Democracy and Class Struggle re-publishes Blazing the Trail article on the Maoist Revolution in India and the Blazing the Trail Video as part of the three days of international solidarity call by the International Committee for Support of the People's War in India and against Operation Green Hunt
The Blazing trail of
the Maoist revolution in India!
Forty years of resistance against
imperialist reaction and revisionism!
The ray of
hope in the eyes of the hungry
Has
disappeared like a desert path
The tents of
faith blown by the wind
Have been in
ruins long since
Now the bones
worn of patience
Must in unison
root out this tree of darkness
With battle
axes and spikes.
--CHERABANDARAJU, Let not this country be
deceived again
Friends and comrades,
As a platform of the genuine world-wide anti-imperialist
and anti-feudal struggles, it is an honour for me to talk in this august
gathering, about one of the storm centres of revolution in the South Asian
sub-continent, to be particular, the geographical entity that we call India. In
the World Socialist Revolution, India indisputably occupies a prominent place.
The victorious advance of revolution in India will have a spiralling impact on
the world revolution and particularly, on the revolutions in South Asia.
As a country that house more than a 1000 million people
(more than a sixth of the world population) and with a telling diversity that
has continental proportions it is important to bring to the notice of this
assembly of people’s struggles, the historic advances made by the toiling
masses of the subcontinent, especially India. That too at a time, when Manmohan
Singh, the Prime Minister of India has gone on record calling the Maoists, the
Maoist movement led by the CPI (Maoist), “the single largest threat to the
internal security” of India. The learned prime minister—as often portrayed by an
obliging media—has not minced his words when he asked the police, paramilitary
and the Intelligence of the Indian state to cripple down the Maoists with whatever
means at their disposal.
CPI (Maoist):
the product of concrete class struggle
Today, the CPI (Maoist) is leading the single
largest mass movement in India. The response of the Central and local state governments
to the militant upsurge of the people is a sure fire indicator of the deepening
growth of the movement. So much so that the Central Government has formed a
Coordination Centre together with 14 state governments to unleash repression on
the toiling masses who are up against the pro-market, pro-imperialist policies
of the government. They are cooperating to mobilise security forces and a huge
intelligence network with a view to physically wipe out the movement led by the
Maoist revolutionaries. They have armed a huge military network, are calling
monthly meetings of this Centre with a large number of military forces directly
engaged against the Maoist movement. This also indicates the growing strength
of the Maoist movement and the threat that it poses to this pro-imperialist,
anti-people state.
Yet this upsurge of the masses and a visible
political turn that it has taken under the CPI (Maoist) did not happen
overnight. It is the arduous struggle, in a zigzag course, of more than three
and a half decades of developing a political and organisational line through
concrete class analysis of the Indian society and characterisation of the State
as semi-feudal, semi-colonial, with the comprador ruling classes subservient to
the imperialist interests. It is this uncompromising struggle against the
revisionism and class collaboration of the CPI and the CPM and all forms and
variants of modern revisionism that had crystallised in the line of Protracted People’s
War, building the People’s Liberation Army, establishing organs of people’s
revolutionary political power and establishment of Base Areas. The bitter class
struggle also enabled the revolutionaries in India to put forward the weapon of
Strategic United Front of the four classes based on worker-peasant alliance
under the leadership of the working class. It is this battle hard experience at
the level of concrete practice that enabled the revolutionary party in India to
take correct Marxist Leninist positions on the ideological-political questions
in the International Communist Movement.
The Naxalbari uprising in 1967 that beckoned the new revolutionary wave, demarcating the revolutionaries from the revisionists established a clear political-ideological line for Indian revolution. The clarion call of the great Naxalbari movement led by Charu Mazumdar proved to be a “Spring Thunder over India” as symbolically captured by the then Chinese Communist Party under Com. Mao. Naxalbari thus marked a qualitative rupture from the age old revisionism in the Indian communist movement firmly establishing the correctness of MLM Thought. Thus the Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was formed at the All India level and finally the CPI (ML) was formed as the re-established Communist Party of India in 1969 under the leadership of Charu Mazumdar. It was this newly formed party that organised the 8th Congress of the communist party which for the first time in India upheld MLM Thought and hence came up with a revolutionary line of New Democratic Revolution through Protracted People’s War, by building the People’s Liberation Army and the Base Areas.
Despite unifying all the Communist Revolutionaries
the 8th Congress could not unite a part of the revolutionary forces
which had also fought against revisionism of the CPI and the CPM and put forth
fundamentally the same line as the one taken by the 8th Congress.
The most notable was the MCC which was formed on 20th October 1969;
on the basis of a document called “Strategy & Tactics” after the relentless
struggle waged by Com. Kanai Chatterjee since the 7th Congress of
the revisionist CPI.
The two Maoist parties—the CPI (ML) and the
MCCI—which stemmed from the turbulent period of the decade of the 60s,
particularly from the Great Naxalbari Uprising, inherited all that was
revolutionary in the long history of the Indian Communist Movement while
continuing as two streams of Indian revolution over the past 35 years. This
advance was not on the bed of roses. Both the parties had to weather bitter
internal struggles against opportunist cliques, against non-proletarian
ideological trends and deviations while striving to build the party among the
oppressed masses based on the revolutionary line. These parties had to boldly
confront the armed onslaught of the Indian State, the private armies supported
by the State, and the feudal forces by adhering to the Maoist principles of guerrilla
war based on the revolutionary mass line of arousing and relying on the broad
peasant masses, especially the poor and landless, into armed resistance against
the enemies. This concrete application of the revolutionary Maoist line
creatively to the specific conditions of India enabled both the parties in
developing several guerrilla zones, the guerrilla armies—the People’s Guerrilla
Army and the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army—directed towards establishing
full fledged PLA and Base Areas in the vast countryside of Andhra, Jharkhand,
Bihar and Dandakaranya and the adjoining parts of these states. The Protracted
People’s War would consummate in New Democratic Revolution through the strategy
of encircling the cities from the countryside.
It is this protracted, time tested history of
revolutionary practice of armed struggle based on the correct revolutionary
line for the Indian revolution that had provided the ideological-political
material basis for unity of the two parties in to a single Maoist Party. The
two parties have a long fraternal and comradely relations dating back from 1980
barring a brief period of strained relations and clashes. Based on the method
and guidelines provided by the ideological weapon of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism,
both the parties made a deep, thorough, frank and free self-criticism of their
serious mistakes that had resulted in the clashes, identified their roots in
petty-bourgeois and non-proletarian ideological deviations in February 2003 and
resolved to proceed with the unity process basing on ideological-political
unity. It may be recalled that two major parties–the CPI (ML) (Party Unity) and
CPI (ML) (People’s War) who were waging armed struggle had united in 1998 to
form the CPI (ML) (People’s War). Thus the merger of the CPI (ML) (PW) and the
MCCI into the CPI (Maoist) effectively completed the process of merger of the
major revolutionary forces in India, though it is not the end of the process of
unification of the Communist Revolutionary forces in the country. The historic
formation of the CPI (Maoist) have also polarised the Communist Revolutionary
parties pursuing a Right Deviation. The CPI (Maoist) is already in the thick of
sharp polemics with the Right Deviationists while undertaking joint activities
with these parties.
The CPI (Maoist) is of the opinion that
the set back in the socialist constructions in Russia and China was mainly due
to the revisionist line that developed within the respective Communist Parties
of those countries. The capitalist-roaders in Russia and China captured power
back from the working class because those parties could not guard against the
infiltration of the bourgeoisie under various guises into the proletarian
parties and its practice. But it points out that the failure of the socialist
projects have taught important lessons to the international proletariat in
carrying forward the class struggle against the bourgeoisie in various
countries and the imperialist bourgeoisie at the international level. Thus the
history of class struggle has taught us, they say, that in any country in the
world has class struggle succeeded without armed struggle.
The Maoists are creatively and in a
genuine way implementing the Marxist principles to the concrete conditions of
India. They don’t blindly copy from China or Russia. At the same time they are
aware that the socialist projects in China and Russia were defeated by the
capitalist roaders. They apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in a practical way for
India. If one calls carrying armed struggle dogmatism, then one is moving away
from class struggle in an impoverished country like India. Armed peasant
struggle is the basic struggle, because 70 percent of the masses have been
forced to remain with and depend on agriculture and backward relations of
production. The vast majority of the landless agricultural labour belong to the
most oppressed and deprived sections—dalits—of the caste ridden social
hierarchy of Indian society. It was the revolutionary stream of the ML movement
which took a categorical position on the caste question in India. It
unambiguously made it very clear that without the vast majority of the
oppressed dalits and tribals becoming the core of the revolutionary movement it
was impossible for the New Democratic Revolution to succeed. Thus the slogan for
“land to the tiller”, in the Indian context, while becomes the central slogan
of the agrarian revolution also undercuts the stranglehold of the regressive
caste system and Brahmanism on the Indian society.
In such a situation where a vast
majority don’t have even an inch of democratic space, they will not be able to
fight the fascist ruling classes without arms. But armed struggle is also being
waged creatively and practically. Armed struggle doesn’t mean the annihilation
of the class enemy. Armed struggle is a form of class struggle where the
oppressed classes assert their power and organise themselves by taking away
power from the feudal and pro-imperialist comprador capitalists. Armed struggle
under the leadership of Maoists also means re-appropriation of the sources of
livelihood by the wretched of the earth from the dominant and powerful classes.
It also means building alternative institutions of people’s power. So in this
way armed struggle is redefined and practiced with the Bolshevik spirit of all powers
to the soviets. Without armed struggle building any form of resistance in
countries like India becomes wishful thinking as such resistances for a
protracted time cannot be retained. The armed actions against the state forces
and feudal forces are carried out to protect the movement and in self-defence
and self-assertion of the exploited classes.
Today, the Government of India’s official reports
put the number of people’s army as 28,000. The areas of their influence look
much wider than what the Government estimations indicate. Also there is a vast
people’s militia working at the village level. The militia is basic and primary
in relation to the People’s Liberation Army as per the strategy of the CPI
(Maoist).
Contrary to the widely held perception,
the Maoist movement in India is not confined to the backward areas. It’s a vast
movement, which also encompasses the so-called developed areas. Maoists work
both in the countryside and the cities. The government says that the Maoists
are active in 15 out of 28 states. And these include the major states. The
Union Home Ministry says that 167 districts out of the total 600 districts in
the country are covered by Maoists. This is a little less than 1/3 of India.
At the same time the Maoists are also
working towards developing a militant movement in the urban areas—among the
intelligentsia, students, women and the middle classes. Maoist cadres and
leaders who have been working in the urban areas also are arrested, hunted and
killed. Besides, Maoists also work among the coal miners in a big way. There
are vast coal mines in many regions in India. One can also notice the work of Maoists
in many industrial areas all over the country, though their concentration of
work proceeds from the rural areas.
The days that are unfolding open up innumerable
revolutionary possibilities for the downtrodden in the Indian subcontinent.
Especially with the increasing disparities between the rich and the poor, among
various regions of the subcontinent, between the struggling nationalities and
the expansionist Indian ruling classes as the comprador ruling classes of India
are ever more eager to closely tie up with the moribund capital, especially US
imperialism, economically and militarily.
The Present
Phase of Revolutionary Movement –its Beginnings
During the Naxalbari
uprising in 1967, it was the tribal people who first rose in revolt. And as the
saying goes a single spark had set the
entire prairie on fire. Based on the call of the Naxalbari, Communist
revolutionaries from Andhra Pradesh went to the forests of Dandakaranya—double
the size of the present Kerala state—and Gadchiroli in the early eighties. The idea to establish a
guerrilla zone in Dandakaranya was first mooted by the leadership of the
erstwhile CPI (ML) (People's War). Way back in 1979, a squad was sent to
Dandakaranya to conduct recce. Another 5 squads were sent in the subsequent
year. Together they numbered 25. All of them were from Andhra Pradesh and none
of them knew the local language of the tribals. Today, those 25 multiplied into
many squads and platoons.
What the Maoists term as the Dandakaranya Special
Zone is the vast forest area situated between the borders of four states—Andhra
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Orissa. The Maoists have five organizational
divisions—the south, west and north Bastar divisions, the Maad and Gadchiroli
divisions—covering the entire area. Braving all hardships
and making immense sacrifices they could successfully win over the confidence
of the people of this region as they became part of their everyday life; their
everyday struggles.
It was this bondage
that brought a transformation in the lives of the adivasis. The exploitation of
the contractors, traders, local leaders, industrialists and officials became
things of the past. Successfully waged struggles for proper wages in tendu leaf collection, bamboo cutting
etc. brought in a new hope to the people of this region. Women fought against
state violence, patriarchy and oppression in the name of customs. And today
they get equal wages at par with men.
The people of
Dandakaranya had dared to dream. They refused to be easy prey in the hands of
the contractor-politician- industrialist-bureaucrat chain. The revolutionary
movement and the consciousness of the masses developed to a new stage. A New
Democratic Society is unfolding in Dandakaranya.
This heightened
consciousness of the people made them realize the need to organize. Thus they
started forming Revolutionary People’s Committees (RPCs), also known as
Janatana Sarkar, under the leadership of the CPI (Maoist). These alternative
political power structures of the people were formed in many villages. The
Revolutionary People’s Committees dealt with Land Distribution, Irrigation,
Justice, Education, Health, Village Defence, Co-operatives etc, involving the
masses.
It was the dawn of this
new power even in its embryonic form that had sent shivers among the powers
that be. The hapless adivasis of the region have started not only defying the
diktats of the local babus, pimps and their henchmen, but also enforcing their
own rule in their areas where they are strong. They were in no mood to
entertain any form of mistreatment, discrimination, exploitation or domination.
They had stood up and named their world. They were in control of their lives.
A state of undeclared
emergency
Today there is a state of emergency in the entire Dandakaranya
region—especially in the state of Chhattisgarh. The state of Chhattisgarh was
carved out of the erstwhile state of Madhya Pradesh in the 90s of the last
century. Predominantly of tribal population, it is one of the richest states in
terms of the forest and mineral wealth. But the people of this state are the
poorest in India like the neighbouring states of Orissa and Jharkhand. They
have been easy prey in the hands of the politician-trader-contractor-forest
official nexus that would see Chhattisgarh as a happy hunting ground for the
profit hungry blood sucking Multi-National Corporations and the local money
bags. It is the same nexus that
have unleashed state terror in Chhattisgarh in the name of salwa judum to facilitate easy access to the rich mineral resources
in the area for the multinationals and the local monopolies.
Today the State of
Chhattisgarh has become a veritable battle ground with the state government,
its machinery and the ruling class politicians belonging to the Congress and
the BJP on one side and the people on the other. An undeclared emergency
prevails in the state with the police and the paramilitary forces given a free
hand to deal with any kind of dissent.
More than fifty
thousand people have been forcibly displaced from their homes, their culture; they
are forcefully confined in sub-human conditions in makeshift camps surrounded
by the paramilitary and by the Special Police Officers (SPOs) of the Salwa Judum who are recruited from the
lumpen tribal youth armed by the state and with each paid a paltry sum of
Rs.1500/ per month. People who are forced to stay in the camp are facing
starvation and malnutrition as there is no adequate food supply for them. Women
and children are worst affected in these conditions. Most of the women are
forced into sexual exploitation as a means of survival. Many of them who have
been active organising the adivasis are kept in confinement and gang raped for
days.
The Great Mineral Rush
Significantly, in all
these regions of interest for the predatory capital, the Maoist movement is
strong and forms a formidable threat to their exploitative designs. It has
become inevitable for international capital and their local lackeys to drive
out the tribals from Dandakaranya; to wipe out the Maoists from the region as
it is the only direct and potent threat that can stop these murderous looters.
The Tatas have a massive
plan of building up a 10,000 crore Steel plant with an output of 5 million
tones for which it will acquire about 3000 acres of land, Essar a 7,000 crore
Steel plant while the Jindal Steel plant is not lagging behind. Other major corporations
who have made a beeline in Chhattisgarh are the Texas Power Generation (USA)
and the Global One Incorporate (USA) Pharmaceuticals. So one can imagine the
major interests that are on to gain by driving out the defiant tribals who are
refusing to move out of their habitat—the greedy hucksters and their masters
who are on to make a fast buck from the rivers, trees, minerals and other
wealth of the region.
The South African Multi
National Corporation (MNC) De Beers, which is into trading and mining of
diamonds, has acquired rights to large tracts of land in Chhattisgarh (900000
hectare), Orissa (850000 hectare) and Andhra Pradesh (67900 hectare). ACC Rio
Tinto has major diamond and gold interests in Madhya Pradesh (765000 hectare)
and diamond mining rights in Chhattisgarh (600000 hectare). Yet the mineral rush
is not over. The South Korean MNC the Pohang Steel Company that is otherwise
known as the POSCO steel company as you may know has already set its eyes in
Jagatsinghpur in Orissa. This would displace around 1 lakh people. The rest of
the losses in terms of environmental degradation and loss of livelihood is
beyond imagination. Apart from the 12 billion dollars that it invests in Orissa
it plans to further pool in a whopping 27 billion dollars worth of investment
towards erecting steel plants in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. And imagine the
investment of POSCO alone is more than India's total FDI inflow since 1991!
Besides, the Uranium
Corporation India Limited (UCIL) has started its uranium exploration in
Chhattisgarh.
The extent of servitude of the Indian ruling classes to imperialism is
evident from the fact that the steep hills of the Bailadilla iron ore mines which are getting
depleted day by day for the past thirty years are pouring in enormous profits
for the Japanese imperialists, as the entire ore is sold to the Japanese at
very low prices. Adjacent to it construction works for the Nagarnar Steel Plant
are going ahead at full steam. The central and state governments have been
busily soliciting FDI for an electric plant at Bodhghat. As the Dalli mines
which were supplying iron ore to the Bhillai Steel Plant are on the verge of
extinction, the Bharat Mining Corporation has now set its sites on the Raoghat
mines of North Bastar. The construction works for the Dalli-Jagadalpur- Raoghat
railway line, which were on the back burner for a long time due to people’s
opposition are about to start any time. The big industrial house Nicco is
continuing mining operations in Lohar and Chahar area near Raoghat under police
protection. The big concerns, Godavari Isphat and Raipur Allied are conducting
mining operations at Pallemadi near Manpur. A delegation of officials of the
Asian Development Bank visited Pakhanjur area in 04’ and the leader of that
delegation announced that they are ready to spend millions of rupees for the
utilization of the vast resources of that area. Similarly, efforts for the
extraction of millions of tones of various minerals are continuing at a fast
pace in Chamurshi, Ahiri and Soorjagarh area of Gadchiroli district. The works
for the construction of infrastructural facilities for mining operations of
various valuable minerals are going on all over the Dandakaranya area. The
tempo of these works increased during the last decade in the background of
policies of globalization.
The MoU signed with the
POSCO steel company is another example. To start with, the state government of
Orissa have sold the ore to POSCO at a discount of Rs. 2000 per tonne. The
company has also been given the right to swap ore. This means that the company
can export ore of high alumina content and in return for the domestic industry
can import ore of low quality! The people of India are losing lakhs of crores
of their wealth to all these multinationals and the local money bags in the
name of development ably supported by the politicians cutting across all
parliamentary parties.
Post-47 India--A replication of the imperialist model of loot and
plunder
Post-47 India saw the
perpetuation of the same old policy of British colonialists by a new comprador
ruling class which was dependent on imperialism for their own survival. In the
name of development--which was a but a euphemism for more effective
exploitation of the people and their resources--more than 25 million adivasis
have so far been displaced from their habitat as they made way for big dams,
industries and mines. All these industries which were foisted on the graves of
the hapless adivasis and the most downtrodden people of India were arrogantly
called the "temples of modern India" by none other than Jawaharlal Nehru,
the first prime minister of post-47 India. For the poorest of the poor—the adivasis
being the worst hit—this development meant further misery and exploitation.
They never became part of any grand strategy of nation building or the empty
rhetoric of “catching up with the West” of the Indian State.
For the tribals, their
struggle for existence meant that they had to survive for 3-5 months with
poisonous tubers or mango kernels as their staple food. For them malnutrition,
hunger deaths, deaths due to malaria of various kinds were nightmares that they
had to deal with while waiting for miracles to happen for their survival.
Significantly, the plight of the tribals of these regions is never a matter of
discussion among the erudite scholars abounding our universities and various
annual seminars and workshops.
I would like to take a single example of such a
movement for my presentation here. I will here discuss the Dandakaranya
revolutionary people’s movement in some detail.
Dandakaranya – the Region, and
its History
Heaven is a forest of miles and miles of Mahua trees
And Hell is a forest of miles and miles of Mahua
with a forest
guard in it.
--A popular saying
of MURIA adivasi of Bastar
Dandakaranya is a vast forest expanse of central
India. It is a home for a large number of tribes. They live in extreme backward
conditions. Some of these tribes don’t even know how to use a plough recently.
Millions of these indigenous Dravidian tribal people have been exploited and
looted through feudal, pre-feudal, imperialist forms. The British could never
conquer these tribes. It is only after the British left India, the Indian
ruling classes started penetrating into the areas of this region as this vast
region is highly rich with natural resources like metals, coal, several other
minerals, and rich forest produce.
The people of
Dandakaranya predominantly tribals have a history marked with numerous
rebellions. From the Halba Rebellion of 1774-79 to the Bhumkal Rebellion of
1910, there were ten big tribal revolts in the region of Bastar.
During British rule,
the present-day Chhattisgarh was primarily governed as semi-autonomous princely
states. In the south, the princely state of Bastar, a tribal stronghold fought
against the Marathas and British.
The British
colonialists lust for the vast potential of profits that the deep interior
hinterlands inhabited by the adivasis held in store, made them realize the
immense possibilities of exploiting to its limits the rich mineral and forest
resources of the region. They converted these regions into profitable sources
of raw material inputs for their industries in the West. It meant unbridled
loot and plunder of the rich forest wealth and minerals of the region. They
made the forest barren by bringing down sal,
teak and bamboo while not sparing any other source of forest wealth. Not to be
satisfied, they further bled the veins of the sub-continent by digging up
several mines to drain away the valuable resources of iron ore, manganese,
coal, bauxite, gold, diamonds, dolomite, quartz, limestone, and lots of other
mineral wealth.
This violent loot and
plunder was met with stiff resistance from the masses. There were protests not
to say rebellions against the colonial laws such as the Forest Act of 1876. The
Great Santhal Rebellion of the mid-19th century led by Siddhu Kanu, Birsa Munda
and others, the Halba Rebellion of 1774-79, the Paralkot Rebellion led by Gend
Singh in 1825, the Muria Rebellion of 1876, the Gond Adivasi revolt (Bhumkal)
of Abhujmad led by Gundadhur in 1910, the Rampa Rebellion of the 1920s led by
Alluri Seetharama Raju in East Godavari, and Vishakapatnam in north Andhra
Pradesh, the Gond Rebellion of Adilabad led by Komuram Bheemu and several such
revolts reflected the seething anger against such violent unmitigated
imperialist loot.
Among the various
rebellions that witnessed the region, the Bhumkal Revolt in 1910 was historic.
This was against the British rule and their local agents. For five years the
British could not defeat this movement. It had rocked the citadels of colonial
power which had incurred huge loss in terms of resources and man power. The
British retaliated by torturing and killing hundreds of people. Women were
raped. The leaders of the tribal revolt such as Gend Singh, Babu Rao, Sedmak
and Yadav Rao were hanged.
Primitive Economy
The Dandakaranya is a vast area with a deep forest
cover dotted by steep hills. The adivasi economy here consisted of mainly two
parts, agriculture and collection of minor forest produce. The mode of adivasi
agriculture in all these divisions was primitive, with little variations here
and there. One need not say that it is entirely monsoon dependent. Though the
annual rain fall is not uniform in all the areas, usually it will be above
normal. This area has abundant perennial water resources like rivers and
streams, with water flowing almost throughout the year. As no government,
either the British colonialists or their comprador successors, ever conceived any
water conservation projects, either major or minor, most of the rain water gets
wasted. Irrigating the fields through wells and small ponds by even well-to-do peasants
is a rare phenomenon in the entire region.
In fact, the
overwhelming majority of the peasants do not even know about irrigation wells.
They are still centuries away from the man who learned to draw water from wells
through such implements as the water wheel and who constructed dams and canals
to irrigate the fields thousands of years ago. Here too, their superstitious
belief, that if a second crop is harvested, the gods will get angry and harm
them makes the situation worse. However a gradual change in their attitudes is
occurring due to the impact of the development programme being initiated under
the Maoist leadership during the last two decades. Construction of tanks with
canal systems has been going on, though on a small scale.
They hardly
knew how to preserve anything edible that they collected or produced. In one
word, the adivasi peasants here lacked the experiences of the human being, who
fought against all odds for achieving a stable living and for a fundamental
change in their life by growing from the stage of food collection to that of a
producer of food, while introducing many innovative changes in the methods of
agriculture.
Janatana
Sarkars
True to what Marx observed, the Maoists embarked on
a journey to prepare people for revolution, to do revolution, not in the best
circumstances of their choice but with conditions given to them. The hard life
in these most backward regions of the subcontinent where the dividing line
between life and death is very thin or even non-existent is summed up
succinctly by the revolutionaries who have left everything in their lives for
ushering in a new society free from all forms of exploitation:
"In the luxurious life of a revolutionary,
there is nothing you can't get, except your meals."
The revolutionary masses of Dandakaranya have set
up their own Governments which are called Janatana Sarkars or People’s governments
under the leadership of CPI (Maoist). After smashing the power of reactionaries
at local level, the people have constructed these embryonic centres of power.
The party leading the revolution in these areas understands these Janatana
Sarkars as part of the people’s political power in New Democratic Revolution.
The revolutionary people’s movement in Dandakaranya adopted a comprehensive
policy programme of Janatana Sarkar which is being implemented in several
hundreds of villages in the Dandakaranya region. These Janatana Sarkars are
comparable to the Soviets in revolutionary Russia. The Janatana Sarkars are
directly elected by the adult members of the village, not nominated. They have
become the real symbols of people’s democracy as opposed to the Indian
Parliamentary democracy which was imposed by the British imperialists and which
never has any relation with the people at the grassroots. The Janatana Sarkars
in Dandakaranya have been involved in production, cultural, educational and
military sectors, aiming at all round development of people’s lives,
livelihoods.
Revolutionary
Co-operative Agriculture
The Cooperative sector is discussed a lot not only
in the administrative circles but also in the academic circles. Occasionally
articles are written with empirical data about the achievements of the
government in the cooperative sector. But it is a known fact that the
cooperative department of the government is the most corrupt. Whatever the
facts and figures shown on paper may be, the reality is something else. Perhaps
few would differ with this fact.
Here is an experience of a cooperative sector in
production. It operates in a real collective sense and corruption does not have
any say here. Cooperative societies are being formed by the janatana sarkar in
the adivasi areas of the Dandakaranya (DK) Special Zone under the leadership of
the CPI (Maoist) in the state of Chhattisgarh. The following information tries
to give a glimpse of the janatana sarkar of one area in the Maad division of
the DK Special Zone. In the official parlance of the Indian state administrative
machinery this area falls under Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.
A few words about the area of discussion: The area
is on the bank of a river. The mode of production is relatively backward. There
are rich, middle and poor peasants in the area. Tilling is done with bullocks
and ploughs but all do not have implements. The crops are paddy, dal (Cereal)
and a few varieties of millets.
The collective work in agricultural production in
this area started with tilling collectively with ploughs. Gradually the need
for the collective method spread to other works. Initially work teams were
established. The work teams prepared plots, lay ponds, initiated fish culture,
sowed seeds, tilled land and prepared small wells. The work of these teams
appealed to the people. This was a learning experience for them as they
gradually grasped the positive aspect of collective work. They started
establishing wells, ponds. They sold a little crop and a little fish after
keeping some for themselves. And they got good revenue.
Once the people attained a certain level of
consciousness the Maoist party started forming the janatana sarkars. Janatana
Sarkars are the revolutionary Governments at the village level. The Janatana
Sarkars have been setting up People’s Co-operative Societies to improve the
village level economy of the people. The Co-operatives centre around
agriculture and the collection of minor forest produce. The Janatana Sarkars
are aware of the needs and necessities of the local people as they too are
based in the same village. Their self-conscious attempts are a reflection of
their informed faculty of the mode of production prevalent in their region.
Thus the collective work became more systematic.
Production increased. There was a great
change in the mode of production. The collectiveness in agricultural
activity created the opportunity to increase the usage of cattle and other
agricultural implements.
Below are some of the data regarding the
agricultural and developmental activity in this area. The janathana sarkar
bought 260 cattle and distributed them to the poor peasants. They also
distributed 540 quintals of seeds ranging from paddy, gingelly, dal, maize and
millets. They built 70 houses and repaired another 350. When the area was
affected with famine they distributed Rs. 25,000 to the people as relief.
In this particular area on the whole 1436 acres of
land was seized from the people’s enemies, those who fled from the village and
the landlords and rich peasants. Forest land too was seized. 1057 acre of this
land was distributed to 482 families. The janatana sarkar kept in its control
310 acre and 65 acre was given to the militia.
The cooperative activity and the increasing
revolutionary consciousness broke certain taboos regarding the participation of
women in production. In the old society women were not allowed to do certain
things in agricultural work like sowing seeds, going near the paddy crop after
the harvest and later to the paddy store. So the Kranthikari Adivasi Mahila
Sanghathan (KAMS) took up the task of breaking these taboos. The organization
started dealing with the women’s problems much earlier to the launching of the
collective and cooperative activities and the janatana sarkars. After the age
old superstitions were removed, the women’s organization at present is mainly on
the task of mobilizing women into the activities of the janatana sarkar.
The janatana sarkar helped the people in one more
way. That is regarding the fixing of rates for the forest produce being sold in
the weekly markets. It also helped the people who were the targets of salwa
judum and state violence through the revenue and crop raised from the
collective activity. Residential schools are also being financed by the revenue
out of this activity.
Developing agriculture was a challenging task for
them as the tribals have never used a plough before. Sixty years of the so-called
independent India, never introduced any improved means of agriculture or
livelihood to these adivasis. The Janatana Sarkars don’t want to import
technology and methods used outside indiscriminately without the peoples’
understanding and involvement. They want to start and improve from where they
are located in time and space.
The cooperative activity in the area gradually also
developed a team of carpenters. This team went around the villages before the
onset of the agricultural season and fulfilled the necessities of the
agricultural implements of the masses. The janatana sarkar bought furnaces and
the necessary metal for the purpose.
Regarding cattle, the janatana sarkar in this area
took it up in a creative manner. It distributes cattle and takes back 20 kilos
of paddy per year. It buys cattle with this money. The farmer could keep the
new born with them. With a long-term view, the government bought cattle that
could give birth to calves. In addition to cattle, the janatana sarkar also
distributed goats and hens mainly to those who lost them in the salwa judum. It
distributed 100 packets of fish to develop pisci-culture. It is also looking
after the families of the martyrs who have laid down their lives fighting the
enemy of the people. Planning is also on to look after the victims of salwa
judum in the nearby areas.
The development committee of the janatana sarkar is
procuring the forest produce like mahua and brooms from the people for sales.
This would facilitate the necessities of the people’s market.
The forest protection committee, one of the
sub-committees of the janatana sarkar, sees to it that the forests are secure.
It initially took up a campaign not to cut trees indiscriminately. When the
people were leading a nomadic existence, forest was cut on a very wide scale.
Now since the villages are settled, protection of the forest has come up in a
serious manner. One has to take permission from the forest protection committee
to cut trees. The committee would make a study and see the trees that can be
cut in case of necessities for building houses, certain agricultural implements,
beds and other such things. Those who cut the trees without permission would be
punished. The punishments are mainly in the form of paying money.
The janatana sarkar is also planning to set up a
certain amount for defence purposes, to make weapons for the militia.
The experience of the janatana sarkar shows that
scientifically run cooperative activity could achieve tremendous benefits for
the people. It also exposes the fake cooperative spirit of the ruling class governments
with all their money wasted and modern amenities with people just as objects to
be controlled or played with. The success of the cooperative activity going on
in these ‘backward’ forest areas of Dandakaranya is a trend setter for other
areas.
Dandakaranya-Women
in Transformation
The red
flower, sister, is flowering
Let us follow
the path of the red flower and struggle…..
--From a song written by the squad women in
North Bastar
The remarkable transformation that is taking place
among adivasi women of various tribes of Dandakaranya like Gond, Koya, Dorla,
Madia, etc is an outcome of two and half decade of gradual but conscious
efforts of the Maoist movement. All the tribal societies of Dandakaranya are
patriarchal. With the growing influence of revolutionary activities in every
sphere of life in this area, the movement against patriarchy started in 1986
when women organized themselves into Krantikari
Adivasi Mahila Sanghatan (KAMS) or Revolutionary Indigenous Women’s
Organisation. Adivasi women rose against the patriarchal social and cultural
practices of their traditional tribal societies, which controlled women for
ages both in terms of their role in production relations and their capacity for
reproduction.
In the adivasi society a woman’s plight starts as
soon as she matures. She is forced to hide herself in a separate hut during her
menstrual periods, as she must not be seen by any man during that period. She
must marry the person chosen by her father, after receiving a bride price from
the groom. In some areas, the person who wishes to marry a certain women abducts
her and forcefully consummates the union irrespective of her wishes. Women are
forced to go bare-chested throughout their life once they are married. Women
have no rights even over their children whatsoever.
The adivasi women of these tribes have been made to
live under elaborate patriarchal social structures that encompass every aspect
of their lives. Women are not allowed to eat the head and legs of the meat
preparations. Only the middle region of the meat was allowed for women to eat that
too when the men folk obliges them. Despite doing all the agricultural work she
should keep away from the crop when it is ripe for harvest. They are not
allowed to take out the grain from the storage place; men enjoy the sole right
over the grain. Only men can take out the grain from the store for the women to
cook. In the traditional adivasi societies, women are not allowed to sit on the
bed as they believe that if women do so the crops might fail. Women are not
allowed to eat eggs, as it is held that if women eat eggs, they will not conceive.
In case a woman couldn’t conceive, the man of the house beats her believing
that she has secretly eaten eggs. The atrocious practices like bringing back a
woman to torture her life long if she runs away from a family for her dislike
for the man who she is forcefully married, all these patriarchal practices show
that men control the means and relations of production as well as women’s reproductive
capabilities. The women who have become aware of the social oppression on them
and organized themselves into the Revolutionary Indigenous Women’s Organization
started fighting against these patriarchal social practices.
As a result of a long drawn movement, these
practices have come to an end. The real meaning of empowerment of women has
been made possible through the active involvement and bitter struggle waged by
these women themselves and it is not the kind of NGO preaching or through
individual efforts like in radical/bourgeois feminist movements. It is neither philanthropy
nor charity—of raising someone through the efforts of someone else.
The women who formed their organizations as part of
the revolutionary movement had to face numerous hardships. The organization
grew gradually overcoming the problems created by the exploitative tribal
chiefs who felt their traditional hold on their tribe weakening. Soon the
organized women started questioning the elders about their past crimes against
women in particular and against people in general. These chiefs/elders tried
different dubious schemes and plots to humiliate and undermine their unity and
organization. But gradually and eventually, the women not only defeated all
their evil designs but also punished the elders who resorted to several crimes.
When the revolutionaries of Dandakaranya started
their struggle for land, the adivasi women stood in the forefront. The adivasis
have been for generations cultivating lands inside the forests. The adivasis
never had land tittles over their lands. The Indian Government after the
British left started controlling the forests through establishing Forest
Departments. The forest officials became the biggest oppressors of the
adivasis. So, the adivasis had to wage severe battles against the forest
officials/departments every time they cultivated their own lands. As adivasi
women also started organising themselves into the revolutionary movement, they
stood shoulder to shoulder with men in the land struggle to establish their
natural right over the land. As soon as this land struggle started, the police
entered the villages to arrest the men. But women appeared before police, and
chased them away. Throughout the period of land struggles, the heroic women of
Dandakaranya fought till they achieved great victories. As a result, women who
stood firmly in the movement earned enormous respect. The participation of
women in the revolutionary armed struggle slowly became natural. Today women
constitute 40% of the guerrilla fighters in Dandakaranya. Even the bourgeois
press point out the leading roles played by the women in the revolutionary
movement. This would look like a fairy tale.
The women have their own structures and
organisations within the CPI (Maoist). They have their own conferences and
committees. They are part of the general conferences and have separate meetings
in connection with these. The rule is that if a woman and a man are equally
competent then a woman is given priority in leading any particular
revolutionary committee. There is also special education for women so that they
develop faster, special camps and special trainings are devised. In the Maoist Party most women that are
party members do not have children on their own choice, but if particular women
want to have, she can have a child and the party will help her. The period of
her child-bearing will not be discriminated against. There are well developed
policies about these questions in the Maoist Party of India.
At present in India, more and more
concentration is paid on the patriarchal structures from the women cadres of
the Maoist Party. One is the institution of reproduction itself, which is
highly discriminating against women. Within the Maoist revolutionary practice
this has become a major question along with other specific problems for women.
While there are efforts to grasp these problems, the revolutionary movement has
realised that enough mechanisms are yet to be found to check the discrimination
of women within the revolutionary process. One major thing is that women
continue to be under patriarchal structures and thinking just because they are
women. So the new revolution must pay attention to the specificities of this
special oppression. The second important point is that complete emancipation of
women is not possible within the capitalist system. But we should also guard
against the fact that if the proletariat takes over power the patriarchal
structures would not automatically disappear. This is a major problem. One must
pay specific attention to the institutions and structures that remain and
reproduce themselves in the new society under construction. Women have to fight
a revolution within the revolution. In India there will be many more
revolutions within the revolution as we have a peculiar oppressive structure called
caste.
We understand all such attempts of
revolution within the revolution are complimentary and patriarchy and caste
system or say, racism has to be looked at from this angle. A quick and simple solution is not
possible. A revolutionary has to be patient. But this doesn’t mean these revolutions within revolutions should
wait till the proletariat captures power. In India we think that the Cultural
Revolution has to start right away even before the success of the New
Democratic Revolution. But such an attempt taken unmindfully will degenerate
into a Post-modernist ruse, like most liberal humanist projects relapse into
Post-structuralist obscurantism. This task is possible only in the hands of a
firm proletariat Party after it acquires confidence of the revolutionary masses
in a country. Otherwise, such attempts will end up in mere anarchism.
Changes in
culture
In a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country like India
the overarching influence of imperialist culture coupled with feudal values of
all hues including Hindu fundamentalism articulates itself in various shades in
the world view of the people in general. All cultural expressions, values,
ethics, outlook—everything reflects the convergence of interests of decadent
capital with the angst of the local moneylender-landlord-bureaucrat capital for
the maximisation of surplus, parasitism, subservience and dependence on the
foreign technology and capital. What is the interface of the overarching world
view of development when it reaches the everyday life of the adivasi in
Dandakaranya?
The so-called industrialization that was ushered in
ever since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru has destroyed the tribal homes, their
livelihoods and endangered their very existence. Their culture and traditions
got trampled upon. For the first time in the history of these adivasi masses,
prostitution has become a big business, with innocent young women and even
girls being pushed into the flesh trade either through allurements or by force.
The adivasis, who never even had heard about sexually transmitted deceases, are
now becoming easy victims to them. Even the most dreaded decease, AIDS too made
its appearance. As a natural corollary, lumpenisation of the youth is going on
in a big way. Bailadilla mines stands as a testimony for all the evils that this
so-called industrialization has brought to the lives of the adivasi masses. An
erstwhile district Collector of Bastar and a well wisher of the adivasi masses,
Mr. Brahmadev Sharma was so moved by seeing these evil consequences that he
gave vent to his sorrow about the ‘duped little sisters of Bastar’, through
poetry.
The adivasis had a lot of unscientific, blind
beliefs regarding production, health and human relations in their social life.
Though the basic reason is their lack of scientific and articulated knowledge,
these customs mainly benefited the hierarchies in terms of help in agriculture
and gaining money. And the so-called development that was externally induced in
the adivasi society as mentioned above only consolidated the regressive nature
of these hierarchies with the hapless tribals getting more and more entrapped
in their superstitions aggravated by a situation of heightened uncertainties in
their lives. The hierarchy in this adivasi area was mainly constituted with the
village head and the village priest. It was mostly hereditary. These families
enjoyed all power over the village. Inter and intra family problems and
contradictions were brought to the village head for a solution. With the given
knowledge about the medicinal herbs and treatment of diseases the village
priest was the native doctor and he too had a say in these matters. These heads
intervened in matters of marriage, house construction and other such social and
essential matters.
When the village head solved a problem, the
concerned families were to give him a hen. When the village doctor performed a puja as part of treatment of a disease,
he too had to be given a hen. During festivals they were given a large share of
the meat distributed among the villagers. In agricultural work, the villagers
were expected to work in the fields of these two heads without payment.
When the Maoist party entered the villages and
formed mass organizations, the authority of these heads came to an end. As the
organizations gained strength, they gained command over village matters. The
authority was a collective one and no single person enjoyed it. The matters
were discussed in a meeting and all the villagers had their say. A decision was
reached through the method of consensus. Both the Dandakaranya Adivasi Kisan
Mazdoor Sanghatan (DAKMS) and the Kranthikari Adivasi Mahila Sanghatan (KAMS)
took up several problems of the people and solved them. This was a part of
educating the masses politically and scientifically. Nothing was possible
without education as a campaign. This education was in the form of meetings and
through the cultural organization of the party, the Chethana Natya Manch (CNM) which
had a key role to play. It prepared many songs, dances and plays on
superstitions and age old evil practices and propagated the unscientific nature
of the same. This appealed to the people as they started reflecting on
themselves and their lives.
After the janatana sarkars got formed, these
matters are being taken up by the cultural committee, education committee and
the judicial committee. The cultural committee looks after the cultural life of
the people. The festivals are normally related to agricultural activity. The Vijja pandum (seed festival) is
performed before the sowing of seeds. It performs the native dance, dhaka occasionally. It conducts
marriages and also sees that there is no coercion involved and that there is
agreement between both the woman and man. The cultural committee took up
education against the practice of killing persons on the suspicion that they
were doing witchery.
Another practice that was prevalent was bigamy. The
women’s organization had been fighting against this practice. The activists say
it has relatively come down. But there are still incidents where the wife is
left and another wife is brought. Earlier the abandoned wife did not have any
say in the property, though she had children. She had to look after herself or
the parental family supported her. Now the janatana sarkar is solving it in a
different manner. In one case where the man brought a second wife, the judicial
committee ordered him to give a share of property to the abandoned wife. It
specified the amount of land, the cattle and other such things.
In a big move the cultural committee brought a
change in the participation of women in festivals and especially hunting. Till
recently women were not allowed to participate in the festivals. The women’s
organization broke the tradition to a large extent and now the janatana sarkar
is advancing it to other such issues. Recently it succeeded in making women
part of hunting animals. This was the first time in the history of this area.
Tradition did not allow women even to eat meat until recently.
As a part of increasing the production activity,
the cultural committee also takes up propaganda about production and the
introduction of scientific methods of production.
There are some practices in this area regarding
death. The family of the deceased must give meat to the villagers and the
relatives in another village. Some of the elders make their sons and daughters
promise to kill a cow in their name and leave the tail of it near their grave.
This practice is called thoka thohathana.
This practice was discussed a lot in the meetings. The youth were ready to stop
this practice, as they understood the importance of cows in agriculture. They
felt they could not go on killing cows for each and every death that would only
amount to more financial burden. But the elders were not ready. The discussion
is still going on in this issue. The party is educating them to give up this
practice and other such things, but has decided to let the people take their
own time to change it.
The education committee looks after the
establishment of schools and hostels. It arranges teachers. Their salaries are
either in the form of payment in kind or contribution to their agricultural
production from the villagers. During the salwa judum campaign the education
committee did a lot when the anti-people state government closed the schools.
It held meetings with the teachers and students and promised them to start
schools later. And it did..
Friends, herein lay the
convergence of interests of US imperialism and the local comprador classes.
They have to have a Salwa Judum. They
have to kill and maim the people into submission. To impose a model of
development; of servitude, of misery, of destitution and death.
Response of
the State – Salwa Judum
The 14 point policy of
the central government to tackle the problem of increasing influence of the
Maoists unequivocally states that “…to promote local resistance groups that
would be trained in self-defence and given adequate protection”. And yet it
started in the most innocuous manner. Of course a careful implementation of the
tactics of counter revolution that is euphemistically called as the Low Intensity
Conflict (LIC) by US imperialism.
It was time now for the
Central and the State governments to adopt the tactics of Low Intensity
Warfare. Salwa Judum was one part of these tactics. LIC as a policy should be
seen as the reactionary rulers' last ditch effort to defeat revolutions. US
imperialism had devised this strategy after it was defeated by the heroic
resistance of the revolutionary people of Vietnam. The main aspect of this
strategy is to wage economic, political, psychological war along with military
operations on the people so as to break their will into submission. Vicious
propaganda against revolution and activists and sympathizers of the
revolutionary movement so as to demonize them will be systematically undertaken
through the mass media as part of the psychological warfare.
The Indian State—as has
been made clear by the prime minister of India, the home minister and other top
officials—has been adopting measures to smash the revolutionary movement led by
CPI (Maoist). It had resorted to similar schemes in the past to defeat various
nationality struggles in the sub-continent. Creating vigilante gangs was one
such tactic which it had devised as a strategy in Punjab, Kashmir and Assam.
By now, in Andhra
Pradesh, the anti-naxalite police squad called the Grey Hounds had created the
terror of vigilante gangs in the name of Nallamala
cobras, Kakatiya cobras, Green Tigers, Palnadu
Tigers, Nallamala Tigers, Narsa Cobras, etc. It was these vigilante gangs that went on attacking and killing writers, artists, human rights and mass
activists. The vigilante gang that was supposed to take on the
Maoists in Jharkhand was called the Nagarik
Suraksha Samiti or the Gram Suraksha
Samiti. The counter revolutionary campaign was called Sendra. Sendra meant
"mass hunting". In Bihar it was the Ranveer Sena. In West Bengal the state sponsored terror took the
form of Gana Suraksha Samiti. In
Orissa, it was called Shanti Sena.
And finally, in
Chhattisgarh, counter revolution took the form of Salwa Judum. Literally it means “Peace Initiative”. And the police
call it “Operation Green Hunt”, “Operation Rakshak”.
Salwa Judum: A War of Occupation
Salwa Judum was first launched in Dantewada in June 2005 in the name of ‘Jan Jagaran Abhiyan’.
Later it was extended to Bastar, Kanker, Surguja and other districts. Initially
the State police, Chattisgarh Special Armed Police, 8000 Para military (which
comprised of the CRPF and Naga Battalion), 172 NSG commandos were brought to
create terror and strife on the people. Besides, around 4,000 lumpen youth were
recruited as Special Police Officers (SPOs) at Rs 1500 per month to act as
informers, attackers and form Gram Suraksha Samitis in villages. In
Dantewada, about 3,200 got recruited as SPOs.
The audiotape of
Manhar, SP of Bijapur, is a striking testimonial to the criminal and fascist
designs of the state behind this whole exercise euphemistically called the
"Peace Initiative" which they often insist as a spontaneous uprising
of the local tribal people against the Naxalites. This audiotape was produced
before the journalists by Com. Bhupati, a Central Committee Member of the CPI
(Maoist).
“Those Villages which
participate in "Jagaran" will get 2 lakhs.... those who kill
Naxalites will get the full reward ….
Any journalist who goes
to cover the news of Naxalites, straightaway can be killed.....
villagers should be
told .... come to Jagaran first time, or second time. If you do not come second time, we will burn your village."
After going through the
above statement, one can imagine the state of lawlessness in that region with
the mercenary forces of the ruling classes given a free hand to deal with the
people. There is no accountability. No checks and balances. No norms or
procedures. It is the trampling down of all democratic norms and laws that the
Indian state itself has created.
The total convergence
of interests of the ruling classes becomes amply clear when one realizes that
the leader of the Salwa Judum is the
local tribal MLA Mahendra Karma one of the most corrupt and pro-imperialist of
the politicians of the region. He has been accorded unconditional support by
the ruling party BJP and its Chief Minister. The police and the paramilitary
has become the watch dogs of this campaign need not be said again and again. In
Mahendra Karma's own words to finish off and isolate the Maoists their supplies
have to be cut off and destroyed. And he does not mince his words as to who or
what are these supplies. He squarely points at the people as the eyes and ears
of the Maoists and the need to brutally break this resolve of the people. Salwa
meetings were first held in those areas where there were no revolutionary
activity to mobilise masses. This mobilization was then used to attack villages
where revolutionary movement existed. Rumours were spread that Naxalites were
attacking villages indiscriminately, so as to evacuate people from villages.
Like in a war of
occupation, villages were divided into sectors and sub-sectors. Outposts and
camps of CRPF and Naga police were set up in many villages for providing
'carpet security' to the marauding Salwa goons. This was soon followed by more
ferocious mopping up operations. Burn, loot, rape, kill. Hit the economic
lifelines of the people. Evacuate people from villages, put them in camps under
vigilance. This has been the road map of terror in the villages of
Chhattisgarh. The situation is somewhat similar to that of Vietnam where the US
aggressors set up concentration camps which they called strategic hamlets. The
Nagas are also not new to this kind of repression as they have faced similar
experiences with the repressive machinery of the Indian army.
The State had a plan to
re-locate 400 villages (1200 to 1500 hamlets) in the Bastar region. In the
so-called peace intiative they have so far attacked more than 70 villages and
burnt 13,000 houses between June 2005 -February 2006. The Salwa Judum goons-police combine came with diesel and sprayers.
After spraying they burnt the houses. These mercenary elements looted,
destroyed food grains, pulses and hundreds of pigs, goats, chicken. They took
extra care to axe down all fruit trees. It is pertinent to point out that ever
since the resistance movement had become stronger among the people and
Revolutionary People's Committees (RPCs) were formed an alternative development
path was ushered in with bio-friendly farming, optimum sharing of water
resources, preservation of natural varieties of seeds through seed banks and
cooperatives, and also grain sharing facilities through which the people became
confident in facing the lean periods. Rearing of goats, chicken, pigs, growing
of pulses, setting up water harvesting mechanisms, growing fish in ponds were
all part of this new development model in its embryonic form. It had raised the
confidence of the tribal masses by leaps and bounds. They had transformed
themselves into new human beings. And they started defending this new model as
theirs. Naturally, it was the target of the Salwa
goons-police combine. As part of this planned assault on the adivasi people the
state has banned all weekly markets held by the tribals which is their main
source of lifeline with the outside world where they can sell their products
and buy what ever little needs they have.
Majjimendri, Kotrapal,
Manekal, Pullum, Alavur, Pedda Jojer, Chinna korma, Munder, Pottem, Tudem,
Akwa…… are among the villages which are totally burnt.
Gagging the Press
Before the initiation
of Salwa Judum itself the state had
started preparing the ground for throttling any form of dissent in Chhattisgarh.
As part of this strategy, the notorious “Chhattisgarh Special Peoples’ Security
Bill”, was enacted in 2005. This was a law that was ostensibly framed to
replace the POTA. In retrospect it has turned to be one of the worst
anti-people draconian legislations. All mass organisations and mass activity in
Chhattisgarh were banned with this legislation. Even the March 8th
International Women's Day rally was not allowed to happen. Anyone who had the
remotest of link or sympathy for the Maoists was arrested and kept without any
charges being framed for days and months. These are all serious offences in the
eyes of the Indian law itself.
Under “Chhattisgarh
Special Public Security Act”, journalists carrying reports of Maoists is a
crime. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Reporters sans
Frontiers (RSF) have already voiced their concern and dissent over such high
handed measures from the state.
Some of the journalists
who still braved the repression and terror and reported objectively about the
situation had to face the ire of the brutal state machinery. For instance,
Kamlesh Paikra, Bijapur correspondent of a English daily, lost his job,
received death threats and was forced to flee. His house was ransacked by the
Police-Salwa Judum goons because he
reported atrocities of the Salwa Judum
campaign. Lakshman Singh Kusram, a Bijapur-based journalist, received threats
from police, for reporting police atrocities. Baliram Kashyap, a BJP MP openly
declared in a daily that journalists who "glorify Maoists" should be
killed.
The genuine anti-feudal and
anti-imperialist struggle forges ahead…
They claimed that
the land, water, forest and the whole forest wealth belonged to them. They
began to deny the deceptive government that was exploiting them. They say that
the handing over the properties to foreigners was nothing but serving the
imperialists. They say that this is not real independence. They raise their
voice to say that the ‘democracy’ that they have experienced till now was fake
and elections a farce. Now they boycott elections. Now they extend their
solidarity to the people of all countries. And why?
Because they feel
that all the oppressed, the victims should be united in their struggle for
life.
The above facts clearly bring forth the fact that
the adivasis have succeeded in laying down a path to change their lives. This
change does not benefit merely a single person. It is concerned with the change
in the lives of each and everyone and the society as a whole. Thus the people
have taken control of their own lives. They are making great leaps forward in
the economy and in the filed of the superstructure, putting parliamentary
democracy to shame and throwing a challenge to the so called modern and
developing world.
Parliamentary democracy in India is much hailed.
India is said to be the biggest democracy in the world. It is supposedly ‘for, by
and of the people’. The past, more
than half a century proved this democracy to be a sham. People of India and all
over the world are vexed with the ineffectiveness and misappropriation of the
‘democratic institutions’ like the court, police, prison and the administrative
machinery by the ruling classes. Essential services like water and electricity
are a point of agitation in many parts of the country almost on a day-to-day
basis.
The poverty levels in India have
increased. In 1947 there were no suicide deaths of farmers. From 1990s onwards
the suicide deaths of farmers have started in a big way. Agriculture, which
employs the largest section of the population has been largely neglected. The
poor peasantry is not able survive in this sector as it is heavily dependent on
the highly exploitative private money lender. About 150000 farmers committed
suicide in the last ten years. There are hunger deaths in many areas. People
are eating wild roots and leaves in vast stretches of underdeveloped areas. In
fact it would not be an exaggeration to say that India has several regions
today at the same level as the sub-Saharan African countries. All this is
happening particularly after the aggressive pro-imperialist globalisation
started on a large-scale
In this sham of the parliamentary
democracy the employment rate has refused to grow. It is standing still. The
real employment rate has declined very much, for several reasons. The economic
surveys tell us that one million small industries were closed in the last few
years, and this made a huge loss of jobs. Then land being acquired from the
farmers is also responsible for unemployment. The small peasants and landless peasants
have lost their jobs in a big way.
This democracy concerns mostly the urban and the
plain areas. And it is inaccessible to the adivasi population who constitute
one important section of the population of the country. The presence of the
parliamentary democratic institutions and minimum medical services are not seen
in most of the adivasi areas of the country. It is true that the people in
these areas were at a loss, away from the ‘modern’ world.
But for the past few years, things took a different
turn in some parts of the adivasi areas. While the North Eastern Region of the
Indian subcontinent and the people of Jammu & Kashmir and other areas are
fighting for the liberation of their nationalities from the domination of the
Indian state, the adivasis of the central part of India and a few other eastern
states sought a different alternative. They started forming a people’s
government of their own.
‘People’s democracy’ found birth in the most
‘backward’, ‘uncivilized’ areas of the country. It continued to develop in
divergent ways and levels. The achievements of this people’s democracy prove
that this is a real kind of democracy, a democracy of the people, by the people
and for the people in its actual sense. The main principles of this democracy
are collective functioning and democratic centralism, the Maoist principles.
The salwa judum campaign of the Chathisgarh state
government brought a lot of changes in the life of the villages. The repression
unleashed in the campaign taught a lot in defence for the masses. The militia
that was already set up in the villages became more active. Militia platoons
were formed and most of the youth, both women and men became full time
activists in the militia. They have become another big family in the village.
The people’s democracy named ‘janathana sarkar’
(people’s government) in the Dandakaranya Special Zone of the state of Chhattisgarh
under the leadership of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) is the ‘embryonic
stage’ of people’s power to be achieved countrywide in future, as put by the
party. The activities in production, cultural, educational and military sectors
of the present janatana sarkars, give an outline of the future socialist state.
It also reveals that despite the severe repression campaign of the reactionary,
parliamentary state, the janatana sarkars are going to succeed. The CPI
(Maoist) party has succeeded in consolidating the people’s government to a
certain stage and is heading towards forming higher levels of the same.
Immense
revolutionary possibilities abound the future
There is an extremely favourable
revolutionary situation in India and also in all the ‘third world’ countries.
In each of these countries, the domestic crisis is sharpening along with the
international crisis. Whether we like it or not, in the age of moribund capital
steeped in crisis, its image all over the world only reflects the chilling conditions
of war manifested in manifold ways. For example, the US is fighting a military
war against the people of Iraq and an economic war on the people of India, and
both forms of wars kill the people in the same magnitude. So the US need not
declare war on India as the blood thirsty ruling classes of India are willing
to facilitate everything for the imperialists. The growing contradictions among
the imperialist forces can quickly change from collusion to conflicts. The
background is already prepared and the revolutionary situation is already ripe.
It is the subjective forces of the communist vanguard that have to strengthen
themselves and seize the situation. The ruling class hegemony will be crushed
in no time if the imperialists don’t come to their rescue in each of these
countries when the revolutionary masses organise themselves. Similarly, a break
in the imperialist chain anywhere will have a chain effect and the irreversible
collapses of the imperialist/ monopoly bourgeois rule in the West will follow
suit. The proletarian parties in Europe and other parts of the West should
prepare the ground in advance for this impending and indispensable eventuality.
The ray of hope in the eyes of the hungry
Has disappeared like a desert path
The tents of faith blown by the wind
Have been in ruins long since
Now the bones worn of patience
Must in unison root out this tree of darkness
With battle axes and spikes.
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