ORMA (Surat), July 25: When Jawaharlal Nehru delivered his `tryst with destiny' speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, he must have been unaware that the freedom at midnight had left out two small villages in Gujarat--Orma in Surat and Umraj in Bharuch. Fifty years later, nearly 250 villagers of Orma are waiting for another August 15, expecting to claim the rights to the land they--and their forefathers before themhave been tilling for centuries.

The story goes back to the days of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The Special Civil Suit no 9 of 1956--Syed Mohmad Baquir El-Edroos vs State of Bombay-- notes: ``The plaintiff presented an original `Sanad' in Persian given by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (Alamgir) in which it (was) stated that the `Darobust', or, the entire village of Orma of Olpad Taluka, Surat, (be) given for maintenance of the Edroos Durghas of Sayed Ahmed Edroos and that of Syed Mahomad Edroos at Bharoach and Surat respectively, which was confirmed by the officer of the East India Company Mr E.W. Ravenscroft on 1st of October 1856.'' In a fit of benevolence, Aurangzeb presented the two villages, Orma and Umraj to the El-Edroos family which had come from Yemen.

While Mohomad-bin Abdullah El-Edroos got Orma, his uncle Ahmed-bin Sheikh El-Edroos got Umraj in Bharuch. The ownership rights of Umraj, however, was given to the villagers in 1983 after proclaiming it to be Personal Inam.

But not Orma. ``The case is as old as our great freedom struggle,'' says Liaquatbhai Ali, sarpanch of Orma. Villagers of Orma have been fighting for the last 50 years for the ownership of 1,123 acres of Orma's agricultural land. While the El-Edroos insisted it was a Devasthan (religious) Inam the villagers maintained it was a Personal Inam.

The case took a definitive turn after the Bombay Personal Inam Abolition Act of 1952 came into effect. When the state Government declared that the El-Edroos land was a Personal Inam and that it should be abolished, the family filed a plea in court challenging it. Nine years after the Gujarat Devasthan Inam Abolition Act was passed in 1969, Orma farmers stopped giving ganout (revenue) to the El-Edroos family. Instead, they started depositing the land revenue in a government deposit. Finally on August 9, 1995 the Supreme Court declared the land to be a Personal Inam--22 years after the case first came to the apex court.

``We should be able to give the ownership papers to the villagers on August 15 as they wanted,'' says Deputy Collector, Surat, D B Shah, hurrying to add as an afterthought, ``we would have, had there not been any problems.'' The Collectorate's notice of February 15 regarding the ownership issue was objected to by some farmers. Meanwhile, those plots out of the 296 agricultural farms that are ``non-controversial'' will be handed over to the kheduths (farmers) after charging a nominal `occupancy price' settled at six times the amount of land revenue which is 0.11 paise per `guntha' (100 sq mt). The government, in turn, will remunerate the inamdaar, the El-Edroos', at seven times the land revenue.

``The farmers will benefit a lot,'' says Shah. ``Those who will get ownership of the land in the `new tenure' can get advances against this land and avail of other facilities.''

Amritbhai Maganbhai Patel gets sentimental when asked about the transfer of ownership. The 42-year-old former sarpanch says, ``after 50 years we are getting independence.'' Nathubhai Bhikhabhai Patel, 80, fumes: `Freedom' is a word that occurs at an alarming frequency in Nathubhai's monologues. ``We had asked for freedom on the 15th of August ... but they are now saying it will be on Gandhi Jayanti,'' he fumes.

Syed Zain Valde Syed Mohamad Baquir El-Edroos, the current patriarch of the El-Edroos family is peeved about the ``freedom'' bit. ``We have never hindered the villagers in doing anything. They were always independent,'' he says. His son Syed Shahbuddin Ahmed Syed Zain El-Edroos adds, with nostalgia for a yesterday he cannot retrieve: ``What family status we had in those days we cannot maintain. Can you imagine we had 100 servants once upon a time? The least the government can do is compensate us adequately.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.