An eight hour journey from Raipur to South Bastar district (Dantewada), one feels pleasing and spirited by the calm and clear climate of Bastar. Perhaps it sounds ironical that Raipur being fourth most polluted city in the world and just 300 kms south of it, a real virgin Sal forest of Dandkarnaya with such a vibrant and refreshing air is located. Many people still confuse the word “Bastar” with its geographical location. Before 1998 Bastar used to be a big district encompassing present day 7 districts of North Bastar Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Bastar, South Bastar Dantewada, Bijapur and Sukma. For administrative convenience, Bastar was trifurcated in year 1998 and Districts of North Bastar Kanker, Bastar and South Bastar Dantewada came into existence. Further, in the year 2007 two new districts (Narayanpur and Bijapur) were carved out, to cope with the administrative and police machinery in dense Naxal hit areas, further bifurcating Dantewada and Bastar districts. In year 2012, District of Kondagaon and Sukma came into existence, taking total division of Bastar to seven. Geographically Bastar in its old form, with its seven districts is bigger than Kerala and obviously its dense forest being one of the major hindrances for administration. In addition, these forest shelter extremist activities in and around.
During my college days in Jagdalpur, I had an opportunity to interact and work with the native tribal societies of Bastar. Despite Jagdalpur being the District Headquarters of Bastar its social composition is a puzzle for the firsthand visitors. One can find Sindhis and Marwaris with their Groceries and Clothing shops in every nook and corner, Odiyas and their restaurants, Telugus with their Dosa-Idyli stalls and Malayalis with their Biryani restaurants and few North Indians with big businesses. It is hard to find a Chhattisgarhi speaking person. Local tribes like Gonds, Halbas and Bhatras live in the outskirts of the town. Their interaction with the urban population is negligible. It is a bitter truth that these tribal people are culturally subjugated by others; I’ve seen them hesitating to talk in Halbi, Gondi or Bhatri’s (local dialects) in public places. These tribal populations have been reduced to mere labor class and immigrant business class.
Well, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Marxist philosophy of Cultural Hegemony better defines the tribal streets of Bastar.
This vast diversity in Bastar is result of Maratha invasion in the eighteenth century and their aspirations to control these forest resources. Maratha Subedars and later the British opened the forests for the contractors from far off Northern and Eastern India who could start businesses with cutting woods and collecting Tendu leaves etc. Tribal people do not work for monetary benefits. They always prefer primitive subsistence farming. They believe everything is given by God in the form of forest and nature. Hence the non-availability of labor was a big challenge to forest contractors. British Raj with its draconian Forest laws tried to keep the aboriginals away from the forest and imposed heavy penalties in case of any violations. Contractors used to exploit forced labor or paid very less and treated them inhumanly. Sexual exploitation of tribal women was also common.
Grim reality is that this status quo continued even after the Independence. Today, those big contractors are landholders and moneyed class in Bastar still exploiting these tribes. Things changed in Bastar during the latter half of the seventies when Maoist started entering Dandkaranya from Andhra Pradesh and gained the sympathies of tribal people.
“Dandkaranya” a little known name mentioned in many Hindu mythological texts like Ramayana and Mahabharata for the region surrounding Bastar and some parts of adjoining Maharashtra, Odissa, and Telangana. Dandkaranya covers 39060 sq. km, i.e. 28.91% of total area of Chhattisgarh state alone. Abujmarh a region within Dandkaranya literally means ‘Unknown hill’. This is the only region where Naxals have successfully established their parallel government. For this area, Government of India has no map or has conducted survey, census or any since Independence.
During a conference on “The Economy of Abujmarh” organized by the School of Anthropological Studies of Pt. Ravishankar Shukl University, Raipur, an expert said “Indian currency has no value there. They don’t know whose image is in our currency notes. Barter system is still predominant.”
The rise of Naxalism has its origin in Feudalism. Except Jharkhand and Bihar, where caste is also an influence. When Naxalites first showed their presence in Bastar, tribes treated them as Dacoits. They thought Naxals came there to rob them. The tribes were not accustomed of Khaki wearing people, carrying guns on their shoulder and shouting ‘Lal Salam’ in one voice. With the passage of time these Naxals fought with people, got them land reforms from the landlords, technically put, Land reforms was first introduced by Naxals in Bastar, wages were increased for forest produce and for the trades of tendu leaves etc. For which Naxals had to browbeat the contractor and the contractor had to pay a tax to Naxal authority. All these activities made the life of tribal people exploitation free and comfortable. Also naxals earned sympathy and backing from these population. Naxals mainly target police and revenue officers specially the ones indulging in exploitations.
In the year 2005 the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh declared Naxal menace as a national security threat. The nature of Naxal movement has taken a sharp turn since last two decades. Unlike their previous strategies of reaching to masses and training in ideological background, naxal has adopted policies of ruthless violence and extraction of money from businesses operating in their so called liberated zone. For instance, every bus operator or transporter pays a fixed amount to cross their vehicle from liberated zone. Apart from this, they also abduct IAS officers working there as part of their LIC (Low Intensity Conflict Policy). Days in March to June of every year is considered deadly for the people and the security forces. Maoist activates their so called “Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign”. It is generally based on several years of data and experience that maoist keep their movement silent during Monsoon and again start preparing for offensive response. Professor Nandini Sunder, Department of Sociology, Delhi University in her book “THE BURNING FOREST –India’s War in Bastar” talks about how Adivasis are being exploited and crushed to death by both Naxals as well as security forces. Taking either side or trying to be neutral both leads to death and destruction. Professor Sunder has a different understanding of all these issues. For instance she believes declaration of naxalism as major security threat to India by Govenment in 2005 is because of vested corporate interest in Bastar. In the coming year after 2005 TATA declared establishing steel plant in Nagarnar near Jagdalpur, which of course proves Professor Sunder’s point. It is quite the fact that Bastar remains isolated and underdeveloped for several decades after independence, despite being mineral and resource rich plateau. Except NMDC iron ore plant there was no big industry and even the NMDC failed to develop areas surrounding it despite being functional for 5 decades.
Since its formation, the Chhattisgarh government has taken several initiatives to counter the Maoist menace. Paramilitary and military forces have been deployed to far off dense forest. But before taking any feat, what is essential is to understand that, whether the problem is just a failure of law and order or a destruction of socioeconomic structure? Only a deep understanding of the problem can tell us the right measure to take. Any action taken without caution and study could worsen the situation.
For instance, after one and a half decade of the formation of state many socio-economic programs were introduced, but the benefits of these programs are unevenly distributed. It is alleged that the security provided by the state is not for the forest dwellers rather for the urban tradesmen.
‘The lack of human development causes anger and resentments amongst the people. They feel alienated and excluded. In addition often local elites are engaged in exploiting, harassing and even torturing the tribal population’ (Planning Commission 2008, 4-6).
On condition of anonymity two senior police officers shared their experience while dealing with Maoist related violence and repercussion of government welfare programs. Funds provided by the government for the welfare of tribal are redirected to Maoist by some ambiguities in the system. For instance, this issue is quite often reported, the government provides interest free housing loan to Maoist affected population. Maoist having nexus with the local population or sometimes by coercive measures apply for the loan, uses 25% of funds to raise a dilapidated house and later Maoist blast it with explosive, and the owner reports that the house was destroyed by Maoist hence the loan amount must be exempted. In lieu for that favor Naxalites keep 50% amount of loan and rest 25% is given to the borrower. Similar practice is also used in road construction measures where they have nexus with road contractors. Due to which the roads in Bastar are in a bad condition. The Maoists have a well-defined structure of finance. They extract fund by taxing big merchants in lieu of trade operation, they perform in their area as well as civil contractors, private bus operators etc. A parallel economy has become a part of Maoist Bastar.
A viable key to end this Maoist menace is quite overt. Firstly, the Government should do all to win the confidence of the natives, corruption ridden administration has frustrated the Adivasis. When the legitimate state becomes exploiters, the naxal takes advantage on this frustration. It is must to counter such menace simultaneously. A Target specific program and a vigilant implementation will do better. Secondly, Police security should not only be for the concern of urban elites, also be given to the tribal population who want to be part of the legitimate state. Thirdly, a vigorous support for Maoists come from the loyal locals, once it is made unavailable, they can no longer hide in forest. Finally, the State can invite Naxalites for an open dialogue. The time has come to bridge the socio-economic divide among locals and immigrants. Socio-economic programs and law & order issues must be seen at par when it comes to tackling Maoism. Perhaps a skewed approach might hamper the both.
Mocho Bastar mentioned in the title means ‘My Bastar’ (in Halbi dialect)
Harishankar Nath is a Journalist based in Delhi. He can be reached at hari@thelantern.news
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