As Naxalism Fades, Adivasi Futures Still Stand on Precarious Ground

Over a decade ago, a young IAS officer deployed in Bastar told this reporter that as much as they wanted Bastar to be freed from the Naxals, their ouster from the jungle would immediately lead to it being taken over by mining companies.

Ashutosh Bhardwaj

As the Maoist insurgency reaches its fag end with the encounter killings, surrenders and arrests of top Maoist leaders, it is useful to review the six-decade journey of the insurgency and the promise the Indian state now offers following its entry into adivasi lands once controlled by the guerrilla fighters.

Soon after their eruption in the late 1960s, the Naxals captured both the popular and the artistic-intellectual imagination. In a constitutional democracy, weapons can only be wielded by a lawful authority and any violent insurrection can’t be legitimised by any stretch of argument. But the disillusionment with the Indian state following ‘the false dawn’ of azadi made the violent path if not always credible or convincing, at least appealing or noteworthy to many.PauseNextMute

Their popular support waned over the decades, but after the rebels made the mineral-rich adivasi land of Dandakaranya their headquarters in the 1980s, their operations evoked two broad opinions. One, that their presence has empowered adivasis, made them aware of their rights and kept private companies at bay. Two, that they handed over rifles to adivasis, deployed them as unsuspecting foot-soldiers in their war against the state, and damaged their lives.

The debate is still on, but the focus now should be on the post-Naxal Dandakaranya, a forested zone of over 85,000 sq km spreading across Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Telangana. Nearly half of it is solely in Bastar, which, at over 39,000 sq km, commands an area bigger that of Kerala.

Rightly so, Bastar is called the lungs of India.

The jungle is a self-sustained ecosystem – for food, fodder and water. For rituals, traditions and culture. For numerous adivasis who joined the Naxal ranks in Dandakaranya since the early 1990s, the goal was not a Red Flag at the Red Fort. It was an existential struggle to save their jal, jungle and zameen – water, forests and land. The Bastar adivasi knew nothing about Marx or Mao; it was a fight to save her backyard.

“I protest mining in my area. You open a police camp and deploy force outside my home. What do I do?” A young guerrilla from Kanker named Naresh once told this reporter…..

https://thewire.in/rights/as-naxalism-fades-adivasi-futures-still-stand-on-precarious-ground

***********************************************

A Hard Rain Falling: on the death of T. P. Chandrasekharan (EPW, June 2012)

Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution

The Lady Vanishes

Closing the Circle (E-Book)

Insult to Injury

Salaam comrade

Permanent Spring: Indian Maoism and the Philosophy of Insurrection

Annihilation – 50 years of Naxalbari

In Naxalbari, forty-eight years later

Yesterday once more – 50 years after Naxalbari