A Gandhian Speaks : Himanshu Kumar
[Himanshu Kumar, a veteran Gandhian, whose Ashram in Dantewada was demolished by the police and Salwa Judum was on fast since December 26 to stop the state violence in the state. We are giving here his long description of the scenario of violence in this issue as Part-I. Ed.]
Seventeen years ago I went to Dantewada following Gandhiji’s belief that the real India lies in the villages, and young people must go there to rejuvenate them. The villagers gave me land to build my ashram. Under the Fifth Schedule, the gram sabha was empowered to do so. But the government demolished the ashram this year, sending a force of 1000 policemen, anti-landmine vehicles…That is when the adivasis finally acknowledged that I was like them! My home could also be demolished.
In the forests of Dantewada, people live like aboriginals used to, in tune with nature. Natural justice prevails there. In the jungles, there is no police, no crime. I went to Dantewada a month after my marriage. My wife and I built a hut without any walls, just a roof. I would leave my wife to travel all over Madhya Pradesh, for five to six days at a time. She never felt afraid.
Forcibly Emptying the Villages
In 2005, the Chhattisgarh government started feeling the Maoists in Dantewada were a danger. It started the Salwa Judum, which means Collective Peace Campaign. They knew the Maoists had support among the adivasis, so they decided to empty the villages. They forced the villagers out of their villages and tried to shift them into camps near police stations, at the edge of the village road. They got together a force of goonads who along with the police, would pounce on the villagers and force them into camps.
But adivasis are used to living in the midst of nature, near a stream, on top of a mountain. Each adivasi house is far away from the other. Here, the government had built sheds; you step out of one and face the next; behind yours is another one. When the adivasis tried to run away from these sheds, this “patriotic” force would shoot on them, catch them and put them in jail, rape them.
At one point, there were 54,000 people in the camps, from 1,000 villages. The government claimed it had “sanitized” 644 villages. Fifty thousand adivasis had run away to the jungle. That is when the Chief Minister (CM) Raman Singh declared that those who have come to the camps are with us, and those who have run away are with the Naxalites.
I wrote an Open Letter to the CM-as the chief of the state, you are saying that those citizens who choose to stay in their own homes are Naxalites! And will you give orders to shoot them? That is exactly what he did. There would be attacks on the same village again and again. The adivasis would try to come back and cultivate their land; every time they would be caught and terrible atrocities inflicted on them. Their harvests would be burnt. In such a situation, it was the Naxalites who supported the adivasis. That is why they regard the Naxalites as their friends.
The Salwa Judum forces want liquor, chicken, mutton, women; and they wanted these every day. They take these from the adivasis. We are blind to that. But when the adivasis picks up a lathi to oppose the police, we cry foul.
The State talks of the violence of the Maoists, but it is the State which is violent. The home minister keeps on talking about peace. But how can peace come when you are all the time attacking the adivasis? Then you expect me to tell the Maoists, stop your violence. The situation has now reached a point where every outsider is looked upon by the adivasis as an enemy. The State has created a situation in which the adivasi looks upon his own fellow countryman as an enemy.
State Opposition to Rehabilitation
The Supreme Court has ordered the government to rehabilitate the villagers, compensate them. Not one village was rehabilitated, nor one adivasi compensated. On 10 June 2008, the Supreme Court gave instructions that the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) investigate the conditions in Dantewada in the wake of Salwa Judum. Our activists took tribals from Dantewada and some of those who had fled to Andhra Pradesh (A.P) to meet the NHRC team. On 11 June, when the villagers of Nendra were returning, some Salwa Judum people stopped the jeep and beat up the tribals. We phoned the director general of police, asking, is it a crime to talk to the NHRC? Nothing happened. Those adivasis were made to sign a paper saying that they were forced to give statements to the NHRC.
As a Gandhian, I got furious. In front of me people are being assaulted…only for talking to an official fact-finding team. I decided we will not move from this village. If they want to burn the village, let them burn me first. We persuaded the villagers to come back. On 1 July, we formed a human shield around the village. We stayed in Nendra for six months. We sent volunteers to bring the villagers back from AP. To their credit, they came and stayed. For three years they had been unable to cultivate their land. They had no seeds; their cattle had run away; their village had been burnt repeatedly. We arranged for their rehabilitation. That is how the first village was settled. Nearby villagers gathered courage and approached us. Our activists began repeating the same experiment there.
When the collector came to know that adivasis, escorted by our activists, were on their way to Lingagiri village, he called me up. It was a Saturday, 4.30 pm. He knew the next day, Sunday, every government office would be closed. He said all the forces were busy with elections. He would not be able to provide them with any security. I told him, when did I ever ask for security? Under the Constitution, you cannot stop anyone from going home. But when they reached the bridge, the police stopped them. The police had not been able to cross that bridge for three years. I called up the collector and asked him - are you going to allow people to go back home? If not, we will have to take them to the Supreme Court and tell it that you were not allowing its orders to be implemented. Everyone crossed that bridge that evening.
But the administration did not give up. They confiscated my vehicle; we had to go to court to get it released. We found that the police had taken away half the rations meant for the villagers. Who can save a police force that acts like this!
The adivasis began cultivating their land again. But once more, the police started attacking the rehabilitated villages. Still we kept on trying. Now, peace reigns in these 30 village. Anyone can go and visit them. We have told the government – use these as a mode. The people are comfortable there, so they are not interested in fighting..
The adivasis then decided that their youngsters would guard the village from the Salwa Judum forces. They started patrolling their villages with whatever they had – lathis, field implements. They began hiding their grain in the mountains. Now Home Minister P Chidambaram has started describing these youngsters as Naxalites, saying they have taken up arms against the government.
The government does not want peace; it wants land
It is so arrogant; it does not want to accept the crimes it has committed. We have tried to file 1,000 first information reports (FIRS) – all serious crimes such as rape, abduction, setting fire to homes. They were not registered. The superintendent of police (SP) said the police would not register them because they are false complaints. The Supreme Court said a police officer cannot decide if a complaint is true or false, especially if the complaint is against the police.
A girl came to us saying she had been gang-raped for two days in the police station. The SP did not register our FIR. We went to the Supreme Court, which asked the state government to reply. The SP said in his reply: “We asked the accused, have you raped this girl? [The accused were Salwa Judum leaders] They said, No. She’s slandering us.” So that is how our police investigate rape complaints – they now ask rapists if they have raped, and decide on the basis of their answers.
Operation to ‘Hunt’ Adivasis
In the first phase of Operation Green Hunt held in September, the forces had attacked an entire family. First, they stabbed the father, then the mother, then the young daughter. With rifle butts, they broke the teeth of her two-year-old son and chopped off a part of his tongue. I wanted the press to hear their stories, so I decided to take them to Raipur. The Raipur Press Club asked me for proof that they were not Naxalities. I told them even the government is not calling them Naxalites! They decided not to allow me the use of their premises. So now adivasis cannot go even to the media. Whom will they go to?
All roads are closed for them. The police beat them. The political leaders – be they Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – are with the Salwa Judum. The courts do not give them a hearing. The media does not care. Where else will they go except to the Maoists? When the police attack them, it is the Naxalites who save them. If you really want peace, put an end to the root cause of the popularity of the Naxalities.
We have tried to create conditions in which violence comes to an end. But in an atmosphere where the police cut off breasts of old women and stab old men, and rape… you can imagine what would be the fate of any policeman who falls into the villagers’ hands. The State should not create such conditions. The political leaders must ask why the Naxalites are popular. Why are our democratically elected governments not popular? If an adivasi goes to the police and says, the patwari took away my money, will the police go and investigate?
{To be continued}
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