IT is well-known that there exist a number of private armies in rural Bihar — Bhoomi Sena, Lorik Sena, Brahmarshi Sena, Shoshit Dalit Samajvadi Sena, Shoshit Mukti Sena and so on and so forth. But there are different interpretations of this Sena phenomenon. For some, all these Senas are caste-armies, and they brand the Lal Sena? too, as the harijans’ private army. The CPI and the CPI(M) do differentiate between the private armies of the landlords and the Lal Sena, but they hasten to add, ‘It is the so-called Lal Sena’s extremist activities that have given the landlords the excuse to form their own armies’. And if you meet a political spokesman of the Bhoomi Sena, he will perhaps say, ‘The kisans’ lives and property are in danger, and the government has failed miserably in protecting them; so the kisans must themselves protect their lives and property’. The ministers and government officials, you will find, always wax eloquent about their determination to wipe out all these Senas (though at times, they even refuse to admit the existence of private armies), but in actual practice they launch repressive and punitive campaigns only against the Lal Sena or the ‘extremists’. And some outspoken landlord would declare, ‘The labourers have turned defiant. They are all possessed by the evil spirit of Naxalism. We will teach them a good lesson and drive out the evil spirit once and for all’. The rural poor, however, react quite the other way, ‘All these Senas are nothing but hirelings of the landlords, and they have made life a hell for us. The Lal Sena is quite a different proposition. They are our boys, our kith and kin. They have given us a new strength, a new life’. So once again it is the difference in various class positions that explains the whole thing.

Armed gangs of the landlords are nothing new in a semi-feudal society, and more so in Bihar. However, since late seventies, there have been certain changes. As the rural poor started getting organised, they came to face the attacks of the landed nobility and its hired goons. Gradually some criminal-turned-politicians (having feudal background and engaging in all sorts of criminal activities including smugg­ling, dacoity, arson, rape, killing etc.) took the lead and began to organise armed gangs under popular names so as to mobilise, or at least, to attract their respective caste-men. Krishna Singh ( a Bhumihar and a one-time Congress(I) MLA ) with his Brahmarshi Sena and Anand Mohan Singh (a Rajput, and a leader of anti-reservation movement) with his Krantikari Samajvadi Sena are the two pioneers of the Sena culture in Bihar. Seemingly enjoying the support of their general caste-men, these ringleaders are in constant touch with the landed nobility, readily lending a ‘helping hand’ whenever such a ‘necessity’ arises.

Then comes the second category of Senas comprising Dinesh Yadav's Shoshit Dalit Samajvadi Sena, Sheonandan Paswan's Shoshit Mukti Sena, and Ram Vilas Paswan's Dalit Sena. All these three persons are Lok Dal leaders. Now, why should Lok Dal at all need a Sena, and that too, not one but three Senas ? Some consider it as the result of personal/factional feud within the Lok Dal, while some others see in it the Lok Dal’s policy of distributing its eggs in various baskets. Anyway, for all practical purposes, these Senas are all paper-Sends, and at the most they have attained the status of political formations without acquiring any military character so far.

In contrast to the Senas belonging to the first two cate­gories, the Bhoomi Sena and the Lorik Sena, the two Senas comprising the third category, are quite often in the news, and of them, the Bhoomi Sena in particular has developed as a veritable politico-military formation. Readers may like to know the background, character and activities of these two Senas in detail, and as such we are discussing them separately. This will be followed by a comparative account of the Lal Sena as well.