damage

Ram Nat Sahadev Rupees 100,000
Mattaiilal Mongru Rupees 50,000
Prabhunath Khurghan Rupees 50,000
Note: Since we could not get the village records of the farms of these farmers we will furnish this
information later

Coca Cola Co. had a pipe built to dispose of their waste in July 2003 after much

lobbying by villagers and outside activists. This may not have been able to be done

without Nandalal and the rest of Lok Samiti.

54
 It was Master1 who spoke on our behalf. We didn’t. He began swearing at them saying
“where the hell is all this water coming from?” The slope of the land is such that the
water that they emit goes into our fields. Only after Master undertook that agitation did
the company arrange for an alternative exit for the water.2

On the eighth of August the villagers had a sit-in in front of the Regional officers

office. The following order was written up by the regional officer and given to Nandalal.

Below is the order.3

On 25-08-203 the villagers around Mehandiganj had staged a sit-in in front of this office to
demand an end to the pollution being caused by the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverage Ltd. Established
in Mehandiganj. The farmers informed me about their problems during the sit-in and they also gave a
petition. We assured them that we shall solve the problems mentioned in the petition. The farmers had
demanded that a jan adalat (peoples court) be temporarily set up in this area.
In the above contract you are being assured on 25-08-2003 that we shall study all the points
mentioned in your letter and try our best to solve them, and that we shall ensure the setting up of the
people’s court after contacting the hon. District magistrate of Varanasi.
(Signature)
R.K Singh
Regional Officer
25/08/03

Nothing was done as quickly as this order had promised and so the villagers

continued their protests and demands.

On September 10th 2003, 500 people protested in front of the plant, this time with

the objective to close it down. Members of different organizations agitated in this protest,

members from Lok Samiti (peoples council), Saajha Sanskriti Manch (joint cultural

forum), Samajvadi Jan Parishad (socialist grassroots party), Mahila Chetna Samiti (ladies

awareness committee) and Goun Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (save the village struggle

committee). Other agitators included Professors from Benaras Hindu University, leaders

of the Institute of Gandhian studies, as well as other independent supporters of the

movement. All of the protesters arrived in front of the plant at noon, and were led by
1
The term Master is used for teachers of high positions and Nandalal teaches weaving to children at a
village school.
2
Sukhdei, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.
3
Translated from English to Hindi.

55
Sandeep Pandey and Nandalal Master. They were carrying signs and chanting slogans as

they tried to enter the main gate of the plant. Police and Coca Cola security began beating

the crowd with lathi sticks.

One woman from the village who was there at the

protest explains:

Even these little kids had gone there and when

the police started beating us the kids began to
wail. They began to run out of fear. Of course
it is understandable that when the police were
chasing you with lathi’s what else could you do? The
kids began to run, pulling there grandmothers and
mothers with them, out of fear that they will get
killed.1

Those who stayed even after the beatings were

arrested. Seventy six people were arrested and

fourteen people were injured with welts on their

bodies. The Picture on the left of a lathi beating is from the September Protest, was taken

by Lok Samiti and was used with their permission.

Those who were not arrested were enraged about the lathi charges and organized a

sit in on the middle of the entrance to the bottling plant. They demanded the names of the

policemen who had been at the protest because the policemen had all taken off their

nametags to avoid being reported.

The speakers said that the police had sold out to foreigners and that was why they were
wielding sticks. They said that foreign companies who are making people drink poison in the
name of cold drinks will have to leave the country. The speaker said that foreign companies
are hell bent on upon robbing this country in the name of globalization. They said that the
farming has been ruined by the polluted water and the trash produced by this company and
also the groundwater has gone down.2

1
Woman in Mehandiganj, March 15th 2004.
2
“Angry Protesters beaten with sticks in front of Coca cola bottling plant,” Danik Jagran, September 11th,
2003.

56
 After the protesters were released from jail they held a meeting to discuss the

future of the movement. Those injured and arrested ranged from local villagers to

Benaras Hindu University professors to members of the grassroots socialist council.

In response to the September tenth protest, the Office Collector and District

Magistrate gave the following order1:

Office-Collector and District Magistrate, Varanasi

No. 3443/S-Camp-2003 Date- 23 September 2003

Order

The Saajha Sanskriti Mach (combined culture forum) and other associated organizations organized a
protest at the Coca Cola plant situated at Mehandiganj on 10.9.2003. From which they informed us
that the policemen conducted a lathi charge and later arrested certain office bearers of Saajha
Sanskriti Mach on the charge of violating peace. The group of the protesters concerned met with the
undersigned on 15.9.2003 and they presented a petition calling for an enquiry into certain points.
Some of the points in their enquiry are related to the pollution being spread by the factory and
encroachment on the Gaon Rabha (Village Assembly), and son on. To investigate the points given in
their petition the additional district magistrate (administration) is hereby nominated and he is
instructed to present his report after investigating the above episode, within one week. The Raajha
Ranskin manch has nominated Mr. Nandalal from their side to cooperate in this investigation, and
the factory has nominated Mr. Rahul Krishna. The Additional District Magistrate (administration)
can also collect the testimony of other people during his investigation as and when necessary.

On October fifth to 7th, 2003, the festival of Vijay Dashmi, the burning of a coca

cola effigy took place. Those who participated made coca cola into the villain on this

festival. Also on October seventh a report was filed by villages to the police station

against coca cola for groundwater extraction.

The following application2 was given to the local police station on October

seventh 2003. Again, nothing was done.

7th October 2003

To: The honorable station officer police station, Mirzamurad District, Varanasi.

Dear Sir,

1
Translated from Hindi to English
2
Translated from Hindi to English.

57
 We, the applicants Mr. Raj Narayan Patel, son on late Hilari, Mr. Ramna Patel, son of
Sahadev Patel, Mr. Mattaiilal Patel, son of late Mongru Patel, and Suvas Chantdra Patel, son of Mr.
Ram Murat Patel. All are original inhabitants of the village Mehandiganj police station area
Mirzamurad.
In the Mehandiganj village, around the coca cola company, we have our farms, tube wells,
hand pumps, and wells. When coca cola company was not in our village, we used to get water easily
from our wells and tube wells. But since the last five years the water coming out of our tube wells and
hand pumps has diminished in quantity. When we investigated we found that the coca cola company
is stealing hundreds of thousands of liters of groundwater form our area through its heavy boring
machines. Due to this the water level has gone down by 10-25 feet. So much that I, applicant Ramnat
Patel, son of late Sahadev has a pumping set right next to the companies, and the boring drill of my
pumping set has burst open. On the other hand the company has ruined our three previous harvests
completely with its (crash and??) poisonous water and it is spreading pollution.
The coca cola company is also illegally occupying the land belonging to our graham sabha
and also wants to steal more village land in the name of opening a hospital here.
Your honor, all of us are extremely distraught. If the company continues to steal our water in
this very fashion, then in the days to come we will have to crave for every single drop of water.
Therefore, we request, your honor, to register our complaint against the coca cola company
and take necessary action against it.

Ram Narayan Patel

Ramnat Patel
Mithailal Patel
Suvas Chandra Patel

On October 28th, 2003, a march began led by Medha Pardkar, leader of the

Narmada Bachao Andolan and member of the NAPM1. This event was to help create

awareness about the economic policy of globalization.

Malti: She [Mehda Pardkar] had also come here, and she said, “I’ll see how coca cola doesn’t
close down, if it does not close down then we will indulge in vandalism. If the company will
not open its gates for us, then we will land people behind the gates via an airplane.”

Woman: she had also staged a sit in.

Neha: Are you people ready to indulge in vandalism?

Women: Yes, yes absolutely.

Neha: Will you do it?

Women: Yes, we’ll do it.

Woman: We’ll do it, whether we live or die.

Malti: They rained lathis on women. We saw the scene of eight policemen raining lathis on
one woman and dragging her inside.2
1
Save the Narmada Movement. (A movement against the Dams built on the Narmada River.)
2
Malti, another woman, and Neha, March 15th 2004.

58
 On the fourth of November the march came to an end in at the Jaunpur Pepsi-Cola

bottling plant. Pepsi Co. is causing similar problems in a Jaunpur village and this was

NAPM’s attempt to show the villagers links between the two movements. Villagers have

said that they enjoyed going to Jaunpur. It was also in Jaunpur where most villagers found

out that Coke and Pepsi were full of pesticides. Meanwhile more documents were being

gathered and sent to authorities as forms of protest.

The following1 was given to the sub district magistrate on November 11th, 2003.

To: Sub district magistrate (administration)

District Varanasi, 11th Nov. 2003

Subject: Regarding coca cola bottling plant

Dear Sir,

We want to draw your attention to the agitation that is going on under the auspices of
affected farmers, local residents, and the national alliance of peoples movements. We have the
following demands, and we request you to investigate the following and fulfill our demands:

1) Please cancel the license of the coca cola bottling plant in view of the fact that the above
mentioned unit is spreading pollution and milking the groundwater. Please organize a public
hearing in line with the supreme courts directive on pollution.

2) Please make the company pay appropriate compensation to the farmers and villages affected
by pollution.

3) The company should be forced to free the gram sabha that it is occupying currently.

4) The first information report should be lodged against the private security guards and the
policemen who attacked the agitators agitating peacefully on 10th September and legal action
should be taken against them.

5) Necessary action should be taken against the company for stealing the groundwater
underneath the fields of the farmers.

Beneath this letter are many signatures of farmers and villagers.

1
Translated from Hindi to English

59
 The next letter1 was sent to the regional pollution officer in reference to a protest

that was held outside of the office. The date of when this letter was sent and when the

protest occurred was in November, though the exact date is not mentioned.

Letter to Regional Pollution officer, U.P Control board, Varanasi area

Dear Sir,

We the farmers and women of Mehandiganj and the workers of NAPM protesting in front of your
office, put up the following demands regarding the pollution being spread by the coca cola bottling
plant situated in Mehandiganj from October 2002 till now.

1. The industry license of this unit should be instantly canceled in light of the pollution they are
spreading.
2. The Farmers, women and potters affected by the pollution should be given compensation
under the general liability act.
3. The administration should take similar action against the Pepsi cola factory situated in the
Satdvaria area the district Jaunpur.
4. A public hearing should be organized amidst the people of Mehandiganj Village as per the
verdict of the honorable Supreme Court regarding the pollution spread by the coca cola
bottling plant.
5. The solid and liquid industrial garbage of the above mentioned factory should be tested in a
recognized laboratory under the pollution control act.
6. For the time being, the liquid trash that the coca cola company is dumping into the water
that eventually flows in the Ganga should be put a stop to.

We criticize the granting of no objection certificates by this office to the soft drink bottling plant
on a continuous basis, and we demand an inquiry into this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Nandalal, convener Lok Samiti

Aflatoon, Samajwadi Jan Parishad
Sahhdana Behen, Mahila Chetana Samiti
Mehesanji, Goun Bachao Sangarsh Samiti, Mehandiganj

Though the acts were clearly stated, nothing was done to test the waste or to

compensate the farmers. From December 12th-16th, a five day fast took place in front of

the bottling plant. The fast was led by Nandalal Master and nine other activists took part

in it. Malti, a female resident of the village explains:

1
Translated from Hindi to English

60
 For five days straight people went without food. We had a hunger strike but foreign
companies are not affected by these things. Foreign companies are such that these things are
not having any affect on them. And they are refusing even to think of leaving. And over here
the poor fellows go hungry when they form an organization to fight the company. And they
run from pillar to post day and night to get justice. But nothing is having any affect on the
company. We’ll have to wait and see how long it takes for all this to have any affect on the
company.1

The Hindustan Coca Cola Company put out this report2 to the U.P government

and to Lok Samiti.

11th December, 2003

To: Mr. Station Officer, the police station Mirzamurad Varanasi

Dear Sir,

Our company has established a bottling plant in Mehandiganj after investing millions of
rupees and this plant has been in operation from 1999 onwards. The company has also given jobs to
young men of neighboring villages and has all along been cooperating in the economic advancement
of the area. It was only after January 2002 that some people of the area threatened to stage a protest
and interfere with our work upon which the honorable civil judge [senior division] Varanasi, issued a
retraining order in the law suit number 47/2002. The honorable court after hearing us ordered in its
detailed order dated 20th February 2002 that the defendants and the inhabitants of the above
mentioned area should be restrained from coming anywhere within three hundred meters of the
company gate and also from staging any sit in or protest. We hereby submit to you the Photostat of
the letter and also the courts order dated 20th February 2002 for your perusal.
The honorable civil judge [senior division] Varanasi, has in his order dated 17th April 2003
has instructed you to ensure the compliance of the courts order, dated 20th February 2002. The copy
of the above order is also submitted for your perusal.
In the last few days, the defendants of the above law suit and the Samajwadi Jan Parishad
and Lok Samiti and NAPM have threatened that from 12th December 2003 onwards they will stage sit
ins, protests, hunger strikes, and meetings on the gate of the company, and this will interfere with the
business of the company.
If the above mentioned committees interfere with the companies business through their sit ins
and protests then it will be a violation of the orders of the honorable board.
Therefore, we request you respectfully that please ensure the compliance of the order of the
honorable court dated 20th February 2002 and also ensure that peace is not violated.

Yours sincerely,

On behalf of the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, Pvt. Limited

Akeel Mohamad,
Area General Manager.

Copy to: Senior Police Super-Intendant, Varanasi

1
Malti, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.
2
Translated from Hindi to English

61
 From January 16th to the 21st, about two hundred Mehandiganj residents took the

train to Bombay to attend the world social forum. At the forum they attended workshops

on water issues, farmers’ issues and one workshop especially for the anti coca cola

movement. Before attending the world social forum not as many villagers were educated

about the coca cola plant and what it was doing to their village. After attending

workshops they had learned enough detail to return to their village and educate those who

were not able to attend. Villagers have expressed about how great it was to meet people

from all over India as well as from all over the world that are all struggling to shut down

Coca Cola plants. This inspired and empowered them to take a stronger role in the

movement as they saw its relation to a larger struggle.

On February 10th, 2004, a march began at Shivala crossing and ended at Lanka.

Following the march, an open public meeting took place in front of the Ravidas gate. The

activists hung up signs onto fruit and vegetable stands and connected their microphone to

the street loudspeakers. Then the meeting began. Only one member of the village spoke,

Nandlal Master, who came to the rally at the end, and only a few villagers were there at

all. Not one farmer was present at the rally. Otherwise, the speakers were all from the

city, most of whom were professionals and academics. Speakers spoke about the recent

findings of pesticides in cold drinks but not much was mentioned about what was

occurring in Mehandiganj. Rather, the opposition to multinationals in general was

stressed as well as how to vote in the upcoming elections. This topic led to the discussion

of the “feel good factor,” the BJP, the media and socialism. One man at the end of his

speech had the crowd shout “long live socialism” over and over again and the mood of

62
the rally seemed to steer away from the Coca-Cola focus. Following is the entire

translations of the speeches at the rally.1

Aflatoon Desai:
Our companions have reached Shivala from Chetganj and they are going to begin a meeting. I
would request that those people who have come from Purush (??) should come in the front.
We would request Dr. Somna Tripati to come on the platform. In addition we would like to
request (unclear) to come on the platform. If Dr. Swati is listening to my voice then I would
like to request her to come on the platform. Amit Kumar belonging to (unclear [Org]) should
also come on the platform. Friends, in our country, until 1977, one of these two companies,
coca cola had a monopoly. In 1977 the Janta Party Government which was the first non
congress government of the country, said to the Coca Cola company that you cannot keep
more than 50 percent of the foreign capital of this company with you. You should not also
retain control over more than 50 percent of the earnings of this capital. (50 percent of
ownership and earning.) In 1977 the Janta Party Government had said this to Coca Cola, the
Coca Cola company left India and went away. Because they had no competition in those
days. Then in 1987-88 then again the communist party was in power they invited Pepsi to do
business in India. Friends, we are organizing this meeting because last year a volunteer
organization of Delhi, the center for science and environment, investigated the products of
Coke and Pepsi and found heavy amounts of pesticides in them. The parliament was in
session at that time, the supreme body of our representatives was in session, and the people
whom we had elected out representatives. They took two decisions with consensus, the first
was that coca cola and Pepsi will not be sold in the parliament canteen. All the products of
these two companies were thrown out of the parliament canteen. The second decision was to
form a joint parliamentary committee the foremost investigating body of the parliament (to
investigate). This committee was formed under the chairmanship of the former chief minister
of Maharashtra and former defense minister of India, Sharad Pawar, to investigate if it was
true that these products contained pesticides as reported by CSE. On 4th February (2004), the
Lok Sabha (peoples’ house of the parliament/like the House of Representatives) was
dissolved on the recommendation of the government. On that very day this joint
parliamentary committee submitted its report to the parliament, all of you must have read that
report. The report found that the allegation of the presence of pesticides in the products of
both companies was correct. Now the question arises that our elected representatives, the
honorable members of the two houses of the parliament have removed these products from
their canteen, but has their sale stopped in the country as a whole? The report has come but
no banned was imposed on these two foreign companies, coca cola and Pepsi. What is the
reason? Friends, you must have also seen the television campaign being run by our
government which is called Bharat Uday (India Shining). The day before yesterday the new
election commissioner of India Mr. Krishna Murti said that the tax collected from people
which becomes the revenue of the government should not be used for a campaign which
would work towards the electoral interest of any party. And we didn’t say this, the opposition
party did not say this. It was said by the man heading the organization that runs elections in
India. The election commissioner said that two hundred and fifty Crore rupees are being spent
on this Bharat Uday campaign and this money belongs to the people because it is tax money.
And this campaign should come to a stop. And what is being said in that campaign? The first
thing that is being said is that in our country the amount of foreign currency has increased.

1
The recording was not great due to shouting and poor speakers, so some sentences have been labeled as
being unclear. Also, the second to last speakers speech was cut off due to the running out of the tape. Then
Nandalal showed up and so I recorded over an old tape to get his speech since he was the only speaker from
Mehandiganj.

63
How much it has increased? One arab crore rupees worth of foreign currency. It is possible
that you might be feeling the same feel-good feeling under the leadership of Attal bihari that
the foreign exchange reserves have gone up by 100 crores. But what is this reserve being
used for? You should also think about that. Has this money been used to establish factories
(that would establish jobs) ? No, no friends, it has been invested in the stock market. Those
foreign companies do not invest their money in setting up factories. (their not contributing to
the economy.) The shared market is the kind of speculation and the foreign companies are
investing their money in it. Is this money producing anything that the people of this country
need? I want to tell you that Coca Cola is the foremost company among the companies that
we have come here to awaken your awareness about. Coca Cola has invested the maximum
amount of foreign capital in India. Then why have we come out in the streets against it? We
want to ask you what is coca cola producing after investing the maximum amount of foreign
capital in India? This product was not investigated by us but by the members of the supreme
governing body of this country. The joint parliamentary committee has said in its support that
coca cola products contain pesticides. And also that the amount of pesticides in them is so
great that it is bound to have an adverse effect on peoples health. So friends, this is what the
number one investor of foreign capital in India is producing. That is why we have also come
here to raise questions on Bharat Uday. Now we will begin this meeting formally. And we
would like the national president of the Samjwadi Jan Parishad (unclear name) to preside over
this meeting. I propose this.

President:
I the member of Samjwadi Jan Parishad second this motion.

Aflatoon:
We would request comrade Abdula to come and take a seat here. And brother Akhilesh of the
Lok Samiti is also among us and Lok Samiti is associated with the mass movements of this
area. One factory of coca cola is present in the Rajatalab area of your district of Benaras. And
the farmers and the youth of that area have been agitating against that plant for the last year.
Brother Akhilesh and his organization of Lok Samiti are highly active in this mass movement.
I would like that comrade brother Akhilesh to come here and present his important opinion on
this matter before us. Comrade Akhilesh is originally from Kerala and in Kerala also there is a
coca cola bottling plant as in Medhiganj here. In the district of (unclear) in Kerala). But the
sphere of action of brother Akhilesh is in Varanasi. We would request brother Akhilesh to
present his views on this mass movement before us. Brother Akhilesh of the Lok Samiti
please come.

Akhilesh:
Mr. President of today’s meeting and the brothers and sisters present here, all of us and our
country our standing at a watershed at present. It is a situation where in we don’t know where
to go nor where our government wants to take us. We send representatives to Delhi and
Lucknow without valuable votes to look after us and what do they do? We know that some
months ago when non government organization the CSE announced that coca cola and Pepsi
products have so many pesticides in them then rejecting this allegation our health minister
sushmaji announced that there was nothing wrong with these drinks and you can drink them
without fear of any harmful consequences. But the parliamentary committee of the same body
investigated and found that these drinks contained pesticides and were not safe for
consumption by the parliament members. And hands should be thrown out of the parliament
canteen. Around the same time the Kerala high court gave a decision that no one has the right
to extract groundwater and sell it. Because this water is meant for our drinking, washing and
irrigation purposes. Even after accepting this verdict our BJP government is telling us what it
is doing. That only work seems to be convincing people that everything is going well. Why is
it going well? For whom is it going well? This no one knows. The public may go to hell for
all they care. Whether the public dies from drowning or hunger or cold they are not worried.

64
All they want is for the people to “feel good” and for the people to work for them, nothing
more. From this platform I want to say that they cannot deceive the public in this way. The
public has woken up and we will work together against these companies and against these
pimps. We will not rest until we have chased them away. Friends, we should work together
for this purpose and we should lend each other a helping hand.

Aflatoon:
Friends, comrade brother Akhilesh of those Lok Samiti presented his views before us now I
want brother Ram Janam, farmer politician of The Samajwadi Jan Parishat to come here and
present his views.

Ram Janam:
Friends, today after a march we have assembled here in the form of a public meeting. All the
stars in this country whether they are film stars or sports stars or politician stars like Sushma
Suraj or Amitav Bachan or Saurav Ganguli (cricket) or Sachin Dendulaker (cricket), they all
carry a bottle in their hands and say that this bottle will change the situation of the farmers of
this country, the situation of the people of this country. The farmers who are committing
suicide today, the fate of these farmers will change for the better; this is what they are
publicizing in the media. Friends, the report of the parliamentary committee which has come
out just now says that it contains poison in it. This is just one fact about coca cola and Pepsi
cola but a more serious fact about them is the poison of coca cola and Pepsi cola that is
getting mixed in the psyche of this country, into ???, and getting mixed into the freedom of
this country. That should also be taken into consideration. The elections are going to take
place and we will elect the supreme governing body (panchayat – Ghandian idea of village
self rule, 5 member council) of our country, the parliament. A slogan has come out, “feel
good.” And the few people who are outside the feel good fold are saying real feel good and
that is also dangerous because those who are saying real feel good are under the influence of
this bottle. Those who are publicizing this bottle are under the influence of the Ambanis and
Amitav Bhachan. That’s what you should make out of it. Friends, the issue in this election
should be unemployment. The farmer and the weaver who are committing suicide- that
should be the issue. It is our good luck that democracy is still surviving in this country.
People like us, have the freedom to stand on this corner here and tell you about our pain, and
we can share each others pain. And the day when the people who are trying (to take away this
liberty) succeed, the day when it (liberty) will come to an end, that will be the day when their
complete domination will come about. You will have to take a strong resolve because the
fight has become difficult. And the country is standing at a watershed. Today, the biggest
governing body of the country is about to be elected and there is no issue before the people.
Unemployment is not an issue. The suicide of farmers is not an issue. Crime is increasing.
Kidnapping is increasing day by day. Kidnapping is becoming an industry and that is not an
issue. The issue is “feel good.” Real issues are deliberately being removed from politics. All
of us, you and we, will have to jointly take a resolve that the real issue which is the exodus of
this country’s money this country’s hard earned money, the hundreds and thousands of dollars
that is taking place, via these foreign companies, via. the foreign poison [that they sell.] We
will have to stop this. With these words I end my speech.

Aflatoon:
Friends, now I would request comrade Gopal Yadav the secretary of the non-teaching staff
union of BHU to come and present his revolutionary views with us.

Gopal Yadav:
The president of this meeting Mr. Ansari, Somnaji, Aflatoon Desaiji, and friends, just now
Aflatoon Desaiji told you that when in 1977 the Janta Party Government came to power it
banned coca cola. When the next government came, then the Coca Cola company also re-
entered our country. This Samajwadi Jan Parishat has been fighting against this establishment

65
for the last ten years. But we had no resources to take this fight to the national level. The
Samajwadi Jan Parishat worked towards creating awareness among the people through street
corner plays to make the people aware that foreign companies are sucking the blood of our
country. The people did not believe us. When Sunita Narayans report came out and it came
out in the media in the television and in the newspapers that the soft drinks that we are giving
to our children are not soft drinks but they are poison that we are giving to our children. Only
after that did awareness come into our country. And the awareness came so quickly that the
sales of the products of these companies virtually came to a halt and only five to ten percent
of the population still insists on drinking the products because this section of the population is
used to drinking alcohol so this poison means nothing to them. But the sales of the products
have plummeted by 90 percent and I can say with full certainty that the Samajwadi Jan
Parishad got the credit for [this discovery.] We received an indication for the struggle that we
had been carrying on. The second point is that if the government banned Pepsi and Coke from
the parliament canteen then why did they not ban it all over the country? Why did Atal Bihari
not ban them all over the country? A man who is operating in the name of Ram is saying to us
“feel good.” Who today is feeling good? Is anyone feeling good, as there slogan says. This is
just an opportunity to make political mileage, you know that if someone dies in the family
then no one in the family makes a speech before doing the last rites of the dead. The Atal
Bihari Vajpayee who made political mileage out of the death of Ram Chundra Paramhamsa,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee who gave the slogan ‘feel good’ gives no slogan for those countless
young people who become unemployed in the country. Shame on such a prime minister. He
should be known as (unclear word). Our opposition is not only to coca cola and Pepsi cola
but also to all the multinational and foreign companies which are encouraging unemployment
in this country. The Samajwadi Jan Parishad will continuously fight against these companies.
A man like me will use all his power to fight against this establishment. Just now brother
Ram Janam said that in democracy we have the right to hear our views, but that system is also
coming to an end. Inside BHU there is no teachers union, no students union, or officers
union. Today all the power is in the hands of…(doesn’t finish his sentence.)
Today you are not even allowed to talk to the press. Our democratic rights have begun to be
destroyed we also have to raise our voice against that. With these words I am finishing my
speech and I request you to say our slogan loudly “Samajwadi Jan Parishad Zindabag! (long
live the Socialist Council!)” (The crowd repeats after him and several times this exchange in
words is repeated.)

Aflatoon:
Comrades, Gopalji the secretary of the non-teaching staff union of BHU presented his views
before us. It is for sure that in the last five years a tiny section of people has arisen in our
country whose families have enjoyed prosperity due to foreign companies being invited into
India. I would like to tell you that the salary of such people is, because I have the salary
receipts of Pepsi cola and coca cola with me. The top most official of these companies who is
an Indian like you and me, he is not American, do you know what his salary is? His salary is
350,000 rupees a month, and this amount is given in the form that ensures that he has
minimum tax liability. For example from 25-50,000 rupees is given in the form of educational
expenses for his children, and if guests come to his house then 50,000 rupees are given to him
to entertain them so that he would not have to pay taxes on that money. In this way, in total,
350,000 rupees are received by that man. They definitely must be ‘feeling good.’ Atalji, they
must surely be feeling good, and perhaps you are talking about them. Because in our country
wealth has not increased and salaries have increased by such huge amounts for example
150,000 rupees a month, 350,000 rupees a month, etc., so where does this money come from
to pay these officials of big foreign companies? Comrades, this money comes from the
pockets of you and me. When you buy a coca cola which costs 40 pesa to produce for five or
seven rupees then the remaining 6 rupees 50 pese will go towards paying the 350,000 rupees
salary for the official. In addition 6 crore rupees go out of the country in this way. I would
like to give one more example- salt, the most ordinary of things, which even the poorest of

66
poor needs to eat, as well as the richest of people. Ask the elderly people standing behind you
and they’ll tell you that in this very country 15 years ago non packaged salt was available for
40 or 50 pese per kilo. The government issued an order that hence forth only iodized salt will
be sold in the country. What happened as a result? The result is that today even salt is
advertised on television. A particular company says “buy our salt.” Salt is a thing which need
not be advertised, because every person will buy salt. But just see how they advertise their
salt, they say “our salt falls freely.” On T.V they show that a packet is being opened and the
salt falls freely into a bottle and it is not falling in the form of clots. The result is that the salt
that costs 40 pese a kilo is being sold to you for rupees 6.50 or 7 rupees a kilo. There was a
ban on ‘khara namak (salt sold in the form of clots’). This ban was there for a very long time.
Comrades, if salt which costs 40 pese gets sold for 7 rupees, then surely some people who
work for the Tata company feel good. People who sell these become 150,000 or 300,000
rupees a month. The coca cola company which has a branch in Rajatalab, the branch manager
in Benaras gets 120,000 rupees a month as salary. But the workers who work in that
company, how much do they get? 60 rupees a month and apart from that when they have
worked for 3 months consecutively then they are laid off so that they may not be able to
demand permanent employment in the company. (Unclear Sentence) A number of speakers
will talk about this. I would like to Jagratri Rahi who is a companion of (Mr. Vijay of an
unclear org), who is active in our city, should come here and present her views.

Jagrati Rahi:
Today we have assembled here to oppose the coca cola and Pepsi cola and other soft drink
companies whose products have been found to contain pesticides, even by the joint
parliamentary committee and it has been found that these drinks are not fit to drink. And the
funny thing is that this was apparent even in our earlier report. The tests that were conducted
inside the country in our laboratories made it clear that the amount of pesticides in this drinks
is very high but these companies are so brazen that they refuse to except this and they took
the excuse that the laboratories of our country are not advanced enough to test their products.
They said “we have had our products tested in various laboratories in the developed countries
and our products are ok.” They are fit to drink.” And after that our new celebrities, the film
stars and sports stars, began advertising this product one after the other. They told us that if
we were not drinking these drinks or if we had given up drinking Pepsi or Coke because of
these reports then we were fools or extremely backward, and you are not “advanced”. You
have no knowledge that’s why you have stopped drinking it. You should drink it because we
have had it tested abroad.” This is the mindset which most people acquired and they thought
that these people were right and we don’t have labs like that in India. The scientists of our
country cannot be intelligent enough so that we could trust their reports. But the fact is that
the parliamentary committee report that has come out says that our labs are more technically
advanced than the labs abroad where the products were tested. And it is again being proved
that pesticides are present in these products, and they are more than the allowed amount. And
these people have began a conspiracy to get a new standard established they want that a
standard should be set up for water and other things, which would give them a ‘safeguard’ by
which they would be able to get the products passed in scrutiny. You know very well how
government standards are set up and how ways are found around them. This is not the basic
question. The question is not whether or not these products contain harmful levels of
pesticides, and we should not be drinking them. The question is, of a deeper kind. We need to
go beyond this and think more deeply about the issue. We should ask ourselves “is our
responsibility limited to just thinking about our health’, ‘do we have nothing to do with the
health of our country and its economy? We all know that these foreign companies produce
junk for one rupee twenty five pese and sell it for 10 rupees or 12 rupees or 5 rupees or 7
rupees. They earn billions and billions of rupees and they take them abroad, and the very
height of shamelessness is that they use our groundwater shamelessly and stealthily.
Shouldn’t we be thinking about that? Shouldn’t this shake us up that they are using our water
stealthily? And they are robbing our country blind and taking our money abroad. If we stop

67
drinking it only because somebody said that it contained pesticides so that we are prepared to
drink it again tomorrow when it is free from it then what will happen is exactly what is
happening in the country today. Things will keep getting from bad to worse. Things are
getting bad because we are not prepared to come out of our limited worlds and think on a
broader scale. We need to extend our limits we should form the habit of thinking a bit also
about our country and society. The fact that there are very few people assembled here
necessitates our telling those who are busy doing their work in the marketplace or around us
that they also need to listen to us and we are not just a bunch of fools standing here and
shouting. They need to know that we are not wasting our time. They need to know that those
who are sitting here are also busy people who are all well set in their jobs and professions.
Why are they giving their time to this thing? Why are they coming here and shouting?
They’re doing this because they’re thinking and their feelings are not confined to themselves.
I would request all of you to broaden your thinking especially in view of the coming
elections. Keep in mind that when you go to cast your precious vote then the first thing is that
even though you are city people please consider it necessary to cast your vote because village
people do cast their votes. So you should also consider it necessary to cast your vote and
before you cast your vote think whether or not you are voting for those very people who,
having gobbled up millions of rupees in the form of bribes and many other ways, are robbing
the country and feeling good. Surely they will feel good, why won’t they? Whether you are
feeling good or whether you should or should not be feeling good, decide for yourself and
then decide what is wrong and what is right, and then act accordingly. This is necessary and it
is also necessary to participate in such mass movements. The need of the hour is to do this,
otherwise you will not have any option left for registering your complaints in the future.
Thank you.

Aflatoon:
Thank you Jagratiji. I would request the district general secretary of the Samajwadi Jan
Parishad Comrade Kashinatji to come and present his views briefly.

Kashinat:
(I greet,) the presiding chairman of the meeting, Ansariji, the Samajwadi Jan PArishad
members present in the meeting, and the other people present in the meeting, today we are
opposing Pepsi cola and coca cola. This government having brought foreign companies into
the country, and having publicized them to such an extent, has increased the importance of
Pepsi cola and coca cola so much so that today we instead of feeding our children milk, are
making them drink Pepsi cola. This is not our fault this is the government’s fault which takes
money from foreign companies. The despicable sight that this government is showing vis-à-
vis for its own selfish interest so that (unclear). The manner in which the country was a slave
and Ghandiji burned upon fire of foreign clothes, even back then, there was no harm in
wearing western clothes, but even then the biggest harm was that foreign clothes would
deplete the capital of our country. Similarly, an irresponsible government has not only
brought Pepsi cola into our country but has brought many foreign companies and got them
established here. These foreign companies robbed the hard earned money of the poor public
of this country by indulging in high power publicity using stars like Satchin Dulyukar
(cricketer) and they work towards deluding you in various ways. And the public of our
country gets trapped into this magical charm. I want to request the public of this country that
the foremost committee of this country handed in a report saying that these products contain
the maximum amounts of pesticides. And right after that Pepsi cola is removed from the
canteen of the Rajasabah (house of elders.) And why is this banned not imposed all over the
country? I want to appeal to the people of this country that they should ask and ask through
any medium possible why they are being deceived? Now that elections to Lok Sabha are on
the horizon, a slogan of “feel good” has been given out. Billions and billions of rupees have
accumulated in the government treasury, but the poor man whether he belongs to a city or a
village is hard pressed to find a job which would pay him even seventy or a hundred rupees a

68
 day. He is unable to find such a job. Where have your billions of rupees gone? In the papers
and on T.V and in the news it comes out that there is no shortage of food grains in our
country but not only in villages, people in cities are dying from starvation. In this country
fourteen thousand kilometers of roads are being built and they are claiming that they would
give employment to three hundred thousand people in this scheme. And education, by
privatizing education, this government, these people in power, are depriving the poor of
education. Comrades, you must have seen that sometime ago, and I’m talking about 15 years
ago, that children belonging to all the classes used to go to the same primary school, whether
that child belonged to a rich or poor family. But by privatizing education they have divided
this country and this society. They have made it classless. They have divided it into two
classes. Today those who have capital will not send their children to primary school, they will
not send their children to cheap educational centers because these schools do not give proper
education. Good education is only found in convent1 schools, where they charge monthly fees
from 1,000 rupees to 3,000 rupees. What can a person earning 70 or 100 rupees a day think
about education? All the thinking will be about the fire burning in his belly. When he gets up
in the morning his first thought is to get a job which would allow him to get him to the stove
in his house in the evening so that his children would get to eat, and such peoples children
remain uneducated. And where there is lack of education how can there be jobs? What can
they do? All they can do is lay bricks and work at construction sites. And even those who
acquired degrees through their hard work are unable to find jobs. I am a government
employee, I’ve got a job, but today I see that educated boys of my village are unemployed.
And every other day government jobs are being reduced. Computers are being installed-
where earlier ten people used to work; now one computer will do that job. How will the
millions and billions of people of this country fill their stomachs by inviting coca cola and
Pepsi cola they are working towards rendering the farmers’ fields barren? And then they say
“my country is predominantly an agricultural country. New farming, practice agriculture,
[because] we don’t have jobs for you. The biggest source of employment is in the villages.
Where there is land from there hundreds and thousands of liters of water is being extracted
every day. The land of the villages is becoming barren, what will the farmer do with this
barren land? Comrades, he will not irrigate his fields with his blood for sure. He does shed his
blood but even today his stomach is empty. This reminds me of a poem by [??]- “There is one
guy who prepares roti’s, there is another guy who eats roti’s, and then theirs a third guy who
neither prepares nor eats rotis, he only plays with them.” Who is this third man? It is the
people of the parliament of this country. This is what the poet has said. The person in this
country who plays with roti is the corrupt official of this country, the third man is the
politician who is sitting in the place of power. The third man is those who organize worship
rituals in the name of religion and these are the people in whose pockets the hard earned
money of the people of this country is going. I would like to appeal to the public of this
country, that until we come out on the streets and burn a bonfire of the foreign companies as
Ghandiji and Ambedkar did, until then, hunger, unemployment and poverty will not go away.
These people have divided the people of this country in the name of religion, in the name of
caste, and today the people of this country are not one single unity. Some people are adopting
BJP, some people are adopting the BSP. All the people are divided among these parties. Get
divided, I have no objection to this. But also look to your basic needs and see if you are able
to fulfill them after a full day of hard work. And the man sitting in an air conditioned room
has hundreds of thousands and billions of rupees going into his account from [unclear]. After
all, from where does this money come to him. The poor public in this country will have to
realize this about their basic needs. And comrades, there are more speakers among us. And I
will appeal to you and I’ll tell you one case about Pepsi cola. On one hand you have the
report given by the joint parliamentary committee investigating these drinks, but over and
above that, if you sacrifice just five rupees and buy a either Pepsi cola or coca cola and pour
half of that bottle into your toilet, and you will find that the toilet which you normally clean
1
Term for English Medium Schools.

69
with acid and yet it is never completely clean with just half of a bottle of Coke your toilet will
become much more clean. And you know very well how dangerous a substance acid is, so
now you can understand that Pepsi cola is even more dangerous then acid, which we are
being made to drink. Hence I would request you, wherever you are, and in any way possible,
remove this fashion from inside your mind. And boycott it. As long as you will not come out
on the streets and protest against this drink, till then these corrupt politicians are going to
prepare standard level of pesticides for these drinks in this country. And they will work
towards keeping these companies established in the country. Now, more speakers will come
with their arguments and I thank you for listening to me.

Aflatoon Desai: Thank you Comrade Kashinatji. Now I wish to invite the Prernakala Manch
(the inspiration art forum.) which is active not only in Varanasi but in all of Poorvanchal
(eastern U.P area plus Bihar) and this body is working to bring about a cultural revolution in
this area. I would request Father Anand, the director of the Kala Manch to come here and
present his views before us.

Father Anand: Mr. Chairman, the revolutionaries present here, today here, I greet all the
comrades present in this rally against companies like coca cola and Pepsi cola which make
poison and feed poison to the people. Speakers before me have told you in detail about Pepsi
cola and coca cola but I would like to say that today all these things have come out clearly in
front of the people and the report of the joint parliamentary committee has also made the
things very clear. But alongside this, the exploitative practices of Pepsi cola and coca cola are
not just confined to them but there are also other companies that are working towards pushing
the farmers off this country to the brink of starvation. For example, Masanta, which is an
American company, which in states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra, is
forcing the cotton farmers of these states to commit suicide by its repressive practices. Today
during this public meeting by means of this public meaning we wish to express out solidarity
with these farmers, and we are lending our cooperation to them in their struggle and we stand
by all those who are suffering the ill affects of globalization, privatization, and economic
liberalization- in India as well as in other poor countries. We are one with them. Comrades,
today the type of exploitation that is going on in the country in the name of economic
development, very few people are able to understand its sinister side. Because through the
media of mass communication, this big slogan of development has been given out and the
slogan of “feel good” that has been given is an absolute deceit and the common public is
being forced to become more poor on account of this globalization and privatization and
liberalization. Our companions have described how the yawning gap between the rich and the
poor is becoming wider in the field of education, through the privatization of education. It is
our duty to fight on the side of the exploited by becoming aware about the deceit and the false
promises and the lies and by realizing the truth we have to isolate and marginalize all the evil
forces which are trying to keep the people of the country misinformed, and then create a
society characterized by equality and justice is our duty. All of us, the farmers, the laborers,
the people who struggle and toil for a living, we should come together and we should
marginalize the foreign forces and the indigenous selfish political forces that have
surrendered these foreign forces. Only then would our country go on the part of true
development. Victory be to India (Jai Hind [used to be the Arabic word for India, slogan
during the British times).

Aflatoon Desai: We are grateful to Father Anand. Now I would like the national vice
president of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad, and the physics professor at BHU, Dr. Swati to
come and present her views for us.

Dr. Swati: The members of this assembly present, the respected Abdula Ansareeji, Dr.
Somnat Trapatiji, Father Anand, the convener of Prernakala Manch , Akhilesh Bhai of Lok
Samiti, Amit Kumar Sikander of the Vidyarthi Yuvjan Sabha (young students organization,)

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and all other comrades and the members of our Samajwadi Jan Parishad- We have organized
this public meeting, as you have heard the previous speakers mention, to draw your attention
to this topic and for this purpose we have erected here a huge bottle (Coke bottle made of
paper with slogans and poison signs on it.) to highlight the fact that the fashion of drinking
cold drinks which is growing in our country and society are nothing but poisoned cold drinks
that may give temporary respite from heat, but which are toxic for our teeth as well as
intestines. The fact is that even in villages now, it is a fashion to serve drinks like Pepsi cola
and coca cola and weddings and other social functions. And these drinks cost just one rupee
to produce and then they are sold for five or ten rupees or whatever and from drinking them
the teeth of the children rot and the lining of the intestines also rot away. To conduct this
experiment as our district general secretary Kashinatji did, all of you who are listening to me
whether children or grown up, buy one bottle of any of these drinks, but don’t waste any of
your own money in buying it, just say to someone with whom you may be having a dispute
about the harmful affects of coca cola- suppose you don’t drink these things, but the other guy
does, I know for sure that those who are present in this meeting do not drink these things and
we don’t want any of them to waste even five rupees of their hard earned money in buying
these drinks. But suppose you are having a discussion with a friend of yours, and if the friend
says “its all crap, you guys are always rejecting everything,” then tell him to buy a bottle and
tell him to pour just half of the contents over any place or thing which is exceptionally dirty,
for example, a public toilet or the tires of a car, if the person is rich enough to own a car or
even the windshield of the car and you will find that just like acid this drink cleans all filth
completely. If the glasses of my spectacles are dirty and if I were to put this drink on them,
they would become squeaky clean. Similarly, if a child has lost a tooth then take that tooth
and put it inside a glass half full of Coke or Pepsi and you will find that after a week or ten
days that tooth will be seen melting away. And you will be able to see it melting away with
your own eyes. It is melting away because the drink contains phosphoric acid. And the joint
parliamentary committee has found phosphoric acid in this drink. And the committee has also
found pesticides in these drinks. The safety standards in Europe and America which prevent
these companies from mixing these toxic substances too much into their drinks there do not
apply in India so non-regulated toxic substance use is going on with abandon in India. And
these companies claim that they have no choice but to do so because the very water of this
country is polluted. They say, “What can we do? There are no standards here. There’s no
industry of food preservation or food processing in this country. There are no rules, or else we
would have complied with them.” Just see how big a dishonesty this is. It is some of our own
brothers who are running these companies in return for fat salaries, just as the convener of
this meeting, Aflatoonji, mentioned one name, Sunil Gupta, and mister Mittal who belongs to
the Pepsi company. Whoever works for these companies in return for salary has already sold
out his power of discrimination. But others who still have there capacity to think and
discriminate in tact should think to themselves as to why they waste their hard earned money
on these things. Why do you keep such things in your household? Phosphoric acid is mixed
into things to do the same job that spirit (rubbing alcohol) is used for in industry. To give the
drink a certain tanginess and the bubbles that arise when you open the bottle, carbonic acid is
mixed into the drink. All these things are non-essential for our bodies. Things are coming to
such a pass that people consider drinking sugar cane juice as a sign of backwardness. They
don’t even want to drink Lassi anymore. I don’t understand why when we have things like
sugar cane juice, Lassi, fruit juices and lemonade in our country, and lemonade is really cheap
to make because lemons are very cheap, why are we changing our habits simply due to
fashion? I think it is wrong. The joint parliamentary committee has avoided taking any stern
action against the company, it has merely criticized them, but when it came to safeguarding
the health of members of parliament, they took instant action and banned Coke and Pepsi
from the parliament canteen. Strange how they were so aware of the health hazards with
respect to their own health but not aware about the health of the public at large. They did not
take any stern action, they simply left the matter to the food ministry. They have merely
passed the buck to the ministry. And our government, our honorable Prime Minister- I will

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say just a few things about him, because there are many other speakers with a lot to say- After
a month or a month and a half, the elections are going to take place. Everyone knows that the
parliament has dissolved, and the election commission says that the Bharat Udai (India
Shining) campaign is a clear violation of public morality. So the honorable Prime minister
makes a statement which comes out in the newspapers today, and you might have probably
seen it on t.v or so, he said “what is wrong with it?” He says there is nothing wrong with
having such an ad campaign because the election dates have not been declared yet. And he
will not use those advertisements once the election dates got declared. This ad campaign is
not financed by party funds, even though it is a very rich party, it is the party of eminent
industrialists and merchants, all the finances of this party are very good at earning money and
they gave healthy contributions to the party fund. When this government was operating its
party was never short of funds so why is it not using its own party fronts to finance this ad
campaign? The money that the government has does not fall from the sky. It comes from the
taxes that you and I pay from our hard earned money. So I want that this government should
stop misusing our money and if it doesn’t do that then you should teach it a lesson because
Punditji (Prime Minister is a Brahaman) has drawn such a fine line but the age of Kautilya
(ancient Indian thinker/writer who wrote book on state-craft on India, is called the Indian
Machiaevelli) has gone. The citizen of today fully recognizes his rights. Now, think over
carefully and try to understand this. He says, when the election dates are declared, we will
stop giving out this ad campaign and as long as the election dates are not declared this is not
an immoral act. This is pure legalism devoid of all ethics. We have not expected such an
unethical irresponsible statement from such a senior politician. If this statement had come
from Pramod Mahajan (senior spokesmen of BJP party)or from Vinay Katiyar (spokesmen of
the hard-line elements of the BJP party) or other people, then we would have excused them
for saying so because these people have no brains and they have yet to acquire any
intelligence. But we will not forgive Vajpayee who is the prime minister of this country, this
statement, because this is out and out wrong and unethical. This man is running this country
in a fashion where he feels free to use government money which is our tax money as his own
private fund and you and I don’t know that this ad campaign has been put out to collect votes.
These are the same people who for their vested interests sometimes break up the issue of the
temple in Ayodya and at other times break up the issue of Bhojshala (the eating room) in a
place called Dhar in Matya Pradesh. And at other times this party raises the bogi of Christian
missionaries converting Hindu’s to Christianity. And at other places it indulges in general
massacre as happened in Gujurat and by doing all this, this party is dividing the society into
fractious groups. If you forget their hidden agenda then multinational companies will
continue to rob this country and trucks belonging to multinational companies will keep rolling
down the golden triangle roads and streets of the villages will remain in a state of disrepair as
they are today. They are speaking such a big lie when they claim that they have built village
roads. People coming here from Chaubepur please tell us how many village roads has this
government made in your village? The congress government of Madya Pradesh lost the
election on the grounds of not building roads and not providing electricity and if you do not
face any problems regarding roads and electricity and water then go ahead and make our
prime minister win this election. Excuse me for bringing up these issues even though we are
talking about coca cola because just as they are unable to forget elections, so are we. With
this I say, Jay Hind (Victory be to India) and Jay Samajwad. (Victory be to Socialism.)

Aflatoon: Thank you Dr. Swati, now I would like to call Chamchal Mukherji our
revolutionary Comrade of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad. The Farmers and laborers of
Rajatalab, which is 22 kilometers, are fighting the coca cola company which has a bottling
plant in that area for the last one year. Chamchal Mukherji has on a regular basis taken part in
this agitation over there. Recently, the struggling young men of that village undertook a five
day long fast and Comrade Chamchal Mukherji was also a part of that fast. He had declared
beforehand that he would undertake a five day long fast in support of our policies. I want
comrade Chamchalji to come and present his views before you.

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Chamchal Mukherji: Chairman of this meeting, Abdula Bhai, Dr. Somnat Trapatiji, Dr.
Swatiji, and the comrades of our Samajwadi Jan Parishad, today this procession against coca
cola company and Pepsi cola company passed through the city and ended here at Lanka. You
guys are probably wondering which place these companies belong to and what are the
harmful affects of the drinks that they make. So Comrades, these two companies are the
worlds largest manufacturers of cold drinks. And they operate in 200 countries over the
world. This Coca cola company has got its opponents murdered in Columbia and other
countries too, wherever people have dared to oppose it. And the drinks that they make contain
many elements that are harmful to your health, one such element makes your bones waste
away. And you will also find that whoever drinks coca cola always looks for coca cola only
because it contains an element called caffeine which is a kind of intoxicant and it creates an
appetite and this company through its advertisements in two hundred countries takes
incalculable amounts of money to America and they are amassing capital in this fashion. And
both these companies belong to America. And when the presidential election takes place in
America, then its either one of these companies that feeds its candidate for the office of the
president. Wherever they have sold their drinks in all such places, agitations are taking place
against them, including many countries in south America because wherever they establish
their brand or their factory then whether it be coca cola or Pepsi, both companies need water.
Where can they get their water from? Everywhere extracts groundwater. And when these
companies extract millions of liters of water from the ground, the level of groundwater
diminishes rapidly. If you want to know if this is true or false, then send any friend or relative
of yours either to Rajatalab where coca cola has a factory or Jaunpur where Pepsi cola has a
factory and have them ask the local farmers as to what the condition of their farms is. And
you will find that in the Mehandiganj area of Rajatalab where coca cola has a plant, right
from the time when the company got set up there, the groundwater level of the area has gone
down by twenty or twenty five or thirty feet. The biggest example is the well there which is
hundreds of years old and the water level in that well has also gone down considerably. And
for this reason the land there is becoming barren, crops are getting destroyed, and in that
factory the bottles that are returned after drinking are washed with caustic soda and after the
washing, the trash that comes out of the factory is allowed to flow out into the farms of
Mehandiganj area and because of this the entire land became bad. Crops standing in the fields
were ruined, whichever animal drank that water died. The farmers who went to work in the
fields wading through this water ended up having various skin diseases. I am not telling you a
tale of some far away place. But of a place which is merely 20 kilometers from here, of a
place called Rajatalab. Comrades, why is this happening and what has this company made
that is so harmful for our lives? Tell me one thing, all the things produced by all the
multinationals that have ever come into this country, did we not have these things already in
our country? Not a single multinational company has come into our country due to the arrival
of which our country has progressed. Nor have we received anything new from them, or
anything in absence of which our life before was different. There is not a single example of
this. If we go to any neighborhood store then whichever toothpaste you buy, whether it be
Colgate or any other brand, all these brands are owned by foreign companies. If you buy any
soap whether the soap is used to wash your body or your clothes, whether it be lucks or any
other brand, all oft hem are soaps produced by foreign companies. When you wash your
clothes you either wash them with Surf or with Rin. And these all belong to foreign
companies. When you shave you use palm olive shaving cream and even the razor that you
use comes from some foreign company. But in fact because of the arrival of these foreign
companies, our small companies that were here producing soap and other things were driven
out of business because small factories and tiny workshops that we use to have in our country
earlier were driven out of business by the coming of these companies. Because they set up
factories on a large scale. In these factories, human labor is not required and everything is
done by machines. Because of this, hundreds and thousands of people have become jobless
and an estimated five hundred thousand small industrial units have closed down. And this has

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rendered millions of people working in these factories jobless but our prime minister says that
foreign companies have created employment here. And you know what employment was
created by them? At every street corner, a PCO opened up and the prime minister points to
them as examples of jobs. But if you ask the owner of the PCO as to how his earnings have
changed over the last three years, you will find that people have been given mobile phones
now and that also at a very cheap price and the government gave these mobile phone
companies tax concession amounting to 10,500 crore rupees. These companies told the
government that they cannot pay a lot of taxes because seeing the amount of money that they
invested in advertising their products, the market size of the country was not large enough.
Jag Mohan, the minister responsible for that department at that time refused to give these
companies any concessions but Vajpayee the Prime Minister interceded and got them
concessions. The company that is the biggest producer of electricity in the world set up its
plant in Maharashtra, and all the politicians of our country took bribes in helping that
company set itself up here. Our Indian power companies go to Iran to get contracts to produce
electricity there at the rate of two rupees 25 pese per unit and the biggest power producing
company comes from America and we give them a contract to produce electricity for us at the
rate for four rupees twenty five pesa per unit. It’s an open secret. When there was opposition
to this, the BJP-Shivsayna Coalition in Maharashtra promised to throw such companies into
the Gulf of Arabia if they came to power in Maharashtra. On June fourteenth when 1998 at
four pm when the Atal Bihari Vijpayee was losing the vote of confidence he gave permission
to the ENRON company to do business here. An agreement took place between the
government and the ENRON company. And the agreement stipulated that the company will
produce electricity which will be bought by the Maharahstra government and if the
Maharashtra government did not pay for the electricity then the Indian government would.
And if the Indian government would be unable to pay this money then the company would
have the right to legally occupy any property belonging to the Indian government accept the
property belonging to the defense ministry. This is the agreement that took place between the
government and the ENRON company, and Atal Bihar Vajpayee gave this guarantee. And
despite the big hue and cry the foreign electronic media and print media entered our country.
All this is insider stuff, backroom negotiations. Day by day our country is being sold off. The
minds of our country are being sold at dirt cheap prices. The ocean of our country is being
sold and you never receive any news about this. But in the media you will always find either
sensational news or advertisements of foreign goods. Today we are lamenting our
unemployment but we forget that the unemployment problem is not merely confined to visible
statistics but in fact millions of fishermen who live around the coasts of Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradhesh, and Kerala, are facing extinction thanks to the BJP government which allowed
foreign companies to fish in these waters where earlier local fishermen used to catch fish to
support their families. The government has awarded entire strips of ocean to these companies
to fish as they choose. The small fishermen who used to catch fish in the ocean no longer
have the right to do so because all the foreign companies have taken over the ocean. You
guys know very well what a big fight took place in Iraq for the sake of petrol on charges that
Iraq possessed atomic weapons. But to this day not a single shed of evidence has been found
to prove that. And an entire nation was destroyed. Countless people died. But the reason why
the attack took place has not been substantiated with any evidence so far. But there’s no one
who can speak out against this, no one to question why it attacked Iraq? Now it is the turn of
the rest of the world to face such attacks, and this time the attack will be for the sake of water.
Now the entire water of the world will go in the hands of the American company which is the
biggest company dealing with water in the world, and the company is getting ready to do so.
The river Shivnat in Chhatisgarh state has been given to this company by the government.
You must be thinking that I am telling a white lie and it is impossible. But it is true that the
BJP government in the state has handed over this river to that American Company. Now the
villages lying on the banks of this river do not have the right to use that water anymore. And
entire fleets of tankers belonging to the company have begun positioning themselves along
the bank of the river. And if a farmer wants to use that river water for irrigation then he will

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have to pay some money to the company or the contractor appointed by the company. Now
think we have lost our minds and these minds have been handed over to foreign companies
and our ocean has been given to foreign companies as has been our river. And today right
from soap to biscuits- the Britannia biscuit that you eat is also a foreign company, it doesn’t
belong t our country, and Horlicks that we drink, is also not of our country, the complain that
you drink is also not from our country. The Lipton tea and Brook bond tea that you drink is
also not from our country. And the Nescafe coffee that some people drink is also a foreign
company. And even if you don’t drink this coffee you at least watch these advertisements.
Nescafe is the biggest producer of Coffee in the world. But even after fifty to fifty five years
of independence, our scientists have not been able to create anything that we can probably
claim to the whole world that, “this was made in India.” Can you show me a single soap or
pen that is produced in India that you can show proudly to the rest of the world and say, “this
was made in our India?” Is there any tooth paste like that? Is there any brand of shoes like
that? Just little things have been made for example there was this big hue and try about
computer ancillaries being exported from India but as I have said earlier this [computer]
business can place recession any time and the floor could fall out from underneath any time,
and it can always go bust like a balloon. But even today one thing that we export and one
thing that the whole world recognizes us for our skill in is the Benarsi Sari. No artisan making
Benarsi Sari’s ever goes to a university to learn his trade. He doesn’t learn it in any school, he
weaves his Sari’s using techniques he has learned from his forefathers and we sell Benarsi
Sari’s to the whole world. But the government gives no respect to this business. And the
carpets that we export worldwide are not make by anyone trained in any school. The carpets
are woven by farmers and illiterate villagers and we’ll sell these carpets all over the world and
bring home money from that. And the foreign currency that comes into our country as a result
from that strengthens our economy. Today the thousands of laborers who make Alygrahi
Pajamas are not literate or well schooled, nor our the artisans who make the woodcraft for
which Jaipur is famous. The metal ware of Muradabad and similar things are made by
illiterate weavers and embroiderers. The locality named Shivala which is in your
neighborhood, is full of people who work at embroidery. Badges are made at Shivala which
are used by the army in America and France. Any country is considered strong when products
made in it are exported outside but we are not able to sell anything made in our factories
abroad. The pen that is lying in your pockets is a Reynolds pen. And it does not belong to our
country. It is made by a Swiss company. The Reynolds pen that you write with is from
Switzerland and the Rotomek pen that you use is from Germany and they advertise
themselves as the Rotomek pen made from German technology. It’s unfortunate that after fifty
or fifty five years of independence, I do not possess even a pen that we could call are own.
Even after setting up such huge factories we were not able to produce even a pen which we
could call proudly made in India. A pen that we could claim was made from Indian
technology. This is a matter worth thinking about. When you go home think about it, that the
person that you gave no respect to, the illiterate farmer of a village, produces the Dheradun
rice and the farmers of Kerala used to grow coconuts, rubber, and cashew nuts. But, the
Narasimha Rao (the congress gov. that came in 1991, before BJP) Government entered an
agreement with the World Trade Organization and transferred all these things to foreign
companies and the BJP government opened imports of 1,439 goods, due to which we began
to import coconut oil, coconut powder, cashews, almonds, from abroad. So if you happen to
have a friend in Kerala, you can ask him what state the Kerala farmers are in. ((((State has
power to reject imports, so this is just him )))) What is the condition of Andhra Pradesh
about which our earlier comrade was talking. It has been publicized that Andhra Pradesh
would become the most modern state of India and people were keen to meet the chief minister
of that state, Chandra Bhavu Naidu, but in the same Andhra Pradhesh, thousands of farmers
have committed suicide, why did they do that? Because such a developed state so well
equipped with modernity, a state where the chief minister had promised to link all the villages
through a computer network, but the farmers of that very state committed suicide. Why did
they do it? Because the farmers of that state used to harvest rice and paddy, and they used to

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do traditional farming, and that company is the biggest seed producing company of the world
and it is an American company. The majority of companies that sell seeds are either from the
U.S or Britain. And the entire world is in their grip. This company came and gave seeds to the
farmers there on credit and it also gave them fertilizer and encouraged them to harvest their
crops using their seeds. But the seeds that the company gave were cotton seeds, and the
farmers gave up their traditional farming of rice and started growing cotton. For one or two
years the harvest was good, but by the third year entire fields were eaten away by pests and
the same company produces the pesticide that kills those pests. When those pests did not die,
even after being sprayed with that pesticide, the farmers consumed that very pesticide because
they were unable to pay up the money that they owed to the company. And take the case of
Punjab, which had produced so much agriculture during the green revolution it was a state
which supplied food grains to the whole country. There the farmers of Punjab are committing
suicide, this Pepsi company made them stop cultivating wheat and start cultivating tomatoes
and potatoes. But when the tomato and potato crops were ripe for harvest, the company
refused to by the farmers produce, saying that the tomatoes and potatoes were not up to the
mark as per the companies standards. The company said that the tomatoes and potatoes did
not contain enough pulp and using this and other pretexts refused to buy the farmers produce.
In Karnataka and Haryana also farmers are committing suicide. And the farmers of Rajasthan
and Madya Pradesh are in a pitiable state because the soya bean that they used to grow earlier
sold for rupees 1350 per quintal (1 quintal= 100 kilograms). And today the price is seven
hundred to even hundred and fifty rupees per quintal because so much of American soya bean
oil has come to India. Because all Soya bean oil that you find in packets in stores is not from
India. Different local companies use imported soya bean oil and package them with their own
brand names and sell then to the consumers. And as a result the local soya bean farmers found
that when they took their produce to the local grocers, the grocers said they did not need their
soya beans because the grocery stores now sell readymade soya bean oil from America.
Because in America Soya bean is produced on a large scale. And even small farmers of
America own farms of three hundred to four hundred acres in size. The farmers there spray
seeds and fertilizers on their fields from helicopters. And since they don’t have people
working for them their cost of production is quite low. And the husk of the soya bean is eaten
by the cattle in America because it contains protein because those people export meat. They
sell meat all over the world. Because if you extract oil from soya bean you can’t throw the
remaining waste anywhere in a river or a drain because it is not allowed because they have
very strict environmental laws. So they dump their excess oil into countries like India,
Bangladesh, and Pakistan. So much soya bean oil came into India that even huge tankers had
no space left to store this oil. Because India had tankers to store gasoline and diesel but never
to store edible oils. When the oil tanker carrying soya bean oil landed at the harbor in India
there was no space to store all that oil and it was a huge problem and the people who
imported that oil somehow managed to sell that off and recover their money. What I mean to
say is that even ready made oil will come from abroad. And if that happens then where the
mustard grow in your fields go? Where will your soya bean go? So, comrades, I don’t want to
think only about myself. I also have to think about the fishermen of Kerala. And also about
the farmers in Rajasthan, Punjab, and Madya Pradesh who are committing suicide. And I also
have to think about that coca cola and Pepsi are creating havoc in Rajatalab and Jaunpur,
respectively. This Coca Cola company and Pepsi cola company each year takes home 1050
crore rupees to 1100 crore rupees from our country. It takes home 10,500 crore rupees and
11,000 crore rupees home each year- an exodus of money that we don’t need at all. It’s not as
if Pepsi and Coke are lifesaving drugs that we cannot do without. But on the other hand,
BALCO (aluminum company owned by government) the biggest aluminum company of India
which is located in Korba, district of Madya Pradesh- if we try to sell off this company and
some other companies in addition to it, even then we would not get 10500 crore rupees for
them. So just think these drink companies are taking home 10,500 to 11,000 crore rupees
each year and Mr. Shouri who heads the department of disinvestments is selling off one or the
other state owned companies each day. After selling them, he is depositing this money in the

76
national bank and claiming that the foreign exchange reserves of our country have gone up by
such and such amount. Since just as someone who sells off the land belonging to his
ancestors can keep the proceeds in a bank and claim that the money is his wealth, similarly
the government of Aroun Shouri is trying to show the public that the country has gained so
much money from abroad. But the company which is investing the money by these companies
is usually either a soap making company or a soda making company or some motocycle
manufacturing company or an automobile company or a cold drink company. To this day not
a single company has come into our country whose product is essential for us. So, comrades,
it is a matter of dead concern that even our salt has gone into the hands of foreign companies.
So has our soap and soda. Our culture and civilization has been taken over by these
companies and now they are getting ready to teach us their own culture and civilization. So,
comrades, the development that you see is taking place just for the sake of a handful of
people, these people who earn salaries ranging from one hundred thousand rupees to one
hundred fifty thousand rupees a month belong to this tiny elite segment which is full of
people who do MBA and even among them only a very tiny section of people get these jobs.
Look at this heritage hospital (in Lanka, where the rally was taking place), and the world
bank is constantly putting pressure on the Indian government not to finance government
hospitals and primary health centers and asking the government to close down all such
treatment centers. Otherwise, the World Bank would not give the government any money.
But, the matter has got embroiled in the controversy because how will the government build
the highways to link the four metropolises if it does not get the money from the World Bank?
When the government is trying to publicize its actions as taken in the pursuit of the welfare
and development of the people of the country, just think that these highways will link the
emptier parts of the country to the metropolises where foreign goods will land and eventually
find their way into the homes of consumers even in villages. Whether it be the Honda
motorcycle or the Kawasaki motorcycle or the Maruti car, all these foreign goods will
eventually land in Chennai via huge trucks. When goods will come out of Chennai they will
end up in Calcutta. When goods are produced in Calcutta, they will be consumed in
Bangalore. All these arrangements are being made just to facilitate the transit of foreign
goods from one part of the country to another. These roads are not being built for those of
you who are standing here with bicycles or with scooters. But the government is trying to
show that it is making these roads for the general public, for the millions of our country men.
And even the contract to make these roads has been given to a Korean or Russian company
not to any Indian company. So just think, that even after fifty years of independence we have
not been able to achieve enough technical progress to build a road. We are giving away the
contracts to build roads to foreign companies. And who supplies the cement for these roads?
The Larsen and Toubro company, which is a foreign company. All the road making machines
that are being employed are made abroad. So, comrades you have to oppose all these foreign
companies, every single one of them, and you have to discuss these things and you have to
oppose the BJP government which is working to make life easier only for a handful of people
who live in the cities. I once again request my comrades to boycott these companies and to
discuss and spread this message among your friends too so that this lopsided development
should come to an end. And we oppose both Indian and foreign companies, and its not that if
an Indian company were to make coca cola I would approve that because as far as I’m
concerned cold drinks are not essential, what is essential is that the farmers of our country get
seeds and water and fertilizer and electricity. Because these farmers are the foundation stone
of our country. And because of them, millions of other country men can find employment and
food grains. With this, I end my speech, Victory be to Socialism.

Aflatoon: Thank you Comrade, Chamchal Mokargiji, You have in great detail discussed the
policy of globalization which has been operating for the last ten years, and which is being
publicized by Atal Bihari Vajpayee through television, after spending two hundred crore
rupees on an add campaign. Chamchalji has put before you the real picture about Bharat Udai
(India Shining.) Comrades, I would like to tell you before I invite our last speaker that the

77
Golden Quadrangle scheme which was discussed here just now many of you must have gone
to Delhi and between Delhi and Jaipur there is a highway which is part of this golden
quadrangle. On this highway, foreign cars that our coming into our country with each passing
day run at speeds of hundred kilometers per hour. But if a car comes to NOIDA (area next to
Delhi) from Delhi the car owner has to pay a toll tax of rupees twenty. And if a bus goes to
Haryana from Delhi, the bus owner has to pay rupees 150 as a toll tax and you can’t cross
over into the other state until you have paid the toll tax. A road about which it is said that it is
as smooth as the cheek of Hemamalani (actress). Do you know the condition of the roads
which link villages to the main highways? And even with respect to the highways that are
being built the fact to remember is that after independence when roads were built in this
country millions of people used to get employment in building them and they used to be
farmers with time to spare between harvests. Such a farmer used to think to himself, “when a
road is about to be made then my cooperation would be asked for and I would find
employment.” But in the golden quadrangle scheme, it is being built right in your
neighborhood and the G.T road is a part of it. The national highway authority has paid
compensation for cutting down twenty five thousand trees just within the Benaras area alone.
And farmers and laborers are not required to make these roads, the entire work is being done
by machines. And Chamchalji discussed that when he said that the money that is coming for
making these roads is alone taken from the world bank, and our cooperation has already
crossed a hundred million and when a child is born in India he or she carries a debt burden of
sixty thousand rupees as foreign debt. And we say India is rising. All this development is
being done for those who have salaries of 100,000 rupees or 150,000 rupees or 350,000
rupees a month. They are highly placed officials of multinational corporations. For them, this
policy is definitely productive because if they go for medical treatment in Benaras they will
go to the heritage hospital and if they go for treatment in Delhi or Bombay they will go to the
Apollo hospital or they would go to the Hinduja hospital where it costs thousands of rupees
for a single bed per day. No child of a farmer can get treated there. Comrades, can this dual
system coexist? Comrades, the Kalyan Singh government of U.P gave ten crore rupees to
Lalji Rai to make this heritage hospital and this money came from my pocket and yours. And
thus was this Heritage hospital made. Kalyan Singh came here to inaugurate this hospital. If
heritage hospital exists then the condition of the Kabir Chaura hospital (government hospital)
will always be bad or worse, because both systems cannot exist side by side. The government
should decide its priorities. And decide upon the state of medical treatment of the common
people of also of their education and health. The government will have to think about these
areas and get its priorities right. Today, education, health and medical treatment are available
only for a handful of people. If you simply create facilities for the advantaged and claim that
the country is progressing, then be sure that the public is not going to be taken in by this ruse.
The bad state of the lives of the common people is not going to be improved by the razzle-
dazzle of such development. And with these words, I would like to invite the national
president of Samamajwadi Jan Parishad, who is also the head of department of the social
science department of Sampurnand Sanskriti University, Dr. Somnat Trapathi to come and
present his views before us.

Dr. Somnat Trapathi: The Chairmen of this meeting and the members of Jan Parishad present
here and brothers, You have been listening to this debate at this street corner of Lanka for
quite some time now. It is nothing but coincidence that on one hand all the political parties of
the country are trying to sway public opinion in their favor, and on the other hand a tiny
section of the public whose ideas are broad based whose actions are equally broad based is
among you right now to create a dialogue against the dangerous policies of the government
hell-bent upon destroying common people. On one hand, we received news about the
parliament getting dissolved, and on the same day the joint parliamentary committee headed
by Sharad Pawar that had been formed to investigate the presence of pesticides in coca cola
and Pepsi cola and other soft drinks and to find out if or not these drinks contained levels of
pesticides that are harmful to the health of people, gave its report. As long as elections were

78
 not on the table, the committee did not submit its report, even though the committee had been
formed a long time ago.
(Tape cut off, then continues his speech later)
Those who do not have basic needs will feel bad, and those who have ten pairs of shoes and
fancy sari’s and who live in palaces will feel good. I want that you should put up the next
parliament election as a fight between feel good and feel bad. All of you should teach the feel
good people a lesson otherwise this country will not survive. The talk about changing the
constitution did not come up to benefit to disadvantage any political group, but because they
changed all the policies that they wanted to change, they changed the patent laws they
changed the policy regarding textiles, they also began to change the policy of water, but there
are many policies that cannot be changed in the parliament because the constitution orders
otherwise. Sections thirty eight to fifty one of the fourth schedule of the constitution call for a
social welfare state which would create laws based on equality. But the economic policies
that are going on and agricultural policy that is being introduced, the textile policy that is
being introduced are all meant to create disparity. How can a policy based on disparity work
when the constitution demands equality? That is why they feel the need to amend the
constitution. The matter had reached the level where they were willing to amend the
constitution; it is a condition similar to the saying in the Panchatantra1 which describes an
iron smith cutting a piece of wood into two halves using his skill. And when he went for
lunch he left the log half split with the blade of the axe embedded in the split. And a monkey
came and decided to imitate the action of the iron smith by sitting atop the log and trying to
saw it. And the monkey sat on the log right over the split and his private parts got trapped in
the rift and when the monkey extracted the axe from the rift, the rift closed and his private
parts got squeezed and he died. This is the condition of the people who would amend the
constitution. Just like that monkey, they said that they would change the constitution. So
when matters come to such a head that in order to create a society based on disparity some
people would be willing to go to the extent of changing the constitution what can you except
from such a government? Your only option is to change that government, and replace it. And
from time to time people have replaced governments, once in 1968 when in eleven states of
the country the congress government was defeated in the election and again in 1977 when the
forty year rule of congress was replaced by the people. A similar time has come now, as the
issues raised by Jai Prakash Narayan2 have come to an end, has the problem of unemployment
been solved? Has cheap and equal education for all become a reality? Has the health
promised to everyone come about? No. Things have become worse. Just now, Aflatoon told
you about the state of our health, with the example of the Heritage hospital. One of our
comrades told you about the state of education. There was a time when we used to give out
the slogan “Dual education will not be tolerated. And now a university called Manipal
University has been created where the tuition fee is 25,000 rupees a month. Can anyone in
Benaras who works at a salaried job send his children to study at Manipal University? And if
someone from India who has a well paying job cannot afford to send his children to Manipal
University, then for whom has this university been created? Universities like Manipal are
created for those who earn black money, people w ho earn money through corruption, it is for
their children Manipal University has been created. They have changed our culture entirely.
There was a time when people in villages used to get together and collectively open a school
and today who is opening schools? He would usually be a retired income tax commissioner or
a retired executive engineer would use his money earned through corruption to open a school.
The Delhi public3 school and all such schools have been made with such money, with money
stolen from the general public; education is being given to the children of ‘feel good’ people,
and what is the state of government hospitals today? In government hospitals, many times a

1
Old Indian Fables
2
Famous socialist of the 1970’s who opposed Indira Gandhi
3
In India public/private school is opposite meaning then in the U.S; public means a privately paid for and
owned school.

79
 number of people who visit hospitals like heritage lie in verandas without hospital beds, so
how can they support your ‘feel good?’ They have changed the common mans culture which
people used to call by names such as Indian culture or Civilized man’s culture, by bringing
about mind change.

Aflatoon: A group of struggling young men have arrived just now, I would invite comrade
Nandalal who is the convener of the Lok Samiti and a prominent figure in the agitation
against coca cola, and I would request him to be brief in his speech because this meeting has
been going on for too long and after the speech he should present his revolutionary song
along with his companions. And I would like all of you to welcome this feisty young man
with applause.

Nandalal: Instead of talking too much, we would present our views through a song. But I
want to say one thing to you, the report that came out sixth july stating that the coca cola and
peps that we drink contained poison in them, and people should not drink them because
numerous kinds of dangerous diseases arise from drinking them, but I want to tell you one
more thing. I would like to ask not if you would be willing to use products like these which
benefit no one and instead tell you that wherever their factories have been set up the farmers
of those areas are struggling against these companies. I live in such a village, I am a resident
of Mehandiganj Village, my village is 25 kilometers from the coca cola plant. You go there
and see for yourselves the condition of those villages and also the condition of the farmers
there and then decide for yourself that if you continue to drink Pepsi or coca cola- then you
will stop drinking them simply because they would hurt your health or also because by
drinking them you are practically drinking the blood of the farmers of those areas. This Pepsi
and coca cola has been created out of the blood of the farmers of those areas. I would like to
tell you that this company extracts 25 Lakh (25 hundred thousand liters) of water every day in
Mehandiganj. You can imagine for yourself what would be the condition of a place where 25
hundred thousand liters of water is extracted every day. We extract water from our wells only
according to our needs and this does not affect the level of the water at all. But if you were to
install a powerful water pump in the same well and let the pump run for twenty four hours a
day you can very well imagine whether or not the water level of that well would go down. In
the last five years, the company has extracted so much water from there that the water level
has gone down to 40 feet. On the other hand, I want to tell you that when such companies go
to a village, what they normally say to the villages is that they promise employment to the
local people. When this company came to our village, this is what it promised us. They
promised to give employment to seventy five percent of the village population. If you go there
and inquire from the people, you will find that they have not given permanent employment to
even one person. All the forty or fifty people that work there have been called from Bihar or
Gurgaon. Our minds are clouded by such propaganda and we need to remove this illusion
from our minds. We need to realize that these big multinationals come here to take away your
occupation, not to give you jobs. This company is still illegally occupying land belonging to
our village, and the court has ordered the company to vacate this land but they have not yet
vacated that land. Time is short, and I would request all of you, you don’t need to boycott
Coke and Pepsi simply on the basis of the joint parliamentary committee report, but instead
we need to see the real character of these companies, we need to go to places where they have
set up their plants to see the ground reality, we need to see how local people are being
affected by these companies. How people are dying, due to the products of these companies. I
would request that now the time has come for us to completely boycott these companies. We
don’t need to get into the controversy whether or not their drinks are pure or impure, but
rather we need to drive them out of our country, because even if their drinks are pure, let
anyone come forward and tell me- (tape cuts off) I would also like to say that when the CSE1
report came, people who we love and cherish, people like Sachin Tendulakar (famous
1
Center for Science and Environment

80
 cricketer) or Aishwarwa Rai (famous actress) began to tell us through ads that there was no
harm in drinking these products. I would like to ask them, whether ‘if there is no harm in
drinking these products, then tell me about one single benefit that can be had from drinking
them.’ What benefit can they possibly tell you except that the cricketer would say ‘by
drinking this you will be able to score a six just as I do. And you will become as strong as I
am.’ If there’s any other benefit beyond this I would like any young man here to come
forward and tell me about it. So I believe that you would also have to boycott such people
who are making us drink this poison by lending their credibility to such products. That’s why
we should oppose these drinks on both levels with my Lok Samiti companions I want to sink
an exhortation song. Today we need to struggle and fulfill our responsibility towards creating
a new India. I would sing this song and would like you to repeat after me. And I would like
everyone to sing with us:

Comrades I salute you

Brothers I salute you
Sister I salute you
The freedoms of the country are calling out to you
Casteist shackles are jangling
Save the freedoms and break the shackles
The lamp is going out
Fill it with love
So that the country may bloom
And the Indian may sing out
There is a call out going out all over the world-
“You alone have the rein of the country in your hands”
The torch of the country is in our hands alone
Comrades I salute you
Brothers I salute you
Comrades I salute you
Brothers I salute you
Sisters I salute you1

Slogan after song:

‘In the country of milk and yogurt, Pepsi cola will not do’
In the land of milk and yogurt, coca cola will not do

These were the speeches presented at the meeting. Aside from Nandalal’s speech,

hardly anything was mentioned about the local problems being faced in Mehandiganj.

In September and November Lok Samiti was told by the District Magistrate that a

committee would be formed to evaluate their pleas and a response would be given to

them within a month. Seven months later, no one has gotten back to them. On March 9th

1
Full song was not recorded due to a tape problem but this is a part of it

81
2004 about 50 Mehandiganj villagers road their bikes from the village to the district

headquarters to demand to be heard. Nandalal explains:

On the ninth of March we took our a bicycle procession to the district magistrates office
because the district magistrate has entrusted the additional district magistrate (administration)
the job of enquiring into this matter. This enquiry committee had been set up on fourteenth
September, 2003. On 11th November 2003, the district magistrate called both the parties. He
called us and also the people of the coca cola plant. In the meeting he asked us to submit
evidence as to whose harvest has been ruined and which crops have been ruined. We had
alleged that the plant had illegally occupied some land belonging to the Gram Sabha. So the
D.M. asked us to give proof of which land had been occupied. He also asked us to give proof
of the reduction in the groundwater level. We asked him to give us one week’s time to finish
the evidence and within a week we gave him all the records.
And the demand is simply that coca cola should move away from their land because the
groundwater level is down. And the company should pay damages for the harm that has
come to our crops.
When the authorities set up an enquiry committee they told us that the committee will submit
the report within a month. But the administration did not give a report even though three
months have passed. That’s why we decided to surround the A.D.M who was holding the
enquiry. But on the 9th march the governor of the state had come to Benaras so all the officials
had gone to receive him and there was no one there in the office. So the additional city
magistrate (fourth) took our petition and assured us that he will talk to the district magistrate
and speed up the enquiry process so that the committee will give its report soon. He told us
that he would inform us pretty soon about what is going on. But until now we have not
received any word from them. But we have given them one months time. We have told them
that if they don’t take any action within a month then we will take direct action against the
company.1
When the D.M called us he asked us to furnish evidence in support of our claims. Even today
the coca cola plant is built on illegally occupied land. We have given them evidence showing
how the illegal occupation has been done. The company has occupied the Chak Road [road
which came out as result of land rationalization process? One of the court gentlemen consents
to the fact that this plant did not originally belong to the coca cola company. Earlier it was
owned by someone else. And in 1995 this plant was owned by the thumbs up drink (Parle)
and in 1999 the coca cola company bought it from them. At the time of buying the coca cola
company declared that they were buying this property for 6 and a half crore rupees. (60 ½
million rupees). And on that basis they gave the government stamp duty worth rupees 50
Lakh (1 Lakh= 100,000). But just two months later they told the industry department that
their property was worth 31 core rupees. So, on this basis the company had paid the
government 1 ½ crore rupees less as stamp duty. A farmer of the village submitted a writ
petition against this malpractice. And the courts judgment came out on 3rd march that the
company has underpaid stamp duty by this amount and it should also pay an equal amount as
penalty. So the court said that the company should pay the government three crore sixty Lakh
rupees. After this the Coca cola company appealed in the high court and then the supreme
court but it lost everywhere. Later on the court allowed them to pay this amount in
installments and the first installment was supposed to be one crore forty seven Lakh rupees.
And our government has become so incompetent- and I have no hesitation in saying that- if I
owe the government 10,000 rupees than they will straight away arrest me and put me in a lock
up for 13 days. But this company stole 3 crore rupees and yet neither the media nor the
administration said anything about this. Only after we began our agitation against it did the
company deposit this amount. That’s the state of affairs here.

1
Nandalal Master, March 15th 2004.

82
 If the District Magistrate does not get back to them, then on April 20th direct

action will be taken against the plant. Nandalal Master expects that the police will beat

the agitators again and will possibly put them in prison.

Issues Within the Mehandiganj/Benaras Anti-Coca Cola Movement and Some

Personal Opinion:

In September 2003, Neha did an evaluation in the village and of the movement

and found that while activists wanted the company to close, a large portion of villagers

did not. She found that these villagers only wanted the pollution to stop and for the

company to provide maximum employment to villagers.

Some of these people had also organized a sit in at the local court compound and I also talked
to some of those people and I also attended some of the meetings. On that basis I have formed
a certain opinion about them, which is that the Samajwadi Jan Parishad and others are
working on the motto of that the Coca Cola factory should be removed from there. That is
because it is causing pollution, it is using the local groundwater and it is a multinational
company so they should go from here. I heard this in the meetings and when I talked to the
local people their only concern which was forcing them to want coca cola to leave the area
was that their fields surrounding the plant were getting polluted by trash. That’s why they
wanted. If they would stop polluting the land, then they have no objection [to coca cola
staying.] This is what I learned from talking to them. Because they felt that there were also
many benefits [from the plant]. They were also getting jobs there, people from the village
have also received employment there. Their main demand was that if this plant was in
operation then it should stop polluting the area and give maximum possible employment to
the people of the village. There is a big contradiction between what those people who are
working in the plant think and what the villages think. What I put up in the meeting, I was
also there in the meeting, and I did say that if the people of the village will not participate in
this movement then it won’t go very far. And if you have to involve the villagers in this
movement then you will have to take their opinion into consideration. For example the issue
of pollution- the pollution issue is a very big issue. Only if you raise their issues, the issues
that are of personal concern to them, if you will use those issues and then explain to them
why coca cola is so bad for them, only then will they come with you. But if you only say that
coca cola is a multinational company so it should leave India, then they won’t come with you
on a large scale. They had not even understood this issue very well [multinationals]. This was
the only thing that I said to them, my only opposition to them was that I said that the
movement will not go very far until the people of the village are mobilized to this level, By
showing them how much the coca cola company was damaging there land, I mean, raising
their issues.1

1
Neha, Durga Kund Varanasi, February 22nd, 2004.

83
 As time went by after Neha had done her report, villagers slowly became more

involved and educated in the issue to the point of saying what has been quoted in the

above pages about coca cola. After two hundred villagers attended the World Social

Forum 2004 in Mumbai there has been an opinion change at a very large level. Those

who attended returned to Mehandiganj and educated those who were not able to attend.

Now most of the villagers either want the plant shut down or completely support those

who are trying to get the plant shut down. Yet as mentioned earlier there are those

receiving money from the plant who are against the movement. Neha too admits that

there has been an opinion change and that this is a good thing. Some villagers admit that

before they were empowered by organizations that they did not even consider the fact that

they had the power to agitate against the plant. When asked if the agitations began before

or after the organization Lok Chetana Samiti came to them began, two women answer:

It [the agitation] has started only after the organizations came. There was nothing before
that. There was no idea of doing anything before that. Now there is a lot of organization
and unity. People are discussing with each other in place after place. Earlier there was no
such idea. Now in place after place after place people are thinking about it. To make
them go away.1

When asked what they would have done if Nandalal Master had not come to help them,

Malti answered:

What could we have done in that case [If Nandalal had not led them in the movement]?
How far could we have possibly reached without him [Nandalal]? The only thing we
could have done was indulge in assault and battery. We women would have taken up
rocks and pelted the factory guards with them whenever we saw them. This is all that we
could have done. And we would have cursed them. How can we chase them away? It is
not within our power to do so.2

Many of the women that I talked with support the movement, attend agitations,

but sound weary about the ability to do these things on their own. Thus it makes sense

1
Malti, Mehandiganj, Village, March 15th 2004.
2
Sukhdei, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.

84
why Neha found that the villagers did not have a strong opinion on the matter in

September, as it was just the beginning of the long series of protests as well as before the

villagers traveled to Bombay for the World Social Forum. Before, Neha had found that

the villagers were okay with Coca Cola staying if they were given jobs but now this is not

the case with many people. However villagers also stress that the village is split on the

issue; many people refuse jobs and oppose the plant, but some people take the jobs and

do not attend the agitations.

Woman: we are getting ruined, we don’t want their jobs.

Other woman: we don’t want jobs, all we want that the factory should be closed down.

Woman: It should close down, we don’t want their jobs.

Other woman: what will we do with jobs if our farming becomes barren?

Another woman: its so hot these days and they are sucking away all the water.1

And another clip of a conversation:

Other woman: god knows how many tons of water they are drawing. The machines are
going on day and night, 24 hours a day.

Woman: Tell them that we don’t want jobs, we only want that the factory should close
down.

Another woman: how will we feed our families if they only hire us for four2 months in a
year?

Other woman: 3 months. They’ll give you a job for three months and then kick you out.3

And a quote from Vidya:

Yes we want to drive them away. In my family the rule is only he who slogs will eat. We
don’t want them to give us jobs. We don’t want them to give salaried jobs to our men
folk or children. We only want them to leave.

1
Conversation between women, Mehandiganj, March 15th 2004.
2
3 months/120 days is the actual amount of time for the contract labor
3
Conversation between women, Mehandiganj, March 15th 2004.

85
 Vidya, as well as the other women in the above interviews all attended the world

social forum in January and attend the agitations in front of the plant.

The villagers not as informed about the issues say that if the company stops

polluting and extracting water then it can stay. These same villagers also support the

movement to shut down the bottling plant, but they do not actively participate in the

movement.

When asked if the company were to stop polluting and taking groundwater etc.

then would the villagers want the company to stay? A few woman answered:

Woman: We would want them to produce something else. Because this thing [coca cola
production] makes us do a lot of penance. If they stop producing Limca [soda] and open
some other factory, we have no problem with that.

Woman in background: a biscuit factory.

Woman: Yes, a biscuit factory. Or a factory to make steel kitchen utensils, or anything
else.

Another woman: no one will complain about that.

Woman: In fact, these things are being produced right next to this Limca [coca cola]
factory. There is a biscuit factory and a steel glass factory. These things are being
produced. Because the huge machines and the giant tube wells that they use to suck
water will make all our wells go dry and none of our pumping sets will yield water and
our farming will go dry. Then the children and the cattle will die, won’t they? Because
everyone will starve for water.1

In another interview, someone else requested a new factory as well. Many people

seem to agree with this idea as it would give them employment but not at the expense of

their land and health.

Just see there is a biscuit factory and a steel utensil factory near the Limca [coca cola]
factory. But we don’t have any problems with them. If this company would start
producing anything except Limca [soft drinks], then that will be fine. Provided, they stop
making it. Because when it produces this drink, it sucks up all the groundwater using big
machines. And it also causes suffering and disease. We are fed up of paying for
medicines for the different ailments.2
1
Conversation between Women, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.
2
Woman from Mehandiganj, March 15th, 2004.

86
 While Neha and I were in Mehandiganj we realized that we were only talking to

women. We had talked to Nandalal and Ram Narayan Patel in the indoor room of the Lok

Samiti building, yet wandering through the village we only encountered women. When

we inquired about this, the women answered:

Women: They don’t go.

Woman: If only the men of our village had stood up for this cause, then why would we
be so helpless?

Malti: Men of my household had gone to Bombay (the world social forum), my sons had
gone to Bombay.

Woman: we are Pragapati’s1 and our men folk are not here, they are abroad (out of
town.)

Women: In Calcutta.

Malti: Her men folk are in Calcutta, but my son had gone to Bombay. In the recent
agitation, my son would have gone to take part but he did not know about it. He came to
know only later.

Woman: The men don’t go because if they go there a fight could break out. When
women go, violence is not likely to take place.

Neha: Right from the time that we have been wandering in the village, only woman are
talking. The men say nothing at all.

Woman: The men know nothing so what can they talk about?

Women: (all laugh)

Woman: The men go to their daily labor work or to their regular jobs, so where will they
find the time to take part in this? They will come back at 8:00 p.m.

Neha: Do they also go with you to agitate?

Women: Yes.

Malti: Yea, when it comes to going to fight, they come with us. Right now they are not
here and they’ll come back at 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm.

Woman: They are labor class men, if they don’t work, how will we eat?

1
The Potter Caste

87
 Malti: Just look at this. We have only this much wheat in our farm.

Neha: Where does your husband go to work?

Woman: In the city of Benaras1, or wherever required, because he works at carrying

debris and construction material on his head to and from construction sites. Other men of
the village work digging pits with pick axes, and some men work at weaving.

Woman: We have to keep our stomachs running, you see. At the end of the day you need
at least one square meal.2

Now a large portion of the village wants the plant shut down. Those who do not

want it shut down are either receiving bribe money or employment from the company.

Many of the women that I have spoken with say that they have left it all up to Nandalal

and that they will do whatever he says. This is because if it weren’t for him the company

may not have built the pipeline to dispose of the waste elsewhere.

Almost all of the workers interviewed admitted that if working there is causing

problems for the village then they would quit. Villagers say that their village is not united

on this issue, but that once the village is united, then it will be easier to shut down the

plant.

Malti: But the whole village is not united on this issue you see. If the whole village
unites, then-

Woman: They will be driven away within a minute.

Malti: The fact is that the powers that be of the village are taking bribes from the
company to keep silent.

Neha: You mean people of the village are also in collusion with the company?

Women: Yes, yes.

Malti: The pradhan (head man/chief) of the village in collusion with the company.

Woman: That is what is causing the problem.

1
An unofficial but more commonly used name for Varanasi
2
Conversation between women at Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2003.

88
 Malti: If our pradhan had stood up for us, then there was no way that we would not have
got a chak road to enter and leave our village.

Woman in background: The pradhan is actually sitting tight having taken a bundle of
money from the company.

Woman: The Pradhan sold the gram sabha land and the land of Chak Rd. to the Limca
factory and became uninvolved in this matter.

This issue is an important one to be explored. The village women allege that the

Pradhan accepted bribes from the company and sold the land belonging to the Gram

Sabha. So then how can this be considered an illegal land occupation? Furthermore, in an

article in Danik Jagrin, it is stated that the Pradhan protested along with Samajwadi Jan

Parishad against Coca Cola. So it is exactly as how the women have put it- the powers

that be are in collusion with the company. The company is taking advantage of a corrupt

system that already existed in the village. Yet it must be mentioned that this does not only

happen with multinational companies. Evasion of stamp duty, disputes over

landownership, exploitation of workers and dumping of waste into bodies of water that

lead to the Ganga are things that happen all over India. Due to the lack of laws and

regulations implemented during the economic reforms, both national and multinational

companies can operate in corrupt ways. What the company is actually guilty of pertains to

the dumping of polluted water onto the village land and the passing out of toxic waste as

fertilizer. They are guilty because these acts go against the Water Pollution Control act

and the General liability act. Still, nothing has been done about these act violations

because the government has looked the other way. Moreover, with a corrupt Pradhan, the

villagers cannot go through with as intense of a protest as they would like to. As

explained earlier in the paper, some Panchayat1 members took bribes as well. Nandalal

1
Village Council

89
explained that not all of the Panchayat is bad, but not all of them are against Coca Cola

either. Some of them took money as bribes but some of them protested along with Lok

Samiti, Goun Bachao, and other villagers. As time passes, more Panchayat members are

seeing that the problems of the bottling plant outweigh the benefits and have begun to

support the movement more actively.

In any case, there is a splitting in the village on this issue. The splitting places the

village into four separate groups. The first group is made of the Lok Samiti members,

Goun Bachao members and other villagers who want the plant to shut down. They attend

the agitations, actively support the movement and believe that when the plant closes

down then they can resume living a peaceful life. Many of the quotes throughout the

paper represent this group, but here is one more:

When the company will leave the atmosphere here will become as it was earlier. And we will
begin to live happily.1

The second group is made of villagers who support the movement, go to

agitations when they are told it is time, are against groundwater extraction but now that

the polluted water has stopped being thrown in their field they are not as active as before

about their opposition to the company. Still, they support the other villagers who are

trying to close down the plant and go to agitations from time to time. They are for the

shutting down of the plant when asked but do not openly state this opinion as much as the

first group. As for having another factory in the village, they are for it but want one that is

not owned by Coca Cola. Following is a clip from the interview that represents this

group:

Neha: What other problems do you have? The problem of the water has been removed, the
water that was coming into your fields? What other problems do you have?

1
Ram Narayan Patel, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.

90
 Sukhdei: We aren’t having any other real problem now.

Another woman: the only problem is that the water that we are getting has diminished in
quantity.

Neha: So you don’t have any problems anymore?

Sukhdei: No, there are no more problems. Now they have made the water in the fields flow to
a different place. The property that we had which was getting damaged from their water is
safe from it now.

Neha: So now you don’t have any more problems with the bottling plant?

Sukhdei: No, we don’t have any more problems. We have no problem with polluted water
anymore.

Neha: Then why is the agitation still going on?

Sukhdei: what?

Neha: The agitation is still going on.

Sukhdei: Why not? The agitation will not stop until they close down the plant.

Neha: Why do you people want to get it closed down?

Sukhdei: It will be a good thing if it closes down.

Other woman: For example

Sukhdei: if the factory does not close down, then we will die for want of even a single drop
off water.1

The third group is made of villagers who opposed the plant when the polluted

water was being dumped, oppose groundwater extraction, but say that if the plant were to

produce something else then it could stay. Within the statement “they would have to

produce something else,” it is signified that this group is not as adamant about closing

down the coca cola company itself as the first two groups are. People in this group still

support the efforts of the anti-coca cola movement but do not actively attend protests. The

fourth group are made of a portion of those who work for the plant or whose families

1
Conversation between Women, Mehandiganj Village, March 15th 2004.

91
work for the plant. Many of them oppose the plant but due to financial compensation and

jobs they do not actively support the movement. The fifth group is made of those

receiving bribe money and employment from the plant. These people are against the

movement and some mock the agitations, as several women have said they are known to

do.

Another problem is the split of the different villages affected by the bottling plant.

Nandlal alleges that the company has used caste differences to break what could have

been a stronger people’s movement apart:

Many people from Bhikaripur were working in the plant and they had staged a sit-in for one
full week and during this time they [the protesters] didn’t allow the gate of the company to be
open and this protest was in demand for better working conditions in the plant. The company
fired them and since they were not allowing the front gate to be opened the company had the
boundary wall of the backside of the plant broken down and secretly smuggled in workers
from Mehandiganj. The production went on in this matter. In this way the company created a
rift between people of Bhikaripur and Mehandiganj. There was also a caste factor involved
here as well, because people of Bhikaripur and Mehandiganj predominantly belong to
different castes. Mehandiganj is mostly populated by the Patels, and Bhikaripur by Yadavs.
And using this caste divide the company was successful in breaking the protest movement
against it by people of Bhikaripur and it fired 11 people who were leading the movement
against it. The company told people of Mehandiganj that hands forth only they and not people
by Bhikaripur would be employed by the company. And when people of Bhikaripur realized
that people from Mehandiganj were entering the plant from the backdoor to work there
instead of showing solidarity with the Bhikaripur people, then they tried to stop them from
entering into the plant. Then the company told people of Mehandiganj that people of
Bhikaripur were not letting them work in the plant. And the security guards of the company
beat the 11 ring leaders of the Bhikaripur protest with sticks and the company also lodged
criminal lawsuits against these eleven people and these lawsuits are still going on.1

Regardless of this divide, Nandalal says that Lok Samiti is prepared to help fight

for Bhikaripur. Bhikaripur does not have a strong protest movement right now because

just as it two almost three years for Mehandiganj to see the ill affects of the pollution on

their fields, so it will take for Bhikaripur. Production has also greatly lowered ever since

the pesticides reports came out and it was also lower in the cold season. Now that the hot

season is beginning the company will be dumping more polluted water into the pipeline
1
Nandalal Master, Durga Kund, April 9th 2004.

92
as they will be producing more soft drinks. Nandalal believes that in ten or fifteen days

the affects will become apparent. However there is a problem that the Pradhans have been

coaxed in some way or another to oppose the people’s movement:

We have kept in close touch with the villages of Bhikaripur about this, we have also
contacted people of Bengalipur village, and just yesterday I went and met the Pradhan of
Bengalipur village and this Pradhan informed me that the company had made all the village
Pradhans of surrounding villages give in writing saying that they were against the peoples
movement against the company. But this Pradhan refused to write this.1

The last problem is regarding the outside activists who do not seem to be

supporting the village as much as they support the struggle against multinationals.

Organizations and grassroots parties such as Samajwadi Jan Parishad want the plant to

close because it is multinational. They seem to want all multinational companies to quit

India. At the anti-coca cola rally, they discussed the socio-political scenario of India and

the local issues were hardly raised. Lok Samiti, Goun Bachao, and many villagers want

the plant to close down not because they are multinational but because even if it were to

offer jobs, even if it were to try to better its ways, it would still extract groundwater which

would still inevitably destroy the village’s access to water and the quality of their wells.

Moreover, they acknowledge this is not something that is happening because the

company is multinational. When I first began research I was unsure why the Coca Cola

plant was protested but not the Parle bottling plant. Then, as mentioned in an earlier

chapter, I found out through interviews that the Parle plant in Mehandiganj was never in

production because the Gram Panchayat had made a lawsuit against them. Nandalal

answered the question I was thinking without my having to ask:

If the production had been going on, they would have also spread pollution. Its not that it
was an Indian company so it would not have thrown pollution. They would have spread a
similar pollution.2
1
Nandalal Master, Durga Kund, April 9th 2004.
2
Nandalal, Mehandiganj, April 2nd, 2004.

93
 Nandalal and Lok Samiti’s protest against Coca Cola is not because it is a

multinational company. It is true that they see the problems that multinational companies

can bring to a village and to their country, but their protests are based upon the

detrimental affects that the company’s actions have imposed upon their land and

community.

Overall the local part of the Mehandiganj anti-coca cola movement has grown

quite strong. Once the city movement unites with the village movement and the villages

unite with each other it could become even stronger.

Conclusion:

In general, it should be noted how great of a disruption in life this company has

caused. They have split villages and families, destroyed livelihoods, put peoples’ health

in danger and are putting the aquifers and water tables at risk of depletion. There is no

simple solution.

There remains a problem that the population in the village is very large. The

demand for their weaving work is not so large. It is possible that the village would benefit

from a factory being near their village. Especially if some say that they do not mind one

being there and others say that they want one there. However, there must be better

regulations about environmental and community impact in order for the same problems

not to arise. Furthermore, the existing regulations must be adhered to. It should not be a

factory that damages the villages land in any way shape or form.

94
 The farmers deserve compensation from the money and crops that they have lost,

villagers deserve compensation for their land that has been destroyed. The government is

not doing their job to pressure the company into giving compensation for the destroyed

land, nor are they penalizing them for breaking the water pollution control act.

If the district magistrate does not respond to Lok Samiti by April 20th, then direct

action will be taken against the factory. How long is this process going to continue? It is a

process of the government saying they will get back to them but not, of people agitating

and getting beaten by the police while meanwhile the village and the earth are suffering.

Perhaps after the elections some change will come about, but until the elections there is

no way the plant will be shut down. The fact is that it is not just coca cola who is corrupt.

The actions of this company are part of a larger system of neoliberalism and exploitation.

If Coca Cola were to leave, then what is to say the Pradhan who accepted bribes will not

allow another corrupt factory to come and keep silent again?

If the plant were to shut down, many people in Benaras would be angry about the

inaccessibility of coca cola and like drinks. Due to this demand the company could move

somewhere else and continue their harmful operations in another village. Similary, now

that the company has built a pipeline to dispose of polluted water, the water is sent to the

Bhikaripur/Bengalipur border and will soon destroy that land. Until the government

begins placing regulations on such companies then this pattern will continue.

Furthermore, until the government begins to prosecute those who have broken existing

regulations then this will continue. Yet this is problem because India is an indebted

country and in the nineties India accepted the structural adjustment program terms that

come along with taking IMF and World Bank loans. These adjustments make it so the

government should somewhat overlook corrupt activity of multinational companies. If

95
people start caring too much about the environment then they can forget about

investment. So the problem is even larger. However, it happened in Kerala and since in

India states can hold their own power it is possible to shut down the plant. Until the

outside organizations help with mobilizing people at the local level, the movement will

be at a halt. If more people in the city were to support the movement then the demand for

the drinks in the city would go down and it would be easier to get the plant shut down.

Therefore if another city rally were held, one where farmers and villagers spoke about

water depletion and pollution maybe the people in the city would think differently then

they would when hearing a coca cola rally discuss the upcoming elections. If everyone-

Bhikaripur and Mehandiganj, local activists and outside activists, city people and village

people would link together in this movement- then it would be possible to shut down the

plant as it was in Kerala. However, Kerala is not an example to be used to compare to

other states in India because Kerala of all states is most concerned with environmental

issues. The plant will not be shut down without the government helps. If enough lobbying

is done over time to gain governmental help, then it is possible for the plant to get shut

down. Otherwise, the condition of the villages surrounding the Coca Cola bottling plant

will progressively worsen. The local movement in Mehandiganj and the National

Alliance of Peoples Movements remain a beacon of hope for those whose lives are made

worse from the Coca-Cola Company.

96
Appendix:

These are the main interviews which have been conducted. All have been translated
from Hindi and Bhojpuri to English by Vimelji Mehra.

Mehandiganj Village, March 15th, 2004- I went to Mehandiganj along with Neha. I had a set of
questions that I wanted to ask and during the answers she helped come up with more questions to
ask since her Hindi skill is obviously better than mine.

Shira: Since the bottling plant has come into operation how has your life and the lives of other
farmers changed?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Ever since the coca Cola Company has come here all of us including farmers and villagers are
facing a lot of problems. Polluted water from the plant has spread in the fields of the farmers
over an area of at least 50 acres, due to which mango orchards, the crops of chick peas and peas
and wheat have all been destroyed. So much so that even the patty crop has been hurt. From the
look of it, it seems that the patty crop will be very good but when the crop ripens you find that it
has no grains in it. Due to the polluted water mosquitoes have spread everywhere and due to the
air pollution caused by them people have faced a lot of problems.

Neha: What type of problems did they face? Can you tell us more about the illnesses that they
suffered and how they happened?

Ram Narayan Patel:

It was like an epidemic of vomiting and diarrhea. People used to have fevers and things like that.
The fever used to take months to cure. Many such patients went to the city to get treated.

Neha: So you believe that due to the coca cola plant the pollution here has increased a lot.

97
Ram Narayan Patel:
Yes, a lot.

Neha: So most of the problems are due to it, right?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Yes

Neha: Will you tell us more about this, like what other changes have come about in the village
and the life of the village from the time when the coca cola plant was not here?

Ram Narayan Patel:

When the Coca Cola plant was not here then the level of water was quite high, but since the coca
cola plant has been set up our groundwater level has gone down by at least twenty five feet. It
has reduced out groundwater level. And the coca cola company after having come here pitted
workers against each other, and they pitted the villagers against each other.

Shira: How?

Ram Narayan Patel:

When some people were working in the plant, they put up some demands which were not met so
they organized a sit in and they took out a protest march. So the company fired them and hired
their opponents.

Neha: What was the demand of the people who agitated?

Ram Narayan Patel:

They were demanding better livelihood saying that we should get a fair wage because the
company used to deduct five or ten rupees from each workers wage every day, saying that we
will give you this money back in the form of either a bonus or a pension fund. But they didn’t
give anything like that in the entire year. So when these people demanded their bonus they fired
them and hired the other side. They said to the other group of people “come on, we’ll hire you,
and we’ll fire the other people.” So if you do that in a village, that is natural to cause friction in
the social set up. As a consequence the villagers fought each other. Because the Coca cola
company made them fight. At least forty persons were on one side and sixty or seventy persons
on the other side. They had to submit a bail bond in the court before they could be released.

Neha: So you mean they actually fought each other physically?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Yes, a physically fight. And the police intervened. And all the people had to submit bail money.
And the law suit went on and it is still going on.

Neha:
Is Coca Cola playing any role in this? I mean, is coca cola favoring one side in the law suit?

Ram Narayan Patel:

No. Now the company says “you guys work it out among yourselves. It is your problem.”
The coca cola company has said to both parties bluntly that it is their problem and they will have
to work it out by themselves. So now you see, this is the kind of friction they have caused here.

98
Neha:
And what impact has this had on the farms? You were telling us that the patty crop is growing
but not wielding any grain?

Ram Narayan Patel:

yes

Neha: what other kind of affects has it had on the farms?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Wherever the water from the plant has flown in the farms, the land is becoming barren. Nothing
can be grown there after that. The land becomes saline.

Neha:
Approximately how many farms are affected in this way?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Approximately 20 acres of farm land.

Neha: What affect has it had on the food grains is what she wants to know?

Ram Narayan Patel:

The harvest has diminished in size.

Neha:
This is what we want to know about in more detail. As to what has happened so if you can tell us
in detail that would be very nice.

Ram Narayan Patel:

First of all the harvest size is reduced. Secondly, the hay that was produced after the crops has
become polluted so the oxen refuse to eat it, and so do the buffalo’s. The cattle are not able to eat
this hay until we give them hay and animal fodder in the ration of one to two.

Neha: and you were telling us about the paddy stocks that don’t yield any grain

Ram Narayan Patel:

yes, by looking at the paddy stocks you will think that the harvest is very good, but these stocks
will not yield any rice grains. That is why the harvest size has gone down.

Neha: And we read in the newspapers that mango orchards have also been affected?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Yes in the mango orchards, mango buds refuse to grow on mango trees. Last year the mango crop
was very good everywhere else, but in our village very few mango trees bore fruit.

Neha: So once you people took the garbage from the coca cola plant and put it into your farms as
fertilizer?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Yes we did that.

99
Neha: Has the report about it come out yet?

Ram Narayan Patel:

No it hasn’t come out yet.

Neha: So you don’t know what people have to say about this, right?

Ram Narayan Patel:

no

Shira: tell us something about your org?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Our organization is called the “Goun Bachao Sangharsh Samiti Mehandiganj” (The struggle
committee to save the village/ Save the village struggle committee)

Neha: What are you people doing and for how long have you been working?

Ram Narayan Patel:

We have been working in this for the last two years since the time they set up the plant here. And
we started facing problems. Then we people created this organization and after that we organized
sit-ins and protest marches and whatever it took. First of all we gave a petition to the district
magistrate about the polluted water from the plant, but nothing happened as result. Then we
repeated this process again, but still he didn’t listen to us. God knows what he did. Then we
petitioned the chief minister of the state and also the governor of the state. So much so that we
also sent petitions to the national chiefs of all the national parties, but no one did anything. Then
finally, we sent a petition to the president of India saying that if nothing is done about this then
we will sit down for a long sit in. We gave them 48 hours notice. After 48 hours we had a sit in.
This sit in went on for twelve to fifteen days and during this time the company at least extracted
the polluted water from the farms using a pump. And they brought the leftover garbage and mud
to us saying that we should use this as fertilizer for our farms. They brought this garbage and
piled it by the roadside saying that it will work as excellent fertilizer. You know what the
fertilizer did? Wherever we put it, even the trees withered away. There was a mango tree and a
jack fruit tree and both of them withered away when we put the fertilizer in the roots.

Shira:
How many villagers are part of your organization?

Ram Narayan Patel:

About 50 to 60 people of the village are a part of this organization.

Shira:
And how many villages by the coca cola plant?

Ram Narayan Patel:

You should think of the entire Benaras district as being affected by the coca cola plant.

Neha: but I mean directly.

Other man: two villages

100
Ram Narayan Patel:
Yes two villages.

Other man: Bhikaripur and Mehandiganj.

Neha: But you were saying that the entire Benaras city is affected by this? How so?

Ram Narayan Patel:

(Aareh) Hell, the air pollution is going in the entire district!

Neha: So the coca cola plant air pollution is going everywhere right?

Ram Narayan Patel:

Yes it’s going everywhere.

Neha: And how many villages are part of your council?

Farmer: Only people of our village are part of this. Only people from Mehandiganj.

Neha: How many people would that be roughly?

Farmer: Somewhere between 100-125 people or you can say the entire village is involved. (ASK
AGAIN THE #)

Shira: What are your future plans regarding the coca cola plant?

Ram Narayan Patel:

We are working on just one principle regarding the coca cola plant. That the coca cola plant
should close down. And it should go away from here. So that we may be able to live a peaceful
life.

Neha:
But do you think the people who have found employment in the plant would want the company
to move from here?

Ram Narayan Patel:

But where have the people from the village found jobs? They have employed at least 400 people
on a daily basis and all of them are from Bihar.

Neha:
Oh so you mean they have only hired outsiders.

Ram Narayan Patel:

Because all their work is done on a contract basis.

Ram Narayan Patel:

But what if people from here start getting jobs in the plant?

Ram Narayan Patel:

They won’t take them. Because you only get 50 or 60 rupees per day and who will work for that
petty amount?

101
Shira: In your opinion what should be done to set everything right?

Neha: So that everything becomes as it was, what would you like to do for that

Shira: in your view

Ram Narayan Patel:

When the company will leave the atmosphere here will become as it was earlier. And we will
begin to live happily.

Shira: In your experience what have been the benefits and drawbacks of being associated with
any political party or social organization?

Neha: Because political organizations are also associated with this movement.

Ram Narayan Patel:

But politicians are not associated with our movement. Nor do we want that politicians should
associate themselves with our movement. But yes, we are associated with social organizations,
because we will derive benefit from it.

Neha:
Don’t you think that some social organizations are trying to give this movement a different
direction?

Ram Narayan Patel:

No, I don’t see it that way. Whichever social organization takes part in this movement does so
only in order to safeguard our interests.

Nandalal Master: On the ninth of March we took our bicycle procession to the district
magistrate’s office because the district magistrate has entrusted the additional district magistrate
(administration) the job of enquiring into this matter. This enquiry committee had been set up on
fourteenth September, 2003. On 11th November 2003, the district magistrate called both the
parties. He called us and also the people of the coca cola plant. In the meeting he asked us to
submit evidence as to whose harvest has been ruined and which crops have been ruined. We had
alleged that the plant had illegally occupied some land belonging to the Gram Sabha. So the
D.M. asked us to give proof of which land had been occupied. He also asked us to give proof of
the reduction in the groundwater level. We asked him to give us one week’s time to finish the
evidence and within a week we gave him all the records. And I have the records with me if you
want I’ll give them to you.

Shira: What was the last mans name?

NandaLal: Raj Narayan Patel. He is a farmer of this village. When you were asking about what
this village Sangharsh Samiti does, so I want to tell you that it is not a registered organization.
When they became distraught with the affects of the coca cola plant so they decided to fight it
collectively. Then they got together and formed this Goun Bachao S.S against the coca cola
plant. And this committee fights only against the coca cola plant.

102
Nandalal: and the demand is simply that coca cola should move away from their land because the
groundwater level is down. And the company should pay damages for the harm that has come to
our crops.

Nandalal: I have already given one set of these records to the authorities and one set is also lying
with me. I’ll get them photocopies and give them to you.
That’s what the villages did. When the authorities set up an enquiry committee they told us that
the committee will submit the report within a month. But the administration did not give a report
even though three months have passed. That’s why we decided to surround the A.D.M who was
holding the enquiry. But on the 9th march the governor of the state had come to Benaras so all the
officials had gone to receive him and there was no one there in the office. So the additional city
magistrate (fourth) took our petition and assured us that he will talk to the district magistrate and
speed up the enquiry process so that the committee will give its report soon. He told us that he
would inform us pretty soon about what is going on. But until now we have not received any
word from them. But we have given them one month’s time. We have told them that if they don’t
take any action within a month then we will take direct action against the company.
When the D.M called us he asked us to furnish evidence in support of our claims. Even today the
coca cola plant is built on illegally occupied land. We have given them evidence showing how
the illegal occupation has been done. The company has occupied the Chak Road [road which
came out as result of land rationalization process? Process is called Chak Bundi- ASK] and one
of the court gentlemen consents to the fact that this plant did not originally belong to the coca
cola company. Earlier it was owned by someone else. And in 1995 this plant was owned by the
thumbs up drink (Parle) and in 1999 the coca cola company bought it from them. At the time of
buying the coca cola company declared that they were buying this property for 6 and a half crore
rupees. (60 ½ million rupees). And on that basis they gave the government stamp duty worth
rupees 50 Lakh (1 Lakh= 100,000). But just two months later they told the industry department
that their property was worth 31 core rupees. So, on this basis the company had paid the
government 1 ½ crore rupees less as stamp duty. (If buy land it must be registered in a court
maybe the registration act, then you have to pay registration fees which is called stamp duty.) A
farmer of the village submitted a writ petition against this malpractice. And the courts judgment
came out on 3rd march that the company has underpaid stamp duty by this amount and it should
also pay an equal amount as penalty. So the court said that the company should pay the
government three crore sixty Lakh rupees. After this the Coca cola Company appealed in the
high court and then the Supreme Court but it lost everywhere. Later on the court allowed them to
pay this amount in installments and the first installment was supposed to be one crore forty seven
Lakh rupees. And our government has become so incompetent- and I have no hesitation in saying
that- if I owe the government 10,000 rupees than they will straight away arrest me and put me in
a lock up for 13 days. But this company stole 3 crore rupees and yet neither the media nor the
administration said anything about this. Only after we began our agitation against it did the
company deposit this amount. That’s the state of affairs here.

Neha: But today we’ll also like to go into the village because that’s why we have come here. The
earlier we begin the better.

Nandalal: Let the car come. I also want to tell you that when these big companies come to a
village, they promise that they will give a lot of jobs to the villagers. And that they will provide
employment to the maximum amount of people possible in the village. Similarly, when this
company came here it promised to hire the maximum possible number of people from the village.
But it did not give permanent employment to any of the local people. So when the workers
working in the plant agitated against this system and kept the plant non functioning for a whole
week and they occupied the plant for an entire week, so what happened after that was that when

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the company realized that they can’t get away with it they had people break into the plant from
the backside. And they brought the workers from the outside through this backdoor entry and
started their work. And they pitted the workers who were organizing the sit-in in front of the
plant against each other. They divided them into two groups and created animosity between the
groups. And thirteen people

Neha: the workers who came from outside, where were they from?

Nandalal: They were mostly local but some Bihari’s. They were from everywhere. And the 13
people who were leading the agitation against them are even today prohibited from coming
anywhere within a 30 meter radius of the plant, through a restraining order. And these people are
even today trying to prove their side of the argument in the law courts. They have also got a
restraining order against five of us from among the people who were staging the sit in

Neha: what is the restriction that they have given you?

Nandalal: The restriction is that we are not allowed to stage any sit in or protest within a 300
meter radius of the plant.

Neha: What happened to that police case where the police had beaten you people with sticks?

Nandalal: The lawsuit is going on about that too. After that also the court has passed a judgment
upon us. The court has passed a judgment on Nandalal Master, Aflatoon Desai, Dr. Swati, Dr.
Sandeep Pandey, and Santosh Kumar. The Coca Cola Company has obtained a restraining order
on the five of us. And we are appealing against this order. Then there’s the matter of the map of
the land belonging to the Gram Sabha which we brought out all the records. When the car comes
I will take you there. It’s a bit far, 2-3 kilometers. It would be a problem without that. He’s
bringing the car then I’ll take you. I used to teach children laborers. For the last few years my
teaching work has become less.
So we don’t expect political parties to stand by us in a big way. Because they are more interested
in their banner. That’s why they hesitate in coming into this matter. One more risk is that when
political parties come to your help then as long as they are in the opposition in the parliament
they are with you. But the moment they become the ruling party they stop to listen to you no
matter which issue you bring up whether it be corruption or the issue of coca cola or whatever.
They believe that now it is their government so they cannot oppose any such things. That’s why
we don’t expect any support from the political parties nor do we hope that they will ever stand by
us in a long fight.
So you have to go and meet the farmers?

Neha: yes we want to go to two or three villages.

Nandalal- let him come with the car and I’ll take you there.

Neha: you will have to help us in this.

Nandalal: yes somebody or other will have to do that. You should also come tomorrow because
all the women associated with this agitation will come here. I am also calling Shailendre Singh.

Neha: Oh you mean the D.S.P (Depute supreme attendant of police)

We’ll see about tomorrow.

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NandaLal: I’ll show you the photographs related to this movement. There are plenty of them you
can see them if you want.

FIRST SECTION OF VILLAGE:

Shira: What is your name?

Vidya: My name is Vidya.

Shira: What problems are you facing from the Coca Cola plant?

The problem that we have is they are extracting ground water from deep down and all this water
will be spent so what will we drink? And the farming that we had we noticed that when their
water used to flow into our farms our crops used to burn away. And when we decided to have a
sit in and protest so what they did was they had a well dug and they dumped their water into that
well. That’s why we go there to do sit-ins. People are also getting cancer due to that water.
They’re also getting sick from it.

Neha: Has anyone had cancer from that water?

Vidya: Yes. We hear about it a lot. I’ve heard stories of many people dying. A daughter in law
died recently of cancer. (To other woman: one person of your community [Biradari] [caste] died
and one of mine.)

Other woman: oh many people have had it.

Vidya: Yes, many people are getting cancer. These are the things that are causing problems for
us. So that’s why we want them to remove the plant from here. The Coca Cola plant.

Neha: We’ve heard that many people from your village are working for that plant

Vidya: Yes, there are many.

Neha: They want?

Vidya: Yes, they want.

Neha: What do they want?

Vidya: Those who are working here don’t want to chase the company away. They think to
themselves “we are getting money from them.” Of course somebody who works there will get
money. So why would he want to chase them away? They are getting money so why would they
want to do that? Those who are working there want the company to stay.

Neha: What if someone from your family were to get a job there?

Vidya: We won’t work at salaried jobs.

People of my household will not work at salaried jobs.

Neha: so you want to drive them away?

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Vidya: yes we want to drive them away. In my family the rule is only he who slogs will eat. We
don’t want them to give us jobs. We don’t want them to give salaried jobs to our men folk or
children. We only want them to leave.

Neha: Did you know from before that the Coca Cola plant will be harmful for people and will
make them sick? Or was it that you came to know about this only when the Chetana Samiti
people told you?

Vidya: We came to know only after they told us. Earlier we didn’t know and we came to know
only after they informed us.

Neha: So it means that the farms must have been getting damaged even earlier but at that time
you didn’t know that it was due to the plant.

Vidya: We don’t have any farms there. The farms there belong to other people. It’s the villagers
who should get to know. Our farms are not in that area. But when we saw their farms on the way
to the coca cola plant we found them truly damaged. Because the water coming out from the
plant has flown into these farms and the paddy crop has become burned. When I went there I saw
that the paddy crop in the farms near the coca cola plant had become burned. That’s why we
came to believe that it is the plant that has caused the damage.

Neha: So that’s why you are committed to this agitation?

Vidya: Yes that is why. We think to ourselves “if we have to buy food grains in order to eat then
what’s the point.” Even if the farms yield a harvest we’ll still buy food from outside. If you can’t
get a harvest from our farms then why put up with it? How can we eat if our farms don’t yield
any crop? We don’t have farms in that area but how can we even buy the food grains if there’s no
harvest in those farms?

Shira: What difference has come in the village from the time when the coca cola plant was not
here till today? Earlier there was no plant here, or earlier there was another plant here.

Vidya: yes. Earlier it was the plant owned by the biscuit company. Earlier there was a biscuit
company here. Now it is the Coca cola Company.

Neha: So since that time what different can you perceive till now?

Vidya: The main difference is that now we have a real problem in getting water. The level of
water in the wells is going down. Since those people are extracting that water it is but natural that
the wells will dry up. So the first problem that will come out is that there will be no water. Then
what will we drink and eat?

Neha: Are the wells dry now?

Vidya: No there’s still some water now. But if this goes on then these wells like the one that you
see in front of you.

Neha: Has any well gone dry yet?

Vidya? Yet?

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Neha: has the water level gone down in well so far?

Vidya: If you look into the well that is right here in front you will find that earlier the water level
was much higher than it is today. Instead of water, pebbles will begin to come out.

Other woman: if this goes on then the water of the wells will dry up completely.

Vidya: it will dry up completely.

Other woman: Even when the month of Jath (Hindu month- May and June) comes the wells dry
up.

Neha: Didn’t the well dry up in summers earlier?

When there was no plant here then did the water dry up or not?

Vidya: No.

Neha: So it dries up in summer time now, right?

Other woman: yes, now it does.

Neha: And what about the farms?

Vidya: I told you about the farms, that water is burning down the crops. The fields are not getting
any harvest. These are the kind of problems we have. That’s why we go there to do sit-ins.

Other woman: That’s why we go there. Why else would we go there?

Neha: So you went there after the people of the organization told you about this?

Women: yes

Woman: we used to go with the Chetana Samiti people after they asked us to come with them.
That’s the whole matter. That’s why we all go there.

Vidya: We want them to leave this place.

Shira: what’s your name?

Malti: I’ll tell you whatever I can. My name is Malti.

Neha: This problem was in your village from before because the Coca cola plant had come here
quite a long time back. Then the organizations came and began to raise these questions. So was
there anything happening even before the organizations came into the picture? Or is it that all
this agitation has started only after the organizations came here?

Malti: It has started only after the organizations came. There was nothing before that. There was
no idea of doing anything before that. Now there is a lot of organization and unity. People are
discussing with each other in place after place. Earlier there was no such idea. Now in place after
place after place people are thinking about it. To make them go away.

Neha: If these organizations had not come, would you have stepped forward to fight them?

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Malti: No. No how can we chase them away? It’s not within our power to do so.

Malti: The Coca Cola plant will extract water from a distance of three kilometer to do its work.
Now just think how can we go to a place three kilometers away to fetch drinking water for
ourselves? (Because the water level has moved that far.) We can manage everyday drinking
water needs with the present set up, but if there is a wedding or ceremony at home, then how can
we go to a place three kilometers away to get water for the drinking needs? Everybody will die
without water here. There will be such a severe drought here due to the coca cola company that
there is no limit to how severe the drought will be. That’s why we want it to leave our country.
Then that would be good for us. Only their leaving will be good for us. We have formed a lot of
organizations against them but lets see how long the company stays here. See that’s why we went
to prison and we went through so many hardships. For five days straight we sat there hungry

Neha: There was a hunger strike?

Malti: Yes, a hunger strike. For five days straight people went without food. We had a hunger
strike but foreign companies are not affected by these things. Foreign companies are such that
these things are not having any affect on them. And they are refusing even to think of leaving.
And over here the poor fellows go hungry when they form an organization to fight the company.
And they run from pillar to post day and night to get justice. But nothing is having any affect on
the company. We’ll have to wait and see how long it takes for all this to have any affect on the
company.
To other woman: just see, there was this guy here who died of cancer who had a young daughter.
Many people are getting cancer. It also contains germs these germs were discovered weren’t
they, when it went over there? The germs were discovered when we went there to stage a sit in
and it was also found that it also contained lead. When it was checked they found lead in it. And
also germs. So if someone will drink that water it will definitely harm his body won’t it?

Other woman: when we went to Jaunpur, there was a man there who had been given two bottles
two drink. He had not drunk them but had saved them instead. So when both of the bottles were
brought in to be checked, they found all this in them. And there were a whole lot of police men
there and they showed us the bottle right after it had been checked. The policeman told us “look
they always say that its all a lie. But its all in there. You can see the photo’s here.”

Other woman: All of it was confirmed there.

Malti: People here are not getting a proper hearing from the authorities, even though they are
exchanging so many sit-ins. But none of it is having even the slightest affect. Actually the people
of the village that they have given employment to are the ones who are encouraging the company
and its intransigence.

Neha: how many villagers have they given jobs too?

Malti: Oh there must be at least 60 or 70 people, people of that side of the village.

Other woman: yes

Neha: So 60-70 people have got jobs there?

Malti: yes

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Neha: So they are not part of this agitation?

Malti: no. in fact, when we go there [for sit-ins] they laugh at us. The company gives them thali’s
and blankets and kitchen utensils from time to time.

Other woman: they also bring this stuff for everyone in the village.

Malti: But we don’t go there to take the stuff. Only he who stands to benefit should go there.
Why should we?

Other woman: See at that time they distributed medicines and blankets and utensils. They
distributed these things because they thought that if they would please us by doing this then we
would not chase them away from here.

Vidya: They also installed many hand pumps. They installed hand pumps so that the people will
not try to ride them away from here. But only they who stand to benefit should get these hand
pumps installed in their places. Why should we seeing the fact that we don’t stand to benefit
anyway?

Neha: So you people will not have them installed right?

Vidya and women: No.

Neha: Those people who have had hand pumps installed in their places, do they go for the sit-ins
or not?

Woman: no they don’t go for the sit-ins.

Malti: They would never go in our agitation.

Vidya: They don’t go; they stay in their part of the village.

Malti: But a few of them have begun to come.

Vidya: Yes, a few of them are part of the agitation.

Neha: What is the use of having hand pumps if the water will not come out anyway?

Vidya: Yes, what of the use of having hand pumps if that is the case?

Neha: So chapacal means hand pumps?

Vidya: yes, over here we speak a rural language so we don’t use the word hand pump.

Vidya to Malti: Sister understands very little of our language [Bhojpuri] because she is from
Benaras.

Vidya: that’s why we want the company to leave. We are not greedy for their stuff, we don’t
want their things.

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Malti: We don’t want anything from them. All we want is that they should leave our country. We
only want to drive them away from our country. We want nothing more.

Vidya: That’s why you see wherever there is a protest about to happen, we go there. If NandaLal
can go, so we decide that we can also go.

Malti: If you ask even the small kids, if you mention the word coca cola in front of them, they
will begin to sing the song that they have created for it.

Neha: to child: will you sing the song for me?

Malti: Come on, sing that song for them.

Woman: if you ask the little girl she will sing with all her enthusiasm.

Boy says: close down coca cola close down coca cola.

Malti: close it down. Go on sing. She is the youngest of the kids but when she sings he sings with
all his enthusiasm. “In our country milk and yogurt will be sold and consumed. Not coca cola.”
When this kid says this in front of people, they laugh and are amazed at how wise she is even at
such a young age.

Vidya: the song that they use is “in the country of milk and yogurt, Pepsi cola will not do.”

Neha: Did you people also go to Bombay?

Women: yes, we did.

NEXT VILLAGE:

Shira: Can you talk some about Coca Cola?

Woman: We began to get beaten

Woman 2: Even these little kids had gone there and when the police started beating us the kids
began to wail. (Laughing.) They began to run out of fear. Of course it is understandable that
when the police were chasing you with lathi’s what else could you do? (Laughing.) The kids
began to run, pulling there grandmothers and mothers with them, out of fear that they will get
killed.

Women 3: Yes, my granddaughter was pulling me.

Neha: did you also go there?

Woman 3: yes. I and she and she. When they pulled me I fell down and

Other woman: two of the kids were this high and they were also pulling us away to safety.

Shira: what is your name?

Another woman: My name is Sukhdei

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Neha: ok tell us what you were saying about the water

Sukhdei: We have a huge problem of water here. And since the time when the water from coca
cola has spread around-

Neha: tell us what happened?

Sukhdei: when this water spread into the orchards and fields are crops were damaged.

Neha: Which water, the one that they are emitting from the factory, the one that they are
extracting from the ground?

Sukhdei: Even suppose if bad water is not coming out at this time, but when it used to come out
then

Neha: you mean the factory water?

Sukhdei: yes. This water has harmed all the orchards and boy there are so many mosquitoes that
you can’t even imagine. There are so many mosquitoes that you got measles on your hands and
feet. And also boils on your skin.

Other woman: the water looked clean, so we put that water into our farms to save the crops from
burning in the heat. And we had no idea that this was garbage water.

Sukhdei: we would put that water into our fields, and the fields were dry and parched, but we had
no idea that it was harmful water.

Other woman: but when this water came into contact with your skin, you experienced an intense
itching sensation.
You couldn’t stop scratching yourself.

Sukhdei: and that water was so full of dirt and so bad smelling that we had to keep our noses
covered all the time.

Neha: speak one by one because the voices may not be clear

Women: yes it might not come out.

Neha: all of you will get to talk to her.

So when you people agitated against this, then did this water stop?

Sukhdei: Yes, when Master [Nandalal] created a big scene then they

Neha: so when the water was in your fields, didn’t you people go there and complain?

Sukhdei: We complained a lot. The company dug a well and installed a sokhta- soaking agent
inside the well which sucked up all the surrounding groundwater. When you suck water from a
different area then the only thing left in that area is the crash and the filth.

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Neha: No, I mean that when the water had flooded this area then it was Master who went there to
complain? You guys didn’t go?

Sukhdei: No it was master who spoke on our behalf. We didn’t. He began swearing at them
saying “where the hell is all this water coming from.” Because the slope of the land is such that
the water that they emit goes into our fields. Only after Master undertook that agitation did the
company arrange for an alternative exit for the water. And just see that when we went there to
stage the sit in they beat up poor Master. Five or six women were leading the march and the men
were behind them. All of us women were in front of the march. At every place.

Neha: What other problems do you have? The problem of the water has been removed, the water
that was coming into your fields? What other problems do you have?

Sukhdei: We aren’t having any other real problem now.

Another woman: the only problem is that the water that we are getting has diminished in
quantity.

Neha: So you don’t have any problems anymore?

Sukhdei: No, there are no more problems. Now they have made the water in the fields flow to a
different place. The property that we had which was getting damaged from their water is safe
from it now.

Neha: So now you don’t have any more problems with the bottling plant?

Sukhdei: No, we don’t have any more problems. We have no problem with water anymore.

Neha: Then why is the agitation still going on?

Sukhdei: what?
Neha: the agitation is still going on.

Sukhdei: Why not? The agitation will not stop until they close down the plant.

Neha: Why do you people want to get it closed down?

Sukhdei: It will be a good thing if it closes down.

Other woman: For example

Sukhdei: if the factory does not close down, then we will die for want of even a single drop off
water. How will we live if there will be no water? It is sucking up all the water. The water
belongs to our country, the sugar [that they use to make their drink belongs to our country], if it
gets all the profit then what will we do?

Another woman: the fields will get scorched for want of water.

Sukhdei: Our agriculture is getting scorched; our tube wells are going dry, if they don’t give us
water then what will happen to our agriculture system? We will die.

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Neha: So has it started affecting the water taps and wells?

Sukhdei and another woman: where the hell are we getting water now?

Old woman: they are sucking away all the water near our wells. All the water we get burned
away…. Even now a lot of water has gone dry. How will we and the children survive? How will
we survive if we don’t get water?

Neha: Grandma, do you also go to the agitations?

Did you also go when there was a Lathi charge?

Sukhdei: Yes, all of us went, side by side.

Old woman: yes we were there side by side like comrades in arms. Even when the police were
beating everyone we were there.

Sukhdei: For five days people were staging a hunger strike there and we were there on all the
five days. And even then there was a three day day night sit ins were going on we were part of
that too. And even when the sit ins went on only for the day time, we were there right from the
morning. Even when we had to go to Benaras, we were with the men. We even went to Bombay
[for the world social forum] together.

Neha: You all went?

Women: yes we all went. No she (old woman) didn’t go. My entire family went.

Old woman: I didn’t go. But I told them that if they would call me then I would come over.

Sukhdei: Three households went.

Neha: Should we ask them too? We will hear everyone’s story, not only yours.

Sukhdei: Yea of course. I know you will fill all of this into your tape.

Neha: You guys also come along while we are talking to them.

Woman in background: come forward and tell your stories

Neha: you, come forward.

You were telling us from behind there, now come forward and tell us your story.

Woman: what can I say? You guys say what you have to say and I’ll talk later.

Neha: no you also come forward.

Woman: The whole matter is that if water will not come into the taps then what will we do? Will
we raise our families and look after their healthcare or will we spend our time trying to get
water? If farming becomes totally barren, and farms become as dry as papad, then how will we
survive? If it goes away from here then it will be a big boost for our welfare. Everybody is trying
there best to make them go away, now lets see how long it takes. It is like a big penance.

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Neha: are you emotionally attached to the organizations that are associated to this cause?

Woman: yes.

Neha: suppose,

Woman: all this is our own thing.

Neha: suppose these organizations had not come forward, then would you have staged your own
agitation?

Woman: yes. We would. She (previous woman) is my sister in law. (husbands elder brothers
wife.) it is all our own thing.

Neha: No, I mean the thing that Nandelal Master is doing, are you associated with that or not?

Woman: Yes.

Neha: Do you go into the agitations?

Women: Yes, yes.

Another woman: I go there every time.

Old woman: yea I also go.

Neha: they were the people who began the agitation here.

Woman: yes. Earlier the waste water of the village used to flow into the pond of Kalipur. And
that water used to flow into the Ganga, but since the time they began to build the bridge, the
water began to flood our farms, and our farming began to get ruined. That’s the matter. If nothing
will grow in the fields, then suppose there’s only one source of earning, then will we devote our
time to supporting the family and looking after their healthcare or earning? How will our
children survive? How will they live? If this company were to produce anything else, that would
be good. Just see there is a biscuit factory and a steel utensil factory near the limca [coca cola]
factory. But we don’t have any problems with them.

Other woman: just see why don’t we ever oppose their presence?

Woman: yea, why don’t we oppose their presence? If this company would start producing
anything except Limca [soft drinks], then that will be fine. Provided, they stop making it.
Because when it produces this drink, it sucks up all the groundwater using big machines. And it
also causes suffering and disease. We are fed up of paying for medicines for the different
ailments.

Other woman: When we went to Janpaur we found that there were germs and trash inside a coca
cola bottle, which had been lying with someone for some time. And even the authorities and the
policemen, and the village headman, they all saw it in bottles that were packed and sealed.

Woman: Just imagine they are throwing glass shards of broken bottles into our fields and these
shards hurt our feet when we go there to transplant paddy.

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Neha: Suppose they stop doing all this, then?

Woman: Yes.

Neha: what will you people do then? Would you want them to stay or leave?
Would you tell them to stay or leave?

Woman: we are doing the best we can.

Neha: no, suppose they stop doing all this, they stop throwing glass shards and they stop
throwing dirty water into your fields, etc, then what will you want?

Woman: We would want them to produce something else. Because this thing [coca cola
production] makes us do a lot of penance. If they stop producing Limca [soda] and open some
other factory, we have no problem with that.

Woman in background: a biscuit factory.

Woman: yea, a biscuit factory. Or a factory to make steel kitchen utensils, or anything else.

Another woman: no one will complain about that.

Woman: In fact, these things are being produced right next to this Limca [coca cola] factory.
There is a biscuit factory and a steel glass factory. These things are being produced. Because the
huge machines and the giant tube wells that they use to suck water will make all our wells go dry
and none of our pumping sets will yield water and our farming will go dry. Then the children and
the cattle will die, won’t they? Because everyone will starve for water.

Another woman: oh there is this farm that-

Woman: yea, you know when you go through this orchard you actually go wading through knee
deep water in order to go to the market.

Another woman: at the time when the orchard had become scorched it used to give off such a bad
smell as if some dead animal was lying there.

Woman: A sort of gas used to come out from that place.

Another woman: yea, it was like some kind of gas.

Woman: The gas was such bad smelling that when you sat down to eat you felt like throwing up.
While going to the market and while coming back from there we used to walk with our mouths
covered. There is a farm belonging to a Harijan, where chick pea had been sowed. And in this
field there was so much slush from the factory that when buffalos used to go there they used to
die. Now just think, would we spend our money into buying medicines for our children or for our
cattle or for feeding the children? In this era of inflation how much can one person possibly earn?
People are tired of working hard to earn some extra money and how will we get our sons and
daughters married off? And if it doesn’t happen [the wedding] then they [the children] will run
away. Our only problem is that we want that they should close down this factory and produce
something else. If they don’t move away from here then that’s fine. As long as they produce

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something else. Why would we want to interfere with the livelihoods of our sons, we only want
the company to produce something else. That’s the whole thing. When our kids cry and suffer for
things or because of disease, then what can we do?

Women: eat
Neha: if we eat it will be to late/

Woman: now just see there is something mixed into the water or not?

Neha: what is mixed into it?

Woman: there is a slight hint of that pollution in it.

Neha: yes yes.

Another woman: yea you can see that the water we get is quite dirty.

Neha: doubtful sound.]

Woman: no no we ARE getting dirty water. Over here, there are three hand pumps. And each of
them give off different kinds of water.

Neha: Why?

Woman: we don’t know why. We get three kinds of water.

Neha: has it also made a difference to your health?

All women: yea.

Neha: [tries the water.] I don’t notice anything particular about the water.

Another woman: right now it isn’t like that.

Woman: It will become like that.

Neha: yea it will become like that.

Woman: When the lights will come on at night, this whole place will become well lit. It will
seem as if someone is focusing a searchlight into this area. [pointing to orchard] look here is one
of the orchard which has become scorched.

Another woman: farms have become scorched.

woman: only after the villages surrounded the factory, angrily, did they stop throwing that water
into our fields.

Woman: Look, from this plant here right up to that one there, this entire plot of land became
ruined.

Other woman: yea, if you tell her all this she will fill that inside her tape.

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Woman: [points to tree] look at that tree, it is scorched. It is the plant of Langra Aam [kind of
mango]. Three trees have become scorched. And after that, there are the farms, where if you sow
anything, nothing grows. All that has been ruined.

Neha: Whose land is it?

Woman: It’s mine.

Neha: Nothing is growing there?

Woman: No, nothing. Come and look at it from close by. Nothing grows there.

Neha: Why is nothing growing there?

Another woman: because of the water.

Woman: they were emitting there water into my land and one time we threatened to pelt them
with rocks. Then they turned the water off. But since the water of that place has come into the
field, nothing is growing ever since. And they also throw their useless bottles into my field and
one day I picked up all these bottles and threw them back into their campus. And look here, there
are two chak roads here. One chak road is of ten gari’s and the other chak road is the size of 20,
and yet we have no way of coming to and going back from my farm, because they have blocked
the entrance.

Neha: isn’t there a way to go to the main road from here?

Women: no there is no way of doing that.

We have no way of going either into the village or onto the main road or to Rajatalab. Just like
(unclear). All the women folk of the village have to pass by this area and they have no way to go.
When weddings take place, there is no way the wedding party can reach here.

Neha: Before there was this factory here, was there a chak road here?

Woman: yes.

Other woman: yes, its right there, plump in the middle.

Neha: Whose land is it in which the plant has been set up?

Other woman: the owner of the land sold it and moved it to Ganjari.
Neha: But Chak road is always made on government land.

Women: yes

Neha: if that land was privately owned then theres no way then a chak road could be there.

Woman: there is one more man, Ramnat, his land has also been bought. And then there was this
man from Ganjari who sold his land here and went back to Ganjari. The brokers took bribes and
sold off all this land.

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Neha: who is involved in this?

Woman: everyone is involved. Its not just one man.

Neha: did you people also agitate to get away to the main road?

Women: yes.

Neha: did you get a proper hearing?

Woman: no we have no received a proper hearing yet. Wherever Nandelal goes, we go with him.
Whether it is lucknow or Bombay.

Neha: how many acres of your farming has become ruined?

Woman to other woman: how much land to you think it is?

Woman: it must be around ( )

Woman: no I think its more.

Neha: so nothing is growing there even now, right?

Woman: all this land belongs to me. All this land which is where you have the arihar (dal) crops
and wheat and mango’s and mahua. The plants are not even yielding a single fruit.

Neha: so the mango’s are not coming out?

Woman: no. they did come out but they got scorched. Its only after the water has been stopped
that the tree looks a bit green, otherwise it had become completely scorched.

Neha: so the factory water came even up to here?

Woman: yes, it did. Because they had opened the valve which is nearby. They stopped the water
after we protested.

Neha: how far do you think the plant is from here?

They won’t know that.

Woman: some day come with me and I’ll show you from close quarters.
We are not receiving anything from them.

Neha: what if they give you jobs?

Woman: we are getting ruined, we don’t want their jobs.

Other woman: we don’t want jobs, all we want that the factory should be closed down.

Woman: It should close down, [that’s all we want] we don’t want their jobs.

Other woman: what will we do with jobs if our farming becomes barren?

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Other woman: its so hot these days and they are sucking away all the water.

Woman: Unclear

Woman: it is because of this that the well next to my house has stopped functioning. I had
installed a water pump into that well but since the groundwater was not there the pump wouldn’t
do anything. I took out the pump and stashed it away because whatever we put into the well,
whether it is a pot or a bucket, it just remains there and does not come out. That’s because the
base of the well has collapsed.

Neha: You mean the water level has gone down?

Woman: No, the water is still up, but the boring machine which I had installed sunk into the soil
because the base of the well collapsed. So how will the machine function? That’s why I took the
machine out and put it away.

They have dug seven wells and they have installed drilling machines

Another woman: One lakh sixty thousand liters of water is sucked by them every day.

Woman: in one hour

Neha: how much in one hour?

Woman: one lakh sixty thousand liters hourly.

Another woman: groundwater extraction is going on day and night.

Other woman: god knows how many tons of water they are drawing. The machines are going on
day and night, 24 hours a day.

Woman: Tell them that we don’t want jobs, we only want that the factory should close down.

Another woman: how will we feed our families if they only hire us for four months in a year?

Other woman: 3 months. They’ll give you a job for three months and then kick you out.

Neha: You mean they kick you out after three months?

Women: Yes.

Other woman (who said 3): The guys are very cunning. (next sentence unclear.)

Women: don’t swear (laughing.)

Woman: She’s talking about you, she doesn’t understand this abuse but she does.

Other woman: she doesn’t understand our language.

Woman: she doesn’t understand out language.

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Shira: I understand a little bit.

Neha: yea she understands a little bit.

Other woman: yea she moves around so I’m sure she learns a lot.

Woman: asked neha: this plant will be closed down won’t it?

Neha: Aunty we have not come here to get the plant closed down.

Woman: No, no?

Neha: Actually when things like this go on then many people…

You understand research don’t you? Some people only do research on these things to find out
what harm is coming out of these things. And after writing this we will submit these reports, so
we won’t be able to do anything. But at least we will write this and send it there.

Other woman: when the report will go there in writing, that is enough.

Neha: It will close down only if you keep up your agitation.

Woman: Wherever they go, we will go there.

Neha: In Kerala also, theres a plant like this one.

Another woman: what?

Neha: Kerala is a place.

Women: yes, yes. We have to go there.

Neha: Over there also there is a similar factory and the local villagers created a big rucus and
drove the company away from the village. The factory has not yet closed down, but if you people
also agitate in the same way, only then will this plant close down.

Woman: Yes, we-

Malti: But the whole village is not united on this issue you see. If the whole village unites, then-

Woman: They will be driven away within a minute.

Sukhdei: The fact is that the powers that be of the village are taking bribes from the company to
keep silent.

Neha: You mean people of the village are also in collusion with the company?

Women: Yes, yes.

Malti: The pradhan (head man/chief) of the village in collusion with the company.

Woman: That is what is causing the problem.

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Sukhdei: If our pradhan had stood up for us, then there was no way that we would not have got a
chak road to enter and leave our village.

Woman in background: The pradhan is actually sitting tight having taken a bundle of money
from the company.

Woman: The Pradhan sold the gram sabha land and the land of Chak Rd. to the limca factory
(did this happen after the coca cola or parle) and became uninvolved in this matter.

Man: (unclear)

Sukhdei: That’s what I’m saying, that if the Pradhan had stood up for us, why would we have not
gotten the chak road? Will our women folk come here to the village walking all the way from the
main road? How will wedding parties come to our village? This is the reason why we arrange
weddings at a time when the fields are open and vacant. Then people are forced to walk through
farms to reach here.

Neha: So what all are you planning to do now? What if Nandlal had not met you, what would
you have done then?

Sukhdei: What could we have done in that case? How far could we have possibly reached
without him? The only thing we could have done was indulge in assault and battery. We women
would have taken up rocks and pelted the factory guards with them whenever we saw them. This
is all that we could have done. And we would have cursed them.

Woman: We are alone in this fight.

Neha: Now what are you all planning to do now?

Sukhdei: We’ll do whatever Nandlal says. We have left everything to Nandlal.

Woman: The fight will go on

Woman: This is just the angrai (stretching of the body- this is only the beginning) Further, there
is more laraii (abhi toh angrai hou, ageh aur laraii hau)

Sukhdei and other women: Further on there is more fight. (all laughing.)

Neha: Right from the time that we have come here, its only been women who are talking. Don’t
men go into this agitation?

Women: They don’t go.

Neha: Why?

Women: If only the men of our village had stood up for this cause, then why would we be so
helpless?

Sukhdei: Men of my household had gone to Bombay (the world social forum), my sons had gone
to Bombay.

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Woman: we are Pragapati’s (the potter caste) and our men folk are not here, they are abroad (out
of town.)

Women: In Calcutta.

Sukhdei: Her men folk are in Calcutta, but my son had gone to Bombay. In the recent agitation,
my son would have gone to take part but he did not know about it. He came to know only later.
Woman: The men don’t go because if they go there a fight could break out. When women go,
violence is not likely to take place.

Neha: Right from the time that we have been wandering in the village, only woman are talking.
The men say nothing at all.

Woman: The men know nothing so what can they talk about?

Women: laugh

Woman: The men go to their daily labor work or to their regular jobs, so where will they find the
time to take part in this? They will come back at 8:00 p.m.

Neha: Do they also go with you to agitate?

Women: Yes.

Malti: Yea, when it comes to going to fight, they come with us. Right now they are not here and
they’ll come back at 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm.

Woman: They are labor class men, if they don’t work, how will we eat?

Sukhdei: Just look at this. We have only this much wheat in our farm.

Neha: Where does your husband go to work?

Woman: In the city of Benaras, or wherever required, because he works at carrying debris and
construction material on his head to and from construction sites. Other men of the village work
digging pits with pick axes, and some men work at weaving.

Woman: We have to keep our stomachs running, you see. At the end of the day you need at least
one square meal.

Malti to other woman: Lets go to Nandlals house tomorrow.

Woman: But we have not received any message from him.

Sukhdei: We have not received any pamphlet from him yet.

Woman: No, a pamphlet has not come.

Woman: But I have not received it.

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Woman: I also didn’t receive it.

(conversation unclear)
Woman: Sometimes his brain goes out. (laughing).

(Unclear)

Malti: We went there (Bombay) to get Coca Cola Closed down.

Neha: When you went there what happened there? What all did you do in Bombay?

Woman: Now look sister, if it will ever happen then…

Malti: We were assured that it will close down, there was a big rally for that. And everybody said
it will close down.

Neha: Who said that?

Malti and woman: Medha Pardkar.

Neha: Did you meet her?

Women: Yes, yes.

Woman: She had given a speech in the area called Goragoun (area in Bombay where world social
forum was).

Neha: Did she say that it will close down?

Malti: She had also come here, and she said, “I’ll see how coca cola doesn’t close down, if it
does not close down then we will indulge in vandalism. If the company will not open its gates for
us, then we will land people behind the gates via an airplane.”

Neha: Did you like meeting Medha Pardkar.

Woman: Yes.

Malti: Her speech had taken place

Woman: she had also staged a sit in.

Neha: Are you people ready to indulge in vandalism?

Women: Yes, yes absolutely.

Neha: Will you do it?

Women: Yes, we’ll do it.

Woman: We’ll do it, whether we live or die.

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Malti: They rained lathis on women. We saw the scene of eight policemen raining lathis on one
woman and dragging her inside.

Sukhdei to Shira: Come on sister, come and see it with us.

Woman: Come and they will shoot bullets at you at a staccato fashion.

Women: laughing.

We begin walking towards the plant and see the bad land

Woman: Is this the proper way to do farming?

Neha: Yea, this [the land] is really bad.

Woman: It is better if we work at daily wages for a living.

Another woman: Our farming has really gone awry.

Woman: Look, I had sewn three crops but

Woman: Just see how nice was the crop of Mahua (plant that makes wine)

Woman: (points to mango tree) Look at this mango tree, it is only after I gave it some water that
the tree has become green again and it has started yielding fruit. Otherwise this mango tree and
that one and that one had all become dry.

Neha: What will we do by going over there [closer to the bottling plant], we can see it right from
here? So all this land was water logged earlier?

Woman: All of this becomes water logged.

Sukhdei: Even after all this, if we were able to sow anything into this farm we could have at least
gained some harvest. I benefit not at all from the factory here. (points to some plants) look at
these plants,

Woman: The extent which the factory water comes into the fields, all that land becomes barren
due to the saline nature of the water.

Other Woman: It ruins your hands and feet. You get skin diseases and itching from this water.

Sukhdei: If you wade into this water you will end up scratching yourself all over.
Woman: That part begins to itch. Your body turns red from constant scratching.

Sukhdei: We need to beat up the commission agent who helped finalize this deal between coca
cola and the company that it bought. And also the contractor who undertook the building contract
for the factory.

(while walking away from the plant we run into a Man from the Gram Panchayat)

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Man: We are members of the Gram Panchayat. Coca cola is built on our village property, so on
that basis we are fighting a law suit against the company. Once we had obtained a restraining
order against the company, and then that restraining order was vacated by the company, and now
the lawsuit is going on.

Neha: Do you also go into the agitation along with fighting the lawsuit?

Man: Yes. Yes we go.

Neha: What are you demanding in the lawsuit?

Man 1: We are demanding that the land that belongs to us be given back to us. Some of our land
is inside the coca cola boundary and it is in three places, one, where the water from the factory
comes out, and secondly it is at the place where there is a tube well, and the third spot is
(unclear)

Neha: Is it your personal property or is it-

Man: No, it is the land belonging to the Gram Panchayat. And we are members of the Gram
Panchayat. That’s why we are fighting this law suit.

(women talk and some laughter)

Man 2: When village women are accusing the PRadhan of being in collusion with the Coca Cola
company, the company people obducted the Pradhan at gunpoint and made him sign it.

Neha: How can you say that if all the villages are saying otherwise? (asking Sukdei- who had
taken the bribe

Sukhdei: Pradhanji had taken the bribe.

Man 3: The Pradhans father had taken a bribe.

Man 2: Not the Pradhan. They had taken the earlier Pradhan at gunpoint there and intimidated
him.

Neha: All the villagers are saying that the Gram Pradhan had [taken bribe],

Man 2: What happened was that they terrorized the Pradhan and obducted him and took him to
their place. And after taking him there, they made him do whatever they wanted. But that was
when the earlier Pradhan was there. But this time, we are fighting this fight. Now, the Pradhan is
no longer in the forefront. The Pradhan is saying “I’ll do whatever you guys want.” The company
has damaged everyone. This policy [of the company of damaging everyone] is not a thing of
today. The water will dry up and when the water dries up, what will the farmers here do?

Woman: We will die without food.

Man 3: What will be the condition of the farmer in the future?

Man 2: What will be the condition? He will beg by the roadside, what else.

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They won’t even get water to drink. We just want the company to return our property to us and to
bring the water that it need from outside and not to take water from here.

Neha: So if they bring water from outside then you don’t have a problem with that?

Man 2: IF they bring water from outside, we have no objection to that. We just want to tell the
company “you have bought your land, so stay within its boundary, but don’t take water from our
village.”

Man 1: (unclear)

Man 2: No, we will not allow our water to be sold. Earlier, people accepted the company because
some people wanted commission from the company, others wanted something else, and so on,
and no one thought about the future.

(-next place, with some coca cola workers-)

Shira: Whats your name?

Shyamlal Yadav: My name is Shyamlal Yadav.

Neha: And you used to work in the plant earlier?

Shyamlal Yadav: When the plant was being built, I worked there by carrying bricks, etc. We
were with the company right from the time of the laying of its foundation stone. After that, their
plant was set-up and they hired us and after that they began exploiting us, they used to “attack”
you even if you had not committed any fault.

Neha: What kind of attack, can you tell us in more detail?

Shyamlal Yadav: (tape unclear.) they also used to make us do things that weren’t worth doing.
For example, cleaning up the place etc. And we used to do all that. But then after two years they
began fighting us. We began demanding bonus, etc. They used to make a worker work for two or
four days and then fire him without giving him any money. We began opposing this. So when we
began to protest, they started giving us a bonus, etc. After that, they began blaming us for one
thing or the other and then they launched a fake law suit against us, and we were arrested and
kept inside the prison at Chauka Ghat for a week. When we were released and we came back to
work-

Neha: So they had also got you arrested and put inside the prison?

Shyamlal Yadav: Yes. They had us arrested on charges of fighting with the security guards.
When we were released we came back and we tried our best to work here but they did not re-hire
us. Two of the lawsuits are still going on. One is under section 107/16 (covers physical fights or
when someone violates peace, then they are arrested under this law.) And they always harass us
using this section. After every two or four months, they lodge a complaint against us under this
section and then we have to go for bail whether we like it or not. We get a bail and then for the
next eight or nine months the case goes on. Even at the present time they have registered a case
under 107/16 against eleven people. And they had got four of the people arrested and they have

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again got an arrest warrant issued for these four people. On the following eighth there will be a
hearing for this case.

Neha: Many people like you must have been fired.

Shyamlal Yadav: Yes, anywhere from 150 to 200 people have been fired so far. Every season
they make some people slog and then they fire them and hire other people. That’s how they do it.
For example, suppose I have never worked for the company yet, and naturally I also desire to
work there so they would hire me, make me work for some time, and then fire me and hire
somebody else. For example if I work in this working season, then somebody else will work in
my place in the next season. They mostly want to hire Bihari’s. But Bihari’s don’t succeed here.

Neha: Why don’t they?

Shyamlal Yadav: Because the working season goes on only for four or five months in a year so
how will Bihari’s eat for the remaining part of the year? They can’t just sit back and relax
because they will have to work at something else for the rest of the time. And there is no other
work available for them. The company doesn’t have work for them throughout the year and you
can see for yourself that a lot of the companies capital is tied up in the market, and they don’t
have money to hire workers on a long-term basis. These are the problems to be faced.

Neha: So what do you people want? Do you want them to re-hire you or do you want the plant to
close down?

Shyamlal Yadav: What we want is that the way they have been harassing us until now-
Sometimes we also telephone the company and sometimes Sheetla Singh of the company also
phones us. Just as they harass us, sometimes we also harass them. We think “you harass us, so
we will also harass you.” When we complain to the company the company says to us “reap what
you have sown.”

Neha: What do you want now?

Shyamlal Yadav: Now we want that the company shouldn’t be here. Theres no profit from this
company except loss and damage. If they are under pressure for the time being, they will keep
quiet. Once they become free from pressure they will again start exploiting us. They operate
under the British rule system. Just as the British used to exploit us, similar is the way in which
this company does. There is no difference between the two. Suppose we make a demand to the
company, so if they’re under pressure, they would except your demand. But if they are not under
any pressure, then they can have anything done to you under the sun. If they’re under pressure
they would take any insult from you lying down.

Neha: What kind of exploitation do they practice against you? For example, you told us that they
don’t give you bonuses and they don’t hire you for more than three months at a time?

Shyamlal Yadav: For example, if you look at the government rate of workers rages (minimum
wage) it is at least 72 to 75 rupees per day. When we were working there they were paying us 63
rupees per day. So Slowly we came to know that the government rate was higher. When we
found out from the labor court that the government minimum wage was rupees 68 and 38 pesa,
and we demanded to be paid that amount and we fought a long battle. For example, we blocked
the path of the car of the general manager of the company in pursuit of our demands. So they

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began to give us 68 rupees 38 pesa per day. Then they began giving us bonuses. Then they began
deducting the provident (pension) fund from our wages on a regular basis. And then the company
singled us out as political leaders of the workers and they made up their minds to fire us. They
had singled out all the persons who spoke out on behalf of the workers and there were about 11
or 12 of us like that. So first they began fighting the workers and we became agitated, and then
we staged a whole lot of sit-ins and protests and we took the support of the Samajwadi Party and
we staged dozens of sit-ins and protests.

Neha: Do you belong to the Samajwadi Party?

Shyamlal Yadav: Yes. The party people came here and we had sit-ins many times and then we
were re-instated. We began to work for the company again. And this happened two or three
times. Then there was a man who was the most vocal of all and they fired him on charges of
sleeping on duty when in fact he was not even on duty on that day. And similarly they began to
fire each one of us by accusing us of one thing or the other. Whoever could answer back to them,
they would get them out. When they kicked out these people then these people got a bad image
but inside the company the exploitation went on as before.
Neha: How is your party associated with this movement?

Shyamlal Yadav: Look, how can a party be associated with a movement? It can only happen if
we want the party to be associated. As long as we don’t want that, it won’t happen. Even if today
we were to wish for this to happen, they would come in our support.

Neha: No I mean the Samajwadi Party, does it support your movement?

Shyamlal Yadav: Yes, it does. For example, the party man of our district and in this area supports
us.

Neha: What does the party say about this?

Shyamlal Yadav: How is it supporting you?

Shyamlal Yadav: They say that “you guys should…” But we, you know, are, want to work here,
but now we have decided that we don’t want to work here.

Neha: If you don’t then someone else will.

Shyamlal Yadav: Yea, that’s true.

Neha: Is Samajwadi Party doing anything to drive the company away from here?

Shyamlal Yadav: That of course… who wouldn’t want that. There is nothing to be gained except
loss and damage from the company staying here. The only thing that can come from the company
is loss. We have kept all the details with us in writing, and I can’t remember everything over the
top of my head. We have all the details about what I’m talking about. I can give them to you
whenever you want.

Man: to Neha: What are you getting recorded.

Neha: the situation regarding the workers here.

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Man: Just see, brother, he will go to work for that company and at the same time he is opposing
the company.

Man2: Either speak for the company or against the company.

Man 3: Both are possible at the same time.

(Says to Neha:) If you want to do a question answer session, then do it properly.

Shyamlal Yadav: (talking to protesters) We want to be with the company. We want to be with
them provided the sit-in that took place the last time, when Akram, etc. came here so at that time
you guys had staged a sit-in hadn’t you? At that time there were people from the company who
were there at the sit-in site with instructions to make sure that anyone but us should be present
there at the sit-in. That’s why we don’t go there. But we do want to cooperate with you.

Man 1: We are bound by the restraining order prohibiting us from coming anywhere within 300
meter radius of the company gate.

Shyamlal Yadav: We are bound by this restraining order.

Man 1: We do cooperate with you.

Shyamlal Yadav: Since they have had us arrested, so now if we are seen anywhere within the
three hundred meter radius, are bail will be revoked. And then the police can arrest us. Those
people like the company people are pretty sharp at legal action. That’s why we don’t come there.
Otherwise we really want to cooperate.

Man 2: Is sister here (Shira) from the Coca Cola company?

Neha: No.

Man 2: Hey sister, what brought you here?

Neha: We are conducting a survey.

Man: When you go inside the bottling hall where the bottling takes place you can’t go inside
beyond that without wearing a cap. Everyplace it is written, “no cap no entry.” If you don’t have
a cap then you can’t go inside. Even inside the syrup room, where the drink is made, you can
only go inside after wearing a cap. No one can go in without the cap whether it be a staff member
or anyone.

Neha: But that’s another issue. No one talks about that kind of filth. We are talking about another
kind of filth. The chemicals that are mixed into the drink, the chemicals that are put into the
water to purify it for making the drink. But what do you think about the affect that the setting up
of the plant has had on the surrounding fields. Was the setting up of the plant a good thing or not
in terms of that?

Man: Of course the farming is damaged, and that is a wrong thing.

Neha: You got the job in the plant, but the villages are suffering the damage. Who are you
standing by?

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Man: Look, I don’t believe that simply because I got a job, my entire village should live a life of
darkness. That’s not the way that I think. I don’t think that if the company hurts or damages
anyone or anything then I have no objection to that. Whether the company makes suitable
arrangements or not is none of my business. If everyone cooperates then I too will cooperate. But
if they won’t then what can I possibly do? No one can do anything alone.

Neha: They found out that the company does not even follow the rules when it comes too hiring
and employing people.

Man: Yea that is true.

Neha: What happens?

Man: Earlier, we used to get a bonus, now they have stopped giving a bonus. And for example, if
someone is working for the company they would fire him after ten days of work and hire another
person and do likewise with him. That’s the way its going on. For example if a new labor
contractor comes to work for the company, he will hire his own men and that is inevitable.

Neha: Don’t you fight against all this?

Man: Hell, we were the first people to begin the fight. When the company began functioning,
then it went on for three years without any problem. Then when they changed their labor
contractor and a labor contractor from Kanpaur came, he began to hire new workers by replacing
the old ones. So the old workers who were replaced began protesting against this, then the
contractor said “no, some of the people will be mine.” At that time the displaced workers brought
some local politicians from the city here and staged sit ins etc. That’s the time from which the
sit-ins started.

Neha: Suppose the agitation grows in a scale and the villages ask you to quit your job, would you
do that?

Man: Hell, man, if everyone has an objection to my working there then I’ll quit. If the village
tells me to quit, I’ll quit. If my quitting will benefit the villagers, then I’ll quit.

Neha (to other man): What do you think about this?

Man 3: I can’t tell you anything about that.

Neha: But that was his thing. You can tell about yourself.

Man 3: My point is that the damage that the company is causing to the village is not a good thing.
It’s good that we’ve got jobs there. It’s good that we have jobs and we are earning livelihoods.
But if everyone is being hurt by just one man getting a job and earning a living then it would be
better if that man doesn’t have that job at all. But the fact is that the damage this drink is causing
to people who drink it is not our business. Our point is that if because of the presence of the
company, the village suffers from water shortage and other things, then we would stand to lose
also. If everyone loses then we also lose. Suppose we were for just a short period, and then get
fired, then that will cause problems to us too right? Seeing all this it would be better if the
company doesn’t stay here at all. What will we gain by working for the company for just a short
period?

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More Coca cola workers:

Man: What I have to say is, that I’m just one person from the village working there, but if the
whole village is being damaged because of my working there than I’ll quit that job. But I don’t
see what I can do if the whole village is suffering on my account because I could be facing that
problem too.

Neha: Suppose the company gives employment to all the people in the village in its plant, then is
that profitable or harmful for the village?

Man 2: How many persons can the company possibly give jobs to? The population of the village
is 3,000, how many jobs can the company possibly give.

Man 1: 49 or 50 people are working there.

Neha: But just suppose the companies give jobs to everyone?

Man 1: Yea suppose the company gives jobs to everyone, yet this problem can come up again.
What I mean to say is that suppose there was a water shortage here at any time, then the same
problem will happen again.

Man 2: Whatever water is going into the plant is going from under the ground. The same water
will come into our wells. If this goes on then our wives and children will face problems four
years from now.

Shira: What work did you do before this? Before you went to work for the company?

Man 1: I was working as a weaver of Sari’s.

Neha: You didn’t find that work profitable?

Man 1: No it was profitable of course. The only problem is, in that line of work, you get work
only for four or five months a year. After four or five months you are forced to work at
something else.

Neha: Tell us something about the situation inside the factory? What kind of relations do they
have with the workers? Do they fire workers after they have worked for 3 months?

Man 1: Yes. That’s a rule.

Man 2: The rule is for 120 days. After you have worked for 120 days someone else will replace
you.

Neha: So they only keep you for 120 days right?

Man 1: Yes. Only 120 days. After that someone else will do that job.

Shira: All the workers that work with you in the plant were they all weavers before that?

Man 1: Yes, mostly the local people were all weavers.

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Neha: Have some workers also come from outside?

Man 2: No one has come from outside, except Bihari’s. For example, the security guards are
from Bihar. So they are at best ten in number.

Neha: So most of the workers are from here?

Man 2: Most of the workers are from within a ten kilometer radius. The majority are from within
a three kilometer radius.

Mehandiganj Village, April 2nd, 2004.

April 2nd, 2004

Mehandiganj

Meherunnisa: When these women work there, there feet get blisters. People get sick. And
crops don’t grow in those fields.

Shira: What’s your name?

Meherunnisa

Shira: what’s your name?

Nirmala: All this has dried up, and even that which is green is not yielding any fruit.

Meherunnisa: Fruits don’t come on those trees.

Shira: Is pollution a big problem for your father?

Meherunnisa: Father, yet, the father does farming. The problem is that no crops grow and
they don’t get to eat anything. They are not able to eat.

Nirmala: IF nothing grows in the fields, what will we eat?

Shira: What’s you’re your name?

Sunita: Sunita.

Shira: What do you think about coca cola?

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Sunita: I want that it should leave this place?

Shira: why

Sunita: Because we are suffering a lot of damage due to it. All the trees and plants are
withering away. What ever you saw in the fields, nothing grows there.

Shira: And you?

Girl: She is not after Coca cola; this one is (points to another.)

Meherunnisa: These people [company] throw broken shards of bottles in our fields. And
they dump their dirty black water from their factory into the fields. It is causing a lot of
damage. It should go away from here; it should go away from our country. The water in
our wells and hand pumps has gone down a lot. Many mosquitoes. And there are many
sicknesses, and the villagers of that part of the village are always paying for medicines
and medical treatment. We are always distraught about paying for our medicines. All this
is the crisis hovering over us. That is why we are running from pillar to post [to get coca
cola out of here.] And the animals don’t get to graze because where they dump their
waste water, there even grass doesn’t grow. And if animals were to drink that water, they
would die.

Shira: When did the pollution begin?

Meherunnisa: It has been going on for a long time?

Woman: It’s very old?

Shira: Do you remember or is it just old?

Nandalal: He has been running a movement for a long time, and he is the Goun Bachao
Sangarsh Samiti.

Shira: I want to know about coca cola and the pollution, when did they begin the
pollution, how did it affect your life, how did it affect the farms?

Mataii: Right from the time when the coca cola company began here about 7 or 8 years
ago they have spreading pollution here. Due to the dumping of dirty water, the crops have
become destroyed, and all the big trees also withered away. And we asked the company to
make arrangements for an alternative dumping site of their water because we said that
due to this water, mosquitoes are spreading everywhere and also diseases. They said “so
should we emit our water into the sky?” Then we started sit-ins and protests against the
company, and we also gave the DM a petition and the DM of Varanasi asked this
company to change the way they were doing things so they installed a pipeline and they
began to emit their dirty water in a site a little outside the Bhikharipur village across the
GT road. And now the same kind of water is being dumped there. And the outcome of

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this was that since the time the factory has been set up, the water level has gone down a
lot. So much so that the water in the wells has diminished a lot in quantity so the amount
of drinking water was reduced and also the water needed for irrigation that we get from
hand pumps and pumping sets etc. has also diminished in quantity. In my own case, what
happened was that earlier my pumping set used to work even when the water level was at
40 feet below the ground. But since the time the factory was set up the level of water
began to go down and a time came when my pumping set became totally dysfunctional
and I had to get re-drilling done in the ground to reach the new water level. And when I
had the re-drilling done, I had to get it done up to a level of a hundred and twenty feet
below the original level of the well. And we are still continuing our sit-ins and protests
against these people, that’s what’s going on. I have one bight (20 bissas= 1 bigga, 27
bissas= 1 acre) adjoining the factory boundary. And water used to seep out from that
boundary wall and it used to come into my field and because of that all the crops that I
used to sow, all of them used to be destroyed. Not a simple crop used to grow. Now they
are dumping their water outside [the village] but their pollution is going on there as well.
And they have also forcibly illegally occupied the land belonging to Gram Sabha. Even
until now they are refusing to give up that land. So there are many damages that are
resulting from this company. And we have become fed up of this company, and its going
from here is the only solution to this problem.

Shira: How did Coca cola manage to illegally occupy the land belonging to Graham
Sabha when in fact the company has merely bought the land from Parle?

Ram Narayan Patel: Coca Cola Company is illegally occupying our Gram Sabha land,
and this fact is known to the government and the administration. The government ordered
them to vacate the Gram Sabha land but to this day the government has not taken any step
to make the company vacate this land.

Shira: Did you understand?

Mattaiilal: yes.

Shira: which crops had you sown?

Mattaiilal: I had sown chick peas. But it did not grow. It was ruined.

Shira: When the pollution was going on, which crops were damaged?

Mattaiilal: I had sown chick pea, and mustard, and all of that dried up.

Shira: Did the pollution start when Coca Cola came into operation or beforehand when
the Limca Company was in operation?

Nandalal: This factory belonged to the people who made Limca and thumbs up. Coca
Cola bought it only in 1999. So was the company before coca cola also spreading
pollution in the village [question directed at Mattaiilal and Patel?] or is it only coca cola
which is doing that?

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Man: But that factory before Coca Cola was not in operation at that time, you see.

Man: That factory was not even successful.

Man: That factory couldn’t make it.

Nandalal: I explained to you that. The thumbs up company came herein 1995. IT bought
the land here. After that it was putting up its structure. And it takes any company a
minimum of 3 or 4 years to put up its structure. And only after that does production start.
So before coca cola came here, the earlier factory was just installing its machines in the
factory and no production was taking place.

Shira: So the Parle/Limca Company did not extract water?

Nandalal: No, because its production was not going on. It was still under construction.
Shira: But I thought that the Limca/thumbs up factory were producing Limca and Thumbs
up?

Nandalal: No, before they started producing, the Coca Cola Company bought it.

Man: Actually, when that factory was built, during that time itself a law suit was slapped
on the factory. So production in the factory was suspended during the lawsuit, so the
factory couldn’t function, and during the lawsuit itself, the factory transferred the
ownership to coca cola. He sold it, Kejriwal,

Nandalal: Who had slapped a lawsuit on the factory?

Man: The Gram Panchayat had. Because they had illegally occupied the Gram Sabha
land. They tried to work out a deal but when the deal fell through; they sold the land and
transferred the ownership to coca cola.

Nandalal: You understand? Even before the PARLE Company started production, the
Gram Panchayat obtained a courts stay order [restraining order] against the company. So
the production of the company came to a halt, and even before the restraining order was
obtained, the coca cola company bought the land from Santosh Kejriwal, the owner of
PARLE Company. So after that since 1999 the production has been going on. Before that,
there was no production or pollution here.

Nandalal: If the production had been going on, they would have also spread pollution. Its
not that it was an Indian company so it would not have thrown pollution. They would
have spread a similar pollution.

Shira: So in 1999 coca cola bought the land

Nandalal: No, they didn’t buy the land they bought the entire company.

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Shira: the PARLE Company

Nandalal: yes the Parle Company. It bought the entire company that produced thumbs up
and Limca.

Shira: I got it.

Man: In 1999, the coca cola company showed on records that it had bought only land, and
by doing that it had cheated on stamp duty. The company cheated the government of 1
crore 52 Lakh rupees. And the company was forced to pay this amount.

Nandalal: As stamp duty to the government. The company told the government that it had
bought the entire property for six crore rupees. And on that basis it paid the government a
stamp duty of rupees 50 Lakh only. But two months later the company told the industry
department that its entire property here was worth 31 crore rupees. So on that basis the
company had not paid the government stamp duty worth one crore fifty Lakh rupees. The
farmer of the village Rajnat Pandey went to the civil court against the company and the
judgment of the court arrived in March that the company had stolen that much amount of
revenue. And it will have to pay up an equal amount of money on top of that as penalty.
So it has to pay a total amount of rupees 3 crore 150,000 rupees. That’s the court order.
Out of this amount the company has paid an initial amount of 1 crore forty seven
thousand rupees. And it has to pay the entire amount in three installments.

Shira: So what is the biggest problem in the fields as of now?

Mattaiilal: We always have a problem. Because no crops are growing. Every year I waste
1,000 or 1500 rupees of seed money.

Shira: When did the coca cola plant make the pipeline to dispose of the polluted water?

Mattaiilal: In July 2003. When we began a huge sit-in and protest.

Nandalal: These people had staged a 12 day sit-in in this very orchard. So the
administration took action against the company under section 133. So then the company
took water out from their fields and dumped it elsewhere. And it took this water through
an underground pipe to the border between two villages, Bhikaripur and Bengalipur.

Shira: So the bad water is not there in fields after July?

Nandalal: Not after that.

Man: For the time being, that problem has been solved.

Nandalal: There are two types of land, on the lands that surround the company; the water
is still going there.

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Mattaiilal: The lands where the water used dumped earlier, the lands are still bad. These
lands don’t give out good crops.

Man: The farmers are distraught, the public is distraught, and the people feel oppressed
by the noise pollution, the air pollution, and the water pollution that they are spreading.

Nandalal: Let me tell you his introduction, her name is Shira.

Shira: The Company gave out toxic waste fertilizer to you; can you tell me what
happened when it happened?

Mattaiilal: That dirty trash that came out of the factory, they told us to put it into our
fields as fertilizer. And our harvest will increase if we do so. They said it will work as
fertilizer. When I brought that trash and spread it into my fields, I found that wherever I
did that even the big tree withered away and the crops were destroyed. That is the affect
that it had.

Man: Wherever this trash has been spread, the crops have dried up and everything has
become neuter.

Shira: So when you put the fertilizer in the field, what happened?

Man: They don’t give us fertilizer.

Man: No I mean this waste.

Nandalal: What happened when you put this garbage into the fields? What affect did it
have on the farms?

Mattaiilal: It hurt the fields. It burns the crops.

Man: It contains too much salt.

Shira: And what did you do after that?

Man: What could we do after that? (Everyone laughs.)

Nandalal: Now no one accepts that garbage. No one takes it, so they keep there trash
inside the factory. We’ll have to wait and see where they dump that trash. For the time
being, they are storing their trash inside the factory.

Shira: Did you go to Mumbai?

Mattaiilal and Patel: No we didn’t go to Bombay

Nandalal: What changes have come into your farming?

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Mataii: big changes have come into my farming, because earlier science was not that
developed, but now everybody is practicing scientific farming. Therefore, a lot of change
has come about. People’s harvests have grown.

Man: These days the average farmer grows cash crops. The farmer of today practices
agriculture based on technology. Earlier, there was no technology or fertilizers available.
Neither were there pumping sets. And the harvest used to be pretty low. Earlier we used
to obtain only twelve or thirteen quintals (1 q= 100 kilo’s) per hector and now we get 50
to 60 quintals per hector of harvest. There’s no shortage of technology now. But because
of this Coca cola factory the salt content of the soil has increased by 10 times. And due to
this big damage is caused to the crops. And plants just don’t grow.

Shira: Tell me your name?

P.P Gupta: My name is P.P Gupta.

Shira: What changes have happened over the last fifty years?

Mattaiilal: Big changes have come about. Earlier there were not many resources as you
find today. Now you have resources for irrigation and fertilizers because of there being
many new kinds of resources the harvest has increased compared to earlier times. The
only problem that we are facing is the one that came about when the company came here.
From that time onwards, we have come into a real problem. Both in terms of harvest size
and our health. This company has become harmful for us.

Shira: What is the Goun Bachao Sangarsh Samiti doing these days?

Mattaiilal: For the time being it is postponed.

Shira: When did the Goun Bachao Sangarsh Samiti

Mattaiilal: When it started or when did it end?

Shira: When did it end?

Mattaiilal: it’s not closed down its just that no programs are being undertaken for the time
being.

Shira: And when will it begin again?

Mataii: after the elections. The parliament elections are about to take place. After that, we
will again begin our sit-ins and protests.

P.P Gupta: That of course will go on as long as the coca cola company remains here.
Until then, the Goun Bachao Sangarsh Samiti will keep struggling against them.

[On the way to the next place…]

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Man on street: hello

Nandalal: What are the problems that you face?

Man: I had a lot of problems in the coca cola company.

Shira: Tell me your name?

Man: Bagwandas Yadav. We tried to unionize

Nandalal: for how long did you work there?

Bagwandas Yadav: I worked there for three years. After three years I created a union
there, ask me what else you want to know and I’ll tell you.

Nandalal: Why were you forming a union?

Bagwandas Yadav: We were forming a union because we were having a problem. I mean,
to get a raise, we were trying to unionize in order to get them to raise our wages.

Nandalal: What other demands did you have to the company? Did the company hire you
as a permanent employee?

Bagwandas Yadav: No. They hired me as a casual laborer. We were demanding to be

made permanent.

Nandalal: So what did the company say?

Bagwandas Yadav: The Company said a lot of things, let it go, I don’t want to talk about
it.

Nandalal: No, tell us. So what happened when you were staging the sit-in?

Bagwandas Yadav: When I was staging the sit-in, I was framed in a phony lawsuit. After
that, some manhandling took place. And then they took the help of police to... and some
people in the village also opposed us.

Nandalal: So what do you want now?

Bagwandas Yadav: I want that the company should close down. That’s it.

Nandalal: Why?

Bagwandas Yadav: Because they are causing a lot of damage. In village after village, and
even real brothers are falling out against each other because of company policies.

(While traveling through village= he points to white powder in field)

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Nandalal: this is the trash that has come out of the company which the company gave to
the farmers to use as fertilizer. And they brought it and placed it in different places just
like that. Wherever they have put it, you can see that it ruins all the grass there. The entire
crop. And just by looking at it you can see that chemicals are a part of it. So they lied to
the villagers by saying that it will increase their harvest and it will be a good thing, but
it’s not a good thing and you can see for yourself that. But it has caused a lot of damage
over here, and that which I showed you there, there was a hollow pit which they filled up
and made plain earth and when they sowed a crop in it the entire crop was ruined.

Next Village:
Shira: What is the name of this village?

Nandalal: Nagepur Jamani,

Shira: It is near Mehandiganj?

Nandalal: It is right next to Mehandiganj?

Shira: Tell us about coca cola?

Nandalal: Tell her what damages occurred.

Woman: There is no water, all the water gets dried up due to coca cola. And all the drains
and wells are drying up so tell me how will anything grow here? And secondly, because
of it, diseases are spreading, and everybody is caught up in that problem. And the number
of mosquitoes that plague us since coca cola came here is phenomenal. Earlier, there were
not that many. All the drains and wells are drying up. So that is the main problem. And
whenever a sit-in will begin, the company will bring the P.A.C (Provincial Auxiliary
Constabulary- type of police force when regular is not enough) to indulge in violence. If
only this company could go away from here. We have to get it out of here. We will try
our best to get it to leave.

Shira: What’s your name?

Woman: My name has been written as Jagrupa in all the papers.

Shira: Did you go to Mumbai?

Jagrupa: Yes, I did.

Shira: I also went there. What did you do there?

Jagrupa: A sit-in, wherever we had to go around we did. They had taken photographs of
this place and they showed those photographs there. And also documentaries. And-

Shira: What did you learn in Mumbai?

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Nandalal: What did you learn in Mumbai?

Jagrupa: What did I learn in Mumbai? Nothing. We are village rustics, what can we
possibly learn? But, by the way, the country called Bombay is really really nice. Many
people had gone there.

Nandalal: Did you like it in the programs there or not?

Jagrupa: Yes, I liked it.

Nandalal: What do you think of the rally against coca cola?

Jagrupa: It was a nice rally. Many people had come.

Shira: Did you meet other people from the world?

Nandalal: Did you tell other people about your problems?

Jagrupa: Yes, we used to exchange notes about each other. We explained to those who
were able to understand. Everybody was dancing and singing. Everybody did their thing.
It all looked very nice/

Man: Do you live here?

Nandalal: no she doesn’t

Shira: When did the pollution begin?

Nandalal: Since when did the dirty water start coming out and since when did they
distribute their trash as calling it fertilizer. How long has this been going on?

Jagrupa: They have been doing this right from the time that they came here. It’s not a new
thing.

Nandalal: How long has it been since they have begun?

Jagrupa: You mean since the time they dug [their foundations here]?

Nandalal: Yes.

Jagrupa: It’s been ten years since they dug their foundations here. Coca Cola has not been
around that long, but the company was formed ten years ago.

Man: It’s more 11 years than 10.

Shira: So you want coca cola to close down?

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Jagrupa: Yes, I want it to close down. We want to close it down.

Shira: Does everyone in your village think like that or not?

Jagrupa: Yea, there are many in our village who want it to close down.
I say to them “take your company to your country.”

Nandalal: She is saying that the coca cola people should take their company back to
America. The Coca Cola Company is not needed here.
Jagrupa: All the mangos are withering away, earlier the trees which used to yield such
plentiful fruit barely 10 or 12 mangos are growing now. An even then the company is
unable to see [the consequences of this action.]

Nandalal: What about the fields nearby that they have dumped their trash into?

Jagrupa: We showed all this to the pollution officer.

Nandalal: Three or four months have gone by since they went to the pollution officer in
Durga Kund. We brought the pollution officer here and showed him all this.

Jagrupa: (unclear)

Shira: What did the pollution officer say?

Nandalal: When you went there, what did they say?

Jagrupa: They said nothing, they ran away from there.

Nandalal: When all of us went there, all of them [pollution officers] ran away.

Jagrupa: When they ran away, we sat in their chairs.

Shira: What did you say to the pollution officer?

Nandalal: What did you say to him? What did you say to the officials there?

Jagrupa: We said to them that “Look at this soil, and they are putting this thing into our
fields in the name of fertilizer.” What else could we say? All of them had run away. We
just managed to catch one bastard. We didn’t let him go.

Nandalal: They got hold of the main officer saying that “we won’t let you go until you
here our complaint.”

Jagrupa: By the time all the officials came back, then the police came and told us not to
lay a hand on the officials, and we said, “We have not come here to fight.” When they
[the police] had beaten us up, my head was split open; I said to them “I will break open
everyone’s skull.” And policemen joined their hands and said to me “mother, beat us if

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you want.” But the other people with me told me to suffer the beating in silence and not
to beat them back. This time around, lets go there with sickles in our hand and get into a
real fight.

Nandalal: She’s saying that this time around they will go there with weapons in hand.
Whenever there’s a sit-in, they beat us up and we do not retaliate. So she says that this
time around we will go there with knives and sickles concealed in our persons and we
will beat them up.
Jagrupa: This time around, all the women will go there with weapons. So if we get beaten
we will hit back for sure. We have to get that company out of here as soon as possible.

Nandalal: This time she will also come with us. (To Jagrupa about Shira)

Woman: Where?

Jagrupa: Where, in coca cola?

Nandalal: Yes.

Jagrupa: When will be the next sit-in?

Nandalal: There’s still some time.

Jagrupa: (unclear)
What happened about the Lucknow thing?

Nandalal: because it is harvest time [we didn’t go].

Jagrupa: Yes, it is the time for harvesting wheat.

Take her (Shira) to Lucknow this time with us.

Nandalal: Now these people are planning to go to Lucknow [to the chief minister.]
They are planning to stage a sit-in in Lucknow but they will go after harvesting the wheat
which has ripened by now.

Back at the Lok Samiti Office:

Shira:

Nandalal: It’s like this; the leader of the Gram Panchayat has all the power. He is in
affect the owner of the Gram Sabha land. When Coca Cola covered that Gram Sabha land
then the village obtained a stay order against the company. For two years all the
operations of this company came to a stand-still. So what happened later was that the
company gave some money to the leader of Gram Panchayat and also to the members of
Gram Panchayat and not only this but also the BJP government which was in power at
that time many of its administers and local MLA’s got together to get that restraining
order vacated. They made it possible for the land of the Gram Sabha to be transferred to

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the coca cola company. So the Gram Panchayat transferred this land to coca cola after
taking money from it. One of the members of Gram Panchayat was a woman; she
committed suicide because the money that the company gave to her, she wanted to spend
that money according to her own best judgment, saying that since she was a member she
had the right to do so. Whereas her husband wanted to spend that money in his own way.
This created a quarrel between the two of them and at night she consumed poison and
committed suicide. That’s why all the Panchayat leaders of the surrounding villages have
been co-opted by the company through bribes. And they are giving all the statements to
the government in favor of the company. They say things like, “there is no damage due to
this company. The fact that this company has come into our Gram Sabha is a good thing.”
Things like that.

Shira: But the woman said that the Pradhan is not helping them? Is this true?

Nandalal: It’s true. It’s true that he does not help us. But there’s one thing that even he
when we put pressure on him and then this movement began and many media people
came and asked him questions now he is saying that “it is true that coca cola has illegally
occupied Gram Sabha land. And it should be our land.” I have with me a copy of the
petition that he has given against the company. So slowly they are also coming to realize
this, but all the Panchayat members are not like that. There are some who are taking sides
with us.

Shira: So all the Panchayat members are not against coca cola?

Nandalal: No, not everyone. At present, none of the Pradhans are with coca cola. Earlier,
they put a proposal to the coca cola company saying that “we will stand by you but you
should give people of our villages jobs in your factory. And permanent jobs.” So since the
company had to weaken the movement at that time and it had to disunite the people so it
promised to give jobs to everyone. And now that the season has come, even after six
months it has not given permanent jobs to anyone. It in fact is bringing over laborers from
Bihar etc on a contract basis. Now people are slowly beginning to realize that the
company only makes fake promises to get what it wants. And it will not give us jobs or
anything like that. And it will be only proper to oppose its presence here. So now some
people are coming forward saying that “we are against the company. And we want the
company to close down.”
After coca cola came they promised a new chak road but didn’t give one.
The water that was coming out earlier has stopped now. Now they are dumping this water
into another village via an underground pipe. It’s in a village 1 km from here. Until July,
the water was falling here, till July 2003; from 1999 to 2003 the water was falling at this
place. When we began the movement against the company and the administration took
action against the company, now the company is dumping that water one kilometer away
from here.
Any more questions?

Shira: no that’s it.

144
I have done other interviews which have not been included in this paper. I have chosen to
include these interviews as they are how I obtained most of my information for the case
study and are also the most interesting to read. Quotes from other interviews have been
used in the paper but are not presented in the Appendix.

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