- Krishnammal Jagannathan
Krishnammal Jagannathan ( _ta. கிருஷ்ணம்மாள் ஜெகநாதன்: born 1926) is asocial service activist from theIndia n state ofTamil Nadu . She and her husband,Sankaralingam Jagannathan , have protested againstsocial injustice and she is well known as aGandhian activist. Her work includes upliftment ofDalits , the landless, and the poor; she has sometimes fought against governments as well as big industries.She was earlier involved in the
Indian independence movement , along with her husband, and was also a close associate ofVinoba Bhave . She has received several awards and recently has been listed forRight Livelihood Award for 2008, which she would share with four others, including her husband.Early life
Krishnammal Jagannathan was born to a landless
Dalit family in 1926. [http://www.rightlivelihood.org/jagannathan.html Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan / LAFTI (India)] — on Right Livelihood Awards' website] Her first encounter with social injustice and poverty was by looking at her mother Nagammal who had to toil very hard and had to work even when she was in advanced stage ofpregnancy . Despite being from a poor family she managed university education and was soon involved with theGandhian Sarvodaya Movement . It was through Sarvodaya did she meet Sankaralingam Jagannathan, who was much later to be her husband. Sankaralingam Jagannathan hailed from a wealthy family, yet gave up his college studies in 1930 in response to Gandhi's call fornon-cooperation movement andcivil disobedience . At one stage Krishnammal even shared a stage withGandhi and also metMartin Luther King . [ [http://chhs.sdsu.edu/announce-081105.php Krishnammal Jagannathan, Nov. 5, 2008] — SDSU College of Health and Human Service] Sankaralinga later joined theQuit India Movement in 1942 and spent years in jail before India gained its independence in 1947. Having decided only to marry in independent India Sankaralingam and Krishnammal married in 1950. She would later head theSalt Satyagraha march inVedaranyam , this time not in protest, but to commemorate theplatinum jublee of the event in 2006. [ [http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/01/stories/2006050112320400.htm Congressmen re-enact Salt Satyagraha march] The Hindu]Land to the landless
Sankaralingam Jagannathan and Krishnammal Jagannathan believed that one of the key requirements for achieving a Gandhian society is by empowering the rural poor through redistribution of land to the landless. For two years between 1950 and 1952 Sankaralingam Jagannathan was with
Vinoba Bhave inNorthern India on hisBhoodan (land-gift)Padayatra (pilgrimage on foot), the march appealing to landlords to give one sixth of their land to the landless. Mean while Krishnammal completed her teacher-training course inMadras (now renamed Chennai). When Sankaralingam returned to Tamil Nadu to start the Bhoodhan movement the couple, until 1968, worked for land redistribution through Vinoba Bhave'sGramdan movement (Village Gift, the next phase of the land-gift movement), and throughSatyagraha (non-violent resistance). Sankaralingam Jagannathan was imprisoned many times for this work. Between 1953 and 1967, the couple played an active role in the Bhoodhan movement spearheaded by Vinoba Bhave, through which about 4 millionacres of land were distributed to thousands of landless poor across several Indian states.After the burning of 44
Dalit Christians including women and children inKilavenmani inNagapattinam district [http://www.seattleu.edu/opusprize/recipients_krishnammal.asp Krishnammal Jagannathan] Seatle University] following a wage-dispute with the landlord in 1968, the couple started to work inThanjavur District inTamil Nadu to concentrate on land reform issues. It was this incident that would inspire the couple, Krishnammal and Sankaralaingam to start the organisation LAFTI.Land for the Tillers' Freedom (LAFTI)
Krishnammal along with her husband found
Land for the Tiller' Freedom in 1981.The purpose of the organisation was to bring "the landlords and landless poor to the negotiating table, obtain loans to enable the landless to buy land at reasonable price and then to help them work it cooperatively, so that the loans could be repaid".Although the initial response was lukewarm with banks unwilling to lend and the high rates of stamp duty, Krishnammal managed to go on and with the cause and by 2007, through LAFTI she had transferred 13,000 acres to about 13,000 families. Through LAFTI, she also conducts workshops to allow people, during the nonagricultural season, to support themselves through entrepreneurial efforts like
mat weaving ,tailoring ,plumbing ,carpentry ,masonry ,computer education andelectronics . LAFTI would gain such popularity that later even theGovernment of India would implement LAFTI's approach to increase the peaceful transfer of land.Protecting the coastal ecosystem
The issue
From 1992 Krishnammal started working issues concerned with
prawn farms along the coast of Tamil Nadu. This time the problems were not from the local landlords, but from large industries from cities such asChennai ,Mumbai ,Kolkatta ,Delhi andHyderabad which occupied large areas of land foraquaculture along the coast, which not only threw the landless laborers out of employment but also converted fertile and cultivable land into salty deserts after a few years when the prawn companies moved on. The prawn farms also caused heavy seepage ofseawater into thegroundwater in the neighborhood, thus the local people were deprived of clean drinking water resources. The result is that even more small farmers sell their meager land-holdings to multinational prawn companies and move to the cities, filling urban slums.LAFTI and prawn industry
To address prawn farm issue the Jagannathans organised the whole of LAFTI's village movement to raise awareness among the people to oppose the prawn farms. Since 1993, the villagers have offered Satygraha (non-violent resistance), through rallies, fasts, and demonstrations in protest of establishing the prawn farms. They have been beaten up by hired goons, their houses have been burnt, and LAFTI workers have been imprisoned, because of false accusations of looting and arson.
Final victory
Undeterred by this, Sankaralingam Jagannathan filed a 'public interest petition' in the Indian Supreme Court, which in turn asked NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Institute of India) to investigate the matter. NEERI's investigation report highlighted the environmental cost of the prawn farms to the nation and recommended all prawn farms within 500 meters of the coast to be banned. In December 1996, the
Supreme Court issued a ruling against intensiveshrimp farming in cultivable lands within 500 meters of the coastal area. It is said that because of the prawn farmers' local political influence, the Supreme Court judgement was not implemented on the ground. The legal battle around the prawn farms is still not resolved and the Jagannathans continue their struggle to establish non-exploitative, eco-friendly communities in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu.Upliftment of women
Krishnammal is also in working towards upliftment of women in Dalits and poor. She believes in mobilising women's cause by peaceful means. [ [http://www.hindu.com/2006/03/17/stories/2006031710070300.htm Fight discrimination by peaceful means] The Hindu]
Further achievements and honours
Krishnammal Jagannathan, either independently or together with her husband, has established a total of seven non-governmental institutions for the poor. Besides this, Krishnammal Jagannathan has also played an active role in wider public life. She has been a Senate member of the Gandhigram Trust and University and of Madurai University. She was also a member of a number of local and state social welfare committees and a member of the National Committee on Education, the Land Reform Committee and the Planning Committee.
These activities have gained for the Jagannathans a high profile in India and they have won many prestigious Awards: the
Swami Pranavananda Peace Award (1987); theJamnalal Bajaj Award (1988) andPadma Shri in 1989. In 1996 the couple received theBhagavan Mahaveer Award "for propagating non-violence." In 1999 Krishnammal was awarded aSummit Foundation Award (Switzerland), and in 2008 she was awarded 'Opus Prize' by theUniversity of Seattle [http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/15/stories/2008091554770600.htm Sarvodaya leader to get Opus Prize] — The Hindu] and alsoRight Livelihood Award along with four others which included her husband. She is lovingly called as "Amma" (Mother in Tamil) by her followers. [http://news.oneindia.in/2008/10/02/gandhian-couple-get-alternate-nobel.html Gandhian' couple get alternate Nobel] — OneIndia.com] She plans to use the award money for her projects rather than for herself. [ [http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/20/stories/2008092059740800.htm Opus Prize a divine gift for my housing programme, says Krishnammal] The Hindu]References
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