Bhumi Sena was a private army which operated in the

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

, Nalanda,

Jehanabad Jehanabad is a town in Nagar parishad, Nagar Parishad and is the headquarters of Jehanabad district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Bihar. Jehanabad is famous for Barabar Hill Caves these are the oldest surviving rock-c ...

, and Gaya regions of

Bihar, India Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

in the 1980s, made up of members of the

Kurmi Kurmi is traditionally a non-elite tiller caste in the lower Gangetic plain of India, especially southern regions of Awadh, eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar. The Kurmis came to be known for their exceptional work ethic, superior til ...

caste.

History

Bhumi Sena was formed by Kurmi landowners in 1982, in response to the murders of a number of prominent landlords and political agitation among

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

labourers by the leftist groups CPI (ML) People's War, CPI (ML) Party Unity, and the MKSS. Following its formation, the group gathered resources and arms from Kurmi households, and encouraged Kurmi youths to join. They continued to collect

protection money A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from viol ...

from Kurmi families in the regions they were active in. Bhumi Sena soon began to combat the leftist groups they opposed, with a series of attacks on Dalits and Maoist sympathisers, including those of the group’s own Kurmi caste. Between 1982 and 1985, the group killed 65 people, set 216 houses ablaze, and drove 325 families out of their villages. The leftist groups responded by killing Bhumi Sena members, and imposing an economic blockade on the Kurmi landlords supporting the group. This strategy found success in 1984, when leftist activists burned the Kurmi landlords' harvest. The landlords agreed to cease support of the group, and paid fines in proportion to their level of support. Bhumi Sena held increasingly limited influence throughout the latter half of the 1980s, amidst continued attack by leftist groups and a changing political landscape.

References

{{Reflist Paramilitary organisations based in India Private armies

External link

Report from the flaming fields of Bihar.
Non-military counterinsurgency organizations Indigenous counterinsurgency forces Anti-communism in India 1982 establishments in Bihar Military units and formations established in 1982 Caste-related violence in Bihar

History

See also

References

External link