Abstract
This book is divided into three interrelated parts consisting of 17 chapters. Part One, ‘The Landscape of Resistance’ comprising four chapters, provides a rich socio-cultural, political and economic profile of the universe of this study. Part Two, ‘Civil War’, covering six chapters, is based on extensive fieldwork and personal interviews with participants in the struggle, and their oppressors. Part Three, ‘Institutions on Trial’, consisting of seven chapters, discusses the real functioning of Indian democracy when the owners of private property are challenged and the way every institution of democracy operates in the defense of private profit seekers.
The author departs from a mechanical causal analysis by linking mineral wealth, adivasi population and insurgency. While rejecting the pedestrian approach of the majority of scholars, Sundar observes, ‘Even within Dantewada, there is a wide variation in villages with some considered Maoist strongholds and others relatively neutral’ (p. 44). How can a routine social science approach help in finding explanations for this complex and contradictory social phenomenon? The author argues that ‘one must look at Maoist ideology and organisational structures, individual lives of sacrifice and historically learnt repertoires of resistance and solidarity among the local population’ (p. 41). Sundar uses a method which is cross-disciplinary, and where the victims have been allowed to speak for themselves. The author offers a balanced view on Maoists, observing ‘the way in which India’s mainstream parties actively deploy electoral democracy as a weapon against dissenters…’ (p. 240). ‘The Maoists, for their part, are also blinded by the certitudes of their own revolution that they are unable to appreciate even the symbolic importance of elections as a moment of mobilization for popular demands …’ (p. 240). The state has not only deployed armed paramilitary forces like Greyhounds in Andhra Pradesh, or COBRA armed forces, it also has ‘armed civilians to counter the Maoists’. The author has collected rich data while discussing the role of Salwa Judum, a private army of civilians created by the Chhattisgarh state government in 2005 along with POS or SPO (Special Police Officer) who—as unaccountable agents of the state—inflicted atrocities on the tribals of Bastar and Dantewada. Former Chief Justice Balakrishnan while hearing a petition on Salwa Judum on 31 March 2008 observed that ‘arming civilians who committed murders amounted to the state abetting crime’, asking the National Human Rights Commission to conduct an investigation with the help of the police (p. 322). Gopal Subramanian, Additional Solicitor General, appearing for the state government told the Supreme Court, ‘the state government was forced to arm civilians since policemen were unwilling to fight Naxalites’ (p. 321).
The victims of mega development plans like the establishment of Tata Steel or construction of roads by the Indian state for ‘development or deployment of police force’ to crush tribal resistance brought confrontation between those whose land was forcibly acquired by the big business supported the state. The book is an exposé of democratic institutions established by the constitution. On the one hand, tribals are denied basic services around education or primary health; on the other, a sector of Maoists take to guns by creating the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army to confront the military power of the Indian state. In between these two forces, hundreds and thousands of poor tribals suffer deprivation and brutality of the state.
The author exposes the myth perpetuated by political scientists that democracy handles insurgency differently than oppressive colonial and authoritarian regimes, and remarks that ‘India is a democracy with all institutions … but what they mean may not be what we expect’ (p. 46). Drawing from real-life experiences of brutalised tribals, the victims of the state, Sundar observes, ‘Not only have India’s democratic institutions failed to respond adequately to serious human rights violations, they are happy to cede the space to civil society…’ (p. 256). In spite of the Supreme Court’s verdict to disband Salwa Judum and SPOs in 2011, the Raman Singh government and the RSS have always seen the Left as its primary enemy and have adopted a ruthless ‘police approach’ towards dissenters. The author informs us that the police has vested interests in Naxal operations and Shivraj Patil, former Home Minister, stated in 2006 that ‘Police stations compete to be declared Naxal affected’ (p. 37) as this brings in the promise of security-related expenditure.
Dantewada and Bijapur districts had the lowest literacy rates in 2011. Security forces have occupied those schools in areas that have been declared Maoist infested. The performance level of the integrated Tribal Development Agency is poor. An important question to ponder is whether one can get justice in the face of a ruthless state apparatus? The author makes a significant statement, ‘The police put the labels Naxalite and encounter’ (p. 346) on what they do as part of the legal justification of any killing. The struggle by human rights groups is to show that these labels do not constitute a self-evident defence (p. 346). Are extrajudicial killings of anyone by the police, even if they are Naxalites, defensible in any civilised democracy? A telling illustration is provided by the author wherein a block medical officer in Dantewada said in 2006 that the CRPF had turned back one of his vehicles from the villages, alleging they were giving medicines to the Maoists (p. 230). Here is a story of democracy which has declared dissenters as its own enemy. How can one trust the Human Rights Commission when its Chairperson is sometimes a former police officer? Is the author off the mark to observe that the NHRC is a toothless institution? The message of this monumental social science inquiry is loud and clear—citizens have to assert their rights to get justice from the Indian state.