THE Lorik Sena appeared only recently in parts of Hilsa-Ekangarsarai blocks of Nalanda district. But soon it spread its activities to other parts of the district as well as to some villages of Ghosi block in Gaya and Dhanarua block in Patna.

In the last Assembly elections, candidates of the Indian People's Front (IPF) drew a large number of votes in these areas. Casteist leaders of the ruling-class parties naturally read a portent of grave danger in the IPF's increasing popularity. More specifically, it was perhaps Ramashraya Singh (a Yadava), the CPI MP, who felt the immediate threat since the majority of Yadava peasants were sympathe­tic to the movement and a good section of them was very much in the movement.

Already, the landed gentry and rich peasants of upper-castes (mainly Bhumihars) were seriously concerned over the ‘spurt in Naxalite activities’. But at the same time, the Bhumihars were also locked in a traditionally sharp rivalry with the Yadavas and this is the Naxalites were using to their advantage. To strengthen its anti-Naxalite drive, the Dubey government naturally sought to mobilise the combined strength of these two castes and also to enlist a more active involvement of the CPI. As a first step, Jagdish Sharma (Bhumihar Congress(I) MLA) and Ramashraya Singh addressed a mass meeting from a common dais.

The Yadava peasantry in some of these areas displays dual allegiance — to the Lok Dal as well as to the peasant movement. The Lok Dal’s anti-Naxalite propaganda did influence a section of the Yadava peasants, if only temporarily.

The peasant association's campaign against theft and dacoity had produced a good, healthy impact upon different sections of the people in these areas, but then it was taken too far, even cases of petty theft were not spared. This and certain other actions of ours hurt a section of the Yadavas directly and dacoit kings got a scope to use all resulting contradictions against the movement. Some opportunist rich and middle-class casteist leaders, a few of them once being active elements inside the movement, fully utilised this situation and portrayed the whole movement as being anti-Yadava. Soon all these aggrieved elements joined hands and with armed criminals providing the core and Ramashraya Singh providing the brain and also the shape, the Lorik Sena was born.

Armed with guns and rifles, the Lorik Sena began its operations in the true traditions of Sena culture in Bihar. In April 1985, they killed one Paswan of Korthu village and looted his house. On August 30, they shot to death Munna Thakur and Potari Dom of Naima village. On September 24, they attacked and ransacked one tola in Mandachh village. The next day they caught one youth of this village, brutally hacked him to death and threw the mutilated body into the river Lokayan. Not only that, when one woman of this very village was running away from the clutches of the police, this gang headed by Shyam Yadav caught her, and she was then gang-raped and paraded in the nude in broad daylight. In the morning of October 5, its members attacked Khaddi village and fired at a child. On October 9, the gang encircled Naima village with a view to killing one of our cadres in the village. But in the face of resistance they fled away. One Yadava of Khaddi-Lodipur Village had joined a mass meeting of the Kisan Sabha in Hilsa — the gang looted his house and even threatened to kill him. On October 10, it set fire to ten houses in Mandachh village, and on October 19, it robbed two businessmen of all their goods. In the morning of October 27, they looted many houses in Masarh and Sikandarpur villages. Here there was one chhilka (water reservoir adjacent to and fed by a river, specifically meant for fishing) under the collective control and management of the people. Peasants of all castes used to fish in this chhilka and a part of the income therefrom used to be set aside for purposes of collective development. Bhumihar vested interests egged on this gang to capture this chhilka — and capture it did in return for lavish entertainments and a free hand in fishing. And all this went on under active protection extended by the police and administration. So, this was how the Lorik Sena — the Sena that is named after one of the legendary heroes of the Yadava community who had fought against a tyrant Yadava landlord of his time alongwith the dalit masses — declared its arrival on the rural scene of Bihar.

Naturally, this gang did not spare the Yadavas either. Roving with guns and rifles, they would extort money from the Yadava peasants, and would even threaten them with dire consequences in case they refused to join the gang.

Under these circumstances, it did not take the Yadavas too long to realise that the Lorik Sena was more a liability than an asset. Initially, the Sena could mobilise 50 to 200 Yadava masses in its areas of influence. But gradually this participation began to peter out. Many of the middle class initiators have also lost much of their control on the activities of the Lorik Sena. The Lok Dal finds it a losing proposition, and the government, too, no longer seems to favour the idea of a Lorik Sena, though it certainly wants a greater involvement of the CPI and the Yadavas in dealing a heavy blow to the Naxalites. If the internal basis of the Sena was already becoming weak, timely steps taken by our Party as well as by some enlightened persons among the Yadavas have further hastened the process of its dis­integration. But though the Lorik Sena has got largely disintegrated in the areas where it had originally emerged, in many other parts of these central districts of Bihar, powerful Yadava gangs of dacoits and other lumpen elements are nowadays sporting the Lorik Sena badge, or at least, that is how their activities are reported in the press.