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

[Nagraj Adve]

Shudda,
There is a lot in what you say, but I suspect the situation is more complex.
For one, though the Maoists I hear still carry out extortions from industry,
I suspect that their position against anti-poor industrialization has
gotten, or forced to become sharper simply because resistance to
industrialization is happening all over. Hence the impending
repression might result in a much weaker Maoist movement, which will be
harmful to many people of those areas and to the resistance to
industrialization in general. (I say this notwithstanding my numerous
serious problems with Maoist practice).
Two, I think the impending repression is not exclusively with the aim of
then making it easier for  corporates to exploit the mineral resources of
these states. The state is not merely a more autonomous actor, it also has
the political ends of strangling the Maoist movement (which I very much
doubt it will be able to do). Three, Rakesh, I think a bland comparison of
state and Maoist denies their history, and enormous work in Andhra and other
places in the 1970s and 1980s and beyond. It requires specific historical
analysis as to why and when they moved away from mass movement as a central
strategy, and also were forced to do so by extreme state repression from the
1980s. There is grim newness in what might unfold in Chattisgarh, but I
wonder if there actually are continuities in state repression that goes back
to the mid-1980s. And those who bear the brunt of it are ordinary people as
we know. I remember chatting with Balagopal in 1993 about encounter deaths
in 1993, and he said, "270 have been killed until I left Hyderabad
yesterday. But I don't know if any more have been killed since."
More later, Shudda.
Naga

On 13/10/2009, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
>