“The government asks us how we are happy (without economic development), but we are happy... Except for salt, we get everything from the land we live on...,” says Sachdev Sori, the head of a panchayat that oversees a region close to the Bailadila iron mines.
Chauhan’s father migrated from Uttar Pradesh. Most migrants come from this state and Gujarat, although Chhattisgarh also has its share of Bangladeshis who were resettled here in the 1970s. Today, in some parts of Chhattisgarh, migrants outnumber tribals. “I recently visited Korba. It used to have a migrant population of 10-15%. Now, the tribal population is only 42% (and the) rest are migrants,” says Kunjam.
The migrants, like the government (and the opposition, the Congress) want industrial development. The tribals don’t. Nor do the Naxalites. That explains the support for the Naxalites among tribals.
However, a political analyst says the rise of the CPI and other communist parties will curb the influence of the Naxalites. “The Left parties speak the same language as the Naxalites but they believe in parliamentary democracy unlike them. The rise of the Left parties will ... put an end to Naxalism,” says Mallika Joseph, assistant director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, a Delhi-based security think tank.
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Salwa Judum camps
Shanty towns of huts covered with aluminium and asbestos roofing mark Salwa Judum camps such as this one at Dornapal, located along NH 221, one of the arterial national highways running through Chhattisgarh. Cattle, mostly emaciated, roam the surrounding sal forests untended—their owners have long since moved to camps.
The camp at Dornapal is the largest of around 23 Salwa Judum camps. And many of the people who live there have had their homes and livelihoods destroyed by Salwa Judum. Kosdeva is one such, and his days in the camp have made him a supporter of the very organization that destroyed his village. “Salwa Judum is a good thing,” he says.
Deva, a tribal who works as a farm labourer in Andhra Pradesh, isn’t so sure. “We had our chicken, cattle, pigs, and fields. Then why would we want to go there? What would we do there?” he asks.
Kosdeva says he mostly does nothing. “The government gives us rice; I have been living like this for three years,” he adds. That kind of inactivity and dependence is just what the government wants, says a government official who does not wish to be identified. This will help the government gain the trust of tribals who have thus far supported Naxalites, this official adds.
“We admit that these tribals have not seen the face of the government except for the forest officers. It is our mistake. But now it is time to get them to our side.” That view is echoed by Rahul Sharma, superintendent of police of the Dantewada district. “Now people know what the government has to offer. We give them education, health care, we take care of them. What do the Naxals offer them?”
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Migration and its fallout