FOR generations, the village has been romanticised as a haven of peace — a place of simple lives, strong communities and neighbourly bonds. But the reality unfolding in many rural areas today tells a different story, one marked by disputes, fear and violence.

In the past two weeks alone, two incidents from a village where I work have left me deeply unsettled.

In the first, men from one community launched a brutal attack on five brothers, beating them with spades, axes and clubs over a plot of land one of them was merely working on as a labourer. The land itself belongs to a man outside both communities, yet the attackers claimed ancestral rights and descended on the worker with violence. When the victim’s brothers heard about the assault, they rushed to the scene and were similarly mauled. The injured men — landless farmers — were rushed to the hospital with fractures and head injuries, one in critical condition.

Their families now face another battle: obtaining medical reports and filing a police case without paying bribes they can’t afford to the medical superintendent and the station house officer.

The second incident involved a young schoolteacher, the daughter of a widow. Distant relatives threatened to kill her........

© Dawn