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Monday, Jul 09, 2007
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Tribal groups caught in armed conflicts

Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI: More and more indigenous groups and tribal peoples in mainland India are finding themselves caught in armed conflicts between Maoists and various State governments since 2004 following the formation of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).

A report on the ‘State of India’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples 2007,’ brought out by the Asian Indigenous and Tribal People’s Network — an alliance of indigenous and tribal people organisations that seeks to promote and protect these groups — has pointed out that while the adivasis or the indigenous groups do not share the dreams of the Maoists of establishing a proletariat state in India, the naxalites speak the language to which the indigenous peoples’ plight can be related to.

“The naxalite movement is neither an adivasi movement nor is it led by them, but the indigenous groups do form the majority of the cadres of the naxalites,” the report points out while adding that since June 2006, the Chhattisgarh Government has directly involved the adivasi civilians in the conflict with the Naxalites through the anti-naxalite Salwa Judum — the so-called peace campaign.

At present, 21 of the 28 States are affected by armed conflicts. Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, the seven northeastern States are facing armed conflict over the demand for autonomy and 13 other States, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, are witnessing the naxalite ideological war, according to the report.

With the exception of Jammu and Kashmir, conflicts in all other States or areas involve indigenous people, irrespective of whether the armed opposition groups are led by indigenous persons or non-indigenous persons like the Maoists leaders. As a result of increasing armed conflicts, indigenous/tribal peoples have been facing violations of their civil and political rights, including arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, extrajudicial executions, and rape, at the hands of the security forces.

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