Still, Deva and his family have had better luck than many others. Some tribals are still hiding in the forests, in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh—they can’t go back to their villages and don’t want to live in Salwa Judum camps.
A dying way of life
The clashes between the Maoists and Salwa Judum, and the large-scale displacement has affected the life of tribals in Chhattisgarh.
“We know that these displaced people are severely traumatized but we don’t know how to deal with it. It will need the intervention of specialized medical anthropologists. Due to this trauma, marriages have not taken place for the past two years in these affected areas and fertility rates have fallen,” says J.P. Rao, a sociologist from Osmania University, who has conducted research on tribals in southern Chhattisgarh.
Gangalur, in the region, used to be a prosperous trading town. After Salwa Judum set up a camp there, the town’s markets downed shutters. Gangalur also used to have two hospitals that have both closed down. Locals walk to nearby towns to buy even salt.
Meanwhile, industrial projects in the region either continue to languish or have run into organized opposition.
On 5 January this year, 50 people were injured in clashes with the police during a public hearing held by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, or JSPL, at Khamaria village in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. JSPL wants to mine coal in the resource-rich region and the company’s executive vice-chairman Naveen Jindal says that most people in the region are in favour of the project. He adds that around 10% of the people are “causing trouble”.
Most projects require land and the first the tribals hear of them is when the government or a private company wants to acquire their land. That helps the cause of the Maoists who have convinced tribals that development means a loss of land.
***********
The appeal of Naxalism
In early 2007, the Naxalites, officially known as the Communist Party of India (Maoist), held a conference, the 9th Unity Congress, in the forests near the Orissa-Jharkand border. This was the first such conference in 30 years and its objective was “to call on all forest dwellers to resist till the end the massive displacement taking place and protect their land and forests from the robbers and looters seeking to seize them.”
It isn’t just the Naxalites that oppose development based on land acquisition, other parties such as the Communist Party of India, or CPI, do too. “Adivasis (tribals) will be ruined...killed if these factories come up,” says Manish Kunjam of the CPI.
“Why would an Adivasi who is self-sufficient for the most part, living off his land, want to give that up by selling this land to companies for mining and industry.... (and then) become an unskilled labourer?” he asks. He adds that the tribals will not be able to work in factories, a view that is endorsed by others as well. “Who will give jobs to Adivasis? It is difficult to get work done by them. All they want to do is drink all day long,” says Ranvir Singh Chauhan, a contractor in Kirandul where Essar Steel is building a plant.