Genocide in Bastar

Asis Ranjan Sengupta

The tribal rebellion led bydedicated revolutionaries, are now in a critical stage. 

The tribal people are facing existential threats right from the colonial period. Time and again they tried to rise against the aggression on their rights over their habitats, forest lands, rivers, flora and fauna. Santhal uprising, Munda revolt, Chuar rebellion, Mopla and similar other resistance wars have glorious history of Democratic movements. 

It was expected that after the end of colonial rule, the government of independent India would look after the welfare of its own people. But that dream remains unfulfilled. 

All the welfare and economic growth of the newly independent nation, conceived and executed one after another for so- called developmental projects, were / are always at the cost of these indigenous people, by eviction and displacements, without any real rehabilitation or compensation, leaving them at the mercy of their ill fates. 

All mining projects, Dams, Barrages, Factories, Cities have been built, without ever taking into consideration the welfare or benefits of these local inhabitants. 

The so-called Communist or mainstream political parties, engaged in parliamentary path, elections, ugly TV slugfests ,Maidan rallies never stood in their side, except occasional paying lip services. 

Even British Govt, after brutally suppressing the tribal revolts had felt the need of some protection for them, and framed law prohibiting the free sale or purchase of lands in tribal areas. After long democratic movements and legal battles, Forest Rights Act ( 2006) came into being, ensuring the rights of the forest people. In 1996 PESA Act (Panchayats Extension of Scheduled Area) was there to prevent transaction or illegal acquisition of lands in notified scheduled area. NALSA act.2015. is there for the protection and welfare of the tribal people After the Singur incident, the already existing land acquisition laws were further streamlined, and Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, was enacted. But all governments showed little care and paid scant respect for such civil laws, on the contrary they are more interested in trampling them. The BJP-led NDA dispensation since 2014, just blew away all these in wind in order to let loose naked dance of crony capitalism in the country. The writers, lawyers, poets, activists, who fought for the people and their cause, are killed or imprisoned without trial. From GauriLankesh to Mukesh Chandrakar (Bastar Junction), all are same story. 

The proclaimed Maoists are the only organisation that has been fighting lone battle since almost seven decades, in the cause of these hapless people. But the problem is, they are running party only from underground, and by arms only. This strategy is partly out of compulsion and partly by choice. In the past their leadership, at least, a leading segment had tried to arrive at a peace treaty through negotiation, but no government showed any honest intention, on the contrary the negotiators invited were killed treacherously.

The Maoists once were successful in creating a red corridor from Maharashtra to Kerala through Madhya Pradesh (Chhattisgarh), Andhra (Telengana) , but brutal state oppression over such a long period, lack of mobility, and public support, due to absence of any open organisation, confinement to secret outfits, have resulted in shrinkage of operational area, and presently limited to Bastar and adjacent tribal belts only. 

The previous and present Governments, be they state or central, have left no stone unturned to label them as ‘ terrorists ‘, at par with Islamic or insurgent terrorist groups operating elsewhere, although it has a totally different character of protracted war, not sporadic terrorist strikes, and no connection with any religion. 

The present neo fascist regime having a toxic home minister, has waged an all out war against India’s original people shamelessly. The urban or city based sympathisers, who sincerely expressed solidarity with the legitimate demands and rights of these poor masses, have been branded as urban naxals, thus unknowingly immortalising the glorious history of naxalbari uprising of late sixties. The rulers are still haunted by the nightmare of Naxalbari.

One limitation of sole dependence on secret organisation, and total shunning the path of open mass movements, must be evident today. Naxalbari, the spring thunder, was the culmination of such mass uprisings as Telangana and Tebhaga, predominantly peasant movements, so was Naxalbari, it was peasant outrage. But unfortunately this path of mass movement was totally abandoned by the leaders, being disillusioned by the history of betrayal and backstabbing by self styled petty bourgeois leadership in the past. Initially it created huge impact by successfully hitting at right targets, but experiences show that such secret armed activism, create isolation and alienation from masses in the long run, resulting in huge casualties. In contemporary history, Irish Republican Army in UK, or the Tamil Ealam (LTTE) battles of Sri Lanka, ended up in unfruitful end, in spite of all heroic martyrdoms. Again sole dependence on legal and official procedures can produce limited results. Example is Narmada Bachao Andolan, under the tenacious and stewardship of Smt MedhaPatkar, ultimately could not extract the desired compensation or rehabilitation packages. The prejudiced upper class Judges, just dubbed the fighters as damned ‘anti Dam activists ‘ ( curiously, not anti eviction activists) and awarded in favour of the project, meant for benefit of corporates operating in Gujarat far away from the massive land eviction areas of Madhya Pradesh, where people lost everything, the meagre belongings they had down generations. They were thrown out homeless, landless, and without means of earning or livelihood, also known as ‘ development refugees, ‘ a new phrase in the dictionary of corporate style concept of anti- people development, also known as ‘ growth ‘ in present day macro economics. These victimised masses are the essential by- products of such vicious growth. 

 With the fall of Bastar, which may not be averted, the last bastion of resistance, is likely to dissolve. All are afraid, entire central India, is going to be left open for free corporate loot of natural resources, putting the indigenous people in endless misery and crisis. So what is needed is a tactful combination of legal and extra- legal methods of struggle. Past records of success stories bear testimony to that strategy. The present and future active leadership should keep it in mind. It is high time to introspect, probably now or never as the struggle of the people may fizzle out in Bastar, at least temporarily, the future is unknown. 

All the prominent writers, poets, journalists, activists, lawyers, spokespersons have been falsely implicated in fake Bhima- Koregaon, case of fabricated threat against state, and imprisoned or killed, thus instituting a reign of terror. 

Those brave intelligentsia, students etc, who sympathise with the people in the conflict zones, are neither any ‘ ist ‘ nor extremists, for all practical purposes. They only sympathise with the affected people, offer legal aids to the harassed people and particularly women, always facing raids, demolitions, unlawful arrests and custodial tortures, they are helpless, poor people who are ignorant of law and rules. Forces take advantage of their helplessness and torture illegally. The sympathy of the selected urban or city activists are not as much for any ‘ ism ‘ but for the restless masses, who are left with no alternative but to take the path of armed extremism out of sheer desperation. In fact, a number of them have successfully persuaded to come back to mainstream, by none other than these urban activists. But unduly these Samaritans are described in a manner that as if they were against the state, but , on the contrary they are helping the state to establish rule of law, more often violated by custodians and makers of law. It must be understood that world conscience is aroused not in favour of Hamas or its leaders but against Israel who are killing people and destroying civilian establishments in the pretext of negation of Hamas. Same thing is true about the forests and tribal people, security forces are killing civilians and destroying their habitats indiscriminately, in the name of eliminating Maoists, that must be condemned and resisted at any cost, that is the call of the hour. 

Bastar region is in this way suffering from total isolation. All reporters are banned, the sole brave heart who had been reporting through an you tube channel, ‘Bastar Junction “, has been killed. By creation of such a cordoned zone, where entry or exit is prohibited, the forces have been deployed to unleash horrors of drone bombardment, 24 hour surveillance, manhunts, everyday raids, destruction of homes, molestation of women, and indiscriminate killing of men-folk, including children. In the name of neutralising so- called maoists, a total genocide, is being carried out in cold blood without any scope of resistance or protest from any corner. 

Everyday mainstream media is rejoicing the success story by publishing the death-counts of 20 yesterday, 30 today etc, claiming to be maoists. In reality, along with maoists, innocent villagers are being murdered ruthlessly. For one thing the ‘Maoists’ are never captured or injured but killed always. Deadly sophisticated weapons are found on display as seizures, lying beside the corpses, in photographs published as success of para Military forces, but very few or none of them is / are wounded or killed significantly. Hence the fictions of long chase, fierce clash, prolong gun battle, exchange of fires and bullets, dangerous encounter etc, stand exposed. These are but cold-blooded mass murders, nothing less or more. 

 The proud Home Minister is exulting over near possible fulfilment of his assurance to end Maoism by 2026, for that he is running deadly assault in the pattern of ‘final solution ‘of his icon Hitler whose target were Jews, and here it is the poor tribals. 

Official progressive parties, and social media platforms, are so touched by the plight of Palestinian sufferers, and Gaza victims of Zionist vengeance, genuinely of course, situation in Bangladesh, but are conspicuously silent over the on- going genocide of Bastar today.

 All the rulers and the autocrats in history had/ have dreamt of finishing just and popular uprisings always by brutal means, but ended up in inviting destruction of themselves and their draconian regimes. History repeats, maybe, in a different way.

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 42, Apr 13 - 19, 2025