[Reader-list] Fwd: The Government's Planned "Offensive" in Adivasi and Forest Areas

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear Nagraj,

Thanks for posting this. I think this statement makes a very sharp  
point. The areas that are being targetted are not zones where the  
state is not active. It is, in fact, hugely active. The problem is  
not that there is 'no development'. 'Development' which has  
translated as largesse to rapacious and extractive mining and logging  
operations that have encroached on forest land and the rights of  
forest dwellers, is the problem. The planned, 'military style'  
offensive is the inauguration of a Latin American style Junta  
operation in South Asia. We will mark this moment in the histories  
written in the future as the moment when the Indian elites and their  
client state organs began to unravel because of their own greed. Of  
course, the Maoists, who are just another proto-state power on the  
make, are no saviours of the forests. Their power lies in their  
capacity to extract and extort protection moneys from the very  
corporations that they claim to fight. Their is an objective synergy  
between their power, and the power of the corporations. This is  
neither revolutionary politics, nor the defence of the poor by a  
conscientious state, it is a civil war based on who can extract how  
much from the land, exactly as unravelled in Central Africa. This is  
only the beginning.

The Moghul Empire's demise, after the seeming zenith of the reign of  
Shahjahan began with the way in which Aurungzeb committed the empire  
into a terminal struggle with insurgencies at the fringes and the  
heart of the territory of the empire, more or less close to where the  
wars are raging today. Can we see a pattern?

thanks

Shuddha
On 13-Oct-09, at 11:40 AM, Nagraj Adve wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Campaign for Survival and Dignity <forestcampaignnews at gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 8:24 PM
> Subject: [forestrights] The Government's Planned "Offensive" in  
> Adivasi and
> Forest Areas
> To: forestcampaign at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
> *A Pretext to Impose Brutal Repression: the Government's  
> "Offensive" Is a
> Formula for Bloodshed and Injustice *
>
> The Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of  
> adivasi and
> forest dwellers' mass organisations from ten States, unequivocally  
> condemns
> the reported plans for a military “offensive” by the government in the
> country's major forest and tribal areas. This offensive, ostensibly  
> targeted
> against the CPI (Maoist), is a smoke screen for an assault against the
> people, especially adivasis, aimed at suppressing all dissent, all
> resistance and engineering the takeover of their resources. Certain  
> facts
> make this clear:
>
>
>    -
>
>    *The government tells us that this offensive will make it  
> possible for
>    the “state to function” in these areas and fill the “vacuum of  
> governance.”
>    This is grossly misleading.* The Indian state is very, very  
> active in
>    these areas, often in its most brutal and violent form. A vivid  
> example is
>    the illegal eviction of more than 3,00,000 families by the Forest
>    Departments a few years ago. Laws have been totally disregarded;
>    Constitutional protections for adivasi rights blatantly ignored  
> and their
>    rights over water, forest and land (jal, jangal, jamin)  
> glaringly violated.
>    Every month an increasing number of people are jailed, beaten  
> and killed by
>    the police. If this is the picture of what “absence” of the  
> state means,
>    people are terrified of what the “presence” of the state will  
> mean. It can
>    only mean converting brutalized governance into militarized  
> rule, a total
>    negation of democracy.
>    -
>
>    *This is not a war over “development.” People's struggles in  
> India today
>    are over democracy and dignity - *Meaningful development must  
> contribute
>    to strengthening the right of all people to* *their resources  
> and their
>    production, and thereby to control over their own destiny. For  
> generations,
>    adivasis have fought for their Constitutional rights and  
> entitlements. More
>    recently, mass democratic movements have fought for new laws and  
> policies,
>    such as the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act  
> (PESA), the Forest
>    Rights Act, the right to work and the right to food, in addition  
> to earlier
>    laws like the Minimum Wages Act, the Restoration of Alienated  
> Lands Acts,
>    and land reform and moneylending laws. These laws make it  
> possible for
>    people to fight for greater control over their lives, their  
> livelihoods,
>    their lands and their forests. However these laws are respected  
> more in the
>    breach; if the government wants “development”, let it first stop  
> the blatant
>    disregard of its own laws. Let people determine the path of  
> their own
>    development, in accordance with their rights over their  
> resources and the
>    type of infrastructure they desire. The Constitution itself  
> requires this
>    kind of planning. The claim that “development” can be provided  
> through
>    military force is both absurd and ridiculous.
>    -
>
>    *This war is not about “national security”; it is about  
> ‘securing’ the
>    interests of global and Indian capital and big business. *Any  
> government
>    worried about security would send its troops against mining  
> mafias, the
>    forest mafias, violent vigilante groups like the salwa judum and  
> others.
>    Rather than being curbed, these killers are in fact supported by  
> the police.
>    Have the security forces ever been deployed to defend the people  
> struggling
>    to protect themselves, their forests, their livelihoods and  
> their futures?
>    The answer is no. The notion of “security” being advanced by the  
> government
>    clearly has nothing to do with the people. Rather, it is to  
> enable big
>    business to engage in robbery and expropriation of resources,  
> which they
>    have decided will be one of their main sources of accumulation.  
> Hence,
>    mining, “infrastructure”, real estate, land grabbing, all aimed at
>    super-profits, are being projected as “development” needed by  
> the people.
>    Huge amounts of international and government money are being  
> pumped into
>    so-called “forestry projects” which displace people from their  
> lands and
>    destroy biodiversity (even while they are trumpeted as a  
> strategy for
>    climate change). The UPA is rushing into agreements with the US  
> and other
>    imperial countries to throw open mining and land to international
>    exploitation. But where do the forests, land, water and minerals  
> lie? They
>    are found in the forest and tribal areas, where people - some  
> organised
>    under the CPI (Maoist), some organized under democratic  
> movements, some in
>    spontaneous local struggles, some simply fighting in whatever  
> manner they
>    can – are resisting the destruction of their homes, resources  
> and their
>    lives. The “offensive against the Maoists” is only a subterfuge  
> to crush
>    this citizens’ resistance and to provide an excuse for more  
> abuse of power,
>    more brutality and more injustice.
>    -
>
>    *The government knows perfectly well that it cannot destroy the CPI
>    (Maoist), or any people's struggle, through military action.*  
> How can the
>    armed forces identify who is a “Maoist” and who is not? The use  
> of brute
>    military force will result in the slaughter of thousands of  
> people in
>    prolonged, bloody and brutal guerrilla warfare. This has been  
> the result of
>    every “security offensive” in India's history from Kashmir to  
> Nagaland. So
>    why do this? And why now? Unless the goal has nothing to do with  
> “wiping out
>    the Maoists” and everything to do with having an excuse for the  
> permanent
>    presence of lakhs of troops, arms and equipment in these areas.  
> To protect
>    and serve whom?
>    -
>
>    *Hence the need for fear mongering and hysteria about Maoist
>    “sympathisers” and their “infiltration” into “civil society.” *The
>    government has a very long history of labeling any form of  
> dissent as
>    “Naxalite” or “Maoist.”* *The Maoists' politics are known; their
>    positions are public; the only secret aspect of their work is  
> their personal
>    identities and military tactics. We who work in these areas do  
> not fear this
>    bogey of “infiltration” in our groups by Maoists, for the  
> different stands
>    taken by our organizations and theirs are clear, and in some  
> areas there are
>    open disputes. This scaremongering is just an excuse to justify  
> a crackdown
>    on all forms of dissent and democratic protest in these areas, a  
> crushing of
>    all people's resistance, and the branding of any questioning,  
> any demand for
>    justice, as “Maoist.”
>
>
> In the final analysis, *peace and justice will only come to India's  
> workers,
> peasants, adivasis, dalits and other oppressed sections through the  
> mass
> democratic struggle of the people.* A democratic struggle requires
> democratic space. The conversion of a region into a war zone, by  
> anyone, is
> unacceptable. In the forest areas in particular, there is now a  
> need for a
> new peace, one that can only be achieved through a genuine democratic
> dialogue between the political forces involved. For this to happen,  
> this
> horrific “offensive” must first be called off. If the government  
> really
> wishes to claim that it is committed to protecting people and their  
> rights,
> let its actions comply with the requirements of law, justice and  
> democracy.
>
>
>  *Bharat Jan Andolan, National Front for Tribal Self Rule, Jangal  
> Adhikar
> Sangharsh Samiti (Mah), Adivasi Mahasabha (Guj), Adivasi Jangal  
> Janjeevan
> Andolan (D&NH), Jangal Jameen Jan Andolan (Raj), Madhya Pradesh Jangal
> Jeevan Adhikar Bachao Andolan, Jan Shakti Sanghatan (Chat), Peoples  
> Alliance
> for Livelihood Rights, Chattisgarh Mukti Morcha, Orissa Jan Sangharsh
> Morcha, Campaign for Survival & Dignity (Ori), Orissa Jan Adhikar  
> Morcha,
> Adivasi Aikya Vedike (AP), Campaign for Survival and Dignity – TN,  
> Bharat
> Jan Andolan (Jhar).*
>
>  __._,_.___
> .
>
> __,_._,___
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Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net