BIHAR-Class and Caste in Parasbigha Massacre

February 23, 1980 BIHAR Class and Caste in Parasbigha Massacre A S AS in any village, land was at the root of the conflict in Parasbigha in Gaya district, culminating in the massacre on the night of February 6. Twelve people, among them four women and five boys, were either shot dead or burnt alive. There was a piece of government public land (called gair mazarua aam in the zamindari days), which the families of shepherds, yadays and harijans had been using as pasture. The shepherds and yadays most needed the pasture; with more and more land coming under the plough, their sheep and cows could depend only on the public land for grazing. As for the harijans, in last few years, after securing court decrees, they had worked hard and made a few acres of the public land fit for cultivation. They had sown and reaped harvests of arhar, masur and kurthi.