Background of the situation in Chattisgarh

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Background of the situation in Chattisgarh

Of late, India's neo-liberal development paradigm has increasingly come under attack. The country's indigenous people, the Adivasis, whose livelihood and lives have been sacrificed at the altar of development that benefits a priviliged few and devastates the rest, have started to increasingly assert their rights and resist the periodic violence that the state unleashes upon them. A study conducted by New Delhi based Center for Science and Environment found that areas which are rich in mineral resources, precious water sources and dense forests are also the ones which are most backward and home to the poorest and most destitute people in India. It is interesting to note that in these areas, extraction of precious minerals has been going on for a long time. However the profits have not gone to the local population which has steadily been pauperized and is most vulnerable to violence that the Indian state unleashes regularly to crush even the weakest sign of dissent.

The focus of this website is on state repression in Chhattisgarh, an adivasi-majority state formed when the sixteen Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh gained statehood on November 1, 2000. In particular, we mainly concentrate on two of the poorest districts, Dantewada and Bastar.

While the people of Dantewada are extremely poor, their land is extremely rich, both in terms of minerals and forests. When the government talks of ‘development’, it appears to have in mind the development of these resources for private profit as against the development of its people.

The earliest commercial mining was for iron ore deposits, which are among the best quality in the world. The mines have provided no employment locally, what they have given the region is pollution of the rivers Sankini and Dankini. There are also substantial deposits of tin, corundum, granite, lapidolite (lithium ore), marble and siliminite. Tin is illegally mined and smelted, consuming vast amounts of timber for charcoal in the process. The business is run by the immigrant settlers who pay bribes to the police in order to conduct their trade.

These efforts at exploiting natural resources have gained momentum since the formation of the state of Chhattisgarh in 2001. The new state government has entered into agreements with several industrial houses such as the Tatas and Essar to set up steel plants on land leased from the state.

In a situation where the state claims rights to the land and the people who live on that land are treated as peripheral to the national economy, a mass base of the Maoists challenging this status quo forms a threat to the state's plans for heavy industry and profits in this region. It is in this context that the promulgation and amendment of draconian laws such as Chhattisgarh Special Security Act(CSPSA) and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act(UAPA), the arming of the vigilante army Salwa Judum, the arrest of Dr Binayak Sen and others who have dared challenge and critique state violence and repression, and the recent demolition of Vanvasi Chetna Ashram premises should be understood.

Black Laws

The Chhattisgarh Special Security Act (CSPSA) is a draconian act passed in 2005. The CSPSA dramatically broadens the ambit of what is deemed 'unlawful'. It criminalizes all organizations whose actions may have the merest tendency to disturb public order, and all individuals who have any type of association with such organizations. The CSPSA makes it illegal for the press to even report on activities of organizations deemed unlawful. The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) passed in 1967 and amended in 2004 to include provisions from the dreaded POTA [Prevention of Terrorism Act] greatly increases the State's power to imprison people for extended periods of time without trial and without providing any evidence of guilt. Both these legislations, in the name of combating violent movements, actually target all people's movements, journalists and human rights activists, and all other formations questioning the State's policies.

These laws are increasingly being used to silence voices critical of the government. Activists recently arrested under these draconian laws are Dr. Binayak Sen, Lachit Bordoloi, a human rights activist from Assam, Prashant Rahi, journalist from Uttarkhand; Govindan Kutty, editor of People's March in Kerala; Praful Jha, a hournalist from Chhattisgarh; Vernon Gonsalves, an activist from Nasik; Arun Ferreira, Ashok Reddy and Dhanendra Bhurule, and most recently Ajay TG, another activist with PUCL, Chhattisgarh.

Who is Binayak Sen?

Binayak Sen on his release from Raipur Jail on bail, May 25th, 2009

He is a 58 year old paediatrician and public health physician with a 25 year record of providing health care to the Adivasi people of Chhattisgarh. He has transformed the health-care system in the region by opening many hospitals through the NGO Rupantar, which was started by Shankar Guha Niyogi in 1989. His path breaking work, has been recognized through the various awards, the Paul Harrison award from his alma mater, the CMC Vellore (2004), the RR Keithan Gold medal from the Indian Academy of Social Sciences (2007), and the prestigious Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights from the Global Health Council (2008).

He was arrested May 14th, 2007, under the provisions of the Black Laws (The Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act [CSPSA], 2005, and the Unlawful Activities [Prevention] Act, 1967 as amended in 2004). Bail application was dismissed by the Supreme Court in December 2007, without a reason being provided. He remains in jail despite widespread national and international public outcry. Binayak Sen on his way to the prison

He is also the General Secretary, People's Union for Civil Liberties ("PUCL"), Chhattisgarh and the Vice-President, National PUCL.He was first drawn to this area through his investigations into hunger deaths and the causes of malnutrition in Chhattisgarh. His work was in the voluntary sector, but he cooperated closely with the government, especially in conceptualizing and designing the Mitanin programme in Chhattisgarh that went on to provide the model for the ASHA of the National Rural Health Mission. He was a member of the State Advisory Committee on Health Sector Reforms during the Ajit Jogi government in Chhattisgarh.

"Agya, unnoti boile kono?" ("Sir, what do you mean by development?")

- Bhagavan Majhi, Kond leader of the Kashipur movement.

Development, and the lust for mineral wealth, is destroying the environment and shattering the lives of indigenous tribals who have lived for thousands of years in the forests of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa. From the hills of Bailadila, which houses among the best deposits of iron-ore in the world, to the coal rich areas of Bastar, the indigenous people of India are facing a peril that threatens their very existence. Private mining coporations like the Tata's and the Essar groups have started to occupy their lands for the setting up mines and ore processing units.

These operations use enormous quantities of water, which is a scarce commodity in Chattsgarh, and also destroys the environment. Nowhere to turn, the indigenous people cling on helplessly to the only life they know. But terror stalks them every day. It is the terror of the state sponsored private militias which they have to contend with, militias that were supposedly formed to control the armed Maoist insurgency in the areas, but also have the implementation of the 'development plans' of the mining interests in its agenda. They kill, rape and burn extire villages, leaving the survivors of the massacres to scatter and run where they can.

The backdrop of the situation described in this site is set in newly formed state of Chattisgarh, 70% of whose Bastar region is populated by tribals. This region is also rich in iron, gold, tin, diamonds, coal, uranium, bauxite, cassiterite, among other minerals what the developed world craves for. With 35,000 million tonnes of coal, 2,336 million tonnes of coal, 3,580 million tonnes of limestone and 29 million tonnes of cassiterite, Chattisgarh accounts for 13% of India's mineral production, worth around Rs 4000 crores ( 8 billion US $) per year.

This is the story of unbridled lust for the mineral wealth, and the death and destruction that it leaves in its wake. For more details, read here.

Click here to read Caterpillar and the Mahua Flower [PDF, 849 KB] »

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