Author: Balbir K. Punj
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 19, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/8818.html
Introduction: You can't bring peace to Dantewada
by disarming the tribals, that will leave them severely compromised
On July 17 over 500 Maoists swoo-ped down
on the Errabore base camp in Chattisgarh's Dantewara district and killed 27
Salwa Judum activists. More than 100 houses were razed, one man was burnt
alive, fleeing tribals were shot or hacked to death.
Dantewara lies at the verge of Maoist insurgency
and civil society. Ironically, the targets of Maoist attack were not feudal
lords or the bourgeoisie but simple tribals whose livelihood, culture, religious
practices and physical security are under threat. And who, provoked by relentless
Maoist oppression and atrocities, formed the Salwa Judum.
''This is a fight for livelihood and self-identity.
The people have left their leaders behind in this fight'', Congressman Mahendra
Karma told me when I was in Dantewara recently. This former state minister
came into prominence last year after he decided to head Salwa Judum.
Salwa Judum, meaning mass mobilization for
peace, was born in originated June 2005. The BJP government and the opposition
Congress encouraged and facilitated the movement but if today Dantewada is
in the news it is because tribal society is standing up to the Maoists and
blocking the Red Corridor planned from Andhra Pradesh to Nepal.
Dantewara, on the border of Chattisgarh and
Andhra Pradesh, has a population of just 600,000 spread over 10,239 sq km.
It is full of forests, hills, and inhospitable terrain sans roads that convincingly
establish the preponderance of nature over man - it is quite common to find
25 kilometers separating two five-hut clusters.
The tribal way of life here has changed little
since time immemorial, an aboriginal, egalitarian and exploitation-free society.
The Ghotul (or free pre-marital sex) system of Abujmara Muria is a wonder
for proponents of modern sex-education. Incidents of rape, theft, robbery
or murder were unknown in the region till the Naxalites arrived on the scene.
While the national average of law enforcement
is 55 policemen per 100 sq km, in Chhattisgarh the figure falls to 17. The
positive side of minimum interference by the state is that the region has
maintained its aboriginal lifestyle. On its negative side, perhaps, it led
to underdevelopment. But development was often felt redundant where the population
was so low, and content with its resources.
Maoists claim to struggle against feudal exploitation,
economic disparity, and 'the state', so it defies reason that Maoism should
evolve in a place where there is neither exploitation, nor disparity, nor
the presence of 'state'. In Dantewara there was actually a vacuum, which the
Naxalites occupied.
The Maoists make 'development' an issue but
attack development projects. They extort a heavy cut from the layout budget
of a road, highway, bridge and the tendu leaf trade. They profess to work
for the freedom of the poor but enforce their writ ruthlessly. Any defiance
of their diktat is met with either maiming or murder.
They also form the oppressing and exploiting
class in Dantewada. Raping tribal women is part of their revolution, and any
resistance is met the loss of life or limb. The police, with their slender
presence and outdated weapons, were simply not prepared.
Thus on June 16, 2005 the people of Karkeli
village, in the Kutru area of Dantewara district held a meeting - attended
by around 10,000 - to contemplate public action against the Maoists. While
returning, the participants were fired at by the Maoists and out of that violent
act Salwa Judum, the movement for peace, was born.
The movement is now being discredited by a
bunch of eminent metropolitan "left-liberals", who visited Dantewada
recently. They say it is the government's devious plan to foment 'civil war'
in Chattisgarh. But their remedy is strange: They want Salwa Judum activists
to disarm and government to undertake a peace talk with Naxalites. This is
ridiculous because those who joined Salwa Judum are ordinary tribesmen with
no interest in violence, wishing instead to return to the lives they'd led
for centuries.
Maoism or Communism is a violent creed believing
that power flows from the gun. It is anybody's guess who needs to disarm.
