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

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear Nagraj,

agreed with you on all counts. SThe people we call the Maoists today  
have been made who they are by the brutality of state repression, let  
us not forget, that the antecedents of today's CPI(Maoist) goes back  
(at least in part) to People War Group, which in turn goes back to  
the CP Reddy group of the All India Co Ordination Committee of  
Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR). The co ordination committee, if I  
am not mistaken, evolved into the Charu Mazumdar line original  
'Naxalites' of the CPI (ML), while the CP Reddy group, mainly based  
in Andhra, actually rejected the fetish of 'red terror' advocated by  
Mazumdar, in favour of militant mass action. It was the brutal state  
repression of these mass actions, from the late sixies that continued  
right onto NT Rama Rao's first stint in power, in the eighties,   
especially in Srikakulam, Warangal and the coastal districts that  
laid the foundations of the chimera that has evolved into the CPI  
(Maoist).

I see the state as the midwife, through repression and blatant  
exploitation of the most vulnerable sections of society, of the  
spectre of contemporary Maoism in India. And of course, it will make  
an attempt to crush its own 'illegitimate' progeny (remember how  
often 'mainstream' politicians call the Maoists, 'misguided  
children', thereby providing us with an inadvertent insight into the  
deeply Oedipal nature of this conflict) politically, and militarily,  
and of course it is bound to fail.

  What will happen in the interim is that this 'war' will rapidly  
lose whatever little ideological moorings it has (on either side) and  
slide rapidly into an all out military campaign that will wreck  
massive havoc with the lives of ordinary people. And there is  
absolutely no denying the fact that the first bullets in this long  
and dirty war were fired by the guns that belong to the Indian state,  
so I, for one, like you, am not in favour of creating an  
'equivalence' between the state and the Maoists, even though, like  
you, I am totally against the totalitarian vision that maoism  
represents politically.

best

Shuddha



most of which evolved into the or
On 13-Oct-09, at 6:06 PM, Nagraj Adve wrote:

> 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
>
>
>

Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net