Browsed by
Tag: adivasis

The Dispossession and Criminalisation of Adivasis in Central India

The Dispossession and Criminalisation of Adivasis in Central India

First published: Aug 3, 2010

Sanhati / By Stan Swamy

The dispossessed Adivasi is hunted as a criminal;
the looter-outsider has become ‘honourable citizen’.
1. The sad story of impoverishment of the Adivasi : A few examples will suffice. Gladson Dungdung is a young human rights activist and writer. His family had 20 acres of fertile land in Simdega district, Jharkhand . It was forcibly acquired by the govt for the construction of a dam at a terribly low rate. The compensation for the 20 acres fertile land the family got was Rs. 11,000. Even by minimal standards, it should have been at least Rs. 20 Iakhs. This is just one example among many many such deprivations. Is this not deliberate impoverishment of a people ?
Read more

Is the owner of land also the owner of the minerals?

Is the owner of land also the owner of the minerals?

First published: Jun 6, 2015

Sanhati / By Stan Swamy

‘Minerals are an essential part of the land …the ownership of sub-soil/mineral wealth should normally follow the ownership of the land” – (SC:CIVIL APPEAL NO. 4549 OF 2000, delivered on July 8, 2013)
Read more

If you raise questions, you are anti-government, anti-national: Adivasi-rights activist Stan Swamy on the Bhima-Koregaon crackdown

If you raise questions, you are anti-government, anti-national: Adivasi-rights activist Stan Swamy on the Bhima-Koregaon crackdown

The Caravan Magazine / By Chitrangada Choudhury

On 28 August, the Pune Police raided the homes of nine prominent human-rights activists and intellectuals across the country. … In an interview over the phone, the journalist Chitrangada Choudhury spoke to Swamy about the police’s action against him, and his work in the Adivasi areas of Jharkhand over several decades. “We directly confront the government in the courts on issues of Adivasis,” Swamy said. “Because we ask questions, we are being harassed.”
Read more

Disinheriting Adivasis – The Gadchiroli Game Plan

Disinheriting Adivasis – The Gadchiroli Game Plan

KAFILA / By Vidhya A

In a statement issued on April 16 2018, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) claimed that the ‘National Policy and Action Plan’ to combat Left Wing Extremism (LWE) is ‘a multi-pronged strategy involving security and development related measures’[1]. This new policy, apparently in place since the NDA government came to power at the centre, claims to have ‘zero tolerance towards violence coupled with a big push to developmental activities so that benefits of development reached the poor and vulnerable in the affected areas’.
Read more

Mining in Gadchiroli – Building A Castle of Injustice

Mining in Gadchiroli – Building A Castle of Injustice

First published: June 17, 2017

Countercurrents / By Neema Pathak Broome and Mahesh Raut

The world environment day came and went one more time on the 5th of June, many passionate statements were made about the environment and need for tree plantation drives. Many tree plantation drives were carried out across the country. Even as these celebrations and plantations were being carried out, thousands of local communities across the country were risking their lives to resist destruction of trees that already exist in some of the country’s finest forests.
Read more

Healing Lives in Times of Conflict

Healing Lives in Times of Conflict

First published: May 3, 2009

Boloji / By Shoma Sen

Deep in the forests of Gadchiroli, a tribal area of eastern Maharashtra, live the Gond ‘adivasis’ (tribals), some of the poorest and most neglected people of the state. The region is considered dangerous because large parts of it have come under the sway of Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, who have taken up the challenge of organizing the Gonds to fight for a society they claim is based on justice and equality. The ensuing conflict between the rebels and the state has turned the region into a “police state”, where anti-insurgency security forces are constantly on the vigil, storming Maoist hide-outs and eliminating suspects. The word ‘encounter’ – a euphemism for such extra-judicial killings – has become a part of local vocabulary.
Read more

Encountering Resistance – State Policy for Development in Gadchiroli

Encountering Resistance – State Policy for Development in Gadchiroli

Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) / by Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO), Indian Association Peoples’ Lawyers (IAPL), Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS)

Introduction / 4

Chapter 1: The Background and Context: Minerals, Mines and Militarization / 5
Forest Rights, PESA and Gram Sabhas
The Violence Needed to Violate
The Costs of Mining: Interrogation, Arrests, Torture and an Economic Blockade

Chapter 2: Execution and Cover up of a Massacre / 14
Tumirgunda Forests (Boria Kasanur) on 22nd April 2018
Nainer Forests (Rajaram Khandla) on 23rd April 2018
A Story with Holes: 15 Bodies found on 24th April 2018
Celebration, Rewards, Promotions: Prize for Killings
Grim Silence on Gattepalli

Chapter 3: Encountering Resistance / 28
Koindwarshi
Mohandi
Gudanjur
Rekanar

Chapter 4: Conclusions / 37
Read full booklet