Mining and Movements - Causes of Tribal Militancy - Indian Social ...

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232SOCIAL ACTION VOL. 60 JULY – SEPTEMBER 2010to force through India’s first electricity privatisation programme andother neoliberal reforms. This brings in the history of “disaster capitalism”and World Bank complicity in aluminium projects around the world.When one comprehends the extent and complexity of exploitation in themining-metals industry and trade, it is clear why the world’s, or India’s,mineral-richest areas are the poorest. Far from the promised prosperity,wealth in minerals almost invariably guarantees a region’s remorselessimpoverishment by exploitation: the resource curse.Motives for War and PeaceToo often, the resource-curse spirals into the horror of resource-wars,and in many ways, the war against the Maoists is a classic resource–war: the invasion and takeover of tribal lands by mining companies,compounding already excessive exploitation. Non-violent protest issuppressed, and giving Maoists the chance to organise the dispossessedinto a desperate, yet highly organised and motivated resistance.The war in South Dantewada shows a definite pattern of “structuralviolence”. On one side, Maoist attacks. The one on 6 th April 2010, inwhich Maoists killed 76 CRPF jawans, is the culmination of a long lineof well-planned ambushes.On the other hand, no one disputes the figures of 644 tribal villagesburnt by the Salwa Judum militia in Dantewada district, and at least200,000 tribal refugees. All agree that MoUs were signed with Essarand Tata for a steel plants at Dhurli and Lohandiguda in mid-2005, justwhen Salwa Judum was formed and started its attacks on tribal villages,herding villagers into refugee camps, where youths were made to joinSalwa Judum through initiation into atrocities. The terms of these dealshave not been made public however.Human rights reports and courageous journalism have highlighted adefinite pattern of attacks on tribal villages, in which most of the villagesflee, and women, old and young who don’t get away are often raped,killed, tortured or taken away. The voices of young Maoists brought outin Roy’s article (March 2010) need to be heard, and show tribal Maoistsas highly conscious and likeable human beings, in contrast to the ‘mindlessterrorist’ image propagated in most of the media, that makes it easy forarmed policemen to dehumanize Maoists and kill tribal villagersindiscriminately as Maoist sympathisers. The young women and men
MINING AND MOVEMENTS – CAUSES OF TRIBAL MILITANCY 233interviewed by Roy joined up after witnessing close friends and familyraped and killed. After such loss and horror, if there is no chance ofbringing the perpetrators to account, Maoists’ offer of comradeship andguns is bound to be very tempting.Yet Maoist ideology and leadership promotes war. War has an attraction,as peace does not. Though this is basically a war over resourcesbetween the rich and the poor, the ideology of both sides is similar interms of a belief in war that leaves no space for neutrality, truth andpeace. The police, like Maoist fighters, are pawns in a fight overideology and land. The more sensitive police officers, such asE.N.Rammohan, former Director General of the Border Security Force,who investigated the 6 th April attack, are forthright in highlightingunpunished police atrocities as a principal cause of war.The difference is, armed policemen have signed up for a job thatinvolves a high risk of killing and/or being killed. This is not true of thetribal villages they terrorize. Even if villagers often support the Maoists,this follows from their experience of invasion and atrocity, in whichthey lose everything – land, food family, culture, security.... Only a tinynumber of the atrocities against Adivasis are reported in the press orofficially investigated, while most killings by Maoists get high publicity.So to bring peace, one essential step is repeal the Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act (AFSPA), often invoked, especially from the Northeastto Kashmir. The immunity from prosecution of security men whocommit atrocities swells support for the Maoists.The underlying reason that anyone inflicts pain and terror is that theyare terrorised: a terrorist is someone who has been terrorised; andrather than deal with that, he or she turns the feeling outward andinflicts it on other people – the basic rationale of the projections andcounter-projections that cause and fuel war.Police also live in terror. Seeing bodies of comrades, knowing an IEDcan explode under their vehicle any time, what is easier than to demonizethe Maoists? And in a situation where women are also Maoists, everytribal woman becomes a potential Maoist and a “justified” victim forrape and worse. For traumatized tribal survivors of attacks, the solidarityand comradeship offered by Maoists fulfils a desire for revenge for along history of atrocities carried out with impunity.
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