The Palgrave Handbook of Social Movements, Revolution, and Social Transformation by Berch Berberoglu

Author:Berch Berberoglu
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783319923543
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

While acknowledging the enormous contribution of the Maoist movement to adivasis, Sundar also poses critical questions about revolutionary violence. But, it is not difficult for someone like Sundar to find answers for such questions. In fact, her elaborate account of the repressive nature of the state and its crude methods of terror as presented throughout her book offers some indisputable answers.

Neoliberalism, Extractive Capital, and the Oppressive State

Like any other adivasi areas in the country, the Indian state neglected Bastar in terms of infrastructure development, health, education, and basic welfare programs. Not surprisingly, neither the British colonial administration nor the Indian government ever developed proper topographic maps of the region. Nevertheless, the Indian State and transnational corporations (TNCs) identified abundant mineral reserves in Bastar. The mineral reserves include coal, iron ore, bauxite, platinum, corundum, dolomite, limestone, diamonds, manganese, and so on. In addition, Bastar has a variety of timber and non-timber forest products such as tamarind, Mahua flowers and seeds, sal seeds, and gum. Natural resources contribute about 10 percent of net state domestic product in Chhattisgarh.39 To tap into this mineral wealth, the transnationals, as well as big Indian corporations, have signed hundreds of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the Chhattisgarh government. Between 2000 and 2011, the government signed 121 MoUs with a projected investment of $31.9 billion.40 To execute these MoUs and extract resources, the state has been attempting to remove the adivasis from their land. But, adivasis are resisting with a revived spirit of the 1910 Bhumkal (meaning, earthquake) rebellion against the colonial British rule.41 In the context of today’s corporate land grabbing, the adivasis rally under their slogan “Jal, jangal, jameen” (adivasi rights over water, forest, and land), izzat (self-respect), and adhikar (political power).42

To clampdown on the adivasi-supported Maoist movement, the State is using various notorious counter-insurgency strategies practiced earlier, such as the creation of “New Villages” and “Strategic Hamlets” in Malaysia and Vietnam, to eliminate the communists. The main idea behind these strategies is to evict people from their land, natural environment, and social fabric, and relocate them to a new locality with puzzling new social relationships where they find themselves as strangers. Through this process of alienation, the State wanted to control the people and undermine their support to the revolutionaries. Metaphorically speaking, this is nothing but a strategy of “separating the ‘fish’ from the ‘sea’ in which they ‘swam’.”43

Sundar draws parallels between imperial “strategic hamletting” in Vietnam and Malaysia and “the mass burning and grouping of villages” in Bastar. The State first implemented this strategy in 1990–1991, creating and acting through a vigilante group called Jan Jagran Abhiyan (JJA). The name suggests that the aim of this group is to raise people’s awareness. In contrast, the JJA forced people to rally against the Maoists, killed many adivasis who they suspected as supporters of the Maoists, raped women, and burned their houses. Although the infamous Congress leader Mahendra Karma led the JJA, in its initial phase Hindu fundamentalist organizations and the Communist Party of India (CPI) also lent support to such atrocities.

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