The Hindu : National : Bastar scholars write to Manmohan on violence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 17, 2006

National

National

Bastar scholars write to Manmohan on violence

Staff Correspondent

Question Government support to `Salwa Judum' movement against Maoists

NEW DELHI: A group of leading scholars of Bastar on Thursday wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Raman Singh, expressing concern at the ongoing violence in Dantewada district.

Plea for relocation

In their letter, they questioned the Government policy of providing military and financial support to the `Salwa Judum' movement against Maoists and their rural sympathisers. In the course of the `Salwa Judum,' the scholars pointed out, villages that refused to participate had been burnt, their goods and cattle looted and crops destroyed.

"Anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 people have already been displaced and are living in roadside camps in terrible conditions. We gather that the administration plans to relocate them in permanent settlements attached to police stations," they wrote.

In view of the `Salwa Judum' starting in Konta, people have fled in large numbers to neighbouring States. The Government's policy, the letter said, had resulted in Adivasis in the area facing the permanent destruction of their culture, besides losing their customary rights over their land and forest resources.

The scholars urged the Government to ensure that the killing and looting stopped immediately, and that people were enabled to return to their villages.

They called upon all sides to de-escalate violence and start a dialogue.

The signatories include Nandini Sundar, Professor of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics; Walter Huber, Professor of Communication and English at Reitaku University in Japan; Chris Gregory, Reader at the Department of Anthropology, Australian National University; Savyasachi, Reader at the Department of Sociology in Jamia Millia Islamia; Robert Anderson, Professor of Communication and English at Reitaku University, Japan; Navjot Altaf, artist; Madhu Sarin, development planner; Nicolas Prevot, ethnomusicologist at the University of Paris and Samuel Berthet, political scientist at the University of Nantes.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail